On Saturday I was awake at 5am, but as Linda was still asleep, I had to be quiet. This meant making coffee in the dark, trying not trip over cases and finding my IPad. I then did some sermon preparation, although it was difficult writing in the dark! The next series leading up to Easter is going to be on Isaiah 8-12, it has sex, violence, death, misery and joy within the chapters so great topics. Linda woke up at 7am and we decided to go and have breakfast before the scrum of horrible kids getting in the way.
After this we returned to the room and packed our cases and were on the road by 0830. We are travelling to Palm Springs today, about an hour and half drive. Traffic was still pretty heavy even though it was a Saturday, but then this is a bank holiday weekend here with Martin Luther King day on Monday so people are going away. On route Linda spotted a JoAnn craft shop, so we had to stop and she disappeared for a while, I just sat in the car reading the paper.
Eventually we were back on the road and reached our first stop of the day, an outlet shopping centre. Linda went into Tommy Hilfiger and found a few tops she liked. I then saw the Nike shop and needed some new running trainers as my current ones have worn out. They had a large selection, so Linda sat there while I tried numerous pairs on. I would collect the boxes and Linda sat there guarding them. They do large sizes, which as I need a 14 is useful. Eventually I settled on a Nike free 5tr which is a trainer that provides good support and greater flexibility.
We then finished our shopping and drove to Palm Springs. Linda wanted to go to Walmart so I found one for her. After this we went to our hotel, The Movie Colony and checked in. In the evening we had a walk around town. The temperature is warm during the day, but drops at night, typical desert weather....
I had a lie in on Sunday and didn't get up till 0700 and then went out for a run around Palm Springs, I needed to test out my new running trainers. They were comfortable to wear and felt good. I did a few loops round the town and then found a mountain trail and ran up a hill. I took some photos at the top and messaged them to Linda so she could enjoy the sun rising as well. I then ran back to the hotel, unfortunately not seeing a raised pavement and tripped over. Although I didn't hurt anything I was slightly bruised.
Breakfast wasn't till 0830 and was rather disappointing, toast but nothing to put on it, no yoghurt and a very sullen member of staff. The standard has dropped since we were last here.
We had researched a church on the Internet and found one about a mile and a half away, The First Southern Baptist Church of Palm Springs. As it wasn't far we (or I) decided that we could walk. It was a lovely sunny day and we had plenty of time. It took about half an hour to get there. They had about 30 people present, mostly older folk, but a few visitors. They had a visiting speaker who described himself as the 'minister of coffee' and I thought that's the job for me. His sermon was good and was based on Psalm 15 with the question 'why are you here?'
Having walked there we had to walk back, but I did take a different more scenic route. I found out afterwards there was a free bus we could have used for some of the journey, but it was a warm pleasant day so better to walk. We stopped on the way back for a coffee and visited the arts festival. This was a number of craft and art stores on the village green displaying their works.
Once back at the hotel we decided to sit outside in our t-shirts and shorts around the pool. Linda went swimming whilst I did some reading. It was very pleasant. It started to get chilly around 1600 so we went back inside to read.
On Monday I had a surprise, Linda wanted to come on a morning run. We left just after 0700 and started running, I was under instructions that we were not too go to far, but she did manage to get out of the hotel complex. I planned a route and we ended up at Elvis' hideaway (photo above), a house he lived at between 1966-1967 with Priscilla. The only difficulty was it was slightly up hill, but as I had my headphones on I was able to ignore the comments. However, I did point out that the good news it was downhill all the way back. It was just over a mile to the house and then a mile back, but we stopped for coffee and Linda had a rest. In the end we did about 2.5 miles.
Breakfast was even worse today, the assistant was still sullen and the bread frozen. We went to Shields date garden, where they have been growing dates since 1935. It was interesting and we had a walk around the shop, stopped for a date milk shake and then sat in the garden. There was a walk around a second garden which had different stages of Jesus' life recorded, alongside biblical quotations. It is warm today, so still in t-shirts but slightly cloudy.
Our next stop was El Paseo which is an upmarket town in the area. It was very posh and full of old people. We did have a wander around and enjoyed a coffee. Linda wanted to go to a different Walmart, as it may have different items in it, I managed to find one using Google. We had a wander around and Linda found some more craft items she wanted and a new pair of jeans. It was mid afternoon by now and getting hotter so we returned to the hotel to relax.
