Vegas (and L.A) baby!

Coming out of the mountains to Vegas is a surreal experience a little like being on the worst kind of extreme rollercoaster, with more flashy lights and BIGGER trucks that want to kill you. I must admit, Vegas wasn’t on our stop list, we had limited time, we had been to Vegas before and quite frankly, it’s only amusing for the first half an hour you are there, after that it’s like a never ending nightmare of consumerism. HOWEVER, the gorgeous, the FABULOUS, the STUPENDOUS Polly asked when we were coming.... and we just could not say no! So, sorry London Bridge (now in Havasu) but there are more important things to see. So, this is what lead us to be hurtling on a billion lane freeway in crazy town with a SQUILLION people after being on the actual moon in Arizona. And honestly, it was THE BEST. It was almost as if Polly and the totally charming and divinely sweet Adam knew us inside and out...taking us to classic 50’s Italian restaurants with red leather booths, or to brilliant Tiki bars so dim lit we had to read the menu with our phones, that played 80’s punk videos on Tv and surfing classics, or vintage shopping to buy yet more tiki and the most awesome outfits (oh and a stuffed eagle...well, Adam did...that would have been a step too far even for me!) We saw the backside of The Strip, which actually looked beautiful in the sunset. We talked, we gossiped, we laughed a lot, we saw bugs the size of birds and we walked the streets in 40+ degree heat. Me and Sam even managed a 4K run early in the morning, shouting ‘VEGAS BABY’ (when we had some breath and were not dying of extreme heat) I loved being with Polly and Adam, I felt able to be who I am, talk about things that mattered to us all and I am only sad not to live closer as they are true friends.

But onwards. Reluctant to head off for many reasons, knowing the drive is long and tedious (only broken up by a stop at The Biggest Gas Station In The World... 100 pumps) leaving such wonderful friends, but also of course that LA was to be our last stop. Now, Sam and I have been to LA quite a few times and I had booked us a few days there to relax before flying home - because it was familiar and I thought, well... we can go to some fab places we have seen before and just chill....UMMMMM nope. LA welcomed us like a cheeky old but very dear friend saying COME HERE, SEE THIS... and we were welcomed to what I can only describe as HOME. It honestly feels like home, maybe in the same way London does, troublesome, a bit of a pain, but also brilliant and fun and ever changing.

We stayed in an area new to us, Los Feliz, which was the first surprise. PEOPLE WALK AROUND. I can not emphasise how unusual this is for L.A., well actually the whole of America (cue the ‘nobody walks in America’ song, which sounds a little like the ‘nobody works on a Friday’ Song) but even more so for L.A. the centre of the car crazy universe. But no. Here in Los Feliz village, the roads are only 4 lanes and people amble up and down the streets, and sit outside cafes and bars...positively European. And where we are staying is just amazing...a super 70’s Studio pad.... with a shagpiled reading nook, a balcony looking over the lights of Downtown, the most comfortable bed with period 70’s lighting and a FREAKING JACUZZI BATH TUB. Just brilliant. With the most brilliant part being Rose and Christoff who own (and built the damned place) who we bump into after our first night out and who welcome us in for drinks and nibbles to following day. And of course we go. We see all new places that just blow us away. Originally disappointed because the tiki bar we wanted to see wasn’t open on Tuesday we decide to go to The Dresden, which was just across the road from the bar we were in. OMFG. No, I thought I needed a tiki bar, but it turns out I needed a CLASSIC cocktail bar, complete with leather edged bar, fake rock wall detail, a cream leather boothed restaurant, ASTOUNDING cocktails (ouch) and Marty & Elaine. A pair that have been playing at The Dresden for seemingly centuries, still dyeing their hair black, he singing Dean Martin classics, her on jazz piano and FLUTE ffs. It defies understanding and explanation, I just want to go there... every night.... for the rest of my life (something that I think I inform Sam of after our 4th cocktail)

With a head full of mainly margarita and needing fresh air, the following day was spent at Venice Beach, just so wonderful to see the ocean, be on a beach again. I had been craving the sea and Venice does not fail to provide sweet breezes, roaring waves and funny sights. We cycle (well, I cycle, Sam falls off his skates and then cycles...why on earth he didn’t get knee pads is just beyond me...) along from Venice to Santa Monica to Marina Del Ray and then amble past millionaire row back to the Marina for lunch

