Blogs from Arizona, United States, North America - page 288

Howdy Folks, HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you all, hope you are not too exhausted from all the festivities already. We thought we would take this opportunity to send you seasons greetings and do a quick Blog before we head off into the IT wilderness of Mexico. We really enjoyed our first Thanksgiving experience, thanks to Ian & Margie for taking us and Edie for inviting us. We had a great day, in excellent company, in a beautiful house overlooking the Hollywood hills. We feel as if we have had our Christmas dinner already, we did pass on the JellO though. Now it was time to leave the great Metropolis and head off towards the Mexican border. En route (our new number plate, by the way) we decided to visit Palm Springs/ Desert; everyone we met had told ... read more

In a break from the craziness of LA we have journeyed to Flagstaff Arizona. Its a small town here and things seem quite sedate. I have got a cold at the moment and it was so bad Tuesday morning that i was shivering and wondering if i had the flu, I almost stayed in LA and would have just layed in bed instead of travelling out here. Still Im glad i came because it makes me think that if and when i come to the USA again it will be worth going to some smaller less travelled places. One place i have in mind is Des Moines, Iowa, mainly because it will be a gateway to Mount Rushmore, one of the countless US attractions that i havn't managed to see on this trip. The main reason ... read more

The title is in inverted commas because it is a section in a book i read about travelling the world. This book advises that solo travelling is better and that when you travel with somebody it does not matter how close friends you are that you will argue. I guess i didn't always take note of the latter part of this because, Elaine and i have had some arguments, still it seems as though we have been able to work through them and that we will be able to continue this trip together. Its kinda hard for me to go into detail here about what they have been about, but i really believe that we won't have any further arguments and that the rest of the trip will go smoothly. Still, i didn't believe we would ... read more

This morning we drove up to Muley Point in Utah before returning to Arizona to visit the site where Forrest Gump stops running. We stopped just outside Flagstaff in order to buy Hallowe'en costumes and visited another ancient site (the misnamed "Montezuma's Castle") of the Sinagua people. That night we set up camp at a real cowboy camp run by the real cowboys Rusty and Betty (and I mean REAL). As it was Hallowe'en we all dressed up, had a big party night and Tim entertained everyone on Rusty's guitar until the small hours of the morning. The next morning we were up early (to the cacophony of banging cowbells) in order to ride horses across a two-hour stretch of the Arizona desert.... read more

After leaving Las Vegas we drove into Arizona for our first views of the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the "Squire Inn" in Tusayan, just outside the national park. On the first night, after dinner, we made group t-shirts and availed ourselves of the hot tub in the hotel spa. The next morning, we were up and out at 5am in order to climb down into the canyon for sunrise. We spent the day hiking the 8-mile route accessible to the shuttle buses, along the south rim, while some of the more mental members of the group actually hiked down deeper into the canyon (condemning themselves to a severe and very hot climb back out!).... read more