Yes, we’re still alive! We’ve finally descended after 3 days in the 10000ft Yosemite wilderness to the joys of running water, electricity and WiFi in a trailer park at the back of the California State Fair in Sacramento.
Hopefully we’ll have a chance to fill in the blanks once we get back from our day at the Raging Waters park round the corner.
Edited: July 30th, 2010
Mmmm… a lovely Sunday morning in Mammoth Lakes. Just grabbing a coffee in “The Village” before we head up to Twin Lakes. Need some refreshment after cycling a couple of miles uphill at this altitude (8000ft?).
Edit: Ha! And then a mere couple of hours later we were savaged by mosquitoes and then trapped by a huge thunderstorm. Idyllic!
Edited: July 25th, 2010
We set off bright and early, well, early, for the next leg of the journey; another 200 mile slog with a break in the middle to try and prevent the girls from driving Jen mad by constantly asking her to pick up whatever pen or crayon has just slid off the table as we’re driving.
60's style signage in Barstow
There were a selection of old Santa Fe railway engines sitting baking in the sun, so after having lunch in the van, we ventured out to clamber over them, try and avoid burning our hands and take some pictures of the well-preserved railway behemoths. We sold it to the girls as “let’s go and see those Chuggingtons”, which seemed to work well. It was a really nicely unexpected find and both Jen and I were snapping away for ages.
Our destination for tonight is Inyokern. A kind of nowhere-place (of which there are quite a few round here) that we’re only using as an overnighter. We arrived a bit earlier than yesterday, and the campsite turned out to be really nice. It’s a few degrees cooler, has wild rabbits running around, is well kept (there seem to be a lot of long-term residents) and has lots of shady trees (what a novelty)! That meant we could sit outside and have tea plus some more of my birthday ice-cream cake while the sun set behind the mountain. Another pleasant surprise.
Tomorrow it’s another slog to Lone Pines, then on to Mammoth Lake.
I don’t know why, but I expected petrol to be as cheap as chips out here. So much so that I hardly factored in the cost of petrol to the trip. What a shocker: it turns out that the RV takes something like 40 gallons of petrol and costs $150 to fill up! Ouch. Combine that with the fact that you can almost see the fuel gauge falling as you drive, it feels like you’re literally burning money. Still, the cruise control is nice. I can basically set it to 60 mph, point it in the roughly the right direction and let it drive me. So now my only issues are going round corners and understanding the hand signals that Jen uses when trying to help me reverse.
When I noticed Jen knitting away in the passenger seat at sunset I just had to take a quick picture. Rock and roll, eh?
Edited: July 22nd, 2010
Woke up this morning and was gutted to find it was still overcast and rainy, but at least there was no storm raging, so decided to trudge back to the Grand Canyon airport in the rain and see what the situation was.
They weren’t flying, but did say they planned to ‘re-assess’ at 9.30, so I decided to stick around for the hour or so and see what happened. Luckily the sky cleared and it was go, go, go.
Me looking not-at-all-nervous very high-up over the Grand Canyon
Time to hit the road again. We need to head back towards Las Vegas and into the Mojave desert in order to get towards the Sequoia national park, so had to get back behind the wheel and hit the tarmac. To be honest we were all dreading the heat; the girls wilt as soon as they step outside in the 40+ temperatures, and the generator in the RV that powers the air-con when we’re not hooked up gets a bit unhappy too.
Cafe 66 with stormy sky
Setting off again on the longer section of the drive we were treated to the sat-nav’s accurate but slightly depressing instructions to “turn right, continue straight on for 178 miles”. As we got back towards the desert the temperature rose and the patrol gauge fell steadily. The RV drinks like a family of thirsty Londoners in the desert. During the journey we descended several thousand feet from the lofty 6500ft elevation of the Grand Canyon, snaked across a couple of mountain ranges, and eventually arrived in the attractively-named, Needles.
By this time it was dark, but nobody had told the temperature that. It was still hotter than the hottest summer day in London, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that the outside of the RV was so hot it felt like it had re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere (during the journey, Jen had to put paper on the footwell to avoid burning her feet). So we basically slept in a hot tin box, with the air-con valiantly trying to cool it down from the inside out.
Edited: July 21st, 2010
Another day in Tusayan. It poured down overnight and there was a thunder and lightning storm raging for what seemed like ages, but this morning it was bright, sunny and hot. We took it easy in the morning, then packed a picnic lunch and went out for a walk in the Kaibab forest directly behind the campsite. We’d been out at sunset the night before, but the girls were petrified, so we didn’t go far. We didn’t go much farther this time, but it was beautiful; the smell of the ponderosa pines, the limestone rock formations and the local lizards (I’ll let Jen post her lizard shot!).
Just as we were heading back, a storm rushed in, you could literally hear it blowing through the pine trees towards us, and then the thunder, lightning and rain started again. So the helicopter trip was off. I’m going to do it tomorrow morning instead.
We still had a “sunset jeep tour” booked for 6pm, but weren’t holding out much hope ’cause it was still overcast. We had a chilly, damp and bumpy jeep ride with Tom, the Californian, ex-surfing tour guide, giving us plenty of information about the local flora and fauna on the way.
“Eagle-eye” Jen spotted an elk deep in the woods as we drove by.
By the time we got to the canyon itself, as if by magic, the cloud cleared and we got some more glorious views of the canyon. Unfortunately there were loads of other people enjoying the views too, dammit. Tourists, eh? Jen took some fantastic panoramas and we even got to see a rainbow!
