tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39767717965227427292024-02-21T03:25:17.791+00:00Jen & Dans America and Canada tripThis is where we will write about all the stuff we do to prepare ourselves and our vehicle for the trip of a lifetime, a trip around the USA and Canada!Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-12116207966767814282008-01-27T16:16:00.000+00:002008-02-04T16:25:22.847+00:00First mudbath!Having had Charlie home for a week, the first Shire playday of the year beckoned.<br />And in true style Jen buried Charlies nose in a big puddle of gloop.<br /><br />On the way home we blew a head gasket... oh what joy!Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-27606357907882369752008-01-21T16:01:00.000+00:002008-02-04T16:16:45.793+00:00Charlie's home safe and soundA little later than anticipated, but Charlie Camel has made it back to Blighty safe and sound. Jen and I took the morning off work to collect him from a warehouse in Northfleet, Kent.<br /><br />We arrived there as arranged at 9am after a night at Jens mums, 10 miles down the road. Unfortunately Charlies import paperwork hadn't arrived and so we weren't allowed to take him home. A tantelising 10 minutes wait brought good news though as the paperwork was finally faxed through and we were allowed to take him home.<br />We did notice that both of the rear tyres had some damage, presumably where thay has been chocked badly.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-41332206022270912492007-12-03T13:26:00.000+00:002007-12-03T13:32:18.808+00:00Sweet home Southampton!Thats it, we're home :-(<br />But we had an interesting reception at the airport. Moo had been promising to come and pick us up, but he got called to Germany with his work, so instead he managed to arrange for about half of Shire Land Rover Club to come and meet us... at 7:30am on Saturday morning... at Heathrow! You're all mad!<br />But thanks guys, it really made a fantastic ending to a fantastic trip!<br /><br />More news on the shipping. I got the full story from Kingstown about the delayed shipping and now we don't mind it taking a long time. The problem is that the warehouse closes over the Christmas period and they don't want to risk having any containers turn up during that period. If they do then there is an £80/day charge! Ok... we'll wait till after Christmas then!Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-45074341257970232582007-11-29T22:54:00.000+00:002007-11-29T23:54:24.122+00:00Gutted!Well, that really is it now. We checked into a Motel in Linden last night and had a meal at the really nasty diner next door. 2 Lasagne's, 1 hot choc, as many pepsi re-fills as you want, 1 side salad and 1 extra large portion of Garlic Bread... all in for £10!<br />This morning we got up and drove 5 miles to the car hire place to pick up our Kia Optima (sounds remarkably like a battery to me!) with Sat-Nav :-) Jen punched in the shipping company's address in Linden and set off, me in Charlie Camel following close behind.<br />15 minutes later we arrived at Pembroke Shippings warehouse, sorted out paperwork and were then informed by the nice lady with the face like thunder that it would be at least 4 weeks until the car ships to England! HUH!!! 4 weeks... Steve (Kingstown), if you are reading this expect an email! Gutted! So it probably won't be until the end of January that we see Charlie Camel again :-(<br />Having waved goodbye to Charlie, we jumped into the jap-crap, set the sat-nav destination to Baltimore airport, set the cruise control to 70mph and sulked our way here to the Holiday Inn Express. We are going out to get horibly pissed tonight to drown our sorrows. Then we'll probably do the same again tomorrow as we have to hang around at the airport for who-know-how-many hours. <em>(Well, Dan will, I'm driving back from resturant... but I do get to eat Cheesecake... Mmm! Jen)</em><br />And to make matters worse, Jen has just started singing "And now the time is near!"<br /><br />Dad, it's been an amazing trip, glad you and everybody else who has posted has enjoyed it. <br /><br />So, now that we won't have a vehicle to play with off road I'm just gonna have to get cracking on Bertha! :-DDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-8458223677220673372007-11-28T03:16:00.001+00:002007-11-28T04:09:29.121+00:00Blue Ridge ParkwayFor the last couple of day's we've been driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway through The Carolina's, Georgia and now we're in Virgina.<br /><br />This has to be the part of America that looks the most like the UK, principally because we spent one whole day driving through thick fog and rain! lol! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l8RFbbYDL18hB5JCy6bHDMWPw4CWHmXG0SHXJnb7GUwMJLw057Sy-2mw0WzbcEbNOQ8klDyQ5KQHHacECtAtsp-lEDvXWXDAxmwuD6QtbLnwKhEk0Ei7shXyclkOPW0j18cTax_xiVE/s1600-h/overlookblueridge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l8RFbbYDL18hB5JCy6bHDMWPw4CWHmXG0SHXJnb7GUwMJLw057Sy-2mw0WzbcEbNOQ8klDyQ5KQHHacECtAtsp-lEDvXWXDAxmwuD6QtbLnwKhEk0Ei7shXyclkOPW0j18cTax_xiVE/s320/overlookblueridge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137727548247097042" /></a><br /><br />By the time it got dark we had visibility of about 15ft and the going was pretty slow. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi52QZ4IBYRWpjCaC1MA2ItMCuvY6VjrvTFFJ5d7ANnkADn0pRTc52N2t9xdN6BYQop5mKwWavE0qiE3hxITYWoq_j39fGaEyyMeBFQE9bjLrBO0KMBDJqDCmd81ixZ3S0F75FJTGcu5uY/s1600-h/fog.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi52QZ4IBYRWpjCaC1MA2ItMCuvY6VjrvTFFJ5d7ANnkADn0pRTc52N2t9xdN6BYQop5mKwWavE0qiE3hxITYWoq_j39fGaEyyMeBFQE9bjLrBO0KMBDJqDCmd81ixZ3S0F75FJTGcu5uY/s320/fog.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137727548247097026" /></a><br /><br />Luckily the next day was a little bit clearer and we got to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg0Rd6x41YViStoLgm1L4R1V2W36nL2syd02Y9GxnWGZNyQfQP5TfGy_PLccoO_xaFVf_PxCWQYhBPZE4OuZeOGBmI2-z5eFnhj5YsktMmx9T0qqnISZjonjamTAeMTJVvBXptWWM5PnA/s1600-h/blueridge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg0Rd6x41YViStoLgm1L4R1V2W36nL2syd02Y9GxnWGZNyQfQP5TfGy_PLccoO_xaFVf_PxCWQYhBPZE4OuZeOGBmI2-z5eFnhj5YsktMmx9T0qqnISZjonjamTAeMTJVvBXptWWM5PnA/s320/blueridge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137727543952129714" /></a><br /><br />We stopped pretty early today so we could take advantage of the sunny (but cold) weather and sorted Charlie out for his journey in the container as tomorrow's our last full day with him - boy, that went quick! Tomorrow we're planning on finishing the Skyline drive which will bring us out at Washington DC after 110miles which will leave us only about 220miles to New Jersey where we'll find a motel and drop Charlie off in the morning... :-(<br /><br />See you all at the Jolly Sailor Saturday night!Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-19393504353288823102007-11-26T01:57:00.000+00:002007-11-26T04:28:53.328+00:00Heading North and Blog CommentsWe started our northern trip after Sea World heading for the Blue Ridge Parkway - a road running along the course of the Appalachian Mountains which, if all goes to plan, should put us out near Washington DC. It was a recommendation from a family camped next to us at Key West.<br /><br />Today was spent following the I75 to Macon and then the 129 to the 441 and at the moment we're staying around the I95 before following the 441 to the Blue Ridge.<br /><br />Nothing much else to report so instead we're going to answer the comments that have recently been put on the blog, which we love reading :-) :<br /><br />Richard and Tracy: You are evil. If it's just the new job, we know about that - Hehe! If you're moving away because of it, then you're not allowed :-( But we're both going mad trying to figure it out!<br /><br />Granny Billie: Thanks for the Happy Birthday message! <br /><br />The Farter: We saw Hemmingway house, but didn't visit as we were tipped off that it was a bit rubbish so we went to the pub instead :-) <br />We arrive back in Blighty on Saturday morning. Keep drinkin' those John Smiths!Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-79013227852486860232007-11-24T01:57:00.000+00:002007-11-24T03:40:43.048+00:00The Keys... its Itchy!Driving down to the Florida Keys is an interesting experience. From the Mainland to Key West is approximately 100 miles, and it's pretty much all big long bridges intersperced with the odd tropical, palm tree covered paradise island.<br />We had planned a couple of days down at Key West, one day relaxing in the sun and another day investigation Key West. Well, all went according to plan, we spent a day at the camp site chilling out. Before we realised it was late afternoon and time to get some more relaxing done at the local bar :-)<br />Then the following day we made our way into Key West to check the place out. What a funky little town! We took a walk from one end of Duval street to the other, and then made our way back up Whitehead Street and into Malory square to watch the sunset. This is something that Malory Square is well known for and the watersedge was chockablock with people and street entertainers. The sunset was pretty cool to say the least, and the numerous boats and clippers made it picture perfect.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8JVZvF1SdFYzWIVxrtFVij4MklmqHN4CZM3DWQFTp8APICnZdyS6calJa7e1MY-Uc_ByY-QH4rboLQCkocOpHYNkfUoQL6G-nyIwEeDPoSKfESXuX3Cea4bPvHnFDZDiXgQ2VRlm2Bg/s1600-h/malorysunset.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8JVZvF1SdFYzWIVxrtFVij4MklmqHN4CZM3DWQFTp8APICnZdyS6calJa7e1MY-Uc_ByY-QH4rboLQCkocOpHYNkfUoQL6G-nyIwEeDPoSKfESXuX3Cea4bPvHnFDZDiXgQ2VRlm2Bg/s320/malorysunset.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136245758760173202" /></a><br /><br />Having been nibbled half to death by the midgeys and itching like a pair of flee bitten muts, it was time to head north again. It was Thanksgiving day so the roads were pretty quiet. We popped into the Everglades again to experience an airboat ride after my Dad sent several nagging messeges instructing us not to leave without taking a ride. WOW! What a ride! I'm sure we didn't go that fast, but with the noise from the V8 engine, silenced only by some flexi-pipe and a couple of cherry-bombs and the wind being sucked past by the 4ft propeller bolted directly to the engines flywheel it felt like we were tearing along! Now an airboat ride isn't the best way to see wildlife, most of it gets scared off by the noise, so we just held on and enjoyed the ride which included some amazing acrobatic boating manouvers. <br />Whilst there we also checked out the live snake show and as luck would have it Jen got dragged out the audience and had a massive albino python plopped on her shoulders! LOL... she took it rather well actually.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRss42UqF2Vmp8n2GS9dWffL4BLjn0sWnmBC05JaUa2HfRL5W-9zN4-2s-_dijYtdkxieb7G2D2Ah_Y9rYin24wk_3avVUPq9YSJXIkjZYy2V9-sVtzyIQq345MkQ-p0voOJljlDfpS0E/s1600-h/jensnake.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRss42UqF2Vmp8n2GS9dWffL4BLjn0sWnmBC05JaUa2HfRL5W-9zN4-2s-_dijYtdkxieb7G2D2Ah_Y9rYin24wk_3avVUPq9YSJXIkjZYy2V9-sVtzyIQq345MkQ-p0voOJljlDfpS0E/s320/jensnake.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136245303493639810" /></a><br /><br />Anyway, onwards and upwards, and heading towards Orlando again, this time to check out SeaWorld. We took a quick detour to do a drive through of Miami, famed for its ArtDeco buildings, and its home for the filthy rich! <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuWsx8Xb46rC1-yz70Nul7Y-d9-eHQ818iGsP3GtBurVZvY1zq6wfPUipdkIQGDq3Dm7BZEmWuZiVMxqQnphxyEd5HlHuDvTS0beZCDUOWKxxsIqee7M3ZnJ_OMEyP-Kfgb8mFP2QvjaI/s1600-h/artdeco.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuWsx8Xb46rC1-yz70Nul7Y-d9-eHQ818iGsP3GtBurVZvY1zq6wfPUipdkIQGDq3Dm7BZEmWuZiVMxqQnphxyEd5HlHuDvTS0beZCDUOWKxxsIqee7M3ZnJ_OMEyP-Kfgb8mFP2QvjaI/s320/artdeco.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136245247659064930" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitoDmZuaEcVZpIMcUiQJZHr6y-SwCXcLCoA0gZM38bj0y8I7-eu6_b8TiJRDp_3gdJXRw-1Ril9CqB4du_i9NUazClPDhIwLt6AXUeaFLp2mu9REYtSIDG2oT8-PZNeA5VvtN35a0yTUI/s1600-h/filthyrich.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitoDmZuaEcVZpIMcUiQJZHr6y-SwCXcLCoA0gZM38bj0y8I7-eu6_b8TiJRDp_3gdJXRw-1Ril9CqB4du_i9NUazClPDhIwLt6AXUeaFLp2mu9REYtSIDG2oT8-PZNeA5VvtN35a0yTUI/s320/filthyrich.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136245277723836018" /></a>We finally arrived in Kissimee quite late looking for a campsite and eventually picked a Motel as it was cheaper than camping... work that one out!<br /><br />Today, as it was Jens birthday yesterday and she's always wanted to go to SeaWorld, we spent the whole day there. What an amazing place, far better than I expected, and we fed the dolphins!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJBwjmKiJXMyhtv1Dzx6hjqY2wspifoJtJj7FwzVyN6a3k1n4niZGE7_gPkUmA4n1fsHWJyaFQbaH3RJTtoXvNCbP6YFXM1C_C0KnvofejfP-8ytTEiswjkp-SOh0x7a7n_v6jjHObxg/s1600-h/dandolphin.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJBwjmKiJXMyhtv1Dzx6hjqY2wspifoJtJj7FwzVyN6a3k1n4niZGE7_gPkUmA4n1fsHWJyaFQbaH3RJTtoXvNCbP6YFXM1C_C0KnvofejfP-8ytTEiswjkp-SOh0x7a7n_v6jjHObxg/s320/dandolphin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136246660703305378" /></a><br /><br />Now though, with less than a week to go before we come back home it really is time to start our northbound journey. We're hoping to have time to check out the Blue M ountian Ridgeway.Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-12999982517389482922007-11-20T19:02:00.000+00:002007-11-20T19:03:44.534+00:00Pictures added!I've added the pictures to the two latest posts below so you can see what we've been upto :-)<br /><br />Nothing much to add today, we only got up at 11am! Spending a nice day relaxing by the pool/hot tub and the coast. Planning on sorting out Charlie for his trip home when I finish procrastinating!<br /><br />Weather: Sunny with a nice breeze. Lucky eh?Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-9549147845055180502007-11-19T23:53:00.000+00:002007-11-20T19:01:30.308+00:00Snow?! 27C here...Well, with a heads up from Tim and Lou I've been having a look at the pics on the BBC website only to see alot of England covered in snow! Home now feel's like a long way away as we're sitting on a campsite on a beech about 14miles north of Key West in Florida. In Fact, today we hit the southern most point of the continental US, only 90 miles away from Cuba. We've spent the whole day in shorts and t-shirts and even now I'm sitting here in my new Portal Tek t-shirt and my tracksuit trousers - but the long trousers are only 'cos of the midges! It's a bit warm.<br /><br />On our way here we checked out the Everglades National Park. This is a pretty amazing place, what looks like grassland is actually water filled with and immense amout of wildlife. We decided to start with a short couple of walks as recommended by a ranger, only to come across more types of birds and fish than I could count and some pretty large Alligators - some of which lieing only a few feet away from the path! The ranger told us not to worry though, they won't bother you on land. Mm. Ok! lol! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQsESauVQ6J8Ea285XMq-rWgNissR7faBuXi9VWMfZy8MNXsS1hLApLOSxGzGwmDEBgulo-DlvgtWBD39CPQrLVXKSb_6KcdOseL4T1eXYiLTX48xlQk-8Rg7Uz9n55kL6rWDnsB4Lfs/s1600-h/aligator.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQsESauVQ6J8Ea285XMq-rWgNissR7faBuXi9VWMfZy8MNXsS1hLApLOSxGzGwmDEBgulo-DlvgtWBD39CPQrLVXKSb_6KcdOseL4T1eXYiLTX48xlQk-8Rg7Uz9n55kL6rWDnsB4Lfs/s320/aligator.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134998075055652386" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DKLRMS1NomiodMzEJsNz8iiUmQ4ANT6TwmTqZdD-dmh-cGN2I-NuKRni63QREV2kgl3DERaUnLI7ezD9rHKebv2UgUCvvLn-GLX2F9l6OdeftgivMb5857dFtqAJoqKoZMWFfDfjLuc/s1600-h/bird.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DKLRMS1NomiodMzEJsNz8iiUmQ4ANT6TwmTqZdD-dmh-cGN2I-NuKRni63QREV2kgl3DERaUnLI7ezD9rHKebv2UgUCvvLn-GLX2F9l6OdeftgivMb5857dFtqAJoqKoZMWFfDfjLuc/s320/bird.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134998079350619698" /></a><br /><br />We then headed down to Flamingo at the southernmost end of the NP and camped on a beautiful campsite amoungst the palm trees and on the edge of the Mangroves. As we pulled up the midge-meter was at it's lowest reading which made us happy - but we covered up and put on the bug spray anyway. The next morning I jumped in the shower only to find several hundered bites :( Litterally. Apparently my walking trousers are not mosquito proof, it's so bad I even got sympathy from Dan! lol! <br /><br />Cooking under tha palm trees:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUykQRC8mX6jtF4dRtwL9X8OHC8oBQkUnmjjdJow8hCvhozU0WARXoEKnTbGc7WMjFhlRx9H_6PVgdb8qH7mFpk7fll9yHWLDudfDcLFTHTrCERh00tHq53lrPH1yqiE5qJsZinz1m9is/s1600-h/cookpalmtrees.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUykQRC8mX6jtF4dRtwL9X8OHC8oBQkUnmjjdJow8hCvhozU0WARXoEKnTbGc7WMjFhlRx9H_6PVgdb8qH7mFpk7fll9yHWLDudfDcLFTHTrCERh00tHq53lrPH1yqiE5qJsZinz1m9is/s320/cookpalmtrees.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134998092235521602" /></a><br /><br />Several minutes was spent applying bite cream and a copious amout of midge spray before we wandered down to the Marina to take a boat tour out into the park proper. We were lucky and saw lots of American Crocodile, there are less than 900 of these remaining. They're pretty big!<br /><br />Later that day we headed out towards the Key's and stayed the night in a state park. Whereas camping had previously been costing about $14 in state parks it was now $32, you can tell you're getting near the keys! Today we headed down the amazing drive down here over countless bridges and lots of blue ocean to end up just north of Key West. We've booked into the KOA here (as it has it's own bar and beech!) and are planning a day off tomorrow and checking out Key West the day after. <br /><br />Lunch on the beech at Key West:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_scSbe0ClE2f8dPEeKwh5kbuw1FrKjZMBE1YFqYqd6hcitBnHRAy1G_vjMCpNE_vCFBq1mM16JPj56YYJjNGBsZEcQduT3ndLeaGIuNVUtkIzsJdn0RUNMwVOcrkWTGXCcSxkqEJqKUI/s1600-h/keywestlunch.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_scSbe0ClE2f8dPEeKwh5kbuw1FrKjZMBE1YFqYqd6hcitBnHRAy1G_vjMCpNE_vCFBq1mM16JPj56YYJjNGBsZEcQduT3ndLeaGIuNVUtkIzsJdn0RUNMwVOcrkWTGXCcSxkqEJqKUI/s320/keywestlunch.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134998126595259986" /></a><br /><br />After that small rest we're heading back up north starting our return journey to New York... although we've loved every minute of the trip I think we're both looking forward to coming home.Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-68159399623601394332007-11-16T23:43:00.000+00:002007-11-20T18:45:53.636+00:00Giant Mice, Aligators and SnakesWell, that was exhausting!<br /><br />Sunday meant Kennedy Space Centre Day. It's full of spaceships and things. (sorry, Dan wrote that bit).<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9tmPkhs72E7UeE8F0mpq_vuiLzlhvdKnU6_-ASm6FcwCUY0Kr9TmaM4xcluvEyVL-pmvLZysobXQR_JRmLqyMoO1A9XlnEIoZBZcBv1MykRa14eDF_e5uk_QRHGOLfo7-72a3gZdC1k/s1600-h/rocket+garden.