US stairways

After getting up at 4am, we drove to the car rental return of Alamo. They have shuttle buses that drive you 4 blocks back to LAX, and dumped us at terminal 1. We were right on time for the flight to Philly. But after taxiing for 2 inches the plane had to stop. Apparently 4 of the 200 computer systems were offline, amongst which the GPS system! Great start. They contacted Pittsburg, did a total reboot of the plane and after a 45 minutes delay we finally flew off! The pilot pushed the Boeing a bit, so we only arrived 25 minutes later. After rushing through the airport at Philly from gate D to gate A-east A8 , we made the connection flight to Brussels. Another flight of 12 hours delivered us totally exhausted in Belgium. I did get to see the same movies from the 5th of September on the plane: X-Men First Class. Not too bad actually... After the fun with US Airways, we had a nice ride with Belgium railways, and finally got home, deader than dead! Home sweet home...

This is your wake up call!!

After some rooster's noise on the phone at 4:30 AM, we know it's time to get going to the airport of Los Angeles for another exhausting 24 hours of drowsy awakeness in at least 2 plains and 3 different airports... Wish us luck! 0_*

Panem et circenses et aqua

Sunday! A whole day at Universal Studios Hollywood! After about half an hour drive from the hotel (Jesus! What an enormous city!...) we arrived at the gates and got our tickets. We started off with the Studio Tour... It took about half an hour to get on the tour bus! It finally started off with a decent history and explanation of filmmaking... The American Way. Following the 2008 fire at Universal Studios Hollywood that destroyed the King Kong attraction, it was rumored that Kong would not return. But the Australian Way came by! Peter Jackson made a wonderful remake of King Kong and offered the idea of making a 360 degrees-3D rendition for the theme park. It lasts only 3 minutes but it's pretty thrilling and funny. Meaning most screamed their heads off, I laughed off mine. We still could see some remains of the Halloween Horror Nights in between the sets, which it more interesting. Two hours later we did the some of the other attractions. Krustyland and Shrek 4-D were ultimate fun, Terminator 2 in 3D was excellent in its build-up, the Special Effects Stage sounded promising but turned out to be Ultra-lame... Haunted House of Horrors was also lame but funny, but the best attraction was the fully live production of Waterworld! Nice pyrotechnics, hell yeah! We ate a wonderful Rib Eye at the Saddle Ranch Chop House and drove all the way back to the hotel. because tomorrow we get up at 4:30 in order to be at the airport at 5! Another thrill ride of exhaustion till we're back in the homeland.. Nighty-nite kiddies!...

MS-13

We saw this nice documentary about LA street gangs! Actually about one of the most dangerous gang, which is starting to spread internationally: MS-13... MS-13 stands for Mara Salvatrucha. It's a very dangerous gang and is starting to take over the whole world. They kill people and deal in drugs. To become a member you have to pass the initiation rite: for a boy that
means being beaten up during 13 seconds, for a girl it means being raped for 13 seconds by several gang members. There's only one leader, but practically nobody knows who that leader is. Young people join the gang 'to belong' or because they feel worthless. The youngest members are eight years old! The El Salvador branch is 35,000 members strong, the total worldwide is 100,000 members. Kids of eight years old get assignments to kill some one. Some ex-members are trying to get others out of the gang but it's still very tricky. That was our LA night of National Geographic for you...

AT&Tinseltown

Apparently Tinseltown is incommunicado! The news bulletin from LA announced that there was practically no cellphone communication possible in the whole area, for people who use AT&T. About 900 antenna towers were out of service, due to some software error, and they weren't able to fix it overnight. Great going! The weather in Tinseltown is as good as their cellphone network. We came from a 100 degrees in Laughlin to a mere 70-79 in LA, with cloudy grey skies. I think this is a reminder that we have to go back to Belgium soon...

Barstow to LA

After a 265 km drive we got off on Main Street in Barstow to get something to eat. Met some Highway Patrol guys handing out safety leaflets. I think one of them owns the nice Ford Thunderbird 50 th anniversary edition parked out front. I'll go ask him... After we finished our Angus burger at McDonalds... apparently its not his!...
We continued our drive towards LA. This town is so big one could loose his entire family plus inlaws. We took a wrong exit and went looking for some gas in Downey. By pure accident we found the oldest Macdonalds still open. It dates from way back in 1953, got badly damaged in the 1994 earthquake but got restored thanks to the fans.
We got to the Custom Hotel, checked in, and immediately took a tour around LA by night on a bus with our guide Peter Smith and his witty comments. He told us the history and the full name of the city: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles del Rio de Porcincula..He showed us downtown LA, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Strip and also the baad neighborhoods. On Hollywood Boulevard, We ate the most delicious french fries with mayonnaise! Actually as good as our Belgian Fries! That was at Shelly's Cafe, which was used in a scene from Million Dollar Baby... We drove up to Universal Studios where the Halloween Horror Nights were just started for 40.000 plus fans at the price of 65$ a ticket. But we didn't indulge, because tomorrow we have our full day of Universal Studio visit, so enough for today! Back tot the Hotel Pete!...

