TIMTAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*wipes cookie crumbs from lips* OMG TIMTAMS!!!!! Canada has TimTams!!!! and the double coat ones I loooove. I'm gonna pay for it tomorrow but right now I'm in heaven. AND they were in a normal grocery store not a specialty place. No Vegemite though but I can't have everything :) Excuse me now while I indulge in TimTamy goodness nom nom nom nom! *recommences cookie munching*

Hotel Art - Vancouver, Canada

These interesting photos hang at the Howard Johnson. I almost didn't come to this hotel because of some of the reviews in TripAdvisor like bedbugs etc but they were all wrong and it's not too bad for a basic hotel. And it was cheap and closer to downtown so that works!

 

rainy Vancouver

Well I haven't seen much of Vancouver, mostly because it's been raining the whole time. I've walked around a lot, had a look at Granville Island and stuff like that but no great pics to share because of the rain. I changed hotels as well and they have this lovely privacy clause in their terms and conditions of using their wifi:

4. NO PRIVACY
You waive any expectation of privacy with respect to anything you create, store, send or receive in connection with your use of the Service. has the right, without creating any obligation to do so, to access, audit and monitor any communication or information you create, store, send or receive in connection with your use of the Service. Information obtained in the course of such access, auditing and monitoring of the Service may be used or disclosed by , at its sole discretion or election, to third parties to comply with laws, regulations, court orders, subpoenas or other governmental procedures without notice to you.

as in you waive your right to privacy in order to use the wifi so I haven't really wanted to post much because of it.

Anyway this is the lovely view from my hotel room:

but just pan the camera a little more to the left and I get this stunning view!

Pretty :)

Anyway I'm heading on the lovely The Candadian train to Toronto tomorrow so I should have some interesting photos for you then. Not much wifi access on the train but I'm sure you can wait for tails of my fine experience.

Hotel Art - Vancouver, Canada

This interesting hotel art is brought to you by Days Inn in Vancouver. Nice little hotel and great for the price apart from the construction outside. There are actually two copies of this picture in the room but I figured you'd only need one photo :) Enjoy! 

oh Canada....

Well I made it to Canada okay despite boarding the plane and strapping myself in only to be told by the captain that there was a water leak and that Maintenance had to come in and check it out and there would be a slight delay. He reassured us by saying that it was probably a coffee machine overflowing and that it wouldn't take long. Then coming on to say that while checking out the water damage that Maintenance also found a dent in the undercarriage that needed to be inspected. (YIKES!!) Anyway half an hour later we made our way up into the sky. There was only a little bit of turbulence except for the way into Vancouver when even the flight attendants were asked to strap themselves in and the attendant who was making the anouncment had a little tremor in her voice so that freaked me out a little. But nothing that going into my "happy place" couldn't fix and 5 mins later we were on the ground (PHEW!!!)

Made it through customs without any incident, unlike my last visit to Canada and headed to my hotel and crashed into bed after jumping timezones for the last week or so. The next day I took a walk to Best Buy to see if I could get myself a Canadian SIM card (which I got AND can make international calls and txts so email me if you want my number). Funny how distances look close on a map but when you actually walk it it's waaaaaaay longer than expected. Even the Google Maps calculation of 55 mins walk was out by about half an hour. Maybe I just walk slowly or something or GM expects you to powerwalk. Anyway it turned out to be a 4 hour round trip AND it rained for 3/4 of it. So no wonder that the next day I work up feeling crappy and feverish (with a sore foot).

So so far I haven't seen much of Vancouver apart from the inside of my hotel and the streets to Best Buy. I still feel pretty crappy today but I'm planning on going to see a few things tomorrow and I'm booked in for a train ride across country to Toronto next week. Lucky for me they were having a 50% off sale so I've got one of the sleeper cabins which includes meals so that should be pretty cool.

