On the Edge of Meteor Crater, Arizona

We left Solvang for Yuma on Tuesday, only to find that the one attraction in Yuma (the Territorial State Prison Park) was closed. Boo-urns. The original plan was to spend a night in Yuma to visit the prison, but since it was closed and there’s nothing else worth looking at there, we left to spend the night in Tucson, Arizona.

While we were en route to Tucson, we realized that we had almost missed a major Arizona Attraction: the meteor crater! Because Morten has wanted to visit the crater since he was a kid, we made a huge detour up to Phoenix so we could visit the crater and the Petrified Forest National Park beside it the next day.

The Meteor Crater

It’s a big hole. A really really big hole. It’s probably the biggest hole I’ll ever see in my life (it fits ~20 football fields, is 2,400 meters across, and 170 meters deep), but it’s still a hole. Ok, ok — I’ll admit it’s kinda cool that we got to see something that was made by a giant meteorite from outer space about 50,000 years ago. But still…

Meteor Crater is privately owned, which is why the admission price is more than most nationally funded attractions at $15 US per person. The admission fee includes a one-hour tour around part of the crater rim (1 mile), viewing of a short film about the crater, and admission to the little museum.

Want more stats about Meteor Crater? Check out their website HERE. I’m not going to talk about the history of the crater on my blog because if you read that before going, you’re going to be very bored on the tour.

Tips for Travellers to Meteor Crater

1. 

   Meteor Crater

   If you’re going on the one-hour tour, don’t bother reading the poster boards in the museum beforehand. I did that while we were waiting for the tour to start, and there’s so much repetition between the museum, the movie and the tour that I got a bit annoyed.

2. Wear closed-toed shoes if you want to go on the one-hour tour because it’s mandatory.
3. Don’t buy petrified wood (or anything else for that matter) at the gift shop because the items there are ridiculously overpriced. You can get free petrified wood at random stops towards the Petrified Forest National Park (there are signs). You can also find desert roses cheaper at other souvenir shops in the states (it was over $35 for a small desert rose at Meteor Crater, compared to $8 at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque).
4. There’s no such thing as a jackalope (jack rabbit with antelope ears). I’m so gullible that I actually believed the postcards and made a fool of myself by making a comment about them out loud.
5. Eat before you visit the crater because the only restaurant around there is the Subway beside the gift shop and they charge more than normal (the same $6 sandwich at a Subway less than an hour away cost $8 at Meteor Crater).
6. Take a look through the free telescopes at the Meteor Crater viewing area to see if you can find the cardboard space man in the crater. Very cute!

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Posing in front of the Hollywood sign

LA has the scariest freeway / highway system I’ve ever come across (worse than driving in Russia!). We came so close to being hit by tailgaters, non-signalers, and crazy weavers in the six to eight lane concrete monstrosities that less than 10 minutes in, I knew I could never live in Los Angeles. We actually considered leaving LA right after dropping Kim off at his hotel for his conference.

The city of angels is stupidly large. It’s really a bunch of big cities meshed into one that takes two to three hours to drive across. I’m sure there are lots of people who love the hustle and bustle of LA, but I’m not one of them. The idea of driving through that concrete jungle to get to work each day is just sheer madness in my books. SHEER MADNESS!

Unfortunately, LA’s metro system isn’t the best in the world and when it takes over an hour to drive from one major attraction to the next, we weren’t about to spend even more time trying to commute it. Our AAA guidebook both warns of the dangers of driving in LA while saying that it’s the best way to get around in the same paragraph.

The crowd at the 4th Annual Taste of Soul in LA

When we stopped at the AAA office for information, we stumbled across a street festival called Taste of Soul. Apparently it’s the largest street festival in LA so we were really lucky to have come across it. We may have stuck out quite a bit (Morten in particular since there was only one other caucasian person in the entire crowd) but no one seemed to care. Everyone was friendly and the food was uber-good!

We walked through the festival for a while before deciding on which food booth to buy from. As soon as I saw the booth advertising authentic Jamaican food, my mind was made up! I haven’t come across any good Jamaican food in Vancouver and I remember how delicious my first Jamaican patty was. It was my last semester at SFU and my professor for International Marketing (June Francis — sidenote: if you’re an SFU Biz student, take BUS 447 with her. Great class!) brought in a few boxes of Jamaican patties for us to try. I LOVED them but haven’t found anything that even comes close to their yumminess since. The Jamaican patties at Taste of Soul were less than adequate. But, we also ordered jerk chicken and it was ridiculously good. The meat was tender, the sauce was flavourful and the outside was perfectly barbequed and smokey.

Posing in front of the famous Kodak Theatre

After Taste of Soul, we drove over to Hollywood and did the Walk of Fame. It was over 30 degrees outside and I didn’t have any shorts so I was melting away under the scorching sun in my jeans and coated with SPF 85 sunblock. I couldn’t take it anymore so I bought a pair of shorts at Zara.

The Walk of Fame is a bit of a joke since practically everyone has a star (including Godzilla) and for the most part the star impersonators look like ordinary folk dressed for Halloween (the Marilyn Monroe we saw was about 50 years too old for the part) — we did see a good pirate and a decent Superman though. We did a bit of window shopping along Hollywood Boulevard, saw some unsuspecting Japanese tourists get mobbed by a group of Zombie walkers, took some cheesy photos, and left for Santa Monica.

Santa Monica pier looks a lot bigger in the movies than it does in real life. It’s still a nice place for an evening stroll though and a refreshing getaway from the traffic congested city. We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and played Forrest Gump trivia with our waiter. The service there is fabulous by the way. Our waiter was very charismatic, funny and went out of his way to make sure we were happy. We tipped well.

Before we left the next morning, we made sure to visit a lookout point for the Hollywood sign to take one last dorky photo. Visit Morten’s post (when he gets around to it) for directions to the best lookout point.

Bubba Gump Trivia

Ang playing with the drink menu at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

(Answers are on the bottom of this post)

1. What was the colour of Jenny’s shoes when she got married?
2. What is the name of Forrest Gump’s home town?
3. Is Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. a real company?
4. Other than running, name two sports that Forrest played.
5. Forrest made two really good friends in the army. What are their names?

Tips for Travellers to LA

1. A GPS is a must if you’re planning on driving in LA. LA has a complicated freeway system — so complicated in fact that AAA has a map just for the freeways.
2. You can find cheap parking in Hollywood at the Kodak Theatre. It’s $2 for the first four hours with validation. You can get your ticket validated if you buy something at any of the stores and I believe the cheapest item is a piece of fruit ($1) from the coffee stand on the parking level one floor below the ticket payment office. They also sell coffee, cold beverages, and a few small snacks at the stand.
3. The cheapest parking near Santa Monica pier is about a block before you reach it coming from Hollywood (just before McDonald’s on your right) — $3 flat fee after 6pm.
4. It’s best to go to LA when you have a reason to go (ex. conference, concert etc). Although LA has many small touristy spots, they’re very far apart so if you don’t have another reason to be in that area, you may be disappointed at how little there is to see or how long it takes you to get from one place to the next.
5. If you plan on going to any of the theme parks or major attractions around the area (ex. Universal Studios — which is fun; I went as a kid), check your hotel / motel lobby beforehand for flyers. They usually have coupons for up to $10 off per admission.

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Answers to Bubba Gump Trivia

1. Jenny wasn’t wearing any shoes at her wedding.
2. Greenbow, Alabama.
3. No. The restaurant chain was made after the movie and is Forrest Gump themed.
4. Football and ping pong.
5. Lieutenant Dan & Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue.

I won $24.30 off of a $1 at Bellagio!

We had driven an entire day to get from Redding, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was exhausting, but at least we avoided the main highways by taking the mountain pass route.

Approaching Vegas was overwhelming.You drive through miles of desert nothingness so dark at night that you can see the milky way and stars litter the skies like icing sugar on a chocolate cake. Then, you begin to approach a city of lights so bright you wonder if something is going to short circuit. The city gets bigger and bigger, and so do the buildings and towers. Suddenly you’re driving (or rather inching) along The Strip and your senses are overwhelmed by the stench of hundreds of people, the sounds of commercials and outdoor performances playing one after the other telling you that “Leanne Rhimes is performing at the Luxor” “Watch the #1 musical performance..” “Rated #1 show in all of Las Vegas” etc. as if you were on the set of Minority Report, and the bright lights twinkle, flash, and move across the buildings around you all trying to entice you to spend money at their resort. It’s an epileptic person’s worse nightmare.

I can’t say I was keen on staying in Vegas when we first arrived. I normally avoid big cities when I travel. But, by the end of two days, I wished we could’ve stayed at least one more night because there was so much to do and too little time to do it all.

This was my second visit to Vegas as an adult. The first trip was in 2007 for five days and that was just the right amount of time to see some shows, shop at the outlet mall, and go through all the hotels on The Strip. Two days is not enough time.

Sidenote: Please don’t take your kids to Vegas. I went once as a kid and hated it because I wasn’t allowed to step into any area that had gambling (including restaurant seats that had gaming screens), which pretty much meant I couldn’t go anywhere because there are machines everywhere! It’s also not a good idea to bring your kids because there are dozens upon dozens of people along the streets handing out graphic stripper and prostitute cards to anyone who walks by. Even if you avoid them, the cards cover the sidewalks like confetti after a New Years Eve party.

