Tuesday 31 May 2011

10th May - Canyon de Chelley


Drove past the First, Second and Third Mesas (we saw old buildings high up on cliffs, but didn’t visit them as Betsey probably wouldn’t have made it up there).

We drove along the 264 East to 191 North and went to Chinle then continued on to Canyon de Chelley (pronounced d-shay). We drove along the south rim and stopped at all the ‘overlooks’ (lookouts). On the opposite cliffs we could see little rock dwellings right up in the caves. We walked down into the canyon at White House Overlook and saw up close some of the Pueblo ruins of houses – still pretty intact. They are 1000 years old. The canyon was stunning and pretty random, as you couldn’t see into it until you were on the edge. And then in the middle of the canyon was a river and heaps of beautiful, bright green trees. At each overlook there were lots of Navajo people selling jewellery, pots and painted stones and also in the canyon. This was the only spot that we could walk into the canyon for free, as it is private land. Only tours go right along the canyon bottom, as people still live there and farm, etc., but Lonely Planet said it costs about $45 a person to get a tour through the canyon – a bit steep for a couple of hours! We were still able to admire the canyon and its cave dwellings.

That night we camped in a free campground near Chinle – the Navajo Reservation might be a dry one (no booze – we had to hide the Bud Lights in Betsey!), but we love the free camping throughout it! 

9th May - Grand Canyon III


A huge change in the weather! It was very cloudy and much cooler than we arrived a day and a half earlier! We wanted to go to Hermits Rest and see the canyon from the western end. We took the shuttle bus on the red route and stopped a few times on the way. Five loud, young French guys talked so loudly that it was difficult to hear the bus driver telling us about the canyon but I couldn’t remember how to say ‘be quiet’ in French! We walked some of the way between stops and as we did, it started snowing! The ground must have been quite warm because it didn’t settle, but it did look awesome. And as I told Will, it was nice to see the canyon with different weather – the ranger last night had said that the canyon can look spectacular in a range of different weather conditions! When it had stopped snowing/raining, we walked along the rim a bit more. We kept seeing those annoying French guys – at one point three of them were on the other side of the barrier, on the edge of the cliff. All I could think about was that statistic from the night before. Ahh, young males, they think they’re invincible! We walked along the little goat-trail pretending to be a path along the rim for a little more. Then it snowed again. We took lots of photos of snow falling into the canyon! A quick stop at the actual Hermits Rest to check out the overpriced souvenirs, then back on the nice warm bus. 
 
We had parked in the Village Market carpark, so we went back there for some lunch. It hailed while we had lunch and everything went white. It was soo cold after arriving in 30 + degrees! We posted some postcards and then had a look in the huge supermarket/souvenir shop. A drink bottle later and we were back on the road.

We drove to Desert View to look at the observatory tower thingy which had been built there about a hundred years ago. We took our last photos of the canyon L. The canyon was a lot shallower than where we had been camping, but it still looked amazing and we could see more of the Colorado River.

On the way to Tuba City/Canyon de Chelly, saw a sign on the side of the road which said ‘Dinosaur tracks’, so we stopped and had a look (my dad had mentioned he had stopped here many years ago – wonder if it has changed much!). Some cool three-toed tracks. And also raptor tracks. And the g-saurus fossil. Was pretty cool, but I was a little cynical…

Stayed the night at Hopi Cultural Center carpark in Hotevilla. Met a couple of friendly ‘Rodger’ type dogs who wanted our food. They were cute and pretty tame though.  A quiet night. 

8th May - Grand Canyon II


We set our alarm to wake up early today so we could go on a ranger-led hike into the actual canyon. We were running a little late and so we had to be patient with the free shuttle buses that took us out to the trailhead. We soon caught up with the group as they made their way down the windy path down into the canyon. It was a great hike down South Kabib Trail to Cedar Ridge with Ranger Mike. The walk down was quite cool in temperature and at one point we had to hug the canyon wall in order to let the mules slip and slide their way down the steep steps (how’s that for alliteration!). Apparently they like to stand on the edge and most people’s reflex is to the same, so we were told not to otherwise they would just push us straight off! They like to be on the edge so that they can see predators from above and not be under the cliff face and vulnerable to mountain lions etc. My reflex was actually to get as close to the wall as possible, rather than standing edge side!! 

We stopped several times for Ranger Mike to tell us information about the canyon and it was interesting to know that most people don’t venture into the actual canyon itself. Apparently from the visitor centre you can see the trail we were on and most of the time they comment on how ‘no one goes down there.’ So Mike said to go over there after the hike was done and comment on how we’d gone down there! He also stopped to tell us about the magical plant from which tequila is made! He said it can grow up to two foot in a day and then when it dies it spreads its seeds down the hill in the hopes some will grow. Apparently the particular variety of plant we saw doesn’t make nice tasting tequila – one of his friends tried to make his own with this plant and it was pretty disgusting he said! It is called an Agave plant. 

