Around the World in 80 Arguments

Goodbye………………………………………………until next time!!

Here we are sitting in Las Vegas airport waiting for our flight home having driven 2,341 miles since we picked up the car on arrival at Los Angeles airport. You'd think that with that sort of mileage you've covered a lot of ground but, although we've been through 4 States (California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada) it feels like we've only scratched the surface. Like Australia the country is vast but the USA is more populous and everything is on such a grand scale. California used to belong to Mexico so we heard as much Spanish spoken there as English, even signs are in both languages. Here we visited 2 major cities, LA and San Francisco which were very different to each other. The only other major city we visited was Las Vegas which had a completely different feel again. The American leg of this trip was the one I was least looking forward to due to previous experiences. When I used to come here on business 20 odd years ago I found the place to be poor design, poorly organised, rubbish cars, slow traffic , friendly but insular people and everything to excess - huge gas guzzling cars, huge coke and burger guzzling people etc! Obviously on business trips, predominantly to North Carolina and Michigan, you don't get the opportunity to look around and enjoy some leisure time and local sights. I have to say that I've changed my mind somewhat and enjoyed being here. The scenery is spectacular and its relatively easy to get around, although the distances can be tiring. Having said that it's quicker to drive around than it used to be when the speed limit had to be 55mph because the cars were so big and wobbly on the road. Now most of the cars are Japanese (and the ubiquitous Ferrari!) and handle so much better so the speed limit is 70mph with people driving quicker on great roads - with petrol at 40p a litre they're not worried about consumption statistics! The other major change is the size of the people. Twenty years ago it seemed that the majority of Americans were not just overweight but grossly overweight, living on a diet of junk food. Although overweight people can still be seen it's nowhere like the extent it was. Maybe that's because I'm in a different region or maybe the light has dawned. Fast food joints put the calorific value alongside every dish on the menu - simple, but it does make you think when you're ordering - unfortunately! One thing that doesn't seem to have changed is the insular nature of the population. During our time here we've hardly seen any international news at all, nothing about the refugee crisis in Europe or the "Brexit" vote etc. It's all "local" news with almost blanket coverage of the Presidential candidate elections for the Democrats and Republicans - concentrating particularly on Donald Trump. Obama might as well not exist, there's no mention of him or what's going on day to day in the Senate etc. Many Americans are not well travelled, not leaving their State, or even County in their lives. I guess that's one of the problems of living in such a huge country. There's no doubt that America still feels confident about its' future but is worried about Trump. It still see's itself as the No1 country in the world and the standard of living is good for those with money and jobs. For those less fortunate, I'm not so sure - we saw a lot of people living on the streets in the cities. In conclusion, I've changed my mind about America. Before this trip I had no desire whatsoever to visit the USA. Now I would definitely return to visit different areas of natural beauty, or to play golf, or to revisit San Francisco!

MM decided to have a lazy day and stay in the suite but I decided to walk a block on to The Strip, wander around a bit and have some lunch. The temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit so I ducked into a huge shopping centre attached to Planet Hollywood to get cool. I walked through the shopping mall and eventually came to a part of it which felt like it was evening. It has a very high roof painted in a way that it looks like the sky at dusk - very realistic and eerie. Feeling peckish I went into a bar/restaurant called Blondies, ordered some food and watched West Ham v Man Utd live. After the match I walked back through the Mall thinking I might have a go on the slot machines before we finally went home. With this in mind I walked through Planet Hollywood and eventually found some machines that allowed 25 cent "bets" do I decided to put $5 into it. Unfortunately, having put my money in I didn't understand how to play the machine so I pressed "cash out" and got a bar coded card with $5 on it. This time I looked for a machine I might understand and found an old fashioned type one armed bandit with 5 reels that you could bet 1 cent a time on - much better. I scanned in my card and got $5 credit and decided to bet 3 cents a line on 9 lines, do 27 cents a pull! I kept going and after getting down to only $1.89 credit after loads of losses and a few wins I got up to $9.01 with a couple of decent spins. There's no "holds" or "nudges" so it gets a bit monotonous just pulling the lever - even when you win you don't get the physical satisfaction of cash chunking out of the machine, it just increases your balance on the electronic reader. Attention span exhausted I was about to "bet the house", all $9.01 or as much of it as I could to finish quickly, when I thought "no, cash it in then you can always say you won in Las Vegas - the amount is immaterial!". So I pressed the " cash out" button and went to the Cashiers desk and cashed it in. The Cashier gave me a strange look as if to say"why did you bother". I don't care, I won and there weren't many at the Cashiers cashing in - there's a lesson in there somewhere!

