New York to LA and LA to New York
Trip Start
Jul 14, 1983
1
28
Trip End
Aug 28, 1983
New York City,
New York,
United States
Thursday, July 14, 1983
"Ur... um... no, no you see, I don't smoke" I replied nervously.
"Doooo yooooou haaave enyyy alc-o-hol?" he continued like a stuck record showing that this wasn't his first time at posing these questions.
"No, no, I don't drink." came my reply, slightly less nervously and with an added forced smile which made me look guilty of something, even if it wasn't actually alcohol and cigarette smuggling!
"Doooo yooooou haaave enyyy pl-aaa-nt-sss, fr-oooo-t-sss or veg-i-er-tab-le-sss in your luggage?" dragging out words in a way I had never heard before
As it once was.....
. It was very intimidating. "No, I don't have green fingers. Everything I try to grow just dies on me!" I babbled, trying to lighten the tense atmosphere.
Seemingly exasperated that he had not managed to find anything to justify refusing my entry into the USA, he looked me dead straight in the eye through his extra thick glasses, his mouth sagging in a downward direction devoid of any sign of muscles indicating he was capable of a smile, and stamped his official stamp with vigorous disappointment on my visa in my British passport and said:
"Gee, yuuurrr a lottaaa fun arrrrrr't you?!" and with a flick of his wrist indicated I could walk on through to the baggage lounge.
It was the 14th July 1983, I had just turned 21, and whilst I had spent my entire life moving around the world as a forces daughter, I had just made my first ever journey without my parents. High Wycombe to JFK, New York, not very romantic I grant you, but I was feeling very adult, very daring, but absolutely terrified all at the same time
The lady herself
. New York was just so big and imposing. Seeing armed police patrolling the streets in groups of six didn't exactly fill me with great confidence either! So I locked myself in my basic hotel room and worked on my plan for the next day which was free before the official Contiki group trip started. I decided on the standard vanilla guided 8 hour city tour of New York and got to see: Fifth Avenue, the Rockerfella Centre, Twin Towers, World Trade Centre, Empire State Building and its scary lift - nought to sixty, or ground floor to observatory on 102nd floor, in a blink of an eye, Statue of Liberty (including inside), posh houses of how the other half live, Central Park, the place where John Lennon was murdered, Bronx, Manhattan and Harlem. Beats a day in the office!
That evening there was the Contiki pre-departure meeting in the form of a cocktail party to get to know the group of about 40 passengers, comprising of a cross-section of people, all ages, sizes, professions and backgrounds from all over the world.
They're off! Our cosy (or packed!) Greyhound coach took us to Lexington, Philadelphia to see the Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell with its huge crack running right through it
The cracked Liberty Bell, Philadelphia
. On to Washington D.C. and my first camping experience since the Brownies! I thought pegs were things you use to hang out the washing! After we had made camp and eaten what was to become our standard dinner, a BBQ, we toured Washington by night - Washington Monument, Kennedy Centre, Museums, Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Centre and Capitol Hill.
The next day we got to see the same again, but this time by daylight plus the Whitehouse, the Aeronautic and Space Museum, the History Museum (which housed the largest cut diamond in the world - at that time anyway!), before heading out to the Arlington cemetery, which, as with all military cemeteries was very moving.
Next up colonial Williamsburg where they have set up the town as a replica of how life was back in the 18th century, including actors in 18th century costumes for added effect. In the repro dining room there was a very much alive stern butler bossing us about as if we were the servants. Leave me alone, I'm on holiday! Other actors played out the roles of craftsmen including a shoemaker, a basket weaver, a printer, a barrel maker and some lady (of course) servants cooking dinner over an open fire. All a bit touristy, but that said, it was quite well done.
