Time for reflection…

We have now been back in the UK for a couple of months. Resistance was futile and assimilation is complete but it was a much tougher process than even we were expecting. To say that we are a bit unsettled is like saying Adolf Hitler was an Austrian vegetarian.

However, before the final dose of pretentious twaddle let’s fill in the gaps…

The rest of August saw us involved in;

quality time with family and friends – Sunday lunches and goodbyes,
a lot of parking, advertising and increasingly desperate RV selling tactics,
a farewell to Washington DC (our 3rd visit) who groaned as we got ready to fly out,
lots of champagne and a flat bed flight to sleep it off,
England’s cold, grey and damp Bank Holiday weekend welcome home!

Miracles don’t occur that often but imagine our surprise after loosing my camera in Washington only to trace our tracks back on the following day and finding it sitting in the lost property department of a Smithsonian museum… after being handed in. So imagine our elation to find that we were going to be lucky enough to fly out the day before one of the worst hurricanes to hit the east coast and closed everything from Florida to New York. All this excitement followed by the 3rd and final miracle of the day… a 5.8 earthquake while we were sitting in the departure lounge waiting to check in for our flight home. What a surreal experience which started with what felt like a kid rocking our seat backs and finished 20 seconds later with dust and creaking concrete glass and roof panels. In the time it took Jane to enquire “What’s that?” and me to answer “Feels like an earthquake” total confusion ensued. The authorities were not sure what to do, trying to get people out of one door while others continued to stream in another… lots of screaming, worried looks and some crying. What is it about a queue? Some people refused to leave in case they lost their place and me…? I was worried about leaving our luggage piled up in the lounge. Memo to self – when it feels like an earthquake… get the **** out of there, even a seconds delay is pure insanity!

All this gave us a real thirst which could only be quenched with champagne in the Virgin Lounge and on the plane. The flat bed was still virtually impossible to sleep in but as Jane will tell you only a maniac wants to sleep when there is free champagne and new release movies on tap all night long.

It has been good to see all of our children, friends and relatives since we arrived back. September and October in particular have been warm and sunny which has helped but being able to cast a shadow, no longer constitutes contentment - in our blog anyway : )

After a night stay in Jennie (our RV) Julie and David decided out of the blue that they were going to buy her… This was good news as we didn’t want to think of her being owned by just anyone off the street. This effectively draws the whole journey to a conclusion.

As we consider our options for the future we have oh so many memories that will stay with us for ever. Naturally the journey remains a topic of conversation for us although most people are not really that interested. Human nature is such that most people live in their own bubble and although saying that we are always interested in other peoples travels… could simply mean that we to may not have the level of self awareness that we like to think we have : )

Maybe the important thing is the real journey… not the physical 20,000 miles but the emotional, cultural and spiritual one that defines us all. Spending so much time with one person is a make or break process for the majority of relationships. We knew that we would get on… but I think even we were surprised how easy it was to spend 350 days within sight of each other. Actually we did spend 45 mins out of sight when Jane did some shopping while I had a haircut. We think that as a result of the ‘journey’ our relationship is closer, stronger and continues to develop as we as individuals chart roughly parallel courses … quite simply we are more in love than ever. (sob… sob!)

USA 2010/11…. DONE!

Georgia… back full circle

As we have relatives in Georgia so it was effectively our home base. We have already travelled quite a bit in Georgia one way or another. Like all the Southern States in July/Aug it is hot and sticky, green and lush, sunny with amazing thunderstorms and heavy downpours in the evenings. Athens (biggest town in the area) has already had 60 days with the temperatures above 90F / 32C this year and on the 4th August the 60+ year old record was broken with temperatures reaching 102F / 39C. We have had a couple of showers and a few cooler days (35C : ) but walking the town without getting a heat induced headache seems unlikely.

Athens is a special little town and fairly rare in the US… imagine Woodbridge with a huge rambling University campus (old for US) stretched down the middle of it and 30,000+ students with a thriving art and music scene that gave us REM and the B52’s among others… lots of eclectic shops selling all manner of stuff… lots of restaurants a couple of theatres and numerous hip bars (student heaven) and even a 100% vegetarian restaurant. You quickly get a feel for why it is regularly voted one of the top 10 places people want to live in the US. We only really got to appreciate how special it is after seeing what the rest of the US has to offer. That is a bit unfair… as most university towns worldwide seem to manifest the same sort of vibe. Rex, our 2nd cousin and his hugely pregnant wife Lacey (press ganged into being the non drinking driver – poor girl) took us out on the town. It included ‘the Grit’ (the 100% vegetarian restaurant – very nice) and loads of bars which meant that the following day was to say the least a little slow for us old folks. If you like party towns this is definitely one for you.

