Was I stood up?

I've been back a couple of weeks now and the USA seems like a world away. After Vegas we headed down to Los Angeles, and after a few days there flew to Detroit, stayed with relatives and then back to the UK. Sorry the end of the tale is a bit brief, but that's so often the way...

Anyway, life here is resuming it's previous shape and form - article writing for the magazine, novel writing, some temping at some point, plenty of climbing and a little bit of catching up with friends.

The catching up with friends can sometimes be fraught with problems and it's not always the old friends who are difficult to catch up with...Why does being let down by friends who have suggested getting together end up feeling like you've been stood up! And it just ends up with me thinking that they are just plain rude. I don't like thinking that my friends are rude - I don't have rude friends. But in this technological world with almost universal mobile phone ownership, why can't someone just call and say "I'm sorry I didn't meet up with you...but I had a better offer"

Or maybe it's just me that puts too much emphasis on casual remarks...but I'm inclined to think that my gut instincts are right...I was stood up! By a friend! They had better have a good excuse and promise to make it up to me. And if you're reading this, you know who you are....

Las Vegas

The desert and canyon country of Zion and Bryce were the last we were to have of peace and quiet and a little slower pace of life....Las Vegas beckoned...

There was firstly a few hours drive across the Mojave desert to be negotiated, passing by the largest thermometer in the world which I personally was thrilled to see. The driving was all that you would expect it to be - automatic car set to cruise control on a dead straight road - it was suggested to me by a friend that I could have played cards whilst going along to prevent boredom - not such a bad idea actually.

In Vegas we stayed at Circus, Circus which is as its name implies, a circus, or at least, it has a circus going on inside the hotel all the time...Well, actually it doesn't...what it has is a small stage set up inside a Big Top style area where every couple of hours some sort of act is performed - Jugglers, Acrobats, Trapeze artists, that sort of thing. The hotel and casino is probably better known in Vegas for its inside theme park which is a little smaller than Metroland at the Metro Centre in Gateshead but just as noisy. And yes, several hours were spent there going on the roller coaster and the log flume ride.


Vegas itself was a mixed bag. Plenty of Americans go wild for hotels like the Venetian where you can ride in a gondola under a fake Bridge of Sighs but for Europeans (read - Me) it was tacky on a grand scale...But then that's only because of the general arrogance of Europeans (Me) who have been to see the real Bridge of Sighs so why on earth would I want to have a go on the fake one? Some parts of Vegas are a must see but in all honesty, it would be far, far better to go on an adults only trip...It's not terribly family friendly despite the best efforts of Circus, Circus. The main road - the strip - is punctuated by guys selling tickets for clip joints and every newspaper stand (the ones where you put in your money, open the plastic box and take out the paper) was filled with porn magazines. Even the once thrilling Treasure Island extravaganza - a pirate adventure on full sized ships on water, which took place each evening outside the Treasure Island hotel, has changed...It's now called TI and the pirates have been added to....now there is a ship full of scantily clad 'Sirens' who do the whole pole dancing bit and entice the pirates aboard their ship. The show is on each evening and it's all free...people (mainly men) start hanging around waiting for the show to begin about an hour before the start....Add to this a Spearmint Rhino and Hooters, not forgetting the seedier places off the strip and you've got an Adult playground complete with the casinos and nightclubs.

All of that aside, half an hour's drive down the road from Las Vegas will take you to Red Rock Canyon National Park which is renowned the world over for its sport climbing. We took a drive out there and I rather grumpily drooled over the rock faces - I say grumpily because it was well over 100 degrees - too hot for me to climb and I hadn't organised it properly either, so I sulked, despite having no one to blame but myself.

I was quite happy to leave Vegas when the time came - it was loud and brash and I felt like I was missing out on the party most of the time. I would go back there again though, but it would be with climbing friends, all adults, and the days would be spent at Red Rock and the nights out on the town...Now that would be some trip!

Recap...continued

I'll try to keep the details of the holiday fairly brief as it's all in the past now and I want to talk about the present...

So after visiting Zion Canyon we spent the day at Bryce Canyon which is utterly breathtaking and up so high that it's rather chilly too. All the canyons and red rock formations are stunning but I did find that I reached a point where I was at visual overload - it was amazing to look at but I was past caring and wanted a large glass of wine...which come to think of it I never did get around to having, which is criminal quite frankly bearing in mind we spent some time in California too...hmmm...I shall simply have to make up for it now I'm back in the UK (and coincidentally going out for a drink later with The Flatterer! And a female friend of his...it's all platonic, so don't get yourself worked up into thinking that I have suddenly found a 'Love Interest'! Ha! And really, if I had do you think I'd be broadcasting it to all and sundry on the internet? Well, don't answer that one....).


Tomorrow I'll post details of Las Vegas and onwards....

Back home and a quick recap

I've been back home now a couple of days and I'm still suffering from a little jet-lag or is that just a reluctance to return to normal life? After we left Jackson I didn't get any internet access which is why the blog didn't get updated, so here's a brief recap....
The kids and I went White Water Rafting...that's me at the front on the left hand side looking like a drowned rat...the kids are nowhere to be seen but they are on board, just cowering perhaps... It was great fun but I was sitting in entirely the wrong position - I got drenched every time we hit even a ripple. Things didn't improve with the large lady who came to sit in front to Ride the Bull - somehow I still seemed to get wet.

We headed down from Jackson leaving Wyoming, passing briefly through Idaho onto Utah and Salt Lake City for the night. Attempting to rely on the SatNav system was not such a good idea as we ended up on the bad side of town...I stopped the car, locked the doors and consulted a good old fashioned map....ten minutes later we reached our destination. The following day after we had left we heard that there had been three murders in Salt Lake City while we were there. Gulp.
Then it was off to the beautiful Zion National Park which struck me as being the original setting for the Road Runner cartoons! It is real desert country around there and fires were a real problem. One of the things that Zion is renowned for is the Narrows
which is a stunning hike up through the river bed of the canyon. Unfortunately because of recent fires and some heavy downpours over the previous few days the river was fairly high, full of burnt debris and prone to flash flooding if another storm hit...So we only did a short walk along part of the river. The following day the kids and I did a longer hike higher up the canyon which quite frankly I found hair-raising as a single slip would result in death and when you're being accompanied by a pair of hyperactive nine year olds who would rather run on ahead than stay with their fretting mother....one's nerves end up somewhat frayed!
I could go on and on about Zion park, I took loads of photographs of the wildlife, the rock formations, the plant life and just the sheer scale of the place...

Anyway, there is more to tell, more pictures to show...Bryce Canyon, Las Vegas and Los Angeles! And of course the pimpmobile and the stretch limo....
So without wishing to sound like a cheesy US television presenter...tune in next time for another edition!