Santa Monica and Los Angeles City

On our tour of Los Angeles, our first stop was Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Sunset Plaza where all the hippies used to hang out. We visited the hotel where Pretty Woman was filmed, The Beverly Wilshire. The restrooms were quite elegant. I'm not sure why they put up with tourist coming in and checking out the place. I was surprised at how few people were out on the streets walking around.

The next stop was Grauman's Chinese Theatre where we saw all kinds of make believe stars wandering around with the crowd. We walked to the top of the shopping area adjacent to the theatre and took pictures of the famous Hollywood sign. We ate at Johnny Rockets restaurant in the mall area. It was nothing special - a hamburger is a hamburger.

Our bus then climbed the hill to the overlook where we could see some of the stars' homes. We didn't drive by any of them. This was disappointing but was proclaimed by the tour guide to be our exciting, extra special grand finale for the tour. I think he just wanted to get off early on Friday afternoon and was itching to ditch us and skip the last hour of our tour. Don't take LA City Tours; take Gray Line Tours.

Since our tour was cut short we decided to drive to the Farmers Market in Hollywood. This was much more exciting than the tour. Mark went to CBS Studio and got tickets for The Price Is Right show while Joyce and I shopped and ate. I've never seen such a huge selection of every kind of food and fresh vegetables and fruits that I could imagine. That was fun; don't miss it when you are in town. You could spend a good part of the day just wandering around and talking with folks.

AMAZING L.A. TOURS (amazingly disappointing)

The BIGGEST disappointment on our trip was by far our tour of L.A. and Hollywood.

On this trip we tried a different tour company...Amazing L. A. Tours. We were on the morning "1 A" tour. This was suppose to be the basic Hollywood tour. It was advertised in their own brochure as a "5 hour tour." In fact, it was around 3 1/2 hours long and the tour didn't even go to all the listed areas. Our guide left off the Universal City Walk. A spokesperson for the company told me the 5 hours included travel time from our hotel and back to our hotel. Even counting the travel time the tour lasted only about 4 hours.

I really felt sorry for the visitors on the tour from foreign countries. They were confused as to why such a short tour and why we didn't go to the Universal City Walk. I was sitting next to a few of them and advised them on other tours that were available and directions to other points of interest.

PARENTS BEWARE: OUR TOUR GUIDE (BERNARD) WAS VERY "POTTY-MOUTHED" WITH MUCH VERY BAD LANGUAGE!!

Folks my advice to you... use Gray Line Tours!

Fire On the Mountain on the Way to Santa Monica

On Hwy 60 we drove Superstition Mountain Drive seeing palm trees and very large cactus. We were in Phoenix, Arizona by 7:30am local time and got on Interstate 10 to head for the California coast. As we crossed the California state line we began to see fields of crops and orange groves. Joshua Tree National Park is beautiful although we didn't take time to stop on this trip.

We took a potty break and filled up the tank with gas at the Pilot on I-10 in Palm Springs. Wind farms are everywhere on the mountains. We heard on CNN about the wildfire there in Palm Springs, looked up and saw the flames coming across the mountain. We put our Sirius radio in the rental car for the trip. It's great having news channels and a big variety of music to choose from. Though Mark is a bit of a hog with it comes to entertainment control.

We didn't do a lot of stopping for pictures and were in Santa Monica, California by 3:00pm local time. By the time we navigated down to the water and found a motel within walking distance of the pier it was dinner time. We spent two nights at the Travelodge. They dickered a bit on the rate which made Mark happy. The manager, Paul was very helpful with setting up our city tour and the cleaning staff went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed in our room.

Dinner was at a very nice little Italian place called Il Fornaio. My stuffed shells were wonderful and the prices were reasonable. We walked around on the pier and talked with people. Around the corner from the restaurant we found a little hole in the wall place called the Coffee Cup Bakery to get homemade pastries and really good coffee. A sweet little lady from Vietnam ran the place. You could tell all the locals knew her and she took care of everyone like family.

