Roadtrip to Western USA & Mexico

[mistral]

A few thoughts on the trip so far.

1 : First of all, it was the easiest immigration process that I've had at the US Border since the early 1990s. We arrived into San Francisco Airport, and the signage was pretty straightforward. We had to queue for 8 minutes, and the actual immigration process took about another 3 minutes or so. In this day & age, getting your bags off the carousel at a major airport half an hour after leaving the aircraft is pretty impressive.

2 : As we had to wait for a few hours until our flight to Las Vegas, we took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from the airport into San Francisco city centre. Even though the trains are still relatively quick, the system is really starting to show its' age. The stations in the city centre are really beginning to look rather rundown, which is a bit of a shame, as the trains themselves still look quite sharp.

3 : We used the antique streetcars to ride to Fisherman's Wharf and back. They were both surprisingly smooth riding & rattle free for trams of their vintage ... I'm guessing that they both probably dated from the 1920s or 30s!

4 : As for San Francisco itself, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had been fearing. It looks a bit more neglected than it did in the 1990s, but I've seen much worse in other parts of the world. Despite the horror stories about the homeless camps that are situated all over the city, we were lucky enough to only see one (just off Market Street). Overall, the city didn't feel any more threatening than places like London or Paris, and it felt significantly safer than Cape Town or Johannesburg.

5 : Despite looking at several maps of Las Vegas in the past few months, it still comes as a bit of a shock to realise just how big it is. With very limited provision of public transport, the congestion is much worse than I was expecting.

Despite the traffic, I'm looking forward to my trip to Death Valley at the weekend. The weather forecast is for temperatures to be in the low 20s down there, which compares very favourably to the 12 or 13 that Las Vegas itself is expecting.

[Truvelo]

Are those temperature in C or F? North America is experiencing some low temperatures at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if those places are currently below freezing.

[Ruperts Trooper]

Are those temperature in C or F? North America is experiencing some low temperatures at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if those places are currently below freezing.

On a VW forum, a contributor is stuck in Wyoming as his battery died at -30F (-34C) !

[mistral]

Are those temperature in C or F? North America is experiencing some low temperatures at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if those places are currently below freezing.

The temperatures are in Celsius*. Fortunately for us, the big storm won't get too close to SW Nevada. The closest that we'll get to the bad weather is up by Bryce Canyon on the 28th, where the temperature will probably be hovering around zero. The extended forecast for Tropic, Utah isn't really too bad for this time of year.

https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/u ... /KUTTROPI2

However, the weather in the Central Plains & near the Great Lakes looks absolutely horrendous already, with the worst yet to come. It's possible that some places in the middle of America could see nighttime lows of -50°C in the next couple of days. I fervently hope that everyone can get through it all ok.

Incidentally, the coldest temperature that I've ever experienced was -40 in western Massachusetts, back in December 1988 (on the day of the Clapham rail crash). Despite wearing 13 layers of clothing, my lungs exploded the moment I walked out the front door to go to lunch. Not a nice feeling, and still all too memorable ... brrr ...

* Weirdly, I only use Fahrenheit as a general guide e.g. 'in the seventies'. For specific temperatures, I always use Celsius. Is that something that is particular to the British, or just to me?

[Ruperts Trooper]

Are those temperature in C or F? North America is experiencing some low temperatures at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if those places are currently below freezing.

The temperatures are in Celsius*. Fortunately for us, the big storm won't get too close to SW Nevada. The closest that we'll get to the bad weather is up by Bryce Canyon on the 28th, where the temperature will probably be hovering around zero. The extended forecast for Tropic, Utah isn't really too bad for this time of year.

https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/u ... /KUTTROPI2

However, the weather in the Central Plains & near the Great Lakes looks absolutely horrendous already, with the worst yet to come. It's possible that some places in the middle of America could see nighttime lows of -50°C in the next couple of days. I fervently hope that everyone can get through it all ok.

Incidentally, the coldest temperature that I've ever experienced was -40 in western Massachusetts, back in December 1988 (on the day of the Clapham rail crash). Despite wearing 13 layers of clothing, my lungs exploded the moment I walked out the front door to go to lunch. Not a nice feeling, and still all too memorable ... brrr ...

