Let's go Blues...

I guess the Predators have every right to be the top team in the NHL with a comprehensive 6 – 3 win over the Blues last night. Both teams are pretty hot at the moment with the Blues going 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and the Predators 9-1-0. The Blues had no response for the awesome speed of the Predators. I look forward to seeing them play, and hopefully smash, the Leafs in a couple of weeks.



A couple of good notes for the Blues - Bill Guerin notched up his 700 career point, and it was the 3rd game in a row where they had more than 16,000 attend (I think they have been struggling of late to get bodies into the rink).



It was a great rink and the fans are very dedicated to their team. There was a dude sitting behind us that was just a bit too enthusiastic, with shouts of, “Let ‘em play stripes (referring to the referee)” and every time a Predators player had the puck he would scream “Hit ‘em, hit ‘em” – I think Art was pretty close to hitting 'em!

It was a pretty long day yesterday so it was straight back to the hotel room - Art was too tired, the poor guy, getting old and can’t take the long hauls!!



The morning was the coldest day of the trip so far…about 0 (F) with the wind chill. A great day to check out downtown St Louis!! We went for visit to Arch and then hit the road for Memphis...Elvis here we come!

This arch is huge...never thought it was so big:

Finally another hockey game...

What’s with all the shootouts?? Yet another game we attend that can’t be decided in regular or overtime – boy, we sure are gettin’ our money’s worth. End result 4 -3 for the Penguins. According to our inside source at Dallas, we were privy to an unusual display of Dallas offensive play. A great game to attend as the Crosby Show was in town. It’s quite amazing to see a 19 year old dominate the game whenever he’s on the ice.

We were a bit eary for the game:


One interesting event was during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner – the crowd would all shout “Stars” whenever it was mentioned in the anthem…scared the shite out of me the first time they did it.

In a city where the football and basketball reign supreme, we found hockey has a special place in the hearts of many. Thanks to another Nova Scotian and fellow Pictonian, Derek (who works for the Stars), we were invited into the rink to watch both teams have their morning skate (plus got some free parking beside the rink...sweet). Dallas was up first and then the Penquins came on. It was fantastic, the three of us sat in the stands and chatted - it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Derek and Marie were also kind enough to get us down by the dressing rooms after the game to see some of the players – we left before Crosby came out to the throngs of people waiting for autographs.

Had to take one photo of Crosby:


Prior to the game we wandered around the area close to the rink, which was where JFK was shot. We were going to go through the Book Depository where the shots ‘supposedly’ came from but there was a fee and as you should know by now, Art and I don’t pay for no learnin’.

The JFK Memorial:


So were supposed to fly to St. Louis - I purchased flights ages ago in Australia as the game was on the day after the Dallas game and it appeared way too far to drive in one day - but upon Art’s detailed inspection of the map, realised that we could easily drive it. By easily drive it, I mean get up at 5am, hit the by 5:30 and drive straight (minus fill ups and pee breaks) for 10 hours.

Remember the Alamo...

Can you believe that we woke up to about 4 inches of snow cover in Pecos, Texas? The interstates were closed East and West bound but we were headed south so had no touble getting out of town. Plus we have the studded snow tires so no worries in the Rav. Quote of the day was from the Pecos radio announcer: "Do we even have snowplows in western Texas?"

There is a car under there:


Not sure where the coyote is:


Left Pecos on the 285 and made our way to San Antonio - apparently, the 8th largest city in the US (according to the Lonely Planet). We spent 2 nights in San Antonio, which is a really nice city. Heaps of old buildings, the Alamo, and a great river walk that runs through most of the downtown. I could see it as a romantic place to come with your partner, but when you're with your Dad - not so romantic.

Tower of the Americas:


The shrine at the Alamo:



From San Antonio we dropped in to see Austin (state capital) and went straight to the parliment building to see the portraits of George W Bush. Couldnt' help ourselves. Apparently, there is a great night life in Austin but as we were there and had walked around the entire city by 1pm, we decided to finish the drive to Dallas.

So here we are, in Dallas. Pretty excited about getting to see Crosby tomorrow night but will cheer cheer cheer for the home team.

Beep Beep...

The quality of the video isn't that great but thought you might enjoy this:

Arriving in Texas...

Land of enchantment or aliens...

