But for now, let’s look back in photos from the first four months of The Random Way Home. New York to San Francisco. These photos are more of a personal account from my adventure and more of a behind the scenes look at how I crossed America. AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It all started on a ridiculously cold cloudy day at Coney Island, New York. The starting point for this monumental trip across the world.

Heading south, I reached Washington D.C in 6 days. And my first 200 miles cycled. Feeling rather proud with myself I took the week off to catch up with friends and have a look around the nations capital.

One of the many great meals I had. A table of devoured blue crab from Baltimore, smothered in Old Bay Seasoning. Delicious.

A great find, thanks to my friend Todd. This is the Great Allegheny Passage/Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. This 300+ mile bicycle path connects Washington D.C with Pittsburgh. One of the many surprising highlights that I found along the way.

Trying my hand at a competitive eating competition. Here, I try and eat the worlds largest grilled cheese sandwich at Melt Bar, Cleveland. 5lb of cheese!!! I failed.

For me, the most exciting part about travelling are the new faces you meet and friends that you come away with.
L – R: Tiffany, Mike, Christine, Matt. The Minneapolis crew.

A world Community of Cyclists. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a good idea to cross America by bicycle.

It wasn’t always an easy ride. I had a few low points to deal with. Some of the worst floods in North Dakota history had to happen as I was crossing it. This is the town of Minot, The whole downtown section was underwater when the banks of the Souris River broke.

Escaping North Dakota. Doing battle with 30 (gusts up to 45) miles an hour head winds. In 9 hours I only managed 33 miles before I called it quits. “I’ve done 150 miles already” said a beaming cyclist who was sailing the tailwind in the other direction.

It was hard work taking photos and video on route, just the thought of stopping, getting the camera out, getting off the bicycle and taking the shot seemed like such hard work. All I wanted to do was peddle and get on with the day. Still, rest stops were a must and every 10 miles or so was break time. Here, fellow cyclist Graeme and I watch a storm front roll in from the South West of Montana, approximately 10 miles out of the town of Glasgow.

Lucky Shot. I nearly shat my pants when I was awoken by a monumental thunder storm that rolled into the small farming town of Chester, Montana.

Montana had the most incredible panoramic views. In some places you could watch gloomy clouds and threatening storms drift by up to 20 miles away.

One of my favorite days on the road. I will never forget magnificent views as I climbed the Going-to-the-Sun-Road in Glacier National Park. The 3 hour ascent up to the continental divide was hard work when your carrying 25kg of gear on a bike. But still, smiles all round as I approach the summit.

Reaching the top of the continental divide was one of the biggest tests for me. I didn’t know if my body was up to the challenge. Not realising that my legs had become incredibly strong after the past 2 months I surprised myself that is only took 3 hours to ascend it.

Another day, another mountain pass. In a week I cycled over 4 mountain passes in the State of Washington.

Washington Pass. Conquering the highest point on the Northern Tier bicycle route. It’s now downhill all the way to the pacific ocean.

3 months of not shaving can produce some quite interesting facial hair.  Other than it’s nearly impossible to eat a burger without getting the BBQ sauce all over it. No, the worst part about owning such a monstrosity are the flies that get tangled up in it when you cycle into a swarm of them. Mmmm lunch.

I have a love/hate relationship with the trains of the US. They would never fail to make you smile or punch the sky when they gave you a blast from their deafening air horn as they slowly crawled by, hauling freight on their mile long wagons. But on the flip side, getting woken up in the middle of the night as these monsters thunder pass my tent. Ground shaking, screeching of wheels and the explosive bangs & crashes as the carriages get shunted around, this made a very restless nights sleep on many occasions.

Ahhh. The simple things in life. Setting up camp next to a river and watching the sun set over the North Cascade Mountains. Solitude at it’s most pleasant.

It was harder to find places to wild camp in America. But when you did, you could find some truly wonderful spots you could call home for the night.

I had done it, New York City to Anacortes, Washington. Atlantic to the Pacific coast. 2 months 29 days, 4000 miles done by bicycle.
My first shave in 3 months.

Heading down Highway 1 in California is a great thrill and is a must for any cyclist. The crashing surf, the splendid campsite an abundance of good seafood and micro breweries to keep you entertained.

I thought once I peddled all the way to California I would be greeted by warm & sun drenched days. With miles upon miles of golden sandy beaches where bikini clad babes lay tanning themselves to a crisp. But no, none of that, each morning in Northern California I was greeted by a thick bank of fog until I reached my final destination of San Francisco.

Still, without the fog bank there would be no Avenue of the Giants.

Disaster struck in San Francisco. My nearly bullet proof/built like a tank Rolhoff hub wasn’t Random Sam proof. After 5000miles on the road the hub developed 3 cracks on the flange. But luckily the only place that can fix them in the whole of America just so happens to be in San Francisco. In two weeks time I’d be back on the road heading to the boarder of Mexico. Or would I?

Nope, this is where the cycling ends, for now. As San Francisco would be my last stop for the foreseeable future. Why? because Julie came out from NYC to join me on a two week road trip. In those two weeks we took in the Lost Coast, Yosemite, Area 51. Oh, and she asked me to marry her. I said yes :)

Yosemite Valley.

Married in Vegas  by Elvis on 30/09/2011.

And now, 9 months on from leaving the West Coast I find myself preparing to get the train back out there, pick up my bicycle and cycle home. to New York, with my wife. x

Stay tuned :)

I’ve decided to photograph it this way to show what our eyes would rather forget, that the mundane and forgettable views also have a beauty in them.

