They think it's all over

Saturday, 31st May 2014: Terminal D Lounge, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport

An almost smooth flight and surprisingly short flight this morning brought us to Dallas and we are now waiting for our 777 to Madrid in a couple of hours time. John helped an old guy who can't walk too well by going and getting him a beer and some snacks, and now he won't stop talking to us . Problem is, he is also deaf and so the whole lounge is listening to our conversation. He is off to Buenos Aires TO SEE HIS GIRLFRIENDS, he shouted.

Yuma, Arizona we only left a on Thursday and now there's a problem remembering much about it. Thank goodness for the photos! It was hot in Yuma, even the birds were panting.

We went for dinner at one of Arthur's favourites, a "Cracker Barrel". Good ole' fashioned homely food with dumplin's and stuff.

Our hotel, was one of the best "Hampton Inns" we stayed at and had a great fruit selection for breakfast.

We spent an hour, or less, exploring what Yuma had to offer. There's an old prison and a park marking the historic crossing of the great Colorado (now not much more than a small river-ette with most of the water being extracted further upstream by Los Angeles and for distribution to places like Los Angeles) and a surpriginly smart Downtown.

We crossed the impressive bridge to where the Quechan tribe hang out, including an ancient barber offering a $4 haircut, which John went to partake of. "It'll be a scalping", cried Arthur, and he was right as he was only willing or able to do a one and a half whereas John has a number 3. No, no scalping. He respectfully declined. He was a miserable old injun, anyway.

What we thought would be a routine drive on the Interstate to San Diego turned out to be a fascinating journey. We diverted into El Centro where we stayed in 1983 and found it had expanded out of all recognition. Virtually totally Hispanic, as it is very close to the border, and very busy indeed. We eventually found the old motel alley and one of those must have been where we stayed, when it was a Best Wetern in days gone by. We then further diverted by going to Calexico, where there is a border crossing and thought it was a really interesting place. It felt really Mexican, with small shops and markets and lots going on.

What we did notice, compared to the previous day, was an almost complete absence of Border Patrol vehicles until we got further along the border when we spotted the odd one parked in the dunes. It is not a desirable job as a number have been killed as was a Ranger from the Organ Pipe park, where there was a memorial to him "killed by Mexican drugs gang".

We then rejoined I-8 which, again was far from a boring drive. Through the sandy-duned California desert then up and over a range of mountains which consisted of massive boulders.

As usual, the freeway got more and more manic as we approached the ever-expanding and very civilised city of San Diego. Just one night here, but we must go back, again, and spend some more time there.

We had chosen, as a treat, the huge Hilton, Bayview and got upgraded (thank you Bob's gold card!) to a fabulous end/corner room with views of Coronado Island, the bay, San Diego itself, and the docks. Marvellous.

The place was overrun by people attending a "National Association of International Educators" at the convention centre, next door, but they were pretty well behaved, as you might expect, and did not get in our way. Even out for dinner in the Gaslamp quarter, where we had a spaghetti meal, they kept their giant name labels round their necks. Bless!

We went back to the room to marvel at the view, the scurrying ferries, the bumbling tugs and the glowering warships. Gosh we are lucky.

The final episode will be from Spain. We have this overnight flight and get into Madrid at about 10.30. We are spending the day and night recovering at the airport hotel, and take the train home on Monday.

Thank you for sticking with us.

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