blogging around the world american road trip

7/30/2019 Blogging Around the World American Road Trip

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Blogging Around

The World


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Prologue

Feeling teary today. I said goodbye to my second mum and dad,(Vinka and Mike) this afternoon, which made me really sad as I needregular do ses of them to keep me sane.

Flight panic has set in, as has digital switchover day. Dad is upset assom e of his c hanne ls have moved a bout. Tec hnology eh?

We fly at 11.30 tomorrow mo rning a nd should land in San Fran a t2.30pm the ir time.

Chapter One

5th April 2012

We go t a c ab to the a irpo rt a t 8.30am , picking up Zoe en route. It too khalf an hour, which was fab, as it meant I had more time in the bar atT5!

After faffing a bout trying to find a Boo ts store so m um c ould b uy someImpulse, I didnt have much time for my wine, so almost ran to theGiraffe Bar, downed a glass and a half of nasty Chardonnay and we

had to run to g et to o ur ga te, which wa s a shuttle ride, plus a 15 minutewa lk awa y.

I too k two Valium, a sleeping tablet a nd a mo tion sic kness tab let as weboarded, and (for the first time ever), fell asleep as soon as I sat in mysea t. I do nt reme mb er take off and w oke up in a slumber an hour andha lf into the flight, whic h I wa s delighted ab out.

From that point on, I was in a drug induced haze. I was still on edgeand spent the entire 11 hours watching the map of our journey, but onthe up side, I didnt d rink any a lc oho l on the flight.

We we re the last ones to rea ch c ustoms and wa ited for an hour to ge tto the window. I was really nervous, as my application for a six monthtourist visa ha s be en d enied a nd I was told this ma y affec t my c hanc esof being a llowed entry for three m onths.

As I was travelling with the family, I had them to help m e p ersuad e himto let me in. We put on our best British accents and launched a four


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pronged charm offensive; and luckily, it paid off. I vaguely rememberthe g uy talking a bo ut how big his hand s we re and we we re through.

Our bag ga ge wa s the last on the c arousel, (of c ourse) - we g rab bed itand g ot a c ab to our hotel (Aida Plaza Hotel) on Market Street, whichcost us a whopping $47. We had no idea how close our hotel was tothe infam ous Tend erloin a rea (where the d rugg ies and homeless hangout) a nd we a ll unsafe eve ry time we left the ho tel. The ho tel itself wasa throwback to the 70's. Flowery wallpaper, dodgy music in theelevator and a distinctly musky smell. We got a free continentalbreakfast', whic h turned out to be a d onut.

As we had arrived at 2pm, we had to stayawake and decided the best way to dothat was with alcohol, so headed to theGrand Hyatt Hotel for a cocktail on the37th floor, from where there are amazingviews of the city and Alcatraz. We thenwa ndered a round to ge t our be arings andtry and find a church for mum to go to on

Easter Day (a pre-requisite for heragreeing to come away overEaster).

After a long walk, we did whatevery tourist does had someCheetos and went to bed (at8.30pm).

6th April 2012

We were up a t 7am , afte r about 10 hours sleep . Felt so go od !!! We hadour free donut and went for a walk, which ended up being a 7 milewa nde r from Ma rket Stree t, all the w ay to Golden Ga te Park.

I love the a rc hitec ture in San Fran - eve ry house is unique , colourful andinteresting. Its certainly not cookie cutter territory.

The hills a re tiring (but no t for the 80 yea r old m an who ran p ast me a s I

stop pe d to rest).

Golden Gate Park is huge and separated by lots of roads. We wantedto ta ke m um to the Japanese Tea ga rde ns, whic h Zoe and I had lovedwhen we visited six years ago. After another hour, we found theGa rdens, but found that they c harge to enter now. It wa s $7 eac h, butit was wo rth the t rek and c ost.


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After exploring the Gardens, we found anoutdoor theatre area, where we sat to havelunch. I felt like I was watching an advert,promoting the 'American Dream', as a dadand his three kids played ball together, withmum watching on, cheering from thesidelines. Dad ruffled the kids hair when hehit the ba ll. They gathered for a family pho to,which was all smiles, showing their perfectwhite teeth.

