Fun things to do in United States of America

At almost every tourist site you will have to queue. The reason you have to queue is not because of the crowds but, because you are lining up for a photo shoot. You will be photographed against a blank canvas and then a contrived backdrop is inserted. The average price of each photo is $20- $25. At some tourist sites you can buy the image/jpeg rather than the photograph.

We found a common sight throughout USA was the number of beggars, homeless and buskers/ musicians. This was the worst in San Francisco and in particular in Market street and near the Cable car turnaround on Powell Street (?)where I felt particularly assailed by people “in my face” wanting money for a poorly performed song.

While I felt extremely sorry for them I must admit I was afraid to give anything in case I was then overwhelmed by other "beggars" or then became an easy target.

I do feel particularly blessed that I live in a country where there are fewer people who have to turn to begging to survive.

I had got a tip from a motorcycle forum that leather motorcycle apparel can be bought in Blain's Farm & Fleet in Bloomington. Exellent tip, we took a course to the store and bought both cheap and good quality staff there.

Leather chaps! Those are quite expensive in mc stores, but here we got them for 59,95$. The chaps have some kind of code, you know, certain people use them, do you remember YMCA and Village people? Later, I used chaps trough whole route, on the morning especially, I remember one man opening gas station door to me with a good day wish: "after you ladies". Seriously the apparel is perfect for riding. You can dress it on on the morning (on cold days) and take it easily of when sun starts burning.

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*** Warning - If you don't have sense and soul when playing, select some other hobby ***

The Colorado Belle Casino Resort has a lot of the games you want to play! 65,000 square foot casino with slots, table games and poker room with tournaments. Of course there are hotel and restaurants, so you don't need to go out (if you go, there are other gambling places, so why to?).

If I understood correctly we could have saved money if we stayed here (we were charged some 65$ per night for two in Bullhead City and the rate for 2012/may/09-11 is between 39 and 119 depending of room type.

But the gambling! We didn't know how to play, we didn't want to learn (I never win) and made a huge 2$ investment and after 10 seconds we got the bill of 50 cents. We took some beers and went home.

This tip is needed, otherwise you will pass the Amboy, because it is the only gasoline station on National Trails Highway (and there are interestingly named places a head if you drive to west, like Bagdad and Siberia).

In Amboy you meet Roy's, you can fill your tank and have a discussion with staff, you don't meet a lot of people on this leg. If yo have time take a look to old Amboy and start from Old Amboy Road. But remember to start this leg with full tank, there were four pumps but only two were working. You never know when there are no pumps at all.

Further, you can find Amboy crater from the area, it is an intact volcanic crater that went dormant about 600 years ago. Drive there, don't walk, and take crater road some two miles after Amboy (west).

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Again one must and tourist trap, but as only joy here I don't record it to the traps. Very friendly service, take refreshments at least. Souvenirs are sold and this is one of the places you can purchase Route 66 suspenders :) I bought one! I rank the gift shop high and it is quite (to me) authentic 50's style decorated.

Don't pass the Cafe and remember to take a photo of you with the half way sign.

In general the price of meals was comparable to Australia unless you had a glass of wine which then raised the price of an average meal to around $30.00. We compensated by buying a bottle or two of wine and having a drink in our hotel room. “Spicy” in USA does not necessarily equate to “spicy” in Australia. We found most food was quite bland and a lot of it too “creamy” for our tastes. The size of serves may also shock. Many restaurants are just hamburger joints. We found the best value and the “healthiest” options were the Mexican restaurants.

We pre-booked all our internal flights beforehand. Seats are selected (from memory) after you have paid. Most of our flights were with American Airlines as we wanted to gain the benefit of Qantas frequent flyer points. They were all on time and without incident. The Delta flight was excellent but we spent an extra $19.00 each so we had more leg room. Check in was very easy. There is a line of check in machines and you punch in your reservation number, confirm and in our case add in checked luggage. This cost an extra $25 each.

There is an airline representative nearby that calls your name and he/she then takes you to the main counter so your luggage can be checked in. Two warnings: the airline is very strict about size of carry-on luggage and secondly, if your credit card has a chip in it, it may not work. On our very LAST internal flight one of the attendants revealed the secret: put the credit card in a transparent plastic bag as you slide it over the machine. If not, you will need to pay cash if you have not already paid for your luggage. Security checks varied. Generally it was fairly straight forward and in many cases they have a machine you step in and you are x-rayed. Be prepared to take off shoes, belts.