Viva Las Vegas Baby!

So heading to the bright lights through the desert is an interesting place to be. We stopped for "gas" on the way in, which we later realised was where "The Hangover" chaps stopped too.


I (Katy) was driving, so hitting Vegas was an eye opener indeed, as we’ve had the roads to ourselves for 100’s of miles and all of a sudden I’m on a 5-lane freeway with people coming at me from everywhere.
Most people are tourists in hire cars reading maps or looking at the buildings and only occasionally looking at the road, or they are chauffeurs from the big casinos. So thankfully for the GPS, we found our hotel, the Station Palace.


We walked through the lobby with our bags to check in, positively chilly after swapping the sweltering heat outside for the air conditioned casino and passing hundreds of slot machines with twinkly lights and pingy pongee noises, with the odd person slumped over feeding them with quarters with no winning going on from what we could see. Once we booked in we headed up to our room, which was massive with A/C and a view of the “strip”. We moved in, checked out the gym and the pool for later. We then went to walk to the strip, but after asking the concierge where to go he informed us that, “nobody walk to the strip”, mainly as there are no sidewalks from our hotel. Thankfully there was a courtesy bus.
Dropped off at one end of the strip we we’re taken aback by the heat, so hot and for those of you who have never been to Vegas it is impossible to walk in a straight line without being filtered through casinos after casino, which thankfully all have excellent A/C and some great people watching.

Now when in Vegas you have to take in a show and looking through our handy booklet that was in our room in the hotel we saw that the legend who is Mr Tom Jones was playing at the MGM Grand,
so we zig zagged our way to the other end of the strip to see if we could get tickets for the following night, as he was only playing for one week, thankfully they had tickets for us, so blowing our budget we bought 2 tickets, and with smiles on our faces we headed back down the strip taking in the Bellagio fountains, (just like in Oceans 11) the New York, New York roller Coaster and all the lights. At this end of the strip there are also many people asking if we wanted “ladies, ladies, ladies?!” “No, we’re good thank you”. We stopped at a great place, Serendipity (which is part of Caesar’s Palace Casino) for the most amazing burger,
great decor and people watching. The waiter also gave us a taster of the house special - frozen hot chocolate… delicious. Zig Zagging back, we hopped back on our bus, back to our hotel, by this time the casino down stairs was slightly more busy, what we did notice while cruising the casinos’ is that depending on where you go along the strip, you have younger and more attractive waitresses, who are there to entice you to gamble more money, so take the Bellagio, there waitress there are pretty, young and slim, our waitresses in the Station Palace we’re more, how can I put it, “used!” maybe they started on the main strip and ended up out at the Station Palace, and what was worst for them the uniform was mustard & beige and always two sizes too small. Honestly, that’s not going to look good on any one no matter what age you are. A great night’s sleep in a massive bed, which was bigger than Jezza, I got up early and headed for the gym, nice to be inside with A/C and some weights.

I met Tim later in the restaurant for our complimentary breakfast. The restaurant was a buffet style place where you can find anything you want to eat as the casino never sleeps and they cater for everyone’s body clock. I had fruit and cereal, Tim went for the big full breakfast, the man next to us was having a roast dinner, (it was 9am!) I mentioned to Tim as a joke that there was lemon meringue pie, and before I knew it he had gone and got himself a slice for breakfast…..although he didn’t eat it all, all I could hear through the mouthfuls was “I Love Vegas!” happy boy indeed.

Later, we headed back on the bus onto the strip to see all the casinos we had seen or heard about in books and movies, so much fun. We saw the embarrassed people going on the Gondolas in the Venetians while the gondolier sings at them in a shopping mall inside the casino… very loudly.
While being surrounded by a perfect blue sky with fluffy clouds painted on the ceilings. Then we went onto Caesars Palace to have a look, past Treasure Island and a huge boat which has wailing Sirens on the hour, in the evening, as you do! Headed back to the hotel I went and lay by the pool while Tim hit the black jack table, to win big! Although he didn’t win big, he didn’t lose big either, $7 in all, which won’t bankrupt us, well not just yet.

