A Trip to the USA

Three of us in our late sixties took the trip to the USA on a three week holiday and were lucky to travel first class due to family connections in the airline industry; this was a first for two of us and we appreciated the trouble they took to make us comfortable and very well fed.

At Los Angeles we collected our hire car which was upgraded to a premium car so we set off in high spirits; soon to be dashed by rush hour traffic in the dark on a six lane freeway. Having survived that the rest of the driving was easy and we spent one or two nights in motels and hotels on our three thousand mile tour, another time we shall try to make no one night stops as lugging the luggage about was hard work for my husband who did the lifting in and out of the car.

We headed for Arizona to start with and were fortunate to see the Grand Canyon before the government shutdown closed the national parks; we then headed to Utah which was a shame as it is a pretty dry state and we had to have an alcohol free dinner on my husband’s birthday. Our most memorable stop was at a buffalo ranch where we stayed in a log cabin and sat on the swing seat on our porch and watched the buffalo. At Vegas we lost twelve dollars on the slot machines and at San Francisco ate clam chowder on Fisherman’s Wharf. We tasted wines in Napa Valley and ate three pound crabs on Santa Barbara Pier.

We found everyone very friendly and met some characters along the way. At one service station we got chatting to a man with a truck load of zeolite rock which he got from Death Valley for putting in swimming pools and horse troughs etc., apparently it stops the algae and he gave us some to bring home which is now in the dog bowl.

Thanks for giving us decent travel insurance and making us feel safe.

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