Cal-ee-forn-yah

I arrived in San Francisco last night. It took two flights to get here. This is the last stop on my trip. I had to walk for 12 blocks from the BART station to the hostel with all my shit on my back. As I walked through the streets it felt quite underwhelming, just another day and arriving in another city. After checking in I went out and got some dinner, and didn't do much else except go to bed. It was only 11pm, but I was two timezones away still.

This morning I got up early and hit the streets, and slowly everything I love about this epically beautiful city began to reveal iteself to me again. Here are some pics of my morning:

As well as exploring the city and taking photographs, I spend a good portion of the morning at the Apple store trying to get my hands on 2 new 3G I-phones for a friend back home who had requested them. After lining up for an hour (it's a new product) I discovered the advertized $199 price was a ruse - only avaliable with an AT&T contract here. So the $1000+ price in New Zealand began to make sense. But it wasn't a wasted trip. I walked out with a new Ipod Touch for myself! I decided it was OK since I really havn't bought anything other than food, beer, and transport this entire trip. It is a cool machine.

I'm going up to Sonoma County this evening to visit Katie and Sean. I get to drive across the Golden Gate bridge in the process, so I'm very excited.

Update

Sorry I've been so weak with the blog updates in the past few days. The rafting trip was cancelled in the end but it has been good hanging out here in Oklahoma City anyway. I'm heading to San Francsico tonight.
It looks like I will get to go to Yosemite afterall, for one day only! Joe and his cousin (who has a car) are going so I'm getting in on that trip. We're going to leave San Francisco early in the morning on the 4th of July and not return til late at night. 4th of July in America's first national park. Wicked!
Ok there will be more from San Francisco tomorrow, if I have some good photos I'll try to do a blog update in the late afternoon.

Oklahoma City

Not the best photo taken from a moving vehicle, but shows a working oil well directly in front of the Oklahoma State Capitol!

Slight change to the trip itinirary. From Denver instead of going straight to San Francisco I have come to Oklahoma City to take up a kind offer from a new friend I met along the way who invited me to go rafting on the Illinois River near Tulsa with her and her friends. I have scrapped the Yosemite National Park segment of the trip (will have to do that next trip) in order to fit it in.

I don't know why, but it seems whenever I have the need to gather all my worldy belongings on my back and walk several miles to the train station or bus station to move on to a new city, it seems thatthe skies open as soon as I set out on my long walk. That has happend at least 3 times on this trip so far. Very annoying. This occured in Denver on Tuesday as I prepared to make my way to Oklahoma City.

I had to travel to Oklahoma City by bus, as an airfare was going to be $200+, and a train would have to go all the way to Chicago to connect before heading down to OKC. I cast my mind back to the last time I travelled by Greyhound bus, it was a few years ago on a relatively short 12-hr hop between Salt Lake City and Denver. I remember swearing that I would never travel by Greyhound ever again, it was so unpleasent. But necessity would make me eat my words. Never again.

Greyhound stations are almost without fail always in the worst part of every city, and even inside they are not nice. I had a couple of hours to kill at the Greyhound station in Denver. There was an obvious pickpocket hanging around. He kept trying to get people's wallets, and he kept failing. 3 people complained about and eventually some security gaurds came over, who were of course armed, and warned him and stopped him from boarding the bus he was ticketed for. Now he was stuck in the station, and he kept trying to pick pockets. Another security gaurd came over, warned him, and let him stay in the station. At no point did anyone ever call the police.

If the station was bad, the bus was no better. I think I was the only grown adult on the bus who knew how to pull my pants up above my ass. There is barely any legroom. The driver keeps stopping for his cigarette breaks every 45 minutes. And it was a 17hour ride to Oklahoma city, with a 2 hour layover in Amarillo, TX in another scummy Greyhound station.

Finally arrived in Oklahoma City. Went to a pool party my host Elyse was running for the youth group she runs, and then stayed up late drinking beer on the porch. The next day went to the Oklahoma City bombing Memorial. (see photos below)

After the memorial, we went to the Oklahoma History Museum, which was really good and included a brilliant exhibit on Oklahoma rock music. I was surprised by how many big name acts have come out of Oklahoma, including Hanson! They are still around and I was able to take these photos of original Hanson instruments:

Zac Hanson's drum

Isaac Hanson's Guitar

Taylor Hanson's Keyboard

Remember, you saw them first on Beggsblog!!