A quick change and back on the bus heading to see Mr Jones, so excited, especially as we had talked about seeing Barry Manilow, which although neither of us are fans, he does put on quite a show apparently, so we go to the MGM Grand, just missing the lions (they had been put away for the night), which was a shame. We went to grab a bite to eat, Tim was very adamant that Tom wouldn’t be on at 7.30pm, there was bound to be a warm up act, but I was nervous so popped over to the venue where people we already going in I asked the man on the door, if there was a warm up act, he replied no Maam, Mr Jones comes on at 7.30pm…….rushing back to where I had left Tim our food had arrived, I managed to get the waiter to bring our bill and put half of my sandwich in a box “to go” we headed over to the show, leaving my sandwich with the doorman (nice chap!) and ventured into to see the legend that is TOM JONES.


When we got into the show it was such a small area, Tom was in touching distance… nearly. We had a lovely Dutch couple next to us who we’re celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary, they had had their courtship to Tom Jones music, ah bless. Tom came on and I got goose pimples, what a performer, what a voice…….well worth blowing the budget for the tickets, I tried to take a photo on the sly but unfortunately it didn’t really work, but we have the memories. After the show I picked up my sandwich, and we headed back down the strip, “ladies, ladies ladies?!” “No thank you!” we wandered to the Bellagio just in time for the musical fountains very cool indeed (this time Elvis - Viva Las Vegas).


Heading back for the bus, we took a short-cut through the fashion “mall “ which is huge – someone kindly gent held the door open for us. It was quite late and the mall was strangely deserted. It wasn’t until we we’re in the heart of it that we realized the man who had held the door open was actually leaving for the night and we we’re now trapped inside! Honestly, the security guards would have had such a laugh as we tried all the doors, thankfully after some manic rushing around we found an emergency exit; it opened, we legged it! And just in time for the bus.

Vegas? Check! A bizzarely wonderful place which we thought we would hate but ended up loving it!

On our last morning we raided the breakfast bar, filling our bag full of pastries and fruit to fuel us as we headed to yet another natural wonder of the world, Bryce Canyon.

Suits you Sur!

Leaving Yosemite we we’re excited to be heading to the coast (err, yes, back to the coast)! In true Travelling Marsh’s fashion we headed to Santa Cruz on a whim hoping to find a cheap campsite. Actually, any camp site would have been nice but after searching for somewhere to stay for a couple of hours and having no luck (all being full), we headed into the town-centre to a hostel; very nice but also full, but they did give us the number of a lovely B&B. Getting desperate and definitely tired we took a look. This one was going to blow the budget big time: a proper four- poster bed and the promise of a good breakfast! Our most expensive stop-over of the trip so far.
So after checking in and changing into some warm clothes (it gets chilly on the coast don’t you know?), we headed to the sea front which was only a block away; walked on the beach watching the harbour seals play and grabbed a pizza before heading to the “arcade” (much like Brighton but without the pier) where we watched a couple of very sweaty young men jumping around on the dance-mat game. Comedy gold. We exited along the boardwalk, where – after deciding not to steal Poncherello’s bike (ask your parents) - we found a band playing on a nearby stage…hang on – I recognize that song!
It was the Flock of Seagulls; famous from the early ‘80s but still rocking Santa Cruz. We stayed for a couple of tunes but being desperately tired and with the thought of a very inviting four-poster we headed back to starfish!
I woke up early for a run - one of my favorites so far - the early morning was drizzly and there was a triathlon about to begin in the sea (very jealous), lots of men in wet suits. I ran along the sea front for quite some time, passing a man playing the saxophone to the sea. I got back to the B&B in time for breakfast and it was delicious, lots of fruits for me and meat & egg stuff for Tim. The owners were Mexcian and we had a lovely chat (I think they were pleased that Tim poured on lots of their hot chilli sauce onto his eggs).
We packed our things and left for our Big Sur adventure. This one had been on the map in our lounge in Ruislip as a must (reinforced by many people we’d met along the way), so we were very excited indeed as we started the drive along the winding coastal roads, with the most amazing views of the sea around every corner. With a strict ‘no overnight parking’ policy along the coastal road, we hunted for campsites only to find most of them full again; we found one site with one available space for the bargain price of $55 (west coast = expensive!!).It was nice but not THAT nice! The following morning we got up early and headed along the Big Sur some more towards a State Park site to make sure we had a place for the night, all booked-in we could explore more. Driving along, we passed a car-park with a large number of people walking around; thinking it might be something interesting (and hoping it was free) we turned around to take a look. What we found was huge, noisy and a tad smelly… it was the Elephant Seal beach. Very vocal beasts indeed, but quite magnificent to see.
Up early the next morning I ran through woods that then went onto the beach, brilliant! Back to the van and Tim, we went into Cambria which is the only place we could get internet connection, and breakfast, so all fuelled up on tea and coffee and lovely muffins we went along to www.hearstcastle.com, which the lonely planet and Mrs Askew-Miller had highly recommended (thanks Em).
Sunshine had been a bit hit and miss along the coast but today skies were very blue and sun very hot and we were greeted by a magnificent building with the most beautiful pool and décor, obviously we came away wanting to build our own place when we get back - watch this space on that one!
From here we continued and soon arrived at 17mile drive, which is – unsurprisingly - 17 miles of winding roads that takes you into Pebble Beach Golf Course and into Carmel, (one time home to Clint Eastwood).
Pebble beach golf course was very neat as you might expect, with some difficult looking holes (eg, on top of giant rock formations by the sea). We went up to the club, to have a look around (and use the loo), pretty impressive; we think there was someone very famous there but Tim & I didn’t have a clue who it was as everyone seemed to be dressed the same, ie, lots of pastels and beige.

