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Everyone always says there’s no history in America.
Obviously there is a distinct lack of buildings pre-1600s (apart from wigwams) but on my (relatively short at only around 220 miles there and back) journey from San Francisco to Monterey and back (using two slightly different routes to see as much as possible) I went through a few places that are linked with famous people or events either in the history books already or will be in years to come:
-Palo Alto. Shirley Temple was born here and its home to PARC, the Palo Alto Reseach Center where Ethernet and the laser printer were invented.
-Stanford. Home of the university where Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google) met, as well as Steve Ballmer (Apple), William Hewlett and David Packard (HP respectively) and Robert Metcalf (who is credited with co-inventing the aforementioned Ethernet). Another less famous alumnus was Menzies Campbell, one time leader of a comedy political party in the UK.
-San Jose. Apart from being the basis of one of Burt Bacharach’s most famous compositions this is where (possibly - as its disputed) Chuck Berry came from, as well as Apple founders Steve Wosniak and Steve Jobs. Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks lived here, presumably during the time they recorded Fleetwood Mac’s biggest success, “Rumours” (which, all you music fans will know, was recorded at that most famous of recording studios, the Record Plant in Sausalito, just up the road and over the Golden Gate bridge - turn left at the lights and then ask).
Monterey itself is best known for its links with John Steinbeck, who was born just inland in Salinas and wrote extensively about the area (I can recommend “East of Eden” and “Grapes of Wrath”).
His book “Cannery Row” was written whilst living there and the sea-front street which he based his book on (which was known as Ocean View Avenue at the time) was renamed in honour of his work.
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After a break in Greenville, South Carolina, its time to move on to the next stop en-route to Houston, Texas: Atlanta, Georgia.
Which reminds me, where’s the map showing the whole route as planned:
Ah, there it is. So its as follows:
| Epsom, UK | 0 | Start |
| Southampton, UK | 80 miles | Car |
| Brooklyn, NY | 3,130 miles | Ship |
| JFK airport, NY | 20 miles | Bus |
| Charlotte, NC | 650 miles | Plane |
| Greenville, SC | 103 miles | Car |
| Atlanta, GA | 145 miles | Car |
| Tuscaloosa, AL | 202 miles | Car |
| New Orleans, LA | 291 miles | Car |
| Houston, TX | 347 miles | Car |
And, because this wasn’t enough, I’ve added an extra bit in whilst in Atlanta:
| Atlanta, GA | 0 | Start |
| San Francisco, CA | 2,481 miles | Plane |
| Monterey, CA | 108 miles | Car |
And, after a one day conference its back again:
| Monterey, CA | 0 | Start |
| San Francisco, CA | 108 miles | Car |
| Monterey, CA | 2,481 miles | Plane |
So that’s a total of 10,146 miles. To date we’ve done 4,128 miles:
(NB do not use map above for navigation purposes, especially for sea leg)
So only 6,018 miles to go...To be continued...
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Forget Haagen Dazs, forget Ben and Jerry’s, Coldstone Creamery is where its at, when it comes to ice cream at least.
If you are unsure what to get on your first visit, I strongly recommend “The Pie Who Loved Me”, which is a healthy collection of cheescake ice cream, Oreo cookies and Graham Cracker pieces with fudge sauce on top. If that doesn’t light your fire, then there is the usual American bewildering range of options available.
One of the other nice things about buying your ice cream in Coldstone is that its made up from the basic ingredients (well, except for the ice cream base itself) when you order it. Someone behind the counter takes all the parts and mixes them together on a cold slab (possibly a stone) before handing the result to you in a cup or a cone (in case there weren’t already enough calories for you).
And of course, being America, there’s no need to ask for a large portion...
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In the unlikely event that you were wondering where we’ve been for the past few days I can tell you that we’ve been wondering about fuel economy and RON.
We have chosen an economical (by mpg) SUV, and one which has proper brakes and gears too, unlike the typical US versions, which look great but can only go in a straight line.
Like this for instance:
Anyway, great in a straight line, hopeless if you need to brake (it weights over 2.5 tonnes) or go around corners (less of a problem in the US thankfully). Also, its not so useful for carting children and their belongings around, unless they like to sit in the back in the open air (don’t ask them though).
The XC90 is designed to drive round the fjords so you know its good on corners and at least one reviewer thinks that "The brake pedal is rather touchy, but stopping distances are short." So that’s handy then.
So to fuel economy, which is interesting. If you look at the US and UK Volvo websites you get quite different numbers, as shown below:
Driving situation MPG (UK) MPG (US)
urban/city 16.4 11.7
extra urban/highway 30.7 16.7
These numbers have been adjusted to take account of the difference in US and UK gallons and US and UK miles.
With US gas prices at around $3.50 per (US) gallon at present, this means that it would cost an average of $0.22 per mile to drive the US version but only $0.14 per mile to drive the UK version (taking into account the differences mentioned above).
However, if we had the UK XC90 in the UK it would cost an average of $0.44 per mile to drive, given the higher price of gas there. Which is nice.
This is where RON comes in. RON is the Research Octane Number of fuel, a measure of knock (caused when fuel ignites when it shouldn’t) resistance. In the US, fuel is available from 87 to 91 (or 93 sometimes) RON, with the latter being called “Super”, “Premium” or similar. In the UK, the lowest standard available is 95 RON and the highest 97 (or 99 sometimes). I doubt that the technology to produce higher octane fuel is not yet available in the US so I can only assume that they are saving this improvement for some future time (hopefully before oil runs out for good).
Now to work out the effect of a lower octane rating on fuel economy and the price per mile...
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New York has such a great connection with music that its worth making a special mention here.
One of the most famous music places in New York (and indeed the world) is CBGB & OMFUG. For those that don’t know, CBGB stands for Country, BlueGrass and Blues. OMFUG stands for Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers (or glutton, in this case for music). Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973 in the Bowery (in Manhattan), CBGB was the place where many bands, especially punk and new wave bands, made their name. The Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie and Talking Heads are amongst the most famous of the regulars.
Sadly, CBGB is now closed, after a nasty dispute over unpaid rent. Patti Smith performed the final concert there on Sunday 15th October 2006. The site is now a poncey fashion shop.
Finally on this New York/Music thread, here are the songs in my iTunes collection that have New York in the title:
- New York Mining Disaster 1941 - Bee Gees
- Another Rainy Day in New York City - Chicago
- New York Minute - Don Henley
- Heart in New York - Gallagher & Lyle
- Back in N.Y.C. - Genesis
- New York, New York - Ryan Adams (no, not Bryan Adams)
- New York - Sex Pistols
- The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel
- Welcome to NYC - Spock’s Beard
- Englishman in New York - Sting
- New York City Streets (parts 1 and 2) - Triumph
And if you think that’s an unusual set of artists you should see the whole collection.
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And so at around 4:30 this morning we passed under the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge on our way into New York Harbour.
The bridge is named after Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to enter the harbour through the narrows and connects Staten Island to Brooklyn. Those athletes amongst you will recognise it from pictures of the New York Marathon, which starts its tour of all five boroughs of New York on Staten Island before taking the competitors over the bridge into Brooklyn and onwards through Queens, the Bronx and ending in Central Park, Manhattan.
Shortly after entering the harbour we saw in the distance that most famous of landmarks, the Statue of Liberty. Those historians amongst you will recognise the title of today’s entry being from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus which describes the statue:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
And of course, no visit to the harbour of New York would be complete without a view of the skyline of Manhattan, which gave its name to the Manhattan Engineer District, otherwise known as the Manhattan Project - to develop the first nuclear weapon.
The nuclear weapon project led to the excellent song “Manhattan Project” by Rush, from their 1985 album “Power Windows”.
Take a look at this interesting video that someone has done based on the song.
And a couple of hours later, we are off the ship and on dry land again, at Red Hook Dock, Brooklyn (Brooklyn being named after David and Victoria Beckham’s first child...or was it the other way?).
Red Hook was originally a village colonised by the Dutch at the time that New York was known as New Amsterdam. One claim to fame is that it is the only part of New York that has a full frontal (but not that sort) view of the Statue of Liberty, which was oriented towards France.