Las Vegas to Calgary in four weeks, and a story with a moral

Our route

The above image is a still from the interactive Google map of our route which can be accessed by clicking this link. If you do that you can zoom down to the detail of where we went and/or superimpose the Satellite view.

Some facts and figures

Modes of travel:
Plane:London to Las Vegas 10 hours BA
Calgary to London 7½ hours Air Canada on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

Car: Las Vegas – via 5 National Parks to San Francisco. Just under 2,000 miles.
Jasper – via Lake Louise to Calgary. 250 miles approx..

Train: Amtrak Coast Starlight – San Francisco to Seattle – 22 hours, sleeping on board
Rocky Mountaineer – Silver Service  from Vancouver to Jasper. Two days, with one night in a hotel in Kamloops

Greyhound bus: Seattle to Vancouver. 143 mls – 4 hours.

Boat: Vancouver to Vancouver Island day trip (25% discount for missing first ferry!)
Bicycle: Cycling 8 miles round Stanley Park, Vancouver

Walking: 143 miles – measured on Lesley’s pedometer. 9 days when we walked 7 miles or more: In Las Vegas 10mls,   South Rim Grand Canyon 12mls,   Capitol Reef NP Navajo Knobs 10mls, Zion NP 8mls,   Yosemite NP 10mls,   round San Francisco 7mls,   Vancouver round Stanley Park 8.3mls,   Lake Louise 7mls,  Lake Louise to Lake Agnes 7mls.

Hotels:  We stayed in 13 hotels, mostly booked through Booking.com, a couple through the National Parks reservations. Sometimes included breakfast and sometimes didn’t.
The accommodation cost was about 15-20% more than we expected from our booking data, as the local, state and US taxes added at least that much each time.

Other major expenses:
Meals of course. We had a good breakfast and then when we were walking or driving we often just had a cereal bar and fruit for lunch – sometimes followed by an ice cream when available! Not noticeably cheaper than at home.
Entrances to exhibitions and museums
National Park pass – £55 – saved money on entrances for five National Parks and one National Monument, plus huge convenience.
Presents and things to bring home
Petrol – £87 (for approx 2,300 miles)
Bus fares, Big Bus tour (£68.39), ferries, hiring bikes
Canada seemed cheaper for everything.

Clothes and packing
We travelled quite light, which was fine. Adaptors and chargers for all the gizmos was a major item. We had good walking shoes – which we wore on the planes – but no boots. Other shoes – always a problem – I had some flip-flops, very lightweight trainers and some light smarter shoes.
James had his Smartphone and I had my iPad which I used for reading. (I did have a phone, but never got it working there). Tea- bags and some snacks – I found I could make tea in most of the coffee makers provided. In Canada they have kettles! Maps and (part of) a guide book.

Reading
Simon Winchester –The Men Who United the States. Excellent history of the opening up of the West at different times.
Barbara Kingsolver – Pigs in Heaven – good novel about First Nation American culture and its problems.
The Rough Guides to US and to Canada were very good. And everywhere had maps and guides of course.

One last story, complete with moral for our times

Scene:  Capitol Gorge   Capitol Reef National Park   Wednesday 11 May

Lesley and I were eating our sandwiches (which she, with her usual forethought, had bought first thing down the road from our hotel) and cooling off in the picnic shelter at the head of the Capitol Gorge hiking trail we had spent the morning exploring.

After a few minutes a man we recognised from the trail came and sat at a table opposite. When we passed earlier he had given us a gritty ‘How’re’y’all‘ from under his green stetson, but now he had softened, with two Scottie dogs, which he had just released from his enormous car,  running about on extending leads.

We exchanged the familiar pleasantries about us being English. And, being English, we admired his dogs, straining as they were towards the back-pack of the only other person in the shelter (who stolidly ignored us all, including the dogs, until he got up abruptly and left). Anyway, the dog-owner was anxious to assure us that he had left his his car window open  (slightly surprisingly, in view of pervasive security-consciousness) and Lesley came back  with something about it being a shame dogs not being allowed in the Gorge.

Not that she had meant for a moment that it wasn’t necessary to stop dogs devastating the rich and fragile wildlife we had just been enjoying. In fact Lesley had meant exactly the opposite – we had noticed the ‘no dogs’ sign a little earlier and said to each other how sensible it was.

But he misunderstood her completely: “That’s the Federal Government” he drawled. Then, fixing us with a knowing look, “You got one of those, ain’t you.”

He meant the EU. And he knew about our imminent referendum. And he was obviously assuming that we would be resenting “Europe”, “Brussels” in the same way that he, along with so many Americans, resented “Washington” – as a distant authority imposing regulations which were to a very large extent necessary and responsible, and getting hated and denigrated for its pains.

The similarity with the Brexit mindset struck us both as we drove away. This resentment of imposed responsibility. Like the environmental measures that would certainly never have been adopted in Britain were it not for the EU. And which would quickly be reversed if we left. Like the measures to protect human rights. Workers rights. And so on.

And this reminded us both of the extraordinarily close link between Brexitism and Global Warming Denial – Lawson, Murdoch, Johnson and Farage of course being active deniers (not to mention Trump, another denier who also thinks we should leave the EU).  And, judging from their Commons voting records, Fox, Gove and Duncan-Smith are passive deniers too.

This irresponsibility, which in the case of global warming denial goes beyond mere stupidity, seems almost to be a hallmark of organised Brexitism. We can only hope that, when it comes to the vote, it will not be shared by the majority of ordinary people.

That’s the end of our holiday blog, but no doubt I will find other things to write about here, if a lot less frequently. Meanwhile, it means a lot to me that so many people have apparently enjoyed reading about our special golden anniversary holiday up the West Coast of North America. Thank you all.