That was our first taste of West Coast life and very nice it was too. From hereon we started to head back inland again with the general plan of getting Vegas and the canyons beyond. Heading away from our 17 mile drive we got back onto the Big Sur and carried on along to our next site for the night, another KOA campsite, this time arriving very late, in the dark with nowhere for us to actually stay as the site we had booked was down a steep path to a campsite area, there was no where we could Jeremy down there so we ended up camping out in the car park. Being joined by a British family (now resident in Portland, Oregon), who had problems of their own; one of their kids tripped over a rock, hit their head on a water tap and sliced his head open. He was OK after some steri-strips and it provided some welcome entertainment for us.
The following day saw me doing some much needed laundry whilst Tim went hunting for our first major investment for the van – a new tyre. He’d started to wobble quite a lot (the van, not Tim) when we drive along as the heat had got to his winter tyres. Quite some time later (despite being in North America, no one in the tire-stores (sic) spoke English, only Spanish), Tim arrived back with Jezza and a new tyre… $70 out of pocket (ouch) but a much smoother ride.
More straight-road driving: zzzzzz. Another overnight in another KOA but this one had plenty of space for us and a pool, which was much needed as we were now on the edge of the Mojave Desert. With bizzarely good wifi, we booked a hotel in Vegas online for the following nights. I got up early for my hottest run so far, being warned of the rattle snakes and the scorpions I laced up my trainers and went in a straight line for miles and then back again. Hot but fun, a breakfast of free coffee for Tim, then on our way to the bright lights of Vegas…..once again thanking Jezza for AC.

Yosemite National Park

03-06 August 2010

As we were on the west coast, leaving San Francisco what would make more sense than carrying on down the coast? Heading back inland from where we’ve just come obviously. It was this thinking that found us heading the 175 miles to Yosemite National Park.


After the long motorway slog out of San Francisco, city gave way to town and finally to countryside as we started to hit the winding, climbing roads toward the mountains surrounding Yosemite. It was a gorgeously sunny day but not too hot which was a relief as we passed the signs telling us to turn-off our a/c to avoid it boiling over at altitude.

After spending the night in a cheap (but lovely and secluded) campsite on the outskirts we headed into Yosemite itself using our Inter-Park cards which had turned out to be a good investment saving us loads of money in entrance fees. We’ve seen so many beautiful places on our little jaunt that its easy to become jaded but this was yet another truly beautiful place: tall trees, massive mountains, wonderful waterfalls.

