Just Do It

Well today was going to be huge with our plan to visit Hearst Castle and then head on through the Big Sur which is the home to spectacular coastal scenery.  We turned up at Hearst Castle and had the distinct feeling of being herded like sheep and felt like we were about to be fleeced of the $90 it was going to cost us to go in here.  We ended up leaving the 5000 odd vehicles in the carpark and heading down to the castle wharf where we had lunch and wandered out on the pier.  We got to see our first seals hovering around the kelp beds just off shore.  Managed to get a pic of some of this hanging off the pier pylons.  I have never seen seaweed this long.

Next we tackled the Big Sur, 94 miles of twisty narrow roads.  We had heard it was twisty but figured it couldn't be as bad as Kiwi roads.  Well it was - try about 94 miles of the Brynderwyn Hills, but narrower and with sheer drops down to the ocean.  Unfortunately it was very foggy as we were driving through but when the fog did lift it certainly was spectacular and very worth the trip.  I don't know how Andy managed to get the RV through here in one piece but I do know he was really stuffed at the end of the day.

What a day.  We have been having a few problems with our sewer line in the RV involving leakage and spills - pretty gross and certainly not the best of jobs when setting up camp.  Andy had written to the lady who set up our holiday and told her and she arranged for us to get a new RV from Los Angeles.  Very much appreciated but a bit of a wasted day.  The new RV has only 6000 miles on the clock and even smells new, we are now a lot more confident that this will make it on our journey with no hassles.

Because we were late leaving LA we only went as far as Ventura and camped in an RV park right next to the freeway - great rest that night!

Next day we figured we would go to Santa Barbara after talking to Kathryn who reckoned that coastline was even better than Malibu.  Well she was right.  The coastline was perfect, a gorgeous pier that we spent a good couple of hours on and the most delightful street signs - I love that font!

We were keen to stay the night but only 1 RV park in Santa Barbara and that definitely didn't appeal.  We headed for the next closest at Lake Cachuma.  All was going well and we found a site we liked, I went in to the office to register and we find out that you aren't allowed to swim in the lake - excuse me??  I queried this only to have it confirmed that no swimming was allowed and if we did swim in it we would be kicked out as it was a reservoir.  My god those people would freak out if they knew we drank and cooked with the water we swim in at Kai Iwi.  We left that camp and headed off to another park in Prunedale (nice name) next to the freeway in Monterey Bay.  We tried a few others but all were booked up.

After San Diego we headed north up the coast.  We started off on the freeways and then decided we couldn't see much and the coast would be way more fun.  Well guess what the coast road does not go the whole way from SD to Los Angeles as we were to find out.  Every time we left the freeway to actually try and see some of the country other than tarmac we ended up on a dead end.  It was a rather frustrating day, but we did get to refresh our memories of San Clemente, Encinitas and several other little seaside communities on the way.  Big mistake expecting to find a carpark for a 30foot RV on a Sunday though - it wasn't a happening thing.

In the end we figured we would just head north of Los Angeles and get to Malibu.  Well that was definitely worth it and we scored with the best view and spot yet of any campground.  We spent a lovely evening sitting out watching the waves crashing and listening to the ocean.  We even got the opportunity to ring home.

Told you I would be back and here are some pics to show what we did in San Diego.  The first two are the USS Midway with the size of the flight deck which was so long.

Next is the Coronado Bay Bridge.

Today we get to act just like real tourists and catch the train from the RV park into town and do the Old Town Trolley Tour around San Diego.  Trying to work out how to buy tickets with limited instructions was an education to start with.

The actual trolley tour was about an hour and a half and you could get off at any stop and reboard later in the day.  We had already decided earlier that the stop we wanted to get off on was the second stop in the tour at the USS Midway a retired aircraft carrier - geeze that ship was huge.  We spent about 3hours going over the whole ship checking out all the nooks and crannies and then standing and admiring all the jets on the flight deck that we can only dream about seeing in New Zealand.  I still love that Tomcat - maybe it is something to do with seeing Tom Cruise in Top Gun!  Nick loved this so much he managed to take 216 photos of planes and just about every nut and bolt we saw!

