I went to University!

Well, I arrived at the University campus in a town called Oxford in the state of Ohio on St Patricks day, so you can imagine the environment! Although many students had class early so it wasn't too crazy.

I came to visit a friend of mine who had offered me a place to spend a couple of nights if I wanted it. He very kindly put me in his room and he took up the spare bed in next door's apartment.

I really enjoyed meeting up with Phil and spending some time with him, when his timetable permitted it!

Previously, Adam from Chicago had suggested making the trip north to Dayton for a US Air Force museum, so I took the drive and I have to say, i'm really pleased I did the trip, because it was a fascinating place.

There were planes dating back from the first flight, to WWI, in between wars, WWII, the Cold War, modern era and space flight, including planes from the Soviet Nations, German Luftwaffe and Japanese armies, as well as the odd RAF plane hidden in there, and a couple of planes which were flown from rival countries by defecting pilots!!

Definitely worth a visit, I would recommend it, so many interesting planes there, and history of flight.

I also got to see one of the best known planes of all time, the SR-71 'Blackbird' which is an odd looking thing in real life, it is very long and thin, and looks ungainly, compared to the rather elegant or beautiful shape seen in most photo's...

Pictures here of the US Air Force Museum

After I returned I was going to look around the campus but the weather had other ideas so I stayed inside, with the exception of getting some food with Phil.

From here I made my way further east, through Ohio, West Virginia and into Pennsylvania, before driving into the State of New York, in a town called Albany. A stop over before a drive to Boston, with another friend who lives in Albany. So the next update will be Boston!

Picture of myself and my good friend Phil:

Indianapolis Raceway

One of the more famous race tracks in America, and one of those which is known internationally.

Home of the American F1 until 2007 (I think), although famous for numerous other events in America, such as the Indianapolis 500 - altough I couldn't tell you what type of cars race in that event, i've only heard the name before!!!

They also race Nascar here, but that's as interesting as that gets, so moving on.

They have a museum which houses nearly all the car which have won races at the Indianapolis track sine it was opened, right back to the very early 1900's.

Much like Brooklands race circuit back home in England, this circuit has a lot of history, and it's original conception was to create a place to test cars, followed by basic competition - run on a circuit make of bricks! At least Brooklands was concreted!

The major difference being that while Brooklands became a base in WWII for manufacturing planes etc and now most of the circuit is destroyed or laying in ruins, Indianapolis is a fully functioning race track still.

I went on a bus ride around the circuit - fully expecting it to be the interesting race track, but no, it was just the oval loop used in Nascar, so at least Ican say i've been on it, but there was little need for photo's since it was straight with 2 bends...!

I've posted some photo's up here, mostly of inside the museum

This was just an interesting stop to make on my drive, another place I can say i've been to and seen!

Chicago

With beautiful clear and starry nights, sunny days you would think this was sounding all rather lovely, all except that it was biting cold come night time!!

But that aside, I really enjoyed myself in Chicago. I met up with another friend who kindly let me stay in his house. Adam and his family live in a suburb not too far from Downtown Chicago, so although I had easy access to the city, it was a very scary drive to make - without a doubt some of the worst driving I have ever seen in my life, or dreamed was even possible I witnessed on those roads. I am not surprised I heard that there are many accidents on Chicago's roads.

After building robots and various other contraptions with Adam's youngest son, I headed out for a day to a car museum called Volo Cars, and here, much like the car place in Las Vegas, all the cars are for sale too.




The difference at Volo is, many of the cars are famous cars featured in blockbuster films. To name just a few of the films with cars on display you could buy included: The Terminator, Gone in 60 Seconds, Fast and the Furious 2, 3 and the latest film released in April, Fast and the Furious 4 (yes, the cars for sale before the film is out), xXx and xXx 2 action adventure films, the Blues Brothers, Pretty Women (Lotus Esprit), a Ferrari Daytona Convertible that featured in both the Cannonball run (in red) and later in Miami Vice (painted black), along with cars which did not have a price, but may have been for sale if asked! These included the Men in Black Ford, many of the cars from the recent movie 'Death Race', vehicles from the new Indiana Jones film amoung others.

