Mon 25 Jun - Spent the morning scouring Tijuana for a laundry. The hard sell down Avenue Revolution was becoming a bit tiring - one chap even following us to try and get us buy prescription drugs (Tijuana and "Medication" to the Yanks is similar to Calais and Stella is to the Brits - mucho cheapo). Chap was told he would need some medical care if he didn't stop following us. Did the sights of Tijuana in the afternoon and went to see the border to see what crap we had to go through the next day and holy cow, what a queue! At least 12 lanes of trffic a couple of miles long and about half a mile of pedestrians. Go back to hotel with bottle of wine and resolve to get up early and beat the rush.

Tue 26 Jun - Get up at 5am and hike a mile to the border. Stand in a mildly huge queue with all the Mexicans going to work for the day in the US. First greated by v.nice border guard and directed to special area ref visa forms. Spoke to utter idiot who refused to believe we had flown into Mexico City and then were planning on walking over the border (they are more used to people visiting Tijuana on a free 72 hour basis from the US). Communicating with some of these Americans proving more difficult than with Mexicans it would appear. Eventually got our visa waiver signed and we hopped on the San Diego trolley into the centre of town to find our hostel. Spent the afternoon going around the USS Midway aircraft carrier and then had an evening meal at the local top fish restaraunt where the suggested tip was getting on towards entire our daily budget!! Need to think about money in the States it would appear. Waitress was a miserable cow anyway and deserved the terrible tip!

Wed 27 Jun - Spent the day wandering around San Diego (its free!) looking for cheap internet (Wi-Fi everywhere, Internet Cafe's are thin on the ground). Lots of homeless just outside the centre. Stop in Irish bar and drink Guiness (Mmmmm NOT Corona!)

Thu 28 Jun - Went to Coronda island where half the island is a military base and half is for the rich bods. $1.5m for a bit of a shack - ouch! Went to see a famous hotel where the rich and famous used to stay and featured in Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Munroe. The stars wouldn't stay there now as its heaving with the great unwashed wandering around it like its the Hard Rock Cafe or something.

Fri 29 Jun - Walked up to the famous San Diego Zoo (best in the world apprently) and then the Automotive Museum. Worked out later we had walked about 15 miles (taxis cost money dontchaknow!) That evening went a couple more blocks down to the Gaslamp district where everyone has a nice meal, couple of drinks etc. We walked past sniffing the air of $50 steaks!! We settled on ordering a couple of Guinesses from an English chap who had just got a job at an Irish bar now he had moved from Barcelona - don't people have roots anymore?

Sat 30 Jun - Cannot do California without a car so hired one of those. Cannot hire a car and stay in hotels due to pitiful budget so bought a cheap tent and some sleeping mats from local cheap supermarket and drove up into the hills to a scenic place called Julian. Camp site was a bit pricey so went on abit further and in 12 miles downhill went from mid 30's temp wise to mid 40's - aahh that will be a desert! Turned around and camped at the very nice (and still slightly pricey) campsite.

Sun 1 Jul - Kym has terrible nights sleep due something called hips and punctured sleeping mat (cheap crap we bought!). Drove into desert 1 and they are v.big and v.hot it would appear. Drove into desert 2 (called the Joshua Tree desert due to weird twisted tree that lives there that was named by Mormon adventurers). Absolutely awesome views. Drive through Palm Springs and try avoid worshipping either Bob Hope or indeed Golf in general and head up into the hills again to get some relief from the tempreatures in the late 40'cs again. Stay in a place callled Idylwyld in a US park after visiting a supermarket to get the necessary 5 litre conatainer of red wine to dull the pain of sleeping outside with all those squirrels.

Mon 2 Jul - Got up early and did a tour of the mountains called the "Rim Of The World". The mountain roads are absolutely awesome and soon have our 2 ton Chevie Malibu drifting sideways racing some chap in a Mustang. Then came across a place called Lake Arrowhead which appears to have been built by Fisher Price as the All American dream Vacation resort and half the people in the supermarket seemed to be on uppers - Kym and I literally dropped our shopping and ran!! Drove another couple of hours to Route 66 and stayed in proper little Motel in a place called Barstow. Sod camping by the way - late 40's and you need AIRCON!!

Tue 3rd Jul - Kym drove the rest of Route 66 to Needles across absolutely massive desert scenery. Along a lot of the route is a bank where people have spelt out their names in rocks by the roadside and we did a "K + J 2007". Had it not been 48'C we might have been rather more inventive! Drove onwards towards Lake Havasu where we saw the old London Bridge in its new desert setting.  How the f*** do people live in this heat!  Aircon cars, aircon hotels etc.  Stayed in Motel with nice view of the lake and literally chilled out.

Wed 4th Jul - Drove to Las Vegas and checked into the only Hostel there and jumped straight into their pool to cool down.  Chilled out for a couple more hours and wandered down the strip.  Watched some excellent 4th July fireworks from one of the hotels and then lost a few dollars in the slot machines.  Had a evening meal at 1am - such is the Las Vegas distrortion of time!

Thu 5th Jul - Got up early (as is necessary in the desert heat and to annoy people who were up even later than us last night partying) and went to the Hoover Dam.  Came back via The Las Vegas Strip just to say we had cruised it.  Tempreature is 51'C!!!!!!!!! Spent the afternoon in the pool listening to Guns & Roses at volume 11 but cannot be bothered to drink beer until very late in the evening on these hot days such is the instant headache effect.  At night it gets down to a positively chilly 40'C.  Off to play more slot machines this evening and if we hit big we might even bring ourselves back under budget (we'll need a Jackpot though!). 

Maybe Death Valley tomorrow or the day after - 57"C is the target to aim for as that's the hottest ever recorded!