Final American Blog

Our last day in America image by KenWagner photographer

I decided to write this final American blog after some reflection of the trip, rather than write screeds of my ramblings I have decided to be brief and use headings again, Highlights and Lowlights as my previous blogs but also add another reflective heading Lessons Learnt.

Highlights

The people, the people the people, did I mention the people?

Diversity of people, landscapes, cultures and food all in one country

Photographic opportunities

New Orleans

The Redwoods

The Elephant seals and Elks, the Goffer, the Chipmunks and Grisly Bears that we knew were there but never saw them!

Hurst Castle

Great shopping in the outlet malls.

Coastal drive from LA TO Seattle on Highway One.

Too many more to mention without repeating previous blogs

Lowlights

The condition and initial problems with the RV  ie air conditioning and bald tyres, luckily the company rectified within the first week.

Crossing the Arizona desert and the RV was literally blown from one lane into the next one, thank goodness no traffic was coming up behind us.

Two particular RV sites, one in Texas and one in Arizona, yuk, say no more.

Lessons learnt

That Americans love the Australian/English accent

We become minor celebrities as many people had not spend time with Australians before

Although, a great many of ex servicemen had been to Australia and loved it.

All Americans want to go to Australia.

Most of the men from Texas are packed ie carrying a gun ....scary.

Americans are quite forward we was quite often asked how much it cost to rent the RV and I was stopped at least two or three times a day to ask where I bought a particular pair of shoes I was wearing. Their curiosity about many things was very refreshing.

Great public transport and the bus drivers were really helpful

The food was so cheap and fresh, in Seattle we went to a farmers market where you could buy whole salmon caught that morning for less than $15.

I have learnt that I don't need to visit a war, car, boat or cowboy museum for a long time, I have done my wifely duty. Won't mention the art and glass museums that someone got dragged round. Ha ha.

Final lesson, don't overpack for an RV trip, in fact if we go back we won't take hardly any clothes just buy along the way! (Terry, are you reading this?)

Got to go back.........

If anyone is needing some inspiration to just "get up and do it" you may get it from a couple that we met on the Ferry from UK to France.

The husband and wife were in their mid 70s wearing cycling Lycra with New Zealand emblazoned across their tops.  They had landed in Gatwick from New Zealand with their bikes and had spent a night near the airport then cycled to Newhaven caught the ferry as they were cycling down to Portugal!!#%. Last year they cycled London to Rome, the year before London to Amsterdam and because I had passed out with shock I didn't catch their first trip!  Then the dear lady winked and said she didn't feel very fit at the moment but by half way she should feel fitter, and one of the benefits is the weight she looses.  She also said she's not too proud to get off her bike and walk up the mountains.     Anyone up for challenge?  Suggestions?  I thought Paris to our house in SW France for starters.

The lady gave me her blog details if you to take a peak: www.crazyguyonabike.com/.doc/pilgrims

Thank you for taking interest in our trip and keeping me on track to blog this trip and if you haven't fallen off your chairs with boredom or drifted off to sleep and up for some more exciting (!) blogs I will recommencing blogging our French adventures at :    www.cattrim.blogspot.com

Day 71 of 73 Nights

Inside a redwood tree

 

We dropped off the RV in San Francisco and said our farewells to Helene and Dudley at the airport and continued on following the Route 1 up the Pacific Highway.  Whoops, I am ahead of myself here, we had a great four days in San Francisco, avoiding too many touristy things we had all done previously, so decided we would walk both ways over the Golden Gate Bridge which was brilliant, although very windy, it took us about 30 minutes each way.  We also caught a ferry from Fishermans Wharf to another part of the main land North of San Francisco bay called Tiburon, a very pretty arty, , weather boarded village, where we sat in the sun and had an Italian seafood lunch. 

Another first, ever, in America we went to the cinema as we wanted to see The Lone Ranger, we gals enjoyed it (yes I now speak American) but the boys were not too impressed. We had a very authentic meal in China Town, which was not only amazingly cheap it also tasted really good.