After the History museum, we went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum where among all the museum exhibits was an amazing art gallery with some really brilliant paintings and sculpture. It wasn't your standard art gallery. These items were priced for up to $100,000 each.

Then I went to a ballgame at Red Brick Ballpark. A minor league game so tickets were only $10, and beers were $1. I didn't have my big camera with me so this is the photo you get:

After the ballgame went out to a bar in the Red Brick district. It was late but still very hot, over 90f outside. Like a lot of places here it seems, the bar's method of combatting the heat was 'misters'. I had never seen such a thing before, but they are like hoses that run along the length of a veranda and spray a light mist over patrons.

New Mexico (cont'd) and Colorado

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

The International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico

Starting off where we left off last posting... After Carlsbad we headed north through New Mexico in a zig-zag fassion, visiting Roswell to learn about UFO's, White Sands - an astonishing environment that provides vistas i imagine are similar to being on the moon, finally arriving in Santa Fe for the night.



In the morning we explored dowtown Santa Fe:

It must be some kind of local town planning law, because every building (even modern ones) are made in the adobe style.

This is the oldest house in America, circa 1646. Although it is a disputed claim that it is the oldest in America, its still pretty old so I thought it worthy of being blogged.

This is me at the ruins of a 16th century Spanish mission and an old indian Pueblo at the Pecos National Historical Park. Avid blog readers will note that I have been here before, but this time is the first time I have had a really good look around.

Dad going underground in the pueblo, to a room used by the puebloans for working - it is much cooler subsurface than the 100 deg f temperatures above ground.

We ended up that night east of Canon City, Colorado visiting our family friend Neil who was running a summer camp for geology students and very kindly invited us to stay for the night.

The next day we drove up to Denver, where Dad flew out of. Now I am just chilling down in Denver. I shelled out for a motel so that I could chill down and swim in the pool for a few days before heading to Oklahoma on Wednesday or Thursday. Today has been the first real quiet day I have had since the beginning of the trip! Today is Fathers Day in America, but my dad is aboard an international flight and by crossing the dateline he skips Sunday, so that avoids an awkward situation - no Dad deserves 2 fathers days a year, even one that was cool enough to come over here to travel with his son for a week!! But seriously, thanks to Dad for an awesome week exploring the west.

Snakes, Bats, and Caverns...

For most of this trip I have been actively seeking out snakes as I had never seen one in the wild before. I have been stomping through long grass in dry areas, overturning rocks in the desert and had no luck at all until yesterday morning. Alongside New Mexico state highway 176 enroute to Carlsbad, I finally found what I was looking for. I have no idea what kind of snake this is, all I know is that it is not a rattlesnake. For the purposes of the blog we can imagine it is highly venomous and aggressive.

Earlier in the morning we visited Fort Davis, an old US government post that protected emigrants heading west in the 19th century.

And then... Carlsbad Caverns national park where we took an elevator 750ft below the surface to a huge cave system.

Once back on the surface, we went to the amphitheater to watch hundreds of thousands of bats fly out of the cave together at dusk. This sign in the parking lot had us packing water and scroggin for the journey, only to discover that the 10 minute walk to the amphitheater, all on paved tracks, was anything but strenuous. Cameras are banned during the bat flight, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was cool.

Into the Wild

The first night in Big Bend National Park, a spectacular electrical storm struck the Chisos Mountains as we watched from our porch at the lodge.

On Saturday I met up with my Dad in El Paso. He had been at a conference in Denver and he drove down so we could head to Big Bend. After a night in El Paso, we hit the road. As quickly as possible we got off the interstate and headed into real remote Texas on country roads. On some of these roads you could look around for 360 degrees and not see a single other car or building, not another living thing. It was on one of these stretches when we came across this:

This is the Prada store of Marfa, Texas. Not actually a functioning store but built as a sculpture. Apparently the art is in the contrast between something normally only found in the most urban environments and the wide open spaces of this setting. A short distance down the road we came across the town of Marfa, which was anything but just another small desert town. It had undergone a renewal as a center of modern art. All kinds of artists have moved in and opened galleries, and it was actually pretty cool. When in Texas, expect the unexpected.

