Deadwood - (Pt 2) - rodeo

This weekend is special as it is Rodeo Weekend in Deadwood !! (or as my brother-in-law Richard who prefers Beverly Hills would call it - Ro-day-oh Weekend…). We booked tickets months ago – in fact I was so desperate to go to a rodeo that I booked the rest of our cross country trip around it.

The day started with a parade through the town by the “Days of 76” rodeo team – the company has been going since the 1880’s – and the main event started just after lunch. Even Elizabeth was excited - she's always loved the cowgirl look...

I don’t know what these guys get paid but it’s not enough. The first video below is of a cowboy riding a bronco - as you'll see at the end, he almost paid a high price.

The next video shows a cowboy riding a bull - he almost paid the ultimate price.

We stopped off for a tour of the No. 10 Saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back and killed back in 1876. The boys thought this was very cool....


Tonight we’re eating at Kevin Costner’s restaurant again and tomorrow we’re off to another site I’ve always wanted to see – Mount Rushmore – I can’t wait !!

Deadwood (Pt 1)

Apologies for the late posting – it’s not easy finding a wireless internet connection in Deadwood, South Dakota !!

Our day started at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. This has been one of the biggest surprises of the trip so far. It is a stunning museum which has extensive exhibits showing the history of Native American tribes in the area as well as the history of Buffalo Bill who was an iconic figure in the Wild West, toured all over the world with his Wild West show and only died in 1917; and the museum itself would not be out of place in London or New York so it is very strange to come across it in this tiny town in Wyoming.

Our journey to Deadwood in South Dakota took us all the way across Wyoming through some even smaller towns - Shell for example. Great scenery and we saw a moose and a bear (well at least I think it was a bear…).

Shell, WY - Population 50 !! My mum sometimes has nearly this many for Xmas lunch...

Having almost reached the halfway point in our journey, I thought that, in case anyone reading might be insane enough to follow in our footsteps, it might be a good idea to recap on what we’ve covered so far :-

Hotels
The Fairmont in San Francisco was very good; the Peppermill in Reno, the Ameritel in Twin Falls and The Cody in Cody were all fine; the Rusty Parrot in Jackson Hole was a big disappointment – trying to be a boutique NY hotel in a cowboy town is never going to work. Tonight we’re staying at the Mineral Palace in Deadwood – although being given a large book of $ 5 vouchers at check-in is never a good sign….










The breakfast buffet at the Mineral Palace Hotel in Deadwood was pretty basic...

Restaurants
One Market in San Francisco was excellent, while Zuni Café (home of the 60 minute chicken) had a good atmosphere. The Canyon Crest in Twin Falls has great views and Wyoming’s Rib Chop House in Cody serves amazing barbecue ribs. Tonight we discovered the Midnight Star in Deadwood which is owned by Kevin Costner and has two restaurants, a cool bar and casino.

Museums
The de Young in San Francisco is worth a visit but the California Academy of Sciences isn’t. We missed out on the Idaho Potato Museum (yes, it does exist), but the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody was great.


National Parks
So far we/ve been throughthe Grand Teton Park - beautiful; Yellowstone Park - like a small country - everything's there but you need time to explore; Big Horn Park - ruggedly beautiful; and tomorrow will be driving throught the Black Hills National Park.

Driving
Most days we are covering 250 to 350 miles which takes between 4 and 7 hours depending on the roads and traffic. I have to say that it’s been mostly very enjoyable – I’d rather be driving a sports car but the Tahoe is pretty easy. The boys have been very good, they watch DVD’s and listen to music most of the time – having a big music library on board is essential.

Clothes
The toughest part of spending 3.5 weeks on the road (and travelling light as we can only fit so much in the car) is packing and re-packing almost every day; and making the clothes last. Elizabeth was so paranoid that the boys would run out of clothes that she kept them in, more or less, the same outfits for the first four days. Now Cody was absolutely fine with this – he would quite happily wear the same pair of boxer shorts for the entire trip (he might turn them inside out half way). However, Harley and Brandon have begun to notice……yesterday, Brandon gave his T-shirt to Elizabeth and said "mum, can I change this – it’s starting to smell really bad !!"



I guess we should feel proud that at least two of the boys have discovered personal hygiene….

