Travel

Get up around 8am and head for the breakfast buffet with our luggage after completing the automated checkout. After breakfast we pick up the car from the self park garage and head for Death Valley, driving through the mountains constantly trying to find a radio station that lasts more than 5 minutes. We arrive at Death Valley and take photos of us with the car next to sand dunes and then stop a bit further in at Stovepipe Wells for soda, souvenirs (obligatory fridge magnet) and a rest stop....

Have a lie in and miss the buffet breakfast so eat in the Luxor cafe. Have a proper American breakfast of Bacon, Eggs over easy, short stack of pancakes all covered in syrup. Di has the ‘Healthy Option’ omelette with egg whites and lots of vegetables (and thinks I’m very strange pouring syrup over my eggs and bacon). $50 bill which we think is a bit steep for breakfast - welcome to Vegas!...

An early start at 6am. Breakfast of bagels and coffee in the motel breakfast room. Lots of people about at this time in the morning. Drive up to Bright Angle Lodge and wait for the mules to arrive at 8am. Have a briefing from a cowboy and get into first group to be assigned mules. I get a mule called ‘Bonnie’ but the name tag says Norman, so not sure what to call it....

Wake up at 8 and have French toast and home made jam for breakfast. Jana has Monday’s off work and so she’s taking us to Sedona. We drop Jana’s two girls at a friends house to play while we are out for the day and head on down to towards Sedona. We take the freeway on the way down. The canyons are beautiful and the buildings blend in with the surroundings very well due to tight building regulations....

Have waffles for breakfast from waffle machine in reception. Buy map - too large a scale - and head to the Hollywood sign. Use GPS to get there, which takes us to the middle of an intersection, and the view of the sign is average. Park up in a near by store and take a wander down to take some pictures. Have to dodge traffic and stand in the road to get half decent shots of us with the sign....

Arrive at Heathrow to find that BMI doesn’t fly to the US. They use United, would have been nice of them to tell us in advance. Get two seats together in their own row next to the window to Chicago. Have a 6 hour layover in Chicago where we walk up and down the passenger drop off as there is no other place to walk and we don’t have time to go into the city....

After working for the whole of the summer it’s time for a holiday! My wonderful girlfriend Di and myself are off on a road trip of the west coast USA for 10 days. We’re flying into Los Angeles, renting an SUV and taking in the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite, finally flying out of San Francisco. Can’t wait! Here’s a rough outline of the route:

Here’s my map of things we’ve discovered living in Paris over the last 6 months:

My new home for 6 months or so…

A list of great places to eat in Madrid I compiled whilst visiting: