San Diego

From LA I headed down to San Diego. Whats to see here? Well theres plenty, but my reason for coming is the largest Model Railroad Museum in the Country. The museum was located in the basement of a building in a large park in San Diego. This park also has the world famous zoo among other things, so there was people everywhere in the park. After finding a parking spot I made my way to the museum. It has several different clubs who each have their own exhibit. Some of them are based on the area and feature large scenes from real curves or bridges and tunnels. One of the exhibits, had a very large scene with a gouge about 4 or 5 foot deep covered in plaster. It was amazing. Another club had a massive area where the trains would wind down from the upper level to the lower level. This was based on the actual train line through the mountains in California. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Las Vegas to Los Angeles

I caught the shuttle back to the airport to pickup the hire car. I got another Chevrolet Cobolt, this time a 2010 model. This one had the factory alloys, cruise control and traction control over the 2009 one I had on the east coast. So I began the long drive to Los Angeles.

A lot of people must go to Vegas for the weekend, cause the traffic was horrible. At one point we were crawling along and basically it looked like we were in the middle of the desert. Lesson learned don’t try and drive from Vegas to LA on a Sunday arvo. It took me around 8 hours to cover the 500ks.

First stop the following morning was Universal Studios. The studio tour I heard was pretty good so I was keen to do that. First I wandered around the park to see what was there. There were the rides but also different things from different movies. There was a car from the Blues Brothers and also a regular show. Plenty of Simpsons stuff (including a Kwik-E-Mart) and Shrek things to be seen. I also spotted a couple of cars from the Fast and Furious movies (Skyline, Charger & Grand National), before heading to the line for the studio tour. The line was huge. It wound around under an undercover area, probably similar in size to a basketball court. However it was all worth it. The tour was amazing, and it shows how clever the film makers are. The 360 3D experience of King Kong was unbelievable, with a return to Skull Island.

After Universal Studios I headed up to see the Hollywood sign. I went up to a spot up near Lake Hollywood and took a few pictures. It offers a reasonable view of LA and some of the surrounding area.

My last stop in LA was Hollywood Boulevard. I wanted to see some of the stars on the walk of Fame. I didn’t hang around super long here as it was starting to get dark and I didn’t really want to be on the streets of LA after dark.



2010 Chevrolet Cobalt



Universal Studios



Charger from Fast and the Furious



Grand National from Fast and the Furious



Blues Brothers



Donkey at Universal Studios



Kwik E Mart at Universal Studios



Me in front of the Hollywood sign



Hollywood Walk of Fame



Arnie's Star



Chucks' Star

GRAND CANYON & Las Vegas

After the late night getting into Vegas, the 5:50AM start was a bit of a shock to the system, but I had to be outside the hotel at 6:10AM for the bus to pick me up for the Grand Canyon tour. Its about a 600 mile (900k) round trip out to the North rim from Las Vegas, so it was going to be a lot of time travelling. Since I was doing it in a bus (coach) I didn’t mind cause I didn’t have to drive and be focused and concentrated, so it was a little more relaxing than I expected it to be.

One the way out the first thing to see was the Hoover Dam. This rather impressive structure is also the Arizona and Nevada state line. We had to go through security checks each way as the main road goes across the top of the dam. These security checks started after September 11. Currently they are building a new bridge so in a few months time the main road will not go across the dam and it will be closed to traffic.

The Grand Canyon... one word Wow! Its one amazing hole in the ground. Its just so big. Pictures do not do it justice. If you ever plan to travel to America make sure the Grand Canyon is on your list of things to do. It truly is amazing, and I am glad I got to see it and experience it. I also managed to get a shot of a condor while there and the usual Squirrel pictures. One thing that suprised me, was there was no fence around the sides of the Grand Canyon in some places. The spot you can see me standing on is like a bit that sticks out 100 metres or so, with a sheer drop down each side. Scary stuff seeing people wandering around so close. I was also interested to notice there is also a historic railroad that runs out to the grand canyon... Next time.

We arrive back to the hotels latish in the evening, but I still wanted to see the Las Vegas strip. There were people everywhere, and lights. I took pictures for 20 minutes or so but then had had enough and beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel.





