The other car

Here are some pics of the Mustang - it's an original almost completed 'resto'  65 model with a 4 speed top loader and power steering.   They are a hot item over here,  they make GT clones out of them.  It's very quick. 

California

California – the land of sugar and maple syrup. Not that we’re totally adverse to a mild version of the concept, but we’ll need de-toxing when we get back home.    They open a packet and pour it into a pan, add a variety of stuff from bottles and call it cooking.   Potatoes come in boxes, other vegetables come in cans,   flavourings come in bottles by the thousands and fruit and salads come already diced in vacuum packaging (wouldn't want to slave too much).  A 24" pizza is $9.99 but with a coupon (which you could be killed for) is $5.   Sunday is coupon day in the paper and people walk around the supermarket with a 120 ml thick pile of coupons in their mits (unbelievable).  The checkout staff really have to work for their money here and speed is of the essence.  No-one likes to wait in line. 

You can buy meat in Target, liquor in the pharmacy, guns in K-mart, lotto tickets at the donut store and hot soup at the grocery store.  The bank doesn’t cash change – you have to go to a supermarket to do that in the machine and they take 10%.  We can take cash out of a credit card at the ATM but in the bank we need our passport for ID to do the same thing. 

Did manage to find the most amazing designer outlet complex you could ever imagine.  It makes all our DFOs combined look like a local coffee shop. It's huge and it has a movie theatre complex attached to it.

 Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is their big shopping day (equal to our Boxing Day sales) and they really discount stuff!!!  People camp out all night and the shops open at 4.00 am.  

Back in LA

  

We are so relaxed – I forgot the password to the blog – sort of like the dog ate my homework. 

We’ve been hitting the freeways of California a lot this week going to look at cars … Snapped a few pics of the GPS showing the complex freeway system while we were driving yesterday … no napping here … it’s hairier than  the roller coasters at Las Vegas !!!. Luckily "Chuck" is not phased by the driving …  he does razz lots if I'm not quick enough on the GPS & send him to Santa Monica instead of Anaheim … (he has no sense of humour )   I had a drive for a couple of hours on the way back from Las Vegas ... must have been OK - cos I caught Chuck catching 40 winks!!  ...   And by the way ... Chuck bought himself a 10 gallon hat ... ha ha ha ...  and it was 5 gallons too small for his head !!!!!!   ha ha ha

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Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes … it was much appreciated …Hope everyone is sitting down … Graham did go all out for my birthday - he bought me some diamond earrings and a fantastic new watch … (he said I can pick them up when he pays them off) ... just joking!! … I really love them and he also took us out for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant.  



Buck and Winnie at Harrah's Casino



We drove down to Santa Monica (beach) today ... nice area ... Cannot believe how good the weather is … perfect ... sunny every day.    The landscape here is awesome - mountains like in an old western movie with modern roads, buildings and cars superimposed over it. 





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view from one of the shopping centres



20' Bayliner ...  seats 8 ... 150 Mercury Force





Should go like the clappers!!!



We're almost viva'd out

Vegas was fantastic - breakfast in New York and lunch in Paris.  Didn't hit the jackpot, but didn't lose the house either.   Luxor casino is the most amazing.  It is a lot harder to get around the strip now - they have widened the road to the fit the 8 lanes of cars in and taken up some of the footpath space. You can't just walk along the strip any more, now you have to wind in and out and up and over. We covered miles in one day and it nearly killed us - wish I had a video of Graham doing his rap dance in the middle of Vegas when his legs didn't work.  He had me in stitches (idiot). 

 Rod Stewart was sensational.  We had great seats and we saw him on his second show in a 6 week stint - unbelievably lucky for us.   Left Vegas so late we had to stay another night at another Casino at Primm's resort on the way home (joins up to Whisky Pete's and Buffalo Bill's via a free monorail).   Everything is so over the top here - we cracked up when we saw the breakfast menu here....one item - triple dipped, raspberry white chocolate french bread with maple syrup and banana topping.   All the dishes had 3 eggs, 6 strips of bacon, 3 sausages, half a loaf of bread (or optional 6 sweet cream pancakes).  The breakfast steak for those with a small appetite was only 8 ozs with hash browns, 3 eggs, a stack of toast you can't see over (or optional 6 pancakes you couldn't jump over).    No wonder they are all 'heavy on the drivers'. 

