Day 92 - Thursday 25 July

We've arrived home in Melbourne.

What a Great (Rosen Road) Trip!

** We were away for 92 days (including 2 flying days).

** We had 4 flights - Melbourne-LA-Atlanta-New Orleans, then LA-Melbourne - over 28,000 kilometres (17,000 miles).

** We drove over 21,000 kilometres (13,000 miles).

** We drove through 29 US and 1 Canadian State (we've now driven through 43 US states!)

** We completed 3 major objectives of the GRR, which were:
      -  indulging in music, which included the New Orleans Jazzfest, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers concert, the Blues Music Awards, etc, etc
      -  visited numerous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings, highlighted by Fallingwater
      -  completed some spectacular drives, including Route 66, the Blue Ridge Skyline Parkway, Vermont's Route 100, Arizona's Highway 89A, Monument Valley, etc, etc.

*** And most importantly, we caught up with our great friends, namely (in chronological order)):

      - Trevor Leeden, and his friends, Mark & Julie, Jen and Lee
      - Jo, Pete and Shona, and their lovely St Louisan friends
      - my cousins, Lena, Berny, Maria and Lovisa
      - Abigail, Andrew, Amelia and Asher
      - Lee
      - our goddaughter, Nicole

Signing off now - thank you for keeping up with us.

Bill & Di

Day 91 - Wednesday 24 July

Today was lost in TRANSIT!

Day 90 - Tuesday 23 July

After completing our final baggage packing, we drove to visit our currently LA-resident Goddaughter, Nicole, who then drove us for a great brunch at - http://aromacoffeeandtea.com/ . Di then received some faith-healing for her feet, followed by some looking through some of the local shops.

 

 

 

 We then drove for some final retail therapy, before heading down the freeway to LAX.

 

 

 

After successfully checking in, we went for a bite to eat at - http://www.in-n-out.com/ .

 

Day 89 - Monday 22 July

After 6 lovely days in Palm Springs, we reluctantly had to leave.

Then there was the minor matter of loading the car with 3 months of luggage.

After lunch at Lulu's we drove to LAX where we dropped off Jo and Pete for their flight home (St Louis). We then drove to Santa Monica to complete Route 66.

 

 

 



 

We then walked around the Santa Monica retail precinct, as well as having dinner (we hadn't been here for about 7 years).

 

 

Day 88 - Sunday 21 July

We had great brunch at the hip - http://www.lulupalmsprings.com/ .

We then continued our mid century modern architectural tour of Palm Springs.

former homes of Bob Hope, William Holden, Steve McQueen

Elvis had his honeymoon here

We then drove to and through Joshua Tree National Park - http://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm .

Gram Parsons - RIP

Skull Rock

We then drove south to Salton Sea.

We had a lovely Italian dinner at - http://www.aldente-palmsprings.com/ .

Day 87 - Saturday 20 July

In the morning, after an hour at a local market, we drove to Coachella Valley Preserve to the 1000 Palms Canyon (oasis).

We returned to Palm Springs for lunch at - http://kaisergrille.com//index.htm with Johannes Bacher (a cousin of my brother-in-law, John), whose restaurant we had dined at for Di's birthday.

 
We then drove to some more homewares shops, followed by some pooltime.

We went for dinner at the old style silver service restaurant - Melvyn's - http://www.inglesideinn.com/ .