Set off for Nashville stopping off at Winston Salem, North Carolina, to visit the cigarette factory. In Nashville itself we visited Studio B Hall of Fame featuring music industry memorabilia from the 1950s including Elvis Presley's famous golden Cadillac with its plush interior and everything a star could possibly need for a day out on the road, in the 50s
Capitol Hill
. As a group we went to the nearby Country Crossroads recording studio where the public are given the opportunity to be pop stars for the duration of a tune and record their favourite number for posterity. Remember, this is in the days before Karaoke was known about, well in the West at least. So Contiki in their wisdom, picked out the classic "Country roads, take me home" - an easy song to massacre. We entered our small glass studio, took on the pop star pose of placing one hand on each of the huge round headphones which had been supplied to each of us, and stood in front of a microphone pulling faces as we tried to hit the right notes, with varying degrees of success, and collectively managed to totally destroy the song! The noise hurt my ears we were so off key. As the saying goes I USED to like that song! Not one to give in, (Taurus trait) I demonstrated my musical (in)capabilities and strummed a guitar and tinkled on a piano and successfully managed to empty the room in seconds. Don't people recognize talent when they see it? Obviously yes!
Having failed miserably in our musical talents, we snuck out the back quietly and drove through Knoxville en route to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Gracelands, the once home of Elvis the Pelvis, with a cedar tree trunk as a coffee table - what else? His grave, and that of his family, are in the garden and it is all very tastefully done with moving words on the gravestones adorned with lots of flowers, teddy bears and other pressies from the hundreds of thousands of fans that pass through every year
Inside Elvis's car, plush or what?!
. Crossing over the largest causeway in the world we hit the 24 hour party city of New Orleans. Irrespective of where you walk, or the time of day or night, there is just wall to wall music coming out of every corner of the city, mainly blues and jazz, which to be honest I don't normally like, but the atmosphere kind of draws you in and before you know it you are drinking a beer and tapping your foot on the floor along with all the locals.
As a new day dawned, and having missed out on our hotel bed, we took in a boat ride on a paddle steamer down the great Mississippi River, but not before most indulged in some energy food and bought a burger from the only floating McDonalds in the world - even back then you couldn't go far without encountering Ronnie McDonald! Love him or hate him, you have to admire the business success of the company.
Less interesting for the girls, but more for the boys, the NASA space centre, Houston, Texas was the next highlight on the agenda. More entertaining for the ladies later on was watching the failed would-be rocket scientists and astronauts trying to be men on the bucking rodeo bull in the bar at Gilley's Rodeo Bar, where they were promptly thrown off in seconds along with their pride and manhood
How to kill a classic song.....
. San Antonia and a visit to the Alamo were next before a day and night R&R at Circle R Dude Ranch in Bandera, where they subjected us to a dreadful country and western singer around a campfire at night. Like listening to nails down a chalkboard it was! But we all just smiled and clapped politely at the right intervals and drank more beer to ease the pain. All part of the great outdoor experience!
Up at 'silly o'clock' or the crack of dawn as it is also known, for the long drive to El Paso. Everyone fell out of the sacks and into their coach seat and fell asleep straight away except for me as I watched the orange sun wake up and fill the sky, gorgeous. Eventually crossed the Mexican border for a couple of hours shopping before heading back to El Paso.
Time for the girls to do what they do best, dressing up. Time to put on the glad rags and pose for a photo with a 19th century backdrop of a shop in Durango, Colorado. Costumes for the boys were pretty standard, boring and forgettable. For the girls there was a whole wardrobe to choose from - everything from a glam lady to a prostitute, although I am sure there were cries of "I have nothing to wear!"
Well if she can't sing, she must be able to play?
. Decisions, decisions. I went for the stunning silk, full length, off the shoulder, 'v' cut royal blue number, with white lace trim on the circle of the skirt and the 'v' cut. To set off the dress there was a matching hat with white feathers and a white parasol - eat your heart out Scarlet O Hara. The colour was to die for! It was a real taste of being a model as they just threw the 'one size fits all' clothes on you, zipped you in and spent exactly 5 seconds making alternations to ensure the 'perfect' fit by pulling excess material from your waist to your back and securing it with the biggest bull dog clip 'I ever did see'. Haute couture at its very best, darling! Maybe this is where punk fashion first started! They sat me down on a chair, spread the dress out to show the full extent of the circle of material, got me to sit up straight and got me to hold the parasol correctly. The stunning blue colour was kind of lost on the photos, as to give the shots a realistic look they were, of course, black and white. On strict instructions of the photographer that no smiles were allowed, we all gave the camera our most serious stare, making the photos very 19th century - it was just the bikini strap marks from the sun tan (or burn as it's also known!) that kind of gave it away! When I got the photos home, some people thought it was a photo of my granny in her younger days! Not my cup of tea, but a few hours were spent at the rodeo, a real one, not put on for us tourists, and we got a taste of the wild West. All very impressive how they catch cattle and manage to stay on bucking bulls, but all a bit cruel for my taste, but it's all in the day of a life of a cowboy.