Grand Papillon now!

After breakfast we really didn't want to wait till 2pm to do the helicopter tour at Papillon Grand Canyon tours. They were so nice to change it for us to 10:15 am! After watching safety regulations for three different choppers we had to go to the Next waiting room. Until they finally called us out get in a heli by four people. Amazing view of the Grand Canyon! Amazing! Crappy music on headphone though...inter spliced with Dutch explanations about the canyon and the native Americans. After about half an hour we were on our way again and had the chance to go see the Sun Crater Volcano. We took a shortcut through Kaibab National Forest on a hardened forest road, the NF-9150. Piece and quiet among the trees (if you turn off your engine) but there was still some traffic: Hunters with buggies driving around for game! We got back to the civilization on highway 89 and went to visit the Wupatki National Monument: several ruins of native American pueblos in Box Canyon. After that we had a nice picnic up in the mountains with a panoramic view of the Painted Desert. Following that route we came through Coconino forest into volcanic landscapes with the old Sunset Crater in the middle, climbing prohibited... It was already 4pm, so we Stopped the sightseeing and went back to the highway, all the way to Laughlin, a smaller version of Las Vegas. The three hour drive went pretty smooth as I followed to other mad driver at an average of 85 mph! I even passed a 100 mph with these race maniacs. We only saw a highway patrol car once while I was driving 90 but he wasn't interested! And all that on a highway with a 75 mph speed limit, go figure!... We arrived at 7:15pm in Laughlin where the temperatures rose to 101 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius)!!! We checked in at the Aquarius Casino Resort, had some lunch, and took a stroll on the strip. Piece and quiet in miniature Vegas... Good sleeping too. And tomorrow off to LA

Critters and roadkill

After seeing a lot of animals ourselves, like ground squirrels, coyotes, Elk, Bisons, pronghorns, lizards, and a small collection of insects... And after almost hitting an elk at night and a bison at dusk ourselves, we unhappily encountered some roadkill along the highways. The coyotes and smaller animals you see regularly run over alongside the road, so that's almost unavoidable. But our biggest shock was seeing five bloody elk in the shoulder of the road, and two more a bit further. That was a bit gruesome to be honest. The guy probably hit them in the middle of the night... Half a mile further we saw the skid marks by the side of the road. We will try to avoid this experience...

Grand Canyon

After a nice breakfast we continued south. We passed through blanks National Forest before arriving at Cameron. From there it's due west to visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The first stop gives you an amazing view of the whole area! This canyon has an average width of 10 miles! From time to time you see helicopters crossing the gap to the North Rim and back. That's for us tomorrow, we're totally booked for that! The next view stops along the south rim are also interesting, but our interest diminishes towards the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. We also were unable to do the Skywalk, Luke! That's a five hour drive from where we were standing. So we drove south, sought out our hotel, the Canyon Plaza Resort, next to the IMAX movie theatre, checked in and crashed at the pool. Leisure time! Enough mileage for today... After that we were in luck. We watched three consecutive episodes of The Big Bang Theory while eating crisps in our bed, before we joined the dinner table! Ultimate fun.

Monument Valley

After another serious drive south we came to the Kayenta Monument Valley Inn. As it was still too early to check in we drove further south to visit the Navajo National Monument. At the service center a nice Navajo woman told us how to follow the trail leading to the site: well-preserved ruins of villages left behind about 1300AD by prehistoric Pueblo Indians -- the Kayenta Anasazi. We only went on the easy trail to see the Betatakin. Afterwards we had a nice picnic in the natural settings before the visitor centre. From there we drove all the way back north and to the junction of highway 160 and 163 and then west to see the Monument Valley.. As you're totally in the Navajo nation, the national park pass does not give you entrance, they ask 5$ each head. Once in you can check in to the Navajo Hotel or park in the parking lot, to photograph the mountains you could already see from 4 miles back! Oh no, wait! There's an off-road trail where you can drive in between the table mountains, and get your car messed up pretty badly if it's not a 4x4 or a monstrous car like our Dodge Durango SUV. So we decided to do a bit of off-road driving and try to follow the Indians in their 4X4's with three benches of white people in the back getting their backs messed up and eating red dust all the way... After a while it gets kinda tedious or you get rather nauseous, so we head back up after a couple of photo stops and back to the hotel with swimming pool... We ate Native American fried bread with lamb stew at the restaurant. They also give you a little bit of powder sugar. You're supposed to spread it on the bread and add a little salt. We did it with honey and salt. It's an acquired taste, but it goes really well with the stew! If we get the chance we'll try more of these Native American dishes

