All-American Folks

Our count of friendly Americans increases each day. As we've trickled down into the more populated parts of the States, we've engaged with our camping neighbours more meaningfully. The result of this is that we met Dan in Grand Tetons, Dennis and Karen in Bryce Canyon National Park and Lawrence in Zion National Park.

Dan is a banker from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who is doing an open-ended road trip and camping for the first time. We met him at our campsite in Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons and persuaded him to endure the 20-mile long loop up Cascade Canyon and down Paintbrush Canyon via Solitude Lake.

Dennis is from Colorado and Karen from South Africa (one of only three Saffers we've met so far). They have been on the road in their RV for over a year with no sign of stopping. They are travelling with two cats aged 14 and 17. We shared a bottle of vintage white (theirs) and freshly baked breakfast muffins - never be too disparaging of RVs when you're offered hot muffins from the oven.

Lawrence is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina (where we will be for Thanksgiving with our friends Erin and Jeff) and now lives in Seattle. He works as an equipment tester for our favourite US store, REI. Recreational Equipment Incorporated beats the pants off Cape Union Mart. We met Lawrence in the queue for a campsite here at Zion. He'd been backpacking (overnight hiking) for four days and was in need of some real food. He shared our chicken stir-fry and bestowed gifts of his test equipment on us. We now own a set of hiking poles, a topographical map of Zion, a magnesium, no-matches fire-lighter and, my favourite, a jetboil. Ooh, toys! South Africans, prepare to be awed by our style on the next hike up Table Mountain.

R