On The Road

Road Trip Day One

We picked up the RV without problems. Golden Child still poorly and very clingy though. She started vomiting as the guy was giving us a tour of the inside controls - cue hasty exit!

The planned family shop at Walmart turned into a solo expedition for me with a poorly, vomiting child being looked after by Mummy in the RV. "Why is my Daddy taking so long?" she kept asking I was later informed. I was about an hour (honest).

We drove through Boulder City and then across the very windy O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge which bypasses the Hoover Dam. It is spectacular but from the bridge there is not much of a view and none of the Hoover Dam at all. I was just getting used to the RV and we didn't want to go too far so we then retraced our route a little to Lake Mead and found a nice RV site near the waters edge. A relaxed evening with a very fatigued and sleepy little girl followed. She slept with mummy and woke a few times in the night with a pyrexia and sore throat but this morning is happily playing with her birthday Lego. She says: "I'm feeling much better Grandma and I love you".

Today we will visit Hoover Dam before heading for Flagstaff, Arizona - about 220 miles. No rush, we got as much time as we want and may stop short if we feel like it.

Poorly Pud

Bad news - Golden child woke with raging pyrexia. Good news - she has eventually stopped screaming for Grandma.

Calpol now working its magic. She does look sorry for herself though!

Safe Arrival

Plenty of space in Cattle Class with a Fisheye lens!

Well it has been the longest 24 hrs for a long time - probably because the 15 March actually lasted 31 hrs for us. Lucky Birthday Girl!

The Golden Child was a delight on the 11 hr plane flight. She coloured, she read, she watched TV, she ate, she looked out of the window (and saw beautiful snow), she went for a couple of cabin walks, she visited the toilet a few times and she slept for the last 3 hrs or so. She didn't cry or create at all. No need to open the sedation!

The cabin crew were professional and pleasant and the flight good although the food was amongst the worst we have experienced except for the chocolate pud which we agreed was the bestest!. A bit of a delay in Vegas getting off the plane due to a faulty airbridge was handled with good humour by the passengers and then an hour to clear customs and pick up our two hold bags. A $60.00 (£40.00), 10 mile trip to the hotel in Henderson, near the RV depot, and an early night was had and we were all wide awake at 04.00 hrs waiting for breakfast.

We collect the RV this afternoon and will drive to Boulder City (a small town) to collect groceries and then on to the Hoover Dam before finding somewhere to park for the night. Only 20 miles or so the first day. This first week we are planning to visit Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon but our itinerary is flexible. This is a Road Trip!

Will post again when we have WiFi access.

Departure

Quickly through check in and passport control. Time for breakfast before heading for the departure gate.

Almost There!

 

Getting quite excited now. One more shift then holidaaayyyy!

We have a bit of packing to do but most things are otherwise done, arranged or ready. The passports, tickets, ESTAs, insurance and currency are sorted so we can get there and back, pick up the RV and have money to spend. The house sitters are briefed and the fish have a willing feeder/carer so no issues at home to worry about.

I have a couple of motorbike refresher lessons to do yet. A fellow camera buff has offered me a 10.5mm fisheye lens to borrow (a very nice bit of kit) so I will collect that tomorrow. I have sorted my smartphone for use in the USA, doubled the netbook RAM to 2GB and loaded the photo and video editing software I use - we should not have to many issues blogging/facebooking as we feel the need! The new travel chess set is ready, the Kindle has some good eBooks loaded and the Spotify account is bursting with some great, quirky music for the road trip. The Golden Child will have some small birthday pressies to open on the flight (her birthday) and I have some Medised ready if she gets fractious!

I'm sure there is something we are forgetting but it can't be that important (I hope!).

Next post from the airport.

Going The Whole HOG

I am going to the US South West on holiday. 

Home of free spirits. Route 66. Land of the free!

I have a full UK motorbike license. 

I have always wanted to ride a Harley across the USA. 

I have a great wife.

I can hire a Harley for a day in Las Vegas. 

Dream part fulfilled! 

I am very happy!

Two Months To Go

We start our five week trip around bits of the USA on 15 March 2012. A trip to celebrate our Tenth Wedding Anniversary. The countdown has really begun now. Exciting!

The three of us - Me (the MiddleAgeCyclist), the Wifey and the Golden Child (GC) - are flying to Las Vegas (LV) and then touring the US South West in an RV for 26 nights. We have booked a few nights at Yosemite but are keeping the dates as flexible as possible otherwise. On returning to LV we'll have a couple of nights on the Strip (hotel yet to be booked) before flying to Orlando to stay with relatives for a week. Are you ready for us G, B and Co?

Paris, Las Vegas

This blog will be a record of our trip; stories, photos, videos, links and anything else of interest will be posted as we get internet connection. This will serve two purposes; as an aide memoire for when we are old and grey as well as to update friends and relatives during our adventure. We'll post a link to facebook when we blog so our friends there won't even have create a bookmark. How thoughtful is that?

My other blog - the MiddleAgeCyclist - will be pretty dormant during this five weeks but this one may well have a slight cycling bias as per the video below. (This is how I would really like to be touring but I suppose an RV will be fun as well!).

Cycling USA documentary from Dennis Koomen on Vimeo.

We hope to be using our little Samsung netbook and my Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone for most of this blogging. I will be making the most of my photography gear so I need the netbook to be able to run Photoshop, something I do solely on a bigger laptop at the moment. So, jobs for this week are to load Photoshop onto the netbook and try it out. Oh and get the ESTA's sorted as well!

Now, if you have any suggestions for places and things we should visit or even stuff to avoid please feel free to leave a comment.

Au Revoir!