After lunch, we headed to the cable carterminal, to get a tram to North Bea c h, to seeCo it Tow er and Lombard Stree t. The q ueue wa s huge and it wa s quitea wait, but we were at least entertained by a homeless man, with hisone man band.

We didnt make the tram in the end, as we couldnt catch up withmum, who literally fought her way on. We chased it up the road andspo tted mum g et off, looking p anicked .

San Fran both sc ares me and ama zes me . I feel uncom fortab le, asthere is a problem with homelessness. I thought there were a lot ofhomeless people six years ago, but the problem has escalated andthere a re now c ommunities of them .

We decided to abandon the tramidea and get some foo d. We we nt to

Louie 's Diner. The dec or is 1950's,complete with a cow in a hot pinkCadillac, suspended from the ceilingand jukeb oxes on ea c h tab le.

During dinner, we learnt that mumhad never had Ben & Jerry's icecream, so we went on a mission to

find som e for de ssert. We ac c identa lly walked into the Tend erloin a reaand stumbled upon a group of about 30 homeless people shootingup . One lady ran afte r us do wn the street, begging for money.

It appea rs tha t Westfield ha s rea c hed the Sta tes! As there was onenear our hotel, we stopp ed to have a co ffee a nd hea ded ba c k for oursec ond ea rly night .


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Chapter Two

7th

April 2012

After our doughnut breakfast, we got a cab to Pier 33, to pick up thetickets for our Alca traz Tour. The tour cost $26 ea c h a nd is sold outmonths in advance, so we had bought our tickets in February.

We got the 10am ferry for the 15 minute ride across to Alcatraz Island.As you board the ferry, your photo is taken in front of a fake Alcatrazbac kdrop. They then c harge you $15 for it.

The prison is quite imp osing a s you get up c lose. It wa s c losed by

Kennedy in the 1940's, as it was badly damaged by the weather andwa s too expensive to rep air.

The $26 ticket p rice inc lude d anaudio tour, which was brilliant. Itincluded interviews with ex-prisoners and wardens and tookyou through each area in theprison, describing events that tookp lac e a nd how the p risoners lived . Ifound it fasc inating . The o nly

downside was that they let toomanypeop le on

the island at once. You cant keep up withthe audio tour as you are constantly trying tonavigate round people to get to the nextarea.

I didnt realise that 3 men successfullyescaped from Alcatraz - (although no oneknows if they survived or not).

We go t the fe rry ba c k to San Fran ab out tw ohours later and walked along the seafront topier 39. I had forgotten how tacky it was - it is packed with overpricedjew ellery sto res, arcade mac hines, to urist shops, but a lso a rang e ofnice seafood restaurants. We got fish n chips and clam chowder fromPier Market ($7.50) which was delicious and then carried on walkingdo wn the sea front until we go t to the end .


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We still had our tram tickets from yesterday, so decided to take onebac k to the mo tel. It wa s an hour s wa it, but a w elcome sight, as we allhad sore leg s and feet .

We freshened up and heade d ba c k out to find some night life in NorthBea c h. We g ot the 45 bus (from Sutte r/Stoc kton Street), to C a fePuccinis (an Italian restaurant that was recommended in our guidebook).

North Bea c h is a nice a rea - if we had mo re time, I wo uld have liked tosee mo re of it.

8th April 2012

Faye and I got up ea rly to take mum to Church, as it w as Easter Sundayand she is a regular church-goer. We made it to low mass at theAdvent of Christ the King Church. I had never been to a low massservic e. There w ere no hymns or music and it wa s a very short servic e.

After the service, we walked through the famers market and wentba c k to c hec k on Zoe (who w as not fee ling w ell).

We pa c ked a nd g ot a c ab to San Fran a irpo rt, where we w ere p ic kingup a renta l c ar, for the roa d trip pa rt of the trip. We ended up w ith aKia Burreg o, The c ar co st a bout 600GBP betwe en us, (with insuranc e),whic h was not too b ad .

Afte r a ha iry mome nt on a steep hill, our Sa tNav took us on a really long route toSac ram ento (where w e w ere going to see ourfriend , Sney). Instead of ta king 90 minutes, (ove rthe Bay Bridge), it too k a lmost 3 ho urs.