Worthwhile Things to Do in Vegas

1. 

   ‘Tastes of the World’ at the Coke shop is also worthwhile. It’s $7 for 2 trays of pop from around the world or $8 for a tray of floats.

   Spend an entire afternoon walking down The Strip and visiting all the different hotels. It may look like a small street, but it takes a really long time to walk from one end to the next. Each hotel has an underlying theme and most have free daily shows (ex. Bellagio’s water show outside, Treasure Island’s Siren’s show, Caesar’s Palace afternoon show etc.). There are tons of cheesy photo opportunities and fun to be had.

2. Take in a show. I would go to at least one major show like a Cirque du Soleil performance, and maybe one of the smaller burlesque shows for kicks. Ticket prices may be high for a Cirque show, but it’s worth it.
3. Devote an afternoon to shopping at the Outlet Mall. Like everything else in Vegas, the Outlet Mall is oversized and will take an afternoon to get through.
4. Try a buffet and don’t skimp on it. Avoid the ones that are $7.99 and treat yourself to a nice one — budget $20 for lunch or $30 for dinner.

Tips for Travellers to Vegas

1. Book your hotel room online and ahead of time! Booking your Vegas hotel room online is always cheaper than booking a room in person.
2. Be aware that the hotels have begun charging an extra “resort fee” that range from $10 to $25 per night. This may make your cheap room more expensive than the nicer room at the more expensive hotel.
3. Prices for rooms change throughout the day, so if you have the time, check the prices a few times over the course of a couple of days to get the best deal.
4. If you don’t know what show you want to watch, visit places like Tix4Tonight at the Coke store for discounted tickets. Be aware that they charge a $5 fee so it’s worth it to buy tickets for expensive shows but not so much for the smaller shows.
5. If you want to catch a Cirque du Soleil performance, you might have to purchase them online ahead of time for good seats (depending on the show). Ka and Love usually have discounted day of tickets, but O is usually sold out by the day before.
6. If you want to get a discount on Cirque du Soleil performances and don’t mind sitting on your own, you can get discounted single seats at the booking desk. There were only ‘limited vision’ seats left when we got there so we bought individual seats scattered in the nicer sections of the theatre that were much cheaper — the ‘limited vision’ seats cost about $120 while the seats that we got that are normally worth around $170 only cost us around $120. You can’t talk during the performance anyways and you won’t want to look away from the stage to look at your friend / partner either.
7. If you want to change your seat, you can always try to go to the booking desk an hour before a performance to check if anyone has refunded their tickets last minute.
8. 

   CSI: The Experience — Worst Vegas attraction EVER.

   Do NOT go to CSI: The Experience. I seriously want a refund!! It was $30 to go in and it’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever paid for. It’s supposed to give you the experience of solving a crime on your own. I thought that at the very least the crime scenes would be detailed and realistic like they have in the show. But no. The crime scene looked like the set of a high school’s haunted house and the “experience” consisted of going through a few rooms and filling out a form with information that’s hand-fed to you on posters and interactive computer screens. I actually felt like they should be paying ME to go through it. At the end of it I actually did ask for a refund but the guy said he couldn’t do it. He also said that lots of people complain about it being crap, after which I thought “then why the hell didn’t you tell us not to go in!?!” Ugh.

9. If you want to gamble a bit, take out $x from your wallet (the amount you’re willing to pay for the experience of gambling) and put your wallet away until you’re out of the casino. This helps to prevent overgambling.
10. If you want free alcoholic drinks, just sit in front of a slot machine for a while and bet a few cents every minute or so. Waitresses will come around and ask if you want something to drink. It’s complimentary and a really cheap way to get buzzed before you hit the clubs. I’ve heard this works better if you’re female with a female friend (men don’t get as many drinks). Be aware that the drinks contain much more hard alcohol than you may be used to. You can also order non-alcoholic drinks.
11. I’ve heard that you’re more likely to win on a slot machine that’s closer to a casino entrance because they’re programmed to have higher chances of wins so that people walking by the casino see others winning and are enticed to enter. I haven’t found out whether this is true or not.

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Mitch and me

Yesterday I picked up Mitch in Cairns and we headed down to Townsville where he’s currently going to school. I was really looking forward to having a travel partner even if it was only for an afternoon and it was so nice to have someone to chat with on the road.

On the way down, we were going to go on a canopy walk but the sign took us to farm country and there were no more signs after the first one so we turned around and got back on the Bruce Highway after 10 minutes.

When we got into town, we got lost trying to find his university and my internet connection is so bad in Townsville that Google maps wouldn’t work. You’d think Mitch would know the way to his own university seeing as how he’s been here for a few months already eh? LOL (I’m just teasing you Mitch! ) It was already dark by the time we found it (we stalked a bus to get there), so we had dinner at his dorm kitchen and I spent the night in the Wicked Camper in the parking lot.