Tuesday's bible reading was all about Jesus in the wilderness, whilst I only spent a day travelling through it, I could see how it would be tough. It was the same scenery of desert surrounded by mountain for mile after mile after mile.....At one stage I covered over 100 miles and only saw one car going in the same direction.
We left Palm Springs around 0930 and Linda had a choice the scenic route or the interstate. She decided on the scenic route, which was about 300 miles to Furnace Creek in Death Valley. Linda did have her camera out but there are only so many pictures you can take of a Joshua tree, mountains and desert. The road was straight, very little traffic, so put it in cruise control and relax. It did get a bit boring in the end and a few bends would have been nice.
After driving through the Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Johnson Valley, Mohave desert and Joshua Tree park, we finally made Barstow by early afternoon and stopped for a Starbucks, I needed a caffeine input badly. It was then on the interstate for about fifty miles, before we turned off again at Baker. It was raining as we came across the mountains. We had crossed several Indian reservations, but I didn't see any Indians, I told Linda to look out for them but she didn't spot any either.
The last thirty miles from Death Valley Junction were more entertaining as you came down from 2000 feet to the bottom about 214 feet below sea level. We arrived at the ranch and booked in, good news Linda likes her room.
On Wednesday I ticked off another item on my bucket list - running through Death Valley. I was up early, keen, as the sun rose and out running. I did a six mile loop including Mustard Canyon, it was mainly flat gravel roads and a reasonably quick time. it was great fun running in the valley, and could have gone further but didn't have time. I also took some great pictures but couldn't message them to Linda as there is no signal in the valley.
Linda was sitting on the balcony drinking her tea when I returned. She had been watching the sun rise from the comfort of our room, not too much effort involved there... We went to the local cafe for breakfast (the only cafe of course) and I had eggs and toast, Linda had blueberry pancakes.
After that it was time to pack the car up and leave, it was another 2 hour drive back to Las Vegas. We stopped at Zabriskie Point after about 10 minutes drive to have a look around, take several photos and admire the view. It is warm in Death Valley today, mid 60's. The road was empty and a pleasant drive, although I am getting slightly bored of desert, mountain, sky, it even makes I Spy difficult to play. The speed limit increased to 70 mph when we crossed the state line in Nevada and then joined the 95 road which goes straight into Vegas. We did go past the US airforce base at Indian Springs and saw several drones land and take off.
After 2 hours we were back in Vegas and Linda wanted to visit a craft store so I found her another one. She had a look around but did not actually buy anything. We then went to the Hotel, we are staying at the Hampton Inn, just off the Strip (the Trump was full). It is fine and does provide breakfast.
In the evening we went for a walk along the strip and had a meal. They are closing the Strip down at night for filming the new Jason Bourne movie. We saw some of the action, but not Matt Damon.
We have driven about 1050 miles, walked about 75 miles and I have run 35, not a bad effort overall. Thursday was a slow day, sort out some washing, packing the bags and going to the airport. Cold England here we come.
There are some more photos here.
Vegas here we come. We had travelled down to Gatwick on Saturday and were staying at the Hampton Inn linked to the airport. It much better than the Travelodge we normally use. The only downside was we had got soaking wet in the rain getting the luggage out of the car and then parking the car. I had dropped Linda off at the airport and she waited inside, although got rather wet just doing that bit. I then parked the car in the long stay car park, walked to the bus stop got the bus back and met Linda. She said she was at Costa, but there are two Costa's and I checked both and then she rang me to say she was outside, but I was inside. Finally we found each other and went to the hotel and booked in. It has a Starbucks in reception, what a good way to start our holiday. The room was very nice so I don't think Linda will want to go back to a Travelodge.
We had been to Tesco on route and so had some sarnies for our tea, Linda then decided to watch Midsummer Murders, I did some reading, I have had enough of murders for a few weeks...
On Sunday we got up about half six and then went to breakfast as it was included in the rate. After this Linda decided to repack her case for the sixth time (or maybe seventh) and then we could do the five minute walk to the terminal. It seems to be the day of queues. We had to queue to check in, queue through security and then queue for the plane. BA are moving to the South Terminal from the Autumn so the lounge is being refurbished. We therefore had to use the No 1 lounge, which does not have capacity for both its own customers and BA. There was limited seating, nowhere to charge devices and just 2 toilets for everyone, dismal.
It's a 10 hour 10 minute flight, so we boarded quickly and then settled down, time to watch some films. I watched the Bridge of Spies and found it interesting. Tom Hanks played the main role and I remember him from Run Forrest Run. I did have a little snooze and read the newspaper. I watched a couple of more films and the time passed reasonably quickly.
