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    RosscoeLower 48Traveler
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    San Francisco revisited

    November 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Our RV got absorbed back into the mass of hundreds of anonymous vehicles at the Cruise America lot at Newark, San Francisco.

    Bit of a shame we didn’t get to say goodbye because we slept, cooked, showered and went everywhere in luxury with this vehicle and it performed so well, gave us a great time but by the time we did the return paperwork and went outside it was gone.

    From Newark we had to get to the airport, about $US120 cab ride, that’s getting close to $A200, we’ll still use the cheaper Uber but after our previous experience we are not keen on over supporting them.

    Now there is nothing better than a bit of bartering so Taxies were bringing people in but there were few fares out of there, a good opportunity to do a deal as the airport is a choice destination.

    I picked the hungriest looking driver, the one that had been there the longest to get a price on the ride.
    A special price for us was $US100 normally $120 ...no no no good and I offer him $40, he says no way $85, I say no I’ll pay $50. This goes on for awhile and in the end I walk away and decide to call Uber.

    He then comes over and says final price $65, I say no final price $50 and he says OK thought when we are loading the bags in he says and $5 for the bridge so I let him have the last word and said OK.

    This was still very good though because while we were there two couples joined up to share a cab and thought that was a good idea because they only paid $60 each.

    We are now at San Francisco International Airport with a 8 hour wait for our 20 hour flight back to Brisbane because of the layover in Sydney. Nothing time for the distances traveled and places we’ve been.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2

    The Last Night... damn!

    November 6, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    A last night treat away from The Partridge Family, a RV Park with camping places underneath tall Coastal Redwoods, not Sequoias, we’ve learnt that much, it was a very beautiful spot.

    It should have been very peaceful too, it was except for a constantly yapping dog whose owners probably thought it was having an intelligent conversation with them, it probably was seeing each yap consisted of more syllables than any of the grunts they uttered.

    The place was probably wasted on us though because we had to leave early.
    We weren’t that far from San Francisco but experiencing the traffic here we count distances in hours not miles.
    This drive was no exception especially in peak hour, just another 8 lane highway crawl, though a few sections did open up so we did too.
    All that driving through South Dakota, Nebraska and Arizona didn’t go to waste, it was pedal to the metal for a while then hit the anchors hard to stop 5 tons of RV rear ending the commuting class.

    Good luck and a solid break foot got us back to Cruise America without one scratch on the RV and that was after many thousands of miles through desert, mountains, cities, deserts, mountains, etc... it goes on like this for a while and it was all good.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2Imagine the zinc cream they would need
    1A bit bland without power stationsSea Otter reserve, if they weren't so cute I'd wipe them out just to get revengeAround Big Sur, an old hippie spot so no chance of power stations here.2Free camping around Big Sur then The Partridge Family joined us, TV money must all be gone.2Sea Lions this means you

    Not drowning... waving!

    November 5, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    I mean not dead, resting!... I think, unless they got sucked into the power station.

    These lazy layabouts look like a pod of beached whales but are in fact a bunch of snoozing sea lions.
    This is a small group, the bludgers are all up and down the Californian coast, probably most of the west coast actually and in high numbers.

    As we were looking at them a Argentinian man who moved to the US in the 70’s and is now a volunteer at one of the viewing spots asked us if we had any questions.
    I did.
    From the late 1700’s American sealers hunted Australian seals practically to extinction and they have never fully recovered to this day.
    I wanted to know how come the Americans practically wiped out our seals but obviously left their own alone.
    Answer: They didn’t, they wiped theirs out completely then got stuck into ours.

    What happened is, later the Americans found the last surviving 50 or so on a island off Mexico, they captured these and moved them to California where they have now bred up into good numbers.
    Mexico though is probably lamenting the demise of their last seals, though seeing most Mexicans want to get into America they can’t really complain if some of their folk get the gold ticket entry.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2Building a better enviroment
    View from our campsite.Highly toxic fish... builds strong bones.The power station could possibly been better placed on top of the rock

    Power to the people!

    November 5, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    All right all you pinkie, leftie, greenies get out of my way with your biodynamic, rainbow painted wind farms and your organic hippie, dippie solar power rubbish.
    You want to worship the sun... become a Aztec and make way for us power hungry bastards who use the real deal, something that can fry you into the middle of next week or produces enough carbon dioxide to blanket the earth for a decade just from doing a bit of toast.

    I have just found my Nirvana, a power station, next to a RV Park, along side a beach.
    This is where power stations should be, built right on the dunes, the space being properly used, not wasted on some endangered species that won’t need it for much longer anyway.

