Caroline Casey chronicles the adventure in the diary below in Aoife's absence:

Day 078 > Monday 18 November > Washington

Thought of the day

Air sick! Getting up this morning at 4.30 to catch a 7.30 flight to Washington was like a very, very bad joke. Though my body seemed to function, my mind was non operational due to lack of sleep. Despite the fact that the previous three days / nights / whatever - I can hardly distinguish between them - had seen me catch a sum total of 6 and a half hours sleep, the thought of going to bed on arrival into San Francisco last night was inconceivable once I heard that the team were ensconced in a blues bar. Pushing sensible thoughts of sleep aside I plonked my bags back in the hotel and ran to a waiting bar stool in the Saloon blues bar where everyone was dancing.

There is something totally unique about Blues in the States. I honestly believe it really is the only place to hear it and love it! Looking around the bar at people dancing, drinking, talking, it struck me how blues music seems to transcend all ages and tastes. From the posh college girls, to the old rockin' codgers, everyone there just seemed totally infected by the sound and by the end of the night the small bar seemed like a local at home rather than some small blues bar on the West Coast. As much as it was a great night, it was a horrific morning and I did not seem to be the only one suffering.

What made it all the worse was that for some reason we were picked out for security special screening in San Francisco airport! This means, all baggage taken apart, boots off twice for screening, belts off, hand luggage taken apart twice, laptops screened and a good frisking! This is nightmarish enough at the best of times but when you are trying to avoid missing your plane, you are blind or in a wheelchair and are carrying between you 5 laptops, 1 DV camera, 1 broadcast quality camera, 1 tripod, 2 mini disc players, 3 pen knives, I wheelchair toolkit, 1 blood testing machine, 1 audio book player, 3 Dictaphones, 5 mobile phones, bicycle pump, cuddly elephant and singing ostrich things can not get any worse. Frankly, today I have had my fill of the whole flying experience. I used to love going to airports - the excitement and anticipation of going somewhere - the whole sense of movement, but today, after flying over 30 hours over the last three days I have had enough.

I would have given anything not to have gone to Washington, knowing that we would have to be back on a plane again in two days time to back track on ourselves, and I know I am not the only one. Airplane food, security checks, lugging the heavy hand luggage, airport seats, shitty coffee, air conditioning that dries your nose out and the fact that Miles always seems to want to go to the toilet just as we board the plane - I have had enough! Anyway, besides my grumbling we are in Washington tonight in a fantastic hotel, the Watergate, courtesy of Logisticare. My room is bigger then my entire house. In fact this room is so nice the thought of leaving it tomorrow is truly depressing! I wonder if I could pull a sickie?

Day 079 > Tuesday 19 November > Washington

Thought of the day

Don't ever come to Washington with only a day to spare! I really feel I have left a place and had so little chance to catch the feel of it. Washington is so very much a capital city and a city that its people are so proud of. Russ Holt who has written a fantastic Washington guide book for people with disabilities was our tour guide today and picked for us his top three sites to visit. He himself is in a wheelchair after a car accident he had when he was 17 which left him paralysed from the waist down. After his accident he realised that if you were to travel to Washington and had a disability there were certain things that you needed to know above and beyond visitors who do not have disabilities. The reason for writing the guide is to enable people with disabilities to have as good a time in his city as anybody else travelling there.

So under his watchful eye we went to the Washington monument, the Roosevelt monument, had a fantastic market fish lunch and drove around trying to take in as much as we could. We were also due to call in at the science and aeronautical museum but due to a disaster with Miles' foot and lack of permission to film, we went for a coffee and a big long snooze! Though the coffee and snooze were essential for survival I would really like to have had seen more of the city. It is a place where so much history has been made, where so much power lies and where business and politics pulses from. Looking at the view from the top of the Washington monument this was so obvious as you looked down on Capitol Hill, the White House and the recently reconstructed Pentagon. However it is not so much that which I would like to return to the city for, but for the fact that Russ has offered me a plate of the very best Calamari, Mussels and lobster I will ever taste along with a very good Guinness on my return. Off to book the flights!

Magic moment of the day

Sleep at last! As our visit to the museum was called off it gave us one of those rare, never to be taken for granted opportunities to do that one and truly luxurious thing we all dream of - sleep in the afternoon. I nearly ran people over trying to get the lift to my room where I slam dunked under the sheets and remained for the following 4 hours. And God it felt good! No phones, no noise, no e-mails, no talking voices, just me, the most enormous bed you have ever seen and the knowledge that after dinner I would be returning right back there again!