Click to make large. Enjoy.

I couldn’t have timed this trip any better, as four of my favorite photographers are have exhibitions at the same time.
The current exhibition at MOMA
The Modern Century -Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Edwynn Houk Gallery
The Pioneers of Colour – Stephen Shore/Joel Meyerowitz/William Eggleston.
I’m also going to see what’s on at the Leica Gallery and The International Centre of Photography.

Back next week, see you then.

I think I’m going to need some time adjusting to this weather, after spending 3 months in Central America I think my body suddenly had a shock to the cold damp air as I stepped out of the airport terminal, I was back standing in the very spot I stood waiting for the bus to take me over the bridge to Manhattan. It felt a little bit surreal that I was back here but this time I felt far happier than the time before.
I kept trying not to think about this being my last stop on this epic trip or the fact I was running out of money, I just wanted 4 days of fun in the city.
Weather aside New York for me is the best city in the world, I love it. You can almost feel the electric atmosphere of the city running through your body once you get to Manhattan. Don’t get me wrong I still love London but this is the only other place in the world I could see myself living.
Jamie who I met 6 months ago through Katie had very kindly let me crash at his family home, it was great seeing both of them again and that night we chewed the fat and caught up over the next few hours.

My time in NYC wasn’t really doing much in the way of tourist stuff as I had seen many of the sights before. I was there to hang out with my friends and shop! The best thing I bought was a glow in the dark Ouija board from Toys R Us. I was a little worried that British Customs might take it off me if they stopped and searched me.
Guy, this will be the centre piece in the flat. We can have witchcraft nights, maybe even sacrifices some animals.
After a few nights out meeting Jamie’s & Katie’s friends again, watching bands, going to gay bars, eating, going to museums and playing Wii for hours it was time to say goodbye to the bright lights of Manhattan, Katie and Jamie and hop on Air India Flight 112 back to London.

The flight went well as there were only a hand full of people on the plane so I could stretch out and go to sleep only to be woken up 5 and half hours later when I touched down to a grey cold spring morning at Heathrow international. This is where my trip ends and my story finishes. I make my way across London listening to the woman’s voice on the Piccadilly line announce that this train terminates at COCKfosters which still makes me chuckle inside. I find myself moaning about how much a train ticket costs to Colchester and how moody the commuters are. Nothing changes in London, even in a year.
I board the 9:30 train to Norwich and find a empty seat and make my self at home for the next hour. I take out my copy of Metro, start eating my Gingsters Spicy Chicken Slice and slap on my iPod, listening to the song of my trip: Sigur Ros – Saeglopur. The train pulls out of the city and in 56 minutes time I will be at my final stop of my journey, where it all began. Colchester.

I am Random………….. I am home.

Anyway I had a small amount of video footage from my America road trip with Matty & Kealy (its nice to see Matty has joined the world of the Macbook).

Its taken me this long to make it as I only edit the video when I have nothing to do and for the last couple of days in Mexico City I’ve been sick which gave me time to sort it out.

Its not the Scotland video but its ok. enjoy.

Looking out of the window I swear we could be in the arctic as a snow storm had just hit. Snow? in Mexico? Hang on, isn’t the north of Mexico one big desert? Packing my bags, Matty, Kealy and I headed down the road fighting the snow to reach the boarder. Matty and Kealy were not prepared for snow so they didn’t even bring a coat. Guys, hadn’t Ray Mears taught you anything? Expect the unexpected!

That’s my coat and hat Matty is wearing

Trying to find out information about how to cross the border was proving to be a nightmare. It breaks down like this, to cross the border for more than 72 hours in the 25 mile restricted area you don’t need a Tourist Visa. If you cross over in to ‘real’ Mexico you need one. Easy? well not really. Trying to find somewhere that had this bloody piece of paper was proving problematic, so with some help from a local scumbag who walked us to the immigration office I managed to get a 180 day tourist VISA which was so good and meant i didn’t have to worry about rushing through the country like I had to in China. Sometimes have that British passport really does help. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN and all that crap.

We all Walked back to the boarder so I could see Matty and Kealy off as they were going back to the USA (That sounds funny as we had only been in Mexico about 1 hour) to continue there journey through Texas. It was sad to see them go as I must say the short time I spent road tripping with them was so much fun.
Heading off to the bus station the local scumbag insisted he was coming with me. Even when I said no he hopped in to the taxi to make sure that I got on the right bus. How much did this little bit of escorting me cost? $15!!!! He wanted more but there was noway I was handing more over. He said his time was precious and that as he spent ‘half a day with me’…… hang on half a day spent with Random Sam? It was more like 25 minutes! He demanded more because now his wife and kids had suddenly got sick and as he was a religious man that meant i should give him $50. I told him to piss off and gave him the last of my American change that was about 50 cents. See that’s why i hate border towns, everyone is out to make a quick buck. Anyway that was my first impressions of Mexico. Snowy, dirty, shit food and full of Scumbags…… that impression didn’t last even 6 hours when I made it to my first destination, Chihuahua.
A couple of things happened on the bus worth noting down. The first is the buses will play movies in Spanish for the long trip, I started trying to watch it as it had English subtitles on it. I came in half way though and thought it was some really dodge Mexican film about the Mayan civilisation. The effects were so bad and laughable, I’m talking they looked so cheap it made the Eastenders set look real. Well, it turned out this low budget movie was in fact the high budget Mel Gibson film ‘Apocalypto’. Has anyone else seen this rubbish?
The other thing worth noting about long distance bus rides is GO TO THE TOILET before you get on. This wouldn’t be a problem as the buses have toilets on them but being Random Sam something was bound to happen. So waking up from a little sleep I was bursting to go to the loo. Seeing that we were on a straight road i get up and walk to the back of the bus passing a couple of Mexicans and go in to the little toilet. Once inside I noticed the lock was a bit dodgy, it locked so I started to wee and then from out of no where the bus goes round the corner sending me flying outside the cubical still holding Mr Winky and holding my wee inside me until I could dart back in to toilet. I locked the door and again start to wee…… and again the bus goes round another corner ejecting me out again. What a nightmare! so to be on the safe side i did a ‘lady’ wee and sat down which seemed to do the trick. Ahhh that’s far better now.