Back on the trolley tour for a much appreciated seat and the chance to find out some more about this gorgeous city.  San Diego has a great feel to it and is a decent temperature too.  It is very similar to Auckland but seems to be a lot more laid back.  The gaslamp region of the city was very intriguing and I would love to be let loose there for a day just to shop without the boys hanging around.

A highlight was heading over to Coronado on the Coronado Bridge, very impressive with the curve in the middle of the bridge, although I sure as heck wasn't looking down being about 200 feet in the air with seemingly nothing between us and the sea.

I will continue with this tomorrow - just a little tempter for now.

Well howdy pardner!

Yep, we have made it to cowboy country!  OK Corral, Wyatt Earp, Boothill and Tombstone are familiar names to so many of us and we have now been there and seen where all the action happened.

All the main street buildings have been restored and are now full of gift shop items, but just seeing the facades of the buildings was unreal, we really do have to get hold of the movie Tombstone again now. 

We went and saw a couple of gunfight scenes including a reenactment of the OK Corral shootout between the Earps, Doc Holliday and the Clanton boys.  Most of you know how keen Tommy is on sticks and guns, well now he is very definitely a cowboy.  We had to let him get a rifle so he could partake in his own fantasy world.

We went for dinner in Tombstone and were served the largest set of ribs I have ever seen – real cowboy food.  After dinner while we waited for our shuttle bus to turn up we wandered along to Big Nose Kates Saloon where Doc Holliday was a regular visitor and partner to Kate.  Andy got to experience leaning against the bar and asking for a whiskey just the way you see in so many western movies.

Spent our first night in the RV which went rather well considering the air conditioning was struggling in the very extreme heat.  We also learnt that driving at 70mph gave us a fuel economy of 6mpg.  We have slowed down a bit and are now using trucks for drafting a bit more.  We had a couple of first experiences too, an airconditioning unit overheating and not working at all in the early hours of the morning, and dealing with emptying sewer tanks from the RV.  My god, that has to be the most grossest thing I have ever done, especially when attaching the hose and the pipe was already full!.

The Arizona countryside really is very beautiful with all the huge big cacti dotted as thick as pine trees all over the desert.    Andy and I were enthralled with the scenery and could have spent all day looking at it, however the boys kept bringing us back to reality.  I really did think that when they couldn't touch each other they wouldn't fight – huh fat chance – they just use their legs to touch each oher instead of their hands. 

We left Tombstone about 3pm and drove about 200 miles before we decided to call it a day at a place called Gila Bend.  Once again when we stepped out of the camper it felt like we were continually standing on top of an exhaust pipe.  We decided to stay in a motel and not risk the air conditioning again until we reach a lot cooler temperatures.

Yesterday we drove 300 miles from Gila Bend to San Diego and spent our first comfortable RV night where the air con worked all night – yeeha.  It is Friday today and the camp we booked into had no vacancies tonight so we spent a bit of time finding another spot in San Diego.  We really like this place and want to spend a bit of time exploring tomorrow, so we found somewhere to stay for 2 nights.

Nicki & Nick have been on my mind today as I know they are getting married in NZ today.  I hope all went well guys and I look forward to seeing the pics.

Well any ideas we had before of heading off to Vegas when we pick up the RV were firmly squashed when this morning both Tommy and Nick almost collapsed from the heat in the breakfast line.  Strangely enough I figured it would be Andy who couldn't cope the most. 

We decided that as were so close to the Joshua Tree National Park we would take a detour and check it out.  It is also the first day when I get to drive.  The good bit about heading slightly backwards is that we can get pics of the hundreds of windmills set up just out of Palm Springs.  When we came through yesterday they were all spinning really fast and this morning only 1 or 2 were going.

Joshua Tree national park was spectacular with all the weird rock formations and joshua trees all over the place.  We spent an hour meandering through this park and on the advice of the rangers we only just popped out of the car for photo opportunities.

I couldn't believe the roads here.  They are all straight and then every 10miles or so you get to turn a corner ever so slightly.  There are lots of dips in the roads though giving the sensation of riding roller coasters every so often.  Because we detoured through the national park we weren't on the interstate but provincial roads.  We saw hardly any other traffic and we watched the landscape change yet again. 

Guess what, tumbleweeds are real!

Yeah they aren't just a figment of television's imagination.  It wasn't very windy in the desert today so we only saw a couple but enough to convince us.

