11/02/08

Onward ever onward, well North towards San Francisco. Jane had always said that the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) was a smashing drive, I asked an English guy from Canada if our rig would be OK on it, he said it would be fine. I must explain, the PCH is route One (1) which hugs the coast and is a bit hilly and bendy, the normal way to go North is using route 101 which is more like an Interstate highway.
You run out of superlatives to describe this drive, it was probably the most enjoyable drive of my life, speed limits ranging from 55 to 15mph. Clinging to the sides of mountains, crossing gorges, ever climbing or dropping, never knowing what visual attack you would receive next, with the odd expletive which we seemed to use a lot on the Rio Grande road. The only constant in the last few days of travel, is that the sea has been wet and salty!. Jane had done the washing at the last site, and the jeans had not quite dried, so in typical English fashion we used the stop to accelerate the process. We also took the advantage to do a little DIY, and we met some of the local wildlife, but as you can see they were not so wild. One shot did not come out, the squirrel was only a couple of inches from the lens and out of focus.
A lot of photographs have been taken, so much so, that both batteries for the camera were exhausted when we reached this site called Marina Dunes RV Park near Monterey, and those of you who shufty this blog are only going to see a few, the choice is going to be hard.
The weather has been very kind of late, very sunny days with a temp of about 70F, and a slight cool wind, and quite cool nights, we must not complain, but 10 degrees higher would be very welcome and we would not have to wear the heavier clothing in the evening.
The lady next door lives close to San Francisco, and advised us to go near to the airport to find a place to stay, and catch a high speed shuttle into town, rather than using the motorbike, we will see what happens on that one.

08/02/08

07/02/08
Got the tyre changed for the princely sum of $150, wow they balanced it for that as well. We both honestly thought that we would be able to just call into a large place and they would have them on the shelf. Never mind if we were not camping there, we would be camping somewhere else.
That somewhere else is now Carpinteria State Beach Park, twelve miles South of Santa Barbara, called in here on spec and got a full service site, even got a two dollar discount for being a senior, there is a first time for everything I guess. Jane is really happy, the train track is about 20 feet from the rear of the RV, and there is a train through about every two hours. Just up the road on the park grounds is a seal "rookery" where the seals comme ashore to give birth. This happens between January and May so it is actually happening now. The locals are very proud that it is here 'cos it is only one of four for this type of seal. There is also a “Fire Ring”, on our site so after some productive beachcombing, we had gathered what we thought was enough wood for the evening, however, we did need to make a further trip onto the beach in order to keep the “home fires burning” whilst we made our way through a case of Budweiser (a scientific experiment one must advise), to confirm the temperature at which aluminium melts.One small incident made one of us laugh, and the other wince, when a nut about half the size of a walnut dropped on my head.
The seal rookery
Sunset last night.
The killer nuts.

Rush hour into Santa Monica
Somebodies expensive real estate

04/02/08
What difference a night makes, when I turned in the RV was rocking in the wind even though the stabilisers were under the rear supports, this morning the sun is shining and the wind has turned through 180 and is negligible. The sea is now quite smooth,
not angry like yesterday.

Bolsa Chica State Beach Park on the Pacific Coast Highway has been our base for the past four days. Nodding donkeys on the inland side pumping oil then Huntington Beach town and in the distance the snow topped Gabriel Mountains, on the other the beach and surf sea. We had to order the tyre so have had to wait for it to arrive, but the time has not been wasted, have done a large food shop again and have “T”cut and polished the cab of the RV, it looks quite sparkly. Went to a place called Ralphs to shop, they offered a discount card, and all you have to do is give your name and sign a form. When we came to pay the bill, we had saved $29 just by carrying out that simple act. We did the same at a Safeways a few days ago and saved $35, no doubt by the time we are finished there will be a stack of cards to look through before we shop. Of course the 5th was Pancake Tuesday, so we went to an IHOP for breakfast. That is an International House of Pancakes if you do not know, we only managed 6 each though, along with eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, syrup etc. So you see we are with you guys in UK in spirit.When we get going again the intention is to stick to route one, which is the coast road all the way up California to San Francisco, what happens after that probably depends on the weather. By the way, Postman Pat is alive and well, living in virtually every American town. The diddy vans are the post delivery vans, and immediately strike you as PP’s

Postman Pat

A surfing sea
Snow on the mountains after last nights storm
That damned bubble, tread coming off!!!!!

