Day 15 - All of USA is in Las Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas about 2:00 after visiting the Hoover Dam. The dam was pretty impressive you get a great view from the new bridge.

Coming into Vegas was slow in the traffic. We got to the Hotel , Treasure Island, to wait for about 30 minutes in a long line. Once checked in we walked the strip to visit some of the sites. Again we were back in the heat 38 plus at least the heat was a dry heat not so zapping.

There are a lot of people around.

some strange people.

Seeing the iconic sites was cool

But I must say that Vegas is for me a metaphor for what the USA is about. It is all that's right and wrong in the USA. It is trying do and be the right thing but is undermined by the need for the dollar.

I knew that Vegas was all about gambling but was a little surprised how in your face it is and how large some of the casino's are.

Roger calls Vegas the zoo, and he's most likely right. There are some great sights but I'm not sure its worth cost.

Well off to LA tomorrow then flight home on Saturday night (Sunday NZ time) back Monday. 

I'll most likely post another blog or 2 with some other thought's and photo's that I have not shared yet.

Day 14 - Wifi Troubles

The Grand Canyon was just that Grand.

We have been have trouble with Wifi here our Cameron motel so we are sitting in a McDonald's. Each photo = 1,000 words.

Las Vegas next as the trip comes to a close..........

Day 13 - All the Valleys a Stage

It's hard to explain to day's adventures.

We drove from Cortez to Monument Valley.

For me Monument Valley was going to be one of the highlights of the trip. It’s a place that I have seen in so many movies and read about in a number of books especially about John Ford and John Wayne.

This is a photographic paradise. They have a fantastic visitors center that looks straight on to the valley. 


There is a rough dirt road that winds through the valley. Roger braved the drive and we went out to “John Ford’s Point” which was his favorite place in the valley and where he filmed most of this shot’s for “The Searchers” and “Stagecoach”.

Roger had never been there so it was new for both of us. We were a bit dumbstruck by the Valley it was awesome.

I have had a hard time selecting which photos to post on the blog. So here are a few...

Tomorrow is the big one, the Grand Canyon..................

Day 12 - Across the Great Divide

Today we have started our journey to LA.

But yesterday (day 11) we went to Creede. On the way we seen Buffalo.

Creede is an old silver mining town at an altitude of 8,800 feet with a population of only 300 people.

The mines have been converted into tourist shops and a when we were there there were a lot of older people learning wood and stone carving.

I found a bath load of ducks (Duck Duck Go anyone)

Creede was also the site for the Shootist,John Wayne’s last movie. It’s also where they have just finished filming the Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp.


So today we were up and away early and drove across the Great Divide and the scenery is breathtaking. Photos do not convey the size and majesty of the scenery.

We had lunch at Durango which is a railway town (Denver and Rio Grande Railroad) that also seem to have a lot of wine shops.

We then moved on to the highlight of the day, Mesa Verde. Most people have seen photos of Mesa Verde in one form or other.

Mesa Verde is best known for the ancient cliff dwellings of the native americas. These were abandoned in about 1200 AD.

Mesa Verde is massive, a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. This is not only one site to see the cliff dwellings but a number of sites. We visited one site, Spruce Tree House which is the third-largest village and had about 130 rooms. You could spend a good 2 or 3 days exploring this National Park.

Tomorrow we are off to Monument Valley another iconic American site especially in western movies. It was a favorite site of director John Ford.

Day 11 - Confucius say

So we just had Chinese "Take out" and my fortune Cookie said...............

So as the Monkees once said "I'm a Believer"

I had to Blog this...................

Day 9 and 10 - The full Monty

We have been taking it easy over the last few days.

The Alamosa and Rio Grande counties are where Roger lives and work and reminds me of the desert road area. We are in a large valley that is about 7,000 feet high with huge mountains all around. It seems to be mainly a farming area. They grow lots of potatoes and hay for sale in other areas. They are dairy/beef farms around. The population of each county is about 15,000 and is very much at the lower socio-economic level.

The area is a very Spanish/Mexican/Indian culture as opposed to Washington DC with was very European/African American culture.

We did go for a drive to the Great Sand dunes which are amazing. They are about an hour away from Roger’s.

Have a look at the Wikipedia Link if you want to read more about this natural high desert and dunes.

On the drive we were hoping to see some Buffalo but did not see any. We did see a coyote.


We went over to Cuchara and on the way see some really interesting rock formations. This is a big country with large mountains and distances.

Cuchara is an interesting little town. There was a very “Mountain Man” feel to the town. They also do have wild black bears about but we did not see any, which I think was a good thing.

I also seen my first ghost town; Russell, hopefully we will see more on our travels.

We will be leaving Monte Vista (or Monty as it's known here) early Monday morning and travelling to LA. This is very much the western leg of the trip where western movies will be the theme rather than the Civil War.

