Walnut Canyon, Wupatki & Sunset Crater

The first picture is of Flagstaff. We've added this picture because we've just heard on the news that it's in flames!! We're now getting worried than an over zealous law enforcer may be following our trail, putting two and two together and making five!









Walnut Canyon - absolute proof that other people lived in America before it was 'discovered' by the Europeans!! The Sinagua are descendants of the the Indian nations still living in America (only the red-hot bits that the Europeans didn't want - unless of course it had gold or silver)!!

Using natural cliff over hangs, the people made walls to close the fronts and little walls to divide them up. This creates a terrace. I'm standing in no. 4 Bancroft Terrace.
This type of dwelling will appear later in the blog at a much more developed place called Mesa Verde.

Further down the road, this is Wupatki. Elvis is demonstrating the power of 'the blow hole'. Cold air trapped below is forced through a small opening, it's not the same as most trapped wind though as this is very cold and only smells of earth.

This dwelling or 'pueblo' was built around the 11th century. Pueblo is the Spanish word for 'house or dwelling' and marks the change of nomad activity to putting your roots down and embarking in a spot of farming and house building. There was no Ikea in those days, so there was no chance of a scarlet settee to match the sandstone walls.




The last of the three places we visited that day is Sunset Crater and it has a say in the other two places. Sunset Crater is the most recent volcano to erupt in the Flagstaff area, 'blahing' its top between 1040 -1100. The poor Pueblo Indians will have wondered what the heck was going on and there's evidence that both of the above sites were deserted when this blew. As you can see, even now, some 900 years later, there still is no growth on the Northern side of the volcano.




We went on a trail around the site and could see the marks from the lava flows and acres of volcanic ash. The poor Indians living here at the time must of thought they had offended some higher authority! Apparently, the people did come back and were able to grow crops again (there's no evidence of them cheating by using grow bags from Wal-Mart).






This is a short but very strenuous hike to the 'Cinder Hill Lookout', the picture shows the San Francisco mountain peaks which look particularly good from up there.

COT Tom-foolery: The two Sissies got the bird noise and the name - the dreaded wood pigeon. That and the noise of Shaz wearing out a tent zip is enough to drive a man to distraction.

Millie- spot on with who last sat in our booth - Grant it was.

Outsourcer, what on earth made you think it was Wyatt Earp?

Sedona & Red Rock Country

This is Elvis doing some dare devil water moves at Slide Rock State Park! The 'slide' is a slick natural water chute that 'hoys' you down the creek (yes some thrapper adjustment is required at the end!) Some of the chutes aren't really 'that smooth' if you know what I mean, sitting straight was quite difficult for a few minutes afterwards! And while I'm whingeing, the water was too bloody cold! Some habits die hard though, this place was 20 dollars to drive in, but we noticed only 3 dollars if you walked in. Solution - park outside, grab your towel and walk in - cha ching!

The stunning red-rock landscape surrounding Sedona is just 'awe-inspiring' and a photographers dream, but you need to get up early, this was 6:15am which was too late!





Elvis and I call this bird, the 'glass of water bird' because when it sings it sound just like a glass being filled with water. We think it must have something to do with that odd shaped sneck and the way it puffs out its lar-tars. For a cup-of tea can you name the bird that hangs around french campsites and sound like it is being throttled to death?

Some more beautiful red sandstone buttes and cliffs around and about. Elvis and I did something different here - free camping or 'dispersed' camping. Some of the National Forests let you camp for free. A few conditions though; must be 1/4 mile from the highway, must contain your fire within a fire ring and the third one...... well you need a shovel for this and need to be able to dig down six inches (or more if you've had a curry) and be a master of 'the dark arts'! Alternatively make sure you've found yourself a nice little self contained WC like in a library or restaurant (I favour the disabled ones or 'family facilities myself') and..... nee need for the digging!!


Blogs are coming too fast for cup of tea responses I see, only one response from you-know-who. Get your kicks from route 66 is attributed to Bobby Troupe as the OS said - good spot of googlary. Anyone know whose booth we're sitting in from the last blog?

Granite Basin - Prescott National Forest

This is the lake at the forest and was taken about 6am. It was just so still and quiet, well until the Brits arrived with their camera. It was also a bit of a momentous occasion as this was the second day in a row that Elvis and I had successfully completed a walk and not got lost!

Eeee what a lovely little camping spot this was - it was like a 'camping duplex' with stairs at the end of the wall leading to a place for our super 'Walmart' tent! Note the git big granite obelisks sticking out of the ground - you didn't think they were something else did you?

Prescott is a former wild west town full of 'cowboy character'. This is the Palace Saloon on Whiskey Row, an infamous saloon strip that still slings plenty of booze. It's one of the oldest buildings in town (well 130 yrs old which is old for America!) It's full of cowboy memorabilia and of course BEER!!

