Where have you been...the long version.
This is for those who are truly interested in what we've been upto....
Washington
So we left Vancouver and spent a few nights in Seattle. We visited a camera shop and spent a lot of money, H now has a spanky new digital SLR, very nice, great quality shots. I got very excited when I visited my first Patagonia store. Oh, all the great stuff! We had a couple of nice meals out and got a little drunk one evening. We saw some good stuff wondering around but it was tuff going on my arms (boy your arms aren't made for walking around on.) and I had the first attack of pudding foot! (This is where my broken ankle gets all fat from being down too long)
Oregon
We went down the coast from there on highway 101 which is a beautiful drive, we we're very lucky with the weather and had beautiful sunny weather for the whole drive. The coast road is notorious for being foggy a lot of the time. We stayed at a beautiful beachside RV resort which has been the best so far. We saw our first ocean sunset, which as you can imagine, was quiet something. We then drove on into Oregon and spent a great hour blasting around on a couple of quads on the incredible Oregon Dunes, sand dunes which stretch for 10's of miles. This was the most fun to be had with a broken ankle. You would get stuck if you weren't careful as you blasted up the gradually steepening slopes of a huge dune. A lot of hopping and sweating took us back to Cynthia. We stayed at a super ghetto campsite in the middle of nowhere for a mere $10 that evening. We visited the giant Redwoods which was quite something, taller but slimmer than the Sequioa's. A couple of nights in the Redwood National Park was very pleasant. We had a fire by the van and it seemed to soak up our worries of being on the road.
California
We hit the Napa valley after the Redwood N.P. and spent a night in a nice motel and had a mudbath at the Spa. I know, I probably should have said, (Frank from Eastenders voice) 'That's awright luv, I'll be in the pub.' But I said why not and we had a very relaxing time. Not the extreme kind of event I had in mind when I planned the trip, Big walling in Yosemite, surfing in Baja and mudbath in Napa! We went on a very interesting wine tour of the 'Sterling winery' and had a tasting session, very nice! We moved on to the Mumm Napa vineyard after Sterling and tasted a number of very nice champagne's for a very sensible price. We stopped short of buying any of their product, however. We drove over to the Sequioa N.P. and on the way stopped at a beautiful lakeside campsite where we chilled and had another nice fire which sucked out the worries of being on the road for a long day. Part of the drive had been through some of Californias orchard areas where orange trees, grapefruit and grapes are grown in rows as far as the eye can see and the roads are strighter and longer than you can see. Whilst driving down a stright road with no turnings we managed to get lost and then found! We went up to the park the next day but discovered there'd been too much snow and we couldn't get to the trees, so we turned round and headed for Nevada and Las Vegas!
Nevada
To get to Vegas we had to drive over the Sierra Nevada, the weather had deteriorated in Napa and had been overcast and raining ever since. We stopped on the way to Vegas at a wet and wind swept lake called Isabella at the top of the Sierra's. It rained really heavily all night and whilst we didn't get a great nights sleep we did much better than another group who where there. Their fire was put out by the severity of the rain and their tents collapsed in the wind. They looked like they'd had a miserable night. We spent a continuous 36hrs in the van without getting out, enough said. I think we may begetting addicted to the van.
The drive over the Sierra Nevadas was good, topping out at the pass just 100m below the snow line. We looked back the way we'd come and there were ominous black storm clouds, as we looked ahead towards Death Valley we were confronted by beautiful blue skies not suprisingly we decided to head to Death Valley. The scenery changed as we drove down the Sierra's and we benefitted from the rain shadow. The temps soared and the skies were blue. The wind though was blasting and the driving characteristics of a 23ft box with wheels leaves a lot to be desired!
We drove in to Death Valley and it was hot, we visited the lowest place in the USA -284ft and it was still hot. we went to bed and it was hot, we got up super early to go and take pictures of the sunrise and it was still hot. We were very lucky to be visiting in spring as we caught the wild flowers in the desert. Carpets of beautiful yellow, white and purple flowers were all over the dry rocky ground. The colours were incredible as was the sunset ont he mountains. The best scenic drives were all closed for some reason so we visited a crater (volcanic) and a Castle in the middle of Death Valley. Very odd. We decided to head to Vegas and managed to get there in one day.
Vegas was oddly depressing, we stayed at an RV park attached to a casino off the strip, it was full of old people who didn't look like they could afford to throw money away. Going in the casino was just the same, there's no reason to leave as they had restaurants, cinemas, bowling alleys, hair dressing salons, spas, ice cream palour, pools oh and the gambling! There are no windows and no clocks. You felt as if you were being sucked into the bowls of some great monster that wouldn't let you leave until it'd sucked all your cash! In a way Vegas was the same, we had to pay $500 to get Cynthia fixed, essential repairs but not overly welcome. We stayed at Lake Mead which was hot but we managed to do some running repairs of our own with the minimal of tools! The same day we lost Hannah's purse, not so good. On our last day in Vegas we hit the Hoover Dam and had a tour which was cool, well I thought so! Stood astride the Nevada Arizona desert, oh how much fun we had! We drove to San Diego from Vegas in a day, long drive but we found a good campsite where we'll stay for the next two nights. We are insuring the van for Mexico and getting on the net to say hello and good by as we won't be back for a month. Telephones only I suspect. Oh and we're getting hair cuts as we're getting a touch ferrral!