We continued walking and were finally out in the sunshine. It was incredibly windy at ‘Ooh Aah’ point (Ooh, aah McGrath!), which had no sign, but showed a lot of the eastern side of the canyon and usually makes people go ‘ooh, ahh’ – hence its name. We had to hang on to our hats otherwise they would’ve been blown away! It was just as windy at Windy Point. A few more crazy hairpin twists and turns and we were at Cedar Ridge. It was a large flat area with restrooms and little squirrels wandering around trying to steal food. Apparently they can be pretty forward and aggressive and aren’t afraid to steal! We were going to continue on to Skeleton Point which is the furthest they recommend people hike in one day, but it was so crazy windy that Will convinced me we should just hike back up and then along the rim instead. All the buses and brochures and even a few signs on the trail told people not to try and walk to the river and back in one day as it’s just too far! It doesn’t look that far so I could see why people could be tempted! The hike down to Skeleton Point would have made our round-trip about 10 miles rather than the easy 4 to Cedar Ridge. In retrospect I’m glad I listened to him because it was a super-steep climb back up to the rim from Cedar Ridge! It is tough being able to walk down into the canyon – which is the easy part – and then when you are tired, having to walk back up again! The weather was definitely cooler than it had been the previous day when we melted on the rim, but the wind was horrible. We powered up the hill, which seemed so much steeper on the way up, pausing for rests and drinks. We leap-frogged our stops with other people – all of us were suffering! Finally we were back at the top, after a punishing forty minute climb. Another drink stop and we refilled our water bottles from one of the many stations scattered around the park. A great initiative, designed to stop people throwing away their water bottles. I am a sucker for BPAs though and usually just reuse my bought plastic bottles until they die. They had some crazy statistics on how many plastic bottles are bought a year – I know it is ridiculous, but until they make recycling as wide-spread as countries like Germany, then people will still purchase plastic bottles and not recycle them.
We had a rest and a snack – lots of salty food to replace the salt we’d lost through sweating on the hike. Fine by me – I love chips! It was healthily balanced with a banana each and then unhealthily balanced with Will’s new favourite chocolate bar from Walmart. Wafer biscuit and peanut butter covered in chocolate. Like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, but in a bar with crunchy wafer! I also spent some time reading the noticeboard at the top of trail and was stunned by the story they had posted up there. Apparently a ‘gifted medical student’ had perished in the canyon not long ago. The stupid girl and her friend had planned to hike to the river and back in one day, but their anticipated 16 mile hike was actually a 26 mile hike as they didn’t read their map properly or check our the situation properly. She had 1.5 litres of water with her and one apple and a snack bar. It was the height of summer and her and her friend got 10 miles into the hike, ran out of water and collapsed in the 40 degree heat. They realised they were in trouble, separated (dumb idea) and this girl’s body was found a day later. The other girl had waited out the heat by staying in the shade all day, then found her way out. Gifted medical student my butt. Obviously people can be pretty stoopid and I can understand why she died. As it was, Will and I were there in Spring when it wasn’t hot, we had nearly 5 litres of water between us, three bananas, a bag of chips and several amazing wafer bars. And we had only intended to hike 10 miles! I had even considered bringing lunch! But this story just reminded how stupid people can really be – use common sense people! 

Then we continued on along the rim of the canyon, stopping take pictures as we went. Will is loving the new camera! In all the time I’ve known him, he’s never taken so many pictures – even when we were in Europe last year. Yay! We saw some official looking ranger people out on a ledge taking pictures with fancy cameras and tripods. When they left I decided I needed a picture out on the ledge too – but not as far out as they went! As Will was taking the picture, an American couple came and offered to take the photo for us. The guy was really good and even made us take our hats off (my hair was pretty sweaty and gross so I didn’t want to but he insisted) and told us how far out on the ledge to go. The photo he took was awesome and now is the photo at the top of this blog! He also reset a couple of things on the camera and taught Will the beauty of using the viewfinder to take pictures, rather than the digital screen. They also told us that we must go through Nashville, Tennessee, as that is where the lady is from. We’ll see how we go, but I must admit I’m not a huge fan of country music! 

We continued on, with our poor feet getting sorer and sorer. There were lots and lots of people walking along the lovely, paved path (no rough mule track for their lovely clean shoes) which is what I think most tourists do. Finally we made it to the touristy-est part of the trail and we took our photos amongst the throngs. It was a pretty good point to be taking photos from though. Then we made it back onto the shuttle bus and caught it back to the camping ground. An awesomely refreshing shower later and it was time to rest our poor feet! A nap turned into four episodes of Teachers and then we had awesome flame-grilled burgers for dinner for about the fourth night in a row! Thank goodness we didn’t have to pay $7 for a pathetic bundle of firewood!

That night we went back to the Shrine of Ages for another lecture – this time about weather in the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately the giant stuffed stag was gone so I didn’t get a photo with it L. The lecture was quite interesting, mainly about the weather patterns in the canyon and how it is actual a monsoonal cycle. The Ranger also told us how about 5 people are killed a year from falling into the canyon – all of whom are males between the ages of 21 and 35. I gave Will a look at that comment – don’t want him to become a statistic like that J. We also saw a crazy picture of a lady standing on the rim during a storm. Her hair was all standing on end because of the static electricity in the air prior to a lightning strike. Crazy woman. The Ranger showed us how the weather moves in from the east and also from the southwest and meets over the canyon, creating weird weather patterns. It was very interesting, although I’m not sure how much I actually absorbed! The auditorium was nowhere near as packed the previous night. 

Monday 23 May 2011

7th May - Grand Canyon


Woke up early and had blueberry pancakes with blackberry conserve for brekkie. Amazing Walmart hits the spot again – these pancakes were already premade, but frozen, so all we have to do is heat them up for a couple of minutes in the pan. Too easy! Drove towards Grand Canyon on the I-40. Detour through Williams to see the Grand Canyon steam train – it was pretty cool. It was Grand Canyon Railway Day, so the train was going full-bore and there were heaps of people around taking photos. Will got confused by the one-way streets in this crazy town, as the main one was one-way and then one street over it was one-way going in the opposite direction! Only time he’s been confused – lucky I was paying attention for a change!

Another 50 miles to Grand Canyon and we were stuck behind two stupid Cruise America RVs doing 45 miles per hour in a 65 zone. There was nowhere to pass and Betsey was getting hot because they were going so slow going up the hills and it was really taxing her engine. We have discovered that if we keep her speed up on hills (e.g. run up) then she doesn’t get as hot. So we had to stop, cursing those driver, to let her cool down.

We stopped at the National Geographic shop/IMAX cinema just outside the national park for postcards and magnets and because Betsey was getting hot again. We shied away from the $12 movie about the Grand Canyon – we figured we were actually going to see the real thing, so we didn’t need to shell out to see a movie about it!

We drove into the National Park and went to Mather Campground, checked in and went to our spot for the next two nights. We had a lunch of frankfurts, only temporarily disturbed by another Scotty Squirrel who was under my seat. He lives in hole across the road – a new neighbour. I went and introduced myself, but he wasn’t very chatty and only stared at me with one eye out of his home-hole. Then we had a massive nap. After the nap we went for a walk to discover this amazing canyon thing that we hadn’t seen yet.


