In the last two weeks we have hiked canyons, driven across the country, had a true southern welcome in SC and were reunited with friends in Albany.We completed the loop from Albany to Albany.

Heading north from the Grand Canyon, we stumbled on Glen Canyon on the border or Arizona and Utah.There lies Lake Powell, the largest manmade lake in the US stretching 186 miles.We figured we'd experience the lake first hand by renting a ski boat…do either of us know how to drive one of these?We worked it out and spent a couple hours navigating through the many canyons all while trying to keep our breakfast down.If anyone out there has a week or so to kill and enjoys exploring canyons and living on a houseboat - this is your mecca.From Lake Powell it was a short drive up to Bryce Canyon in Utah.

We spent 2 nights at Bryce Canyon.Thankfully it was a lot cooler here then Grand Canyon - 70°F cooler at night time.We awoke dark and early to catch one of the greatest sunrises I'm sure we'll ever be previed to.The sun comes over the horizon and hits the Bryce Amphitheatre like a laser beam of brilliant orange light and casts some ridiculously long shadows on the canyon walls - awesome!From there we headed down into the canyon.Bruised and battered from our three day hike, we opted for the easier route at Bryce which consisted of sitting our asses down on a couple of asses (mules to the laymen) and cruising down to the great depths of the canyon.8 miles pass quickly when you don't have to walk them.

The next day we headed east to Arches National Park.This would be our final national park, final day hike in the US, and most importantly the final night of camping.It was a great feeling packing up that trunk one last time.After a morning hike to view the magnificent "Delicate Arch" we headed into town for a delicious beverage at the Moab microbrew and just couldn't resist giving Eric a call at work to thank him for the recommendation.The next few days would be sponsored by Motel 6 and our good friends at Red Bull.The middle of the US will be saved for touring only after we run out of places to visit - no rush.

So after a long 3 days of straight driving, we arrived in Spartanburg, SC.We were here to visit friends of Jo's parents.It was so nice to see some familiar faces.We started our visit with a trip to Ike's restaurant where Greg consumed what is known as a "turbo dog", for those of you who have not heard of this, it is a hot dog wrapped in Bacon, DEEP FRIED and then covered in chilli and cheese! He assures me it was delicious.That night we went to a cocktail party, where we were treated to lots of tasty food, met some great people, never had an empty glass and we were shown how to really party! We had a blast.(Thanks Jamie and Laura)The next day, after our first home cooked breakfast, we headed to Myrtle Beach where we were kindly put up in a deluxe condo.We have stayed in entire hostels smaller than this place.Greg's sister flew down to meet us.We had a great couple of days, relaxing on the beach and at the pool, at night; we partied, just like we were shown in Spartanburg.We then got back into the car, again, and drove 10 hours north to Philadelphia, slept, then drove 4 hours to Albany to continue the party.It was so good to arrive back to our second home at RJ and Aprils, a.k.a animal kingdom, and to stop by Bobs to check in on our kitty cat.That night a group of us went to a murder mystery dinner, we didn't know what was going on half the time, but it was a great laugh, all of us of course making complete fools out of ourselves. (It was so good to see all of you guys again).The next day, we discovered that our flight to Belize, that was supposed to be on Monday has been cancelled, there will now only be one flight to Belize a week.So we now leave on Sunday, and as usual we are completely unprepared.In one day we managed to check off a list 5 pages long of "stuff to do before we leave".Unfortunately we had to cut short a bbq at Tim and Steph's new pad with the philly crew but it's definitely good to see that the cornhole tradition has made it's way into the area.So exactly 2 hrs from now we leave for JFK airport to fly to Belize…did we pack everything we need?We hope so…