Category Archives: Travel Diaries

… And it all ended in Vancouver

Had an early train to Vancouver, which proved more eventful than we might have liked at 7.40 in the morning. An inept Amtrak employee named Jessica nearly got in the way of us and Canada (she just couldn’t work the … Continue reading

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Filed under 16. Vancouver, Uncategorized

A sojourn in Seattle

Had a longish journey from San Francisco to Seattle. Made a friend on the train called Clayton Molloy Leston, a 25-year-old American dreamer/singer/songwriter/person-type-thing, who had a small guitar poking out of his rucksack. After an earnest man approached him to … Continue reading

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Filed under 15. Seattle

San Francisco

Another italicised note… what excuse this time? OK: I must have been flagging at this point, because my notes from the time for San Francisco (which, for the record, I absolutely loved) read as follows: “Went to City Lights Books. … Continue reading

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Filed under 14. San Francisco

Las Vegas-lite

All I can say is: I must have been having so much fun in Vegas that I forgot to take notes. Briefly, we definitely ate a substantial number of ‘all-you-can-eat buffets’ – thus why we had to order extra airplane … Continue reading

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Filed under 13. Las Vegas

Living La Vida L.A

“At the corner of Hollywood and Western, the sweet smell of crack cocaine lingers in the spring night air. Around the corner, chronic masturbators slip away from the local porn arcade, where video-booth cruisers look for love — or at … Continue reading

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Filed under 12. Los Angeles

Choo-choo to LA

Had a 36+ hr train journey from San Antonio to LA – perhaps most notable for our acquaintance with one Gerald W. Smith, a 69-year-old Texan. We made friends with Gerald in the observation deck (read: a train carriage with … Continue reading

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Filed under 11. En-route to LA

Sauntering around San Antonio

Boarding the Texas Eagle in Fort Worth, we had a substantial train ride to San Antonio, arriving there around midnight. San Antonio is beautiful, with a supremely pretty river-walk. If I had to efficiently summarise our time in this Texan … Continue reading

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Filed under 10. San Antonio

Thoughts on Fort Worth

We arrived in Fort Worth mid-afternoon, and, having a feeling that our motel might be *slightly* out of the way, took a cab outside the station. Our taxi-driver had long grey hair and was probably wearing a cowboy hat. Due … Continue reading

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Filed under 09. Fort Worth, The American Adventure, Uncategorized

Sizzling in St. Louis

We arrived in St. Louis at 8pm. Stepped out of the station and into the middle of, well, not much at all. Ambled towards some buildings, stopping on the street to ask a man if he knew of a nearby … Continue reading

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Filed under 08. St. Louis, The American Adventure

Six hours in Chicago

We only had a six-hour stop off in Chicago, so we took advantage of the modern age by phoning Papa Booth to see if he could use his own world-wide-web prowess to locate us an internet café in the Windy … Continue reading

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Filed under 07. Chicago, The American Adventure