We saw rain for the first time ever in Las Vegas yesterday!!! ... but the weather has been absolutey perfect every other day.  

Graham bought a 20' Bayliner boat and we are heading back into Los Angeles today to pick it up.   There is another shopping outlet here (naturally) so I'll check it out before I let him out of here.  

 
will post some pics later - upload too slow here - must shop  ..talk soon

PS .... Kain and Alina - we have son of meeoww!!!!   .... Of course there's a story !!! 

Blog #2 Las Vegas

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All original - 2 owner - possible all numbers matching car 

Perfect restorer

Got in to Vegas late on Monday night after dropping off the Corvette at the shippers.  Lots of driving, but there's nothing like the lights of Las Vegas to bring you to life.  It has grown like crazy and the housing development is huge (even for the US). Lots of road work still going on.  It's still fantastic.   We have booked in to see Rod Stewart at Caesars Palace on Sunday night.  Our hotel is 20 minutes from the strip (there are a few big hotels off the strip now), but an easy drive on 8 lane freeway into town.  It's got everything - 16 cinemas - 24 hour restaurants - the best buffet you could imagine - 60 lane bowling alley - huge casino area  - and it's far away from the crowds.  Very clean and good service which suits us just fine.   It's a big night here tonight - they have big cash giveaways which bring in the crowds.

We spent the day at the Sema (automotive) Show yesterday. It's the biggest aftermarket automotive show in the US.  Lots of TV cameras there doing interviews.   Wish we could post all the pictures of the cars here - they were amazing.   We were there for 6 hours and we only covered about 40% of it.  It was at the Las Vegas convention centre which we guess is about 50 times bigger than Jeff's shed.  The area for the tyres alone was about 10 times bigger.   Some pics for the boys. 

 

We'll probably do inside some of the other Casinos today.  Graham thinks I'm going on the Nascar roller coaster ride at the Sahara with him (mmmm).  I saw the thing at the top of the Stratosphere in action yesterday - not on your life.   I'm tossing up between the indoor sky diving and a full day at one of the shopping outlets.

You can buy a 50" plazma TV here for $499.  ,  They have apartments for rent in new condos $199 a week and they include gas, power, internet and FOOD.  

We looked at a Corvette here that was being sold by Yosemite Sam's brother.  Amazing that some of the locals are a little bit loose with the truth when it comes to describing cars in their ads.   He said the motor was in great shape, but Graham wiped oil off the rocker covers.

More soon...

S & G

Cruisin in the USA

Can't believe it's day 16 already. It is unbelievably frustrating to set up connections for phone and internet here, but we have finally got it sorted.  Every sales person tells you a different story and one of us almost ran out of patience.



The view from Dennis' house in Sylmar California



Graham is handling the freeways like a veteran in his big Chevy pick up (which he loves). 

 Fortunately I am a wizz with the GPS (my job) cos everyone does 70 - 80 mph on the freeways and the lane changes come up fast.    It's been 18 years since I was here last but LA still feels the same.    The locals must be used to Aussies, because they can all understand us now - much better than last time.

Check out the pics of Fry's Electronics the props are amazing and Graham's friend (Buzz) actually worked on the installation. 

We have looked at lots of cars - most are  not what they seem to be in the ads.  Good ones are still very hard to find.  We have bought one Corvette so far - will post pics next time.  It's a very original car and the guy we bought it from has connections with the Mafia.  His grandparents were among the first to set up Casinos in Las Vegas in the 30's.  His grandmother dated the owner of the Dunes Casino after his grandfather died.   

Halloween is huge here - all the restaurants and lots of houses decorated and nearly everyone has a party on - they all dress up too.   

As I've never done a blog before I'm signing off here - need to do some more reading to get this thing posted.

S & G