We crossed the border from California into Arizona today on our way to Lake Havasu City.  Incredibly blue water makes up this lake which is formed from the Colorado River.  And so we arrive at our hotel in Havasu.  The temperature here is ridiculous.  It is now 10.30pm and the current temperature is 108F 42C so you can imagine what it might have been like in the sun this afternoon.  We took a drive down to the lake shores about 7pm and watched people retrieving their boats, the size of the boats was amazing - just like everything in America they were huge.  Mind you when you look at the wakes on the Lake you would need a big boat just to be safe.

We drove over the London Bridge which Lake Havasu City bought from the city of London yonks ago and then transported it brick by brick and rebuilt it here.  Quite impressive really but not enough to make us brave the heat and walk across it.  We figure we will escape from here quite early in the morning as they are expecting a record temperature tomorrow of 128F or 53C and we don't even want to think about how hot that must be!

Hope all is well with everyone - drop me a line on lyndab@ihug.co.nz or leave a comment below.

OK, now our adventure seems a bit more real now we are really on our way and out of the built up areas.  Our first stop is Cabazon just out of Palm Springs where there are about 150 big name outlet shops.  We couldn't believe the heat when we got out of the car.  We wandered around the shops for about 3hours spending way more time in the stores in their air conditioning than actually walking the pavements.  When we got back to the car, the water bottle I had was full of hot water - it was too hot to drink!

Off we go to Palm Desert which is just east of Palm Springs.  The drive through here was amazing, mountains rising up and very brown barren landscape.  We took about 1.5hours to drive there and the boys sat there the whole time just looking out the windows - unheard of.  Oh my goodness we heard the radio on the way through the temperature is 102F, 38C.  We hear it is a dry heat which makes it easier to handle - guess what - don't believe that!  It is still unbearable unless you are in airconditioning.  We thought we were doing OK in our room until we decided to go for a swim and walked out the door.  It felt immediately as if someone had just opened the oven door.  The pool was so warm that even I was thinking it was too warm and could do with cooling down.  When we went to towel off it was as if the towels had just come out of the drier. 

Sorry lots of talk about the weather but it is a big part of what we are doing here.

Yay, today is our last day in Los Angeles and then we really get underway in our adventure.  Kathryn is joining us today for a lesson in shopping - this girl knows where to get the bargains!  She called in to our hotel with coffees and frappuchinos for all from Starbucks.  A double shot latte was tasting pretty close to a flat white.  At last we know what to ask for :-)

We also discover that we have an extra day before we pick up our RV, I guess we forgot about the dateline and gaining an extra day or something.  We have decided to head to Palm Springs for some outlet shop shopping and then maybe onto Lake Havasu City and check out the London Bridge.  Great plans made, lets go shopping.

We make a stop at Old Navy and almost completely reoutfit the boys - man they look good!  Next stop was South Coast Plaza which has a huge range of designer shops as well as the shops that we can afford to shop in.  We stopped at Rainforest Cafe for lunch which was a huge treat for the boys with elephants screaming and alligators snapping etc.

After lunch we split up and Kathryn and I went bikini shopping at Macys - having a support person sure makes choosing a bikini a lot easier.

Dinner tonight with Kathryn only as Mike was having a 4am start with work.  Mexican was our choice tonight although with the huge lunch we had we really only picked at this meal.  The mojito drink was rather tasty though.

Big cuddles Kathryn, Mike and Grant and thanks for all you have done for us while we were there, it was great catching up with you and Mike again.  We look forward to chatting over the next 4 months before we meet up again.

I am running out of clothes - shorts especially.  I only brought 2pair and I am getting sick of them.  We spent the morning shopping in Brea mall.  The shops are all having "pre season" sales at the moment.  I am not sure what that means exactly but most things have between 30-70% off.  Didn't buy a lot, but we did manage to get all the things we all needed.

Tommy has come down with a cold now too, so we spent a bit of time blobbing out at the Hotel and down at the pool.  It was 86F 30C today and man it was hot.  Beautiful blue skies with not a cloud in sight and a pool as warm as bath water.  I even had a swim!

Tonight we went for dinner with Kathryn Mike & Grant to the Cheeesecake Factory.  Another great meal in an awesome setting.  Lots of talking, remembering, laughing and general good fun.