more catching up 22/10/2006 - ,

So here we are just outside the wonderful Joshua Tree NP (where we are camping). Back in California again....





Still trying to catch up on the blog here, courtesy of San Bernadino County library, so let's look back to the 22nd October...

22/10/2006 - Las Vegas (morning) then on towards GC

We both woke up early today, still over-excited from our trip to The Strip. Rita went for a run to calm herself down, I went down the road to Sam's Town (Casino complex) and dobbed a few more dollars in the hands of the dealers.
Drove to a place called Selignan in Arizona, via the Hoover Dam. We were stopped prior to going over the Hoover Dam : 'Hom3eland security, Sir - we need to look in your vehicle'. When it became apparent that we had no fully armed tactical nuclear warheads either under the van,under the bed or in the sink,we were allowed to pass.
Selignan's on the old Route 66 - no kicks to be had here though.

23/10/2006

Travelling to the Grand Canyon today, via somewhere called Williams (where we managed to catch up a few days blogging, but have now only just got to the day where we did that in our blog). Our first vierw of the Grand Canyon wa sall we had led to believe it would be. Awesome (in the literal, rather than commonly used sense - e.g. that bar of choclate is awesome or Cliff Richard is awesome [o.k., I know that wouldn't be used, but you get the picture]).

24/10/2006

We'd decided to go on a Ranger led walk into the Canyon today. this meant getting up at 6:30 a.m., which really proved to be the hardest part. When we got to the top of the Canyon, we were met by an 80 year old guy, named John. He was to be our leader.
As it turned out he was brilliant, very informative, fit as a fiddle and in tune with the surroundings.There were about 9 in our group, the majority around our age and the pace was very leisurely. It wa sconsiderably harder climbing up again. I have to state at this point we only descending about 1100ft into the Canyon. Going to the bottom would involve something like 5,000 of descent.

Catching up - 18/10/2006 to 21/10/2006

18/10/2006 - Lone Pine

Went to a museum of film this morning, which turned out to be a museum of cowboy films. A lot of them were filmed around the location of Lone Pine, using the Alabama Hills which nestle just above the town, this was quite appropriate.
We enjoyed the museum - brought back memories of Saturday morning flicks ('Come along on a saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile').
In the afternoon we walked in said Alabama Hills and I swear you could hear them thar' bullets ricocheting off the rocks.
We missed our bus ride back (last bus 4:30 p.m.), but were offered a lift by a complete stranger who became aware of our predicament when we were asking about taxis in the local shop - this is yet another example of the generosity we have encounteredd at the hands of the Americans since we have been here. I've got to say that most of my preconceptions about the Americans have been wrong - have found them very helpful, polite and generous - most of them aren't too keen on the Monkey either!

19/10/2006 - Death Valley

Drove to Death Valley today. The temperature was only high eighties today. The highest recorded this year was 127F in July. we were in an area which was 252 feet below sea level - amazingly it didn't seem wet at all.
We met a couple of the most ancient cyclists you could imagine - they were on sit-up and beg city bikes. God knows where they had travelled from as there was something like 100 miles of arid desert between them and the next settlement in every direction.
We arrived in a village named Shoshone just outside of Death Valley and decided to stay there for the night.
Had a swim in their hot tub swimming pool, then went for a 'meal' at the local restaurant. Crowbar - let Rita expand (oh no, she already has), Let Rita tell you more....