Walking, walking, walking, through the trees, then BOOM! Canyon. Grand. Awesome.


Even though it was a bit hazy, it was incredible. You could see the different layers of rocks and there were no barriers along the walk to the Geological Museum, so anyone could plunge to their death as they pleased. Of course some people got nice and close to the edge. There were so many high bits and valleys in the actual canyon itself. We could just see the Colorado River peeking out from behind some of the cliffs. We walked along a trail which showed the age of the canyon… each long step was one million years, then a thousand, then one hundred, etc, down until it reached ‘today.’ Along the way the canyon was on our left and we kept stopping to take photos of the magnificent vista. It became less hazy the further east we went. 

The geological museum taught us about how the canyon was formed over millions of years. The actual size of the Colorado River has not changed since 500 million years ago, but it has been eating away at the bottom of the canyon since then at a rate of the thickness of one piece of paper a year. As this happens, the sides cave in and this makes the deep ravines we saw. Before this, volcanoes and lava also helped to form the canyon.

We could see the North Rim which was about ten miles across the canyon. We used the binoculars in the museum to see various points around the canyon, including trails which looked tiny from so high up!

After dinner we went down to the ‘Shrine of Ages’ for a special National Wildlife Day presentation. Jack Hanna was the guest speaker, who is some famous dude. He has been on Ellen, Letterman, Good Morning America and other shows. He is the American version of Steve Irwin, and he even mentioned him briefly. We didn’t get any signatures though, cos we didn’t actually know who he was! The Americans at the presentation loved him though. He is from Tennessee, works at Columbus Zoo in Ohio (emeritus or something), but lives in Montana. He was funny, but I found him hard to understand, with a strong accent and a tendency to mumble. Obviously the animals he works with don’t mind.

Thanks Wikipedia! (This is not my picture hehe).
He showed us some awesome animals with the help of some keepers. First we saw some birds, including a peregrine falcon, which is the fastest animal in the world. It can fly at up to 220 miles per hour. He said one time one flew between his legs at 200 miles an hour. We also saw some owls, including the smallest owl, a screech owl. It was so cute and small and bobbed its little head around. We saw a Fennec fox which is from the Sahara desert. It was so adorable and the crowd went ‘ahhh.’ It was cream coloured and had massive ears – longer than its  actual head. Its tail was soo fluffy! They look so funny with their ginormous ears!

He also showed us a golden eagle, which was pretty big and scary looking and even did a little poop for the audience. (I’d earlier said that I wanted a bird to poop on stage – I got my wish haha!). Then we saw a something monster lizard, which was black with white  (Will says orange) spots. It had a long spikey tail and is one of two poisonous lizards in the world. Not sure where it’s from, but I hope I don’t see one tomorrow! Then the cutest of the cute were revealed – two mountain lion cub siblings. They were so spotty and cute and were pretty playful. One was nipping the keeper and he kept saying ‘ow’ and the other one was wrestling the keeper and I thought she might let him go! So cute!

Jack also showed us some clips of him working with animals, including ‘Bearly Asleep’ which showed them getting stats on a gorgeous baby bear (3 pounds, 8 ounces) after they tranquilized its mum. The bear made the most adorable growl/meow. We also saw some bloopers from his show Animal Adventures. In one he was kicked in the balls by an emu, in another he was kissed by an ape and in another his hair was eaten by a giraffe. His hair was also eaten by a big bird of some sort and then his lunch was eaten by a vulture. The funniest was when he was on Letterman and his mountain goat did a poop on set. Then he tried to placate Letterman by showing him a tiny baby squirrel. He tried to milk the goat, and it ended up all over Letterman and the floor – was so funny. Might be one for Youtube!  It was a good show and we thoroughly enjoyed it, though if I’d known we would see someone famous and lots of cute animals, I would’ve brought the camera! 

Sunday 22 May 2011

6th May – Vegas to Hoover Dam and beyond

Breakfast at the same place as yesterday (yum yum!). Busier there than it had been the day before so we did have to line up for a moment. It did give us a chance to laugh at the black man who was dressed up in fish-nets, feathers and g-string (over shorts) who was having his picture taken with various tourists. He kept yelling out ‘daahhling, you know I’m sexy!’ – which he so obviously wasn’t! On the way out of the place where we had breakfast he was still there (as he seems to be everyday!), but I was distracted by a guy trying to get out of the Adidas shop. He walked into the glass right beside the door and hit it so hard his sunnies fell off his head! I had to look away so he couldn’t see me absolutely laughing my head off at him! Poor dude! His mate had a good chuckle at his expense too. One for Funniest Home Videos!

Hoover Dam
Then a quick trip to Walmart for more supplies and then we were on the road again! We accidentally took the scenic road to Hoover Dam, but that was nice because we got to stop at some random lake for Betsey to cool down and also for us to put our feet in the water and cool down! Then a few more miles and we were at the famous dam. It was huge. Water levels were quite low, but it was still impressive. Lots of tourists, like us, baking in the sun and taking photos. We only walked halfway across because it was so hot and also because, well, the other side looked pretty well the same as the side we were on! 

We continued on the road to Grand Canyon and drove for a few hours. It was hot and dusty on the interstate and a bit warm so we needed to stop again for Betsey. We stayed at an RV park on the side of freeway – another uneventful night in Betsey. 

5th May – Vegas baby! II


M&M World - taken the previous day.

Bright and early in Vegas, we were up and ready to find brekkie. It was not too hot yet so we were able to take some pics without being blinded by the sun. After we saw a massive queue outside Denny’s (people were waiting for seats) - found a cute little place on the Strip which served tortillas, eggs, fried potatoes and bacon/sausage for $3.99. Yu-m. Then we were ready for some serious touristing! 