Hiccup of the day.

Miles has the mange on his foot! Miles had been talking about having Athlete's Foot over the past few days but as he started to limp like a one foot wonder it was time for investigation. I am not sure whether it was the fact that he was blind that caused him to misjudge the severity of his problem but when I went to have a look at it, it was like the state of my Malaysian armpit experience - absolutely gross! So time to chuck away the Athlete's Foot cream and call in the experts. Easier said than done. The whole healthcare system in this country is very scary! To avoid the enormous expense of accident and emergency we tried to locate a drop in centre which would only cost us $100 for a consultation!!!! This took hours and eventually at 3.00pm Miles found himself in front of a doctor. Half an hour later Miles found himself minus $230, a foot with some tropical disease and a prescription for the pharmacy! This is one place I would not like to get sick in!

Day 080 > Wednesday 20 November > Las Vegas

Thought of the day

Travelling again. Up in the morning at 5.30. The sleep walking zombies we ushered into our transport and into the airport were once again victims of the special screening program. Wearily we went through this process twice - in Washington airport itself and in Chicago airport again, where we had to transfer planes. I think Mike was more than very happy throughout this ordeal that he had no feet and a chair to sit on!

By the time we reached Las Vegas we were all quite down trodden and there was little I would have thought that would have raised the spirits. But arriving into Las Vegas airport is not like arriving into any airport, it was like arriving into the adult version of Disney Land. Music blared from every orifice of baggage reclaim, drowning out the slot machines and advertisements for hotels and shows of every description. Flashing, twirling lights blinked enticing messages of prizes, hedonism and money.

Shell-shocked out of our weary state we stepped outside into the beautiful sunshine and immaculate blue sky. Fleeces shed, shuttle sorted we headed off to our home for the next few nights - Circus Circus. From the moment we entered the 4 and a half thousand roomed hotel there was something quite distinctive about it - it smelt of the inside of the gents toilets! Besides that, the other outstanding feature was the sound of a vast casino only minutes from the immense check in area. The hotel itself is enormous, vast, spilling! Throngs of people moved like waves along the most hideous carpet I have ever seen - apparently this is a casino trick - hideous carpet means you will keep your eyes at gambling machine level!

Once in our rooms, and after I had completed my now obligatory bed bounce, to check out the state of the mattress we had a team meeting to try and ascertain our movements for the next few days. In Mike's room we all sat around as if in a daze and the most we managed to achieve was that dinner was in order along with a rest day tomorrow. So out the famous five stepped into the manic abyss that is the Las Vegas strip, in search of food. Nothing prepares you for Las Vegas. It is bigger, more tacky, more outrageous, more lit, more colourful, more overwhelmingly bizarre than anywhere I have been in my life. Pyramids, an Eiffel tower, Castle turrets, a roller coaster on top of a sky scraper, a mini New York skyline, infamous iridescently coloured hotels, laser beams, flashing bill boards, and massive video screen filled the sky. Below the throb of party goers, gamblers, insomniacs oozed from limos, casinos and strip joints. Seeping from every lit corner of this madness was the sense of 24 hour wide eyed, living on the edge existence? Everything is so hyped at controlling your senses, making it easy for you to spend money, convincing you that you will win, or you will enjoy! It takes time for your mind to process the sensory overload that is an industrial Aladdin's cave or Pandora's Box. From levels of supreme dinginess and tack to the other end of the scale - opulence, dripping gold leaf luxury and enormity Las Vegas leaves you speechless. Its strangeness and over the top kitsch-ness is undoubtedly appealing and exciting but my God it is like stepping onto another planet.

Day 081 > Thursday 21 November > Las Vegas

Thought of the day

Not much to report today except for the fact that myself and my hotel room became acquainted. This sleep fest was not half as sensational as that of Washington where I could loll in the luxury of my house-sized bedroom. But beggars can't be choosers and sleep I can do, no matter where, if I am tired. So amongst the incessant over enthusiastic chamber maids who ignored my do not disturb sign, the screaming kids next door, the screeching American TVs above me, I slept like a log.

In between snoozes I ventured down to the casino below where nothing had stopped or changed and fed upon Starbucks coffee, bagels and Hershey's chocolate. The boy wonders did pretty much the same - sleep, eat, sleep, with a bit of gambling lessons, which funnily enough the hotel offered for free! Amongst all that calls were made to try and convince people to take us ballooning, sky diving and anything else Vegasish! Jon on the other hand decided to escape for the day on the back of a Harley Davidson into the Nevada Desert. Charming!