    It’s all about enhancement of the landscape. First you have the industrial aesthetic then you get the most glorious sunsets created from the abundance of toxic chemicals in the air.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1
    111

    Sequoia National Park

    November 3, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    You know we have been had.
    From my first trip here to our last couple we believed and have been telling people we’ve seen the Sequoia trees when all we saw was those damn imposters the Coastal Redwoods.

    Admittedly the Coastal Redwoods are taller but so what, you can’t see the tops of stuff that gets that tall anyway but the the Sequoias are bigger because of their sheer mass.

    This is the President, a 3,200 year old Sequoia and has rarely been captured all in one photograph because of its size. It’s part of a grove called the Congress Grove which is a 3klm forest walk through hundreds of Sequoias many over 2,000 years old.
    The size of these trees is hard to comprehend and also to portray in any photographs, they just didn’t capture the enormousness of them so we stopped taking pics, any we took were disappointing so gave a false impression of them and the forest.

    I’ve seen and been impressed by big stuff. Skyscrapers in New York, Mount Rushmore takes you back a bit and there ain’t no finer bit of erosion on the planet than The Grand Canyon but the Sequoia Forests top the list of things I (we) have ever seen and now have been lucky enough to have wandered amongst.
    In any photo you can’t see how they tower above and how thick and massive the trunks still are at 150 feet high and more before they start to taper in.

    The Sequoias, you MUST see them for yourself.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1
    112Our campsite3Sharp stuff

    Joshua Tree National Park

    October 30, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    The Joshua Tree is a Yucca on steroids, they grow about an inch a year so deserve a little respect, along the lines of you should respect your elders and like most old folk they’re a mite prickly and why not, I get cranky at just about everything now so after two hundred years or more I’d be ropeable.

    Speaking of old fools, we drove across the Mojave Desert to visit this incredible place and on walks in the desert I noticed some beautiful cactus and said to Rhonda “wow! those spines look sharp” while putting my hand down to feel them... wack!!! Oooooch! After the pain subsided my hand went numb, so finally my brain had some company.

    The camp sites are right in the middle of the best parts of the park, a dumb idea if you are trying to protect these areas but brilliant for experiencing the place.
    Again we went walking in the desert, straight out our door from where we were camping. This was in amongst ancient stands of Joshua Trees and many other beautiful plants that take a serious approach to protecting themselves.
    Now though maybe the brain is a little numb I’m still no goldfish so can remember past the last 3 seconds, in fact I can remember back to the Mojave Desert and to leave things that look sharp well enough alone.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    21
    1223141526

    American Graffiti 3

    October 30, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Very bad service over here.

    1: Low payed Mexican gardeners.
    2: We wanted to treat ourselves to a bit of dining and dancing but the chef and band never showed up.
    3: Manufacturing standards have dropped now everything is made in China.
    4: We wanted to watch The Village People perform but only the cowboy one showed up, our least favourite.
    5: The only thing hot about this meal was too much chilli.
    6: Come on we’ve got a desert to cross, can someone pump us some gas!    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1122

    More good stuff in Arizona

    October 29, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Just when you worked hard to dislike a place so much it keeps throwing up stuff to make you warm a little bit more towards it.
    Now unless you hug one of these just a little too hard so you have to spend the next five weeks picking out spikes from most parts of your anatomy then there’s nothing more cuddly than the Organ Pipe Cactus.

    These beautiful species have decided to make their home in Arizona and that raggedy arsed State is all the better for it. Combine these with the Grand Canyon and five star accomodation (please see wigwam pic) and you have to admit your original opinion of the place could be wrong.

    While I’m on a love fest about Arizona I have to mention the prices of things especially fuels like gas (petrol) and propane (gas). They are really cheap, almost half the prices compared to that over the border, over populated, over taxing, over rated, delusional State better know as California.

    Now I’m in the mood to go off on a rant about California but I’ve learned my lesson with Arizona and if I come out swinging it can come back and land some pretty heavy haymakers like the Sequoia National Park, Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park which should be coming up next.

    But I still think Jed Clampet should have stayed at home.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2Old Studibaker on Route 662Desert Inn menu1The Desert Inn1Raising the flag at the restored Desert zinn3The view from the Inn out to the painted desert

    Route 66

    October 29, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    In my early twenties when I was traveling the US and meeting gun toting crazies heading towards Alaska or wandering the streets of Phoenix Arizona Route 66 hadn’t quite reached the legendary status it has now and a lot more of it still existed then so I feel fortunate to have traveled a good part of it before the extinction of most of the original route happened.

