Last week we managed to get away from the snow and cold temperatures (yes it has been about -10C but that’s not really a big deal here) to head over to beautiful Arizona for a few days. I’m ashamed to say that I always thought Arizona was a desert. Yes there are lots of hot, flat and uninspiring bits (in particular Phoenix whose only redeeming feature seems to be that it is pleasantly mild in the winter), but actually it is incredibly diverse. There are beautiful desert landscapes – with suaro cacti lined up for miles and miles like thousands of spiky sentries at their posts. Above this there are the mountainous woodlands with stunning craggy outcrops and twisty roads. Then there’s the high desert – surprisingly cool and prairie like.

It was a brief trip – just three days that flew by – I just love to see the landscape roll by like a film, with a completely different scene every 15 minutes. As always I was blown away by the variety – a couple of the highlights out of so many were: -

• Staying in Jerome – a town of frequent reinvention. A mining town, a hippy community, now a successfully artsy tourist draw with stunning views of the valley. We stayed at a very unusual hotel – once a hospital recently converted to retain some original features- including a radiator strapped to the reception ceiling, an old lift with a standard lamp in it, and apparently ghosts (we were issued with an IR thermometer and some sort of ghost-ometer). We had the BEST breakfast in the Flatiron Café in the centre of town. You couldn’t swing a budgie in there but it was perfect – simple, good food. Yum.
• A biplane ride over Sedona. Sedona itself is quite astonishingly beautiful. Everywhere you look you see the geographic layer cakes – the breathtaking natural rock formations that have that sunset glow during all daylight hours. Seeing the whole area from the air was astonishing. The rock formations stretch for many more miles in every direction than I could have imagined. Seeing Sedona from a biplane was a very special experience. The simplicity of the technology gives so much more immediacy - you are not a passenger, you are a participant, with a Biggles hat in an open cockpit. As soon as you get in, you are given instructions (don’t touch that – that’s the throttle, try not to bang that line, that’s the rudder control etc). Wow. I don't think I'll ever forget this.
• Northern Arizona hosts a vast acreage of high plateau landscapes. Up there in the middle of nowhere is a town called Winslow. To be honest it is horrible. Its heyday was as a railway hub and later as a stop on the famous Route 66. Now it is run down, with boarded up buildings, burnt out cars and exceptionally uninviting diners. The reason for highlighting it here is the La Posada hotel. A complete gem in the middle of the town. The owners have restored this old railway hotel in a thoughtful and painstaking way. The greatest joy lies in discovering art, ceramics and sculpture pieces in every corner.
• And finally – I LOVED the outdoor botanical gardens. Not only was this the motherlode of cacti, the class sculpture exhibition was a pleasant surprise. The venue was perfect – placing the smooth near the spiky was inspired.

It's amazing how much you can pack in when you try 😉

I spent the week between Christmas and New Year in Lake Tahoe with the chap’s family. I have been before but was still taken aback by how stunning the place is.  I want skiing – but switched to snowboarding after a few days (loved it – but struggled with being a beginner again. Falling off the top of lifts, watching closely what slope I’m about to go down, faceplanting in the snow etc). Actually as almost everyone else was a beginner it worked out pretty well being a beginner too. Some of the biggest belly laughs all week were had trying to teach a 3 year old to ski (or at least to proceed down the slope on skis). No pics of me snowboarding just yet – so in the meantime, some beautiful pics of the lake.

Yesterday I went on my longest ride to date – from Naples all the way along the Florida keys and back. That’s a whopping 540 miles.

One of the best parts was the journey east through the Everglades – the road cuts straight through alligator infested swamps – I was also fairly alarmed to see the “Puma crossing” signs! The trip home later was more nerve wracking – firstly it was dark so COLD, but also because riding past Miami meant navigating the insanely bad Miami drivers (was quite aware that if I did survive being knocked off, something from the swamps would probably finish me off. No harm done though we all survived unscathed).

This was my first trip to the keys – and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The keys area series of small islands off the south of Florida linked by road bridges.  They are right in between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico so as you travel along the road  you have  a different ocean on either side. The only thing is, from the road you can pretty much only see the road, the front doors of the resort hotels and the Tshirt and flipflop shops.

In between the islands you get tantalising views of the sea on each side – that turquoise colour with swirling lighter and darker colours. The most impressive view was from the 7 mile bridge.

There are two things you need to know about the 7 mile bridge. 1) it’s a bridge…

The Big Bike Tour route wasn’t quite a straight line East. The plan was to head up to Niagara (I’ve always wanted to go) then back down through Northern Pennsylvania. As it happens, Niagara was the most disappointing part of the whole trip. I blame the TV for only showing ultra wide angle views shot from below.

Not only are the falls a bit smaller than you think (ask me at the right time and I’d be happy to try the riding them in a barrel) but you never see the town of Niagara right next door (I think I was thinking of Victoria falls in the middle of rugged countryside). Not only is it a but more built up than you’d expect but the town of Niagara is a bit like Las Vegas only without the subtlety and style. Plan A was to spend several hours there but 45 mins pretty much covered it. The best bit is watching all the visitors dressed in bright green plastic jumpsuits swarming around the boats and viewpoints like radioactive ants.

One of the moments I remember most clearly from that part of the trip (2.5 days in total) was following the signs that said “Bridge to Canada” and wondering if I wasn’t slightly crazy (no comments required on that debate, thank you).

The worst bit was discovering that a large chunk of the roads in Northern Pennsylvania had been recently recovered. If you have never ridden a motorbike on gravel then you want to keep things that way.

 I’m feeling bad – I’ve been holding out on you and just haven’t been sharing. A couple of months ago I bought a bike. A big shiny Harley from the Chrome Ranger himself (actually I’ve coveted this bike for some time). So what do you do when you buy something? – you take it home of course…

The tiny complicating factor was that I bought it in Chicago. So riding it back took a few days.  The route planned was roughly due East with a small detour to take in Niagara Falls. This was an amazing trip.

It was a long way – 996 miles to be precise (definitely would have ridden round the block a few times to make up the extra 4 miles if I’d known). Wow.

Tradeshow season is back on so I guess the airmiles will rack up again. Here’s how yesterday’s fun and games started out:

2.50am alarm
3.00am struggle to wash and dress whilst being mystified that there is a 3am at the beginning not end of the day
3.30am leave house
3.35am really leave house only this time with all the stuff previously left on kitchen table
3.36am wrestle with sat nav which can’t find either the airport *sigh* or the car park I was planning to head to
4.55am arrive airport (eek it is further than I thought) – see signs for economy parking – things are looking ok
5.00am wow this place is miles away from the airport….still going
5.05am arrive Newark airport parking
5.15am still driving round f.ing carpark in bus. Grrrrr
6.10am flight to Dulles
7.30am arrival in Dulles – the worst airport on the planet
7.32am things looking up there is a Starbucks
7.35am it gets better – just seen sign to “International First Class Lounge”. Marvellous
7.41am after battling through the pikey hellhole, turns out that lounge does not open until 10am – exactly 30 mins after my flight leaves. Grrrrrr
7.50am found somewhere to sit and connect to Internet so I can do email
9.30am off to LHR

 There are many like it but this sign post outside my local pharmacy has troubled me for some time.

There seems to be a sliding scale for the fines. What’s the difference in offence between the lowest and the highest fine? – $150 covers quite a lot of wrongdoing. Does it depend on the size of the car? the  duration of illegal parking, the spuriousness of the disability claim (sore finger, ingrown toenail, bad hair day)? or whether or not there’s an R in the month? We need to know!