The wannabe cowboy escapes to biker bliss while the rest of us loll in our hovels! Feeling vaguely guilty for his freedom and the fact that I whinged about my inability to be that biker girl I had always dreamed of, Jon conceded in giving me a quick bike trip through Vegas before he handed it back! Sitting on the back of a Harley Davidson cruising through the electric streets of sin city all I could think of was - wouldn't it be great to take a bike of my own and screech into the desert. There are very few things that bother me about my sight now, but still the frustration of the biker girl that could have been continues!

Day 082 > Friday 22 November > Las Vegas

Thought of the day

Gambling is not for me! Today we met John Hawthorn and his partner Sandy who arrived last night to take us Blow Karting in the desert. Unfortunately there wasn't enough wind to move the land sailers an inch, so instead we decided to head down the strip and check out the Gondolas at the Venetian hotel as an alternative mode of transport. You can not help but be literally gob smacked by the hotel. The attention to detail that must have been required to totally recreate a piece of Venice in the middle of Las Vegas is outstanding. From the bell tower to the brickwork to the pictures painted on the ceiling in Sistine chapel style you can not help but be amazed. What is even stranger is that behind this cultural façade lies a monstrous casino humming with slot machines and the cheers of winners.

Sandy, kindly took me under her wing and decided to show me the gambling ropes! Considering she had won over $300 this morning on the slots machines I was willing to be led, but I fear I do not have her luck! Even though we stuck to her three slot machine rules - 1. Only have 3 goes on each slot machine, 2. Always leave a machine after you win, no matter how small, 3. do not return to a slot machine you have already tried - I lost her $20. So much for beginners luck. As we used our last few quarters all I could hear were the winnings shooting out from every other machine I had just left empty handed and all I could think of was how I had paid for the lucky winner's loot. Slot machines aside, I'm just not so sure gambling is my thing. I am too much of a scaredy cat to take a risk and too impatient to waste time losing money which due to my lack of relations with lady luck is probably a far better for the my bank and mortgage payments!

Day 083 > Saturday 23 November > Las Vegas

· Hot Air Balloon
· Blow Kart

Thought of the day

I have found a new toy! You don't stop playing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop playing! It is so hard to comprehend that John is 60 something years old when you see him scoot around the desert on his Blow Karts and Electric Scooters.

Today we all reverted back to children again as we sailed around Ivan Pah dried a dried out lake on the state line of California and Nevada. Sailing and dried out lakes - how is that possible? By Blow Karts of course - small and compact, one man land sailing three wheel buggies with a single sail capable of anything up to 60 miles an hour depending on the wind. And thankfully there was enough wind to enable us to do some serious wheelies. The sense of speed as we whipped up the desert dust was phenomenal as you found yourself covering a massive distance in moments. I would defy anyone not to love Blow Karting - especially people who cannot drive or who never experience or control speed. The feeling was magic and you found yourself whooping like an excited kid regardless of your age as you turned so fast that the Kart went on its side and picked up speed again to pommel you down the desert. The sounds of the wheels tearing into the earth as you picked up speed had your heart racing with adrenaline and rather than slowing down, you found yourself pulling in the sail to push the kart to its edge. Whether you have sailed before or not, makes no difference - all you need is a sense of adventure, a love of space, a desire for speed, and a sense of fun and you will be guaranteed to have a fantastic time!

Magic moment of the day

Desert Daydreams. To ballooning and Blow Karting in one day is enough to make any day perfect but to do it in the desert dust from sunrise to sunset leaves you breathless. As tacky and over the top as Las Vegas is, the Nevada desert is stunning in its rawness. The desert would make me return here without thinking twice, you could not help be drawn back into the space, peace and colour. The smell of dust and dried out earth is as distinctive as is the ever changing colour of the horizon, mountains and rock formations. You could spend hours watching the sun play with the earth changing browns to warm and inviting oranges and the distant hues glow from blue through to lilac as the day slips away. Rather than the massive expanse make you feel small and insignificant it makes you feel welcome, part of its space and fills you with a desire to just shout, or run and revel in its openness. It was wonderful to watch Miles run by himself, unimpeded by the usual obstacles, until he was out of sight. Though he couldn't see the space he could feel the sense of freedom and openness and like all of us wanted to run as free as a child to catch its magic. All of us in our own way were touched by the desert today. The lack of visual distractions so prevalent in Las Vegas allowed our minds to slow down, to pull back and just concentrate on being there. You can not ignore that massive sense of little in the way you can all the multitudes of visual things that fill our normal worlds. When I say little, I mean little compared to amounts of stuff that generally fill our visual space daily, but behind the deceptive façade of emptiness is a landscape far more complex and deeper than any city.


