I am heading to Japan today for a 3 week tour of the country in the heart of winter. I will try and post regularly but as I refuse to travel with a laptop it’s going to be maybe. As I said to a friend ‘Sit in a hotel in Manhattan (now Tokyo) and edit videos when I could be out bar crawling? No thanks.’

I took this picture on the outskirts of Albuquerque and  I asked a couple of people how high they thought this hill is. To save the suspense it’s 10,600 ft (3230m) high, or a kilometre higher than Mt Kosciusko…

USS Iowa, San Pedro, California

I’m wandering around Hollywood Boulevard on a quiet morning, not much happening, sipping my coffee and I came across this Farmers Market on Ivar Avenue, one block north of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood…

1 block south of here..

That is the HQ of Scientology in the background, the original place

If you’re staying in Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA), the place to go for food is Grand Central Markets, enter from S Hill side. If you look across the road you will see Angel’s Flight Railway, officially the shortest rail line in the world at 92 metres platform to platform. I’ve mistaken this railway for a disabled lift before and it was only this time, thanks to Michael Connolly and Hieronymus Bosch that I recognised it and took a ride….

 

I was unsure about visiting Las Vegas, I hadn’t been there before because there was no attraction between us. However, I had tickets to a concert at The Smith Center and decided to go anyway. In keeping with my ‘no cars’ paradigm I decided to catch a Greyhound bus to Vegas via San Bernadino, Primm and Goodsprings (It’s a real place).

Las Vegas is worth a visit, probably just the one if you don’t gamble, but it could be a good one. Stay in Downtown if you can and catch the bus if you want to visit the Strip. This is about 5 miles South of Downtown Las Vegas and almost a separate suburb. It is worth a visit although while in Downtown you can walk around Fremont Street, on the strip you have to catch a bus from your car park to the Casino.

Make no mistake, Las Vegas needs to be seen to be appreciated. They have just finished converting all lights from bulbs to LED’s and this has cranked up the brightness to eye watering levels and lowered the power bills (about 8% across the board).

Barstow, CA

There is a scale under that sign

Fremont Street, gotta be seen to be believed

Venetian Casino, that sky is just painted on…

Gondoliers, in Nevada, in the heart of the desert…

Fremont Street

One of the first poker machines, the max pay was 20:1 and you could only use dimes (10c coins)

Mob Museum

Some pix of Times Square subway station,

Grand Central shuttle platform, S train

Is this station open…

Or did I just accidentally enter the twilight zone..

Columbus circle without traffic, 2pm 18th March 2020

I arrived in the US on the 3rd March, well before CV was a conscious thought, and I toured LA and Vegas without incident. I then stopped in Albuquerque, and after revisiting old friends I moved on to Chicago. Around South Wacker Drive I knew something was going on. I have been here several times before over time and it was very quiet. I walked down to Dylan’s Tavern and Grill on Sth Clinton and had the bar almost to myself. Everything was open and fully staffed but there weren’t many customers. Upstate New York was country and new. I couldn’t tell if things had changed in Albany but it looked subdued.

I arrived in NYC on the 11th March and by now CV had really became a thing, as the WHO declared a pandemic that day. Di Blasio closed the bars on the 16th March at 8:00PM. I was stuck in NYC, unable to contact an airline, any airline, until the 19th when I managed to book (and pay an inflated price due to the $AU crash) for a flight to Tokyo and on to Sydney. I managed to take some interesting photos while I waited, here they are;

This is the 9/11 memorial site on the 18th March at 12:00 noon.

WTC, the new subway station 18/3/20, around noon.

I was trying to decide what photo would best represent NYC dealing with it and this photo taken by me on a #1 train downtown local between 34th St Penn Station and South Ferry at 5:30 pm on  a weekday (18th March 2020) says a lot.

More to come…

I’m rolling across the plains of Kansas on the final Stretch to Chicago. The coronavirus has made itself felt by the lack of freight trains as trade between China and the U.S. slows. The  Southwest Chief has been ontime or ahead of schedule the entire trip, an astonishing turn of events for an AMTRAK long distance train. It is also lightly loaded. After a break in Chicago I’ll be boarding the Lakeshore limited for New York city via Albany arriving NYC 11th.

I’m in Las Vegas now, Friday 6th. Great time was had in L.A. Stayed at the Freehand hotel on 8th St Downtown. I went down to San Pedro to tour the museum battleship, BB61, USS Iowa. Made the mandatory trek out to Hollywood for a stroll along the boulevard. To make it a bit more interesting,  I’ve decided that on this trip from L.A. to Montreal and back, I will only travel by public mass transit. No cars, cabs, ubers or limos. This was much easier and faster than I had expected in L.A. and getting from LAX to Downtown was probably faster than a cab. A day pass costs $7 US, I seldom waited for more than a few minutes, the subway and buses were clean, punctual and fast and I did travel during the morning peak. I caught a regular Greyhound bus to Vegas, US$28, also clean fast and efficient.
Las Vegas has 2 incarnations of the strip as we see it: immense resort casinos scattered over several miles of Las Vegas Boulevard (the strip). This whole area has a very Disneyland feel to it albeit with booze, dope (legal) and scantily clad young women in the mix. Walking to see the strip is not really practical due to the distances.
At the North end of the strip crossing Fremont St is Downtown L.V. This is a much more intimate area, entirely strollable with (I think) much better entertainment and food options.
I’m going to a concert at the Smith Center tonight. Looks like a world class PAC.
I’ll update and post some pix (they’re on the other device) as soon as I can.