Sney's house w as wo rth the wa it thoug h - he hasa go rgeous Duplex in d owntown Sac ram ento,in a q uiet, lea fy area.

He gave us a tour of the house and then pliedus with wine while we c aug ht up.

We left in time to m ake it to Lake Tahoeat sunset .

It was an hour and a ha lf d rive to TheMidway Inn, which was our home for thenight. It was great; the room wasspacious (which is important with four


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wo men sharing!) and it wa s a b arga in a t $28 per room.

We wa lked d own to the south side of the lake and c aught the last fewmo me nts befo re sun set . We b ump ed into tw o lad ies from Texas, (whowere super enthusiastic about everything) and chatted about ourrespective holidays.

We we nt to Chevy's Tex Mex for dinner. Again, I rec om mend the p lac e.The service was quic k, the food wa s go od and m ore impo rtantly, theMa rga ritas we re excellent.

After dinner, we hea de d ba c k to the m otel and (sad as it is), wa tc hedGrea t Expec ta tions. Our excuse is tha t there is nothing o n Am eric an TV.

9th April 2012

The c ost o f our stay inc luded a 'co ntinenta l breakfast', whic h I wasdub ious about a fte r San Fran. The Lake Tahoe version howe ver, wa sslightly different; a doughnut and a c arton of juic e.

We bo ught lunch supp lies from the loc a l supe rma rket and med ic ine forZoe (who is really poorly) and set off for Mammoth Lakes, which was a2.5 hour d rive from Tahoe .

We drove a long Highwa y 395, throug h Easte rn Sierra Neva da, whichwa s be autiful. It was a c ontrast of snow c ap pe d mounta in peaks andfla t, ba rren p la ins. We then p assed stunning Top az Lake and MonoLake.

We rea c hed Ma mmoth Lakes at 3pm. The temp erature has dropp edabout 20 degrees en route and there is ice and thick snow about. Itma kes sense though, a s the a ltitud e is 7,800 fee t.

There were signs around the mo te l, wa rning g uests tha t b ea rs hadcome out of hibernation 10 weeks early, due to the mild winter andhad be en seen on the hote l g round s. We ha d to m ake sure a ll our food


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was locked away in 'bear proof' containers and that we locked ourdoors and windows at night. I would love to see a bear and wastempted to leave some treats outside our room in the hope of anenc ounter, but I have seen Grizzly Ma n....

While in Mammoth Lakes, our intention was to see the Devil's Postpile (ageological wonder of the world) and Rainbow Falls, which are twomiles downstream of Devil's Postpile. Unfortunately, the road to get tothese sights wa s c losed , (as we re the hot sp rings we wa nted to see ), soinstead, we spent a couple of hours exploring the row of fishing shopsthat constituted town and then reading, before dining at Angels - asteak restaurant near our motel.

To show how uned uc ated mum is about a ll things Ame rica n, she ha sbee n c onsta ntly referring to Ben & Jerry's as Tom & Jerry's and BabyRuth a s Dr Ruth (who is ac tua lly an elderly sex advisor on American TV).

Chapter Three

10th April 2012

Tod ay we a re hea ding to Veg as!

It s we ird . So far in the Sta tes, we have me t p lenty of Chinese, Spanish,

Mexica n and Indian p eop le, but hardly any Americ ans. I know its a b igc ountry, but I am surprised .

We sta rted our drive to Vegas a t a bout 10.30am. The sc enery wa samazing as we passed through Inyo National Park, (which involveddriving up and down steep hills between imposing rock faces), andHighway 168, where we drove through a huge sandstorm.

Once on highway 95, we passed a weapons testing site and Zoe wasc onvinced she saw a rocket being launc hed.

After stopping off in Beatti for some puppy pancakes (little doughyba lls c overed in cinnamon - dee p fried ob viously) we g ot b ac k on theroad and passed a sign that said 'last service station before Area 51'. Igot very excited as I didnt realise Area 51 was on our route...myc amera wa s poised for UJFO p ic s, but nothin.

We arrived in Vegas 51/2 hours after leaving Mammoth Lakes, to abarrage o f nightmarish traffic. We c hec ked into The Riviera, show eredand went for a wander down the North end of the strip. After a


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nutritious McDonalds dinner, we watched some acrobatics in CircusCircus and Zoe and Faye went on the Xscream ride at the top of theStratosphere, while m um and I d rank c oc ktails in the bar below.