    Now days every second person you meet and their pet budgie wants to travel Route 66, it’s one of those bucket list dreams people have.
    I’ve pointed out that it doesn’t really exist any more, its been carved up by interstate highways so there are only a few intermittent sections left and the businesses along these parts milk it to death.
    This is a good thing though because in places they have left a lot of the old stuff there like the motels that haven’t changed since the sixties, probably the sheets haven’t either.

    There are a lot of old fool bikers out here too on those few remaining segments they are trying to relive that era. The open road, the freedom, the wind in their hair... if they had any or what they had just got blown off.
    Now they can finally afford that Harley and all the leather gear to go with it, trouble is it all looks just a little too new, the bike, with no real street cred, the new leathers squeaking when they walk or maybe thats just their bones making the noise.

    But we can’t have a go, us smug bastards in our luxury RV, road tripping America with all the comforts of home compared to years ago when I mostly hitched or splurged on a Greyhound bus then booked into the cheapest hotel in the worst part of town, thats if you could afford one, if not you slepted by the road. We didn’t realise we were living a Jack Kerouac novel for real.

    Jack’s mate, the poet Alan Ginsberg also lived that life and many years later he tried to relive it all so as to rediscover the America they once new.
    He got a train to the outskirts of New York and stood hitchhiking for about 5 hours in the rain. No one picked him up, so totally drenched he caught the train back home.
    The experience didn’t go to waste though, it gave him plenty of material to write about, especially the loss and decline of America. Personally I don’t think you need get totally soaked holding you thumb out and get puddle splashed to become enlightened about that.

    Now with life on a shoestring a distant memory we sit back as this V8 monster regularly cruises at 85 miles per hour, thats a lot of kilometres and at this speed we reached the Painted Desert Inn one of the original stops on Route 66 and one of the first fast food restaurant chains in America.
    It was started by a Mr Fred Harvey because he was sick of getting bad food when traveling.

    So then you set up a fast food chain to get healthy food, imagine... ”hey boy get some meat on ya bones, you’ll looking a mite poorly... here eat this tub a lard, if ya dig deep enough ya might just find ya’self a few fries but the real nutritions in that there lard”.

    I think old Fred has a lot to answer for, he’s inspired a whole food culture and each town entrance is plastered with their signs. So many you have no idea of the name of a town so instead you say “yeah I came along Highway 40 through Popeyes then on to Crispy Creams, took a left at Dunkin Donuts to Arbies All You Can Eat then a right at Puffy Pizza then straight down the highway to Extra Big Footlongs so now here we are we’ve finally arrived at destination, Fat Arse Waddleville”.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1211

    Back in Arizona

    October 29, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    This is an attempt to find something else good about Arizona besides the Grand Canyon.
    With my first ever trip here back in my twenties I had gun pulled on me in Phoenix so I’ve maintained a fairly low opinion of the place ever since then but you can’t let one bad experience taint your opinion so I’m back to give it another go.

    Unfortunately it hasn’t gone too well the second or third time either.
    Clearly avoiding Phoenix we made the effort to exit the interstate to try out a few other towns only to find staying in truck stops metres from the highway has more appeal.

    Probably the best one is just over the state border. As well as a truck stop, named Speedies Truck Stop is has the Indian Arts and Crafts Centre where they sell pretty much everything which is good for tourists as you want to take home something special to remember the place by.
    Now having a good look around I thought this is the place for me though I ran into a little trouble with what I wanted to buy.

    If you look at the photo of this tourist trap the signs on the store clearly read STORE WIDE CLEARANCE and EVERY MUST GO so I took them at their word and said I want to purchase the yellow horse on top of the building and being a hard bargainer I wanted a pair of sunglasses thrown in too, for the horse not me.

    Sadly the yellow horse purchase didn’t go well though I look on the whole experience as an educational one, instead of my horse I gained extensive knowledge of some very colourful Indian language.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1

    More Adobes

    October 28, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C

    If you can create a silk purse out of a pig’s ear then churches out of mud are the architectural equivalent.
    Long before any Nimbin hippie had a crack at an adobe abode ancient people were slapping this stuff around to create their own little mud cottage with a picket fence.

    Imagine Bunnings a few thousand years ago, you’d walk in and say “excuse me, can you help me, what isle is the mud in?”...” oh, that will be isles one to twenty six sir”.
    And you wouldn’t be walking around going tut tut... I remember when we manufactured all our own mud now we have all these cheap imports from China.

    Cheap imports never last and this church proves it. It was built using local people with local materials a few years before Captain Cook got a farewell from some other locals at Botany Bay, thinking that is probably the last we’ll see of them.

