Letters from America – by the resurrected Alistair Cooke of Karma Avenue

Well we made it after a 14 hr trip with United who really were not too bad despite their old 747s and old entertainment technology. But we got almost no sleep. Kitty borrowed my noise-cancelling headphones for 5 minutes. An hour later she asked why the fiilm had music but no voices. She had knocked the channel change from Ch 1 to Ch 2 ! Not a good test of the headphones

First impressions of the US The folks in Utah seem pretty friendly, laid back, and fairly content. NO signs of guns. NEWSFLASH on radio. A man went to hospital due to a large growth on his neck. Doctors discovered he had a bullet in his neck. The guy recalled that 5 years earlier at a New Years Party he felt a sharp sting in his neck but was so drunk he forgot about it. He had been shot in the neck. And they call us yobbos.

Well Utah is a bit like say the outback and Flinders Ranges – only somewhat more populated but still peaceful. Nice pleasant sceenery. It is quite warm in the day and cold at night. TIP No. 1 for travelliing by car – beg, borrow or steal a GPS with US maps. We stole Jonathan's Tom-Tom. The GPS is the world´s best invention for travellers. Without it we would be totally lost and trying to find our way blindly in Divorce County. The Tom-Tom works brilliantly whether it is getting us to a hotel 8 blocks way (but who knows where or in which direction) or navigating dirt roads up some desolate mountain. A must.

Anyway the travelling has begun in earnest. Today we will cover 4 states – Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Only about 16 extra days to cover them all.