So we walked and took pictures. And took pictures and walked. Saw lots of cool hotels like the Venice one, complete with gondolas in canals and a St Mark’s tower. Saw Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio and other famous hotels that I can’t remember the names of… But as we walked it got hotter and hotter. And hotter. Several mini Hooters bottles of water later, the Stratosphere Tower was still in the distance and Will was about ready to faint, so we took a break in a deserted food court. Then as the shops were becoming dodgier, so we decided to turn back. Via some shops of course!! But I was good and didn’t buy anything J. We walked back past the hotel with the huge fountain and Will took some nice shots of it spraying water in the air. We wanted to go back later that evening for the light and sound part of it. We also saw some very important looking people with security guards who must’ve been doing a cooking show or something because we saw some chefs walking down the street a little later on. No idea who they were though! 

Back to Hooters for another shower and more TV before dinner. A quick visit down to the pool where there was no one swimming. Except me = yay! Will took advantage of the $1 beers…

We decided to go for the $9.99 prime rib dinner at the hotel that night. After a slight detour (I TOLD Will there was more than one restaurant in the hotel!), we were in the Mad Onion ordering beer, root beer and appetizers. The deep fried onion-rings (heart attack 101) came on a funny screw-like stand and were a bit of a challenge to get off, but were tasty! Trying to be healthy, we ordered a side salad and nibbled on some of the complimentary bread. I had the prime rib and it was HUGE. Will had the ribs/chicken dish and it too was HUGE. Needless to say, we couldn’t finish our food and got our little take-home packs to take back upstairs! No dessert for us!! We staggered back upstairs, for more TV and to complain about how full we were. The attempt to go out to see the fountain and other cool things had failed! On the flip side, we totally got our money's worth at the hotel - so nice to be out of Betsey for a change and have some space... made it seem like the hotel room was huge...which it may have been. Our perspective was kinda skewed!  

Saturday 21 May 2011

4th May - Vegas baby!


The drive to Vegas was shorter than we thought. We passed through a ‘mini’ Vegas – packed with casinos of course. Then we were on the outskirts of Vegas proper. It was only about 10.30am, so we had plenty to time to find a hotel before we would be able to check in. We topped up with the cheapest full we had seen so far (3.85 a gallon – we worked out the hard way that it is cheaper to pay cash than credit, by a couple of cents a gallon) and then found a McDonalds to book some accommodation. Hooters – as we had found out earlier – did prove to have some of the cheapest accommodation and was one of the only places where Betsey would fit into the parking spots (she is quite high). We still had a few hours to kill, as check-in in the US is not until 3pm. On the plus side checkout is usually 11 or 12 in the morning. Being Vegas, it’s 12!

We drove down the road to a big shopping area – the stores are so far apart that you really need to drive between them! We went to Best Buys and checked out a camera – a really nice one. We couldn’t decide whether to get it or not, but I had decided I wanted a nice one before Grand Canyon, as my little digital Olympus just doesn’t do landscape shots justice. We had lunch in a pretty dead shopping mall (not sure where all the people were? Recession?!)– Panda Express with a mega Dr Pepper (really, why did they get rid of this in Australia?! Even Will likes it and he didn’t last time he was here!) and thought about the camera. A quick pop into a few shops for some new summer tops (Vegas was soo hot after being in the mountains) and then we headed back to Best Buys to but IT. As proud owners of a Nikon DLSR 3100, we also bought insurance for two years in case I drop it (this thing looks seriously awkward!). Thanks to Nicole for inspiring us last year with her awesome photos across Europe – that’s how we decided on a Nikon! As an aside, the guy who sold us the camera and told us how it works, etc. looked like a Mexican version of my brother!

Then we checked into Hooters and had showers – ahh bliss. Same deal as the Holiday Inn – lots of trips to the ice machine. Then we played with the Nikon and practised taking photos of pens, books, the TV, out the window, etc. And watched TV for the first time in quite a while! Will was watching some random kids’ show, which was kind of like Ben 10 – and it was referring to Tasmanian devils! We thought we’d heard wrong, but no, these kids were in Tassie, making friends with’T-devils’ and then the bad guy captured some to make into killer robots. Of course he lost and the devils reverted to their scavenging selves and wanted to eat pizza. Too funny!

Once it had cooled down a bit we were ready to go for a walk outside(we were seriously melting – after the mountains and snow, Vegas was about 35 degrees Celsius. Mid 90s for all you imperial people).

As an aside, it has been interesting talking to random Americans about the imperial/metric system – most of them think that the USA needs to catch on and go with metric! I think they all realise how logical metric is and how darn confusing the imperial system is. What’s a yard?? An ounce? A pound?? (somewhere where you take stray dogs… or not!) They might be working on introducing it here, who knows. It’s a slow process… inch by inch J.

So off we went into the still dazzling sunshine (about 5 o’clock). We walked past the MGM hotel and the huge lion out the front, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty with its scary looking roller-coaster and headed along the Strip. Lots of people, many holding ‘yard glasses’ of margaritas (see crazy imperial system again. I think the ‘ounces’ varied in those plastic glasses/things that hens have on hens’ nights at bars). We walked along for a while and marvelled at the shiny, plastic civilisation that is Las Vegas.

We admired the huge hotels and then it was time to eat! Very unimaginatively we went to ‘The Outback’ steakhouse, mainly so I could see what it was like! My advice is: give it a miss. Sure, the didgeridoos and dot-paintings reminded me of home, but the prices were also just like those at home! Will did have some tasty ribs and my burger was pretty amazing, but the service there was shite. First the waiter came to us thirty seconds after we’d sat down to ask if we’d like to order our food (umm, let me just open the menu first) and then it took him ages to come back to take our orders. Then I hadn’t quite finished eating and he was already clearing the table. Rude. I made sure Will didn’t tip him much and that he didn’t get a ‘see you later.’ Isn’t that what tipping is all about – getting good service? Obviously they pay waiters too much there that he could afford to be rude! Outback experience: check. Again: never.

