Hi everyone, i have to apologise for the fact that I haven't spelled checked or edited the text or screened the photos. We are so busy every day that we just havent had time, so I hope you enjoy our unedited version

Saturday 14/01/2012

We had been so lucky with the weather so far, I read Vancouver had shocking rainy weather just before we arrived and yet so far we had beautiful weather even fortunate to have a completely clear day yesterday up on Grouse Mountain to have unlimited visibility.

Today was a planned rest day which was a great decision because when we woke up (very late) it had snowed overnight and the place was all white and sloshy, but it was so exciting to finally experience real snow (some of the snow on Grouse Mountain was man made). We walked of to the shops, more so to be in and feel and touch the snow than anything else but bought breakfast and supplies for lunch.

We had decided that we wanted to stay in Vancouver for a couple more days as we really liked it and had more things we wanted to see. On our way back I stopped at reception and asked if we could extend our booking by 2 nights for the same price I got it through Priceline. Their answer was the cheapest they could do was twice the price of what I had paid, so I got back online and was extremely lucky to bid and get the same hotel for the same price for the extra 2 nights. At least we didn't have to change hotels or even rooms.

Sunday 15/01/2012
Today's plans didn't take up much of the day, we trained it downtown and jumped back on the trolley bus, this time to get to a particular place rather than doing the tour. We got off lat than what we thought so walked back to what was essentially 4 blocks of underground shopping malls. We had a quick look around, had some brunch, Marty tried poutine, something recommended by Sean, stew on chips with cheese curds - yuk, but he said it tasted ok.

Marty found a moose toy for his bar, then we walked down to Chinatown. This is obviously a really poor area, had a very strange guy talk to us and advise us that he was HIV positive and could we give him money for food. He helped us find what we were looking for so didn't mind giving him some change. But beggars are on every corner, sitting with signs asking for money, something we don't see at home. We then noticed a congregation of people down the block so went to investigate, and quickly turned around and left at the first opportunity. It was a large number of very very poor people (mostly white) that were selling anything and everything, but all junk, they looked almost like the undead, scary stuff.

We jumped back on the trolley bus and made our way back to the motel for an afternoon nap, boy we are getting lazy.

Monday 16/01/2012

Snowing again, so we rugged up and this time we had to walk in the snow to the station, and snow doesn't really fall, it floats. Back onto the sky train into waterfront station and this time we transferred to the free shuttle to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We had one of the previous drivers from the trolley bus and he was great to chat to and answer some things about Canada that we were unsure of. This bus talk us over the Lion's Gate Bridge that I mentioned in a previous post. I wasn't really sure what to expect here other than the suspension bridge but had seen it highly recommended by tripadvisor.

Not only a huge suspension bridge over a canyon, but a cliff walk where you get to walk out over the cliff, then on the other side, heaps and heaps of walkways that take you around the base of the forest, through the middle of the forest and then the treetop walk, the trees were amazingly tall and big. Can't wait to see the redwoods. I also don't think it would have been as impressive without the snow, everything covered or dusted in snow.

Then halfway over the bridge the view includes the river below with the snow covered mountain above, just gorgeous. It was extremely cold, even Marty had a scarf on, so we ducked into the shop to warm up a little and of course I found something to buy, a scarf made from alpaca wool, it was much softer longer and warmer than the scarf I had. Thought I would pick a different color than I usually buy, just to be different, but realized later, I now had on a pink beanie, purple gloves and an orange scarf. I am so not color coordinated.

We spent the afternoon doing our laundry again, and planning the next few days, we both loved Vancouver and would recommend it to anyone coming to Canada, we would have liked to have ventured a bit further north to see more snow and slopes but unfortunately just didn't feel confident to drive in the snow with our little car.

Tuesday 17/01/2012

As I said we had really loved VC, and especially the snow, and the locals explained that they didn't always get snow like that. We both thought that once we headed south we would see less and less of the snow; were we wrong. So much for not being confident to drive in the snow, as we got further south we hit more snow. After crossing the border back into the USA, the roads started to get a bit slippery, obviously from the snow overnight, I felt really uncomfortable and was glad I had given Marty the responsibility of driving. Then we started to hit actual snow, then we hit a blizzard, then we couldn't see the road or anymore than about 30 feet in front of us.