So I arrive at my first real Mexican city Chihuahua, the guide book said it was really friendly but being still a little on guard i caught a taxi to a hotel in the heart of the city. My first taste of real Mexican food was from a street stall selling ‘Tacos’ with lime and Chile (god it was good, beats any ‘Tex-Mex’ food I’ve had in the States). I then headed out around the town for a quick look, not straying to far away from from my hotel as i was still on edge from Juarez. I really had nothing to worry about as the next day I headed to the only hostel in the city and was greeted by old cowboys who once they found out I wasn’t a ‘gringo’ they wished me a good stay in there city. Yes, real Mexican cowboys, Chihuahua is known for its shops selling excellent hand made cowboy boots and hats. I was going to buy some but I’m not sure how well received I would be in London if I turned up to work in a pair of lime green lizard skin cowboy boots. Still it was great fun to photograph men bargaining over the boots.

The owner of the hostel couldn’t be more helpful. After long chat about where I should go in Mexico and told me some great tips I found out he was a crazy French photographer who builds kites with cameras attached to them to make some absolutely wonderful aerial shots of Mexico. (I must try that when I get home) I spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out with him and his wonderful family. Chihuahua is a very sleepy town and to be honest there wasn’t a great deal to see or do, but that doesn’t make it a boring town, just sitting in the main square watching the old cowboys and women in bright traditional clothes going about there day to day life’s was a real treat. Sipping on my strawberry Fanta and chilling out the whole of next day was enough to draw me in the laid back ways of Mexican life. One big thing I noticed about Mexico that afternoon was how much it reminded me of Russia, I’m not sure why but all i can think it has to do with the passion they have for the church. Walking in to the main cathedral of Chihuahua it was like I was stepping back in to the churches of St Petersburg. Also many of the small villages I passed on the bus reminded me of the days travelling on the train in Siberia. I never thought in someways that I would be back in a ‘Happier’ Russia.

The main reason I had come to Chihuahua was to board my final ‘Great Train Ride of the World’ for this trip. The Copper Canyon Express was to take me over the Copper Canyon to the Pacific coast. I’ll quickly tell you about the train, basically it makes no money at all and is the only commercial passenger train left in Mexico. There are four trains that run each day, one 1st class and one 2nd class going in both directions. The 1st class train is really for fat American tour groups who pay silly amounts of money for package deals which if you look on the web cost anywhere up to $3000 (If you buy a first class ticket at the station it will cost you $115) I know they have hotel and transport as well but still that seems like a lot of money. But still its those tourists who keep this vital service going for the small mountain communities. Without this train many people couldn’t get to there villages as its the only way to reach them as there are very few roads that have been built.

On route I was going to make one stop at the tiny mountain town of Creel for a couple of days. The next day I said goodbye to the wonderful host of the hostel and at 7am I boarded the 2nd class train. The 2nd class is the way to travel on this route if you want to see the real people of the mountains. The guards on the train branding M16 rifles were there for our protection as a few years back bandits use to target the train and rob the passengers so I was quite glade to walk in to the restaurant cart and see two of them having a siesta. It takes 6 hours to reach Creel and the train makes many stops along the way dropping passengers off in very remote villages which seem to have sprung up next to the rail track, the smell of beef tacos and BBQ chicken wafting though the train windows from the street sellers was just a heavenly smell.

Creel is a fabulous and very fascinating little village where the local indigenous people called the Tamahumara who live in caves next to the village and separate themselves from the western world…… except for wearing Nike trainers (you just can’t get away from capitalism).
Reaching Creel I’m met by a bunch of kids hawking me to stay at the only hostel in town, I don’t really agree with kids working at this age when they should be at school but I didn’t fancy staying at the Best Western with all the old people tour groups. The hostel was a great place, many travellers from all over the world travelling in both directions on the train were staying here. The best thing about it was dinner time where everyone would gather in the dining hall and eat together. It was great to find out tips and places to go in Mexico. It was also a great place to make new friends and find people to go on tours. I met a great American called Dan and a girl from Holland who were going to be my travelling buddies around the Copper Canyon for the next couple of days.

We didn’t want to pay the silly amounts for a tour so we decided to do it by ourselves and hire a car. After striking up a deal with a local tour group who offered to rent us their truck for 24 hours as long as we didn’t dent it, otherwise we would have to pay for the damages. Well when this truck pulled up it looked like it had been in a battlefield, have a look at Sam’s Love Machine.

