Webby
Sun 4 May 2008
They let me in! In fact despite what was said by the air stewards on Qantas it was painless and straight forward to get through US immigration and customs.
Qantas by the way continues to slide down my league table of favourite airlines. Their planes inside are now as tired looking as their staff. The meals are a joke. I got more food on a 3hr flight on Emirates (now numero uno for me).
Whinge over anyway. I have now been in the States for almost a week and having a fab time. I drove straight to Las Vegas after some nervous jet lagged driving through the freeways of LA and have now moved on to Sequoia National Park where I am about to embark on a short drive to gorp at the World’s largest living organism.
I know a lot of guys and girls who read this are from the USA so they might be interested in what I have to say generally about your nation.
America is a land of obesity?
Well I honestly don’t think it has much more of a problem than Australia or Britain to be honest. What I would say is that if I continue to eat three meals a day I might be adding to the problem by the time I get back home.
I had a buffet in a casino the other day and started off with a salad. I swear people were looking at me in disbelief.
The Latino influence
I don’t want to get involved in politics but California (and Vegas) would simply come to a grinding halt without the workers from South of the border.
I also hung out with a couple of Latinos for a while one night in Vegas and sadly witnessed some mindless knobs who were making some pretty disparaging comments towards them. Mindless knobs exist everywhere of course.
The girls love an English accent
It’s not often I am invited along with a group of 21 yr olds to celebrate one of their birthdays. Too bad their mum and dad were with them!
Americans are friendly and hospitable
Absolutely. This has been the case everywhere thus far.
The Grand Canyon is a must see.
Absolutely again!
Bears
I have to mention these big fellas. I have not seen one yet and I am not too bothered if I don’t catch a glimpse of the magnificent beasts.
Of course the night before I am heading somewhere where they exist in large numbers (only black bears and they generally don’t attack humans) National Geographic presents me with a program about Bear attacks in the USA! Eeeekkkk!
Just to ease the worry that some of my readers might have I am not going to be walking on my own out there and if I do encounter a hungry bear it will at least get a good feed as there will be a few of us!
So I am going now as a I don’t wanna keep the big General (or 60,000 black bears) waiting!
May 5th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Just an update re; bears….
Did not see any which is actually sad in a way as around here they have never killed a human since records began and are a treat to see in the wild.
According to the ranger humans actually kill more bears, normally by driving their RVs (houses on wheels) into the poor furry buggers! Four were killed this way last year.
Off to Yosemite tomorrow, more black bear country!
May 6th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Check this out…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG02fwZBflw
May 6th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I’m glad you are enjoying your US visit. It really is a spectacular country. Enjoy!
Even with the bears that do attack, the trick is to stay 100 meters or so away. Not always so easy, if one happens to be heading off to cross a path you are walking.
Also, no food around you. No food that isn’t sealed in an airtight package. Ones that have become accustomed to human food will break into your car, even.
Or so I was told at Yellowstone. I promptly headed off to stand way closer than that to a mother and its cub. However, there were five stupid people closer than I was, so I felt pretty safe. You want to be (number of bears) + 1 away.