Similar to Yellowstone, Yosemite has a main loop road with long stretches of one way roads and other roads linking between. From here you can get to most points of interest and it works pretty well once you know where you’re going. The village centre though always seemed busy and it was here that we stated our search for somewhere to stay. The search didn’t take long; unfortunately this was because we were told straight off that we should’ve booked six months earlier and everywhere inside the park was full (six months earlier we weren’t even sure which continent we’d be in at this stage).

The one campsite that might have space was a forty minute drive up and over a different mountain but as it appeared to be our only ‘choice’ we headed up, only slight hindered by the obligatory road-works along the majority of the route. We eventually trundled up to the campsite entrance to find a ‘Full’ sign at the entrance; however being knowledgeable campers we ploughed on regardless which was a good move because they did have a few spaces but had forgotten to take down the sign. With great relief we picked the most secluded spot we could find (which was not very).

Back into Yosemite, we headed to the village centre. Busy, busy, busy. Got some ideas of where to go and what to do in the short time we had. Grabbed a spot of lunch (horrendously expensive place for our meager budget - I recommend the bowl of chilli for the cost conscious… free bread!). Afterward we walked to the nearby waterfalls. As we checked out the falls, some kid checked out Katy (the camera never lies).


But the camera does deceive… just out of shot there were over a hundred people at the bottom of our waterfall, climbing over rocks or paddling in the water (which was still freezing cold despite the baking hot sun). Too many people for us, so we documented the area and left. Back to the centre, we found an information booth and chatted with a volunteer lady who gave us some good advice / routes for walking; she was in her 70s (guess) but assured us she still did these walks every year so we figured how hard could it be? Her suggested route combined with an early start would mean missing or being shielded from the worst of the midday sun. But as it was by now late afternoon we headed back to camp, stopping off at a viewpoint for El Capitan, a landmark rock-face in Yosemite (I think I’m right in saying it is the home of rock climbing in America). Back at base, Katy cooked one of her legendary chicken risottos, made only slightly more tricky by having to constantly stir over a blisteringly hot and smoking barbeque. But at least we managed to cook and eat before nightfall (its so much more pleasant when you don’t have to eat by torch-light).

Up bright and breezy the next morning, we were at the start of the Glacier Point trail by 7:00am, so had the place almost to ourselves. Fresh breeze but bright blue skies suggesting it was going to be another scorcher. Flip flops off, walking boots on. Pleasant stroll became serious walk as we climbed the side of the mountain but we were rewarded by increasingly magnificent views. Several hundred feet more of vertical climb and we reached the top by mid-morning and joined up with the hordes of sensible people of who chose to arrive by bus.


With a sweltering sun but only a third of the way through we ploughed on (buoyed by the knowledge that the hardest climb was over). Dusty, root covered pathways led downhill to Nymph Falls; a beautiful setting with crystal clear but freezing cold water torrenting through the valley. We ate lunch on a flat rock dangling our feet in an eddy. Some French people arrived, we left. From here on my Achilles heel started to become increasingly painful and the serious walk became a painful hobble back uphill again… for seven miles. The one thing that kept me going was passing other people who I know had further to go than me in the opposite direction.

But we finally made it and caught the bus back to the village. Thirteen miles is quite a walk in its own right but when you include a couple of mountains it seems so much more. I would be asking for sympathy if Katy wasn’t as fresh as a daisy by the end of it (but she was so I’m not). And I kept on thinking to myself that the lady who advised us to do the walk would never have survived this. Would she? Still glad we it though; the views were amazing and I think we saw the best of the valley in the short time we had.