I also found out that Dan couldn’t drive a manual so it was down to me driving in Mexico. The words SAM IS SHITTING it doesn’t even come close to how I was feeling, but everyone was happy to jump in the truck to our first destination which was the bottom of the Canyon. The Canyon itself is stunning and really looks a lot like the Grand Canyon but with many pine trees all over the top of the canyon. The road was paved for the first 80 miles or so but to get to our next view point which we got told was stunning we would have to drive on a bumpy dirt track for the next 40miles and as we found out when we returned was one of the worlds most dangerous roads. And I can say that it is very true, after a few hours cutting though the Forrest, passing small towns and villages we came to La Buffa, now La Buffa is a view point that looks over the canyon and the road which at this point is more than a 1000 meters up and is not much bigger than the truck, at one point we were so close to the edge Dan could not see the road next to him and just the bottom of the canyon. Once we made it to the view point we were greeted by a statue of the Virgin Mary who I believe is there so you can pray that you have a safe journey on your way down to the village of Batopilas. On the way back we were greeted by some heavy machinery that was repairing the road. I’ve been in some tricky and scary situations before but I have never been so scared in my life, god knows what my passengers thought about it all. My feet were shaking on the clutch and the brake and gave me far the biggest adrenal rush so far this year. Scary but brilliant. I found out a few days later a truck going down the road fell off due to the bad weather and snow taking out part of the road with it on the way down. I don’t know if anyone was killed, lets hope not.

As we still had the truck the following morning we decided to get up a 6am and head to a couple of the points of interest near Creel, the first stop was the lake next to the town a wonderful sunrise over the lake we stopped for a short while and then headed over to some waterfalls. The hike was pretty nice and there was no one around so we had the falls to ourselves. The last place I wanted to see so bad….. The Valley of the Monks or as the locals call it. The Valley of the penis. I didn’t even have to comedy cock them. They comedy cocked me, check them out. Utterly brilliant!

The afternoon was spent getting back in to street photography but I wasn’t having much luck so after a few hours of pretty rubbish shooting I headed over to the bar with a couple of travellers who were staying at the hostel. In hostels you meet some very interesting characters. I had a Korean guy staying in my dorm called Moon who was travelling the world on a push bike and that it was going to take him 6 years. Every week he writes in a national paper where he is and who he has met. Well people guess who had his photo in the Korean press last week? Yes that’s right, Random Sam is now a celebrity in Korea. I would love to get a copy of it from somewhere. He was such a nice guy and I feel bad that I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to him.

Another person who is worth mentioning from Creel was a complete space cadet. I think he had smoked to much weed in his life as some of the stuff he was telling us was brilliant. Looking a tad like Uncle Fester from the Adams Family he was telling me he was a radar operator for the navy and that he was now living off his pension travelling around Central America. Nothing odd about that you say? But then he told us that he was being chase by the FBI as he believed in March 2001 he stumbled on to the plot to destroy the Twin Towers and when he was working in a base in San Diego. He was certain that he saw the hijackers in a room with Navy Officers going through blue prints and when he was spotted he was ushered out of the building and was chased over the boarder to Mexico where he had been on the run ever since. Brilliant!
Surely if he was on the run why don’t they stop his pension? I was going to mention that to him but I thought I better keep my mouth shut.

I bought my ticket for my onward journey to the small town at the west end of the canyon called El Fuerte. I boarded the 1st class train this time as the second class gets in to late and you miss the the spectacular views on the way as the night closes in to early during the winter. I didn’t mind paying £30 as it was my last scenic train ride that I would be taking on this trip and I’m glad I did as it was worth every penny. I took a small video and some photos of the view. again like the Grand Canyon you really have to see it in real life to get the full effect.

I roll up to the small train station on the edge of town and caught a taxi, the taxi driver was so funny, driving in the pitch black dodging the cows that seem to be walking all over the road he suddenly pulled out a cool box and it was filled with ice cold beers. I started laughing and asked if he had any Tequila, for some reason this tickled him greatly as for the rest of the trip all he would do was look at me and say tequila before cracking up. I was scared that he was going to hit a cow or something. Anyway I get to the hotel called Rio Vista Lodge as there are no Hostels in town. I will say it is one of the most beautiful hotels i have been too, wild humming birds flying around my window in the morning and a great cheap restaurant attached to the hotel and for only £20. A great place to be after my last great rail journey of the world.

Next stop the Pacific coast. See you next week.

Please learn the moves and the song.

I said goodbye to another dear travelling friend Don at the small mountain town of Flagstaff. I packed up my bags and headed to the very nice and plush Marriot Motel where I was meeting my next travelling companions……. Mum and Dad! Yep thats right people, Mum and Dad had flown over to come and see the Grand Canyon with me. It was great seeing them for the short while we were together. We went out for dinner and a few drinks on the first night and planned our route around the canyon. They had also bought my new Debit Card with them so I could stop using the credit card after I lost my old one in San Fran.

An early start the next day (I wasn’t used to getting up so early) and a good breakfast we headed of to our first destination called Monument Valley. Its feels like you are standing in a John Wayne movie with the back drops of the Monuments towering above you. Once you pay $5 to get in to the park you can drive down the bumpy track that takes you closer to the rock formations. The land is owned by the Navajo Indians so there is no rock climbing or base jumping much to Mum’s disappointment. There are a couple of indian families living in the park still in mud huts and teepees, its kinda cool in such a modern country there are people who stick their middle finger up to the government and still want to live there traditional ways.