Back to leaving SF via Route 1, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and headed North, our first stop was Sebastopol where we stayed with our American Host from the Affordable Travel Club, Emma, who was amazing, she even took us sightseeing for the whole day to see the Redwoods and to show us her fabulous town.

As we travelled further up towards Seattle the majestic redwoods blew us away and then we drove through the Avenue of Giants and saw the biggest, widest, tallest and oldest trees we have ever seen (some were 2 – 3 thousand years old and I am not exaggerating). 

Sorry its so difficult not to make this a travel log.

Leaving California and into Oregan on the side of the road was a herd of Elks, there must have been about 20 of them just lazing around without a care in the world without a thought to the camera yielding tourists watching them.  As we continued along the roads that were lined with multi coloured wild meadow flowers,  we just had to keep stopping the car to look at the rugged coast line.  The beaches along the Oregan coast are covered in huge driftwood trunks of trees that have make their way down rivers into the ocean, quite a beautiful sight.

We have now arrived in Seattle, a land of green islands and beauty, today we drove through the city, not deliberately, we ended up in a one way street that we wanted to go the other way, anyway…..  we boarded a ferry to an island called Whidbey, which is were time has stood still, as you will see by the photograph of the house we are staying in tonight.

Must make a mention of our wonderful hosts at this B & B called Compass Rose, Marshall and Jan, we were met at the door with Jan in her long flowing dress and pearls and Marshall with his bow tie and overalls (he was working on his 1933 Pakard classic car) who immediately invited us into their spectacular antique adorned Victorian house to partake in champagne and chocolate truffles and meet the people from the local art school.  We even met the world’s foremost bee geneticist, she was giving a course on bee insemination, apparently she is the woman who is saving bees from extinction from the world, and she only looked 35!!!!

Also we meet some ladies who were renowned artists in ‘wearable art” and in this little town called Coupeville and learning the art of fabric art called shibori.

I can’t begin to describe the interior of the house as it was covered in antiques, not a space to spare.  Our breakfast this morning was on a beautiful mahogany table decorated with silver candelabras and lit candles, silver tableware, cut glass and bone china.  Just check out the photos!!!

Only two more nights to go before we catch our plane to UK and then onto France, my plan is to write one more blog to encapsulate our trip of a lifetime into  couple of paragraphs, but just to say now this has been a trip that has personally filled me with wonderment and joy, with many amazing memories to hopefully call upon in my dotage.

Highlights

Our first comfortable night sleep in a soft bed

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge

Seeing Elks in the wild

The Redwoods

The American people we have met on the way

Lowlights

The cold in San Francisco yuk!!!

Beautiful beaches with driftwood along the dunes

Yes young people still play crib

Oregan beach and wild flowers

Terry and a redwood

One of many stunning lakes

Saturday afternoon at a Florence pub!

The Compass Rose B & B

Breakfast

Breakfast first course, see the miniature jug of cream
and the pot of truffle chocolate!!! 

Our hosts

Day 60 of 63 Nights

Looking down on The Big Sur

Still in California but sorry a bit of gap since my last blog.

Whilst in Long Beach we treated ourselves to VIP tickets to Universal Studios (well it is my special birthday year and Terry tends to indulge my inner child), it was great going behind all the back lots, going into the props warehouse, gourmet lunch and breakfast, getting VIP seats and front of the line for the shows, well it was all great until the rides …..  as I said it was amazing meeting people like Van Diesel and Mr Bean, a real Hollywood buzz, going into the Parenthood house, anyway back to the rides, I had made a list of which rides and which order we go on them, starting with The Simpson virtual reality ride, we got in with four others including two children and off we went, how I was not physically sick there and then and not later (which I was) I do not know, I looked over at Terry, he had his head down and eyes closed.  It was AWFUL, it took me 24 hrs to get back my balance and not feel sick.  Anyway after that we got back in the RV, VIP or not we went!!!!  Not going back there!

