Intro: This trip was made to America and Canada in September 2005 with my friend Simon O'Sullivan. Planned for over a year the initial reason for going was to visit the Spiral Jetty which Simon had been interested in for a number of years and had got me interested in after taking me to see the film of the making of the Spiral Jetty at the Tate Modern. However we both share a passion for the desert and US road movies so we formed the idea of a 3 week road trip going via the West Coast, San Francisco, The Nevada Desert and The Grand Canyon as a precursor to the Spiral Jetty. As Simon has friends in Vancouver we also decided to start and end the trip there to have a chance to look round Vancouver city.

Simon has since had a book published which looks at Deleuze and Art, including the Spiral Jetty

Vancouver: Blade Runner skyscrapers - crack addicts - graffiti - rain - mountains - Pacific Ocean - and our favourite street called Commercial Drive, home of many a good cafe includng Cafe Deux Soleil.


The West Coast Coast with it's hippy cafes - tofu scrams - golden beaches - surfers


San Francisco: We had a few days in San Francisco to explore the famous hilly streets, cafes, City lights bookstore, modern art gallery. We stayed at the San Francisco Buddhist Centre - thanks to Suvarnaprabha for being such a great host. One evening Simon gave a talk called "Pilgrimage To The Spiral Jetty" (pdf 75kb) to a select audience.