* Weirdly, I only use Fahrenheit as a general guide e.g. 'in the seventies'. For specific temperatures, I always use Celsius. Is that something that is particular to the British, or just to me?

The use of Fahrenheit is particular to Americans - most of the world uses Celcius.

[roadtester]

British tabloid newspapers kept on using Fahrenheit long after the general public switched to Celsius because it meant they could use a higher temperature number to get more dramatic “Phew what a scorcher!” headlines during hot weather.

[Chris Bertram]

British tabloid newspapers kept on using Fahrenheit long after the general public switched to Celsius because it meant they could use a higher temperature number to get more dramatic “Phew what a scorcher!” headlines during hot weather.

IIRC the Telegraph stuck with Fahrenheit longest of all.

[Big L]

British tabloid newspapers kept on using Fahrenheit long after the general public switched to Celsius because it meant they could use a higher temperature number to get more dramatic “Phew what a scorcher!” headlines during hot weather.

IIRC the Telegraph stuck with Fahrenheit longest of all.

Reflecting their readership’s demographic presumably.

[KeithW]

IIRC the Telegraph stuck with Fahrenheit longest of all.

Probably because Bill Deedes (the editor) didnt hold with it. I recall an article he wrote about his adventures in the USA where special arrangements had to be made for payment as he didn't have a credit card. I think they eventually solved it by using Amex travellers cheques.

[mistral]

Weather permitting, I'll be breaking my roads altitude record later today. It's just after 06.00 here in Vegas, and the bus driver seems pretty confident that the weather will be good enough for us to go over the 10,000 foot Midway Summit on UT-14.

Looking forward to a great day at Zion & Bryce!!

My thoughts on the trips to Death Valley & the Grand Canyon will follow in a couple of days.

[mistral]

A few more thoughts on the trip so far.

1 : Death Valley : What an extraordinary place. It felt like spending an afternoon driving along the surface of Mars (or, at least, what I'd imagine Mars to be like). It is just so barren & inhospitable.

2 : As for the run down from Las Vegas into Arizona, Interstate 11 is still pitifully short, and doesn't even make it out of Nevada. US 93 from the Hoover Dam down to Kingman (the junction with Interstate 40) is still an incredibly substandard road. Thirty plus years after this route was supposed to become an Interstate, it still has numerous at-grade intersections, various traffic light junctions & very narrow hard shoulders. What's worse, is that despite all the pretty 'Interstate 11 Corridor' signage, there is absolutely no sign of any actual new construction.

3 : Further east in Arizona, Route 66 looked in much better nick than when I last went along it in the mid 1990s. The road surface is much, much better than I remember, and there's been a big effort to get rid of the potholes. Even in Christmas Week, the 66 managed to be very dusty in places.

A special mention for Seligman. It is a throwback and a half ... it's what you imagine the 1930s might have been like. It is just so quiet & peaceful. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like 50 years ago, when it would have been buzzing all year round.

4 : At the Grand Canyon, I managed to get into a couple of the old Harvey Houses (the El Tovar Hotel & the Bright Angel Lodge). They're both so beautifully retro, that it's hard to believe that they're not museums. There are very few things that can beat a huge open fire in a beautiful old building, when there's snow lying on the ground outside.

10 days in Vegas! I ran out of interest after 4. Vegas is a long way from anywhere.

As for Las Vegas itself, I really enjoyed it. It really is all a bit bonkers, and there's so much to do. Somewhat improbably, I enjoyed it all much more than I did 30 years ago.

I enjoyed Bryce Canyon more than the Grand Canyon (spectacular though it was) ...

It's all personal opinion, but my batting order for the four Parks that we saw would be Grand, Zion, Death Valley & Bryce. They're all phenomenally beautiful parts of the world, but the sheer scale of the Grand Canyon just edges it for me.

[WHBM]

I see the title of this thread has been changed from several western US states to "& Mexico". Are you taking the rental car into Mexico ? I've never found a US rental company (or their insurers) that would allow their cars to go there.