Hiccup of the day

Crash day! With the exception of Jon falling off an Ostrich we have had no transport disasters until today! Besides the fact that my need for speed caused me to capsize the Blow Kart at a high speed tearing my jeans and cutting my knee, we had a team crash in style. Towards the end of a very sedate and peaceful sunrise balloon flight a thermal of wind caught the balloon and pushed us upwards. Anxious to avoid some wind phenomena called wind sheers our pilot decided to descend. It wasn't until we began to approach land that any of us realised how fast we were actually going in terms of land speed. We could hear the concern in our pilot's voice as he told us to hold on tight but nothing prepared us for the crash landing that bounced the basket of the balloon like beech ball along the ground, turning it on its side and throwing all of us around as if rag dolls. All I could think of as the basket had overturned and we were still being dragged at speed along the earth was Mike. Unlike the rest of us he was not in a position to hold himself in or support himself. Thankfully he was strapped into the basket with a seatbelt and as the basket keeled over he hung half suspended in the air so I pushed myself against him to try and hold him as closely as possible. The instinct to protect Mike was in all of us; he was the one we all wanted to protect, asked about when the balloon finally came to a stop. The normal survival instinct was replaced by the need to make sure he was safe and to lessen his impact.

Once the basket had finally come to a standstill you could hear all of us breathing heavily, hearts pudding. Much to the surprise of a very spooked pilot, none of us panicked or screamed. We just rode it out trying to protect each other. If there is one defining moment on this trip when it has been evident that a strong bond has formed around us - it was that crash. The thought of anything having happened to any of us seemed incomprehensible, the automatic reaction to protect each other and the sense of relief at the fact that we were ok was so obvious. Only when we watched the footage that was recorded as we did not have a chance to turn the camera off, did we realise the speed of the impact. But what was probably more worrying then any impact was the fact that we all agreed, sickly enough, it had been the best part of the balloon ride. This we only admitted amongst ourselves because out loud to normal people it sounds insane but considering that we had raced around a grand prix track at ridiculous speeds with little or no sight, we could put it into context!

Day 084> Sunday 24 November > Las Vegas

Thought of the day

Upwardly mobile. When we were in Egypt news came through that I had been awarded one of the Ten Junior Chamber International Outstanding Young People In The World Award for 2002. Though utterly surprised and thrilled I was too busy at the time dealing with 80 ways to understand what it meant, it seemed so far removed and the only thing that I remembered was that I had to be in Las Vegas on the 24th and the 25th of November which was particularly cool!

So today I woke up and it was the 24th and I left the boys in the toilet of Circus Circus and headed off to the infamous MGM Grand where I was being put up for the award program which was to last two days. As I passed through the doors of the green lit hotel, once again, as it seems my preoccupation in Las Vegas, my jaw flapped open. The MGM Grand is bloody massive. Never in my life have I seen such a huge hotel, and that probably is because there is no hotel bigger. The MGM is the biggest hotel in the world with 5 and a half thousand rooms, a shopping mall, 6 acres of pool, health spas, fitness centres, theatres, floors and floors of casinos, infinite amounts of restaurants and video screens everywhere. Now this is a place I could get lost in - sight or no sight.

It really wasn't until I was brought to the JCI opening ceremony and as a VIP to the Presidents reception that I comprehended how much of a big deal the whole thing was. Over 7,000 delegates, from 115 countries around the world had come to Las Vegas for the annual world congress. The award I was receiving had been judged by some serious panel of judges and I and the other 9 honourees had been selected from over 7,000 applicants. I couldn't believe it when I heard that previous recipients of the award were Elvis Presley, JFK and Robert Kennedy and that one of this years winners was Michelle Yeoh of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and James Bond fame. I am sitting here tonight feeling quite small and terribly out of my depth. I really am not sure why I am here at all. Looking down at my jean and boots I feel undressed and out of place as everyone else is in suits and evening dresses. I think I have been out of reality for too long. But instead of worrying about it, I am going to switch on the monster of a television in my room and have a hot chocolate and worry about my acceptance speech, which I should have already written and have translated tomorrow!