Afterwards we went to M&M World (I’d seen lots of people with yellow bags…we had to go there!). So, I was expecting a small store… but that was not the case! There were lots and lots of M&Ms and M&M paraphernalia! (I did look around for Kristen, as she usually supplies the M&Ms at parties in Horsham, but I didn’t see her!) I didn’t know you could buy so many different items for merchandise for this candy. Four floors of nothing but!!! FOUR FLOORS. Absolutely nuts. And there are several different types – more than in Australia. Like all good tourists we had to try some – peanut butter, almond (possibly my new fave) and pretzel (interesting) as well as the usual varieties – peanut, mini and plain. But these ones came in a range of new and unusual colours, like white, pink, black and purple. The plain and peanut were arranged by colour, so you could see the range. It looked awesome! I just wish I could afford M&M PJs and mugs and plates and shower curtains and glasses and…
A little bag of M&Ms later and we were on our way back to Hooters, admiring the lights and glitz and drunk people that makes Vegas what it is. 

Wednesday 18 May 2011

3rd May - On the road to Vegas II


Will’s skills at making toast in the frying pan are definitely improving! Though the smoke alarm proved it was alive and well again, but at least only once this time.

A friendly neighbour came and asked us if we were staying that night as he wanted to invite us to a bbq. I thought that was pretty nice and that it would have been pretty cool and pretty random if we had stayed and met some of the local trailer folk. Considering this was my first time in trailer park, I shouldn’t really have been surprised by the clientele – really fat people with tiny dogs, old people in electric carts and golf buggies, and even a highly pregnant (or very fat) young lady, puffing on a fag with another kid on her hip and one dragging another one in front of her. Not sure if they all belonged to her though. Lots of screaming kiddies around us, some of whom were nearly run over by cars after dark.

Then on the road to Vegas, via Barstow and Baker. A quick stop at Home Depot outside Barstow for my first visit of this Bunnings-style shop. I was in a stare-bear mood (tired and glazy-eyed) and a little surprised when one lady’s little dog turned its blue eyes on me. It was pretty freaky as I wasn’t sure if was real until it shook a little! The people were very nice and dribbled some crap about what kind of dog it was, then finished with the classic American (or possibly only Californian) ‘have a nice day.’ Sharpies at this shop were so cheap, I nearly bought some for no good reason – two for $1.97!

We continued on to Baker, keeping a close eye on Betsey’s thermometer – she tends to get a bit hot going up hills, poor darlin.’ On Liz’s recommendation, we stopped in Baker to take a photo of the world’s largest thermometer – random! And we did try the Alien Jerky – beef jerky of various flavours, including ‘colon-cleansing hot.’ My first conscious taste of beef jerky. Not bad, but not work paying $8 for a tiny portion. We did get some wasabi peas though  - my first since my obsession with Ashgrove’s wasabi cheese. 

It was a slow and hot climb after Baker and we stopped regularly in order for Betsey to cool down a bit. It’s scary when you can hear the water in the radiator boiling! Gave me plenty of time to continue writing the blog though and catch up on iPod Sudoku. Will even started waving to the other RV which also kept stopping along the freeway to cool down.

Barely in Nevada and... casino!!
Originally we were going to stay in Barstow, but when the freeway miles melted away we changed that idea to Baker, then Will decided we’d just continue on to Vegas, or at least its outskirts. So we did, with plenty of water stops for poor Betsey.

Finally we were in Nevada – it was starting to get dark and Betsey was still quite warm, so we started looking for somewhere to stay. The first casino in Nevada (as in just over the border) had a lot of trucks and one RV in the carpark who looked like they were staying overnight. Will went to the hotel part of the casino and asked if we could stay in the carpark and security said we could – what a laugh! We decided that they thought we would come in for dinner and maybe a little gambling… little did they know! Instead we cooked tea and hung out in Betsey, being cheapskates hehe. 

2nd May - On the road to Vegas

Well, today we left the snowy mountains and made our way into the slightly desert- y southern California on our way to Vegas.

We were told at the Visitor Centre in Grant Grove that the road from Sequoia south to Bakersfield/LA is only open every two hours, so we planned around that. A slow start and a quick visit from Scruffy, and we headed towards the Giant Tree Museum. Turns out it is closed until mid-May, which is unfortunate, but life goes on. We did get to drive between some of the huge trees though! So cool! So we waited about 45 minutes in a line of cars for the road to open. Either we are really savvy travellers or people can’t read, but several people asked us if we knew when the road opened. They must’ve missed the two metre wide flashing neon sign two hundred metres back up the road which indicated the times the road opened. Because of the roadworks, the road was only open every two or so hours – as we’d been told at the information centre.

Will driving Betsey between Giant Sequoias. 
They were doing roadworks, so only one lane was open to traffic for about nine miles. We had to follow a ute down some crazy hairpin twists and turns. In those nine miles we dropped about 3000 feet. It was pretty hairy! Then a few more twists and turns (actually a lot – it was so zig-zaggy that many of the turns were recommended to be driven at 10 miles an hour!), and we were at the bottom of the valley. Betsey and Will were relieved to be back on flat ground! We drove through Three Rivers and several other small hamlets on our way to Las Vegas.

We passed through orange groves and endless vineyards and went past huge Lake Kaweah. It was quite a big, but low, lake with lots of people fishing on the shore and in boats. We saw a big collection of house boats too, so it must be a pretty popular tourist destination, probably for people from LA.

We found the RV park we had planned to go to outside Bakersfield on freeway 58 to Vegas. My first trailer park! Full hook-ups and cable (not that we have a TV). Lots of the trailers looked as if they had not moved in years – I guess these are permanent homes for some people, which at $150 a week isn’t bad (can’t remember the monthly rate). We paid $26 which we pretty happy with, as it meant we could have showers – more exciting than you’d think, but it had been a little while for us…! We also did three loads of laundry – the first since San Francisco –that equalled fresh sheets and clean PJs – yay! It also meant we could turn the lights on in the RV and charge the batteries on everything without worrying about flattening the battery.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

1st of May - Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks


Breakfast with our new Dutch acquaintances. They even had a Dutch tablecloth for the picnic table, complete with windmills, and a flag to put next to their RV. It was a chilly morning and an early trip to the bathroom meant I could admire five beautiful mule deer cruising around the park. I’m not sure what they were eating, considering the ground was so snowy, but they were munching on something! Freshly fallen pine needles perhaps? And of course, there is always one in a pack who holds up the others – he or she was just hanging out and chewing around and the others were well gone. This one had to keep running to catch up!

