Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

2 travellers;
303 days;
10 countries;
7 hire cars;
121 different beds;
42 postcards;
117 blogs;
£**,*** spent
later...
we arrived back at a very foggy Heathrow at 9.30 on 19th December (1 hour late.)

It's been an adventure and to everyone we met who entertained us, thanks for making the trip so great. If you fed us or housed us as we passed by (Jon and Janine, Lyndon and Sheryl, Brenda, Geoff and Jennie, Jim, Carone, Jakob and Siena, Mr and Mrs Dutz, the Duquettes and Claire and Joe) then a very very big thank you for your generosity. For those who kept us informed about events on the home front, thank you for keeping our home sickness at bay.

Oh and if anyone wants to sit through 6000 photos then just drop us an email and we can arrange a time for the slide show.

We hope you've electronically enjoyed our holiday as much as we have. It's been truly amazing.

We've made it to the Big Apple which means only one thing...it's the last week of our holiday. We could never have envisaged the end but you know what they say about all things good...

Instead of moping, we've been making the most of our time we have left. On Wednesday we managed to get $10 tickets to see the New York Knicks v Atlanta Hawks at the impressive Madison Square Gardens venue. The Knicks won but neither team were as skilful as the game we saw in LA a month ago. Earlier in the day we wandered through 9 floors of Macys department store which looks stunning at Christmas time. Luckily for the kids of New York, they don't have to go far for lunch as there is a McDonalds right in the middle of the kids clothing department! Shocking.

Yesterday we walked about an hour to get down to Lower Manhatten. You kind of arrive at Ground Zero and just stop in your tracks. You can walk right around the perimeter looking in at the developments that are going on. No picture can really get across the scale of the area. It was great though to see normal people going about their daily lives getting on with things knowing what had happened 5 years ago. We visited the NY Police Museum and that had further photos and artefacts about September 11th. It brought back sad memories for us; I can't imagine what it must have been like for New Yorkers. In the evening we went out in Chelsea to some bars and a great Mexican restaurant.

Today we are trying to get tickets for a show on Braodway and we still have so much to do...Empire State Building, Statten Island ferry, 5th Avenue shops, ice-skating and whatever else we can fit in.

I love this city - it's the perfect end to our holiday.

On the 11th of December in LA we went to see the filming of some "live" TV. The programme is called Jimmy Kimmel Live and is shown every weekday night. It's filmed in the El Capitan theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

So how live is live TV. I knew not to expect real time as the show needs to be filmed in LA to be broadcast at midnight on the East Coast. So with the three hour time change we guessed it would start around 7.30, be done by 8.30 and get edited and pumped out on the east coast at midnight their time, 9pm LA time.

WRONG! We joined the queue and got our seats. Not bad seats. We could see all we wanted. It was then we were told what we would be watching. On the 11th of September we saw Jimmy film the monologue for the show on the 21st December. We then waited whilst they removed all the Christmas decorations and watched him interview Ryan Seacrest (host of American Idol plus other American based TV and radio things) which was due for airing on the 14th December. We then went out side to the car park to watch the live concert by Gnarls Barkley which will also air on the 21st December. So we are part fo the audience for the 14th (we watched it last night and didn't see ourselves) and the part I find most interesting is that we have the potential to appear live on US national TV on the 21st December when we are already back in the UK! That's pretty clever of us I'm sure you will agree. We have a better chance of being on TV for this as we are stood near to him when he does his link for the Gnarls Barkley concert.

It was very funny and very interesting but I don't really understand the live part of it. I would go and see it again and if you are ever in LA it is a very good freebie and very funny.

http://www.jimmykimmellive.net

Where would you expect a couple to buy an engagement ring when they have negative funds, no jobs and are at the end of a 10 month holiday? Elizabeth Duke, Croydon High Street maybe? Wrong. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills! (You've got to take advantage of the exchange rate right now!)

Last Monday we spent a sunny December morning strolling between Tiffanys, Cartier and De Beers looking for the perfect ring. We had done our homework in other shops so we looked like we knew what we were talking about. Our friend Simon recently compared ring shopping to house buying. You are an expert in it for about 5 minutes then you forget all about it afterwards! A very apt description I think. We talked our way through and didn't even cringe when some extortionately out-of-our-budget rocks were presented to us in Cartier! The phrase, "We've got a lot to think about!" was used frequently to get us out of situations with our prides still intact.

