The Cross-Country Chronicles: Oh, How Grand

After travelling down the west coast from city to city, finding ourselves in the middle of the Arizona desert with nothing on the horizon but sky and a disappearing road was a little daunting.

And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. Just very long, very open road with the only company being the occasional cactus. About the most exciting thing that happened between Los Angeles and Flagstaff, Arizona was seeing a tumbleweed blow onto the highway. And here's a quick factoid - one does not want to hit a tumbleweed at high speed. As fluffy as they might look, it's as tough and hard as a dried dead bush would imply. Apparently they're the kangaroo of Central America and hitting one will do more damage to your car then you'll do to it. Avoid at all cost.

Seeing the tumbleweed blowing in the wind (and believe me, there was plenty of wind) was about as exciting as things got driving down the I-40. But with the help of some N*SYNC, a little bit of Backstreet Boys and about five minutes of Hilary Duff, we arrived at the Grand Canyon.

I'm sure the Grand Canyon is beyond beautiful, but when there's been an uncontained fire raging in south Arizona, the canyon has a tendency to fill up with smoke. While the haze let up a little as the sun set, it was still difficult to see the truth depth and distance of the canyon itself, let alone take a worthwhile tourist snap. However, there's no denying that sitting on the edge of one of the world's largest natural wonders with my feet dangling precariously over the edge was definitely worth the seven hour drive from LA.

We stayed the night in Flagstaff - a further hour and a half drive from the canyon which almost sent us into delirium - at yet another motel I'd rather forget. Breakfast was at a mexican cafe where our waitress recommended we spend the morning at Slide Rock National Park in Sedona.

We should have left her a bigger tip as Slide Rock certainly made up for our disappointment from the day before. Hidden at the bottom of a canyon itself, Slide Rock featured natural water slides which were carved into the rocks of a stream which ran through the canyon. We spent the morning lying like lizards on the red rock and then slipping and sliding down the watery slippery dip. The water was a bit chilly, but nothing five seconds in the desert sun couldn't cure. And I didn't get sunburnt, Mum.

With Albequerque in our sights, we left Sedona and hit the open road once again. After our morning in the sun, the six hour drive drained our energy dry and if it weren't for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows audio book, we may have never made it into New Mexico - our forth state in a week.

Ciao for now. xo