Day 16: Monday 28th June 2010: Washington, DC (Miles to Date: 4363)

Washington is another place we had visited before but as were travelling this way it seemed to be an opportunity to call in on the Nation's capital once again. We were staying in the Alexandria suburbs and caught the Metro into National Mall area, a journey of some 20 minutes or so.

The Smithsonian Institute runs a number of museums in and around the Nation's capital. To visit all of them in any depth would most likely take weeks. On previous trips to DC we had been into a couple, and decided this time to visit some again, especially as the hot, humid weather made moving around outside in the open pretty uncomfortable. Also the oppressive heat was bubbling up some wicked looking clouds, so we were definitely set for an afternoon storm or two! We took the short walk from the Metro station to the Natural History Museum, passing through the National Sculpture Park, which houses some very interesting exhibit, the most eye-catching of which is a full-sized polished metal tree. There was also fountain fed pond, which was an ideal place to cool our already hot and tired feet.

The Natural History Museum is wonderful place to visit and there are always new things to see here, so it is a place to you can come back to again and again. We toured through the “Oceans” gallery, which not only contained models and preserved specimens of creatures from the sea but also exhibits on the ecology of the seas and oceans. It was not the huge skeleton of a whale suspended from the ceiling that impressed Emily and Jack most, it was the display case containing the preserved giant squid, nearly 40 feet long, that caught their imagination. The next exhibit area we visited was the one that traced the evolution of the human species and our other close “erect” cousins. We were surprised how closely the human DNA structure was to that of bananas and chickens, but when we think back to some of the people we have met it is not too hard to make the connection!

On the second floor of the Museum is the gems and rocks exhibits. This houses the National collection of jewellery, including the famous Hope Diamond, which, like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, is somewhat disappointing in real-life! More interesting and impressive than the cut stones laid in silver and guard are the collections of gem stones and rocks in their more natural state. There is also a section on geologic phenomena such as volcanoes and earthquakes, and their root cause- plate tectonics. As we are watching an active display on the “Ring of Fire”, the active plate region in the Pacific Ocean where most of the major earthquake activity takes place we were talking about the number of earthquakes around New Zealand when a couple standing by pipe up and say in Kiwi accents, “did you mention New Zealand”. We had bumped into Irene and Glenn who are on their own World-wide tour. During our travel we have met a number of fellow travellers and explorers and it is always good to exchange experiences and information with them. We spent some time chewing the cud on global travelling and exchanged Facebook and Blog details before moving on.

By this time it was approaching lunchtime so we left the museum to find something to eat. One look at the skies told us a downpour was imminent so we bought some pretzels from a street vendor and headed off down the street to Museum of American History. We just managed to get sheltered in the eaves of the building's entrance when the skies opened. Phew! We had never visited this museum before and began to look around the ground floor. The first floor covered inventions and technology, and ranged from the contraceptive pill to nuclear bombs. It was actually really interesting and we spent nearly an hour looking around watching videos and reading the displays. After this we went to see “America on the Move”, a wide ranging exhibit on transportation through the ages; with trains, planes and auto-mobiles. Fascinating stuff! The time had shot past and it was getting towards 5pm and we wanted to see some of the outdoor sights. Leaving the Museum we found the weather had improved; still hot and sticky, but the sun had replaced the rain. So we headed out on to the National Mall to take some pictures of the Capitol Building, National Monument and the Whitehouse. Sadly extra security around the Whitehouse meant we could not get as close as we had done on our first visits here. Tired and hot we decided to jump on the Metro back to our hotel to eat and relax for the rest of the day.

Day 15: Sunday 27th June 2010: Alexandria, Virginia (Miles to Date: 4363)

A lot more miles to cover today, passing up from South Carolina to Virginia. Pretty much heads down and go! The highlight for the day, as is often the case on such occasions, was dinner. There was another opportunity for a highlight of the day as England were playing in the World Cup against Germany. Mark had gotten the kick off time wrong so by the time we had pulled off the road to find somewhere to watch it was half-time and England were 2 – 1 down. Karen managed to sweet talk a receptionist at a hotel into letting us watch the game in their lobby. Unfortunately by 20 minutes into the second half England were 4-1 down, so we gave up and carried on our journey.

Anyway back to the food. We chose to stop at another “Road Food” restaurant, this time one called “Dixie Bones”, which is in Woodbridge, Virginia. This restaurant serves good, wholesome southern cooking – yes more fried food. Little surprise that we have put weight on during this trip! To further our humiliation our server turned out to be German, and despite the front of being sympathetic with us poor English folks there was definitely an undertone of gloating there. It was tempting not to leave a tip! Fortunately the food was wonderful, especially the pulled pork, and we set-off to our hotel for the night.

Day 14: Saturday 26th June 2010: Anderson, South Carolina (Miles to Date: 3847)

Another long travel day during which we passed through five different States; Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and covered 580 miles. Whilst the scenery was more interesting than that of Texas it could not relieve the tedium of travel.

Day 13: Friday 25th June 2010: New Orleans (Miles to Date: 3267)

By the time we had risen and left the hotel the weather was already hot and steamy and we knew we were in for another toasty day. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from our hotel, down Canal Street to the mighty Mississippi River. With more time we might have taken a paddle steamer ride down this most famous of rivers, but we were not destined to be Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer for the day, so instead we walked through the Woldernberg Park, which runs adjacent to these waters that had flowed so many miles across this vast country. In the Park we found a memorial to the Holocaust, at the centre of which was an amazing modern art sculpture by the artist Yaacov Agam. The sculpture is made up of a series of vertical, painted discrete panels which as you circle them give different images depicting themes or “memories” of the Holocaust. It was truly and amazing and powerful work of kinetic art.

Across from Woldenberg Park is Decateur Street, another popular area for tourists, which by the time we arrived was just swinging into action. This street borders the French Quarter and has some splendid examples of New Orleans architecture along its route, including wonderful balconies bounded by ornate iron railings.