After emerging from Tiffanys (feeling unsatisfied) and Cartier (feeling poor) we went into De Beers on the off-chance. An hour later, after perusing through the rings the lady kept bringing out from their elaborate walk-in safe and sipping water brought out to us by the security guard, (Evian, if you don't mind!) I had fallen in love. As soon as we can find a computer that will let us put photos on, you will get to see it. I could certainly get used to this jewellery shopping lark.

Thank you Rhod!

Death Valley is a low point of our holiday. To be precise it is 282 feet below sea level at its lowest point. Due to road closures because of snow in the mountains Death Valley was a bit of a detour for us. We drove about 800 miles in 3 days in order to visit.

The place is great. Because of the time of year, we had it virtually to ourselves. At the valley overlook point there was just us and a film crew packing up after filming a BMW commercial. At Badwater Basin we had the salt flats all to ourselves as the sun was setting. For some reason I had the childish urge to do some cartwheels on the salt flats. I soon regretted it when I looked back at the photos and saw not the straight-legged straight-backed 9 year old I used to be, but a bundling hunched-over mess . Cartwheels shouldn't be attempted after childhood. It's not like riding a bike - you do forget how to do them properly and you end up pulling muscles you never even knew you had.

We went for a bit of a hike. 3 miles was tough going even at this time of year. I wouldn't want to try it during July when the average daily temperature is 45 deg C!

Imagine a big tree. You are going to have to imagine it because despite visting San Diego, Los Angeles and New York in the last week we have been unable to find a computer that will allow us to put photos on the blog. So the pictures will be added when we get home. I know the pictures are the best part but for the moment you will just have to make do with the words and your own imagination.

Remember to think big.

This tree which probably looks so tiny in this picture is not only the largest tree in the world but also the largest living thing in the world! I doubt any of our pictures do its size justice but believe me it was massive!

We were in Sequoia National Park where giant sequoia trees grow at an altitude of 5000 - 7000 ft.

The largest living thing in the world is called the General Sherman. This is not to be confused with Colonel Sanders whose range of chicken products is slowly ensuring that people are in line to give this tree a run for it's money on the size front.

General Sherman Facts:
Age: 2300-2700 Years
Max diameter at base: 36.5 feet
Circumference at base: 102.6 feet
Height: 274.9 feet

The tree is still growing.

Frosty Yosemite Valley:

Yosemite valley from above

We have been ticking off the National Parks at a rate of knots and seeing as an annual pass for the two of us was a mere $50 I think we have got our money's worth.

There have been advantages and disadvantages to visiting them at this time of year. The disadvantages have been that some of the facilities inside the parks have been closed and this has meant that we have had to drive out of the park to find accommodation and have maybe not spent as long as we would have hoped in each one. Also some smaller roads get closed after the first snowfall and remain closed until April.

However the advantages are that the parks have been far less crowded and sometimes we have been hiking for a couple of hours without seeing anyone. (I thought travelling made people more tolerant of one another but in my case I seem to have become less tolerant so this has been a big plus!) Also the wintery weather makes the parks more picturesque in my view and the skies are clearer and less hazy than in summer.

So my advice to anyone thinking of visiting the national parks in the USA is to come in the Autumn time. You'll be amazed.

We are back in the snow again. (I didn't think it snowed in California but there you go.) We are at Lake Tahoe on the border with Nevada. This is great because should we be getting withdrawal symptoms from Vegas all we need to do is cross the border and we'll be faced with a mini Vegas full of casinos.

By the way, do you like our new car?

No not the wrestler-come-movie star but Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary which is a long winded way of saying prison.

We were going to make the trip to Alcatraz with Simon. Unfortunately we forgot to book any tickets so when we got to San Francisco on Thanksgiving weekend there was not a ticket to be had until Sunday and Simon flew home on Saturday. Sorry Simon. If it's any consellation it rained while we were there.

Alcatraz sits on an island 1 and 1/4 miles from San Francisco and was home to Al Capone, Robert 'The birdman" Stroud and various other people whose names I have forgotten. It's location was ideal for punishing the inmates as it was close enough to the mainland for them to see and hear what was going on so they knew what they were missing out on. The prison was used to house dangerous criminals and those who had attempted to escape from other prisons. It was deemed escape proof as it was a dangerous swim through the currents and the cold water to get to the mainland. To ensure they didn't get used to cold water Alcatraz was the only US prison at the time where the inmates got hot showers!

