Day 7, LA - Death Valley - Las Vegas, hot hot hot

Los Angeles to Las Vegas via Death Valley

We were out of LA after a great stay at Rees' place and a great tour in the city by 11:30am. Thank you very much man, the best guide ever. Good luck with your degree!

We hit death valley at sunset and had a fabulous view of the area. The ride was almost a religious experience. Even though the sun set the heat was incredible, almost unbearable.

Coming down to Vegas around midnight is an incredible sight. We cruised down the Strip almost right away. And what a sight. We almost drove on several red lights cause it was difficult to tell them apart from all the other lights. Seeing all the big hotels and casinos like the Mirage and Cecars Palace was really something special. Very difficult to describe. Staying at a cheap motel downtown in three small separate rooms. Really late now. Heading out around 9 am tomorrow for Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.

Day 6, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Hollywood

Waking up after only 4 hours is not what you want before a full day in LA, but that happened. We each found us a sofa that wasn't occupied, but Erik's was on the balcony so he was awake by sunrise. After following Rees over to the UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) and a nice tour around there, Erik, Martin and me turned off the GPS and headed towards downtown LA. Then we moved over to Hollywood to find the famous sign in the hills there, going from the sign down to Beverly Hills, were we found some small houses (*irony) and then over to Venice Beach where Erik got scammed in to buying a couple of pretty expensive CD's. By the time we were done the whole day had passed. The nice thing about a car, is that we really get to see a lot in a short time. Tomorrow we will head out in the desert towards Death Valley and Las Vegas.

Day 5, Santa Cruz - Los Angeles and Rees with the Buick

Day 5. Waking up around 8:30 in the morning, we were fit for the trip down to LA. After breakfast with homemade eggs, we had a short walk around the neighborhood with Robin and the pooley-rasta-dog. We also had the pleasure to meet Karl who is a teacher in calligraphy. We even got to see some of his work, witch was really great. Before we left, we made a short stop by the Santa Cruz police station. There we got the tour around the station by a really great sergeant who was more than happy to answer all the questions coming at him. Patches was traded, and we were all set for LA.

Then we started our drive towards Los Angeles. We turned on the A/C right from the start because the day was already getting pretty hot. Heading inland really changed the landscape really fast, from green to brown. See Flickr.com for some shots. After a few hours we had to take a brake from the driving, and getting out of the car was a small shock. The cool and friendly air in Santa Cruz had suddenly turned baking hot and very dry. We went through some huge oil fields, and had another McAngus for dinner. (McAngus is in fact a really good burger witch I for some reason think we haven't seen the last of).

Closing up on LA after 6.5hours the flat everlasting terrain started to get some hills again. By the time we arrived our destination, it was already 8pm. Rees, Robins son welcomed us into his house of study (and party) like we had known each other for ages. After some burgers, Erik suddenly became Michael Davis Regan and we hit the Sunset Boulevard for some beers. The drive over there was really great. Rees has this old blue Buick without a grill, but otherwise in pristine condition. So with that car, and a huge stereo we cruised down the streets of LA. Before we went back home, we stopped for fried chicken and waffles! That was...interesting.

4 am, means time to sleep.

Day 4, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Robin

Day 4 has passed. We, witch includes the one year old twins Piper and Pason, woke up at 6 am. After two cups of coffee and saying goodbye to Brian and the twins, we went for another round of monster-breakfast on Dipsea's. We had another drive in San Francisco and then started our drive south by the coastline to Santa Cruz where we were going to see Robin. Robin also has connections into Martin's family. The drive by the Pasific ocean was wonderful, with a rough coastline and huge waves caving in on the rocks. There was also sea lions right off the shore. On the way we stopped in this small village right off the highway and ate really good italian style pizza. The drive to Santa Cruz took us about 5 hours with breaks included. Finally there we were welcomed by Robin, who lives in this big old beautiful house with a huge garden. She even had chickens in the back yard giving her fresh eggs. Later on she lend us three bicycles and we went for a ride round Santa Cruz witch was really nice. A few hours later we met up for dinner, and had the best burritos I've ever tasted. The beer was really good too, a San Francisco brand. On the way home, we stopped by a cool record store witch also had used vinyl, and I even found some really nice ones to take home. Tonight we will sleep a bit longer to be ready for tomorrow's drive down towards Los Angeles...

This is where you go for pictures and video!

Pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66819215@N00/

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Urheia

Day 3, San Francisco, Chinatown and rental car.

So, we started out with getting up at 7am, and for some reason we all felt pretty fresh and there was really no jet-lag. Even better, Jodi took us to Dipsea for a real american breakfast. One egg, two slices of bacon, fried potatoes and two pancakes with maple sirup, a huge breakfast. Then we headed over to pick up our car for the trip. That was quite a struggle, because we turned out to be one day early due to our rental contract. Well, thanks to Yusuf, we got a car the same day after a few hours walking through chinatown. And then, several hours, and dollars (actually 380$ extra) later we got out with a really nice Ford Edge. Then after a small drive downtown, during rush hour we got back to 414 Ash Street where Brian and Bodi was waiting with a fabulous meal, beer and vine. Great!

Day 2, LHR - JFK - PHX - SFO

Dag 2. London Heathrow - New York JFK - Phoenix - San Francisco. Total flytid 6t 45min + 6 timer JFK - San Fransisco.

Ok, så mange toast og kopper kaffe senere kom vi oss endelig på flyet fra Terminal 5, Heathrow til John F Kennedy

airport i New York. Flyturen tok 6t 45min. Fremme på JFK med 4 timer til rådighet, benyttet Erik muligheten til å smake på

en super lokal rett "Home Style Chicken Soup". Eriks egen kommentar til supppa: Enssma

ka. Jeg og Martin koser oss med hver vår øl. Martin gikk for en Budweiser, og jeg for Heineken. Erik

gikk for vann, ettersom aldersgrensen for å kjøpe alkohol er 21 år i stort sett hele USA. Erik syns av den enkle grunn at USA er "et slentent land". Vi får se om det endrer seg etterhvert. Flyet går videre til San Francisco 3:59 PM lokal tid.

And this is the point where we welcome our first international followers! So for here on end we have to use our fabulous english skills in the blog, so please be patient reading in the following days.

So, after 4 h 45min from NY to Phoenix, then two hours waiting and then 2 h 45min from Phoenix to San Francisco we finally finished flying for a while. We had the great pleasure of being picked up at the airport by Jodi, who knows a big part of Martin's family. She studied in Norway 25 yars ago. It was pretty late in the evening, but she was there waiting for us! And after waiting for our luggage for a long time we finally go out of the airport (God I hate airport

s now, and toast..). On the way back to Jodi's house in Mill Valley, she took us on a drive through central San Francisco witch was great. Golden great bridge by night was a stunning sight even though we were tired as never before.

Dag 1, London, toast og ingen søvn...

Dag 1. Oslo lufthavn Gardermoen - Heathrow, London. Flytid: 1time 45 minutter. Opphold på flyplass: ca 7,5 timer.

Ja, ikke den lengste flyturen, men startskuddet for reisen. Heathrow er riktignok en diger lufthavn, men du verden for en kjip og lite publikumsvennlig plass. Vi hadde håpet på noen stoler designet for folk som er nødt til å overnatte på flyplassen, til og med Gardermoen har jo det, men den gang ei. Stålbenker med armlene mellom hvert sete, som gjør det umulig å ligge ned for en hvil. Ifølge airport information er årsaken å holde "hobos" borte. Vi endte derfor opp med å kjøpe oss inn på café Costa som visstnok skal holde åpent hele natten. Til nå har det gått med to kopper kaffe, tre toast, tre flasker vann og en liten pakke med "All butter Mini Shortbread - topped with a sprinkle of shugar", eller "kjeks" direkte oversatt. Vi blir nok VIP's på Costa før dagen gryr... Flyet til New York går 08:50 i morgen tidlig, og jeg og Erik skal få testet ut alle typene av toast som serveres her før vi drar videre. Vi har studert USA-kartet til Martin og fått klarlagt at vi kommer til å holde oss i den sørlige delen av landet.

www.lindstol.com

Kom du ikke hit via hjemmesiden, sjekk ut www.lindstol.com for mer info om turen og linker til sider jeg/vi kommer til å benytte oss av underveis.

Alt klart for avreise?

Det nærmer seg, med stormskritt. Tirsdag 23.06.09 reiser vi fra Oslo lufthavn Gardermoen. Nå er det siste gjennomgang av pakkelista og ærend som må gjøres før turen starter. Går egentlig bare og teller timer nå.