This street is home to numerous gift shops, galleries and eateries. One place we were particularly keen to visit was the famous “Café du Monde”, situated in the French Market area of Decateur. For over a century this café has been serving patrons and vendors of the French Market with its signature offerings beignets (French doughnuts) and café au lait. Well, we just had to try it! The beignets are served covered in layer upon layer of icing sugar, which looks and tastes great, but it impossible to eat without making an absolute mess. Of course Jack and Emily managed to get covered in sugar, but half the fun was licking this sugar off of our fingers. We could have easily polished off several helping of these delicacies but settled for a single serving. Delicious!

We continued our walk down Decateur and noticed a subtle sign for the National Park Service. We have loved visiting National Parks and Monuments so we were curious to see what was here in New Orleans. Passing down a narrow alley between the building we found the Park Service building and wandered inside. This unit of the Park Service is dedicated to the musical culture of New Orleans, and we were lucky enough to be able to listen to the back end of a stage performance of two of the Rangers who were playing songs, primarily with a Creole influence. It was wonderful to listen to this traditional music, which is quite hard to find being played along the tourist traps of Bourbon Street. The audience was mostly made up children who were on a summer camp with the Park Service, and it was clear some were not really that interested in the music. After the performance they were led away by a fearsome lady Ranger under the threat of having to hold her hand if they misbehaved! There was also a TV production team filming; they were making a documentary on the larger than life black Ranger, who was a native creole speaker and who had the most wonderful deep, booming voice. Being here also gave Jack and Emily another great opportunity to do the Junior Ranger programme, which they zoomed through and got sworn in.

We finished our walk through the French Market and then diverted into the heart of the French Quarter. Away from the main tourist streets this area is quiet and peaceful, and for the first time we got the chance to appreciate the essence of this great city. Eventually we do find our way back to Bourbon Street, which is somewhat less frenetic than during the evening hours but it is still bustling. It was by now lunchtime and the satiating effects of the beignets had worn off so we needed to find somewhere to dine. During our ramblings over the last few days we had been told about a restaurant called “Hobnobbers”; the name alone was enough to draw us to this place. Finding this place was not too easy, being off the beaten track andit is best described as a “hole in the wall”; it required squeezing down a narrow passage to get to. It is one of these places which does not look too promising when you enter it, but it was full of people- which is always a good sign. We settle for some traditional creole foods, gumbo and shrimp poboys, which are very tasty indeed.

The afternoon was hot and humid so we decided to head back to our nice air-conditioned hotel room for a siesta. In the evening we decided Jack and Emily could chill out at the hotel whilst Mark and Karen headed out for the night. We decided to go back down to Decateur Street to check out the night life there. As we walked down the street we noticed small groups of teenagers wearing identical shirts, and it turned out that these we a church group who were in town to perform some songs. They were setting up on the steps up to the park, but were not quite ready so we decided to return to the Café du Monde for some more beignets. By the time we were finished the group was ready and had started to perform. We started watching from the other side of the road as they performed “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz, when a man came over to where they stood and started encouraging them. The choir looked stunned, and when they had recovered their composure a big cheer went up and they all looked very excited, especially the girls. We did not know who this “person” was so we asked some other bystanders. It turned out to be Lenny Kravitz himself. We were not sure if this was prearranged or an amazing coincidence, but whatever the case it was fabulous experience for these kids. Lenny got more involved when he took over the drum kit to accompany the singers and was finally invited to join in the singing. It was fabulous and really set-up our night. The gospel group did not miss a beat and were clearly thrilled to have performed with Mr K ...he disappeared quietly into the crowd after his impromptu performance! What a nice guy!

We spent the rest of the evening strolling the streets, eventually making our way up to Bourbon Street where we went into a few bars to listen to music and drink overly priced drinks. Never mind! Is was a near to a date as we'd had for a time and the kids had a great time watching TV and eating unhealthy foods!

Day 12: Thursday 24th June 2010: Alexandria to New Orleans (Miles to Date: 3267)

We actually managed to get to lay in bed a bit longer today as we only had a realatively short way to travel. The atmosphere down here in the deep south is very humid and sticky and it is not long in the morning hours before the clouds start to bubble-up and the weather starts to look threatening. By the time we reached Lafayette the weather had really deteriorated, with the rain lashing down. We decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant called Dwyer's, which had been recommended by our 'Road Food” book. There was a convenient parking spot across the street from the restaurant, but we got absolutely drenched simply crossing the road. The food was southern style fried cooking, and came in copious quantities piled onto our plates. Unfortunately one dish was pretty much indistinguishable from another so it was a homogeneous “gloop” on our plates. Luckily by the time we had finished and paid the rain had abated so we made a run for it. They often talk about the “calm before the storm” and this was it. We got no more than ten miles down the road when we got into a tremendous thunderstorm. The rain was so heavy that we could not see more than 100 feet or so and the lightning and thunder were coincidental, as we were not in a hurry we decided to pull over into a little restaurant and sit the storm out. We had left Lafayette in a hurry after we became embroiled in a police ambush of an armed man! It was unnerving to be merely feet away from officers with their guns drawn chasing a suspect into a house a few yards from us as we pulled over to allow more police cars to pass!
The very real danger of this thunderstorm seemed less unnerving than the last incident! Being holed up in Mike's Crabby Shack was certainly better than the fate of the offender, we felt sure!

Half an hour later we were on our way again. We arrived in New Orleans late afternoon, unpacked our bags and headed into town. Our hotel was well situated for visiting the French Quarter, we were only a block or two from Canal Street and ten minutes from Bourbon Street. It was about 6:30pm when we got to Bourbon street and it was already very much alive; this is the hub of tourist activity for this city. There were numerous bars offering discounted libations and booming live music, ranging from Blues and Jazz to Hip-Hop, amongst which were various clubs, shops and cabaret bars offering refreshments of a sexual type. The streets of Las Vegas offered the heady mix of sex, drugs and rock and roll, but in a very sanitised form compared to that on display in New Orleans. In some ways the raw openness of the depravity in New Orleans is less sleazy than the “behind doors” goings on of Vegas. Jack and Emily are mesmerized by it all and even for the grown up Hoblets the noise, smells and images cause a degree of sensory overload! After about 20 minutes of walking we reach the quieter end of Bourbon Street, and the relative peace allows us to start to appreciate the architecture and grace of some of this fine city's buildings. Having rested for a few minutes we head back down to find somewhere to eat amongst the mêlée, a finally chose an outdoor café with a jazz band performing traditional jazz and swing music. Jack really got into the music; he had enjoyed being the Middle School Jazz band for the last year, and requested a tune “Jumpin' at the Woodside” that he had played with the band. They had never practised or played it together before but recognised that this was a young musician's choice and had a go! It was great!

