Home Sweet Home

Home is the place we love to be most.
Bears' are no different to humans in their love of the place they live.

After a Road trip of 3 weeks starting in bitterly cold, New York, frozen ponds in Central Park, and the coldest boat ride ever to Liberty Island.

 Then driving Route 66 from a snow covered, freezing Chicago

 Across Illionios. meeting Gary Turner at the Gay Parita filling station. That was a meeting none of us will ever forget. A true gentleman.

Across Missouri to the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Rhamona was another lovely person and a pleasure to meet.

Melba ' The Mouth' in Galena, Kansas was passionate about keeping '66 alive (happy that Pixar Studios arrived there oneday).

To Oklahoma, Beautiful.  Onto Texas, just how I hoped it would be. New Mexico,  really high up, hot and dusty. A great place to buy Indian Jewelry. Into Arizona, next and a detour to Sin City, Nevada and all of its' temptations

Ending in Sun drenched California, with a huge sense of achievement and feeling that our preconceptions of a nation had been changed for the better.

Thanks America and Route 66, Fred has had fun.
But its great to be home.

If you get the chance to, do it!
Its fun.

See you on the road.

Fred.

Thats Route 66 done. LAX now, home soon.

Well we finally finished our route 66 trip with a visit to Santa Monica Pier. It was great to finally arrive and see the 66 to Cali booth on the pier.

Its been a fantastic journey, we've met some great people along the way,

 Thankyou America.

But this really is the end of the trail for Fred.

Fred is California Dreamin'

Well it's been an eventful 24 hours as we near the end of our road trip across the USA on Route 66. We left Las Vegas behind us on Friday morning slightly less cash rich than before. My foolproof system to break the casinos along the strip failed.

Fred putting on his pokerface.

The drive across the Mojave desert is fairly unremarkable except for a quick stop off at Elmers' bottle ranch. His collection of stuff collected from the desert is a sight to behold.

Fred at the bottle ranch.

And so on to Los Angeles and the Biltmore Hotel in downtown LA. The Biltmore is a very grand place, it was the home of the Oscars' ceremonys during the 1930's.  The lobby area has many pictures from those glamourous times. Walt Disney, Shirley Temple and many other Hollywood stars have received their gold statues in this building. The Biltmore Bowl is a huge ballroom within the hotel complex that held these prestigious events.

The Biltmore today however is a hotel that for us did not live up to these high standards, car parking costs $48 per day, wifi $10 per day (hence no bear blog yesterday) our 8th floor room was extremely noisey, at 3am we went down to reception to complain and arrange to check out in the morning. 

We decided to drive down to Santa Monica and find some new lodgings for the remainder of our time in LA. We are now checked in at the Days Inn on Santa Monica Boulevard (old Route 66), a lovely room, a great balony with beautiful view and hopefully some peaceful nights ahead. 

Fred is living the dream in California.

Fred's out on the strip. Las Vegas or bust

So I'm feeling at home amongst the luxury that is the Bellagio Hotel and Casino Resort. If only I had the funds to continue this lifestyle long term.

Fred playing the system....badly

The fountains out front of the Bellagio are Freakin' Awesome

So we've visited Ceasars Palace, Treasure Island, Circus Circus, NY NY, Luxor, Cosmopolitan, Excalibur and MGM. We have contributed to the profits in all of these establishments. But the Bellagio was by far the best, a better class of gambler here.

Fred out on the Strip

We spent some time chillin' round the pool today, It was nice to feel the warmth of the sun on my bear back after the cold winds of New York and Chicago. The humans have been out and bought some summer clothes ready for the Californian sunshine. We say goodbye to Sin City tomorrow morning and head back to '66 for the final part of our epic road trip, just 367 miles to Santa Monica Beach, the forecast in L.A for the next few days is hot,hot,hot. Bears love sunshine.

Just call me Freddy Ocean, we are gonna break this casino.