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9tmPkhs72E7UeE8F0mpq_vuiLzlhvdKnU6_-ASm6FcwCUY0Kr9TmaM4xcluvEyVL-pmvLZysobXQR_JRmLqyMoO1A9XlnEIoZBZcBv1MykRa14eDF_e5uk_QRHGOLfo7-72a3gZdC1k/s320/rocket+garden.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134994737866063346" /></a><br /><br />As for Disney, I’m glad to say, it appears we may have gotten older, but happily not grown up :-) Still, three days and four nights at Disney was plenty – otherwise the constant cheeryness and everything being perfect may have driven me insane. Besides, Dan was running out of things to moan about ;-) We’re currently driving down towards the Everglades with some very loud Aerosmith on to make up for the almost constant ‘plinky plonky’ music.<br /><br />We arrived at Disney on Monday night and booked in at the Fort Wilderness Campground, this had the advantage of being ‘on site’ but a fraction of the cost of one of the hotels. We were assigned campsite site 1505… er… ok! This place, like the whole of Disney World was HUGE. There weren’t actually 100 campsites in the 1500 loop, more like 21, but the campsite still was about 700acres. We had a really nice pitch and bearing in mind I’d only booked 4 days earlier we were still pretty much in the middle of everything and near the toilets as I’d requested, impressive. The campsite itself has 2 resturants, a bar, groceries etc, carriage rides, segway tours, tennis courts, basketball courts, big meadows to play in, 2 swimming pools, a beech with hammocks, boat rentals, campfire singalongs, nightly outdoor movies and it’s own stables that offer horse riding. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot but you get the idea. Needless to say, everything was clean and our site well equipped, it was even cheaper than other campsites in the area.<br /><br />Our pitch: (this was the cheapest option)<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4IJx-gJ1v5bumJS6HwH0iBmp1rbeKmcdJKLjU2QuDIja9inEvc10erm3LL0rcS5os5u2C45PSOfmwGtSZa2v-OUIXQe77CH1n6YiV_HGtTph51YOcptk39GfAOGVSnzQAxxwOZlfgXE/s1600-h/fortwilderness.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4IJx-gJ1v5bumJS6HwH0iBmp1rbeKmcdJKLjU2QuDIja9inEvc10erm3LL0rcS5os5u2C45PSOfmwGtSZa2v-OUIXQe77CH1n6YiV_HGtTph51YOcptk39GfAOGVSnzQAxxwOZlfgXE/s320/fortwilderness.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134993990541753746" /></a><br /><br />While we were here we were planning 2 days in the theme parks (four of them) and a day in the water park – Blizzard Beech, simply because water parks are cool! Sunday night involved a bit of strategy planning as to what we really wanted to see. 2 theme parks in one day was probably going to be pushing it. I'll give a quick rundown as I'm sure you don't want to read a step by step account of our day, anyone wanting more info can ask when we get back:<br /><br /><em>Magic Kingdom</em> – the trademark Disney. More for the kids (so it suited us!). Runaway mine train = classic rollercoaster fun, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor = a set done up like the factory in Monsters Inc with an interactive show with the cartoon - a stroke of genius and my favourite ever entertainment at a theme park. Awesome.<br />Amazing fireworks in the evening.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwyTd_n5ITDrevIIYEj0S8zrrkXKqtYTWM_qSpfcxVxHN_sP6OioOim0_DI4P2yYuN9XW3G3NktBYuZY6IEr9McXNtsRy74OywmLEc1xlZTb8xGVoO9Nbi7TP-HygNq4ykwdjJdl6rqM/s1600-h/monstersinc.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwyTd_n5ITDrevIIYEj0S8zrrkXKqtYTWM_qSpfcxVxHN_sP6OioOim0_DI4P2yYuN9XW3G3NktBYuZY6IEr9McXNtsRy74OywmLEc1xlZTb8xGVoO9Nbi7TP-HygNq4ykwdjJdl6rqM/s320/monstersinc.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134994724981161426" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCIkVqI_CbIofur0d95QCPHAdeD64VI2t4KPnu7FsCgdDZncULc5bd33pHwGXQ8hugVkdATuLJDDSE0CqyqoZ2d-_3qsvHflVx1f_TtwqU4eOfKOkkHPz3e-RpP3TN7fwZDBlMsVGPAhw/s1600-h/magickingdom.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCIkVqI_CbIofur0d95QCPHAdeD64VI2t4KPnu7FsCgdDZncULc5bd33pHwGXQ8hugVkdATuLJDDSE0CqyqoZ2d-_3qsvHflVx1f_TtwqU4eOfKOkkHPz3e-RpP3TN7fwZDBlMsVGPAhw/s320/magickingdom.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134994003426655666" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocKmbxdj3p70kMYS2WjLKiwz2qF_BYIwUNgeZqVXt6A1Nnd5Z2Tr3ZvMkH32-KwpjtdORWWAmes1cn4rz71PCYRTrKBEETkrU6fu-GbZm57FE7p-46X-m8AMQDkbP9by8XS4hqoMev68/s1600-h/fireworks.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocKmbxdj3p70kMYS2WjLKiwz2qF_BYIwUNgeZqVXt6A1Nnd5Z2Tr3ZvMkH32-KwpjtdORWWAmes1cn4rz71PCYRTrKBEETkrU6fu-GbZm57FE7p-46X-m8AMQDkbP9by8XS4hqoMev68/s320/fireworks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134993986246786434" /></a><br /><br /><em>Epcot </em>- Educational fun. Nemo adventure was cool (basically an aquarium so I'm bound to like it!). Lots of different 'Countrys' surrounding the lake, the England has a convincing pub that serves PROPER BEER and good fish and chips! lol!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDFaS1Ff2kRdysUuabq4URnhFvk_XSn9Ucbwm1rmxWeeEFJmg5pRFKznRgZhau2Ss8mMOdfk9vkwnCrwV3uR8FQFtRaS5S-iT65w69yX25MrKyJkxQmkr6gxZGdqA0tqQzlUI8356EZ2Q/s1600-h/pub.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDFaS1Ff2kRdysUuabq4URnhFvk_XSn9Ucbwm1rmxWeeEFJmg5pRFKznRgZhau2Ss8mMOdfk9vkwnCrwV3uR8FQFtRaS5S-iT65w69yX25MrKyJkxQmkr6gxZGdqA0tqQzlUI8356EZ2Q/s320/pub.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134994733571096034" /></a><br /><br /><em>Animal Kingdom</em> - Coooooool! 2 Landies spotted, need I say more?! Excellent 'African Safari', convincingly done with some amazing animals and research taking place. The best water raft donut ride although I was *litterally* dripping when I got off! lol! Could have spent all day there, but had to go too:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLbAdUBO1mBFNbZBiuc6ZpCFoG6oz7Ol2TImM0XbnTi5oGoviFHN3swoJSsUIG02kDzd0gsviyI3xSLTyS6Mcz_rDVDfD7wRAGYQDyHN7f7Arh-5bbnAoCQtEIyMn8mjgMuZKY_ljn5s/s1600-h/series.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLbAdUBO1mBFNbZBiuc6ZpCFoG6oz7Ol2TImM0XbnTi5oGoviFHN3swoJSsUIG02kDzd0gsviyI3xSLTyS6Mcz_rDVDfD7wRAGYQDyHN7f7Arh-5bbnAoCQtEIyMn8mjgMuZKY_ljn5s/s320/series.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134994759340899842" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheK4SutyWRfLvW2DpxZzY7Lme901OIjraK7ywUjkA-U-LpenaJMdnDL2UhyphenhyphenIGELsbAEJAiN36UGTQ4UCoiMoKpcDn2i3WXcdapc2LLMfG8iIUd7LQFeQQwocz9GiSq-4GeoIscabq5dAM/s1600-h/hippo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheK4SutyWRfLvW2DpxZzY7Lme901OIjraK7ywUjkA-U-LpenaJMdnDL2UhyphenhyphenIGELsbAEJAiN36UGTQ4UCoiMoKpcDn2i3WXcdapc2LLMfG8iIUd7LQFeQQwocz9GiSq-4GeoIscabq5dAM/s320/hippo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134993999131688354" /></a><br /><br /><em>MGM</em> - Lots of shows, lots of good shows, One amazing show: Lights, Motors, Action (if only I could get a job there!). Rear wheel drive, motorbiked engined Corsa's are always going to be amusing! Had one kid crying though because they split Herbie in half! lol! Indiana Jones, still entertaining, back lot tour ok - but none of the cartoonists were working when we went :-( Fantasmic Evening show a bit overrated, but some amazing effects.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kpBbIxl27RpNQ-6mC1C-yoDwfzFc6I6i_WkTlOoUaClpjn3LAupDyBd3kVPjB0-jFsz0IK0r6zoWJoRnTRHtifpZutOanGAVN_WC0p5OUHVJjgjW7zEDFqemwiVmiSaSZQJRufIhd2Q/s1600-h/mgm.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kpBbIxl27RpNQ-6mC1C-yoDwfzFc6I6i_WkTlOoUaClpjn3LAupDyBd3kVPjB0-jFsz0IK0r6zoWJoRnTRHtifpZutOanGAVN_WC0p5OUHVJjgjW7zEDFqemwiVmiSaSZQJRufIhd2Q/s320/mgm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134994720686194114" /></a><br /><br />One for Sam and Max:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NrOKoL2W4mWYxqmtbpD3giVBllOFR9nL8Xd0TGIdmgxO_5Y3hUYYBVcaseQ3fUekz1pD7pj5gfxP1UtiuBLpwLtTjDWW_QLDPJwtocfC-Kopvhydy-L_43Y-U8voycoMTWp3hOXj79E/s1600-h/carz.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NrOKoL2W4mWYxqmtbpD3giVBllOFR9nL8Xd0TGIdmgxO_5Y3hUYYBVcaseQ3fUekz1pD7pj5gfxP1UtiuBLpwLtTjDWW_QLDPJwtocfC-Kopvhydy-L_43Y-U8voycoMTWp3hOXj79E/s320/carz.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134993964771949938" /></a><br /><br /><br /><em>Blizzard Beech Water Park</em> - Cool! Based on a freak snowstorm in Florida that's melting it's all 'ski resort' fashioned. Loads for everyone: 1 acre wave pools, lazy river floating thing, lots of flumes. Dan gets a medal for bravery as he did the 120ft almost vertical 'Summit Plummet' flume and got the mother of all wedgies! He recorded 52mph, I saw a 61 whilst waiting at the bottom! Apparently it hurts! <br /><br />Proof that Dan is undeniably crazy, this is Summit Plummet:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2XxBsKyo42_Wcgp5gAxs_h-aJCAWwtICw4QcUbjLVkdepHZOUZGTgIqMvtPGAGIIYSAIeP3ESVVpF59L2RF1GLZNmtbXj9whHwTfLXbljXRtommJRJOhjjyjppAxZzZITP8smd30bls/s1600-h/summitplummet.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2XxBsKyo42_Wcgp5gAxs_h-aJCAWwtICw4QcUbjLVkdepHZOUZGTgIqMvtPGAGIIYSAIeP3ESVVpF59L2RF1GLZNmtbXj9whHwTfLXbljXRtommJRJOhjjyjppAxZzZITP8smd30bls/s320/summitplummet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134995429355798034" /></a><br /><br />We also went to Downtown Disney one evening to use our $15 voucher at Planet Hollywood for dinner. Lots of shops, including the largest Disney shop in the world (good job Mum wasn't with me!) and a superb Chocolate shop. Nice atmosphere to wander amoungst the bars and things. We had hoped to go to The House of Blues to check out some live music, but it was closed for a private function :-(<br /><br />Finally, we met a nice English member of staff who told us some interesting Disney Stuff! But, it's not for writing on the blog, it's one for the pub over a nice pint of warm beer ;-)<br /><br />So, <em>in summary</em>, Disney still do everything just that little bit better than everybody else, their attention to detail is incredible. We enjoyed ourselves but are definatly looking forward to getting into the Everglades National Park tomorrow and then heading down to the Keys to check out the Coral Reef and beautiful beeches. We were all themeparked out at the end of the stay, so I'm waiting 'till the trip back up for Sea World...<br /><br />...Assuming we survive the night. The campsite we're at: 'Alligators and Snakes Campground' ... mm, interesting name.Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-42933350136133072352007-11-11T23:57:00.000+00:002007-11-12T03:12:16.186+00:00The Deep South... YOIKS!Dan:<br /><br />One thing Jen forgot to put on the last blog entry about New Orleans... The locals seem to be taking it all with a bit of good spirit. They have a bumper sticker there that goes as follows: "Took my Chevy to the Levy, but the Levy was... GONE!"<br /><br />Anyway having left New Orleans and the <a href="http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/ibyusegne.aspx">best state park camp site </a>we have ever used, we headed for <a href="http://www.destrehanplantation.org/">Destrehan Plantation</a>. This is an 18th century sugar plantation that was pretty interesting. All the staff who do the tours have to wear period costumes... very silly! At the height of their success, the Destrehan family had over 200 slaves living in rather scanky wooden shacks. These slaves had a big hand in the uprising that led to the ring leaders being beheaded and their heads put on stakes for all to see... Hmmm... nice! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9dJrXMR5RIO54xjLrcuP88xRRuRdu3xSQQGW6rVDM8YbVREHuKPm14Gh_rzhCtsJmB8MtORpvgXdd5ddUk-X7Hw2U054CGJxmECN88ENb6hlVtexynYMqwpAF5aXBhhCJolvw4e09A/s1600-h/destran.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9dJrXMR5RIO54xjLrcuP88xRRuRdu3xSQQGW6rVDM8YbVREHuKPm14Gh_rzhCtsJmB8MtORpvgXdd5ddUk-X7Hw2U054CGJxmECN88ENb6hlVtexynYMqwpAF5aXBhhCJolvw4e09A/s320/destran.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131785872030312002" /></a><br /><br />Happily things have changed quite a bit since then and Louisiana is actually a really nice state, the people were some of the friendliest we've met so far.<br /><br />A quick visit to a Walmart Express-lube for an oil change and we hit the road again and made tracks towards Florida along the south coast. The drive to Florida was all interstate, so not very exciting, but we did pass through Mississippi (the state, not the river!) and Alabama (Richard and Tracy's CD was put on with "Sweet Home Alabama" at full volume!).<br /><br />We finally arrived in Florida late last night and camped in St Augustine, the oldest established city in the USA. For the first night in months we were able to sleep with the tent open. Yep, it's luuuuurvly and warm :-) In the daylight we took a short drive around and saw the European architecture. Then we headed off to Daytona beach. For $5 a day you can drive about 10miles of the beech. Well, it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it :-) Unfortunately you are not allowed to splash in the sea so we made do with enjoying the drive and rescuing the locals who had no idea how to drive on sand! We ended up dragging one car about 40feet along the beech after he'd managed to get hopelessly bogged down in the sand!.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3XGQcBoNolO0xCaiKN-U8ysdP1AHQejaPhNuaA9uFgwZ27VcyY0AMUl059jV6TkBMPcZ5i1PgcaB2C0PThbvVNcmBftY1cIuXfMoVop5lRHI0piU8tI5QWITechOs-DhouDc9PvaknA/s1600-h/beechtow.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3XGQcBoNolO0xCaiKN-U8ysdP1AHQejaPhNuaA9uFgwZ27VcyY0AMUl059jV6TkBMPcZ5i1PgcaB2C0PThbvVNcmBftY1cIuXfMoVop5lRHI0piU8tI5QWITechOs-DhouDc9PvaknA/s320/beechtow.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131785859145410082" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6tJqit5FKa9G3omJ8OBnGR_SMt7n56MK96HM1qA-TVzrd2QHd1Qt16Klu5cvX_nJQ9I2Y-E8CFz2L30E2hYlVZ10NNa-UjSx-0Kif5YNbThP6lK9D9TwK7lA7wRsMYb4e1BpVNXQmQ/s1600-h/beech2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6tJqit5FKa9G3omJ8OBnGR_SMt7n56MK96HM1qA-TVzrd2QHd1Qt16Klu5cvX_nJQ9I2Y-E8CFz2L30E2hYlVZ10NNa-UjSx-0Kif5YNbThP6lK9D9TwK7lA7wRsMYb4e1BpVNXQmQ/s320/beech2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131785867735344690" /></a><br /><br />Jen:<br /><br />This is where our "holiday" begins, we will be doing all the touristy things for the next couple of weeks before we head back to New York and home. Actually, it's not that bad - we are booked into Disney for the next 4 nights, 2 days in the theme parks and two in the water parks - Hehe, but appart from that the plan is to visit NASA and the Kennedy Space Centre tomorrow and after Disney head down to the Everglades National Park and then down to the Keys - there's a KOA down there with it's own bar on the beech, lol! :-) When we head back up we'll visit Miami and SEA WORLD! Wahoo! That, I am a little excited about. As Thankgiving is somewhere in the middle of that lot we hope to find a nice little resturant that'll feed us as my birthday treat. Cool eh?!<br /><br />P.S. My elbow is still killing me after falling off in Moab (almost a month ago now), any ideas if this is right?! It's ok usually, but if I lean on it it feels like someones stabbed it with a big carving knife! Ow! Answers on a postcard...Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-25101685387965290892007-11-09T14:51:00.000+00:002007-11-09T15:56:11.757+00:00New Orleans - the city America forgot?Well, we did well heading south! By the end of the day we were at the Louisiana border and everyone was sounding very southern - as a consequence, we both sounded very English, it's very strange hearing yourself talk in a place like this! :-)<br /><br />This was prehaps the 5th night on the trip we couldn't find anyplace to camp. The state park had shut the camping for the season and the RV parks were all closed up for the night, so we headed into a little town in search of a motel. We found one - £17 a night! It was you typical cheap motel, we even had a dead cockroach in the corner, lol! But the bedding was clean so that did us, it was also a bit warmer and Dan's toothpaste didn't freeze which was a bonus. We got a pizza from Pizza Hut, I think we were hte only people in town that night and settled down for a night in front of the tele (which means I got to watch Basketball all night, heaven :-) ).<br /><br />The next morning was Dan's Birthday! Wahoo! 36 Today! I'd managed to sneakly get him a pair of long fingered Mountain biking gloves without him knowing at Rim Cyclery in Moab so I think he was quite pleased, although he then moaned because apparently that means he's got to buy me a pressie on my birthday. Grumpy git. Although I'd planned to cook him pancakes for breakfast as we were in a carpark next to the road we passed on that idea and just got going instead.<br /><br />We were only abou 4 hours from New Orleans so pushed on only stopping for lunch at a Drive Inn which was quite cool! We'd planned to visit one of the old Plantation Houses on the Mississippi and have a look around the City before heading to the French Quater. We arrived a bit late to get all that done, so resolved to do the Plantation house tomorrow and headed into the city. <br /><br />We looked around in the best way possible - we got lost! Well, not really, I knew we were rounghly heading in the right direction, but the devestation from Katrina was still plainly evident. Beautiful old houses were standing either half in ruin or abandoned and borded up, the roads were more like a rollercoaster ride and I was quite glad we had Charlie Camel and not my little Mini as I think getting down some of them would have been interesting! Everywhere you looked though there were messages of definance, many houses had sprayed on the boarded up windows 'we'll be back!' and you oculd see people working to clear debris. There were RV's and caravans scattered outside houses obviously holding the occupants whilst they worked to repair their properties yet everywhere we went people waved and smiled at Charlie, clearly the only way to cope is to get on with things!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw_dbeyXWOjvXnqBf8kzr6Xu5FksewgcLbYplcfbIB6Gtl-nsWN1j6B3yaZJdaJ1ONc9c5YCovZVdNSfDZAsraKA_whX7wMM6IAac0I7Ljoc70ebNQsVHcvLqHAonh7NFDBkVgPwfHChM/s1600-h/no.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw_dbeyXWOjvXnqBf8kzr6Xu5FksewgcLbYplcfbIB6Gtl-nsWN1j6B3yaZJdaJ1ONc9c5YCovZVdNSfDZAsraKA_whX7wMM6IAac0I7Ljoc70ebNQsVHcvLqHAonh7NFDBkVgPwfHChM/s320/no.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130861002734508914" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW56OcJAHlkPiqq_MeYOMU0rkTAqedPtZBsMl5w9VCe_ygQfdQPuwTPG34I6JmxYz4W6wSe9buDXLZUa_Rg1_Ea2DwpPIKKmNjEsgzPn5Fz89qojNvzXWf7oJin_CDZ5JUeyC1sQfHdAE/s1600-h/no1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW56OcJAHlkPiqq_MeYOMU0rkTAqedPtZBsMl5w9VCe_ygQfdQPuwTPG34I6JmxYz4W6wSe9buDXLZUa_Rg1_Ea2DwpPIKKmNjEsgzPn5Fz89qojNvzXWf7oJin_CDZ5JUeyC1sQfHdAE/s320/no1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130861002734508930" /></a><br /><br />The thing to remember - Katrina came through in 2005.. we're now in late 2007.. can you imagine neighbourhoods in New York or Washington still being in ruin over two years later? These neighbourhoods need help and I don't think they're getting it.<br /><br />10blocks later and we were in the French Quarter - this is on higher land and was largly uneffected by the flooding. Well, the buildings were, apparently most of th workers come from the 80% of New Orleans that was effected so the businesses lost alot of workers and tourists that cancelled vacations, taking a hit financially. It is a stunningly beautiful part of the city with French/Spanish and Mexican influences in the buildings, this is clearly the toursit part of town as we looked at an old Paddle Steamer and the large numbers of bars and cafes. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHKkNqV_FhY4dAPwDzOrlaL2JBg9CCf9XvlqXDn09sAy99B8b4qi-QJ3iZY8q69F9YE8UohUiVHVHsa9azwQlKYi96MAYL6y3SXFC71GlRloOis88syFdA_Imx2JMiyw3MfvylT19DmoQ/s1600-h/steamer.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHKkNqV_FhY4dAPwDzOrlaL2JBg9CCf9XvlqXDn09sAy99B8b4qi-QJ3iZY8q69F9YE8UohUiVHVHsa9azwQlKYi96MAYL6y3SXFC71GlRloOis88syFdA_Imx2JMiyw3MfvylT19DmoQ/s320/steamer.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130861007029476242" /></a><br /><br />We did our bit to boost the local economy by having a few beers in a micro brewery ;-) and of course to celebrate Dan's birthday.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhimbu_steMpErrTBozD-Flp3vWE54DR_l2L7M9rvx-Yx394isjErLAqzNYjZkSkh_6w3Ga3Q2jV51aAId-uX76JLq6m_cL4NFyF2YAl2YX5AuvQhOxxg1SSKkLzc24JpMm7pcRQbJ0cGw/s1600-h/fq1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhimbu_steMpErrTBozD-Flp3vWE54DR_l2L7M9rvx-Yx394isjErLAqzNYjZkSkh_6w3Ga3Q2jV51aAId-uX76JLq6m_cL4NFyF2YAl2YX5AuvQhOxxg1SSKkLzc24JpMm7pcRQbJ0cGw/s320/fq1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130860998439541586" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwfq2OoIH4CnpS3NpgXtYCTwJo1Cc9sOypdMXrNaix4oWKBWRlz7EmPLBjuRtKrIYlCHPHwDKC4EkjiZqFLXSWD7T8jk78XZNruOw10r8RCq1_hZC15RJbkASXO-k3lCai_f63zURezI/s1600-h/fq2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwfq2OoIH4CnpS3NpgXtYCTwJo1Cc9sOypdMXrNaix4oWKBWRlz7EmPLBjuRtKrIYlCHPHwDKC4EkjiZqFLXSWD7T8jk78XZNruOw10r8RCq1_hZC15RJbkASXO-k3lCai_f63zURezI/s320/fq2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130860998439541602" /></a><br /><br />As darkness drew in it was clearly time to find a place to camp so we headed out to one of the local state parks. 8ish miles on the map and 20odd later we found it, nice and secluded with free wifi (lol!), clean showers, free laundary... mm, why so many facilities? Ok, there's Aligators (which grow upto 20ft), Lynx, Coyote's... quite glad we've got the rooftent then! Still, a bargin at $18.<br /><br />Birthday Pancakes this morning:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLbWm4YahsODG2gru8S3-WlG_TmFGXZ0UFiIATIZyUO4g97E-2d8XkAcWqD5kL4XYXv6a0kQpNtDkCDs50QNVJefGjHEJdUKuHgWWpysqxbCFSQR8NY646hObLBKXfww2tOjgE8HkT-PU/s1600-h/pancakes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLbWm4YahsODG2gru8S3-WlG_TmFGXZ0UFiIATIZyUO4g97E-2d8XkAcWqD5kL4XYXv6a0kQpNtDkCDs50QNVJefGjHEJdUKuHgWWpysqxbCFSQR8NY646hObLBKXfww2tOjgE8HkT-PU/s320/pancakes.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130869914791648162" /></a>Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-65857079166758802662007-11-09T03:16:00.000+00:002007-11-09T03:40:06.213+00:00Sing along now… (Dan’s title) ARGH! (Jen’s title)So, where did we leave you? As you might have guessed we’ve been counting the miles off recently and seeing a few things on the way. Probably the easiest way is to do the brief highlights of each day since leaving Denver:<br /><br />Day 1:<br /><br />Heading south on the I25, 4:40pm – a bend in the road! Wow! (seriously, I made a note of the time).<br /><br />Day 2:<br /><br />This was a little more interesting, we’d spent the night in Las Vegas (NM not NV) and it was bloomin’ freezing. We were still heading south on the I25 today, but when we got to Socorro we took the 60 west for a bit so we could see the rather unimaginatively named VLA (Very Large Array), this is a radio astronomy telescope made up of 27 antennas with 25m dishes. It’s used by astronomers all over the US for various projects from studying the sun to various distant galaxies, each antenna can be moved on the tracks to span a distance of 13miles apart along each arm, at the largest configuration larger than the city of Washington DC It would take a antenna with a dish of 17miles wide to do what the VLA can do. It was pretty cool to see it all in operation – even better that is was free! Dan got very excited in his geeky Si-Fi way as it was in the film ‘Contact’ with Jodie Foster.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwiRl3r3GOzXyMQlLD5J5Hnp4Gs6S57bdzPqcS81oVdiUJ6FD7PA39PGQXjvuDeEGODqT0QO26ZJwnH7koMWqp4bBhEIc-RwJ1s7ndyfHvzQEmEJmqc6b_YtRZyRaWBxMm34J80AT3lLM/s1600-h/vla.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwiRl3r3GOzXyMQlLD5J5Hnp4Gs6S57bdzPqcS81oVdiUJ6FD7PA39PGQXjvuDeEGODqT0QO26ZJwnH7koMWqp4bBhEIc-RwJ1s7ndyfHvzQEmEJmqc6b_YtRZyRaWBxMm34J80AT3lLM/s320/vla.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130678376430115618" /></a><br /><br />After driving 45miles in the wrong direction we thought we should get back on track and headed along the 380 east past the ‘Trinity Site’ – the site of the first nuclear bomb – we didn’t hang around and found a nice quiet place down the road to camp only to discover a leaking hub seal on the rear axle. As we were camped on BLM land in the middle of a field essentially, it was quite a way to the nearest town so we thought it best not to start the job here and put it on the ‘list of things to do tomorrow’.<br /><br />Day 3:<br /><br />Oh dear. Roswell. Well, it had to be done! We pulled up on Main Street to be faced with the funniest street lamps, I think I might ask HCC to introduce these in Eastleigh:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxHAtJeZVHzQJLbAyufQc8OlMOyJdTmtraxI9jSXh4rOT1_wl8eu1yONG2LwXjl2sylL9sRlZOG6VsLjT2PBbhLlNIONRFcDEpcAiQExlmIRxlPnYl2CDG8VHb6YRmTiNY_2i9KxZyCM/s1600-h/streetlamp.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxHAtJeZVHzQJLbAyufQc8OlMOyJdTmtraxI9jSXh4rOT1_wl8eu1yONG2LwXjl2sylL9sRlZOG6VsLjT2PBbhLlNIONRFcDEpcAiQExlmIRxlPnYl2CDG8VHb6YRmTiNY_2i9KxZyCM/s320/streetlamp.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130678372135148306" /></a><br /><br />Roswell, as you probably know is the alleged site of an Alien space craft landing in the 1940’s which was confirmed by a member of the armed forces then quickly denied with several follow up stories including a weather balloon, Air Force dummy and probably several other things. We popped into the UFO Museum which was actually quite well done! I expected the worst I think, but they did a good job of trying to present both sides of the story when we could see they wanted to say ‘It was Alien’s!!’. Lots of eye witness accounts of the ‘spacecraft’ crash and subsequent search for bits of spacecraft and a bit of info on some interesting things like crop circles, ancient history etc. with only a few accounts sounding like they’d come from completely mad people :-)<br /><br />Everything in the town was alien themed, even the Walmart had a spacecraft painted on the side and lots of inflatable Alien’s inside, but we liked them as they didn’t mind us using their car park to change the hub seal. Dan set to work and I went into do the shopping, I think he got the better deal! But, the people of Roswell are very friendly, a total of 6 vehicles stopped to see if we needed help/bits which was pretty good of them as we were well out the way at the back of the car park.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiQByt9YoZT6hkRPTwW3RZ30Th97C7pZ45BtRhufT1kpFLFOGA-Q9SmLTTSa8qwSPDU_IcXaWgcK07QugqytUvXB1R5ZwmZgt9kFVGr_INJNXeThyphenhyphenEpOjTSbRbID_h515R7JLyIxCrVwM/s1600-h/walmart.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiQByt9YoZT6hkRPTwW3RZ30Th97C7pZ45BtRhufT1kpFLFOGA-Q9SmLTTSa8qwSPDU_IcXaWgcK07QugqytUvXB1R5ZwmZgt9kFVGr_INJNXeThyphenhyphenEpOjTSbRbID_h515R7JLyIxCrVwM/s320/walmart.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130678380725082930" /></a><br /><br />Job completed and we headed up on to the most hell-ish part of the trip for me – and the reason for the thread title – we were going towards… Amarillo. ARGH! 2 days of Dan signing ‘Is this the way to Amarillo’ is enough to drive anyone insane, good job they didn’t have an international airport or I probably would have been on the next flight home, lol!<br /><br />As we crossed into Texas the Cattle Ranch’s began. Wow, these places are HUGE! Pen’s of cows as far as the eye could see, only separated by HUGE farm buildings and the odd HUGE dust storm (everything in Texas is HUGE!). As we crossed over the border we headed back into Central Time so lost an hour of travelling time so we decided to head to a KOA on the other side of Amar… no, I can’t even bring myself to type the word anymore! Did you know that place sits atop 90% of the worlds Helium? And I didn’t see one balloon :-( This win’s the award for the most noisy campsite we’ve stayed at, we should of known as in the brochure it stated ‘no interstate noise!’ but failed to mention the airport *next door* and the rail road the other next door. Lol! <br /><br />As it was our only night in Texas we thought it right that we should go out for a good ‘ol Steak Dinner, and as recommended headed for The Big Texan - this win’s the award for the tackiest, yet funniest place we’ve eaten so far. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8xSrexXuP-546SEQoyS4AINIf9-BzsuZcbgQQVZ8v9rXD1636UsOVp_4YFapd7wNVOOkF3gIt0ZMVH-79HIw-xswWVS0mwwCw7XZjvRpZ5y8bUNj_fSjIKZ7ZCM_YQtVW4Ah5go6PM4M/s1600-h/bigtexan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8xSrexXuP-546SEQoyS4AINIf9-BzsuZcbgQQVZ8v9rXD1636UsOVp_4YFapd7wNVOOkF3gIt0ZMVH-79HIw-xswWVS0mwwCw7XZjvRpZ5y8bUNj_fSjIKZ7ZCM_YQtVW4Ah5go6PM4M/s320/bigtexan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130678363545213682" /></a><br /><br />On the menu was basically every type of Steak you could imagine (don’t come in here looking for a salad) as well as some local delicacies such as fried Rattlesnake. Mmm, tasty! Our server was wearing a big hat and cowboy boots and the whole place was decked out like a huge dancehall/saloon. We thought we’d been caught in some really touristy restaurant only to realise practically everyone eating in there was local! Lol! We did get our server to admit he usually wears trainers and a baseball cap though, not the cowboy boots and huge hat he was working in. Still, the staff were friendly and the food was good so in my book that makes it a pretty good place to eat and apparently one of the most popular on Route 66.<br /><br />Day 4:<br /><br />Following on from eating at one of the most famous places on Route 66 we headed north on the I40 following the direction of the old road to Clinton and the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. On the way though we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch. One of Amarillo’s eccentric helium millionaires has ‘planted’ 10 Cadillacs in one of his fields next to the I40, it’s to show the different fins that were part of the designs from 1949 – 1963 and is open for people to decorate/graffti as they please, in fact, there were some cans lying around to encourage you to do just that! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU10XxUXOvDKnVoC3GbofDMYqm9NE4pbk3ID8tYMU9fKfo9P2A0Gkwun9Xv3FBIGyZ4UUP-LtmbF51eXcJXkxFisYc8XIXDJYSIx0Bri5Hup0YEnJD_Hg554X-Gk6gKx4GczLyt_Mpr7Q/s1600-h/cranch.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU10XxUXOvDKnVoC3GbofDMYqm9NE4pbk3ID8tYMU9fKfo9P2A0Gkwun9Xv3FBIGyZ4UUP-LtmbF51eXcJXkxFisYc8XIXDJYSIx0Bri5Hup0YEnJD_Hg554X-Gk6gKx4GczLyt_Mpr7Q/s320/cranch.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130680081532132162" /></a><br /><br />We left our mark and wandered back onto the interstate heading for a Barnes and Noble, this made us very happy as we managed to get hold of a LRM so we could catch up on all the news from the UK Land Rover scene… boy, Billing was a bit wet eh?! Good write-up for Simon and X-Eng, and Shire got a couple of mentions too.<br /><br />As we’d done quite a few bits of the actual route 66 as it exists now on our journey, we were keen to find out a little more. For $3 each the museum was a bargain and I’d highly recommend it. They’ve managed to salvage as many bits and pieces as they can and reproduced a few others to give an accurate account of the history of the road from LA to Chicago and everything in between. It was quite sad though and a living example of what happens when you build interstates (or bypasses in the UK) as many of the communities, or at least the businesses, disappeared once the new roads bypassed their towns and passing trade disappeared.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidGi35joRPUs13K70Cg8HoXhpYHtAlyq0BpzPp1EgIxbKg3d7eib2rvFr0K8eOjy4dtQCrcTHPDd6NT2LldvQ3ejLY_Izcn4knKoreQvnPZdbWPvDRQQLCBNl7ly0BZ-fopJ4G7lV6Igw/s1600-h/rte66.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidGi35joRPUs13K70Cg8HoXhpYHtAlyq0BpzPp1EgIxbKg3d7eib2rvFr0K8eOjy4dtQCrcTHPDd6NT2LldvQ3ejLY_Izcn4knKoreQvnPZdbWPvDRQQLCBNl7ly0BZ-fopJ4G7lV6Igw/s320/rte66.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130678367840180994" /></a><br /><br />We stopped the night just west of Oklahoma City to yet another freezing evening and a night of going to bed with a warm hat on. We’ve had quite a few of these now and it seems to be becoming a theme with central America, warm days and then waking up to find all the water around us frozen (and Dan’s toothpaste – lol!). So, today we’re heading south even if we have to drive until Midnight!<br /><br />Oo, better go, we turn off in 177miles…quick, get the map out…Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-28051434121607547672007-11-04T03:00:00.000+00:002007-11-04T03:09:11.357+00:00Back on the Road... even though we prefer off-road!Well, after much umm-ing and arr-ing and a considerable amount of procrastination on my part, we finally dragged ourselves kicking and screaming away from Moab. Our route for the next few days will take us in a huge “U” shape, ending in Denver, basically following all the recommendations of places to visit from the guys in Salt Lake.<br /><br />Having left Moab we picked up the 191 south and headed towards the Navajo Nation Indian Reserve and some of its offerings, firstly Monument Valley. But just south of Moab Charlie Camel decided to let us know that he didn’t want to leave either by getting a flat tyre. Imagine our surprise when we got the wheel off and saw this crack in the rim.. YOIKS!!<br /><br /><a <br />href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEj_QRtj0icKBtWNMVhRGVxbLMl3Om6DPKIn8Bit95IJgnIjOIM1KFo7d2VS0cSjPfWAGaE0GP8K84LKiuIEW2JFfJXADL75Rx6ztHH1EKlIjpywWu4hsbyBNJk2kEsDLs11ElRZotW8/s1600-h/bustedrim.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEj_QRtj0icKBtWNMVhRGVxbLMl3Om6DPKIn8Bit95IJgnIjOIM1KFo7d2VS0cSjPfWAGaE0GP8K84LKiuIEW2JFfJXADL75Rx6ztHH1EKlIjpywWu4hsbyBNJk2kEsDLs11ElRZotW8/s320/bustedrim.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128815763031224242" /></a><br /><br />So that’ll be the end of that rim then. Anybody who has any suggestions about how this could happen we’d love to hear them!<br /><br />Anyway, back on the road again and heading towards Monument Valley. This is the classic western landscape that everyone has seen the pictures of and includes such geological features at the Mexican Hat. We just drove through Monument Valley without going to the “Tribal Park” itself as according to the ‘Rough Guide’ you can pretty much see most of it from the main road. There are various Navajo-led tours around the valley itself, but we were content to just admire from afar.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqnve8o-xfWj54obGYrm-O1ezFjB0f3i1iHq0FYMHzz93fuAl32LPphh_C8hoTjjmb1UdEc6rV56TYFT6RNWakLSQRvLW0_u4UvkNkse2r9Rxo61wNKDKy_x9gYXCw5JhU6odzBcKmDck/s1600-h/monumentvalley.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqnve8o-xfWj54obGYrm-O1ezFjB0f3i1iHq0FYMHzz93fuAl32LPphh_C8hoTjjmb1UdEc6rV56TYFT6RNWakLSQRvLW0_u4UvkNkse2r9Rxo61wNKDKy_x9gYXCw5JhU6odzBcKmDck/s320/monumentvalley.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128816269837365234" /></a><br /><br />Next stop on our whirlwind tour of this region was Canyon De Chelly (pronounced De Shey) National Monument, which had been recommended to us by a whole gaggle of people. The Canyon itself is a sacred place for the Navajo people and you are only allowed in with a guide. There are various view points along the rim that look down the 1000ft canyon, but as it was getting late we decided to camp the night at the FREE campground. That evening I had a go at repairing our wheel and the hole in the inner tube using the patented Wallace Gaffer-tape hole patching method ;-)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2kSDpX1Gp2lB0_gq6LwHWR9WZv5pXDgNciCTUKhAqEI0lDS1Q6svWjEel4Cr-IFI846CfJ44khJU57Iu9IkDpgpygmWAWPTky2VQBlnfNKXe4Nk7ddnxy8w8hGCCik86rrgSxqQ3pUw/s1600-h/puncturerepair.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2kSDpX1Gp2lB0_gq6LwHWR9WZv5pXDgNciCTUKhAqEI0lDS1Q6svWjEel4Cr-IFI846CfJ44khJU57Iu9IkDpgpygmWAWPTky2VQBlnfNKXe4Nk7ddnxy8w8hGCCik86rrgSxqQ3pUw/s320/puncturerepair.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128816274132332546" /></a><br /><br />But not to fear, we put in a new tube in it and we’re now using it to mount the bikes on – we won’t run it on the interstates, the spare that was on the back is now on the bonnet, so fingers crossed we won’t get two flats at the same time.<br /><br />The campsite and the Cayon itself were absolutely stunning, sadly, the rest of the reservation, well, wasn’t. It was kind of like Pilands on a bad day, Jen didn’t cope to well with the vast amount of dogs running around clearly homeless and the dead/uncared for animals that littered the sides of the road. Combined with the warnings about leaving your car unattended it didn’t make for relaxing visiting, so we planned to make a retreat after visiting the monuments and natural wonders we were planning on seeing.<br /><br />The following day we were up bright and early and drove through 4 states in about 8 seconds – no, sadly the warpdrive still isn’t working – we were at Four Corners Monument. This is where you can stand in 4 states simultaneously, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKUKR-XInFPnkY_SDZjFRy08jZ6CqYrJYwZkvonW6BbGP7TCRS6ZV6SCWGerDH4m6Vn3WYyxOX6HFn2D6Id70MyAEkGuGT9Q6eQnHJRYpiUMkYR-cogWqTL_HVG2Ys3HizcCV9aufSmec/s1600-h/fourcorners.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKUKR-XInFPnkY_SDZjFRy08jZ6CqYrJYwZkvonW6BbGP7TCRS6ZV6SCWGerDH4m6Vn3WYyxOX6HFn2D6Id70MyAEkGuGT9Q6eQnHJRYpiUMkYR-cogWqTL_HVG2Ys3HizcCV9aufSmec/s320/fourcorners.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128815767326191570" /></a><br /><br />After all that excitement we were off again, this time in the direction of Mesa Verde National Park. On the way there we went through Cortez and saw the stereotypical classic American Diner. Well, as it was lunch time it seemed only right that we should pop in for a small snack (massive burger with huge portion of fries and as many free top ups of coke as you can manage!). These classic diners with their polished mirrored outsides and nasty glass tiled insides are getting rarer and rarer. We’ve seen a few on our travels, but it’s never been the right time of the day to stop. Unfortunately, this wasn’t “Peggy Sues” or “Rosies”, but a Denny’s. Never mind, it did the job and all the waitresses had really big 60’s hair doo’s!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ9ZbAqT61pM14QW-2t4kdgY6soX7QaQEyU94x7SsV2gKAWQdibfYU9ZK9gPMCSEDW3twdfb3fLuB2V0tqpsFnWJT9moVfifjvw3tU2VZkfaL_YrWFXxWG0fbZQMttyQKl5VS8sDv3szs/s1600-h/classicdiner.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ9ZbAqT61pM14QW-2t4kdgY6soX7QaQEyU94x7SsV2gKAWQdibfYU9ZK9gPMCSEDW3twdfb3fLuB2V0tqpsFnWJT9moVfifjvw3tU2VZkfaL_YrWFXxWG0fbZQMttyQKl5VS8sDv3szs/s320/classicdiner.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128815767326191554" /></a><br /><br />We hauled our enormously over fed and gassed up bodies back to the car and took off again for Mesa Verde. This park has some of the best preserved cliff dwellings, built sometime between Christ and 1300AD by the ancestral Puebloan people. They got bored and moved out at some point, probably because they over farmed the land and bled it dry, but personally I reckon they moved out because they’d only get a short amount of sunshine during the day! <em>(just encase you were wondering – it was actually drought – Jen)</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MeSxTY_tQmelfy3ynBxYcbZFi30fweMjnLA59Xpve4Q-kMBEriZo8KvZQ1RSgibH2SmISFkt-rXIWSIa18klSKyiqsjGiX8jbLUSbBF54ucjSL2mUXX0ssfLtQ8wv5zYHGTCUGxeRDY/s1600-h/mesaverde.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MeSxTY_tQmelfy3ynBxYcbZFi30fweMjnLA59Xpve4Q-kMBEriZo8KvZQ1RSgibH2SmISFkt-rXIWSIa18klSKyiqsjGiX8jbLUSbBF54ucjSL2mUXX0ssfLtQ8wv5zYHGTCUGxeRDY/s320/mesaverde.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128815771621158882" /></a><br /><br />Next stop was Telluride. We were actually passing through looking for a mountain road to Ouray that had been recommended to us as a stunning drive. Unfortunately it turned out that the road didn’t actually get as far as Telluride so we had to get back on the main roads. We eventually reached Ouray, a delightful little town and it was in the full swing of Halloween! We’ve all seen the films and stuff, but I never really thought that local people made that much of an effort, but people here really get into these things, houses get decorated with cobwebs, coffins, witches and of course the obligatory pumpkins, people get dressed up and there is a real happy, fun, party atmosphere… not like in the UK where you get a group of knife wielding spotty oik of a teenager wearing a hoody banging on your door and threatening to kill you cat if you don’t give ‘em a tenner!<br />We arrived slightly too late to visit the hot springs, so went out for a bite to eat instead. The following morning though, we made our way to the hot springs and spent an hour relaxing in the 102-106 degree f water while looking at the snow capped mountains. If only we could have some mountains overlooking Richard and Tracy’s back garden!<br /><br />We then went in search of this road we’d been trying to find yesterday. I think we failed, (sorry Rob!) but we did find Engineers Pass, a mountain trail that led high up into the Uncompahgre National Forest and gave us some stunning views of the 14309ft mountain peak.<br /><br />We left the trail after taking a million and 1 pictures and headed north again, this time towards Fruita. We’d heard from a couple of people that Fruita offered some good mountain biking. We arrived just as the visitors centre had closed, but had a little drive around town and found Over the Edge http://otesports.com/ . We popped in and asked about the biking and the chap serving us was fab. He knew straight away in which direction to point us. We also bought a book listing all the trails that have been created in the BLM land. The main difference between the biking here and at Moab is that here it is all single track stuff, created specifically for mountain biking… cool! :-) Moab provides a completely different experience with slickrock and sand, and the trails are quite often shared with motor bikes, ATVs, horses and of course “Jeeps”. The bizarre thing is that Fruita is probably on a par with Moab for what it has to offer the mountain biking enthusiast, but unless you are a local the chances of you hearing about are pretty remote, which is sad. <br />Anyway, we managed to get a couple of good trail done, Kessels Run, Prime Cut and Joe’s Ridge. The last one was brilliant, some really nice fast downhills. Jen freaked out being just ever so slightly scared of heights, but gotta give her credit, she only walked one small **EXTREME** downhill bit with a several hundred foot drop down either side. Me, well I just shut my eyes, peddled like billy-o, shouted a lot, and prayed!<br />The riding here is quite similar to what we have at home, so as we were slightly pushed for time, we made our escape, but have added it to our list of “Future Visits”.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBkD2ubSNFDIky7u3W5RHHb2QQwto6fcY1_Aezb5U44WweoOsHuIOnIAOCZ1tuQQDmO14igavWV7cNAHs0QqfxPPj4_QB0mzeYlsOqADTILwZaZPMd4V2PvLvblcJYsirvkb2tONnWubg/s1600-h/bikinfruita.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBkD2ubSNFDIky7u3W5RHHb2QQwto6fcY1_Aezb5U44WweoOsHuIOnIAOCZ1tuQQDmO14igavWV7cNAHs0QqfxPPj4_QB0mzeYlsOqADTILwZaZPMd4V2PvLvblcJYsirvkb2tONnWubg/s320/bikinfruita.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128815758736256930" /></a><br /><br />Back on the road again, this time heading for Denver. I had joined the Solihull Society forum (a Colorado based Land Rover club) to ask all sorts of boring questions whilst we’d been planning the trip. And now we had the opportunity to meet a few of the core members. We arranged to meet at the Landsdowne Arms, an English style pub. How happy was I when I saw that they had Tetley, Bass and London Pride on tap! I could have stayed there all night. This is the first time in several months that I have had a pint of proper bitter. Mind you, it was still too cold!!<br />We had a good night talking to Tom, Jim (Jimfoo from LR4x4) and Todd, and it was great to meet them and their vehicles. It sounds like Colorado has just as much to offer as Moab, maybe more! So that’s another place added to the list of Future Visits then!<br /><br />At the end of the evening we exchanged club stickers, and Todd kindly donated a Solihull Society Moab Rally t shirt to the “Keep Dan Warm in these freezing cold Nights” fund. Tom then led us to the nearest hotel, which happened to be a Marriott. But with my charm, sophistication and fluttering eye lids, I managed to blag a hotel suite that was bigger than our house for 50 quid! Bargain!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAHmSgbqcO2GTzfmC-LNMBZiudncuoipbMEpYiKHSlyPW_9EHn-ksH2bxKV4xRWKflrOUnPXYl213jcx0jr1LETlmyyNX38equ_ixGXMK4M_jsRN0EQ-x9Y807tQTX7XkWcQjMd0uPe0k/s1600-h/solihullsociety.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAHmSgbqcO2GTzfmC-LNMBZiudncuoipbMEpYiKHSlyPW_9EHn-ksH2bxKV4xRWKflrOUnPXYl213jcx0jr1LETlmyyNX38equ_ixGXMK4M_jsRN0EQ-x9Y807tQTX7XkWcQjMd0uPe0k/s320/solihullsociety.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128816278427299858" /></a><br /><br />The south is calling, so we’ll be “bigging up” for Nascar from now on in the hope that we can get to Florida without getting shot!Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-67783464828090814212007-10-30T00:33:00.001+00:002007-10-30T05:55:35.518+00:00Slickrock Rocks!After our National Park days we were eager for some more Slickrock action, we'd planned to head up to Moonlight Meadows a track that sounded fun for a bit of biking. Only we'd forgotten to look at the elevation on the diagram in the book - it started at 9,000 feet rising to 10,500ft over 4 miles uphill. We enjoyed the drive up into the La Sal mountains and when we got to the trail head we jumped out the car only to feel pretty much instantly freezing and lightheaded! lol! Opps. Maybe this was a mistake. Still, we carried on getting ready and I headed off to sign the book to say we were going off on the track only to find (luckily I thought!) a note from a couple that had done the track yesterday, apparently it was a quagmire of mud, ice and snow. Well, I guess that would make sense seeing as I was standing in snow reading the book! Needless to say, not wanting to damage the tracks, or die of altitude sickness we bottled-it, jumped back in the car and headed for more sunny low-altitude climes of Moab again. Wimps eh?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMSzieGOaS5h0EjL7H7mv7E-x4ohwA_xAMemN0_MZAtcYZNbI-quZgLCmen5xsG2vaISZTZu9mc4bpg9KHgL6SMv56v29jW1CICKzs-lWxc0fAMBbIi55911dDMriFN6IcwsOa9wj5LE/s1600-h/snow.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMSzieGOaS5h0EjL7H7mv7E-x4ohwA_xAMemN0_MZAtcYZNbI-quZgLCmen5xsG2vaISZTZu9mc4bpg9KHgL6SMv56v29jW1CICKzs-lWxc0fAMBbIi55911dDMriFN6IcwsOa9wj5LE/s320/snow.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127003484400807794" /></a><br /><br />So, beaten by that track we headed for Flat Iron Mesa as that looked like a pretty easy track with some interesting spurs to investigate. Well, we were right about the easy. It was basically a 13 mile gravel road with lots of sand patches, now, we maybe novice but after about 2 miles of this it was so dull we decided to head back. We used the time wisely though - for wheely practise :-)<br /><br />So, 2 disasters and feeling a bit downhearted we refused to give up. By this time it was heading to late afternoon so we looked for a short trail in the book and came across Bartlets Wash. Cool - about 6 miles by the look of it with some Slickrock playground time. We found it easily enough and it started well with us riding up the stream bed - it even still had puddles - wahoo! We soon came to the right turn which lead onto the slickrock and we scrambled the bikes up the first (vertical) section, I'm grateful we now have lighter bikes lol! Then, well, it was playtime. Basically we'd discovered a HUGE slickrock playground area - freeform all the way (just avoiding the cryptobiotic soil). We had a great time and it was amazing how much your tyres grip on this stuff, sideslopes and easily controlable downhills were very cool:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji4RquAuqzEE7H1WLN0A4XMxVKBKibN2AQClIaYbylPXRDmG42Js8Kh6dBPHOiE0gG6JqTXdYi5L1sT_XDkSZEIIzy2mn7PNr6J09LE2wDSAuH5wRwlIpL3EylbG5CvmN8gVXUVPtI7Lw/s1600-h/bartletdan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji4RquAuqzEE7H1WLN0A4XMxVKBKibN2AQClIaYbylPXRDmG42Js8Kh6dBPHOiE0gG6JqTXdYi5L1sT_XDkSZEIIzy2mn7PNr6J09LE2wDSAuH5wRwlIpL3EylbG5CvmN8gVXUVPtI7Lw/s320/bartletdan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002273220030162" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggH32mhyQh42oIRLPRikBIklwKaaitf9DpFQxHIgLZbgBSOMJkcDkCsKUqs19L84n6KDyDVDfk4ebaWuXtMWksTF27AElL0CEUT8E9Nno38UcfQgYNbepmfAu4IOrJI-CV8bF-Vrz6-Jc/s1600-h/bartletdan2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggH32mhyQh42oIRLPRikBIklwKaaitf9DpFQxHIgLZbgBSOMJkcDkCsKUqs19L84n6KDyDVDfk4ebaWuXtMWksTF27AElL0CEUT8E9Nno38UcfQgYNbepmfAu4IOrJI-CV8bF-Vrz6-Jc/s320/bartletdan2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002277514997474" /></a><br /><br />We eventually decided to head off for the night and as we had big plans for the next day we stopped at the Canyonlands Campsite in town... for easy access to...<br /><br />THE SLICKROCK BIKE TRAIL.<br /><br />HAhahahahahaha! :-) Now. This is a serious trail, only for experts and with a physical 'strenuous' rating. But, it's the trail Moab is known for, so we couldn't leave without giving at least the practise loop (actually the first 2 and a bit miles of the trail) a try. We waited until Monday morning so the crowds weren't there and we wouldn't be holding anyone up as there was no way we were going to be the annoying tourists trying something to difficult for them and ending up in big emergency services call out - so we wanted to be able to walk whatever we weren't happy riding.<br /><br />We arrived to a packed carpark. Well, that didn't go to plan then! But the atmosphere was great. There was obviously the good bikers, but also the 'tourists' like us and even a young kid (about 10ish) who's birthday it was and had obviously bullied his parents to letting him bring lots of friends along! Still, we played it safe, packed the usual first aid kit, repair tools, twice as much water as we should need and some nutty bars/chocolate bars. After procastinating for as long as possible there was nothing left to do but to get on the bikes - the trail snaked out ahead lots of white dashes across a sea of slickrock, disapprearing down gullys and reappearing up impossibly steep hills. Awesome. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiMBirqNOmpDon-9e-ADmD-Vqtuz9hbXVhaSc-Zefx9slUMhOFgYL-Bv65t-2ipSMU_H_jZxZzIY6wCiyCWpBbZiKWxPxC-JY7ptkZfx8z_46N3_llf2MfeaJVed6XziwtYWGF1rUtH4/s1600-h/slickrock1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiMBirqNOmpDon-9e-ADmD-Vqtuz9hbXVhaSc-Zefx9slUMhOFgYL-Bv65t-2ipSMU_H_jZxZzIY6wCiyCWpBbZiKWxPxC-JY7ptkZfx8z_46N3_llf2MfeaJVed6XziwtYWGF1rUtH4/s320/slickrock1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002599637544786" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRk0JLUOLEzJNfm8gVZ2holrSqknwxD8PcJ_0D5CM73o0grfLpnlbrTfRf3BinK5Cf0rJV9FM05RnMfiJm5Wr-Ncb28oazqcMkHM37r8muRKZEsnzC7n4WBvkQG36AqptP35t-gDzLwOg/s1600-h/slickrockjen.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRk0JLUOLEzJNfm8gVZ2holrSqknwxD8PcJ_0D5CM73o0grfLpnlbrTfRf3BinK5Cf0rJV9FM05RnMfiJm5Wr-Ncb28oazqcMkHM37r8muRKZEsnzC7n4WBvkQG36AqptP35t-gDzLwOg/s320/slickrockjen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002603932512098" /></a><br /><br />If you're scared of heights even the practise trail is, er, interesting - but well worth it. We rode the downhills hanging off the back of the bikes and peddled the uphills until our legs were on fire and loved everyminute of it! Ok, so we ended up walking a few times, but I only walked one downhill (big ledge dropping into a sandpit) which I was quite proud of. Along the way we met Randy (hehe) who was on his own on an older stumpjumper and clearly terrified! He was walking most the downhills so we teamed up with him so he wasn't alone and took frequent brakes to watch the ongoing madness on the rest of the trail. It was quite weird riding with someone more terrified than me, lol! <br /><br />I only had one tricky moment as I was about 1 foot from the top of a very steep hill (read: hard to stand up on!), I couldn't quite get there and failed putting my feet down about a foot from the top... only it was so steep I couldn't get off the bike... or put the bike down - so I was stuck! Luckily, I had the camera in *my* camelbak so Dan couldn't take any pics!! With Dan's help and ending up on all fours I managed to scramble the final foot to the top dragging my bike behind me. lol! Before we knew it we got to the turn around point - loop back to the trailhead or go on to 10more miles of slickrock fun. We were both buzzing from the ride, but managed to let our brains control our actions. As much as we would have loved to continue, it was an expert trail and most the obsticles described as 'dangerous sections' were on the remaining track, so we were good (probably to the relief of the emergency services) and headed back to the car park. However, we only did so with a vow to return when we were more confident (and after a few spinning classes at the gym) to complete the rest of the trail. We returned to the car park in style riding off the small but steep downhill into the sand - I was very happy to still be in the saddle after that little obsticle. It was certainly the most biking fun we'd had in Moab so far.<br /><br />We knew we'd saved the best 'till last an all that remained was to get a few pictures of Charlie on 'proper' slickrock. Doing 'Hell's Revenge' at night had meant we didn't really have any good photo's, so we headed for the nearby trail 'Fins and Things'. This trail rated ok as a difficult but not impossible so we enjoyed about an hour of playing on some really steep stuff, some long climbs and seemingly impossible ledges but as the trail cut back to the road we thought we were probably pushing it a bit for off-roading alone so did the sensible thing and headed back into town. Always best to finish on a high :-)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8s2INxoXAb8jqzUH5RzJMC56xfQrsBy34Su5w8MdXuMeo2hU9Mln7TxqYLg3flYemXjTg5RUyDaRe4TeA9uVb61u7NY66Q5mkxVt4PQ6jCxtIskbg-vrZtde7uP4sCXIrdqoyvR0H4E/s1600-h/fins2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8s2INxoXAb8jqzUH5RzJMC56xfQrsBy34Su5w8MdXuMeo2hU9Mln7TxqYLg3flYemXjTg5RUyDaRe4TeA9uVb61u7NY66Q5mkxVt4PQ6jCxtIskbg-vrZtde7uP4sCXIrdqoyvR0H4E/s320/fins2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002591047610146" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN22fr_Y-ld8-3YvVTr5Xjtx7avCmZKlu5SS07-EpoIFr8RanCUf3y6tScfsNhJaUr8wm7wHQftGXmV3SVdvhmg_h5gY-5ZhgBqfkM4KH7A2cVUkxOporWU6MhSvV2kbGOv_JMZSbgLX0/s1600-h/fins4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN22fr_Y-ld8-3YvVTr5Xjtx7avCmZKlu5SS07-EpoIFr8RanCUf3y6tScfsNhJaUr8wm7wHQftGXmV3SVdvhmg_h5gY-5ZhgBqfkM4KH7A2cVUkxOporWU6MhSvV2kbGOv_JMZSbgLX0/s320/fins4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002595342577458" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDdxwW9EoRo6V0UZ5V3ONPuB7zYu-yTz2HZ9JZWAAcN1OedM8GoZJkA5CYtyfoz51blrfP3SSUeNsZMM6k-u6TYO6ACJJp3qeS1Aau9e0D_sSWYMUgK8OR6KRVyRZ8N9rZGNbif4TWZU/s1600-h/fins3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDdxwW9EoRo6V0UZ5V3ONPuB7zYu-yTz2HZ9JZWAAcN1OedM8GoZJkA5CYtyfoz51blrfP3SSUeNsZMM6k-u6TYO6ACJJp3qeS1Aau9e0D_sSWYMUgK8OR6KRVyRZ8N9rZGNbif4TWZU/s320/fins3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002599637544770" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-TtD28QK9cpzUlg4SHcI8U4Cg10-k7Z-MxmbXw-LtdjH9za4X0fxSfDCssGouZ8Y-aZKqjRtfxjpi7ijUiIiYV5K7kG3VogNovIdRxSKaLFWsOaym14e3HT7r8EirG0H5XeFuQ9tDhGA/s1600-h/fins1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-TtD28QK9cpzUlg4SHcI8U4Cg10-k7Z-MxmbXw-LtdjH9za4X0fxSfDCssGouZ8Y-aZKqjRtfxjpi7ijUiIiYV5K7kG3VogNovIdRxSKaLFWsOaym14e3HT7r8EirG0H5XeFuQ9tDhGA/s320/fins1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002286104932114" /></a><br /><br />I know at least one person is sitting a home thinking: You're going to leave Moab and you havn't mentioned the Lionsback! Well, it is on private land and the private land is closed at the moment, but I did get a picture:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ8ShHVgWfKn2E6cBsHCCN-2a5FrKAR02yzrmysFY5FZ0XTRWFyl9bT7Xd73PU3e9bOoaYhnYzh47oZhT17sAfAG53nLEP8b7gwRPEclCYJYv3CG2_M6_3xWxJug3zVBdIk9DSFX1pDS0/s1600-h/lb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ8ShHVgWfKn2E6cBsHCCN-2a5FrKAR02yzrmysFY5FZ0XTRWFyl9bT7Xd73PU3e9bOoaYhnYzh47oZhT17sAfAG53nLEP8b7gwRPEclCYJYv3CG2_M6_3xWxJug3zVBdIk9DSFX1pDS0/s320/lb.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127004287559692178" /></a><br /><br />And we did do the next best thing: <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfskOrvlyQUNqO_TQlE2eXvdCJjFhZH1nUtg0Hf-6d90gxWKyNh-TAkbZIcFxRLwDntlo7v_C10drBr7eNfx3tZcUC7aUi0zmR0kdSEoihEI4l-hBYP6_ylN7srHLDxvNYvTHT3EvYdTg/s1600-h/blbsign.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfskOrvlyQUNqO_TQlE2eXvdCJjFhZH1nUtg0Hf-6d90gxWKyNh-TAkbZIcFxRLwDntlo7v_C10drBr7eNfx3tZcUC7aUi0zmR0kdSEoihEI4l-hBYP6_ylN7srHLDxvNYvTHT3EvYdTg/s320/blbsign.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002281809964786" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhoiLFBZM3QOKjpEpUmfP_8v9niZ9SEHmnOLAHOPBt-ioN7_lY7mn7rVUqokOj2XTQ_DBBCyvZdHHrammnoh3wvAcYhOx-5noUGVKnLLNCBXTVBcpOK1r1P8FJcuVQF1agaX8lTkxiko/s1600-h/blbcharlie.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhoiLFBZM3QOKjpEpUmfP_8v9niZ9SEHmnOLAHOPBt-ioN7_lY7mn7rVUqokOj2XTQ_DBBCyvZdHHrammnoh3wvAcYhOx-5noUGVKnLLNCBXTVBcpOK1r1P8FJcuVQF1agaX8lTkxiko/s320/blbcharlie.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127002281809964802" /></a><br /><br />lol! :-) <br /><br />Whilst we were there we met Esther and Peter in a white Defender TD5 - excellent piece of equipment decked out in the back with everyting you could possibly need and a groovy pop-up tent. It was great to talk to some more Landy people and they seem to be doing some excellent trips (<a href="http://www.yakontour.ch">www.yakontour.ch</a>), heading down into South America for the winter. Cool :-) The funny thing was, we'd seen them twice before around the Lava Beds National Park - but both times had been going too fast in the wrong direction! So we were very pleased to catch them this time.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKI6SXeiQhYI2zpFY6r3rrYIQF4GwjBzCXz1FalWG9Kzl4HWBxTotoSPB16puZZZIuIXYsmRWDoTOqFLiYWGfB8opSERdz7yCXwE9IJUEvWBBhmK2IhfU4z5x4dphiKyNg_fHwvAzVhE/s1600-h/whitedefender.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKI6SXeiQhYI2zpFY6r3rrYIQF4GwjBzCXz1FalWG9Kzl4HWBxTotoSPB16puZZZIuIXYsmRWDoTOqFLiYWGfB8opSERdz7yCXwE9IJUEvWBBhmK2IhfU4z5x4dphiKyNg_fHwvAzVhE/s320/whitedefender.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5127003484400807810" /></a><br /><br />With dinner at the Brewery and all the laundry done, thus ended a pretty perfect day in Moab and as we wanted to end with fond memories we've decided to head off tomorrow... well, that and we've got about 29 days and 1/2 of America still to travel around. Argh! ;-)Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-49332483569024596572007-10-29T23:57:00.000+00:002007-10-30T00:30:49.401+00:00Moab's National Parks - Arches and CanyonlandsWell, we thought it only right that whilst in Moab we should visit the national parks, this also gave our legs (and my bruises) and Charlie Camel a rest from the rigours of slickrock and sand.<br /><br />We headed to Arches first as it's a full 5miles north of Moab central. We did our usual and called in at the visitors centre to collect our map and paper and then headed out along the main road with the plan to do some hikes when available (mm, great rest then ;-) ). The park is pretty similar to the terrain we had been experiencing in Moab, only with lots of arches. Suprise. Still, having watched the orientation video (aren't we good tourists) we knew roughly the bits and peices we wanted to see. Amongst them were Balancing Rock:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUUip8bmw7TW6PYtIL3JzikPv49MWbeQybnnNpF6Xu338biUHujGYcdlD6pGNxn0FLDvTxVW5gZbDvPbqLHAcDJDldUUhIRWiPMaTFT1jHqPCbFTX_v9EH7Z7OIfvnfR5slauyiamBI0/s1600-h/balanced.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUUip8bmw7TW6PYtIL3JzikPv49MWbeQybnnNpF6Xu338biUHujGYcdlD6pGNxn0FLDvTxVW5gZbDvPbqLHAcDJDldUUhIRWiPMaTFT1jHqPCbFTX_v9EH7Z7OIfvnfR5slauyiamBI0/s320/balanced.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126919230027361874" /></a><br /><br />The Windows:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3j-u0x2_99L9zT4zW6lwAPMmu6KET-qsAR-GenpcOsA1yDI0E29mOGpnyW96DS9JBsAeG-Yb4riZCERallkOdkjIfdz_ReISiESeNgyb7NFVArO2NdfmoatuPNOfuKhlZbsdCEfxXbw/s1600-h/windows.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3j-u0x2_99L9zT4zW6lwAPMmu6KET-qsAR-GenpcOsA1yDI0E29mOGpnyW96DS9JBsAeG-Yb4riZCERallkOdkjIfdz_ReISiESeNgyb7NFVArO2NdfmoatuPNOfuKhlZbsdCEfxXbw/s320/windows.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126920252229578418" /></a><br /><br />Landscape Arch (only 6ft thick at the narrowist point):<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp0CaYFbwTv4m2Uvg6NPEK9GcdmfMwoGVXcRRUsQ_hrSYNxUddliHHPLrSOioOHFwl7nFtLBKPGqvHDvbGXA8rlb30OUQeGOthWaMrUJ3Z_uUQf2ZRaUREnh80Nv1-xzdmKRRud-1_dNg/s1600-h/landscape.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp0CaYFbwTv4m2Uvg6NPEK9GcdmfMwoGVXcRRUsQ_hrSYNxUddliHHPLrSOioOHFwl7nFtLBKPGqvHDvbGXA8rlb30OUQeGOthWaMrUJ3Z_uUQf2ZRaUREnh80Nv1-xzdmKRRud-1_dNg/s320/landscape.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126920179215134354" /></a><br /><br />and of course, Delicate Arch - the unoffical symbol of Utah and what you'll see on all the numberplates around here:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8B9JM0k-OhnEtigo-_Q-xLMtK_mpsR2lhekv5YesJe4vkWJ_7tJk_7oG6msF9y4f1NcF5e55bDvH9DTqBE9chEAaEiKOUeOW1QBwxErYvrWWOmiE9dgL06tWGRfq-oTOvFwcB-42tdiQ/s1600-h/delicate.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8B9JM0k-OhnEtigo-_Q-xLMtK_mpsR2lhekv5YesJe4vkWJ_7tJk_7oG6msF9y4f1NcF5e55bDvH9DTqBE9chEAaEiKOUeOW1QBwxErYvrWWOmiE9dgL06tWGRfq-oTOvFwcB-42tdiQ/s320/delicate.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126919272977034866" /></a><br /><br />Unfortuantly, it was 4pm by the time we got up to Delicate Arch so we didn't really have time for the 3hour hike up there, but it wasn't a bad thing as it was very busy. So we just took the 1mile hike to the view point (still bloomin' hard work uphill though!) and took some piccies from there.<br /><br />As we were all arched out we made our way to Canyonlands via a cool trail called the Long Canyon: <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkM7EFHLWX08fT1RUg9Hwk6ei0ApW9Yb9OoCBtNKHM3lU_0sDmvT3mhws-V5_-wG_jq43ZB1ZLSPxLRyOw2kKP66ZA2xHjAqaq-3So4Jpsj0zzdBPo18uJKaqRMbmtY2O5FGY-l3Wj7U/s1600-h/longcanyon.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkM7EFHLWX08fT1RUg9Hwk6ei0ApW9Yb9OoCBtNKHM3lU_0sDmvT3mhws-V5_-wG_jq43ZB1ZLSPxLRyOw2kKP66ZA2xHjAqaq-3So4Jpsj0zzdBPo18uJKaqRMbmtY2O5FGY-l3Wj7U/s320/longcanyon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126920256524545730" /></a><br /><br />Now, this is a bit of a weird national park. It centers on the convergence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, only to get there it's a 200mile drive and a 5 hour hike, you can see where we're going here! The park is divided into 3 areas, the Island in the Sky (the easiest to get to from Moab), the Needles and the Maze. The needles are pretty self explanitory and the Maze is full of stories like 'if you go there you'll get lost and die' - you can tell when you're back in a National Park! That was the area that Butch Cassidy and his gang hid in and it worked as all the lawmen were too scared to go in to get him out.<br /><br />So, we headed to the Island in the Sky after a beautiful night of rough camping just up the road. Not a bad view eh?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZJ_nTq40fo50T7BSXaa_sw6uzsz0lygCAoiUEqH0-lxbu-CicgBboqUkflc8D3iJG_PZrgfEr9QSpbQvRNEz1S7DCgZ1Ny1t2o_L3wwoRmRCcxg_SzCtKXFckp_8ClR6LOUCYzKPBb8/s1600-h/campsite.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZJ_nTq40fo50T7BSXaa_sw6uzsz0lygCAoiUEqH0-lxbu-CicgBboqUkflc8D3iJG_PZrgfEr9QSpbQvRNEz1S7DCgZ1Ny1t2o_L3wwoRmRCcxg_SzCtKXFckp_8ClR6LOUCYzKPBb8/s320/campsite.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126919247207231074" /></a><br /><br />We arrived the same time as the BMW Mini club, but they weren't overly chatty, grumpy lot. So we settled down to watch the Ranger talk about relationships in the dessert - did you know the tarantulas can get to 6" long?! Eh?! No-one told me?! Still, we have yet to see one, I'm just going to make sure I don't have to get up in the middle of the night now. We then drove the few roads within the park to the viewpoints, we could of cycled the White Rim trail, but it's 103miles long and you're not allowed to do it without a vehicle as well as it's impossible to carry enough water! We could of driven it, but the fees were quite expensive and as it was basically a gravel road we thought we'd have more fun on the Moab trails. So, after admiring the views we headed back out and towards Moab.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6s_KWQVLi9mBXdVK25aGAr1CLJz9O2PW9bJ50JJImT_W13Lr216tOli6mQFYpk8Xaty0O0FIkAY4AJ_u4yedl2l39TsebHLflDPOPn6C5QL_uZHDXOZ-X2aX-bnmgyCY1EKI-7UNY8nE/s1600-h/islandinsky.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6s_KWQVLi9mBXdVK25aGAr1CLJz9O2PW9bJ50JJImT_W13Lr216tOli6mQFYpk8Xaty0O0FIkAY4AJ_u4yedl2l39TsebHLflDPOPn6C5QL_uZHDXOZ-X2aX-bnmgyCY1EKI-7UNY8nE/s320/islandinsky.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126919281566969474" /></a><br /><br />On our way back we pulled in to have a look at the petroglyphs on the Potash Road created a long time ago... er.. about 400 - 600 BC if I remember correctly?! Most of Moab uses designs from these images in the marketing and sculptures around town, so it was cool to see them 'in the flesh' as it were:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP120DiZzbUk2iNc440Ho7zuSSWnYebG7CrBEKQBq10hyZ98QfaNnMGUcR-50Vz-wmBdzS-r2oXw1sr-8aAhe6qVP8_QPqTdRXGvfdVeqMeK3zGbDYqkJV2Yj_GXNKLpE7cRtTEOhNpc/s1600-h/petroglyphs.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP120DiZzbUk2iNc440Ho7zuSSWnYebG7CrBEKQBq10hyZ98QfaNnMGUcR-50Vz-wmBdzS-r2oXw1sr-8aAhe6qVP8_QPqTdRXGvfdVeqMeK3zGbDYqkJV2Yj_GXNKLpE7cRtTEOhNpc/s320/petroglyphs.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126920247934611106" /></a>Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-78935293885265071362007-10-26T03:50:00.000+00:002007-10-26T04:13:37.791+00:00We’re on top of the world…Or at least that’s how it felt. We trucked on up the “moderate” trail with the above title expecting it to be a tad on the easy side. For the majority of the trip it was too, but towards the end we were greeted by large axle twisting rock steps. Nothing that Charlie Camel couldn’t handle tho, he walked up the rocks without a so much as a slip of a wheel.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVcnxOdVLe57UYVxVrgxo4UHtnxLMJhJ3cMQxkdiOF55l0eNNZitqeEe7Zcsps_gt-2FRzNKFZKnPDUhRl3MB1zi7_VTcaF5v4mH0EXcDox-5ZL3f5qNO-rkrvD3ilJVvE2E3JT_WMiQ/s1600-h/charlieclimb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVcnxOdVLe57UYVxVrgxo4UHtnxLMJhJ3cMQxkdiOF55l0eNNZitqeEe7Zcsps_gt-2FRzNKFZKnPDUhRl3MB1zi7_VTcaF5v4mH0EXcDox-5ZL3f5qNO-rkrvD3ilJVvE2E3JT_WMiQ/s320/charlieclimb.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125490987601134722" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLATKhxcs0T141Nu5-Vd0lqYQkopcdQBipDgMaOm9jPc3JJTy0CY8azM-WabHZxbKiOE5eS9Zh0s5z0JBOHop6U8yDZaAtUjMfkrrbANTn9naPGWZyLBGiWFqYQtWBoj4-25yzTN8dww/s1600-h/totwtwist.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLATKhxcs0T141Nu5-Vd0lqYQkopcdQBipDgMaOm9jPc3JJTy0CY8azM-WabHZxbKiOE5eS9Zh0s5z0JBOHop6U8yDZaAtUjMfkrrbANTn9naPGWZyLBGiWFqYQtWBoj4-25yzTN8dww/s320/totwtwist.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125493555991577778" /></a><br />Its at this point that I feel I should let you into a bit of a secret… We keep praising Charlie Camel for making it along these AWWWWESOME trails, but in actual fact there is a lot of driver skill too! No, seriously, I know you all think I’m a throttle happy V8 lover, but in actual fact, I can drive a diseasel too ya know ;-)<br />Anyway, we made it over the last mile of the trail which turned out to be more on par with a difficult trail and finally reached “The Top of the World”. It was well worth it! We were at about 6500ft, with an 800ft drop right in front of us. Jen, being a little shy of anything exceeding 10ft, decided that she was going to enjoy the view from a safe distance while I did the Can-Can right on the edge. Oh, and then we parked Charlie on an overhanging ledge :-) Again Jen squeaked!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8smF4PlkiN_kBYVEEvz3JYu9XtlmYsiRXMrZp5W0O5jnO3AFrszFmZY5bupBI6ZWmJ7rZszBsC-Ub_kxn-pHaQh7wifopBpjiSYRNr_k7PIuyF_vbUlOLJkNiDue0zgXuy23sHf-Kw/s1600-h/charlieontheedge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8smF4PlkiN_kBYVEEvz3JYu9XtlmYsiRXMrZp5W0O5jnO3AFrszFmZY5bupBI6ZWmJ7rZszBsC-Ub_kxn-pHaQh7wifopBpjiSYRNr_k7PIuyF_vbUlOLJkNiDue0zgXuy23sHf-Kw/s320/charlieontheedge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125490991896102034" /></a><br />But the view was amazing. The ledge that we ended up on was right behind Fisher Towers where we camped the previous night.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKHfBEMpAeoMEINGOuHTxwsGcT-yBuKSY3lTQ5HqS56z-PVadGCni-E_g8249K64X35DTmuS6yKO3bGEyO8k-3ndgkDs0ixzOoKIE9MQGFwDEJfokQtEYFhggOLBFfMASurFLPUuDcA/s1600-h/totwview.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKHfBEMpAeoMEINGOuHTxwsGcT-yBuKSY3lTQ5HqS56z-PVadGCni-E_g8249K64X35DTmuS6yKO3bGEyO8k-3ndgkDs0ixzOoKIE9MQGFwDEJfokQtEYFhggOLBFfMASurFLPUuDcA/s320/totwview.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125491000486036642" /></a><br />On the way back down, despite being battered and bruised from yesterday’s rock-eating hilarity, Jen decided to bike the trail back down to the bottom. Gotta give her credit, she didn’t smash all her teeth out this time and was actually a lot quicker than the lardy camel back down to the bottom.<br /><br />We finished the day off by checking into the <a href="http://www.canyonlandsrv.com/">Canyonlands Campground</a> again, on Main St so that we could abuse the showers again, and so that I could finally shave off the forest that has appeared around my chops. Several blunt razors later we went for a bite to eat and a few glasses of wine at <a href="http://www.eddiemcstiffs.com">Eddie McStiffs </a>(great name…. restaurant is for sale if anyone wants to move out here!!) <br />Having spent the last few days having so much fun, we have decided that we need to visit a National Park again so that we can be told we can’t ride our bikes and that any walking we may want to do will involve several months back country hiking with a very high chance of premature death! So we are going to head out to Arches National Park and if we make it out without dehydration or hyperthermia, we intend to visit Canyonlands too. Don’t worry folks, we’ll be taking a few “High Energy” nutty bars with us and at least 2 litres of water each :-)Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-31473704806172947442007-10-26T00:21:00.000+00:002007-10-26T01:03:41.298+00:00'Keeping up with the Chadwicks' :-)Whilst sitting around a campfire a couple of nights ago Dan and I were reminising about old Landy shows and mountain biking at home when we came to a conclusion. Keeping up with the Chadwicks costs a fortune! Andy and Jane Chadwick, our great Yorkshire friends were present and played a big hand in persuading us a Camel would be the ideal expedition vehicle, not the shiney, reliable 110CSW we had at the time. They were also responsible for our first 'proper' off road mountian biking experience in the Lakes (on the way to our Scotland holiday to test the new Camel expedition vehicle we'd just brought and started kitting out....). Mm. So that's a count of 1 Camel 110 and 2 new mountain bikes. lol! :-)<br /><br />Needless to say, getting the Camel was one of the best things we've done and we're LOVIN' THE BIKING IN MOAB! :-) So, thanks Chadwicks, the bank balance hates you but we love you :-) Hehe.<br /><br />We'd picked Klondike Bluffs as our first ride as it's one of the only Moderate/Difficult rides in the book (which means easy in Moab) and had been recommended to me as a good first run by Rim Cyclery. When we arrived at the car park there was already a few vehicles unloading, even though it was a Tuesday in late October. We unloaded, filled the Camelbaks with water, first aid kits and PB&J sandwiches and headed out on the trail.<br /><br />The trail was 5 1/2 miles uphill, but then you got to run round and come back down again... cool. We started out on tracks and sand but soon hit the slickrock and discovered the dinosour trails - Coooooooooooool! The best thing was, they were quite nicely spaced so left ample time to get your breath back as you pretended to examine them - we did notice, we certainly weren't the only ones! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGEBQG2ke5ZfoEFmeCG4Pp9yTx5gsz3XWP9w53Rqzn9nLNY3W3wCAPprLE7fmE6QPKX0_graAc3MWnRTimTH3hsOJZWqeQF6_omwqjiBIGfDR4QbDNiH0HE4A0xg6mfHUFXWNLGf_5Dg/s1600-h/dinotracks.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGEBQG2ke5ZfoEFmeCG4Pp9yTx5gsz3XWP9w53Rqzn9nLNY3W3wCAPprLE7fmE6QPKX0_graAc3MWnRTimTH3hsOJZWqeQF6_omwqjiBIGfDR4QbDNiH0HE4A0xg6mfHUFXWNLGf_5Dg/s320/dinotracks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125442156414529010" /></a><br /><br />I found it quite weird as I was so used to a heavy bike when I powered up the hills my new light bike just tend to lift off the ground! lol! It took a bit of adjusting the technique but I was getting it towards the top of the slickrock, which was lucky as in some places it was pretty steep, certainly granny-gear territory. Nearing the top of the first slickrock section we came across a v-gully, innocent looking enough I thought I'd give it a go, esepcially since I'd spent most the ride up lifting the front wheel of my bike - Dan was ever supportive and said 'no-way, don't be stupid, I'll end up picking you up of the ground' ... Nah, I thought, well probably, but you don't learn unless you try!<br /><br />Note to self: Practise riding at home. Slickrock is hard. And hurts. Alot.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-RgeiETSO79GQzuCAwL_qi0OpOuBbjSItGrOA2GrJrH6w3X-nsmN6ptT8gjGSZWdeFWdclvcpFt2BKwZfG_lqzPMvr5MAmFvru3aIi3kn7ARO_-EB3Mi384MuEtcn31DkPod9D7x5tI/s1600-h/eatingrock.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-RgeiETSO79GQzuCAwL_qi0OpOuBbjSItGrOA2GrJrH6w3X-nsmN6ptT8gjGSZWdeFWdclvcpFt2BKwZfG_lqzPMvr5MAmFvru3aIi3kn7ARO_-EB3Mi384MuEtcn31DkPod9D7x5tI/s320/eatingrock.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125442160709496322" /></a><br /><br />But hey! It was fun trying! Anyone who had a bet on 6 brusies, 1 cut and 2 grazes has won. I was quite close to throwing up, seeing as I'd just ridden 2 1/2 miles up slickrock then winded myself, but luckily (for Dan) it didn't come to that. Dan has kindly re-inacted the moment itself so you can laugh at me. It doesn't look alot, but it was bigger in real life, honest. Dan refused to try it and you know how mad he is on a bike:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ14zKuyOQu54q5S0IO50lZPX6CSOvbLbQBzMWOF8_-RrM6ccT8UanSwKUEWnoseiqi3ednW5wmuddekxHd3xaVBsXsQb9RXZB7-SmDvOFr9GUcihZThqWNGmD9IoiXnV5I8UPtG5XYUk/s1600-h/fall.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ14zKuyOQu54q5S0IO50lZPX6CSOvbLbQBzMWOF8_-RrM6ccT8UanSwKUEWnoseiqi3ednW5wmuddekxHd3xaVBsXsQb9RXZB7-SmDvOFr9GUcihZThqWNGmD9IoiXnV5I8UPtG5XYUk/s320/fall.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125444681855299138" /></a><br /><br />The rest of the ride up passed quickly as the views were stunning and the slickrock riding very cool. You do have alot of grip, but there's also *alot* of bumps and technical bits and pieces to keep you alert. We got up to the top to find a bike rack at the trailhead into Arches National Park, so we parked up and walked the short way in to enjoy lunch with a view. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxAe-lzae_Jv2hWX2DpaFRCWGLskwnh6wJmd7jYGkty5MSZC3WvIngObX1VI04hb7rjerNC-rx-Tjj_f-MQwUdnJ1hSqmvSjMdlp7EdGhPYVUC5DGqf1_igUrWObrht9vxoC5pKFRDbKw/s1600-h/lunch.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxAe-lzae_Jv2hWX2DpaFRCWGLskwnh6wJmd7jYGkty5MSZC3WvIngObX1VI04hb7rjerNC-rx-Tjj_f-MQwUdnJ1hSqmvSjMdlp7EdGhPYVUC5DGqf1_igUrWObrht9vxoC5pKFRDbKw/s320/lunch.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125442169299430946" /></a><br /><br />After resting a recouperating we jumped back on the bikes to enjoy the downhill we'd earnt on the way up - it took us half the time but had to be double the fun!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBZuTyL0DtEwxfUoabavr7Itkn8m5nQgzbZm49qZVhA72o-5orEgyBivM6kRcRupkr8k-5hNNhXLqBWkxF31kS6ArpPWZmpUME4EO2d1cvZDsZfgoh48IAMnmyRn5S8KHj2dXpNhUWm1U/s1600-h/jenslickrock.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBZuTyL0DtEwxfUoabavr7Itkn8m5nQgzbZm49qZVhA72o-5orEgyBivM6kRcRupkr8k-5hNNhXLqBWkxF31kS6ArpPWZmpUME4EO2d1cvZDsZfgoh48IAMnmyRn5S8KHj2dXpNhUWm1U/s320/jenslickrock.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125442165004463634" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyCbPAUTaFn05S7a2rONKNRCW4OnqLxeHI2r2z5dlMNtSb9-9cMfs5w5RFiL8yM1d495hI5tiYx4gkVmB7TPEuY0GfbsVz41Vg5wyej5bD5qxGnFg22tdYYKSZrZyPdkyoe-zOobvH8qY/s1600-h/Danair.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyCbPAUTaFn05S7a2rONKNRCW4OnqLxeHI2r2z5dlMNtSb9-9cMfs5w5RFiL8yM1d495hI5tiYx4gkVmB7TPEuY0GfbsVz41Vg5wyej5bD5qxGnFg22tdYYKSZrZyPdkyoe-zOobvH8qY/s320/Danair.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125442147824594402" /></a><br /><br />We climbed back into Charlie and headed back to Moab to jetwash all the red mud off. Cool as it was (you're right JU, he did look cool!) it was doing a pretty efficent job of blocking the radiator. Once completed we headed out to Fisher Towers, a small track leading to a campsite with, again, a pretty cool view:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2G98ceD8TSBQ1V_0otdJrJDM8TwnecRaMchkv_tMS_74CNmzDuMYUfsf8dIdhCRhLOkoF5NAmWzsqI0np1FNodFnr396-vCWqNQVlHaWgivx0uQA80T82KD-DI_xeD1jP52t8ECRU9Vg/s1600-h/sunsetmoab.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2G98ceD8TSBQ1V_0otdJrJDM8TwnecRaMchkv_tMS_74CNmzDuMYUfsf8dIdhCRhLOkoF5NAmWzsqI0np1FNodFnr396-vCWqNQVlHaWgivx0uQA80T82KD-DI_xeD1jP52t8ECRU9Vg/s320/sunsetmoab.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125444608840855090" /></a><br /><br />A night of stargazing ensued and a plan concieved to tackle the 'Top of the World' Trail in the morning.Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-22283100118782597472007-10-24T03:52:00.000+00:002007-10-24T04:01:51.114+00:00< insert imaginative title here >Second post in 24hours, aren't you lucky...<br /><br />The first evening when we were left to fend for ourselves in Moab we decided to drown our sorrows and headed for the Moab Brewery. This is the only micro-brewery in Moab and very cool it was too. It’s amazing how instantly you feel at home when there’s several nice bikes hanging from the ceiling/on the room dividers, including a nice Santa Cruz. Other decoration included a tent, a figurine climbing the wall, a raft, a gilder and half a Jeep Rubicon. The beer cost $3 at the bar and they served Jacket Potatoes, it was like my spiritual home, lol! We tried most the local beers – my personal favourites are Scorpion and Dead Horse encase you’re ever in the area, they had a good range and even sold pint glasses to help me avoid my felonious hobby of collecting brewery’s pint glasses (we brought two in the hopes that one gets home ok). We stopped at the campsite in town ‘Canyonlands Campground’, which was ok if a little noisy, but importantly enabled us to have a shower and was within easy walking distance of the brewery.<br /><br />The next day we decided to have a day off. Go on, I know you want to laugh. To be honest at times this trip has felt like an epic struggle to avoid the worst of the weather/get to places ‘on time’ to enjoy them properly and, if I’m honest, the inclination to avoid wasting a minute has lead to us being pretty ‘busy’ most the time. So, we got up late, packed up, parked on the street in Moab and after sending quick ‘thank you’ notes to Rob and Jez we spent the morning and early afternoon wandering around Moab. <br /><br />It’s a nice little town, especially nice as it seems to be retaining some charm (i.e. doesn’t have a Walmart yet). I’m sure it’s not what it used to be as a little mining town as every other shop front is a gift shop/bike shop/café but still feels friendly. We dropped Dan’s bike into Poison Spider, simply as we’d heard of these back in the UK, we finally found someone who could change his brakes over and give his bike a once-over as he was having problems selecting a few gears and after that we trundled off for a late lunch/dinner at the Slickrock Café – now, if you’re in Moab and fancy a smoothy, this is the place to be We ordered a sandwich and didn’t have to eat for the rest of the day, the food was good. By 3pm we were bored with our day-off (mm, we lasted 4 hours) and decided to head on out on a trail and find a place to camp in the middle of nowhere for the night. We took Kane Springs Creek Road out to Hurrah Pass and did a bit of Chicken Corners Trail, I say a bit as Dan started doing most of it in highbox (at speed) and I wasn’t handling it well after the big lunch! Still, it was getting dark, so after taking some fantastic photo’s and admiring the scenery we headed back down to camp in one of the many marked areas we’d spotted on Kane Springs Trail. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvulnDkWxY5VF2Bep5q5OdMdb0RD7Bb5nx02GsCBNvsEwhk12Xd6Otk-H73hl2bqmL5JwSYv14p9dHB0YSq43G4otYFniNeFCOC_nXsTy2xyVzYG19qZ-hyBCDAHOdbIMqd56CLEYIAM/s1600-h/charliehurrah.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvulnDkWxY5VF2Bep5q5OdMdb0RD7Bb5nx02GsCBNvsEwhk12Xd6Otk-H73hl2bqmL5JwSYv14p9dHB0YSq43G4otYFniNeFCOC_nXsTy2xyVzYG19qZ-hyBCDAHOdbIMqd56CLEYIAM/s320/charliehurrah.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124746886852877010" /></a><br /><br />My favourite picture of the holiday so far:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLJI_PwPoduvT-9V55jWKMmrXl5uD4xNlY62Q2vJzfAv8WcvVTiaa9eq1Em5Ry62pbR-nyLb2p-y87EG2iTeWjA1K4AozMd4jKSm7Ou3eDj2fxp1gsxI1h88rzVI6u4t_5iOUNMgxgHE/s1600-h/charliehurrahsun.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLJI_PwPoduvT-9V55jWKMmrXl5uD4xNlY62Q2vJzfAv8WcvVTiaa9eq1Em5Ry62pbR-nyLb2p-y87EG2iTeWjA1K4AozMd4jKSm7Ou3eDj2fxp1gsxI1h88rzVI6u4t_5iOUNMgxgHE/s320/charliehurrahsun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124746891147844322" /></a><br /><br />This is the life :-) We weren’t allowed to collect wood and had forgotten to pick some up in town but thankfully, messy campers abounded and we managed to collect enough from used fire rings to have a fire that lasted ‘till 10:30pm. The moon was bright and the stars were out, after all the noisy campsites it’s fantastic to sit somewhere completely quiet. We had a cold night, temp’s down to 25F – I was freezing, but that probably had something to do with not having dinner as I was still full from lunch.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW6EpVK_OWzV_cR5Xp5pJR_R3HCjvKD6L8Rl3vfYtuPBeOMu_h2_MFr3bz7UJQUQjfh2O2hU2Eb_dc4CrgQ7N94Z2Kit0D9Jo6BTweubS-imyu3VtHwsPsjJuwslSyGa-AgoQNPii2isc/s1600-h/campfire.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW6EpVK_OWzV_cR5Xp5pJR_R3HCjvKD6L8Rl3vfYtuPBeOMu_h2_MFr3bz7UJQUQjfh2O2hU2Eb_dc4CrgQ7N94Z2Kit0D9Jo6BTweubS-imyu3VtHwsPsjJuwslSyGa-AgoQNPii2isc/s320/campfire.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124746882557909698" /></a><br /><br />We woke late and had to pick Dan’s bike up, but couldn’t resist trying the proper Kanes Creek Trail which crosses the creek lots of times. It was marked as a difficult, but the Hell’s Revenge hadn’t been too bad, so with promises to turn back if it looked dodgy we headed off. We’d noticed several vehicles in town the day before with lots of red mud – and true to form, even in the dessert we can find mud:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAgqbEdruvSPFBC2rTGSNisQND4OrxzeDLJT1zZ08rrT2UFA-yWgUZBAM9g6Ht9EC6ki3HPNoTD__JFIaSNcJmx8lzZg0HqXdXtZx2dbBhDcy8qctaRA9AOS68D_LD5FJykB_6GxbG2XY/s1600-h/charliekanessplash.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAgqbEdruvSPFBC2rTGSNisQND4OrxzeDLJT1zZ08rrT2UFA-yWgUZBAM9g6Ht9EC6ki3HPNoTD__JFIaSNcJmx8lzZg0HqXdXtZx2dbBhDcy8qctaRA9AOS68D_LD5FJykB_6GxbG2XY/s320/charliekanessplash.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124746895442811634" /></a><br /><br />Hehe! Ok, so it was splashy mud, but by the looks of the tyre tracks going in and out it was quite popular. We enjoyed the trail, lots of wash-outs, narrow rocks and tippy sections made for interesting driving, but again, Charlie Camel walked it all with confidence. We got to a section that looked a bit dodgy and both got out to have a look, half the trail had been washed away and built up again with stacked up rocks, with a fall of about 30ft if it collapsed I thought I’d better test it so jumped on the rocks only to almost disappear down the canyon! I won’t be driving the Camel over that then! We found another route over the top, but in involved a steep decent and assent on sand – Mm. Remembering the last time we drove on sand we didn’t think it was a good idea to attempt it encase Charlie got stuck in a v-gully with nothing to winch from. So, reluctantly we made the decision to turn back. Just as we did an older couple in a Rubicon trundled up the trail, the chap was spotting for the lady but not really looking what she was doing and she was pretty much ignoring every instruction… it seemed oddly familiar, lol! They got to the wash out and had a look, they also didn’t really fancy either option but were determined to keep going. Bizarrely they chose the washout route as they didn’t want to risk damaging the skid plate on a rock on the safer trail… err…ok… personally I’d prefer that option to rolling sideways down a gully, but their choice! They did however pick a good route and although the lady pretty much ignored the bloke again and almost run him off the edge of the track whilst shouting ‘coming through!’ they made it unscathed. There’s something to be said for short, light vehicles. Even then, they had put ½ a tyre on the loose rocks, so even though we were tempted, it was pretty obvious Charlie would probably put a *whole* tyre on the loose rocks and without anyone else to help us out should we get into trouble neither of us really fancied the risk. We stayed around to ensure they cleared the obstacle safely as they didn’t have a rollcage and after they disappeared into the distance we made our way back. <br /><br />Err...<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5I6-zywHUBvQ85-4cCBmCvfiFspjym_4vTT5K8OGUbLdqfvL_CB9ka5Sl4zB2hLsmbcSTjh0XQAoFxz-Y0Mk9_e2cbrnAfzcAGMB6_-FLdevFfLJOO7-rxu2LE_LonSbfL7gnFjksu8/s1600-h/noroad.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5I6-zywHUBvQ85-4cCBmCvfiFspjym_4vTT5K8OGUbLdqfvL_CB9ka5Sl4zB2hLsmbcSTjh0XQAoFxz-Y0Mk9_e2cbrnAfzcAGMB6_-FLdevFfLJOO7-rxu2LE_LonSbfL7gnFjksu8/s320/noroad.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124747045766667026" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDrcC86qZU3xcpKYyhdKaBFWsbfUITdAjpntKXSy1HHHLOpm-tXLD1aRgGmrh_Fk516bzruLEuVCoSeLjWvq4decPTxTc-lnCGx_7Xu4e5TNSmTTgnfoXeVYlFxdSmepSY0hyC7a2TV0/s1600-h/charliekanestippy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDrcC86qZU3xcpKYyhdKaBFWsbfUITdAjpntKXSy1HHHLOpm-tXLD1aRgGmrh_Fk516bzruLEuVCoSeLjWvq4decPTxTc-lnCGx_7Xu4e5TNSmTTgnfoXeVYlFxdSmepSY0hyC7a2TV0/s320/charliekanestippy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124746899737778946" /></a><br /><br />I got to drive this time and was quite proud of myself considering there was some *very* big side slopes, my own personal enemy. It’s all about the confidence.<br /><br />After we got off the trail it was coming up to 2pm so we decided we really should head into town and pick Dan’s bike up. We got to Poison Spider and the bike was ready and waiting, they brakes had been swapped, but the gears hadn’t been looked at – despite us paying for the work. I left Dan to have a word with the chaps whilst I went off on my Stumpy to look for a shop who may be able to get me some angled handle bars. Mine are great, but without any upsweep they put me quite off balance when negotiating downhill sections. I hadn’t been too impressed with Poison Spider (talking on the phone whilst serving you, you having to wait until they’d finished their conversation about the weekend before asking if they could help etc) so wanted to find somewhere else, ideally someone who’d have some Specalized bars to match my bike (yeah, posy I know). I found my way to Rim Cyclery and wandered in off the street with a filthy bike (it’d been on the back of Charlie) and I couldn’t have found any more helpful guys. I spoke to Johnny who had a ’07 Stumpjumper Hardtail so was impressed with my good taste in bikes, lol! He wasted no time in grabbing my bike, telling me off for it being dirty and using the wrong lube for Moab (in a nice way though!). He got straight too it and tried adjusting the bars as much as possible to try and get me into a better riding position, he put them up as high as possible and adjusted the angle explaining to me all the while what he was doing so I could adjust it myself afterwards. It didn’t quite work though, but not to worry they had several handlebars I could try – from $20 cheapy’s upwards. We tried a set of Specialzed ones that they use on the full suspension Stumpjumper and they worked perfectly Not only that, they looked like they belonged on the bike. Whilst talking Johnny mentioned enviously the white saddle on my ’08 Stumpjumper, I laughed and said I’d much prefer a black one! It took him about 10 seconds to pull a new body geometry black one from under a counter, the same as mine, only new and black – the deal was on. He also cleaned and lubed up my bike, adjusted my gears and brakes and checked all the vital components before letting me out the workshop. He refused to charge me for labour and threw in some stickers and a water bottle – he must have really liked the white saddle! Needless to say, my bike is transformed, even with the small amount of riding I did this afternoon it feels so much better to be a good riding position and I think it looks ‘awesome’ with the black saddle. As Johnny said – ‘You’ve got to Represent’ … I’ll work it out soon. If in Moab, go to Rim Cyclery – don’t bother with Poison Spider (in my opinion of course).<br /><br />Now *that* is a cool bike:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjKkwS95aTqx3bMFPCjY3J4336K0oHkEem_PFjiuNDMecYBWVfaWMEu4AWIcg12dvkzswaPOuBnd8KSHiSjCTUyGSkfoRUyM0Kc3FUrFR2_b6Fh_6B8z2j9QoTII1wyV2_GuU9UC4RFps/s1600-h/stumpyblack.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjKkwS95aTqx3bMFPCjY3J4336K0oHkEem_PFjiuNDMecYBWVfaWMEu4AWIcg12dvkzswaPOuBnd8KSHiSjCTUyGSkfoRUyM0Kc3FUrFR2_b6Fh_6B8z2j9QoTII1wyV2_GuU9UC4RFps/s320/stumpyblack.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124748433041103650" /></a><br /><br />Only problem was, I’d told Dan I was just going to go for a quick ride. Opps. Almost an hour later he was getting worried! Still, he laid on the emotional blackmail and didn’t give in until I’d brought him dinner and several pints of beer <em>(from the joint account! - Dan</em>).<br /><br />After a busy afternoon we settled for finding a campsite to do washing/update the blog and plan some trails for the next day. Now Dan’s bike is sorted and I feel 100% more confident we’re going to hit the first of the trails on the bikes to give Charlie a day off and see if we can last without a trip to hospital. I can’t wait :-)Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-36103683490342398342007-10-24T00:22:00.000+00:002007-10-24T01:06:28.347+00:00Heaven and Hell('s Revenege)Today I ikll be mostly writingf the blog with my glovfes on. It’as cold. Ansd dan wil.l. moanm if I SIT too near te fire with te laptop..;. Ok. So that’s not going to work… I’ve taken them off so we’re going to have to make this quick! Lol! :-)<br /><br />Utah. Amazing. Definitely in the running for my favourite state of the trip so far. Admittedly, it did have a huge advantage. At the joint leaving party and Mikes birthday party before we left, Jez had given us a whole host of contact details for useful people in the US should we run into trouble, he’d also rang his long-suffering friend Rob Hardy, of Portal Tek fame ( <a href="http://www.portal-tek.com/">Portal Tek, Domination Through Innovation</a> - trust me, this is proper engineering and looks shiney too. Although he laughed at my idea of Purple Portals, lol!) at 3am in the morning to ask if he’d show us around the off-roading in Utah. We met up with Rob at Great Basin Rovers ( <a href="http://www.greatbasinrovers.com/">Great Basin Rovers</a> run by ‘Uncle Bill’ and his daughter Shaun, lovely people with copious amounts of cool Land Rover stuff and british engineering – including a 1960’s Mini Cooper S, a very wood-rotted Morris Traveler, and a phone box… cool) on Friday afternoon along with a couple of his friends, Jim and Family, Jerrod and one very funny bloke who’s name has escaped me at the moment, how embarrassing. We were closely followed by a 1980 something Rangie that Rob had picked up for $500, lots of new bits, but lots of normal Rangie complaints like rotting sills, no footwells etc. Still, this was to be Rob’s run around for the next few months and off-road toy for the next day’s trip to Moab. Cool. <br /><br />Jim and family kindly offered us a room for the night, as did Shaun, but we thought it only right we should be going to the workshop with Rob and the others to prepare the Rangie for the next day’s challenge and sort a few jobs on the other vehicles. Rob is currently living in his workshop whilst Portal Tek takes off and I’ll tell you now – it’s a dream come true! None of this working outside in the rain. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuT_XI5rCAelh1QZDaAA4KYBcahGath6JBCOpmeioGhm_4ArfNYHnqJXFG2Se67e0NmQXk6pK0qNWo8DNqcAkV3pVd7nPo_nguGGKjP1yOiGHpbESZjnqxfm6GxrdpvF_Ln910m8kHCY/s1600-h/robsshop.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuT_XI5rCAelh1QZDaAA4KYBcahGath6JBCOpmeioGhm_4ArfNYHnqJXFG2Se67e0NmQXk6pK0qNWo8DNqcAkV3pVd7nPo_nguGGKjP1yOiGHpbESZjnqxfm6GxrdpvF_Ln910m8kHCY/s320/robsshop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124699539133405826" /></a><br /><br />So, we spent the night helping Rob out with a few little jobs and got to bed about 2am whilst Rob stayed up to finish off some Portal Tek work so he could play at the weekend, that’s dedication for you. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojAdkCoyHrHtzVgA44t8qswsXQqysr9FQ48JAaFfc7sf4JetMLYbjD-IsLx0jG0af09G7TpDCa_soTEi6oqH71lP2riQ9Vp6H4XYOKTAdE_QqpTbrFbskrRamk5SqE7aT04mgxCiOKHY/s1600-h/everyonerangie.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojAdkCoyHrHtzVgA44t8qswsXQqysr9FQ48JAaFfc7sf4JetMLYbjD-IsLx0jG0af09G7TpDCa_soTEi6oqH71lP2riQ9Vp6H4XYOKTAdE_QqpTbrFbskrRamk5SqE7aT04mgxCiOKHY/s320/everyonerangie.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124697026577537538" /></a><br /><br />We had a few jobs to do in the morning, including getting some pipe to replace the blocked sections of the Rangies exhaust and a nut to assist with the putting back on of one of the rear trailing arms as when taking the nut off it stripped the existing thread, it’s always the simple jobs that take the time. Still, those jobs completed and after an excellent breakfast at Dee’s Jim’s car trailer was loaded up (not the kind of trailer you get in the UK!) and we started the journey to Moab. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgim8MbLPVmVwKYGony44eqxSmjcNy88ZDFyHapHsi3481bbLz12UZJqUh83wUtqaToa616Iy4myfPy1CKRQn8P9CoBp8PeehAlNqhRVuhWFZNGnks01xlbbhEuMcWCNWL5UhZ7qTnr7uo/s1600-h/trailerlineup.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgim8MbLPVmVwKYGony44eqxSmjcNy88ZDFyHapHsi3481bbLz12UZJqUh83wUtqaToa616Iy4myfPy1CKRQn8P9CoBp8PeehAlNqhRVuhWFZNGnks01xlbbhEuMcWCNWL5UhZ7qTnr7uo/s320/trailerlineup.