Fond Farewell to Uncle Sam

So Mr Button and I are on the final day of our eventful trip across the US. Mr Button enjoyed chilling out in Fresno where we stayed with friends and didn't do a lot, which was nice after our hectic travels. We spent one night on the coast at Monterey, which was beautiful watching the sunset over the beach with pelicans flying over head and a dolphin bobbing through the waves. Mr Button had decided that the next day he would like to go the aquarium (perhaps he was feeling sorry for me as I didn't get to go to the one in Chicago). It was great, a small companion of ours especially enjoyed the 'hands on exhibits' where you could touch the starfish, anemones and such. We then headed off to San Francisco (where we wore flowers in our hair - no only joking). We went to see the mist shrouded Golden Gate Bridge, drove up and down lots of hills and spotted a hippy or two.

Tomorrow we fly home again, tired, and in the case of Mr B looking a little fuzzy around the edges, and no I'm not talking about his aura. It has been a most enjoyable and cram packed trip the likes of which we will probably not have the opportunity to do again. We have seen some truly magnificent sights and Mr Button, I'm sure has become a more rounded human being because of it. I hope you have enjoyed reading my little blog and here endeth the lesson with the most common American phrase we've heard, 'Your Welcome!'

Mr Button declared he wanted to go hunt a bear. Not with guns you understand, Mr Button states (in Vogue magazine June 2011) that he loves all animals and would be a vegetarian if he didn’t love eating steak so much (he loved Texas).

So we struck out for Sequoia forest in search of bears. It was as we were driving through the forest that we caught sight of a bear ambling through the trees being closely pursued by a guy with a video cam. We are in the technological age where even bears are celebrities soon to be in the ‘spotted’ pages of Heat magazine or sim. So with ‘bear’ ticked off our list we went on our way to see some giants (trees that is). Sequoia’s are larger than red woods because of the width of the tree trunks as well as the height. We made our way to the giant forest and ‘General Sherman’ (the world’s largest tree) it even made Mr B feel rather insignificant, but alas the same could not be said for his over sized ego.

Trees done we made our way to California which Mr Button was most excited about, probably because of the prospect of seeing lots of tanned lovelies. But Mr B will have to wait as we are currently inland and no where near the coast so he just has to sit by and watch as I read trashy mags and drink wine into the evening, my skin lily white and blinding in the moonlight.

Ain't life Grand

Mr Button shook the red dust from his feet from the magnificent Monument Valley as we made our way to the Grand Canyon. We were staying in a ‘rustic’ cabin (though it wasn’t that rustic it had a coffee maker)! which was only a short walk to the south rim of the canyon and so we decided to go and watch the sunset. The canyon certainly lives up to it’s name, we had thought the Palo Duro canyon had been pretty impressive but the Grand Canyon is in another league it is so vast and deep, the play of shadows on the rocks is amazing and photographs don’t really do it justice. Mr Button was up for a hike but when he saw how far down it was he decided against it and he didn’t like the idea of riding down on a mule.

From here we went to Las Vegas stopping on the way at the hoover dam which was a huge manmade structure that was impressive in it’s own right against the back drop of the rocks that surrounded it. Las Vegas then appears as you drive over the hill the tall shining buildings, billboards and advertisements suck you in and you don’t really know where to look first. We had two days here and Mr Button....well as they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so my lips are sealed......

Then onto Death Valley another natural marvel and one of the hottest places on earth. The landscape changes as you drive across death valley from dried out lakes to mountains of many hues and colours. Mr Button made a prickly friend or two along the way chinwagging with the locals about the lack of road runners (coyotes eat them - the cartoon lies - meep meep).

Mr B sees some buttes!

Today we drove through New Mexico and into Arizona, driving through these states has revealed the most spectacular scenery we have encountered so far on our journey, and going off sat nav and going old school map reading now and again has given us some truly magnificent vistas.