Lots of the little towns have faded away as the interstates bypassed the garage / general store and big chain (identical) malls and superstores took over. Some, normally the ones with history remain to give a flavour of the real South. The elegant and often huge antebellum style houses (ante bellum - Latin meaning ‘before the war’) with their wide, shady verandas, high ceilings, slow fans, tall windows with wide shutters and massive columns at the entrance instantly make you think… ‘Gone with Wind’

Talking about films, ‘Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café’ anyone? If you remember the film you may remember the café. Well although it was sort of built from an old rundown / closed antique store for the film the café it is still there serving Southern cooking (Fried!) and a major dose of nostalgia including homemade lemonade served in a jam jar (another Southern thing). We had the fried green tomatoes (very good), okra (fried) and bread with peach cobbler to follow. A bit heavy but it did mean that we had a very leisurely walk around this tiny spec of a town (Juliette, Georgia) which was literally brought back from the dead as the setting for the film.

Today, over 20years later it continues to survive, living primarily off people like us who go out of their way to visit the café. One thing that has surprised us is that when you travel the US like we did you realise just how much of the US history, culture and geography the average UK person will have absorbed from watching US movies. If the Chinese ever want to invade the US all they have to do is watch a few Hollywood blockbusters and they will have everything they need. A Chinese invasion is unlikely as they have already defeated the USA. Get your head around this one… the Chinese have bought and continue to buy over 60% of the growing US debt mountain to stabilise the US economy so that the US can continue to consume more and more Chinese goods. The debt buy up is not because it is good for the US but because it is essential for China’s continued and relentless march to be the number one economy. Looking at the US from the inside out it is a bit sad to think that we may have witnessed the end of USA as the dominant force it has been for all our lives. Sophie’s (HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY : ) children may need to speak mandarin to get finance jobs… or any job :)

We visited numerous little Southern towns and lots of them around the Athens, Georgia area but our favourite has to be Washington (every state in the US has a Washington : ) This town has a perfect little town square and more old antebellum houses than anywhere else in Georgia. Many of the old big houses in other towns were burnt by one side or the other during the Civil War. This well preserved town has a quiet, laid back feel and any tourism that is on offer here blends seamlessly with the life of the town although you don’t see many people walking in this part of the world. Not surprising really, as it was 38C when we were attempting the full circuit of the walking tour. The leaflet says it can be walked or driven… mad dogs and Englishmen? As soon as people know that you are English we now get an update on the riots and anarchy. To be honest we fully expect to be able to see London in flames as we enter Irish airspace… we preferred questions about the royal wedding. After nearly a year with very limited exposure to any form of media you begin to consider that maybe ignorance is bliss and to wonder just how much TV and newspapers actually promote a self fulfilling prophecy. Much of the rural south are God fearing, Obama hating Republicans and they think the President is trying to take the US down a UK like socialist road (free health care, free education for all etc). We occasionally got a feeling that the considerable interest in UK woes stems from a combination of morbid curiosity, lack of humour and paranoia – if you had a dark streak in you, you could have some real fun here.

One of the most taxing bits of the journey was always going to be selling the RV. It was hard for several reasons. Firstly we didn’t really want to sell her (Jennie) as she had been our home and sole means of transport for the last 11 months and you know what moving house is like. Practically selling her was always going to be about timing and we should have started a couple of weeks earlier. We advertised on all the web sites (CraigsList, eBay etc) and as it got closer to the time for us to come home we resorted to turning the RV into a 30ft long advert – difficult to miss and then finally parking her in the busiest superstore car park at the weekend in Athens for an open house session to sweat it out.
Fun or what? If you can imagine being in your car for 5 hours in the Tesco’s car park with no air conditioning in 37C then sweat it out we did. As with most things in life selling it was always going to be a combination of perspiration and luck – as we write we are still waiting for the luck bit.

