The Book of Sifty

A day in the cells.. 1:02AM

Next day we went on a boat trip of Alcatraz prison. (This an old prison on a rock in the middle of the San Francisco bay that used to host Americas most notorious crims about 50 years ago). Had a talk from a park ranger about all the various escapes and then did this audio tour thing, where you wear headphones and are guided around the place being told about it as you go. They had some original inmates talking about life in the prison, breakouts and other inmates. Was stoked to discover that a bit of the audio tour, this inmate Leon 'whitey' Thompson, talking about Al Capone and how you entertained your self in the solitary confinement was sampled by a dub band in the early nineties, Unitone Hi Fi if you care.

After that it was the obligatory cable car ride. I made sure I got the outside bit where you have to hold on. Then off to meet up with people we were staying with, and some of their mates for a Martini happy hour at little bar. Followed by the most monster Burritos I've ever had.

Next day we were up at 5am to drive to Salt Lake City. It was about 11 hours all up and all on an interstates ' four lanes, two in each direction and no corners you can't do at 120kph. In fact the speed limit for lot of in 75mph, so usually you're hoofing along at like 80mph or more. Our car had cruise control and man did you need it for the long, straight, flat roads in Nevada.

In Salt Lake we were all fairly broken from the epic drive so we sat around in the hostel, after a quick look at the Mormon Tabernacle, and watched telly and talked to the other travellers there. We met a nice English girl named Emma who was heading to Denver on the bus, we offered her a lift, so the next day we rammed five packs and all our junk in the boot (did I mention the massive car yet?) And she tagged along with us. Last night we got back to Winter Park, and today we drove to Denver to return the car and drop Emma off there.

I'm recovering currently from the massive drinking session we had at Buckets bar last night. It was supposed to a quite drink, say goodbye to our old haunt and all. But Josh, maniac bartender and mountain biker kept feeding me shots of Yager (hideous and very alcoholic drink). So today I was little worse for wear.

Then there was one 11:46AM

So I just realised of the five original Savants only one remains working where we all met ...

La la land and Talk Shows 12:19PM

Okay where was I? in Salt Lake? Oh yeah after Vegas we headed to Ventura north of LA to stay with a relation of Pauls. I had the first real fish and chips since leaving NZ. Had a bit of mission finding Pauls cousin, when we finally did it turns out we couldn't stay that night since she's a Jehovah's Witness, her husband was working nights and its against her religion to have men stay without her husband being there.
Okay fine.

So we found a pretty shady motel for $50 between the four of us. Looked a little like the kind of place you might rent by the hour.. anyway it was cheaper than a hostel and we weren't upsetting anybody's religious beliefs. Becca managed to get a warning from a cop, in fact two carloads of them!, for jay walking. Very funny since every American we talked to said that was the first time they'd heard of anybody getting pulled up for it. Still the cop did admit that at that time of night they get pretty bored in small towns and its a good time not to be breaking the law.

Next day we battled our way into LA on the massive freeways and had a wander around Hollywood. To be honest it was pretty crap.. but i had been warned by several people about that, still had a cool drive around some diverse neighborhoods. Got into the studio audience for the taping of talk show. Unfortunately all the big ones have massive queues so we ended up in some late screening show with some guy chatting to some pretty D-list stars. Still I have actually seen this show on TV here, and it was entertaining. Especially the guy who did the crowd warm up before the show and during breaks.

Stayed by the beach that night in Santa Monica in the most expensive hostel ever. Very nice but a little sterile, like a hospital or hotel kinda of way. Went out for a beer and ended up at 'Hooters Bar', where in case you don't know all the waitresses wander around in very short shorts, singlets and not much else.. had to be done once in my life :)

Next day we tried to look around the back of the Hollywood sign, up on the hill. But were foiled by signs and barbed wire. On the way out we stopped at the Getty centre, which is this enormous private museum. Stayed at a much nicer hostel that night in some place I can't spell.. friendly English owner, stylee old house and talkative guests. Including a kiwi girl from Christchurch and later Wellington. The place was another student town so we went out and had a few beers at a packed bar with a band playing some specially dubbed out stoner reggae.

Drove up the coast to San Francisco where stayed with one of Rob's brothers friends. Very accommodating couple, one Italian guy, Peppe, and his American girlfriend. They are only staying at his brother house a few weeks, and have infact only been in San Fran for a month. So it was cool they could come out and see things with us they hadn't seen a million times before. We weren't actually in San Fran, but a suburb over the bridge called Oakland. First day we did some hard-core sightseeing and went to a big Baseball game. Oakland A's playing the Chicago White Sox. Funny seeing the jackets and hats all the homeboys wear everywhere else in the world to look cool actually being used for what they were designed!

After that we found a bar playing jazz. Not exactly my choice but I suppose you travel to see new things. Next day was more sightseeing and Rob and I ditched the others at another Jazz bar and drove to a Drum'n'bass night at a downtown club. We managed to stumble across a pretty packed, cheap ($7 door charge) once a month night. Wicked to be in a dark room full of phat bass and happy people again.