This is me and Elvis in one of the booths, toasting cowboys (no, make that Indians) and waiting for half price appetizers. Now, the term 'appetizer' is a strange thing here, we ordered four and ended up taking a doggy bag home. Thank God we didn't order a main meal. A COT if you can tell us whose booth we're sitting in, the answer is there if look closely (Warning - Answer ungoogable) And yes, he did visit!

Is this the finest store known to human kind? Well maybe not, but the name has always given me a giggle! There's a one of these in Pennsylvania, which is known locally as Big Lotties. Why, oh why, can't we have one of these stores in England?


Rosy Lee!

Ginon Ginny with your brace of correct answers . The three wheeled carriage in England is the 'Inyaka' or can also be known crudely as 'the plastic rocket'. The road numbers are correct too. We hope you're loving Maine by the way.

Outsourcer, finally a correct answer involving a road runner, you must be relieved. Not sure about the camels though, we think it's just a really bad painting of a horse.

Paula, Bob's wal-mart habits, I forgot about the chips ahoy, did you forget the price of petrol?
So, does nobody know the connection between Bobby Troupe and 66 - last chance.....

Route 66

America's 'Mother Road' the famous Route 66 (we have learned that you have to pronounce 'route' as 'rowt' otherwise the natives look at you like your from Europe or something)!!

This is a big mural in the town of Kingman. Kingman is a good place to start the 'rowt' 66 experience because there's a museum, old rail exhibits and a massive Walmart where campers can 'use the restrooms' and exchange any camping equipment that may have become damaged by excessive use or partially burned in a camp fire. Thanks heavens for Walmart (I'm sure not all Americans will agree with that!!). Get the kettle on - what animal am I luring toward me in the picture (it's a recurring theme)?

Further down the Mother road - this is a little 'curiosity shop' with loads of memorabilia and stories of the origins of the road. During the great depression a lot of people used route 66 (from Chicago to Los Angeles) to get to California thinking it would be 'the promised land'. Unfortunately for a lot of people the trip was too far and even when they got there, it turned out to be false hopes. The story goes that most of the people who migrated to the west ended up returning home. Like people leaving Sunderland for London!!

An original gas station and car repair stop. In the 1920's your average car wouldn't easily get from the east to the west without something going wrong, a bit like trying to get to work in my Rover back home. Route 'Clickerty Click' now kind of ends in a town called Williams, which by some strange coincidence just happens to be the library of the very same town I am sitting at now!! R66 is now just a tourist route, because as all you Americans will know without googling, off the top of your head now, it's been bypassed by which interstate?

R66 is synonymous with a certain motorbike. Harley Davidson's are thundering up and down all the time. In fact there's a big HOG day today (Harley's Owners Group) and there's hundreds of them in town and strangely one Honda Gold wing which is getting much derision from the HOG's. I wished we could transport the Royal Enfield we hired in India three years ago here today - it would have turned a few heads and been the only 'non-Harley' bar one!

Here is an interesting three wheeled vehicle we spotted outside one of the hip cafes. In England we also have three wheeled vehicles (you wouldn't normally see them outside a hip cafe mind you - in fact they normally congregate around the Pallion club), for a cup of tea can anyone tell me what they're called in England? (try googling that!)

We were on R66 some of the way and then took a detour to see the very beautiful Prescott, Sedona and a few other places. Patience please, that's the next blog.

Your last chance for a cuppa and a simple Google exercise: What's the connection between Bobby Troup from Pennsylvannia and R66?

The answers in the tea leaves:

Outsourcer - Calm down lass, you'll burst a blood vessel. No you get nowt for the road runner and remember, we're travelling so we don't have enough time to read the same answer twice - or were you just showing off? COT deducted for CS'ness. You're right about the time difference and the funnel cake (2 x COT) , but that's all! (Gasps of breath in disbelief).

Nobody was buried in concrete building the dam, the clue was in the blog. The concrete had to be poured in small amounts or it wouldn't cure, so unless a person was absolutely determined to be buried by standing in the same spot as the concrete was poured in tiny amounts around him and not say a word as it approached his neck, it was pretty much impossible to get buried. You couldn't drown in it either because it would have only been a foot deep, I can think of only one person who could drown in a foot of liquid. Happy Birthday BOB, by the way!!

Another COT to our Poll though, it was actually 548 stones (you missed the one Ivory placed) but that was close enough for us. The twig count was spot on but can you remember the 4678 leaves that Bob tore off the surrounding trees?

Hoover Dam and Boulder City

Hoover Dam - or as me Ma would say "Ronnie, the dam Hoover doesn't work again".... !!