    There is a small graveyard enclosed in the church grounds and the dates on some of these headstones go way back to its earliest times. The descendants of the original builders still maintain the building and graveyard and like the crudeness of the materials used their epitaphs are not all that refined.
    My favourite reads...IN MEMORIA DE AGAPITA LOPEZ DEAD MARCH 5 1935

    There are a few possibilities with this headstone. One is they were dearly loved but this was erected by an unschooled person. Or two, someone needed an accurate marker to piss on.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Dennis Hopper grave

    Easy Rider

    October 28, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    In 1969 the cult film and iconic road movie Easy Rider was released staring, producing and probably financed by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.
    Jack Nicholson had a start to his career with this movie as did Dennis Hopper because previously I think the only thing he had was a small role in Giant with James Dean.

    Wikipedia would probably go me over the accuracy of this but it’s the best I can do now off the top of my head as we have no internet connection here at a Arizona truck stop on Intestate 40 (part of old Route 66), probably one of the busiest highways in the country.
    It was either stay here or in a Casino or Walmart car park but we were being pushed along the highway at over 80 miles per hour, it was either do that speed or get run into, as we saw earlier had happened so by the time we spotted Walmarts or the Casinos they were just a blur as we sped by.

    Anyway back to Easy Rider.
    Peter had the looks plus his old man Henry and sister Jane’s famous name so he was a natural to play the character Captain America.
    Dennis was far less known and without the college football looks but I reckon far more interesting and a much better actor as well. He went on to play roles in movies like Blue Velvet and Apocalypse Now, what Peter went on to do, I don’t know.

    Dennis was, after being a drunk and drug addict, a very good artist and art collector too and had a love of native culture and their spiritual beliefs so moved to Taos in New Mexico.
    He died in 2010 and requested a native burial in Taos.
    It just so happens that the graveyard was about a kilometre from where we were staying.

    The movie Easy Rider had a huge lifestyle influence because of a love of bikes, especially choppers and road trips since I was old enough to hold out my thumb.
    At the moment where we are staying it could be said that it was a bad influence but the whine of truck tyres and engines screaming down the highway makes you a little itchy to get out there again and be pushed down that road... as one of the songs from the brilliant movie soundtrack goes... “to some other town”.

    So though we aren’t celebrity sluts and we were so close to Dennis Hopper’s grave we had to see after his brilliant career just where he lay.
    It was surprising, no Marilyn Munro splendour or Jim Morrison’s Paris grave. It’s in amongst old houses, crappy fences and someone living in a derelict caravan with rubbish blowing around.
    There are no signs to the cemetery and the whole place is pretty run down.
    Seeing the film that launched his career is about searching for the real America it seems like the perfect setting for him to be buried in.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2Church, incredable inside but no photos allowed
    Adobe houses11Block of adobe houses1Lookig out from church courtyard1Traditional regional foods

    Taos Pueblo

    October 27, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Through the back blocks of South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado and New Mexico the majority of the houses we saw are built from pine and chipboard with a tar paper roof and none of them seem like they have anymore than a few years left in them.
    Whenever you see footage of a tornado going through the United States showing toothpick splinters that were once houses flying through the air it appears that, that tornado is one powerful sucker. Maybe so but it’s more likely the houses had the same structural integrity as the cardboard box your white goods came in.

    The opposite of these buildings is the Taos Pueblos. This place of mud brick structures has been standing for over a thousand years.
    It’s built in a beautiful setting and a river runs through the settlement providing their water.
    This river starts as a spring up in the mountains that fills a lake, that overflows and that is where their river comes from.
    The descendants of the original people still live there, this is not a theme park.
    Their mountains are logged and they were forbidden to visit their spring and lake for about 65 years.
    Visiting these places was very important to them, it was the basis of their spiritual beliefs which is the basis for their lives. After being done over since European settlement they have since regained a lot of what they originally owned.

    What the anglos did though was nothing compared to what the Spaniards did before them, their treatment of these people was horrendous. It has been one long history of hideous abuse so to meet these friendly welcoming people was a surprise because if I was in their shoes I’de be throwing rocks and hurling abuse at anyone who came near the place.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Who names their kid Royal Quint
    21So do we!11It also read "all you can eat" not a good move Dusty

    American Graffiti 2

    October 26, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Dear Diary,

    8:30 am: Today iz voting day so weez gets in early making sure Royal Quint gets re-elected cause weez want our Probated Judge to be a “good o’l boy”

    9:30 am: That vote’ins hard work so weez went and got us a Dr Peppers at the candy store.

    10:30 am: Damn it! spent too much at that candy store so we’s takes our selves to that First National Bank and gets us some of that there money.

    11:00 am: Youzz nose what them bank fellas tellz us... weez has to have one of them big city folks type bank accounts to gets us some of that money.

    11:15 am: Guess weez gunna have ta sell off some of our shooting irons seen’s them bank folks are so darn ornery.

