Temperature differences.

I checked the forecast for Arizona last week and it was favourable, when I landed in Phoenix on Friday it was a balmy 23C and that was at 10pm so I was looking forward to the next few days. However, when I started driving to Utah it was all uphill, up to over 7000 feet above sea level and the temperature dropped rapidly. This morning it was colder here than in Gwytherin so I am having emergency acclimatisation training and I should be OK by the time I get home.

I met some of the locals in Stetsons and beards yesterday and bid them a cheery good morning only to receive one of those stares that says "why are you talking to me?" and I thought all these members of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints would be happy clappy and full of welcome as were the crew who ran the visitor centre at Bluff Fort, from talking to them I found that more than 50% of the original Mormon settlers in that town were of Welsh ancestry mostly Jones and Williams.

Today was another tick off the bucket list, a visit to Monument Valley to feel the presence of the Duke, there are photographs of John Wayne in every tourist venue and in nearly every retail establishment. I had planned to explore on horseback but at £40.00 per half hour it was outside my budget, the guided tour I took instead with Will Cowboy of Spirit Tours was excellent, not only was he full of information but he took us places that the public cannot go on their own and he also sang us two Navajo travelling songs which will ensure my safe return home.

music and beer.

My little car/van in Australia had a CD player but some divot had jammed a CD in there so all my carefully selected music could not be played. I had high hopes with the newer van in New Zealand but it was not to be, the van was a grey import from Japan and did not have a CD player, imagine my joy when I found the all important little player smiling at me from the dash of my latest hire car I selected a disc at random and guess what the track was..............Letter From America by the Proclaimers (who by the way are appearing later this year at Venue Cymru). Unfortunately that is the best thing about my latest ripoff hire car, the cheeky rep tried to get me to upgrade to a 4 wheel drive when that was what I had already booked and paid for, I ended up with a Kia Sportage all wheel drive which is a bit of a modern bubble car with a stupidly huge engine that just about manages 30 mpg so it is a good job petrol is only £2.00 per gallon, it does have a reversing camera so I will be annoying the locals by reversing whenever possible.
I am slumming it in motels on this part of the trip to keep costs down, I had a shock after booking in tonight here in Blanding Utah, I went looking for essential supplies but the girl in the supermarket told me that this is a dry town - no alcohol for sale!! I scooted the 20 miles up to the next town which had a liquor store for serious drinkers, bottles of spirits only, then after enquiring I found Mavericks a place that sells junk food and beer but no wine. I know Utah is where the Mormons established themselves but I did not expect such discrimination against us socialites, looks like I won't be meeting the locals over a drink in the neighbourhood saloon here.

Heading east.

Yesterday I visited the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbour which was a moving experience but unfortunately it is just treated as another must see site by the groups of chattering tourists unlike the respect that is shown at sites such as the Menin Gate in Ypres. I also went to have a look over the USS Missouri which was the USA's last battleship on whose deck the Japanese ratified their surrender at the end of WW all.
Today I visited the Army museum which had a section telling the story of the population of Japanese origin during the Second World War especially the exploits of the Japanese American regiments, they deserve to have a Spielberg film made about them.
Tomorrow I fly out to Phoenix to cross off another item on my bucket list which is to see Monument Valley where my hero John Wayne starred in so many of his films. I have booked a tour with the local guys, members of the Navajo Nation and I also plan to go for a walk around the valley if it is at all possible.

Tourists everywhere.

