Day Three

Woke up at 6am. No recollection of any weird dreams. Hit the pool just after 7am. It was the coldest hotel pool ever. Smashed out a few lengths. Each length equated to about three metres. It was also the shortest hotel pool ever.

Hit breakfast and had waffles. Ann kept getting cereal and then throwing it away because it was too sweet. Not sure if she actually ate anything.

After we checked out, it was decided that Ann was going to drive. A nice couple of small roads and then a fairly clear interstate would be a good way to have her first go in the beast. Within 30 seconds we hit a snag, our side of the road was covered in debris forcing us to have to swerve into the opposite lane. As we passed it, I noticed it was a spillage of bags of pretzels littered everywhere!

I battled the stereo which seemed to have a mind of it's own. All I wanted to do was play stuff from the iPod, but the whole system kept freezing. This became a recurring theme all day, but we did get music at times.

After about half an hour, Ann decided she was bored of driving and said she felt funny, so we stopped to switch roles.

We made our way along the I-80 to Rawlins and then had a quick stop. Next we headed north as we noticed something of interest on the map. Took us an hour to get there.

 

Rocky

It is a large granite rock at the south-east end of the Granite Mountains. It is famous as it lies on what was the Oregon and California wagon trails from the mid nineteenth century. Travellers tried to reach it by Independence Day so that they could clear the rest of the mountains before winter, hence the name. As it was a well known spot on the long journey west, people started to carve or paint their names into/onto it. Supposedly there were roughly 5000 names in total although more than half a million people passed it.

Register of the desert

You can still see the names today, although the ones we saw were difficult to read or photograph. Did my best.

There is something there if you look closely

You are allowed to climb it but, due to the fact I had flip flops on and it was quite warm, we headed back to the car. Made our way back south to Rawlins.

Ate lunch at Penny's Diner. https://oaktreeinn.com/pennys-diner/ It was average. Filled up with gas and then headed back on the I-80 on our way west for another hundred miles or so. Speed limit was 75/80mph most of the way so we breezed along nicely. Even the miles of contraflow were 65 mph, so we hit Rock Springs just after 5pm.

Checked in to the Comfort Inn and Suites. Sat and watched Harry Potter for a while before heading out to Subway to grab some dinner to take back to the room. We have been in a lot of Subways over our four trips. This was not one of the best. Whilst in there, I pointed out to Ann the very bizarre sight of a six month old baby with pierced ears. Why?

Back to the room to eat and finish Harry Potter. Didn't lose the key.

Ann is now asleep. What's new?

States visited - 2

Granite Rocks seen - 1

Pretzel watch - high

Day Two

Slept well which is not surprising considering how long the previous day had been. Had a strange dream involving a big house and finding a long lost hidden floor which had been sealed up because of some murder a hundred years before. Very odd.

Got up just before 7am and hit the pool. Had a rejuvenating swim. Then Facetimed the UK before heading down for breakfast. It was run of the mill stuff. I had cereal and then pancakes. Had apple juice to drink or as it should be known 'a glass of water infused with one particle of apple flavoured juice'. Ann had a mouldy banana.

Headed off at 11am. Went to the Buffalo Herd Overlook at Genesee Park which was just down the road. Should technically be called Bison Herd Overlook. Didn't see any bison. Or buffalo. Think they were hiding. Did find out some bison related facts.

1. There were 50-60 million bison in the USA around the mid 1800s. By the late 1800s there were 500.
2. A bison can jump 6 feet in the air from a standing position

Also thought of the old joke about a white man being led by a Cheyenne guide. The guide puts his ear to the floor and says 'Buffalo come'.
The white man says 'How can you tell?"
"Ear sticky".

Whilst reading the bison information boards we noticed that Buffalo Bill's grave was nearby so we decided to stop by on our journey.

Headed up Lookout Mountain to the museum and grave. Watched a film about William F. Cody. Looked at some stuff. Saw a dead bison.

Not jumping six feet here

Saw other memorabilia from his life.

Annie Get Your Poster

There was a kids section where you could practise lassoing a baby steer but Ann wouldn't let me have a go. Went to see his grave.

