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.

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.

OOOOk-lahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day.

Thanks to all at the Desert Hills Motel for an authentic 66 motel experience, no frills, just a warm dry place to lay our weary heads.

A bit chilly first thing but with highs of 29 and a chance a thunder storms later we are all set for another days' adventuring on Route 66.
First things first though, refuelling at Tallys' Diner
Bears need a good breakfast otherwise I'm like a human with a sore head.

Then Its off on the road through OOOOk-lahoma City, across the praire towards Texas, a 367 mile hop towards Amarillo.

Fred is in the Windy City

Hello Chicago.
After a close call catching our flight from JFK last night we finally arrived in Chicago Town. Friday night traffic out of Manhatten meant we made our flight with 10 minutes to spare.
The Congress Plaza Hotel is trying to charge 10 bucks a day to use their wi-fi. Fred doesnt pay to blog, so we're all sat in the diner next door where the waitress was happy to provide the password for theirs. Happy connected Bear.
Other than wi-fi issues the hotel is very grand. Large rooms and a bed big enough for a dozen friendly bears.

Heres a final pic from NYC, posing outside Madison Square Garden on the steps of the largest Post Office I've ever seen.

Gotta go now, much exploring to be done.

Start spreading the news, Freds' leaving today

Goodbye Weymouth, Hello Hillingdon. Its Time for me and my 2 road trip buddies to start our #Route66 road trip. A backpacking Bear I am. Living out of Hotels and Motels for the next 23 days. All journeys begin with a single step. Ours starts with a ride to London Town, Hillingdon to be presice. An overnight stop near LHR before our flight in the morning to JFK in NYC. Bears love abbreviations. A few days exploring the Big Apple awaits before a quick hop to Chicago and the start of the Mother Road. #Fredispartofthescenery #excitedbear.

Do Bears' get vertigo?

The Willis Tower in Chicago is high, really very high, and it seems I'm going up it, and standing on a glass floored ledge 1000 miles above the streets of The Windy City. It's enough to make a bear start singing the blues.

Planning the trip of a lifetime

Our impending road trip has taken alot of planning. Flights to NYC and onto Chicago have been booked. We arrive in the Big Apple on St Patricks Day. Spend a few days exploring the city, move onto Chicago for a couple of nights while we prepare ourselves for the 'Mother Road'. A Jeep Cherokee will hopefully be waiting for us on Monday 24th March. 

Then a 2000 mile drive over the next two and a half weeks begins. Stopovers have been booked in Springfield,IL, Lebanon,IL, Tulsa OK, Amarillo TX, Albuquerque NM, Santa Fe NM, Holbrook AZ, Williams AZ, Las Vegas NV, and our final stop in LA. A mix of posh hotels and traditional Route 66 Motels should make for the trip of a lifetime. Flying home from LAX on April 9th we will definitely be ticking the trip off of our bucket list.