Daniel Cann

It was another unforgettable experience as we climbed higher and higher and felt the desert wind in our hair. There was no backing out; it was not as if you could ask ‘Can you stop the ride please?’ The anticipation as we reached the drop off point was palpable. I think we all took a sharp intake of breath before…we plummeted at great speed before twisting and turning and rattling along seeing a mixture of ground-sky-ground. When we finally stopped and got off the ride it felt as if my lungs were in my throat! In England we take a break at a service station during a long road trip; in the States they did this!

We arrived in Las Vegas that evening just as the sun was setting and the neon lights were coming on. This was the Las Vegas of gangster Ben ‘Bugsy’ Siegel, of Hunter S Thompson, countless films and the scene of many sports events and modern cautionary tales. I was here! The famous Strip was an impressive if gaudy sight. After travelling all day and hardly seeing anything but desert it is a strange sensation to suddenly be confronted by such a large modern settlement, a city of lights and unusual characters.

After checking in at the impressive looking ‘Luxor’ Hotel built in the shape of the Sphinx and continuing with its ancient Egypt theme inside as well (the lobby had scale models of camels!) The elevator to our room was known as the ‘inclinator’ something out of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!’ Ben and I did receive some disparaging looks from a few snooty fellow guests but we did not care. We were backpackers and did not carry our luggage in suitcases, that hardly made us criminals but the expressions on some people’s faces were priceless. Snobbery is alive and well in the US of ‘A’ I’m afraid. Our rooms were luxurious; Ben and I could not believe how lucky we were and how generous Dave was. We paid him a concessionary price; we both knew full well that the total cost was much higher. We were discovering that Americans could be extremely welcoming (even if some were snobs and bigots)!

Once we had all settled and had something to eat the children stayed with Dave and Judy while Karen, Ben and I checked out the casinos. We visited: ‘Excalibur’, ‘New York, New York’, ‘The Tropicana’ and the ‘MGM Grand.’ I noticed disconcertedly that there were no clocks on the walls of any of the hotels or casinos giving the disorientating effect of not knowing what time of day it was, if you got really caught up in the gambling as a lot of people clearly were then your sense of reality could soon get severely skewered. The whole place gripped some like a vice and it was like Disney World for adults. The smiles of the waitresses were fake (dead eyes) and the customers gambled with no joy, it was like a conveyer belt on a factory production line. Still, that said it was great to be just an observer and to finally soak it all up and form my own opinion on the place. By all means visit but beware!

Thankfully we stayed just the one night and that was enough. On the way out of Vegas we saw ‘Bally’s Casino’ and ‘Caesar’s Palace’ all very impressive but in a plastic otherworldly way. Back on the road we took in some impressive sights like Lake Meade and the Hoover Dam. We crossed another State line into Arizona and our clocks had to be adjusted forward an hour. I noticed a huge clock built into a sheer wall of rock displaying the two State’s times, only in America!

That evening we camped in the desert, the first time since Australia that we had done so. It was great to have a camp fire and to sit under the stars, we even saw Halle Bopp Comet as well which was an unexpected but welcome sight.

Waking up the next day it was time to achieve another lifetime goal of seeing the Grand Canyon. After a long drive and seeing a lot of desert we arrived at the awe-inspiring sight. There are no words that can do the place any justice to its natural beauty and sheer magnificence so I won’t even try! But when there it literally freezes you and silences you with its power. Below we could see sandstone, limestone and shale formed millions of years ago by the sea and plate tectonics. It was a humbling experience and made me feel very small and insignificant.

We managed to see the Grand Canyon at daytime, sunset and at night. It was a strangely moving experience watching the sun set standing there with hundreds of other visitors to the famous site. We camped again and had a barbecue that included kebabs on the menu, an unusual but inspired thought from Dave. Our time with our American hosts was fast running out and I spent the evening chatting to Karen realizing that we would have to say goodbye the following day. We both agreed that our short time together had been special.

So the following morning our convoy reluctantly left the Grand Canyon and at Williams in Arizona it was time to say our goodbyes. It was a shame to see them go, they had been simply wonderful hosts and thanks to them Ben and I had an unforgettable first leg of our American journey. It was a case of being back to earth with a bang as we were on our own again and in what seemed like a ghost town in the middle of a desert. The Greyhound bus could not arrive sooner! Finally it arrived and we were on yet another overnight journey, this time headed to El Paso, Texas.