National Parks Loop....the long version...with a little help from Christian!!!

The tour started at night, so we settled in to get to know everyone (including naming our buddies!)...with a few beers, cheesey baps and ham! (well what else??!!!) Then got the beds out to sleep..'the miracle!'.....on our amazing convertable bus!!! We awoke on our first morning in a stunning spot of Nevada (the Ruby Mountains) to set up the breakfast tables & all muck in to cook our first meal together, it was chilly but warming by the second as the sun rose higher. After breakfast a few of us had a dip in the natural hot springs that were dotted about the place. What an amazing introduction to our trip...we really were in the middle of nowhere, and it was fantastic! Next...on to Austin...nope not Texas....a little tiny cowboy town in Nevada...they had the authentic saloon doors & during our afternoon stay there was an election parade in progress. We got to see people dressed up in all sorts of vintage clothes, as well as vintage cars (driving in the parade....not people dressed in them!) We also got to see a generous scattering of sweets that were being missiled towards us by everyone in the passing parade. I caught quite a few in my hat!!! We then tried a game that involved throwing horse shoes around a pole, we were quite good!!!! We had a long drive ahead of us that day...so were soon back on the bus to start! We stopped for dinner by a lake....the sun was already setting but a few of us still headed in for a swim.....brrrrrr - it was a tiny bit nippy!!!...but worth it...gave us an appetite for the lovely pasta everyone else had been cooking!!! Me and Wee Tom helped with navigation through the night...and what a team....we managed not to miss any exits!!! (JUST!) We awoke next day to find ourselves 1 hr forward in time...and in Jackson Hole!!...This was a cool small town with lots of interesting shops for the budding art collector & tourist! We went white water rafting in the morning down snake river....i have wanted to do this for ages, and i loved it! The water was absolutely freezing, but we soon got used to it! I think we did class 1,2 and 3 rapids....and we didn't fall out!!!! There was also the story about the Moose crossing.....hmmm, i proved myself to be quite gullable at this point...but hey...its good to trust what people say....and why wouldn't a mummy moose put her baby into a basket to help it across????.....my Moose could do that!!!! Mark had rafted before, so decided to spend his morning on a floating trip with Christine....leisurely enjoying the sights and sounds of the river. We then had some time in Jackson Hole to eat and shop, and then headed for our first trip camp ground, at Colter Bay, in the Grand Teton National Park. We settled into a huge forest camp ground, and pitched our tent for the first time!!We had burittos for dinner....amazing!!! and a shower....amazing!!! and the day ended with everyone playing instruments around the camprire. Papa Tom does not travel light...and had a bag full of every percusion instrument you could imagine....enough for everyone....it was lovely, everyone got involved and played what felt right...while Papa Tom either strummed guitar or beat his djembe..... The following day (after a lovely night in our tent...although a bit cold!), we ventured on a 7 mile hike around Jenny Lake....a very picturesque lake with huge mountain views & some high & fast rapids & water falls. We made it to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point...and soaked up all the views. Moose loved it! That night was a night hitting the town of Jackson Hole for Papa Tom's birthday! We had a meal in a local restaurant and then headed on the bus out of town to a bar that would reportedly let in our underage group members!!! We spent the night playing pool and dancing to the juke box! YELLOWSTONE.... this place is huge...some parts of Yellowstone look like another planet entirely....smoldering, boiling & spurting guisers...the biggest of which was Old Faithful which we saw right on schedule after arriving 15 minutes previously, how grand it was to see natural hot geothermal water getting blasted 60ft into the air by earthly pressure building up. There was plenty of other guisers & hot springs to look at but none compared in aesthetics to Prysmatic Springs. These springs were something else...they were every colour of the rainbow, hence their names... they lived up to their names & better. It was wonderful to see the steam escaping from them only to reflect the colours underneath of all the brighly coloured mineral deposits giving the effect of coloured smoke rising from the ground, We have to thank Mark for pleading with the drivers to visit (best place we saw all day!!!). Another evening of campfire bliss followed with more finely tuned music this time. Everyone sang songs from their country or played music of taught us something....we ended up all crowded round the words singing our hearts out...'I can see clearly now the rain has