Day One Hundred and Ninety-Two

Here's Landon and I playing a board game to relax after a busy weekend.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-One

We took them for an adventurous day out on Zion today where we hiked the Emerald Pools Trail. Here's the gang cooling down under one of the waterfalls...

Day One Hundred and Ninety

Dinnertime for the Taylor Family. We were looking after Amanda's youngest siblings this weekend, here I am dishing up tea for them...

Dessert was much easier to take care of...

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Nine

Eager to take a break from job hunting I headed for a hiking trip in Zion National Park today. Its like a small version of Karijini National Park in Western Australia, the waterfalls don't flow with the same force and there's no natural pools to swim in, but the scenery is equally as breathtaking I still thoroughly enjoy the day hiking through the valley. Its hard to take photos of be honest, because I know a picture could never do it justice. Usually in a place like this I've avoided taking photos, God made something so beautiful and people really should see it for themselves. Regardless I have a blog to maintain so here's two of my handful of snaps...

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Eight

Few people know that I'm actually a bit of a book worm. I love to read, and once I find an author whose style I like I tend to stick with them for a while. I've been reading a lot of James Paterson and truth is I was kinda done with his book after overdosing on his Alex Cross series. It was only through lack of any over available books when I needed a new one that I picked up one more of his. I'm glad I did, I've been absolutely gripped to this one and its almost the sole reason for my lack of sleep this past week!

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Seven

Today I found this in WalMart and promptly had my first cup of tea in, I think, four months. We don't have an electric kettle so I having to make do with boiling water on the stove which feels a little primitive but I wasn't complaining when I had a cup of nicely brewed tea in my hand!

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Six

Check this out for a kitchen table! The cupboards may be full with food but Amanda's still short of a place to eat it. Currently the coffee table from the lounge is making do!

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Five

Yes, its a lighthouse. Nothing too out of the ordinary there, but now let me tell you that we're at 6,000ft above sea level and 500miles from the coast. Yes I know it looks pretty and upon researching I found its actually a real lighthouse which was dismantled and shipped from Europe. My point is this, at least it was private sector money being spent on this useless icon rather than public sector money that gets spent on, lets say, a 20,000 seater stadium for a football team that averages attendances of just 4,500.

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Four

Now then, I know things are a little cheaper in America when compared to Rip-Off Britain, but even I was shocked at the local house prices. This house (if you look closely you can see the price on the sign by the front door) is on sale for $120,000. Naturally I'm making an assumption its of good standard and not about to fall down, but even so I can't get over how cheap it is. In our money that's £80,000. For the price of my old two bedroom apartment in High Wycombe (£220,000) I'd almost have enough to buy this house, the ones on either side!

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Three

Another day and another long drive. Today we were up early enough to make it back to Cedar City by the afternoon and fill the rest of the day with domestic chores, primarily stocking up the kitchen with a huge shopping trip at WalMart.

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Two

Heading south, this is about the only thing worthy of noting in Oregon, a state which has an unnecessarily low speed limit, more cops than the rest of the world and is a land in which I'm not even aloud to pump my own gas!

Day One Hundred and Eighty-One

So here it is, on my fifth visit to Seattle, I finally witnessed the gloomy rainy weather everyone kept telling me about. The home boy inside secretly liked it though, reminds me of England a little I guess!

Day One Hundred and Eighty

This was the view from a walk we took around the sea wall in Vancouver which successfully erased my previously disappointing opinion of the city!

We took a detour through Stanley Park, full of giant redwoods, on our walk back to the city centre. It a glorious park which can make you feel a thousand miles from the hustle and bustle of the city despite being less than a kilometre.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Nine

This is the famous public market in Seattle, plenty of fish being thrown through the air here and a bit of a smell too!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Eight

Sunday in Seattle. We haven't seen any of the rain that the city is famous for, instead watching this beautiful sunset from Myrtle Edwards Park was how we spent the evening.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Seven

On the road again today, we left Idaho bound for Seattle. For what it was worth we had the satnav on, no excuses for missing the turn though, I had enough warning...

