Just returned (10-hour flight back). We flew into and through the night, as we did when we returned from Georgia in 2001. Helen tells me that flying West to East is the worst for jetlag which is maybe why I’m still up at 4:13 am (about 8pm California). The US is so beautiful and California so suprisingly wild. I learned the Grand Canyon is in Arizona (not Colorado or Utah) and I am glad Helen persuaded me to visit Las Vegas.
Some excellent photos of California, Nevada and Arizona in the gallery with more to come.
Rough outline of trip / memory jerker for me:
- Landed San Francisco
- Picke up car, drove into Marin County (posh) over Golden Gate bridge. Fell asleep in cinema
- Moved on up coast to Arcata, then Orick(?), 11 mile round walk through redwoods and along coast, fantastic
- Down through Yosemite. V touristy.
- Death Valley. Incredible. Took dangerous route with car, 4 hours at 10 mph because of rough track without passing anyone else, temp outside about 115 F. Wondered what Ray Mears would do in these circumstances if we broke down.
- Modesto, in homage to Grandaddy. No-one in Modesto had heard of Grandaddy
- On through desert to Las Vegas. Strange town. Forgot to marry Helen.
- On to Williams, Arizona, on Route 66. Bad curry, incredible lightening storm.
- Grand Canyon. Despite expectation of diappointment it didn’t disappoint. A bit more than brain can cope with, though.
- Prescott, on to hippy Sedona recommended by drunk sheep herder in bar in Williams, left quickly for return to California.
- Joshua Tree, more incredible desert. On to coast via sick-making curvy descent from 6,000ft interior
- Along Highway 1 via Big sur to Monterey
- Monterey to SF
- San Francisco. Dangerous Mission district, Chinatown a bit frightening (box of toads to eat, anyone?), Castro was fun, Helen liked the Apple store just down from our hotel
- Last night, bumped into Bill, Brenda and Michael. Bill has millipedes, giant millipedes, which we held.
- Accidentally tried to take knife through security at airport. Security people very understanding about it.
- Back to Heathrow. Virgin steerage class cramped but much better than KLM / Delta last trip out. Whiled away the hours with films.
- Landed Heathrow, drove back to Wales, stopping many times to collpase into sleep.
