Hollywood and Las Vegas!

OOOH YEEEEAAAH!
We're currently in the dry state of Arizona, which is basically a fancy name for the middle of nowhere. But before we get to being stranded in the desert, let's recap on the events of the past few days. We'll be honest - things have gone mental since we last posted, but now it's here, and it's time to get a big straw out and dip it into the swimming pool of juice that's coming your way in the next few paragraphs!!


From San Francisco we headed by train to Hollywood - a long and tiresome journey. Our neighbours on the train were grumpy overweight men. The kind who only look away from their newspaper to get a glimpse of a brass lamp on "Antique Roadshow". Unfortunately, it was not showing though, and these men spent most of the nine hours angrily filling out newspaper crosswords.

We did reach hollywood though, and felt quite at home in our new hotel. A free minibar and free wi-fi were good additions to the usual free hotel soap and shampoo. It was a brilliant place to be! And so, we began to walk the streets of Hollywood in search for one person. Zac Efron!

But we could not find our idol, as we were instantly bombarded by non-famous people trying to sell their badly recorded RnB music to us. So we were forced to hide. Yep. Of all the things we could've done in Hollywood, we were hiding from mobs of persuasive salespeople. The highlight of Hollywood though were the theme parks in the Los Angeles area. Universal Studios and Disneyland were both incredible, and exceeded our expectations!

One of the greatest things we saw at Disneyland was this man. Mullet, moustache, cowboy hat - He had everything we've ever dreamed of having, and he was also in a place many dream of. Of course, the best thing about him is the shirt. Of all the things in his wardrobe to wear to his day at Disneyland...

Tasty...?

Following a few days of partying Disney style, we joined up with a tour group to trek across America for the next twenty one days. Our first stop was Las Vegas, and what a crazy place! Lights everywhere, people in costumes, and much entertainment. They say "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", but we are more than happy to enlighten you on what we did!

 The legal age for everything in Las Vegas is 21, so we were stuck at the hotel while everyone partied. Sam spent the evening cutting his fingernails in the hotel room, while Nathan counted the bathroom tiles. What a wild night...

Juice!

Sam and Nathan.





Alcatraz and the wax Pope

After scaling these huge mountains we were felling pretty tough, so we decided to really test our manlyness by visting the home of some of the toughest people in the world, Alcatraz. But not before having a quick look at sculptures of our favourites celebrities. Another hike across the city took us to the 'must see' destination for all tourists, The Wax Museum. How anybody can dislike looking at wax verions of greats like Steve Irwin and the Lion From 'The Wizard of Oz' is beyond me this place was full of some of the creepiest looking faces if sen in my life.

A couple of plot twists later and we end up on Alactraz listening to  a recording about bowling and  a library. This place didn't seem that bad though, they even had radios in their cells and apparantly were quite the fans of kickball. Most of the exercise yard had been modified into a kickball court, and we were told of the huge championships and rivalries that existed behind prison walls.

Following Alcatraz, we went back home and engaged in the biggest American tradition out:
We got a large pizza, went back to the hotel room and watched Wrestling until we fell asleep.

Tasty!

Sam and Nathan

Corndogs suck and pretzles are huge: the tale of burning calves pt. 2

San Francisco is a strange place. On its near-vertical streets, homeless are the kings, and drug dealers are always persistent to sell you illegal wares. On Monday, after waking up from an extended 16 hour nap, we decided to travel across the golden gate bridge, not by foot but instead by bicycle. The only problem was that the bike store was on the other side of town.

Our only choice was to walk. These roads closely resembled the scene from Inception, except these were real and were directly in our way. After fighting cardio problems and hemorrhage, we finally reched the bike shop, where we greated by an overly excited women who attempted to give us directions, but we didn't listen. Wrong turn after wrong turn on the bike track led us to an old civil war fort. Here we learnt about the art of firing canons and dress making.

