Hi All,

On all our travels around the world I can't believe USA is where we are having trouble getting Internet access or it being a total rip off for an hours use!!! Never mind I will type fast!!!!

20th April

C and I drove out of Las Vegas to the Red Rock canyon area which took us 30min. It was a loop road and the colour contrast of the rocks were cool. At night we headed to the Legends show in the Imperial hotel casino. It lasted 2 hrs and we saw Barry White, Madonna, Temptations and Elvis. Not the real ones obviously but was as close as you could get. We had seats right up at the stage, I thought Elvis was going to kick me in the mouth when he danced around.

We walked around Las Vegas for the last time, Going into the Coca Cola shop and lost some dollars in the casino's.

21st April

Death Valley was the destination for today, 4 hrs from Vegas. We set of early and headed in, The temp varied from 70 to 95 farenheit. Death Valley was not what I imagined it to be, It was full of Canyons and different sand rocks based on what caused them to form that way. The roads were long and straight. We covered most of Death Valley and we thought it was a pretty spectacular place. We came across a old mining town, they called it a ghost town as it was abandoned, amazing how buildings dont get completely destroyed.

At night we drove to Artists Pallet to watch the sunset, It was cool and we then had a 45 min drive in the dark through Death Valley, Scary like Jeepers Creepers!!! We were in a little town called Beatty in a motel, very small town and if you watch to many horror films then your mind starts to play up, but it was safe and friendly which was good!!

22nd April

10hr drive awaited us on this day to go from Death Valley to Yosemitie National Park. We took it in turns driving, We saw a lot of the country going west then north to Yosemitie. From Desert to Snowy Mountains, amazing. On the drive we got lost in the mountains as we took a wrong turn that said "Road closed ahead" due to snow!!!

We got directions from a near by shop and headed back on track. I run over a snake that was going across the road at this point, pretty big but I couldn't get out the way. I managed to avoid a squirrel and another rattle snake. When we reached Yosemite Park it was magnificant. Completly different to what we have seen on our travels. Charlotte at this point ran a squirrel over so we were a little upset. You heard the thud!!!

We reached our campsite after going through a mountain tunnel, passed some amazing massive mountains with snow on them and some huge waterfalls. We were staying in a canvas tent on stilts, we didn't realise how bitterly cold it was overnight. It fell to 30 Farenheit!!!!. We had 4 blankets, our sleeping bags and as many clothes as possible and we were still cold!! We also had a little metal box outside to put all our food and shower gels etc as it was a bear protector box!!!

23rd April

Awake at 7 by the cold and noisy kids, we hiked 3 miles Vernon falls, where you climbed 700 steps near the top. Rainbows were formed in the mist of the falls. The climb was hard but worth it, from there we walked to Mirror lake for about 2 miles which was good to be able to see the half dome reflect in the water.

We had to then backtrack and return to the road where we picked up our car and headed to the visitor centre to look around the museum and the Indian Village. That was cool too!! Driving is always part of getting to the sights so we drove and hour and hiked 3 miles to the Sequioa park where huge giant trees exist. We went as far as the Grizzly tree as light was going to turn to dark and we would have got lost. This park had Lions in it so we had to be careful. We didn't come across any lions but we did see 3 deers eating some grass, we managed to get really close to them which was good stuff.

24th April

Another night spent in the cold tent with not much sleep for me as I needed the tiolet all night but it was too cold to get out of bed!! We have just driven 4hrs to San Fran and will spend our last 3 days of our travels there. I will be puttting a last blog up on Monday as our Grand Finale so please read if you can.

Our travels have been amazing and what a year we have had, can't believe we are nearly home.