Grand designs
The story so far: The USA's unfathomable governmental structure conspires to close down all the country's National Parks the day before we fly out there for our long-planned holiday. We miss out on a visit to Alcatraz, and have to rearrange our travel schedule for the first week because Yosemite is shut. Wednesday 9 October - Monterey: with neither side showing any sign of conceding defeat, we are forced to abandon our plans to stay at Grand Canyon Village as well. At least this allows us to (a) we book ourselves into the Monte Carlo on the Las Vegas strip for three nights, and (b) book ourselves on a day tour to the West Rim of the canyon for Saturday. NB. The West Rim is owned and run by Hualapai Indians... sorry, Native Americans (definitely not Redskins ). Although this means it has remained open, everyone seems to agree that compared to the South Rim, aka the "proper bit", the West Rim is smaller, tackier and generally a bit shit. Still, from my point ...