AMERICA The 1st

THURSDAY 30th October Part 1 Okay before I start, ESPN is reporting that the Nuggets and Pistons have agreed in principle to trade Allen Iverson of the Nuggets to Detroit for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess. Also, some nut0job is waving a flag and threatening police and SWAT with a gun on a bridge over the 101. Thats twice in about a week that there has been a tool with a gun in Santa Barbara. Still feel safe! Well we got up really early today. I think it was something like 5.30am so we could get a good start getting to Phoenix to see our first ever NBA game in the flesh. Suns vs Hornets. What a game to see for my virgin NBA experience.

Driving on the 101 towards Los Angeles at dawn

It was pretty amazing driving on the big freeways. 6 lanes each way and really wel signed so you always had plenty of notice what lane to get in to hit your exit. It was awesome seeing the big interchanges with bridges interwining across 4 levels. Not like on Eastlink where its citybound only for you. You have to marvel at the engineering. They also have car-pooling lanes which are much clearer congestion wise. Although L.A has a great roads system there is little to no public transport system. Apparantly there is one train that goes North-South and one that goes East-West. Asides from the airport - it is next to impossible to catch a taxi and the bus system is apparantly quite bad too cap things off. We started to get out west of L.A. and thought we'd get some breakfast/. We stopped at Denny's. Now the last Denny's i had was over 20 years ago in Dandenong where the hamburger I ordered was raw in the middle - so i've always had a thing against them since then. As we drove towards the carpark off the road Sherry didn't see the edge of the gutter and she turned in too early whacking the gutter. Denny's was cool. It more than made up for the poor memories from Dandenong. The best way to describe Denny's is like a diner chain. The waitress who us was in her 40's, had funny teeth and used the word 'honey' a lot - ont in reference to condemnants either. Sherry had french toast. French toast in America is served on really thick bread with maple syrup. At home I usually use thin bread with salt+pepper. I had a Philly melt which was reallty nice. It consistred of roast beef, mushrooms, onions and cheese in a bun. Choc shake here was fantastic too. Almost like thick shakes with whipped cream on top.

At the Gas Station. Feel free to light up

After finishing our meal we filled up the car with gas (petrol) and I got to drive for my first time ever in America. Wow is it freaky! Turning isn't weird and neither is driving on the right hand side of the road. But what is really weird is sitting in the left side of the car. It's hard to keep the car lined up and even harder to change lanes to the right (especially hard for me with a bad right eye - its much harder to check my blind spot).

Cars are much more blasae when it comes to speed limits. I always thought the maximum speed allowed on American roads was 55 mph, but on these expressways it was 70 mph. Cars will go 80 mph no worries and further out towards the desert cars were going 90 mph.

The police and troopers are different. Highway patrol wear the brown outfits and it was cool seeing 2 troopers riding their motorcycles side by side along the expressway. CHIPS eat your heart out.

I thought the coast of California looked dry but as you head east towards Arizona it reaches a new level of dryness. I started to notice changes in vegatation and the formations of the hills and mountains. We could tell we were heading further out as lane after lane dropped off until it was only 2 lanes each way. This meant a lot of slow traffic, mostly trucks haulling freight, in the right lane.

Wind farm territory

I remember seeing a cactus for the first time in a natural environment. It looked much darker/browner than what i thought it would be. I didnt expect it to be flurescent green but at least brighter than what it was. I asked Sherry if she wanted to play 'spot the cactus' but pretty soon there were cactus everywhere. Initially they seemed to be only on the sides of hills that gradually changed.

Sherry up to her usual passenger antics

It was cool seeing endless desert and then seeing a town, sort of just transplanted into the desert from a totally different climate. Towns had really green grass and water, reminding of the Scottsdale Golf course. Other cool things were the hills and how, as Sherry put it, looked like paper-mache with that sort of crumpled tissue look around the tops. Also seeing mesa's and hills that looked like the tops had just been plucked completely off. That is another big memory of the desert - black hills of dirt, cactus, dust storms and Joshua trees.

Our 2nd to last pit-stop before hitting Phoenix was at a petrol station with the hugest flag I've ever seen. American's are big on their flag - which is great to see. Many houses that we passed in Santa Barbara had the U.S.A flag draped out the front. One biker that cruised past us wore a black leather jacket with a massive U.S flag on the back. You wouldn't see that in Australia. Americans also love it that they feel 'free'. 'The land of the free and the home of the brave'.

Where's Murray?

It was getting noticeably warmer too. The car was showing 91 or 93F, which equates to about 33 celcius. The car stayed cool and was really nice to drive too - a red Ford Escape. It's kind of a mid-sized 4wd, as opposed to the crappy petrol guzzling cream coloured PT Cruiser that we had on our first weekend. The Frod Escape had lots of room, electric seats and USB plugs for our IPOD's. It also had SIRIUS satellite radio so we got to hear some David Stern. The stereo also had voice output and also fully incorporated IPOD controls minus allowing you to rate the song. Traffic started to get busier as we hit the outsckirts of Phoenix. I never thought Phoenix would have high rise but as we hit the centre of town the city really started to look modern. Tunnels, sidewalks and buildings - hahaha - the staples of any modern city. This was in stark contrast to our drive out of Phoenix the following day where it looked like Broadmeadows. On the way out it was funny to see a strup club right next to a school bus depot.

Phoenix here we come!