My Journey begins many years ago. I can't remember the precise moment it started or what it was that triggered this whole affair, but at somepoint I knew that Texas and the Southern States of America was where I wanted, no needed, to be. And this is the story of those travels; the bewiching scenery, the crazy characters, the adventures, the food, the beer, the music, the dreams and the realities about this place I have thought about for so long.
If I were to tell you of a land comprising of towering noble mountains, great open plains, vast immeasurable chasms, raging wild rivers, pristine white desserts, giant soaring pillars of rocks and great coloured waves of earth you would think I was speaking of a land inhabited by elves, goblins and hobbits. However, this is what surrounds you as you cross the remarkable lands of Arizona and New Mexico. (Although I have seen some very strange looking people since I’ve been here though!)
I’ve included some photo’s as always with this blog but there is no way you can adequately capture in a single frame the majesty and sheer breath taking beauty that you encounter around almost every bend as you traverse this part of the world.
I could spend page after page exalting the praises of the places I have visited and you could spends weeks, in stead of the five days I had, exploring the places yourself, so I will just pick out a couple of highlights.
MonumentValley, the star of countless western films, and as famous a backdrop as any in the United States, is amazing. This is not simply a movie set though. Taking millions of years to form and representing a very spiritual site for the Navaho Indians that have lived there for generations, you feel you know the place so well already but are still blown away by these monoliths splendour and dignity as they stand guard over the land; centurions of centuries of change. You would expect here in America that there would be a Mall attached to them by now selling cheap, tacky souvenirs, and a theme park with people wandering around in foam suites dressed as ‘Morris the Monolith’ to attract as many people as possible and take all their money. But here, as with all of the natural wonders I visited there is no marketing, no hype, no schemes to empty your wallet, just the landscape itself, which is all you need.
The Grand Canyon. I’m not sure what I can write about. This is such a indescribable place, that no amount of words or pictures can even do it an ounce of justice. I was prepared before I saw it to be blown away and amazed by its size and scale, but the moment that you first see it you can’t honestly comprehend it all. There is so much to take in all at ounce that your levels of scale and perception are altered because your brain can’t understand seeing something so vast. And what you can see of it from any one place is only a fraction of the whole thing. It floors you that all it takes is time and water to create such a thing. It takes a whole day just to get to the bottom of it! What the first settlers moving west thought when they first came across this mightiest of barriers I don’t know. I think I would have just stopped given up at that point.
And there are countless other places as well; Meteor Crater, The Petrified Forrest, White Sands National Park, El Morro, The Hoover Dam, along with all the natural beauty of the country in between all these places which can be just as striking and picturesque.
After leaving the man made, fake overindulgence of Las Vegas this was the perfect antidote that put all the lights and noise into even starker relief.
There are many, many beautiful natural wonders all over the world, all with their own unique charm and splendour but I can’t think of anywhere with so many different and varied locations with in such relatively close proximity to one another. When I look back on this trip in years to come I will remember all the lovely people I’ve met, the fun I’ve had and the adventures along the way, but I think what will stand out most in my mind are these few days and the wondrous places that I visited and the magnificent spectacles that I saw.
I'm back folks. Stop you’re crying, cease you’re fretting and put and end to those feelings of anxiety that have kept you awake at night over my short term departure from this blog.
I have been on a road trip for the last week or so, across the desserts of Nevada, the aching beauty of Arizona, the wilderness of New Mexico and the plains of Texas (more of this later).
But my journey began in Las Vegas. SinCity. The Neon Capitol. The place where dreams come true and fantasies can be realized. But for price of course.
Now I’ve wanted to go to Vegas for a long time now, ever since I started watching poker on TV and I saw all those players winning money, talking about the great shows and the best restaurants, and generally showing the city off as one great adult playground where anyone can come and enjoy themselves.
The reality, however, as I have found out, is not as rose tinted as they would have you believe. I was expecting it to be loud and tacky. There are hotels built like medieval castles, Egyptian pyramids and the squares and canals of Venice! 70 years ago the place was just a barren dessert. The whole town was built on a foundation of greed and hedonism, so I knew beforehand it was not going to be the most sophisticated or tasteful of places.