We went on a tour of the island with a ranger to find out about the escape attempts. The favourite jump off point was out of the window of the factory and straight in to the water. Of all the attempts only 5 people were never recaptured. Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery are not included in that count although I believe they did escape in the film. I've not seen it.

In 1963 someone wise decided that punishing prisoners was not right and that they should focus on rehabilitating them. This party pooper closed Alcatraz and since then it has been occupied by native americans and has now become a national park and a prime tourist attraction.

Despite being ecstatic at the prospect of a holiday with my brother I must admit I was a little apprehensive about how we would cope together. It had been 11 years since our last family holiday and 9 years since we had lived in the same house! I'm sure he thought the same. However, I needn't have worried. We got on like a house on fire. I'm sure my mum won't believe us as she probably still vividly recalls those heated arguments we were so well known for in our teenage years! Luckily we are older and wiser now and I'm so grateful that he came out to see us. I can't wait for future holidays with him.

However, spending that much time together does teach you a lot about a person and here are a few things I have learnt about Simon from this trip...

• He uses an obscene amount of shower gel; one bottle apparently lasted him a mere 5 days.
• He has an intolerance of waiting for lights to turn green before he can cross the road, despite it being punishable by fine in the USA.
• Money is a burden to him, especially coins and you will often hear the sound of coins dropping into a bin as he discards them at an alarming rate.
• He developed an addiction to outlet mall shopping (well who wouldn't when clothes are about a third of the price they are at home.)
• Despite a love of taxis and a hatred of public transport, he proved he could manage the whole fortnight on buses and trams despite hating every minute.
• During the fortnight he developed an irrational craving for burgers.

So thank you Simon for providing us with much entertainment on our holiday.

Thursday was Thanksgiving in America. We were recently asked when we celebrated Thanksgiving in the UK. We tried to explain the harvest festival and putting tinned food in shoe boxes at school for the old people but we got some confused looks. We then explained that to our knowledge, even though history is not my strong point, there was not an event in the UK where some pilgrims thanked some natives for helping them get through the first year. Still it's not as silly a question as "When do you celebrate Independence day in the UK?" We replied with "Independence from who?" but what we should have said is "Any day when Will Smith saves the world!"

So we needed a Thanksgiving dinner but money is getting almost too tight to mention so we opted for the cheapest available in San Francisco; $15 in the italian restaurant. What could go wrong? Turkey, potatoes and spinach. When we got there there was a slight problem. There were no potatoes left so we got dry turkey, spinach and pasta penne in tomato sauce. I expect that we were the only people to have parmesan cheese with our Thanksgiving dinner. Needless to say it wasn't good but luckily we had been drinking and couldn't really taste it.

We are in Hollywood and as you can see from the picture the sun has been shining brightly. Or as brightly as it can through the smog.

So that we fit in with the Hollywood life we have ditched the RV and we are now cruising America in an SUV. Everyone over here has one and it is a pleasure to be able to drive around and contribute to LA's smog problem. To really fit in we would need to get one of those small novelty dogs, dress it up and carry it around in a small bag. Fortunately we have managed to resist.

We've been living the life a bit. Hollywood Boulevard to look at the stars and the people dressed up outside the Kodak and Chinese theatres. Rodeo Drive to look at people who have enough money to shop on Rodeo Drive. That's not us. We shop in outlet malls. Venice Beach to people watch including muscle beach and the roller skating, guitar playing sheikh. We even went to see the Borat film which I thought was very funny.

We didn't see anyone famous. We also turned down going on the Hollywood stars' homes tour. Driving around looking at big gates didn't seem like money well spent.

Living in an RV for a month was great but the night life was poor, actually make that non-existent! So when Simon arrived and we said goodbye to our RV, Rhod and I had to remind ourselves that we were not retired 70 year olds and LA's Sunset Boulevard was the perfect place to do that. Simon had done his homework before he came out to join us and knew of a club called Whisky a Go Go where rock bands who are just starting out play. Guns n Roses, Oasis and The Doors are just a few of the famous bands to have graced the stage. It's a tiny venue and they had a line up of about 7 bands that night. But that wasn't rock n roll enough for us so we headed across the road to Johnny Depp's club The Viper Room. Unfortunately the camp pirate was not there that night, in fact I doubt he has even been there since it was opened. The Viper Room is also infamous for being the place where River Phoenix collapsed and died from a drug overdose. We considered a re-enactment on leaving but decided that would be inappropriate. It had a similar setup to Whisky a Go Go but the bands we saw in The Viper Room were much better. Maybe we saw the future Oasis! So we spent the evening switching between clubs flashing our stamped wrists at the doormen and generally feeling pretty damn cool!

