Motorhome News from North America 3

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Motorhome News from North America 3
Going around in circles - Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and back into Arizona

Zyon National Park - and The Grand Canyon
4th - 15th February 2006

As the sun came above the mountains we retraced our steps, following the road from Bryce Canyon down through the beautiful valley of irrigated fields along the Virgin River, snaking its way like a sidewinder through Glendale and Orderville, where hundreds of old cars are laid to rest beside neglected houses - and a fine church stands proudly by the road, to Mount Carmel Junction. The persecuted Mormons made their way to this part of Utah 150 years ago and finally settled a short way to the north. They certainly struck lucky here, for the smart town of Springdale at the bottom of the canyon shows evidence of good farmland, well cared for houses and considerable affluence.

Entering Zion National Park from Mount Carmel requires an escort for larger vehicles like Winnie through the 1mile tunnel and with the road emptied of all other traffic, we sailed through in the centre of the road, headlights blazing. Zion is a great rocky canyon - seen from the bottom. Rather, in English, it is a Cheddar Gorge X 10 - in Technicolour. The road winds down through steep sided rugged rock formations, in red, yellow, cream and pink tints, the sun casting bright lights and deep shadows on the walls. Thirty shuttle-busses ply tourists to walking trails and view-points in the summer when enormous crowds clamour for limited parking spaces along the canyon, but, despite many weekend tourists, this winter day dealt us clear blue skies and plenty of space for the motorhome. Walkers are well catered for in the park and our morning hike took us high into the hills on red sandy tracks strewn with juniper berries above the emerald green Virgin River meandering the six miles through the canyon, nestled in a sea of silver cottonwood trees and 2000ft sheer mountains on either side.

The Virgin River cuts a trail from Zion in Utah, through the top corner of Arizona and into Nevada - a seemingly empty, endless desert, topped by dramatic mountains. We’re told that Nevada is the most desolate State in USA, yet it is growing faster than any other. I suspect this is the result of growing grey haired affluence: snowbirds seeking a friendly climate through the colder months, and the continuing growth of tourism.

There’s a loop road just to the north-east of Las Vegas, running into the ‘Valley of Fire’, a big dipper ride on narrow roads through high rocks, appearing like a giant cauldron of Neapolitan ice-cream in all your favourite flavours - pistachio, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, rich chocolate and banana; an extra 50miles of our travelling time well invested. Our journeys favour these roads wherever possible, avoiding the Interstate Highways where lorries the size of Sherman tanks appear from nowhere in the rear-view mirror and overtake at high speed, compressing the air before them and pushing us off the inside lane!

Back on the main road, Las Vegas came into sight fifteen miles distant, shrouded in a haze of afternoon sun and pollution in the middle of the desert plain, surrounded by layers of ghostly-grey jagged mountains. It’s a while since I was last in Vegas and it has certainly grown. Today, it’s still a Disneyl wonderland for grown-ups, but now the hotels compete to put on the biggest and best shows - and if they can’t, they knock ‘em down and build ‘em again - but bigger! The ‘Strip’ now boasts several miles of monster hotels, with mammoth shopping malls and huge- huge casinos; a sea of people staring at tens of thousands of pokies for hour after hour - after hour. 'They don’t build $200m hotels here because the tables lose money every time,’ a local businessman commented to us!

Our favourite sport in towns is people watching and we walked the hotels from one end to the other, soaking in the atmosphere, the bright lights, the stretch limos and palm trees, the glitz, the free shows - the whole fantasy that’s Vegas. First was the circus acts at Circus-Circus Hotel by our campsite, then the Flamingo for Paradise Buffet lunch - all you can eat for $12.95 whilst watching flamingos and African penguins frolicking in the tropics. By mid afternoon we were at the Eiffel Tower in the Paris Las Vegas for a well earned cup of English tea and a long chat with two charming silversmiths from Israel, then on to The Venetian where you can enjoy a gondola ride along the canals through a maze of shops the length of Oxford Street. We enjoyed giant pretzels in New York - New York, prowling lions at MGM, a flaming volcano and white tigers at the Mirage, spectacular dancing fountains at Bellagio (the biggest hotel in the world), pirates doing battle at Treasure Island, huge fish, statues and fountains in Caesars Palace - it goes on and on and on and on! And then, there are the shows, though little of note on Sunday or Monday when we were there. Tom Jones is still doing his bit for Wales - twenty years past his sell-by date. You can see Wayne Newton complete with numerous face-lifts, tributes to The Beatles, Elvis and Barbra Streisand, magic shows by people we’ve never heard of, Cirque du Soleil, (no tickets for ‘tonite’) or Celine Dion, unfortunately taking a week or two off - and Elton John will be here in a few weeks when he comes back from his honeymoon.

Vegas. An oasis in the desert. You either love it or hate it. ‘It’s a wonderful opportunity for everyone to escape from the real world of B and B (Bush and Blair),’ one cynical ‘conservative’ told us - and who can blame them in today’s world. Many Americans are openly cynical of George Bush, and the Bush - Blair relationship. Have you noticed that Tony has been practicing George’s cowboy walk by the way - hands hanging wide at the hips, elbows askew, ready to draw for the last gunfight at Downing Street?

The broad Colorado River flows gently down to Laughlin, a real and friendly gambling town on the Nevada side of the water. Another great culinary experience awaited us in the Colorado Belle Hotel and Casino overlooking the river; $2.95 (£1.88 in English money), for an oversized ham steak, two eggs easy over and hash browns. Cheap meals in Casinos are a lure for slot players of course. Across the far bank of the river it’s Arizona - and there ‘aint no gambling there!

