Food for Ben 5

Big Bubba Bob's Best BBQ

Pork ribs
Beef ribs
Half a chicken
Coleslaw
Salad
Jacket potato with chives and Bacon
Special Garlic Toast

Room for pudding - nope!

California's Finest

 STEAK!!!

Oh yeah, they make wine in California - these vineyards went on for a couple of miles

Food for Ben 4

 Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf 

Starter - Oysters on the shell and Honey Shrimp

Main course - Crab Stuffed Trout and Dungeness Crab

 I fought the Crab!

Crab-0 / Angee-1

San Francisco...

...it has some hills

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Look...I am holding it up all by myself!

Lakes

 Mono Lake

Tahoe Lake

Wipeout

Mammoth Lakes, California

 It's a bit windy up on the slopes!

 

This is me being "dynamic"

Death Valley, California

 Nothing grows here because it is the lowest, driest and hottest place in America.
They used to mine for Borax with donkeys.

Roadkill Cafe, Old Route 66

...You kill it, we grill it.

They had run out of the 'Bird Who Hit the Curb' so we had to settle for a 'Rigor Mortis Tortoise' and 'The Chicken Who Almost Crossed The Road'

Las Vegas, Nevada

 Crazy bead man - he just got engaged and has no front teeth

 The Bellagio

 Insane ceiling inside the Bellagio

Insane tree inside the Bellagio

The Grand Canyon

It's big, it's a hole...but a very colourful hole
The Grand Canyon was created when tectonic plates collided and started to push the rocks up into different layers. Erosion and weathering made it even deeper.

There is a sign on the road towards the canyon warning you to watch out for pumas or some other big cat. Glad we were in a car then.

Take it Easy...

 Well I'm a standing on a corner

in Winslow Arizona

And such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my lord

In a flatbed Ford

Slowing down to take a look at me

Petrified Forest

The trees are so scared that they hide under the rocks!

This is some petrified wood. Fallen trees were covered in volcanic ash, from which silica would leech into the wood and make crystals. Other substances would also combine with the silica to make all the pretty colours.

There are also a lot of fossils in the petrified forest which were preserved in volcanic ash.

Larking Around in the Desert

Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico

Not much happening in New Mexico, except for never ending highways. Not the best place to break down or run out of petrol!

Bisbee, Arizona

A copper mine

Tombstone, Arizona

Tombstone - "The Town Too Tough To Die." An old gold and silver mining camp and home to the film of the same name. They also mined manganese in WW1 and lead in WW2.

  "When Ed Schieffelin came to Camp Huachuca with a party of soldiers and left the fort to prospect, his comrades told him that he'd find his tombstone rather than silver. Thus, in 1877 Schieffelin named his first claim the Tombstone, and rumors of rich strikes made a boomtown of the settlement that adopted this name."

 Rick shooting Wyatt Earp. Earp was a Marshal with his brother Morgan, when their brother Virgil was Deputy Sheriff. Along with Doc Holliday, they were involved in the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, which apparently started over six mules.

 The undertakers do a good trade in Tombstone."You furnish the bones and we'll furnish the stones."

 The OK Corral is nowhere near here, but some of the fight took place on this road, Fremont Street.

Some whiskey

Cactus Hugger

This tree is misunderstood - I love this tree!

My Mountain

This is my mountain!