After clearing our longest immigration line so far this year we were welcomed to the USA with a bang. During our time here we planned to undertake our third and final road
trip this year. We had a few days to explore Los Angeles before we picked up the car for 24 days and planned to drive across the entire country from west to east. America
would also be the last western country we visited this year as well.
The weather was much hotter than either of us had imagined for the time of year and even when near Chicago or Canada we never felt the need to put on trousers instead of shorts.
We were also lucky that the government shutdown of October 2013 didn't happen until after we had seen almost all of the sights which we had planned to see.
All in all we knew that we had an epic journey to complete and that it would most likely be our most epic road trip we have done to date. We also anticipated some killer 8-9
hour drive days.
During our time in Los Angeles we found a place to eat called Chipotle, these would turn out to be a sought after stable for us across America as and when we could no longer
stomach american food. They are a chain of Mexican restaurants serving great if a bit large burritos at a sensationally affordable price. On top of this they also taste great.
A far as sights go we had 2 days to find and buy an atlas. A significantly difficult task in America, I can only presume because everyone either gets lost or has Sat-Nav.
Around doing this we managed to visit Hollywood including the sign, Hollywood boulevard and the walk of the stars. We also managed to have a look around Beverly Hills.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in LA and while we didn't see any green space we were actually surprised that neither of us disliked the place as we do with almost every other
city in the world we have visited. I'm not sure what it was but there just seems to be a charm about the city and the multi nationality diversity helps with this, I think.
Next we picked up our rental car and were lucky as hell that they let us choose our own car and at just the precise moment
we were looking at the cars they pulled up in a brand new Hyundai Elantra which was a coupe but marked as a compact and had
just been cleaned. We snapped it up immediately and headed out of there ASAP.
We were travelling towards Las Vegas "the city of sin" and decided that instead of taking the direct interstate 15 that we
would detour on the interstate 40 instead and take the scenic route through the Mojave Desert. Shortly before we entered the
desert we stopped at the services and were shocked when we opened the car window for a breeze and the wind was hot. This
would be the first time of many times it was really / unbearably hot over the next few days.
Driving through the Mojave was very scenic and had allowed us to lose all the traffic heading towards Vegas. It had taken us
an hour to get out of LA so this was much welcomed. The desert seemed almost endless and had many Cacti looking trees. There
was also lots of dust and some of the pot holes in the road had been fixed with sand and gravel. Needless to say by the time
we had reached Vegas we had already ruined the cars paint work. Oh well.
Next we spent a few days in Las Vegas gambling and partying it up. This also meant that we had changed state from California to Nevada.
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