Been struggling to put this blog together as this leg of the trip has been pretty uneventful. We left Denver on Sunday morning in some real foul weather - blowing snow, heaps of cars in the ditch. Art had to drive as he doesn't trust me behind the wheel of his precious Rav. We headed straight for New Mexico on the interstate...we're trying not to take the interstates but there was no other way.
Something I never realised, which shows my severe lack of planning, is that New Mexico gets a heap of snow and has some excellent ski slopes. Who knew? We took a scenic side trip, the Circle of Enchantment, sounds impressive doesn't it - well, it was soooo enchanting that it put Art to sleep!

Some snow covered moutains in New Mexico:


We spent the night near Albuquerque and hit the road again this morning...the roads were covered and pretty crap but once they cleared up they were straight and bloody long! We did pass through Roswell but it was not nearly alien enough to satisfy my inner nerd so we kept right on going.



It appears that we are travelling through this area in the wrong season. We wanted to check out the caves near Carlsbad but they were closed, and a good chance they would be closed for a couple of days, so we kept right on going into Texas. Boy has Texas been interesting so far! Just kidding...the roads are straighter than in New Mexico and seem to be twice as long.

The only thing on the Texas landscape (so far!):


Not sure what's on for tomorrow but we'll, as a sign said today, "Git'er done!"

What's ups stand for?

Game 8 and what a beauty (and we got there in plenty of time)! The Avs finally got a win over the Red Wings (I think it was their first win in 7 encounters against them). End result: 3 – 1. The Colorado crowd gets to fly the flag as the best damn hockey fans so far experienced. It was an enjoyable game to attend as there were heaps of Detroit fans there to keep the Avs fans honest.
One notable player was Pictou County native Joey MacDonald, who was the starting goaltender for the Red Wings. He played a great game as well – go County!



Besides the game, it was all about the road trip while getting to Denver. I finally got to ski in the Rocky Mountains, which was cool. Spent Thursday at Durango Mountain Resort skiing Purgatory Mountain. As there was no one around, I felt like I had the whole place to myself. No lines for lifts, plenty of snow and not a cloud in the sky…Factory!

A photo from the lift...sorry but I forgot the pics with all the massive air I was getting on the jumps:


Now, if you ever come to Durango, Colorado you absolutely have to get your yearly intake of meat at this place – Serious Texas Bbq. The Thursday night special was smoked turkey leg, only about a kilo (or Art says, “You know, like a 2lb turkey leg!”). Good thing we decided to wash it down with some pinto beans, sliced brisket and some good old Louisiana hot sauce (oh, and a couple of local brews). Would have loved to been there on a Monday for $1 rib night!!

For those of you with a map or atlas, we departed Durango Friday morning and made our way via the 160 to the 285 all the way to Denver. Went through some impressive mountain passes (the ol' Rav was put through it's paces), saw some Elk doing nothing and enjoyed another stunning day of blue sky and sunshine.

Who's getting tired of landscape photos??? Too bad:


One last note as I know most of you hate reading too many words...after an under whelming response for the naming of the GPS competition and an unanimous vote of 2-0, our GPS will be named - Perdy. Congratulations to Lisa for the winning entry: “Went on a baby name website and searched names that meant "lost". Apparently Perdita means lost with the english version of the name being Perdy. (Yes, I am on mat leave and have too much time on my hands.) – Lisa”

Back into the snow...

Catcus and more cactus:


After the sad effort to get to the game on time in Phoenix, Art and I decided to high tail it out of there the next morning and begin on our journey to Denver. The Rav had a bit of an exhaust emission problem and after a very expensive car wash - they couldn't get the part to fix the car until later in the afternoon and gave us a 'free' wash - we were on the road. Note: nothing to worry about with the car, we'll get it fixed when we have our next layover if we can!

Red Rock State Park:


Made our way to Sedona and then had a great drive up to Williams. Williams is a small, 2 street town on Route 66 and it's also an entry point to the GRAND Canyon. Had to put grand in capitals because it is surprisingly grand! There was a steak resturant on every corner in Williams so we had, you guessed it, Mexican for dinner. Just kidding, we had a good ol' steak. We also payed the cheapest hotel rate so far and were lucky enough not to have any "critters" stay with us in the room!

