Fast Food Faceoff!! results

I can't believe we're into our final week here
And I still haven't tried Arby's or Popeye's
However, after exhaustive research, the best fast food in America is....
Jack In The Box!!
Carl's Jr. ran them a very close 2nd, and if it's a chicken burger you're after, it has to be Chick-fil-A (except on Sundays, they don't open on Sundays, something to do with the founder's religious beliefs).
Please remember these opinions are purely my own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Ruth Phillips.
This will probably be my last post (unless I can be bothered to go to a Starbuck's in San Francisco), I hope you've enjoyed the blog and see you all next week!

Yosemite

We went into the National Park today to find some bears...
We drove to Glacier point, 7000 feet up and went on the 4 mile hike down the mountain.
The views were fantastic, unfortunately the views don't change all the way down, and because we were getting lower all the time the view actually gets worse the further you go.
Then of course you have a 4 mile trek back up the mountain, and by now the view was actually starting to annoy me.
And during our 8 mile hike we saw a deer twice (on the way down and back up) a lizard and a chipmunk...no bears

Something I've noticed about Americans when they eat (aside from the fact that not one of them can hold a fork properly) is that they take lots of little rests like Ange, and they never eat a whole meal, which may explain why we get so many sideways glances in restaurants when we're diving head first into our dinner

Fast Food Faceoff!!

In-N-Out

It didn;t take Ruth the usual ten minutes to decide what to eat at In-N-Out

That's bcause they only have three choices- hamburger, cheeseburger, or double cheesburger.

We went for the middle ground and had a cheeseburger.

It was pretty good, the tomato and lettuce were nice and fresh, if a little too cold, and the burger was a little thin.

The fries were unseasoned yet stangely addictive

Score 7/10

Might need this when we get home...

...and this...

Monterey, baby...

This morning we drove our personal golf cart from our ocean view room to our convertible car and mooched into Monterey for some breakfast.

Then we drove to Carmel for a wander round the shops and a walk on the beach

This is Carmel

We're moving here.

Ruth is going to write chick-lit and I'm going to create bad art and sell it for thousands of dollars

We spent this afternoon on our beach.

I was standing in the water considering going for a swim when someone came over and told me that they'd been told to get out of the water because a great white shark had been seen in the area.

When I told this to Ruth she got very excited and tried to convince me to go swimming because she'd 'quite like to see a shark'

Santa Barbara

This is Santa Barbara.
We're moving here.
Ruth is going to work in an art gallery and I'm going to give surf lessons to pale flabby tourists

We stayed at the Cheshire Cat B&B, which was lovely, if a little strange, I think Ruth was the youngest person staying there by about 40 years.

We found a nice little bar on State Street with a very chatty bar maid, and consequently left there looking for food quite drunk and quite late.

We eventually found somewhere open with a very chatty waitress and ate buffalo wings.

The next morning we visited Santa Barbara mission.

It's very pretty, and apparently if you need to take a period of reflection the friars have to let you stay there.

That's next year's holiday sorted then...

This is Kimberley's toupe and wig shop in State Street.
Fortunately she does facial hair too...

Zoo!

We went to San Diego zoo on Saturday.
It's REALLY good.
There's a great aerial tramway which takes you from one side of the zoo to the other, and a free bus tour which takes you all round the zoo.
You can get up close to really cool animals like polar bears and pandas, in fact the only thing slightly annoying about it is that everywhere you go you get accosted by people wanting to put you in front of a greenscreen and take your photo with a tiger or whatever superimposed behind you.
The even did it in the queue for the bus.
Who would want a photo of themselves superimpoesed next to a bus?
Those crazy yanks

Fast Food Faceoff!!

Jack in the Box

I always remembered this as being my favourite from the last time we were here, so I was a little bit worried it wasn't going to be as good.

I had an ultimate cheeseburger.

I wasn't disappointed...

Take everything I said about Carl's Jr and add the fact that they do breakfast all day

Score 9/10

Look who we bumped into...

Neal and Sally were driving down the coast as we were driving up

We changed the car when we got to San Diego.
We swapped this...

...to this...



Apparently it's too beautiful for me to drive

Stay classy San Diego...

I'm sitting in the Starbuck's we went in on our honeymoon in San Diego.

It's very sunny, very warm, everyone's very friendly and I'm not coming back.

The only problem with this place is everyone is so thin and attractive, and all the men look like a young Alec Baldwin.

We're staying right on the bay at Paradise Point

Yesterday we had a surf lesson

Best. Fun. Ever!!!

Our instructor was a 42 year old stoner called Dave, who kept asking Ruth if she had any sisters.