We were very tired at this time and began to return to the hotel, only stopping to listen and watch a group of young talented street musicians bash out some rippin' jazz.

Day 11: Wednesday 23rd June 2010: Dallas, Texas to Alexandria, Louisiana (Miles to Date: 3047)

We had planned a surprise for Jack during our visit to Dallas, a visit to the head office of Boy Scouts of America, which is in Irving, a suburb of Dallas. Jack is extremely keen on Scouting and recently got his rank advancement to Life Scout, one rank away from the highest rank of Eagle Scout. He is working his way towards Eagle and completed his project, which he wished to discuss with some of the leaders there, as well as future leadership project. Whilst Karen took Jack off to the Boy Scouts Head Office, Mark and Emily stayed behind at the hotel to watch England play Slovenia in the World Cup. As could have been predicted it was another disappointing performance by England, with a 1-0 score. Why do we bother? Jack had a much better time connecting with the Boy Scout leaders, who made him feel most welcome and treated him with great respect. Another great thing about the Head Office is that it has a wonderful museum, which Jack was given a tour of by an elderly docent.

We were all reunited, Jack and Karen in better spirits than the other two members of the party, and set-off to find some lunch. One of trusty companions on our tours of the USA has been our “Road Food” book, which already had few entries for the early part of our tour. Luckily there were a couple of entries for Dallas; we chose Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse. This was a very simple eatery serving great barbecue food, and as recommended by “Road Food” we chose the sliced brisket plate. This turned out to be a fabulous choice, absolutely delicious! The seating arrangement was unusual as we were seated in individual chairs with their own personal tables, somewhat reminiscent of old school chair/desks. It is very unlikely Sonny Bryan's will be getting a Michelin Star any time soon but who cares. Our next leg of the journey takes us down into Louisiana, to the city of Alexandria. We arrive quite late, just in time for dinner. We settled for the Texas Roadhouse, a great steak house restaurant. After a few days of mainly eating badly at bad restaurants this was a most welcome change; good food and good atmosphere. Half the local constabulary were there, which in our minds just proved how good the place was!

Day 10: Tuesday 22nd June 2010: Dalhart, Texas to Dallas, Texas (Miles to Date: 2743)

Day 10 was simply a travel day, with nothing planned except a long day sitting in a car. Sadly even the countryside was tedious as we crossed the dry grass plains of the northern Texas. Not a hill to be seen, just a few oil derricks. The only real stop for the day was for lunch at a really tatty diner, which had flies swarming over the salad bar. We settled for some salads off the menu for lunch( hoping the kitchen had a fly killer in it), but these turned out to be less than imaginatively served!

Eight hours after setting out we finally arrive in Dallas. Immediately after stepping out of our car we are hit by the fierce heat and sopping humidity. We longed to be back in the temperate, dry atmosphere of the West Coast. Our hotel, the Quality Inn, was having a “Happy Hour”, and on offer were cold (tasteless) beers and nasty wine, which normally we'd not have looked at twice, but after travelling halfway across Texas and the sapping effects of carrying our bags from the car in the “tropical” heat we'd have drunk our own urine if it had been chilled!

Day 9: Monday 21st June 2010: Farmington to Dalhart, Texas (Miles to Date: 2296)

Although we had a long way to travel we decided to have a leisurely start and enjoy our Cave for as long as possible. But sadly we had to move on. With great foresight we had not carried all our bags down the cliff to the Cave so loading up was a relatively painless process.

The road we took carried us from New Mexico north through to Colorado. We climbed up on to the Colorado plateau and crossed towards the majestic Rocky Mountains. Finally we said goodbye to the deserts and a welcome hello to alpine forests and pastures. The scenery was truly splendid as we weaved our way through the mountains and over high passes. Mind you it would be a different story here in the winter months.

Mark had planned to visit another National Park en route, this time a less well known one called Great Dunes National Park. Most of us would assume that sand dunes would be found by a sea, lake or in a desert. Well the tallest dunes in the United States are actually found at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which reach from Southern Colorado down to Mexico. The dune-field here boasts several dunes that are over 700 feet in height. The formation of these dunes is down to the particular geography of this area. Sand is carried down from the mountains by Medano Creek, which deposits the sand down in the valley below the west facing side of the mountains. When the Creek dries up in the summer months, the sands are picked up by the prevailing westerly winds and formed into the sand dunes we see today. Eventually the sand is blown over to the east side of the dune-field where it is picked up by the Medano Creek, and the process starts all over again.

By the time we reached the National Park it was late in the afternoon so we had to make choices about what to do in the limited time available. Our first priority was for Jack and Emily to do their Junior Rangers badges. This is now a well established tradition and means that they have to truly engage in the history and geography of the sites we visit. Whilst Jack and Emily were working on their booklets the grown-up Hoblets disappeared to watch a fascinating film on the unique ecology of the dunes area, which includes sand dunes, creeks, mountains, lakes and wetlands. As soon as Jack and Emily had completed their books we went to the Ranger on duty, who was very jolly, and got them sworn in as Junior Rangers for the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Immediately after this deed was done we headed out to the dune-fields themselves. From a distance they look impressive, close-up they are stunning! From the parking lot we crossed the Medano Creek, which feeds the dune-field: its cool waters were so refreshing on this hot day! To get to the dunes we then crossed a flat sand basin that was about half a mile across, it was hard work walking as the sand is dry and soft so our feet sank in with every step. Finally we reached the dunes themselves, by which time we were exhausted from crossing the basin, but they had to be climbed! To reach the highest dunes would have been a major trek and we had limited time so we settled for a less ambitious walk to the top of the nearest dunes, which were still about 100 feet in height. As we climbed up these dunes the wind picked up significantly, whipping up the loose sand, and blasting us with fine grains. It was not a lot of fun! We reached our goal and there was nothing more to do than run down the face of the dune, except for Jack who decided to roll down. At the bottom we got some relief from the wind, and this is where the grown-ups decided to stay whilst Jack and Emily climbed back up so they could run down again, although Jack was by now queasy from his previous roll down. Other people had bought various flat bottom items to use as sledges to slide down the dunes which looked great fun! Anyway time was marching on and we still had five hours of driving in front of us so we set off back across the dunes to our car.