20/10/2006 - Shoshone then on to Vegas

Had Breakfast at a different cafe this morning. At first I thought that we had come into an antique shop but then among the artefacts, books, pictures and incongruous
piles of items stacked up we spied tables & chairs. Background music was the type that was Tai Chi medatative type.
When our proprieter arrived he was relaxed, cheerful & then served us the most delicious food which he cooked himself.
This place was in such a contrast to Crowbar. The other end of the spectrum.
Travelled on from Shoshone to Las Vegas (84 miles). Of course, we got lost in Vegas, but after buying a map eventually found our way to the RV site (which was located about 8 miles from The Strip, in what appeared to be a pretty dodgy area. Mind you with all that money sloshing around and all the lost fortunes & lost lives in the City, I should imagine that there are many dodgy areas, peopled by desperados and losers, literally.
Went for a swim in a very cold pool, whilst Rita dipped into the hot tub with an elderly couple from Oklahoma. Apparently they lived in Vegas for six months of the year (oct-Mar)and it looked like they had stacks of dosh.
We came to the conclusion that they came to Vegas for their plastic surgery each year and spent the six months there allowing their bruises & scars to heal.The woman had had so many face lifts that they could not do anymore - next time she was going to have her body lowered!
We prepared for tomorrow's big gambling debut (ok I might have done it once before), by playing a card game called Lexicon with dimes & bottle tops as the stake.

21/10/2006 - Las Vegas

'Ohhhhh Las Vegas, you'll be the death of me, night after night, watching the wheel go round'.
So Saturday comes and today we are going to the Strip. Some dollars have been cashed and Rita's given me $140 spends. Let's see how it goes.
We caught a bus into Vegas (free, because the Bus driver couldn't be @rsed to collect the fares). That was the last freebie of the day.
We arrived at Ceasers Palace & were instantly met by huge banks of flashing slot machines, being played in the main by oversized people with vacant faces. Occasional loud whoops from one area of the Casino would indicate that someone, somewhere had won some bucks.
We wandered down the Strip - each Hotel/Casino trying to outdo each other in it's ostentation.

Leigh's become restless and so it is Rita's voice here now. And so: 'Mornin'Yall' or as they say in some parts, 'How Are You?' (voice rising - doe,ray,mee).
Question mark is academic as they neither want or request an answer. Nevertheless force of habit compels me to reply each time with a demure 'I'm fine thank you'. This exchange is completed by a non-plussed expression on the face of the 'inquirer'.

I have yet to complete my episode on Dining with The Elks but this is on hold for now as I need to catch up a bit chronologically-speaking and as Leigh has started Las Vegas I will complete it. I read somewhere that Las Vegas was Spanish for 'Lost Wages'. It was so apt I ventured to say to Leigh that I was surprised they had been so honest in naming this city that, as everything else about the city appeared to be completely dishonest and besides it is hardly a PR exercise is it? He enlightened me. How naieve am I?

Anyway, 'lost wages' aside, my experience of this place is that I would rather have spent the day at the Derby Evening Telegraph! On the Saturday morning (21.10.06) we arrived at The Strip in the city of sin at 10.30am, after a really promising start of a free busride. I offered the driver a $20 bill and he growled at us to 'Sit down'with a dismissive wave of his hand. Indeed this augured well. Into Caesar's Palace Casino first off as recommended by my hot-tub sharing bathers on the Friday evening.I felt immediately overwhelmed. I was spellbound, this was indeed science fiction. I was out of my depth, an alien, did not speak the language, could not read the signs and felt dizzy, giddy and started to wonder if I had my migraine tablets in my bag. And that was only looking at the carpet. I needed time to summon the courage to look up. Before me was a sea of slot machines, row upon row, sparkly silver screens with the most abject-looking people working them. This area was vast - on the scale of the Grand Canyon - but hey, I heard we live in a world of contrasts, and so we do. And so we do. Everywhere you look was flashing lights advertising every kind of gambling experience. One that struck me as particularly decadent was 'TURN YOUR PAY CHEQUE INTO AN INSTANT $10,000'. I remembered that slogan again as we waited for our bus home that night and saw the beggers and the Depressed. Glenda and Leroy my Friday night hot-tubbers had advised me about which slots were looser, but I decided to give them a miss. This couple explained that they come to LV every six months for the hot weather and the gambling. (He is a farmer). They bring their 2 cha-wow-was (read phonetically as I have no idea how to spell that. What do you think I am, a genius?). Anyways, they look like they've had more face lifts and boob jobs (particularly Leroy) between them than hands of poker. Oh, I digress. Back to Caesar's Palace and the 'slots' loose or otherwise. Once inside, and warding off migraines, it seemed as if we had become encapsulated into some kinda theme park buzzing with dazzling bright lights and giant constructs of Temples and Grecian Gods. Suffice to say I had my flutter on roulette - it was the only thing I understood how to do, and having lost $20 in less than 5 minutes, I quit. Once outside we needed to cross the road, this in itself was a challenge. To cross the road you had to go over a bridge which was accessed both sides by a hotel lobby, a massive area, and guess what? Yup, it was full of 'slots' & poker tables, (actually as I later discovered, so were the local markets and garages - and probably your own private ward in the local hospital!). This city is a hard environment, a nightmare and it erodes humanity and put me in a bad mood, (nowt to do with losing 20 bucks, 'onest!). My love of the place was not enhanced by the fact that we had to cross the aforementioned bridge severally times to get to the east side. Trouble was no one seemed to know which was the east side, least of all us. Trial and error were our guides.