Unfortunately we need to head back into the desert tomorrow so we can get back across into California. There’s gonna be high temperatures and a lot of driving over the next few days.
Edited: July 21st, 2010
We made our first trip to the Grand Canyon proper yesterday. There’s a free bus shuttle from the campsite into the national park, and then a network of buses to various points on the south rim. We walked for a couple of miles along a paved path; it’s all very civilised, considering the fact you’re on the edge of a chasm. Every few yards there’s another view that makes you stop and ‘ahhhh’.
Needless to say it was breathtaking (although the girls were completely unimpressed!) even though the atmospherics weren’t brilliant as it was a bit hazy. There was a storm hanging around and you’re not allowed on the rim during lightning, because you tend to be a target! We were worried that after 24 hours of travelling we weren’t gonna actually be able to see the views, but in the end it held off ’til the night.
Jen’s booked a helicopter ride for my birthday tomorrow! Hopefully it won’t trigger the vertigo… I’m going to have an hour flight, then we’re all going to do a jeep tour down into the canyon. Should be fun.
Edited: July 20th, 2010
On Sunday it was time to escape the stifling heat of Vegas and get to our first stop at the Grand Canyon.
We checked out of the hotel and went to pick up the RV. After watching the intro video, signing all the forms and a few technical hitches due to the heat, we drove it away. Now I know how bus drivers feel; this thing is huge! 30 feet of gas-guzzling holiday-home behemoth.
We went straight to Walmart to get some essentials: squeezy cheese, doughnuts and a GPS, you know the sort of thing.
Then we were off to the first campsite at the Grand Canyon. We were already late and made a bit of a silly decision to take a detour round the Hoover Dam rather than go over it (I misunderstood the sign about what type of vehicles were prohibited) so it added about 50 miles and an hour to the journey. There was some pretty spectacular desert-style scenery (and a few scary bends), Jen was snapping out of the front window.
It’ll take a while to figure out what’s going to slide where when we’re on the road. Jen bought a massive 2.5 gallon container of water (economy of scale), but didn’t secure it, so the first bend we went round, it slipped off and boom! 10 litres of water swilling all over the floor! Luckily it was so hot that it seemed to pretty much evaporate after Jen mopped up the worst of it.
Eventually at 10.30pm after more than 6 hours behind the wheel we got to the Grand Canyon Camping Village. The office was closed, but Jen managed to find someone to help us and we eventually got hooked up (with the help of a friendly fellow RV’er) and crashed out. (I’ll skip the bit where I locked us out of the van, with the girls fast asleep inside. Jen had to climb in through a window that we hadn’t realised was open!)
It’s lovely to be out of the desert and among the trees and plants again.
Here’s Lily outside the RV in the campground. She’s got one of our old digital cameras, so is clicking away merrily!
Edited: July 19th, 2010
There’s really no other way to describe Vegas than bizarre. It’s been so hot that the only way you can get from one end of the strip to the other is to go from hotel to hotel… via the casino gaming floors, of course. There’s a path of carpet that everyone is allowed to walk on, but only over-21s can venture off it on to the floor proper. Very strange. Luckily the girls are young enough not to really notice the slots etc more than shouting ‘oh look, a fishy!’ or something every now and again. They haven’t said anything about the people huddled round the gaming tables playing blackjack or whatever.
There’s a big variation in the type of casino/hotel from one end of the strip to the other. At our end, the south, they’re the big, crazy, new ones, but the other end is much more run down and seedy. We made a trip to Circus Circus, which was supposed to have circus acts performing all day long, and it was pretty grim. Definitely had a touch of the Blackpools about it. The act we saw was 2 Argentinian acrobats, defying gravity with their thighs. Not really worth the slog in 40 degree heat, but it was good to see something out of our hotel complex (if they had their way you’d never leave!)
Needless to say the girls have loved the pool (or should I say, the beach, imported sand, y’know), especially the waves. They weren’t actually allowed in the main part of the pool, but there was a really nice shallow bit where the waves broke in an exciting enough way that they didn’t feel like they were missing out.
Really looking forward to seeing some trees and nature soon…
Edited: July 18th, 2010
The best thing about the Mandalay Bay has gotta be the breakfast buffet. Anybody for an 18 inch crab’s leg with their fry up?
Edited: July 18th, 2010
Well, they certainly weren’t exaggerating about the temperature. Stepped out of the terminal and got hit by a wall of heat. As Jen said: “it’s like standing in front of the world’s biggest radiator”. And this was at 8pm. In fact even the local cab driver said it was too hot. He gave us some useful advice about making sure we drink plenty of water if we decide to go for a stroll down the strip. He also told us about a couple of kid-friendly places, and the fact that Rihanna is playing at our hotel complex on Saturday night so it’ll probably be heaving.
The room’s nice, it’s on the 34th floor with “oblique views” of the statue of liberty, Eiffel tower etc. We might take a trip on the tram later to see them, after we’ve checked out the hotel pool(s) of course. We arrived right around sunset, so managed to snap a few photos out of the wall-to-ceiling window:
View from our window
The girls didn’t sleep very well at all, so nor did we. We all hit the sack about 9pm and went straight to sleep, but then they woke up at 2am, and spent the rest of the night mucking about. It was a relief to get down to breakfast at 7.
Edited: July 16th, 2010