gone' rocked!!! This evening was also the evening that Barry Manilow became our 2 week theme, it all started because we played the "name on your head game" & Christian made me Barry...and it just carried on from there!! Do you like Pina Coladas???!!! As well as that, we discovered that Brian, was of course, secretly.....Ewan McGreggor.....check him out in his blue jumper....it really is Ewan!!!! What a night!! MONTANA We spent the first half of the next day stil in Yellowstone...and visited the Upper and Lower Falls, and walked to Artist Point. We then headed to the Terraces...before driving on to Montana for a bathing session in Chico...it was a pool reputedly heated by hot springs...attached right next door to a pub! Perfect! We spent ages (well...me and Rosalie really!), messing about in the pool, and taking the opportunity to shower!! Some of the group even tried pool people towers!!! And of course, who can forget the half asleep...or was he drunk??!....man in the corner that kept falling in! We then headed into the pub to join the others....It was an oldy worldy pub with a cool game at the back like table bowls which was scattered in 100's of millions of tiny plastic balls for extra friction. Very similar to curling but just on a table instead of on ice. I had a good game with Wee Tom...although i think he might have won! We then headed back for a night camping out literally in the middle of nowhere!! (apparently next door to a ghost town!) Oh and that was the night of EXTREME salad making! We made salad, in our field, in the middle of nowhere...and i cut flower shaped tomatoes!!!! I think i was more excited about this than anyone else though!!! The next day a few people went to the local town whilst we went back to the spa. Mmmmmmmm clean water!!! We returned from the spa to meet the bus and found Wee Tom and Christian had invested in some Hill Billy outfits!!!! These consisted of dungarees & ugly chequered shirts...They loved it...and posed for a photo session with a GEE-TAR & some grass in their mouths before testing out their outfits in BUTTE Montana (it's pronounced Beaut...not BUT)......they fitted in well!!! ;-) Butte was apparently the town that Papa Tom's family were from, so it was nice to stop there and soak up the sights. We wandered along....stopping for Cornish pastees..that weren't that great and ice-cream! The bus then came and got us (the few strays that had wandered off) and we headed to an old 1950s style dinner for smoothies.....it was like stepping into a time warp!!!! It was called "Matt's Diner", and was great, a real authentic 50's diner that was still serving food the same was as it was 50 years ago. The place had a mean atmosphere to it though....we later discovered that we had interupted their closing time by minutes to keeep them open a further hour for extra cleaning duty. We stopped by the side of the road that night for our summer solstice dinner.....Burittos again...we were good at those!! Me and Rosalie became the Buritto Fairies...bringing Burittos to all that had not had them yet! (Namely Richey as he was asleep!!!!). We then settled in on the bus for more driving through the night! SALT LAKE We woke up the next day on Antelope island on a salt lake in Utah, a very unusual environment with dozens of hungry seagulls awaiting breakfast scraps. Me and Rosalie made pancakes for breakfast...with the help of Alex and Elisa...we were quite the team! I think everyone was a little worried to start with as we clearly had NO idea what we were doing....but we soon got the hang of it and even tossed a few! We visited an oldy worldy farm that morning seeing all the traditional methods of American farming. I learnt to lasso a cow - and i caught it...although it was only wooden! Thanks Richey! We then drove on and stopped in Salt Lake City itself. A curious place....inhabited by Mormons. I have to say i think i felt more alien there than anywhere else we've been....Here we dropped off Matthew....the first week was starting to come to an end. In the evening we went to a place called Monroe. Monroe's best feature was it's hot Spa's that was run by a really cool hippy couple. Mystic Hot Springs. Supper was made & cleared & we all went for a dip in the 20 degree water under the stars....totally beautiful floating in darkness with billions of miles between you & the nearest object above. We had our group photo there......hmmm..yes...Sean...what happened to that????!!!! Around 2am we had to get dry, get on the bus and head to Vegas to drop some of the group off and pick up others. I awoke through the night to find the bus stopped and Papa Tom (who had been driving) nowhere in sight! I clearly didn't look very hard as 10 minutes later an alarm went off and he woke up right next to me.....I stayed up the rest of the night chatting to him while he drove on through...and into the early morning with Richey, when he took over. It was soooo peaceful, driving through the night and watching the sun rise over the changing landscape. We arrived