After brekkie and an attempt to walk down to a big sequoia (the track was blocked with snow), we drove down to visit General Grant, one of the huge sequoia trees in the area. He was a beauty; his volume is so great that he could hold 37, 000 ping pong balls. Not sure who worked that out, but someone obviously took the time to! I did the calculations and realised it would take 15 men with their arms outstretched to reach around this tree. There was also a fallen sequoia which we could walk inside – it was pretty huge too.

Then we drove the windy-ness to Sequoia National Park. We visited the info centre and admired the National Parks version of Uno (tempting!), then we caught the free shuttle bus out to see General Sherman – the biggest tree by volume in the world. He is certainly a biggun. But he is surrounded by other bigguns which were just as impressive! We braved the icy path (I didn’t fall on my butt like I was worried I might!) and wandered around admiring these giants. And also the fashion statements (white socks and thongs in snow?? On the same person that is. And another person just thongs in snow?? Keen! I mean just ‘flip flops’ on her feet). We took quite a few photos but it is really hard to capture just how humungous Sherms actually is. We have a lot of two-part pictures! There was also a cross-section cut out from the trunk of a sequoia and another one that was on its side with a hole cut in it for people to walk through. And I was able to touch the ‘ceiling’ so good luck to all those tall people going through it!

That night we camped in the campground carpark. All the campgrounds were closed due to snow, so everyone just camped in the carpark which they had cleared of snow. We built up our campfire with pine cones found around the site and also the firewood from our Dutch acquaintances from the night before. Our German neighbours decided not to share our fire (or couldn’t understand Will) – they were weird anyway and made the man in their group of three sleep outside in a tent. So mean. Quite a few people were sleeping in tents and all I can say is: CRAZY COLD! It was cold enough without being on cold ground as well! We also saw a possibly French couple who had a people-mover and were doing what we would have done if we hadn’t found Betsey – living out of their car. It looked quite difficult as they cooked their dinner on the ground, then sat in the boot, then put up their curtains for some privacy while they slept. Not like us, who leave the dishes in the sink and the bed is permanently set up in the back!

Dinner was Will’s new favourite – ham and cheese wraps cooked in the frying pan. While we were setting up we met Scruffy and all his mates – some kind of very blue bird. They were eating all the leftover crumbs left by some picnickers. He was quite tame and even sat on Betsey’s open side door (no poop thank goodness). I think he was quite annoyed when Will took the pinecone that he was eating from. He was probably eating ‘pop pine’ (like pop corn, but from a pinecone) until the cone was thrown in the fire. Oops.

A slightly chilly night again, curled up with more episodes of Teachers.

30th April - Kings Canyon National Park


Went to Fresno to get our fix of civilisation. Enough of orange groves and vast vineyards stretching to the horizon. Enough of snowy mountains and windy roads. For a few hours anyway!

It’s not good for our health, but we love McDonald’s. Who can complain about $1 chicken burgers and free wi-fi? Especially the latter. We spent a good hour on the internet, looking up free camping areas in Kings Canyon NP, checking our emails and Facebook, bank balances, etc.

Found a Best Buys, electronics shop – best purchase ever – a DC/AC converter! As my colleague in the Year 9 office reminded me several times last term – Will is a keeper! He had the brilliant idea of getting one of these doovalackies so that we can charge the iPod, camera, phone or laptop while driving. Absolute genius. So now we can watch the rest of Teachers without worrying about charging the laptop battery somewhere the next day! As an aside, the battery life on the MacBook Pro is astounding – around ten hours when fully charged, but it uses power more quickly for movies. To me this is amazing, considering my last school laptop, brand new though it was, could only hold one hour of charge and even then, only on a good day.

We also had another visit to Walmart for a doona, colander and some other necessary supplies. The most interesting Walmart clientele that I had seen so far were frequenting this particular store. We left with a trolley of goodies, including 30 tortillas for around $5. Awesome. I think we pay about that much for eight or ten at home. And we found a ‘comforter’ which took the place of a ‘doona’ and some ‘Q-tips’ to top up our supply of ‘cotton buds.’

Other interesting equivalents that one must get used to over here:

Faucet = tap
Candy = lollies or chocolate
Store = shop
Soda/pop = soft or fizzy drink
Screws = shoes (might just be a San Fran thing – Will was complimented on his ‘screws’ when we were in a Merrell shop. Of course he was wearing Merrells – he didn’t bring anything else!)
Cab = taxi
Cooler = esky
Cart = shopping trolley

Some very religious radio stations too. And because we don’t have a digital tuner, we’re a bit limited in what I can tune it to. So we had to buy a cassette tape MP3 player converter (just like in my old Laser – I should’ve kept the one that Al gave me seven years ago!). Real music – yay!

Once we got to Kings Canyon National Park and ‘checked in’ with our park pass, it was time to find a camp spot. The ranger was hilarious and once he’d checked our pass, he told Will that he had a parking fine. Will must have looked horrified, cos the ranger laughed and laughed. Bet he gets heaps of people like that! Or maybe it was just because we’re Aussies?!

We camped just down the road at Azalea, next to some Dutch people who shared their fire and s’mores (first ones we had – yum! Though my Hershey’s chocolate didn’t melt properly. Might need to practise making them!) with us and even gave us their leftover firewood. How nice is that! We even learnt a trick for converting Fahrenheit temperatures (Imperial measurements may be the bane of my existence!) to Celsius – e.g. a lifesaver for yours truly.