After checking in to our little hotel for the next couple of nights we set off through the lobby, casino, bar, conservatory, casino, bar, casino and casino we finally found our way to the elevators. Up to Floor 27, one below the high rollers floor, gives us a great view across the city.
When we'd freshened up we headed straight for the gaming floor and within 30 minutes were 300 dollars up! And several free drinks to the good. We decided to give the House a chance to recover from these heavy losses and headed up to bed. A beautifully peaceful nights' sleep felt fantastic and after the best eggs benny breakfast of the trip so far we headed back to the poker machines and took another $60 off the house. Feeling like high rollers ourselves we wandered down the strip thinking we would hit each casino along the way. By lunchtime however we had reinvested our initial gains back where they had come from.

Fred outside our little lodging house.

Getting ready for another night on the gaming floors now, hoping for a slightly better strategy than we have employed so far.

Fred posing on the strip at night pics to follow soon.

Viva Las Vegas. Day 9 on the Mother Road

Goodbye Arizona. So much for a quiet night in Williams, AZ. The Santa Fe line train drivers are a sadistic bunch, every train that trundled through Williams last night gave a long, loud, whistle to announce to the whole town that they were passing through. The 3.30am train seemed particularly loud. Hey ho though, We got through it, setting off towards Seligman and hopefully meeting Route 66 legend Angel in his Barber Shop. Angel is single-handedly responsible for bringing route 66 back from the brink and making it the fantastic journey it is today. We arrived at his place just after a coach load of tourists from Northern Britain, his shop was packed. We did manage to shake Angels' hand before he jumped on his pushbike and disappeared up the road. For a man in his 80's he seemed full of beans and enjoying life to the full.

Fred ouside Angels' place, Seligman, AZ

We left town shortly after Angel and left the hoards of Norhern tourists to buy their souvenirs and jump back on the coach. The next stretch of '66 is probably the most impressive of the whole journey. The mountain pass up through Oatman is amazing, fantastic views, massive drop-offs from the road edge, switch-backs and hairpins a-plenty. A truly brilliant ride.

Fred on the Oatman pass

And again

And one more.

Through Oatman and down onto the Colorado River valley in Needles, we left 66 behind us and headed north towards Vegas. A quick detour out to the Hoover Dam was pretty cool, impressive engineering always turns a bears' head.

Dam thats impressive!

And so to Vegas, The Bellagio. Wow

Amazing room

Superb view.

I'm Bear blogging while the humans get ready to hit the town.

No need for Fred to prepare, I have a fool proof plan......

All on Black.

Day 8 Route 66, Bearizona and The Grand Canyon

Day 8 meant an early start from our wigwam home in Holbrook, a night of listening to the soulful whistles of the trains on the Santa Fe line competing with the tweets and whistles of the dawn chorus from the local birds made for an interesting alarm call.

Fred in his wigwam bed.

Up and on the Mother road by 7am to make a 9.30 train departure in Williams, AZ 120 odd miles away with a quick stop off in Winslow, AZ for a photo pose.

Fred takin' it easy, standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona..... thanks to The Eagles Winslow has a claim to fame, a statue and a reason for us tourists to stop by.

Onward we drove on 66 for our morning departure on The Grand Canyon Railway. Leaving Sara at the ticket booth to buy our tickets meant we had upper class, luxury seats in the observation dome. Fantastic views for the two and a half hour journey to the South Rim.

One word describes this place.

Awesome.

A trek down the canyon on the blue angel trail was a great way to get some kind of perspective on the sheer size of this place. My view from the backpack was pretty cool too. After a 90 minute trek down and then up again we were ready for some lunch before our train ride back to Williams.

Even our luxury observation coach had a cool name.

Happy Travelers.

Fred, Champagne and our waitress for the day, Mimi.

After a brilliant day visiting the Canyon just a 5 minute drive to our bed for the night, another traditional motel on 66. Comfortable, clean and hopefully a little quieter.

Look out Vegas, Fred is coming.

Wigwam thankyou M'am.

Day 7 Route 66, Holbrook,AZ

So we've left New Mexico behind us and moved down from the high plains into the dry dust bowl that is Arizona. A couple of stop offs along the way for some more Fred posing.

