Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

This weekend was hot, far too hot to do anything at all. This is unusual in September in the UK, but there you have it. I needed something easy to read that was going to require zero effort, so I reverted back to my childhood and picked up one of my Enid Blyton books. The Island of Adventure is the first in the Adventure series and one I haven’t read for aeons! I remembered the characters' names, Philip, Dinah, Jack and Lucy-Ann, but that’s all I remembered. I didn’t recall how they met or how their adventures started, so it was like going in as a first-time reader. The Island of Adventure is fast-paced, exciting and, as the title suggests, adventurous. I love Enid Blyton’s writing, her sense of wit and all her old-fashioned ideals. You know the ones, where women should stay at home and do the housekeeping, the kids should probably be at boarding school and the Dad earns the money. Well, as long as you see past all this - the book was first published in 1946, so just keep that in y...

Summary  Thank you if you've managed to read this far and I hope you found at least some of it helpful and interesting. As a quick summary, we booked Hilton hotels (primarily Hampton Inn & Suites) throughout all the time on the actual road, apart from Yellowstone where we chose an independent hotel. We were more than happy with Hilton; choosing the same hotel means you know what you're getting. We had a budget of £150 per night (apart from Yellowstone) so that should give you some idea of what we were getting for our money. Food has always been expensive in Vegas but it seems to have increased, even in the last twelve months. To put this into perspective, we had a Subway in Vegas and for two, foot-long subs it was $46. We had the same in Rexburg and it was $19.  That was just one example, it's easy to spend $50-$70 on breakfast/lunch in a restaurant and upwards of $100 for dinner. We went to Prime at Bellagio on our last night and there wasn't much change from $400....

Day 22 Today is the day we fly back home and a four-hour trip to Denver International Airport. The only benefit to living out of a suitcase for three weeks is not having to pack it all up when you’re ready to come home! We left fairly early (that’s what having eleven hours of sleep does for you)! We stopped off for a spot of breakfast in Cheyenne but didn’t stay too long, as we wanted to be sure we didn’t get stuck in traffic closer to Denver. However, we still made a good time, so we had an hour’s stop in Boulder, about 45 minutes from the airport. We went to Pearl Street Mall, which is the downtown district and full of little boutique shops and restaurants. I would definitely like to spend longer here if we are ever passing in the future. We dropped our car back at the Avis rental park and checked in for our flight around 3.30 pm. Flying Club World has its benefits, and we spent some time in the Admiral’s Club Lounge before our flight. The flight was uneventful, and we landed sa...

Day 21 This morning we drove from Riverton to Casper for our last night in the US. It was only about a two-hour journey so we had decided to make a day of it in Casper and set about searching for things to do. It didn’t take long and first off we made a quick stop at Hell’s Half Acre which is known for its geologic oddity, composed of deep ravines, caves, rock formations and hard-packed eroded earth and apparently Native American tribes used the ravines to drive bison to their deaths during their hunts. Our next stop was Fort Casper Museum and my first real understanding of the four trails which led across America from east to west. These comprised The Oregon Trail, The Mormon Trail, The Californian Trail and The Pony Express.  The next stop was the National Historic Trails Interpretative Center, which was a lot more in-depth and fascinating. If you’re interested in anything like this and you’re visiting anywhere near Casper, then I would definitely recommend a visit. I love r...

Day 20 We set an alarm for 5 am and checked out of Wagon Wheel Hotel just after 5.30 am - all in the name of looking for bears! We had decided to drive through the park and head out of the South Entrance and yes; we saw a bear - albeit from over half a mile away! We saw the bear spotters from miles away and although we didn’t see a bear with the naked eye, a kindly man with a spotter scope let us look through his and we saw a grizzly and her two cubs! From the South Entrance of Yellowstone, we drove on into Grand Teton National Park and guess what? We saw another bear! There was no time to take pictures. She was on the move too quickly, but it was good to see her. Our route to Riverton took us through some beautiful countryside and we saw a lot of deer along the way - and a lot of snow!  It amazes me all the time how you can drive for a hundred miles and not see a sign of a house or anything! We were able to check into the hotel pretty early before we decided to spend the after...

Day 19 Our last full day in the park and another long and busy day, but so worth it. I’ve loved travelling around Yellowstone and seeing all the scenery and wildlife. Today we went across to Canyon Village and down to West Thumb. Just down from Canyon Village are the Upper and Lower Falls. I have no idea how far down we walked to view the falls, but it was a very, very long way back up! It was spectacular though and retrospectively, I’m pleased we did it! As we travelled back down towards Old Faithful, it was evident the snow hadn’t melted and there was easily 5 feet at the sides of the road! We watched Old Faithful erupt again and this time the wind wasn’t in the wrong direction, so we could actually see it. A few bison and their calves came to view it with us and definitely got themselves in on the act! We wandered into West Yellowstone again for dinner and ate at Hank’s Chop Shop. There definitely isn’t a shortage of decent restaurants and bars in this town. We decided that we ...

Day 18 Today we were in the park by 9.30 am and headed up to the first half of the top loop via Madison, Norris and Mammoth Hot Springs. It was a beautiful day as the snows continued to melt up on the mountains and the rivers flowed faster. Gibson Falls was outstanding. Check out some of my photos, although they don’t do it justice. We saw a lot more bison, including some really close-up calves which were so cute! We also thought we might be in luck to see a bear, as at one point there were a lot of cars and photographers pulled up along the side of the road. Not a bear this time, but we did see a moose - no great photos though, he was a bit too far away.  We also saw elk and deer today and bison galore. Dunraven Pass is still closed right now, so we headed partway down Lamar Valley. However, there were roadworks and lots of delays, so we turned round and headed back at this point, arriving back at the hotel just after 4 pm. After a quick shower and change, we went for a walk int...

Day 17 Up early (not the best night’s sleep - the mattresses definitely need replacing) and back on the road for the relatively quick journey to Yellowstone National Park and the part of the road trip I have been looking forward to the most. We were quickly within Targhee National Forest where there was still snow amongst the trees and deer peering out from amongst the branches.   Yellowstone is in both Montana and Wyoming and we drove from Idaho to Montana to Wyoming today. We arrived at West Yellowstone around 10.30 am and headed straight for the West Entrance. It costs $35 entrance fee and you’re good to come and go as you please for 7 days, 24 hours per day. Our plan for the first day was to drive the first half of the bottom loop down to Old Faithful and then back up again. We went via Madison Junction, driving along the banks of Madison River and stopping at a number of places along the way, including the Lower Geyser Basin. The snows have been melting over the last coupl...