iPad doh!

“It’s done; the RV has been returned safe and sound, without a scratch – well, none that they noticed at least. We set off from Malibu at 8.30am and I dropped Jen, the kids and the luggage at the hotel on the way, as it was only a few miles further into LA down the Pacific Coast Highway. Then I faced the LA freeway alone (apart from Serena the sat-nav) to get to the depot; there were a few missed turn-offs and illegal u-turns, but eventually I got there with 20 minutes to spare. We’d spent about the last 24 hours in the slow process of removing all traces of ourselves from the RV, so the return went without a hitch. Now all I’ve got to do is get across LA back to the family at the hotel…”

Oh, what fateful words I wrote while waiting for the shuttle bus. Little did I know I’d done something so stupid it would end up costing me over a hundred dollars and 4 hours of driving up and down the LA freeways.  

Why? Because somehow despite all our RV packing efforts, I’d managed to forget one little thing: my £700 iPad. It wasn’t until I’d been on the bus for an hour and was about to be dropped off at LAX that I spotted an iPad billboard advert. You know how it feels when you realise you’ve done something monumentally stupid? I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach like we’d just looped-the-loop.

I got on the phone (my mobile, ouch) and after 15 minutes they confirmed they’d got it. All I had to do was get back to the depot and collect it. Problem was the shuttle bus is a one-time round-trip, so I could get back there, but would then be stranded in the outskirts of LA facing a $150 taxi ride.

Luckily(?), the shuttle bus driver offered to take me himself (he was just finishing his shift) for the bargain price of $60. No idea whether it was a bargain, but I was in no mood to haggle. So after another couple of hours on the freeway (including in the Iraqi driver’s beat up car) I finally had the iPad back in my hands and got to the hotel to meet the girls. I have a feeling it’ll take a while to live this down with Jen…

Edited: August 16th, 2010

Penultimate stop: Santa Barbara

Well, our penultimate RV stop is upon us: a 3 night stay in the slightly-misleadingly named Santa Barbara RV park; it’s 18 miles out of Santa Barbara, I guess Galeto hasn’t got quite as good a ring to it. Despite that, the park itself is nice; bathrooms and a pool worthy of a hotel, and only a couple of minutes walk from El Capitan beach (more on that later). Not only is the site well appointed from the grown-ups point-of-view, it’s also got a (triumphant trumpet sound)… playground with swings! The girls are in seventh heaven: swings, pool, beach. So much to do! (We haven’t even mentioned the prospect of Disneyland to them yet, fearing excitement overload…)



So for the past couple of days, we’ve been spending a lot of time playing at the beach. It’s a nice one, with a combination of large stones and sand, and with warm(ish) sea and great waves; apparently it’s a bit of a surfers mecca at certain points in the year. Today we had a bit of a nature extravaganza too. First, while I was out splashing in the waves, I noticed a seal popping its head out of the water about 30ft away from me! Luckily Jen spotted it too from the shore, otherwise I’d have no doubt been accused of a ‘the one that got away’ style exaggeration. Then a bit later, Jen spotted a pod of dolphins frolicking just offshore. We’d seen them yesterday too, but they were much closer and gave us a good show, jumping out of the water just long enough for Jen to snap them. Result!

There are also loads of Sand crabs on the beach too. I’d never heard of them (have you?) but a guy just wondered up to us (as people have been doing quite often on this holiday) and said “have you seen the sand crabs?” He showed us that all of the little dimples in the sand as the surf went out were in fact little burrowing crabs, and that you could dig your hand (or a spade, if you’re crab-phobic like me) into the sand and scoop ‘em out. Not particularly attractive little critters, but the fascination/horror kept Lily going for hours.


Tomorrow is the last RV stop: Malibu Beach. We’ll see if it’s as glamorous as it sounds. Early the next morning we give the RV back, then it’s (cough) slumming it in the Loews Hotel for a few days. While I’m looking forward to not being in charge of an oversized vehicle any more, it’s sad that it’s the beginning of the end of the holiday.

Edited: August 14th, 2010

RV site: down hill, round corner

On the way down the coast the night before last we made a quick overnight stop at the Carmel-by-the-river RV site. Oh. My. God. What a ridiculous place to put an RV site. Before I begin, bear in mind that it’s going to have vehicles the size of coaches coming in and out, day-in and day-out. To begin with it’s down a tiny, single-track road, where you have to get over an army-style bridge (made of metal, 5 mph speed limit, just wider than the RV) to get to it. Then, once you reach the entrance, you have to go down a 100 ft steep hill, with a tight corner at the end! Bizarre. Then to top it all, the sites are so close together that it took a 27-point turn and the help of neighbours (whose truck I was within a couple of inches of hitting) to finally get parked. I needed a bottle of Modelo after that, I can tell you. On the way out the next morning we came upon an RV so big that “it couldn’t reverse” trying to get in, meaning that the 3 vans trying to get out had to reverse up various side roads in order to let it past. Luckily Jen was on hand with her military-style direction to sort things out. Phew.

