Up to 9/5 - Bring Everyone Up-To-Date

So, here I am in Tropic, Bryce Canyon, USA on May 9 ; and painfully aware that there hasn't been a blog posting since the 27th of last month.

As you can imagine this is not because we haven't been doing things and hance have nothing to report. Indeed, quite the opposite we've been so busy and on the move that I haven't been able to make postings as I'd like. Thats still really the case. This is going to be a quick summary of some of the things we've done. However on my PDA I'm keeping a much more complete account and when we get to a stable location I'll give a far more thorough account of everything.

OK, so Sunday and Monday the 28th and 29th were full days in Paris for us. Sunday we met Pete and Adam my two favourite students from way back and spent most of the day with them. Business was discussed and some sites seen before Maria and the kids returned to Sannois and I stayed in the city with Adam and Pete for a metro pub crawl. The next day Pete headed out but Adam stayed with us when we climbed the Eiffel tower. Then while Maria and the kids visited the Paris school that provides pen-pals for Miles Franklin Adam and I continued discussions. One memory is of women in 2-piece bikinis sunning themselves in the park just near the base of the tower.

Tuesday we flew to the US. It was a long flight but nothing too dramatic - till we got to the other end and found that Maria's luggage had not arrived. We got into the hotel (eventually) tired and deflated.

The next 3 days were Disneyland and far exceeded my expectations of the place. First day was traditional Disneyland, 2nd day was California adventure park, and the 3rd day we spent time in each. We all loved the extreme rides of both places and did the most "scary" such as California Screamer (everyone's favourite), the tower, the blast, soaring, etc. Really, it exceeded expectations, but did remain the commercial "happiest place on earth" (blah!) also - which took the edge off a bit.

Then after a day of rest and planning it was time to hit the road. We have a hire car that looks like some sort of surfer's vehicle from the 60s - curved hood and roof. Quite stylish - if you like that kind of thing. So on the Sunday we drove partway to Grand Canyon (a place called Kingsman - one the famous Route 66), then the next day all the way.

The Canyon was as awe inspiring as ever - all that exposure and space is something that a human mind and perceptual system used to limited horizons and spaces finds it hard to deal with. Grant was very disconcerted by the exposure of the place - most of the rim and trails into the canyon have no railings and sheer drops that go down and down and down. We ended up doing a helicopter flight and also walked partway into the canyon (it is a full day's walk for fit people to descend the more than 1 mile vertically to the bottom of the canyon). Great fun, but too short a time.

Today we have driven from the canyon north to Bryce Canyon, arriving in the evening. As I write this Maria and the kids are a couple of hundred metres away at another hotel using the laundromat there (yes, I know its not as romantic as talking about the Seinne or as sweeping as the Grand Canyon - but these are necessities of a trip also!).

Anyway, we are all well and happy. There were some further minor dramas of a financial nature - simply to do with cards not working etc. But all is good.

We will be here at Bryce for another full day then drive over to the nearby Zion National Park for 2 days. The most likely course from there is a 2 to 3 day trip up to the Browns at Eugene in Oregon. Grant has been "hanging out" to see Nate again.

Well, I've been feeding this machine 1-dollar bills about as fast as I type a paragraph. I'm not sure how much time I have left and the last thing I want to do is to lose my work (that happened to me at Kingsman). Our love to all our friends - at home in oz and all those great friends who have helped us along the way - we're thinking of you.