MikeIOW

Every book has an ending, & so too will this blog. Wednesday evening soured a little when I received emails from United kindly telling me we were checked in: ooh goodie! But on opening their emails I soon discovered the buggers had ignored the fact that we had paid eight months ago to upgrade all our return seats to "economy plus", and had instead lobbed mine to the back of the craft. B'stards ! A phone call later and a nice chap called Phil explained it as "a computer glitch", and now he could only put me in the middle of a row. Oh great. We'll aim to get to the airport early and try to sort that out. ho hum.....bit of a low for our last tired evening to end on! Thursday dawned with the ... read more

Highway 120 out of Yosemite is another long & winding road.....but early on a Saturday morning, most traffic was coming towards us, so we enjoyed a relatively smooth drive west. The road was out further along due to a rockfall, and a temporary bridge took us across to a single track road the other side of the Merced River: quite some mess, it certainly makes you appreciate how easy it is for communities to get cut off when Mother Nature decides to let rip ! We sat for 10 minutes waiting for a huge freight train to get moving at one point, then filled up with gas in Los Banos. Asked the attendant for a good recommendation for brunch, and he came straight back with "url=http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g32656-d577393-Reviews-Eddie_s_Famous_Cafe-Los_Banos_California.htmlEddies, up the road a short way". A cracking example of ... read more

Well, after the madness of Vegas comes the rush of LA. Quite a drive in a hot desert to get across on a Monday morning: we made a decision to stop off at "Calico Ghost Town", an authentic ex-mining town from the silver-rush days of the late 1800's. It was an interesting place, but it has to be said the temperature was again in the 100's, and the best we could do was seek out occasional respite in the "stores" to try to take some cool air on board. The road continued hot, but as we approached LA the traffic density was noticably increased. We paid a short courtesy stop at the Guitar Centre on Hollywood, a huge store. I think we were all a bit too hot to be interested, and so we headed to ... read more

Parts of America have big spaces…..& this was one of ‘em! The drive to Yavapai Lodge was “only” around 150 miles, but much of it was through area’s given back to the “Native Americans” in a deal many years ago. Of course you could see why it would be given away: dry, hot (car showed 90-101 degrees most of the way) and really nothing much to say for itself. Thank goodness for SAT Alt Nation rock on the radio - a fabulous find ! Bordered by impressive plateau such as the Vermillion Cliffs, the land itself was just a loooong road punctuated by many stalls propped up by the road with Native American gifts. We stopped at a couple: pleasant chats & a few gifts bought, but the finest was the last, where the nicest Navajo ... read more

It was noted today that we had used many forms of transport thus far: obviously we had flown out, then 3 boats in NYC & the train to DC….& now Winifred (6WNF999), our Jeep 4x4. Never fails to amaze me how car companies make such large waggon’s with so little real space inside….& in the US case, such rubbish MPG from the puny petrol engine (24, even allowing for US:UK gallons)....but at least our bags crammed in okay. Sunday 12th. Salt Lake City. After a nice night in our largest room so far, we decided to cram some local stuff in and do a little worshipping in this most religious of states….at the Church of Walmart. But first, a quick jaunt around the corner to Temple Square to seek wisdom at the visitor centre. I took ... read more