Everyone of your senses is attacked as soon as your free from your room, bright flashing lights and huge neon signs punctuate the night, alarms and bells ring out of every machine to attract your attention and to make you stop and play, the sickly sweet smell of doughnuts or roasting hot dogs permeates the casinos in case you get hungry and don’t want to leave your seat, hoards of people mill around, wondering up and down the street or the rows of slot machines looking lost or maybe just overwhelmed by everything they are taking in. Outside the casinos, away from the relative sanctuary that these behemoths provide, you are accosted every 20ft by someone trying to thrust cards into your hand with nude women on advertising strip joints or escort services 24/7, and when it’s not that there is a homeless person or beggar asking for money or people in costumes (and I use that word in the most loosest of senses) dressed up as cartoon characters posing for photos. The only small reprieve from all this I found was the fountain displays outside the Bellagio. For a few minuets you can forget where you are and enjoy a truly beautiful combination of music and natural wonder. A calm oasis in this dessert of intemperance.
Now all of this would be fine, acceptable even, if everyone there was enjoying themselves. But no one there appears to be having any fun at all. Everyone is walking around with a haggard look on their face, as though beaten down by all the excess that surrounds them. If it wasn’t for the noise of the slots the casino floors would be almost silent as people just sit there quietly and watch their money disappear. No one talks to one another, the odd glance across a blackjack table when the dealer gets 21 again, or the mumble from players around a roulette wheel as they chant for their number to come in. Everybody there knows they are going to loose, they expect it, assume it, but it’s what you do here.
And when you’re done gambling you have a few drinks remember you’re in Vegas and decide you must be having a good time, that’s why you came here, that’s why everyone else came here, so it must be true.
I don’t however believe it was always thus. Back when Vegas got going and the Mob ran the casinos and the town I think people did legitimately have fun. The first casinos; Binions Horseshoe, The Flamingo, The Stardust, weren’t built to make money themselves, but to launder the dirty money from the Mob. So they were run for fun, to give people a good time, to show off, and to give a bit of magic and pizzazz into the average person’s life, so that, for just a brief moment, they knew what it felt like to be Somebody. But all that disappeared when the conglomerates took over. They are only concerned with the bottom line and with extracting as much money out of each 'customer' as possible, and in doing so they have squeezed out all the romance, the enjoyment, and the fun from the one place in the world you knew you could get it.
Vegas is now just a business; the wild young teenager of the past has grown up, is wearing a suit, and looks at numbers all day. They have you believe you’re enjoying yourself while they are simply after the contents of your wallet. So bring back the gangsters, they're probably no more crooked than the CEOs are and they know how to have fun!
You might remember a few weeks back I mentioned in one of these blogs that I went and watched an event here in Austin called the Electric Run; a 5km race for charity after dark where everyone is wearing lights and glow sticks, there’s music and then a big party at the end. It turns out there are similar events to this almost every weekend.
Yesterday was the Colour Run. And this time I was taking part.
These things take place out at the Austin rodeo and carnival grounds. So after waking up at some un godly time in the morning, and after queuing for an hour to get in, we were met by a sea of 15,000 people in white T-shirts. Everyone had received a pack before the race containing race No. etc and a white colour run T-shirt and a pack of paint powder. There was only one rule: You start clean, and end up dirty!!!
A strong influence on the event is the Hindu festival Holi which celebrates the end of winter and the start of spring. It also removes some of the social boundaries between age, class and sex, everyone gets together to celebrate and have fun. This is something that definitely carries over into the Colour Run. There were people running from the ages of 1 – 85, and what better way than to disguise someone’s wealth, culture or upbringing than by having everyone where the same cloths and be covered in paint?
Every kilometre there is a different colour station where volunteers cover race goers in more paint, and they certainly don’t hold back. After the orange station everyone looked like the guy from the 90s Tango advert (I thought about slapping Graham in the face and shouting ‘You know when you’ve been Tango’d’ but I didn’t think anyone would understand and I might end up being tackled by a police officer, so I resisted), and when was the last time you saw a bright blue 70 year old?
At the end, there is another party around a dance stage where everyone opens their paint packets and the ground, the air, everything, descends into a rainbow of colour, movement and fun.
The tag line for the event is ‘The Happiest 5k run in the World’ and I can’t imagine there is one that can beat it. The atmosphere was great, everyone was having a good time and the more colourful you were the happier you became.
So I was thinking, why doesn’t Exeter do something like this? You have the location out at Westpoint, a large student population that would get behind it, and a strong local running community that would support it as well. Plus, it’s great fun!!! So I’m going to look into this when I get back and see if we can’t make this happen for next year. So if you think this is a good idea, want to help or know of anyone that could help me get this off the ground then let me know.
I’ll see you all next year then with your t-shirts and paint in hand.
The 