We bought an incredible original oil painting from a very talented artist on the pier. I'm sure our $10 investment will pay off handsomely when it's time to cash in and retire. While strolling on the pier, we also met David Hart and he did a caricature of us. I made the mistake of asking him to make us look better than what he saw. We could have been movie stars by the time he finished. It amazed me at how all his clients seemed to look a lot alike. David was also a church organist and was looking for a new church. You can reach him at hart7319@aol.com. He's willing to relocate. We bought one of his CDs -- well it was a package deal with the portrait. It was well worth the $5 investment. His vocal talents and musical arrangements are like nothing I've ever heard before.

We tried Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for dinner the second night. It was all hype. The food was nothing special and the service in the restaurant was very slow. Mark made friends with the gals running the souvenir shop.

Historical Route 66 ends in Santa Monica. When Route 66 was originally built it ran across the nation from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. This was the first major highway that connected the western part of the nation with the eastern. As families began purchasing automobiles, travel across the nation began to become popular. Family vacations along Route 66, staying in the "down and out" motels and eating at the "mom and pop" restaurants was the way to go. Tourist attractions began to pop up along the route and many skeletons of them remain.

El Morrow National Monument & Salt River Canyon

At Grants, New Mexico we left I-40 and turned south on scenic SR 53. With the rented Hertz car we had their navigational system - NeverLost. I started plugging in some of the towns we wanted to go through and let the system give us directions. Most of the time it was great. We did find that the system would be even better if you could program that you wanted to get to your destination via certain roads. We wanted to wander along some of the scenic highways and NeverLost didn't want to cooperate sometimes. We worked around it by programming in some of the little towns that were on the highways we wanted to travel instead of our day's destination town.

El Morro National Monument was next. We saw where Indians and other historic travelers carved their names all along the huge rocks as they came through the area. The pool of water at the base of the rock was a nice place for earlier travelers to stop and rest. The rocks contain too many carvings to get pictures of all of them - over 2000. Several languages are represented and it was very interesting to learn about their heartaches and worries as they were traveling back then.

While at El Morro, we took time out to phone our friend Gwen and sing happy birthday to her. She was sweet 16 that day. We talked the park ranger into joining us with the singing.

We didn't have time to stop, but check out the Pueblo Indian Community in Arizona. The scenery is wonderful. After we crossed the Arizona state line near St. Johns on Arizona SR 61, the navigational system took us on a surprise little scenic drive on US Hwy 180/191 by the Lyman Lake State Park. We never did figure out why, but It was worth the extra hour or so. At Show Low we were back on US Hwy 60.

Salt River Canyon was next. The road is narrow and winding. Pictures don't do the scenery justice. I'm glad I wasn't driving - I couldn't take my eyes off the incredible views.






Dinner was at the Country Kitchen in Globe, Arizona - a friendly little restaurant. Sylvia was our server and she was also the cook and worked the checkout counter. We stayed at the Motel 6 there in Globe. The rooms were very nice but their claim to have Internet connections was a joke. No one in the office had a clue about how to fix or even reboot the system.

Clines Corners & The Laguna Mission

Day Two - We were up early, almost before sunrise, itching to get on the road. Our first stop was Clines Corners in New Mexico. Here is their official website. I got a breakfast burrito to go there - not bad for a greasy spoon truck stop type place without the trucks. This place has a good selection of tourist type stuff. We're always looking for postcards, t-shirts, and my daughter collects glasses.

Next stop was Laguna, New Mexico and the old mission on the top of the hill. The Pueblo Indians go back to the 1300's and the mission dates back to 1699. When the children in the community are not in school be prepared to have them swarm your vehicle and try to sell you pottery and other handmade items. We found Laguna Superette, a little convenient store and bought some very good tamales for lunch. The ladies behind the counter were so sweet and friendly. Of course we checked out the restrooms - clean and tidy.

