The United States

 

January 3rd  2008

We’ve got the Tickets.  Well at least a sheet of A4 with all our flight details on,  these “etickets”  just don’t have the same excitement  and feeling of anticipation of flying off into the blue yonder as having a proper airline book of tickets in your hand. But yes! After months and months of planning the itinerary, hiring motor homes, booking accommodation and trips, plus spending a lot of money without going anywhere. Not forgetting (how could we) the trials and tribulations of selling the house.  Finally we feel we are on our way albeit still with 23 days “and counting” till we fly to Las Vegas.

 

January 21st  2008

Well we must be getting close to departure now, JENNY'S HAD HER HAIR CUT!  Everything seems to be gathering momentum, places to go, people to see.  We have collected the hire car as we have sold our's, having Fords for all my driving life and working for Ford Dealerships for 40 years, what does the hire company give me. A Vauxhall!!! I know of 2 people at CST Pharma who will be amused.  Yes! you know who you are!!!!  We will also drive up to Lichfield to say cheerio to our son Michael and fiancé Sharon and my brother Brian and his wife Linda. A visit to our hygienist, a couple of suitcases in to storage, a few more cheerio's before driving back to Weston-Super-Mare. It's ironic that we are going to do so much driving in the next year, but I dislike that boring 2 hour drive down the M5 from the Midlands.

 

January 25th 2008

We must be closer still now, I’VE HAD MY HAIR CUT!  Well I suppose what I really mean is Jenny got the shears and mower and hacked at it!  But the end result was similar to a barbers it is now shorter.  Seriously, Jenny has cut my hair now for 39 years and she’s had no complaints (well perhaps one when she nicked my ear) plus I have saved a small fortune in barber’s cost.

 

Everything is now ready, we have laid all we are going to take on the lounge floor, sorted it, looked at it, took things out, discussed it, argued it (Jenny won), then put things back. If you have seen one of those pictures of an Arctic or Everest expeditions and all they take and did not believe, well, believe! I will look like a Sherpa at the airport and if anybody see's someone leading a Yak or Llama, that's me.

 

Sunday 27th January 2008Thestart

At Last, we are on our way. We are staying at the Ibis Hotel at Gatwick overnight for our flight in the morning. An uneventful trip from Weston-Super-Mare except at Junction 10 on the M4, Betty the SatNav voice told us to turn left and we knew that Gatwick was right. I call her Betty after the voice that tells “Top Gun” fighter pilots to “pull up”, pull up” when they are 3 feet from the ground travelling at Mach 1. Think we’ll change her name to Edith! Anyway problem solved, Jenny’s sister Kath bought me a “key fob” compass for Christmas. We pointed it North “ish” went South “ish” and found Gatwick. We dropped the hire car back at Alamo after going around the departures parking perimeter twice. Betty insisted we went to the North Terminal, I wanted to go to the South Terminal, I won. We then waited in the wrong place for the courtesy bus back to the hotel, a phone call to the hotel soon put that right. We then decided to have something to eat, we looked at the menu in the room, decided what we wanted and went down to the restaurant. That menu was not available Sunday's so we chose again from a very limited selection, nice Chicken Kebabs, shame about the quantity. 

 

 

 

 

Monday 28th January 2008

Virgin Flight VS043 to Las Vegas, we had to put our smallest item of luggage (a rucksack) through the “oversize” luggage transfer because it had loose straps and might get tangled in the conveyor system!

What a wonderful surprise shortly into the flight, the cabin crew girl brought us a bottle of Moet champagne (suitably chilled) and chocolates on a tray, a gift from Rhiain, Michael and their partners Jon and Sharon. The other passengers must have thought we were royalty, except we were in economy class seats!  For the first time on a transatlantic flight we managed when flying along the bottom edge of Greenland to see the snow, ice floes, icebergs and the frozen land.  Told Jenny I’d seen a Polar Bear but from 42,000 feet in the air she didn’t believe me.