We have ticked off yet another sport in our round the world adventure. This time it's basketball. I thought I should explain as it is perhaps not clear from the attached photo what the game is.

I'm not normally super complimentary about US sport but basketball is good. It's an all action 48 mins with any time-outs or breaks livened up by the cheer leaders and many other exciting events such as bubble cam that picks people out in the crowd and distorts their faces. Very funny but I expect you have to see it to really appreciate it.

We watched the LA Lakers play the Toronto Raptors. The LA Lakers were led by probably the only current basketball player that any of us could name before the game, Kobe Bryant. Come to think of it he is probably the only basketball player we can name now.

The game ended LA 107 Toronto 100 which is very close. I did wonder why they bothered with the first 3 quarters of the game. They started the last quarter level on points and it was a whole lot more active than the previous 36 mins. That might explain why most of the seats are empty for the first quarter. People seem to be more focused on getting food and drink (not beer I would like to point out as it was an extortionate $10 a pint!) than watching the game. It still amazes me that 48 mins of sport can take over 2 hours to complete but I am getting used to it.

Man of the match was Kobe Bryant but it's not called man of the match over here it's called most valuable player. I don't know why this annoys me but it does. Maybe I'm just intolerant. It gets worse when the crowd, who for most of the game are silent apart from the sound of chewing and slurping, chant MVP...MVP...MVP every time the MVP touches the ball. Still it's better than USA...USA...USA.

We now need to hunt down some American Football to complete the set.

They didn't.

Do you like the funky settings on the new camera? We have no idea how to operate it really!

"Bright light city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire..."
Yes, our third and final guest has arrived...my brother Simon! Which picture does he look happier in? The one with his little sister who he hasn't seen for 8 and a half months or the one with some Las Vegas showgirls?

We have just spent a fantastic 4 days in Las Vegas. Some say it's tacky...and so do we! It's like a collection of different film sets have all converged on one street - a mini New York city, Venice, Rome, Paris and one with a full circus and fairground in it! Hotels and their casinos are the main attraction here and we have frantically been trying to visit them all. If you were to walk from one end of The Strip to another (which it looks perfectly possible to do) it would take about 2 hours! We have been to a cheesy cabaret show (hence the girls), gambled (badly), stuffed ourselves in the Hard Rock Cafe, seen lions that were close enough to touch through glass in the MGM Grand and drunk in most of the bars in hotels like Caesar's Palace, Mandalay Bay and the Bellagio. We were pretty sad to leave but necessary for the bank balance and our health. Simon is already planning a return and I'm sure we will be back.

After all the excitement of the last week, we were worried that the Grand Canyon would be a bit of a tourist trap and would take away from our enjoyment. Fortunately we were wrong. We spent 4 days in the park in our RV and had a great time.

It started on day 1 with a long drive into the park's North Rim, which is 1000 feet higher than the more accessible and more touristy South Rim. It was well worth it as we left before sunrise and got there with the Grand Canyon to ourselves! If you look closely in the first picture you can see me dwarfed by just one tiny section of the canyon. It was wonderful and no picture can really get across the sheer size of the canyon. It is a mile deep and the Colorado River appears like a piece of string running through it's 227 mile length!

Unfortunately even though the South Rim is a mere 10 miles across from the North Rim, it involves a 220 mile round trip. (Can't someone build a bridge across it?? So inconsiderate!) With the old faithful RV chugging along at a top speed of 65 mph we eventually arrived at sunset over on the other side. It was slightly disheartening to look over at where we had been standing that morning.

Even though the South Rim was a lot busier than the North Rim it has a lot more opportunities to hike down into the canyon. We spent 2 days hiking down and back out as one of the options (to camp down by the river at the bottom and climb back out the next day) we were unable to do. The campsite gets booked up 1 year in advance!!

Before we continue with the hiking info I need to tell you about a sad loss of a holiday companion. It's not another of my watches, it's much worse than that. We have broken the camera. Bad, I'm sure you will agree but worse when you consider it's not ours. Sorry Dad! I'm not one to point fingers but Anna assures me it fell from the shelf whilst she was charging it! Judging by the dent I suspect that she swung it around by the wire and smashed it repeatedly in to the floor! We have a liking for taking pictures so when we found out the issue just before we set off on our hike we had only one choice; an instant disposable camera. There is nothing quite as unsatisfying as the combined plastic and metallic twang of a disposable camera taking a picture but it was all we had for a couple of days.