Bill and wife

He decided to be buried on the mountain as it had the best view in the United States out across the plains. Sadly it now isn't  quite the same!

Good place to put an aerial

Sat and had a drink and finally realised we are on holiday. Saw this and Ann got excited and wanted to take a photo.

Holidays are coming

Went back to the car and watched the last 10 minutes of Everton's Europa League game. Then we set sail for Laramie, Wyoming. Made very slow progress around the outskirts of Denver and then north of Denver all the way up I-25 to Fort Collins. Once we hit Highway 287 it was clear all the way to Laramie. Hit a high point of 2462 metres which is 1.5 miles above sea level. Scenery was fab.

Arrived at the Fairfield Inn and Suites. Checked in and then headed out for dinner here.

https://www.jeffreysbistro.com/

I had a grilled cheese sandwich and Ann had something I have never seen before, a grilled hummus sandwich. Place was very nice and would happily recommend it.

Headed back to the hotel. Got back to the room but couldn't find the keycard. Searched myself and the car to no avail. Somehow managed to lose it, probably in Jeffrey's. To be fair, it is the first time I have ever lost one and seeing as I am always put in charge of the key and we have visited a million hotels that isn't a bad record. I did go swimming with one back on our first trip which didn't do it any good, but up to now had never lost one. Had to ask for a new one at reception. Man seemed unfazed by the request.

As ever Ann is now asleep.

States visited - 2

Bison watch - low

Dead bison watch - high

Keys lost - 1

Day One

Got up early and rushed around a lot making sure we had everything. Doubled checked most things. And doubled checked again. Taxi arrived bang on 7.30am. I say taxi, it was a Peugeot 206 with taxi written on the side. Squeezed our stuff and ourselves into it and headed for Totnes. Got there early. Sat and waited.

Train arrived eventually. Got on in First Class and went to our seats. There were others available that were better so we sat in them instead. Ann chatted to a Plymouthian couple who were heading to London for the first time. They were in their fifties. Enough said.

Made use of the free drinks trolley on the occasions the person running it didn't completely ignore us. Enter the carriage, serve the people on the other side of the aisle from us and then just bugger off. Always helpful.

Stole some sugar from the trolley when it was parked up unattended. Coincided with some sort of alarm going off loudly.

We got to Reading on time and broke the rules by taking the suitcases up the escalator despite the warnings that it was hazardous. Made our way straight on to the Railair coach.

Uneventful journey to Heathrow. Got off at Terminal 3 and checked our luggage.  Beat security despite Ann trying to smuggle an entire bottle of clear liquid airside.

Ate food and waited for the gate to be announced. It was. We went there. Sat and waited. Ann suddenly piped up with 'Isn't that Goldie Hawn?'  It was.

Got the Hawn

We got on the plane before Goldie. It appeared as though she had to be last on. Presumably so she didn't have to mix with the scum.

Made our way to our seats. Sat. Flew. Landed in Denver, Colorado. Not much to report except for the nice tea just before we touched down.

Cream

And that I only watched one film which is very unusual for a nine hour flight.  Spent most of the time battling this.

Cryptic

Didn't do too badly. Having got off we then had to queue for immigration. It was a new system to what we have been used to. We queued for what seemed like an age before we got to use a computer to do it ourselves. It printed a receipt which you then had to take downstairs and queue some more. Then you gave your receipt and passport to a bloke and then he made Ann do all the finger printing and photo taking (we had just done upstairs) again. Fab system.

Anyway, we were allowed in and then set about catching the bus to the car hire place. Didn't take long. We were greeted by an eleven year old boy who did our booking. Ann felt he looked crestfallen when we didn't take out the CDW. Presume he gets commission if he cons us. He took us to the car. He seemed unsure about how it worked.

We loaded our stuff, plugged in the sat nav, tried to work out how to drive it and then set off.

Unit

Travelled through the middle of Denver and reached our destination of the Holiday Inn Express in Golden.

