Hello Again!

Monkeying around at the San Diego Zoo.

A snake having dinner.

Tina and Tristan standing in front of a Saguaro cactus outside Quartzsite Arizona.

As skilled as I may be at riding a bike, I can't swim a stroke, it is only with large amounts of pool noodles that I managed to not drown. We were in the outdoor pool at my Grannie's place in Yuma, Arizona.

The business end of a Sherman tank at Yuma Proving Grounds. This one seen action in World War II as well as Korea and it has the bullet dents to prove it.

We went to the sand dunes by Yuma, and I was offered a ride in a sandrail, which I accepted of course. It was quite a wild ride, I had sand all over me at the end.

The Ocean Pier in San Diego, we walked to the end of it.

The beach in San Diego.

Shamu the whale, at Sea World.

Orphan Mine shaft at the Grand Canyon, in 1951 uranium was discovered in the mine, this is as close to the mine as you can get now as the whole area around the shaft is contaminated with radioactive waste. In the photo you can see the mine shaft and a lower frame work with cables going into the shaft.

The upper part of the mine.

Route 66 Motel, with the Roadkill Cafe in the background. We travelled down about 100 miles of old Route 66 between Williams, Arizona and Kingman, Arizona.

The Grand Canyon

Highway 89 south of Prescott, Arizona, is a very fun, senic highway to drive as you can see. The van isn't too sporty though, we needed Tina's car for this stretch of highway. :)

World's biggest TV screen over Fremont Street in Las Vegas, we went there to watch the graphics, they are on for about 10 mins every hour.

Words of wisdom from Caesar's Palace Casino.

A look down the Strip from our casino.

A Ford Group "B" rally car, they were banned from competition for being too dangerous. This particular one has 650HP, all wheel drive and goes from a standstill to 60mph in 2.1 seconds. We stayed at the Imperial Palace Casino and they have a impressive auto collection.

Looking over the edge down the Hoover Dam. Those are cars down there on the parking area by the water.

9133Kms, that is how far we travelled on our vacation. I really didn't want to come home when we were all done, it's cold here now. We did have some really nice weather for the vacation though, and the roads were good going there and back. Tina and I are now looking for a new apartment before the baby comes, we aren't allowed to stay here with kids and it's getting a little cramped in here now with all our stuff. Time to move up to something a little bigger. Anyway, thanks for looking, ride safe and have fun.

More Photos

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.

The tram going to the parking garage.

We are in San Diego now and the weather isn't the best, here are some nice swells coming in on the beach.

The military cemetary at the San Diego Submarine Base.

The old style amusement park at California Adventure Park.

Glass elephant inside the Ice Cream Shop at Disneyland.

The parking garage, I thought it looked cool, especially at night.

Tigger :)

The river boat in the New Orleans section.

Well we are now in San Diego. I have to say that I much prefer the city of San Diego over Los Angeles. It is much smaller and they now how to put up signs so that travellers like me actually know where they are going. San Diego is a very beautiful city and to be honest I will have a really hard time going back to Saskatoon after this. :) It hasn't been the best weather for our visit though, since arriving in San Diego it has rained everyday to some extent. I wanted to post more photos on here, but I haven't had time to go through the couple of hundred photos I've taken so far, and the wireless internet at our hotel leaves a lot to be desired. The only reason I'm posting right now is that it is suddenly working good for a while so I decided to take advantage of it. After San Diego we are heading to Arizona to visit my Granny, then it is home again for us, with planned stops at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas along the way. Anyway I will post more on here when I can, keep watching for more. Ride safe and have fun.

A few pics

Heading into Nevada.

Going through Las Vegas.

The road going to Disneyland.

Tristan in the big "C" at the California Adventure Park.

Tristan and Tina at the California Adventure Park

Well, we have been having a different hotel every night since arriving in Los Angeles. We really haven't had good luck with hotels. This is the first night that we have got internet. I'm really tired so this is just a fraction of the photos that I have to eventually get on here. Anyway we arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after bumper to bumper traffic all the way from Las Vegas. The wind was horrible in the hills above Los Angeles and we passed several tractor trailers that were blown over in the ditch on the way in. I would have taken photos but I was busy trying not to join them. Driving on the highways here sure isn't like home. It is 5 lanes wide and everyone seems to be driving around 75-80 mph. We went to Disneyland for our first day on Tuesday and it was a lot of fun, but very tiring. We have to go again tomorrow and then we will be driving farther south to San Diego tomorrow sometime. Anyway I will put more photo's up when I get a chance. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

HAPPY 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heading south on Interstate 15, driving through southern Montana.

Driving through Idaho, it is flat! (for the most part)

Big chunk of ice - 1, My van - 0

Some horribly grainy photos of the fireworks in St. George, Utah

We were staying at the Econo Lodge and this is what we seen outside the door at 12:00 midnight.

Happy New Year! We are already two days into our trip and currently in Southern Utah. We are heading for California tomorrow. We started off today in Butte Montana and quickly headed south into Idaho. We stopped in Idaho Falls for gas around lunch time. We pulled out onto the Interstate after getting gas and were following a semi, small chunks of snow were blowing off the top of it and hitting the windshield. This was making a mess out the windshield so I went to pass the truck. Just as we came up to the back of it a huge chunk of ice flew off the top of the truck and hit the front of my van. I knew it probably wrecked something because it hit hard and shook the van. At the next rest area I pulled in to survey the damage. The ice broke my grill, ripped the hood latch off (you need a screwdriver to open the hood) and bent the front of my hood up, also poking the screws from the grill into the hood and making some cool little dents in it. I wasn't really impressed to say the least, but at least nobody got hurt and the ice never wrecked my radiator or anything which would have been far worse. After that it was smooth sailing all the way through to Salt Lake City, Utah. I would have taken some photos out the window there, but I was busy trying not to get hit by manics going 80+mph in all 5 lanes of traffic. We made it out of Salt Lake City in around 45mins and headed to St. George, Utah were I had booked a room for us at the Econo Lodge. The Econo Lodge was nice, and only $39 for the night, plus we got to check out St. George's New Years fireworks display which was awesome. I forgot my tripod for this trip, so I had to turn up my ISO's on the camera to 3200 just to get a half decent quick shot. So that is why the firework photos look really grainy. Anyway, ride safe and have fun. Look for more tomorrow! :)