Before you can visit the dam, you have to get there right? The first picture shows our preferred mode of travel these days - by foot! We had heard that you can hike into the dam using the old railroad track that was used to supply men and materials from the town of Boulder, to black canyon where the dam was being built.
Notice the train tunnels behind Elvis - these were blasted through the rock, this project and the operation to divert the river flow through tunnels was a major up taking in those days and cost almost as much as the dam.





A beautiful view of Boulder Beach and Lake Mead from the old rail track. I just happened to be sitting there when this picture was taken, a bit like Elvis in the previous one.

Having walked to the dam, it was time to get to grips with the innards! This is inside the dam, the structure is solid concrete, but obviously there's lots of secret tunnels and stuff to mooch around.

As a former electrician myself, it was my duty to check out the hydro-electric plant. It all appeared quite normal to me, the only complaint is regarding the hard hat - why is it they never have an extra-extra-extra large hat. I mean that little thing is never going to give me any protection.

Did you know (it's factoid time) that the hydro plant produces 4 BILLION Kilowatts per year, which is almost enough to power THREE American houses (without air conditioning)!!

If you were to look at the 'dry' side of the dam wall very carefully, you would see a tiny little vent about a quarter of the way up, this picture is from the inside of the air vent tunnel. The dam has lots of tunnels, unbelievably though, even when they were designing the dam they knew it would be a major tourist attraction so most of the tunnels have elevators done in beautiful art-deco with marble floors. The Americans never miss a trick to show off lad. (I know that hat looks ridiculous in this picture)

Here are three pictures around the dam's different sides, this is the Lake Mead side which is created by the dam and is the largest man made lake in the entire universe. Notice that peculiar white band around Lake Mead again (pigeons??) Did you know the lake is capable of holding 1.24 TRILLION cubic feet, which is enough to supply SIX American homes for a whole month.

This is the other side of the dam - notice no lake. There wouldn't be much point in a dam if there was a lake on both sides though would there? You would probably be able to see much better if those two 'big heeds' weren't in every bloody picture!!

This is the 'dry' side again from a ridiculous angle. The water comes out of the square structure at the bottom (hydro electric plant) and the Colorado river resumes as normal. The prime reason for the dam is to protect farmland and homes from the floods and droughts that often occurred before the dam, it also provides all year water supplies to Las Vegas and California and manages to control the water just enough so the Mexicans end up with nowt.

The building of the dam came just after the great depression and provided a much needed employment boost at the time. A little bit like Margaret Thatcher coming to power in Britain in the 1980's, putting everyone on the dole and forcing poor Bomber to paint houses to get his dole.

Did you know that the dam was originally named 'Boulder dam' until someone had the bright idea of naming it after a modern domestic appliance. Or was it named after president Hoover, whose parents were so impressed with their new floor cleaner they named their first born after it - I can never remember!

And now for a cup of tea question, you must get all three correct

1. How many men were buried in concrete when building the dam?

2. The dam is the only American public works project to be completed before time and under budget. How long and how much?

3. How many twigs and branches did it take Erin, Keith, Lindsey, Paula, Jen, Bob, Ivory and I to dam Beech Creek in Blanchard PA? (Don't cheat by googling this!!)

One more dam factoid: The dam is made of 4.5 MILLION cubic yards of concrete, which is enough to make a 4 foot path all the way around the equator (or a parking lot for 18 American family size vehicles)!! The concrete had to be poured in small amounts, if the whole lot was poured at once it would take 125 years for it to cure. They even had to build a massive refrigeration plant and pump cool water through the concrete to stop the whole thing getting too hot and cracking.

This is at Boulder City - a city actually built so that the people who were working on the dam could be housed etc.

This was a little vintage car show, we think we might upgrade to one of these next time we travel - the tent just doesn't have the same style.

You knew it wouldn't be long before I was aboard a train. The driver actually let me on the engine and showed me around. He kicked me off later when he realised I was a reet train bores-heed and even he couldn't stand it any longer!!

Elvis and I travelling first class on the train. Wooooh wooooh , chooo choooo etc (not diddlee-dom, diddlee dee or Ryan will knack you)!

Some beeeeeautiful 'mowters' from the car show in Boulder.

Only chocolate and cake can illicit such a smile on Elvis's fyace. It was gorgeous mind you, a bit of a tradition in the states. Anyone care to name the million calorie laden cake?

I think word got out that I was visiting the local breweries. The Boulder brewery created this beer especially for me - ahhh bless them, how kind. Anyone fancy a pint of ...........