MM entering Nevada on way to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, view from our suite day and night, Eiffel Tower, Big balloon, The Strip, fountains to music at Bellagio, Ceasars Palace and SJ playing the one armed bandit - unsuccessfully (no hairy melons Mr K!)

Well here we are at the end of our trip. We arrived in Las Vegas yesterday afternoon, stopping to see the Hoover Dam in the way, and booked into our King Suite at the Platinum hotel a block back from The Strip. In the evening we ventured out to see Vegas at work - there are some sights I can tell you! Everything is on a grand, ostentatious scale - mini Paris with Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Palace of Versailles. Ceasars Palace is enormous and the fountains in front of The Bellagio are impressive. If its gambling, shows or clubbing you're looking for, this is the place to be - its buzzing. The casinos are huge with $5 being the minimum bet on the slot machines (which only take notes!) and $15 minimum bet on the "tables". Easy to lose serious money here but people just feeding the machines for ages waiting for the big one - mad! The tables are even more scary, people seemingly losing hundreds of dollars in a very short period of time - not for me! We've rearranged our flights for tomorrow and we're now looking forward to getting home and catching up with everyone. When the end is weeks (or months) away you don't really think about it, but when it appears on the horizon you start to think about it and, I think, subconsciously start working towards it. It's been a fabulous experience and we've both thoroughly enjoyed it. This will be the last blog covering our visits but I will do a " View from the Boundary" for the USA and then a couple of blogs reflecting on the whole experience, lessons learned, highlights and lowlights when we've been back a few days and I've given it time to all sink in. Thanks for following our adventure, I hope you've enjoyed it and get the chance to do it yourself one day.

8 inadequate pictures of the Grand Canyon, a couple of elks wandering around the park and the infamous Route 66 at Williams

We left the Trading Post hotel at Cameron and headed for the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We were really lucky actually because after we left Page (Antelope Canyon) there was nothing until we reached Cameron and that is pretty much just a crossroads with this Trading Post place. We hadn't booked anything and I got the last room when we arrived at about 8pm - phew! The whole area (Page through to Cameron) seems to be an Indian (Navajo) reserve and the Trading Post was certainly run by local Indians. There was nothing but spectacular scenery between Cameron and the Grand Canyon either so I would have been in big trouble if we hadn't got the last room. The temperature was a cool 43 degrees Fahrenheit with a stiff breeze but the sky was pretty clear as we arrived at the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. This was to be the highlight of MM's trip, the place she had most wanted to visit since we first decided to embark on this crazy adventure and the only reason we'd originally decided to spend any time in America. It was also Mothers Day in America, so would it live up to expectations? There are numerous "view points" that you can drive to and others that you can only take the shuttle buses to. If you like walking there are numerous walks of varying lengths and difficulty. We went to all the view points and did a couple of walks along the rim, spending the whole day there, 10 hours, leaving at 7.15pm. You could certainly spend more time if you wanted to do some of the more challenging walks. So did it live up to it's billing? I think this place is probably one where the much overused word "awesome" could be properly applied. It's vast, on a massive scale (like many things in the US), the shapes, formations, colours, shades etc are amazing. It takes your breath away and you just have to sit and take it in. You could spend the whole day taking pictures, it's so tempting, but they will never do it justice so its important to take time to just enjoy the moment and absorb the wonder of nature. Even MM was suitably impressed! It really was a fitting finale to what has been a truly memorable and exciting adventure - which isn't quite over as we still have Las Vegas to deal with! Once again I hadn't booked anywhere for last night and once again we drove for over an hour until we came across a small town, Williams. It's a strange little place on the infamous Route 66, but we found a room okay fortunately so I'm still in good books - just!

