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.