Art and I at the GRAND Canyon:


So that was yesterday. Today (as in the 17th) we paid a visit to the GRAND Canyon. It was about -8C (or about 18F for the Yanks) and there was not a cloud in the sky. An absolutely fantastic day, bloody cold for this climatised Aussie, but tolerable all the same. Had a look around, not for too long or from every lookout as we are men and men just don't do that. We went for a hike as well, part way down into the valley. The valley floor was a mile down over approx 7 miles and we have been drinking too many beer, eating too much and sitting in a car too long to have the energy to attempt that!

Art's photograpy:


Drive to Durango:




From the GRAND Canyon we made our way to Durango, Colorado. It was a good 300 miles and took us about 6 hours - nothing but open plains, red rock plateaus, dirt, rocks, and no wildlife except for the crows and the occassional road kill. I'm going downhill skiiing tomorrow and Art is planning a bit of cross country skiing/snowshoeing. Should be a great day.

A Phoenix that really rises from the ashes...

So who's keeping an eye on the schedule, dang!! We arrived into Phoenix today around 3:30pm after a couple fo great days cruising through desert, mountains and country towns to find the start time of the game was 2pm. It's a damn good thing we decided to check out parking at the "Jobing.com Arena" (voted by Art and I to be the worst 'sell out' name to date) and to our surprise the parking lots were pretty full. We quickly pull over, I get the laptop out (the laptop knows all) and check the start time...yep, 4pm EST. I drop the hammer on the RAV and we squeal into the parking lot on 2 wheels, pack away all the valuables and then race over to the rink. Third period just getting underway, 3 - 2 for the Coyotes (they played the Blues).
The stadium is only 4 years old so it was pretty nice and there was heaps of standing room up the back so instead of going to our seats (becuase how much of loser are you if show up in the last period) I hung out there while Art starting chatting with the Usher - Fred. How does the line from the Cape Breton Review go.."I swear to God when he dies we'll have to beat his mouth to death with a stick!" (I think it's supposed to be a "she" but it works the same way).



By the time Art and I got ourselves leaning on the standing room ledges, they had shut down the beer taps...uh oh...Chris was going to lose it! It's a good thing the third period was pretty entertaining and since it was kids day all the cheering was extremely high pitched. The Blues tied it up and then both teams traded goals to end up tied. The overtime was all Coyotes, or as the fans cheered..."Ki-oats" as in "Let's go Ki-oats" - they out shot the Blues 7 - 0. I'm sure these details fascinate you all!! Anyway, the shootout went to the 4th shooter and Nagy won it for the Coyotes. End result: 5 - 4 (see photo above).

Go get the atlas out and I'll tell you our route. We took route 78 from Anaheim, through Brawley up to Blythe and then took route 95 to the 72 and over into Arizona to Parker for the first night stay.

Rolling rock hills:




From here we took route 95 onto the 40 until Kingman and then route 93 into Phoenix. If you stay off the big interstates, you get to see so much more - like dirt farms as well as sand farms and rock farms.

I think this is a Joshua Tree:


Staying in Phoenix tonight, the city with a mall on every corner, an RV (ie: Caravan) parked in every driveway and an average age of 69! We have 5 days until we're due in Denver (already checked the start time of the game) so the Grand Canyon, National Parks and hopfully a day of skiing are on the menu.

Disneyland...

What a relaxing couple of days in sunny (but cold) Anaheim. It must be unseasonally cold here because that's all we hear on the news and it's almost down to freezing over night so perfect weather for a hockey game, eh? It was a great game tonight - Anaheim and Colordao, with Colorado getting up 3 - 2 in a shootout. A really great game to watch, end to end play and to get to see Niedermayer, Selanne and Sakic play was great. The shootout was won on the fourth shooter - Milan Hejduk weaved some magic and the Ducks fans went home empty handed.



The atmosphere was really impresssive and they had their 5th consecutive sellout. I'm not sure how they classify that as there were heaps of empty seats (mostly in the expensive seats, which was not where Art and I were sitting!). We've also started talking a lot more to the people that sit around us, you know, spreading the word on the trip, trying to drum up some interest...we keep on talking and they keep on trying to watch the hockey game...pretty funny.
Art and I decided we would walk from the hotel to the game, not realising that it was a good 3 miles (approx. 1.6 km to a mile)...apparently, it's good for me??