11th April 2012

We emerged late a nd had b runch in Denny's Diner.

We then walked the entire length of the strip,stopping in each casino along the way. Ihave seen more of Vegas than ever beforeon this trip, as I have never had the time towalk down the strip by day and seeeverything. We really liked the PinkFlam ingo s and Paris c asinos. The Paris one isnicely done, with the shopping mall areakitted out with cobbled stone flooring,

facades of Parisian houses and cafes, andthe ma in casino c eiling is pa inted like the sky.

We g ot the monorail ba c k to our hotel, as wehad sore fee t a fter the 3 hour wa lk. The m ono rail trave ls on a trac kab ove the c asinos and is an ec o friend ly wa y of ge tting ab out. Theonly problem is, the stations are quite a walk from the strip, which kindof d efea ted the p urpo se o f resting our feet.

Earlier, we ha d d ec ided to p lay Bingo in TheRiviera, and just made it back in time to join

the 5pm session. I had expected a room oflaughter, banter and calls of 'two fatlad ies'... but it w as a silent ha ll, with about 25concentrated faces, multiple screensshowing flashing letters and numbers andsevera l elderly bingo a ttenda nts.

We had no idea what we were doing andmuddled our way through, until on the lastround, an attendant started filling our cardsout for us, as we were lost causes. Needless

to say, we d idn t ma ke our fortunes.

After Bingo, we had dinner at the Queen Victoria - an 'English' Pub inour hote l. I say 'Eng lish' as they ha d the right idea - serving c hee se a ndcucumber sandwiches, beef pasties, (which they pronouncedpayysties') and English beers, but they got three out of four orderswrong a nd the food wa s ab out a s far awa y from English as you c anget.


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After dinner, Zoe, Faye and I showered and got ready for a girls nightout. We sta rted off a t our hote l, red eeming free d rink vouc hers tha t wehad be en g iven (out of p ity) at Bingo. We then g ot the mono rail to thesouth end of the strip and headed to New York New York, where wegambled. I lost $12, Zoe won $5 and Faye broke a roulette machine.

We then stop pe d in Diab lo Bar (a really c ool Mexic an ba r) and had apitcher of Mango Margarita a nd og led the cute b arman.

We walked on to various otherplaces, passing a fight en route. Weheard the crack of a guy's headbeing smashed against theconcrete as we walked across abridge and I (being feisty anddrunk) moved in to break it up.Luckily Zoe and Faye held me backfrom getting too close. Violencerea lly upsets me and this one ruinedmy night, but the girls did their best

to cheer me up, by taking me to Paris, where we watched a dancecompetition, where a Dr Christian (Embarrassing Bodies) lookalike wasdo ing the rob ot.

The night wa s freezing a nd it wa s rea lly w indy. There w as hard ly anyoneout, so we d ec ide d to c all it a night at ab out 2am. As the we athe r go tworse, we g ot a c ab ba c k to The Riviera and had a night c ap in theQueen Vic, where a slightly sleazy Italian guy started chatting to us

ab out o ur trip.

12th April 2012

Tod ay is rea lly w indy a ga in. It is 80 deg rees, but whe n the wind b low s, itis freezing. Weird weather!

We had a late breakfast ag ain (after c raw ling in at 2.30am) and ha d ada y by the po ol.

In the evening, we walked down the

strip again, but this time with mum, soshe could see the full tackiness bynight.

Vegas seemed more alive thisevening, as there were a lot morepe op le m illing a bo ut.


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We ate in the food court, and then head ed to The Bellag io, to wa tc hthe Water Founta in disp lay (which wa s c horeog rap hed to 'Time to sayGoo db ye'). It w as pretty spe c tac ular.

Mum and I then had drinks at Diablo Bar, while Zo ad Faye went onthe rollercoa ster a t New York New York, whic h they sa id was ama zing.

As mum has bad feet and couldnt walk any further, we got a cabba c k do wn to our hotel. Zoe a nd mum went to bed, but Faye a nd Icouldnt resist losing money one more time, so played on the slots and

roulette, before crashing at halfmidnight.