En route to Grand Canyon we stopped off at the Four Corners where, as the name suggests, the four corners of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona meet
Elvis's grave
. We drove through the endlessly stunning Arizona "Painted Desert" with its rock formations with more shades of orange, brown and red than one can imagine. Got to the Grand Canyon just in time to see the sunset before camping nearby in tepees - with a space for real fire inside and everything! Up early for our helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon to get the full feeling of the vastness of the place. The helicopter pad was conveniently situated right near the tepees, so we just fell out of bed into the helicopter seat. I am a nervous flyer, and had never been in a helicopter before, so the vertical takeoff was a well weird experience - how does it do that? But helicopter is the only way to go to see and appreciate the Canyon. They supplied us with headphone so they could give us information as we flew over the Canyon. To set the scene and build up the tension the tape started off with the dramatic theme tune of, name escapes me, but goes, da............da...............da da, with the final da da timed to play just as we reached the entrance of the Grand Canyon itself! I almost lost my stomach with excitement and I suddenly got goose bumps!. Best part of the flight for me (apart from it being over of course) was seeing the Snoopy rock - it really is Snoopy lying on his back, but where's Sue? The flight should only have lasted around 20 minutes, but due to pilot error, he lost his way(?!) or something, and we got 40 minutes instead - the tourist wins at last!
I took the easy option and spent the rest of the day trekking on the edge of the Canyon whilst other more brave souls ventured further down into the Canyon itself. Evening was of course spent watching the sunset, which gave the rocks a totally different colour and mood
Drop dead gorgeous!
. What time is it? All very confusing at the Hoover Damn as it was built between two state borders on a time zone. After the obligatory photo stop to admire the engineering achievement of the damn, we drove passed Lake Mead, before arriving at another 24 hour city with an electricity bill not to be jealous of, Las Vegas. We checked into our hotels, as it was too hot to camp(?). However, as with New Orleans, we didn't need a bed as we spent the whole night and next day in the casinos taking advantage of all the freebies on offer to entice you into their club: free drinks, nibbles, t-shirts and all kinds of other useful 'must have' rubbish. I gave myself a budget to "lose" on the slot machines, but even after a night out, I managed to break even. Result!
The best entertainment though had to be people watching. All those Americans, obviously regular visitors to the casinos, hugging their huge Tupperware containers filled to bursting with dimes, quarters and dollars as if it were their most valued possession. They literally 'kidnap' an aisle of slot machines, with a row of machines on either side, and spend the night running up and down the aisle putting a coin in the machine, pulling down the handle and running to the next machine. Once they have done both sides of the aisle they start again, collecting any winnings as they return to the machines. God help anyone who tried to 'steal' one of their machines on 'their' territory. They stay on the row for hours and hours, figuring that the law of averages means that eventually the machine will pay out! Dream on!
That said, when we were there in the early hours, there was suddenly the sound of alarm bells and flashing lights over one slot machine
The group all dressed up and nowhere to go
. From out of nowhere came 6 burly security guards who surrounded the machine and the person standing in front of it. The visitor had won $21,000 from the $1 machine and the machine was making the most unbelievable noise as it pounded out the winnings in $1 coins. I am not sure that all $21,000 came out in dollar coins, I think that was just a promotion exercise and after a while the pile of coins was scooped up and the bounty together with the winner was escorted by the 6 bodyguards to the cash desk to be presented with a cheque (or check for the Americans reading this) - probably closely followed by the IRS! That got everyone smiling and even keener to get back to their machines as one day it would be their turn to win. From one extreme to the other. From the loudness of machines and thousands of excitable people in Las Vegas to the eerie silence of Calico Ghost Town, population - tumbleweed. Where's the road out please?
More contrasts at Universal Studios where you are given a glimpse into the movie world and the tricks of the trade. You'll never watch a film in the same light again. The highlight was a trip on water, well it was meant to be an ocean, with a guest appearance from the one and only Jaws, teeth and all, trying to get into the boat, very realistic and created more than a few screams from the surprised passengers I can tell you
How!