After two days of camping at Boulder Beach, this lovely couple (Jerry and Emma Lee) from Oklahoma took pity on us sweating in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and invited us for dinner in their beautiful air-conditioned accommodation. We had tacos and Emma Lee even made us a chocolate cake. By the way, were not trying to re-enact the shadows famous dance in this picture (Jerry does have eyes by the way)!

One last look at Boulder Beach before we left for a 'drive over' the Hoover dam and onto a famous road featuring the bingo call 'Clickerty Click'.

Having just drove over the dam, we're now in Arizona as the river is the border between Arizona and Nevada and into a different time zone. For a bonus cup of scad, what's the time difference between AZ and NV.

Cup of tea shenanigans:

Following the 'Natural Arch' falling in the Valley of Fire after our visit, I'm now watching the Hoover Dam very closely, if anything happens to that Elvis and I are fleeing to Mexico or pleading asylum.

If you see a sunrise everyday, then something is wrong - try a pint of 'double bastard' before you go to bed, just one though or you may lose the weekend!

Our Poll and Rust are combining forces I see - sending Boorbuns to each other! Well give yourselves a cup of tea because the white band is caused by mineral deposits and the other morning I saw a pigeon crap on the side, so you're both right. Of course Ginny could be right too, because we did take a few dips in lake and our 'mingingness' is legendary.

Outsourcer, the locals might call them the 'margarita lakes ' but I didn't ask that now did I? Please concentrate - perhaps you're getting up too early?

A cup of tea to clever Gowd Dawter Sophie too, who correctly recognised 'Keee' and 'Duzan' on the blog (please note cups of tea can be transferred to another beverage of a similar ilk).

By the way, we're now at the Grand Canyon - I can't wait to write the blog because we have just had the most amazing time. Trouble is there's no computers around there! There's this new thing though called 'Wi-Fi' - apparently if you have your own laptop you can link into the tinternet without having to visit a library. The woman telling me about this was obviously sniffing glue or something!! Connecting to the Internet through a wireless - it'll never catch on. Crackheads!!

Lake Mead - Boats, trains and automobiles

As per usual, we're not here now, we're in the very beautiful granite basin lake campground, but that's for later. If you're wondering about the title, the trains will come in a later blog!!

Here we are at Echo Beach (does anyone feel a song coming on?) 'motor boating' about lake Mead. Lake mead is one of the largest man made lakes in the world, courtesy of the Hoover Dam (next blog!!)






You know you're in safe hands when 'Captain Pugwash' is at the wheel (well - engine stick thing). Top speed about 15 knots with the wind behind ye.
I stand for no subordination on my vessel, eye eye captain. Elvis said 'Cast the sails to the wind and flog the engine - how much can you get'. But enough of the pirate talk!!
Get the kettle on and start brewing up, but only if you can tell me why in the above picture (and all the lake pictures) there's a white band goes all around the shore just above the water line?


While stopping off in one of the little bays, one couldn't help but feel one was being watched. It's those crazy horses again. Actually 'Burros', but don't say anything to Ginny about them or she'll bleat on about not being first to recognise them!!







Some more 'cove spotting' in the HMS Black Pig








Here's the clue, got wings but prefers to run - very fast. Prefers roads to get top speed. The giveaway is always wily e coyote in hot pursuit.

You should see these things go!!!






Moving further down lake mead, this is Boulder Beach, well the mountain range, not the beach!









View of the lake from Calville bay








Looking over the lake from the cute city of Boulder.









Me, fulfilling my duty of 'beer inspector'. Just making sure that the Americans are keeping true to the English tried and tested formulae.









Optical illusion confusion!! A heat mirage makes this road look like it goes straight into the lake.








The lake from Calville bay









A desert scene - all those plane trails lead to and from Vegas.







And finally - OH MY GOD - it's true, the natural arch at the Valley of Fire state park that we visited last week (see previous blog picture) has collapsed!! Nothing to do with us Governor!! I even had Elvis posing underneath it - imagine the trouble I would have had putting an insurance claim in for that .
Cup of tea mayhem. Ok Ginny - you were first with the fig roll, it's just that I preferred fig 'Rerle' from Rust, but I will take the tea from him (he doesn't like fig rerles anyway). As for the Burro, I think you will find recognition for your answer in a previous blog- apologies accepted.
The Outsourcer shocked me by answering Bon Jowers 'bear' question correctly (bloody git big ones, but there's nee way that came off the net, do you remember being had with the shark question three years ago?)and googling that the picture was a sunrise, but I'm going to give the tea to our Poll for that one because she was close when she said sunset. I told you all the car question wasn't as hard as it looked (good Lord Schmenny - that was some answer), Bon Jower didn't mince his words - let that be a lesson to ye all, its a Nissan and it was made in Washington (Sunderland - my home town, not DC for the benefit of the Americans). Finally - Rusty, the Aunties want a word!