The campsite we stayed on in LA was right on the beach with a bike path that stretched in both directions for miles, so one day we cycled to Santa Monica pier and had lunch in Bubba Gumps and the next day we cycled to Manhatton beach and had breakfast.  Because we were coming up to July 4^th, American independence day there was a real party atmosphere on the site with some amazing music coming in all directions, fireworks at night on the beach, it was great. 

We picked up Helene and Dudley from LA airport and started the drive up the 1, the Pacific Coast Drive,  we are now in San Francisco, but on our way up we have stayed in beach sites,  wine country sites, a couple of nights in a Redwood Forrest , talk about diverse.  Once again meeting some interesting people who live this life just travelling around America in their massive RVs, always keen to show us the inside of their homes, we were luckily enough to be parked next to a couple who owned a winery down the road in Paso Robles and where trying out their brand new 45 ft RV, not only were they very friendly but they also kept us well supplied with their wine during our stay.

Now I am rambling so Highlights and Lowlights:

Highlights - Probably too many to mention but..

Cycling along the beach in LA

Celebrating July 4^th

The party nights in the adult spa

The amazing coast line

Lowlights

None!!!

Whoops made a mistake there with the math, it is 63 nights with the RV then we have a hire car for 10 days driving up to Seattle, so the Blog will continue….

Our site in LA

Wine Tasting at Pear Valley in Paso Robles

Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle their indoor swimming pool!!

Elephant Seals on the Pacific Coast

Pacific Coast Road

Redwoods

Remember the song by Arlo Guthrie "Alice's Resturant" well this is that resturant

View in the background San Francisco

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Props Warehouse at Universal Studios

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 46 of 63 Nights

Impossible to just pull out

Tuscan Desert

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From Tuscan we drove to Phoenix, however, we found it rather disappointing as the RV site was well out of Downtown (as the Americans call it) and when I say out it was miles out, so we only spent one night in the urban sprawl and headed to Palm Springs California.    We had booked three nights in Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, which was great, as there were four pools and at least 8 spas all feed by natural hot springs.  The notice by the pools claimed that the mineral water is good for Heart Disease, diabetes, weight loss (had the opposite effect on me), arthritis and insomnia!

We went up in the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up 10,000 ft up the mountain, the tramway was incredible, it took 81  people (probably the 1 was the driver) and we all had to stand as the floor rotated to ensure we all had 360 degrees view as we took the 10 minute journey up.  We left a flat valley of sandy desert and arrived in a lush green woodland full of trees and wildlife, amazing and 20 degrees cooler which was very welcome as it was over 110 F degrees down below.

Sorry I don’t want to write a boring travel log but I get carried away, must just mention the huge  San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm which consists of 3180 units. Certainly the largest wind farm we have ever seen.

We hit California Pacific coast yesterday and bang into the smog, it looked like there was a really bad bush fire ahead.  This was evident until about mid day when the sun had burnt a lot of it away, but here in Long Beach all my photos show the smog.

Long Beach is incredible, our RV site is in the middle of all the action, there is a massive network of cycle paths around the town, they know what ‘cycle friendly’ means.  Today we got back to the RV after a fabulous day on the Queen Mary, they had a special exhibition of Princess Diana’s gowns.  When we got back there is a film crew outside our gate and after some questioning of the crew found out they are ‘shooting the latest Audi car” so will be out there later when the sun goes down and the actual shoot is going to happen, but to make it even more intriguing, I went into my settings of my ipad to find Wifi and take a look at my screen shot!!

So far we have driven 3500 miles (5630 kms)

Highlights

The ‘slimming’ hot springs

The contrasts of scenery, flat desert to rolling hills to smog polluted oceans.

Arriving in California

The Old Queen Mary

Brian from England, who used to go ballroom dancing in Beckenham

Lowlights

The weight thing!!!!!

Terry getting barbed cactus spikes in his fingers, it took a pair of pliers to remove. A passing local said they use two rocks to pull them out but Terry didn't trust me to use rocks!

Aerial Tram

 Marilyn Munroe in Palm Springs

 Wind Farm in Palm Springs

 Queen Mary

 Long Beach Terry chatting with Mexican Local catching Halibut Fish

 Smog on Long Beach with the BP refinery Island in the background

Is it us they are looking for???????

