Hmmm.... Cant recall exactly what I did in my last 4 days in San Francisco as it's getting on for nearly 2 weeks ago and i've done so much since! I visited Haight Ashbury for a third time along with Angelo from Alaska who was staying in the hostel while he's in the process of setting up his wholesale fish business and Laura from England who like me is just backpacking. Haight Ashbury is a nice retreat from the city so I didnt mind heading up there for a third time. This time after looking round Amoeba Records again we took a walk through Golden Gate Park and went in search of the Bison enclosure. I had gone in search of it myself on my last visit up there but had gotten lost. We managed to find it this time and it was way further than I expected, quite a walk! Golden Gate Park is 3 miles in length and the Bison enclosure was pretty much at the end of the park. There werent too many Bison around, they were penned into a different area and we couldnt get too close but I managed to get a few decent photos so it wasnt a total waste of time. The walk through was nice too.

The only other thing that sticks out from the remainder of my time in SF was walking over the Golden Gate Bridge. (like I could forget it, ha ha) I wisely decided to catch the bus down to the bridge this time instead of trying to get to it on foot. Angelo came along and once we'd arrived at the bridge we started the walk across to the Sausalito side which took a good 35-40 mins with stopping to take pictures. Most of the time the bridge is shrouded in fog which was the case on the day we decided to see it. You couldnt see the arches of the bridge, they were completely hidden from view. I took a few pictures anyway as it looked kind of cool with all the fog hanging around. I'm glad I took my hoody with me that day as the walk across is quite a windy one especially when you get toward the middle! The height from the bridge to the water is quite a drop too, its no wonder the bridge is one of the US' top suicide spots! All the way over the bridge there are telephones for people who find themselves there contemplating ending it all who need to speak to someone. Imagine working in that call centre?

All in all it makes for quite a noisy walk across not just because of the wind noise but also the added noise of the traffic too. When you touch the cables of the bridge you can feel them constantly vibrating from the sheer amount of vehicles speeding across it at all hours of the day. After getting over to the other side and moving away from the bridge for 5 minutes quiet I had a look through the telescopes at the San Francisco city skyline in the distance. It looked so tiny! You can also see Alcatraz in the middle of the bay. So after getting a few more pics we headed back across. By the time we made it back to the other side the fog had cleared up and I was able to see the bridge along with both the arches too. It worked out well in the end that I had a set of pictures with fog and a set without.

On my last day in SF I went to watch the new Robin Hood movie and cringed slightly at Russell Crowe's mish-mash of English accents, I'm not sure if Robin Hood was meant to be a Scouser or a Scotsman. The battle scenes were spot on though. I cant recall what I did for the rest of that day, I think I just sat around the hostel and sunk a few beers. I'd seen everything I wanted to see in SF by now so was just waiting to go to Vegas.

The following day I caught my flight to Las Vegas, a nice easy 90 min flight at that! Literally as soon as I stepped off the plane there were a row of fruit machines enticing me to play them with their flashing lights. Damn those flashing lights!! For the record, I dont play fruit machines back home but intended to in Vegas as I dont know how to play card games so naturally fruit machines are the easier option. And what are you doing in Vegas if you're not gonna have a a little flutter in one way or another? I caught the bus up the strip from the airport and to my hostel, well, it was more of a cheesy looking motel that was straight out of the 70's. I checked in and dealt with possibly one of the dumbest, most unhelpful, rude person that I've had to deal with since coming away. The woman didnt have a clue about anything I asked her. It was all guesswork. Still, for $19 a night I couldnt expect the Hilton, ha ha. As luck would have it, the dorm that I was in was completely unoccupied for the whole of my stay bar the last night. So I had my own space which was nice after sharing with other people for so long. The shower curtain wasnt so nice, it was black with mould and stuck together, but $19, $19...

I took a walk down the strip and quickly realised I should have worn my shorts instead of jeans. Even at 10pm at night, the desert heat of Nevada is stifling, really dry! Still, the casinos all have air con, so no worries. I went for a drink in the nearest casino, the Sahara, which is one of the older ones. They had $1 bottles of Miller so i was made up! I had a little play of the 1c slot machines and managed to win $20 which sadly found it's way back into the machine pretty quickly. Damn those flashing lights!! Damn my lack of willpower! I drank several more beers and after running out of money I headed back to the motel where I sat on a bench on my balcony and drank a 40oz whilst looking out down the strip at the night lights. I got chatting to a stripper that was feeding a feral cat. Sounds like some bad movie doesnt it? She lives in the motel on the same floor as my room and had visited the ice machine downstairs and found this hungry cat which she took pity on. She offered me a vodka cocktail which I gladly accepted and drank fairly quickly. Pretty soon after I started slurring and talking crap so thanked her for her kind offer of a drink and went and crashed out for the night. I dont know how much vodka she put in that cocktail but I felt dog rough the next day!