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Six

We spent the day at the Eastern Idaho State Fair. It was a pretty good day out, so civilised compared to English fairs, particularly given the size of it. This is Amanda at the petting zoo. We almost, almost, came away with the little puppy...

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Five

Today we hit the road to Idaho, a nice 440 mile drive which is the same as driving from the southern most point in England to the most northern place. Driving in America however is so much easier that the UK, nice long straight roads with cruise control on...

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Four

Whilst cooking up some dinner for Amanda and myself I loaded up some decent radio, it was refreshing to hear some quality music for a change. Those that have never been to America have yet to learn that its near impossible to listen to a radio station for more than an hour without them playing Sweet Home Alabama or American Pie or exceedingly long commercial breaks!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Three

I saw this in the newspaper today whilst reading previews for the new NFL season. The sentence under my team, the Cleveland Browns, pretty much sums up the team and city!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Two

Its Labour Day Holiday here in America, so after travelling to Parowan to watch the morning's Parade we headed up the mountain to Navajo Lake and took a walk to see the Cascade Falls. This is the spectacular view, its a far cry from the Wye Valley in Totteridge!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-One

Its been a while, but I've finally managed to spend a Sunday reading an enormous quantity of newspaper! Its somewhat reassuring that I can still do that even though I'm so far away from where I was on Day Eleven.

Day One Hundred and Seventy

Its moving day! We've pretty much cleared Amanda's apartment, she even wanted to take the door with her!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Nine

My first experience at quad-biking (or four-wheeling as they call it here, Americans always have to be different!). We took the bikes on a trail from Amanda's parents house, this is her little sister speeding up a small cliff!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Eight

This evening we went to Much Ado About Nothing, part of the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. The theatre is famous of is accurate replication of our famous Globe Theatre back in England. It was a little weird hearing Shakespearean English spoken with an American accent for a couple of the actors who were struggling a bit it the English accent, but even so it was an great night out that I'd for sure recommend to anyone passing this part of the world.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Seven

mmmm, coffee. This summer I went a whole month without a single sip of coffee. I'm making up for it now, but going a month without a beer instead.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Six

This is what happens when you leave planning to Amanda. Next week we're heading up to north to Idaho, Seattle and into Canada. I caught a glimpse of the schedule she's been writing. ...apparently we're no longer leaving Seattle and going to Vancouver so we can instead, err, shop? I'm in no doubt that what follows this, but is not written is 'for shoes', but only time will tell!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Five

Final morning in New Orleans before I jump on a plane to Utah. We checked out Magazine Street and Jimmy's store 'New Orleans Music Exchange'. As tempted as I was to buy myself a little travel guitar I resisted and headed off to the airport.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Four

Leaving Memphis behind today we continued south toward the Big Easy. Its some drive from Memphis, we stopped at the state line welcoming us to Louisiana.

Its actually the fifth anniversary for the day when Katrina came into hit the city. Its still possible to see a lot of the damage it caused, but what is more evident is seeing that the city is and has risen again. Its a beautiful city, particularly the French Quarter. You really could be in Europe. Its a refreshing surprise to find such a strong culture in an American city, as so many others could be replicas of each other.

This is restaurant our generous host, Jimmy, took us out to this evening. A chance to experience something new too, I ate Turtle Soup!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Three

From Beale Street to Broadway. Last night we were on Beale Street home to many talented musicians hoping to be the next great story, today we experienced the greatest story of them all. The King.

I've got a few photos from today, but I couldn't resist it. We went to Graceland, the home of the King. It was a pretty mixed event, seeing where Elvis lived, learning a lot about his life (both public and private) and being in awe of his wealth of awards of success and recognition. But it was also a pretty emotional experience, knowing it was one of many great talents cut short, particularly by the side of his house where he is laid to rest.