Another early start (They do love to get up early) I don’t normally surface till 9am, by that time we had breakfast and was out of the door on our way to the canyon. They could tell I was tired as I kept falling asleep in the car. Waking up on the road that led us up to the grand canyon you start to get a feeling how deep it must be as the road we were on was climbing up at such a rate the car was struggling a bit. At the gates of the park we were greeted by a park warden who told us were to go and to see our first view of the canyon. No I know in most of my blogs I say ‘Oh my god the landscape was the best I have ever seen’ But really the grand canyon really deserves to be one of the great wonders of the world. It truly is breathtaking. The first glimpse of it from Signal Point your jaw drops and you really can’t get over the size of the place. Any photographs you have seen of the canyon just don’t do it justice, you have to witness it in real life to get the full appreciation of this gigantic place and how deep it is. I don’t think i’ll ever forget the view I saw on that day for the rest of my life. Superb!

After the rather stunning sunset over the canyon we finished off the night by introducing Mum and Dad to the American T-bone steak, we also got to try some rattle snake which I was very impressed that mum and dad tried it. It was ok, the problem I had with it was there was far to much\batter around the snake than snake its self so all it tasted off was chewy batter. Boo! Hopefully i’ll get some more crazy food to try in Mexico so I can report back on it, its all a bit to safe in the US……. or just made of fat. And they have the cheek to call British food rubbish.

The next day was the Smith Christmas outing, this time there was no turkey or Christmas Cake. Dads present to us was to fly over the Grand Canyon Airwolf style. Yep, we took a ride in a helicopter and again its one of those moments I think will stay with me for a long time (I’m having a fair few on this journey aren’t I?). Once you take off and fly over the centre of the canyon you really do get a size of scale. The chopper dips just below the surface of the canyon so you get a great view of the huge cliffs that seem to drop in to the abyss, the Colorado River seems like a stream from this height. What a way to see one of the 7th wonders of the world. Thanks Mum and Dad it was great present, i hope you enjoyed it as much as me :-)

In the afternoon I got a bang at the door, ‘Who could this be I wonder?’ Well I’ll be blowed its the first Ginger of Mersea Island ‘Matty H’ and his good friend Kealy. We have all travelled together a few times before so I knew it was going to be a laugh. The plan was to set off the following day and head along Route 66 to Albuquerque where we would spend Thanks Giving before heading down to El Paso so they could drop me off at the Mexican Boarder. They would then carry on down to Houston to meet up with Matty’s cousin Lister.

The following day we all woke up dead early, I’m talking so early the sun wasn’t up, but that was the point of this exercise as the whole lot of us bundled in to dads car and headed back to the canyon.
Watching the sun coming up over the canyon is another one of those moments as we join thousands of people sit on the side of the canyon in silence, the only thing that you can hear is the clicking of cameras. The sun hits the sides of the canyon like they are being set on fire making the sand stone light up in all manner of ways. What an awesome sight. Here is a little video I made of the sunrise. 31 mins squeezed down to 2 minutes, I also think the song is fitting for the view. Enjoy.

After Breakfast where we stole so many blueberry muffins for the long journey ahead I said my goodbyes to Mum and Dad as they were heading back to Phoenix for thanks giving with some people they met on the plane. We were on our way again leaving the Grand Canyon behind us in a cloud of dust to the next port of call, Monument Valley….. errrr I have just been here a couple of days ago so I don’t think I can be bothered to write about it again. After a few hours looking around we were on our way through Utah, I know at this point we had come off the historical Route 66 but we were on our way to the 4 corners of the USA, here you can stand on for states at once and is the only place in the US you can do this. A quick photo stop and we were back on the road again to….. New Mexico.

It was getting dark so we ended up hanging up our boots in a small and rather nice little town called Farmington. The night was spent eating Mexican food and drinking black russians in the Motel Bar. The weather was closing in and you could tell the cold front coming from the north was finally closing in on us as the wind was ice cold (Nipples that could cut glass cold) which I never really thought that it got to cold in New Mexico, how wrong was I? A chilly start and back on Route 66 on our way to one of the oldest towns in the US, Albuquerque. On the way we stopped at the ice cave and volcano which to be honest after the Grand Canyon wasn’t the most impressive thing in the world. Even the ice cave wasn’t iced over, just a rather shallow pond in a cave. Oh well you can’t win them all. A couple of hours later we cruised in to Albuquerque. The town is split in to two parts, Old town and Downtown. Our Motel was situated in old town which wasn’t that cleaver as we later found out all the action was downtown and that was about a 20 min walk away. Anyway being the eve of Thanks Giving something had to be open, after another bloody Mexican meal we headed to downtown to catch the party. Unforcently Kealy came down with a cold or something so she stayed behind in bed. Now you don’t really hear about Albuquerque as being a hub for new music and talent but my word it has a great alternative scene. We started the night watching a band who were like a mix of The Human League and Joy Division. At the bar a lonely looking fella started up a conversation with us, A strange guy called Dennis who had something to do with the American hostel association and was visiting his mother for thanks giving though he was spending thanks giving at the hostel so we found him a tad odd, also