04/02/08

Where are we on Sunday 3rd February??
Bolsa Chica State Beach Park, roughly 400 yards from the sea, just up the road from Huntingdon Beach, and it is blowing a gale off the Pacific. Parked up in time to watch the Super Bowl, not that I understand what is going on, but it lasted for 3 hours and The Giants won. Decided to park up early ‘cos we have another problem. Thought it was the road surface giving the vibration and dropped the speed, this eased the vibration but did not cure it. Stopped and checked the front wheels for a “bubble” but none apparent, but when we parked up at the site, the front offside showed that the tread had started to come off. Sods law I guess that it was exactly on the bottom when I checked them before. Tomorrow could be expensive when we go for a new tyre.
04/02/08
What difference a night makes, when I turned in the RV was rocking in the wind even though the stabilisers were under the rear supports, this morning the sun is shining and the wind has turned through 180 and is negligible. The sea is now quite smooth, not angry like yesterday.
Now in Huntingdon library using the a decent WIFI connection. We went to get the tyre changed, but it turns out that we have an oddball old size, and they had to order one. Will not be in until Wednesday early afternoon, so we are here until then, no way is the RV drivable over any distance or at speed. Just got to find us a camping spot for acouple of days. Photos will follow on a later edition.

02/01/08

Went into San Diego on the bike, walked around the Old Town that started to be rebuilt in 1942 is a living museum, with a great number of original items. Wells Fargo features a lot in the formation of this city. Very informative, not pushy and plenty to see.

01/02/08

Left Yuma for San Diego, didn’t know if we were going to stop en-route or not, but what we did know is that we have definitely gained another hour over GMT, so we are now 8 hours behind you. However we went looking for a WIFI connection in El Centro when we pulled off for fuel. Didn’t find a connection, but did have a bit of a look around, and it did not appeal to us, looked quite run down, at least in the areas we went to. Saw the sign for I8 West and followed it. Then it was a toss up, go to a State Park site out of town or use a Passport America site on the edge of town, the latter won. Very organised place, with over 600 spaces, and for those interested it has a website, www.campland.com. The views coming here were ever changing, shortly after leaving Arizona, you see orange hills in the distance, these turn out to be massive sand dunes. After climbing over these there is a long flat area until more hills are encountered. These though are rocks and rise to a height of approximately 4180 feet, they go on for ages and looked like one enormous rockery, some of the boulders threatening to drop down are as big as a house. To rub it in, the road signs kept reading “Cars with trailers Max Speed 55mph”, we were lucky to be doing at 35 up those hills.

31/01/08

Heading for Yuma, which in the past was virtually the only crossing point over the Colorado river into California. We were going to stop for a night along the way, but there were no convenient places and the miles rolled by. I had been talking to a guy at Tombstone, who told us about a free camping area just off the I95, so we were looking for that. Got off the I8 onto I95 and looked, just by junction 8 he had said, no sign of it, next thing we know we are back on I8 and a sign said “Welcome to California, you are now on Pacific time”. We wanted to look at Yuma so found a campground and about two miles into California at a place called Winterhaven. That is when the confusion started. Yes you are in CA, but we are on Arizona time, it is easier ‘cos we are so close.This area is big on farming crops, the rich soil being irrigated by the water tapped from the Colorado since the 1880’s, canals a sluices abound. The first evening, we were given a lettuce by the people next door, and today a couple passing offered us lemons – which we duly accepted for the G & T’s, and the people over the road gave us a cauliflower and a cabbage. Caulis are expensive in the supermarkets, around $5 for a small head and not worth it, so we indulged and had cauliflower cheese for dinner, and it tasted great.

29/01/08

On the road again to a state park called Picacho, all the way there seeing typical thousands of what I classify as typical Cactus for this part of the world. Wherever you looked they were there, still got the trains of course because this is the main route across the country, but today was a record. A 5 engine header and 118 trucks, I doubt we will beat that. Some awesome rocks sticking out of the ground made the scenery fantastic, it was also the first time in ages that the weather and facilities allowed us to have a fire, so the steaks were cooked over the open fire, real cowboy style, and were only perfect. The lack of light pollution meant that the sky was absolutely clear with a half moon, so I couldn’t resist climbing the ladder and lying on the roof for a while looking at the stars. It was a bit cold, and I think it was only that fact that stopped me falling asleep up there.