Today we were going to go to Magnetic Island courtesy of Townsville Enterprise and Wicked Campers, but poor Mitch is feeling ill. Hopefully he’ll feel better tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

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Wicked Camper on the A1 Highway

I’m exhausted.

I left Tiaro at about 7:15am, stopped for pie and fuel at Gin Gin around 10am, stopped to nap at 12:20pm, and stopped for more pie and fuel at around 3pm (but this time I only got the pie because I really needed to pee and their washroom was for customers only). It’s now 6:30pm and I’m in the middle of nowhere smack in the middle of Rockhampton and Mackay.

I’ve never driven this much in one day and I’ve certainly never spent ~$90 on fuel in one day either. I tried to stay within the 80-90km zone all the way through because that’s when the Wicked Camper is most fuel efficient, but when it started to get dark and I wasn’t even close to the next city or gas station, I tried to keep up with the speed limit (110km/hr).

Wicked Road Trip Road Kill Count: 4 Kangaroos, 7 Wallabies and 40+ unknown / other (I think one was a dingo). I stopped counting after 40 because there were stretches of highway where you’d see something dead every 5m. I am now road kill desensitized. Well, ok I admit the last kangaroo was a bit of a scare ’cause he was really big and all I could see was his bottom half sticking out of the bush (and I could tell he was a “he” if you know what I mean).

All along the highway, you’ll see signs with sayings like “Stop Revive Survive” — all the signs rhyme. If you’re on a road trip and having trouble staying alert, please stop and take a break. Here are some tips on how to stay alert:

Tips for Road Tripping Travellers to Stay Alert

1. Take a cat nap (10 — 15 minutes)
2. Wash your face
3. Go for a walk to get some fresh air (one of the reasons you can get tired is lack of oxygen)
4. Eat or drink something sweet (I had a chocolate mini muffin washed down with Sarsparilla)
5. Keep yourself hydrated (baking in the car under the sun can make you drowsy)
6. Drink coffee or tea for the caffeine
7. Take a moment to find a station on the radio with music that will keep you awake (remember to stop first)

Another way I tried to stay awake was to pretend I was the A1 Highway Serial Bug Killer. Anny Chih. Wanted. Plowed down dozens of bugs of all shapes and sizes on the killing spree of 2009. Be alert bugs! She doesn’t discriminate! *dun dun duuuunnnnn*

Can you tell I’m tired? I’m going to bed now… Goodnight!

My Wicked Campervan at Maroochydore

I survived! LOL

I had been freaking out the last couple of days about this road trip because it’s the first time I’ve ever done a road trip on my own, and the first road trip where I would be the driver. Add that to all the other factors I mentioned in my previous blog post = uber-nervous me.

Oh man, you should’ve heard me cursing during the first hour because I kept turning on the windshield wipers instead of the signals (EVERYTHING is backwards in Australia). I got the hang of it by the time I hit the highway though and once I did…

I LOVED IT!!! I felt so FREE cruising along in my Wicked Campervan.

It’s surprisingly a lot easier to drive a large van than a small hatchback because you’re sitting higher up and you get a better view of everything that’s going on around you. I think it’s probably safer to drive a large van than a small rental car if you’re going on a road trip.

Jackpot!

I drove non-stop from Brisbane as far as I could before it got dark (which ended up being Maroochydore — not very far).

I know Wicked Campers’ website says you can park just about anywhere and sleep in your van, but in Canada that’s illegal. I had a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea so I stopped at Cotton Tree Caravan Park to ask the woman at the reception desk. She said she had seen lots of Wicked Campers stopped along the sides of the roads and as far as she knew, nobody ever got a fine.

So, I drove down to a parking lot near a public washroom and got ready for bed. When I walked into the washroom and found that they had showers, I thought I really scored big time. I felt like such a hobo! Haha

I did keep expecting someone to start knocking on the window telling me I couldn’t stay there, but it didn’t happen. The mattresses that come with the van are really comfy so apart from getting a bit chilly at night (I left the side windows open for air), I had a pretty good sleep.

Tips for Road Tripping Travellers

1. If you need to stop for the night and you’re travelling near a coastline, try to find a parking lot near either a look-out point, surf club, or beach entrance. They usually have free showers and washrooms that you can use.
2. Buy one of those small hand-crank flashlights (<$10) before you leave. They come in handy when you’re fumbling around the back of your van trying to get it ready for bed.

Next Stop

The plan right now is to go as far North as I can, as quickly as I can, and then make my way down Queensland at my own pace.

Many thanks to Wicked Campers for sponsoring me on my month-long road-trip with a Wicked Van!