You would think at this point, and we both did, maybe we should stop, but you can't, if you pull over to the side you would never get out, if the idea of taking an exit to pull over in a town looked like a good idea, the exits had disappeared under snow.

Driving down an incline of a mountain, we came around a bend and here was a car with driver and passenger still insitu, facing the opposite way on the 2 lane highway on the outside lane, which meant they were against the rail. Obviously she had spun out and ended the wrong way. There was once again, nothing anyone could do, as to stop meant we would be stranded, so all we could do, along with everyone else was go round them. We still wonder how they got out of that pickle.

When the snow got to the worst, Marty had worked out they if he traveled behind the cars in the slow lane, at a speed of about 35 mph (this was a highway that normally traveled at 70mph) then he could stay in the tracks of the cars in front which were essentially keeping the tracks free of ice. The ice was building up on the windscreen, I was working the windscreen wipers and heater to try and keep the windscreen clear, cause Marty couldn't take his eyes off the road or hands off the steering wheel. And the strange thing was there were cars and trucks that were traveling on the fast lane at double our speed! But there were also a few cars that had lost control and ended up in ditches or rolled on the side of the road.

We both thought this must be an unusual event for this area, it was going to be on the news, they would close schools and shops etc, but once we got through the worst of it (after about 70 miles) we pulled in to a garage to get fuel, and breath a sigh of relief, to discover that this was fairly normal for the area, not every year but once every 2 or 3 years.

Somewhere In the middle of those 70 or so miles was the Boeing Centre, where we were planning on taking the 90 minute tour to see them manufacturing planes, but didn't have the opportunity for obvious reasons. We made it to Portland and for the second time had not prebooked our accommodation, instead opting to try to get something off the cuff. We found a Holiday Inn and got a room for $99, I wasn't impressed as didn't like paying more than $75 but as Marty explained, once you considered that we didn't have to pay for parking and breakfast was included it added up to about the same. We did however decide where would be the next night and prebooked that, we also booked our flights from LA to NY.

Ok so we had our accommodation (which was very nice) and headed out to get some supplies to eat in, my turn to drive, had a bit of a recky around and could see a Safeway on the other side of the highway, too easy, just cross the highway (it's night time and raining), yeah right, I end up back on the highway, going in the wrong direction, with no idea how to get back. No worries, just get off the highway at the next exit, but the exit gives me two options and I can't decide which one to take, so when I had a huge big ute (their utes or pickups are more like semi trailers here) up my arse and I had nowhere to go that wouldn't involve hitting another vehicle I went up over the gutter onto the centre part of the road.

Once there was room, I then calmly got off the gutter and we found our way to Safeway, got dinner and headed home. We had a good laugh about this because when Marty was driving in the blizzard I was absolutely terrified, and when I got lost on the highway in the dark and rain, Marty was terrified, we both knew that it's difficult to be a passenger in the stressful situations cause you aren't in control. I will have to stress that Marty did do an excellent job of driving in those dangerous conditions, I wouldn't even try to do it.

Wednesday 18/01/2012

We were planning on going to the redwood forest near Mendocino, but the weather had turned fowl and we didn't fancy sightseeing in the rain so opted to go to las Vegas instead. And here we go again Deja vu, firstly we we driving in the rain, and it really heavy rain, but better than snow. I got a bit sleepy so settled in for a snooze as we started to climb the mountains. I had only snoozed for a short time when I woke to a strange noise, it was the sound of snow and ice and slush on the road. Oh no, not more snow. It turned out that yesterday was a walk in the park, it ended up being 100 miles of solid snow, snow covered road and extremely difficult driving, although once again Marty did a magnificent job. The trucks and non 4WD cars had chains on, so once again he got behind a truck and stuck in their tracks so that there was some traction for the tyres. At one stage we were only doing 25 mph, but at least felt safe. Our 4 1/2 hour trip ended up being about 6 1/2 hours and we didn't get to Klatham Falls till about 4 pm, relieved and Marty actually felt quite good about the experience, wouldn't recommend driving a 2WD in those conditions, but it was a new experience for him and he did it admirably.