I couldnt believe it was gonemidnight - their little p loy to keep youga mb ling really worked on m e.

I would have liked to stay anothernight here, as I accept Vegas forwha t it is and love it!

Chapter Four

13th April 2012

It was about an hour and a half's drive fromVegas to the Hoove r Dam. A few fa c ts. TheHoover Dam straddles the Nevada/Arizonaborder and is 762 ft high. It is set within LakeMea d Nationa l Park, whic h is bea utiful.

The d am is big a nd Im g lad I saw it, but Icant say it was my favourite sight on thetrip.

After the Dam, we d rove on through Arizona ,(where the landscape is mountainous androcky) which made a change from the flat,op en desert in Nevada .

We ma de a stop in Kingman a t a truckers diner for a c offee a nd thendrove on to the aptly named Williams, where we arrived at about4pm.


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The tow n is bigg er than I ima gined and I loved it straight awa y.Everything is on one strip, and comprises of motels, Native Americansto res and d iners. It is cha rming.

Our motel (Grand Motel) is lovely and the owner (Elton Johann) iswelcoming, in a slightly eccentric way. Elton recommended CruisersCa fe 66 for dinner and ga ve us a 10% d isc ount c oup on fo r it. It w as anamazing 50's themed BBQ restaurant that had its own micro brewery. Itwo uld have b een rude no t to try one of their beers, so a fter spilling thefirst raspberry wheat beer all over myself, I ordered another, which wasdelicious.

It was freezing in the evening snow is due to fall heavily tomorrow, rightin time for our Grand Canyon trip ... heres hoping we can still see thehole!

14th April 2012

Even though the forecast hadbe en for snow, I didn t expec t towake up to seven inches of thestuff! I a lso d idn t realise howbitterly cold it was, until leavingthe wa rmth of o ur room .

We trudg ed through snow to thetrain sta tion at 8.30am to c ollec tour tickets for the train we hadbo oked to The Grand Canyon.The tic kets had c ost $70 ea c h

and we ha d b een told tha t it wa s a g reat w ay to see the Ca nyon (asyou trave l by stea m t rain).

The t rain set off a t 9.30am fo r the two ho ur, 15 minute journey throughthe snowy Arizona wilderness.

Fac ts I lea rned from o ur Passeng er Service A ttendant (Ka thy) on thetrain...

- Williams is 6,700 feet above sea leve l and gets 85-145 inc hes of snow ayear.- It is a 1950's town a nd is the sta rting point o f the Grand Ca nyonRailway- It is on route 66 and is 65 miles from the Grand Ca nyon.- The inhab itants tha t live just o utside of Williams in the mo unta ins (tha twere Volc anic m any yea rs ag o) do not ha ve ac cess to fresh wa ter


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and pa y for it to be d elivered m onthly. Wate r is therefore trea ted likegold.

We we re a lso entertained by a fa ntastic Banjo p layer on the journey.

The t rain stopped nea r the South Rim of theCanyon, in a blizzard. By the time wereached the Canyon, it was snowing soheavily that all we could see was a hazymist.

We waited around for the weather to clear(which it didnt), in a bar, (as it was -5degrees outside). Faye was getting gawpedat by the staff in the bar, as apparently shehas a doppelganger, who was due to startwo rk at 2pm. I was rea lly excited , as we hadalready found Zoes doppelganger on a

poster in Vegas and now it was Fayes turn. I made a mental note tovisit the b ar late r and we heade d ba c k outside to c ontinue our wa nde rround the South rim.

We only saw slithers of the Canyon, as theclouds and fog moved around, but whatwe did see was amazing. We took hundredsof p hoto s, but they just d on t d o it justice.

We got back on the train at 3.30pm and

played games with Kathy and were thenentertained by Calvin, who played theguitar and harmonica.

We then had a q uiz ba sed on wha t we ha dseen during the day.

Finally, a fake robbery took place.Costumed men in 'armed bandits' outfits demanded loose changefrom us, while the sheriff lumbered along the carriages to apprehendthem. The kids loved it.

We arrived back at Williams at 5.45pm and spent the eveningshopping (as the shop s c lose a t 10pm he re).