. We nearly fell in! Disneyland was wasted on me. I am just too much of a coward to go on the high speed rides! The "it's a small world" boat ride floating around on a calm pond in a cave was just about my limit, with sea sickness tablets to hand of course! I suddenly became the most popular person on the trip when my use to queue for others was discovered. So my day was spent queuing, while the others tried their best to scare themselves to death and make themselves feel really ill. Um why?!
After the fun of the fare, we had dinner in the Bath Tub Restaurant - exactly that, you sit in renovated old fashioned cast iron claw feet baths with cushions on them for that added comfort factor, and dinner is then served to you on a table impregnated with coins from all over the world and on the walls is a collection of number plates. The salad bar was a yellow convertible car, with every conceivable salad and salad dressing beautifully displayed on the inside of the car. No idea of the model, cars are not my strong point! Strange combination, but it works!
Relaxing visit to Pismo beach and lunch at the Danish town of Solvang with its windmills
Snoopy
. What is it about windmills? Everyone, including me, loves them?! Always fancied renovating a windmill and living in it. More coastal driving to Monterey reaching San Francisco to do the obligatory bus tour incorporating the Golden Gate, houses of the rich and famous, the tram, the hilly streets and Fisherman's Wharf with yummy seafood. Electric atmosphere, just so much going on.
City life was exchanged for the peace and tranquility of miles and miles of stunning scenery and waterfalls on a bike around Yosemite National Park. Weeks of much inactivity took its toll on most, ouch my poor behind!
The route across North America gave us a lot of lakes so we spent time walking, cycling and horse trailing around Bass Lake, Camanchi Lake, Stockton and Lake Tahoe also in Stockton, not forgetting Silver Lake and Caples Lake.
A lunch stop at forgettable Elko and a short casino visit in Reno, Nevada were next on the itinerary, but once you've done Las Vegas it's just not the same - getting fussy now
Grand Canyon as far as you can see
! After a few hours driving we stopped at what looked like a vast piece of sand/or desert, but no, we were told it was the Boneville Salt Flats where land speed records are made. Not quite what I had expected. You had to look really close to see any salt. Amazing what preconceived ideas you have about a place and then are disappointed. This was the case here for me, all very uninspiring, but again, the boys enjoyed the idea of speed and danger. Must be a gender thing!
Salt Lake City with its Temple Square, Mormon Temple, Bringham Young's statue and horse and the Eagle Gate were all very clinical. The whole place had a strange feel about it, and everywhere you went you felt that eyes were following you. We were pressured into going into a church for the experience of a Mormon speech/service. And when we left, they tried to convert us - run for the hills!
Jackson Hole was our next port of call followed by Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming which is apparently seven times larger than Yosemite, wow!
Playful thermal geysers at Grand Teton Park provided us with a lot of entertainment and admiration
Calico ghost town
. The best known is "Old Faithful", so called because it erupts with such regularity you can set your watch by it - is it Swiss made? Quickly drove through Cheyenne, Dodge City, Kansas City where we had time to take in a baseball match (yawn, how much longer?) and I got burned to a cinder as there was absolutely no shade for my fair, sensitive skin.
On the approach to St. Louis, Missouri the city is flanked by an impressive arch which from a distance looked like a thin piece of metal to me, ready to snap. In fact I think it's offices and not made of metal at all! Just another American city.
Took in a guided tour of the Budweiser beer factory and drove passed Lake Michigan before arriving in the windy city of Chicago. Once you get there, you understand why - boy does that wind howl! Saw the only building to survive the 1871 Fire of Chicago as well as Sears Tower and the Panoramic views.
Quickly drove through industrial Detroit to cross into Canada, passing Lake Ontario. We were treated to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls with its magical horseshoe shape
Look out it's Jaws!
. Then back into the USA to view the Falls from that side and took the Maid of the Mist boat ride. The boat takes you right close up and personal to the Falls and you get absolutely drenched in spite of the protective clothing you are given when you board the boat. At night there is a spectacular light show which lights up the Falls in all shades of the rainbow, stunning. The amount of water that passes over the Fall is just phenomenal. Having made a full circle New York to LA along the south coast and then LA to New York along the North coast, I ended up back in my basic hotel in New York with just enough time to take in Central Park and do some last minute shopping before flying home to start my new job. Back to life, back to reality!