Most of our time in Athens has been spent parked at our cousins Julie and David’s RV lot at the Bulldog Park. The Bulldogs are the local Athens College American Football team. The facilities are pure luxury and it has a full hook up and we are virtually alone here. During the season (Sept – Dec) this place turns into one giant tailgate (sort of a party in / on wheels) on home game weekends... with free shuttles back and forwards to the game so you can enjoy a drink. Our fallback plan (Thank You Julie and David) is to leave the RV here to maximise its exposure and sell it. Plan C ?... well that includes another trip to the USA.








GO DAWGS!

aaa aaa aaa AAAAAAA!


AUF! AUF! AUF! AUF!!!


Sorry, but you have to had been there to begin to get this one.


Some of our likes and dislikes, as they quickly come to mind:-



We liked:
Home style Ice Cream (real cream), Peanuts, Georgia peaches and Florida Oranges, Brownie cake mix (amazing), Key Lime Pie, Corn chips, Fig rolls, Cinnamon Bread (on the BBQ), Super size marshmallows (these are huge – BBQ), Julies cocktails, Dairy Queen Blizzard (pot of ice cream… small size is too much… large is a killer) most US coffee, Chilli flavoured chocolate (fantastic with strong coffee and much better than it sounds).

We disliked:
Trucks and truck drivers – mad, US baked beans (in gravy), most bread (too sweet often with honey etc) Overdose of cinnamon (on everything especially anything apple), Fried and battered food (especially down South) Fast food (but to be fair we didn’t eat in them so based on a very small sample, 3 : ) Biting insects, Lipton’s tea (oh no it’s not!) Veggie soya stuff (processed slime), additives in things (taste OK but bread that is still fresh after a month, cake that never dries out or milk that keeps for weeks?… me thinks something is rotten in the state of Denmark? (but not America : ) Too much road side advertising - it makes your head ache after a day’s driving, Den being called a lady once too many times (4 so far), train whistles blowing through the night.

We have had a great time with our family here in Georgia. Southern hospitality is well documented and they have all been fantastic and welcomed us with open arms. Although none of them actually have access to our blog – observation and English ‘wit’ can be a double edged sword - we can’t thank them enough.

There will be one final wrap-up blog but that may have to wait until we are back in the UK.

Take Care

Den and Jane X


We are on our last leg back to Washington DC and home.
Question is - Will we ever fit back into our old lives?

Record breaking heat wave hits us in the Mid West…

If you are fed up with the UK weather and think that you would like a really, really hot summer you may change your mind after a few days on the road travelling through Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee this July. We don’t like air conditioning but we have a new found respect for what life would like without it in this part of the US.

The decision to ignore Oklahoma and travel through Kansas was tricky as neither is renowned for being that interesting for travellers. Kansas went from sandy coloured high desert to rich lush field before our eyes as we went. The bright skies and endless yellow cornfields reminded us of home or more likely the idyllic childhood memory of harvest time in Suffolk.

The sun always seems to shine more when you are young. Kansas is very easy on the eye… cornfield, cornfield, field of sweet corn, grain store, farmhouse, water tower, few more houses, cornfield, cornfield…. cornfield, cornfield, field of sweet corn, grain store… you get the picture. After 3 days and 800 hundreds miles of farmland and not a lot else we decided that Kansas does not take itself too seriously. Not even serious enough to have any postcards. What was taken seriously were the lethal tornados that ripped across this state earlier in the year. For us it was all sunshine and pretty lake side campsites that all looked a bit like an Ipswich park – in a 38 C heat wave : ).

Kansas gave way to Arkansas with even more lush forest. So lush in fact that the Ozarks areas looked more like rain forest than we have seen anywhere else in the US. Here there are no major National Parks but there are lots of National Forest and Scenic Riverways run by the National Park service. The combination of sun and constant heat was crippling and we even had to have the air con on for the 1st time on our travels. After a few days everything becomes too much effort as your body grinds to a halt. A shower leaves you soaking wet from sweat and even the mention of “Yellowstone” failed to bring any relief. It is no wonder that most people get from one air conditioned bubble into another and we even understood why walking to work would be pointless and render you in need of a shower when you got there. However we still could not believe that some people would drive from their RV’s to the showers only 100ft away.

Without the heat… you could be in England…. and without the black widow spiders that hide in the electrical hook up boxes… and the 5 different types of venomous snakes (we didn’t see any)… and the little ticks that burrow into your skin carrying sometimes lethal stroke like illnesses…. So as we said Arkansas?... just like wandering around Christchurch Park - without Katherine Jenkins!

