Yin and yang

Well it's been a little while, but I'm now online and undisturbed so can write properly. Being on holiday for a very long time is harder work than I thought - whenever I can get on a computer (every few days) I spend all my time either sorting my life out or catching up.

I've been in Flagstaff, Arizona for the last few days just chilling out, and it's a great place to do very little - great little hostel, small town, mountain air. Yesterday I ventured as far as the Lowell Observatory, which was the place where Pluto was discovered (which they're at pains to point out is "still officially regarded as a planet") and was founded by a chap called Percival Lowell (whose main claim to fame was hypothesising the existence of canals, and therefore intelligent life, on Mars - they played this down a bit at the observatory). Today I went on a tour of the Grand Canyon, which was nice.

But what's been troubling me most recently has been yin and yang. When I was camping in Yosemite, a girl I met there said that I'd love Las Vegas and that it was the Yang to Yosemite's Yin. The next day, I blew a tyre driving through Yosemite, twenty minutes later was pulled over by a cop for speeding, and then got to the campsite just after it had filled up. Definite yang. And Vegas yanged too - I stayed at the Sahara, where I learnt how to lose money on Blackjack (very well). I've just looked at my notes and found a bit of paper that says "Vegas: fucking shit hole".

So where's the yin? Well I did have a very good time in San Francisco, in particular hanging out with Hannah and Win, and I managed to hitch/ occassionally bus around Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington in four days (both are amazing - check the photos from Olympic and VI. But I've not had much yin recently. I quite like the West and in particular the old stuff round San Francisco and the really incredible scenery up north. But there's something a bit ephemeral about it too, and occasionally just quite sad - too many old gold towns oil towns, too many dirt-poor reservations/ trailer parks.

Tomorrow I'm heading for New Mexico before heading down to the real thing next week. Wish me luck.

In other news, I've been quite getting into the US presidential race. Barack Obama only seems to stand for Hope, which I get the impression does quite well over here but doesn't really do it for me. Been very impressed with Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, but I guess it'll be Clinton.

Anyway even I'm getting bored by this so it must be painful for you and I have to vacate the computer in six minutes... Stay in touch people and let me know what's going on in the UK. I'm guessing that you're all becoming quite proficient swimmers.

My top tip: Pick up hitchhikers. Have I said this before?
What I'm listening to: I've put my MP3 player on shuffle, but it's best when the Burns Unit comes on...
Where next: Santa Fe - the US's first capital, no less