From the Great Sand Dunes National Park we headed south and east through Colorado and New Mexico into Texas for our night stop-over in Dalhart.

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Day 8: Sunday 20th June 2010: Grand Canyon to Farmington, New Mexico (Miles to Date: 1818)

We decided to get up and make a return visit to the Grand Canyon early in the morning, for several reasons. Firstly the light for viewing the Canyon is great (long shadows), there are less crowds, the temperature is much cooler and, lastly, we had a long way to travel. All these proved to be a great reasons! Our plan was to park-up at the Canyon Lodge and take the free bus out towards the Hermits Rest, which is some 8 ½ miles away from the Lodge. The bus route follows the Canyon's south rim, and there are several stops along the way. We decided to get off at a couple of stops on the way up and walk between the stops following the Canyon rim. The walk is flat, and the trail is fairly good. Whilst you remain a fair distance, well at least five or six feet from the edge, it does require a reasonably good head for heights – which Mark and Emily don't really have! We manage to walk a good two miles on the way to the Hermits Rest, and are thankful for the early start as the temperature is very comfortable. Finally we arrive at the Hermits Rest, which is a gift shop, café and Ranger's station. It is very handsome, rustic structure built into the side of the Canyon, with great views and, most importantly, a toilet. We decided to catch the bus back towards the Lodge, but get off at a stop about two miles from the end and walk the rest. Again this was an easy hike, following the rim trail, and was mostly downhill. By the time we arrived back at the first bus stop, the queues were very long, and we estimated nearly an hours wait for the bus. It was Father's Day and school vacation time, which probably explained the large crowds. From the Grand Canyon we headed out east, following the southern rim, to the point where the Canyon narrows. This is deep into Navajo Nation land, and the signs of poverty are clear to see, with ramshackle modular homes set amongst a barren, litter-strewn landscape. It is so sad to see, and despite the fact we have seen this desperate scene a number of times it is still shocking. Just before crossing the dried up Little Colorado we stopped at the Cameron Trading Post for some lunch, and it was most surprising. The dining room of the Trading Post is delightful, with fabulous decorations on the walls, but the most amazing feature was the shiny tin ceiling which covered its entirety. The speciality of the restaurant is fried Navajo bread, which is something like Yorkshire Pudding but if anything less healthy as it is fried rather than baked. The huge Navajo bread we chose is filled with chilli, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Very tasty! Now full, we continued on towards New Mexico. We crossed more desert and even more desert. Along the route we passed close to Four Corners and Monument valley, but there was no time for making these detours (and we had already seen them on our previous trip). We did get to see the impressive “Ship Rock”, an impressive formation which rises up sharply out of the flat, desert floor. This rock is sacred to the Navajo and is known to them as “Rocks With Wings”. There is also a city known as Ship Rock, which might easily be renamed “Ship Wreck”, it is not a memorable place. Shortly after we departed Ship Rock we left the Navajo Nation and immediately everything changed, there were green lawns, rust free cars and tidy, neat homes. Finally we reach the home of Lindy Poole, our hostess for the night. Mark had not told the rest of the crew where we were staying, and they were somewhat surprised when we pulled-up outside a average house on a normal street. We were greeted by the bubbly Lindy who gave us the low down on where we staying. What Mark had booked for the night was “Kokopelli's Cave”, one of the most unusual bed and breakfasts in the World. To get there we had to drive out of town, and turn on to a dirt road which we followed a miles or so, climbing up on to a limestone mesa. Eventually we scrambled the car over some rocks and pulled up on the edge of a 150 foot cliff. To get to our accommodation we had to follow a rustic path hewn out of the side of the cliff, down 70 feet to our “apartment's” entry door. The path is rocky and there was a big steel door to negotiate, which is primarily to put off unwanted visitors. The most challenging section is the narrow slot, literally carved through a rock. This is truly an amazing place to stay. Kokopelli's Cave was constructed by a man called Bruce Black, an ex-naval officer and geologist, who literally blasted his way into the limestone cliffs. The Cave is extremely spacious and well appointed, with a large living area, a separate dining room, a kitchen, full bathroom and a large bedroom. The bathroom in particular was fabulous with a waterfall-style shower, which tumbles over a rock wall into a rock bath, complete with jacuzzi jets. Amazing stuff! The walls and ceiling are unashamed, natural rock as they were after the blasting took place. It took us sometime just to take in where we were actually going to spend the night and how marvellous the setting was. Lindy spent a good half an hour to show us around the Cave and how everything worked, she even bought Mark a Father's Day card, some meat to make up some burgers on the grill out on the patio and a bottle of wine. Even after a short few minutes we were feeling totally at home. Off the bedroom was a balcony with westerly views across the desert panorama, which gave us awonderful view of the setting sun. The drama of this was further increased by smoke filling the air from a forest fire way off in Flagstaff. We decided to spend a quiet night in, enjoying our Cave. One nice feature was the replica Kiva ( a room used by ancient Puebloans for religious rituals), which had a small fire place. Although it was warm outside, inside the Cave it was cool, so lighting the fire made it very cosy, especially when we lit some candles around the walls of the kiva. Of course we had to take the opportunity to use the bath.