So as you may imagine I thoroughly enjoyed myself there, spending quite some time looking around at the various cars on display, and in some cases, trying to work out how much I could trade the Mustang in for!!! Luckily it would never have covered the costs for any of the cars there, so I was saved from any temptations! And my parents will be pleased that I didn't even buy a model car from the shop either!!

Photo's from Volo Cars here


The next day Adam was at work again, and kindly let me put the Mustang inside his garage so I may be able to clean the car, after I found a local car wash station and I sprayed the car down, I proceeded to give the car, what seemed like the clean of it's life. I don't think it had ever been polished or waxed prior to the dealership doing it before I bought the car, as the paint feels quite rough and the polish sticks to the paint. Anyway, enough of the boring stuff, the car had a full clean both inside and out and was positively glowing - much helped by it having had a wash the week before at James' house which took all the mud and grime from the Rocky Mountains and Pikes Peak off the car!!!


The Mustang was then offered the chance to sleep in the garage next to Adam's pride and joy, a 1987 BMW L6 for the remainder of my stay, which was really very kind.



We then went out for an evening meal with another member from the car forum, who although is from the west coast, is at a Navy 'school' in Chicago, and that was a very fun evening had by all!!

Starting from the left is myself, followed by Randy and then Adam (who I stayed with).



On Saturday Adam had a free morning so we went down to Navy Pier which was good, there was a great view of the city from there, except it was quite misty so visibility was limited. The water of the lake was a very pale blue, and iced up around the pier, so it was still quite cold!!





On Sunday I had a lazy morning as we then went back into town for a joint birthday party on Adam's wife's family, who are from Peru, and that was a very interesting afternoon, unfortunately the Peruvian meal I chose did not agree with my tastes too well, but the company was excellent and it was great to meet everyone!

I had a great time in Chicago and felt part of the family, which was lovely!

I would like to return to Chicago again in the future some time, perhaps when the weather is a little warmer!!

St Louis

One of the towns i've wanted to visit for a while so it was nice to get out here to see it. It was the warmest weather of my trip so far, even warmer than in Los Angeles, so I broke out the shorts and t-shirt for a few days which was very pleasant!

I also met up with a friend who I know through my internet car forum, and it was really good to meet him and his family, who were really welcoming and really looked after me very well. James took some time out from his schedule to show me around his area and the St Louis region, I had a great time with him and it is great to be able to consider him a friend 'in the real world'!

Despite a tornado warning on 2 of the days I was in the area, I managed to visit the famous St Louis Arch, a site of an ancient civilization - Cahokia Mounds and the St Louis Zoo, to name a few places.

James also took me to his local Bentley, Lamborghini, Lotus and Maserati showroom, which was very interesting to see the size of the buildings compared to our exotic dealers back in the UK. They had a few Lotus and a very special Alfa Romeo - not officially sold in America, and very exclusive in Europe, so that was pretty special. I also found the Lamborghini I wanted to take home!!

I went to visit the famous Arch on my own one morning, it was really cool to see it - I could see no point to it other than "just because", but it was very interesting to read up about it. It is strange to look up and see a towering archway up above you, yet there is something inspiring about looking at it, it does not fit the area, it is like it should not be there at all, and yet there it is, and it does not look out of place!

Underground, under the arch there is a museum of sorts, the land is part of the National Parks Service, which surprised me slightly, but they had a lot of information about the early settlers in the area and the Native American's who lived here prior to modern America.

Few photo's of the Arch and the NPS Museum here.

We visited Cahokia Mounds, which involved a lot of walking and good views of St Louis in the distance. It was the site of an ancient town, larger than that of London in the year 1200, and is the largest ancient town in the North American continent.