 

Tuesday 29th January 2008

Las Vegas, Nevada.  First we needed to re-sort our travel bags as we had divided our clothes amongst three of them in case any luggage ended up in Timbuktu, Lenigrad or Botswana. At least if one did go astray  I would  have a change of underpants.  Typical America, went to breakfast, had a small cup of coffee nearly fell into it and almost drowned, decided to have a 3 egg omelette, must have been Ostrich eggs the size of it. If we have the same again another day we will share one for the extra $3.  Walking through the casino area even at 8am in the morning we were surprised how many people were playing the slot machines. I looked at all the buttons and levers and decided it was all to complicated, anyway I couldn’t  see where to put my 25 cents in.  We needed some batteries for the small camera, nearly walked the length of the strip to find them, however if we wanted Rolex watches or Gucci fashions we could have bought them in every other shop!

 

Wednesday 30th January 2008

It worked! Jenny and I shared a three (Ostrich?) Egg and Ham Omelette and it was enough breakfast for the two of us, cost us an extra $3 to share (I suppose that was to wash the extra plate) but a net saving of $9. As our daughter Rhiain would say, bargain. In the Mirage Hotel’s complex is Seigfrid and Roys “Secret Garden”, which houses dolphins and big cats, not our normal type of visit but an opportunity to see White Tigers and Lions was not to be missed. I must agree however with the criticism  we have heard that their enclosures are (in our opinion) to small, but if this is the only way that these magnificent creatures can survive than so be it. Last word (almost, see below) on Las Vegas amazing yes, enjoyable yes, would we go again no.

 

Thursday 31st January 2008

Kingman, Arizona. (110 miles) We thought the lights and flags in Las Vegas were especially for us. However, the Receptionist at Alamo Car Rental told us that some guy called Bush was staying at the Venetian Hotel opposite ours.  Wonder if he gambled away any of the nation’s coffer’s?  We feel with the collection of the hire car (a Toyota Highlander) our travels really begin. Betty (see 27th January) was in a good mood and  found her way straight to Kingman from Las Vegas. We stopped on the way for a tour of the Hoover Dam (reminds me of our dam(n) Hoover which was rubbish from when we bought it new not very long ago, to when we threw it in the skip when we sold the house) but I digress, the tour was very interesting and took us down into the generator rooms near the bottom of the dam.  If you are near this part of the USA don’t miss it.

 

Friday 1st February 2008Route66

Sedona (191 miles) Stayed last night at the Best Western on the “Mother Road” the famous Route 66  http://www.historic66.com/  Jenny posed at the  historical sign.  A nice leisurely drive down to Sedona, all I needed to do was set the cruise control to 70mph (the max’ speed on Highway 40 being 75mph). The road was so quiet and the opposite dual carriage way is approx 50 yards away, so you get the impression that you are on a 2 lane one way system. Driving at its easiest. We had 43 miles of twisty mountain road to get to Sedona and snow at the top at 7500ft, but what fantastic views when we got here. The view from the hotel balcony of the Best Western Arroyo Roble must be one of the best we have seen. I am waiting whilst typing this for a photo opportunity of the sun going down on the red rock. 

 

 

 

Saturday February 2nd 2008

We spent most of the day in Red Rock Canyon State Park only 20 minutes drive from the hotel.  We had spoken to a Park Ranger the night before who told us of a bird watching walk at 9am so we had an early breakfast and met the ranger John (who talked, Jenny said, like Forrest Gump) at the Visitor Station.  He was very informative and enthusiastic on the hour and a half walk (scheduled for just a hour) we saw twenty different species, 95% of  which we had never seen before. In the afternoon we went on a 5 mile walk ourselves. We needed the hot tub and steam room session on returning to the hotel. We filled up today with fuel for the first time, the equivalent UK cost?  0.39 pence per litre. Still cheaper than a Coca-Cola! Are we being “ripped off” in the UK or what? To use one of my favourite sayings “it makes my blood boil”.