Day 36 of 63 nights

Farmer Trade Market

Farmer Trade Market

Bonnie and Clyde's Car

Long Horn Cattle

We are now over half way through our trip East to West of USA, we have left Texas, dipped our toes in New Mexico and heading to Tuscan Arizona.  The Trip continues to be amazing and the vastness of the southern desert leaves something to behold.  Up until we arrived in a place called Fredrickburg the landscape has been sans hills, flat flat flat, but then we started climbing a couple of hills and now we are surrounded by hills and mountains, quite beautiful.  This is definitely "cowboy & Indian" land and As we are driving Terry is imagining himself on a horse galloping across the vast prairies avoiding the odd ambush.

Getting back to reality, I must mention the huge signboards that seem to be in abundance leading up to every exit road, advertising: - Fireworks, cowboy boots, hottest food in town, MacDonalds, "tasty exit ahead" (more fast food), advertising churches in town, etc etc. oh and did I say MacDonalds and proud to say we haven't been in one yet.

We have just spent a very pleasant three nights in a Texan town called Fredricksburg, 120 German settlers established it in 1846 and they have now got an amazing albeit touristy town.  It was extremely clean, well maintained with some amazing little country stores.  We even managed to arrive on the weekend of the monthly farmers trade fair, we spent a very interesting day looking around various antique stalls, flea market stalls, craft stalls and food stalls.  Of course, not every man's dream but Terry loved the old Americana antique rummage stalls, those who know him well the well know saying "pig in shit" comes to mind!

The weather is worth a mention as it has been quite different in the varying amounts of heat up to now, up to New Orleans, it was very hot and oppressively humid, with some rain mainly at night, then the last week has been hot with some cloud now soon as we hit New Mexico is it very hot but a dry heat, this is the heat we are used too in Perth, so coping well, although from what we have been told it will be extreme through Tuscan and Phoenix reaching 45 degrees not so good.

 Just a quick breakdown now as I can hear y'all yawning.

Highlights since last Blog

Texas
The river walk in San Antonio
Texan rib eye steak
Fredricksburg
The classic car museum next door to RV site
Great people especially Rick and Sandie very helpful
Scenery

Lowlights
A couple of the RV sites - a bit run down only stayed one night

Some people might be interested in the fuel prices, we are paying between $3.17 -$3.59 per gallon which is roughly $.73-$.80c per litre.( RV only does 7 miles to the gallon, go figure!!)

Yee haw I am off now folks.

 San Antonia River Walk

Day 29 of 63

NASA Space Centre - Houston

I will call this Blog TEXAS, because TEXAS deserves a complete blog to itself, as they say in Texas if its not big go home!!! 

We have travelled from New Orleans into Texas,  we have stayed in Houston for three nights and spent a day at NASA space centre, which was pretty amazing and definitely educational. Then we went through Galveston to Jamaica Beach, RV site, which unfortunately was inundated with loads of kids as it was a weekend, so we only stayed one night, now we are in Corpus Christi.  This has been a good location as we can cycle to the local marina and beach, which has been a bonus, but pretty eye opening.  Our site, although very nice, is situation between a crematory and a very run down area.

Getting back to everything being BIG in Texas, this includes: the roads, the bridges, the skies, the people, the steaks, the shopping malls (everywhere), the hospitals, the RVs and did I mention the people?

Highlights

Love Texas, great place

Texan steak, best I have ever tasted

Great RV parks

People

Low Lights

Some of the poor run down areas

Still having a great time, got to be careful as we are beginning to slow down the way the talk with a bit of drawl!!! So bye for now y'all until the next blog.

 Big Bridges oh and me being pushed over by a Buffalo

 Houston skyline

 Terry cycling along Corpus Christi boardwalk

 Selling Gull Shrimp off the boat

 Our neighbours

 Just so you know they can

 Thrusters I am told!

Someone lives here, I took this whilst cycling by didn't want to stop!