This is the official website, it shows the site better than I can describe:

http://www.cahokiamounds.com/

St Louis Zoo was really good, they had a very rare Giant Salamander, found only in the rivers of China in the mountains, it is an endangered animal and the world's largest amphibian - growing up to 5 feet in length! This one looked big at about 2 and a half feet long!!

They also had a good variety of other animals, which, when not asleep seemed quite satisfied with their home.

Photo's from the St Louis Zoo here

From here I drove directly north through Illinois to Chicago, another place I have wanted to visit for a while...

Thanks to James and his family for what was a really pleasant few days, and for making me feel so at home!

Myself and James:

Miles of empty

Well i've finally managed to find somewhere with internet connection here in Chicago, so there is a little catching up to do!!

This post is just a "I have not forgotten" post, I will be back later in the day or tomorrow with full write-ups including a fantastic time with friends in St Louis, Missouri and updates from Chicago with another friend.

The last post was from Colorado, and since then I traveeled from one side of Kansas to the other over 2 days, and across the entire state of Missouri in 1 day to arrive in St Louis.

The drive across Kansas was quite simply miles upon miles of the same, nothing new, nothing interesting, a few oil derriks in the fields and that was it.

A few photo's here to show the miles of nothing I got to enjoy!

I did get stopped by a Sheriff of the Kansas Highway Patrol, which was a nice break to the miles of sameness all around me. He was concerned about my car wearing California plates with the dealer tag in the window, once he checked that he was even more confused as to why there was a Brit in his state, having clearly never spoken to someone from England before, he was quite interested in knowing about the country, and thought that my drive was 'quite something' and had never come across someone doing a drive like mine before. He then wished me a good day and I carried along my way.

I passed through Dodge City for my first overnight stay, nothing spectacular, the website said it is a town based on the 'old wild west' days, but to me it looked like there had been no maintenance to much of the town for the same period of time! I then stayed in a town called Independance which is right next to Kansas City, lets just say I was happy I only had to spend the 1 night there...!

So this is where I end this update, with more to follow when I have some more life in my laptop battery and all my photo's here ready to be uploaded!

Sand Dunes and a Volcano

After a slight disaster in Colorado Springs where a pine chair or small pine table was left in the middle of a dark road and I ended up hitting it, my car has suffered a bit from the encounter, and after extracting the remains from the front of my car, I left for Trinidad the next morning.

I visited the Great Sand Dunes which is in the south east of the state of Colorado, it is a most surreal experience as you drive towards them, you are in desert grasslands with the mountains in the distance, then all of a sudden, there is sand, loads of sand!

There is no trail and you can walk freely, it was a very windy day and I was constantly blasted by sand particles, and had to get rid of a lot of sand from my shoes when I returned to the car!

Within minutes of leaving footprints in the sand, the wind had covered them up, I tried to take some interesting photographs but sadly it is very hard to see the sheets of sand blowing cross the surface, which looks espeically cool when it is blowing over the top of the highest part of the dunes!

Although I did not see any wildlife out there, there are a variety of animals that call this place home, in some areas the sand was damp and would hold your footprint because it would not blow over, and in one of these damp patches I found a very distinct footprint which I have since linked to that of a bobcat or lynx, who probably walked that way in the early morning.

They are not sure on how long the dunes have existed, the estimate ranges from 12,000 years to a million years.

It was quite fun to experience, by walking further into the dunes you feel more and more as though you are in a sandy desert, leaving the rest of the area behind you as a memory!

Great Sand Dunes photos here

Yesterday I took a trip to the state of New Mexico, and like I have mentioned in the past, crossing over the state line is like venturing into another world. It is a very desolate state, with miles and miles of nothing but flat plains.

That is except for the Capulin Volcano, which has historically had 4 lava flows, creating many of the mountain-like features in the area, along with the Sierra Grande Volcano which is clearly visible. From the rim of the volcano, looking north you can see the base of the Rocky Mountains in the distance, and in other directions just miles of flat terrain.