in Vegas at 6:30am, and after a monumental bus toss (to empty and clean it), we said goodbye to some of the group, and welcomed some more. Quite a strange experience something coming to an end, and something else starting all at the same time....but maybe that is always the way..... ZION Zion is wonderful.... we headed here after our pickup in Vegas. ON the way we stopped and bought party supplies and a pillow!!! hurrah! This seemed to be the hottest place we went to at 109f, huge cliffs surrounding every part of the journey within it, a few of us were only capable of lazy activities like showering & laundry...but we had been on the bus for 9 days now...we needed to discard the whiff from our clothes & bodies & it felt really good doing so. It was nice to simply chill out and relax! I was soooooo tired! We slept with the tent open so we could see the stars. Next morning we did a short walk and paddled (sorry...for all you Americans...'waded' in the river...before heading back to the bus to move on! BRYCE Bryce is awsome.... it is amazing how different all the parks we'd visited looked. Bryce is made of hundreds of huge columns of rock 100+ft tall...& it looks like it's made of peach ripple ice cream with the stripeyness of the rock formations, all changing colour and becoming more pinky/red in the setting evening sun.... we walked down into the canyon, amongst the columns, which just became mmore amazing...it is here that Sean took our 'band-shot'!!! We did the Navaho walk.....although there had been a rock fall, so we had to do it from one side...until the colapse, then back up and down the other side! Another night at Mystic Hot Springs was on the cards & when we got there there was a band playing up on the hills by the light of a fire.....amazing...the band were ace - 56 Hope Road - they have been touring around America for months....but still gave a fresh, embracing performance! We heard then accoustically outside, and after a speedy camp set up and dinner, we watched them play again inside - this time through the PA! They were fab, kind of latin influenced funky tunes that we couldn't help but move to! What an amazing venue too....and we were there by chance! After the band we all enjoyed a hot dip in the springs...with Duckie!!! Me and Rosalie perrrchased her in Vegas...as we seemed to be spending a lot of time at hot springs and baths...and you really can't take a bath without a rubber duck! We camped the night at Mystic...and awoke the next day to find Wee Tom had slept in the bus luggage compartment!!! hehehehe Sean made me a lovely omelete for breakfast too...as i was a bit late! Thanks Sean! ARCHES We drove around Arches national park to see most main features as it's a huge place with incredible temperatures. The first stopping point was called La Sal...a truly amazing sight over canyons & huge boulders etc...very coyote/roadrunnerish We stayed the night again in the middle of no-where a beautiful middle of no-where about 20 miles away from a small town called MOAB. I think we camped along the Colerado river.....I think! The instruments came out again....and this time we headed off to find a overflow tunnel (for when the river floods)....we wakled into the centre of it and sat in the pitch black to play our music....that was quite magical, and the acoustics were amazing!!!! Sean was attempting to catch a toad around the camp fire when we returned...i've never seen something sooooo funny!!!! MOAB Moab was fine...we had the choice in the morning of a 2 hour hike to see more Arches or a trip to Moab for showers & a bit of civilization... I chose Moab, shower time! Me, Mark and Rosalie headed to the swimming pool to hopefully have a bit of a dip and a shower.....sadly no go though...they were shut until midday (it was 9am!)...so after a short wonder in the heat..we ended up in a nearby cafe...eating a second breakfast, checking internet and watching the clock before shower time!!! We made it back to the pool, showered (slightly quicker than planned), and made it back to the bus fresh and ready for more!!! Our drive that day was to take us to Valley of the Gods....but not without stopping on the way for a quick dip in a local lake! Not to mention a game of frisbee! When we were back on the bus it was time for ice-cream making!!!! Yes...you can make ice cream on a bus!! It basically involves putting all the ingrediants into layers of ziplock bags, surrounded by ice and rock salt, wrapping them in layers of paper bags and shaking them for around 3 hours!!!! Of course for this you need some good tunes!!!! Thanks Mark, Marina and Wee Tom!!! (Check out Mark's trumpet too!!) The journey passed very quickley as we all shook our ice cream! A few hours later, it was unwrapped, shared out and tasted great!!!!! A success.....with a lot of mess!!!! VALLEY OF THE GODS This place was amazing....i think my favourite of the places we went too (Christian had written that too! Great minds hey!!!)