    11:45 am: Darn it cant folks read American, theyz parked one of them darn rice grinders in our all American parkin spots... spose theyz caint speek American seenz theyz ridin foreign bikes theyz speekin foreign too.

    12:00 noon: Lunch time, guess we’ll mosey on down to Dusty’s and get us a feed. I never nose, is Dustys the name of the place or iz that describing hiz steaks?    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl
    2Rhonda eying of the pink handle one, there's her birthday sorted1There's my Christmas sorted

    Souvenir Shopping

    October 26, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    It’s good to visit the political backbone of a country, to see where the real decisions are made so we skipped Washington and headed straight to the NRA Centre in New Mexico.
    This group panders to no one, they are real straight shooters so to speak and don’t let any one challenge their constitutional rights. That’s the second amendment.

    There is a fabulous museum housed in their building and even if you aren’t a gunophile the weapons on display dating back over a hundred years are pure works of art and genius so first admire them then you can poke your flower down the barrel.

    Every one in this building is “packing” some have holsters on though the kid stacking shelves like you would get at Woolworths Supermarket had his stuck in the belt of his pants, obviously on $6 an hour.
    They had a throw out table of specials too where you could get a bargain on all the stale old bullets and stuff, probably past their use by date... quick shoot someone now so they aren’t wasted.

    We were given a little souvenir bag by the nice, and they were really nice people. It contained a NRA pen, a NRA leather key ring and a bullet in a small black bag with a drawstring.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Arbor day fail
    1No chance1Business for sale1Between RV & sign is a oil rig I think it takes more fuel to run than it extracts

    Little house (RV) on the Prairie

    October 26, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    I take it back, Americans do get irony.
    The Nebraska sign also reads Home Of Arbor Day, this must either be humour, wishful thinking or total delusion.
    We drove a few days through Nebraska and barely saw a twig sticking above the grasses although to be fair this may have been our fault as most of our concentration was on keeping the RV from being blown sideways off the road.

    For those who prefer a short blog, you are in luck, there are only so many ways you can describe a windswept prairie but we will have a bit of a go anyway.
    There was a long road stretching into the distance, it disappeared over many horizons, looking to the left we saw a lot of grass, looking to the right we saw a lot of grass too.

    But then we came to something very interesting.
    Rhonda brought her own sugar over because last time we were in the US she said the stuff here tasted funny, unpalatable as well, I wouldn’t know I don’t touch the stuff so I just thought she was being weird as usual.
    But it seems she had her reasons because driving into a town, Scotts Bluff, we saw mountains of what looked like round rocks, huge piles of them stacked up everywhere.
    These were all around a complex very similar to our sugar mills and the reason for that is that it was a sugar beet mill.
    The smell in the air was similar to what you get out of our cane mills though not as sweet or aromatic. It was like a bad batch was cooking or some farmers poor dogs had got mixed up in the machinery as he was cutting the cane.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1
    11Minuteman Missile Site South DakodaPainted on nuclear silo door

    Mount Rushmore and Minuteman

    October 24, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    How mad or ambitious you would have to be to decide to take up the position of sculpting four heads of some very familiar presidents out of a mountain.
    The over achiever Gutzon Borglum gave it a go and didn’t do too bad a job either considering he used jackhammers and dynamite.
    Jackhammers you would feel fairly comfortable with on that scale but dynamite, I’de worry you would end up with president no nose.
    Anyone who remembers cracker night will remember the preceding weeks before and the unpredictability of the attempts that were made blowing up stuff with bungers, even on that small scale nothing went to plan, many of us still bear the scars.
    So we’re impressed, to be able get a likeness on that scale and make sure the four presidents have all their facial features where they should be is remarkable, there is no half an ear or a cracked eyeball lying halfway down the mountain.

    These founding fathers could never imagine they nearly got their rock heads blown off by rockets a number of times but if you read the list of the near misses at the Minuteman Missile Historic Site that is what could have happened.
    It was clever stuff. One instance was someone put in a training tape of a nuclear attack and every idiot who had their finger on the button thought it was for real.
    Another time the Russians early warning system told them the Americans had launched a nuclear attack but luckily that day someone with brains was on duty and delayed retaliation.
    He was later highly awarded and at one time he was a guest of the United States where they did a tour of the Minuteman Silos for him, there’s proof Americans don’t get irony. Instead they should have shown him Mount Rushmore and said “there still there because of you”.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Class, style and taste all the way
    11Another five star resort1What did Destiney do to get $10,000 bond?They need parking, imagine the crowds this place attracts1Bed as in bedrock

    American Graffiti

    October 23, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    A small collection of some of the treasures you find along the road with the exception of the ad in a local paper. Photo number four is of a classic column called “CRIME OF THE WEEK” and if it’s hard to read it describes the theft of seven guns and a TV Set. The guns sound a little pedestrian till you get to the .44 Magnum and the AK47 built from a kit.

