Today we head half an hour up the road to visit our first National Park - Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This is a beautiful deep canyon with many viewing spots along it's rim that bring you up to huge sheer drop offs. Barriers tend to be post and rail fencing - three horizontal timber poles. OSH would have a field day here, America is certainly a land of contrasts - trip over and you can sue for negligence but all that is required between you and a vertical drop ...

After a quick shop down the Magnificent Mile where it hosed with rain we squeezed into a taxi that wasn't designed for six adults let alone all our suitcases. The cabbie seemed happy especially after some world cup cricket discussion - he was from India and your average Chicagoan doesn't know the game even exists! The California Zephyr is touted as the most scenic train journey in the USA and travels between Chicago and San Francisco so we have high hopes as we ...