Inside Big Bend National Park.

In the park we did a couple of hikes, attended some talks by the national park service rangers, saw deer, lizards, and a scorpian - no snakes yet but not for lack of trying. Also experienced a spectacular storm which lasted a good couple of hours and knocked out power to our lodge for 12 hours. Tonight as I write this we are in Fort Davis, TX and going to see the McDonald Observatory as soon as it gets dark for some astronomy. Tomorrow's plan is to go to Guadalupe Mountains National Park for a hike, and then White Sands, New Mexico the next day. Still having a great time... Here's some more pics.

This is the Santa Elena Canyon, taken from the Big Bend National Park the left side of the canyon is in Mexico and the right is in Texas. Through the middle flows the Rio Grande. The canyon is the height of three Washington Monuments.

This is the Rio Grande just outside the park. The horses just across the river are grazing on Mexican land. At some points the river is so shallow you can easily walk across to Mexico. While technically illegal to come back into the US, there is literally no one around.

Dad across the river.

You've gotta be careful around the river bank. I discovered quicksand the hard way (not the hardest possible way luckily I hit bedrock about a foot deep). One of my footprints is visible here. After getting myself out I had to dig my flipflops out.

The town of Lajitas, Texas. Complete with posts to tie your horse up on should you happen to arrive that way. We had to park our Jeep around the corner.

The remains of an adobe schoolhouse in Terlingua, Texas. Yes that is the same Terlingua of the world famous chilli-cookoffs.

Hamburgers for dinner:

Don't let slip to anyone from Masterton, but there's a lot of Loose Livestock in West Texas!!

On a more serious note though, Dad's attention while driving was often diverted by looking left across the Mexican border this morning. This poor little calf nearly met with the Jeep's bonnet.

That's 42.7 deg celcius.

Contrabando Creek. An amusing name for a tributary that flows into the Rio Grande along the Mexican border in one of the most active drug smugling zones in the world.

And some old news, from before I left El Paso:

El Paso is in the foreground, Juarez in the background. In this photo the increased density of the lights in Juarez illustrates the international border. Buildings are much smaller and closer together on the Mexican side.

Arrived in Texas

In Ciudad Juarez this morning.

You should never ask a man where he's from. If he's from Texas he'll tell you soon enough. And if he's not from Texas, well, you don't want to embarass him.

I finally arrived in El Paso sometime around 10pm last night after a day of airport delays that cemented my love of trains and dislike of air travel in this country. I arrived at Washington National Airport in plenty of time to catch my 1.45pm flight to El Paso which had a connection in Dallas. Due to a thunderstorm and large scale flooding in Dallas, the airport there was closed and it had thrown the whole system out. When I checked in I was given a changed itinirary, with the new flight leaving at 5.30pm and connecting at Chicago O'Hare instead of Dallas. Disgruntled, and at the time unaware of any weather issues I joined a long line to speak to an airline person. After nearly half an hour, having moved about 6 paces forward in the line I gave up and accepted the flight they had given me.
As annoying as it could have been it actually turned out pretty good. After going through that hideous security process I took a seat in the departure lounge for what I expected would be a long boring wait. The person sitting next to me struck up a conversation and before you know it I was having a couple of beers with an awesome girl from Oklahoma. Hours passed, but after what seemed like such a short time, my plane was boarding.
The flight to Chicago was uneventful, but taking off from Chicago on the El Paso bound flight brought further delays. We were fully loaded and ready to go, and we departed the gate on time, only to join a 40-minute queue of aircraft waiting to take off. Chicago O'hare is the 2nd busiest airport in the world, after Atlanta, and handles 69 million passangers annually.

