Day 15 - All of USA is in Las Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas about 2:00 after visiting the Hoover Dam. The dam was pretty impressive you get a great view from the new bridge.

Coming into Vegas was slow in the traffic. We got to the Hotel , Treasure Island, to wait for about 30 minutes in a long line. Once checked in we walked the strip to visit some of the sites. Again we were back in the heat 38 plus at least the heat was a dry heat not so zapping.

There are a lot of people around.

some strange people.

Seeing the iconic sites was cool

But I must say that Vegas is for me a metaphor for what the USA is about. It is all that's right and wrong in the USA. It is trying do and be the right thing but is undermined by the need for the dollar.

I knew that Vegas was all about gambling but was a little surprised how in your face it is and how large some of the casino's are.

Roger calls Vegas the zoo, and he's most likely right. There are some great sights but I'm not sure its worth cost.

Well off to LA tomorrow then flight home on Saturday night (Sunday NZ time) back Monday. 

I'll most likely post another blog or 2 with some other thought's and photo's that I have not shared yet.

Day 14 - Wifi Troubles

The Grand Canyon was just that Grand.

We have been have trouble with Wifi here our Cameron motel so we are sitting in a McDonald's. Each photo = 1,000 words.

Las Vegas next as the trip comes to a close..........

Day 13 - All the Valleys a Stage

It's hard to explain to day's adventures.

We drove from Cortez to Monument Valley.

For me Monument Valley was going to be one of the highlights of the trip. It’s a place that I have seen in so many movies and read about in a number of books especially about John Ford and John Wayne.

This is a photographic paradise. They have a fantastic visitors center that looks straight on to the valley. 


There is a rough dirt road that winds through the valley. Roger braved the drive and we went out to “John Ford’s Point” which was his favorite place in the valley and where he filmed most of this shot’s for “The Searchers” and “Stagecoach”.

Roger had never been there so it was new for both of us. We were a bit dumbstruck by the Valley it was awesome.

I have had a hard time selecting which photos to post on the blog. So here are a few...

Tomorrow is the big one, the Grand Canyon..................

Day 12 - Across the Great Divide

Today we have started our journey to LA.

But yesterday (day 11) we went to Creede. On the way we seen Buffalo.

Creede is an old silver mining town at an altitude of 8,800 feet with a population of only 300 people.

The mines have been converted into tourist shops and a when we were there there were a lot of older people learning wood and stone carving.

I found a bath load of ducks (Duck Duck Go anyone)

Creede was also the site for the Shootist,John Wayne’s last movie. It’s also where they have just finished filming the Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp.


So today we were up and away early and drove across the Great Divide and the scenery is breathtaking. Photos do not convey the size and majesty of the scenery.

We had lunch at Durango which is a railway town (Denver and Rio Grande Railroad) that also seem to have a lot of wine shops.

We then moved on to the highlight of the day, Mesa Verde. Most people have seen photos of Mesa Verde in one form or other.

Mesa Verde is best known for the ancient cliff dwellings of the native americas. These were abandoned in about 1200 AD.

Mesa Verde is massive, a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. This is not only one site to see the cliff dwellings but a number of sites. We visited one site, Spruce Tree House which is the third-largest village and had about 130 rooms. You could spend a good 2 or 3 days exploring this National Park.

Tomorrow we are off to Monument Valley another iconic American site especially in western movies. It was a favorite site of director John Ford.

Day 11 - Confucius say

So we just had Chinese "Take out" and my fortune Cookie said...............

So as the Monkees once said "I'm a Believer"

I had to Blog this...................

Day 9 and 10 - The full Monty

We have been taking it easy over the last few days.

The Alamosa and Rio Grande counties are where Roger lives and work and reminds me of the desert road area. We are in a large valley that is about 7,000 feet high with huge mountains all around. It seems to be mainly a farming area. They grow lots of potatoes and hay for sale in other areas. They are dairy/beef farms around. The population of each county is about 15,000 and is very much at the lower socio-economic level.

The area is a very Spanish/Mexican/Indian culture as opposed to Washington DC with was very European/African American culture.

We did go for a drive to the Great Sand dunes which are amazing. They are about an hour away from Roger’s.

Have a look at the Wikipedia Link if you want to read more about this natural high desert and dunes.

On the drive we were hoping to see some Buffalo but did not see any. We did see a coyote.


We went over to Cuchara and on the way see some really interesting rock formations. This is a big country with large mountains and distances.

Cuchara is an interesting little town. There was a very “Mountain Man” feel to the town. They also do have wild black bears about but we did not see any, which I think was a good thing.

I also seen my first ghost town; Russell, hopefully we will see more on our travels.

We will be leaving Monte Vista (or Monty as it's known here) early Monday morning and travelling to LA. This is very much the western leg of the trip where western movies will be the theme rather than the Civil War.

Day 8 - The Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Monte Vista Trail

We woke up in Albuquerque after arriving there late previous night.

After breakfast we hit the road for Santa Fe. The weather is much cooler in the 20's.

Santa Fe is a lovely city, all adobe style buildings, even the fast food joints have to conform to the Pueblo style of building.

In the town square the local Pueblo artists sell their wears mostly jewelry and pottery. And of course there were tourists everywhere.

One interesting place we visited was "Jackalope Furniture" where we seen some prairie dogs.

I seen some prairie dogs as we were driving and thought the were rats or something. So Roger took me to Jackalope's which was a large furniture/outdoors/folk art set of shops. In the middle was a prairie dog mound where I took the above photo.

We went up to Taos to visit a Pueblo village but it was closing. We then drove to the Taos Gorge where I took a pile of photo's.

In the valley there were a number of wide goats.

From the gorge we past an area that I thought was familiar. It was the earth-ship project, I had read and seen these in a number of books when I was researching building our straw-bale house. I was surprised at the number of buildings.

We then drove through the rain and wind into Colorado and finally to Rogers house in Monte Vista.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring as we have been going full out since I got here.