After we had checked in we went for a drive downtown to have a look around but gave that up as a bad joke - downtown was covered in snow and slosh and aft a couple of sliding incidents we decided to go back to the motel and have dinner there. Incidentally, I had bid for this accommodation on what you know is my favorite web site priceline.com, and got it for $70. It was amazing, free parking and breakfast, the room had a separate lounge, 2 TVs ??? Free wifi. We had had a little windfall overnight so I started looking for accommodation in Las Vegas and decided that we could afford 5* if I bid and got it at the right price. Watch this space.

Thursday 19/01/2012

It had snowed again overnight but not too much, and today we were headed to Carson City, you may have heard about it in the old westerns (so Marty tells me) and we were once again pretty confident we had seen the last of the snow, NUP, we had a lovely run for about 45 mins but once we got up into the mountains again, down came the snow, fortunately only lightly, just enough to make the road icy and slippery, so had to slow it down again, I was however quite relaxed this time, because I thought if he can get us through what we went through yesterday this will be a piece of cake.

We got to a place called Astin and they had the warning lights flashing so we pulled over and listened to the warnings on the radio, fortunately we weren't going that way so headed off again, this time only a very small amount of snow as we traveled in a valley. It was actually a valley about 4000 ft above sea level, when we got to 5000 ft we struck a lake that looked like it was either frozen or was covered in salt, eventually we pulled over had went for a walk to have a look, and it was definitely frozen, and so was the temperature, some quickly hightailed it back into the car and the heater.

We had finally left the snow behind, stopped in at Susanville and bought lunch at IGA, and while eating on the roadside listened to the next warning, but this was only for high winds on the highway we were going on so it didn't stop or slow our journey.

At least thought it wouldn't, not long after writing that comment, we were reroute doff the highway because a semi trailer had been flipped by the strong winds. That's a strong wind! It looked to be quite bad possibly involving other cars. We got to Reno, which was the town before Carlson city, our scheduled stop, and ended up on huge traffic jam on the freeway, we were thinking there must have been a big accident as there were all the emergency vehicles, fire, ambulance, police and not just a few. But at the same time we could see that there was a fire over yonder. We sat in the traffic jam for about an hour, while they tried to redirect the traffic from the 6 lane highway and the connecting roads, at one stage we were at the front and we couldn't believe what some of the motorists were doing, they literally tried forcing their way past the SES workers and police, abused them, argued with them, because they wouldn't let them go the way they wanted to. Once we got out of the jam, we headed up a road to try and see. If we could find an alternative route, then got stuck behind an accident for another 1/2 hr.

We pulled in to a very shady looking pub, advertising itself as Nevada's only second class hotel. We thought we would have a drink and maybe get some directions from the locals. As soon as we walked in we were greeted quite merrily by the patrons and the bar lady. They explained that the highway was closed because of the fire, which was threatening lots of houses, we were unlikely to be able to get to Carlson city that night. Oh well, our first hiccup, so we settled in for a couple of drinks. One young fellow, James, was thrilled that we were Australian, he played us Men At Works song The Land of Under on the juke box. When he brought up Vegemite and we told him we had a jar of it, he asked if we would sell it to him. We gave him the jar and as a thank you he bought us a round of drinks. They advised us to get a room at the Atlantis casino just down the road, so we did and got it a the normal price of around $70.
It was a great afternoon chatting to the locals, made up for losing $75 for the motel we didn't get to.

Friday 20/01/2012

We got up early and headed off for the long trip (7 hours) to Vegas, my sinus infection seemed to be getting worse, I was even contemplating seeing a doctor somehow to get antibiotics. I had promised Marty I would drive the first leg as he had done all the driving the last few days, but I felt so unwell I only lasted a couple of hours. This part of the journey involved driving through the dessert, but beautiful dessert, at a height of 4000 feet, and the roads are amazingly good, considering there is nothing out there. Except a lot of what we presumed were Indian reservations.

