19th August 2025

Well, actually, it’s really hot here, reaching 43°C, but it’s definitely a cool place to be!  I arrived in my favourite country on a Monday evening.  Yes, my favourite country now – I think the US of A has just pipped Japan to the post for me after so many amazing recent visits, including this one.  I may have mentioned in a previous blog entry that in early 2020, I had to go through the rigmarole of applying for a US tourist visa since a visit to Syria in April 2012 blocked me from being able to go down the usual ESTA route.  It was the most complicated form-filling experience I’ve ever gone through, including the need to list every single country I’d been to for pretty much my whole life, along with dates.  This took me a while as one can imagine, and following an in-person interview at the US Embassy in London, and the subsequent granting of my shiny new ten-year visa, I decided to make great use of it to really appreciate what I went through to get it.  I very much planned to get my money and time’s worth out of it!  Since then, I have visited the USA five times now, and plan on visiting several times more before my visa is due for renewal in 2030, following which I imagine I’ll be sure to renew it again as there’s just so much of the country to see!  The whole process has very much been worth it.

It is also really helpful to be able to enter the USA when doing a round-the-world trip anyway, and I was sooooo excited to be there again – America, the beautiful, I love you!  It actually felt quite different to approach the Americas from the west this time, as for all the previous 14 times I have been to this great western land mass I’ve arrived from the east and the Atlantic Ocean.  New York has always been the first port-of-call for us Europeans, but this time for me it was actually Los Angeles after having finally crossed over the vastness of the Pacific Ocean in several little leapfrog leaps.

So after a lovely time in the tropical paradise of French Polynesia, I woke up in Papeete at stupid o’clock (3.30am…!) to take my next flight on this journey ever eastwards.  This time it was a seven-and-a-half hour long-hauler with Air France to LAX, during which I watched the LOTR films “The Two Towers” and the first part of “Return of the King”.  I was really excited to watch them this time to spot the locations I had just visited only a few days prior during my time in New Zealand.

The flight was actually continuing on to Paris, with most passengers being either French or French Polynesian and getting off for a couple of hours in LAX for the plane to refuel and change staff.  I was one of the few properly disembarking there, and was really glad not to be doing another 11-hour trip after the already fairly long ‘un thus far!  I was seriously hoping that as a result of most other passengers not heading to passport control, the line would be just that little bit shorter than my visit to California last year, but no such luck…  There must have been at least six international flights arriving ahead of us, and while the line was just sooooo long, it actually moved really quickly.  It took an hour in total, but looking at the queue upon arrival one would have thought it would have been much longer!  When it came to my turn, it only took around a minute this time for the border control officer to wave me through.  Normally they ask loads of questions, but maybe because I’ve visited so many times on this ten-year visa, they might trust me by now…!

After picking up my bag which was already waiting for me, I negotiated the crazy LAX pick-up and drop-off area to find the right bus to my rental car office.  Here there was another long queue, though only around half-an-hour this time, but it went quickly as I got talking to a nice chap from Boston who was in town for work.  I was told I could choose any car in the car park and got really excited about this, until I found that they were all the same Nissan Versa variety.  I chose a black one.  Ahead of me was a two-hour drive through the seriously intense LA freeway system and traffic that was just jumping.  Being after dark, it seemed even more manic than the last time I was driving through the city.  The other drivers were just so reckless, switching lanes like crazy, both overtaking and undertaking, with motorbikes just seeming to come out of nowhere, and an insane amount of lorries taking up the inside two lanes mostly all the way.  I really did not enjoy that journey, particularly after such an early morning start and long flight, and fortunately made it to my destination safely.

I had booked myself four nights in a very comfortable AirBnB in a small town called Menifee.  I had chosen this place for being pretty much slap bang in the middle of the three areas I was planning to visit during this short stint in the States.  I was basically covering the parts south of Los Angeles that I wasn’t able to sweep up in my visit to California last year, and thus was really excited to be visiting the Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs, Disneyland, and San Diego this time.