Red Canyon (2), Bryce Canyon (4), Antelope Canyon (3)

...when its the Bryce Canyon! Not my fault this time! I learnt something today. Despite its name the Bryce Canyon is not a canyon but a collection of giant natural amphitheatres and is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos formed by frost weathering and steam erosion. "Enough" I hear you call - and I agree, partly because I've exhausted my geological knowledge bank and have no great desire to expand it! Back to the mundane day to day lives and adventures of SJ and MM. Strangely we woke to find frost on the windscreen and a very cold breeze. Undeterred we set off for Bryce Canyon (not a canyon as it turns out ......) passing through the spectacular Red Canyon on the way (not sure if that's a canyon or not - not particularly bothered either, but it was impressive). On arrival at Bryce Canyon we showed our annual park pass (saved us a fortune that has) then went to the visitor centre to work out what to do. Following the advice received we drove to Sunrise Point (as we were quite early and its not peak season they suggested we could drive rather than take the shuttle bus) and parked. We walked about 400m up to the viewing platform - an incredible view, you just have to sit and look at it for a while to take it all in. Then we walked along the rim of the Canyon for about half a mile to Sunset Point for a different perspective of the same view and also other views. We also walked down into the Canyon along narrow pathways to get closer to the hoodoos (pillars). It was getting pretty cold by now and then it started to hail - not MM's cup of tea at all so we returned to the car. The whole Canyon area is 18 miles long so we drove right up to the end, Rainbow Point at 9115ft high, stopping at the vista points along the way. The views are amazing, the colours and formations are spectacular. After the Canyon we decided to drive to Page to visit the Antelope Slot Canyon. This meant driving back over about 60 miles of the route we took yesterday but it is en route to the Grand Canyon so why not. Antelope Canyon is owned by the Navajo Indians and they run the tours at $40 a go. They take you up to the canyon in a 4 wheel drive truck that hold 14 tourists on the back, then escort you through the narrow canyon pointing things out. The canyon itself was formed by water erosion as water was pushed through a narrow gap. The canyon walls look like swirls and the light from the narrow gaps at the top create beautiful images - some of the professional photographs are incredible, unlike mine! Another 3 sights well worth the effort. Grand Canyon tomorrow, our last National Park before we return home - not a bad way to end the trip of a lifetime!

Some view of Zion NP - they don't do it justice I'm afraid, you'll have to visit yourself!

Despite a disturbed night we set off reasonably early to cover the 2.5hr journey to Zion. Within 10 minutes we passed US Airbase Nellis, explaining the planes overnight - no sign of the nutter in the yellow Cadillac, maybe his mobile had texted him an alert that MM was in town! Once again the drive had some stunning scenery, particularly at one point on I15 before passing into Arizona when we slipped into an invisible gorge and drove between high rock faces. On arrival at Zion we parked the car and took the shuttle bus into the canyon to see all the sights and took a walk up to the Emerald pools. I'm running out of superlatives, suffice to say it was worth visiting the colourful and strangely shaped mountains and rock faces that constitute the canyon which is 6 miles long and up to 600m deep. Minerals provide the colour and erosion has created the shapes. There are also some dramatic sheer cliff type faces and here we saw some climbers who looked tiny on the rock face. We left the park on the road towards Bryce Canyon, the Zion- Mount Carmel Highway. Wow, the exit is steep and tight with no barriers in some places, a bit scary. Then a long narrow tunnel - not good with American drivers coming the other way who are used to wide lanes and driving where they want! Then you exit and its hard to explain the terrain. You drive through, round, under and over eroded rocks and mounds with stupendous, colourful views in every direction - we even saw a couple of mountain goats chewing contentedly in the middle of the road. Off to Bryce Canyon National Park tomorrow, hopefully after a good sleep!

After yesterdays long drive, including going through the centre of Las Vegas as there is nowhere to stop really between Death Valley and Vegas, we eventually found a room at a Super8 motel in Nellis, 17 miles northish of Vegas. We were very tired so had a quick meal at the local Jack in a Box, wrote a quick blog then settled down for the night hoping for a good sleep. I went out like a light until at 3am our mobile phones started buzzing like mad things. It was an emergency alert that there was an armed and dangerous gunman driving round the area in a yellow Cadillac - don't know how we had managed to switch on alerts, but I wish we hadn't! MM of course slept through it! At 3.35am the phones went crazy again telling us to keep an eye on the news before leaving our homes! I switched the phones off and hoped for sleep. At 4am came the tremendous sound of fighter jets screaming low overhead - I thought this was a bit extreme to catch a lone nutter in a yellow Cadillac! This went on for about half an hour then I eventually dropped off again with a pillow wrapped round my head. All was well until 5.45am when the planes did their stuff again for 30 minutes - probably "landing and bumps" or low flying at night practice - thanks a bunch! Then the locals start getting up to go to work. They don't do quiet, they talk loudly as they go to their cars and then must use every door the car has, slamming each one just to check it works - considerate bunch, or am I just feeling a bit sensitive this morning! Won't be stopping here when we return to Vegas next week after we've finished with the parks - just hope they've caught the nutter in the yellow Cadillac by then!