1. He looked like the dad out of Family Guy
2. He loved the church and hated all the ‘The Gays’ in El Paso. One of those bible thumpers.
3. He was hanging around with us and knew all the places where the kids drank in town.
But hats off to him as he did show us a wicked ‘Hipster’ bar which we would never come across so we spent the night hanging out there dancing to B-boy music. A couple of random things did happen in the bar, firstly a girl walked couldn’t get passed me as I was in her way.
‘Sorry’ I said.
‘You’re English, i studied in England last year’
‘Where abouts did you go?’
Ready, your love this………. ‘I went to Essex Uni, do you know it?’
What are the chances in that? If people reading this don’t know why its so strange its because Essex Uni is in the town I grow up in.
The other random thing to happen was the bar being closed down 1 hour early. Earlier on in the night the MC told us to have a great night and that he didn’t want any fighting and leave the attitude at the door. Cut to 1am and all hell breaks out on stages, I’m not sure what happened but the MC was punching some dude, bodies falling off the stage, needles on the record skipping and that was it. The bar manager shut down the bar. So much for a happy night Mr MC. Still it was a bit of a comedy punch up, I asked a girl standing next to me if this happens often here and she replied ‘Sometimes, the last thing that happened was two people got shot in their car outside the bar’. Right time to go I think. Saying that it was a great bar and i would happily go back there and spend more money drinking vodkas. One thing about the bar culture in the US is that they always look at me funny when i ask for a Vodka and Coke. Nobody drinks it over there, Weirdoes.

Happy Thanks Giving….. We had nowhere to go, last night was meant for us to use all our English charms to get us invited to someone’s Thanks Giving Party but it just didn’t happen. Kealy was still sick so Matty and I went out to find something to do and eat. Driving back downtown I remembered Dennis saying something about a restaurant where everyone goes on Thanks Giving, if we could only find……. we found it, it was called Frontier and it was packed, people were queuing up to by there burritos and other mexican delights. It was a great find and we stuffed ourselves silly.
In the night Kealy was feeling better so we decided to go to the movies as all week ‘Hitman’ had been trailing on TV and it looked pretty good. Oh dear it was one of the worse movies i have seen in a long time, the plot was all over the place and didn’t make any sense. Rubbish.

The last leg of the trip was the sprint down to the US/Mexican boarder to the city of El Paso. Before we got there we had one final destination to go too…… Yes thats right, unleash the geek inside me……. Another place i really wanted to see when I was in America was The Very Large Array. This massive Radio Telescope was so interesting to look around and even Kealy being a girl found it interesting. See science can be sexy! The coolest thing is when all 28 dishes move at once. There is plans to build another Array which will be 1000 more times powerful and should be online in 2012.

We get to El Paso just after dark and decided to go out for some drinks as it was my last night in the US. Oh dear, someone forgot there ID didn’t they Matthew so we had to call it an early night. Never mind you can’t win them all. It was probably best as tomorrow I was heading in to the unknown…… My next country on the trip…..Mexico. I hadn’t even planned to visit it on this world trip so i knew nothing about it. FInd out in the next blog how I get on.

So thats it, one and a half months in America. Again, another place on this trip i wasn’t really intending to go to but to be quite honest i’ve bloody well enjoyed every minute of this country and I would like to thank all the following people for making my time in the US a unforgettable journey.

Katie & friends in NYC, i’ll be back to bug you all again.
Claire & Mya in Chicago.
Alex & Andi in Denver.
Lee.
All the crew from the Pacific Trade Wind Hostel in San Fran.
Mum & Dad.
Matty & Kealy
Everitt from the train.
and of course my wonderful dear friend Virginia.

Heres the final USA list, i know you have all been waiting to see what came out on top
1. Jerry Springer, nothing could top him, not even the canyon.
2. Grand Canyon… beaten by Jerry Springer?
3. New York (Best City in this world? I think so)
4. All the national parks i visited, i really can’t choose, they were all unique in there own beautiful way.
5. Halloween, US style.

A special award goes to Denver for having the most crack heads in one spot at anyone time. Well done.

We picked up the car from the airport which seem to take forever as the queues at Dollar Car Hire were so long. After a couple of hours of waiting we picked up the car, a far better car than the Butch White Bear we had in San Fran. It was a Nissan and so far was the only car I couldn’t think of a name for as it was a rather generic car. This was the first time I have
1. Driven an automatic.
2. Driven in another country on the left.

So you can see I WAS SHITTING my pants, but really after getting out of Vegas it wasn’t that hard to drive in the US as the roads are so straight and the traffic was light for the four days we were travelling for.

So let me tell you more about the route. The loop road around the Desert hold some interesting secrets and some great history. It is home to the US Army and Air Force so much of the land is off limits to the public. We have come this far in to the middle of nowhere to see the top secret army base which the US Army still deny exists. We all know it as Area 51 or Dreamland which in the past has bought UFO enthusiast from all over the world to gaze in to the nights sky hoping to see something unexplained. The base has had many other conspiracy theories such as this is where they faked the moon landing. Looking at the terrain of the desert is quite plausible as in some places its very moon like, Not that I’ve been to the moon but you know what i mean. Area 51 is also to be said a secret test ground for new aeroplanes and weapons such as the Blackbird and Stealth bomber. The desert was also a test ground for the Nuclear bombs in the 1950s and also there are a few mountains around the desert holding all the nuclear waste that the US produces until its safe to destroy it all in a few million years time. So you can see with all this radioactive material floating around in the air if I come out glowing or growing an extra nipple I’ve done pretty well out of it.

The first stop was the tiny town of Rachel which only survives because its the closest town to Area 51. I say town but really with a population of 96 people and the Inn which is also the towns restaurant, shop, post office and bar. The fact is there are only a handful of houses scatted around the town, the rest of the people live in the local trailer park around the back of the Inn. Still its a friendly little town and people are always excited to meet people from a different world. This is the most wackiest place I’ve been to so far in the US if not the world. The inn named The Little Alie’inn was where we were going to lay our heads down for the night.