So hiking. Unable to camp we resorted to 2 day hikes in to the canyon. The warning signs say not to hike from the rim to the river and back in a day. It's 9 miles one way and an elevation change of 5000 feet. We heeded those warings. On the first day we hiked the Bright Angel trail. 9.5 miles return with an elevation change of 3000 feet. It's funny hiking in to a canyon. Normally when you hike you do all the hard work (walking up hill) first, sit and enjoy the view then coast back down. Obviously not in the canyon. The pain comes at the end of the day and the steepest part of the trip is the last mile and a half out of the canyon.

Pleased with our performance on day one (we got in and out faster than it suggested, but then the guide is written for a country that doesn't normally walk anywhere) we decided to have another go the next day. We hit the Kaibab trail and hiked 3 miles to Skeleton Point 2000 feet in to the canyon. This was a much better view as it was further in to the canyon and was a very nice spot to stop and have a picnic overlooking the Colorado River before the 3 mile drag up hill to get out.

By day 3 all we could manage was walking the rim trail to the lookouts which is flat. Surprisingly the rim is a lot busier than the downhill/uphill trails. Fear not though the Americans are not walking. They hop off the shuttle bus, take some photos then jump back on for the 0.5 mile journey to the next lookout!


The Grand Canyon was alot better than I think either of us expected. We will hopefully go back one day and make a booking to hike down to the river and stay.

Good news. We have a new camea. Bad news. We have no idea how to work it. Don't worry. I'm not going to lower myself to reading the instructions!

Today is our 100th blog day. By way of celebration we thought we would give you all a little treat...

We have got engaged!!

It happened whilst we were hiking in a virtually deserted Bryce Canyon National Park. We had just walked down 500 feet to the bottom of the canyon. If it hadn't worked out well we would have had to climb 500 feet back out probably in silence.

But we don't need to worry about that as thankfully Anna said yes and we are both very pleased with ourselves!

Neither of us realised just how great a place this was until we got here and it was the perfect setting for an engagement. I imagine that Rhod couldn't resist me in my 8 month old hiking gear!

Don't worry, this isn't the way we've chosen to break the news to our families. We spent a frantic day yesterday phoning family members with our news. I had to wait until 'Have I Got News For You' had finished before I could speak to my Dad or abuse would have been hurled. I suggested via text that I would phone home at 10pm to be told not to worry as they would be at the theatre. I then had to send another 6000 mile text to find out what might be a good time! Thankfully we spoke to (nearly) everyone. My sister Sarah wins the prize for loudest and highest pitched squealing. At one point in the conversation with her I ceased to hear her but dogs came running at me from all directions! My brother wins the prize for being the hardest to contact and eventually had to find out by text message!

Enjoy the photos. Bryce Canyon is a pretty special place...

At the bottom of Bryce Canyon: (Obviously it is no longer deserted as someone thankfully arrived on the path and took a photo for us.)


Sunrise at Bryce Canyon National Park:

It's official. Rhod and I have entered the red... in more ways than one! The one that I'm going to bore you with is the red of the magnificent desert scenery of Southern Utah's national parks. The other sort of red is too depressing to talk about!

Capitol Reef National Park contains a 100 mile long 'wrinkle' in the Earth's crust called the Waterpocket Fold. As a result, there is some pretty spectacular scenery to be seen. We set off to hike to Cassidy Arch where outlaw Butch cassidy used to hide inbetween bank robberies. Unfortunately, we never got that far. We had failed to account for the hour's less sunlight and both of us had forgotten to bring any food for emergencies. I can think of a word that would describe us! We had a great time despite this and due to the time of the year had the whole park pretty much to ourselves.

Let me describe a typical day in the life of an RV-er...

7:30 - Alarm. Decide who gets up first to endure the freezing cold and to turn the heating on. Back to bed until RV has defrosted and a temperature above zero is felt.

8:00 - A leisurely continental breakfast of fresh coffee, hot chocolate, toast with condiments, pancakes and a range of cereals. This may last anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes. Reading may also occur at this point in the day.

