Tuesday June 15 2004, Yellowstone to Glacier

8am

On the road already, back into the Park. It is bright and sunny, but takes a while to get warm. To 'Old Faithful', and many beautiful and magnificent eruptions ;-)





Some of the other springs and geysers are less awe-inspiring - some of the group take a dip in a 'swimming hole' which is actually very cold.



There was no way I was going in there - (although famously I have since gone skinny-dipping in Sweden!). The day finishes at Mammoth Hot Springs where I buy a very useful pillow for the tent. It also comes in handy for the seemingly interminable sleeping we're doing in the van whilst travelling - long journeys, running out of things to say, warmth - I find it easy to snuggle up to my nearest travelling companion, whether they like it or not!

Upon return to Gardiner, our campsite, the weather is pretty dreadful - wind and rain. By the time I get out of the shower, the gusts and rain are pretty wild. Cori manages to acquire some log cabins for the evening at no extra cost, which are very much welcome. The woman who runs the campsite is a very kind lady indeed - and manages to keep on working despite a nasty accident with a gas stove last night. She'd burned her arm quite badly, and the nearest hospital is 1 1/2 hours drive away - not unusual in this part of the US.

Blanket coverage

It's snow joke. I was bored out of my brains yesterday whilst the rest of London suddenly found wellies, skies and long lost vintage wooden sledges. Having decided to make the trek to work at about 8am, I got to Balham tube only to find that trains weren't really running normally at all. So, I went and had coffee, lost £20 somehow and then made my way home once my boss told me that it wasn't worth going in.

All I can say is that snow days are really boring once the novelty wears off!

Monday June 14 2004, Cody - Yellowstone National Park

It's a gorgeous, bright and sunny day today. We leave camp a little later than normal today, as Cori has to replace a tyre on the van which was stolen in Chicago. We're off to Yellowstone National Park, which is absolutely enormous. After lunch we hike up the 'Elephant Trail', to a stunning view. The hike really knackers me out, but it's worth it to see some waterfalls that are even more spectacular than Niagara. Camp tonight is just outside the park in Montana (or Man-tana, as the locals sometimes say, 'cos there ain't a whole lotta women there...).



Despite the bright sunshine, it's a tad cold and windy - again I don't sleep brilliantly.

Sunday June 13 2004, Wyoming (Devil's Tower to Cody)

Another long trip today through the Blackhills National Forest, and heading to Cody, WY. Spectacular scenery and a long way up. In fact, we've gone so far up that on the way down my ears begin to pop quite badly and I have quite a headache for the rest of the afternoon.

We're most definitely in the midwest now, and it really begins to show when you drive through some of these places. Arriving in Cody, we take a look around the town - I desperately need warm clothes so head straight to the outdoor gear shop to buy a jacket to keep the wind and rain off. It's likely to get much cooler and wetter in these mountainous parts too, and I haven't slept that well. We set up camp in Cody - and in the evening the group splits. Three of the group go to the Cody Rodeo - not my cup of tea at all - and another three of us head to the movie theater to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban. It's great fun to watch, and I do enjoy it, but - true to form in warm, dark places (!) - I fall asleep in the last twenty minutes!

Saturday June 12 2004, Wisconsin - Wyoming

A long trip across the plains today, and into the mountains - through Rapid City to Mount Rushmore. I'm impressed by the way these National Parks, monuments and forests are presented and organised. There's a pride and a devotion to national image here that would put even English Heritage and the National Trust to shame. Mount Rushmore represents what democracy stood for at the time of the Founding Fathers - and it's a pretty safe bet that Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln would be appalled at their successors' actions today.





There are union flags everywhere, as expected. Although I find the show of patriotism a little overwhelming, I still go to the gift shop to buy a copy of the US Constitution, which they sell in a nice handy little format for $9.99.



