In the late 70s’ I had my dream holiday, me and John Wood booked a trip to America. We flew Freddie Laker (the innovator in cheap flights 1976-1982) to JFK New York where we stayed at the Y.M.C.A. In spite of Johns build he was somewhat scared in the city. We were both forever looking up at the huge skyscrapers and more than once I had to grab his arm as he stepped off the pavement without looking at the walk, don’t walk signs. We did all the tourist sites, the Empire State Building, The Chrysler building, Central park, Statue of liberty, Macys, we walked block after block, we had huge breakfasts of pancakes with maple syrup, eggs sunny side up, bacon and fried slice, and of all the people we met they all said the same thing “You British?” as soon as we ordered a meal. In New York we found a number of Irish bars selling Budweiser, Millers’ light and various whiskies. One night a crowd of American footballers’ came in and sat next to us, we soon got them singing British songs and played the crackle, crackle, crackle song to the tune of “it’s a long way to tipperary” soaking two big footballers in beer. We were lucky to get out alive but the yanks took it all in good fun.

After 4 nights in NYC we caught Amtrak to Washington and booked into a cheap hotel. Again we spent 3 or 4 nights touring all the usual sites The White House, Arlington cemetery, the parks and museums, pubs and clubs. We then caught an internal flight from Washington to Denver arriving late at night we hired a Hertz rent a car and booked into the first motel that we came to. The next day we had a drive round the town and asked our concierge where the nearest nightclub was. He directed us to a club downtown and after a meal and getting changed we set off I did most of the driving in the U.S and we soon found the night club. The bouncer on the door wouldn’t let me in because I was wearing trainers so I told John to go in without me and I would go back to the motel and put my shoes on. I dashed in to the car park and ran into our room. Quickly changing my shoes I ran back to the car and starting the engine pulled up to the edge of the road. By the time I got there I could hear a police car siren coming up the road. The car bounced over the central reservation and turning in a wide circle parked in front of me so that I couldn’t open the front door. I wound down the window to see the policeman had got out of his car and was pointing a gun directly at my head. “What’s the problem officer”, I asked as innocently as I could. “You British?” he replied “show me some I.D, move slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.” As I did this I noticed his partner had moved to the other side of the car also with his gun pointed at me. I reached for my passport out of the glove compartment and showing the officer I repeated my question “what’s the problem”. “A citizen reported that you were seen running from that motel room.” “So is it a crime to run in the U.S” I said “No” he said “but you are in an area of high gun crime, drugs and prostitution and you should be very careful who you talk to, especially girls, have you got any local girls with you ?” No I said we only got into town last night.” O.K he said on your way and be careful.

Needless to say we moved on the next day, when I told John I had nearly been shot he didn’t believe me at first, then he nearly had a fit. We drove from Denver around the southern rim of the Grand Canyon stopping at the usual viewing points and eventually reaching Las Vegas, the hotels here were very cheap as they merely wanted to get the punters in hoping they would spend on the gambling machines. We walked the length of the strip past the Frontier, the Plaza, the Nevada, McDonalds and all the other famous hotels. We then drove up the coast to Hollywood and flew back from San Francisco we saw the Hollywood hill, the Stars pavement and the crazy trams in ‘Cisco. The whole trip took three weeks and cost about £500 in fares £500 in spending money which we paid for in American dollar travellers cheques.