The life and times of Daniel Cox

Day 42. San francisco

danielcoxycox — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:41:36 +0000

Day 42. San Francisco. As predicted, had a god awful sleep. I seem to have developed a cold which sucks. Was up by nine, showered and we decided to go to union square. Walked through Chinatown to get there and we went to the worlds biggest levis store and had a look round. Pretty impressive. Me and joe looked in the apple store and the others wandered off. Hah. We were in heaven. iMac is defo the next purchase for me. There amazing. Had some chilli soup and a bagel at a crazy Chinese womans place which was pretty good and then got the subway to haight.

Me andy split from the others and we went to American apparel and looked at the vintage stores again and tried
To find gifts for andy. Had a big pbr in a real dinghy bar but it was pretty cool and nice to have a beer. Me andy and joe got a taxi back and we went and got a panini from this corner place which was amazing. haven’t had peppers and hummus in ages aha. Just chilled out this eve in prep for
Tomorrow and reminisced a bit.
Adams just gone to the car and some
Fuckers backed into us. Urgh. Least they left a note. Hopefully we can sort it. In better news, I won the bed to myself for once! Home time tomorrow.

It’s been good America…

Day 41. Santa cruz – san francisco

danielcoxycox — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:32:22 +0000

Day 41. Santa cruz – San Francisco. Woke up, got food, fuel and money and what not and headed for san Francisco. Took around two hours and tried to check in to the hi hostel in fishermans wharf but it was fully
Booked so we are in the San Reno hotel which is a bit crammed and boring and very oldfashioned. Sharing a three quarter bed tonight with dan top to tale should be fun.

Me andy and dan went to fishermas wharf and got some food and beet and looked round pier 39 again and looked
At the sealions once more. Then we walked back and played trivia pursuit on my iPhone cos there’s is nothing to do here literally. Eventful evening!

Day 39. Santa barbara – santa cruz. Day 40. Santa cruz.

danielcoxycox — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:11:47 +0000

Day 39. Santa barbara – Santa cruz.
These two days haven’t been particularly eventful as our aim is to get back to San Francisco for Tuesday. So today we got up checked out and filled up with petrol and hit the road. We were aiming for Santa cruz so we could have one last day at the beach. We drove along highway one which is the Coastal rural route to Santa cruz so we could see some scenery on the way back. Stopped at a viewpoint and took some photos. The cloud cover was very low which was cool. Stopped at
Big sur for a drink near pebble beach and then carried onto Santa cruz where we are staying at the aptly named Santa cruz motel. Got some Chinese takeaway and watched arnie in true lies on the box and hit the sack.

Day 40. Santa cruz. Had a good sleep last night next to andy. He didn’t snore luckily but I did knee him in the arse, I think that’s my trademark. Didn’t get out the motel till like 1 and headed forthe beach. I’m sure there’s more beaches around but we obviously ended up at the touristy one as there was a
Massive theme park on the beach. It
Felt like a nicer Blackpool in many respects. Layed on my front for like three hours to try and even the tan up. Got a couple more lines to add to the collection which wasn’t planned aha but oh well. Peeling nicely now anyway. Came back, took dan to the chemist cos he thought he’d got
Impotigo on his face as his coldsores are real bad but they don’t think
It is. Stopped by seven eleven for nutrition and wve watched ufc all evening. Gunna be in San fran tomorrow which is cool. I like it there and can go back to haight and maybe check out golden gate park. Too bad Alcatraz is sold out again.

Day 38. L.a – santa barbara

danielcoxycox — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:00:40 +0000

Day 38. L.a – Santa barbara. God awful sleep last night. What with the itching of my sunburn and joe wakin me up at half five drunk.

Wanted to aim for Santa monica and the beach area around it but the sat
Nav took us the wrong way and we ended up in long beach. By the time we got to Santa monica two hostels were
Fully booked and it was gone two o clock. Had a mcdonalds and decided to head towards Santa barbara as we’ve a fair way to get to San fran by Tuesday. Bit of a shame really as Santa barbara seemed like a dead nice area although very busy on a Saturday.

Got to Santa barbara at like half four but we tried like 4 motels and they were all booked too. Finally got a cancellation in a motel 6 in carpinteria after getting lost up a hill though we got a real good view of what we thought was santa barbara. Tonight we’ve just watched men in black and had pizza and chilled out. Aiming for Santa cruz tomorrow four and a half hours away so can get a full last day at the beach on Monday! Shame about today but that’s just the way it went

Day 37. Los angeles.

danielcoxycox — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:04:22 +0000

Not a bad sleep today although the sun burn is still uncomfortable. Checked out late as per and went towards the hostel in fairfax. Got the address for l.a ink and drove past it but didn’t go to see it as the windows were tinted and the queue was huge so it wasn’t really worth it.