Upon arrival in El Paso some 5 and a half hours late I just wanted to go to sleep. But the man at the hostel front desk would have none of that. After checking in, he lectured me for 45 minutes about what to do in the local area, and his life story. I sound annoyed but actually it was quite interesting. His name is Antonio, and he is about 60 I would say. He maintains a girlfriend south of the border who is about half his age, maybe less (he proudly showed me a photo). The hostel is in an old hotel which has a grand lobby and a marble staircase. It has not been maintained, I would say since it opened.. so it is in a state of disrepair and would make a brilliant setting for a horror film. Antonio told me that there are some undesirable people who reside perminantly in the hotel who I should not interract with. He offered to drive me up the hill to see the city lights Friday night and said I should invite any other backpackers I meet at the hostel, but he was quite clear that the invitation didn't extend to the local residents, who he considers rude and unworthy. He had a bandage on his neck and seemed to be in a fair bit of pain when he talked (although that didn't hold him back), and he explained to me at the end of our conversation (oops I mean lecture) that he had just had a growth removed from his neck, but that I was not to tell anyone else that as he had been telling everyone that a vampire got him so they didn't try to make him quit smoking. At this point, Antonio went outside for a cigarette and I was finally free to go up to my room.

This morning upon waking, I disregarded most of Antonio's recommendations of art galleries and history museums and headed to the border crossing to go to Juarez, Chihuahua.

Juarez is by far Mexico's most dangerous city. There have been more than 2000 homicides here since January 2008, this in a city of less than 2 million people. The violence is largely the result of a war between feuding drug cartels. The murder rate here is more than 3 times that of the most violent US city. I have visited Juarez on two prior occasions but this is by far the worst I have seen it. It now has a third world feel about it, with troops driving through the streets on the back of hum-vees dressed in combat helmets and weilding semi-automatic long arms. CNN reports that there have been 40 people killed in the city since the weekend. Antonio's view on it is that it is safe for tourists as almost all of the victims are drug runners and policemen. In Feburary the city's police chief quit when drug cartels threatened to kill an officer everyday while he remained on the job, a situation which led to the troops and fedral police patrolling the streets and military helicopter on constant patrol.

El Paso, it's a classy place.

Border Jumpers:

This is the border between Mexico and the United States, taken from one of the international bridges as I crossed it this morning. Mexico on the left, the USA on the right. You guys won't beleive me because I didn't have my camera out of its case in time, but just prior to taking these photos I witnessed two guys scale the fence and make a run for it into downtown El Paso. Less than a minute later a Border Patrol vehicle was on their trail. Quickly out of my view I was not able to see if they made it or if they got caught. The guys pictured looked like they were going to try, but they didn't.

Some left over news and pics from before I left DC:

After my last post I went out to the Pentagon and the Arlington National Cemetary. I then set out to do some more museums, even walking about 20 blocks to get to the National Geographic museum but when I reached the front doors I decided I couldn't take any more museums, my brain had absorbed enough. Walking back to the hostel there were a lot of sirens and a low flying news helicopter in the neighborhood. Such scenes are not unusual in Washington as I had learnt from my previous few days there. However upon getting back to the hostel I learnt of a shooting at the Smithsonian holocaust museum that I had visited the previous day. Sadly a security gaurd was shot dead by a crazy 88yo neo-nazi. When the newspaper printed the gaurd's photo the next day, I recognized him as the one who had processed me as I entered the museum, saying "you can leave your watch on" as I had started taking it off for the metal detectors.

Watching CNN in the hostel's TV room it wasn't long before someone who had been right there when the shooting happened showed up to tell her story. Her name is Mariel and she is from England. I saw her again later at a free BBQ the hostel put on, and I also met some other people there. Mariel, a guy from North Carolina, a father and son (11yo) from Australia and myself sat around talking after the BBQ until a thunderstorm came in, then we retired to the pool table inside. We all got on like a house on fire and later in the evening Mariel, the North Carolinan and myself went out for a drink. We just went to the most convienient establishment across the road, which was a ridiculously classy joint where the drinks were about $10. Though if you were willing to pay they did have a $45 beer on the menu. We people-watched as the preppy kids had dates on the tables around us, and when we had spent enough (like 2 drinks worth!) we left and went down to the national mall. We hung out at the Lincoln Memorial until like 3am and didn't get back to the hostel until 4. It was an epic night, in such amazing surroundings. The monuments of dead presidents staring down at us.

Ford's Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot.

The Pentagon Memorial

Still digging at Arlington National Cemetary


JFK's grave, along with Jaquie O and their son.