The Longest Day started with us checking out of Trump Tower. However our flight wasn't until eight o'clock-ish that night so we had to leave our bags with the bell-boys. By this point I'd completely abandoned any stylish "Stealth Tip" manoeuvres and was going straight for the: "See this money in my hand? It is for you. Place your hand in front of mine and we shall do the exchange." It worked out much better for me that way. We couldn't leave Vegas without having...

Sunday turned out to be a bit of a scorcher! I was stupidly caught out by the air conditioning and tinted windows of Trump Tower and left the hotel wearing a hooded jumper rather than sun screen (at least the hood came in handed). To escape the sun Ailsa and I jumped into the Fashion Mall directly across from the hotel. I thought we'd just be using it as an air conditioned short cut to the strip, but it turned out shops are something that interests Ailsa (everyda...

Whilst Scotland were on their travels scraping a 1-0 victory in Liechtenstein, Ailsa and I were heading down the stip to meet Matt in the MGM Grand sports bar ... where he assured me he'd be winning lots of money thanks to his extensive knowledge of all American sports. When we got there he was already down on two events with a third yet to kick off. Matt introduced us to his friends that seemed to have travelled from far and wide just to see him. A strange conce...

We still had to drop a significant altitude between Zion National Park and Las Vegas, which sits in a valley in the Mojave Desert. Zion NP is part of the Grand Staircase which starts on the Colorado Plateau at an altitude of 10,000-12,000 feet and includes Bryce Canyon, Zion and the Grand Canyon. Dropping from around 5,000-6,000 feet at Zion to around 2,000 feet in Vegas seemed to return our lungs (and ears) to propper function once more. On our way to Vegas we ...

We woke on Thursday to clearing skies but, if anything, it felt colder than the previous day ... and the river in front of our balcony was thundering past at an incredible rate - and a good bit wider than we'd seen it over the course of the last two days. Before we'd headed off to the States, I'd always had one eye on a trail called 'The Narrows' which seems to be universally praised as being one of the best hikes in America. You follow the river upstream until y...