Have you ever met anyone that has gone on holiday to say Kansas or Missouri for example… neither have we, so it will come as no surprise that most people in the campsite are locals enjoying a week’s camping holiday with the family. We have never seen anyone from the USA in Tangham either but it still has all the elements for a great holiday. (We did see a family from Wales there last year : ) The only problem with having been to some truly amazing places with jaw dropping scenery is that the unusual tends to become the normality and everything else suffers by comparison. So taking a second look at the Mid West via a blog entry like this is a good way of forcing some reality back into our over stimulated sense of wonder.

Kansas
Lake Mead, Lake Cheney and Elk City State Parks
800 miles going from dry, yellow desert and cacti to corn, farmland, trees and beautiful lakes.

Arkansas
Devils Den – great park with full ranger programme and lots of caves. The caves like many others we came across in the US were shut due to a disease that is threatening to wipe out the bat population. A single bat can eat about 4000 mosquitoes each night! However we could still access the most novel (and very welcome) feature of the cave systems here, a blast of really cold air coming from various natural holes and vents.

Buffalo Point, Buffalo Scenic River – rafting and a ‘swim beach’ on the bend of a sometimes wild (spring) river system.


Missouri
Ozark National Scenic River Way. A Big blue spring and big blue butterflies. The campsite wins the award for the most clicky, antisocial group of campers and our biggest fan. A group of Texans wheeled (yes wheeled from a huge horsebox) a fan like the ones used in a wind tunnel in an attempt to prove that everything is bigger in Texas. All this did was create the world’s biggest hair drier and prove that air conditioning of an outside space is best left to God even if you did pay $20 for the campsite which includes all the electricity that you can use!




Illinois
With our planned stop (Horseshoe Lake) closed due to the bad flooding all along the Mississippi river we travelled on to Ferne Clyffe State Park. We had a hot sticky weekend, with some difficult walks (lake, dry water fall) in a very damp, green environment - but no bugs. Considering Chicago was less than 300miles away it could not be more of a contrast.

Kentucky
Hillman Ferry on Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. As hot as hell but unlike hell we could at least buy an ice cream on our (cut short) walks.

Barren River Lake State Park, (near Bowling Green) more like a golf course with a fancy lodge and huge lake. Too hot to explore much.

Cumberland Falls State Resort. The 2nd largest waterfall in North America but having seen both, sorry Kentucky, it’s got to be Niagara if you have to choose only one to visit.



Tennessee....eeeee!
Harrison Bay State Park, just outside Chattanooga. Finally a day in the low 30’s and cloudy in the morning so we could walk the 6mile trail around the wooded inlets.

Two things that surprised us about this part of the journey were the fire flies or glow worms and the noise… We have fire flies in England but we have never seen any like these before. They begin to appear at dusk with the odd flash of yellow pin pricks of light now and again. As you walk through the darker bit of the forest it quickly becomes lots of random flashing – just like lots of tiny Christmas tree bulbs. By the time it’s virtually dark there can be hundreds of them dancing and floating around making it look more like the backdrop to a fairy grotto than a forest clearing. Nature sure knows how to put on a show when it wants to. This display is highly entertaining and even if you know what’s going on you can’t but help appreciate the magic.

Again we have heard (and seen occasionally) all kinds of noisy insects around the world… cicadas, crickets etc. We thought it very strange that there were so few flying insects at Ferne Clyffe State Park – no mossies and very few flies. During the day there was nothing unusual just the normal cicadas noise but at night the noise was deafening. It started slow and random but by nightfall it had built to a synchronised crescendo… more like the sound of an army marching inside your head at about 4 beats a second. There must have been hundreds of thousands of hungry somethings out there… you don’t want to think about or ‘google’ this one for too long - believe me. At our next campsite everything was back to normal and we could get some sleep again.

As you will have no doubt detected our thoughts are increasingly turning toward home. Has a year really gone that quickly? We have the RV up for sale, have planned our route to say farewell to all our relatives in Georgia, sorted out a few days in Washington and we are even beginning to venture (roped together, Kate) into the freezer to eat some of our food stash. The RV has been just perfect and we are going to miss her combination of home, freedom and adventure. By the time we go home will have done over 20,000 miles on the road with no problems. We have learnt some new tricks as well as something about what you actually need to be happy in life… enough money so you can stay in a flash hotel with cable TV for a start?