Breakfast in America

A Wonderful country, America! People don't have enough money from their pension, when they retire, so they have to keep on working till they're blue around the mouth. At Yosemite an elderly guy was washing toilets, and cleaning out the very heavy bear-proof garbage cans. The guide in Salt Lake City was also way passed 65. The tag-a-long boat pilot is also retired and admitted himself he loved to do the boat trips but needs the cash to come by, because what social security he gets is way too low after a full active life. This morning the 15 or so seats in the Super 8 were occupied for the 300+ guests in the hotel so we went back to Denny's Diner for breakfast. This joint is open 24/7 and is run by mostly elderly ladies who slave to get all the orders done. The woman serving our table had just slipped in the kitchen and was still going on serving tables with a slight limp. I hope we don't adopt the American system in Europe, but it's starting to look like it, gradually...

Exploring the wild Canyonlands

Well, that was quite a thrill ride this day! One of the highlights of the entire trip! We got up very early in the morning (thx Proximus) and got at the Tag-a-Long checkpoint at 7:15 am in order to start our grand off-road adventure with Kealan, our driver and guide. We started and drove north out of Moab towards Potash. That's not really a town but the name of a place where they process potassium. The Ford four wheel drive stopped low next to the Colorado river, changed into its 4x4 mode and we started driving all the way up from the bottom to the top of the Canyon! We stopped at "Thelma and Louise"- point, where they shot the ending of that film! Actually it's called Fossil point, because they used to find a lot of fossils of marine animals up here. We also saw Dead Horse point, and finally survived the Shafer Trail Road. We didn't buy the sticker though, nor the T-shirt. The trail ends in the so-called Island in the Sky, a green table mountain or Mesa caught between two rivers: the Green river and the Colorado river. The guide explained a lot about plant life and the geology of the Canyonlands.

We extended our program and went for the jetboat afternoon on the Colorado river. This way you get a view from way down low that river. There's a point in the canyon, besides the river which they call the Grotto. It has amazing acoustics, so every year, begin September they hold a classical concert down there during the Moab music festival. The tickets are a bit overpriced to a mere 200$, but apparently it's worth it for the 150-so listeners..
The second guide prepared our noon lunch, drove the bus with the boat hooked up, and finally raced the river for about 3 hours. He also mentioned that Moab made millionaires out of uranium prospectors, radioactive ore of which the mountains were rich. So they have their own little tchernobyl waste deposit down there, which is being cleaned out by the truckload. We also saw some thousand year old Indian petroglyphs on the rock walls and a spot where you could find petrified trees. Good thing we went for the boat ride in the afternoon, the temperatures rose to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) but on the boat is was nice and cool. He knows his river and all the sandbanks, that man! With a big smile on our faces he let us go to our hotel. We had fun in the swimming pool and had another American dinner at Denny's

This is your wake up call!!!

Totally out of the blue, my cellphone started ringing. One of the wonderful wenches of the Proximus Promotion Team called me to tell me about the wonderful promotion I could get for having 1 gigabyte of data for free during two months, after which it will cost me 16,52€. I said "Yes yes! Anything free is ok, as long as you let me sleep! I'm in the United States atm its 5 AM here, and I would like to sleep some more!"-"Oh! You're abroad! Would you like to enjoy the promotion of our data roaming?"-"No! No! Please let me be in peace and get some more sleep! I enjoy free wi-fi everywhere I go in the USA..." (liar...) The nice Proximus Promotion lady got the hint and with a Macleans pearl white teeth smile wished me all the best on my vacation abroad. After this wonderful intermezzo which also woke my wife, I went back to bed... Erm no actually I started to add this bit to my blog, which gives me about 30 minutes before my alarm clock will go off to get us in shape for the Canyonlands tour in a 4x4 drive with Tag-a-long Tours... Yippee !! Zzzzzzzzzz...

Arches National Park

Yipee! Another 360 km drive from Vernal to Moab over Highway 191! But it was rather pleasant because we drove through Ashley National Forest most of the time. The roads were getting in worse shape than before. It was Monday today and everywhere the road works had restarted so we had to wait quit a few times to be able to pass. We also drove through Uintah Mountains and over the Steinaker Dam. Just before Moab you have two major national parks: Canyonlands and Arches. As we're booked for Canyonlands the next day, we decided to take our time to visit the red rocky structures of Arches National Park. It's a long drive by car, but in order to see some of the arches one has to hike on the trails. The longest is 7 miles long. Once more it was quite hot down here, about 83 degrees (28 Celsius) and with a very dry and hot wind. We did a couple of the trails and I did about three quarters of the longest trail. The evening fell and the sunset gave even more beautiful colors over these natural structures. We left the park and checked in at the Super 8 at Moab, and now on to dinner at Denny's and a good night's sleep! Bye kiddies

Hi Vernal!