Checked in, collected our post and headed to our room. Decided we couldn't be bothered to go and eat having had at least four meals in the day. Bought some Sun chips and drinks in the lobby and sat and ate in the room.

Ann watched some Harry Potter and is now asleep. This is a return to the norm of trips 1 and 2. Trip 3 must have been an anomaly when she was awake each night.

The thunderstorm raging outside may wake her but I doubt it. It is now 9.40pm here which is 4.40am to us. I am tired and will now attempt to sleep. Have to be ready for the big day tomorrow.....Everton playing in the Europa League!

Day Twenty Nine/Thirty

As said in the previous blog, we had to check out by midday, but then had to wait until 4pm to drop the car off. The airport was less than five miles away so we didn't need to travel anywhere. Also we had to drop the car back with no fuel, so we had run it right down.

This meant we had to kill four hours but couldn't really drive anywhere. To make matters worse, although it wasn't too hot, it was very sticky weather which meant standing outside was an issue. We obviously didn't want to get hot and sweaty before boarding the aeroplane.

So what to do?

Well, first of all we stayed in the room right up to the 12pm check out. Then we loaded the car and checked out. We strolled across the road to take some pictures of downtown San Diego's skyline.

Classy

Unfortunately this made us hot, which was not good. Our plan just to find somewhere to sit about for some time took a dent, so we had to rethink.

Plan was changed to find somewhere with air con to sit around, but not too far away.

Used the sat nav to find a Starbucks. Drove there, went in, bought drinks, realised it was the smallest Starbucks ever and that every seat was taken. Had to sit outside. Bugger. Got hot again. This wasn't going well.

Next we needed to get a couple of things from a supermarket, so found the nearest, drove there. Good news was it had plenty of space and air con. Even better was there was an even smaller Starbucks within it and no customers. Bought more drinks and sat down. Stayed there for a while. Went and looked in another shop, before deciding to leave.

Next we went to a Subway and had lunch, managed to make it last about an hour. By this time it was 3.30pm, so we then headed to the car rental drop off near the airport which took about ten minutes.

Had to leave the car. Final mileage was 4335. Said goodbye and caught the bus to the airport.

Baggage drop was opened at 4.45pm, we arrived at 4pm. More time to kill so we sat and drank everything we had left knowing we wouldn't be able to take it airside. Turns out we had a lot of fluid. I had to drink most of it. We also chatted to a couple from Hastings who were also waiting.

There is only one BA flight out of San Diego each day, so only two desks. It didn't take us long to get through and then through security.

Then we had another three and a half hours to kill. Managed to do so.

Got on plane, it was busy. Took off just a smidgeon late. Watched lots of films and TV. Didn't sleep, didn't feel like sleeping.

Soon enough, nine hours or so, we touched down at Heathrow. We used our new e-passports to breeze through passport control. Our bags came out early and then as we got to the Reading Rail Air Link stop, a coach pulled up. Got on, went straight to Reading.

More time to kill, an hour and a half. Went to Costa.

Then went to platform, got on train. It was the exact opposite of our train journey four weeks ago. Barely anyone in first class. Pretty much had the free refreshment cart to myself. Got back to Totnes a couple of minutes early. Mum and Dad picked us up and dropped us home.

Ate mash potato as usual.

Now writing this at 11.45pm. Have been up for 32 hours. Remarkably Ann is still awake. Not sure what she's been on this trip. Normally she is always asleep, this trip she's always been awake.

States visited this trip - 18

Total states visited - Ann 44, Richard 43

Total miles driven over three trips - 12,400

Day Twenty Eight

We only had one activity planned for today, so the only decision was what time to go. In the end we left at midday and arrived just before 1pm at http://www.sdzsafaripark.org/

First up, we needed to eat as we hadn't had breakfast. We went in the first café place we saw within the park and ended up sharing a burger and chips for brunch. The seating was outside and it was 102F, so we soon got quite warm. We had a safari booked at 5pm, so we decided to wander around the rest of the park before that. First up we saw this.

