A long journey

Hi everybody!

It's six thirty a.m. and I am sitting in a hotel reception in Flagstaff, Arizona, as I'm unable to sleep. Max was awake a few times in the night and after finally getting him back to sleep, I couldn't.

Yesterday was quite an epic day. We flew over 2,100 miles and then drove another 150. Getting up early we got a taxi to Newark airport, checked in and had some breakfast. Security was a nightmare, and as always seems to happen, we were the last onto the plane, after they called our name out (you know that family in the fast show?.....). You could see the look of trepidation on everybody's faces as we walked down the aisle - hoping that we weren't sitting near them! The stewardess asked us which seats, and said "what all four of you there?" as we didn't pay for Max, so we had three seats for the four of us. Somebody else lauged but probably more out of fear for six hours of hell. Actually the boys were amazingly good on the flight and lots of people at the end of the flight said how good they had been.

After collecting our bags we went to pick up the hire car. As part of our journey will be on bumpy dirt tracks we had decided to hire an SUV (Chelsea tractor). Everytime we've hired a car before they have just given us one. This time they said we had a choice. We went down into the car park and there were about 20 different cars/trucks to choose from - 4x4s and pickup trucks, Fords, Dodges, Chryslers, Chevies, Kias etc. After not much sleep and a long flight we were a bit lost. Sam sat in a few and tryed out the hazard lights and we chose a Chevrolet Traverse. Mainly because it looked nice, and Adrian - our most petrol-headed friend - drives a chevy.

We then set off on one of the most amazing drives of my life. Starting in Phoenix in 26 degree heat, and ending in Flagstaff at below zero. Phoenix is in the middle of the desert and shouldn't exist really - all the water for the million residents is piped in from over 1000 miles away. The road out took us uphill, past big red rocks and hills covered in huge cacti. Some of the cacti were at least 20 feet tall. Amazing. We kept going uphill, then across desert plains, then uphill again past amazing scenery, with big red mountains and rocks in the distance. Then as we went higher the landscape completely changed into forests, with huge snow covered mountains in the distance. Flagstaff is 7000 feet above sea level - almost twice as high as Ben Nevis.

We then had a really nice meal and an early night. Today after a swim at the hotel we're driving to the Grand Canyon. I'm very excited. The first view of it is meant to be completely breathtaking, and I can't wait.

Talking of swimming - Sam sam his first length without a float this week. He wears a jacket with floats in it, so not unassisted, but a big step for him, especially overcoming the fear.

The day before heading off to Arizona we went to see the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall, which is America's most famous christmas show. Paul's girlfriend is a Rockette - the troup of dancers that do most of the show - and got us really good reduced price tickets. The boys loved the show, and it was loads better than I had expected. The dancing and overall production was fantastic. Max was on my knees jumping up and down and clapping. Afterwards we went backstage, met the camels, and saw how the stage works.

We'll have internet access as some of the hotels we're staying at, so we may post again. Have a good week.

Tom x

p.s. I can't believe Robin van Persie got injured playing for Holland again. Really bad timing as he's been playing really well and we have a big game against Chelsea in two weeks. At least everybody has been scoring, so we should be ok, but he's done really well in the central striker role and will be a big loss. Bloody international friendlies - what a waste of time.