In the morning we decided to check at the Jackson Airport if everything was ok with the oil level, because it was the 3rd day the blinking light said "oil change due". The technician at Alamo rental assured me the oil had been changed at 2000 miles, but they forgot to reset the message in the car's computer! So after that we went to a Shell Car-Wash to get our car crispy clean again for another ginormous drive of 340 miles from Jackson,WY to Vernal, UT! The stupid Jetair guide said it was 340 kilometers, but nono, it's the 2nd time they made that mistake. It really was a drive of a mere 550 km in one go...But we made it alive through Flaming Gorge Recreation Area. We even got to see some more wildlife along the way! The Moose was fantastic!.. It was made out of plastic! But the rest was flesh and blood and moving about!... The Flaming Gorge dam created a big artificial lake. We stopped at a Sinclair gas station to grab a bite at Bajio's Mexican Grill and ate some genuine Mexican food: Taco Chicken Soup. We ordered two shrimp tacos to go.. We continued our big drive and took a lot of stops to make beautiful pictures. The rest of the snapshots we took while driving like nuts on the winding mountain roads. And once more McDoodle is the big savior for smoothies and instant fast Wi-Fi in order to type this bunch of letters. now were once more deader than dead! Off to the hotel to crash! Bye little chipmunks y'all...

Grand Teton national park

This morning we left Yellowstone National Park pretty early. It seemed to be getting a bit better and sunnier, but it was still a mere 47 degrees! We drove to the South in direction of Jackson, a small but friendly little cowboy town..To get there we drove through Grand Teton National Park, a wonderful place with alpine mountains and lots of lakes around them... It started to get a bit warmer as well, temperatures rose to a good 60 degrees. We drove up to Signal Mountain from where we had an amazing view of the whole valley... We even decided on an outing to the Bridger-Teton wilderness.. We continued further south and passed the lovely Jenny Lake. After resting a bit there, we continued to our hotel, The Point Inn.
And we had a lovely dinner at The Garage. We didn't eat Bison this time, but Elk! We took a stroll through town because all the shops are open here till 10 pm. We bought some T-shirts. Apparently in a lot of shops, gas stations there are East-European students working through some work exchange program. People from Russia, Ukraine, Rumania and Moldavia. They work so they can travel the country a bit as well...

That was Grizzly!

At lake Yellowstone Hotel we slept in a freezing cabin. Overnight the temperatures went down to 43 degrees (7 degrees celsius) . The heating in the cabin consisted of a minuscule hot air blower in the bedroom and an even smaller one in the bathroom. Eventually we managed to heat up the place a bit in order to have a decent breakfast. The coffee machine (brand Keurig?!) worked with plastic capsules like a cheap cousin of the Nespresso machine. The coffee was pretty decent, the tea tasted like crap, but the machine only worked half the time.. 
We set off to visit the park towards the North from the other side now, starting off with the Mud Volcano. Unfortunately it rained so hard and got so cold we quickly moved on to the next stop: the Yellowstone grand canyon. Not too bad this canyon. We also visited some nice waterfalls and continued onwards north to Mammoth Hot Springs. The raining got so bad there we just visited the terraces. At Mammoth Hot Springs we were amazed at seeing a giant elk taking a nap on the grass in the middle of the small town. We continued south and saw the Roaring Mountain with lots of geothermal activity. After seeing the Virginia cascade we went back to the hotel because the weather was so cold and wet, we got fed up.. On the way back things started to clear up and we even got some rays of sunshine.. It was still freezing cold. But then the magical moment happened.. Just before Canyon Village more than 20 cars were parked alongside the road: people had spotted a Grizzly bear with its cub. We managed to see it and get it on film! Then all of a sudden it was gone in the woods, but had come out on the other side because lots of cars over there had stopped, probably to see them... We got back in the car and followed up that lead. The bears were very close now. After getting out of the car and trying to get a close glimpse some guy yelled from his car: "watch out for the bisons!" A whole herd of Bisons came stampeding over the bridge, in between the cars! We ran back to our car and locked ourselves in, just before they ran on both sides next to us! By the time the danger was gone, the bears had already run back into the woods! But anyway, what a great exprerience! And we're certainly glad to be in one piece! We went back to the hotel and almost hit a bison standing on the road. We decided to get some food but had to wait an hour before we could get in, because apparently one has to reserve at this place. A bit tricky when you don't have a phone in your cabin, and forget about cell phones, they don't work here. So we complained to some friendly clerk till we were blue around the mouth until the manager gave us a pager(?), which would beep when it was our turn. That helped a lot. We still had to wait for one hour until the thing went bzz while listening to horrible piano music in the giant sitting room. But we finally got in and had a wonderful dinner. Out of frustration we ordered bison steak! Nighty-nite kids!!!