Hoover Dam



Condor at The Grand Canyon



The Grand Canyon



Me at the Grand Canyon







Las Vegas Strip

New York to Las Vegas via Chicago

With my flight to Las Vegas after 4PM, I checked out of the backpackers for one last look at New York. I headed down Broadway to M&Ms world. Thats three floors of shopping with nothing but M&Ms (you know the chocolate) merchandise. Pillows, clothing, cards, M&M dispensers, mugs, shot glasses, you name it, they had it with M&Ms on it.

After a last trip wandering around Manhatten I collected my gear and caught the subway out to JKF airport. JFK is a well thought out airport. There is train that does a loop of all the terminals called the airtrain and it connects with the subway system, providing a seemless connection with the city. I checked my bags in and then had a late lunch while I waited for my flight to Las Vegas... which was cancelled about 15 minutes before boarding time. This began the mucking around standing in line to get rebooked and collect my baggage. In brief they got me a flight via Chicago from one of the other New York airports Legaguag and I made it to Las Vegas around 11PM (which was actually about 2AM New York time!)

New York – Statue of Liberty round II, Baseball.

With my last full day in New York I decided to get some more shots of the Statue of Liberty and get along to a Yankees Baseball game. I made the Stautan Island Ferry no problems and as you can see the weather was much better for photographs. I also took some video this time as well. I'm a little bummed I did not get into the statue but Crown tickets are booked out for 3 months ahead and even normal tickets to the island are booked out for a month or so.

Next I headed to Yankee stadium. Unfortunately I missed half the game because the ticket company I booked my tickets with, emailed me the tickets but did not tell me they had so I spent an hour wandering around trying to find somewhere in the Bronx to print out my tickets. Eventually I managed to get someone in the ticket office to log into my email and print it out. Then my bag was too big. I had to go to a store to get them to hold it for me. I should have taken my camera stuff out to take some pictures at the game but I didn’t want to run around with my cameras on display, so I have no pictures from the game. I got in about 6th innings which was ok considering there had only been a couple of home runs for the previous 5 innings. Then the Yankee put on a show managing 9 home runs in the 7th inning smashing the Tigers.

After the game and retrieving my bag I decided to get a few pictures out the front of the stadium. While pulling my camera gear out a guy asks me about my Torana tshirt and cap. He was an Aussie who was living and working in America. We talked cars for a while (He was a Ford man).





The Statue of Liberty





Me at Yankee Stadium (NYC)

New York – More Central Park, Voting while Overseas, Backpackers/hostels, Subway.

After the late night out with Adam, I decided a more casual day was in order. After Breakfast I headed out for another wander around Central Park. As I have commented before the park is an amazing place, probably my favourite part of the New York experience.

Next stop was the Australian Consulate, to place my vote in the federal election. I found it on the down on 43rd street and took the elevator to the 34th floor. The view wasn’t bad and it was pretty quiet in there, just a few other Aussies voting.

While here in New York, I have been staying at a backpackers. Unfortunately because
of the lateness of my booking, I had two nights in one dorm, one night in another dorm and two nights in another dorm. Its a bit weird sharing a room with strangers, usually a lot better if you can meet them or chat to them. Its a good opportunity to learn about others and hear about some of their travel experiences. All in all a pretty pleasant experience and it was cheap.

While in New York I have been using the subway system pretty much extensively. It really is the best way to get around. I do recall hearing how bad it was and how much crime was on it, but a few New Yorkers I spoke to about it said the last few years it really has been cleaned up. I didn’t see an graffiti and overall the whole experience was quite pleasant. They have a couple of different method of charging for their tickets, the one I used was you purchased credit on a Metrocard and then just topped it up as you needed it. You needed to swipe it to get into the station, and it charged you $2.25 each time, but you didn’t need to swipe it to get out, just push through the turnstill, which I thought was a good idea. The metro system has a number of different lines on it, with a number and colour associated with each route. Express trains on the same route get the same colour but a different letter. All in all pretty easy to navigate.