[mistral]

I see the title of this thread has been changed from several western US states to "& Mexico". Are you taking the rental car into Mexico ? I've never found a US rental company (or their insurers) that would allow their cars to go there.

We're going to be renting a car (in Loreto) next week, to do a bit of exploration in the area.

However, I also went to Utah earlier this week, which wasn't part of the original plan. Adding that to the thread title made it look a bit 'untidy'.

[mistral]

A few more thoughts on the trip so far.

1 : I am astonished that a city the size of Las Vegas still has no meaningful public transport. Las Vegas & its' associated suburbs are one of the busiest holiday destinations in the world, with tens of millions of visitors turning up each year, and one would have thought that effective public transport would have been a priority. In a city with so much visible opulence, it is incredible that they cannot up their game beyond a few bus routes & a rather useless monorail.

If all the different businesses & local councils had put their heads together in the past, they could have built a very effective underground system that covered all the key parts (Airport, The Strip, Downtown, as well as the principal hospitals, shopping malls and the sports stadiums) of the city for significantly less than it has just cost London to build Crossrail.

2 : In a similar vein, Interstate 15, from Vegas down to the junction with Interstate 10 in the San Bernardino area, was absolutely rammed in both directions. High traffic volumes, two lanes in each direction and an awful lot of trucks elephant racing up the hills inevitably leads to some massive tailbacks. The longest one that I managed to measure heading north was 7 miles long, but there were several holdups in both directions.

3 : Fortunately, the freeway system in Los Angeles is in much better shape. I was surprised at how well the traffic was moving in the late afternoon. Not only have they widened a significant number of the roads, but they've shoehorned some tram & metro services into the gaps between the carriageways.

4 : Unfortunately, the homeless camps, that I had been expecting in San Francisco, are strewn liberally around many different parts of Los Angeles. There must be tens of thousands of people living in improvised campsites; from the moment that we came off I-10 (in the bus) to the time when got onto I-110 (in the cab), almost every single yard of pavement was occupied by a tent.

5 : As for the airlines so far, I fervently hope that I never have to fly on United ever again; they are absolute pants ... and that was flying in what they laughably term 'Business Class'. They might have had a decent seat to sleep in, but their food provision (on a twelve hour flight) was verging on the non-existent. Half a burrito, some cheese & crackers, and a very ropey, dried-up burger was the extent of their meal offering. I've had better food in Economy (on Lufthansa) on flights between London & Frankfurt ...

On the other hand, Alaska Airlines seems a pretty impressive outfit. A decent seat pitch, friendly cabin crew, a couple of snacks & a Bucks Fizz improves my mood in a hurry!!

6 : On a more general point, it never ceases to amaze me just how 'foreign' Americans seem to be. They might speak a version of English, but their culture and ways of doing things are still significantly different to what we're used to in Europe. Basic things like queueing & consideration for other people just seem to be alien to far too many of them.

It's even more curious, that people from places like Singapore, Malaysia & South Africa, that Britain has had no direct influence on for the past 60 years, are much more in tune with our 'wavelength' than the average American.

[WHBM]

1 : I am astonished that a city the size of Las Vegas still has no meaningful public transport.

As some here maybe recall from other posts I used to live in LA in the late 70s-early 80s.

The US stereotype that transit users are mostly druggies recently released from jail has unfortunately elements of truth, with both minimal usage outside work hours, and sky-high (compared to Britain) crime rates. There are some outliers; New York City in significant parts; San Francisco; Seattle; Chicago (again in part). That's about it. It's not necessarily the urban size or significant provision. Philadelphia is comparable to San Francisco for both but feels a different world . Boston was good a generation ago but feels to have gone distinctly down. It doesn't help that networks normally focus on the downtown, which in most cities has really become the worst bit. Among other things Americans don't seem to like building on the same land twice. Or taking public transport in an unfamiliar place. I don't think they would know where to start.

Unfortunately, the homeless camps, that I had been expecting in San Francisco, are strewn liberally around many different parts of Los Angeles. There must be tens of thousands of people living in improvised campsites; from the moment that we came off I-10 (in the bus) to the time when got onto I-110 (in the cab), almost every single yard of pavement was occupied by a tent.