We drove past section 51, then saw a spy plane at the military base, the biggest prison I have ever seen, no point escaping from it, there is no where to go if you did. It was a very long drive for Marty, and we were glad when we arrived at our new home. The Trump International isn't a Casino, it's just a hotel, I was really pleased that we had won the bidding at this hotel, because as we don't gamble we don't have to wade through the people and slot machines going in and out of the hotel.m

We dropped our bags and were going to go for a walk along the strip, but I thought I would ask the concierge about seeing a doctor, she referred me to the pharmacy (Walgreens, which incidentally sell everything else as well including smokes and liquor) and I saw a nurse practitioner who prescribed me some antibiotics and nasal spray, costing in total $250, but I can claim it on insurance.
We Then headed off down the strip. It is still a circus - lots of people, lots of noise, still people handing our cards for prostitutes every 2 feet. We saw the Bellagio fountain do its thing, then found somewhere for dinner.

Saturday 21/01/2012

Our plan today was to do some shopping then do our laundry and then do the regular phone calls home. We also bought ourselves a potato, steak and microwaveable veggies and cooked our own dinner, it was so nice to have unadulterated food. It was a good thing we did make these plans as LV was hit with a dust storm that lasted most of the day, it would have been impossible to stroll down the strip. So far we have had rain, sleet, snow, fire and now a dust storm, but mostly the weather has been perfect. We also packed up those clothes that we didn't need and took them down to get them shipped home, but the bell boy said it would cost about $400 to ship them.

Some interesting things about the Americans way of doing things:

When you get fuel you have pay first, so if you want to fill up you have to nominate an amount, they charge that to your card and then somehow, if you don't usenitmall it gets refunded back.

The 2 most common things advertised on TV lawyers and medications

When they advertise medications, they must by law have to also explain under what conditions you shouldn't take them and possible side effects, so by the time they have finished explaining all that, there is no way in the world you would contemplate taking the medication.

Sunday 22/01/2012

We promised ourselves a walk down the strip, so did just that today, firstly stopping at the reduced ticket outlet and getting ourselves tickets to the Blue Man Group and dinner at the Venetian at Postrio's, with famous chef Wolfgang Puck (we had heard of him on Masterchef). After purchasing We then made it to Palazzo where we had brunch, at this one we found a poker machine with a handle, so put the obligatory $5 in and promptly lost it. They have changed the machines here, there is no dropping of money into the tray at the bottom when you win, instead you get issued a ticket and take that to the cashier to redeem your money, seems everything is high tech and no where near as much fun.

Next stop was New York New York, as soon as I walked in I remembered the place, it's amazing, set up like the streets of NY. We had a ride on the roller coaster, which I must admit is one of the best I have been on, even Marty loved it. We then went across to MGM, and saw the poor lions, still stuck in the cage. To get back to our hotel, we decided to catch a but, the most expensive public transport we have ever struck, $5 each to go 6 stops. But we were on a bit of a deadline.

We got a taxi to the Venetian (it's cheaper than public transport) and found our way to Postrio's, strange we both thought, it's outdoor, wonder what happens when it rains, then Marty made some comment like OMG, and I suddenly realized that it wasn't outdoor, it was designed to look like outdoors, with the ceiling painted like a blue sky with clouds. It even had a balloon up on the ceiling that looked like the moon. It was just lovely sitting in an outdoor setting, enjoying a nice glass of wine and lovely food. Actually Marty's food was great, mine was absolutely tasteless, so don't order the pork schnitzel if you ever go there, we complained, and he offered us a dessert but we couldn't fit one in.

This is insane, I am writing this in the car between Las Vegas & LA; it's desert, miles & miles of it, then out of nowhere they build 2 huge casinos, one on either side of the road, with a roller coaster, accommodation and some high end shops, then nothing again. No houses, just more desert???

Anyway back to my story, after that we made our way to the show, and enjoyed for the second time one of the best shows I have ever seen, cant understand why they don't bring to Australia.

