Day 15 - like a duck to water...

…is how I’ve taken to this travelling malarkey... But to be honest, although I’m living out of a backpack I’m far from being a typical traveller at the moment - for the last two weeks every morning I’ve put my pack in our nice shiny car where it stays until we reach our next hotel…. Somehow I think that things are about to get a whole lot less comfortable as I head for Mexico (and subsequently a huge reduction in my daily budget).

Anyhow as the last two weeks have essentially been a bit of a holiday I’m not going to go into too much detail… Kate and I spent a few days getting me over jet lag in Death Valley, Sequoia and Yosemite before heading to San Francisco where one of the highlights of the trip was seeing The Police in concert in a baseball stadium then spending a day drinking wine and seeing grApes in Napa. Also took in a lot of the other San Fran sites like Alcatraz, cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge (gutted not to have been shadowed by a Zorin airship but what can you do)….

After that headed to Santa Cruz (where they filmed The Lost Boys - apparently) - went on the roller-coaster but to be honest it felt more like a bad day in Blackpool so we carried on down the coast to LA/Santa Monica via Monterey, Carmel and Malibu which was good for big surf and even bigger California mansions.

Finally finished up back in Vegas which was both amazing (ridiculously themed hotels with 7000 rooms!) and depressing (it’s a city designed to part you from your money at every turn and I just don’t understand why you’d spend all day feeding coins into a slot machine). Anyhow was truly cheered up by the Grand Canyon followed by “Bernard Evening” - where Kate took me to a nice naked Vegas Showgirl’s show followed by Hooters Casino. Returned the favour (kind of) by taking Kate for a (somewhat premature) Birthday Dinner at the top of the Stratosphere Tower - fortunately it was far too classy for any nakedness so we got well and truly lashed and had one of the best meals I think I’ve ever had - Kobe Beef - so delicious but then the evil waitress told us the meat was so tender because they chain the cow up and keep it drunk for most of its life. Sad but tasty.

Kate and I are still getting along okay - she’s reading that Men are from Mars book at the moment and has decided I definitely have a cave I retreat to… my only observation is that she drifts too far to the right when driving and her accent now slips into a Texan drawl when she’s drunk. Neither criticisms went down well.

Anyway we’re now heading for Mexico and some proper travelling (I hope) - no more rental cars, air-con, motels, waffles or inebriated cattle. It’s tequila, dodgy burritos, malaria pills and Immodium all the way in now.

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