and a pool table in the common room! We had a look around the town, and then went for a walk, which was great as they have a huge network of “urban trails”. As we had a great kitchen we bought some nice food and indulged on a roast dinner, not one of my best though, I’m a little out of practice!! We played a little pool and then headed off for a not so great night’s sleep. The one problem with Flagstaff is that the main railway line that crosses the USA passed by in front of the hostel. To say it is a busy line is an understatement!! There are seventy five freight trains a day pass by, and not only are they enormous - anything up to six engines and then a millions miles long train - but they also have to pap their horns like mad whenever they go through a town - by law!! And to add insult to injury, most of them were in fact bound for Europe from the far East. It was cheaper to sail them to Oakland and then take them across the USA by train and then put them on another ship than to go by ship all

the way! So it wasn’t the quietest room ever - but we were told we’d get used to it - the locals claimed that they didn’t even hear them anymore!

One of Flagstaff’s biggest attractions is the San Francisco Peaks, and the chairlift that goes up to 11,500 feet. The group of peaks was actually a 16,500 ft volcano a long time ago, but at some point in the distant past it exploded, and is now a few smaller peaks. The views from the top were pretty impressive, we could just about see the grand canyon, and the ranger pointed out a facility which converts all the nuclear weapons which get decommissioned as a result of treaties etc into rockets for launching satellites! We didn’t linger too long though, as it was pretty chilly up there with a pretty strong wind, and some stormy looking weather coming in. As the chairlift ride was over twenty minutes long we didn’t fancy getting caught in a