The Bandera Volcano and Ice Caves in New Mexico was next on our trip. It wasn't very cold that day, so we didn't find a lot of icecicles in the cave. The land is privately owned. They have a very nice little gift shop and friendly people - the Old Time Trading Post. The family runs the operation. You can pan for gold or whatever gems you think you might find. They also have cabins to rent; it would be a neat little getaway. If you go, be sure to check out all the twisted and gnarled trees.

On the Road Again

We left Knoxville, Tennessee on October 23 around 6:30pm and drove all the way across the state on I-40 through Memphis and Arkansas only stopping for gas and potty breaks and a couple of hamburgers. We did take a little nap at a rest area in Arkansas during the early morning hours.

By day light we were in Oklahoma just in time to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The guard there was very helpful showing us the layout of the monuments and helping us find the memorial for one of our friends - Ted Allen.

We crossed the Chisholm Trail near Yukon, Oklahoma.

Dinner was at Del's Restaurant in Tucumcari, New Mexico with Jackie Smith serving us a great meal. The chicken enchiladas are excellent. I asked for extra salsa and was pleasantly surprised with almost a bowl full of the hot spicy stuff. Jackie was great.

Close to the Curio exit in New Mexico, we stopped where we found a little ghost community running along both sides of I-40. The town thrived when they had a train stop. After the train no longer ran and the interstate diceted it the folks all moved away leaving property and vehicles behind. Today, only a couple of homes are occupied. All the businesses are closed and the church is being maintained by one of the remaining residents.

Other than those brief stops, we didn't take time to stop much this time on the way out, passing up the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo and of course the Cadillac Ranch. The first night (in a real bed) was spent in Santa Rosa, New Mexico (1300 miles from home) at the Motel 6. We look for what Mark calls "down and out" type motels. He prefers to park at the door and not lug suitcases up and down stairs. Motel 6 is predictably clean and cheap.

Not bad for the first 24 hours.
Sharon Cawood

BACK FROM THE AMERICAN WEST...

Everyone, we are back from our trip to the American west.

Lots of laughs, lots of American beauty, only one disappointment...(a Los Angles tour company).

More about the tour later. HINTS ABOUT THE TOUR: The L.A. tour had a "potty-mouthed" guide. The "5 - Hour" advertised tour was in fact only 3 1/2 hours long...more later.

We visited the Oklahoma City bombing site, ice caves in New Mexico, Palm Springs fires, Santa Monica, California, Madonna Inn, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Zion Park, Bryce Park, the Grand Staircase Park, and the Capitol Reef Park.

All coming up latter... 5,400 + miles of auto touring.

SURPRISES ALONG THE WAY

CUMBERLAND INN - Williamsburg, Kentucky
Great food, elegant dining and has a wonderful weekend buffet at breakfast, lunch, dinner for around $9.00. Homemade is the keyword here. The food is wonderful. A Yamaha piano is playing for the guests. .

BIG TEXAN RESTAURANT- Amarillo, Texas
You see the signs about 700 miles away advertising it...by the time you get there you think of it as your best friend. "FREE - 72 oz. STEAK DINNER if eaten in one hour" the sign says. Yes, it's true. Several thousand have tried, about 4,000 folks have succeeded.

CLINES CORNERS TRAVEL CENTER - Clines Corners, New Mexico
Again you see the signs about 100 miles away. "Worth waiting for" so the sign says. It's more of a travel center in the middle of New Mexico's high desert. Post cards, post office, gas, and restrooms are here. The food is somewhat yucky to fair. Food is moderately priced.

THE GIANT PILOT TRAVEL CENTER - close to Gallup, New Mexico
Now this is a great surprise in the middle of nowhere. It is like a mini mall. Everything you need is here! A store, gas, post office, food, (plenty of it) NICE restrooms await you. It's all here!!

ANGEL'S BARBER SHOP - Siligman, Arizona
Off Interstate 40, this is a MUST STOP! Angel Delgadillo is the shop owner and is one of the original folks to start the Route 66 restoration movement.