It’s that time of year again, the Christmas cake bake off. The kitchen is spread with baking stuff, oven primed and only 5 cakes to make, oh my!!

I’m a little late this year, but I can guarantee that there will be plenty of time to add ample helpings of Brandy to make these cakes sing!

Christmas here we come!

So, Mr Fogg and I are watching The Skulls on TV which has a scene about a dual between the two lead characters. Mr Fogg immediately imparted “Well, if I were in a dual I’d want the weapons to be sausages”.

Ok then, everyone clear on that one??

Poop film

Here we are again, in the lobby of the Bellagio waiting for the shuttle to the airport to take us back to the UK (boo). It’s been a fun fortnight with plenty if fun in the RV, but unfortunately it’s time to go home.

It’s definitely wintery here now, rain all the way from Kingman and the queues for the taxis here in Vegas has to be seen to be believed (anyone would think it was spotting with rain a bit.

Next stop is the airport.

Viva Las Vegas baby yeah!!!

Ahhh you cannot beat a healthy American traditional breakfast. I thought I’d have a treat in our last full day here and order blueberry pancakes (three of) which come with a side of bacon (of course, what else goes with pancake?), lashings of blueberry sauce and a little garnish of squirty cream. Yummy.

I feel all healthy now!

Picture the scene, Mr Fogg all contented having been immersed in lots of alien stuff, toys, pictures and the like, exits the UFO museum to wander back into downtown Roswell. As we are walking back to the RV a gentleman approaches him with another guy videoing and asked if Mr Fogg had just been into the UFO museum, and if so could he ask a few questions while videoing. Feeling obviously not his usual self, Mr Fogg happily agreed.

He he he, it started well enough:
“Where are you from?”
“The UK”
“Did you come to Roswell just to see the UFO museum”
“Well yes, as part of a holiday”
So what do you think, government conspiracy or something out there?
“Gotta be something out there”, says Mr Fogg
“So you believe in aliens then, how about angels?”
“Sorry?”
“Do you believe we all have angels looking after us? Because there are good and bad angels”
“I thought this was about the museum, not about religion, I’m not talking about religion to you”
“Well I’m not religious, but I read the bible, do you sir?”
“Erm, if this isn’t about the museum then this interview is over”
“Ah sir but you have a soul don’t you, do you believe in the bible?”
He was very persistent.
At this point I got the giggles and had to walk away.
Mr Fogg very politely ( I was very impressed) pointed out that this was not an interview that was going to continue. At which point his interviewer turned to his amateur cameraman saying:
“And there my friends is the evidence that the people who come here to visit the UFO museum are non believers with evil in their souls”

You heard it here first! I can only imagine some church somewhere sitting down to watch a video of a UFO worshiping non believer from England who just happened to be wearing a tee-shirt which read “Eejit”, with a giggling lunatic stood behind him. Funnier still, it might make You Tube!

Oh we get all the crazies….

We drove 300 miles north out of our way because I wanted to visit historic Santa Fe. I wished I’d not bothered. The campsite ( see picture) is pleasant but I’m afraid I was not impressed with Santa Fe. It’s claim to fame is largely historical, the infamous Navajo Long Walk came through on the old Santa Fe trail, Billy the Kid was temporarily imprisoned here before being moved and escaping and some of the buildings are supposed to be some of the oldest in the US.

However, despite pretty plaster buildings the actual centre consists of five main aspects: Overpriced and oversized jewellery in expensive boutique shops, overpriced expensive clothes with very odd designs in overpriced boutiques, unwashed hippies galore with overgrown beards, scabby unwashed kids and well dressed beggars with cardboard signs (all ages from teens upwards).

It’s also an artists meca, large art galleries with odd pictures, sculptures and the rest abound in Santa Fe. You want a full size bronze of an Indian complete with buffalo to stand in your house? You got it! Or you can have random bits of metal contorted into large shapes with what looks like breasts welded on, want two? No problem.

Needless to say the place did not have a pleasant feel to it, there was limited to see – unless to be fair you wanted museums because there are at least 5 huge ones which may or may not be good ( didn’t bother). We lasted 2 hours here, one of them was waiting for food.

A 600 mile round trip for nothing. Disappointing.

Oh, but I did see the site of the jail where Billy the Kid was imprisoned – it was knocked down in 1907. Sums it up really.

This is our campsite at the Grand Canyon. We are right at the very top section of trailer village which comes complete with personal picnic table, grill pit and all hookup services. A lovely peaceful location. Tonight it’s another steak and a chance for Mr Fogg to BBQ in the dark after we’ve done the laundry- a 3/4 mile walk away.

We like the Grand Canyon and have visited three times so far – once in a tent, once in one of the log cabins, and now in an RV.

This is our last full day at the Grand Canyon before we head out tomorrow to Holbrook. It’s an incredible sight (no matter how many visits, the colours and views are constantly different). You just cannot imagine the scale. Mr Fogg is stood right on the edge at approx 7,000 feet above sea level, the very bottom of the canyon is approx 2,400 feet above sea level where the Colorado river flows through. To reach the north side (we are on the south side) is a mere 10 miles across as the crow flies, and yet to cross you need to descend about 6 miles to the first plateau at Indian Gardens. In total to hike to the river bridge at the bottom it’s an 8hr trek, and a total of 21 miles to walk down, across and up the other side.

The area around the Grand Canyon is classed as high desert. We are camped in it. Around the rim there are Aloa Vera plants and gnarled trees of fir and juniper. Teeny chipmunks run between the trees, squirrels loiter around all the tourist food areas and mule deers (big things that are not shy) roam freely around.

Since it’s coming into fall here ( autumn to you) the deer are rutting. We saw two males last night with fab antlers and plenty of females. As we bbq’d last night a stag ambled past our grill, had a good look and a sniff then ambled on.

This really is wild country, populated by plenty of tourists, the major benefit of camping is that you can always find that quiet spot and listen to the wildlife all around.

Many of the park workers live in the RV park in big rigs- must be a nice existence each night to just be able to sit and watch the stars with no light pollution.

Next stop for us is new territory as we’ll cross into New Mexico on Saturday. Tomorrow I’ll post a pic of our campsite before we leave here.

Well helloooo there! We picked up our 28 foot RV this afternoon after being made to watch an hour long vid explaining all the things about the RV. Yawn. So we picked up the monster and started the drive to Kingman, a comfortable cruise of around 2 hrs- or so it should be at around 65mph. Ah, but in a rattling bucket of an RV which has a top speed of 60ish (65 downhill!!), it takes hours and hours. Imagine trying to drive a removals truck with all your stuff just rolling around and you’ll get the picture.

So, by the time we reached Kingman, it was dark (oh dear) and Mr Fogg had to reverse our truck into the last bay on the campsite. Next was the fun and games to connect the pooper hose, water and electric. Easy.

We’ve just been to the local truck stop for a fab home cooked meal and are now back and tucked up inside after figuring out how to make the loo work (pump, prime, flush, done). Shame they don’t seem to have cleared the poop tanks before we picked it up (Eugh). Fingers crossed it isn’t broken, mind you Mr Fogg reckons a good bit of weight would shift it, over to you dear I say!

RVs are pretty cool things, if a little tired inside and very rattley to drive around, but Grand Canyon here we come tomorrow.