Equally unfortunately, that's the worst bit, it has been 'Skid Row' there for more than 50 years. Yes, Greater LA has had this issue for most of its life; writer John Steinbeck described how it was in Riverside, about 80 miles east of downtown, in the early 1930s, with hobos who had sneaked lifts there on freight trains, and set up 'hobo camps, known as "Jungles" then as now, exactly the same, outside the huge railway sidings. They got, if they wanted, easy casual labourer jobs in the orange groves. Little different now. We lived in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of downtown, and like all others there had our 'own beat'. I only went to Downtown a couple of times, and honestly never went anywhere in East LA, the vast area eastwards from there. Hollywood has really dropped off, as the studios and myriad associated businesses have moved just a little west of there. Most of those I knew in LA, at a time when there was no rail transit there at all, didn't seem to know even what a bus looked like.

https://www.sbsun.com/2018/12/11/san-be ... the-1890s/

[mistral]

1 : I am astonished that a city the size of Las Vegas still has no meaningful public transport.

... the key parts (Airport, The Strip, Downtown, as well as the principal hospitals, shopping malls and the sports stadiums) ...

It doesn't help that (public transport) networks normally focus on the downtown, which in most cities has really become the worst bit. Among other things Americans don't seem to like building on the same land twice. Or taking public transport in an unfamiliar place. I don't think they would know where to start.

Fair enough, but Las Vegas is a very unusual place. It probably has more hotel rooms per km² than any other place on earth, and it has a significant number of very defined routes (mostly the places I mentioned in the post above) that should be perfect for a public transport network. Unlike most cities, there is no particular rush hour ... it seems to be pretty busy from 6am to after midnight! Added to that, a significant number of the Strip casino hotels are on four corners of big crossroads, which could reduce the amount of station construction required.

With the serious amounts of wealth in the city, I'd have thought that they could have found a few bucks to try and sort out their chronic congestion problems!

Unfortunately, the homeless camps, that I had been expecting in San Francisco, are strewn liberally around many different parts of Los Angeles.

Equally unfortunately, that's the worst bit, it has been 'Skid Row' there for more than 50 years. Yes, Greater LA has had this issue for most of its life ...

Quite ... I remember doing some research into the circumstances behind one of the more extraordinary records in the Guinness Book of Records in the early 1980s; the marathon dance record that was set in the early 1930s. Sadly, a huge number of homeless & unemployed people were desperate enough to dance for days on end, in order to win prizes of up to $1000.

Back to the present day ... our cab driver was saying that there are now even bigger homeless camps down near Anaheim, on either side of I-5. There are apparently thousands of people sleeping in their cars down there.

[mistral]

We're going to be renting a car (in Loreto) next week, to do a bit of exploration in the area.

Currently sitting in a car hire office, having been let down by our car rental agency. They claim that they 'don't have any cars'. Brilliant ...

Going to have to try elsewhere ...

[KeithW]

Are those temperature in C or F? North America is experiencing some low temperatures at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if those places are currently below freezing.

Centigrade looking at the weather reports, that said it can change really fast, back in November 1990 I went to a user group meeting in Stateline Nevada, the first 3 days were nice and warm but when we checked out 3 days later it was snowing.

[Big L]

Are those temperature in C or F? North America is experiencing some low temperatures at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if those places are currently below freezing.

Centigrade looking at the weather reports, that said it can change really fast, back in November 1990 I went to a user group meeting in Stateline Nevada, the first 3 days were nice and warm but when we checked out 3 days later it was snowing.

It’s Celsius these days*, not Centigrade.

*Since 1948.

[Truvelo]

We're going to be renting a car (in Loreto) next week, to do a bit of exploration in the area.

Currently sitting in a car hire office, having been let down by our car rental agency. They claim that they 'don't have any cars'. Brilliant ...

Going to have to try elsewhere ...

Did you book the car in advance? On several occasions I've turned up and they were out of cars of the size I ordered so I was upgraded to a car the next size up. I've also done well with having new cars and being the first person to hire it such as this with only 5 miles on the clock. To be told there are no cars if you did reserve one in advance is unacceptable.