Day 8 - The Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Monte Vista Trail

We woke up in Albuquerque after arriving there late previous night.

After breakfast we hit the road for Santa Fe. The weather is much cooler in the 20's.

Santa Fe is a lovely city, all adobe style buildings, even the fast food joints have to conform to the Pueblo style of building.

In the town square the local Pueblo artists sell their wears mostly jewelry and pottery. And of course there were tourists everywhere.

One interesting place we visited was "Jackalope Furniture" where we seen some prairie dogs.

I seen some prairie dogs as we were driving and thought the were rats or something. So Roger took me to Jackalope's which was a large furniture/outdoors/folk art set of shops. In the middle was a prairie dog mound where I took the above photo.

We went up to Taos to visit a Pueblo village but it was closing. We then drove to the Taos Gorge where I took a pile of photo's.

In the valley there were a number of wide goats.

From the gorge we past an area that I thought was familiar. It was the earth-ship project, I had read and seen these in a number of books when I was researching building our straw-bale house. I was surprised at the number of buildings.

We then drove through the rain and wind into Colorado and finally to Rogers house in Monte Vista.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring as we have been going full out since I got here.

Day 7 - Travel day......

Not much to say about today..

Day 6 - Gettysburg Addresses

So today was all about the battle of Gettysburg.

I booked a tour of Gettysburg over the net from New Zealand and it was pretty good.

We boarded the bus at Union station in D.C. The first interesting thing was the driver/tour guide said that he was meant to play us a video that the company gave him but it was boring and just put people to sleep so now he plays the Gettysburg movie.

The tour was a once over lightly of Gettysburg and the battle. We visited the 3 major sights of the 3 days and drove past many of the other points of interest.


The picture below is looking at Devil's Den from Little Round Top.

The highlights for me were visiting little round top, viewing the fields which Pickett's charge took place and visiting one of the houses in Gettysburg (The Schriver house) that was affected by the battle and hearing the story of what happened to the family. The photo below is off the tour guide at the back of the house.

Like Fredericksburg and Harper’s Ferry; Gettysburg was devastated by the battle. Gettysburg in 1863 was about 2,500 people, about the same size of Featherston. Then 165,000 soldiers with over 70,000 horses turn up to have a fight and leave behind the aftermath of the battle including 8,000 dead men and 3,000 dead horses. The stench was smelt from miles around and locals were sick from the smell. Also left behind were about 12,500 wounded that the locals had to look after.

We had a great lunch at the “General Pickett’s buffet” which was only $10.00 and a quick walk around some of the town.


Below is a picture from one shop of the muskets for sale, all real and most work. I thought at between $1,250 and $3,000 these were not bad value.

There is a lot to do and see in Gettysburg I could spend a week there easy and if I ever return thats what I would do. One thing I have learnt is that the Americans love their monuments and statues.

When we arrived back at Union station we decided to walk down to the White House as we had not seen that.
The security is tight at the White House where there was a squirrel.

We walked past a police woman guard who was carrying a Machine Gun in a bag warning people not to walk on the grass. A guy walking past did not hear what she said and started walking towards her, she got quite angry at him and was about to pull the gun on him. I took this picture of her yelling at the guy hand in her bag, note the gun stock coming out of the bag.

Again I had some problems with my camera's SD card. I brought 2 x 32g SD cards in NZ and both have failed I have lost a pile of photo's. I'm very disappointed with the cards.


Tomorrow we leave Washington D.C. for Albuquerque.

Day 5 - and then it rained

 Today was a slower day for us and not so hot.

Roger and I had a nice drive down to Manassas which was about an hour and a half away. We first visited the Museum which was small but had an interesting collection of artifacts about the history of the town and nice staff that gave us a brief introduction to the history of the town including its role in the civil war.

From the museum we headed off to the Manassas (known as the 1st Bull Run by the Union) battlefield. This has an impressive museum with one of the best audio visuals of the battle that we have seen. The shop here was great as well. The focus of the visitor centre/Museum was on Stonewall Jackson.

The best part of the visit was a demonstration of using the Musket. The park ranger/reenactor talked us through the use of the Musket from firing to use of the bayonet as a shock weapon (they really did not like it up them). It was a great talk and again done by someone that was truly interested in the period and the weapons of the time. I had a great chat with him after the talk about the civil war and what it meant to him. I am finding out that the reenactors had relatives that took part in the war or who had family affected by the war in some way.

The Manassas Battle ground is well laid out and very open. They have a number of guns and limbers in their original positions as well as the reconstructed buildings.

There were two battles at Manassas. The first battle was the first major battle of the war in 1861 where Jackson and his brigade made their name “”Stonewall”. The battle was fought by two inexperienced armies and could have gone either way except for the leadership of Jackson who turned the tide of the battle. The battle also showed that the war was not going to be a short affair.