So 32 F is zero at Celsius and is freezing point. And that’s all I can usually remember, but get this:

61 F = 16 C
82 F = 28 C
104 F = 40 C (just ignore the 1)

How cool is that?! Now I might actually understand the weather when they show it on TV or display it in the National Parks.

Azalea cost us $10 campground with flushing toilets, so we couldn’t complain. Better than $21 for a drop toilet 20 miles outside of Yosemite. Another chilly night in Betsey – there was snow all over the ground again! Loving the new comforter – it’s warmer than it looks! 

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Yosemite - 29th April


A cold morning and our first ever ‘shower’ in Betsey. Very awkward, but more so for anyone who is taller than me (e.g. Will). Was nice to be clean again haha. Then a quick breakfast and we were back on the road to Yosemite. And like all good tourists we took the ‘tourist’ road as we later found out – complete with hairpins at every turn (again we were on the cliff side – what is it with that?!). We also picked up our first hitch-hiker – he was powering up the hill as he had ‘forgotten to get gas’ that morning and had run out. Who the hell does that?! He sounded local, but maybe he wasn’t!?

We stopped for info at Stanislaus National Park and heard that the pass we’d hoped to go over from Lake Tahoe to Kings Canyon had had 30 foot of snow in recent days – no wonder it was still closed. Anyway, this road was usually not open until late May – only in 1998 had it been open in April, so we were a bit ambitious in even considering it.

A squashed skunk later (it stunk even from inside the car and we weren’t even the ones to squash it!) and we arrived on the next windy road up into Yosemite National Park. We passed through a big valley with grassy meadows, but it looked as if a fire had gone through in recent months, as all the trees were black and crispy-looking. A bit like the drive through the pine plantations on the way to Devonport from Deloraine. Then we went up a hill again and down into a gorgeous valley with sheer cliffs and waterfalls, which greeted us as we made our way down into the park. Like the good tourists we are, we stopped at each vista point and took photos of hazy boulder-shaped protrusions along the tops of the cliffs. I waited for the piercing call of an eagle as it circled a cliff, like in the movies, but did not hear anything. I might have to look it up on Youtube to get my fix. Again we were cliff side, but we even got to go through a couple of tunnels (Will had just been saying that the USA is behind Switzerland and France, who would have just blasted a tunnel through any hills or mountains in the way – stuff building a road around or through them!). The tunnel did cause Will to panic a bit – he thought Betsey was leaking water, but it was just the water that had splashed up underneath the car in the tunnel. All the other cars had the same thing happening!

Then we were on a one way road down one side of the river and officially in Yosemite National Park. More stopping at vista points for waterfall and cliff shots. Until we reached Curry Village – the quieter out of the two villages, the other one being Yosemite Village.

Now, don’t hold this against me, but I wasn’t too impressed by Yosemite. It may have been that I had a fever and could barely concentrate on anything or it may have been the hordes of tourists who were determined to cross the roads without looking and who were walking on the edge of the road, not facing traffic, obviously with a death-wish as the speed limit was 35 miles an hour. There were just tooo many people. And it’s not even summer. Apparently this park gets four million visitors a year, so I’m glad that we aren’t visiting when the majority of them are there! I’ve decided that I like to enjoy nature minus kids screaming at each other in Spanish. I like nature quiet and natural like how Mother Nature designed it. We did not walk to the highest falls in the world with hundreds of other people, but we did take photos of it as it blasted its way over a cliff. Then my desperate desire for sleep forced us away from the hordes and back into relative peace with Betsey.

The views in Yosemite were definitely gorgeous, but I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see deer, bears or even many squirrels like the postcards at the info centre had promised. We saw a fish in the river, who was just hanging out and looked as if he had ten fins on either side. Then some American tourist spat in the river, so we left. We did see a squirrel on our way back to the car, but then other tourists scared it away. It may have been a chickaree – which have smaller, shorter tails than squirrels. And obviously I wasn’t up to doing any hiking, which I think is when you see cool animals. The cliffs were awesome, but there are only so many things to look at when admiring cliffs. It was a pretty spot, but a bit overrated for a normal Friday morning.

A landslide was over the road we were hoping would provide free camping spots, but the local who told us about it didn’t realise the road actually met up with another one further along. The RV park only did full hook-ups at $37-$42 which was above our budget, so we continued to search for the free camping. Will said the guy at the park claimed it was ‘sold out every night.’ So we found a free camping spot, which turned out to be $21 with only a drop toilet. We both had a much-needed nap, which was only interrupted by someone asking ‘anyone home?’ but by the time I was awake enough to respond, they’d driven off. We slept for several hours, which was soo good – must’ve been tired! Then as I was slowly waking up, Will met the not-so-friendly local ranger who wanted to make us pay even though we only wanted a car parking spot, not an actual tent site. Will reckoned he was mean (I guessed old Vietnam Vet who hadn’t quite been accepted back into society – think the guy who hangs himself in The Things They Carried. Henry?). And then as we were driving back along that road to the main one, we saw his permanent fifth-wheeler (trailer) where the poor sad guy must live, watching as tourists drive past so that he can pounce on them for $21.

A little bit refreshed, we continued on our drive, on our quest for that coveted RV owner’s holy grail: free camping. We were held up slightly waiting for a traffic light to change as we by-passed a fairly major looking landslide. We had to take a smaller road and it was one way traffic only.

Another vista point carpark awaited us – this time without a vista. We didn’t go and look, but you probably had to walk to get to it. Another uneventful night in Betsey. 

Friday 6 May 2011

Lake Tahoe II - 28th April

I'm pretty behind in blog posts... so just bear with me! Some of these are a little while ago now...


The next morning we drove around the south-eastern side of Lake Tahoe for a few miles and stopped at a ‘beach’ to take some photos. Behind us ski lifts and runs cut lines through the pine forests. It was quite cold, but the views were great. We then drove back towards where we camped and stopped at Pope Beach to take in more of the breathtaking scenery.

