Tuesday 6th August
We woke early, not really but early enough. The house was busy with everyone milling about, packing, preparing. I was about to be flying again and was excited. Everyone else were more solemn. I don't know why we drove to the airport in our separate cars, you'd think we would have swopped passengers.
Dallas Fort worth is huge; we found our terminal and got everyone seated. Andre, the boys and I ran out to get the suburban back to enterprise. It got a bit stressful as we toured the airport in loops finally being spat out at the south side. Car finally dropped we had to run to catch a bus, Jonahs shoe flying off. That kid does not tie his laces, he thinks it's cool to have casual looking shoes but it's not cool to miss a plane.

Back at the terminal we say goodbye, take more photos say more goodbyes. We're in this long snaking line now to be security checked and the whole time everyone's miserable and crying looking back longingly at cousins hating to leave. Melissa is upset and it's a dreary moment but finally we get through and wave final goodbyes. Hooray, everyone can start to cheer up again.
We find the plane and everyone's lining up. I run off to find an adapter so that I can use my skull candy on the flights. On the way back I'm walking quite briskly, there's this lady behind me who is calling a girl up ahead. Emily! She calls repeatedly. So I call out hey Emily, just randomly to the crowd and this girl stops and turns around surprised, someone's calling you I say pointing back with my thumb.
Back on a 777, the flight for those paying attention a lesson on geography because within the 14 hour flight we get to see the sunset and a few hours later we get to catch the sunrise. Melissa did not look out the window much; it hurt to be leaving America. 
The air steward brought some warm moist facecloths for us to refresh, Noah is handed one and immediately moans about it being too hot but whilst moaning the aircon has already cooled it down so by the time he touches it to his face it’s already cold. The air steward has not even moved along and Noah is already moaning that it's too cold. Sheesh Noah, you moan a lot I say. No I don't he goes on to complain.
It was still dark when flying over Europe and I enjoyed seeing the lights of the little French towns. We've got to go there one day I think to myself. The food this time was not that great the boys hardly touching their flapjack and chocolate sauce breakfast and Sophie outright refusing.
Wednesday 7th August.
We're still on the plane but it's a new day already.
We land in Dubai around midday and make our way outside to find a shuttle to the Copthorne hotel. It's hot. Stiflingly hot. All part of the adventure. In the hotel everyone wants to sleep except Phoebe Jonah and me, we go down for a late lunch even though we're not hungry. The food is well prepared and laid out neatly. The hotel and meals are paid for by Emirates, I really like Emirates. We enjoy the time in the dining room and find ourselves back there for dinner a few short hours later with the whole family.
I have the odd perception that the Arabs see themselves superior to my humble caucation race. Cant say why and could be wrong.
10pm I convince the kids to walk a few blocks with me to a shopping centre, we walk out the hotel and make it as far as the corner before turning around, back to the air conditioning of the hotel. Crikey it's hot, we could have died.
11pm we head down to the pool only to find that we are not allowed to swim as the life guard is now off duty. We live in Durban, my kids know how to swim I say. Even so, its the rule, he did however stick around food a few minutes so we could swim  for which I was grateful. Being almost 40 degrees, well maybe somewhere in the 30's now, you'd think that we would be able to dry off quite quickly, but you'd be wrong. It's so humid that you would remain a soggy warm all night.



Thursday 8 August.
Breakfast was a joy, I loved the thick strong sour yogurt and melon slices.
Our plane was parked somewhere out on the tarmac so we had to be bused out to it. Usually first and business class are summoned to their seats before the economy social class, so I should have suspected something when economy was invited to line up first. Next time I'll just hang back and enjoy the uncrowded bus to the plane. Another hot day, we climbed the stairs at the back of our 777 and found our seats. I had the window now that I knew no one cared. Sophie sat next to me; I remember this because we watched Odd Thomas together. The good Emir has all the movies edited to cut out anything my father would have disapproved of so we could be free to watch most things.
I was watching the ocean below when we crossed land, the horn of Africa. We were settled but not filled with the same excitement as before; looking forward to home and the known is not as exciting as the unknown and exploration.
Once you return home and the days go by and you reflect upon the travels a few thoughts start dawning on you. These are mine.
I wish I had taken more photos. Photos of the family crossing state lines. Welcome to Arizona, Nevada, Texas. Utah.
I wish we had driven the Las Vegas strip at night. We were right there. It was an awesome day and we had done so much, I can understand that we didn't, but it would have been good.
I wish I'd driven a mustang and dodge. Days were packed.
I wish I had a dairy queen ice cream. We drove passed one in Texas.
Also would have been nice to visit more museums and galleries.
But those things are few, and not life altering so had crammed each day with activities and exploration and have very little to wish for.
It;s been two years since we returned home, we talk about our travels often. Our own world has opened up a lot. It was good to see how awesome our own country is and to be happy here. Our theme upon returning was that we were going to work like Americans, Americans work hard, sometimes multiple jobs, kids go to school on public holidays. They do jobs that we'd not consider. Loved the abundance. Hope to return soon and looking forward to our next adventure.