Our sorting out our trailer which was very comfy and cheaper than the Vegas hostel we went back in to the Inn to hang out with the locals and find out more information about Area 51. Looking around the the bar/shop between all the aliens, UFOs and conspires theory’s on the wall there is also the famous people that have been here. The only ‘famous’ person I recognized was Montel Williams, the Jerry Springer wannabe, most of the ‘famous’ people were test pilots for the top secret planes like the Stealth and the Black Bird. We propped ourselves up at the bar and started to have a few drinks, there was another couple of guys who work for a Dutch TV station who were making a documentary about the area. They didn’t say much or stay long so we were left alone with the locals.
There were only a few locals in there that Saturday night and the more drunk we got the more we found out about the area. The bar tender a black dude also named Don who had lived in Rachel for the last 10 years had many stories about all the people who come here, I asked him in the 10 years if he had seen anything strange, thinking that living there for 10 years he must have seen something

“I’ll tell you what I’ve seen, Ive seen Jack Shit, all I’ve heard are…” BANG smashes his hand on the bar “the sonic booms and shock waves of them dropping bombs all over the place”.
We carried on drinking with the chef and his wife who was picking out a new tattoo for her hubby. Asking if he had any already he proudly showed us his American Eagle on his shoulder. You start to realise how patriotic Americas can be in this State when you see stuff like that. I value my life so I wasn’t going to show my hatred for their President and if they asked me what I thought of him I would tell them he was an amazing man. The evening continued and slowly we found ourselves downing Tequila slammers mixed with vodka and the house cocktail called a ‘Chera 51′. I’m not sure what was in it but it tasted great.
I asked how we could get to the boarder of Area 51, Don look at us and the conversation seem to turn serious for a sec. Pointing outside like we were out to hunt a monster in a horror film he tells us…… “You must go down the long road for 20 miles, at the point you see THE BLACK POST BOX you must take a right in to the desert, follow the dirt track for another 20 mile and you shall be at the gates of……dun dun darrrr….. Dreamland”
The funniest and most bizarre part of the night was when I asked them what the 96 people of Rachel did for jobs. Don explained most people who live here are retired or work on the farm down the road. An old chubby gentleman who was standing behind the bar drinking his Bud Light and had not said a word all night suddenly pipped up in a really strange accent mumbling “I’m a gofer shooter, the only one in town” Surely that is one of the strangest jobs I have come across on this trip so far. It was amusing and found it so hard not to laugh because he reminded me so much of the mumbling guy from the cartoon ‘King of the Hill’.
After a couple more Chera 51s we staggered to our trailer to hit the sack. Its funny, who would have thought a tiny bar in the middle of nowhere could be so much fun. I had more fun that night then my whole stay in Vegas.

Waking up with a hangover we quickly moved back to the bar for breakfast. After an amazing Denver omelet ‘Onions and Potato’s’ we headed out to find Area 51 remembering what Don had said the night before ‘You must go down the long road for 20 miles, at the point you see THE BLACK POST BOX you must take a right in to the desert, follow the dirt track for another 20 mile and you shall be at the gates of……dun dun darrrr….. Dreamland’ No joke, in the middle of nowhere there really is a black postbox, I have no idea who owns it or what it is but its there. Continuing up the dirt track and driving a ‘bit’ fast with a cloud of dust behind us we where suddenly overtaken by a Police pick up truck that was speeding in the same direction as us. When we got to the gates which is basically loads of signs telling you not to take photos or cross the line as you will be put in prison for 1 year or a $5000 fine…… But being Area 51 I had to take a few photos and there was a fair few tourists doing the same.

On top of the hill not to far away from the boarder was a black SUV keeping an eye on everyone, these have been named ‘The Men in Black’ by the UFO nuts. The Police Truck that over took us earlier was just over the otherside of the boarder talking to two teenagers on motorbikes that had ridden over the line on to the base. Now I know its all a bit of fun calling this place Area 51 and people want to see it but still you have obey the law as it is a Military base. These kids should have known better and also there mum and dad were on the with us in there SUV which I noticed the number plate was from Nevada so what on earth were they thinking letting them ride around the area? Once the police man had finished talking to them he went over to the mum and dad telling them that they had been arrested for trespassing and that they would have to pay a massive fine.

Just as we were about to go I heard the Cop shout at me ‘Excuses me Sir’ Shit, was I going to be in trouble for taking photos? Am I just about to be handed a massive fine as well? No, basically he told me off for driving to fast in the desert and that he he saw me do it again I would get fine. OOPS, so on the way back i drove a very boring 20 miles an hour back to the black post box. In all my life of driving my I have never been stopped by the cops, I’ve only been driving in the US for 2 days and I’m already in trouble with the law.

The next destination was Cathedral Canyon, reading about it in the lonely planet they said it small Grand Canyon so we thought we would check it out. It was rather neat but at the same time very small.

After that we drove north up the Extraterrestrial Highway which is a 90 mile stretch of road from Rachel to the main Highway.

People over the years have replaced the speed limit signs with there own saying things like ‘Warp Speed 7′ but we could find any of them which was a disappointment. The weather was closing in and for the first time in ages we had rain and wind. This made the route a little more scary especially when you go passed building like these, its right out of a horror film or something.

After find a motel in a small truckers town we set off early a couple of days touring around Death Valley.