We flailed around in the waves for about 2 hours, spending more time under the board than on it, but when you actually managed to stand up and ride the wave for about 3 seconds it was just the best feeling in the world.

Then we woke up this morning and couldn't move

Last night we got caught in a thundersorm coming walking back from a bar in Phoenix.
It was a really good one too, forked lightening and everything, and the raindrops here are massive!
Although we are technically in Phoenix we're actually in a motel by the side of a motorway, so we could be anywhere.
We went for dinner at an all you can eat salad buffet (that's right Phil, I said salad), although the 'salad' options did include all you can eat pizza, cake and ice cream.
I had a token piece of celery.
We're off to San Diego today, so we'll finally be able to unpack some stuff.
However, this is our last day of free wifi, so our posts might get a bit more sporadic as we'll have to rely on Starbuck's for access, so don't assume we've been the innocent victims of a liquor store hold up or gang related drive by if we don't post anything for a few days.

Ruth has just seen the man of her dreams in the hotel bar in El Paso.
He has a pizza and an ipad.

Fast Food Faceoff!!

It's alright, I had a salad yesterday...

Church's Chicken
Like KFC, only with Mexicans.
I had a chicken sandwich, Ruth had...well you can probably guess what Ruth had

It was thin, dry, and flavourless

3/10

In fact it was so awful we then had to go to...

Dairy Queen

I had a cheeseburger.

It was ok, but the bun was far too thick.

5/10

This is a mini Oreo and Chocolate Fudge Brownie Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

It is, apparently, the most delicious thing Ruth has tasted in her whole life

You don't see these in Sainsbury's...

Found these penatas in Wal-Mart just over the stateline

If it's Sunday it must be New Mexico...

Roswell, to be precise.
We came here hoping for tacky,unfortunately we got tatty.
It looks a bit like an area that was popular and prosperous for a couple of years but then everyone lost interest and left.
The UFO museum is way cool though and only $5!

Get your kicks...

This is the route 66 museum.
The sign is from a petrol company which serviced the route, and is still in existence.
The route itself doesn't really exist any more, pretty much all of it has been covered over by the interstates, although there still are bits of it here and there

Cadillac Ranch

In 1974 Stanley Marsh III buried 10 Cadillacs nose down in a wheat field just outside Amarillo, and they've been there ever since.
It's really weird, there's no signs to it, there's no admission charge, there's no gift shop, just 10 Cadillacs half buried in a field in the middle of nowhere, you just kind of see them from the interstate.
Visitors are free to graffitti them (we didn't, we're British)

Arkansas...

Oklahoma...

Texas...

Fast Food Faceoff!!

Chest pains...clothes tightening....arteries clogging.....must...continue...research!!...

Carl's Jr.

I had an Original $6 burger (which strangely costs $4.69), and criss-cut fries.

Ruth had chicken...no wait... she had a Star Burger! She IS human!!

Now that's a burger!! Big and meaty, with cheese, mustard and pickles all working together in perfect harmony, it's moments like this that make the acne and halitosis worthwhile

Score 8.5/10

We ran into this chap in the gift shop of the National Cowboy Museum.
Unfortunately the gift shop was as far as we got, because after taking ages to find the place we arrived as it was closing

Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty...

Actually, from what I've seen of it, it's a sh***hole

The middle bit.

Gad it's hot, 108 degrees in Fort Smith Arkansas.
As soon as you walk outside you're clammy, then when you go back inside it's freezing because of the air con, and you forget how hot it is outside so when you go out it feels even hotter!
I'm sure I'll catch my death.
We're on the first day of six days of one night stopovers on the way to San Diego.
We're staying at an Aspen motel outside Fort Smith.
We got here about 4.30 and spent about an hour by the pool, which was effectively in the car park.
However, it redeemed itself by not only having a running machine and exercise bike, but also a guest self service laundry in the same room, which apparently was very exciting.
There's not much here apart from an Outback Steakhouse and a Chilis.
We went for a beer in chilis on your recommendation Pete, but didn't eat there as there's a Chick-fil-A and I needed a deluxe burger-they rock! ( I may need to re-score them...)

Blimey, I know we've driven a long way, but that's ridiculous!

i've just seen the best thing I've ever seen in a public toilet!!












It was a bit tricky taking a photo of it, I didn't really want to get caught in a men's toilet in a petrol station with a camera...

Blimey, I know we've driven ...etc

Fast Food Faceoff!!

Hardee's.

Blah blah blah burgers, blah blah 1/3 pounder, blah blah Ruth chicken strips.

Tasty, meaty, not too greasy

Score 7/10

Today was a very special day for me...

I got Elvis sunglasses...

Graceland!!

It's brilliant!