Good night Vegas and never again!

Next installment is the closing episode of 'Dining with the Elks' (I know, I know, you can't wait)but for now I see that Leigh has wandered off so I go in pursuit.

22/10/2006 - Las Vegas to Salignan

Quiet day - drove over Hoover Dam and then into the night (and out of Nevada into Arizona). Stayed at a camp site in Selignan, which used to be on Route 66 (when Route 66 existed). We didn't get too many kicks here. We stayed on a near-deserted site, next to a railway line. There were only occasional trains passing (all freight), but they were about 500 trucks long and consequently took 15 minutes to pass. Still, we slep ok. Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Back from G Canyon - road to Phoenix..

By the time I get to, she'll be rising....
Well we're on the road to, but might not get there (may try somewhere en-route).

Anyway we're back in Williams having visited GC (60 miles north) and still trying to catch up with our backblog of posts..so..

15/10/2006 - Yosemite bound

Well we arrived at Yosemite village in the heart of the National Park soon after lunch and camped at a site which had no running water or electricity, but huge fire pits and BBQs. A group of Americans behind us had set up a gin-gan-gooley (or whatever) type of encampment. They were singing cowboy songs & eating vast quantities of beans (along with half a cow that they grilled on their king size barbie).We thought that they might be whoopin' and a hollerin' into the night - but come 9:30, all was quiet again.

16/10/2006 - Yosemite

We did a walk this morning up to a place called Glacier point. It was only 4 miles (well 8, including descent), but we climbed about a 1000ft in altitude. The highlight of the walk was Rita feeding a Steller Jay (I think that was her name), raisin yoghurts. Even the bird got sick of these after a while and started to secrete them in the ground - probably in the hope of opening a 'tweet' shop at some later date.
In the afternoon we went to a talk on trees, given by one of the National Park Rangers (far superior to Queens Park Rangers). Excellent talk - we know all about Ponderosas, Sequoias (spelling?), Redwoods, Aspens, Douglas firs and also forest management(which Gary Megson never quite grasped).

17/10/2006 - On the trail of the Lonesome Pine.

Drove down from Yosemite to a one horse town named Lone Pine, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. This place looked like a real old western town - we half expected some drunken cowboy to come flying out of the saloon doors, past the horses tethered to the posts and into the dust.
In the evening at the RV park we tentatively called in at the clubhouse to see what was going on and ostensibly to pick up a few leaflets...

(Please note Dear Reader Leigh has abandoned you on the word of leaflets and has taken himself off to his favourite hideout 'The Restroom', so I am in the hotseat now), oh yes...a few leaflets. There were quite a few people in there sitting in big comfortable chairs around a big log fire and on the tables here and there were dishes off dips, crisps and nuts etc. (Get the picture?). Our concentration on the leaflets was seriously distracted by these really nice looking nibbles, but we tried to conceal our interest in them by stealing just the occasional glance. We must have been rumbled though because soon someone from one of the big easy chairs approached us introduced himself as Vin and invited us to 'dig in'. We summarily obliged. After a few mintues he was joined by someone called Ann and the four of us chatted. Apparently everyone is that room was part of a group called 'The Elks' who were on holiday together. They told us about their fund raising activities and we talked about our trip. We noticed an Anna-like character in the kitchen (and was that her Mum in there too?) who had completely taken over the kitchen in this clubhouse and were clearly preparing food on a grand scale. Leigh and I must have hidden our true identities pretty well, cos shortly afterwards we were invited to dine with them. Or could this have been an impromptu extention of their charitable activities as they observed that we had cleaned out the dips, crisps, nuts etc? We readily accepted this most kind invitation and with less than 10 minutes notice nipped back to our RV to 'get ready'. We hadn't spoken to a soul for over a week up until now (Leigh and I do not count each other as having a 'soul') and we realized we were so scruffy. He had not had a shave or a shower since Sunday and the last time I brushed my hair was in England (I failed to pack one). Oh, forgot to mention that our hospitable hosts had also given us glasses of tequila to go with our dips/nibbles - grateful as ever, we were! This tequila was served up with lime on a bed of ice with a little red straw.