. We returned home to our pad, sunkissed and READY for a total trip down memory lane, because one of the crazy things we had booked to do in LA was to go see Miss Saigon! This was the show that Sam & I (and so many other friends) worked on 25 years ago. I think we both worked on it for a year or so, I went back to it for a spell after Dais was born - and every song, every cue, every costume change is etched into my soul! No one goes to the theatre in LA, so tickets at the spectacular Pantages Theatre were incredibly cheap, the seats excellent and have to say the show was everything I wanted it to be. Yes it was nostalgic, but it was also a brilliant staging. Yes, I obviously knew all the words, but the cast were strong and a joy to watch. Yes, me and Sam did hold our breath when we knew the helicopter was coming, but it did not fail to move me. We wandered home with huge smiles, fond memories of times long gone and a commitment to see some of those folk again soon.

Thursday was spent WALKING (‘Nobody walks in America...’) we walked up to the edge of Griffiths Observatory, dreaming not only of which house we should buy, (hacienda style? Mid Century Modern? Ultra Modern? Faux Victorian?) but also how we should decorate it and the type of guard dog we might need. Our Airbnb landlords were astounded just by that, but then we ALSO walked all the way down Melrose...which yes, even for a normal town would be far, perhaps a little too far for my tiny feet, but in LA is like walking to Australia. But we wanted to see bits we hadn’t seen before - and going through districts was fascinating - from extreme wealth to people living in tents, or under blankets on the street. The land of opportunity is only for some sadly, and in LA this is never more stark. We round the evening off with drinks with Christoff and Rose and their friends, with tales of their house building and we discover that Christoff and Sam are virtually separated at birth, doing the same thing, liking the same things, I have to drag Sam out for fear we were overstaying our welcome, only to meet Christoff on the way back after we had discovered another fab tiki bar, and to be brought BACK into their house for more wine and promises that Sam can take out Christoff’s Harley for a run

. Friday was MAXIMUM HOLLYWOOD day.... Sam went out for a spin, cruising up and down Hollywood & Sunset Boulevard on a freaking Harley... and then we decided to amble over to West Hollywood for lunch and knowing the film we just about to see, we obviously stopped at the iconic Musso & Franks - 100 years old and still the same as it had ever been. Glorious, indulgent and made us giggle! Worth every cent to be there and to experience that. All of this a prelude to our main event...going to see the new Tarantino nig opening weekend in FULL 70mm Cinerama at the Arclight on Sunset. Introduced by one of the staff and told to shut up and turn off phones (YES, this should be standard...) the packed cinema full of Americans whooping and cheering THEIR town on screen, just so involved and loving every minute! Hilarious and emerging into the dazzling sunlight on the very streets that were being portrayed on screen was magical, especially as they had actors handing out goodies and two of the cars from the movie...and it really was a MOVIE not a film. Brilliant, just brilliant. A total Hollywood day, topped off by ambling around Los Feliz village - ‘the best fish tacos’ and some rather splendid sangria in a deliciously hip bar.

And then it was time to leave. A final run, meaning I had run in all the states we stayed in, 10 states...a real goal and one I really am immensely proud of achieving. A final day spent on the beach at Venice, with the ocean lapping at out feet, the breeze in our faces and final fish tacos in our tummies and the BAM..the tedious drama of taking back the hire car. Always stressful, always unpleasant and longer than it should be. Hate hire car companies with a passion. But... the pay off was past me booking premium tickets to fly home with...so not only did we skip the endless bag drop queue in the airport as we could walk straight to the front, but also we had first class lounge invites (open bar, limitless champagne, wine, beer - dear lord have they met us?) which meant with a satisfied sigh, we settled down to just relax before our long long flight home....that again praising past me for being so brilliant with the premium upgrade tickets meant we had more free drinks, HUGE seats, lots of leg room and I fell fast asleep even before the end of the film I had wanted to see, waking up an hour before landing!

The trip has been simply breathtaking. So much fun being with the man I love 24/7 with no arguments, no desire for ‘space’ just endless wonder and excitement at what we were seeing. We laughed big every day, we explored every tiny museum we could find, we drank margaritas in every town we could, we talked to folk, we WALKED and we were just together, being Sam and Ruth, Ruth and Sam, forever. Just the best.

Coming round the mountain....

