Destination #6: West Coast Roadtrip: Part I

Monday 10 May 2010 - Wednesday 12 May 2010: Las Vegas vs. Grand Canyon

OK it took us some time to get blogging again but hey, as the Governator would say, we are back (okay he didn’t really say it in those words but you get the drift).

We started our West Coast roadtrip in Las Vegas aka Sin City some 12 days ago. Nobody with a Betfair account should be allowed to stay here longer than 24 hours. Despite our 90 seconds stint at the roulette tables that vaporised 100 dollars, we loved Vegas (special thanks to Hugh for suggesting to put money on 11 while it should have been 22). Gambling losses remained acceptable and we fortunately didn’t end up having to sell the car (the rental company would have been really pissed). We stayed in the funky non-gaming Vdara hotel the first two nights, next to the Bellagio (which has a killer Classic Bellagio Omelet with lobster on its breakfast menu, which fatboy here of course needed to try).

After two days of gambling and visiting numerous shoe shops from blokes called Manolo and Jimmy (no prizes for guessing who dragged us there) we left Vegas, having made the casinos a bit richer and our sabbatical a bit shorter.

Wednesday 12 May 2010: Las Vegas to Flagstaff

Having picked up our own big kick-ass SUV Ford Escape from Dollar-Rent-A-Car (it is all in the name..) we drove a sweet 410 km to Flagstaff, Arizona. On our way, Hoover Dam, which is mainly very big and not very interesting (nevertheless we still couldn’t resist and of course had to have a look around). We did have the pleasure of cruising through the desert on Route 66, one of the original US highways that runs all the way from Chicago on the East coast to LA on the West Coast a distance just short of 4,000 km.

After 5 hours driving we arrived in Flagstaff aka Little America. Apparently Flagstaff’s elevation of 7,000 feet (or 2,000 meter) makes it a “semi-desert” city. Not sure what that means but it sure was bloody cold for a desert city. In Flagstaff we stayed at the 410 Inn B&B. When we walked in, the smell of home-baked zucchini bread welcomed us. If you ever happen to pass through Flagstaff, make sure to stay at the 410 Inn B&B, it is kind of special in a good kind of way.

Thursday 13 May 2010 – Monday 17 May 2010: Grand Canyon

On Thursday we started our biggest adventure so far: a 4-day trek through the Grand Canyon. We got picked up by our 23-year old guide Claire (from Fargo, North Dakota, apparently it was in a movie) who because of her love of shouting every 10 minutes “Super, well done team” or “Are we still all happy campers?” had a distinct notion of “Team America (F#ck yeah)” over her. Claire graduated as an economist but decided that being a guide in the Grand Canyon was much more fun, and hey who can blame her?

Claire picked us up at 06:30 in the morning in her huge SUV (we are talking truck size here, if we would have hit a Mini we would only have noticed it at our next bathroom stop). The five of us (two Canadians called Elaine and Earl joined us for the hike) drove for what the Americans called a small drive (i.e. 3 hours) to the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Grand Canyon.

The 600 strong Havasupai tribe runs the show in this part of the Grand Canyon and the tribe clearly hasn’t produced any investment banking offspring yet. The only way to get from the entrance of the Grand Canyon (the Hualapai Hilltop) to the Havasupai Waterfalls (and our camping ground for that matter) is a 16 km hike. So the tribe operates a mule service (which, to be fair, took most of our luggage) for just $30 per mule and a helicopter service (which takes all the fatties) for only $80 one-way. A Ryanair-type offer we unfortunately declined. So the next couple of days we spent hiking to waterfalls, sleeping in tents (Claire just slept outside on the picknick table, as you do apparently), being bitten by musquitos and taking zillions of pictures.

Best put-down of the trip was courtesy of one of the older tribe members when he answered the question “It must be amazing to live here in the Grand Canyon?” with “Nah, it is just a bunch of rocks”. Other valuable lesson learned is that when Emma says “Go ahead, you don’t need to wait for me, I can get up the canyon by myself” this actually means “Where the f#ck do you think you are going, stay right here”.

All in all, the hike was a pretty amazing experience, but I have to admit that we were pretty happy to return to the 410 Inn B&B’s jacuzzi after 4 days. So far, so good for our first week in the United States of America!