Quite apart from all the middle aged men with dyed black quiffs, the tour of the mansion is really interesting, and while I was getting excited by the Jungle Room, the Trophy Room and the Meditation Garden, Ruth was getting excited by Elvis' cctv setup.

The tour of the mansion ends at his grave, which is really quite moving.

You also get to see his car collection, and his plane, which is like a mini Graceland inside, with leather chairs and tables, a dining room, an entertainment room and a bedroom.

This is a Memphis policeman with his 'motorcycle'...

His mum must be very proud...

Mmmm...ribs...

last night we found a little piece of heaven down an alleyway off South 2nd Street in Memphis.
It's called Rendezvous and it does ribs. It probably does other things as well but there's really no point looking at the rest of the menu.
You may say you've had ribs beans and coleslaw before, but trust me, you haven't had them like this.
The ribs come without sauce, but have some kind of coating on them unlike anything I've had before. The beans are probably the best I've ever had, sweet and smokey and mixed with juice from the ribs.
And how do you get something as mundane as coleslaw to taste this good?
Honestly, I could eat this for the rest of my life.
Anyway, after we finished eating we went down to Beale Street which is where all the bars and clubs are and spent the rest of the evening getting very drunk and listening to live music in BB King's Blues Club.
At least, we thought it was the rest of the evening.
What we didn't realise was that we'd crossed from Eastern time into Central time and had gained an hour, so we'd actually managed to have our dinner, go to a blues club, get hideously drunk and be back in our hotel and passed out by about 10 o'clock.

Fast Food Faceoff!!

Wendy's

You gotta love Wendy's, it's like McDonald's with O levels.

I had a classic burger meal, Ruth had some mad chilli salad

Just as I remember them, meaty, cheesey, with just the right amount of mustard.

Let down slightly by very ordinary fries

Score 7.5/10

Today was a very special day for us...

We got cowboy hats...

And Iiieeiiieeeiii will always love yoooooouuu....

Think of Disneyland.

Now think of Disneyland for rednecks and you get

It's pickin' and grinnin', it's hootin' and hollerin', it's chicken and grits, it's...

Actually, once you get past the homespun charm and backwoods goofiness and self deprication it's very well done. It's not as tacky as I thought it was going to be and the rides are great, and the Dolly Parton museum is really good.

Not as many homosexuals as I expected though.

Fat people on the other hand...

Oh. My. God.

And there's not just a few of them, they're literally everywhere you look, I've never seen so many obese people in one place in my life.

First one of the trip...

Fast Food Faceoff!!

I've been falling behind a bit with these, (sorry Joe), so here are two.

Firstly Checkers

Like Burger King, only they only do drive through

I had a Cheese Champ meal and Ruth had chicken strips

It was perfectly nice, but tasted just like a whopper, but the fries were far and away the best so far, coated with a delicious crispy seasoning.

Ruth said the chicken strips were better than kfc but had too much coating on them

Score 7/10

Next is Bojangles, a kind of down market KFC (yes, it's really that crap), with surly staff and decor and seating from the early 80's

I had a chicken burger thing, which for some reason wasn't coated in seasoning, and Ruth had a chicken salad.

The burger was ok, the fries were ok, the clientelle and surroundings made me feel like I was eating it in prison.

Score: 4/10

Apparently the salad was quite good...

Wilmington North Carolina

We're here in Wilmington, or 'Hollywood East' as it's sometimes known, where they've shot such gems as Dawson's Creek, One Tree Hill, and perhaps most importantly , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret Of The Ooze (with Vanilla Ice cameo!!).

We're staying in a lovely apartment in the middle of town

We're staying right on Cape Fear ( although that wasn't actually filmed here??).

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had a little wander around and Ruth pointed out many Dawson's Creek locations to me, then, while we were in a shop we overheard the shopkeeper telling a customer that they were going to be shooting One Tree Hill in a diner up the road the following day.

I honestly thought Ruth was going to faint, I've never seen her so excited, that is not until we discovered that the diner was actually directly below our apartment!!! Eh?, eh?

The next morning we went for a horse drawn tour of the town

Then the rest of the morning was taken up leaning out of the apartment window watching various extras and crew wander about smoking.

In the afternoon we went on a hollywood walking tour, where the tour guide pointed out various Dawson's Creek locations to me, then in the evening we went to a lovely seafood restaurant on the boardwalk (which was used as a location in Dawson's Creek)

This is Wrightsville Beach ( One Tree Hill location)

We went there this morning, did a bit of sunbathing (Gad, it was hot...), watched some surfers, then there was a huge thunderstorm so we spent the rest of the day shopping.

Off to Charlotte tomorrow!