And so, back to our RV and I made frantic efforts to do 'something' with my hair. Inspiration struck. I found my nailbrush and had some success with straightening my fringe out and donned earrings and lipstick. Meanwhile, Leigh spun around a few times (no doubt in an attempt to get some air around him in the interests of diffusion), as he had nowt to change in to. And so we arrived, smiling shyly and clutching a bottle of wine. We were instantly introduced to everyone - 14 smiling faces and invited to help ourselves to the food. Food was good...chicken, corn on the cob, salad with walnuts, sweet cherry tomatoes and garlic bread followed by ice cream with a rich fruit sauce.
(Oh, Leigh is back. He is over my shoulder, reading above. He is asking me 'how long do I think people have to read all the detail, I am giving? I have decided not to reply but to just 'keep going') So, forgive this aside. Now, where was I?

A-ha.

Barely having sat down at the table, Ann stood up and made a little speech about the presence of this evening of 'Our special guests from England' and then there was a round of applause. Leigh and I joined in (like self-congratulatory chimps) 'cos at first we thought we applauding others... the penny dropped when we realized it was us! We discreetly slowed our clapping to a stop...just in case The Elks thought we were either complete buffoons or merely conceited Brits! Super! I leapt to my feet to return compliments within speech format and raised glasses again. (Any excuse for a not too obvious gulp!). At our end of the table(s) we had Cheryl, Norman, Harvey and Jeannie - all sociable, lively and engaging. Turned out Norman was Jeannie's 'little brother'. They asked us lots of questions about our trip and gave us lots of tips and places to look out for. They all came from Santa Maria, north of Santa Barbara and are on holiday together for 2 weeks in their respective RV's. They take it in turn to cook for the group and move around from place to place. (A bit like ourselves - only we don't take in turn to cook!)

Grand Canyon

So WHERE were we...?

Well a couple of days was trying to update but lost our internet access.
So are now going to try and recap on waht's been happening over the last few days.
I think the last update was on leaving San Francisco - that was on 14th October.

Are now sat in an intenet cum everything else cafe in a town called Williams, about 80 miles south of the Grand Canyon National park. Let's recap....

14/10/2006 - Leaving San Francisco

Well we managed to find our RV place without too much problem. Took the BART (Bay Rapid Transit rail - not the yellow Simpson boy) to a place called Hayward to pick up RV. A bit hairy leaving SF in RV,as unfamiliar with roads/vehicle etc. - but at least the American drivers are relaxed and give you time to assess your next move - the total opposite of our experiences in Italy. Similarly the Yanks have a far more laid back attitude to life/money/time etc than the Ities. You may wonder why I'm mentioning the Italians in this blog, well it's just that the two nations seem diametically opposed to each other in their attitudes to life - and I never thought I'd say this, but give me the Americans any time.
We arrived in a place called Grovedale (West of Yosemite) at dusk and parked our RV up there. Shared the evening with a couple from San Francisco (David & Jennifer), who had an eigtheen month old girl, Sarah and a 3 year old dog Einstien (V. intelligent).
We drank David's Pinot Noir (Napa valley, Sideways style) and offered in return our $4.99 bottle of Chablis?? It was all we had. We had a good evening.

Next morning we went down a Gold mine (honestly), with them, before taking our leave and heading for Yosemite.

