Well it's been a few days since I did an update but wanted to wish everyone a happy new year, and to confirm we arrived safely in Las Vegas after touring the Arizona wilderness

Since last writing Jo & I have driven from san deigo to lake havasu, then onto the Grand Canyon for 2 nights before arriving in Vegas on thur.

After a quick lap on the hop on hop off bus tour of san diego (which inc seeing where some like it hot & top gun were filmed) we set off for lake havasu, our stop over on the way to the grand canyon. The drive took us through a variety of different landscapes - flat/hilly/mountainy/rocky/sand dunes/cotton fields/cactus fields/cow fields etc

We spent most of the day in a state of confusion. We appeared to have time travelled as we crossed the border from California to Arizona, however our phone company's had also sent us a text saying welcome to mexico and there was a random checkpoint where we had to show our passports.....and the sat nat had a history of not being 100% accurate....but luckily we were indeed in Arizona on mountain time and arrived as planned in lake havasu (our journey had just taken us so close to the Mexican border we could see it!)

When we arrived at the hotel confusion continued as our booking had been mixed up with another Elizabeth and Joanne who were staying for 3 months - Jo was not impressed with the thought of staying in this 'town' for 3 days let alone 3 months! Is not a lot to say about lake havasu other than it's where the original London bridge is now homed

After walking across the bridge we set off towards the grand canyon. We stopped for lunch on route 66 at 'roadkill cafe' - whose slogan is 'you kill it, we grill it' !! As a vegetarian not sure why I went in!! And am sure the cafe owners were grateful we hadn't killed the wild animal we had seen half an hour earlier - it was a wild bear!! A real one in the scrub on the verge of the road! Apparently they're not often seen in Arizona so we were very lucky 

My excitement over seeing bears continued as we spotted a safari park dedicated to bears called bearizona in a town called Williams. They had a drive through area where we saw bison, wolves and brown and black bears!! And unlike with English zoos/safari parks where the animals are always asleep at the back of their enclosure, these animals were running around for us to watch! They was also another area with bobcats and racoons and more bear & wolf enclosures. Fab & unexpected!! As was the pizza hut in our hotel at the grand canyon!

The next morning we were up early to see a great big red stripey hole! What else can you say about this wonder of the world?? We did a 25mile drive to desert view in the morning and a further drive to hermits rest in the afternoon, stopping at the many look out points to take pictures (and consult the map due to our defective sat nav) & finally watching the sun set over the canyon.

Both Jo & i would have liked more time
to explore the dif parts of san diego and the grand canyon but it was now Thurs morning & it was time to head to our final destination - Las Vegas!!

Not much to report about this drive. The man in the hotel convinced us to ignore the sat nav and take the scenic route - we need much convincing, the sat nav was usually wrong! However on this occasion it may have been right as the road was no different to any other we'd seen - ie dead grass and rocks and no bears

We arrives at the Hilton about 5 or 6 - the time zones were still confusing us! We had stopped at the Hoover dam which straddles Nevada and Arizona Borders and therefore timezones. It is an engineering wonder of the world and as with everything in America, it was massive. The Hilton is also massive with it's own internal monorail station, several restaurants (inc a pizza hut-yea) a wedding chapel,about 5 different casino areas & bars (Inc a gentlemans entertainment bar which we nearly mistook for a cocktail bar. In rock n roll style, Jo & I had our daily dose of nachos and a huge margarita before crashing into bed about 9.30 - that's 9.30pm not am! Shame on us! Our excuse was we were off to death valley early fri morning. The bar maid the night before, and everyone else we'd spoken to had warned us to be careful on this drive. Having never seen the film casino I didn't know what they were talking about, but Jo assured me that as we were not part of a mafia casino mob we'd be ok. The sat nav however if it could have dug it's own grave would have been the desert's next victim!

Anyway we arrived at death valley and were amazed. The landscape was nothing like anything we'd seen before, like another planet covered in melted neapolitan ice cream - so more spectacular than the grand canyon in our opinion

After dropping off our ming non-lime green ford focus (damage free!) we had got ready for a night on the town.....however having not packed a pink velour tracksuit & silver ugg boots I wonder looked out of place? Vegas is full of chavs but is interesting people watching while we drink our champagne!

Today's is new years eve we write this from our fave margarita bar (2 huge margaritas & massive plate of nachos for £10!!). We've just had our hair done in the hotel salon and are preparing ourselves for a night watching the lights, the dancing fountains, the fireworks & chavs on the Las Vegas Strip