Author Archives: angusmccoll

The mighty Mississippi River. I had planned to go from Phoenix to New York but have changed my plans to cut costs. Instead I fly directly to New Orleans, well, via Dallas. Both American Airline’s flights go as planned and I arrive in New Orleans just after 5 pm. The hotel I booked on theContinue reading “Phoenix to New Orleans (Friday)”

I met Richard Bushong today. He is 88 years old and done his fair share fir his country. He served as a pilot with the American airforce through WW2, Korea and Vietnam. At the age of 19 he was flying B-17 Flying Fortresses over Germany and he finished his career with the airforce flying PhantomContinue reading “Tucson to Phoenix (Thursday 8 September)”

Tucson is a city of about one million people. Like Phoenix it is situated in the Sonora desert but there is something unusual about the buildings here. There is no guttering or any attempt to collect rain water, either on the residential or business buildings. It may be the same in Phoenix, I didn’t notice.Continue reading “Tuscon (Wednesday)”

I saw a diamondback rattlesnake today – in the wild. Just awesome! I plan to fly out of Phoenix for New Orleans (I’ve changed my plans to fly to New York) on Friday so decide to duck down to Tucson for two nights before I go. Tucson is about a two-hour bus ride south ofContinue reading “Phoenix to Tucson (Tuesday 6 September)”

Phoenix is not really a tourist town. The public buses aren’t user friendly and there aren’t any serious tourist attractions here, ones you could visit mid summer anyway. The population of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (of which Phoenix is the anchor) is around five million people but that also includes the other municipalities of Scottsdale,Continue reading “Phoenix (Sunday)”

It’s labour-day holiday in the US but I don’t notice any difference in Phoenix, except the buses are running on a sluggish Sunday timetable. All the shops seem open for business as usual, which is good for me. I find a desert nature park that is accessible by the buses. It’s three o’clock and 111Continue reading “Phoenix (Monday)”

I leave Las Vages without laying a finger on a pokie or gaming table! How boring is that! To get to Phoenix I decide to do an overnight bus trip for a change. It saves on an overnight’s accommodation and you do get a different view of the scenery. Not dull at all. The skyContinue reading “Phoenix (Saturday)”

John was a healthy fit young man, a primary school teacher, training for his first marathon when suddenly his life was turned upside down. A car accident put him in a coma for three months and then he was sent home with enough drugs to end it all if he wanted. Maybe that’s what theContinue reading “Vegas to Phoenix (Friday)”

‘We need atomic testing to save democracy’. That was the cry post war to convince the American masses of the need to have an atomic testing program and it worked. I visited the Atomic Testing Museum today. In the early 1950,s, Nevada’s desert just west of Las Vegas was chosen from several proposed sites aroundContinue reading “Vegas and the atom bomb (Thursday)”

This is the Fremont Street Experience. I spent the day checking out the ‘strip’ at one end of the boulevard and the old end of town on Fremont Street. After sundown I decide to checkout Fremont Street for the ‘Fremont Street Experience’. As explained earlier, a part of Fremont Street is now a mall withContinue reading “Vegas (Wednesday)”