    An AK47 kit, where do you get one of those from? I know what I’m asking Santa for next Christmas.
    Trouble is how do you tell Santa you’ve been good and ask for an AK47 in the same breath, you can be sure you wouldn’t get anything next Christmas.

    Thats what great about traveling in the US you really know that you’re in the USA, there is no doubt about it like say travelling in the tropics because the coconut tree your sitting under could be on any tropical island any where and Margaritas taste the same the world over.

    Along the backroads, away from all the rich fancy pants areas, which is probably the majority of the country, it seems most peoples vehicles are worth more than their homes.
    That not hard because reading more adds from that local paper one says “For Sale 2 Acres. $200 down and $200 a month for 2 years”. Another one reads “Priced Reduced. Land and Home. Immaculate two bedroom, two bath. Laminate wood floors, fenced, half irrigated acre lot. Large shed. $49,900”.

    These ads are getting better, I just spotted one for a Mustang LX 5.0 Convertible for $4000.
    So the idea now is, convert all our overpriced Australian properties into US ones, create a property empire, stick a fat cigar in your mouth and drive round like a ponce in your Mustang Convertible.

    I was lucky to find my $4000 Mustang because the reason why vehicles cost more than property is.
    We have just driven up from Arizona through Utah to Colorado, then on into Wyoming and over ninety percent of the vehicles on the roads are nearly new Dodges, Fords or Chevrolet pick ups all worth well over $50,000, there were very few normal cars on these byways at all.

    You spot them too from the road, gleaming and garaged, if they could afford a garage, alongside some decrepit hovel with about twenty other antecedents out the back amongst tons of other rubbish so the contrast is dramatic, the vehicle seems like the only thing clean and cared for.

    Getting little away from the US, this would be politically as well, another ad I spotted reads: “35 Miles West Of Cuba, 600+ acres bordering BLM (whatever that is), public water and wells, electricity, fenced (what all 600 acres fenced) 5000’ two story cinder block building with bathrooms and a kitchen. LETS TALK 505-258-7894”

    Now we’ve included the phone number so if any of you want to get in on this action. We’ve all ready got the trailer park market tied up here though would consider a partnership as this spot has tax haven written all over it.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Cliff Palace Mesa Verde
    Square Tower HouseStep House1Inside Step HouseDetail of Step HouseThey were fanatics, they couldn't leave one poor cave alone

    Mesa Verde

    October 21, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    The pics of these Pueblos look like they are in miniature but in reality they are quite large buildings where a lot of people lived to help stack rocks on top of one another to create a decent home.
    It makes your mouth water, I got as far as building a rock wall, that felt good and it has a good feel about it too so there is a little bit of envy with people who build a whole village out of that material.
    It’s a good material, you walk on top of this desert mesa to see houses built under massive cliff overhangs and the feeling they give sure beats something made out of treated pine and Gyproc with a vinyl floor.

    The one exception I would make though is to install a few aluminium windows, this is something they should have considered.
    This Mesa is 8,0000ft high, the place is cold enough but in winter it goes under snow so they had to store a lot of food to get them through.
    The places they built, the Pueblos housed themselves, their food stores and the ubiquitous scruffy mutt or two so you could imagine in the depths of winter, with a howling blizzard outside, people shivering, stores dwindling, dogs fighting and then someone complaining about who left the windows open.

    There was a huge population one and a half thousand years ago living on the Mesa and it started out by people digging holes in the ground to house themselves, a bit basic but being in the ground keeps you cool in the short summer and warm during the long winter.
    Eventually the houses rose a little higher and then after that the Pueblonians, (no I’m not having a go that’s what they call them) came along and looked at the enormous caves and thought well, we already have a roof now we just have to fill the bottom in.
    This was radical as I tried to build a house from the roof down once with disastrous results but anyway they really were radical and contemporary people as their ingenuity and art show from examples of beautiful designs on everything from bowls to plaster walls inside the Pueblos.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Riding into town
    1Whats infront of Rhonda is better than whats behind her1The highway in or out of Monument Valley1More monuments21We bought the middle one

    Monument Valley

    October 20, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Like every true cowboy we road into Monument Valley at sundown.
    I know you’re supposed to leave town at sundown but arriving at sundown still had a certain western theme.