Monday 23/01/2012

It's officially 4 weeks since we left home, we aren't home sick at all, we had stuck to our budget up until we got to LV (but it is a party city), and had both gained some weight. Left LV at about 8am to drive to LA, and left a considerable amount of clothes in the hotel room, obviously because they weren't worth the money to send home and we couldn't take them with or we would be charged excess luggage, amounting to the same thing.

We were having a lovely drive from LV to LA, no rain, snow, fires, dust storms, until about 3 hours in to to trip where it started to rain, the when we got to the top of the range, about 5000 ft we hit clouds! Then the highway had to have a steep incline for 6 miles, I couldn't watch, with little to no visibility on a 5 lane highway with a speed limit of 110 kph, with semi's, trucks, car all still, doing at least 100 kph, I laid my seat back and covered my eyes. All Marty could do was laugh and keep driving.

We made it to our accommodation near the airport, checked in, then went looking for a supermarket as we knew there was nothing around for lunch and dinner and bought our meals for the remainder of the day. We then dropped our awesome little car back to the depot, she had done over 3000 miles, through all the elements and had not missed a beat. To drop the car off all we had todo was drive it in, they checked the odometer, fuel and checked for damage, we were given a receipt and that was that, they immediately washed and cleaned the car, refueled it and I am sure within a couple of hours someone else was driving her.

We asked for a taxi, and the guy behind the counter explained that it would've quicker to walk, so off we set, until we realized the motel was a good couple of mile away, so hailed a cab and got back to our digs. We spent the afternoon/evening booking our stay in New York, rang Lolly to wish her a Happy birthday and just watched tele for the remainder of the evening.

Tuesday 24/01/2012

Not a very exciting morning except we left even more stuff behind in this hotel as we had accumulated a lot of extra unnecessary stuff, free shuttle to the airport, and then onto our plane to NY.

I had booked a 'Dial 7' transfer from JFK to our accommodation, cost $56 but it's reliable, comfortable (Lincoln Towncar) and we didn't have the hassle of taxis or trying to find our accommodation. We also knew that the room we had booked was going to be small.
Small doesn't come close, it was actually smaller than the cabin on a cruise ship. No joke, to sit on the toilet, you literally had the wall in front of you at your knees, they give you a bath mat but there's no floor space to put it. But it was modern and clean. We asked about an upgrade but decided that $350 for an extra few feet of space wasn't worth it, so we found locations for everything, went and bought some supplies and sat and chatted about our next few days.

Wednesday 24/01/12

I had bought tickets to the Big Red Bus which included lots of extras, but we had to find the ticket booth in Times Square to convert them, so we rugged up and headed off down Broadway to find Times Square, well you don't actually find TS, it finds you. It is sooooo amazing, so many people, cars, SIGNS, noise, shops, more SIGNS, it was quite overwhelming. We eventually found the place and got a very fast rundown of what we could see, when, how and where, and walked out quite bewildered with a meter long piece of paper each which were our tickets to all of it. So first things first, we found the big bus and jumped on.

What can I say, I was so pleased we were here for a week, cause there is so much to see. We spent a couple of hours on the bus going all round downtown, then got off at the Rockefeller Centre and went to the top. Words cannot describe the views. NY just keeps building more and more skyscrapers, they have already replaced one WTC, and are currently building a second which will be the tallest building in NY, can't help but wonder that they are not concerned about it being a target again. Had some soup for lunch, then made our way back to TS and had a drink at a pub, found the subway and how to work it, it's always challenging working out the train lines, how to pay and how much to pay etc, but NYs train system seems to be pretty straight forward.

We then jumped on the other bus and did the up town tour, which meant we found more things to do before leaving. It was nighttime by then, and we we both a bit weary, so headed home. Once we got back to our cupboard we realized that we were actually very lucky to have this room, it was only $85 a night and an easy 15 minute walk to Times Square! As I said, it was clean, and cleaned everyday. We spoke to another Aussie couple who were paying over 1000 for a very small apartment for 6 nights.

We then ventured out to the corner where we had a really nice dinner at a diner, yep a real live diner, just like you see in the sitcoms, always thought they were just a TV thing.