Sunday 4th August
Visited Dallas temple, it's the same architecture as the Joburg temple, and again the gates were locked so we took photos from the outside. Dallas and surrounds are claustrophobically flat and for the first time we appreciated the compass on the cars.
Enjoyed church in the afternoon and an evening with the Lofstrands and Willson brothers and families. So good seeing Jonathan and David again and meeting their families.
Monday 5th August
Spent the day with Sophie, Noah, Jonah, Andre, Liam, Rogan, Lars and Lucy.
Ross Perrow museum. Dallas oozes with power. The museum is really good with interactive exhibits. Sophie and Lucy donned safety goggles and white lab coats and dissected maggots , we experienced what an earthquake would be like, safety goggles again to dig for dinosaur bones, raced against a t rex  although Noah s shoe went flying off his foot half way, tested reflexes and shot slow motion sports moves to analyze. Hey Lucy, says Noah, look I'm flying through the air. Uh, it's called jumping she says unimpressed.
Some sister missionaries were also moving through the museum, was nice to say hello and for the kids to have that familiar association. Lars and I were fascinated with the human exhibit, which was a 1mm slice of a dude a bit portly. I think they freeze the body and then slice it with a laser.
Andre and Lars wanted to take me to the street where Kennedy was shot, I declined however.
Lunch at Steak n Shake I had a salted caramel milkshake and Jamaican Jerk burger. Noah spilled his root beer and was promptly brought another.  Even years later I'm looking longingly at the steak n shake website getting hungry. The kids are currently making a birthday cake milkshake.
We visit a huge shopping centre in the evening, buy some Hollister t shirts on special, visit a chocolate confectionery but the choice is so vast I battle to make a decision and leave without one.
We head over to an Australian restaurant for a delicious steak and vegetable dinner. I have a blooming onion for starters, it's an onion cut and deep fried.
The boys again slept outside in a tent.

Friday 2nd August
Breakfast was plastic bacon, biscuits and gravy, waffles, yogurt and cereal. We loved it. The gravy is a creamy colour. Melissa has been talking about biscuits, bacon and gravy quite a bit since then. We really should try making some.
The day had many opportunities but each got shot down by kids who insisted that we really needed to reach cousins ASAP.

Cuba
Bernalillo where we filled the tank. There were some serious looking cops who had no doubt been through a lot also filling up; I wish I had asked to take photos of me posing with them. I thought they'd say no so didn't ask but wish I had. A great photo would be if I had my face on their bonnet getting cuffed.
Albuquerque. We did not stop. I wanted to. I liked the look of the city and the mountain alongside with its peaks disappearing in the cloud.
Amarillo.
Vernon.
The country now becoming flat, huge wind turbines alongside the highway.
We stopped at a Wal-Mart to get dinner, chicken pops and fruit.
After nightfall we stopped for gas, insects everywhere and nothing to clean the windscreen. I walked inside and found a basin with soap to put in the water dispenser. Bugs everywhere and one big one got in the car, I had a freak out session trying to kill it with my feet whilst driving.  We arrived at a12.30 pm to find the Nell’s all in the road waiting for us and stayed up chatting for another two hours.

Did insist on stopping along route 66 and loved being there.
 
Saturday 3rd August
Texas. Woke up late. Visited the dollar store and a huge store for people who have hobbies, all kinds of creative hobbies and it was in a huge lobby. It was a lobby full of hobbies but I forget the name of the store.
Melissa and Tracey visited Wal-Mart and the rest of us went swimming in the neighbourhood pool. I cycled there on a racing bike. Nice bike said some cool dudes sarcastically as I cycles around the pool, yes it is cool I safely replied.
Rogan’s tooth came out and so we spent some time with goggles combing the pool for the tooth. There were a few things that looked like the tooth amongst a lot of hair, floaters, peanuts and it was Sophie who eventually found it. Hooray, now the tooth fairy can pay up.
Spent the evening with the Lofstrands having a braai and eating delicious ice cream that comes in a round tub. Why is ice cream that comes in a round tub always so delicious?

Thursday 1st August 2014
Phoebe and I woke early so that I could take her to the Jordan River temple. I had fallen asleep just a few hours before as Wayne and I were up chatting, the subject of which is found in my little book of wisdom.

Jordan River Temple is incredible and we were there on the same day as 3 other stakes temple day so things were busy. Too busy to make friends. I sat at the back next to the organist, no gentle music being played through cd players,  no, over here we have full time organists who bash out hymn after hymn of solemnial praising. Imagine having that many saints hanging around that you can call a few to be temple organists.
We made it back and started packing the suburban Wayne and Amber had arranged for us. Americans think in a different scale, this car is huge, seating us and all our luggage in comfort. We love Road tripping and Tanya had arranged a folder with maps and a list of places of interest along the way.
Amber insisted that we take their iphone so we could use maps and just post it back from Texas. We were grateful for that phone so many times along the journey and scoffed at our naivety in thinking we could just pop down to Texas on our ability to read road signs.
We were excited to be explorers. Tough leaving Salt Lake City though and we had to consciously banish thoughts of when we'd be able to return or we'd have become depressed.
We headed south and a little way after BYU we turned left and headed into the mountains toward Moab. What thrill to see what’s over the next horizon.
We soon stopped at a little truck stop.
Cotton
Helper
Price
Crescent Junction
Moab we stopped and enjoyed the spectacular scenery, the river was muddy.