Cody - We're staying at The Cody in Cody with Cody

All in all a pretty full day....we drove north from Jackson Hole the twenty miles or so to the Grand Teton National Park where we had booked a floating trip along the Snake River. After her recent rafting adventures, Elizabeth was a little apprehensive in getting back on the river but this was a pretty tame trip with some spectacular scenery. Grand Teton was apparently named by the early French settlers who were impressed by the three huge steep mountains which they named the "tetons" which is French for breasts - no surprise there.

Gradually, Elizabeth got back into it - especially after the boys explained to our guide what would happen to him if he gave us anything but a smooth ride....

After our usual lunch of potato chips and "trail mix" we set off for Yellowstone National Park and a visit to Old Faithful, a geyser which erupts every 90 minutes each day. The first thing to appreciate is how vast Yellowstone actually is - altogether it covers over 2.2 million acres and so driving anywhere takes forever, especially since there's always a caravan or RV holding up traffic. I have to say that it was worth the journey - some of the sights are amazing - we saw herds of buffalo and elk (although unfortunately no bears).

The entrance to Yellowstone National Park (don't the boys look like they're having a fantastic time ??)

We finally arrived half an hour before Old Faithful was due to erupt and it was definitely worth the drive - it's pretty spectacular...

Also we got to take a souvenir photo of our visit (see below)....

Maybe I should make this my Facebook home page ??

Finally, we headed out of Yellowstone for Cody, Wyoming where we had booked a room at The Cody hotel. Our Cody was obviously very excited. Everywhere there are T-shirts, mugs and other tacky stuff with his name on it. Tomorrow could turn out to be expensive !!

Jackson Hole - yee haa

A very different day's driving today - after 450 miles of desert yesterday, we only had 250 miles to cover to reach Jackson Hole, Wyoming but the scenery could not have been more different !!

Twin Falls (so called because of the waterfalls which we couldn't see anywhere) is built around Snake River Canyon which is very beautiful (and famous for having Evel Knievel jump it on a motorcycle in 1974). Last night, we ate at the Canyon Crest restaurant which has an amazing view (apologies but I forgot the camera) and the food was actually very good considering we were in the middle of nowhere. We all overslept and missed breakfast, couldn't face a "flying pig bar-b-que" or "drive-thru taco" so lunch was, once again, some peanuts, crisps and water - real gourmet stuff.

This is usually just a side line for me...

But the drive was incredible....once you leave the desert part of Idaho (close to the Nevada border), the weather changes a little and the scenery becomes much greener. Then as you head north towards Wyoming, the landscape transforms and you drive through lush, verdant rolling hills with a backdrop of snowcapped mountains (I'm really starting to sound poetic, innit ?)

The roads are single lane so the drive took over four hours but that didn't seem to matter too much. We are staying at a hotel called the Rusty Parrot in Jackson Hole - very small but with a good restaurant. The manager, Ben, has a bit of an attitude problem - he claimed that their restaurant was full this evening - but after I had shook him warmly by the throat and explained who he was dealing with, he magically found a table. The hotel itself is somewhat pretentious, considering it is in a cowboy town - no doors on the bathrooms; open kitchen to the dining room etc....but the food was pretty good.

Compare the video above to the one from Nevada, yesterday...

We are still getting a lot of emails from all over...Robert from Santa Barbara saw the video from yesterday of the boys in the car, watching their DVD, and commented :-

Don't know what drugs you're giving the boys sitting in the back seat so nicely and looking like they are reliving your days from the sixties - high on something... Please post me the name of the medication for my next road trip. Hopefully you've got enough to give the wife some.

But, Louis & Fran are actually looking forward to accommodating us when we reach Greenwich, Connecticut...

And the Berricks are so looking forward to your 3 pissed boys and suitcases full of dirty laundry....REALLY, we mean it! Keep on truckin and we admire your American spirit!!!

Go figure !!!

"I'm not the one stuck in the back of a car 8 hours a day so who would you say is stuffed ??"

Twin Falls

I'm back !!!

Firstly, thnks to everyone who as so kind as to offer their support to Elizabeth for her brave efforts to take over from me in Reno yesterday while I had to go back to Santa Barbara for a business meeting. Elizabeth received a number of congratulatory emails such as the one from Kate (someone or other) from London who said :-

Well I have been waiting with baited (think that is how you spell it) breath to read your blog and I have to say it was very good. Informative and also funny, I don’t know why he spends so much time doing this he should pass it over to you!!!!

Martin from Melbourne in Australia who commented :-

Well, for my money the San Fran - Reno blog has been, by some considerable distance, the most entertaining, witty, informative, and fully slick of your blogs to date. It's almost like it's been written by a completely different author.