 

Sunday February 3rd 2008

Grand Canyon (146 miles) Wow! We were told there was snow due for the area but we were surprised just how much. It took us nearly 5 hours to do the journey. We crawled along the main highway at about 20 mile an hour. 3 cars had slipped off the road onto their roofs, wagons were stuck on the gradients (luckily on the inside lane) other cars were stranded, we followed a snow plough, it was Chaos with a capital “C”.  We detoured around the 2 scenic routes because they were over mountain passes (we would not have seen anything with the conditions anyway) for most of the journey we were between 6,000ft and 7,500ft above sea level. We stopped at a “Denny’s” for lunch at Williams and asked if we would be OK for the rest of the journey (approx 40 mile). The waitress told us they (the highways dept) normally look after  Highway 64 so we should make it.  Conditions improved until about 10 miles from the hotel,  when the road conditions rapidly deteriorated, the only way I knew where the road was, was from previous tyre marks. Well we have arrived, when we depart is another thing. The weather is due to improve tomorrow, but we have come to see the Grand Canyon so may stay an extra day. To sum up the day, thank goodness for 4WD!

 

Monday 4th January 2008Carsnow

Think my brain must be suffering from the altitude, I forgot to mention the cracked windscreen on the car, we think it may have been from the cold. However, Alamo are going to drop another vehicle at the hotel when we reach Bryce.  Excellent customer service from Glen in Salt Lake City. We had some great views of the Grand Canyon today, the last time I saw a hole that deep was when I dug out our garden pool, We hope our photographs do it justice. Typical, when we went for a hot tub and sauna tonight there was just one lad in the tub and he came from??????  Weston-Super-Mare, small world eh?  When we go to other countries we always try the local cuisine, tonight it was Elk, it was delicious, although I thought the antlers were a bit tough! More snow is expected tonight we will make a our minds up in the morning whether to stay an extra night, we don’t have to make a decision until 11am.

 

 

 

Tuesday 5th  February 2008

Monument Valley (180 miles) We woke up to a perfect winters morning, cold, but wall to wall sunshine. We decided to continue as planned to Monument Valley driving along the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The ranger at the kiosk (who wasn’t as pretty as the girl yesterday as it was a man) told us the road was open,  but to drive carefully. When we turned onto Highway 64 East there was a sign suggesting using snow chains or snow tyres, did my confidence a lot of good! However, as there where 2wd cars going along, we drove on. Although the road was snow and ice the snowplough had done its job and we made good time, stopping at the frequent “scenic views” on the way. At one place the scenic view was down a track with a “one way” circle at the bottom. As we drove out a large snowplough had got stuck in the snow! The driver attempting to dig it out, no chance! I turned round and drove up the “wrong way” a party of Japanese tourists where shouting at one another "!$%^%&*^$##:</$%^@:~ #" which roughly translated means “look at that stupid Engrishman going the wong way”.  I bet they are still there now waiting to get out.

 

Wednesday 6th February 2008

We are staying at Gouldings Lodge,  http://www.gouldings.com/ (which is actually just over the border from Arizona in Utah) We booked their “Winter Special", 2 nights accommodation (the view from the bed looking out to the  monuments cannot be described, see sunset and sunrise photo’s) with a full day tour for $225, To use Rhiain’s saying again, bargain! What a tour it was, certainly albeit we are early days into our trip, this was the highlight so far. Their were six of us on the trip, David and Betti from Nashville, Tennessee, and Edmundo and Valeria from Sao Paulo, Brazil, with our Navajo Indian guide Jones. On the 8½ hour trip we were only on tarmac for about 20 minutes. In the morning we visited the “Mystery Valley” to view the Anasazi Indian Ruins and the Valley. Then we had lunch cooked in the valley over an open fire by Jones, (delicious) before the afternoon trip to “Monument Valley”  viewing the various rock formations, arches,  etc. We, that is the whole party, thoroughly enjoyed it, a trip not to be missed and which would take far to long to describe.