As the journey comes to an end we are sad but there are still many things for us to enjoy.

Take care out there,

Jane X and Den

Route 66 - gateway to Kansas... or 1970?

When choosing a route back east we couldn’t really do better than to ‘get our kicks on Route 66’ (a Rolling Stones classic, kids : ). We had already had some fun on the Oatman to Kingman section back in Feb around Den’s birthday and now had time to explore more of the myth around the ‘mother of all roads’ as the tourist blurb refers to it.

The curious thing about this road is the way fact and fiction have become so closely intertwined. Each State and little town it passed through has its own take on the road, its place in American history and more importantly the American psyche. Whereas some towns seemed to have moved on and their 66 heritage hardly gets a mention - the physical road itself like the route being consumed by the Interstate network long ago. Others like Kingman, Peach Springs, Seligman, Williams, Winslow (all Arizona) and Gallup (self proclaimed Indian centre of the US) Laguna and Santa Rosa (New Mexico) love nothing more than to promote a time warp based on neon and nostalgia. We sort of followed the 66 from California to Oklahoma before heading into Kansas leaving the route about 40 miles to the south.

Winslow, Arizona stands out not just for its 66 connection but it must be one of the only places in the world where the town’s entire tourist industry is based on a line from a pop song. “ Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona… “ (Taking it easy – Eagles, 1970’s). We too stood on the corner – flat bed ford in the background… sometimes you just have to let the tourist in you out for an airing : ) Santa Rosa (only 3000 people now) proudly promotes it’s Route 66 café and yet another bloody Route 66 museum. The town reeks of past glory with its 20 hotels, 3 RV parks and at least 15 restaurants (9 of them described and ‘historic diners’ which we decided means neon… burgers and fries? It is easy to mock but for a tiny spec smaller than say Benhall, Suffolk it has a good vibe and even a great little City Guide complete with a two page spread on the ‘Santa Rosa Visioning Plan’ for creating the Santa Rosa of the future… good luck with that one guys! It also seems to be a good place to get into a debate about the section of 66 that was decommissioned in 1937 or even where Billy the Kid ate his last Christmas dinner in 1880… and you think we are just wasting our life away out here…

Sorry, just in case you have never heard of Route 66… it ran from Chicago to LA, a dirt road to begin with but quickly paved, often called America’s main street offering millions of depression weary US families the open road to a better life in California – the American Dream. In 1972 it was replaced by the Interstate network (I 40 in this section) bypassing most of the little towns and business that only really existed because of it.

It is difficult to put a finger on why the Route 66 hype appeals not just to Americans but people all around the world. Maybe it is something to do with pop culture, or a time when life was simpler when the world seemed more open… before America was forced to re-evaluate it’s take on the concept of freedom. Today… you are more likely to see convoys of grey bearded bikers on Harleys (Phil and Tony), bus loads of Japanese tourists and wandering or lost old hippies… like us maybe : ).

Out of the blue came the 4th of July, a big day in the American calendar. We were at Conchas Lake in Northern New Mexico. Like holiday weekends around the world it is a time to get away with the extended family. A bit like the Dennis or Double clans gathering at Tangham except everyone brings at least 1 RV, two trucks, a tent, a boat, the dogs, grill, bikes, rods, guns… OK, some of the boats are big 30ft+ but it’s not flash… more Southend than San Tropez… a boat just seems to be something that everyone who comes to these sort of places has.

Understandably most Americans drive when they go on holiday (or anywhere)… so they just load everything in until there is no more space. In fact we are not sure what most people ate that weekend as a total fire ban meant no fires, BBQs, grills or any source of ignition. No US holiday weekend is complete without the fire and cook-out. It is no surprise that people obey the rule on fires. A week earlier we had seen the smoke from one of the major fires on the Arizona / New Mexico border from our campground over 20mls away. That fire had already been burning for around two months and even with an army of 5000 fire fighters tackling it day and night it had already consumed over 450sq miles of forest. The 4th July fireworks (on the 3rd) were great... just like the 5th Nov… but in T shirts and shorts (25C) with bats swooping around you.