...and from Sarah, also in London :-

I thought Liz's Blog was the best one so far (sorry Gary).

I have to say that I found your support touching (particularly since Elizabeth is so new to this - she had previously thought that "blogging" was something that went on at night, in carparks, between consenting adults), and obviously we're all looking forward to her next blog which will be published sometime next year.

Today, we were due to make the long trek from Reno to Twin Fall, Idaho which basically amounts to 450 miles through Nevada desert. It is kind of wierd, once you leave California behind, to think that you're going to drive almost 4,000 miles (mostly in a straight line) before you see the ocean again...and today, we drove and drove...

We stopped at Winnemucca (you must have heard of Winnemucca !!) for lunch and really were spoilt for choice.








Should we go for the "Flying Pig bar-b-que" or a "drive thru Taco" - it's always a difficult choice, isn't it ?? In the end, we were split between Cody & Brandon, who by that time were so hungry that they would have quite happily eaten a flying taco or a motorised pig or whatever; and me, who would have preferred to cut off one of my own limbs and bar-b-cue'd that rather that try either of those establishments. In the end, we compromised and went for Macdonalds. It seemed appropriate - after all, as I said to both Cody & Brandon - it was only fair that, if we were going to visit a bunch of universities which might be viable options for Harley after he left school........

After lunch, more driving - mile after mile after mile of desert as you can see in this video...

....although the boys, watching a "Pirates of the Carribean" DVD, didn't seem to notice...














Finally, at around 6:00pm, we crossed the border from Nevada into Idaho. We also changed timezones and are now in the "Mountain" Time Zone.



Probably the hardest part of the drive so far has been keeping below the speed limit, especially when there are no shortage of highway cops hidden out by the road, just waiting for some unsuspecting tourist to step out of line...


We were due to stop for the night at the Ameritel Inn in Twin Falls, Idaho - approx 120 mile across the border. It seemed okay on the internet but we were naturally concerned when we arrived to see the following welcoming sign...






A sign that says you may want to reconsider going for the $5.95 three course dinner....











However, it's actually not too bad....tomorrow we cross over into Wyoming - yee haw !!

To see exactly where we are on a map - scroll all the way to the bottom...

Reno - Elizabeth takes over...

This morning as we waved good-bye to Gary, I felt a little nervous, not because I was going to spend the day driving 300 miles on my own with the boys in tow, but because tonight I would be ‘Blog Master” in his absence. And how right I was - I am sitting in front of the computer and my mind is an absolute blank — “Nothing new there,” I hear Gary mutter to himself when he reads this. So let’s start at the beginning. We left the Fairmont at 10:00 and at 10:01 Brandon realised he had left his rucksack in the room. Ten minutes later we were headed off again. We asked the doorman for directions to the freeway — he told us to turn left and then left again, follow the road and we would be there in 3 minutes. We managed the first left and then forgot what he said and went right - 40 minutes later, after having had a major falling out with the lady who runs the Sat-Nav, and gone up and down virtually every hill in San Francisco, we finally found ourselves on the I 80 East.

I have to say it is a very beautiful drive — lots of tall green trees interspersed with lovely lakes. It is quite a windy road and would have been fine had not a major part of the road been being dug up. We spent several miles threading through cones, but luckily the lorry in front was very wide and so we knew if he could make it so could we! The boys chose all the music - who knew Mott the Hoople and Journey were such fun to sing along to; it made a change from Gary’s Motown selection.

We arrived in Reno around 3 pm; it really is a poor man’s Las Vegas, though I must say the Peppermill Hotel is actually very nice. It was around 100 degrees when we checked in so we all went for a swim. Unfortunately Cody and Brandon discovered that they have a kids arcade here, so they disappeared for a couple of hours and came back bearing several high class ‘prizes’ (not). Harley and I hit the Gym, then we all headed out for dinner.

So here we are back in our room, the boys are arguing over who has ordered the better ice-cream from room service and what film we should order on the TV.

We pick Gary up from the airport at 9:45 tomorrow morning and head off for Twin Falls.

Finally, we would just like to point out that Gary now will not have actually driven all the way across the States, he will have flown 300 miles of it!