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15th April 2012

I woke up with lots of hives tod ay. They a re a ll over my a rms and ba c kand are really itchy. I am baffled, as it was far too cold for mosquitoesand the w rong sort of bites to ha ve b een b ed bug s.

We had an ea rly sta rt, as it wa s an eight hour drive to G rand Junc tion,so we said goodbye to our strange motel owner, who urged us to visitSed ona (which is meant to b e one o f the most bea utiful tow ns inColorado, where the cheapest house costs $2,000,000). It lookedgorgeous but it would add another couple of hours onto our journey,so w e d ec ided ag ainst it.

We experienced all the Colorado seasons in one drive ... sun, rain,thunderstorms, snow, hail... I am used to this after last year, but it is hardto believe until you see it.

We went through MonumentValley on Highway 163, whichwas amazing. All the rocks areformed so strangely. We alsopassed a village calledMexican Hat, which isrec og nisab le from the som breroshaped rock formation, at theedge of the village.

We stopped for a coffee at asmall town called Bluff, in themiddle of nowhere. A group of young children were drinking icedc offee (the sc ene reminded me o f Stand By Me), but I c ouldn t figureout what they could possibly be doing after finishing their drinks, as theonly things a round we re RV's, one house and rocks...

We also w ent through Moa b en route, which I would like to go ba c k to.It is set against a backdrop of huge red sandstone rocks and is reallyp ret ty; it is a lso very c lose to one of the mo st b ea utiful Sta te Parks in thecountry - Arches.

We reached Grand Junction at 5pm and booked into the El PalominiMotel, which is in a slightly dodgy looking part of town. We went for awa lk to The Va lley Inn for dinner, but weren t tha t imp ressed with theimmediate area, so decided to save our energy to explore furtherafield tomorrow .


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Chapter Five

16th April 2012

I woke up with a load more hives - they have now spread to my legsand lower back. I went to the Pharmacy for a diagnosis, but they hadno idea and suggested I try Benadryl for the itching.

The Bena dryl is help ing w ith the itc hing but it s not helping with stayingawake. I felt exhausted an hour after taking two tablets!

We headed to Grand River Vineyards in Palisade for some wine tastingat lunchtime. We tried eight wines (for $3.50) and it was well worth it.The info they gave us wa s grea t and the w ines we re rea lly go od .

The sta ff loved me , as I got tipsy and spent $70 on wine and Port.

After lunch, we walked theRiver Park Trail (a three milewalk around the ColoradoRiver) and then headed toMa in Street (which I had be entold was nice to walk around).It reminds me of Boulder - thereare a rt exhibits on the roa d a ndit is quite hippy. We had acouple of drinks in the localmicrobrewery (the tipsinessreturned) and dinner at a

restaurant that had been recommended in our Lonely Planet Book - IlBistro Ita liano . It was not wo rth the hype.

17th April 2012

Last leg of the journey Grand Junction to Denver. Pretty scenery butnot a lot to rep ort, as we spent nine ho urs in the c ar.

We d id stop a t Grand Mesa (a 10,000 ft mounta in, which has 300 lakesdotted a round it.) The views we re stunning, but the pic tures don t d o itjustic e, but when d o they?

We were surprised that the main skiing resorts; (Vail, Arapahoe Basinand Breckenridge) w ere d eserted . There is ha rd ly any snow in themountains, whereas last year, these resorts were bustling until lateJune.


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We got stuc k in horrib le Denve r traffic a t 4pm (I forgot tha t the wo rkinghours tend to be 8am - 4pm here) but eventually me t Jon a t thePinnacle at 4.30pm.

My family loved his apartment and set about making themselves athome , apa rt from Zoe, who ha d to drop the rental ca r off at DenverAirport, as our 2,500 mile road trip had finished. Jon took his car tooand brought her ba c k, and she w as finally c ar free at ab out 6.30pm .

We all had a glass of wine (bought from the Vineyard in GrandJunct ion) befo re head ing out to Hapa Sushi for a HUGE fishy mea l.Mum tried sushi for the first time and liked it (well she tried thevegeta rian stuff, but its p rogress for a w om an who lives on sa lad )

18th April 2012

We all seem to be suffering delayed jet lag! We were all sleeping sowe ll for the first week and now keep wa king up at 3am...