United States of America… this land gets more confusing the deeper you look at it. United under a flag maybe but a state called New Mexico? Re-visiting our original comments on the ‘creeping’ Hispanic influence in Texas, in New Mexico it would appear that rather than just look Mexican and speak Spanish many are Mexican. The diversity of the people here is mind blowing with Pueblo, Navajo and Apache (tribes) pure Mexican Indians, Hispanic influences with Catholicism and finally us Europeans. If you are on the road to nowhere then in New Mexico you can travel without moving – as ever time is the enemy and we had a date with the yellow brick road of Kansas.

After the cold late spring we have gone straight into a full on mid west summer. It was as hot and sticky as you can imagine with average day temp 36-40C / 25C low at night and 90+ % relative humidity. Walking more than 5 miles is virtually impossible (you can’t carry enough water etc) even if you set off at 8am when it is only 27C! If it gets too hot we just look at each other and say “YELLOWSTONE!” that memory is usually enough to bring our temperature down : ).

Dot to dot… for any of you playing the route on the map game at home…

Cataract Lake, Kaibab Forest (near Williams, Arizona) , Homolovi (Winslow, AZ), Petrified Forest National Park, Bluewater State Park, (New Mexico), Santa Rosa (NM), Conchas Lake (NM) then across the tiny bit of Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle into Kansas.

Quick update of some stats from Jane’s diary:
16,000 Miles, 20 States, 43 National Parks, 65 State Parks… and one pair of walking boots each : )

Have fun

Den and Jane X

California – Beauty and the Beast?

Maybe it is just us or the comparison with the other states that we have camped in but considering it is a world renowned travel destination California was about the worst place we visited. It’s expensive (40% more) with way below standard facilities that at best are tatty and at worse don’t work or are out of action. The beast appears to result from lack of funding, although the rangers do their best (they love the job) it’s a letter to Arnie when we get back to the UK : )
Having said that the guys in sharp suites, dark glasses and perfect, white teeth who make the rules have it made. Sorry, but you just have to camp in the parks (National and State) in California… they are the gateway to beautiful, accessible wilderness… Acres of forest covered hillsides gently tipping into ice cold, clear, blue lakes or pretty cascading little streams combining into raging rivers and towering, thundering waterfalls. All this colour, movement and context fringed with the ever present snow capped mountains caressed by azure skies.


It’s not really that fantastic, is it?
Well… NO… it’s even better - no words or photos can do this beauty justice.

We started by camping among sugar pines and cedars tall trees at up to 200ft but these were dwarfed by the redwoods (giant sequoia) which can reach 300ft.Our first campground in California, on the banks of Lake Tahoe, was supposed to be fully booked but we were virtually alone as the late, cold spring had caused the majority of Californians to cancel.
Lake Tahoe is surrounded by the Sierra Nevadas – still covered in snow – and looks fantastic. They get a lot of snow here at 6000ft (average 12ft) but this year the snow was deeper and had only just melted with the holiday cottages being finally made ready for the tourist onslaught. After 11 hours of unsuccessful bear watching in a frozen Yellowstone we appear to have developed a knack for walking into them Our third bear was walking towards us on the trail down to the lake… He was unimpressed and ran off – if he had waited a few seconds he would have been able to smell our fear : ) - before we decided to take a different route singing and shouting (as they advise you to do when walking in the forest) to make sure the bears know you are there. Maybe this is the reason that many Americans have such loud voices?

The beauty just kept on coming and the weather continued to improve with blue skies as we were bathed in warm Californian sunshine. We walked in the magical sequoia groves and were in total awe of these giants but more on this later. Possibly as a reward for all that snow, nature treated us to a real spectacle – the year of the waterfall - as the papers coined it. As the snow pack melted higher and higher up the mountains waterfalls crashed through every crevice creating the best display for 30 years and even new falls that had never been seen before.


Talking about waterfalls bring us to Yosemite National Park (NP). It is the hardest park to get a campsite at with the reservations often selling out within hours of release. We had to camp 14 miles outside the park and get the YARTS shuttle bus in each day – if only more people caught the bus. The incredible beauty of Yosemite was completely overshadowed by the beast that is the US citizens love affair with their cars (and trucks).

