Here's proof we made it. This was taken by another couple also parked up outside this sign. When this situation occurs, it's only customary to exchange cameras.
There were sand dunes with these interesting, dead-looking trees.
Believe it or not, there's water flowing in Death Valley.
The weather was a mix of rain and sunshine, but we took this photo just between the showers.
The roads in the States are huge and go on forever. At one point on a stretch of road close to five miles without any bends, it was possible to see the junction at the end because it dipped in the middle.
Here are some pictures of roads... Bear in mind we're spending anywhere between 4 and 9 hours driving every other day, so many of our pictures have been taken from the car or through the window.
The night before going to Death Valley we pitched up our tent in the desert, just while the sun was setting. It was a great but we had to use the car as a windbreak...
Home to brothels apparently, and where hot sauce, pictures and souvenirs come as part of the experience…!
Once we reached Vegas we checked into the Plaza Hotel which looked out onto Fremont Street (which is the Vegas Strip of the downtown area). Vegas is full of loony-toon characters and half-naked eccentrics on the streets trying to make a buck or two.
Fremont Street is lit up at night by a massive screen spanning the length of the entire ceiling.
Las Vegas must chew up so much electricity, with entire casinos lit up by LEDs.
Another casino lit up by a gazillion light.
We tried our hands at gambling because the temptation is too much to bear. We daringly put a dollar into the slot machine (that's right, one innocent buck) only to quickly lose 99 cents of it. We bet the one remaining cent on another slot machine, only to lose that as well. That was the end of our gambling experiences, we are on a budget remember.
Meal for one? The waitress warned us that we would only need one meal because of the portion sizes.
The Cirque De Solei show, KA, was in town. I bought a pair of smart shoes in Portland just for the occasion, and it was good to dress up for a change.
The show featured a spinning, tilting and lifting platform that the performers danced and climbed.
We took a bus ride down to the Strip to see the hotels. It´s amazing because you are free to walk through any of the hotels' shops and casinos. We went into the Venetian to look at their indoor gondolas and little canals.
We picked up our tickets for KA in the Bellagio, and for a moment I thought I was stinking rich…
They have miniature versions of the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and even a pyramid that shoots a beam of light upwards.
Everyone thought this was a real statue. I think someone tried to take the ‘free money’ off the wall and he grabbed their hand.
We never went on a gondola in actual Venice, let alone get on a fake one in Vegas!
Rialto Bridge in Vegas
The Grand Canyon is so big it seems artificial. We only had a look around the south rim and then pondered the thought of a future trip to do some hiking and camping in the canyon.
The next day we visited Zion National Park in Utah, another stunning, beautiful place where mountains give way to deep valleys and jade green rivers.
Continuing our national park tour we visited Bryce Canyon, camping just outside in the freezing cold somewhere in the middle of bear country... I don't recommended that, especially because we didn't have any bear spray on us. We arrived at the campsite in the dark and had our dinner in front of the car headlights while trying to stay warm.
The red rock reminded us of Uluru in Australia but the rocks faded into a white chalk at the tips… was very cool.
A chipmunk posing while munching on a nut.
From Bryce we stayed a night in the town of Ogden near Salt Lake City. We stayed with a Texan guy who had lived in the UK for three years and now settled in Utah. About a two minute drive from his home was a mountain range… we were very jealous.
Then it was a reasonably short drive up to Yellowstone National Park where we spent one night in the west area and a second night in Cody, a town east of the park. This gave us one full day to drive around Yellowstone and stop to see some of the sights, which included geysers, springs, lakes and wildlife.
An explosive geyser called Old Faithful was just warming up when we got there.
The Grand Prismatic Spring is famous for its colours created by light dispersion and colourful micro-organisms.
Buffalo are everywhere in Yellowstone, like sheep in Wales. This big guy was standing by road.
They are about the size of cars.
A bear on my birthday! That’s close enough thank you, I want to live to see 30...
A female moose and her calf spotted next to a river.
They were both very impressive by this one was pretty big, flowing into a valley...
The next section of our journey would take us through the northern States, where there's no phone signal and plenty of storm clouds. Lisa had studied for a year in Iowa, which meant she had friends all over the place, from Colorado, Iowa, and even across to Washington DC, so we were really looking forward to catching up and spending some quality time with them.
