Week 19 (Panguitch to Los Angeles)

Well this blog is early as we are flying from Saturday night and arrive in Brisbane on Monday morning.  Still trying to work out how we will get home, but that will sort itself out.

Before leaving Panguitch, we spent another day looking around the Bryce Canyon area and I went for another little walk.  1-2 hours was completed in 30 mins with some stunning views of the Bryce Canyon landscape.

The following day we drove down to Zion National Park.  Having an annual National Park Pass has saved us quite a bit of money.  The trip down was about 1.5 hrs and once we got into the park we took another 2.5 hours stopping at another breathtaking landscape.  I haven’t travelled around Australia, but the USA definitely has some amazing and spectacular landscapes.  When we got to the main gate of Zion there was no parking available and the suggestion was to drive into town and catch the shuttle back.

When we arrived in town there were long queues for the shuttle to get back to Zion so at that stage we decided we had had enough so we would head towards San Diego (500mls/800kms away).  Now remember we had already driven 60mls/100kms.  Off we went deciding to determine how far we would travel when we got to Las Vegas, 160mls/260kms further down the road.  It was no surprise that we drove all the way to San Diego that same day, with most of the driving after lunch. According to Dr Google we travelled over 560mls/900kms in just over 11 hours, with stops for photos around Zion.  The first 60mls/100km took us from 08:30 to midday to complete, with the rest of the drive (500mls/800kms) taking a further 7.5hrs.  That’s an average speed of 67MPH or 107KPH, which is not too bad when you include stopping for lunch, fuel and two driver changes and stuck in a few traffic jams.

The drive down to San Diego wasn’t too bad as we used the I15 most of the way with Google Maps and Apple Maps both agreeing (sort of) on some diversions around accidents and slow traffic on two occasions.  Most of the driving had a speed limit of 70MPH (110KPH), with some up to 80MPH (130KPH), but we were sitting 5MPH over that limit and still holding up much of the traffic.

What amazes me about driving anywhere, including Australia, is the number of people who can’t/don’t use cruise control.  It is so frustrating to pull up beside a car and have them accelerate away from you leaving you stranded in the fast lane.  The other thing is with roadworks when you have to slow down, they continue on with their usual speed, even with the threat of doubled fines in the roadworks area.

As we were stuck in traffic on the I15 in Vegas we decided to book accommodation in San Diego as we had found a place online right near the harbour.  When we arrived, we should have paid more attention to the bad reports about the place.  It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t a place we wanted to end our trip so the next day we found a nice apartment about 200mtrs from the beach.  The only problem with the place was getting the car in the garage.  Both mirrors had to be folded in and we had to pack/unpack before entering the garage.  It’s a really tight squeeze, but it just fits.

On our first night in San Diego we found a really nice and well priced seafood restaurant right across the road from where we were staying called Mitch’s Seafood in the marina.  If you are in San Diego we can recommend this place…if you like seafood, and people, as it is popular.

Once in the apartment we immediately unpacked and did some washing, and then some final grocery shopping.  It was really nice to just sit back and relax for a few days.  We did take in some sights on the last day, but most of the time here was spent out of the car.

Our final day in the US was a drive up to San Bernardino to see another friend and then off to LAX to drop off the hire car.  Unfortunately I contracted some sort of tummy bug which made the trip into LA “interesting”.  We are now relaxing in the lounge before a 13 hour night time flight to Auckland, followed by a four hour flight to Brisbane.

Some of the things we have noticed on our travels in the US are:

Elections for everyone

Everywhere we go there are signs, big billboards and ads for electing people to roles from Janitor to President.  Well not quite Janitor, but it seems like jobs in public office in the US require an election.  Judges, Chief of Police, Supervisor (whatever that is), and so on…

I like the Australian system.

Road noises

The noises you get when driving from the many road surfaces continues to amaze me.  I have given up slowing down when I think I have a mechanical or a flat and instead check the instruments and pick another part of the road to drive on to see if that negates the noise.  There are some roads that seem like a rollercoaster to drive on.  These usually have the sign BUMPS.  You can hold your speed if you are not concerned about getting air under the wheels.  I think we have been close a few times.

NBA Game Anthem

I forgot to mention that before the NBA Finals game we saw the anthem performed by Carlos Santana on guitar with his wife, Cindy Blackman, on drums.  Check it out on YouTube if you haven’t seen it.

Veterans

At least the US does something right.  They have so much respect for their military personal, both current and past serving members.  Everywhere you go they appear to get discounts and special service and attention.  That is something Australia could learn from.

Indicators

The turn indicators on cars in the US are their brake lights flashing which makes it a little confusing at times working out whether they are breaking or turning, or both, or they have turned on their emergency flashers.  The other thing I saw was one taillight not working so when they applied their breaks I thought they were turning.  I like the orange turn indicators in Australia.

Radio Stations

On our travels we have frequently resorted to the local radio to keep us amused, but I am surprised by the number of country and religious stations we find and there are very few who have a news break.

US States

The US States we have visited (some more than once) are:

New Jersey

New York

Pennsylvania

Delaware

Maryland

District of Columbia (technically not a state, but I’m counting it)

Virginia

West Virginia

Ohio

Indiana

Illinois

Wisconsin

Michigan

Ontario (I know it’s Canada, but I will count that as well)

Utah

Washington

Oregon

California

Nevada

Arizona

Well Darlings I am being rushed to finish the blog. So this will be short and sweet.

I have had a great time but it is now time to come home. I am very much looking forward to my bed and my pillow.

Some of the places we have been to, have been absolutely amazing. The number of people we have been to able to see from our Volunteering excursion had been wonderful.  We have met new friends in South Korea, caught up rellies and generally had a wonderful.

Please it I have sounded ungrateful, I’m very sorry.

In our road travels in the US (and Canada) we have driven over 11,000kms (6,800mls) with the longest day being over 900kms (560mls).

Hugs and kisses everyone, take care and catch up on our next adventures

Denise and Peter

xxx