Once in the park the the road descend rapidly in to the valley, the road drops from the 6000 feet to below sea level in a few minutes. At the base of the mountains the colours change in to in to a rainbow of colours, again more surreal landscapes of the world. Before we hit the valley floor we went to have a look at a extincted volcano, I’ve seen many old volcano’s on this trip but this one was far the most impressive, it wasn’t the biggest one I had seen but the colours of the rock and the landscape it had created around it was so impressive.

Death Valley really took me by surprise, in my mind all i thought it was going to be was desert and I was going to be sweating my arse off all day as it is one of the hottest places on earth. Its the hottest place in America and I think its the third hottest place in the world. The record temperature in the 1920s reached 58 degrees. Ouch!

At the bottom of the valley the landscape is forever changing, one minute I’m taking photos of sand dunes and the next minute we are standing on salt flats.

The last place for the day was another mine, this again was another gold and silver mine in the 1920s and was one of the most successful at that time. Great to photography when the sun went down. Sometimes I wish I had a DSLR and a tripod. My pocket digital never does it justice.

We ended up at the small town of Beatty which is back up at 6000 feet. My body must wonder what the hell is going on with all this change in altitude. A year ago I was at sea level pushing buttons at UKTV. Now its been up to 5180 meters and then 3 months later its gone 285 meters below sea level.
Beatty is a strange little town just on the outside of the park, I say strange as it has one casino were locals seem to spend all there hard cash on the slots but the most random and little bit disturbing about the town were all the…… ammo crates in all shapes and sizes lining the main street. I’m not sure why you would want to buy empty ammo or why so many people were selling them but the only thing I could think about was…. if there were this many EMPTY cases……. where are all the bullets that were in them? Is this a trigger happy gun totting town that doesn’t like anyone who is local? We were just about to find out when we went for a drink at the local watering hole, yep it was just like being in a Western Film. Old men propping up the bar intrigued about this two foreigners branding a laptop trying to get a wifi signal, I’m not sure why I thought I would get a wifi signal in there but people were looking over to it like it was magic or something. By the way if you ever go to Beatty go to this bar (Its the only one in town) and see if my dollar bill is still stapled to the wall with the words ‘Random Sam loves you’ written on it.

The next day it was back in to the Valley to see the things we had missed, We went to Badwater Basin which is the lowest place in America. The salt flats are pretty amazing and as you drive further around the flats the salt changes in to massive rock salt balls.

The thing I loved about the park was the roads, they were so straight and seem to go on forever, I love taking photos of roads like this, i must have a 100 photos of the same bloody road just at different heights and exposures.

On the way out of the park we had one final stop which was these crazy rock formations, you can see how big they are by the people hiking on them on the left of this photo.

I wish I saw this formation at sun rise as I bet the sun light on them would look beautiful.

On the way out we stopped at THE DEVILS HOLE, now everything interesting and spectacular is called DEVILS something but not this place. After a 1/2 hour ride down a dirt track we finally get to a hole the size of paddling pool in the side of a hill which is gated off, the disappointment in everyones eyes that we met at the pool said it all. The only reason its on the bloody map is because its is of ‘scientific importance’ there are 2.5mm fish that only live in this pool and nowhere else in the world. Utter Rubbish!

Back to Vegas (oh joy) to drop the car back and go out one last time. Would this night be any good? hell yes. We started drinking in the English pub and making our own cocktails up. Mine was called a Vegas Virgin.

How to make a Vegas Virgin
1 shot of Vodka
1 shot of Almond liquor
Topped up and blended together with Ice Cream

We then headed to the Irish casino (how classy are we?) as we saw they had beer pong tables. Don and I just wanted to play each other but there was a competition going on. Basically the winner stays on, oh my god this is like a film…. but i promise its all true.

These two loud mouth Americans with all there girlfriends and friends hanging off them had been winning all night so they challenge us to a game. Knowing we didn’t have a chance as we had both only played beer pong once before in our life’s we knew we didn’t stand a chance.
The game started and this loud mouth America tells us ‘ You Australians have no chance because…..’ unbuttoning his shirt, to revel his t-shirt which the words ‘CHAMP’ printed on it. At that point they all high 5 each other and the game began.
The loud American missed plenty of times and so did Don and I. The other guy on the team scored every time on the first 5 goes. This delighted the crowd with chants toward us “U-S-A, U-S-A” and “YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK”. Then just like in a film the amazing thing happen, Don scored and scored again till we were down to the last cup on each side. The whole of the back of the pub was now focus on our game and both sides were now wanting to win so bad. The pressure was on and it was my turn to throw and just like a film in slow motion…….. it went in the cup…….USA was crushed and England won!!!! we both jumped in the air, hugging each other like we had just won the World Cup or something. It was crazy, I’ve never won anything before in my life. To be fair to the Yanks they did buy us a round of drinks for winning and it was all good natured fun. Still that’s what you get calling us Aussies.

So that’s was it, my final night in the hell hole of Vegas and it turned out to be a great night. The next stop is Flag Staff where I was going to meet some very, very important guests for the next leg of the American tour.

See you next week.

P.S the here is the list and tips for this part of the world

1. Rachel, make sure you stay at the Little Ale’inn, its one crazy place. Who would have thought I would have so much fun there.
2. Death Valley is one incredible place, you could spend a whole week there and not get bored.
3. Look out of the old Ghost Town of Rhyolite, its near Beatty. A mad artist once lived there and now there is an outside galley with all manner of crazy sculptures that you can walk amongst.