We landed about 1330, Las Vegas is about 8 hours behind UK time and the first thing we noticed was no rain! We cleared immigration quickly and then had to wait for our bags and the bus to the car rental centre. Finally we got our car, Toyota RAV4 and drove to the Trump hotel.
We have a room on the 24th floor with a nice view of the strip. We settled in before we went for a walk, we were trying to stay awake long enough and go to bed Las Vegas time. We had a wander and then came back, by 2000 (0400 UK time) we were dead on our feet and had to go to sleep.
The problem with going to bed early is you wake up early. On Monday we were both awake by 0630 and so I decided to go for a run and Linda went for a swim. We had never been to Vegas in the winter and it is cold. Fortunately the swimming pool is heated so Linda only got cold going in and out. I needed my winter running gear on. As everything is so large, it looks near, but it is not. I covered about 8 miles on my run, watching the sun rise over the strip, seeing the mountains surrounding the town appear out of the darkness. It felt good. The only downside is that you have to run up and down stairs to use the bridges to cross the streets, slows you down.
About 1000 we went out for a walk and to have some brunch at Hash a Go Go, a restaurant we had visited before. There was a queue and we waited about 25 minutes for a table. We had forgotten how big the portions were and really we should have ordered one between us and neither of us could finish, I know starving kids in Africa......
We then decided to go for a walk along the strip. Linda had never been to the 'Welcome to Vegas' sign so I said I will take her there, forgot to mention it was just under 4 miles to walk. We then continued walking to the Premium Outlets stores to have a look round. We did stop for a coffee. We could have got the bus back, but I saved $4 and we walked. It took a couple of hours and by the end of the day we had walked just under 17 miles, not bad.
As we had gone to bed early, we were awake early on Tuesday and up just after 0630. I did suggest to Linda we could leave early as it was a long drive, but it still took her ages to get ready, pack the case, repack the case and then be ready. It was 0830 before she was ready to load the car up. We have over three hundred miles to drive today (or rather I have) and most of it is on the same road. We were heading for Los Angeles and the route is simple just follow the interstate 5, so I did. Once I was on the freeway, I put cruise control on and sat back and relaxed, this is actually a journey where it would be good if the car drove itself. The route was scenic and as we came over the mountains and down in to the valleys it got warmer.
Our first stop was the Ronald Reagan Presidential museum and we arrived there just after 1400. It was an interesting museum, they had Airforce 1 and Marine 1 you could look around. The exhibits were all about his life and were rather engaging. We spent over two and a half hours wandering around, leaving just before closing time. It was then about an hours drive to our hotel, The Hollywood Dixie, which strangely enough is in Hollywood. Rush hour traffic is legendary in LA and certainly lived up to its reputation. We eventually arrived and were allocated a room, Linda didn't like it so we moved to one she did.
Our hotel is in the Thai district so we found a Thai restaurant. As it was reasonably full we worked on the principle it would be ok and it was. After all that driving I was tired so soon fell asleep.
On Wednesday I was awake just after 6, so decided to go for a run. I did say to Linda as she turned over I wouldn't be long... I headed out and started to run up hill, then found the Griffith Park and followed the road for three miles. The only slight problem was it was all up hill. I reached the top and had great views of the sun rising over LA. I could also see the famous Hollywood sign. I texted some photos to Linda so she could enjoy the moment. There was an Observatory at the top, it is on the south facing slope of Mount Hollywood and has been there since 1935. There were a few runners and dog walkers about. I saw a nice trail run ( although had the wrong shoes) to get to the bottom and so I followed that, it was a good choice as it cut a mile off the descent, and of course it is easier running down. I stopped at Starbucks to get Linda a coffee and some breakfast, always looking after my wife.....
We were going to use public transport today and bought an all day ticket for the metro. Our first stop was Universal studios and there was a nice uphill walk to the main part. Linda said it was miles up, but I measured it on the way down and it was only a quarter of a mile. There was a free shuttle, but I forgot to tell Linda about it till we had reached the top. We didn't go into the park, but looked round the city and shops.
Our next stop was Hollywood and we walked along the street looking at the stars, most we have not heard of. It was warm today and the sun was shining. We wandered along sunset boulevard and then as we were hungry went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We got back on the metro and went downtown to Union Station. It was an interesting building, built in the 1930's. Linda took some photos and then we had a wander around downtown, seeing the different architecture, the old and the new.