I had to pause after Monument Valley. I honestly was not sure that anything else that we would see on our travels would be able to come close to the intensity of emotion I experienced there. We had a good night at a ‘classic’ Route 66 hotel, El Rancho, which was all dark wood and silver screen film stars - rather good margaritas - decidedly average food. We were in the Alan Ladd room and whilst it was interesting for its history, I just could not shake the memory of the monoliths I had seen.

We set off early, after a rousing breakfast of Huevos Rancheros for what I thought would be a perfectly adequate day of site seeing topped off by a swim in a hotel pool, which I was craving. And then we hit The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. And once again my heart soared with the vast open spaces, the dry dry wind in my face, the ever changing landscape, one moment sweeping huge plains, followed by strange almost ice cream shaped mounds and in turn deep valleys and high mountains with soaring birds. Once again it is like stepping into a film set and I want to FLY! It seems I love the desert, I always knew I loved the heat, but this trip has confirmed that I love the vast open plains and the HUGE red rock cliffs. The Painted Desert is a well managed national park, a pleasing drive through with good easy spots for epic picture taking and short walks - a more sanitised, no not quite that, but just easier perhaps, version for sure of the heart wrenching beauty of Utah, but still worthy of gasps.

A walk through the Crystal Forest, a moon like plain filled with prehistoric logs that have petrified and turned to crystals, whilst still having what looks like bark, yet feels like rock, is just astounding and confirms my now complete amateur geologist status. What I was expecting to be a perfectly adequate day of site seeing became another day of too much view for my eyes and another exciting exploit with my eager co-adventurer.

We land after our stroll on the moon, in the land of dinosaurs and experience a small town bar, complete with ‘no fire arms on show, multiple tv screens showing either baseball or cage fighting and one of the weirdest toilets I have ever seen. We swim, eat dull Italian food in a portacabin and seemingly either gain or loose another hour making us not only unsure as to what the damned time it is but also whether we should be going to sleep or eating more food.

The following day starts, as most days shouldn’t, with a near decapitation, as Sam narrowly and skilfully avoided sheets of corrugated iron flying off the back of a flat bed truck - but then continues with less heart stopping fear and more jolly mountain fun. Arizona is undefinable, with the landscape changing from desert, to plains, to mountains and to a MASSIVE METEOR CRATER all in the space of a couple of hours. And after a few hours of excellent adventuring we drive into what can only be described as Switzerland... small fun towns nestled in pine trees lined mountains with fresh cool air, vegetarian food and, in Flagstaff, an excellent punk band playing as we eat lunch! Flagstaff is one of the gateways to The Grand Canyon and more importantly has at least 5 craft beer breweries, including the rather excellent Dark Skies brewery and we are nourished, fed, ale’d and are ready to push on to our final overnight stop on Route 66. And this is where it happens.... we start to see signs for Los Angeles. Signs that I have always SQUEAKED with excitement at seeing and now for the first time ever am experiencing such a mix of emotions over. I love LA and we have fun stuff planned there, but it signifies the end of these adventures and to not being with Sam 24/7. So we do the only thing we can do...find the MOST EXCELLENT BAR not just in town but maybe on the whole trip and sit and drink cocktails and buy excellent ‘merch’ for the whole family and talk and talk and talk and have to put on our newly acquired long sleeve tops for the short walk back to our adequate and antiquated motel.

LOVE ARIZONA

Beyond words....

So this is hard, incredibly hard. It is hard to put into words not only all that we have seen on the past 3 days, but also to try and sum up all of the feelings and all of the emotions I have felt. What I have seen is too big for my eyes, too vast for a camera to capture and is too intense to be merely written about. Our journey from Santa Fe was the start of this epic experience, every hill brought a new view, every turn in the road a total change in terrain - slowly, ever slowly becoming more desolate, empty and at times like driving across the moon. There were no people, no signs, mostly no other cars, just us and road. The only words we could find to express our feelings were either WOW, or to be honest, swear words, as the view changed endlessly, challenging our perception of what we had thought this country looked like. And it was getting hotter, way hotter...... we stopped for lunch in a place beyond no where, a place where they thought our accents were cute and unplaceable and the pavements were sticky with heat. And finally arrived in Bluff - a town that seemed at first glance one simple street framed by the most astounding rock formations, but on further investigation seemed a town on the edge of change. At the moment, it’s a sweet ramshackle collection of motels and lodges that have been eking out a life for the few people that know about this spot in the middle of no where, but they are building a new hotel with plans for more...like everything we learnt on this trip there is good and bad in that...good for the people that live there, for jobs, for people’s futures, but maybe potentially spoiling the area with increased tourism and the issues that brings. We were booked in a lodge that seemed straight from an 80’s teen film (but hopefully with less angst and scary murders) incredibly sweet, with a pool to cool off in and a track that lead straight to the edge of a mountain. We were greeted with the exciting news that they now had colour TV’s in the rooms... Dinner in the shade of twin rocks, precariously balanced was astounding and a real promise of what was to come, so early to bed, to be early up the next day...