We headed to Red Rocks today,whic h is as bea utiful as I rememb er.I will be b ac k there to see The Frayin Ma y.

We then went to Boulder and hada wa nde r dow n Pea rl Stree t, wherewe bought a few pressies for ourlovely friends back home, whohave looked after dad while wehave been away.

On the wa y ba ck to Jon's, we stop pe d o ff atPark Mea dows to see the pupp ies a t ThePedigree Shop...it is really unfair on the pupsand I dont agree with keeping them incages, but it is the only place I know ofwhere you can p lay w ith them for as long asyou want.

We had d ec ided to have a BBQ by the po olat Jon's place, so bought supplies at KingSoopers and ha d a nice munch, until mumbit into a corn on the cob and broke herfront four tee th.

I felt so b ad for her she ha d denta l glue to tem po rarily hold the tee thin plac e, but it was not strong e nough. We had be en p lanning to go to


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a cocktail bar after dinner, but the teeth episode brought an abruptend to the evening a nd m um was a lmost in tea rs.

19th April 2012

We had an e arly morning swim, moo c hed for a while a nd then got thelight rail do wntow n late afternoon.

After some shop ping, we e arned ourselves a p iece o f cheesec ake a ndan infamous passion fruit mojito in the Cheesecake Factory.

I had arranged for my family to meet my manager at Make-A-Wish,who I became good friends with last year Bridget is one of thelove liest pe op le I have eve r had the p lea sure of m eeting.

After a long catch up and several margaritas, the lack of sleep wasc atc hing up with us, so we head ed home . Zoe, Jon and I attemp ted togo out a ga in for a nightc ap at The Tave rn (a nice loc al ba r nea r Jon'splace), but they wouldnt accept Zoe's British driving license as ID, sowe ended up g oing ba c k to Jon's and wa tc hing Paranormal Activity 3.

I am happy to say that it was Jon who screamed and spilt beer on hisfac e - not me.

Chapter Six

20th April 2012We went to one of my favouriteplaces today; Garden of the Gods(in Co lorad o Springs). It is one o f themost bea utiful and pe ac eful plac es Ihave been.

After a long walk round the park,Jon to ok us on to Ma nitou Springs (inEl Paso County). Everyone who wehave taken here loves it. It is a sma ll Nat ive American town a t the ba seof Pikes Peak and is heaped in history. It feels like you have steppedba c k in time as you wander around . It is a lso quite hippy. We p assed agroup of p eople sitting on b enc hes, just looking a t eac h o ther, silently.A sign said they were 'existing' in silence with one another, andc omm unic ating through eye co ntac t.


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This reminde d me of An Idiot Ab roa d , when Karlgoes to a c udd le p arty...

People are real friendly in this town - a waiter ina cafe kept finding reasons to come over andspe ak to us and an old ma n in a souvenir shopgot into a lengthy discussion with Faye aboutLondon (while speaking in a terrible, fakecoc kney ac cent).

After Manitou, we went to Castle Rock outletmall, where we all spent more money than

expec ted on things we d idn t rea lly need .

We ate at Little India, which is my favourite curry house in Denver. It ispricey, but so wo rth it.

21st April 2012

Tod ay is the last d ay of our am azing family road trip .

We have seen so much in the last sixteen days; we travelled 2,500miles, through five sta tes and me t lots of w eird and wo nderful peo p le.

I am q uite tea ry, as my fa mily fly home tonight, but I am staying o n untilJuly to spend some time with Jon.

There w as a mo rning swim (apart fromme, as I got really burnt yesterdaywhile wandering around Garden ofthe Gods) and wanted to keep out ofthe sun.

There wa s mo re shop ping and then apicnic in George Wallace Park, whichwa s rea lly nice .

I spent most of the afternoon sitting on mums case, which we

eventua lly ma nag ed to c lose, and then it wa s off to the a irpo rt, all toosoon.

There we re te ars from me a t the airport and for the rest of the evening,until I got a text saying they had landed safely at home and Jonsparents had surp rised them a t Hea throw to p ick them up .

What a n a wesome ho liday! And fo r me , it ha s only just b eg un...

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