 

Thursday 7th February 2008

Page (125 miles)  A comfortable drive to Page, just accelerate up to 65 mph switch the “cruise control” on and drive along a dead straight road with little traffic for 125 miles (or so it seemed). Staying at a Holiday Inn Express at half the price it has been costing us  at “Wall Island”  Lichfield, another bargain. We have visited the Glen Canyon Dam which holds back the mighty Colorado River, creating Lake Powell which is a Mecca for boating enthusiasts. The size of the houseboats for hire are unbelievable to quote an advertisement in the Page-Lake Powell Visitor Guide, “top-of-the-line 75foot Excursion with hot tub and fireplace!”  Reminds me must check our lottery numbers.

 

Friday 8th February 2008

The photography trip to Antelope Canyon exceeded mine (and certainly Jenny’s) expectations. We met up with our Navajo guide “Al” (yes really) for the short 15 minute drive to the Canyon and a further 10 minutes on the rough sandy dry watercourse to the mouth of the slot, Al took us to the other end to make our way back to the mouth taking photographs. The light from the sun coming down from above, shadows and the erosion of the sandstone made indescribable colours and shapes. Al took Jenny under his wing and with his guidance with just the small compact camera shot some incredible photo’s. Those on the “Photo Gallery” page are all Jenny’s work.  During the afternoon we drove into the desert alongside the Colorado River before taking a tour round the Glen Canyon Dam with Rachel a Hopi Indian as our guide. The evening was spent consuming the KFC we could not finish the night before. We are having problems with the Photo Gallery at present, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

 

Saturday 9th February 2008

Springdale, Utah (158 miles) We have decided to change our itinerary slightly by going to Zion National Park first instead of Bryce National Park. The temperature difference is almost 12 degrees F. We are staying at the Best Western in Springdale at approx’ 4,000ft above sea level, whereas Bryce is over 7,000ft above sea level. We know that they have had significant falls of snow and whilst there is some here at lower levels, we thought we would wait a few days for the expected warmer weather. It is 60 degrees F here at 1800 hours. We stopped at Navajo Bridge on the way, a young lady we met in Page told us that she had seen Californian Condors there. We could not see them, however we were talking to a young man who said there were three there and pointed them out to us. They were preening themselves on rocks 600 feet down by the side of the river (The Colorado) and we had not spotted them! The young man worked for “The Peregrine Fund” who were instrumental in reintroducing these magnificent birds back to the United States. Should you be interested then look at http://peregrinefund.org  (conservation projects) two of the birds we saw were 50(250) and 72(272), it certainly is a success story similar to our Sea Eagles in Scotland.

 

Sunday 10th February 2008

A leisurely day (well it is Sunday) we walked around the ponds at the back of the hotel watching the birds and hopefully a Muskrat (which didn’t appear). In the afternoon we drove along Zion Canyon scenic road, this is the main part of the canyon, although the whole area is spectacular. You can only do this in the winter season, from 1st March you must use the  free shuttle buses which drive up the 5 miles of the Canyon. Even today there were plenty of people about and the car park at the end was quite busy despite the ice & snow. We decided to do the riverside walk which is about 1½ hour return walk. However, we could not go all the way because the Park Rangers had cordoned off the end due to ice falling off the Canyon side. Whilst we were there great chunks of ice were tumbling down the cliff face onto the path and into the river. Could make a nasty bump on one’s head!  We returned to the hotel and into the outside hot tub but it is a lovely warm evening. I had to show Jenny how macho I was by going back to the changing room across the snow in my bare feet. 18:05 hours just had to dash out to take a photo of the sun setting on the red rocks at the back our hotel room, 3 minutes later and the chance would have been gone. Spectacular!

