Road Trip: NV - UT - AZ - NV Day 1

I've just realised it's been an age since I last posted anything here. You know. Life.

However, for the next few days, I shall be posting the diary I wrote on the holiday we just took over Spring Break. Beginning here.

23rd March 2011

What seems like only a few days ago, Tom and I decided that this Spring Break we would visit the Grand Canyon and some of the National Parks of Utah. The trip started off absurdly ambitious. The problem is there are so many Parks and National Monuments to see and they are all spectacular in their individual way. I designed a crazy road trip starting in Phoenix and taking in the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Arches, Capitol Reef and Bryce. When I realised this was well over 1000 miles to tackle in 10 or so days we started to cut back. We also revised our original plan to hire a car and stay in hotels along the way.

Which is how I come to be sitting in our RV in a park on the outskirts of Las Vegas, preparing for our trip to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon, a journey of 700 or so miles.

This morning we work early, finished packing and headed off to SFO in the rain, driven by a Tunisian cabbie which made for an interesting chat. We got there ridiculously early or as it's known in this family "on Eliane time". It was a long wait made longer by a delay but at least the flight was quick and painless. The air steward was determined to get us excited about heading to Vegas - made me feel positively puritanical - after all we're not really going to Vegas we're heading for Utah.

The RV hire place was surrounded by other RV hire places. They were everywhere, even on the roads. But it's early in the season, so most are parked looking huge and making ours look, if not small, then more manageable. All Cruise America RVs come with pictures on their sides - ours is appropriate - The Golden Gate Bridge. It's full of cupboards, all the modern conveniences and I can stand up inside which is good.

So we had our tour and headed nervously onto the road. Tom was driving. Very well, I might add.

First stop, Walmart. Oh the glamour! Our first Walmart (there isn't one in SF and I haven't gone out of my way looking). Since my main experience of Walmart is based on the gruesomely fascinating People of Walmart website, I was a bit disappointed. It's a supermarket. A very very very big supermarket. Tom and I used our phones to find each other. Or we'd still be there.

I am very very tired. I loathe travelling. I mean I love being in different places but because I suffer from motion sickness most forms of getting there are hard work. And I've been stressed about this trip for weeks. But now it's here and it's kind of cool, and very American and we shall see. And so will you.