De Wilde West Tour

Touring De Wilde West With Erik De Wilde

Erik and Fabienne arrived from Belgium on the 12th coming into LAX.

Somebody mis-read the arrival information and arrived at the airport for the early flight and had to wait three hours extra for their flight!

LAX was like a zoo, there were crowds of people from the Orient milling round and pushing their  way to the front GRRRRR!

However once the guests arrived at Hotel Amer-Cain, they felt much more relaxed.

I think that they had some idea what to expect.

Relaxed can be taken to excess.


Pretty soon it was time to head off on the road trip.

We did about 1050 miles visiting Las Vegas, Williams, The Grand Canyon and Laughlin.

Of course you could be forgiven for thinking that we had included a trip to France in the mix.

In Las Vegas we met up with our nephew Steven and his wife Angela.


We then headed out to Williams AZ. 
On the way,we stopped to see the Hoover Dam from the bridge.

It was a bit tough on Anne, we got out onto the bridge and she felt a bit wobbly.

A result of the effects of the Meniere's Syndrome.

Once in Williams and checking into the hotel, there was a Surprise from Surprise in store.

Barb and Leon had driven up to spend the night in the same hotel.

After checking in, we took the limousine service downtown.

These are golf carts operated by an outfit called Trips for Tips, worth remembering if you are ever in Williams.

Of course, we were headed for the Canyon Club, our kind of place.
(Right Tess?)

Next morning we said goodbye to Barb and Leon and took off to visit the Grand Canyon.

Pictures don't really tell the story very well, but here are some to give you and idea of the grandeur of the vistas.
It has been quite some time since my last visit and a lot of improvements to visitor services have been carried out by the Parks Service.


Once our visit to the Canyon was complete, we left to continue our journey to Laughlin.

If you don't drink or gamble then Laughlin is a bit of a non-event.
So it works for me on both counts.

The dice gods were not on my side for this visit!

Wrap Up

The Trip Home

The cab picked us up at the hotel as scheduled at 3:00 AM.

The drive to Naples airport was fairly quick as there was very little traffic at that time of day.

No matter which route you decide to take, you have to go over the mountains. A bit of a white knuckle ride during the day, even scarier when it's dark.

We arrived at the airport in Naples and checked in easily. Once they opened up the security screening area we were inside the terminal and ready to go in just a few minutes.

The lounge was scheduled to open at 5:00 AM, it was opened by a very truculent employee at 5:15 AM.

I have to  say it was not the best Lufthansa lounge I have seen.

The flight to Munich was just the way I like them, uneventful.

The lounge in Munich was much better.

Lots of choices for food, good seats and a great view out over the runway.

Not forgetting of course ample places to recharge the electronic leash.

That is of course if you hadn't put the charging cable in your checked bag, DUH!

Being Munich, it rained, This was my fifth time in Munich and on four of those occasions it rained.

Soon we were on the plane headed for LAX, a flight of eleven hours and thirty minutes.

A glass of wine before take off and settle in.

Check out the leg room, no please don't check out the legs.

Lunch on the way and then maybe a nap.

This part of the flight always seems interminable. You look at the map and you have just started crossing Hudson Bay, you look again an hour later and you are still over Hudson Bay.

It's kind of like listening to Mahler.

Our plane arrived at LAX right on schedule at 3:00 PM local time.

A quick trip through customs and immigration and we were on the sidewalk by 3:30 PM.

The car drive was not there at the "Meet and Greet" as he should have been, but a quick call and he picked us up at the kerb or curb depending upon your preferred lexicon.

Of course the traffic on the 405 was terrible at that time of day.

Finally we were home, 5:00 PM, exactly 24 hours since we got up in Italy.

We were met with a spontaneous round of indifference from Missy.

Severely jet lagged and ready for sleep.

Ciao Bella,

Norm