You can walk a 2 mile trail around the rim of the volcano and a steep walk into the crater where the lava blasted out from all those years ago! From the Rim you can see for miles, especially into the haze of nothingness in the distance. Another experience I'm really pleased to have experienced.

In the crater you can even see deer grazing in the mornings, thanks to the naturally fertile volcanic soil, it is a real point for life.

Pictures of Capulin Volcano here

Pikes Peak! (and more dinosaurs...)

The infamous Pikes Peak, one place I decided I had to go to, and I did not realise I could drive up it to the summit on the same route that the rally cars use each year until a day before I went there!

The summit lies 14,110 feet (4,300 metres) above sea level, and you really notice it at that altitude!

For those with motorsport enthusiasm will know the Pikes Peak story - a brief intro for those who don't:

In the 1980's Group B class rallying was removed from international competition due to safety fears, the cars, although still based on road going cars you could buy, had too much power and the crowds of people were too dangerous. So Audi decided to take its rally beating Audi Quattro S1 to the American Pikes Peak Hill Climb event, held annually. Audi were laughed at by the competitors who ran specially built custom cars for the event for entering a "family saloon car". The laughing soon stopped when their nigh-on 1,000 horsepower saloon car took the Pikes Peak climb record, and took a massive chunk of time out of it too. Peugeot also decided to give this a try and further bettered Audi's record time. The Peugeot set the fastest hill climb time of that decade, and all years previous to that.

So as a rally enthusiast and especially interested in the Group B cars, this was a place that I had to visit, and and really pleased I got to follow the same route as used by the cars - even if my car is far from being rally car material!

But it is not all about cars, at 14,110 feet up, the views are spectacular, the oxygen is barely noticeable and the wind is biting cold. All in all, a very memorable day, I took a lot of photo's although I only added these few that I felt portrayed Pikes Peak that little bit better.

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Pikes Peak photos here.

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And, as I mentioned, I did visit another dinosaur place after Pikes, I wouldn't have mentioned it had it not been brilliant.

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Colorado Springs is right in the heart of dino lands, Morrison formation, Hell Creek and other famous dig sites are all within a few hundred miles, and this place actively finds dinosaurs.

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It is really interesting, they dig the bones, they preserve and rebuild if necessary, then create casts of the bones and put them together to display the skeletons. They even showed some creativity with their displays, from a feasting Albertosaurus skeleton eating an Edmontosaurus skeleton, being interrupted by another Albertosaurus looking for dinner. Cleverly done.

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As a research centre they show you how it is done, below the skeletons they often had the real bones, as discovered in the rocks, often with the plaster wrap cut away that they use to safely remove them from the ground as they are so decayed. They even have part of the studio for you to watch them working (added some pics of that too).

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The only actual bones you could touch were those of the Triceratops, as they are so abundant in the region that they carry virtually no value.

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They also had a large section on marine dinosaurs, from very scary looking fish to ancient sharks - Sharks that have been around longer then the first dinosaurs appeared on the planet.

They also had a young Mossasaur, a very scary looking monster of the deep, it's living relative these days are the much smaller monitor lizards found today across the globe.

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Very interesting following some traces of evolution where they exist, although of course not all ancient creatures survived the toils of time and have ancesters alive today.

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I do believe I have written more about the dinosaurs than I did about Pikes Peak, well, for what it is worth, I had a truely fantastic day, learning a lot as well as enjoying some lovely scenery!

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Dinosaur Resource Centre photos here

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freshly extracted bones waiting to be 'processed'

Garden of the Gods, Grizzly's and Iced Waterfalls

There was a lot of hype about these "Garden of the Gods", but to be honest I was a little disappointed, although perhaps after all the natural wonders I have been seeing, then it is to be expected?

They are situated not far from Colorado Springs, and i've only included a few photo's because that is all I took.

Pictures here

I also visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, which I think is one of the most comprehensive zoo's i've visited yet. I think I went to the zoo at the wrong time of year as some of the animals were a little drowsy, and some like the Wolve's were hard to spot.