The river. One of the things we had been planning, dreaming of, really since we had started this whole journey was this. A river trip in Monument Valley...and now it was HERE. I was stealing myself to spend the day with perhaps 4 or 5 other mildly irritating people on the boat, after all, that’s how these things usually work - we had booked a whole day trip on the river, with a guide and lunch...so they usually pile ‘em high right? WRONG... we were the only ones booked....so we had not only the boat to ourselves, but our simply amazing guide, Kevin, to ourselves. And what a total luxury this was. Kevin had decided rather than a motor, he wanted to row is down the river, through the canyon as it would be more....just more....and oh, I am so so glad. You know there are moments in life where you just connect? With a stranger that comes into your life at the right point - you may never see again, but you just connect...this was that moment.

Our trip started easily, down the beautiful fast flowing river, we took an easy walk to the just amazing ancient carvings on the cliff faces, depictions of tribes dancing, celebrating, rituals and SOUND...they had found a way to draw sound, how it feels to hear...this was the first simply astounding treat of the day. And it progressed from there, we drifted down stream, saw the ruins of a clan house, or more a collection of houses, built deep into the cliff - so like abandoned villages and houses we have seen across Europe and yet so so different... And on, sat on the boat, as we entered the canyon, not drifting, now with more purpose, the rapids only small, but the sounds of the river adding to the sensation of being so totally THERE...in that moment...nothing else. And we chatted, easily, openly...our lives, Kevin’s life, music, foods, our families, our plans...connection. I am not naive enough to think we were special and yet...and yet.... Kevin was so relaxed, open, natural, honest and it was easy just to be us...

We learnt about the geology, we learnt about the area and the history and that it is all multi layered and complicated. There is little that is black and white, good or bad..but just multiple layers, which overtime lead to an incredible story and landscape. We stopped for lunch after having seen no one else so far on the river. NO ONE...just the 3 of us for HOURS. Kevin made a prepared lunch for us whilst we swam and laughed and chased tiny lizards and again we just chatted, with increasing ease and just shared...thoughts on work, on having kids and them growing up, on the river...

And it was HOT, like sitting in a hairdryer at points. And achingly beautiful. Every turn more beautiful than the last, beauty in front and when you turn back view shifted to more beauty. We see long horned sheep posing for photos, geese flying straight at us, turkey vultures, Russian olives, tamarisk trees - but no fishes....sadly. We feel like explorers, like we are in endless movies and I start to believe I might see Indiana Jones around the next bend. It seemed as if we were out of time, that we would never finish, never come to the end - and I did not want to. The rapids were too much fun, the water too bubbly, the views all too vast for my eyes and then sadly, all too soon for me (although I think both Kevin’s hands from rowing and sams skin from the relentless sun were glad for us to reach the end)

We ate and slept well that night.... A breakfast watching the hummingbirds out of the window after a brief but still important run (still on schedule to run in every state) was simply sublime and then off.... And then I run out of words. We drive towards Monument Valley, giddy with excitement at first as we can see it looming in the distance and then increasingly falling silent as we are just in awe of what we are seeing. The rock formations defy description, they are beautiful, stunning, unworldly, awe inspiring, breathtaking - and yet these are all just words, pointless, meaningless words. The experience of being there is not just visual, you feel the hot wind, the sand on your feet, the 360 degree view, you just can not capture it, it is overwhelming. They stir something in me beyond words and I wish for a way, like the ancients trying to depict sounds, to share what I saw. But I can’t. All I know is that I leave a piece of my heart up on the hot windy ridge looking up to these epic monoliths. I am lost.