San Francisco (pt 2) - the case of the 60 minute chicken

Now it's often been said (and is probably true) that the best things in life are worth waiting for....but, I'm pretty sure that whoever came up with that phrase, wasn't applying it to a roast chicken ! The day had started well - we were collected by our tour guide Rick (the one recommended by Nelson - the Chinese concierge whose parents, you may remember, apparently hate the French) and he was very good. Took us to Fisherman's Wharf, Little Italy, Twin Peaks, Chinatown (since Rick seemed to know everything, I asked him if he had heard of any historic wars between the French and Chinese but drew a blank), and of course Golden Gate Bridge.

Unfortunately, the bridge itself was mostly hidden by clouds - it has been since we arrived - but Rick was determined to compensate by covering it from every angle. And cover it we did...we drove across it, then we drove underneath it, then we drove back across it the other way. By that time, I'd had enough of that f'ing bridge - I was just waiting for Rick's Honda Odyssey to sprout wings and fly over it. Anyway, lunchtime came around and we had reservations at Zuni Cafe on Market Street so Rick obliged by dropping us off early. The famous specialty at Zuni is the roast chicken on a bed of marinated bread and currents - yeah, I wasn't sure either - but it takes 60 minutes to prepare so naturally we all thought - "this must be a chicken to end all chickens".

The table wasn't ready so we asked the maitre d' if we could order the chicken early so we'd get a jump on the 60 minutes but he said that this would be impossible. Elizabeth speculated that maybe there was some scientific link between the taste of the chicken and the length of the wait actually sitting at the table - whatever - we all ordered it and the wait began. The boys were already hungry and couldn't really appreciate how a chicken could take so long to roast. They'd already learnt from Rick that in Chinatown chickens were often sold alive and were then slaughtered later so obviously we all had visions of poultry being chased round the kitchen by the chef before being battered with a marinated French bread (thinking about it - if the chicken was from Chinatown, the bread would have had to have come from somewhere other than France). Anyway, we waited and waited and it was 70 minutes before the chicken finally arrived and it tasted.....like roast chicken, a little salty, but otherwise pretty good. And by the time you finish reading this you'll probably also feel let down but it's only taken you two or three minutes - think how you would have felt if it had taken you 70 !!

After lunch we caught the Alcatraz cruise across to the island itself. As you can see from the attached video, we had a smooth, comfortable voyage - but this wasn't it ! The wind was bitter but the tour was great and Elizabeth and I came away with a very different perspective on rehabilitation (see below)...

PARENTING - it needn't be complicated !!

Tomorrow I have to fly back to Santa Barbara for a meeting and so Elizabeth will be driving to Reno with the boys and I will meet them there on Tuesday morning. That means that she will be taking over the blogging reins and so you may actually end up with something worth reading - you never know ??!!

San Francisco (pt 1)

We sat in traffic for almost two hours from Palo Alto to San Francisco (which is only 30 miles) but the Fairmont Hotel seems great - good service, excellent location. I called from the room down to Nelson, the hotel concierge, who is the man here ! He managed to book the city's best tour guide for tomorrow as well as a table at Zuni Cafe (which is usually booked up a month in advance) for lunch. When I finally met Nelson I found out that he is actually Chinese - which threw me a little. Maybe his parents had something against the French ??!!

The De Young Museum currently has the "King Tut" exhibition which includes exhibits from the Tutankhamun tomb amongst others from the Valley of the Kings. Obviously, it was uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922 and brought home to me once again how big an influence the Brits have had throughout history...

We then crossed the road to visit the "California Academy of Sciences" which houses a small aquarium, a planetarium (for which you need special tickets which are usually sold out), and a pretty pathetic "rain forest" which was basically a bunch of house plants and a sophisticated sprinkler system. Calling this a rain forest was a bit like me taking Elizabeth's 20 year old Austin Mini and my 10 year old Ford Capri and calling it a "classic car collection".

However, one highlight was the penguin feeding in the "Evolution" hall...

Having seen the way it works, I suggested to Elizabeth that when it comes to feeding the boys each night, she might like to try slipping into a bikini, and serve their food out of a bucket straight into the swimming pool - it'll certainly save on the washing up !

In the same hall, the museum are also showing a whole series of stuffed wildlife such as giraffes, lions, wildebeast etc. As you can probably tell, we weren't too impressed with the whole experience...maybe it's just that we been spoilt for so long with the Science and Natural History museums in London - hopefully, our tour tomorrow will be better !!

In case you can't tell, the above picture shows one creature who lives with other wild animals and beats his chest with his fists when he's hungry or tired. The other creature is a gorilla.

