Bob and Paul do Vegas
27/10/2002-24/11/2002

The Email Diary - written from various Internet Cafes and Libraries across South West USA.

Replies should be sent to theboblawrence@hotmail.com
As you know, I'm off to south western America this tomorrow. My lucky (or unlucky) cohort on this 2000 mile trip is Paul Singh from the work, who will be doing all the driving while I flounder aimlessly with the maps.....hopefully our Cherokee Jeep will come with GPS! We already have some motels and helicopter flights over the grand canyon booked, then we 4-wheel-drive into the middle of no where.
For those that are interested: the rough route is: Las Vegas! Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Temple Bar, Peach Springs/Canyon, Hualapai Hilltop, Grand Canyon Village, Desert View, Page, Lake Powell, Monument Valley, Kayenta, Gouldings, Four Corners, Arches National Park, CanyonLands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, North side of Grand Canyon, Hurricane, North side of Lake Meade, back thru Las Vegas again, Death Valley, Furnace Creek, Mammoth  Lakes, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco !!!!
We're thinking about popping into internet cafe's on the way and sending out updates of where we have got lost. If you'd prefer not to know, please say so and I'll take you off the list.

Hi everyone, we've landed safely, feeling dead tired. Vegas is a mad place full of MASSIVE outlandish hotels which are full of more massively fat people than I've ever seen, they ride on buggies as they are unable to walk, waitresses bring them food from 24hr doughnut stalls while they are wired into slots machines through their creditcards. Internet access is very expensive here, so may not email as often as I hoped.

Hi everyone again
We're at Grand Canyon now, its amazing, we've been to the top, the bottom, flown thru it and walked a small way down it. Cant write much as internet is very expensive here, can just say thanks for all your emails, I've read all, but dont have time to reply to them!

We're in the depths of Utah now, in a place called Moab, I'm in the county library where the net is free but limited. We've been to Monument Valley (where I rode a horse) and then on to 4corners, Natural Bridges, the Needles in Canyonlands (mad rock formations) and Arches National Park, which we'll go back to today. The Motels are dead cheap here ($40-50) and the miles are clocking up. Got hours of video of landscapes and me climping up rocks to bore you with and enough fridge magnet souvenirs to sink the titanic.

Hi again, part4 I think.
Finished in Utah now, mad off road driving and snow at 7000ft. Been thru Vegas again, then the heat of death valley followed by 3ft snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in a few hours. Took 2 days to cross the mountains as everywhere was blocked up with 6ft snow, ended up going via Lake Tahoe, 100 miles further north than we wanted. Now in Yosemite. San Francisco here we come!!!

From: "Bob Lawrence" <jump@globalnet.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 21:30:11 -0000
Subject: RE: Bob and Paul do Vegas part 05

Arrived back in UK safely.
3400 miles of driving, a ton of mud caked on the car. 13 Fridge Magnets, 7hrs of DV tape, 10 films of photos of some of the most amazing places in the world. Various rock climbing scars and I lost pair of trousers. Best holiday ever.