Post-breakfast: Rhod begins his glamorous morning routine of draining the waste from our tanks and disconnecting the electricity and water pipes. This is alot easier if the pipes aren't frozen. Unfortunately they usually are! My job at this point is to prepare the inside for departure, ie. making sure nothing will spontaneously jump out of the cupboards whilst driving.

10:00: Taking it in turns to drive through the national parks stopping at various lookouts to take an obscene amount of photos.

11:00: Elevenses of course! More coffee and hot chocolate as it was all of 3 hours since our last one.

11:15: A hike may be necessary at this point to work off the excess of the morning. Usually this involves meeting wildlife at various unexpected places, needing the loo in the middle of nowhere, scrambling through mud, snow, water and of course, taking lots of photos.

2:00: Congratulations, you have earned yourselves a gourmet lunch. Generally we favour a buffet lunch of sandwiches with a variety of fine fillings with a soup starter.

2:45: Back on the road. More sightseeing, more hiking, more stalking of wildlife.

4:30: A spot of afternoon tea. Generally this takes the childish form of chocolate milk and oreo cookies. More reading.

4:45: The sudden realisation occurs that we don't have a campground booked for the evening. Queue research in campsite directory, more driving, following a poor map which only chooses to list certain roads and arriving in dying light.

7:00: Panic over, we arrive at a suitable campground, preferably one that is level so we don't lose the contents of our fridge when we open it. The evening may then contain any of the following: eating dinner, more reading, writing diaries, doing laundry, utilising the campground's hot tub (if we're lucky) and running to and from the shower block in the freezing cold. I'm usually a little concerned when Rhod comes back from the showers as he seems to make a new friend each time! It seems that american men are quite sociable whilst doing their ablutions. Anna is jealous because she hasn't made any bathroom based friends. It's currently 3-0 to me!

Bedtime: Bedtime preparations are a necessity, or should I say heat-sealing the RV. As we have been experiencing temperatures of anything between zero and minus 12 degrees C for the last week, this is an important if not life-saving job. Curtains are drawn, cracks are sealed, the thermals are donned and the sleeping bags and blankets are loaded up. If we make it through the night without getting ice on the inside of the windows, it's been a good night.

So there you go. I hope I've managed to give you an insight into the glamorous life that is Rv-ing!

Ok let us get this straight. Yogi Bear - Jellystone Park. Rhod and Anna - Yellowstone Park. Is every body clear with that?

Yellowstone Park contains half of the world's geysers compared to London's east end which holds all of the world's geezers.

Now in London if you heard someone say "There's a geezer over there about to blow" it would prompt other people to say things like "Leave it aaaaaatttt" and "It ain't wurrrfff it!" However, in Yellowstone Park if someone says "There's a geyser over there about to blow" it would prompt alot of tourists to pick up their cameras and run to watch.

Yellowstone is not busy at this time of the year. The statement that the park is open is true but what it neglects to mention is that all but 2 visitor centres have closed down. Only 4 camp grounds are open, you can't buy any groceries and you can't buy any fuel. Luckily we had the RV well stocked up prior to entry so the only real problem this caused us was not really being able to find out any information. We survived staying out in the wilderness which might not seem such a great feat considering the luxury of the RV but when the temperature drops to -12 deg C I can assure you that even stuff on the inside of the RV freezes. We've had a few mornings fighting with frozen dump valves but we have lived to tell the tale. We did have 3 perfectly clear days in the parks so we even managed to take one or two photos.

A snowy Yellowstone Park:

Old Faithful Geyser:

Morning Glory Pool:

Bull Elk:

Bull Elk rutting:

A frosty Bison:

Grand Teton National Park:

Despite the collar this is not a large ugly dog. It's a female moose:

We still haven't seen a bear so this will have to do for now:

When we finally left the Cruise America office in our over-sized vehicle we headed straight for the supermarket to load up on food and accessories for our new home. It really was like shopping for a new house only trying to find the cheapest of everything (which usually meant the tackiest!) The dollar store also came in handy. Did you know it is possible to buy a saucepan for 1 dollar? My proudest purchase from there however was something that combines practicality with comfort...RV slippers! Rhod has an equally hideous ill-fitting pair in bottle green rather than hot pink. Again, you can't complain at those prices!