Got to the hostel and it’s a nice place, kind of like a motel. Drove back into Hollywood and got some Mexican where I had some damn good fajitas. Had a proper look outside the Chinese theatre and looked at the handprints of the stars. Some real classical icons there. By this time, my body felt like it was on fire and I was really struggling. Me and joe bought more aftersun after misplacing the last bottle and I applied it by the car. I looked like a chimp i was patting my chest so much. And let out quite a scream of pain. Joe thought it was hilarious. I’m surprised I only
Got burnt so late in.

So then we drove towards the Hollywood sign but the the road to the top was closed so we got some pics on the windy road up about a mile away. Had a drive round Beverly hills and looked at some crazy houses. Got a good viewpoint and looked back on the city which was pretty special.

Only about five o clock now, we went back to the hostel to try plan something to do. Played some pool with andy. I won. Played some double foosball. I lost the hostel provided spaghetti bolognese for five dollars and whilst we were eating we got chatting to a nice couple from Cornwall who’d been travelling round the world for 6 months. They then brought out a keg of beer
For free so we had drinks in the courtyard and it got quite busy. The keg only poured froff which sucked.

Decided to go to the cinema to watch the hangover and was going to drive
Till we realised one of the headlights is out and we’ve noticed Lapd are strict and pulling over lots of people so we didn’t risk it. Dan and joe were saving money so me andy and Adam got a taxi. The movie is hilarious! Best I’ve seen in a while. Makes me wanna go back to Vegas a lot though. Was
Good to watch it having been. Made
It all make sense in a very deluded way.

Came back to the hostel and there’s a lot of drunk people around. Most are in the party room now thankfully while I get some quiet time. Can’t tell how
Drunk dan is but joe is hammered as per! Tomorrow were gunna try stay around Santa monica I think and try and hit some beaches just south of there. I need to give my back a blast to even up the tan line I have down my side! Not long to go now!

Day 36. San diego – LA LA land.

danielcoxycox — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:30:42 +0000

Had an absolutely awful sleep, mainly due to the fact that my front was so burnt I couldn’t lay on it without it sticking and it’s ny on impossible for me to sleep on my back unless I’m intoxicated. The sunburn today on my
Chest and stomach is so red it’s pretty hard to see my nips ahaha…thought I’d give you all some details…Anyway digressing…

Got up around nine to check out for ten and get our deposits back from the hostel. Pointed the car towards L.A and we should be there in an hour and three quarters. After traffic jams, overpriced parking issues and hostels being full, we finally found one for the night on Hollywood boulevard in a pretty decent location. Got there
At like four and we all played a bit of basketball outside.

Then we finally went for a walk down Hollywood boulevard and looked at some of the stars on the hall of fame and some of the handprints outside the Chinese theatre. Were gunna look properly tomorrow when we have more
Time but we saw the michael
Jackson star and everyone was crowded around it and there was loads of flowers around it. I now no also that Samuel l. Jackson has massive feet.
Got a bit of chicken Alfredo and drank some rum and have been watching jackass for a while. So yeah tomorrow, explore hollywood more after we check into the new hostel and maybe see the Hollywood sign. We also wanna try and find l.a ink and then well probably see
Some beaches in saturday. Night from
La la land!

Day 35. San diego

danielcoxycox — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:02:13 +0000

Day 35. San Diego. Woke up a fair bit later today after an indifferent sleep.
There’s this weird machine outside of
Our window that goes on and off every five minutes, it’s like a generator I think, but it’s fucking annoying!

So the plan for today was for us to head to pacific beach and Adam to go spend the day with his friend brett who he met in Thailand. After a while
We finally found somewhere to park. The beach was okay, loads of seaweed. And the weather had clouded over. Then i fell asleep before putting sun cream on and even with little sun I got burnt to a crisp. Photo of a gnarly tanline can seen below. Joe also
Took the brunt of it. Being a Ginger, he
Looks like oompa loompa, his face is practically a tomato. He’s even burnt his eyelids! Had a swim in the sea but got told to get out cos it was a surfer only bit. Some real good waves.

After a while, we decided to try ocean beach to see if it was any better. Stopped via burger king and made it there. Was pretty murky but i kept my tee shirt on this time before I nodded
Off again thank god. No seaweed down here but smaller and busier. Still nice though. Some guy who made boomerangs was testing them out on the beach and invited andy and joe to try them. Joe was better although nearly smashed a car window. Andy was a slow burner and got better eventually!

Looking like typical sunburnt English tourists we drove back and got some aftersun to share for our increasingly stinging bodies. My cold shower felt pretty hot I was generating that much heat.

Less crispy, me and andy went for a bit of a wander round some more shops and got pizza slices and had them in the hostel and have just laughed at joe all night really. He looks ridiculously sunburnt bless him. Haha!

So tomorrow, were heading for l.a and staying in a hostel in Hollywood hopefully. Should only take two hours so hopefully well get to do some stuff tomorrow afternoon. One week to go!