15/10/2006 - Yosemite bound

The Wilderness days

Well, we're still here folks - Rita's not gone to Hollywood and ended up on the producers casting couch, we've just been away from Internet access for the last few days - so where were we.....

Last day in 'Frisco

We're off to pick up our motorhome (RV), this afternoon. Back to the life of itenerants, living in Californian, rather than Yorkshire fields.

Had booked Alcatraz this morning, but we're going to have to try and sell these tickets on (Round trip for Rita, One Way for me)as we need to pick up RV at 2:00 p.m.

Am now sitting in hotel lobby, browsing progress of football back in England - as it's 4:41 p.m. over there (8:41 am here). After last week's result, maybe I should take a rest from footy this season.

Had a Japanese meal last night, including some Sake which came in square receptacle and overflowed into the saucer - traditional Japanese custom.

Ey up - Rita's about to tek over.....

Indeed I am. And this Sake turned out to be 16% proof. When he emerged into the city lights it became apparent that Leigh was not as sober as he may have presumed, swaying slightly and going in completely the opposite direction to 'home'. We ended up in Borders at 10.30pm (hey, man this IS a 24 hour city!), and ordered creme brulee coffees. Looking into Leigh's eyes (well, he was sitting directly opposite me and I perforce had to look up on occasion), I noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and half closed. I kept my observations to myself. A moment later Leigh mumbled that he was 'terribly terribly tired'; as we were esconced on high stools I decided immediately to leave him there in case he fell off - I would not be involved in the embarrassing situation of having to deal with human crashes in the tranquillity of Border's bookshop. (If only...!).

Blogging off again now as have to become ticket touts and sell our Alcatraz tickets as alas no can do.

San Francisco

Hello again. We are still on holiday, nearly two weeks in and feels like our annual fortnightly holiday should be drawing to a close...but mercifully, it ain't!




Arrived in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon after a 6 hour flight from Newark International. The first thing that hits you is the steep long streets - evidently built on hills. There are 43 hills in the city. We took a bus tour this morning which lasted 3 hours and the tour guide gave us information about the effect of the gold rush and all sorts of other facts relating to the emergence of San Francisco. Typically as that was before lunch, I have forgotten most of it by now. I do recall one detail though and that is that there are 5,000 homeless in this city - actually you can see them everywhere rummaging through the bins and begging. Some man with some political clout shut down two big mental hospitals in the early eighties (must have been a Republican!), and all the patients were thrown out into the street.It's a city of great wealth - very much in evidence so some stark contrasts.

Tonight we have tickets for Janis Joplin at a local theatre and tomorrow we are hiring bikes so that we can cycle across Golden Gate Bridge and then boast about it.

The weather is in the low 70's today, with quite a bit of sunshine and a bit breezy too. Apparently their autumn is now their summer - according to our guide. So far so good and no earthquakes and no one flying into buildings here and there are quite a few tall ones to have a go at!!!

Just blogging off now.

Leigh:

Time for tea now - hope Rita's not too disappointed to find that Janis won't be singing live tonight - it's just a play.

Philadelphia - again

Hi Chaps and Chapesses, - ok just Chap then, still in the singular I see and male this time. Well, Hello!

Whilst we have the luxury of Nigel and Fiona's home computer we thought we would treat you to another blog. You may see this as overkill, but I assure you that there will be long silences to follow, (promises! promises!), so lets make hay, hey? Speaking of which, the weather here today was 71F with lots of sunshine. People were actually stripping off and sunbathing in Fairmount Park (Philly's answer to Central Park). Philly is big and spectacular with lots of skyscrapers, museums, grand statues, plaques, waterfalls, very wide 'sidewalks' and touristy. The main fountain in the centre of the city had pink water sprouting forth which was eye-catching to say the least. As dusk fell we noticed that the towers on some of the very tall buildings had pink tops via pink lighting (presumably), and then, come to think of it, there had been alot of pink in evidence throughtout the city that day! We learnt from our hosts via a casual remark over dinner that evening that it was Breast Cancer Awareness Day weekend?)in Philly right now. This explained alot! By tomorrow, Monday, the fountain will no longer be pink! Not too late for us though - we have the photo of a pink fountain 'cos we believed this was some strange phenomena; now we know otherwise!