    Not being able to find the local saloon we tried the RV Park to feed, water and bed down our trusty RV for the night whilst we rustled us up some bacon ‘n beans.
    It was good to see the people here were into the spirit of the Wild West too as they fleeced us just like any crooked gambling house would to a couple of green horns new to town. They made the casinos in Las Vegas seem like amateurs as far as squeezing tourists go.

    Our opinion of the US being third world remains.
    Here they have converted old pickups into tour vehicles. The conversion consists of bolting three rows of old school bus seats to the back, that’s it, not even seat belts are added.

    There is a part of Monument Valley that is a loop road, this has been closed off with a gate and entry booth as this is all traditional land.
    It costs $US20 to pass here and go a 100 metres to a car park.
    Here for the privilege of paying $US80+tax per person first you make sure you are rugged up against dust and the cold before climbing aboard one of these rat rod limousines that travel over roads so bad they must be deliberately made that way so no other vehicles can use them because even nature can’t be that mean.

    This tour lasts for a couple of hours and most of it seems to be taken up watching some poor Navajo woman who has been roped into weaving traditional Navajo rugs, using traditional Chinese wool on a traditional loom made in Taiwan.
    This is unless for $US140 + tax, you take the all day tour. I couldn’t find any sadists, well still alive that is, to find out about this harrowing experience but it didn’t matter as we left all this stuff pretty much alone.

    What we did do though was to drive along the public highway that runs through Monument Valley, pulling over every few hundred metres for photos, tea and meal breaks or just to stop and gaze.
    Thats the way to do it and at one stop we were approached by an American family asking us if we knew about the tours. This was our big chance, having been done over in Deadwood we decided to return the favour and put the boot in.
    A few others picked up on the conversation and in the end we had a small crowd gathered around listening to us describe the best way to tour Monument Valley.
    They all took us seriously and said how fortunate it was to run into us for advice. This made us realise how easy it is to get tourists in, just like the locals have been doing for years with their over priced junker tours.

    With the aura of Las Vegas still around and dollar signs spinning like slot machines dials in our eyes we couldn’t help but think of the possibles in the tourist trade here. One thing our friendly crowd said was how funny it was that we Australians were telling Americans how to tour their own country, they thought that was great.
    Now this gave us a great idea. Our company has to have an Australian flavour yet be relevant to what people are use to here... you’re already guessed it, Ned Kelly Tours.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Grand Canyon South Rim
    2Some plain backdrop getting in the way of a fine shot of Rhonda1Snow on Grand Canyon1Friendly Americans always offer to snap pic for you, this happens everywhereFree forest camp

    The GRAND CANYON

    October 18, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    Those few of you who took the effort to sign up and follow our blog, despite the many invitations sent out not only are you fine folk but I know you are smart buggars too so we’re sure you heard of or seen David Hockney’s ( too late to Google it now Nick) painting A Bigger Grand Canyon in the National Gallery of Australia.

    There are some great attempts at having a crack at this place by many artists but really not much hope when even our photos don’t deliver on describing the magnificence of it all.
    On story boards around the rim there are quotes from all those old bastards who first saw the place and even in their ancient flowery writings they don’t hit the mark either.

    What is it with those old people, they were supposed to be uneducated yet all wrote like Shakespeare, even the local “smithy” could whack out a decent bit of prose even if he was just saying “actually the shoes are fine it’s just your horse that’s worn out”. Today everyone’s supposed to be so educated yet few can rub two syllables together.
    Another thing too those ancient explorers knew how to put an expedition together. The first group of Spaniards to venture here from Mexico had as well as all the essential members took four priests in their party. Four! what’s that all about, you either know what you are doing or you pray, I reckon the former is the go, make sure you read the book “Exploring For Dummies” first then it should all go well.

    This advice should have been taken along time ago because apparently the party was sent out to look for five or so cities of gold and when they returned to Mexico having failed the cranky ruler cut off their heads. At this stage those four priests could have come in handy.
    Little did they realise that this bit of overachieving erosion here was worth far mor than any golden city as all you had to do was to stick a toll booth at the front and hold out your hand.

    The altitude here 7,000ft plateau makes it a cold place in winter, we are approaching it now and so last night it snowed.
    In respect to those poor headless Spaniards rather than pay exorbitant prices for an overcrowded campground we drove a few miles out into the state forest where you are allowed to camp and light a fire for free.

