bt3.com/Baz's 1992 USA Holiday
California and the Golden West.

Where and how?

Day 3: Friday September 25

The USA. As I mentioned at the time you clicked the link to this page?

To be precise, a fully escorted coach tour, starting in San Diego CA and thence stopping in Phoenix Arizona, Williams AZ, Las Vegas Nevada, Visalia, Merced, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo before finishing the tour in Anaheim near Los Angeles (all California).

Marvellous.

No, better than that, the Holiday of a Lifetime.

Do yourself a favour, and navigate through this holiday using the hyperlinks scattered throughout the text. If you want to go back to the start, or feel a need to go to my site homepage, well, by now you should know what to do? :o)

My start to the day at 5.00 meant that the waking up and readying of the suitcases could progress at a relatively easy pace. We went for breakfast at 6:10 the Bakers I forget the rest of the name...) restaurant, which although clean and tidy, somehow didn't quite match up to the friendliness of Coco's, the one visited the previous day. The time soon passed until the 7:15 start to the 356 mile journey to Phoenix.

The route, along Interstate 8 with its sparkling road surface caused by the high quartz content of the local rock, as far as Yuma, passed through the mountainous area to the east of San Diego, through the Cleveland National Forest and past numerous Native American Reserves. Before reaching the desert areas of southern California, we took a short detour from the main highway to stop at an Observation Post overlooking the country to the east. Here also the local rock formations had been enhanced to look like animals, to add to the slightly surreal nature of the surroundings. On leaving the Observation Post, we descended to the level of the desert, and, on the way along I-8 observed what is quite possibly the longest train I've seen, with approximately 81 flat bed trucks.

Throughout the whole holiday, the most consistent activity amongst our travel companions seemed to be the counting of coaches on trains. hmmmm ...? :o)

Anyway, we passed Plaster City, a mineral processing plant and then drove onwards to the Arizona state line, before which, a stop at the sand hills, presumably to experience the heat. On stepping down from the coach, the difference between the temperature in the coach, incidentally whose air conditioning had developed a fault, sending the temperature to 92 degrees F, was absolutely amazing. This heat, passing 120 degrees F in the direct sun, was, thankfully, totally dry; I hate to think what it would have been like in a more humid environment. After a short walk past the tyre tracks of the recreational vehicles which obviously used the area, we came across the sight of camels tethered to a trailer, and what was obviously a film shoot of some kind with the minarets in the distance. One of the tour party ascertained that the location was being used for shooting a Camel cigarette advertisement.

On the way to Yuma we stopped at an Arizona inspection station, the purpose of which, I think, is the limitation of carrying restricted species of flora and fauna across state lines, with the consequent stopping of the spread of disease. Reaching Yuma, population 42,400, where the temperature, indicated by one of the roadside time and temperature displays, was 96 degrees F in the shade, we stopped at a self-service buffet type restaurant called Tom Tates, where for a fixed fee, one could pick and eat as much as desired, which I duly did. After the meal, I got a bottle of Budweiser and spent the time waiting outside for the repaired coach to arrive, whilst drinking this, and conversing with our fellow travellers. (A thought - is it illegal to drink on Arizona streets?)

On reaching Gila Bend, the next stop on our journey, a small town of 1,500 population, we stopped again to freshen up. In the shop there we bought a bottle of Gatorade each, to help replace the moisture lost in the heat. My main reason for buying Gatorade was its appearance on every American Football game's sidelines - still, it certainly did the trick!  An ice-breaking tip for you: buy a bottle of Gatorade, stand in the middle of a tour coach and ostentatiously shake the thing .. then *equally* ostentatiously slowly open the thing.  No-one will know it's a still drink.  ;o)

Leaving Gila Bend, we left Interstate 8 for highway 95, passing cotton and pumpkin fields, to Interstate 10 and then Phoenix.

Our first stop there was the Memorial Gardens, where monuments to Arizona's fallen law enforcement officers, to the crew of the USS Arizona, and the like, were situated. This area is a most tranquil oasis compared to the heat of the previous journey. During our brief tour around the centre of Phoenix, a city of population 764,900, we came across the starting grid for the now defunct Phoenix round of the Formula 1 Grand Prix motor racing series. The lamp posts and facades of the buildings in the area going northwards out of the city, up Interstate 17, have been planned by the authorities to showcase architectural talent, and the number of churches on the road to the turn-off to the Travelodge Metro Center was quite amazing.

On reaching the accommodation, we split up to go to our rooms, only to find that the Travelodge personnel had doubled up on the allocation, so *I* had to find another room. This problem sorted out, the whole party assembled round the pool for the complimentary fruit punch provided, and to be informed of the costs of the optional excursions and organised meals for the holiday, the majority of which we wished to take. The total cost of these excursions we paid Hilary with travellers cheques and in advance.

At 8:00 we all gathered on the patio in front of the Travelodge office for the barbecue, arranged because of the comparative remoteness of the Travelodge, and with which free soft drinks, wine and Budweiser was provided. Bedtime today was 10:00, and came only too quickly as the day's journey had been really energy-sapping.

To Day 4

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