Yosemite was one giant traffic jam with the free shuttle buses struggling to cope. Just like all the other most popular parks (where you have to expect crowds) you only have to walk a short distance from the shuttle stop and you can be virtually alone. So walk we did 9 miles on the first day up to the top of Yosemite falls - what a view - what a noise and 12 miles on day two… to mirror lake, fairly flat thank God.
The falls are stunning from every angle (normally completely dry by August) and this year they are really spectacular with the water crashing down the mountain and thundering into the valley with a cloud of spray and an ice cold chill that is just like entering the frozen food isle in a supermarket on a warm day. After a long hard hike (28C) to the top we ate our packed lunch (no bears here) sitting on a rock with the falls still a couple miles away but just occasionally enveloping us with a gentle refreshing spray.


Mirror lake?… just look at the photo, every picture tells a story – pure magic.

Well, not every picture – cue picture of the cotton-mouth water snake below – Jane washed her hands in the river bopping down only a few inches from this baby. Lucky for her he was far too knackered from all that fighting of the strong currents in the record volume of ice cold (4 C) water in the river. If they bite you it is serious with the potential loss of a limb… or worse. Only the third snake we have seen this trip.

Where Yosemite was picturesque but overrun by people, Kings N P our next stop was quiet and rugged. Deep canyon, the fast flowing Kings River, more falls, coniferous forest and snow on the mountains naturally. From Kings we went into Sequoia N P a short trip as they are linked and together offer millions of acres of America as it was before the white man. Having said that Lodgepole campground is more like a mini village in the middle of the wilderness – we even did our laundry here before moving on :) As you walk around the village it’s easy to forget you are in a remote, outpost. However after a 10 minute walk into the forest you quickly realise how alone and remote you actually are. The trails are pretty good but as ever the GPS tracker gave us an extra security as it is easy to get lost if you have to go off trail – like to avoid a bear maybe?

An early morning walk up Moro Rock (over 400 steps : ( with a fantastic view of the Sierras where we were joined by a humming bird of all things? Then a gentle five mile amble through the cedar covered hills, down into the towering sequoia groves and out into the flooded meadows to the ripping, snapping, tearing sound and then the sight of a big brown (black) bear about 100ft away rolling a fallen tree and ripping the bark off it to get at the insects like it was a stick of candyfloss. The ‘bear aware’ instructions they give you at the park entrance are interesting but nothing prepares you for the feeling of sheer awe. After a sniff he seemed less interested in us and more in his meal. You just have to remember to walk backwards, talking to him, making yourself as big as possible keeping him in eye contact until you can find a route around him. The urge to run like hell is very strong, believe me, but apparently it can provoke an attack and bears are big, very big and can run at 30 MPH and climb trees.

So it becomes a very simple risk… this is their home, this is where they live and you are a visitor. If you walk in this part of the world you will see bears. They are unlikely to do you any harm if you obey a few simple rules and… pack a clean set of underwear. In five hours we saw six bears including two sets of cubs. We can’t describe how exciting it was to see Mum with two tiny cinnamon coloured cubs literally weeks old and the size of a child’s teddy bear. Understandably mum was a bit nervous and ushered her cubs quickly away. As were we… a mother with young is the most dangerous encounter with any wild animal.

The third bear cub was a bit older and bigger and totally disinterested in his mother’s master class on how to dig up roots in a flooded meadow, preferring to wander off and play at climbing trees nearby. We resisted the temptation to get close enough for some really great photos and this is one occasion when we wished we had a better camera.

Wow - what an unexpected privilege to spend a day surrounded by wild bears in their natural environment. They didn’t seem bothered by or interested in us and it’s not until you meet Californians and realise that they have spent their whole life there and never seen a bear do you realise how lucky we were.

Sequoia and Kings NP has got to be one of our favourite parks for many reasons not just the bears. It is a really good example of what the US National Parks offer all Americans – accessible wilderness. Let’s hope that they can continue to keep development to a minimum and protect these unique places to remind us all of how richer the human experience can be when we learn to respect all forms of life on the planet.

So in summary the route…

Sugar pine (slopes of Lake Tahoe), Big Trees Calaveras (sequoia groves), Yosemite NP, Kings NP (Sheep Creek, Cedar Grove and Sunset, Grant Grove), Sequoia NP (Lodge pole) and surrounding National Forests Lake Isabella and back into the Mojave desert (Hole in the Wall campground in Mojave National Preserve 38C+ … much hotter than in Jan – Kelso Dunes - when we had our jackets on!).

Now we are heading back East, back into Arizona and New Mexico but the northern section this time

Have fun - Den and Jane X

Idaho and Nevada (for the 2nd time)

It’s been a while as there has been no Internet - just snow capped mountains.