After a good first night’s sleep, my first full day on this mini stopover in Southern California was spent visiting the nearby Joshua Tree National Palk and Palm Springs – both were just brilliant!  It was a little on the hot side I must say, reaching a furnace-like high of 43°C, but the day was seriously enjoyable.  I just loved being in America again – everything is just so big and brash, and functioning, which is more than I can say for the seriously sorry state my own country is currently in under the worst ever government I have ever experienced in my life.  Anyway, I shall refocus once more on my epic adventure.

It was a one-and-a-half hour drive to Joshua Tree National Park from Menifee, and after stopping off in the town of Yucca Valley on the way at a Del Taco fast food joint for a delicious taco breakfast, I headed on to the Visitors Centre in the town of Twentynine Palms to pick up a map and some advice for my visit.  I was able to make good use once more of my recently bought US National Park Annual Pass from back in Utah in April, which should even last me for a couple more National Parks on my upcoming planned visit to the States over Easter 2026!  That was some serious value for money.

Joshua Trees are abundant here and throughout the states of the south-west, and are a type of yucca tree which apparently got their name as the 19^th Mormon settlers rode on westwards thinking that they resembled the Ancient Israelite leader Joshua reaching up his arms in prayer to guide them on their journey.  The highlight of my visit was very much the extent of these beautiful cactus-trees reaching seemingly infinitely to the far horizon in every direction, making the desert feel like a forest at times.  I also enjoyed amazing views over Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley below from up high on Keys Views, a short and very hot half-mile nature walk near Cap Rock using my umbrella as protection from the blazing midday sun, the iconic and very famous Skull Rock which resembles a large alien skull out there in the middle of the desert, and the really beautiful Cholla Cactus Garden.  The Cholla Cactus is a seriously beautiful plant to behold, nicknamed the Teddy Bear Cactus due to its cute look.  But cute and cuddly it ain’t, and signs all around warned of the dangers of touching them.  David Attenborough called them the most dangerous plant in the desert, and there are plenty of YouTube videos showing how they can almost “jump” onto someone if they come close to it, sticking their barbs in to the flesh and making it really hard to remove them again.  I must admit I felt the desire and temptation to want to touch them while walking around, just to see what would happen, but fortunately resisted, and after only around ten minutes out there in the “Garden”, I was ready to jump back into my air-conditioned rental car again as it was absolutely scorchio out there by this time!

After a wonderful time in another of America the Beautiful’s stunning National Parks, I was heading now to nearby Palm Springs.  Famous for being a quiet getaway for numerous Hollywood superstars, as well as of course its desert landscapes and surprisingly its hot springs, I was interested in taking a quick look-see on my way back to my accommodation.  The mercury again reached 43°C once more deep down there in the Coachella Valley, and I’m not sure I could imagine soaking myself in its hot springs on this day – that must be one of its winter-time attractions!

Yes sir, the place was indeed boiling, and I had the feeling it would really come alive after dark as the temperature cooled.  During my visit there were few people around, probably the more sensible types keeping cool in their hotel rooms for the afternoon.  Those that were there seemed of the less sane variety, and perhaps in this searing afternoon I was one of them.  I ducked into a couple of shops and cafes just to cool down every now and then in the air-conditioning.

Highlights were the glitzy, glamoury feel to the place, its very own Walk of Stars featuring celebrities who made or make the town their home or getaway destination including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Leonardo DiCaprio, and the huge statue of perhaps its most iconic visitor, Marilyn Monroe, doing her skirt over an air vent pose.  This celebrated actress was apparently discovered here in 1949 at the nearby Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club, and later spent lots of her free time in the place.

After a couple of hours wandering around, including enjoying an iced strawberry frappe-latte-type of drink at Starbucks just to escape the heat for a bit, I drove back to my accommodation via my favourite US supermarket Walmart to stock up on my self-catering supplies during my time in Menifee.  After a shower and with the air-conditioning on, I enjoyed a lovely wind down after such a brilliant day exploring more of this brilliant country.

The next day I was heading to Disneyland to re-awaken once more my inner child, but of course more on that in my next.