Well, Charlie Brooker has abandoned his American Road Trip. Something about Konnie Huq getting a job, so not able to go to Las Vegas to get married [been there, done that]. So he won't be entertaining us with news from the US. I have to admit when I first read about it, I thought damn! he's going to be writing all witty stuff in the Guardian, and he's going to get lots of interesting invites to things to do and he's going to get paid for it, and I'm jealous.

Currently, I'm trying to buy a suitcase. It has to be big enough to take everything I need, but not so big It contravenes the dimensions allowed by United Airlines. I have discovered that there is no standard way of describing suitcase capacity! Some are measured in inches, some in centimetres, some in litres. Imagine the combination of conversions you have to be able to do. After three visits to Selby's luggage department, wrestling with the merchandise and suffering brain collapse, I'm feeling almost as jaundiced and short-tempered as I imagine Charlie would be.

Tony says this is why he urgently needs an iPad, but I'm having trouble seeing the connection. Also, he favours hard cases with levers and locks, but I'm inclined to soft-sided with zips. This could run and run but we have to get it sorted out because we're leaving in about 10 days.

We're doing a loop to and from Denver, Colorado taking in bits of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico on the way. There will be many visits to slot canyons and waterfalls, and hopefully a hot spring or two. If I master the art of putting photos onto the blog, there will be pictures.

This is my first blog post, so now I'm off to learn how to to the fancy bits...