The second battle was a year later and was another confederate victory and also a much bigger battle where James Longstreet (perhaps my favourite General of the war) saves the day with the biggest attack of the war, 25,000 men. While not the most interesting battle of the war in was another significant victory that added to the legend of General Robert E Lee and the southern fighting spirit. 

Despite these two Confederate victories, Manassas Junction was in Union hands for most of the war. It was a very important Junction like Harper’s Ferry.

We then travelled down to Fredericksburg. While not as impressive as the other battle fields as most of the area is in the town its was interesting to see the defensive position the Lee took and the road an wall that they built.


We also found the coolest shop that had lots of authentic ACW gear. We brought Kepi’s. 


We did not have time to visit the Chancellorsville, which was a shame but we were a bit civil warred out and needed to get the car back.

On the way back to Arlington we hit (or it hit us) a thunder and lightning storm. There was even warnings coming across the radio. We were a bit worried for a time but as we drove further north we left it behind. The lighting was the biggest I have seen.

Very big day tomorrow........ The Gettysburg tour.

Day 4 - Our Civil War Journey begins

We picked up a rental car the night before and left early for Harper's Ferry.

Harpers Ferry's is a very important town in the history of the Civil War.


It was the place that John Brown raided the arsenal in 1859. Brown attacked and captured several buildings; he hoped to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. He was caught and hang but the affair brought the slave issue to the attention of the nation and was a major catalyst for the start of the Civil War.



Harper's Ferry is a major rail junction and was a strategically important location on the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. The town changed hands 8 times during the war. It was also the scene for the largest surrender of US military personnel until the World War 2.

Harper's Ferry today is a National Historical Park and is administered by the National Park Service.

We drove into the town following the GPS then realised that they had a large car park outside the town with a bus service around some of the sites and back to town. This was quite good as it meant that there were not piles of cars parked everywhere.

There were a number of civil war re-enactors around the town both union soldiers and civilians. They staged little scenes that represented everyday life in a military held town. This added so much to the story of the town.


The enactors were very friendly and knowledgeable and were very happy to talk about the civil war and their own views etc.

I loved Harper’s Ferry and would like to come back and explore it more some day.



Next we programmed the rental cars GPS to take us to Antietam and ended up down some back and beyond country road, major fail. Lucky Roger had his own GPS which worked fine.

We went into Sharpsburg for lunch then out to the visitors centre and to our horror found that the park was closing early at 3:00 (in 10 minutes). I was very annoyed about this as they did not say that the park was closing early for a concert on their website.

This meant that we could not visit the exhibits in the centre or the tower down the valley overlooking Bloody lane. So we quickly looked through the shop and went to visit Burnside's bridge.

The battlefield is again well looked after and maintained. There are Statues, monuments and signs everywhere telling the story of the battle at different times.

After driving around the sites that we could we headed back to the Hotel and dinner at the Red Lobster where I had Lobster and chardonnay for dinner, yum.

Day 3 - Did I mention it was.....

......HOT

Hotter than Yesterday.

We visited a number of excellent places today starting with Arlington cemetery and Arlington House.

The cemetery was interesting especially the Kennedy's Graves. The size of the cemetery is impressive and they have on average 27 funerals there each day, all military. Presidents can be buried there as they are the Commander and chief of the Military but only 2 are.

Arlington House was great but had some earth quake damage so we could not see all of it. It was smaller than I thought it would be but fantastic views. The house and surroundings were designed by the Washington family and was passed to Robert E Lee's wife. The site was taken by the Government during the civil war for a Military cemetery. Robert E Lee never returned there after the war.

We also seem the changing of the Guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The America's do this formal stuff very well. Everything is perfect.

There are memorials all over the place of course; you could spend many hours seeing them all.


We then went across town and walked in the heat (I did mention it was hot) to Frederick Douglass's house. I was really keen to go and see the house and take the tour and was it worth it. This was the highlight of the trip to date. Follow this Link if you don't know who Frederick Douglass is.


The house has been preserved very well and the tour that the National Park service do is done by people who know their history. They were a bit surprised that a Kiwi knew who Frederick Douglass was. But I had a great conversation with the guide (Branden I think).

The above picture is of 2 bottles of 1890 Chateau Margaux unopened as they were left when he died. all the stuff in the house was owned by Frederick Douglass and not reproductions like most displays. 


We then went back to the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial and  the Vietnam wall of remembrance. Both are impressive but to me the most impressive was the Lincoln Memorial. That is a big statue. No Vampires mentioned nor any monkey's though.

We were buggered by then and caught a taxi to the Metro station. There was a derailment caused by the heat (I'm sure I said it was hot). The Metro trains were packed.


Hope it cools down tomorrow for our trip to Harper's Ferry and Antietam.