So yeah, the next day I wasnt in too much of a hurry to do much, drank plenty of water and slowly started to feel human again. I went and had tacos for breakfast at the 24 hr Mexican restaurant a block from the motel. I ate there every day of my stay in Vegas, their food is that good!! That evening I went to Helldorado Days which is an annual pro-rodeo event that takes place over 4 days. I got to Vegas in time to catch the last night that showcased all the world champion rodeo riders. Going to see a rodeo was on my list of things to do whilst in the US so I was pretty chuffed that I made it along. First they had bareback riding and from where I was sitting, watching people getting flung around on top of these angry bucking horses, (without saddles no less) looked pretty painful! One guy got his hand stuck in the reins or something because the horse dragged him around for 20 odd seconds before falling over against the railings of the arena. Everyone stopped and fell silent for a second until he jumped back to his feet. After at least 20 or so bareback riders came a wagon show with an old fashioned Wild West wagon being towed by 6 massive horses. It tore round the arena at quite a speed kicking up loads of dust as it went, pretty cool stuff. Afterward there were a series of girls showing off their stunt riding skills followed by some comedy routine involving a small horse driving a Volkswagen around the arena after a guy who was zig-zagging to get away from it. Proper circus routine!

What I had really came to see was saved for last. The bull riding!! Mentalism!! You'd either have to be really brave or incredibly stupid to get on the back of one of these bad boys! The minute the gate opened the bull would spring out and was bucking the rider ferociously whilst spinning around in a circle. Most of the riders tumbled to the floor within seconds apart from a few who managed to stay on. Some of the bulls were absolute monsters, really big and fearsome looking. After flipping their rider they'd run at the guys hanging around the gates of the pens who wisely jumped out of the way. It was proper entertainment and I was glad I went. Afterward I headed down Fremont Street which is where the original Las Vegas strip used to be before it blew up from a one horse town into what it is today. Fremont Street boasts a huge roof that covers the whole street which is basically a massive long TV screen which they screen shows on and pump the soundtrack out of a high end sound system - impressive stuff, something that you cant fully appreciate without seeing it for yourself. They screened a Queen music video montage with all kinds of mad lighting. Everyone in the street was just looking at the ceiling in awe whilst it was going on. Naturally, the flashing lights of the fruit machines got the better of me and I lost $20 before walking back to the motel. Wisely though, I left my cashcard in my room and only took what I could afford to lose, ha ha

My next day was supposed to be a bit of an all dayer and an exploration of the strip. I headed out with $80 in my pocket and had planned to look around all the big casinos and have a bit of a flutter. What actually happened was I went to the casinos too early and blew most of my money (damn those flashing lights!) before the sun went down. To be fair though I spent my time in Vegas alone so boredom got the better of me and also I didnt have anyone to talk common sense into my ear so naturally I passed the time sat at the machines! I walked back 4 miles up the strip as I was down to $2, not even enough to get the bus back to the motel, what a dumbass, ha ha. I did make the most of the fact I was walking home and took plenty of pics of the strip all lit up at night which is obviously the best time.

On the next day, same story, I went out, doubled my money in a couple of hours and promptly blew it again. Where's Ciara when I need her to speak common sense in my ear? ha ha. I headed back to the motel afterward defeated and consoled myself with a massive pizza and a beer on my balcony where I got chatting to a Dutch guy, Olaf who was staying next door who also had the room to himself as the motel was dead.

The following morning I went out and took a walk down to the mall and had a look around, I needed a break from the casinos. The rest of the day was spent just chilling really as I had to be up at 5am the following day to go to the Grand Canyon. So after not a lot of sleep I was up before the sun and went down to where the company I'd booked with had told me to be, at a nearby casino. To cut a long story short, they told me to look out for a different coach than the one they sent so I ended up missing the coach and had to spend $30 on a cab to their offices on the outskirts of town. Not happy!! After a lot of excuses on their part and some demands on mine they repaid my cab fare. After a coffee and a bite to eat I set off on a 5 hour journey to the Grand Canyon stopping along the way at the Hoover Dam which was a slight disappointment as I thought we would spend some time walking around it and getting different pics. All we got was a 5 min stop and then back on the coach. The drive through the Arizona desert was brilliant, theres so much of sheer nothing there! I've always wanted to see Arizona and it was just as I expected with little silver trailers parked in the middle of vast expanses of land and little truckstop diners along the way. The coach arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and I spent an hour at our first spot getting plenty of pictures and taking in the scale of the canyon. It's too big to fully comprehend just how wide and deep it is. Its awesome. Afterward the coach went round to Mather Point where the canyon appears even deeper and wider. After spending an hour there it was back on the coach and back to Vegas stopping at Mcdonalds on the way back which added more time onto the day. By the time we'd dropped everyone off and I got back to the room it was 11pm, I was so glad to be back and not sitting on a coach any longer!

After a good sleep I had to be up the next day to check out. I had a few hours to kill so went to the nearest casino, Stratosphere, which has the tallest building on the strip, a tower with funfair rides on top of it! I was strict with myself and told myself i'd bet only $5 and then leave. I ended up winning $130 with it, not bad! I had the sense to leave at this point and caught the bus to the airport with a smile. I got to the airport, bet a little more and won another $90! Result! Then as bad luck would have it, my flight got delayed and cancelled due to bad wetaher coming in from the East Coast, boredom set in and I pumped half of my winnings back into the machines. If my flight would have been on time it wouldnt have happened, ha ha. Still, to put things in perspective, there's people who go to Vegas and lose THOUSANDS so I didnt feel too bad, i was still up for the day. I ended up being put up for the night by the airline in a really nice room with the biggest king size bed i've seen in a long time. I only got 4 hours sleep though as I had to be back up and to the airport again. The airline also gave me a load of food vouchers which I gladly used. So I eventually flew into Salt Lake City the following morning completely knackered. I'm currently at my friend Bens house, I havent seen him in 5 years so we're just chilling and getting some beer and Xbox time in, ha ha

Apologies for another lengthy lengthy blog, dont worry, there arent many more to go!