Mexico
Washington
So we left Vancouver and spent a few nights in Seattle. We visited a camera shop and spent a lot of money, H now has a spanky new digital SLR, very nice, great quality shots. I got very excited when I visited my first Patagonia store. Oh, all the great stuff! We had a couple of nice meals out and got a little drunk one evening. We saw some good stuff wondering around but it was tuff going on my arms (boy your arms aren't made for walking around on.) and I had the first attack of pudding foot! (This is where my broken ankle gets all fat from being down too long)
Oregon
We went down the coast from there on highway 101 which is a beautiful drive, we we're very lucky with the weather and had beautiful sunny weather for the whole drive. The coast road is notorious for being foggy a lot of the time. We stayed at a beautiful beachside RV resort which has been the best so far. We saw our first ocean sunset, which as you can imagine, was quiet something. We then drove on into Oregon and spent a great hour blasting around on a couple of quads on the incredible Oregon Dunes, sand dunes which stretch for 10's of miles. This was the most fun to be had with a broken ankle. You would get stuck if you weren't careful as you blasted up the gradually steepening slopes of a huge dune. A lot of hopping and sweating took us back to Cynthia. We stayed at a super ghetto campsite in the middle of nowhere for a mere $10 that evening. We visited the giant Redwoods which was quite something, taller but slimmer than the Sequioa's. A couple of nights in the Redwood National Park was very pleasant. We had a fire by the van and it seemed to soak up our worries of being on the road.
California
We hit the Napa valley after the Redwood N.P. and spent a night in a nice motel and had a mudbath at the Spa. I know, I probably should have said, (Frank from Eastenders voice) 'That's awright luv, I'll be in the pub.' But I said why not and we had a very relaxing time. Not the extreme kind of event I had in mind when I planned the trip, Big walling in Yosemite, surfing in Baja and mudbath in Napa! We went on a very interesting wine tour of the 'Sterling winery' and had a tasting session, very nice! We moved on to the Mumm Napa vineyard after Sterling and tasted a number of very nice champagne's for a very sensible price. We stopped short of buying any of their product, however. We drove over to the Sequioa N.P. and on the way stopped at a beautiful lakeside campsite where we chilled and had another nice fire which sucked out the worries of being on the road for a long day. Part of the drive had been through some of Californias orchard areas where orange trees, grapefruit and grapes are grown in rows as far as the eye can see and the roads are strighter and longer than you can see. Whilst driving down a stright road with no turnings we managed to get lost and then found! We went up to the park the next day but discovered there'd been too much snow and we couldn't get to the trees, so we turned round and headed for Nevada and Las Vegas!
Nevada
To get to Vegas we had to drive over the Sierra Nevada, the weather had deteriorated in Napa and had been overcast and raining ever since. We stopped on the way to Vegas at a wet and wind swept lake called Isabella at the top of the Sierra's. It rained really heavily all night and whilst we didn't get a great nights sleep we did much better than another group who where there. Their fire was put out by the severity of the rain and their tents collapsed in the wind. They looked like they'd had a miserable night. We spent a continuous 36hrs in the van without getting out, enough said. I think we may begetting addicted to the van.
The drive over the Sierra Nevadas was good, topping out at the pass just 100m below the snow line. We looked back the way we'd come and there were ominous black storm clouds, as we looked ahead towards Death Valley we were confronted by beautiful blue skies not suprisingly we decided to head to Death Valley. The scenery changed as we drove down the Sierra's and we benefitted from the rain shadow. The temps soared and the skies were blue. The wind though was blasting and the driving characteristics of a 23ft box with wheels leaves a lot to be desired!
We drove in to Death Valley and it was hot, we visited the lowest place in the USA -284ft and it was still hot. we went to bed and it was hot, we got up super early to go and take pictures of the sunrise and it was still hot. We were very lucky to be visiting in spring as we caught the wild flowers in the desert. Carpets of beautiful yellow, white and purple flowers were all over the dry rocky ground. The colours were incredible as was the sunset ont he mountains. The best scenic drives were all closed for some reason so we visited a crater (volcanic) and a Castle in the middle of Death Valley. Very odd. We decided to head to Vegas and managed to get there in one day.
Vegas was oddly depressing, we stayed at an RV park attached to a casino off the strip, it was full of old people who didn't look like they could afford to throw money away. Going in the casino was just the same, there's no reason to leave as they had restaurants, cinemas, bowling alleys, hair dressing salons, spas, ice cream palour, pools oh and the gambling! There are no windows and no clocks. You felt as if you were being sucked into the bowls of some great monster that wouldn't let you leave until it'd sucked all your cash! In a way Vegas was the same, we had to pay $500 to get Cynthia fixed, essential repairs but not overly welcome. We stayed at Lake Mead which was hot but we managed to do some running repairs of our own with the minimal of tools! The same day we lost Hannah's purse, not so good. On our last day in Vegas we hit the Hoover Dam and had a tour which was cool, well I thought so! Stood astride the Nevada Arizona desert, oh how much fun we had! We drove to San Diego from Vegas in a day, long drive but we found a good campsite where we'll stay for the next two nights. We are insuring the van for Mexico and getting on the net to say hello and good by as we won't be back for a month. Telephones only I suspect. Oh and we're getting hair cuts as we're getting a touch ferrral!
Mexico
posted by patrick at 1:08 PM
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