Its hard to believe that this time last week we were in Bury St Edmunds...was that really only a week ago. The three day spell in New York (which we both loved incidentally), seems to have created the illusion of an oasis of time in the interim - no doubt due to its rauncy and fast pace of living. Philly whist Proud and Grand is calmer and slower which is great by way of contrast.

Good night! This blog has made me sleepy. No doubt this will have a similar effect on you...I do hope you are not reading this at work!

Philadelphia

Phil & Delphia Freedom - who can ever forget that famous couple , immortalised in song by Elton John.

Well, we're in Philly now, staying with Nigel & Fiona (and 18mth old Roman). So far they're putting up with us pretty well and even Rita is behaving.
Nigel's not slept for 30 hours (surely he can't have been be that worried about our
imminent arrival?). Truth is, he's been working on a bid for his Company which needed to be in by 3:00 p.m.Friday.

Yesterday was hectic leaving NYC - we needed to catch the 14:40 train out of Penn station to get to Philly (We're allowed to call the place Philly now as we've been here over 12 hours). Owing to a small misunderstanding between the two of us we ended up catching it by the skin of our teeth. Running across NY with a 30lb rucksack on your back and another weighty bag in your hand is not that easy.

The misunderstanding came about like this:

Rita wanted to go for a run in Central Park.
So we left all our bags with the Bellman at the hotel (grown up Bell Boys) and then went to sort out our train tickets. Sorting out the tickets took much longer than anticipated as it was a three action process. 1) you had to make reservation over phone 2) get ticket from automatic machine 3) show passports and check baggage in - that might sound like 4 actions, but anyway, it was not straight forward.
Anyway, after obtaining tickets we walked up Seventh Ave in direction of Central Park. After about half an hour Rita said 'it's taking much longer to get back to the hotel, than it did to get here'. I didn't hear her as the noise volumes around Time Square (people & traffic & sirens) were too high (that's my excuse). So we just carried on walking until about 15 minutes later Rita said ' Oh..we're at Central Park!'. 'Yes', I said 'You wanted to do a run'. 'I thought we were going back to the hotel' she replied.
Rita was timed out for a run due to the legnth of time it took to get the rail tickets.

Suffice to say, we did return to the hotel at this point, picked up our luggage and staggered across NY to the station. Problem with NY is that you cannot maintain a fast walking place as at every grid intersection (seems like every 100 metres), there's a delay before the 'Walk' lights change in your favour.

Well we're off into Philly today to have a look around the city, no doubt we'll have more to report later.....Oh, excuse me, are you still awake?

New York

Hi, Oh Sweet Faithful Reader...not too busy at work today, then?

I want to tell you that we are 48 hours into New York and we love it. Also that our hotel is called the Jolly Hotel is in Manhatten and is just off Fifth Avenue, 3 blocks from the Empire State Building, and less than 10 minutes walk from Times Square.

Today we caught the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and also called in at Ellis Island. The tour guides were really useful and suffice to say we both learnt a bit about 20th century history with the emphasis on the aforementioned! Also learnt not to take Leigh's swiss army knife in with me, as it was confiscated during a security check. So, there goes our wine opener and picnic knife etc etc!

The weather has been gloriously sunny with only a brief shower last night and a slight breeze today. We are in T-shirt and shorts - even in the evenings. (Leigh attributes this fact to having no other clothes, but he's just feeling sorry for himself!)

Last day in NY tomorrow, Friday, and I plan to jog around Central Park - yup, I have arrived equipped with jogging bra and trainers; shame I cannot also pull out of the bag a bundle of motivation to ensure they are actually used! Anyway, no excuse...

We'll be back.

Rita and Leigh

New York - Wednesday 4th October

Well we've arrived in New York now - excellent flight with Virgin Atlantic. Rita had her spec cleaner, and two tubes of hand cream confiscated at Heathrow - she'd read all the notices about what you could & couldn't take but had failed to act accordingly. The flight was only a third full, which was great and we both managed a kip acroos the 4 middle seats at some point on the flight, luxury. After we landed we endured a 2 hour drive through NY rush hour in a people carrier type shared taxi, with a totally non-communicative driver (good at sign language).
Temperature last night in New York - at 8:44 p.m. was 78F. Lovely.