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124699543428373170" /></a><br /><br />Jerred had previously told us how you could get all kinds of weather in Moab, all within a day and the journey down confirmed that for us. We went from rain in Salt Lake to snow in the mountains and dust storms as we crossed closer to Moab – wow. That was all in about 2hours!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo-vsBr5iTKEjg6LX-UXeiKiq813xI_Xp3VY5WdDWkKuMJk7YFwk6iDSEvHgBN19aVscvKfipTsTHI5di_YF4kqL4wibBPT-8wrM6DWWIVeJEFVo9PmKY2440srx8KlQqDWh_SqlckRpY/s1600-h/snow.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo-vsBr5iTKEjg6LX-UXeiKiq813xI_Xp3VY5WdDWkKuMJk7YFwk6iDSEvHgBN19aVscvKfipTsTHI5di_YF4kqL4wibBPT-8wrM6DWWIVeJEFVo9PmKY2440srx8KlQqDWh_SqlckRpY/s320/snow.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124699539133405842" /></a><br /><br />We arrived in Moab and you could tell what sort of town you were in straight away, the main street was filled with restaurants, bike shops, café’s, juice bars, bike shops, pizza parlors and some more bike shops, all interspersed with Jeeps and a few D90’s. Cool. It’s a similar atmosphere to Whistler but in southern Utah! Jim parked the transporters and we headed in for some good pizza and to meet Rob’s friend Jeremy before hitting the trails. It took us slightly longer than normal to unload the cars as Jarrod had managed to lock the keys in.. and being 17, only had $50 for the whole trip - so no locksmith for us, opps! Jeremy managed to blag a coat hanger from a motel and after using that and several other implements they managed to spring the lock on the boot. I bet he'll never live it down! <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AVY5nymCfeRrZAplQaBFNg250Fce-t-TJpOjT5sCidpUnDgCuDH8IJDT5DvbWOsfAwfmcLSGGmszlCubCQ-ZKQGISIuXx45TFGkcFA3DVi_zdWnJoWdZXYKxj3132zIZ36OQ12QyJ3I/s1600-h/keys.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AVY5nymCfeRrZAplQaBFNg250Fce-t-TJpOjT5sCidpUnDgCuDH8IJDT5DvbWOsfAwfmcLSGGmszlCubCQ-ZKQGISIuXx45TFGkcFA3DVi_zdWnJoWdZXYKxj3132zIZ36OQ12QyJ3I/s320/keys.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124698078844525138" /></a><br />It was already dark before we headed out at about 8pm and we were conscious Jim and family were heading back that night, but Rob stuck to the plan and we headed for Hells Revenge. Now, this is our first time on slick rock, it’s dark/cold and Charlie’s fully loaded, let me read you an extract from our trail book about Hell’s Revenge:<br /><blockquote><br /><em>Numerous steep climbs and descents over sandstone domes and ledges, excellent traction enables vehicles to surmount inclines of incredible steepness, but plenty of power is necessary. Make sure your vehicle is geared properly. Several tippy spots will test the leaning ability of most vehicles, it’s important to have excellent front and rear approach angles on your vehicle and good articulation. Not recommended for stock vehicles.</em></blockquote><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFBEewakuuKv_mHtaaTJhHOvxnVTX5RTKqiS44kYxmkpsvjouRzrc7EQPgJj0S-HUNXBa-plBlc3pWExsrXmnQqe8HxQLKvQujbAxOFTApdkN2lPz5VgooCfmL9FljzHZVcmZZ2Fd1fc/s1600-h/hellsrevengedark.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFBEewakuuKv_mHtaaTJhHOvxnVTX5RTKqiS44kYxmkpsvjouRzrc7EQPgJj0S-HUNXBa-plBlc3pWExsrXmnQqe8HxQLKvQujbAxOFTApdkN2lPz5VgooCfmL9FljzHZVcmZZ2Fd1fc/s320/hellsrevengedark.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124698078844525122" /></a><br /><br />Lol! It was EXCELLENT! The trail started immediately with a large fin (think Lions Back) and all we could see was darkness to either side, it was interesting! Climbing up the large domes was initially intimidating, but Charlie Camel excelled himself and chugged up them all in 1st low, awesome. I’ve always loved off-roading the Camel, there’s something reassuring about all that weight he even surprised me that night though taking everything with reassuring ease. When we got to the split in the trail we decided to head out to the Overlook. It was very dark. Here’s the view:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgFBPDj1FE3EByWT-LygDU9HcZvQnIom98mW5JyY3TiWWIKi20B0hpiTUaO5E8nEwklQXnDdBPmzhZ59Aaui0UPyTKH2Mbt_KUaDUXsTOdHVsRy4PqPpeZqqIIJnMnhBLTRRwPYVWUoY/s1600-h/overlook.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgFBPDj1FE3EByWT-LygDU9HcZvQnIom98mW5JyY3TiWWIKi20B0hpiTUaO5E8nEwklQXnDdBPmzhZ59Aaui0UPyTKH2Mbt_KUaDUXsTOdHVsRy4PqPpeZqqIIJnMnhBLTRRwPYVWUoY/s320/overlook.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124698078844525154" /></a><br />From left to right: Jerrad, Jim, Kerry (mm, maybe Carry, sorry :( ), Rob, Dan, Jeremy<br />(appologies for miss-spellings or getting names wrong, I'm rubbish with names, you would never think I used to be a teacher)<br /><br />Lol! On the way back Jeremy was driving the Rangie and attempted to climb a 3ft ledge, it might have worked but after a few attempts it became apparent there was no drive to the rear axle. This may have had something to do with the odd wheels on the back or attempting to climb the ledge, but who knows?! Still, with no drive to the rear axle the Rangie started struggling, so it was hitched up to Jim’s Toyota 4runner and after Jerrods attempt at finding the trail himself failed we lead the way out. I think 6 spot lights, two headlights and a torch were ideal for this situation, don’t let anyone ever tell you roof lights are unnecessary! Even with those it was hard to follow the trail back in the dark, the tell tale black marks on the rock fade as you get close to them and the small white markers aren’t glow in the dark – and oversight I reckon.. mmm, maybe I should move into ‘traffic management’ in Moab?! So, I did my quality co-driver work and jogged/walked about 3,000 miles in the cold and dark, it was actually excellent fun as I got to watch the trucks working as they negotiated some pretty cool obstacles and made me feel less guilty about the amount of pizza I’d eaten :-) It was interesting though, I was using both legs and both arms to climb some of the inclines at several stages, Dan confirmed the steepness by telling me everything fell out of the dashboard.<br /><br />We arrived safely back from the trail and had a brief inspection of the Rangies back axle– they’d done a good job! Rob had to have a look so a pair of pliers opened the hole and part of several planet gears fell onto the high street.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNr5eF9MFnD9XPGaD2wMHtfLMLoTiDh_6xyx-k4JYPMphyLWFDdtVR__MQYMXIQmylFK8wMl9JxgOfWE7AdiLo2vDtEC2kVgU0vVZVYlWofd0q99Ivn5gzXPmcr51lat86CknwnIXNE0/s1600-h/diff.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNr5eF9MFnD9XPGaD2wMHtfLMLoTiDh_6xyx-k4JYPMphyLWFDdtVR__MQYMXIQmylFK8wMl9JxgOfWE7AdiLo2vDtEC2kVgU0vVZVYlWofd0q99Ivn5gzXPmcr51lat86CknwnIXNE0/s320/diff.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124697022282570226" /></a><br />A quick decision was made and the Rangie was loaded up to go back to Salt Lake with Jim whilst Rob jumped in Jeremy’s Jeep Grand Cherokee to find a campsite for the night. We headed down to Hunter Canyon south of Moab to camp in possibly one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever camped and, more importantly, all had a lie-in in the morning.<br /><br />Sunday morning started late as we wandered into Moab for breakfast at the Jailhouse (thanks Jeremy!) before convincing him he really wanted to take his nice shiney vehicle out on the trails. He finally agreed, but only if it was a reasonably easy one so Rob picked out Gemini bridges as a more scenic route (although still rated ‘moderate’ in the book, hehe). With the snow on the distant mountains and the red rock this was truly stunning. Although an easy trail we had some fun at the end heading down to the bridges and we spent most of it just enjoying the view. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq_Ln_1Os_v2mtXPTh8hcj5QztKGUBcVeaprnu8Obf3tONKEnr2TPF3nBR_0FOSUPHxFWwIHiM1io6hz4uTzX-IXKAKNt8_FRBivzJj00iWdjEY86O3-stQfMIirrgVDY1nclYdpKjCFM/s1600-h/gembridgescharlie.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq_Ln_1Os_v2mtXPTh8hcj5QztKGUBcVeaprnu8Obf3tONKEnr2TPF3nBR_0FOSUPHxFWwIHiM1io6hz4uTzX-IXKAKNt8_FRBivzJj00iWdjEY86O3-stQfMIirrgVDY1nclYdpKjCFM/s320/gembridgescharlie.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124697026577537554" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6jhxFUmp-vnJLQCVJgGYHpJtwGK8Mo_XXswKYy84G9MKB7B7AhwLLud_taeXpzLhaOU587IxkVFE1S4ev1aluxziwXUnKqM_km27lZAqb_V_RCifZG_IgRBwu_A2vbFV2LPI4ViADS0/s1600-h/gembridgesjeep.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6jhxFUmp-vnJLQCVJgGYHpJtwGK8Mo_XXswKYy84G9MKB7B7AhwLLud_taeXpzLhaOU587IxkVFE1S4ev1aluxziwXUnKqM_km27lZAqb_V_RCifZG_IgRBwu_A2vbFV2LPI4ViADS0/s320/gembridgesjeep.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124697030872504866" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHDxAsxhMrecsxcFiYqEQJdZmmJlrU-nB_gF23zuZNErMo8aZfs_moXIpPoXktl9UtbTMS_HzcM5il8nS37Ru1-mPZFaMDwpert19hWYCrX-l2Cl7fDZcItcdELK21rljIrLnYll_9a9k/s1600-h/gembridgestoy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHDxAsxhMrecsxcFiYqEQJdZmmJlrU-nB_gF23zuZNErMo8aZfs_moXIpPoXktl9UtbTMS_HzcM5il8nS37Ru1-mPZFaMDwpert19hWYCrX-l2Cl7fDZcItcdELK21rljIrLnYll_9a9k/s320/gembridgestoy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124698074549557810" /></a><br /><br />There was a rather worrying plaque at the top though:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXwANBoGuQeyyDqeS0aGLqLv7x0Mbg-4_W0dUe-8Y2KwAtEOxY3DqVipikrt2ps0MmZ43MPPkb9l_PAp7WT2bGZPqmYwsGN262dNAmAYbw2GbNKDtonEGnLb9t0umXbWD-A6_tLHWhak/s1600-h/plaque.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXwANBoGuQeyyDqeS0aGLqLv7x0Mbg-4_W0dUe-8Y2KwAtEOxY3DqVipikrt2ps0MmZ43MPPkb9l_PAp7WT2bGZPqmYwsGN262dNAmAYbw2GbNKDtonEGnLb9t0umXbWD-A6_tLHWhak/s320/plaque.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124699534838438514" /></a><br /><br />Jerrod assured us he was drunk and drove of the edge – don’t try this at home kids! We had a wander around waved to some Jeep owners at the bottom of the canyon and enjoyed the view. <br /><br />Spot the Jeep:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZksV7iLsb51IYBJGpdJVWCu1CJEGavGuKJIyFc8teiwP6t5GTFfE1wt8qnytCr9uxWD2FJ4s7WKPCf_eGZHvGeIWg4fj4ZFZbMqlyip5XPGCcPZPTsc8XzrHyrRh9Z7fu_FIdd92Y9B0/s1600-h/spotthejeep.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZksV7iLsb51IYBJGpdJVWCu1CJEGavGuKJIyFc8teiwP6t5GTFfE1wt8qnytCr9uxWD2FJ4s7WKPCf_eGZHvGeIWg4fj4ZFZbMqlyip5XPGCcPZPTsc8XzrHyrRh9Z7fu_FIdd92Y9B0/s320/spotthejeep.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124699539133405858" /></a><br /><br />Dan and Rob decided to try and stand on the thinnest bits of rock possible ‘just for fun’, completely mad both of them :-) it snowed a bit and we headed back down, Rob suggested with both rode the bikes back down but I had my jeans on and I’ve already got a 4 inch rip in them from doing exactly that, so we unloaded Dan’s bike and I handed the keys to Rob to drive the Camel back to the bottom – it was worth it to see him try to use the gearstick left handed, lol! I think he did much better than I would have done in the same situation.<br /><br />At the bottom of the trail we waved goodbye as everybody headed back home, I was sad to see them go but there was already mutterings about coming back next weekend. Finger’s crossed :-)<br /><br />N.B. My hands are so cold now they’re turning purple, so I can’t cross my fingers, but the intention is there…<br /><br />(P.S. we're a couple of days behind on the blog due to avoiding formal campsites, but will try to upload some more about the last couple of day's tomorrow morning or later tonight.)Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-72878710388046740522007-10-21T23:18:00.000+00:002007-10-21T23:24:19.724+00:00WELCOME TO MOAB!Its just like Whistler only you have to pedal up the hills rather than get a ski lift to the top and you can go off-roading as well... Heaven!<br /><br />Full post to come later, but for now we need showers and beer... and sleep!Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-81907391359231140672007-10-19T16:51:00.000+00:002007-10-19T16:58:29.036+00:00Salt Lake CityGood morning all :-)<br /><br />Well, yesterday we took an easy drive up route 89 carefully avoiding the interstates to get from Bryce to Salt Lake City. It is *alot* warmer up this way, which I think is a good thing.<br /><br />We arrived late last night so havn't seen much of the city yet, other than the fact it is surrounded by some beautiful snow capped mountains. We're planning on having an investigate today and heading out to the salt flats where they used to set all kinds of speed records etc. Apparently the only one of it's type in America.<br /><br />So far Utah has been pretty cool, some amazing national parks and lovely little villages - alot less of the trailers and falling down shacks than we've seen in other parts of America. We don't really get that in the UK, but I guess that's to do with land availability etc. Why bother knocking the old house down when you can buy 40 acres on the edge of town for $39,500 (about £18,500) - seriously.<br /><br />Hopefully we're meeting up with Jez's friend Rob over the next few days as he is threatening to show us some good off-roading - wahoo! Then we'll be in Moab until at least the end of October, so hopefully some interesting stories coming up soon :-)<br /><br />Not long 'till we're back now - make the most of the peace and quiet ;-)<br /><br />JenJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-35174064293459769172007-10-18T00:45:00.000+00:002007-10-18T04:03:55.102+00:00Bryce Canyon: Not *quite* what it says on the tin!Today started bright and earlyish and only being 12 miles down the road from Bryce Canyon we had an advantage over our usual mornings. We planned to head down and spend the day investigating this area due to Graham's (Dan's Dad) claims it was well worth a vist.<br /><br />And Wow. Indeed it was :) It had the advantage over the Grand Canyon of being accessible to mear mortals and full of Hoodoos, formed when ice and rainwater wear away the weak limestone and of course - the catch it wasn't actually a *real* canyon. It wasn't formed by flowing water but by ice wedging and chemical weathering. Aren't I full of interesting facts today?<br /><br />We visited the vistors centre and spoke to a nice ranger who told us everything we needed to know so we grabbed a hiking map (a bargin at $1.99) and headed out into the Canyon itself. It's hard to describe, full of hoodoos: amazing spires, what seem to be high walled canyons and the beatiful blue sky topped it off nicely. Still a picture says a 1000 words, so it'll save my fingers:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZhuckXnHk7x-3c88x0fjT8BElT7FTr7NkE-vVZL25SpbuXCWVZJmBN1qEYI5Kf-TOQOaSNfZZKURILT-FgC5rK0syHeGW5lCTJdhGwlpB51uU2uA14U9vNigafbWynP2xRpsA04kCNc/s1600-h/bryceoverview.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZhuckXnHk7x-3c88x0fjT8BElT7FTr7NkE-vVZL25SpbuXCWVZJmBN1qEYI5Kf-TOQOaSNfZZKURILT-FgC5rK0syHeGW5lCTJdhGwlpB51uU2uA14U9vNigafbWynP2xRpsA04kCNc/s320/bryceoverview.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122521617052178882" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxghdS6dKFUlzYGqveSi50tPOUjfvn_3tq57YkGXl1h1hwfMUYigmSWgr-835FKUcTFRMF7vEr3LgSYwkt61piVQIcXhaRGZza8FN_6bs0Kq1-Ptpd1LKVSR1rZmEsLWLr8ePlKqTiac/s1600-h/bryce1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxghdS6dKFUlzYGqveSi50tPOUjfvn_3tq57YkGXl1h1hwfMUYigmSWgr-835FKUcTFRMF7vEr3LgSYwkt61piVQIcXhaRGZza8FN_6bs0Kq1-Ptpd1LKVSR1rZmEsLWLr8ePlKqTiac/s320/bryce1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122520843958065554" /></a><br />Spot Dan in this one:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiU9WZGTtfViI7JQm_AhCIoGKZl3PCIk4ld9IaRJtjDkXetCRWOW9SiJxbfSOF762S25PetwgM6GatxisEV0bDQ5AxQZGhzEFbjJJ9GR2Z0SCkLJWIw9QipcVHrWomeKF77JG43Ptw5YA/s1600-h/brycedan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiU9WZGTtfViI7JQm_AhCIoGKZl3PCIk4ld9IaRJtjDkXetCRWOW9SiJxbfSOF762S25PetwgM6GatxisEV0bDQ5AxQZGhzEFbjJJ9GR2Z0SCkLJWIw9QipcVHrWomeKF77JG43Ptw5YA/s320/brycedan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122520848253032866" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pgB05STaqwKls2MS5MMupjp-u7SclAnL7H8GVwpUJAum-PwKo5eEzZ6j_rcLzZUMem-V321e5pvfIPlGiOg34gQccmTQtuJzTKdNW-c8UF53uHjd4Rd930528_RfKt8tYQkZSl3F-qs/s1600-h/brycedan2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pgB05STaqwKls2MS5MMupjp-u7SclAnL7H8GVwpUJAum-PwKo5eEzZ6j_rcLzZUMem-V321e5pvfIPlGiOg34gQccmTQtuJzTKdNW-c8UF53uHjd4Rd930528_RfKt8tYQkZSl3F-qs/s320/brycedan2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122521608462244274" /></a><br /><br />After an afternoon of hiking we decided to drive up the park road to look at the 'natural bridge', at almost 9000ft it was bloomin' freezing! So we did a great tourist thing of running from the car snapping a pic or 3 and running back again. Fab. Dan did get stopped along the way by a chap who asked if ours was the Camel he saw around Guildford... weird! Small world. It wasn't us, but we know who's he's thinking of.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOomDtn-TeOogN9Gvpv_0VgxX07EydfEQj1egWAhoxXDTvYKfh11Z69KhOy8m8U0bNU9OMDiZftocVipuQmgLl_qX7Y-wv3zxeoh6-vJscSe274IkJNl9uGt3hUBXV67HXtip0bQ5kIMA/s1600-h/naturalbridge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOomDtn-TeOogN9Gvpv_0VgxX07EydfEQj1egWAhoxXDTvYKfh11Z69KhOy8m8U0bNU9OMDiZftocVipuQmgLl_qX7Y-wv3zxeoh6-vJscSe274IkJNl9uGt3hUBXV67HXtip0bQ5kIMA/s320/naturalbridge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122521629937080802" /></a><br /><br />We wanted to catch the Ranger program in the evening all about the stars, but that didn't start until 7:30. We checked out the only campsite left open at Bryce, they're expecting -6C (not taking into account wind chill) and 50mph winds tonight, with a 30% chance of rain. Mm. Not much fun! Knowing the average was 22inchs of snow for this month we decided to head a couple of 1000 ft down back to the KOA we stayed in last night. However, we were both still a bit worried as only 12 miles down the road they get pretty similar weather. Although we could camp, it would be a bit freezing. So, we took the opportunity to hire a KOA Kamping Kabin (ARGH I HATE THOSE 'K's'!) and at $40 (£20) for the night for light, heat, a comfy bed and electric it was a bit of a no-brainer. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxP4S7ZlNifKyr-dixvCiNSMYMtZDI_XHg_St3Wil3EhyphenhyphenFTdEFJmrBfEHlHtpwOvnmTlbkYqLS0E4bnC0L-SyqZeoLI4slqDQnAsNdJqw1dD-GRgEh0ei17YdMGoPO6s8AUDOcdsKxZ4/s1600-h/kosykabin.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxP4S7ZlNifKyr-dixvCiNSMYMtZDI_XHg_St3Wil3EhyphenhyphenFTdEFJmrBfEHlHtpwOvnmTlbkYqLS0E4bnC0L-SyqZeoLI4slqDQnAsNdJqw1dD-GRgEh0ei17YdMGoPO6s8AUDOcdsKxZ4/s320/kosykabin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122521621347146194" /></a><br />Only problem is... we still have to walk to the toilets...<br /><br />As an update, the ranger programme was pretty good, even better the telescopes afterwards, we saw the craters of the moon and Jupiter and the 3 of it's moons visible at the time... coooooool.Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-41976824317649542642007-10-17T04:10:00.000+00:002007-10-17T23:13:43.014+00:00Grand Canyon: Does exactly what it say's on the tin!Grand: impressive in size, appearance, or general effect<br />Canyon: a deep valley with steep sides, often with a stream flowing through it. <br /><br />..it was indeed a Grand Canyon. Problem is, once you've pulled up and gone 'wow' what do you do then?! lol! Apparently, the average trip to the Grand Canyon lasts 4 hours, with just 45minutes spent looking at the Canyon itself, compared to almost 2 weeks in the 1980's.<br /><br />You can't walk down it, well, you can, but you'll probably die and it will take you 2 days at least. From the moment we got there we were inundated with stories about people that were foolish enough to think they could walk down and back up again - including a story about a woman who ran the Boston Marathon in just over 3 hours, yet died trying to hike back out the Grand Canyon. That was more than enough to put us off! You can take a mule ride down, for over $600 each, or a helicopter over te top for just over $200 each... Mm. Rafting! Ah! that sounds fun... only smooth water at this time of year though :(<br /><br />Not to be disuaded we were determined to find something to do and beat the average 4hours stay so we wandered into the visitors centre and read some more stories about people dieing of exhaustion or falling over the edge (cheerful place this). However, we chatted to a friendly ranger and although in true National Park style you can't ride your bike on *any* trails, you can ride your bike along one of the rim roads. We thought this sounded like a plan as there were over 10 viewpoints scattered along the road and the only other way of getting there is shuttle bus. Now, shuttle buses maybe a good idea, but they are a Universe in which all the stereo-types in existance seem to manifest themselves to reality... from the brash rude Old Texan Couple to the loud German to the Japannese tourist with 14 video cameras and, in our case, the tired English couple wishing they were anywhere else but here. So, since Denali, we've avoided shuttle buses! lol!<br /><br />We spent the night at the campsite in the South Rim Villiage with plans to get up early and get cycling after we'd watched the sun go down over the Cayon - this is a must if you're ever in the area.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTLe1z2WSnwtq7q3CgXcKQRX_ooE0E7WxcFRuH_NxLlB7F4aF7er1MZgYB3QAVKxnj9OkmayE5ALNDDmFu6v1BQT_-VPx3CCZRppOy6Su4ApTpmorICpe8udQY5gGGjGb7xEawp5naafM/s1600-h/gcdan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTLe1z2WSnwtq7q3CgXcKQRX_ooE0E7WxcFRuH_NxLlB7F4aF7er1MZgYB3QAVKxnj9OkmayE5ALNDDmFu6v1BQT_-VPx3CCZRppOy6Su4ApTpmorICpe8udQY5gGGjGb7xEawp5naafM/s320/gcdan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122447318412925266" /></a><br />Monday morning and we awoke bright and early, I made Dan boiled eggs and soliders in bed with a hot cup of English Tea and a present of a Grand Canyon Fridge Magnet as it was our Anniversary ... he responded with 'is it?!'. It's good to follow tradition :-) We packed up and drove into the village to park Charlie up near the beginning of the road, we unloaded the bikes and made some sandwiches for lunch before starting the ride. 5 minutes in, my legs were aching and I couldn't breathe... Mm. I know I havn't been to the gym for 3 months but it shouldn't be this bad!! Admittely the first 3 miles was one of those killer gradual hills, but the answer was found at the first view point, I hadn't realised - we were cycling at between 6,500ft and 7,500ft all day. Phew! Thing is, with Moab at 4,000ft I hope it's a bit easier, or I might need my health insurance! lol! <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWGMRIecnEmqdCQB0TpTteKK-7g9XG60_lxTY8QfI-ZhUgwOGXNwrvlfxXk2OnJ8fCvhUJi4bwFfBZ8LPnhSawyvBzafe8O73Yd3A3gadMCq19UOCQk7uaLZv2G8B8ARSkm6rSbbDZ8E/s1600-h/gcbikes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWGMRIecnEmqdCQB0TpTteKK-7g9XG60_lxTY8QfI-ZhUgwOGXNwrvlfxXk2OnJ8fCvhUJi4bwFfBZ8LPnhSawyvBzafe8O73Yd3A3gadMCq19UOCQk7uaLZv2G8B8ARSkm6rSbbDZ8E/s320/gcbikes.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122447318412925250" /></a><br />By the end of the day and nearing the end of our 16mile ride I was starting to get the hang of it so much so that when Dan made a joke about liking riding behind me as he could go at my easy pace he soon found himself a speck in the distance as I accelerated up the 4mile hill - Hehehe. I love my bike. <br /><br />Still, it was definatly worth the effort. We traversed all the view points getting our timing almost perfect so we arrived just after the shuttle buses picked up and the easy pace of the ride meant we could enjoy the views as we cycled along.<br /><br />That evening we booked into the campsite on the furthest east point of the Grand Canyon. We saw a ranger who's comment: 'Nice Defender!' should certainly not go unnoted. It was amazing that for once, Charlie wasn't being called a 'Jeep thing', 'rig' or 'hippie mobile!'. We had a quick chat with him and it turns out he likes his off-roading and it was benifical to us as he recommended a place to go and watch the sunset a couple of 100yrds down from the campsites ampitheatre. Fantastic as no-one ever goes there, true to form, I grabbed a coke and Dan grabbed a beer and we headed on down there to find a truely desserted spot from which you could see the plains, the north rim and the river winding it's way through. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAg-n1IpqZpiNdz-ShGEfrT-NoxiSyKP3O5zh4c__FRlewCbDUpNuW6Is-l6Npa4kI_FHGud1IQ0MjGWlGr8pHs6T_bMZ8_SbBfc7KfR992Fh5L_3bHO5dJ3zCDPsaThGZuZSddswtZY0/s1600-h/gcsunset.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAg-n1IpqZpiNdz-ShGEfrT-NoxiSyKP3O5zh4c__FRlewCbDUpNuW6Is-l6Npa4kI_FHGud1IQ0MjGWlGr8pHs6T_bMZ8_SbBfc7KfR992Fh5L_3bHO5dJ3zCDPsaThGZuZSddswtZY0/s320/gcsunset.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122447327002859874" /></a><br />We watched the sun go down and headed back to the campsite to cook and anniversary dinner of beef in red wine/garlic and baked banana's with Cadbury's Chocolate (that Mum had brought over - thanks Mum!), mini-marshmallows and Baileys. Mm. Yum. When the stars came out it was amazing. With a distinct lack of light pollution it was hard to make out the constilations there were so many, pretty amazing. However, it did make me a bit sad, after the excellent evening we'd had with the fire, reading books and looking at the stars I walked to the toilets amid a sea of air conditioned RV's.... every one housed people sat inside watching television. I doubt they'd lit a fire or looked at the stars or stopped to talk to a Ranger long enough to find the best spots. Sad really.<br /><br />That night I awoke to hear a group of Coyotes howling, it would have been amazing but I really needed the loo and was too scared to get up! lol!<br /><br />Today we headed on over to check out Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Zion looked amazing, but again, it was shuttle buses or a 3 day hike... We had a wander around, visited the visitors centre and then realised the clocks had gone forward an hour and we raelly should find a campsite! Desparate for a shower we headed to the nearest KOA, 12 miles from Bryce Canyon so we're planning on spending the day there tomorrow. Hopefully we can do it more justice than Zion.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2HF2xEKr9BVi22-UZ23ZgvSDHhZ_IJ6HuknXg1lZPgrgujXmSx_n2PnSOGFD-8JsUOv4oYl06dIjTmjkKYG8S0xsWXrFCBeQB_Q9nuE8BuNDBbA8gT7nID1YV4qmv3gZOe-DkBR1b5Mw/s1600-h/charliezion.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2HF2xEKr9BVi22-UZ23ZgvSDHhZ_IJ6HuknXg1lZPgrgujXmSx_n2PnSOGFD-8JsUOv4oYl06dIjTmjkKYG8S0xsWXrFCBeQB_Q9nuE8BuNDBbA8gT7nID1YV4qmv3gZOe-DkBR1b5Mw/s320/charliezion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122447335592794482" /></a>Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11031986566517128100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3976771796522742729.post-37255159251905776862007-10-14T01:59:00.000+00:002007-10-14T05:17:32.324+00:00Vegas... love it or hate it?Firstly, before we get into whats been going on over the last couple of days... Congratulations to Dave and Jules (Jens bruv and sister-in-law)! Jules gave birth to Harry David James Rees at 8:19am on the 12 or 13th... Sorry, we're not sure cos we don't know if the text we got shows the time it was sent or the time it was recieved, something like a 8hr time difference and its all very confusing, so we are just going to drink a beer or six in celebration! We can't wait to meet him :-) Here is the little blighter (sorry about pic quality, its from a text messege!)<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx8IYF5mImTrKc0D7gXIkc5Syu-sMKH-_sUyLoiw9h_bSmGHuBs0z2jFpaNyTc8mzaVtKDOU22Tho1RjJlWntH5Y46G3osCEJgQvucOHZqPVhbZIa6gUrrxH7f4jiupEKGHGPZ5zac2A/s1600-h/Harry.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx8IYF5mImTrKc0D7gXIkc5Syu-sMKH-_sUyLoiw9h_bSmGHuBs0z2jFpaNyTc8mzaVtKDOU22Tho1RjJlWntH5Y46G3osCEJgQvucOHZqPVhbZIa6gUrrxH7f4jiupEKGHGPZ5zac2A/s320/Harry.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121056321144084610" /></a><br />Before we got to Vegas we spent the day driving around Death Valley. It's kind of a bizarre place. Nothing lives there apart from the most stubborn mountain sheep, the odd rattlesnake and some small rodents that are meals for the snakes.Vegetation is pretty much non existent. It was originally the home of the Timbisha Shoshone Indian tribe who were a bit miffed when they got kicked out by the white man... same old story really. You kinda get the impression that the native indians of America were poo'd on from a very great height!<br />Anyway, depsite it being a desolate place, there is something very cool about it too, but its hard to describe. I think its to do with the fact that it can be an amazing place to see, but if you don't appreciate it properly, respect it even, it will kill you! Seriously, its that hot there that people have died when their car fails or just going out for walks, even experienced hikers have gotten into trouble. So we played safe and never went more that a couple of hundred yards from the car.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4m5HaDjkjHeYuXQlfLiwqQknM-GseLIN97dnXBNgb9F3mIMdbB8gsUo1wkbPkZK4uTQSiwQq94gWaUAekQG2VzoxgXjiCRS2_97jcwv3RmVTjVaAOzF-mvUN_YGvzTUw5kYeyY_EY3Q/s1600-h/charliedeathvalley1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4m5HaDjkjHeYuXQlfLiwqQknM-GseLIN97dnXBNgb9F3mIMdbB8gsUo1wkbPkZK4uTQSiwQq94gWaUAekQG2VzoxgXjiCRS2_97jcwv3RmVTjVaAOzF-mvUN_YGvzTUw5kYeyY_EY3Q/s320/charliedeathvalley1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121055775683237970" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LnZkl4q6Toz65vfo6sv2-1lwy4f5yZQBfKZqsAAOT2mNVa1CKgHYX65CSTXz3SZeCVMKtQ1TKEqupc0BIp_JwpR4AbJ-1fdoOfmP7mokZ2RDstNO5zc9NCK4ENU1iDpxV4GGloPCZA/s1600-h/charliedeathvalley2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LnZkl4q6Toz65vfo6sv2-1lwy4f5yZQBfKZqsAAOT2mNVa1CKgHYX65CSTXz3SZeCVMKtQ1TKEqupc0BIp_JwpR4AbJ-1fdoOfmP7mokZ2RDstNO5zc9NCK4ENU1iDpxV4GGloPCZA/s320/charliedeathvalley2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121055775683237986" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulCiasgtzTbXWYxHgFIu2m81_sep5cyjuhbMRKVDOahFVzTdkEOAQ_DnK-rnHZO_L2ht3Q-iNs4WaHQKwAYWTl8CCyuRfPvXkltNLunpquCY7cHWvaCgS2aPv2Kl-Kh0_GzaXoWFQXQ/s1600-h/deathvalley.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulCiasgtzTbXWYxHgFIu2m81_sep5cyjuhbMRKVDOahFVzTdkEOAQ_DnK-rnHZO_L2ht3Q-iNs4WaHQKwAYWTl8CCyuRfPvXkltNLunpquCY7cHWvaCgS2aPv2Kl-Kh0_GzaXoWFQXQ/s320/deathvalley.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121055775683238002" /></a><br />So anyway, onto Las Vegas. We had booked oursleves into Luxor, the huge Egyptian pyramid for couple of nights so that we could check "The Strip" out. <br />Luxor:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5sTf1WlMZeK4VbW21AromfLK_yZtoRfI6B8r-ASVq5oPQlH5wba4KqaK08gkoVx4W6fHlbOiAqCbTlfsoa_4Hu8bvSpLTaBD-VXZZNSPdIgl_GB-kJqDmTcj8jo0mLI4lBWLkqrmtw/s1600-h/luxor.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5sTf1WlMZeK4VbW21AromfLK_yZtoRfI6B8r-ASVq5oPQlH5wba4KqaK08gkoVx4W6fHlbOiAqCbTlfsoa_4Hu8bvSpLTaBD-VXZZNSPdIgl_GB-kJqDmTcj8jo0mLI4lBWLkqrmtw/s320/luxor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121055771388270658" /></a><br /><br />I came here a few years ago with a couple of mates and spent one very drunken night checking out the hotels and casinos without a care in the world and generally having a good time. This time round was different. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but as I wasn't in a drunken daze with a load of mates around me I paid more attention to the surroundings.<br />The hotels themsleves are amazing, each with its own theme. We walked for miles on our first night there and before we knew it, it was 1 o'clock in the morning! It's amazing how when you step out of your hotel, everything looks fairly close, but in reality The Strip it well long, the closer you think you are getting to the next hotel, the further away it seems to be... wierd! Also all the casinos seem to be designed to get you completely lost. The plan is that once you are in, you stay there! There are no exit signs, no arrows pointing to exits, only signs pointing to other attractions within the hotel.<br />The next day we walked The Strip in the daytime and again it took us ages. We planned ahead tho and knew which hotels we wanted to see most. We really wanted to see "The Sirens of TI" show outside Treasure Island (recently renamed TI because its more trendy!). Its a bit pirate ship theatrical show that is supposed to very good. Unfortunately it was too windy that night and the show was cancelled... Boooooo! By 9pm we were both exhausted so spent the next 22hours walking back to our hotel (ok, it didn't take quite that long!).<br />INSIDE the Venician (first floor!):<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f0Gu5rTWKuC2W4XncyfVzM0fn67L6kHK_AeigEEiwHzAR7_ViIwDRgY3Fs2iCAZk4ixhiqJYvc2u76qFDzsEaihlTTOVnLgANlH9PkBDxwaPaq8az-1WCMmiDxvCuiB_fE2LGPhseQ/s1600-h/venician.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f0Gu5rTWKuC2W4XncyfVzM0fn67L6kHK_AeigEEiwHzAR7_ViIwDRgY3Fs2iCAZk4ixhiqJYvc2u76qFDzsEaihlTTOVnLgANlH9PkBDxwaPaq8az-1WCMmiDxvCuiB_fE2LGPhseQ/s320/venician.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121056325439051954" /></a><br />Now then, I'm gonna get all moral/boring/analytical now, so those of you that get bored by this sort of thing might want to go and watch Coronation Street or something. There is no denying that Las Vegas, or at least "The Strip" is an amazing place, the casinos are spectacular, the shows entertaining, and the general atmosphere is one of exuberence and excitement. But there are a couple of things that make you think. On our second night there in one of the casinos, I forget which one, we saw a woman in hysterical floods of tears leaving the building rather hastily. We may have read the signs all wrong, but the first thing that went through our minds was that she had made one last desperate attempt to win a fortune, and inevitably had lost, who knows how much! On reflection it could have been a completely different situation, she could have just had a barney with her other half, but whatever the situation it got us thinking about how many people must get lured here dreaming of winning a fortune. Its easy to see how it can happen too, we put about $5 of our own money in the slot machines, just for the experience, the rest that we put in was winnings. We came out about $30 up, there were many more toursits just like us but you could see with some people the temptation to keep going, just in case the next big payout is yours. But we knew when to stop, and thats the crunch point. Many people don't know when that point is, suprisingly, the Casino's don't seem to mind. In our entire trip we saw three small cardboard signs advertising gambling help-lines, scary really.<br />The second thing that we both found annoying, even disturbing was the touts. Prostitution and brothels are completely legal in Nevada. Las Vegas is well known for it, even to the extent of pciking up the nick-name "Sin City". There is no getting away from it and if you are going to visit vegas, you just have to accept that it goes on whether you like it or not. But the touts almost make any visit here unpleasurable. They stand on every street thrusting calling cards into your hands. They even hand them out to kids who are with their parents and parents who are with their kids, one chap in front of us had to tell his young teenage son to ignore them - they were targetting him too. There are advertising trucks driving up and down the strip. The whole stripper/prostitution thing is thrust in your face all the time, which spoils it for the vast majority of people who are there to experience the less seedy side of what Las Vegas has to offer.<br />There are essays about the legalisation of prostitution. Peoples free will and the safety of those in the industry should always be paramount but I'm not going to bleat on about any pros or cons of such a system, both Jen and I have our opinions on it and they needn't be written here as it isn't the time or the place.<br /><br />On a final note, Elvis REALLY is dead, and most of his impersonators, barmey as they are, are completely rubbish!<br /><br />Jen:<br />Today we mostly spent the time leaving Vegas, doing some shopping and heading for the Grand Canyon. We passed over the Hoover Dam, which bizarrely was alot smaller than either of us thought. Very high security there so much so that Charlie got pulled over for searching, well, I say searching, it was more of a cursory glance but annoying as we had to open the roof tent and back up etc. I would tell you lots about the Hoover Dam, but it was really expensive to get in - they wouldn't even let you in the vistors centre without paying out. So we decided just to admire the views instead and look it up on the internet when we got to the campsite. I'm so cheap :-) Hehe.<br /><br />Hoover Dam:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQAhHayhdUCoz-3IjCD0e3sZYn4yBORy0SJPsaEb5MehHFbFqPOywPVjz4CmF-FFKgr3LZ0PlNhprRXpvMLGQtF5KafIvyi6olBB7439xbECY5tCPiU4UW8oC4mihxgFbBy9whiXKv7g/s1600-h/hooverdam.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQAhHayhdUCoz-3IjCD0e3sZYn4yBORy0SJPsaEb5MehHFbFqPOywPVjz4CmF-FFKgr3LZ0PlNhprRXpvMLGQtF5KafIvyi6olBB7439xbECY5tCPiU4UW8oC4mihxgFbBy9whiXKv7g/s320/hooverdam.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121056325439051922" /></a><br /><br />Hoover Dan: (hehe!)<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGS9lJaGHfH1i94Y0Iaqa2KvC475csoNZR2R184AvsFG-PrdsOb7UtXdvXxIDIiDnIAXM4vzPjsfHRV5aFbKOy3NnQOjmFc4NKNLCAt6aGX6IJhbTZkZ2Hcvgw8nNzSPVqCtFFvvOFA/s1600-h/hooverdan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGS9lJaGHfH1i94Y0Iaqa2KvC475csoNZR2R184AvsFG-PrdsOb7UtXdvXxIDIiDnIAXM4vzPjsfHRV5aFbKOy3NnQOjmFc4NKNLCAt6aGX6IJhbTZkZ2Hcvgw8nNzSPVqCtFFvvOFA/s320/hooverdan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121056325439051938" /></a><br /><br />Anyway, now is time to enjoy the finer things in life, I have a hotchocolate with Balieys and mini-marshmallows waiting (I've been swimming tonight therefore earnt it!) so will sign off now. We're in the Grand Canyon National Park for the next few day's so not sure when we can update next, will do it asap.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02147011364330849402noreply@blogger.com3