We knew we'd committed our first RV faux pas when we stepped out of the supermarket. It was dark and with a horrifying look at our watches we realised that we had been shopping for 5 hours!! Allow me to quote from the RV Assistance Guide: "Always try to arrive at your destination while there is still some daylight." Well, for a start we were about to arrive at our destination in the pitch black and secondly we didn't actually know where that destination was as we hadn't made a booking. No problem, we thought. We'll just turn up somewhere and book in. However, the first place we found had closed 4 hours ago! At this point the reality set in. We didn't have a place to stay for the night, we didn't have a map and we wouldn't be able to see what we were doing when we got there!!

For those who like a happy ending we did manage to find ourselves a campground for the night. Luckily we are in America, a country who invented the term 'customer service' so despite arriving after hours, in the dark and not knowing our sewerage pipe from our elbows we were well looked after by the lovely Brenda and Steve.

Lessons have been learned...

"An RVer is part of a fraternity that bridges cultural and economic boundaries with a common love of adventure and freedom."

Welcome to our new home for the next 4 weeks. Tired of hostels and restaurants we joined the cultural and economic bridging fraternity and got ourselves an RV.

For those not in the know, RV stands for recreational vehicle and is not the name Harvey spoken with an Essex accent.

On a tight budget we were forced to opt for the smallest vehicle. Fortunately USA small is European big so this "compact" motor home is 22 feet long, 12 feet high and 9 feet wide. As an American once told me "there's no replacement for displacement" so this Ford F-350 is powered along by a 5.4 litre V8 engine. I believe most of the area under the motor home is fuel tank as we are predicted to get about 8-10 miles per gallon from it! All a bit of a shock for a man more used to driving a 1.25l Fiesta. I love it! I even bought an RV log book and journal to track all the adventures. It's been a great help as I now know when and when not to dump and the importance of opening and closing the valves. Anna won't let me buy dungarees, a checked shirt and a truckers' cap which I think will help me really fit in. Perhaps that is for the best.

http://www.cruiseamerica.com

Darth Vader playing the violin; a one-man steel band playing Johnny Cash; a spliff-smoking hippie offering the antedote to George Bush, Tony Blair, Steven Harper and the Pope; (the antedote was a bottle of what he called 'hippie juice'?!?) a girl who mistakes waving her arms around and accidentally hitting someone as "unconsciously freaking out and attacking a victim"; and more than a Slip Knot concert's worth of goths.

If that had been your yesterday you too would want to try and escape it even for a few short hours.

We are in Vancouver Island at the moment and apart from dodging odd people, the main thing to do here is to go whale watching for killer whales. Last time we went in New Zealand we spotted only 2 sperm whales so this time we were hoping the killer whales would come out in their droves.

Last time we went some people got sick. Not us but others. Apparently if you feel seasick you should get in a position where you can see the horizon. This was easy today as the vessel of choice was a 12 man Zodiac. For those who don't instantly know what that is I will give you a brief description. Inflatable, rigid hull, bench seats, 2 x 135Hp engines and the key to avoiding the sea sickness...completely open air. Fortunately we remained a vomit-free vessel which is strange because our driver Mike enjoyed accelerating to reach top speed over the waves which resulted in an airborn boat and a lot of bumps. Luckily this also meant a lot of fun too and at one point I was laughing so much I didn't even care whether or not we saw any whales.

In New Zealand only one company go whale watching out of Kaikoura. Over here it's a little bit different. If you were at any point wondering where to find the killer whales the answer was easy. Look for the 10 tourist boats floating around in a circle and that is a pretty good guide.

We weren't disappointed. The first of the resident orcas to visit us was Ruffles the largest of the pod who apparently was one of the stars of the film 'Free Willy'. (Does that count as a celebrity spot?) We then stalked a group of about 4 orcas keeping a distance of about 100 metres. Being curious however they eventually made their way closer to us and surrounded the boat. We were even fortunate enough to watch one swim right underneath our boat...magical! There were no other boats around at this point I am smug enough to say. It's quite strange when you can see something bigger than the boat you are in swim directly under your feet.

The whole experience dispelled a long held myth for me. I thought killer whales just jumped through hoops, pushed people in wet suits around a swimming pool, nodded on command and splashed people in the 'splash zone'. I'm happy to have seen the error of my ways.

http://www.oceanexplorations.com

Us at Moraine Lake:


Anna looks out on Lake Minnewanka:

Sunrise on Mount Edith Cavell from the wilderness hostel carpark:

Standing on the Athabasca Glacier:

Lake Agnes:

Lake Louise from the top of Big Beehive Lookout: