America's National Parks

Hotel - Tropicana - Suite 1601

We both had a good night's sleep and were down for a quick breakfast by 7 am. We were the only ones ordering an a la carte breakfast so it was pretty quick. We had actually planned to leave the hotel at 8.30 am but were ready at 8, so left then. The taxi ride to the airport was so quick - 15 minutes max.

When we arrived at the airport, there were guys checking us in at the roadside or we could have gone inside and done it ourselves. We did it through them. Bags were 50.4 and 51 lbs but were approved. They are supposed to be 50 lbs each. Because it was a domestic flight, we had to pay $50 USD to check our bags! I think we were supposed to tip them for their service but we were so confused that we didn't.

So the next hurdle is security. Phil, of course, never listens to anyone and had a full bottle of water in his special container in his carry on. Did he get challenged? Yes. Was he escorted back out through security to get rid of the water? Yes. Has he travelled all over the world and should know better? Yes. Did we discuss this at the hotel this morning before we left for the airport? Yes. Was I angry? Yes!

What was a 30 minute journey through security, Phil added an extra 15 minutes by being an idiot!

We don't have seats together yet but will try to change them when the gate opens.

Bye bye Vegas. Hello Dallas, Texas.

Hotel - Grand Canyon Cabins - Maswick Lodge - Yellow Pine - Room 594

We woke up before sunrise to take some photos. Then a trek up a hill for breakfast.

We took some photos of John Wayne's cabin and a stage coach. This is a fantastic place for filming western movies, but there is absolutely no infrastructure, so how they managed to make those movies all those years ago, is just amazing. It must have cost a fortune to ship all that into the area.

Breakfast was interesting. It was a la carte, not buffet style as we have become used to. It took quite a while to arrive but we have a late start today and as soon as we were on the bus, we wound our watches back one hour, so that was the reason for the last start.

Our first stop was at the Cameron Trading Post. OMG! It had everything. I was interested in a small bowl, but the Navajo pottery is very expensive and some of the rugs start at $15,000.

Next stop - the Grand Canyon. We had been here before, but it is still as awe inspiring as it was the first time. It is just something else.

Meanwhile, my left knee is not getting any better, so I asked Donard if I could visit the clinic at the Grand Canyon. He is so kind and caring and took me and Phil on the bus down to the clinic. This area is so spread out that we could never find it on our own. The rest of the group have three hours to have lunch and wander around the Bright Angel area, so hopefully we will be finished at the clinic and back on the bus by 3 pm. There was only one person ahead of me at the clinic so I only had to wait about 20 minutes.

I filled in the forms and then had a consultation with the nurse and then waited for the doctor. I have a slightly swollen area around my knee and haven't hurt it and can't feel any part of the area that is sore. It is very deep and has me wondering about a DVT. They have had two other DVTs in there in the last couple of days. My blood pressure was - wait for it - 168 / 90 which is extremely high for anyone, let alone me, as mine is usually 128 over 80. They kept taking it and it came down to 140 something. I think the reason it was high was because Phil insisted on coming into the consultation room with me! Anyway, who knows why it was so high. Maybe because we had been at high altitude for a while, sitting on the bus for days or eating bad American tourist food. I don't know.

The doctor didn't think it was a DVT but said that they sometimes hide deep inside and if my leg isn't starting to get better by the time we get to Dallas, then I should go to Emergency and ask for an ultrasound.

He gave me some anti inflammatory tablets and a knee brace. The tablets were $4 and the knee brace was $30 and the consultation was $116. The clinic then called a taxi for us and we were back with the group with about half an hour to spare, just enough time to grab something to eat and hop back on the bus for the next scenic spot. Everyone is asking about the clinic visit. They are a very caring group.

At our next stop, we sat in the amphitheatre and listened to Tim the geologist tell us about the Grand Canyon and how it was formed and what the different levels of rock are. We had heard his talk about five years ago but it was still interesting.

We took an opportunity to have a photo with Donard, our Irish travel director and Roland our driver. Great guys.

Donard made a speech on the bus when we were driving to our accommodation, saying that from his perspective it had been a great trip and he had enjoyed all our company. Phil, as the Sheriff, responded with a lovely speech about Donard and Roland.

We arrived at our cabins in the Grand Canyon Park, had a little rest and changed for our farewell dinner (our second on this trip!)

It was a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, with turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potates, yams, and green bean in a white sauce with crispy onions on top. We had pumpkin pie for dessert. It was a good night and then Phil brought out the Scottish Jimmy Hats and all the blokes had their photos taken with them on. It was a riot.

A little sleep in in the morning as some are getting up early to do flights over the canyon.

Hotel - Tropicana - Room 1601

I had a great night's sleep last night, due to the anti inflammatory tablets that the doctor gave me yesterday for my sore knee. They bombed me out and I hadn't stirred an inch when the alarm went off. We had a later leave time as the people taking flights over the Grand Canyon went off earlier and then the rest of us picked them up at the airport and continued on our final leg to Las Vegas.

We had already done the flight a few years ago, so decided not to do it again, and as I always get stuck in the middle seat (and can't see a thing and can't take photos), I was happy not to spend money for nothing. However, those who went, really enjoyed it.

So, the scenery from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas isn't very interesting after the two weeks of spectacular scenery we have viewed, so Donard put on a Chevvy Chase movie, Vegas Vacation. We had seen it before but it was just as funny the second time round.

We had a wonderful stop along the way - at a section of Route 66 at Seligman. All of us who were teenagers in the sixties know the song "Get your kicks on Route 66"! There is a great shop there, full to the brim of Route 66 memorabilia. It was so much fun. We could have stayed in there for ages. Phil and I both bought a tee shirt. Mine is covered in bling and I will be wearing it to my tap class.

It is now getting hotter and hotter and when we stopped at Kingman for lunch it was about 107 degrees. Not much offering in the food line here, mainly fast food outlets, so we chose MacDonalds for a quick burger and back on the bus because several of our group are being dropped off at the airport this afternoon on our return to Vegas.

We had a trouble free trip into Vegas, dropped some off at the airport, then some at another hotel called SLS and then Jenny and Duncan and Phil and I were dropped off at the Tropicana where we said goodbye to Donard and Roland and thanked them for a great time. It is now 115 degrees, but a bit overcast and windy and looks like rain, but it never does.

We were the only ones in the check in queue and paid and extra $50 and upgraded ourselves into a suite on the 16th floor with a superb view down the strip and plenty of room to repack the bags.

After an hour of trying to get the coffee machine to work (using tea bags) Phil finally phoned for help. First they brought up English Breakfast tea bags, still no luck making a cup of tea. Then they brought up some "tea pods", still wouldn't work. About five phone calls later, a girl brought up a new machine, but then taught us how to use the one we had - success - a cup of tea!

We went for dinner to our favourite Irish Pub which is located in the New York New York hotel. Phil had his usual bangers and mash and I opted for a Caprese Salad this time. The waiter was worried that it wouldn't be enough food - trust me - it was!

Just a few photos of the Las Vegas skyline on our stroll back to our hotel. Bags mostly packed and ready to depart for Dallas tomorrow morning.

Hotel - Gouldings Park - Room 120

Leaving Moab today, heading to Mesa Verde National Park. Between AD 600 and 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan people carved houses and entire communities out of the sandstone of the canyon walls at Mesa Verde National Park. It is now a UNESCO Word Heritage Site. The park includes over 4,500 archelogical sites; only 600 are cliff dwellings. In the late 1200s, over the span of two generations, they left their homes and moved away. No one knows why. They seem to have left everything just as it was. Some scholars suggest that maybe drought and crop failure were the catalyst for the mass migration or even social and political problems and the people simply looked for new opportunities elsewhere. Some of us on the bus think that maybe a fire was raging through the valley and they all just up and left to save their lives.

They actually joined thousands of other Ancestral Pueblo people who were moving south into today's New Mexico and Arizona and the Hopi of northern Arizona and the people of Zuni, Laguna, Acoma and the pueblos along the Rio Grande trace their ancestry to the Ancestral Pueblo people of this area. Whatever - it was a very fascinating place.

We had lunch at Mesa Verde, sitting in the shade overlooking the carved houses. We had already purchased our lunch at an earlier stop, as there wasn't any food outlets at this place.

