From Seattle I met mum and dad in San Francisco and traveled around the west side of states with them for two weeks on an Intrepid/Suntrek tour (Click here for trip details).
From there mum went back to Australia for work and Dad and I went on to New York/New Jersey where we met my bro Cameron.
Too much has happened to really give this trip justice, but here are some of the highlights/interesting points/things I remember:
- Catching up with parents, it had been at least 6 months since I’d seen them (I know, vomit).
- Pitching tents and taking them down the next day for 2 weeks. Using horribly smelly pit toilets. Showering with a frog. Sitting in a tight van with 13 other people. Camp we were on had 5 Germans, 1 swiss, 3 Danish, 1 Malay/Aussie and 3 Armstrongs. Eric and Cheryl were significantly older than the rest, it all worked out very well though, it was a great group.
- Dads interpretation of group dynamics when travelling on a tour like we did:
1) Anticipation about other members of tour, what will they be like, how old will they be, where will they be from.
2) Meet group, chat to everyone, find out more about them.
3) Form friendship groups.
4) Bitch and gossip about other members of group. I think that’s pretty accurate, happened on every tour I’ve been on.
- Red wood/sequoia forests. Trees are awesome.
- Being generic and loving every moment spent in LA – Hollywood boulevard and Venice beach. Even though every one seemed to be there doing the same thing I still really liked it. I really wanted to go on one of those tours where you sus out stars houses and stalk them. No time though.
- The really crazy change in scenery in the States. California looked a lot like Australia. Dry as shit, all these Eucalypts everywhere. Crazy desserts, death valley, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, big rocks, all sorts of shit. Hot as hell some places, damn cold in other. Good times. It’s a damn big country with a lot to see.
- Helicopter ride over Grand Canyon. Luckily mum didn’t spew this time.
- Las Vegas. Awful but wonderful at the same time. Lion enclosures, flamingos, roller coasters, gambling, bright lights. Our tour group were told we were going on a limousine ride,, about 30 of us, and that there would be booze and stripper poles. Much to my disappointment Cheryl and Eric said that they wanted to join everyone on this. Boo. For some reason it wasn’t quite what they expected, what with all the loud music, strobe lights, drunken people dancing around the stripper poles. STRIPPER POLES and included booze, how can you not know what it was going to be like. Dad said he thought it would be a nice tour of Vegas where you got out and saw the main highlights... silly man. Went on Rollercoaster in New York New York, too hung over to really enjoy it. I made wee wee time in a car park, booze bus didn’t’ have toilets or toilet stops. Bad idea.
- Love, Beatles show in Las Vegas. I had no idea what this would be like, mum and dad forked out pennies though, so I was happy. It was mother fucking awesome! Crazy acrobatics, awesome costumes and props, Beatles music played on the best sound system ever. It was damn amazing. Best show EVER!
- I put 10 bucks on the roulette table, I almost put it all on 5, chickened out though, only put 2 on 5 and scattered the rest around. It landed on 5. I won like 70 bucks at least. Dad won 16 bucks on the pokies.
- Met up with Eliza in San Francisco AND in New York. Damn good times, she’s a good bloody woman.
- New York is full of the most wretched, aggressive, unfriendly and mean people I have met in my entire life. People rave about New York, and how they either loved living there or would love to live there. I personally will never live there. Sure, it has heaps going on, cool shit to see and do. Living in a place to me isn’t all about that though (to me). If the people are wretched cunts, what’s the point. Even (or especially) people working in information desks. So damn rude, didn’t want to help you at all, just gave you the impression they would be happy to see you get run over and die slowly and painfully. Dad told one woman to fuck of, I was really proud/impressed. I really came out hating New York. Even the dude at the Newark Airport as I was leaving was super rude, and aggressively hurled my bag onto the conveyer belt. The airport thought it would be best to take away humans to help you check in and replaced them with stupid machines that don’t make sense. The humans that remain there are useless aggressive bastards who don’t want to help you and give you a look of annoyance should you dare need help. Then they charge you 15/20 fucking dollars to check your bag in, and don’t provide a meal. CUNTS.
- Niagra, damn cool, American side was nasty though, hadn’t put any money into making it nice, apparently Canadian side is much better, we didn’t have time though
- Ithaca, super cute uni town south east of Niagra. Loved it. Wanted to go to a frat party, again, no time.
- 6 FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE BABY!!!! I have always wanted to do a rollercoaster tour of the states. On this trip, I went on 2 coasters on the west coast, and every one I could get my hands on at 6 flags (went with my older bro Cameron). Best damn day ever. I would like to describe each coaster, where I sat on it, and how many times I went on them, I will try not to though. All up I went on 17 rollercoaster rides. We went on Kingda Ka twice (click here for you tube video), the tallest/fastest rollercoaster in the world. It looks like it has been designed purely to break these records. You reach the fastest speed in the first 3 seconds of the ride. Shot on this straight, then launched up this vertical incline, over the top, then vertically down. That’s the whole ride. We lined up for like 50 mins to sit at the front. Once we were strapped in at the front there was an announcement that the ride was closed due to ride. Bugger. We waited more and eventually rain went away and we got on. Wind was damn crazy. View, nauseating. Glad I did it though. I usually like wooden rollercoasters best. The one there, El Toro was damn crazy though. I like wooden coasters coz they’re kinda old and rickety, no upside down, or crazy though, it’s just a real good old fashioned adventure. This one was nuts though, real smooth, went up the chains real fast, the declines…. Holy jesus, so freakin steep, and it went really freakin fast. I wasn’t ready for it the first time, scared the shit out of me, better the second time. My fave rides were Bizzaro and Nitro.
- Saw Phantom of the Opera in New York. Pretty good, good to tick off my to do list, broadway show. I don’t think musicals are really my thing though.
- Went to Intercourse, Pennsylvania, to see Amish people, all the shit they were selling was made in China and there were hardly any of them around. Good for a day away though.
There is so much more, but I don’t want to be too boring. Photos are updated on my flickr.
1 comment:
Another whole year! That's AGES. You MUST be having fun.
Which would be entirely justified given the cool things that you seem to be doing everyday as blogged.
Although you did manage to make New York sound awful :P And I was thinking of checking it out myself!
Anyways catch you whenever you get back!
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