Day 34. San diego.

danielcoxycox — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:45:14 +0000

Day 34. San Diego. Woke up fairly early this morning as we had to be out of the hostel by ten. They reccomended we go to lucky d’s a two minute walk away so we have checked in there for 2 nights.

Once we’d got sorted we drove to San Diego zoo for the days activities. The zoo is the second biggest in the world apparently! We saw pretty much any animal you could name except penguins I think. My favourites were the meerkats which were just really cute and the urangutangs. One guy was rolling all over the floor and then peed everywhere when he was climbing. Bug
Personality! We also the weirdest looking camels. One had a floppy hump and was drooling everywhere!

After about six hours there we were shattered so we headed back to the hostel for their free dinner Tuesdays
Where we had a lot of chicken pasta and bread for free which was really good and well needed. After, i went and had a look at the urban outfitters an American apparel stores again! And we’ve just chilled and chatted tonight. All quite tired from the zoo! Tomorrow were hitting pacific beach for a relaxing day and Adams off to meet a mate. Our last day in San Diego before we head to l.a!!!

Day 33. Tucson – san diego

danielcoxycox — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:51:03 +0000

Day 33. Tucson – San Diego. I am writing this half asleep, so apologies if it makes no sense…it’s been a LONG day!

Ok, so I got everyone up at half eight so we could go to the Titan missile museum before we set off for San Diego. Got to the site at 11 and had our tour of the facility. The facility was used back in the cold war an is an underground bunker with the nuclea missile which is 110 feet long and can destroy cities. Luckily, it was never used as the soviet union never used there’s. And now the site has been preserved for historic reference. We got to see the control room, the missiles engine, the missile itself and what would happen if they set the missile off as well as a couple of informative movies. All in all a good excursion.

So 20 miles south of Tucson, I put in the sat nav for us to go to San Diego and it predicted about 6 hours. The west I-8 highway to san diego
From south of phoenix was 336 miles long and was straight as an arrow. Time went super slow. Got into California and could see the Mexican border as the wall seperating the countries ran alongside the highway. This wall is apparently a safety measure to stop illegal immigrants. Not to mention the police checkpoints we encountered. Our car was far too full to be smuggling mexicans!

At around 7p.m we made it into San Diego after 6 hours and 420 miles of driving. This is why I’m shattered. I drove the whole lot because andy couldn’t put down his fucking phone long enough to contemplate driving, and joe was tired and would of probably killed us.

Staying in a USA hostel which is really cool. Everyones dead friendly and chilled out. They were serving us beers in the party room before I came back to get Some kip. Think we’ve only a night here though. There fully booked tomorrow. Shame. Were right in downtown and there’s an amazing selection of shops and bars along here. I know we’ve only
Scratched the surface, but I’ve got a really good vibe off San Diego. It’s a really cool place. For dinner, I got a steak sandwich and a beer and they gave us a pager to tell us when it’s ready. Thought I’d share that. I thought it was cool! San Diego zoo tomorrow! Should be fun. I’m off to pass out. Goodnight!

Day 32. Tucson

danielcoxycox — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:49:13 +0000

Day 32. Tucson. We all woke up at around elevenish after some better sleeps and everything seemed back to normal which was good. Got up, got showered and by the time we were ready it was like one! Stopped of In town to get some salmon and capers bagels in my case and then we headed towards biosphere 2.

Got to the biosphere, and got dune student discount which saved us ten dollars and we watched a couple of introductory movies in the theatre. Then our tourguide claudio took us round the desert, savannah, rainforest and ocean areas of the domes. The rainforest was amazing, felt like you were really there. Some intense heat and a rainmaker to give the feel of really being there. Then We looked round the aquarium but they had which was pretty good. The purpose if the biosphere to see how things managed naturally under captivation where the people running it only controlled the temperature and amounts of rain available. It is supposed to help gain insight on how the earth can survive in future generations.

We then went back to the hostel and I sat on the patio for a while and was joined by a girl called Karen from San Francisco. She was really nice and no offesnse to the guys but it was good talking to someone different for a change. Her story for being in Tucson was a little odd and maybe I shouldn’t say it on here but we had a good chat about everything really for 2 hours before the guys found me as they thought I’d disappeared. She let me have some of her wine and shed just cooked a gorgeous smelling curry which shed made too much off and let us have some. Turns out she lives right by the hostel we stayed in in mission in San fran and she’s offered us her lounge for a night or two before we come home if we so wish which was dead nice of her when we head back to San fran.

We then bobbed into town to the pizza place / bar where we were last night and got some pitchers of beer and just had a good chat and reminisced about the trip and uni. Was real nice.

So now were back in the hostel, and we need to be up at 8:15 so we can see some museum about the cold war missiles and stuff before we head off to San Diego for fall which is a 6 hour drive. We can’t drive at night cos we only have one headlight working which is a bit shit but never mind. So until California tomorrow. Good night!