Day 7: Saturday 20th June 2010: Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon (Miles to Date: 1538)

We'd forgotten how noisy Vegas can be and we all had a very fitful night's sleep. Mark woke up at 2:30am and thought it was morning; it wasn't! The bright lights outside our room's window just made it look that way! Anyway we had planned an early start as we were off to the Grand Canyon. This is another place we had been before but we really wanted to have one more look at this “wonder of the world”, albeit a brief encounter on this occasion. So purposeful was our mission that we did not even stop to admire the marvellous Hoover Dam (we had also visited this a couple of time before). It takes about five hours to reach the Grand Canyon, and almost by chance we reached the frontier town of Williams, the gateway to the south entrance of the National Park. Before travelling we had consulted our trusty guide to eating well and cheaply, the “Road Food” book. It told us of a place in Williams called “Old Smokey's Restaurant” which sounded the ideal place to replenish our energy for a trip to the Canyon. We were not disappointed, although they had stopped doing the speciality breads mentioned in “Road Food”. We stuck to the breakfast special, even though it was lunchtime, which turned out to be both filling and tasty. Fully satisfied we head on for the last 70 mile leg of our trip. We quickly checked into our hotel and headed off to the National Park, and soon as we could we pulled into a parking lot to get a view of the Canyon. However many times you go there the sight of the Grand Canyon takes your breath away. Captivated we stare in awe for several minutes, before deciding to head off to see a Park Ranger talk at the Lodge, which is located in Canyon Village, five miles or so from the Park entrance. This talk was on the Californian Condor which was re-introduced into the Canyon several years back. At one time this magnificent bird colonised the whole of the United States, but in recent times its range had become limited to the lower Western States, and the numbers had fallen to extinction levels. With only 22 birds remaining in the wild the bold step was taken to capture all of these and start a captive breeding program. This was highly successful and many Condors have been released back into the wild. There are now a total of 365 Californian Condors, with 176 living in the wild in Arizona and California. Now these birds are big; they can weigh up to 25 pounds and have wing spans of 9 ½ feet. Big is not not always beautiful and the Condors are prime examples, they are incredibly ugly to look at (it's hard to believe even their mothers would find them beautiful!). Having said that when they are in-flight they are majestic creatures, soaring on thermals for hours on end. Coming back to the talk by the Ranger. She was fantastic and her presentation was both entertaining and informative. The children were fascinated by the facts, especially the one about urinating on their feet, which acts as a sunscreen. After the Ranger programmes finished we decided to head back to the Visitor's Center so Jack and Emily could do their Junior Ranger activities and get their badges. As it was near the end of the day the Ranger in the Center was keen to shut up shop, so he didn't spend any time checking the work Jack and Emily had done and more or less handed over their badges and certificates. Never mind- we were in and out, and on our way quickly.

Day 6: Friday 19th June 2010: Death Valley National Park to Las Vegas (Miles to Date: 1260)

We rose early as we wanted to get to Las Vegas in time to watch England play Algeria in the World Cup in Cape Town, also it gave us a chance to visit some more of the recommended overlooks in the Death Valley National Park during the early morning when the sun casts long shadows and before the heat haze reduces visibility. Our first stop is Zabriske Point which is around 2000 feet above the valley floor, providing stunning views deep into the valley across crenellated mountain slopes. Although it is early in the morning there are a number of other people admiring the views; primarily photography enthusiasts keen to capture the drama of the morning shadows. Not satisfied with this perspective of Death Valley, we climbed back into the car and took a detour up a valley and climbed further up the mountains, to a place known as Dante's View. Here you get some splendid views all the way along Death Valley and across Bad Water Basin, where we had spent last night walking out across the salt flats. It was truly stunning! We had an appointment with a television set and a football game between England and Algeria. Fortunately the journey from Death Valley to Las Vegas only took a two hours, so we arrived with plenty of time to spare at our hotel, the Tropicana. This hotel has traditionally been one of the lower-end establishments on the Las Vegas Strip, but they are in the middle of a re-model, and the room we were given was very well appointed – with a 42 inch plasma TV. Sadly the result of the game, a one-all draw, was less exciting than the TV itself. Our visit to Las Vegas was one of convenience rather than it being a “must-see” place for the Hoblets. We had collectively been here a couple of times before, and Mark had been here a dozen or more times on business. The novelty of wandering around the enormous hotels had long worn off, and this is really a place for adults rather than families. Nonetheless after the disappointment of the game we did decided to brave the hot sun and talk a walk down the Strip. We were surprised, or perhaps not so surprised considering the economic downturn, how quiet Vegas was. The streets were much emptier than we had ever seen them. This made the pedallers of sex-cards and drunken hen (bachelorette) parties more apparent, at least to Jack and Emily who had not really noticed them on previous trips, or perhaps they are just growing up! After an hour or so of walking we reached the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace hotels, by which time the male members of our party were becoming very grumpy due to low blood-sugar levels. The quickest and best tried remedy for this was to cross the road and visit the Flamingo hotel buffet, one of the best we had found in Las Vegas. As usual we all ate too much, and full to bursting we emerged back into the hot afternoon sun to continue our ramblings. During our last trip to Vegas we had gone to see the free “Fall of Atlantis” show in the Forum Shopping area in this vast hotel. This is an automated show, complete with automatons, fire and water. Sadly is was not working last time, so we thought we'd check it out this time around. We watched our way through the show, and whilst there was plenty of drama, the children found the story-line was cheesy. After this we needed something more classy to finish off our afternoon, so we went back outside to the Bellagio Hotel, right next door to Caesar's Palace, but still a 20 minute walk! Our favourite free show (or at least Mark and Karen's) are the fountains of Bellagio. Every half an hour or so there is a fantastic 'fountains-to-music' show on the lake outside the hotel. The music varies from the classics to modern day hits, but whatever the music the show is most definitely worth watching, so much so we spent over an hour watching the fountains go up. Jack and Emily were very insistent we left after an hour of fountain watching, so we ambled back to our hotel for a quiet night in, although the grown-ups did manage to slip out for a quick drink.

