When you hear the whistle blowing eight to the bar

Right, who can guess where we are staying tonight? And not only that but we are staying in a hotel which goes by the name of the, ahem,  Chattanooga Choo Choo. Really, did you think that I could have stayed anywhere else whilst in Chattanooga? Anyway if should ever find yourself thinking "where shall I go on holiday?" you could do worse than North Carolina, it is beautiful. The Blue Ridge mountains (yeah, I know, I thought they were in Virginia too) are stunning. And I have changed my mind, my new best road is no longer the Pacific Coast Highway but Route 64 from Hendersonville, NC to Cleveland, TN - look at those twisties.


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We are off to Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow. Anyone care to guess at the song from which tomorrows post will come?

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh

I know you've missed my bon mots. If you had, I wouldn't have had so many of you imploring me to start again. So after spending what seemed like an interminable two and a half months in England getting our new visas, we are back. So what better time than now to start writing again. And what better time than whilst we are on holiday again (lets get the "but Simon, you are always on holiday" comments out of the way here" Done? Good!)

So where this time? Why, we have come south of the Mason-Dixon line for a week. We arrived yesterday and I have to say, its true, the South is mighty hospitable. We stayed last night in Raleigh, North Carolina (or it might have been Durham, I wasn't really sure which). This morning we drove to Greensboro. And what a lovely little town it is too. It has two of the finest claims to fame for a town that I have ever come across. The first is....

and the second and possible more far reaching and profound is it is where four quite frankly brave gentlemen demanded service at the Woolworth's lunch counter in 1960. They have turned the building into a quite superb museum which should you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods is well worth a couple of hours of your time.

Tonight we are staying in Winston-Salem and also worth a diversion if you are ever in NC is where we went for dinner tonight. Some quite excellent ribs (and I am no great fan of ribs) and pulled pork, hushpuppies and cheerwine. Added to this that lunch today was good and dinner was last night too (yet to try grits though even though they were on the menu at breakfast this morning). Could we have finally found the part of America where all the good food is??

Now heaven would be a DJ spinning dub all night long*

I now really understand the concept of cabin fever. Obviously not The Shining sort of cabin fever but the sort induced by long days of bloody snow. Its still here, I believe that since the beginning of January we have had about 70 inches of it. It does hang around. And all that lovely pristine whiteness becomes dirty black grubbiness the longer it lasts. However in a case of if you can't beat, we decided today to join and went and had a snow boarding lesson.

It was meant to be a skiing lesson but the queue to hire skis was too long and there was no-one at the snow board counter, so snow boards it was. We went here which is about an hours drive away. They do a very reasonable one hours lesson, equipment hire and days pass for $85. And what fun! Apparently I am quite good (in an old bloke who has never done it before sort of way). Quite good here is defined as not falling on my arse at my first attempt and being able to steer it after a couple of goes. I even attempt the large beginners hill which was a) longer and b) steeper from the top than it looked from the bottom, I fell over three times on that. Giselle wasn't quite as successful but not for want of trying. Apparently it turns out she may be goofy.

Sadly for you all (or not as the case maybe) there is no photographic evidence of this, but take it from me, it was radical dude.

* - I know its about skateboarding but......

Soft as velvet eyes can see bring me close to ecstasy

The weirdness of this country never ceases to amaze me. As I am sure you are all aware today is Valentines day. Fair enough, send your anonymous cards and flowers and chocolates to the object of you desires if you must. But here they treat it like its a holiday like Christmas. Giselle has received emails from her customers with Happy Valentines Day greetings on them. The Management Office of our apartment building have given everyone Valentines presents (a bag of gourmet popcorn). I will no doubt be wished a happy Valentines day in the supermarket later. I find it all a bit disconcerting, its not my bloody birthday so I do not want to wished a 'happy day'. I think they miss what its about myself (or maybe not as people always maintain its a made up excuse for greeting card companies to make money....).

