We are now in Springfield Illinois after having spent the night in Hannibal Missouri. On our way we stopped at old Munroe where we had a crappie sandwich for lunch. Crappie is pronounced croppie and is a white river fish. We also had hushpuppies - deep fried corn and onion balls - a heart attack waiting to happen.
Had a great steam boat trip down the Mississippi  and visited Mark Twain's home. Beautiful countryside.
Struck by how much damage the drought is doing to American crops as we drove to Springfield.
In Springfield we booked into gorgeous B&B called Inn at 835 and then had a pony shoe for lunch - ham on white bread topped by french fries and smothered in melted cheese. If I survive American cuisine it will be a small miracle. Springfield is also the birthplace of the Cozy dog - a sort of deep fried hot dog.

We then visited Lincoln's home. I was very struck by the love he had for his wife and children. What a tragic life poor Mary had. She had four children and only one survived to adulthood. Her husband was assassinated and later her only son had her institutionalised.
The above pic is one of the islands on the Mississippi where outcasts Huck Fin and Jim hid out before setting off on a raft down the Mississippi.

We are now Cape Girardeau Missouri. The pic above is of  some crazy cars that an artist planted in his fields far away in another state.
It is late and I will write more tomorow. It has been an amazing day, another one of America's sublime to the ridiculous days.
In the morning we visited the Civil Rights museum in Memphis which was gut wrenchingly awesome. Martin Luther King was a great man. It is hard to believe how much has changed in the last 40 years.  Things may not be the greatest now but it is a lot better than it was then.
And then to Graceland - one of the most ridiculous places ever.

Here we are in Memphis. Again like everywhere it is hot. We are staying at the Holiday Inn and we just had breakfast of granola and coffee at the Blue Plate cafe. When we set off it was hot but there was a little breeze but now at 8.30 it is baking.
America is in the midst of a severe drought which explains some of the barren countryside we have driven though.
When we arrived last night from Checota in Arkansas we immediately set out for Beale Street to see some music and get some food. Major party time - the street was cordoned off and there were police everywhere. We bought a beer and strolled down the street, plastic cup in hand. Black kids did handstands up and down the street, music poured out of every shop front, park or corner.
We had dinner: ribs, gumbo, pulled pork and crab while we listened to the jazz band.
From time to time music would erupt from the kitchen and conflict with front of house. Nobody noticed.
The night before was our cheapest night. We stayed in Checota, on the outskirts of nowhere. The Budget Hotel cost us $40 a night and dinner at the Chinese was all of $13 and they let us bring in our own brown paper bag in which we stashed our bottle of wine.
The gremlins got to us a little during the night. A huge storm raged and trains roared in and out of the nearby train station. None of the windows had locks. Tom jammed sticks in the jams to prevent too much mayhem.
After a mainly sleepless night we motored off to Little Rock and toured Bill Clinton's shrine to himself -  the William L Clinton Presidential Centre. It was actually quite interesting with replicas of the oval office and the cabinet room in the West Wing. There was also a film of the Clinton years.

Another wee pic of the Grand Canyon!
On re-reading bit about Santa Fe, I feel I did it an injustice. It was splendid. I think I was just tired from all the driving and getting lost so many times yesterday.
But after a good night's sleep I think I can say that Amarillo is not a classy town. Sitting eating breakfast out of plastic plates and cups while the T.V.  blared overhead is not one of my favourite experiences. However the Quinta is our second cheapest hotel after Vegas.
Just as you are about to say aren't Americans a friendly wholesome bunch you have a disaster like the Colorado massacre. Now any country can have a massacre; it is not peculiarly American but the response is.
Firearm sales are surging as a result of the movie massacre. People are buying concealed arms by the bucket load so they can protect themselves and their children if they are in a position like what happened in the picture theatre.
Great, instead of one nutter and twelve dead people we have hundreds of nutters and thousands of dead people.
People are debating gun laws and flags are flying at half mast but nobody is doing anything.
As anyone who knows me knows that I am not a John Howard fan but after the Port Arthur massacre many years ago he changed our gun laws.

Now in Amarillo, Texas after hard days's drive from Santa Fe. Got lost many times.
Above is promised photo of Grand Canyon. Nothing comes close to the hugeness of the place. The grandeur that cannot be photographed.
Santa Fe was great - a little less beautiful than I hoped, but good. Flatter and less green than expected. Stayed in another B & B called Pueblo Bonito - couple of hundred year old pueblo. Walked around Central Plaza looking at usual expensive touristy things. Went to Georgia O'Keeffe museum and then visited Heidi Loewen's gallery and watched her throw a porcelain bowl and learned wonderful tips for gold leaf techniques.
Had the most expensive meal at Martin - beautiful presentation and wonderfully contrasted with meal tonight at Mexican restaurant across the way from La Quinta Hotel here in downtown Amarillo.
On way here visited 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground on a farm. You drive off the road and spray paint them - if you have a cab of spray paint.
Hopefully, we are going to head past Oklahoma City to Fort Smith tomorrow.