Leaving Rushmore, we head down the road on a short journey to the Crazy Horse monument - the Native American answer to Rushmore and very much a work in progress. As it's still being carved out of the stone in the mountains there's not that much to say about it except that it'll be quite spectactular when it is eventually finished! Astri and I pay $3.00 to travel in a clapped out school bus to the bottom of the mountain for nothing more than a photographic opportunity. Oh well.

Camp tonight is at Devils' Tower - a campsite at the foot of a somewhat sinister looking rock formation in Wyoming and which was also a principal location used in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Apparently they show the film regularly on an outdoor screen - though it's very cold tonight, and I don't sleep too well.

Everyone in the group is beginning to bond quite well now, though I still can't help thinking it's a bit like Big Brother on wheels!

The Lord of Abbeville Road

I'm reading George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris in London at the moment, having rather a lot of time to myself and little else to do.

There aren't many similarities between my current situation and Orwell's experience - for a start, I'm not in abject poverty and Orwell's celebrated memoir described some very tough times in the 1930s.

But I have now joined the ranks of the down-and-outs in south-west London. OK, so being unemployed in Balham is not quite the same as being forced to pawn your only overcoat, or having to work eighteen-hour days as a plongeur in a filthy Paris hotel. But, like Orwell in Down and Out, it does expose you to meeting people who don't do the traditional nine 'til five day, and the sorts of characters you will never meet stuck in the office. A person without a job and who lacks structure in their life gets stuck in a very strange, basic sort of existence, as Orwell finds even more so in the second part of the book.

In the relative affluence of Abbeville Road, where I went for a mid-morning latte today after visiting my GP, there are plenty of people inhabit the coffee shops in daytime because they've either got kids, are retired or they're not working for some other reason. A much stereotyped 'yummy mummy' gossips about a friend who's doing Versace's advertising and an argument rages in an Italian cafe across the street. In Starbucks, a well-dressed, Wildesque figure with a long-flowing mane greets from the terrace:

"Good-day to you sir, would you fetch my drink from inside?". He pointed to his cane, and a cigarette in his other hand, thus rendering it impossible for him to safely convey his iced hot chocolate from the counter.

I brought the drink out and took a seat next to him, hoping to make the most of the sunshine. James David Cameron (no relation to the film director or the Tory leader) wore a crisp linen jacket and had a colonial air about him. He seemed relieved that I was reading the Guardian, a 'friend of mine' and acknowledged everyone who passed through for their morning coffee. Some ignored him, others had a cheerful greeting for him. He complained loudly to the staff about the lack of whipped cream on his drink and the wobbly tables. He even managed to give graphic accounts of his sex life with his girlfriend. A Bulgarian woman was gently teased about her poor spoken English. Cameron excitedly told anyone who'd listen about his upcoming role as an extra in a film with Russell Crowe - and "did I want to be in it too, £3,000 for a fortnight's work?" He insisted on taking my number, just in case.

It seemed appropriate to meet James after watching an outdoor screening of Withnail and I last night, for unlike Richard E. Grant's character he made unemployment seem so civilized. But , who desperately tries to appear superior and aloof despite his alcohol and drugs binges, there was nothing incapable about James apart from having suffered from MS since he was 17. The self-styled "Lord of Abbeville Road" was engaging and entertaining, and pleased to have company.

So, here's to being a 'bum', and as my friend Greg and I have recently discovered, you can 'rest' in style, and have a lot of fun at other people's expense whilst you're doing it!

Friday June 11 2004, Wisconsin - South Dakota

To Badlands National Park, America's smallest. It is basically a lot of sandstone and unusual looking rocks, once engulfed by a vast sea millions of years ago. Not much opportunity for hiding here or doing my own thing, but lots of photo opportunities. We are lucky tonight in that we have the use of a cabin lodge at our campsite - a proper bed and decent shelter! But it turns out to be a peaceful evening anyway.

A highlight of this stop is the 'Corn Palace' in a tiny little town called Mitchell. The corn palace is essentially a large town hall decorated with....err...corn. Oh well, whatever amuses the locals I suppose...