... Valley of the Gods is in Monument Valley...a part of the world so vast in dimension it's scary. It felt to me like being on the moon.....i put my tunes on and climbed as high as i could....it is a magical place that felt full of amazing energy. You could see forever. The rock had a gorgeous red colour that only enhanced its beauty. It was strange, there was absolutely nothing there...but it was amazing. So peaceful, yet so inspiring and alive. It really touched me. We stayed for evening meal & slept there...to be so isolated and camping somewhere like that was amazing. I helped with dessert.....teaching everyone about chocolate bananas.....hmmmm....i was actually making it up as i went along....i don't think anyone noticed!!!! Carlos cooked up a sauce of tequilla and brown sugar to go over them and all was very very well!!!! Waking up there the next day was also amazing....everything in the world was right. That day we set off for Monument Valley National park.....stopping on the way on the piece of road where Forest Gump stopped running!!!...we took our suitably tacky pictures!!!..Monument Valley National Park is a park not run by the United States but instead run by the Native Americans... We were all looking forward to a ride in a 4x4 jeep across the desert but none of us were expecting it to be such a cultural & spiritual journey. We had 2 Navajo drivers in our jeeps who stopped frequently for us to witness amazing rock formations & to take dozens of incredible photos. We stopped at a Native American settlement where people still live the same way they have for 100's of years. A little frail old woman in her 90's tied back 3 girls hair in traditional methods using freshly woven wool...her hands were amazing.. she had see through skin...so thin no doubt from the dozens of years hard work she had put into motherhood & hard work of keeping home etc. The jeep stopped in a domed rock formation that was 150feet high that had a hole in the roof with the sun poking through. The Navajo guys were to treat us here to a musical interlude in this perfect hollowed out acoustic area...a song that was named after the soaring eagle. We all laid down on the cool red rocks and sand listening as one guy fluted & sung while the other man banged his drum. We also stopped to buy native jewellery and to sit on horseback!! LAKE POWELL was our early evening destination next, most people went for a swim....mark decided to swim across..that was amazing as it was huge. At one point we thought we had lost him, but Marina spotted his shinney head and all was well! Me and the girls took the opportunity to wash our hair in the water!! John had brought the guitar from the bus and we sat watching the sun set while he and mark played some tunes!. PAGE TOWN We all went for a meal in Page when we arrived at 9pm...this was a tiny town with a small population...we had an Italian, then headed to a local bar for drinks and music! Hmmm, yes...well....to give you an idea....Rosalie got chattered up in the bar by a classy gentlemen, who asked...'So, what language do they speak in England?'....she replied 'English' and he proceeded to ask 'How do you say Hello in English?'...at that point we left!...Things continued to be quite surreal! There was a musician outside singing and playing the guitar...but the locals seemed to want to hear country music...which he clearly didn't know any of! To try and induce him into a sudden country rendition they kept buying him shots of tequilla....which he graciously accepted! But to no avail.....not only could he now not play any country music, but he could not play ANY music at all!!!! We ended up sneaking behind him and putting on some of his CDs so at least there was some music to dance to!!! Hehehe, back to the bus merry for the drive through the night to the Grand Canyon! THE GRAND CANYON We woke up at 5 or maybe 6am to find ourselves at the Grand Canyon....wow....awesome! We were having two full days and nights there, so me and Mark decided to chill out on the first day and recouperate! Some people headed down into the canyon for their hikes...but me, Mark, Rosalie, Wee Tom, Shimrit and our leader Sean, decided to go on day 2! (Sean, Sean, Sean, Sean!) We spent the day setting up camp, chiling and looking around at the top of the canyon...Me and Rosalie had great fun laying in her tent watching everyone on camp...providing a running commentary.....expecially when Wee Tom spotted us and started doing rediculous things to make us laugh and make everyone else wonder what on earth he was on!!! Papa Tom also spotted us (so....we weren't that well hidden!) and launched missiles at our tent! (I think maybe you may have had to be there!!!) It was quite nice having dinner in a smaller group that night..we could all sit and chat together. I really wanted to do an airplane flight over the canyon, so me, Wee Tom and Christian set off early for this the next day. Wow...it really is the awy to see it! it was great as you got nearer & nearer to the edge in the plane...about 700 feet in the air then having 5000ft below you is