Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night

So here it is, the start of our trip to America. In a little over twelve hours, I'll be heading to Coventry's Pool Meadow Bus Station (you can almost smell the glamour) and jumping on the National Express bus to Heathrow Airport. There, I'll be meeting up with Leigh and checking in for the 8.30am flight to JFK Airport in New York.

After 3 nights in NY comprising visits to the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State, the Rockefeller Building, Central Park, Times Square and as much else as we can cram into such a small amount of time (hopefully), we'll be flying to Vegas.

We have 2 nights in Las Vegas and should land in the city in time to hit a few Casinos that night. The next day, we get on a plane for a tour of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Taking in sights including the Hoover Dam on the way, we land and then get on a Coach to take us to a handful of the South Rim's most magnificent viewing points. This part of the trip was by no means cheap, but I hope to get my money's worth by standing on the cliff edge and having a wee into one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

(For the sake of the local authorities, please understand that this is a joke. The tour wasn't that expensive.)

After 2 nights in Vegas, we jump on the plane to San Francisco where we'll be spending 3 nights and doing the usual touristy things of visiting Alactraz, Union Square and Chinatown. I even suggested the idea of a cycle ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, but Leigh didn't seem so keen on the idea. I don't know what he's worrying about, I think he thought that might be a bit camp, but I don't really think he needs to worry about that in Frisco!

On our last day in San Francisco, we begin the part of the trip that I'm personally most looking forward to. We'll be picking up the convertible hire car and spending the next 2 days driving to LA along the coastal California State Route 1. Stopping at various points along the way, we'll be finding a motel to stay for a night at and then finishing the journey the next day.

Then we arrive at our last stop of the trip: Los Angeles (or rather West Hollywood to be more specific). Everything we're told to expect is that the place is a dump, but for Leigh this is more a chance for business and for me, I'm looking forward to all the film-related stuff including Universal Studios. After 3 nights in LA, we fly back to Heathrow from LAX to head home. (Insert sad face here).

So the plan for this blog is to keep a diary of the things we're doing while we're over there. Leigh is planning on keeping a video-diary-type thing (he will be able to explain it better, I'm sure) and we'll update it as often as we can. To be honest, the last thing I want to be doing is sitting in front of a computer updating a blog while we're over there, but if it's as easy as uploading a video, then I really don't mind using a bit of downtime to do that!

To be honest, I'm still not excited yet... I'm really looking forward to it, but somehow the whole thing doesn't feel real. I'm sure once I'm sat on the plane in Heathrow it will kick in and I'm fully expecting this to be one of the most amazing things I've ever done, but I don't have the sense of anticipation that I thought I would.

For now, I'll leave it at that as I still have a few bits and pieces to sort out before I go (ironing, yay!). I'm not a Twitter-nut, so I'm not planning on keeping you updated every time I visit the toilet, but hopefully this blog will give you a good idea of how we're getting on in the States.