 

Monday 11th February 2008Coffebreak

Bit of a habit setting in. A walk around the pool at the rear of the hotel, followed by  a cup of coffee sitting on the veranda in rocking chairs. The temperature was 58 degrees F in the shade. It was bliss! We then drove along the Zion Canyon scenic byway to the “Lower Emerald Pool”, however the path in the shade was just a sheet of ice, so unfortunately we had to abort our attempt. Jenny said she felt safer when she used to ice skate on 2 pieces of steel ¼ inch thick!  We are going on to Bryce Canyon National  Park tomorrow, the weather is still not to promising, chance of snow on Wednesday but not as much as last weekend. We shall stay 2, possibly 3 nights, depending on weather and our acclimatisation to the higher altitude. We have been told to take it easy the first day there (good excuse for another cup of coffee on another veranda sitting in  another rocking chair).

 

Tuesday 12th February 2008

Ruby’s Inn, Bryce Canyon (83 miles), from the information at the Visitor Centre in Zion we expected a difficult journey from Springdale because of the snow on the mountain road towards Bryce. The drive was a pleasure the only difficult part was the series of 180 degree switchback bends and the mile long tunnel climbing out of Zion N.P, (not suitable for those who dislike sharp drops) the mountains caused shadows and where the sun had not reached there was still some ice and snow. Snow was present from last weekends storm all the way, but the roads were perfectly dry, the snowplough and snow-blowers having done an excellent job. The same goes for Bryce National Park the snow is over 2 foot deep, but all the roads, lay-bys and scenic turnoffs (even the paths to the viewpoints and information boards have been cleared) the UK has a lot to learn!  We drove up to Bryce Point and the view over the Canyon looking down on the “Hoodoo’s” (look them up yourself) are truly magnificent. We shall see more tomorrow!

 

Wednesday 13th February 2008

Forgot to mention yesterday (altitude again) Betty, for those of you that have not met Betty see 27th January. We were going along Highway 89 to take a right onto highway 12 to Bryce,  Betty wanted to go right before then over a 8,000 feet plus mountain, then, when we turned right onto Highway 12 she wanted to do an immediate left into a RV camping park. Well she was in such a bad mood Jenny switched her off and we followed our noses. We had an early start this morning to go to “Bryce Point” to catch the sunrise, it was not very spectacular so we drove back to “Sunset Point” (yes really) to watch and photograph the sunrise there. After returning for breakfast we made our way to “Mossy Cave” a 0.4 mile walk up a snowy path to see the cave and the waterfall nearby. The waterfall was nothing special but the cave had some wonderful photogenic ice formations. It was a bit slippery in places and at one spot Jenny gave me a “10” and said I would perform well on “Dancing on Ice” (is that still on and if not who won?) My money was on Linda Lusardi, having said that my money has always been on her, cost me 20 pence to buy “The Sun” to look at page 3! Spent the afternoon driving the 18 mile down the “Bryce Canyon” rim road to the end and then made our way back stopping at each of the scenic view points looking at the scenery and taking photographs.  Returning to the hotel to eat the remains of last nights dinner (a story to long to tell).

 

Thursday 14th February 2008

Springdale (83 miles), we woke up this morning to about 5 inches of snow, so the first job because the snow had drifted in the wind, was to find which car was ours. We used the coffee tray and  ice bucket lid from the room to remove the snow and a small plastic notice card for an ice scraper which I broke! (Hope nobody from Best Western reads this website). We drove back along Highway 89 with the intention of connecting to Interstate 15 to Cedar City. However, when we stopped at  “Tod’s Country Store” for a coffee, we asked for their advise on taking the connecting road Highway 14, they said although it had been ploughed it would be very icy as it is a high mountain road and very twisty. They suggested going through Springdale via Zion National Park (where we stayed previously) but it would cost  us $25 to go through the park. Forward planning now came in to being, we had purchased an  “America The Beautiful” annual pass at Grand Canyon for $80 and already used it for 4 National Parks ($20 saving) and will also use it to enter Death Valley N.P. Decision made, at no cost back through Zion. We had intended to stay in St George on Interstate 15 for 2 days, however why stay in a town when you can stay near Zion, so,  no contest, here we are back at the Best Western, Zion Inn, Springdale, drinking another cup of coffee on the same veranda in the same rocking chair. It’s a habit!