Then we continued on to Monument Valley, in the Navajo Tribal Park, which is one of the prime reasons we are on this trip, because we have wanted to see Monument Valley for a long time. And it did not disappoint! It is just like it appears in the movies. The only thing missing was John Wayne riding through the valley! Many, many western movies have been made with this backdrop - Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, How the West Was Won, and more recently The Legend of the Lone Ranger, Back to the Future III and Thelma and Louise.

It is hot, dry and dusty and the earth is red. Our room is quite nice, considering that we are virtually in the middle of nowhere. A little while after checking in, we are loaded onto trucks and driven over closer to the outcrops for photo opportunities and dinner. IT IS VERY HOT. There were quite a few shopping opportunities along the way, mainly of Indian jewellery but nothing really that suited me.

As Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal Park, located on the border of Arizona and Utah, within the 16 million acre Navajo Reservation, there is no alcohol allowed. We were provided with a very substantial cowboy dinner with dessert and cold lemonade. Then Joe spoke to us about what it was like to be a First Nation Person, then and now. The name Indian was given to these people by Christopher Colombus, because he thought he had reached India and so named these people Indians.

Back to our accommodation and we are very ready for bed. I have had a sore left knee for about four days now and have decided to ask Donard about visiting the medical clinic at the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I haven't hurt my knee yet there is a pain deep down so I just need to get it checked out as we have a couple of long flights ahead of us and am hoping it's not a DVT.

Hotel - Best Western Canyonlands - Room 113

I had the worse night's sleep last night. I tossed and turned and coughed and coughed. Silly me - I forgot I had cold tablets in my bag. If I had taken one, I might have had a decent night's sleep. I have the coughing disease that most of the people on the bus have had or have.

I was seriously considering not going on the excursion this morning, but after taking a couple of cold tablets, the drip dried up and I felt well enough to go. Just as well, as it was stunning. Duncan had pneumonia and Butch is not well, so they are staying in the hotel today to rest up.

The first stop in Canyonlands was Balancing Rock. We got out of the bus and walked in to the park to see it. It's going to be 100 degrees today but it's warm and pleasant at the moment. The red rock and sand ard stunning.

Next stop was Arches National Park. We were given just over an hour to hike to the fifth largest arch in the world. It's pretty hot, about 100 degrees, and the walking is steady. Donard said there were a couple of undulating hills! Does he know the meaning of undulating? They were a bit more than undulating and when the gravel changed to loose sand, it was hard going but definitely worth it.

The park's 76,519 acres abound with surreal geologic wonders that represent millions of years of Earth's history exposed by the tireless hands of water, ice and wind. Erosional features that colour the land paint rocky portraits of the ancient sand dunes, tidal flats, rivers, and lakes from which they originated.

Next stop Island In the Sky. Just wow! The edges of this cliff are not fenced off and some of the guys in our group went a bit close to the edge, I thought.

Then we went to Dead Horse Point State Park. This is a state park in the middle of a national park. In the 1880s cowboys used Dead Horse Point to catch wild horses. With sheer cliffs on all sides and an access only 30 yards wide, the point made a perfect horse trap. Cowboys herded horses onto the point and built a fence across the narrow neck to create a natural corral. According to legend, a band of horses left corralled on the waterless point died of thirst within view of the Colorado River 2,000 feet below.

These blue pools are used in the manufacture of pot ash. They really look out of place in this landscape.

Back to our hotel after a very enjoyable day, and Donard invited us all to champagne and orange on the terrace. What a nice way to finish the day.

We decided to have an early dinner at a pizza place in the carpark of our hotel and invited Steve, an American travelling by himself to join us. Turns out he was posted to Ankara in Turkey before Phil was there and here in down town Moab in a Pizza Restaurant we had a Turkish waiter! How funny was that?

I'm having a very bad day today health wise. Started off with the cough that everyone has on the bus, then somewhere along the way it turned into Rhinitus. It was so bad that I went back to our room, took a bomb and was in bed by 8.30 am. My ribs are very sore from the coughing but more worrisome is the pain in my leg. I am having trouble walking and was thinking it may be a DVT but there is no swelling yet, but if it is still sore when we get to Las Vegas, I'll go to the hospital.