Monticello. A small farm town, not much going on except, what the heck, that's Moroni, we couldn't believe a tiny town had a temple. We drove toward it and stopped. The car park was full. We spent some time there but I guess some of us were getting hungry because we weren't all getting along.

We found an awesome burger place called PJ’s. And played the world's longest game of pool before I finally had to put the rest of the balls in the holes with my hands and sent everyone back to the car.

The sun was setting to our right as we headed toward Cortez. The road to Durango must be beautiful and I'd love to drive that during the day. But it was dark and when we arrived in Durango we looked for a place to sleep. Nothing at the holiday Inn, nothing at the Marriott opposite, nothing anywhere, we stopped a lot of hotels and drove through the town criss crossing the roads. It was around 10.30pm and People were out enjoying the evening. We spotted another Cold Stone Creamery and it was packed. Best ice cream in the world. Absolutely.
We found a motel a little ways out of town, my responsibility as the father was to get everyone off the road and asleep. I went in secured a room, paid $150 and went back for my family. Melissa was a bit put off by the rickety lift and dirty carpets and some bloke walking around without his shirt on with massive moles on his back,. I opened the door to our room, we were in, safe, let's sleep, except Melissa looked at a dirty pillow and said goodnight, I'll be in the car and walked out. Kids looked at me waiting for the indication of what we do next.
The fellow at reception was a bit put out but one can't really argue with a dirty pillow. So we were back on the road. I understand that the motel wasn't great but I was not happy being on unfamiliar roads. Cat eyes don't work because of the snow, so the roads are dark.
Shortly after midnight we arrived in Aztec and pulled in at a Microtel hotel, it was around $100 and perfectly comfortable. We loved it.    I enjoyed the view from our room of the Pepsi factory, I pointed out to Noah that the mound of rock and sand alongside is used as ingredients in Pepsi and a discussion ensued on the harm of fizzy drinks.

Monday 28th
Park city. Started the day with a tour of the outlet stores and then moved onto Park City, walked out of another burger king due to some plumbing issue and dirty floor and instead bought some carrots from a whole foods store. Jonah had this delicious creamy ' cream soda' and I bought a drink filled with Chia seeds.
We bought tickets to ride the cable car up the mountain but as we were about to climb on the person checking tickets warned us that it was colder up the mountain so we ran into a sports store and bought Melissa a Salomon hoodie. We got back to the cable car and it was spitting with rain. I was wanting to get on but was also scanning the clouds moving in, just then I saw lightning strike near the top and pulled the plug on our adventure. So frustrating, Jonah was seriously upset and it was difficult to explain that the adventure would not continue to be fun if we were stuck in heavy rain and risking the lightning. We'd make it back.

Visited Andrea and decided that we should paint our door red. The girls had spent the day with Andrea.

Dinner, pizza, with the Simpson's Willson's in Herriman.

Tuesday 29th.
We made it back to Park city, just the kids and I (Melissa was hanging out with Amber buying cowgirl boots and eating at Red Robin)
Went back to the cable station, super excited and then super dissapointed as it was closed. Kids handled it quite well. Its been a monkey on my back ever since, wanting to just ride that cable car. Wouldn't it be nice to ride up with a mountain bike.

Tom 

 

L  A  G  O  O  N

More Sophies style.

One of my favourites

One of the boys favourites, kept running back to the line.

Wicked. Our first ride, I was ready to abandon our lives. Couldn't even scream.

A perfect moment.

The Quintessential photo

Wednesday 30th
Lagoon! Roller coaster Park. The light rain kept the crowds away. Funnel cake for lunch, it's deep fried and covered in cream and strawberry syrup - admittedly not the best food to have just before being swung around on rollercoaster’s but delicious and perfect for the day.
Near the end of the day the park quietened and the clouds dissipated. On one of our last rides, the one where your seat is suspended by chains and you get swung around, a rainbow appeared over the mountain in front of a dark cloud and the crisp afternoon sun shone warmly on us. It was a perfect moment, we were together, we were in America, kids were happy. Melissa was in the seat behind us with tears in her eyes at the beauty and perfection of the moment.





























Had dinner at sweet tomatoes and I ate way too much. Seems that after days of burgers and pizza my body was craving fresh produce, green pepper, corn , lettuce, onion, broccoli, carrots, soups, tomatoes, brownies? Ice cream machine? Mousse?  Endless pudding? Endless pink lemonade? Root beer floats?... that deteriorated fast and I over-ate and battled to sleep.