Again this morning it's like a summer's day (not a summer's day in NY fortunately).

Hello, my turn now. Leigh is now standing peering over my shoulder but this seat is so low down, I can't actually see the bloomin'keyboard!New York! New York! I feel like we are a couple of superfluous 'extras' in a movie set. This place is SO SO in one's face. Its like a three dimensional film set only we are not in cinema seats - we are moving with the flow, and all surrounding voices are that of Dustin Hoffman - even the female voices! The flow of traffic, made up of 80% of hooting yellow taxis, and people eating their breakfast, dinner, tea, supper, coffee breaks ON THE MOVE. Future shares should be in indigestion tablets. The service is good, everyone speaking loudly and clearly, everything geared to keep the place on the move, fast. Even the drains in the roads are smoking. Yup, you can actually see steam rising from the covers, intermittently when a yellow taxi isn't covering it!

We have booked our NY sightseeing tour bus jumping on and off for the next two days. We'll keep you posted. (You lucky bod!)

LHR

Hi Peops,

Hello everyone! Oh, its just you is it...oh well, this blog will be more intimate than I thought...

We have just failed to check-in on line and a voucher spewed out telling us we must report to the desk, so feeling like a pair a terrorist we did and it was a piece of cake afterall (we promised to remove it from our luggage!).

Had an eventful Saturday disposing of Van (aka 'Gloria')- had to drive from Leeds to Ilkeston to the storage depot to park it up for 5 months but sans tax & insurance due to expiry last week, but hey, its only this one journey and so minimum risk. This logic was not commensurate to the nervousness we felt. This became justified as 10 minutes into the journey the Van lost power on the A58 and so we pulled into a pub car park and had to call the AA. Apparently the pipe to the turbo had come off and it took the AA man two minutes to put it back on. It took Leigh and I a little longer to recover! I knew today had not got off to a good start when having poured the milk on my muesli I observed on the packet it read, 'Use by 19th Sept' - today, Saturday was 30.09.06!!! I settled for toast after that!

At storage depot (which was a complete pain to find our designated slot) Leigh observed that 'perhaps we should empty the water tank as could freeze over in winter'. 'good idea' I replied. Alas, the tap to release would not budge. The only option was to empty it manually but the only vessel that would fit in the hole at its top was a small cup. Luckily for us we had two of these so a frantic relay system was set up. A few hundred exchanges of these later, and at least an hour, and the tank was almost empty. Fed up we abandoned Gloria and set off for Hollington for Lisa's wedding dress to take to Bury St Edmunds via Kim and Maion's with our bikes for storage. From Hollington to Toyota Island before we realized we had forgotten the wedding dress, so back we went to Hollington. Leigh whistling a cheerful tune by now! At Kim's we were consoled by the fact that his son, Simon had sold our water heater on ebay for £100.00. So, he gave us £100.00 cash - which will come in handy. Thanks Simon!

A good weekend with Ben and Lisa and Loretta & Phil at Bury St Edmunds - nice and sunny, and finally on MOnday morning Lisa drove us to the station. Leigh morose having taken his leave of Chester and Alfie. To mark this farewell we took them out for walks twice that morning, one walk at 6.15 am and the next at 9.15am. Bye bye doggies!

Arrived Travel Lodge yesterday all according to plan and then met up with Sam and Gill for some London Pride and a very cheerful Greek meal in Marylebone.

And now we are here at the LHR. Anyone still reading? Oh, the only single reader has already lost the Will to live, I see. Ah well, must do better next time. Yup, there will be a next time.

Thanks for having us. No time for amendmens to script as money is running out. Infact one eye on screen and one eye on diminishing returns in bottom left of screen.

New York here we come! We arrive 7pm this evening and we depart from there on Friday to Philadelphia to see Nigel, Fiona and Roman.

THANKS!

Rita