Edited: August 10th, 2010

Fishy – Monterey Bay

While Jen was off dipsy-diving, the girls and I headed to Monterey Bay’s famous aquarium. We dropped her off at the beach, watched for a while as she squeezed herself into a wetsuit, then parked up the RV (across 2 spaces of course) and queued up. As it was a Saturday morning it was absolutely heaving, but the line moved quickly. Inside it made it difficult to get a lot of quality time with the exhibits, but the girls didn’t seem to mind too much. It’s a very kid-friendly place, feeling a bit like a playground with fish at some points, but we easily whiled away 4 hours gawping and playing.

The aquarium is based in the Cannery, the old sardine and tuna canning district. It’s one of those odd places where one industry has become obsolete and been completely replaced with tourism; only the buildings remain. But the transformation isn’t quite as complete as in some places in London (like the various old docks), so it still has quite a run-down feel. I’m sure that’s not helped by the recession, which according to Jen’s chat with her dive instructor has hit the area (and the dive industry specifically) pretty hard.

Quite strange: it feels like we’re getting near the end of the holiday now… eurgh! There are only 7 more nights until we give the RV back. I’ll miss the old girl, but not having to do 27-point turns to get into sites like tonight. Thank goodness for helpful neighbours.

Edited: August 8th, 2010

Middle class, middle-aged heaven

Next stop: Napa, the wine region. Calistoga to be precise. We couldn’t get through to the RV site to make a reservation, so just turned up hoping for the best. Unfortunately our visit coincided with a big dirt-bike race, and those dirt-bikers love their RVs; no room at the inn. Luckily, the guy who broke the news helpfully told us that if we could “dry camp” (survive without water, sewer hookups) for the night, we could borrow a corner of the field. And if we left earlyish in the morning, we might not even have to pay. Result!

It turned out to be a nice spot, next to a garden with loads of sunflowers, and the next morning we took off early for breakfast in Calistoga without paying a cent. We stopped off at a small farmers market to spend our money on cucumbers and strawberries instead.

I wasn’t really into the whole Napa thing, it really seemed like a middle class, middle aged wine theme-park. We didn’t actually venture into any of the many wineries, apart from Hall that Jen wanted to visit to check on the progress of their Frank Gehry installation. Turned out it was cancelled, so rather than spend $40 on a bottle of wine to be polite, we just went down the street to fancy pants supermarket Dean & Deluca (which Jen had spotted on the way in) and then set off for Point Reyes.

Edited: August 5th, 2010

Hot Rock Slog

It seems like a long time ago now, but back on the 23rd July, we were on our way to Mammoth Lakes, and Jen decided we should stop off in Lone Pine.

What’s in Lone Pine? In a word: Rocks. In two words: Movie rocks. Apparently many classic westerns were filmed against its backdrop of odd-shaped rocks framing views of distant Mount Whitney. Of course, neither Jen nor I (or Lily or Jasmine, as far as I know) had ever seen any of these movies, but who am I to argue with Jen. It seemed like a good way to break up the journey.

Unfortunately we arrived there about midday. The air-con in the RV had been playing up, so the girls in the back were already a bit hot and bothered. Also, I freaked out about driving the RV across the unpaved (and sandy!) desert track, so stopped about half a mile short of our actual destination. All this meant that we had to walk a mile in the baking sun to reach the rocks, and, given how much Jasmine likes the heat, I had to carry her on my shoulders too. What a sight: a family of four sweating their way across the desert at midday cowering under an umbrella and a cloud of sun-lotion.

When we got there the rocks were quite impressive, although I’m not sure Jasmine agreed.

Edited: August 3rd, 2010

Back on the road (again)

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.

We decided to do another Route 66 location: Barstow. After a bit of hasty Googling (did I say how well planned this trip is?) we settled on “The Mother Road Museum” as a good spot to spend an hour or so. What Google didn’t tell us is that it’s only open at the weekend. Luckily, Barstow itself was interesting – it had loads of the typical old 60′s style motel signs that I recognised – and there happened to be some sort of rail graveyard next door to the closed museum.


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.

Heavy Drinker

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.

Random picture

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

Escape to the Grand Canyon

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