USA : Phoenix - 'Go Suns Go!'

As is the way with travelling, especially when you're on a word of mouth adventure, things tend to happen on a whim. With some time to kill before heading back to LA we made the decision to pay a visit to Phoenix, Arizona, and hit up a couple of Couchsurfing hosts who agreed to have us at the last minute. The drive to phoenix was long and sickly, with the occasional moan from the passenger seat when Susie was able to muster the energy to say ' I'm soooo exhausted' before passing out again.
Getting sick in a foreign country is scary and we both appreciated travelling with a partner with some vague medical knowledge and a good 'game face' to keep the panic at bay.

Steve and Tony were an awesome pair of hosts who gave us our own room and the freedom to roam the house watching trash television and washing our disgusting, filthy, stinky, wretched (are you getting the point here?) laundry.

Our main ambition for Phoenix was to get some sporting action and that we did.
The first day saw us heading for a Baseball match between the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago White Sox. As we approached the ticket booth we couldn't believe our luck when a couple of sweet kids offered us their spare tickets to the game, leaving us with some dollars to spend on important things, like giant foam fingers.

Sticking with the sports theme we spent the next two days golfing and cycling.
We finally managed to get ourselves an In and Out Burger with our fries taken 'Animal Style.'
Cheesy, sloppy and so delicious.  All of the recommendations we had from our American friends were true, In and Out Burger destroys McDonalds.

On our last night in Phoenix we finally caught a Suns basketball game, it was exhilarating as the game went to extra time and the audience went wild. We saw the Phoenix Suns win on home turf and celebrated with $1 Taco time, for all but Susie, who was still recovering from the after effects of Campylobacter.

We reluctantly left Phoenix and our disappointed boys, who were quite getting used to being cooked for and having a couple of chicks around.

Next destination... LA part deux.

USA : Vegas - MUSTANG SALLY.

The first duty of the day was to ensure that we returned our beloved Chrysler back to LAX. It was here that we decided that we couldn't possibly manage the final two weeks in America without an automobile and arranged to pick up a cheapo car to get us around. The dwindling supply of cars available, due to the upcoming Oscars that week, left us fearful for our four wheeled future. However, after some serious haggling we some how ended up purring out of Fox Rent-A-Car with the top down on our free MUSTANG upgrade.

Three weeks prior to our visit to Vegas we had the pleasure of meeting a lovely lady by the name of Jackie Hicks after our traumatic night stay in Christies Motel (see previous blog). Whilst buying 24 cans of Diet Coke, we got chatting to Jackie who offered us a place to stay in Vegas with her unexpecting daughter. As we headed towards Erika's on our 5 hour drive, we knew if she was anything like her Mum, then she was going to be lovely. Needless to say... she was, as was her husband Al and their dog Bentley.

We spent 3 nights with this lovely trio enjoying a variety of culinary delights and chillaxing in front of the TV for the first time since our trip began, it was delightful. Unfortunately Susie became unwell and spent one night chundering into a bucket. Sincerest apologies to Al and Erika, but to quote Al, "Sometimes sick comes around!" Al passed on a great deal of wisdom to us during our stay and politely declined our offers for him to join us on a trip with the following responses...

"You ain't never gonna see no black man climbin' no mountain."
"You ain't never gonna see no black man in the sea."
"You ain't never seen no black man on a bike."

Al knew exactly what he liked : Golf, TV and Fried Chicken, and exactly what he didn't : Danger. Erika gave us our own personal tour of Vegas and we were dumbstruck when we caught sight of the strip for the first time. Everything in Vegas glistens. It does not flash, but gently twinkles whilst the smell of the scented oxygen pumping through the air conditioning is pleasant on the nose, it tantalises all the senses. We spent two nights in a giant castle (hotel) called Excalibur and after a hairy check in and a few distressed phones calls, we were upgraded to a Strip view room with free dinner vouchers.

With a chockablock schedule, we militantly sent out to make the most of what Vegas had to offer, first stop the 'New York, New York' Rollercoaster and a Show. The rollercoaster, despite Jan's resistance was a big hit, unlike the show that followed, a comedy hypnotist, that was neither funny nor able to hypnotise either of us, even though we fully committed to giving it a go by getting on stage to be part of the act.

The following day saw us being top detectives at the CSI Experience and relaxing in the Hotel Spa before we beautified ourselves for an exceptional dinner and an evening stroll along the strip. We observed the astonishing fountains at The Bellagio and tried to blend in inconspicuously with the moneyed crowds and high flyers betting up to $10,000 per hand. Following this plush and luxurious environment, we down-graded to Coyote Ugly where we stood on the bar and had the bar staff exclaim  "English girls in the house!" the bar was back to back stag and hen do's, we hastily departed and retreated to our room.


It was at this time, we discovered that there had been a shooting just a little further down the strip in which 3 people had died. This was shocking to see as we had felt so incredibly safe and secure during our time there.



Next stop in this neck of the woods was the Hoover Dam and The Grand Canyon. We cruised out with the roof down and our shades on to these infamous landmarks and were astonished at their magnitude. Film can never do justice to the natural beauty we saw that day, though we gave it our best shot and have a lot of 'National Geographic Porn' to show for it! Eagle creek was our first stop on the Canyon tour and we were mesmerised by the Guano area. The sheer drops were vertigo inducing and the sunset we experienced on our way back was the most gorgeous palate of orange, lilac and dusky pink behind the infinite desert landscape.






Vegas was Bad Ass and we now know why people call it 'Sin City.'
We absolutely loved our experience here and the people that we shared it with.

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.