After leaving the frozen wilderness that is Yellowstone National Park we were not expecting that much of Idaho or northern Nevada. If it was not for the need to quickly (2 weeks) head to our next camping reservation for Yosemite National Park (California) then we may have taken a different… maybe a more northern route. It’s difficult to get too work up over a state that is famous for it’s potatoes and neo-Nazi’s (Idaho) or one that had to legalise gambling to survive. We have already been into the southern tip of Nevada (4 times on Valentines Day but that’s another story) the Las Vegas area where around half the population of 2.5m live but the rest of the state is nothing like it. So… Idaho - green fields, rolling hills, forest and mountains (not many people) and Nevada - mountainous, sagebrush, high desert and few people… both are… how can we put it… pretty empty. Nevada did have the stunningly beautiful Ruby Mountains named after the little lady herself maybe : )

The strange thing was that as we crossed these two fairly unremarkable landscapes (we have just come from Yellowstone) we were unexpectedly drawn to the history of the area and the numerous routes across it. There are so few roads and choice was limited so you can relax into the drive and look around a bit. Historical Site markers where everywhere and we seemed to be continuously criss-crossing numerous historical trails? We had stumbled across some of the major East – West routes for emigrants flooding into the promised land of California and Oregon during the last century. In fact just to confuse us Idaho didn’t exist then (1800’s) as it was part of Oregon but the important thing was that just like us this mass exodus were travelling from east to west and the modern roads tend to follow the same basic route.

Virtually everywhere we stopped another part of the puzzle emerged creating a huge kaleidoscope of colourful events and individuals. Place names, campsites, river crossings, wagon tracks even old wagons and ferries left and preserved for a history deprived and hungry audience.

When we Europeans think history, we think of kings and castles etc. It is often a bit removed and difficult to relate to. This history comes complete with all the original artefacts, real people records / diaries, photos and even cine film! You would laugh at some of the things the average American thinks of as an antique – Ronnie (Den’s father) had a shed full of these antiques - did he not Anthony?

So to cut a long story short these trails witness unbelievable tales of real endeavour and sadness, that strength of character in a raw form can still be seen in many of the traditional past-times of modern America… the pioneer spirit. Before the coming of the rail road, in just over 20 years (1840 – 1860) over 300,000 people braved the 1,700 mile Oregon Trail and 250,000 the 2,000 mile California Trail. If like us you have walked part of the trail only to come face to face with the prospect of crossing the fast flowing and half mile wide snake river at 3 island crossing (Glenns Ferry) in a wooded wagon pulled by oxen then you too would ask the only question that matters WHY?.. Why risk everything you own even down to the lives of your children and family? The answer says something about the human condition, they were sold a dream. The American dream… Oregon was the land of rich pasture and milk and honey… California had freedom, gold and some very good wine : ) The journey offered opportunity and fulfilment of a huge range of personal motivators including poverty, hunger, marriage (by 1860 two thirds were women), health and freedom from persecution, religious or otherwise. At this point it would be interesting to contrast this with at the plight of the indigenous American people… but that’s another blog - NB there is still time for us to be deported.

All that and maybe you just wanted to know where we had been rather than all this reflection…

Yellowstone, back through the Grand Tetons as the footnote in the last blog…

Craters of the Moon National Park, Idaho - black volcanic landscape with dark, wet, cold lava ‘tubes’ to explore, except where they had collapsed and then they were full of snow. Not Jane’s idea of fun.

Glenns Ferry, Idaho then South Fork State Recreation Area (SRA), Nevada – see above Did we mention the unforgettable Ruby Mountains and our secluded (only us in the restaurant) dinner at Carmela Winery?

Rye Patch SRA, Nevada… where we were treated to a couple of hours watching a mixed flock of birds eating insects off the bark of the nearby cottonwood trees. These included some pretty exotic birds but none more so that the pretty little Lazuli Bunting (male is blue, orange and white).

Washoe Lake (near Carson City) Nevada - a great view over the Lake to the cold and imposing snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains in California. To think they crossed these mountains in their little open wagons and this year - even with an army of snow moving equipment the pass will not be open until July 4th at the earliest! Er… Yes… they know it was the highest snow fall and latest spring for 30 years Jane : )

Take care

PS California to follow very soon...