Old Faithful

After the long drive to West Yellowstone we immediately started visiting the geysers basins and the grand prismatic spring. The weather was incredible! Bright blue sky, lots of sunshine and 83 degrees! We visited as much as we could but suddenly a small herd of bisons passed by and came from the prairie unto the road, so all the cars had to stop. It started getting dark so we didn't have time to visit Old Faithful, the geyser that erupts every 68-78 minutes since decades. It was still about an hour drive along the winding Loop Road towards the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. It was pitch dark and then suddenly we saw a giant Elk on the edge of the forest, near the road, it's right eye lit up by the headlights. That gave us a small fright, but we arrived safely at the hotel and checked in. Once more we were dead tired, had a quick shower to visit the rest of Yellowstone the next Day 

Mormons at Salt Lake City

After checking in at the hotel, we went for a stroll towards Temple Square and visited the Tabernacle where the largest organ in the world is: the Tabernacle organ consists of 11.763 organ pipes! At the north visitor center they pointed us towards the Conference Center with new auditorium, built between 1997 and 2000, where instead of 5000 people at the Tabernacle, 22.000 people can gather at once!! A very friendly elderly guide by the name of Kenneth Nielsen showed us the whole building and even the park-like rooftop, from where we got a wonderful view of whole Salt Lake City. Water runs through the roof park and cascades down the front of the building! The steel construction supporting the building was made by Belgian engineers! Our friendly guide let us go with a big smile on our faces. We went back across the street to see the model of the Mormon temple in the South visitor centre. Hunger struck us and we strolled along the streets towards the Gateway Mall with lots of shops and grill or fast food restaurants. We ate at the Panda Express. There was no Kung-Fu included...

Sunrise at Bryce

Supposed to be very nice,... The sunset at Bryce! Pity this morning started off in a drizzly cold mist. So bye-bye Bryce! We're off to Salt Lake City...a mere 413 km north and a four and a half hour drive...

Want some ice with that, Bryce?

Visiting Bryce Canyon is pretty easy, you just keep on driving and stop at the different viewpoints! We started off at Sunrise Point, and had to skip the next three because a ranger didn't let us through! So in a not so chronological order we saw Swamp Canyon, Whitemen Bench, Natural Bridge, Agua Canyon, Bonanz...erm Ponderosa Canyon, Black Birch Canyon ( where I photographed a black bird, a Californian Condor...) and Rainbow Point. The more we went south the colder and rainier it got! The temperatures dropped to a mere 52 degrees! (10 Celsius). It was really ice cold out there, so we had to put on more and more clothes. Once more an enormous thunderstorm was preparing. On the way back to the lodge the ranger was gone, and we were able to visit the last three spots: Paria View, The most mind-blowing Bryce Point ( if you slightly leave the official road it gets even better...) and Inspiration Point. I was not the least bit inspired there and the pitch black clouds drove me quickly back to the car, before all hell broke loose again. As we saw a lot of trees struck by lightning we thought it much safer to return to the lodge and end the day with a good dinner.

Bryce Bryce, Baby!

After a quick lunch we once again set off for our next destination: Bryce Canyon. We drove through the remainder of Zion National Park and stopped about every 15 minutes to take in the beauty of our surroundings! We even got the chance to see three Californian Condors circling the Canyon! The iron rich mountains of the canyon are tinted dark red. We continued and passed through a long tunnel in the mountains until we finally emerged on the other side where a 3 mile queue of cars and buses was waiting to enter the tunnel. The ranger told us there be Hornsheep in them mountains, but we didn't get to see any! Darn...The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, until we passed through Red Canyon at Dixie National Park! Very nice as well and once again different from Zion... We arrived at about 3 PM in Bryce NP at the Bryce Canyon Lodge... To be continued..

Breakfast in Vegas on Cocaine and Gin

On Cocaine and Gin!?!
More like on coffee and bread! But I do like the song, so ... :-)

After breakfast we got ready for another long drive up to Zion National Park. After we pulled over for some gas we started to see some of the canyon country. But suddenly there was a sign saying "Dinosaur Discovery Site" so we decided on a little sidetracking. Apparently this place in Saint George is one of the main sites for discovering dinosaur tracks, preserved in the mud. Afterwards we continued to our lodge and got straight on the guided bus tour through Zion Park. once more a ginormous thunderstorm broke out above Zion, but we were safe and dry in the bus when all he'll broke loose! Now we know what the guide meant with "flash flood"! At the end of the tour the sun came back and the sky was bright blue again, so we could take some wonderful pictures on the way back to the lodge. This Cliffrose lodge was some kind of small paradise! Beautiful lush flower gardens with giant locusts and lots of colibris flying around, sipping water from the dispensers and tasting nectar from the flowers! Pity we're only able to stay one night, cause this is really heaven out here!

