Well I left Brookville. We headed out to Cleveland on Saturday afternoon, chilled for a bit, then checked out the city skyline at night. I had a gut feeling that the city would be ghetto and sure the people walking round were kind of ghetto, but there was also a lot of wealth and class around, I wouldn't be opposed to giving it another shot.

We watched two of the NFL wild card playoff games and had a few drinks then turned in, I couldn't sleep and decided to stay up the entire night due to the 4am wakeup call. Suffice to say it's been an exhausting day. But anyway, I'm now back where it all started: Sunnyvale, CA. It's Sunday evening at 9pm PST, That gives me less than 5 days left in the old US. I'm going to really miss it. But in saying that I can't see this week being too exciting. Manik will be at work, Owen is in San Fran, but no idea how or if I'll get out there. Really, it would most likely be the easier conclusion if I flew home a week earlier. But really, what can you do?

Today was a big day, but then that seems hardly a surprise. As I write this I face the fact that tomorrow should be even bigger as I have to get up in about 4 hours to embark on a 37+ hour train ride to Denver. But anyway this post is about today.

The guys at the flat I've been staying with had to get groceries and so we went to Costco. Costco is amazing. It's like the Warehouse and Gilmores had a secret love child they sent to the States while they lived in secrecy in NZ but battle hardened and put under every performance enhancing. At one point I was standing between the frozen foods and DVD's while Manik is looking at external hard drives. I'd go on, but the point has been made.

Next it was off to Walmart. I'm sure on day one it would have amazed me, but from what I've seen here already and in a lot of movies it provided no first time magic. I do notice they put a McDonalds in there, which surprisingly is common from what I've seen.

After that was all done we got to the bread and butter of San Francisco tourist stuff. We saw the bridge, it was orange and big, it also seemed to be a mecca of some sort for tourists, it's kind of weird how the bridge right next to it gets no attention, despite looking about the same length, but nowhere as impressive in height.

After that we checked out the wharf or pier or whatever it was called. I had a corn dog and some shrimp, it was really interesting. I also got fleeced out of $10 by some shifty shoe shine dude. He was entertaining so I guess I'll look back on it in time and laugh. Something similar happened to me in Wellington when I first moved there. I guess I'm entitled to one of those per move to a bigger city. (read: I'm simple small town)

We saw some other cool things like life sized animals made of bread. As some people I lived with may no, I do like bread, so the concept of animal sized bread is cool.

We came back and I fell asleep in the car again, the roads are long and straight and the scenery is nothing to write about. We then saw I pronounce you Chuck and Larry, not too bad.

I'll post next time I can, but don't expect anything till the new month.

I woke up at 9:30am, in terms of jet lag I call that a great success. I got my phone going and called a few people to give them my number and mucked around on the internet for a while. Morning was then gone. Manik then took me to the Great Mall. This thing was huge, as in the Great Wall is huge. I have a map of it, tiny stores in the map are actually big, it took like 10 mins to walk from one side to the other.

I purchased some new shoes, socks and two pairs of shorts. The mall was mostly clothing based. It had one bookstore and my draw dropped the most today at how cheap books are here. Average price was like $3.99 for a book. I saw an expensive hard covered thick book for $9.99. I figure its Oh yeah, they don't include tax in the price here, feels kind of misleading but Manik assures me that NZ is one of the few countries that includes tax in the price.

I had my first burrito today, it was from the food court and even though it was fast food it was magical. Yes, the Mexican lady behind the counter enchanted my food. Any burrito I've had before (the ones in NZ) don't count as I think I made them and I clearly know nothing about Mexican food. I now understand why the Americans missed proper Mexican food.

NZ is the polar opposite of this place so far. The geography is kind of plain, dry some trees and a hill in the distance. New Zealand has post card landscapes and is truly lush. But in terms of man made stuff, infrastructure, building complexes, stadiums etc this place is the land of the future. It is the scale of things here that really impresses me so far. That may change as I go through the Rockies and see more East of San Francisco.

Well as promised Vicky delivered on the t-shirt. And I must say it is rather dashing. I'll try and work out images but it's red with what appears to be a blatant steal of the NZ air force logo. Which does indeed look awesome.

She also included a free jump off the Auckland harbor bridge, which lasts a year - thankfully as I don't think I could muster the stones to go just before my flight.

The gifts really are the icing on the cake for tonight being the All Black series win. I'll hold my breath for the world cup though. Those boys can really break a mans heart.

As for trip planning goes I haven't hit any snags. Manik will pick me up from the airport, we'll see a baseball game that night. I then have Saturday and Sunday to do whatever kids do these days, then an early morning ride to the train (7am departure) which after a brisk 36 hours land me in Denver, Colorado.

Luckily at this point Elisa by either grace of my early warning or gods of trip planning have given her about a week off which coincides with my arrival. Sounds like she has a lot planned so I guess I'll just try and hang on as I adjust to high altitude.

Next will be my Chicago leg of he tour, which will have Andrew, Alli and perhaps Travis. I'll then take the train from there to Altoona, PA and then bus up to University Park to do my paper work.

After all that is done, I try and get to Upstate New York and spending a week or so with Aliza and Ben, then head back down to Philadelphia, catch up with Dave and if I'm lucky, bum a ride to University Park.

It all seems like just a series of connect the dots and if my lazy planning pays off then I hope all goes well with no down time between stops.