We didnt spend too much time here, as frostbite and gangrene were affecting our ability to learn about history. Back on the bikes we began to cross the bridge, and here we met our second challenge of the day, avoiding being blown off the bridge. With gale force winds coming head on it was a struggle to get anywhere at all, let alone across the bridge. Like a freight train though we powered on, and soon crossed the bridge. From here, the following things happened

• We got rejected from a childrens museum
• a hipster parked his combi and played a set of folk tunes before our eyes
• Saw a bikie gang gathered outside the bank of America

This part of town was different...Had the woman we didn't listen to warned us about this? We decided to grab a bite and leg it, but even that turned pear shaped when Nathan recieved a bowl of potato chips as a side dish. The ferry couldn't have come at a better time.

Upon returning to the mainland, we jumped back on the bikes and made a few stops (hard rock cafe) before returning them to the bike shop. Thankfully, there were different staff working, and we were greeted with excitement.

Once again, we scaled the himalayas to return to our hotel. It is fair to say our calves are ruined, and we may need wheelchairs tomorrow. That shouldn't be a problem to organise though, due to many of the more sophisticated homeless using them to get around!

Tasty!

Sam and Nathan.

 
 

 

Corndogs suck and pretzles are huge: the tale of burning calves

Touch down! After an 11 hour flight with a P-Plate, pilot we've finally made it to San Fransisco and are ready to start our 6 week adventure around the land of dreams, The United States of America.

Our adventure was kicked off by an obsured 6 am wake up, followed by a ride to the airport with sobbing mothers. The moment we arrived at the airport we realised that this journey was going to be anything but normal when two flight attendants ran past, yelling military commands into radios. It seemed the flight attendants and security guards had swapped jobs for the day. After saying a quick goodbye, we boarded the plane to begin our eleven hour flight. Tasty? Nope, not at all...

The flight began with the captain being introduced as Derrick. Before take off, he seemed to run a few laps of the tarmac, making sharp manoevers and speed changes. It was assumed he was an L-plate pilot, who had to sit his P's before flying us to America. Presumably he passed the test, because we were soon on our way!

The flight was absolutely gruelling. Despite the in-flight movies, one of which was a rip-off of Indiana Jones, except with wrestlers and kids, the hard seats prevented much joy and relaxation. The low point came nine hours in when Nathan fell asleep, and Sam was forced to watch a horrific romance film starring Rachel McAdams.

But we did arrive eventually! And we soon learnt how far away from home we were. San Francisco is no ordinary town, you see. We discovered there are more homeless on the streets than home-owners...A city run by homeless - this was truly beyond our imagination!

Americans drive on the right side of the road...fancy!

Stay tuned for more San Francisco stories!

Juice,

Sam and Nathan.

Let us begin - Sixteen days prior

The United States of America. The most well known country in the world. A global superpower,

inventor of Coca-Cola, and birthplace of the great George W. Bush. Every day, we are influenced by this country - our television, our social media, technology, celebrity idols and music artists are all products of the US. In a sense, the United States owns Australians.

One overcast day, Sam was indulging in a very meaty hamburger at Hungry Jacks which Nathan had served from the counter. Suddenly, we came to this America realisation. A large fries, coke, and a few pints of lager later, and we decided that 2012 was the year. It was time to turn the media influence into a reality!

We go to America!

And so it goes ahead! The last few months have been flat out organising everything. Hotels accomodation, tours, and flights. Shoutout here to Matt from STA Travel, whom we worked with to device a tasty sightseeing plan. The trip outline revealed itself along the way. We have a plane ticket to California and a Plane ticket home from New York. Forty days to get between them. This would be a cross country trip...After much discussion, and some worry from family (which we ignored), we decided to take the Southern States path on a tour. We were going through the deep South!

Why the South you ask? Well, maybe this photograph will explain....

"Welcome to Alabama, boys"

That just about sums it up! We leave June 16th (and yes, there is a whole suitcase dedicated to vegemite and cricket bats). We hope you can join us on the blog for live updates on the adventure!

Much Juice,

Sam and Nathan.