For all the Aussie readers, we went to the Outback Steakhouse (Australian themed restaurant chain) for dinner last night. Enjoyed a Cooper's red, some meat and....a Blooming Onion, you know, that traditional Australian onion dish where they slice open the onion, dip it in batter and then deep fry the hell out of it! It was great and then disgusting.

Oh, did I mention that we are staying a block away from Disneyland?



Art and I had great stroll around Disney Drive today and I would have gone on all the rides but Art said he was too scared!! Actually, we're both too cheap to pay the exorbitant price of admission. We're on our way to Phoenix tomorrow and are looking forward to getting back on the road.

Swwwwweeeeeetttt GPS...

Here is the clip of the GPS...any suggestions for a name??? She gets pretty cranky with us when we take a wrong turn...

No Canadian anthem...

What can be said about the atmosphere at an LA Kings game? Let’s just say if the fans spent as much time cheering for their team as they did telling the visiting team how much they suck, then the atmosphere would have been phenomenal. This was also the first game we have seen without a Canadian team playing (although both team's starting lines were 90% Canadian) so I guess it was a bit harder to get excited and as Art commented, “Both teams didn’t have to work very hard for their paycheque tonight.” The play was pretty flat and neither team really turned it on until they had to. Kings went down 5-2 to the Sharks and it would appear that we have become a jinx for home teams!
The Staples Centre is a very impressive arena. It seemed to be much larger than any stadiums so far and there were 3 levels of corporate boxes – must be some money in LA?? We also arrived at a pivotal moment in LA (and perhaps American) sports history. David Beckham signed with the LA Galaxy for an easy US $250M…Dang!

Scoreboard:


Ice Surface:


The proud history of the Lakers:


Not much else to tell ya. Art quickly bailed from the driver seat once we got 100 miles from LA and I can’t blame him. 6 – 8 lanes of highway going both directions, everyone travelling the speed of light and having that GPS voice grating on my nerves…the bar opened as soon as we stepped into the hotel room. The hotel we stayed in was only a mile from the stadium but had the worst wireless Internet connection in America (possibly North America). It was also under renovation and I think they forgot to finish the room we were in! Anyway, Mr Furious surfaced for the first time since the flight was cancelled in Sydney – I thought I was on a holiday?? Everything was fine in the end and we’re now in Anaheim – staying right beside Disney Land. Time to hit the rides with Art!

Shark attack...

The streak has ended. The Sharks go down to the Oilers 3-2. I can't say I'm disapppointed though as I couldn't help myself but cheer for the Canadian team. My goal was to always cheer for the home team but as I have never actuallly acheived any goal I have ever set for myself, failing this one comes as no surprise.
The Oilers managed to score 3 unanswered goals from 6 shots in the first period and they were all point shots. The Sharks fans were less than impressed. The Sharks managed to fight back over the next 2 periods but pulled up short in the end. Had another fight but not really one to make a big deal about. I do have to mention, though, that the San Jose fans are quite a unique group of individuals. I'm not sure they actually know what they are booing or cheering for! At one point, they were so upset about a referee's decision that they were all shouting "Bullshit, Bullshit, etc." - quite comical! We did get to witness one fasinating crowd behaviour - when the visiting team gets a penalty, the scoreboard flashes that it's a "Shark Attack" and all the fans motion with their arms like the jaws of a shark chomping up and down?? Inarresting... If you're lucky, I'll video myself and put it up later to show you what it actually looks like.

Thankfully, we arrived safe and sound through the worst traffic experienced to date. That lovely British lady, who guides us uncompromisingly from place to place, delivered us right to Trevor's front door (well, the neighbours place but that was my fault). Who is this mystery woman, you might ask? Well, it's our GPS and I am now asking for entries to name her. I'm having trouble loading a video so you'll have to imagine an computer generated voice with a British accent??

I have to say, Art and I have been extremely lucky with the quality of the hospitality we have been given over the last week...I'll make a big assumption here and credit it all to the hosts having a Nova Scotia connection?? Trevor greeted us with beers and he even chose to miss the last game of his own hockey regular season to attend the game with us. And how good of hosts are Trevor and Bronwyn? They drove us to the game! A good friend of theirs, Kara attended as well.