 

Friday 15th February 2008

A very leisurely day, went to Oscar’s Café for breakfast, we try and keep our breakfast to a minimum but we still seem to come back extremely full. We were able this morning to speak to our son Michael, daughter Rhiain and my brother Brian. It was great to here their voices via “Skype”, who ever invented that gets a medal. We just have to co-ordinate the different times zones and normally we are not able to. We have been unable since leaving Las Vegas to get a signal on the mobile phone, tomorrow we will be back in Nevada so we may have more luck.  At last, we walked around the pond and spotted the Muskrat sitting on a log in the water. Alas, he (or she) was camera shy and by the time I had focused in on him/her with the camera he had swam to the bank. The afternoon was spent driving along Zion National Park road, we attempted the “Emerald Pool” walk we aborted earlier in the week, but again there was to much ice on the trail so we turned back. We did spot some Wild Turkeys feeding at the side of the road, however we did not have any “Paxo” with us so they live to feed another day! The other habit was satisfied tonight, we sat in the “hot tub” until we were wrinkled and half boiled but very relaxed.

 

Saturday 16th February 2008

Overton, Nevada, (123 miles), Well a least we’ve got our hour back now we have changed from “Mountain Time” to “Pacific Time” travelling out of Utah cutting into Arizona for a short time before crossing into Nevada. Now all we need worry about is the “International Date Line” when we appear to lose a day when we fly to New Zealand. We  haven’t yet worked out when we get that back and I don’t want to lose the benefit of the leap year, (explanation’s on an email please). At last, other than that on surrounding high mountains we are out of the snow and here at Overton by the side of Lake Mead at 1146ft above sea level (according to my watch) it is distinctly warmer. We have spent the afternoon in the “ Valley of Fire” State Park, how different these National and State parks are from each other. The “Valley of Fire” having deep red sandstone with unusual formations, holes and numerous examples of prehistoric Indian petroglyphs (rock paintings and drawings to you and me).

 

Sunday 17th February 2008

Death Valley, California, (200 miles) a nice leisurely drive despite the distance, stopping on the way first at “The Valley of Fire” to take a few more photographs. The intention was to be a bit earlier to catch the early morning sun on the sandstone, however we did not get away as early as we expected to.  We then joined Highway 15 towards Las Vegas but turned off  7 miles before which avoids the build up of traffic. Two natural????? hazards we managed to avoid on the way were both on Highway 95. we drove along the perimeter of the old Nevada Nuclear Test Site without our skins going luminous and we turned off for Death Valley just before reaching “Area 51”.  The last thing I wanted was to be “beamed up”  and kidnapped by aliens with green skin, 1 eye, 2 heads and 4 tentacles, (some people say I married one, I disagree mines got 2 eyes). We have  a lovely room at Furnace Creek Ranch overlooking the golf course (a low round guaranteed at 214ft below sea level) and with a view of the snow-capped Panamint Mountains in the distance.

 

Monday 18th February 2008Mum

 

Mary Morris (Mum) 7th December 1920-18th February 2007.

 

Thinking of you today and everyday.

 

 

God Bless you

Love Alan and Jenny

 

Bet Mother Teresa of Calcutta, John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Elvis Presley and the Queen Mother all know how to play “Bingo” now!

 

 

Tuesday 19th February 2008

We decided to get up early for a walk around the perimeter of the Golf Course to see if we could see any wildlife. Although there was plenty of ducks (mostly Mallards) in the pool it was very quiet, a far sighting of a Coyote was the best we could do. We shall try again tomorrow as a golfer told us he had seen a Bobcat earlier. We spent the rest of the morning at Salt Creek Nature Trail a mile long boardwalk, one of the only places in the world to see Desert Pupfish a fish approx’ 1 inch long that has adapted to the salt water of Death Valley and yes we did see them. We sat at the picnic table to have lunch and then drove along Artists Drive to Artist Palette a place we both wanted to return to from our previous trip in 2001. This time we walked along the canyon taking photographs of the impressive rock colours and formations.  We then continued for a look at Zabriskie Point (has anyone ever seen the film? I have twice, but if somebody could tell me what it was about I would be grateful) again some fantastic rock colours and formations, we were hoping for a nice sunset from there but with some cloud cover we were disappointed. Tonight we are going to the visitor centre to see the 50 minute slideshow entitled  “did you ever wake up…… and find that everything had changed”?  The effects and aftermath of the great storms in Death Valley of 2004, sounds interesting.