Great Hoover!

Instead of going back to the town of gambling and kitchy shows, we decided to drive to Boulder City and onwards to lake Mead and Hoover Dam. When we got there it was getting dark, and a thunderstorm had hit the surroundings of the lake. The streets were drowning in water but we moved on to the view point were we could see the lake. It was tropically hot!! We continued to Hoover Dam, and by the time we got there it was almost evening. I took some great pictures of the dam and the electricity station there in total darkness! We drove back to Vegas, freshened up a bit and took the walkway from our hotel to the Luxor Pyramid and then into The Mandalay Bay.. Those two hotels/casino's are much nicer and glamorous then our joint. We finally found a decent Irish Pub there with draft beer! At least here they knew what Kilkenny was! In the New York - New York they looked like I was pulling their leg and talking about South Park...After that it was off to bed! If you want more info on Vegas read the 702 Guide :)

Mojave Smoothie please!

The next day we avoided the entire city of debauchery, gambling, strip clubs, easy money and went to meditate in the desert. We drove south and visited the Mojave National Preserve and took a stop to take a 3 mile walk into the desert at Teutonia Peak Trail. The desert was pretty hot, but much less than in Death Valley. We climbed the slopes of the mountain and got a wonderful View from up there... We returned and stopped for some gas. Apparently a new safety measure has been taken on credit cards! After you let the machine read your credit card, you have to put in your 5 digiprezz code, which is actually your zip code. A European with a 4-digit Visa or Mastercard is thus doomed! Only way to go is find a cashier. As most pumps are fully automated, even that can become tricky! We finally managed at Subway's. Then we ordered a Smoothie and a chicken sandwich at McDoodle, coz at least here we always get free ultrafast wifi Internet, and NOT at our expensive hotel in Vegas... to be continued

Hey Las Vegas! the Devil gave us to you!...

After a bit of refreshing from the Death Valley rocks, sand and salt, we started walking the Las Vegas Strip. As we're in the Excalibur, we first visited the New York-New York, where I got on the big roller coaster. What a thrill!!

We continued walking the strip along the other side of the road by use of overhead walkways, passing the MGM Grand, Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood, Paris Las Vegas - with it's own giant replica of the Eiffel Tower. Across the street we could see the more prestigious buildings, like the Aria, the Cosmopolitan and Caesar's Palace. We finally passed our original hotel/gambling temple, The Imperial Palace. Didn't look very imposing to us. By that time it had gotten dark and we were very hungry, so we went into Harrah's and up to the Range Steak House, where you can eat the most incredible tasty stakes! It's quite pricey, but a dream to the palate you will never forget! We also visited M&M's world. How can you possibly fill 4 stores with M&M gadgets, clothes, cups, trinkets?!? Well, this is America, remember...

With low-lifes along the strip, Mexicans trying to get you a ticket for some sleazy strip-club, people in designer clothes, incredible street artists like the one we saw with his spraycans, and street to stage artists like Charles Rangel and so forth..

After dinner, we crossed the Strip and returned to our hotel. Just in front of The Bellagio, while watching the water ballet, an enormous thunderstorm approached Las Vegas, so after a couple of minutes the desert heat was subsided by an enormous downfall. We managed to take shelter at the Cosmopolitan, until the raining stopped. We got back to the hotel in a pretty dry state that way, luckily...

What you see in Vegas is that all the shows are more and more being created by the team of Cirque du Soleil: Viva Elvis, The Beatles Love, even Criss Angel Believe. And of course there's a permanent genuine Cirque du Soleil show at the Bellagio. we skipped all of them...

Criss Cross

After about 15 minutes of queueing I made it to one of the desks. We're high up in Tower I. Nice room, but funnily enough no Wi-fi in the rooms, so I'll have to wait a bit to update my blog... After dumping the luggage, I went straight to the box office, to order my tickets for Criss Angel at the Luxor!!! But unfortunately... He's not here! He'll start his shows again on Tuesday, the clerk announced! Boo-hoo-hoo! We're outta Vegas by Sunday. :'(

Two Knights at The Excalibur

We finally arrived at our Castle! It's a bit huge! I'm standing in a  queue in orde to get checked in... I hope they don't throw us in the Dungeon or lock us up in the highest tower. The central hall between the two towers is one big gaming hall, where tons of people in loud T-shirts are gaming away on the slot machines. Right across the road is a big rollercoaster twisting around a hotel that looks like miniature New York. I prefer to have fun on one of those...there's also a non-topless dance act in the Pit, next to the entrance and the Jester's Lounge. But I want to see Criss Angel!! Really!...