There are so many tourists in town that last night at 7:30pm  I could not find a restaurant with a spare table and it was nine o'clock before I happened upon an establishment which could relieve me of an extortionate amount of money for a very ordinary meal. This morning's breakfast was a similar event which after a twenty minute wait for a table to become available turned into a true farce, first of all a meal completely different from my order appeared then after remonstrating with the waitress my meal appeared but the seniors version of my order, by then I was so hungry I ate what was delivered and then had to argue about the bill. I find this kind of contretemps quite a challenge as you can imagine because us Brits don't like to complain do we? I am learning rapidly that Johnny Foreigner is quite accepting of viable complaints so don't be embarrassed go for it.
Today was an excercise in tourist avoidance and most of the morning I was quite successful until I had the hunger pangs and started looking for lunch, I am afraid Waikiki is a dire place for food suitable to the European palate, most places cater for the Asian tourist with sushi, noodles and udon whatever that is and the rest of the offerings are either inedible chains such as McDonalds or grease-ridden fast food pizza or Mexican joints it was that bad that I wandered around for over three hours before I found an ABC shop similar to the traditional 7/11 that sold basic sandwiches.
I did venture into the Ala Moana Centre, according to Leena it is the largest outdoor mall in the world (aren't Americans great with their superlatives?) anyway I lasted less than quarter of an hour and most of that was spent lost in Macy's which I had incorrectly thought was a department store not just for women's clothing. The best thing about the place was a Buddhist monk in his orange robe sitting on a bench outside Victoria's Secret talking on his iPhone, I wish I had had my camera with me.
This evening's culinary adventure was a non-chain fast food takeaway that specialised in steak, chicken and surf to go with the turf, the food was good, reasonably priced and the staff were helpful to this ignorant traveller, I will go back there again. I finished off the night at Kelley O'Neil's which had a diddlyie band who when left on their own played Irish songs that always had some reference to whiskey in them and when induced to play "Irish songs" they changed the tune (think of Eric Clapton and his second take on Leila) and in some cases the words, in fact their version of Black Velvet Band was pornographic but that was OK because no one could decipher the brogue anyway.

Changes.

I know I have said this before but everything changes nothing stays the same. My first port of call after a quick shower was the Hilton Hawaiian Village where Jan and I got married 21 years ago, at that time it was a posh hotel with a small tower block of accommodation, some low rise service rooms and lush gardens with waterfalls, fountains and pagodas. Now there are four new tower blocks all larger than the original including one called the Rainbow Tower which is a local landmark or monstrosity as the concierge called it. I did not recognise any of the grounds, it had all been built over  and I was hugely disappointed as this was one of the main reasons for travelling back here.
Waikiki itself has changed as well in the intervening period, there has been a lot more building and it is far busier with three times as many tourists mostly from Japan and China but I did enjoy a ride on the tourist trolley mainly due to Leena the driver's amusing running commentary and I also had the pleasure of having a gorgeous young Israeli girl rub various potions and lotions into my baggy and wrinkled flesh assuring me that with just a few weeks application I would look twenty years younger and all for only $800.00 for a two year supply, we parted as friends but no money changed hands.
Well as you can see I am now in the good ole USA, it was touch and go for a while, my journey was by Qantas from Auckland via Sydney to Honolulu and the transfer time in Sydney was only an hour and a half, it all became a little fretful when the first flight was 55 minutes late in taking off then the pilot made up some of the lost time only to be stuck in a holding pattern over Sydney due to very heavy rain delaying landings. We landed and reached the gate 20 minutes before my connecting flight was due to take off and I had to do the security dance yet again where once more they confiscated my water!!!! luckily that flight had also been delayed so I arrived over here more or less on schedule and so did my luggage which was a was a bit of a relief.

A good day.

The guy who runs the Kawhia Motor Campground gave me a thorough briefing on the local area and what I should see so this morning so I followed his advice and took the gravel road up to Raglan and I am glad I did. Raglan is a laid back bohemian sort of small town, there were a few tourist around but most seemed to be Kiwis. All water sports seem to be on offer and there was even a pilot stunting over the bay in a light aircraft, I think this place could be one of the draws for me to revisit New Zealand along with Whangamomona Hotel for a reunion weekend and of course the whole of South Island.
I carried on driving from Raglan to Hamilton, a small city in the centre of Waikato which for a city seems to be a nice place, I took the opportunity to visit Hamilton Gardens, free and interesting and the Museum of Art & History, I still can't get my head around Cubism and Modern Art.
Tonight's Gurnard is a species of fish and very good with chips, it is on par with Hoki but neither are as good as Snapper, there seems to be an endless variety of fish available in the chip shops and restaurants and fishing is definitely the most popular sport over here.