 

Wednesday 20th February 2008

Palmdale (220 miles) An easy run until we got to Mojave, where it was so windy we had difficulty opening the car door when refuelling, then as we approached Palmdale we had heavy rain, thunder and lighting (who sang that record, It Never Rain’s In Sunny California? Fibbers!)  When we got to the hotel, I opened the rear door (boot in the UK) and an Orange fell out and rolled down the car park, I wasn’t going to chase it in the rain, so I hope it gives somebody the pip! Jenny has repacked for our flight to Rarotonga, I could not understand why we had an extra bag than when we arrived, then I realised why it was. It’s all those complementary soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions and potions from the hotels we have stopped at. We have enough for the rest of our trip!  At least we don’t take towel’s hairdryers, etc that other’s have been known to take. Hold on a minute, “what’s in that other bag over there”?????

 

Thursday 22nd February 2008

Los Angeles Airport (68 miles) Well here we are waiting for our 8 hour flight to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. We left Palmdale rather earlier than we anticipated after wondering around the local Shopping Mall stopping for a shared coffee then deciding we may as well make an early start for L.A. Betty was on her best behaviour and took us right to the Alamo rental car drop-off, it was a bit fraught driving along the 6 lane Freeway’s making sure we were in the right lanes to take the correct exits, however, we made it. A 10 minute bus shuttle to the terminal through check-in, and security and now the wait for our flight. If you have enjoyed reading the first part of our journey, please join us in the Cook Islands.

 

Some thoughts on the  United States part of our journey.

We have certainly seen some variance in the weather, from the heavy snow in the Grand Canyon and  Bryce to the warmth of Zion and the dryness of  Death Valley, to the unexpected rain in California. We have seen both extremes in altitude 9100 feet above sea level in Bryce to the  -282 feet below sea level in Death Valley. We visited 4 National Parks each completely different  from one another, Grand Canyon looking down into the great expanse, Zion with it’s high peaks (reminds us a bit of Dovedale, Derbyshire but so much bigger). Bryce Canyon with the remarkable rock formations and the ability to see over 100 miles and in our opinion although already having been there, we left the best till last, Death Valley, the valley floor, desert, sand dunes, the rock formations and colours and especially the views from Zabriskie Point and Dantes View  all make it one of the best places we have yet been to.

 

 One disappointment has been the lack of wild animals we have seen, the different season of the year being the main reason for that. However, we have seen a lot of birds we have never seen before. We also were lucky enough to be in Death Valley when they had an earlier than normal bloom of  “Desert Gold” a beautiful Marigold like flower that stretched over the desert in some places for miles.

 

We were lucky with our accommodation throughout our visit, the pre-planning of looking at Motels and checking http://www.tripadvisor.com/  paid off and by and large were very accurate. We booked most on the Internet on a “day before basis” except our stays in Las Vegas and Death Valley which we had pre-booked. Except for Holiday Inn Express in Page, Arizona and Goulding’s  Lodge in Monument Valley, we have used Best Western throughout and would recommend them to anybody that visits the United States. Should you be interested in any specific hotel we have used, I will shortly list them on the Bits and Pieces page and  can give a honest opinion of them. I will also publish some (boring) stat’s of our mileage and fuel costs.

 

In conclusion, a very successful start to our trip, looking forward to the rest of our journey with only one real wish, A kettle, teapot, decent tea, skimmed milk and a proper cup (not plastic, paper, or polystyrene) here’s hoping!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              


 

All images on this website are copyright of Alan and Jennifer Morris and may not be used without prior written permission.

 
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