Oh Fortuna! Velut Luna

In a few hours we'll be stationed at the Excalibur ! I wanna see Criss Angel :-)

Stovepipe Sidenote

Side note: at 3 AM (noon in Belgium) I tried to upload this bit to my blog, because they Do have Wi-Fi here... actually it's the first year they tried giving visitors free Internet, but it doesn't work very well. The guy at reception told me 2 of the 3 routers just fried because of the blazing heat! I said thx to the guy and went back to bed. In a room with a giant fan on the ceiling going woosh-woosh-woosh and a 80 dB airco working round the clock...Death Valley is pretty nice at night, it's only 93 degrees (34 Celsius) hot :-)

Death Valley Driver

Today we have a 358 km drive ahead of us to Stovepipe Wells Village,  one of the few places to get a room in the middle of Death Valley. We drove away from Mammoth Inn and went back to Mono Lake. We passed Erik Schat's Bakkerij and bought some decent breads for our picnics. We drove through the Sierra Nevada and had a picnic close to the Lone Pine Information center. We continued further on Highway 190 until we came in Death Valley. It was a still a long way before reaching the village. Funny thing is, I had to input the correct coordinates of Stovepipe Wells Airport into the GPS, because Stovepipe Wells Village had no house number. The signs along the road ask to to turn off the airco in the car. The temperatures this day went up to 117 degrees Fahrenheit ( 47 degrees Celsius!!!) after checking in to our room we took a quick shower. After shopping for some food and water, and free ice, apse decided to visit a couple of sights: the famous Zabriskie Point, The Golden Canyon, Badwater and in returning we saw the sand dunes. Temperature was still 109 degrees ( 42 Celsius ) at 7 pm. After driving back to the lodge and grabbing something to eat, I wanted to go swimming in the open air pool. Unfortunately a sand storm had just started. When I opened the door, the sand flew straight in my face! So forget about swimming here, go take another shower to get the sand out of everything. Off to bed and ready for Las Vegas!

The Bear Necessities

At about 3 AM, I think I heard a bear close to the window in the Mammoth Inn room! in fact I heard it twice... I tried to pick up a glimpse through the window but I never saw it... must've been still in the woods, instead of under my window... I went back to bed and tried for an hour to catch my sleep again. In the morning Carine told me she was at the window that night in the hope Of seeing a bear. I told her I actually heard one at night...

Mammoth Lakes

With all the stuff we bought at the Yosemite Mall, we made our own sandwiches for the day. The drive wasn't as excruciatingly long as the previous one,.. Only about 131 km to Mammoth Lakes. But the road was ultimately interesting, because we drove through the northern part of Yosemite National Park, with wonderful sights and enough turnouts to stretch your legs and take pictures. Lots of forest with twisting roads running through them, but also very nice lakes here and there.. I took pictures like a maniac while my wife was enjoying the luxury of driving with a monstrous Dodge. This IS the way to travel! At noon we had a picturesque picnic at a luscious lake. We continued amongst more mountain ranges and finally made a right turn at the huge Mono Lake, onwards to Mammoth Mountain Inn. Once again too early at the desk, but they gave us another room, so we could check in immediately. A giant over roofed parking lot had an east and a west wing with several floors of rooms. The steel H-profiles of the parking lot were all sprayed with asbestos, so I wasn't too happy about that. The place was almost deserted, as this is a ski resort. We practically had the place for ourselves. We then asked what was worth visiting in the vicinity, so we drove further to visit The Devil's Postpile. Truly a wonder of nature! The lava of an ancient volcano formed hexagonal rocks which then evolved into columns made of Basalt. You have to see it to believe it! There was a storm brewing in the mountains, so we decided to head back down to the car. The activities around Mammoth Mountain like ski lifts had all stopped, so we decided to grab a bite. That turned out to become a wonderful steak at the Mammoth Mountain Grill! And now it bed time kids! See you later