some great feeling. We really got to appreciate the anormity of the whole Canyon. Later that day was our hike half way down the Canyon...now this is no easy thing, and we had spent most of the trip being told how hard it was!!! There are rangers everywhere and they don't take any risks. You have to have permits to walk down and you have to have a group leader....ours was Sean! He was great, got us all organised, made us buy new socks and gatoraid and carry egg sandwiches!!! (ok, so that was actually me and Shimrit..but hey...they were tastey!). We left at around 3pm...to miss the midday heat. We were a great team....we all said we would look after each other and stick together, and thats what we did....we rested together, drank together, sang together....and when we started to see yesterday's groups coming back out of the canyon we cheered as hard as we could!!!! (swapping supplies and advice). It took us 3 hours to reach the Indian Gardens....and as te sun was setting we headed out for a further 2 miles to the edge to watch it do so! We ate a tea of egg sandwiches, granola bars and mini chocs on the edge of the Grand Canyon, watching the little mice running around....then hiked back to our camp (of two shared sleeping bags on a picnic table) for the night! Not the most comfy of beds!!! We awoke at 3am..and set off at 4am for our hike out....this is meant to be the killer!!! Rosalie is always cheery when she wakes in the mornings..and on that day i was too....i made everyone jump and shout and sing for energy and we started our climb!!! We worked as a great team again....singing, resting, Sean telling us to 'drink' father jack style, all the way up. Mark was fab and carried Shimrit's bag all the way...we went in as a team, we were coming out as one! I drank soooooo much that i could not stop wee-ing...i've never been like that before!!! And you are not meant to wee just anywhere in the Grand Canyon....but we couldn't help it!!! Sorry!!! I don't think we could contain ourselves when we got to the top...we did it in 4 hours...which is a really good time and we all felt like we had achieved something special. I have to say i'm not sure what the rest of the larger group expected of us...but i'm pretty sure they didn't expect to see us back at breakfast time!!!! We were buzzing....we crept up on the camp and then congered in, to huge cheers!!!!! (They hadn't saved us any breakfast though!!!!)I was sooooo proud of myself, of Mark, of us all. We did it, and i am glad it is something that me and Mark have shared. We may not have been the fittest group by far, but we certainly had the spirit to do it! It was a special day. FINAL DAY The final day seemed to cover loads of areas, once we had calmed down back at camp...and faffed as only we can...we were finally on our way....stopping briefly for our group shot at the edge of the Grand Canyon....then heading along Route 66 (where we stopped for a milkshake and a burger, at the diner where they have the cars that inspired the film 'cars')...and on to Vegas. We partied from mid afternoon on the bus to Vegas....streamers, sweets & water pistols were all used in good fun. Thanks to Kylie for decorating the bus in such a fab way...to Mark for the tunes....and to Rosalie....for getting me absolutely soaked!!! Fernando seemed to love those water guns too!!!! We had to say goodbye to Fernando at the airport...and once again the week started coming to an end. We had fun with the vegas sign on the way in...taking crazy self timed photos jumping in our by now merry states. We got changed outdoors in the 100degree heat & went to the Excalibur casino for our evening meal...more people started heading off....Big Island Bob simply slipped away mysteriously and Tie Dye Bob and Robin headed off after the meal. We also said goodbye to D and Pete. Papa Tom and Richey became Chippendales for the night.....a very interesting sight! We all headed off to the Paris Casino...it seemed like a million miles away in the exhausting desert heat. Christian put a dollar into a machine for me & i managed to win 16 cents!!!! It was strange though, being somewhere like Vegas after all the places we'd seen, and i have to say that neither me or Mark were that enthralled...it just seemed so tacky and much like we'd walked into one giant theme park......usually i am not averse to a good theme park.....but it really didn't seem like a fitting end to our trip......we much preferred the wilderness!!! We were then on the bus through the night to LA, where we dropped various people off, including Kylie and John, and CK, then it was time for me, Mark, Rosalie and Tom to say our goodbyes to the bus. I think it was one of the sadest times of our trip....to have shared so much with people, then have to end it all, was very very hard. I think we were all quite low (not to mention absolutely shattered!!!) But what an experience, what awesome memories....they will live on forever.....and i thank everyone for a fantastic two weeks on our green tortoise bus!!! Fxxx