Somewhere in the bowels of space or in the innards of this computer are the two photos I downloaded from my camera this morning.  They are of the country around Tom's gold mine and the Grand Canyon. We bought a new cable yesterday at Staples which allowed me to access my photos again.
Yesterday we drove through the most amazing country - the Painted Desert and the petrified forest. It was wonderful. Adjectives are getting too simplistic for the vast majesty of this country.
After a lot of driving we came to Gallop - a sad little run down town full of pawn shops and supposedly good deals on jewellery and Indian handicrafts. We bought some earrings from a Syrian family.
Back on the road and into Albuquerque. We followed Lonely Planet instructions to quaint little B & B called Casas de Suenos. Little houses surrounding gardens. It was an hour later than we thought it was - mountain time - so we had to rush out to dinner as it was 8.30 and restaurants close at 9.00. Had huge Mexican meal and fell into bed.
This morning awoke to bright sun and birds chirping. Went to restaurant where chef cooked us breakfast. Huge friendly Spanish guy who was boasting about his 4 year old Indian grand daughter who rode horses.
This morning we will visit 300 year old church San Felipe de Neri (5 foot thick adobe walls) in the Old Town Plaza before driving 50 odd miles to Sante Fe.

This is me with some ladybirds made out of live flowers in the courtyard of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. It is a really beautiful, over the top place.
I wanted to post some of my wonderful photos of the Grand Canyon but  have somehow lost my  cord to down load onto the computer.
I have overloaded my camera's memory with all the amazing photos and can't take any more so I will have to try and buy another cord somewhere. For the momentI will use my little camera. Besides hundreds of pictures of the Canyon,  I also shot a condor, a moose and lots of squirrels.
Today we have driven down part of Route 66, had lunch in Williams and are now in a nice little motel in Sedona - apparently the most important new age town in the world.
It has VORTEXES!!!!
It is also surrounded by the most wonderful red rocky mountains and lush green trees. A steam flows through to the centre of town.
Tomorrow we will start heading towards Santa Fe. However we may stop anywhere on the way. This is a road trip after all.

At the Grand Canyon and how very grand it is. I spoke about contrasts after Vegas but this takes the cake. It really is sublime and Vegas really is ridiculous.
We spent the night at the Red Feather Lodge just outside the park. We had a truly awful Mexican meal and then fell deeply asleep. It was hard to drag ourselves out of bed but there were adventures to be had.
Breakfast across the road at a Macdonalds. Our cheapest meal yet and surprisingly good oatmeal with blueberries and nuts and coffee. They even played classical music.
Drove through beautiful pine trees towards the Lodge. Couldn't check in but walked down Bright Angel walking track for one and a half hours. Most spectacular and awesome place. Except for the other tourists, almost religiously quiet. Saw a condor and lots of squirrels. It was pretty steep and a bit slippery but just gorgeous. We decided to turn back and do the tough uphill hike and a good thing too because just as we puffed our way to the top it began to pour with cold rain. A heavy wind blew up and we ran for shelter at the Bright Angel Lodge. Just as we arrived it began to hail!
What an amazing contrast from the hot sunshine when we began the walk.
We are now sitting in our cardigans in the lounge of our Lodge surrounded by the stuffed heads of dead animals. It is dark and heavily wooden. It is more than 100 years old.
In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt said about the Grand Canyon: " The most impressive piece of scenery I have ever looked at ... it is beautiful and terrible and unearthly."
He wanted it preserved  without a "building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else to mar the wonderful grandeur,  the sublimity, the great loveliness, the beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it."
I absolutely agree with him but after the hail, rain and wind, I'm happy we are nestled in a cosy national park hotel with a fabulous dinner to go to tonight.

20th July 7.05 pm. What a day and a night. We spent yesterday hopping between ornate hotels and the blasting hot sun. The pic above is the exterior to the Luxor. When we first checked in we thought nothing could top it splendid vulgarity but it proved restrained compared the excesses of others. We had breakfast in a hotel which boasted its own artificial surf beach. We loved the grand, colourful, child-like gardens of the Bellagio. The day was a roller coaster ride of heat and air conditioning. The main clientel seems to be family groups - which seems a bit odd. We ended our day with a wonderful dinner at the Mirage and loved Cirque du Soleil's Beatle's Love. Very nostalgic and so emotional. Today started really early. It is Tom's birthday. He turns 66 as we start our Route 66 trip.
As it is nearly dinner time I will just note activities: Breakfast in a casino surrounded by pokies, Hoover Dam, Chloride - the oldest mining town in Arizona, Tom's gold mine, rocky stark terrain and finally arriving at red Feather Lodge outside Grand Canyon National Park.
What a stark contrast between Las Vegas!
Today's highlight: meeting Judy and Paul who took us up towards Tom's gold mine in their four wheel drive and then walking around abandoned nines and cottages in 101 degree heat.