Yosemite Sam

After a nice breakfast in the Good Hotel, we got a baaad aftertaste. They charged us pretty steep for using their Parking lot. This was almost the price of the room! We finally got underway at about 9 am and drove the whole 350 km to Yosemite View Lodge, just outside the National Park. During that long drive we got a bit peckish and went fouraging for food. In a small town at a gas station we bought one salami and a bit further along the dusty road at a small stand we bought some strawberries and cherry tomatoes from a nice Mexican. The sun was blazing hot outside and temperatures rose up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit !!! We arrived a little too early to check in at the Yosemite View Thingie, so we decided to visit the park straight away. Yosemite park is breathtakingly beautiful! The biggest mountain is El Capitan. We drove thru the park, took some wonderful pictures of the valley and its local inhabitants: squirrels.. We decided to take the mountain road to Glacier Point, where we had to wait for the Sunset on El Capitan. Once there we got this long exposé about our natural surroundings by one of the female rangers. In a frantic cartoon-like voice (it's a small girl after all!) she went on and on and on... until we wanted to gnaw our heads off...Luckily she stopped, then everybody applauded (except us) and we could enjoy the sunset in all peace and quiet. We left a bit earlier in order to enjoy the small and twisting roads in pitch black darkness back to the lodge. Dead tired once more it was a quick shower and off to bed, in a very hot room with a gigantic propellor-like fan above our heads going woosh woosh woosh all thru the night! Hasta Luego Amigos

Are you going to San Fransisco? be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

Our first day in San Fransisco. after a nice breakfast in the Hotel we started walking the streets of San Fransisco. We walked down Market Street in search of our first excursion: the Bay City Tour, starting from Pier 39. It was quite a walk, thru Chinatown and some other neighbourhoods... we finally took a cab for the last bit in order to make it in time for our city visit in a dubbledecker bus! A witty black busdriver entertained us all along... We slightly followed the 49 mile scenic drive, but not entirely, 'cause the city made some traffic changes.. We also saw the orange painted Golden Gate Bridge, consumed by the fog! After the bus trip, it was time for the boattrip around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. Pretty chilly experience.. Like Mark Twain used to say: My coldest winter was a summer in San Fransisco". Actually we were pretty lucky because we had a most warm and sunny day... after the excruciating boat trip, we walked pier 39 in search for some decent grub... We finally went into the most famous "Crab House". The waiter wore a T-shirt saying: "Got Crabs?" we didn't bother to reply. After the funny chat with the witty waiter (darn! They're all so witty here) we ate the most amazing killer Crab and a half. The garlic sause was deliciously mingled with the crb meat! After that we decided to walk balk to the hotel! This eventually became a two hour walk and we saw the neighborhood change a bit. So now we know that The Good Hotel is located in a Baaad neighborhood! hoodlums, airheads, dopefiends, hobo's, trashcan experts were roaming the streets. We made it home alive and once more crashed exhausted into our bed

San Fransisco all the way

Finally in Frisco! We arrived at SF airport at about 10 pm, and went to retrieve our rental car. We were offered the Ford Escape SUV, but when we finally got to the parking lot, the nice lady let us choose from several other cars.. So we went for the giant Dodge Durango SUV. It has an enormous trunk, reverse drive video camera, enormous wheels.. In fact everything about it is enormous. With this baby we drove from the airport to our first stop: The Good Hotel. I must admit, the room was quite a bit smaller than the inside of my SUV... So finally,.. After 26 hours of being awake, we finally crashed in our bed. Zzzzzz

Stranded in Philadelphia (not the cheese brand)

Missed our connection flight to San Fransisco.. Two hours of waiting for the next flight.. All this starts off pretty well I must admit... At least we get the time to view Philadelphia airport a bit longer. Plus I get to power up my digital madness, which allows me to type this here text. Cya all later...

Philladelphia airport: shuffle shuffle ! A deck of sausages

Yea! USA ! Philly airport! Now were Queuing like hell to get thru customs and on to our next flight to frisco! Battery depletion imminent! Be seeing you

I can see my home from here!

Yippee-ka-yeah! The shrunken flight has been delayed for another 45 minutes... At least that gives us time to contemplate the beautiful belgian runways, being soaked to death in hectoliters of rainwater. After three days of tropical sun our little country is once more the dreary place we're used to...On to Philly, then further to Cali. be seeing you ;)

Brussels airport starts off well

Grrreat! 7:33' at the desk of US Airways and already there's a slight hiccup. The 767 flight is not available.. Unknowingly it must have spontaneously melted whilst coming to Belgiun, I dunno.. But this means that they're offering us a smaller craft, the Boeing 757! Tricky bit is that NOT everybody can hop on the boat.. so they're offering a fee of 800$ to people who're willing to postpone their flight till tomorrow. Do we go for cash or Frisco?! to be continued...

Sleepless in Diegem

After a great dinner in the restaurant of the Golden Tulip Hotel we went almost straight to bed. Pretty sleepless night I must say... much too hot and bed too small. and maybe a bit of departure stress as well?! But now we're freshly showered and ready to wait ... For the shuttle bus to drive us to the airport, where we have to drag ourselves around for another three $&@%# hours before the flight to the United States.. to be continued...