We arrived at midday at Monument valley and got our map, Mr Button sniggered heartily at all the buttes (Camel Butte, Elephant Butte etc) he is a man of simple pleasures. The valley itself is truly amazing and one of the destinations that I was most looking forward to on the trip.

The buttes tower high above you and you get to drive along a dirt road around and through monument valley. You can't really get up close and personal even though the temptation to hike off into the desert is immense. It was definitely a day to remember and was finished off with a fantastic meal of green chilli enchiladas with squash and mushrooms - delicious!

There is so much to see that it's going to be hard to remember all the sights that we have seen. We carried on our Route 66 journey stopping off at the Route 66 Museum which was good fun, Mr Button got rather distracted in the shop and bought lots of Route 66 souvenirs.

We soon arrived at our next destination Canyon, Texas. Mr Button started off the morning by eating a texas shaped waffle, he has been eating so many of them for breakfast that he has rather started to resemble one himself.

We then went to visit Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US. It was magnificent and a bonus was we could drive around at the bottom, given the scorching temperatures just being able to nip out for the odd photo was great. We then left Texas on our way to Albuquerque stopping off at a few stops along the way including the infamous Cadillac ranch. Mr B did the obligatory graffiti and then off we went, stopping at Tinkertown museum on the way which was an eclectic eccentric array of curios. Next stop Bluff via Monument Valley!

Getting our kitsch on Route 66

Mr Button was wanting to get his kitsch on Route 66 and that we did stopping at a few truly ’66 icons. The first was Totem Pole Park with the biggest totem pole, built in the 1950s it was truly a spectacle to behold. Mr B thoroughly enjoyed his perusal among the poles. The museum and shop were oddly filled with violins for no discernible reason but still worth the stop. Next up was the Cartoosa Whale a large whale out in a pond circa 1970 alas swimming is no longer allowed because of the snakes! We didn’t see any but we did glimpse some turtles and fish in the water.

Tulsa was our stay for the night and then we headed on to our next destination, Bethany Oklahoma. This time we stopped at the round barn which was truly magnificent to look at, built as they supposedly thought the shape would make it tornado proof (I wouldn’t want to be in it during a tournado to find out)! Then ‘Pops’ as Mr B pointed out the most ‘pop’ular stop on route 66 so far with over 500 varieties of pop, the mind boggles. Then we arrived in Bethany as it was Sunday the small shops weren’t open but we were still able to appreciate the many murals painted on the sides of the buildings.

Tomorrow we are off to Canyon near Amarillo in Texas yet another change of scenery.

Mr Button was looking forward to seeing the sights of Chicago and it didn’t disappoint. We decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour to see all the sights, although, as Mr Button noted, the tour guides could give the British a run for their money in the sarcasm stakes.

First we checked out the ‘bean’ a large reflective orb that is mesmorising. We then headed for the Aquarium, unfortunately the gigantuan queue meant we went all that way just for a hotdog, albeit a nice (vegetarian for me) pickle laden hotdog. We then went along to the Navy Pier which is basically Weston-Super-Mare by Lake Michigan, it even had a Ferris wheel ala Weston, sponsored by MacDonalds of course! Mr B, not being the shy retiring type also ingratiated himself with the local segway mounted police (see photo).

It was a long day finished off by a not-to-be-repeated drive through Taco Bell experience (at least until we are better acquainted with the menu). I had mush in my taco, Mr Button had mush with bits in his.

Today we hit route 66, which was very exciting although as we were driving a long way we decided to use mostly highways but did detour to see the Gemini Giant. Someone even shouted ‘tourist’ out the window at us which was nice of him to welcome us to good ‘ole route 66. We also made a brief stop at the Cahokia Mounds an ancient sight of grassy hills, the museum was interesting but as it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit outside we decided against venturing outside, Mr B got so hot he came out in prickly heat.

We are now staying at The Wagon Wheel Motel, an original route 66 motel the only one we are staying at on our journey. We are relishing it’s neon kitschness and enjoyed our meal at next door’s ‘Missouri Hick BBQ’, Mr Button felt positively red necked.