American TV

Advert: skimpily-dressed and predictably gorgeous woman slides into stretch limo in Las Vegas, bound for the airport. She starts cavorting on the leather seats and toying with the driver, who finally closes the partition on her.

But when, on arrival, he opens the door for her, out steps a mousy and somewhat stiff English businesswoman. She talks on a mobile phone, stilted, no trace of the previous sultry vixen.

Tag line: “Las Vegas. What happens here, stays here.”

What? I mean, exactly what message are they tying to promote? Really?

Blimey.

Moab, Utah

Moab is cool. Not in the physical sense – it’s something approaching 40C here – but in the ‘bunch of mountain-bikers hanging out having survived another descent’ sense. Personally, I survived a morning hiking in Arches National Park, looking at… uh… arches. Oh, and dodging lizards, too. At least the air here is thick enough to breathe.

Tomorrow, assuming I survive a descent into Fiery Furnace, I head for Navajo country.

Still here

New York: more later – too much to say in a hurry.

The Rockies: woah! 12,000ft is fairly intense, and in my first day here I got hailed at, sank beyond my knees in snow, and counted after the lightning ‘One… twohshit!’ Amazing place. Then last night involved stupendous sashimi in Aspen with Vinay and Bea.

Now, I’m about to head West, into the desert.