And that was pretty much the end of our time in Yosemite; you could easily stay for weeks discovering its many delights but we were forced to leave due to lack of camping space (ours being commandeered by a ranger). Right, I’m off to have a word with that volunteer…

San Fran-bloody tastic

Up early but already a hot day so we headed for one last dip in the pool before hitting the road again. This was the final leg of our journey toward San Francisco and we were excited to meet up with Jus, Lee, Jack and Katelyn and Seren (the dog).
To celebrate, we stopped in Sacramento for breakfast. On advice from the web we chose the Fox & Goose. You might think that sounds like the name of a British Pub – you’d be right. But reviews were all good so we entered. What we found was a fairly good attempt at a brit themed pub but maybe a bit too… British. But the reviews were accurate and the food lovely. One of us had bacon and eggs, the other fruit and yoghurt and stuff (I’ll let you guess which was which).
By now we were fairly accustomed with travelling long distances so the last 100 miles were easily covered in our wonder-van. The few miles to our new home were slightly trickier as the sat-nav and I entered into a heated debate about who exactly was right… it turns out he actually had a fairly good idea of where he was going but just didn’t explain himself very well.
Never mind, we eventually arrived at the Sheridan household and it was so lovely to see Jus and the young ones (Lee still working). We had so much to catch up with, home life, our travels, Jus’ life as a mother of 2, last time we saw her she was a new mother of 1, and now there is little Katelin, who took an instant love to myself, she’s only human after all.
It was so very lovely to feel settled instantly, just fitting into whatever was going on. Jus had lots of books and maps which made our planning easier. We’d decided to venture in San Francisco town the following day. Lee arrived home that evening and we decided an Indian take away was in order, something we hadn’t had since leaving Ruislip, and we miss those Indian meals……uuummmm India food….sorry you lost me there, so yes had a lovely evening eating and drinking. Jus & Lee had put us upstairs in the penthouse area of the house, as we would be furthest away from the little people and they have a very comfy sofa bed, quite frankly being able to stand up to go to bed was a novelty after Jeremy sleeping, not a lot of standing room in there. A good night sleep, Katy got up and headed out for her run with her GPS, an hour or so later a sweaty hot Katy arrived back, saying it was hot out and hilly, and looking slightly crazed.
After breakfast Jus dropped us off at the BART (the train) telling us it would be chilly in San Fran and to make sure we had enough layers on, so our first BART journey was fun, some great people watching, our favorite was a blind lady who had what can only be called a voodoo hat on, with dead stuff and feathers etc but no dog, ok maybe she was partially sighted but you’d know if you’d put a dead thing on your head, so we came to the conclusion she was just extravagant in her millinery choice!
When we got our stop off we got and Oh My God! It was so cold, what were we thinking wearing shorts for crying out loud. The sky was grey and it was blowing a gale, who’d of thought that in only a few miles the weather can change so rapidly, well Jus that’s who. So we marched down to the waterfront to book our trip to Alcatraz, as tourists it is our duty to do as many touristy things we can, so rocking up at the counter to book we we’re informed that the next boat was on Wednesday, not too bad until he told us it was the 3rd Wednesday in August, now at the time it was still July, so alas Alcatraz will have to wait until next time. We could see the famous prison, the rock; as they call it, and that’s as far as we’re gonna get, it does look quite impressive. Carrying on along the water front we saw some great sights a tour a San Fran water front on Segways, which looked very dorky and not cool, no matter what the literature says! We went down to pier 39 where we saw lots of harbor seals just hanging out on the deck, a very funny sight to see, and a tad stinky too. By now we are both somewhat freezing and track down a nice little Italian place and had something hot to eat while we walked the streets of San Francisco, I must say all that up and down keeps you warm, it was just like being in a movie, we kept expecting a car chase to come flying over one of the roads, but alas just the odd tram, which also looked very cool, if packed full of tourists, (we didn’t get onboard looked far too much like the central line at rush hour! ) So after a chilly day we headed back to Pleasant Hill, and the Sheridan’s. Jus came and picked us up, and it was once again really hot. Next time we go in it’s going to be long trousers and layers.
Now our time with the family Sheridan was an education for both of us, it meant we got to hang out with little people most of the day, and you know they’re hard work and a tad needy, but quite fun at times too. Jack is trying to talk but would mainly say,” hoy diddly toy toy toy!” and Katelin is eager to move on her own accord but just now she’s more of a watcher than a player. Jus is a great mum, seeing her juggle children, husband, dog and guests was an eye opener. We tried to help out as much as we could, I put on my chef hat and started baking bread, much to everyone’s delight as the bread in the US isn’t great. The recipe has been give to Jus who probably just needs the time to be able to actually get round to make it. Katy tried to have conversations with Jack but neither of them were getting anywhere……
So we ventured into to San Fran again this time to hire bikes and bike over the Golden Gate Bridge, this time long trousers and layers, ready for the San Fran weather to be greeted with blazing sunshine when we exited the BART, ho hum, so an up and down hike to the bike shop, the one Maurice had put on our hand drawn map from Courtney, Blazing Saddles it is, we got our bikes, not quite the Moab mountain bikes but they did have a handy bag on the front for our stuff. Off we went on a lovely bike ride, and only a few up hills, along the water front passing the Rock and Wind Surf competition going on, very cool. Then onto the bridge passing the lovely lady who wanted to pray for me, I said I was fine and really didn’t need a prayer, Katy came along and got the same invitation with the come back, “no thanks, I’ve just put one out” and peddled away. So over the bridge we go, and it’s a windy bridge but a great view of the city. On the other side we treated ourselves to an ice-cream, we’d just missed the very full ferry on that hour so would have to hang around for another hour. Not so bad, good view, nice weather and ice-cream, happy man :) Dropped the bikes back and got on the BART back to “home”. Our culinary time in the US of A had been varied, Katy trying to get us eating healthy but there are so many good foods here, and Lee took it on himself to show me best of the fast food franchises and pizza places, what could I do I was a guest in his house, it would have been rude to turn him down, so now I have the knowledge that Jack in the Box makes great Oreo Milk shakes (Carls Junior apparently have the best burgers but haven’t got there yet), i’m sitting on the fence when it comes to Pizza’s, Lee’s favourite, Round Table was an experience and a good pizza but nothing to write home about, (although I am!!) Lee has introduced us to Tritip and Carne Asada both a meaty feast, and very delicious, thanks Mr Sheridan.
It was also about this time that we experienced another first: I happened to mention to Lee that our to-do list included going to a drive-in movie and he pointed out that there was a pretty good one just a few miles down the road (though his actual words were “It used to be pretty rough but I think its OK now – let me know how it goes”). So as early evening approached we headed down to what is essentially a big car park and waited…We had decided that as a realexperience we had to experince the food, Katy was hoping for a salad or something not "beige" what she actually got was a pretzel while I had a Polish Hotdog with the works and we got a bucket of popcorn, ready to go. Although already filling up, we found a perfect spot right in front of the screen. Once it got sufficiently dark the first movie started and we tuned in the stereo in the van to the FM signal… instant movie (though not quite THX surround sound)! First movie of the night was Despicable Me after which several car full of young ones left, this was followed by Inception, so not a bad couple of films for our first drive-in. As they didn’t start until gone 9:00pm, we didn’t make it back ‘home’ until around 2:00am… good job we’ve got nothing else to do the next day, eh?! Less fortunate were those many drivers who had flattened their batteries during the performance and ended-up running around asking fellow movie goers for jump-leads. We fired up the rocket and rolled out of there feeling ever-so-slightly smug.
We thought we’d only be staying for a couple of days but ended up staying for 2 weeks and it was so hard to leave, but the time we had with the family was so lovely, just nice to be settled for a while. We had our last weekend up in Chico,which is 157 miles away from Pleasant Hill, it's a lovely town, full of college kids, and river running through it, we stayed in the family house, a big house, ideal for small people to run around, although it was even hotter up there than in Pleasant Hill. I was helping Lee do some work on another property he has, mainly demolishing a kitchen and bathroom (when I say ‘help’ I actually mean that I watched as various items were sledge-hammered into submission). Katy found the park and was off running early before the heat hit, luckily it was very shaded with trees apparently! The first morning we went to the lovely farmers market, where I got breakfast burrito and Jus got a back massage, Katy hung out with Jack and the weirdest thing we saw the strange "blind" lady with another crazy hat, small world or what?!? Katy & Jus later went off to find a sausage shop that Mr Jerem had found online, and a big thank you as they were indeed a fabulous sausage. The following day we went out for breakfast at a lovely place called Moms, where we had a huge meal good to see us through the day.(as you can tell food is very important to our trip at this point)
On our way back we headed into an adventure sport shop where Lee and I eyed up a pair of leather flip flops, Jus agreed they are the best ones as she had had a pair for years, well until Seren ate one, (bad dog!) later we went back and did a deal with the chap and got us each a pair, thanks again Lee, I owe you for those, invite to Ruislip is still open for you :)
Also you may or may not have noticed that through this trip so far may have let the hair go as it were, just seeing how long it would get before I looked too much like an 80’s rocker and the time had come when my fringe was sticking to my forehead in the heat and it was getting very hot around the collar literally! So I was taken to what can only be the best barbers ever. Both Jack and I went for a cut, Lee and Katy came along as support for both of us, Jus got to have some quite time with the little lady and the dog. Now this place is awesome as you go in they have bar where you can get good glass of chilled beer, and then you get sat down chatted too, and scalped. Jack was a star, just for the record he wasn’t drinking, the nice lady Sierra, asked what I wanted I tried to explain that it had been awhile and it needed a good hack and off she went, clippers in hand and a big comb and I was transformed into what Katy called a new husband :)
oh the delight of not having hair on your neck or forehead, and a cold beer, I was one happy man, now only one lady wasn’t so pleased and that was Katelin it took her a while to figure out who I was again, but with smiles and charm she came round, like I said only human!
And then it was time to move on again; too many things to see and do. After some last minute laundry and a teary farewell we loaded up the van and left for pastures new… Thank you The Sheridans for making us feel so at home and looking after us so well - we miss you all!