New York - Times Square & Rockefeller Building

Today I spent with Adam seeing the sights around New York. Both of us visited Central Park and Ground Zero yesterday but we didn't run into each other, I guess NYC really is a big place. Today we decided to checkout Times Square and the Rockefeller building. First Times Square, just wow. So much advertisement and promotion, tv screens the size of buildings and people everywhere. It was rather overwhelming actually. There was even a big tv screen on the side of one of the buildings with a camera facing the street that would show you on the screen. After seeing it in the day Adam and myself decided to return and see it at night.

Next was the Rockefeller building. We met up with Emily, Adam's older sister, and joined the shortish line to ride up in the lift. The views from the top were very nice including a view of central park on one side and the Empire State building on the other. Only when you have been to the top can you get a perspective of buildings and streets that makes up Manhatten. Such a massive place. We had considered the Empire State building but Emily had told us last time she went to the top of that it took a few hours in the queue.

After dinner and an awesome shake from the shake shack, Adam and myself returned to Times Square to see it at night. The amount of people jamed in the square was heaps more than we had seen in the day. There was so much light around, neither of us had trouble taking pictures even without using a tripod. It was rather overwhelming and Adam and myself only stayed maybe 10 minutes to get a few pictures. All in all a rather busy but good day in NYC.



The screen with the camera at Times Square. I can be seen taking this picture just to the left of centre, Adam is too my left behind the three people





Times Square by day



The view of Central Park from the Rockefeller Building



Another view from Rockefeller building



Here you can see the Empire State building from the Rockefeller Building





Times Square by Night

New York

After covering a fair part of the east side of America it was time to head for New York and return the rental car. Driving in new york was interesting to say the least, there was a lot more aggressive driving than I had seen for my whole trip. I was glad to return the rental car and gather my gear and head for the hostel. I ended up giving away my $15 esky that I had been using in the car too keep drinks cool, however the $15 tent and airbed made it into my luggage. Travelling the subway system I managed to find my way to my hostel relatively easy.

After an average nights sleep, (thankyou hard bed) I decided to tackle New York. I made my way to the Ferry subway station with no problems and promptly boarded the wrong ferry. I got a few passing views of the Statue of Liberty, before managing to navigate my way to the correct place to buy tickets. After finding the tickets only allowed me onto the island I decided to save it for another day and try and get some tickets online that would allow me access to the crown and headed to ground zero. There is much construction going on there with a new world trade centre being built and memorial pools being built in the footprints of the orginal twin towers. There are a couple of museams around the area with pictures and stories from the event. It was a bit of a sobering moment to be at the place so many people had lost their lives.

Next up I headed to Central Park. This place is huge. I covered maybe half of it and it has to be seen to be believed. All sorts of gardens and sports areas for people to enjoy, right in the middle of New York. It really is an amazing place. I will make sure I see the half I missed before I leave this place.



The Statue of Liberty seen from one of the ferrys



The model of what Ground Zero will look like, note the pools in the footprints of the towers



The construction site at Ground Zero. I think you can see the edge of one of the pools just past the new WTC



Some of the buildings visable from the south end of Central Park



More buildings seen from Central Park

Steamtown

After Washington and the frustraions of driving in the city, I was happy to return to a 'country town' being Scranton, home of Steamtown museam. When I arrived there I noticed the mall next to the museam was called Steamtown mall. One thing I have observed is Americans seem to be a lot more infactuated with the railroad/railway than we Australians are, as shown by the numerous museams and track side parks. Probably the highlight of this day was actually seeing a real big boy steam locomotive in the flesh ahh metal. These giant steam engines weight more than 500 tones and to put it simply are massive. I also caught a steam train to Moscow, a small town located to the east of Scranton. Riding behind the Canadian steam engine I was reminded of the problems of the steam train, namely soot and smoke. If you didnt brush your arm off occasionaly you would see the spots of soot appearing eveywhere. Not only that but it was hard to keep it out of your eyes at some stages in the journey. On arrival in Moscow walking down the train, you could feel the grit underfoot everywhere. No wonder we moved to diesels. Still diesels don't feel as 'alive' as steam engines.



Me standing in front of the big boy





Big Boy 4016 preserved as a static exhibit at Steamtown



One of the diesels is turned on the turntable



The Canadian Steamer after arriving at Moscow PA



As there is no turntable at Moscow, the steam must run tender first on the return journey