Day 5: Death Valley National Park (Miles to Date: 1120)

After our experience with uncomfortable beds and rustic cabins at Sequoia, the rooms and beds at Furnace Creek Ranch Resort were a welcome relief. We had a lovely time in the large, warm spring water pool last night before going to bed. It was the first time we had felt really clean for several days! We had planned to get up really early to try and beat the heat of the day, but fatigue meant we were slow to get ourselves together and get out of our room. As soon as we were ready we headed to the Visitor Centre to find out whether there were any Ranger Programmes planned for the day, which there were not. So we settled for Jack and Emily completing their Junior Ranger books, getting sworn in as Junior Rangers and finding out where we should go for the day.

We watched a brief film, which was more of a montage of cheesy photographs with a boring voice over, covering the history and geology of the Park. The Ranger's advice for us was to spend the day in the pool, which with the temperature expected to reach well into the low 100s, seemed to make sense. We decided to ignore this advice and head out to Stovepipe Wells. According to the Park Service map there was a place called Mosaic Canyon, which sounded a fun place to visit. To get to it we passed through Stove Pipe and headed two miles up a bumpy dirt-track road, which made us think what would happen if we got a puncture out here in the blazing hot desert sun with little passing traffic? To our relief we made it to the end of the track, dismounted our car and headed off down a narrow canyon, watching out for sidewinder snakes and scorpions. This canyon is full of twists and turns, which is fascinating enough, but it also has walls of marble-like rock with spectacular colour banding for the first quarter of a mile or so of its passage. It was quite an easy walk, although we did have to clamber over some slick rock surfaces, and even in the hot midday sun it was well worth the effort.

After this steamy excursion we headed back towards Stove Pipe, passing through to the other side a mile or so to Mesquite Sand Dunes. These dunes are close to the road so are easily accessible, although the largest dunes, including the 140 foot high “Star Dune” are some mile or so from the car park. The proximity of these dunes to Hollywood means they have starred in several films including scenes from Star Wars. It is too hot for us to venture more than a couple of hundred of feet from the car before beating our retreat. As they say “Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun” and having spent seven years here in the USA some of our “Englishness” is rubbing off so we decided to spend the afternoon in the comfort of our air-conditioned room and wait for the heat of the day to dissipate.

We had dinner around 6pm and left to do some more sight-seeing around 7:15pm. By this time the sun was starting to disappear behind the mountains and the fierce daytime temperatures were beginning to abate. We only had an hour or so of good light left so we headed south down the valley to a loop-road to a place called “Artist's Palette”, which we were told was best viewed with the sun setting. It is around 10 miles around the loop and by the time we reached the best view point the sun was hidden behind the mountains and indeed the evening light did made wonderful spectacle of the colours in the sandstone cliffs. The range of colours was truly an artist's palette of reds, yellows, browns and greens. As we admired the rocks of the “Artist's Palette” the sun began to set, and provided us with another dramatic perspective of the desert landscape. The shadows resulting from the late day sunlight brings out the three dimensional perspective of desert, with its gullies, canyons and arroyos, that are “bleached” out by the day time sun.

We still had time to fit in one more place to visit before the light disappeared. So we leapt back into the car and headed down to “Bad Water Basin”, which has the distinction of being the lowest point in the USA. We thought that our next destination Las Vegas was the lowest point, but this is only from a morality perspective, but this is the lowest point relative to sea level. Having spent the previous few days at 7000 feet above sea level coming down to this point made breathing a whole lot easier. Where we were now standing would have been at the floor of a large glacial lake some 10,000 years earlier. With the disappearance of the glaciers the lake began to evaporate under the intense sun, to the point where it completely vanished leaving a dry, arid salt basin.

The temperature was now becoming bearable so we decided to hike out on the salt beds. If you so desire you can walk miles, right across to the other side of the valley. We were less ambitious and walked about half a mile, which seemed more than far enough. By this time the light was very dim and the surrounding mountains were no more than silhouettes. The white of the salt reflected back the remaining light, and with the moon and stars starting to appear, the whole scene was rather surreal. Every other visitor had decided to return to their cars so we were the only ones left out on the salt beds, and this solitude of being out there made us all feel closer to our maker – so we held hands and contemplated for a few moments before heading back.

Day 4: Kings Canyon/ Sequoia National Parks to Death Valley National Park (Miles to Date: 1032)

We had a horrible a nights sleep; a combination of cold temperatures and really uncomfortable beds. It felt that we had hardly slept at all! It was a real effort to get up, pack our belongings into the car and throw some food down our throats. Today was going to be all about travelling. Our next destination, Death Valley National Park, was only about 150 miles in a straight line but the problem was the Sierra Nevada mountains laid in our way. This meant going some 100 plus miles south, travelling east 50 miles, then turning north for 100 miles before turning east for another 100 miles. We made a relentless push for our destination, stopping only at Bakersfield for a quick bite in Costco. The plan had been to leave early to beat the roadwork on the road through the Park that was due to start at 7:00am, unfortunately we didn't make it and had to wait an hour for a construction vehicle to escort us through. Despite having to wait, we enjoyed our final trip through Park's forests and back down into the Central Valley.

As we crossed over from the Central Valley to the other side of the Sierras we noticed a distinct change in the vegetation. The weather for this area predominantly comes from the west, and the Sierras wring most of the moisture from the westerly winds, leaving the areas to their east dry and barren. We were now travelling through the Mojave Desert. It was strange looking back on the same set of mountains we had seen from Kings Canyon, where the surroundings had been lush alpine forests, here was almost no plants except for rugged, low lying shrubs. The wind picked-up as a weather front pushed through and before we knew it we were being buffeted by gale force gusts.

We climbed up through another set of desert mountains before reaching the boundary of Death Canyon National Park. This huge, barren park is the largest National Park in the Continental US, only the Parks of Alaska are larger, and it took us more than an hour to reach the first sign of civilisation, Stovepipe Wells. There is not too much here apart from a Ranger Station, a store, two restaurants, a bar and some accommodation. Still we were in much need of a break so we pulled over by a sign telling us we were now at sea-level. We were almost bowled over by the heat; Death Valley's reputation for being regularly the hottest place in the USA seemed well founded. When we got to the store there were lots of signs telling us that this is a hot place and that you need to take care when travelling through the Park. No kidding! The thermometer on the side of the store confirmed that it was hot, it read a steamy 105 degrees Fahrenheit. This seemed an ideal opportunity for an ice cream! Refreshed, we carried on the 25 miles to Furnace Creek, to the resort we were staying at. This is an oasis in the desert, complete with palm trees, swimming pools, golf courses and cold beer.