19th July, 4.00 pm written from the Luxor Hotel. What a blast this place is and how doubly amazing it is combined with jet lag and lack of sleep.
I didn't sleep at all on the flight to L.A. Watched three movies and got off the plane in a state of gritty eyed torpor somehow mixed with high anxiety.
Got our car and with me screeching "Go back!" in a hight pitched voice Tom managed to somehow masterfully drive us through the mean streets of L.A through to the arid desserts of California and Nevada to arrive at this man made symphony to greed and avarice and all that glitters.
The Luxor is so hugely vulgar it is hard to describe it, and now having been through the lobbies of many more Vegas Hotels, it is in the minor league of vulgarity.
As I only have 15 minutes before I have to rush back out into the boiling sun to go back to the Strip to have diner and see Cirque Du Soleil's Beatles LOVE, I will quickly post some photos.

18th July. 11.30 am. So super under control. Got to the airport with hours to spare. Wasn't pulled out for a random drug search. Yay! Bought the obligatory gratuitous perfume and face creams and then went virtuously to the tourist tax return area to claim my $140 odd dollars back on my super new Canon camera and lenses.
And this is where it all went sour. Miss super organised had left her receipts at home in her wallet! Grr!
I am now smarting under the bright lights of the airport lounge. I will try and deep breathe and let it go. I will try.
Hopefully, if I keep my boarding pass, I can write to Canberra when I get home and still have a chance of getting my money.
I have almost let it go. Another squirt of Diorissimo and a dab of Clarins and the pain is beginning to recede.

file://localhost/Users/kerrycook/Desktop/billy-connolly.jpg

Here's a picture of Billy Connolly - I hope.
Or maybe not.

Tuesday, July 17th.
I should be an old hand at this but I just wrote a page which disappeared into thin air. I am trying to be too clever with the technology. I wanted to insert a picture of Billy Connolly into my page so I down loaded one and stuck it on my desk top but when I attempted to add it, everything vanishied.
So you'll just have to imagine a picture of Billy here.
Only one day to go and the butterflies are in evidence. Have we organised everything? What have we forgotten? We are both a bit irritable as we focus on getting it all right.
Tom has spent hours down loading google maps of his family gold mine just outside Chloride on the way to the Grand Canyon.
I'm all up for a bit of adventure travelling down the dusty roads of rural America but I don't want to miss a day of our two days in the Grand Canyon.
However this is a road trip. What will be will be and we can tag another day on as long as we get to Chicago by August 1 in time to see the Cubs play.
This is the true test of the Yin and the Yang of our personalities. My desire to plan and Tom's desire to do.

following the dream

Time is so strange. Two weeks ago I was at work doing the usual things; talking to kids and talking to parents and of course, doing the limbo  -  as you do. At that time three days seemed like an eternity. I now face less than three days until Tom and I leave for our American/Mexico trip. And time seems to be racing at a ridiculous pace. This is supposed to be an exploratory posting to see how blogging works, so it will be short and sweet and to the point. I will leave the philosophical musings to life on the road. For the time being I will attempt to publish this and then take it up again when I have more to relate.
Yeeks! It is now many hours later and I have got a blog up and running but how I add to it on a daily basis is a bit of a mystery. Also how I upload more of my photos from my camera as I travel. I suppose I will stumble around and find a way.
I will try with a short description of lunch. Some weeks ago I purchased a Living Social voucher for either $59 or $55 to have a three course lunch with a bottle of win at Cala Luna at the Spit. Tom and I drove over there on a sparkling bright day after morning yoga. The weather is spectacular at the moment. So much so that yesterday I had my latest ocean swim ever. I don't remember ever swimming as late as 14th July.

Back to lunch. We were allowed to choose anything on the menu. We shared giant prawns, calamari, snapper, ocean trout, a pana cotta and a cheese plate. We added two coffees and a beer and ended paying a further $26.50 to the bill! So for a total of $86 odd we dined like kings.
O.K I didn't manage to download this picture from my camera. I had to copy it on to iphoto and then into this blog. A bit clumsy. I'll keep trying.