Although, some, such as the pair of Grizzly Bears were most active spending all the time I was there playing around with each other.

I overheard someone talking about the Mountain Lions, and he made a very good point, when you watched them you could see he was right. The really scary thing is, in the photo's I have posted you can see they are all looking at something, always focused on something. That something was children, small people, easy targets.
His words were "no wonder they have problems in places, look how they follow the kids movements".
Survival of the fittest still rules these cats minds, good to see they still have some instincts.

That said, they are wonderfully majestic in their own way, very proud animals who were clearly very aware of their surroundings.

It was a very good day at the zoo, and I think I would recommend it to anyone, the location is close to Colorado Springs, and it is built into the foot of a mountain, so for many of the animals it is their natural environment. My only concern was that one or two of the enclosures were a little small for the animals concerned, although they are doing a lot of work there and some were simply 'holding pens' apparently, which isn't so bad if they have a nice place to go to soon.

Zoo Pictures Here

I also visited Seven Falls, again another bit of a disappointment, but very interesting to see it all frozen over like that. They have lots of hiking trails, so if that is your sort of thing then I think it is definitely worth a visit!

Seven Falls Pictures Here

Colorado and Dinosaurs

The third, and final update from tonight, to bring everything up to date, as I mentioned in the first post (skip 2 down and start there!). I am currently at an overnight stop in a town called Grand Junction, to the north-east of the state of Colorado.

One of the state's I was most looking forward to seeing was Colorado, but thanks to constant rain and heavy low lying cloud, I have not seen much of it as yet...

As you will see in these photographs there was little point to photograph much at all, at times I could not see to the front of the car - it does have a long engine compartment but it is not that long! for the most part the photo's I took have absorbed much more mist than I saw, so although I was at times looking at beautiful cloud formations, all you see in the photo's are big grey blobs... nice.

I am sure the views from this national park are stunning, and when the clouds occasionally parted it was a new kind of scenery, not desert-like, but lush and mountainous, another beautiful sight, unfortunately not able to be displayed for you to see.

Anyway, a few photo's from the Colorado National Monument here, despite the mist covering up much of the beauty.

You would never tell that before I left Utah this morning my car was spotless and clean, would you?!

And for those family & friends who knew me/remember me from when I was much younger and my immense interest in dinosaurs and all things scaley and reptillian, then you may appreciate why when I am travelling through "Dinosaur Country" as much of these states of America are, I would be taking opportunities to visit dinosaur related places. Just before entering the Colorado National Monument Park, and shortly after entering the state of Colorado, I came across a dinosaur place called Dinosaur Journey, a smallish building filled with skeletons and lifesize replica's of several dinosaurs. Some very interesting fossils and interesting facts to pick up - nothing too heavy, all of light interest to a dinosaur enthusiast such as myself, before going too deep!

Many of their replica's were robotic and moved, although the Stegosaurus seemed to have lost its voice! You could even take control of one of the dinosaurs and move him yourself. There was also a replication of a Utahraptor. For those who have seen Jurassic Park will know what a Velociraptor is like, a smallish pack hunting dinosaur, very ferocious, with a very large claw on its foot. Well the Utahraptor has all that, but is twice the size, strength and ferocity. and to put that into perspective they had a moving eating Utahraptor with his prey's head taken clean off, quite a surprise when you walk past!! It is done quite well though, a photo is included in the link, if you so wish!

Dinosaur Journey pictures here.

A young fossilized Aligator found local to the museum:

Tomorrow I travel onward to the town of Colorado Springs, with a few days to explore the area, hopefully a little more Dinosaur'ing and to visit Pikes Peak, famous to me through rally cars, although it has it's own fame for different reasons - weather permitting I may take the train to the top! Time will tell, updates should all be back on schedule again, fingers crossed!

Arches, Hummers and Lions!!!

Stationed from Moab, offroad capital of America possibly... There is certainly no shortage of 4x4 vehicles around here, ranging from the showroom spec through to the fully customised off road vehicles.