Aurelias Diner in Gallup was going to be our breakfast stop today having had it recommended by one of my twitter friends, unfortunately the diner is closed on sundays.

Next stop was at Continental Divide, a little bit of Altitude headache here (7275 ft) but a good landmark point to stop, from here water flows east to the Atlantic and west to the Pacific. A watershed moment for our trip.

Into Arizona and a diversion off to the painted desert and the petrified forest made for an interesting drive, it felt like driving on another planet. The wind blowing here was the strongest we've ever felt anywhere.

Fred holding on for bear life in the crazy Arizona wind.

Finally arrived this evening in Holbrook for a night of camping in a wigwam, OK so its a concrete wigwam with heater, tv, bathroom and shower, but its still a wigwam.

Lots of classic vintage cars and trucks parked around the place, thats our wigwam behind me.

Sat in the lounge area of the lobby blogging now, log fire roaring, margarita going down nicely. Night y'all.

Happy Mothers Day from the Mother Road

                             To my two favourite mummys on Mothering Sunday.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, Day 6 on the Mother Road.

Only an hours drive today from Albuquerque, some beautiful mountain views along the way

So we've arrived in Santa Fe and there is really only one subject to talk about.
Coming from Weymouth, our experience of altitude is driving up Wyke Road.

High Altitude can have strange effects on bears and humans. Santa Fe is 7000 odd feet above sea level and we can all really feel the difference. After the first couple of hours here we are all suffering from headaches, shortness of breath, lack of energy and lack of appetite. This is all normal according the welcome pack at our lovely little adobe cottage, complete with wood fireplace. Los Palomas Hotel is set out over a single story spread over a couple of blocks.

                    Our home in the High mountains of New Mexico for tonight.

                                 A couple of pics from the Plaza area of Santa Fe

So although none of us feel brilliant at the moment we took a stroll into town and took a look at some of the fascinating architecture, Native American Arts and Boutique Shops before heading back to our little Pueblo for a lie down.
Hopefully we can all adjust to the lack of oxygen up here quickly and enjoy an evening out and about in town later.

Hot Dog, Jumpin' Frog, Albequerque

Route 66 Day 5, Amarillo to Alberqueque 8700 miles across a barren desert.

Leaving Amarillo, Texas on Route 66 we quickly came across the Midway point of our journey in Adrian, TX. Unfortunately the cafe was closed til next week so I did a bit of posing for the camera and we headed off into the deserts of New Mexico.

Fred is halfway to California.

From this point on the journey was pretty deserty

Tree

Desert

Tree

Desert

Desert

Train

Desert

Tree

Desert

Desert

Mountains

Alberqueque

Our hotel for the night was chosen by Sara and is therefore alot nicer than the Motels we've lodged at over the last few nights. The most pretigious hotel in Alberqueque, the Hotel Andaluz was once a Hilton Hotel and was where Zsa Zsa Gabor married Mr Hilton in the 1940s.

Fred is getting used to huge beds

Views across the city towards the mountains. Pretty awesome.

Howdy Y'all, That was the way to Amarillo

Just call me Fred.....Big Fred.

Texas is Big, real Big. Even the journey here from Oklahoma was enormous. Just one quick lunch stop on the way at Pops' in Arcadia, OK, an amazing place that sells hundreds of different flavours of soda. We chose good ol' Round Barn Root Beer, and some good pop it was too.

Fred ouside Pops, that one big soda bottle.

Lunch stop done it was on towards Texas.

When the SatNav said ' stay on this road for the next 250 miles' we knew it was gonna be a tough drive so I settled down, watched Ol' Okey disappear in the rearview mirror and the huge skies of Texas unfold before us.

Arriving in Amarillo it felt great to chill out in the Big Texan Hotel before I get stuck into the steak dinner that I know is waiting for me just next door.

A jacuzzi bath and a fresh set of duds and I'm the rootingest tootingest bear in these parts.

Yeeehah, lets go eat some meat.

And drink some Big Texan beer

And then go sleep it all off. Night y'all.