The Eye of the Tiger

Luckily there were lots of mist machines creating cooling areas as we got very hot walking just short distances. We made sure we drank a lot as we were sweating skips not buckets. It hit 108F/42C by late 4pm.

Next we happened upon a show which happens once a day. A cheetah running 100m in 5 seconds. Here it is.

We then headed up to see the gorillas. There were lots, this is one.

King Kong

 Saw this near it.


Simples

By now, we didn't have long until our safari trip, so we headed into the air con luxury of the gift shop. We cooled right down knowing we were going to be stuck out for sometime.

Then it was time to check in for the trip. We got in the caravan (Think jeep with a bigger open back) and away we went. It was a two hour trip amongst the animals in the open plain type area. Our host seemed to be Seth Rogen. He told us about the animals. He was thinner than I expected.

We saw lots of animals out and about and took a lot of photos and videos. Here are the highlights.

I nose you

 

Mrs Simba

Nellie

We also had the chance to feed giraffes and rhinos.

It was a fabulous afternoon with the highlight being feeding the giraffe. By the time our safari had finished it was 7pm and the park was closing.

We started the journey back to San Diego thinking what a great way to finish the holiday. We were hot, we were sweaty but it didn't matter.

We stopped at Denny's near the hotel for dinner. For once the service was good.

We then went to 7-11 to get some more drinks to replenish our fluid levels.

Now trying to work out what we will do tomorrow after we have checked out. Need to be at the airport at 4pm to return the car, but hotel check out is 12pm, so four hours to kill.

Giraffes fed - 1

Lion Watch - High

States Visited - 18

Day Twenty Seven

Had a really lazy morning. We headed out for brunch at about 12pm. Went here, http://www.pointbreakcafe.com/.

Food was ok, service was dreadful.

Next we headed to the beach, specifically the beach on Coronado Island. Mainly as Ann wanted to see the Hotel del Coronado.

Hotel

It was the setting for 'Some like it Hot' and it was hot. Very hot. And the sea was full of sting rays, so we didn't stay long. Lifeguards kept telling people to do the stingray shuffle in the water. Basically slide your foot, don't step to avoid treading on the stingrays.

The traffic was very heavy going and coming back, so it was 5pm by the time we got to the hotel. We cooled off for a while.

We then set off for an evening at http://www.belmontpark.com/

We ate pizza and had a look around. We saw a mini golf course, so we had to have a game.

Scores were:

Roffe - 53
Knightley - 51

Have to mention that Ann got two holes in one.

We then decided to get some ice cream. Whilst queuing we saw everyone else's and got worried. They were the biggest ice creams ever. I got the smallest possible cone and Ann got a bowl.

Look at the size of my hand!

It took 25 minutes, but I got there in the end. Ann never made it through her bowl. We then headed back home.

Now watching Wild Hogs and I happen to be in my Del Fuegos t-shirt I got in Madrid.

States Visited - 18

Day Twenty Six

First up, forgot to mention that we saw a roadrunner yesterday when we were driving. Meep meep.

Had breakfast in the hotel in Yuma. The quietest breakfast ever as the hotel seemed to be the Mary Celeste. Eventually some other people did turn up.

Headed back to the room to kill time as check out was 11am and we only had a three hour journey and check in was 4pm.

Spent time Skyping Ermington, before we packed up and left.

Saw Mexico. My phoned welcomed me to the country even though we didn't actually go there. Entered California. Drove up some small mountains and then back down the other side.

Arrived in San Diego at 2pm, so decided to see if we could check in early. We could, so we did http://www.halfmooninn.com/

Unfortunately our room isn't quite like the ones pictured. Our Tropical view is a wall. The room has no main light either and therefore is quite dark.

Went out for dinner here http://www.cohnrestaurants.com/corvettediner. It has a 50s vibe as in the décor, the music and the staff all are dressed up.

Happy days

It was slightly surreal. When the waitress, Tracy Turnblad, came to take our order she threw a load of straws at us. Later on they all started dancing.

We left and sat out by the waterfront watching planes take off from the airport, knowing it would be us on Monday.

Eventually we headed back to the dungeon.

States Visited - 18