After catching the metro back to the hotel, it was time to take the car for a little trip, up the hill to the observatory, Linda wanted to see the views and the Hollywood sign. We drove up here and it was packed, cars everywhere, people everywhere, I preferred it in the morning, but Linda got the photos she wanted. We could also see the smog over the city.
Thursday was another early start although no time to run. We were moving off to the next location so had to pack our bags and load up the car. This meant that Linda followed her normal ritual of packing and repacking her suitcase. We were ready for just after half eight and ventured out into the LA traffic. It was bad as usual, it seems like rush hour lasts all day.
We (or rather I ) had decided we would go to visit Santa Monica on the coast. Baywatch (for those who are old enough to remember it) was based on a similar beach set up. It took about 90 minutes to get there and it is only 15 miles. We finally arrived and found a parking space, it was not free and even though I only wanted to stay for a couple of hours, you had to pay to stay all day. We had a walk along the beach, not very crowded but there were no life guards on duty, never happened in Baywatch... We visited the pier, which according to the literature is a world famous one, but it is not as long as Southend's. We saw the spot where Route 66 ends and took the customary pictures. The idea was to have breakfast overlooking the beach, but there were no cafes open, it is the winter season and was slightly cold, although compared to UK it is roasting.
We found a cafe and I had a nice egg burrito while Linda was very adventurous and had porridge. We then had another little walk before returning to the car. Our next stop was Vermin city, also known as Disneyland, full of mice.... It was about 40 miles away, the traffic had improved slightly, although the Americans drive in all lanes, criss cross lanes, undertake, overtake, pull out in front of you so driving is hard work and you need to concentrate. It took just over an hour as the traffic situation had improved slightly and I found the hotel The Best Western Plus Park Place Inn. I had told Linda it was next to Disneyland but she didn't believe me, it is directly opposite the main gate, you fall out of bed into the park.
The hotel allowed us to check in early, so we unpacked the car, had a cup of coffee and then went to Downtown Disney. There were several security checks to get anywhere, even though we were not going into the park itself. Linda was happy on the outside taking a few pictures of vermin, railways and Lego. We are doing the Star Wars 5K tomorrow and needed to pick up out 'packets' today which have our race numbers on them. We also had a look around the health expo and I found some running gear I didn't have, new headband which is made of material that cools you down.
The queues for the official merchandise were too long so we didn't bother. Downtown Disney has a Starbucks so we sat outside drinking our coffee in our t-shirts reading about the snow and freezing conditions back home. We wandered back through security and had a walk around the hotel area. Then it was back to the room and Linda needed to sort the washing out, I did my bit by supplying the clothes (and the coins), always like to help out.
On Friday the alarm went off at 0330, what a silly time of the day to get up, especially when you are not on call. However, we had signed up for the Disneyland Star Wars 5k race and you had to be there at 0430 for a 0530 start. I have never seen Star Wars so didn't recognise any of the characters. We had a porridge pot and banana to fuel us before we left and then it was a long walk across the road to Disneyland. It was actually over a mile to the start line (doesn't say that in the brochure). I was in corral A and Linda in B. We had a look round, joined a queue (because everyone else was queuing) and had our photo taken, not sure with what.
At 0500 we went to our corrals and I said goodbye to Linda, see you at the finish line. I was under instructions not to run too fast and take pictures rather then hacking it round. At 0530 we were off and it was slow, mainly because people in the fast corral weren't fast and some were even walking. I got past a few and settled into my stride. The first mile went round the outside of the park, so I stretched my legs. The second mile went through the Disneyland Park so I took a couple of photos. I was near the front of the pack so could have a good view, I even stopped for a photo with BB-8 (had to Google the image to find out who it was) and then carried on running. The run goers through the second park, Disney Californian Adventure and then into downtown Disney before finishing by the hotel. I finished in just over 24 minutes. - which means I didn't hammer it round! Linda had started later than me so I sat at the stage area and waited. She finished in a good time and then we had our photo taken together (how romantic). It was not even 7am!
We went back to the hotel, showered and went for the buffet breakfast. There were kids everywhere, should be an adults only area. Although we had been up hours, it was just after 8, so we sat in the room and read. Linda wanted to go to Walmart to have a look round, she had a list of things to buy, just unfortunate she was in Walmart and the list was at the hotel. This didn't stop her buying some things. We had a look round a few more shops, I found a coffee shop and sat there while Linda wandered around a few more shops.
You can see some photos here.