The sceneries here are just stunning, the town itself is situated in a valley between high cliffs and hills. With snow capped mountains to the west and sandy desert like cliffs to the east, the town is practically hidden from the outside world. And yet it is world famous for its offroading trails and competitions.

So while I was in Moab, I took the 5 mile drive north to Arches National Park, which has the most stunning and interesting scenery I have yet seen - although possibly also helped by having the first sun I have really seen on my trip!

In the pictures I have posted, you will see as you go further through, it gets more interesting, as it did with the park. At first you think "this is nice", followed by "that's quite cool" to "wow, this is really amazing" - although i'm not sure you will think the same with my photo's!!! Time has left its mark on Arches, like with Balanced Rock, which will in time fall from its precarious perch atop a much faster eroding rock.

This is by far the best way I have ever seen different rock types demonstrating their weakness to erosion. Different layers compacted over the years of different rocks today, showing that just because you're on top, doesn't mean you're going to erode first!

The arches in the park are formed from water erosion mostly, freexing and thawing breaking further chunks the whole time, aided by wind erosion, as one of the info boards said "the very forces which created these masterpieces, will also destroy them". That said, There are when you look around, newer arches forming, so there will more arches around for the next few hundred thousand years!

After all these national parks and different weather patterns my car is really showing signs of needing a good wash - well the good news is that it is fully hand washed by myself, meticulously not missing any dirt, and a photo of it cleaned is present at the end of the Arches picture folder, after I returned to get a photo just after washing!

Photo's from Arches National Park Here

Follwing on from my wonderful day at Arches I had a free day and decided to follow a road that began just before you entered Moab. To reach moab you cross a smaller Colorado River than we saw at Hoover Dam, and it is at that bridge you find a car park called Lions Place. This is what I have called the road as I don't really think UT128 sounds very interesting! I followed this road out of curiosity, I had no idea where it went, turns out it ran along the edge of Arches National Park, although at river level, a considerable way below the level of the park. I followed the Colorado River winding its way around, and eventually the road left the river to one side and entered ranch territory, with dusty roads heading off the horizons, seeming to go nowhere, although had they been followed I am certain I would have ended up on somone's doorstep!

The return route was considerably more entertaining, as it seemed to sweep from one corner to the next, naturally flowing alongside the winding river, making it a wonderful driving road, not too far from what you may expect in Europe (although still not quite as twisting or entertaining). It just goes to show that there are plenty of flowing roads to be found, you just have to know where to look!

A few photo's from Lions Place 'UT128' here.

On Sunday, my last full day in Moab I went on a Hummer offroad tour, I thought that visiting the offroad capital of America I had to go offroad at least once! I am too young to hire a Jeep so I took the next best option, a trip as a passenger on an ex-military operated Hummer. Don't be fooled by its size, this thing really can go anywhere, it is extremely capable, the ability to climb 70-odd degree inclines, although we only touched on 45 degrees... in reverse - why? "Because we can", a 3-and-a-half-foot vertical rock face was covered with ease, being able to take more when asked. I like the photo I posted below, it shows the front suspension of the Hummer at almost full compression, if you look through the other photo's and see how high it rides from the tyres normally, you can get a good idea of the stresses it was going through - seeing as how it is older than I am, is not bad, oh and it gets 9 miles-to-the-gallon despite being a diesel!

The driver, and guide, was an ex-Utah police Sheriff and was excellent, he knew the area like the back of his hand having lived around the area his whole life, and had been driving some of the trails around (including part of the one we did) since he was 11 in an old military Willy's Jeep.

I would strongly recommend this to everyone, you get to see views you would not see from a regular drive in the National Parks, if you're interested in cars and offroading then it will tick those boxes, if you are not, then from sheer entertainment and interest of the area would be of interest. Along the way you can keep your eyes peeled for dinosaur tracks and foot prints, even dinosaur bones (someone in our group found one), arrowheads from the ancient American Indian population, they are all so abundant here that they are not protected.

Photo's from Hummer tour Here