Anyway not much to report, just wanted to check in :)

Full circle

Well tonight is my last night here in the US. It's strange to think that six months have already gone by. It doesn't feel like it at all. The time has whizzed by and I'm quite sad to be leaving tomorrow morning. I've repacked my suitcase and thrown some stuff away. I have to leave my food bag and esky here because I can't take it with me. Well I'm taking the bag but not the contents. I've been trying to turn my mind towards Canada and the adventures that await me there but right now I just feel too sad to think about it. I've booked my first 2 nights accommodation in Vancouver just so I have somewhere to go and acclimatise and work out what I'm going to do. My rough plan is to spend a week in Vancouver, take a train across Canada with a few stops in between then spend some time in Toronto before I fly home. I returned my rental car this morning and surprise surprise it went relatively smoothly. I've got a new car for the day from Thrifty (a shiny black Kia Forte) which is okay but it's gotta go back on my way to the airport. Strange to think I won't be driving again for a while and when I do it will be on the other side of the road. It's a good thing and a bad thing. So many mixed feelings.

I forgot to mention earlier that I stopped in Sweetwater, Texas on my way into Dallas but there wasn't any art in the hotel and in a way it was an emergency stop as there was severe thunder and tornado warnings going on in amongst the torrential rain. The next day driving into Dallas was pretty hairy and I'm actually in a different hotel than originally planned due to the weather as it was just getting too scary and dangerous on the interstate as I couldn't see much in front of me and people were being crazy. Watching the news since then it looks like the place I was originally going to stay (Arlington) has been declared a disaster area so I'm glad I didn't continue on. 

So here it is, the final map of my US travels. I did what I wanted to do, make a circle around the States. I got to see most of what I wanted to see and had the best time here and hope to come back soon.

click to enlarge

I'll leave you with this, a K-9 Comfort station at a Texas Rest Area. nice of them to provide a fire hydrant for the dogs :)

Hotel Art - Dallas, Texas

Well my last nights here in the US are brought to you by Hyatt Place and a swanky hotel room which even has a sectional sofa with ottoman! Very nice room for a reasonable price. And it's chocked full of art, two in the living room and even a pic in the bathroom. Lovely!

bathroom art :)

Hotel Art - Roswell, New Mexico

Today's Hotel Art is brought to you by the Rodeaway Inn in Roswell which was a surprisingly good hotel considering my past experiences with Rodeaways. And some lovely desert art :) Enjoy!

Roswell UFO Museum - Roswell, New Mexico

So I didn't get abducted by aliens in Roswell but I did visit the UFO museum which was pretty interesting. It's a non-profit educational organisation with the mission of educating the general public on all aspects of the UFO phenomena. Some interesting info in there and some pretty funny models. I even got a UFO squashed penny :) Some of the pics you may have to enlarge to check out the details if you're that way inclined. Pretty fun outing really. Downtown Roswell really gets into the alien thing. A lot of the shops have little painted aliens in the windows and on the walls. I didn't get to speak to any Roswellians to see if they really like aliens or are just sick of them and the tourists. Guess that will remain a secret.

And a side note. I left my US mobile phone in Las Cruces so anyone who has that number, don't use it haha. I've only got my Aussie phone now.

Aussie aliens :)

I really liked the geometry on this crop circle for some reason. neato.

Foo Fighter!! :)

the street light outside the UFO museum :)

This was posted in a closed store

Hotel Art - Las Cruces, New Mexico

These funky photos of motel signs were brought to you by the Super 8 in Las Cruces in New Mexico. Nice little hotel that is undergoing renos so there is a lovely new bathroom (and very nice lady at reception too). Stopped in at a few little souvenir places along the way and got a couple of things and also bought a new handbag today as my beloved Levi's bag is buggered :( But yay new things :) Not much to report today as I'm pretty buggered from driving and all the timezone changes. On to Roswell tomorrow so that'll be interesting!

Hotel Art - Tucson, Arizona

And now I'm finally up to date with the blog! Tonight I'm in Tucson, Arizona in the Super 8, slowly making my way to Dallas and my flight to Canada. Behold a duo of art for your viewing pleasure.