All of us Canucks after the game:


Only a quick stay with Trevor, Brownyn (and the cats) and then off to LA for the Kings v Sharks game on Thursday.

Redwood Highway...

I guess there is more pressure than ever to get these posts up promptly and to apparently, make them funny as well. I can tell you, there is nothing funny about spending 3 days in the car with Art! Actually, the drive down to Portland was grey and hectic on the interstate and while driving through Portland to get to Mac's place, Art had a firm grip on the "holy shit" handle while I was changing lanes on the turnpikes. Apparently, we are both allowed to drive but only I get to drive into and out of the cities.

Mac and Rachel have a great place just south of Portland and put us up for the night. Rachel was a great host and a great cook but doesn't do laundry and now we're starting to smell! Amayzingly, we were able to get 12, 16oz cans of Miller High Life for $6.50. Pony reckons all we had to do was throw a slice of lemon or lime in there and we would have had ourselves a poor man's Corona! It was great to catch up with Mac and we had a great night trying to remember the last time we saw each other.

Mark and Rachel's Place:



We took Highway 1 from Portland to Eureka, which allowed us to drive along the coast, through rainforests, Redwood forests and small coastal towns.



It was a great drive and since it was winter there was hardly any traffic. I wish there was a funny story for the day but if you consider a couple of farts and singing along to bad radio funny...then there you go.
So we made it to just outside San Jose today and are staying with Trevor and Bronwyn. Had a great trip through the Avenue of the Giants - a great 30mile scenic trip.



Golden Gate Bridge:


Big game tonight. San Jose and the Oilers. Might be hard to cheer for a non Canadian team tonight but I'll follow my heart and see where that leads me. Let's go Oliers!!

Reponses to comments...

After a solid week of travelling and watching hockey games, I thought it might be time to respond to some of the comments that have been received.

1. Anonymous asked where all of Park's hair has gone. If you're too afraid to put your name to your comment then I can't respond but just for this time: Park's hair is where it has always been - on his back!
2. Sonja wanted to know if there would be any footage shown. Since I have to worry about copyright issues, only footage cleared by Art will be available for viewing.
3. Cad inquired on Donald's wall climbing incident. No comment.
4. Brad wondered why I have to moderate the comments and if I was worried about what you might say about me. It's what you might say about Art that I'm more worried about!!
5. Andrew D thinks I should be tracking beer consumed. We all know that is impossible, we can't add that high.
6. Bari questioned the road trip music selection of "Break My Stride". I'm not sure where that comment came from as it was on the "My Favorite Tunes of All Time" cd that Bari burned for me before I left (as soon as the Millie Vanilli came on the cd went straight out the window).
7. Tess wants to see a picture of me on the blog. Thank god is wasn't a request for more pictures of Art! (note: one to come soon)

Thanks for the comments and keep 'em coming, gives me something to do other than talk to Art!

We are all Canucks...

Officially one week into the trip and are we getting lucky or what? So far I’ve seen a regulation win for the home team, an over time win for the home team and last night a shootout win for the Canucks. The Canucks extended their unbeaten run to 7 games and the Panthers will be heading home after a road trip where they took 2 points from a possible 6.
Art and I both agree that the atmosphere and standard of the arena last night was the best we have experienced yet. We were sitting in the Molson Canadian Fan Zone amongst some fans who were overly enthusiastic for the Canucks.

Vancouver opened the scoring but the Panthers responded with two goals (the second was a pretty soft one). The Canucks picked up the pace and put away 2 more to lead in the third 3-2. Markus Naslund (Canucks captain) scored his first goal in 17 games and received a huge response from the sell out crowd (149th consecutive sellout – attendance 18,630). Unfortunately for Vancouver, Florida responded immediately with a short handed goal which again was pretty soft. So into overtime we went for the second straight game but no result this time. It took 6 shooters to finally get a result and what a reaction from a crowd.

That makes it 3 wins from 3 games.

We had a great time staying with Gary, Rhonda and Mara. Gary and Dave took Art and I around the city yesterday – it’s been pretty grey since we arrived and yesterday was no different.





We set out for San Jose today and after a brief and relatively painless "inspection" at the US border continued on our way to our first stop in Portland. We’ll be staying with Mark in Portland for the night – haven’t seen him in years or even met his wife, Rachel, yet. Should be a sweet visit.