Some fun facts about Lake Tahoe:

·      It is 99.9 % pure (whatever that means in real terms).
·      It is so clear you can see down 75 feet below the surface(yes it was pretty clear, but I only saw it from the shore).
·      It is a stupid amount of feet deep at its deepest point - 1645 feet.
·      It has a 72 mile long shoreline.
·      It contains about 39.75 trillion gallons of water (thirsty anyone?).
·      Its average level is 6227 feet above sea level (told you we were high!) – the highest lake of its size in the USA.
·      If the lake were completely emptied, the water would cover all of California to a depth of 14 inches, but would take 700 years to refill.
·      It formed 10, 000 – 11, 000 years ago and was caused by glaciers.
·      63 streams flow into this lake and only one river flows out – the Truckee River.
·      It never freezes over in winter.
·      The sun shines of Lake Tahoe approximately 274 days a year.
·      It loses much of its water to evaporation. If the water that evaporates from the lake in a 24-hour period could be collected, it would supply the daily requirements of a city the size of LA.

Then we drove along Emerald Bay Road on our way to Truckee and the main highway from Reno to Sacramento (I-80). The Emerald Bay Road was very cool, but kind of scary. And of course we were on the cliff-side lane. Just like when we came over the highest point on our way to Lake Tahoe – I was too scared to more than glance down the side of the cliff – the houses were so tiny. I’d put my money on there being a 3000 feet sheer drop. I was a little nervous, but I trust Will’s driving – for better or worse! Anyway, we survived all the windy crazy driving.

Emerald Bay Road was dotted with ‘vista points’ (lookouts in Australia) so we would drive a little bit, then stop and take some more photos. We also drove on possibly the narrowest open stretch of road I have ever been on. Well, one with cliff views off either side. The road’s shoulder would have been at best, a foot wide and the actual road was pretty narrow. Will reckons it was about eight metres wide – just enough for two RVs to pass. Fortunately it was only for about 200 metres. We stopped at the actual Emerald Bay Vista Point, which was incredibly windy, but again, impressive views. There was a little island and even a tiny paddle steamer in the bay. Then back to the twisty road up to Donner Lake and Truckee. More cute cabins and houses and ski lifts and snow.

We turned off the I-80 at Auburn and headed back to Placerville. Another visit to Safeway for supplies (in Will’s case, more beer). Then we avoided paying $20 for a stay in a crappy lakeside campground miles from anything exciting (except a boring lake) and parked in a vista point carpark on the way to Yosemite. And I complained loudly that he could have picked somewhere with a better view (it was a gorgeous sunset and then sunrise out over the water of quite a large lake). 

Monday 2 May 2011

Lake Tahoe I - Weds 27th April


The scenery at Lake Tahoe was magnificent - even on the way there, we were oohing and aahing like country folks in the city! We did not realise how high the ranges were that we needed to get over before we began our trip. All of a sudden, it was 3000 feet, 4000 feet… up to 7000 feet, which for you metric-ans, is 2133.6 metres! Mt Kosciuszko is only 2228 metres (7310 feet) and is the highest mountain in Australia!

The views as we drove up to Tahoe were spectacular. We saw lots of snow-covered mountains, gorgeous pine trees and the cutest houses and cabins, some still half-covered in snow. It looked so peaceful. Then we came to the peak of the drive, and we could see in the distance a huge lake surrounded by more snowy mountains. A windy trip downhill and we were in South Lake Tahoe for a quick McDonald’s stop (just in the carpark this time) to check where we could have our first night in the RV.

We found a snowy clearing and there we camped. It was cold, but we survived and despite Will’s brother thinking Betsey looked like something out of a horror movie, no axe murderer got us that night. I was still a bit nervous though and it took me a little while to fall asleep. Also we forgot to buy a corkscrew, so no red wine for us L

On the road - an aside


So I've missed quite a few days of blogging, since we were out in the wild, hanging out with nature, not showering, etc. 

Rather than just writing 'and then' and 'the next day' I'll put dates on these blog entries. Might do that from now on - just makes life a bit easier :) Mainly for me! 

Sacramento IV


This morning we were picked up by one of the RV shop’s guys and we got our hands on Betsey Blue!

By the way, our RV is called Betsey Blue, because she has a blue stripe down her sides and because her interior is blue. I will just call her Betsey – then you will know who I mean!!

The RV shop’s boss rushed through our rego papers with the DMV, for which we were so grateful. A goodbye to Randy and the gang at B & L RV and then we were on our way. A stop at Walmart in Placerville for supplies to set up our Betsey and then we hit the mountain road to Lake Tahoe.

Bye bye Sacramento. Hello mountains!  

Sacramento III


Today we went to the RV place and organised payment and also insurance. A bit of a pain with paying as the stupid Californian bank didn’t want to let us take any money out because our passport was only one form of ID. Isn’t it the best form??! Obviously not. Quick call to Commonwealth Bank (love Skype) and we were sorted. Just had to wait for the RV company to receive the payment, which took ages. Actually it didn’t happen until the following morning. In the meantime, Randy, our friendly salesman,  helped us sort out insurance, which was great, and we hung out in the office chatting and generally distracting him from his work haha. We also had a run-through on how to actually work the RV – it’s more complicated than I thought. Betsey even has two fuel tanks!

Dinner at a sushi place around the corner – it was amazing. $12 for the biggest teriyaki dinner box I have seen. And again, love that Americans giving doggy bags (well, a box in this case) – lunch for the next day! Will’s teriyaki salmon was pretty darn good.

Went back to the hotel and watched some Conan O’Brien and then some Spanish talkshow host who was pretty funny. His guest was Matthew McConnaghy, who is a pretty funny guy too – and I didn’t know he spoke Spanish!

One last night in Sacramento… 

Sacramento II

The next day Will took the car back to San Francisco and I just hung out at the hotel and used the gym and packed etc. Nothing exciting.

That night we went for dinner at Brookfields - yet another diner. More ribs - yummmm. And I had my first American turkey and it was soo good. Very tart cranberry sauce compared to at home, but at this place they sure knew how to make a good gravy.