Travel

I can’t put it into words how freaking amazing Yosemite national park was. It had some of the most beautiful scenery ever. Just absolutely amazing. I also experienced the coldest weather I’ve ever been in. We camped outside for 2 nights and the second night was just absolutely freezing. We’re guessing it got down to about -1 or -2 degrees F, which translates to something like -16 degrees celcius. My sleeping bag was only rated to 0 degrees celcius, so… very bloody cold. Of course that was made up for by the fact that when I woke up after the second night of sleep I stepped out into snow. I’d never been in snow before. Absolutely awesome. ...

What can I say about San Francisco? I absolutely, without a doubt, positively loved it. A-friggen-mazing place. We stayed in a hotel which was about a one minute walk from Union square, more or less the centre square for San Francisco and we had the cable cars going past our window down in the street. Did I do a lot of walking? Hell yes! I was absolutely buggered from walking around but loved every bit of it. A nice change from all the flatness here in Florida. ...

This is where my journey started. Of course, I had the whole LA experience - touching down in the airplane and then being forced to wait on the tarmac for over 1/2 hour until a spot became free, leading to me being a total of 2 hours late. Anyway, after meeting up with my touring crew we headed off to Venice beach. There was hardly anyone down there (it was the middle of winter after all) but it still had a pretty cool atmosphere. After checking out Venice beach we cruised down Santa Monica boulevard for a while and then went to Hollywood boulevard. Here I did the total tourist thing and got my pictures taken with whatever stars I could. I look back on it an think “what was I on?” - they were only names on the concrete after all, but anyway. ...

With any trip, you get highlights and lowlights. Highlights from my trip to California included sightseeing LA, San Francisco, camping in Yosemite and snowboarding Lake Tahoe. The low part of my trip was a constant hum in the background. That fly that won’t let you get to sleep at night. The itch in the middle of your back that you just can’t reach. It was… a woman. No, it wasn’t anyone I met people, but the one who was travelling with us. When I met up with my travelling group in LA it was all pot pourri. That sweet, sweet smell soon reeked of a sewage treatment plant. I have never met someone so neurotic in my life. I have never known anyone to take so long to get ready in my life (sometimes nearly 2 hours). Never have I met someone so insecure that they would blatently make their problem everyone else’s. ...

Well, I have absolutely been having a blast in California so far. I arrived in LA a couple of days ago feeling pretty agitated because my flight was over 2 hours late, and the fact that we had to wait on the tarmac for over and hour. After that though things got pretty good pretty quickly. We went cruising around LA, seeing the sights and meeting a few friends around the place. I met one of my mate’s friends who was a former baywatch babe and also appeared on “Jerry McGuire”. That was cool. I also got my photo taken with a lot of the stars on the ground. I think my favourite was one taken with the “Kenny G” star. We also visited Venice Beach and Santa Monica Blvd (for which I played Sheryl Crow’s song “All I wanna do”). ...

I really should be getting some rest at the moment, but I have a problem with getting any sleep before I’m due to catch a plane the next morning. I have this fear that I’ll sleep through my alarm so I’ll spend most of tonight waking up every half an hour and checking the time - and that’s even if I do get to sleep! I got this SMS from one of my friends who I’m meeting up with in LA: “Hey Gringo! Campfire tunes are going to crank. We just purchased a guitar, maracas, bongos and a flute from Mexico :-) Adios amigo!” ...

I’ve driven about a total 500 miles today to go to Busch Gardens in Tampa. Why? Because there are some *awesome* roller coasters there. Oh, and the guy who came with me is going back to Australia tomorrow and I thought it would be a good send off. Here are the rides and here are the number of times we went on them: Gwazi (old school wooden type) - 3 times Kumba - 5 times Montu - 4 times Python - once Scorpion - once ...

and it’s been quite an experience so far. I rented out some rooms at a place called the “Orange Hill beach inn”. It’s quite unlike the normal resorts you see around this area, but that’s exactly what I wanted - to get away from that sort of stuff. So many people come here to the resorts and end up spending most of their time gambling in Casinos. We had an authentic Thanksgiving day meal at the inn last night - it was pretty nice. So far I’ve seen a place burning down, a guy ask us if we wanted to buy some weed, and some crazy arse drivers. Lots of damage around here due to the hurricanes that came through a couple of months ago. Anyway, my internet cafe time is up and I have some sightseeing to do! checkya.

Sorta got a big weekend planned. I’m leaving tonight with a work mate to go to Orlando. Tomorrow we’re going to visit the Kennedy Space Centre and probably kick on to downtown Orlando for some nightclub action. Sunday we’re supposed to be visiting Universal Studios, and then it’s back home Sunday night. Rock on!

I didn’t get up to that much. I got some good sleep on a water bed Friday night but had to have a cold shower Saturday morning. I watched a parade Saturday night. I got about 1 or 2 hours of sleep in the back of a car Sunday morning. I bailed a friend out of jail Sunday afternoon and then went home Sunday night. A pretty standard Key West experience. ...