    Despite the sound of gunshots all around, this is Arizona after all, it was a peaceful place, so what if a few bullets whistle over your head at least it’s better than being surrounded by campers.
    It’s under tall pines with plenty of wood lying around so we were determined to have a fire no matter how cold it was getting, just forget about the warm RV with its furnace and all the comforts we can have a fire out here for free.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Plenty of quality accomodation to be found
    We recomend this restraunt, though spare ribs were a bit large1Meat meals could have been a little fresher2You know you really are a tourist when you drive this route2Why rent RVs when this is availableWe had to put up with staying here till we found the stagecoach motel

    Back to Backroads

    October 17, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌫 9 °C

    All those fancy pants neons and “The Vegas Strip” got a bit much for us simple country folk from the Northern Rivers so we were trying for some quieter times and a little less traffic, as much as you can in a country of 350 million people with probably 650 million cars.
    The one thing we weren’t going to compromise on is accomodation and fine dining luckily we have found five star all the way.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2This is part of the RV Park
    We drove The Strip1Trump watching over us all3The Rv Park2Enterance to RV park1Still driving The Strip

    Las Vegas

    October 17, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The night we were in Yosemite we froze the next night we were in Death Valley with the air con on.
    The next night we were in the desert very quiet with no one else now we are in Vegas and there are people in their millions everywhere.

    There is music, boom boom booming and loud speakers and jets, helicopters and sprukers, Trump Towers and daylight all night long, no surprise, that’s what happens here and as the saying goes what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, just as well, if too much of this s*#** seeps out we’re in trouble.

    It’s good to get to a place like this for the regular dose of crazies you usually meet traveling and Vegas has provided a few. As well as what are wandering the streets the businesses are providing some too.
    Trucks drive around with the usual Vegas Strip Clubs adds or call Tiffany Belle “she want to meet you now” lit up billboards but Vegas is definitely going upmarket now.

    My favourite one is for Zombi Showgirls that sounds like real class and the pic of the Zombi Stripper, well she’s a bit of a looker for a Zombi I suppose.
    I don’t know how it would work though, what happens, first she takes off her clothes then a arm or her head or something, see you would have to do something special or it wouldn’t be Zombi it would just be a normal strip show.
    Now I’ve seen The Walking Dead TV show and if you get bit by one of these buggers you turn into one of them and that’s a real worry. It would be bad enough having to eat other people but to do a strip act as well, well that would be a new low.

    We were real lucky we found a RV park right on “The Strip” in Vegas, part of the Circus Circus Hotel/Casino complex so you’re right amongst it all... constantly.
    It’s much more convenient, instead of having to walk out to enjoy all the tackiness and noise and sleaze we’re right in amongst it all, all the time, it’s so much easier that way.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    2Lost
    2Note to self, stay on this!2We though we got lost

    LOST! backroading it to Vegas

    October 16, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    The idea is to tour America’s backroads, a good one because we’ve seen nothing traveling at 90 miles per hour on a 12 lane highway, the landscape is a blur. But at least you know where you are!

    We drove the full length of Death Valley then exited through a pass over a mountain range where you looked out across Nevada, spectacular country and no one there. Perfect!
    The road was good, it was also very windy, not windy as with wind but windy like with lots of curves, like a smooth roller coaster ride that went on for 20 miles, that’s a 20 mile downhill coast in a 5 ton RV, now this is living!
    We saw no other traffic so this qualified as a backroad which would have been better to stay on but near the bottom we saw a dirt road leading off to a range of blue mountains and the road looked like it was heading in the right direction. Perfect, according to someone.

    The idea has been taking the backroads and free camp as much as possible so this option had it all, till the road turned in every direction but where we were wanting to go.
    The road turned so much it was like being blindfolded and spun around many times, we had no idea where we were and it was getting dark so we pulled over for the night.

    This was all good, we have a shower, toilet, fridge, stove, dining area, a push button generator, enough food for weeks and the kitchen sink.
    After a gourmet meal and pondering all our maps and what we could pull up on Google without any reception we still didn’t have a clue so brought out the chairs to sit under the stars.
    Around us, the whole dirt road, backroad drive we saw no civilisation, no lights of any kind so it should have been very dark but in the distance, just over the next range glowed the laser like lights of Las Vegas that even flooded where we were.    Read more

  • RosscoeLower 48Traveler
    1Joshua tree, heading to zDeath Valley11Death ValleyDeath ValleyDriving don Death Valley

    Death Valley

    October 15, 2018 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    A quick one from this third world country. Now I believe the moon landing was a Hollywood production, the way this place functions there is no way they could have placed a man on the moon.
    Every time we come here it’s the same but every time we come here it seems more fascinating and beautiful than the last time so we could keep touring this place forever.
    The people are just as nice, though a little dim, still waiting to meet the mandatory total crazy though we have come close a few times.

    The latest incredible place that we just left was Death Valley, stunning and in the evening we sat out under the stars and felt the warm desert breeze.

    That’s it, short and sweet as this time we are using Starbucks Wi-Fi and you can only nurse a cold pressed orange juice for so long.    Read more

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