Off we jolly well go...

Santa Barbara: 07:14am - July 17th.....the kids are on the back seat, the luggage is in the trunk (although I'm still thinking that we may have got that the wrong way round)...and we're all feeling a little apprehensive as we finally leave SB on a 25 day trek across the US. I'm still waiting for the moaning, screaming and bickering to start....but for now Elizabeth is asleep on the front seat, so we're good to go....




We've been getting some very amusing emails - this one from Bob in Melbourne, Australia :

This is simply the funniest thing I have heard ! Sponsorship for a car ride with nice colleges / meals along the way ! Brilliant and so Sugarmanesque ! What next ? Sponsored Liz Rodeo Drive shopathon ? It's so brilliant I can't but resist tipping some money in ! All power to your SUV mate, will call soon to discuss...



....from Louis in Greenwich, Connecticut:

The Chevy looks good. I am surprised that you are not driving the Aston and have Liz follow along later with the boys and lugguage !!!


...and from Robert in Santa Barbara:

We will be looking foward to reading your blogs and hope we don't read in our local newspaper -"wife murdered by male members of family - cause of death, stopping too many times to pee".

Thank god this was not an invite for another birthday trip for friends.


It took around 4.5 hours to reach Palo Alto and we had lunch at a great old-style restaurant called MacArthur Park, which is virtually opposite the Stanford campus. We then took the university tour which was extremely impressive...


We were taken around in a group by a senior student called Ariel who happened to be in the same class as the sister of Harley's best friend at Cate School. There is obviously still a lot of development going on at Stanford - we saw a lot of dorms and a Political Science building being constructed although their programs have almost certainly been affected by the recession like most other colleges. Anyway, we were very impressed with the look and feel of the place and Harley certainly seemed to like it. If anyone wants to ask Liz or I anything about this (or any of the other colleges) on our trip, please don't hesitate to email us (gary@hub-media.net or elizabeth@hub-media.net)








So you've acquired a reputation as one of the leading universities in the world....now are you going to jeopardise everything by admitting one of the three characters in the last picture ???


After the Stanford visit, we sat in traffic for almost two hours before we finally reached San Francisco, but more on that tomorrow...

Intro

The intrepid roadtrippers
(L / R - Harley, Gary, Cody, Elizabeth & Brandon)


The Chevy Tahoe from a well known car rental company

Beach at Santa Barbara

So I should make this clear from the start – I’m really not the blogging type....under normal circumstances I can’t believe that anyone would want to read what I do with my day (and if they did I would be extremely concerned for their sanity), but once Elizabeth and I had planned this cross country road trip, it did occur to us that, actually this could be pretty cool !!

A bit of background – in case you didn’t know, we are from London – we moved to California in 2006 with our three boys – Harley (17) who is looking to go to a US college next year; Cody (13) who can’t wait for Harley to go to a US college next year; and Brandon (11) who is expecting this trip to be about as much fun as a dose of swine flu. Admittedly, most people do the college campus visiting thing by flying around the country, renting cars and driving a hundred miles or so. But, there’s the problem. I’ve always had this dream of hitting the open roads (preferably on a motorcycle) and exploring all that this incredible country has to offer – Highway 1, Route 66 – you get the picture....I didn’t get to do this before I did the “kids” thing, so really it’s their fault and now they’re gonna pay !!!! (just kidding...)

It was actually my brother-in-law, Pete, who suggested that we did something called “Twitter” (or “Titter” as my mum calls it) which apparently involves posting a short message every time you blow your nose - I drew the line at that – but we did think that there might be someone out there who would be interested in hearing what Stanford University campus is like (we’re going there tomorrow); or in seeing a picture of the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio (that one could be a bit niche...); or in watching a video from Yellowstone Park of Old Faithful erupting (although that’s one that Elizabeth sees on a regular basis)....and maybe we could raise some money for charity at the same time !

So here’s the deal....we’re going to post stuff on a regular basis – almost every night in fact – and you can read it and hopefully find some of it interesting (you never know ?!!)....and we can both raise money for a really good cause. RAYS OF SUNSHINE is a UK charity which grants wishes to seriously or terminally ill children. It is very well run and I know that virtually every penny raised is used as it should be – you can donate by clicking on this link - http://www.justgiving.com/sugarmanroadtrip or the widget elsewhere on this page. Oh, and don’t forget to send a link to this blog to anyone else who may be interested.