the wild wild west

California has some pretty spectacular landscape. one minute you're beachside, ducking roller-bladers, palm trees a-wavin in the sky....the next, if Gabby has anything to do with it, you're in the wild wild west...

i guess we weren't THAT far west but it certainly felt it as we drove over desert mountains, through towns named san this and los that....you could be excused for thinking you're in mexico round here. and when gabby took us through a town called los hicksville (well, maybe not but you get the idea...) we stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a sign saying 'hippies use the back door. no exceptions'. i guess we couldnt argue with that so to the back door we headed...

around here it's so easy to imagine what it must have been like - well, just like an old western movie i guess. close your eyes and you can hear the click of cowboy's spurs, a skewbald pony pawing at the ground, saloon doors being thrown back...and the smell of gunfire in the air....or perhaps i just have an overactive imagination...

on we drove to arrive in san francisco. may i once again state the obvious - america is bloody huge. it took us ages....when we did arrive we felt as though we'd arrived in another country - it is so much colder here, that much drearier than it was in los angeles and las vegas....but we are keen for today as a certain 'mr toad' is going to show us round this hilly city.

stay tuned. xx