Day 3: Tuesday 15th June 2010: Kings Canyon/ Sequoia National Parks (Miles to Date: 673)

The mattresses on the beds in our cabin were so uncomfortable and the night temperatures had dropped considerably from the day before, that we woke stiff and cold. Breakfast was a cobbled together affair from provisions we had bought at the pricey market in the Village.Barely refreshed, we ventured out to explore the delights of the Sequoias. Our first port of call was the Visitors Center at Lodgepole, one of the two main National Parks complexes in the Park. Perusing the schedule of events for the day it became apparent that it would be difficult to fit everything in that we would liked to have done. After some debate we decided to do the tour of the Crystal Caves and skip the Ranger programme talks scheduled for that day. We had some time before our tour so we headed out to drive through the Forest of the Giants, the main Sequoia Grove in the Park. It was wonderful to see the numerous Sequoias scattered throughout this area. Just a short drive from the Visitor's Center was a turn-off for “Moro Rock” and “Tunnel Log”.

As with many of these forests of giant trees there are all sorts of “feature” trees. Along this drive there were two main tree exhibits; “Autolog” and “Tunnel Log”. The former is a large fallen Sequoia which during the early years of the Park was used as a parking driveway for visitors to the park. Today cars are not allowed on to the “Autolog” but it is easy to see the evidence of it's past life; grooves have been made in the tree's trunk by the passage of numerous vehicles. Whilst cars are no longer allowed up on to the tree, people are, and it took no encouragement whatsoever for Jack and Emily to run up and down it's length. The most fun part for them was to reach the root end of the tree and stare the 20 feet or so down to the ground below.

The second feature tree is “Tunnel Log” which is, as it's name suggests, a tunnel carved out of a tree. Unlike some other “tunnel” trees this is not carved out of a live standing tree, but is made from a prone Sequoia which obviously has fallen across the path of a road. We had some fun driving backwards and forwards through the tunnel taking pictures. Probably more impressive overall is a cluster of eight giant Sequoias called the “Parker Group” after the eight members of Captain James Parker's family. Captain Parker was a former Superintendent of the Sequoia National Park.

A short distance from “Tunnel Log” is “Moro Rock”. This is an impressive granite monolith that has been pushed out of the surrounding mountain to form a dome-like structure, similar to the famous “Half-Dome” at Yosemite National Park. Just as we arrived at the car park Emily had a bit of a melt down, so she decided to stay in the car while the rest of us went to explore the Rock. The climb to the top of “Moro Rock” is via a set of some 400 stairs which wind their way up sheer rock faces, with a vertical drop-off of several hundred feet to the sides. A short way up Mark decided he did not fancy the climb so he came back down to read the information boards on the geography of the Rock. Unbeknownst to him Emily had decided to rejoin the family and began to climb the stairs to find us. She got about halfway up when she realised she did not like the heights, or more likely the drops, so she just sat down and began to cry. At this point Jack and Karen were on the top of “Moro Rock” enjoying the spectacular views across the valleys to the distant Sierra Nevada mountains. Luckily some other visitors took pity on Emily and went back up to the top to find Karen. Jack descended to meet up with Emily, followed by a more cautious Karen, who herself was feeling a nervous of the walk back down. Finally the whole party were reunited, much to all their relief, and started their descent to the bottom. Mark, unaware of all the drama, was patiently waiting at the base of the Rock and was most surprised to see Emily in tears when she reached him. It took quite some time for her to recover her composure. The photo here is of the widest , safest part...further up there were passing places on a narrow trail and a rock wall at knee height between a walker and certain death!

It was by now getting close to the time of our tour of the Crystal Caves, so we jumped into our car and headed on the winding road to the trail head for the Caves. It was a 15 minute walk from the car park to the Cave's entrance. It was a very pleasant walk down into a verdant, luscious valley along a steep trail path. Coming the other direction were people from the previous tour, who looked very red faced from the exertion of climbing back up the hill. The altitude here at the Park is somewhere in the range of 6000 to 7000 feet, so any form of exercise is much harder here. Finally we reach the bottom of the path to the cave, passing by a pretty set of waterfalls. As this is a guided tour we had to wait in the cave entrance for our tour party to form. This was to be a special tour as the lighting system in the caves had failed so we had to use torches (flash lights) to illuminate our way through the Cave.

The usual tour party is made up of around 50 people, but for our tour there was only 10 people, so we had a easy access to the Tour Guide. Our Guide gave us a brief overview of the history, geology and ecology of the Cave. He explained that the Cave was home to nine species of bats, but that they tend to stay away from areas where the tours passed through. On cue a bat flew into our part of the cave and did several aerobatic manoeuvres before heading back out! Almost embarrassed, the Guide ushered us into the first of the Cave's chambers where we got to see the usual range of formations, such as stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, popcorn etc. We had been to many caves, but the experience of doing this under torch light gave it a more spiritual feeling. The most special moment was when we all switched off our torches and listened as our Guide gave us more information about the Cave. All too soon it was time to leave the cool 50 degree subterranean temperatures to return to the 80 degree temperature of the forest. The journey back up the hill only served to show us why the people we had met on the way down were red-faced.

We decided that to end our day we'd revisit the Forest of the Giants to see the museum dedicated to the Giant Sequoias. Outside the museum is a magnificent specimen of a Sequoia monarch, called “Sentential”, which is deemed to be an average tree, but it is still impressively huge. Inside the museum there are a number of exhibits that cover the ecology of the Sequoias.

It turns out that the perfect conditions that have resulted in the establishment of the Sequoias have only been around for 4,500 years, which is only 1 ½ Sequoia lifetimes. Sadly as the the scourge of global warming works its damaging effects on the environment it is unclear as to what the long term prognosis is for these arboreal giants. Never mind we were here to live in the moment and enjoy these trees. As we discovered some of the Sequoias in this forest have been around for 3000 years and have survived droughts, vast temperature swings and forest fires, so they are tough and adaptable so perhaps they might be around for some time to come.