Anyway, happy St Cyril and St Methodius's day.

The dust of the world is my load

We are now home - nightmare overnight flight but not as bad as it could have been.

Things I have learned about America -

• I know now the way to San Jose
• The rest of America doesn't like California
• The rest of California doesn't like LA
• Arizona is beautiful and I want to go back
• Vegas isn't seedy and anything like Casino and a bit scary in a la-la land sort of way
• America is a very, very big place
• I want a Dodge Charger

Bright light city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire

We were having such a nice day until 3 o'clock........

We drove through more desert this morning and ended up at the Hoover Dam. I shan't bother showing you a picture of it as they don't really do it justice. However make do with a picture of one of the pair of lovely Art Deco statues

and the "we haven't got room to put this pylon in straight up so lets do it at an angle" pylon - this one is especially for you lovers of a good bit of civil engineering - I know you are reading this (no really, they are)

It was then on to probably the least visited of all of Vegas' attractions - the Clark County Museum in Henderson (on the outskirts of Vegas). Its perhaps two of the best bucks that you will ever spend in Vegas. 

Then on to Vegas. What can I say about Vegas? Two words spring to mind - Sodom and Gomorrah. Its, urm, well, mental. It makes Atlantic City look like Nashua. We are staying in the Mirage on the Strip which has its own Volcano which goes off on the hour every hour and they beat the Bellagio's fountains into a cocked hat. I think my main problem with the city (or the Strip I suppose to be more accurate) is the noise. Everywhere you walk there is music, interminable music which wouldn't be too bad if it was the same music everywhere but no, you start with U2 then 50 yards later its Phil Collins then its Duran Duran. Just stop the noise. And the neon, the neon. I am a great lover of twinkly things but there is just too much of it and its all too random. My eyes hurt.

Gambling is fun, if a very easy way to lose your money. We only actually spent $45 and then got bored of that. (UPDATE I won most of that back after playing $2 I found in my pocket on a fruit machine when I went out for a fag before breakfast - leaving Vegas even). I actually made more money from watching a blokes machine while he went and got more cash from the cash machine. He gave me $5 for doing it, I did try and tell him that he was well, giving his money away for nothing but how do you tell someone that who is pumping dollars into a computer with random pixels coming up when you press the buttons. Maybe there is a career to be had from keeping peoples seats in casinos?

I am only disappointed that I haven't managed to win enough money to buy Tony Soprano's vest and pants from the memorabilia shop in the hotel.

The sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire

We stayed in Kingman last night and tonight. And Kingman is only 70 miles from that skywalk thingy over the Grand Canyon. So of course we decided not go there. No we decided on the much more exciting destination of Lake Havasu City. First we went to that place everyone should go when in Kingman - the Route 66 museum. Its actually a really good little museum with an excellent shop. If you ever find yourself with time on your hands in Kingman, you could do worse than spend 20 minutes in there. Then it was off over another bit of Route 66.

As stunning as it is, you can see why they built the Interstate system. This bit went from Kingman west to Oatman and then to Golden Shores. Its another fantastic drive over a mountain pass but it wouldn't be the best way to get trucks and people over the hills, much easier to go around it like the modern I40 does.

Oatman is funny. Apparently its where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their honeymoon, a bit of an odd place to do that if you were him if you ask me but there you go. Its a proper old mining town which even though now earns its crust as a tourist attraction its not as twee as Calico, even if they do have a gun fight four times a day (and wild burros). 

So why you ask, did you forsake the, well grandeur, of the Grand Canyon for Lake Havasu City? Because Lake Havasu City is the final resting place of London Bridge (the old one obviously).

I'm not convinced that its all there as it looks a bit short to me. The area around the bridge is like a London theme park (now there is a weird concept). Lake Havasu City is a bit of weird place in general - it was actually founded after Giselle was born. It makes Kingman (founded 1880ish) look like Phoenicia.

Oh and that girl was right - the sunsets are beautiful in Arizona.