View from the road just past Trona, Salt flats and Badlands (2), Artists Palette, Zabrinskie Point (3), Dantes View (3)

A long day of driving today starting with continuing south on I190 to Bakersfield where we then took the I58 west to pass below the Sierra Nevada. Next we turned north towards Death Valley - Sue Ellen was in her element, directing us all over the place (not always too clearly!) and getting us to I178 where the scenery changed dramatically, becoming desert like with little or no flora. We stopped in Trona for petrol and a sandwich and then pressed on marvelling at the scenery and also spotting a couple of wild cayotes, one of which was drinking out of a McDonalds paper cup someone had left on the desert floor. We reached the I190 at Panamint Springs and followed that to Stovepipe Wells, the gateway to Death Valley. From here we continued to the Visitors Centre at Furnace Creek to get advice of the best things to see and how to get there. Armed with a plan and a map we went to Badwater, the lowest point in the USA at 86m below sea level. The temperature was 102 degrees and the ground is a salt bed. Next we drove through "the Artists Palette", which has amazing rock formations and colourings, and then to Zabriskie Point which has tremendous views in every direction. Time was getting tight and the weather was beginning to change so we debated whether or not to drive off our route to Dantes Point or not. I'm so pleased we decided to go, it was cold up there and it was drizzling when we arrived but it was the highlight of the day for me. The views are breathtaking and well worth the trip. People justifiably rave about Yosemite, it is beautiful in a conventional way - the steep grey rock cliffs, the waterfalls and tumbling rivers, the greenery etc. However, for me, today was even better - the sheer scale, the ruggedness, the colours, the desolation, the isolation. It might be a long way out of the way from LA or SF, particularly when the Yosemite passes are closed, but I would strongly recommend a visit. Something else that struck me today was the fortitude and resilience that the early settlers from the East must have had. To take wagon trains across places like Death Valley and Yosemite when they were still completely wild and inhospitable must have been almost impossible - brave people. Spending the night just north of Vegas tonight, ready for an early start tomorrow when we plan to visit Zion National Park.

Distant view of the Half Dome, a view along the valley from interstate 120, El Capitane from the road, Half Dome from the road, MM and the Yosemite Falls, the Bear in the park!, on the way to the "Mirror Lake", MM and the view back to the park from interstate 49 - stunning (MM, not the view! or maybe both!)

After months of pronouncing Yosemite as "Yos-E-might", I have now learned that it's pronounced " Yo-sem-E-tee". No wonder the Americans always gave me a polite but puzzled look when I told them where we were going and MM thought we were planning to visit a different park to the one she wanted to go to! Has she given me grief over this? Has she ever! For Mr K in Salisbury, it's another "dimbly dop"! Anyway, I've admitted my little error now so I'll get on with telling you how the day went. We had a good breakfast at the wild west hotel and set off early to cover the remaining 70 miles along interstate 120 to the Yosemite park visitor centre. It's a slow, winding, climbing and falling road with some spectacular views so we didn't arrive until past 10am. About 20 miles from the visitor centre you have to go through the park entrance to pay for your ticket, $30. As we intend to visit a few parks I paid $80 which allows you to enter as many parks as you want over a 12 month period. At the visitor centre we took a bit of advice and walked to the Yosemite Falls, the highest Falls in the USA and the 5th highest in the world. On the walk back we saw a live bear about 15m away, we'd also seen one in a field on the drive in - amazing really! Fortunately, neither of them got nasty and we got pictures of them both. We didn't see any Rattlers or Mountain Lions though (I was relieved but MM had her David Attenborough head on so was a bit put out!). After that we caught one of the shuttle buses and took a walk out to the Mirror Lake where MM nearly got caught doing a Versailles! Eventually it was time to leave and we decided to take the long south loop via interstate 49 and 99 to get us around Yosemite and en route to Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Antelope and the Grand Canyon. The views at the park are great but I actually think that some of the views from the roads in and out are even better - worth a visit, but remember how to pronounce it!