Canadian friends, Joyce and Elmer from Huntsville, holiday at Lake Havasu each winter and they made us most welcome during our four days in this pleasant town where it hasn’t rained for 119 days. You might remember that an entrepreneurial Canadian called Robert McCulloch bought London Bridge way back in 1968. He shipped it to the desert where Lake Havasu now stands and here it forms the centrepiece of a fast expanding resort where the Mohave and Sonora deserts meet across the Colorado River. I can’t say I missed it, but does anyone know what replaced the London Bridge? Did they build a new one?

Lake Havasu City is a popular summer holiday spot, with sandy beaches and water-sports on the lake, and it’s a wintering hole for holidaymakers down from Canada, Wisconsin and Minnesota to escape the harsh climate further north. To complement the bridge there’s the London Bridge Resort Hotel with a tacky gold fibreglass copy of the Royal Carriage in the foyer. The ‘English Village’ across the bridge is in a sad state of repair and along with The London Arms Pub & Playhouse it looks ready for demolition and new investment. But that aside, the town is tidy, smart and friendly, with great shops, good golfing - and blue skies and sunshine winter long.

Our pitch in Windsor Beach State Park just out of town looked across the turquoise lake into California, where hundreds of motorhomes basked in the winter sunshine at the many resorts along the riverbank. There are literally tens of thousands of motorhomes in Arizona at this time of year and they are well catered for.

Elmer and Joyce took us north along the snaking Route 66, across lava strewn desert, past Joshua trees and windswept creosote bush, a frieze of mountains under vast blue skies, to the old mining town of Oatman, still in its 1930’s garb. Founded when gold was first discovered here in 1903, Oatman has retained its original character of rough timber shacks and covered boardwalks, hillside mining ruins and the Oatman Hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their wedding night and dollar bills cover the walls. They probably didn’t get to see the tinsel in the trees - or the burros left here by the miners and now breeding wild, but Fast Fanny’s Place and Judy’s Saloon are still there, though Outlaw Willies, Esmeralda’s Kitchen and Jack Ass Ron’s are now gift shops to keep the tourists off the streets. As if to confirm we were on the right road, the highly polished Harley’s were there in good numbers; their grey-haired, pony-tailed riders en route to the Blue Grass Festival at Laughlin over the weekend. We were sorry to have missed that too, but hopefully there will be more opportunities before the year is out.

With only one more week in Arizona, we saved the jewel until late in our travels. Valentines Day took us 250 miles to the north- east along the Interstate 40 to Williams and north on 64, until we reached The Grand Canyon, that great gaping wound in the earth’s crust where the Colorado River threads its way through the gorge a mile below the rim. Nothing had prepared me for the spectacle of this mighty wonder, out of view until a few feet from the South Rim, pitching endlessly down, down below and way out to the horizon. Wide eyed, open mouthed visitors lined the viewing points to east and west - in awe of the colossal chasm 5,000 feet below, stretching in swathes of multicoloured ridges, for ten long miles to the north. If you’ve been, you will have felt the crisp thin air on your cheeks, the breathless rush of excitement at the vision, totally beyond comprehension. We stood spellbound at sunset on our second night, watching the sky turn from sapphire blue to bright orange, illuminating the ghostly peaks below in a dazzling display of colour. Yes; ‘Wow!’ indeed. Unlike Vegas, this is for real.

It is reported that Americans spend a massive $13.9 billion on Valentines presents and paraphernalia each year. Men spend an average of $135 on their ladies and ladies spend $85 on their men. That doesn’t seem fair to me! We knew you would like to know that, and Oh! the Pittsburgh Steelers won the SuperBowl, by the way.

By the end of the week at Grand Canyon, the sun was still shining, but temperatures dropped to 12f overnight and a bitterly cold wind drove us on. Now, it’s your turn to smile! We headed east along the ridge, stopping now and then to brave the wind and check out the last irresistible views in the morning light, en route to Flagstaff.

Those of you who suffered in silence over our newsletters from Europe might have noticed a lack of reference to Todd, our travelling companion since leaving for Europe on the 1st September 2004. You will be pleased to learn that he has recently been seen in America disguised as a teddy bear and he is likely to make an appearance on these pages in the near future. (Don’t hold your breath, but between you and me, he's found himself a girlfriend)

Quote of the week: Cowboy in Oatman: ‘The older you get, the shorter your life.’ I related this to a guy from Wisconsin who gave me another version. I like this better; ‘Life is like a toilet roll. The more you use, the less you have left.’ With that, we’ll say, ‘Goodbye for now. You take good care of yourselves.’

David and Janice, The grey-haired nomads



It’s a fact:

Fuel: We were paying 0.89p UK per litre for petrol in the UK when we left on the 6th January. Here, on average, gas (American for petrol) is averaging $2.40 per US gallon. (Smaller than a UK gallon)
If my conversions are correct, we’re paying 2.32 times as much for our fuel in the UK; all of it tax of course.
Smiley, our UK motorhome gave us a regular 24mpg. (UK)
Winnie, our hungry V10, is giving only 9.39mpg (US), that’s 11.27mpg (UK), but at only 43% of the cost per UK gallon, we’re on the right side of a deal!

Is that Dutch, or what?

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Photos

Las Vegas
A little bit of Venice

Las Vegas
.......and a little bit of Rome

Las Vegas
Dancing Fountains at The Bellagio

Las Vegas
New York - New York!

Las Vegas
You bet!

London Bridge
Lake Havasu City

Oatman
Route 66

Oatman
Route 66 and Harley

Grand Canyon
Sunset

Grand Canyon
Wow!

Grand Canyon
Wow-Wow!

Grand Canyon
Sunset - looking the other way!