And finally?

So after 6 weeks (slightly more), 10,000 miles by car (slightly less), 270 bird species (slightly more) and 100 ‘lifers’ (more), what’s it all been for?? Well, this was a holiday so it was about relaxing and I relaxed, but it was a holiday only possible after I gave up the well-paid post of RSPB…

Flagstaff to the Ocean

I’m writing this with the sound of the Pacific waves near Carlsbad, California in my ears. I could live in Flagstaff it’s the most agreeable American town I’ve met.  It provided me with breakfast in the Grand Canyon Diner, whose waitress was a bit slow, and whose booths seemed full of English people – me and…

Flagstaff

I drove into Flagstaff  on a fragment of the ‘historic’ Route 66, which I last touched near its other end south of Chicago many days ago, hoping it would be nice as my ‘Rough Guide’ says it is – and it is.  I’ve spent very little time in towns you would have heard of since New York and it’s…

Mom’s place

I didn’t know much about Utah before I started driving through it and I’m not an expert now.  Brigham Young and Donny Osmond came to mind but I have tried to blank out both. Before I left the UK I met the Independent’s Travel Editor Simon Calder in a TV studio and his advice on my trip…

Homage to the Passenger Pigeon

I did a strange thing in a zoo today. My days are beginning to fall into a certain order.  Wake at 5am after a good night’s sleep and without an alarm, check emails (‘cos Europe is already up), shower, move stuff into the car and then hit the road. And so I headed North from…