A short drive from the museum is another signature tree, the “General Sherman” tree”. This is purported to be the largest living tree in the world, with a base diameter of approaching 36 feet. We took the ½ mile walk from the car park to the “General Sherman”. Jack in particular loved these giants of the forest.

We left the “General Sherman” behind and returned to Grant Grove Village and our “lovely” cabin. The final event for our day was to attend the fireside Park Ranger programme talk. The Ranger gave a presentation about the potential impact of global warming (or cooling) on several National Parks; Joshua Tree, Glacier and Sequoia / Kings Canyon. It was not the best Ranger talk we had been to, but it was still a pleasant way to finish our visit to these twin National Parks. So there was nothing more to do but to return to the cabin, pack-up our belongings and prepare ourselves for an early start the next day on our trip down to Death Valley National Park.

Day 2: Monday 14th June 2010: Elk Grove to Kings Canyon/ Sequoia National Parks (Miles to Date: 597)

The beds at the Holiday inn Express were so comfortable, and it was with much regret that we extracted ourselves from our slumbers and descended down to our complimentary breakfasts. We have stayed at so many Holiday Inn Express hotels that we can name the breakfasts items before we get to the breakfast room. These breakfasts would not score high in terms of culinary excellence but they fill a space and keep us going until lunchtime.

We hit the road just as the day is warming up and head south towards Fresno in California's Central Valley. There is nothing too exciting about Fresno, except that it has two “Sweet Tomatoes” restaurants, which is just about our favourite restaurant chain. Our timing is perfect as we arrived at the restaurant at 1:00pm, and as usual we proceeded to eat far too much. Can one eat too much salad? After our gorging we set out for our final destination, the twin National Parks of Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We pass out of urban Fresno into the hot, dry and fertile farms lands of the Central Valley. The grasslands are already parched and bleached a pale yellow by the fierce sun. In amongst the dry grasses are vivid green groves of citrus trees, although it is too early in the season to tell what fruit these trees were yet to bear. This valley is famous for its fruit plantations. It is too early to taste the oranges and lemons but there are plenty of fruit stands selling tasty cherries and succulent plums and peaches, so we had no option but to buy some of these fruits.

Soon after leaving the fruit stand we began to climb into the mountains. The temperature in the Valley was in the mid 90s and it was not too much cooler on our climb, which resulted in our poor Jeep beginning to overheat. Cautiously we pressed on and the views across the valleys many thousands of feet below us were stunning. The scenery changed along our route from low-lying scrub plants in the valleys to tall pine trees and mountain pastures. Knowing that petrol was not available in the National Park we pulled into a gas station to refuel. This was not your typical gas station but more of a rustic Indian Trading Post, and expensive at that! With little choice we filled up and moved on.

Finally we reached the National Parks entrance and found our accommodation, a small wooden cabin at Grant Grove Village. To call this a cabin would be to give an unwarranted Illusion of grandeur. A more appropriate description would have been shed! Our “shed” was sparsely decorated with two beds, with rock hard mattresses, a table and chair and bedside table. Also being in a forest and with postage stamp-sized windows it was as a dark as a Hobbit's burrow! Anyway it was home for a couple of nights.

We didn't hang around our cabin for too long as the day was drawing to a close and we wanted to do some exploring. A short drive from Grants Grove Village is Grants Grove, where there are some magnificent specimens of the giant Sequoias after which the National Park is named. These monstrous trees live only in a narrow stretch of alpine real estate on the west facing side of the high Sierra Nevada Range in California. They are the largest trees in the World when measured by the volume of their huge trunks. Starting from tiny seeds these magnificent trees grow to over 200 feet in height, with trunks up to 40 feet in circumference. The giant Sequoias also have a long life span, with some living to be over 3000 years old. The coastal Redwood trees which we had seen over on the California coast reach over 300 feet in height, but have much narrower trunks, so in terms of volume or mass are much smaller. There was a short trail that took us through the Grove, where as well as finding live, upright Sequoias we came across some fallen giants, which gave us the opportunity to see their sprawling root structures. Surprisingly, these structures are small relative to the size of the tree and it easy to see why there are quite a number of toppled trees throughout the Park. The headline tree of the Grove is the General Grant tree, a majestic monarch. The Sequoias have five stages of development; seedling, sapling, spire-top, mature and monarch. At the mature stage the Sequoias have reached their maximum height but continue to add thickness to their trunk, and also their branches begin to contort and become less regular in shape. After a quick photo opportunity we head off to make the most of the remaining daylight.

Our final mission of the day is to drive down to and along Kings Canyon. This is a deep canyon that has been sculpted by the erosive flow of the Kings River and long gone glaciers. It is deep and is surrounded by steep granite cliffs. There is only one road in, which winds its way down several thousand feet to the valley floor and from there it follows the Kings River to a point appropriately known as “Road's End”. This point is the start of many hiking trails into the back-country wilderness of the high Sierras. We were not planning to be that adventurous today so instead were intending a simple road trip. The journey to “Road's End” took quite a while as the road twisted and turned down the side of the cliff, offering glorious views and precipitous drops. We also loved the sight of tall spikes of flowers shooting from the yuccas which clung to the sides of the granite slopes. On reaching the valley floor we pass alongside the bubbling, turbulent waters of the King's River, swollen by the continuing melting of snow from the Sierras. Some miles further down (the road from Grant Grove Village to Road's End is about 40 miles long) we reached a pull-in for a waterfall. Never ones to miss the a waterfall opportunity we piled out and took the few steps to where the falls dropped some 50 feet into a pool. The force of the tumbling water threw out a spray and gusty wind, soaking us all in just a few seconds. Exposure was short, and we quickly beat a cold and damp retreat back to the warmth of the car. Reaching “Road's End” there was not much to see, and by this time we were getting hungry so we turned the car around and made our way back up along the King's Canyon, and climbed the mountain to return to Grant Grove Village.