Salt Lake city and then some............

This part of our journey consisted of driving many miles in blistering temperatures. It was hot, so we’d wind down the windows; even hotter air would blow in so we’d close them again and so on. We tortured ourselves like this for a while by avoiding using the air conditioning for the sake of fuel efficiency. Then we decided fuel efficiency could take a running jump and pressed the button marked ‘AC’ (which I think stands for ‘Ahhhhh cool’).
Talking to people beforehand, many had questioned our reasoning for going to Salt Lake City (SLC). In their words ‘Why bother?’ but it is one of those USA landmarks that had to be ticked off the list. The journey from fairly featureless desert drifted into suburban sprawl, through to huge shopping malls and yes, we’re in Provo, Utah. Stop for lunch, get lost, argue, find supermarket, sulk, get food, eat food, reconcile, keep on driving.

Not too much later we reached SLC, by now tired and in the late afternoon sun we headed for our new home, a KOA campground. By now we’ve stayed at quite a few campgrounds, several of them KOAs (Kampgrounds of America, I think). They are a bit like KFC: they’re everywhere, they’re a known quantity and they’re a bit better than MacDonalds! Unlike KFC they are also invariably close to railroad crossings where the train drivers delight in honking their train-horns. Anyway, they have showers and a pool and they’re cheaper than staying in a hostel.
By now we were also getting used to the strange looks from people with their massive RVs. The one in the photo was home for just two people… the car they’re towing is as big as Jeremy! We don’t care… Jezza does us just fine :o)
The following day we ventured in to SLC itself; taking advantage of the free shuttle bus from the campsite. Only as we were about to board did we realize it was operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints… yes, the Mormons! The place had seemed quite normal up until this point but as we sat in the bus and listened to the well honed patter coming from the old lady all I could think in my head was ‘CULT, CULT, CULT!!!’. It took all of my will-power and self-restraint to keep from making any comments (it was too far to walk!). The good mannered agreement for the free bus was to agree to tithe 10% of my earnings to the church… oh no, hang-on, that comes later. For now, all we had to agree to was a guided tour around the mormon tabernacle and associated church buildings… as we were going to do that anyway, we agreed – it seemed like a no-brainer (also an apt description for a mormon from what I could tell).
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not particularly religious but I have no problem with those who are. But the two young women that met us at the drop-off point were like puppets – no, cyborgs (but without the cool electronics and lights)! They didn’t seem to be able to have an independent opinion and to me it seemed like a classic case of brainwashing, but each to their own. I asked them if they had converted from any other sort of religion but they said that they had been brought up Mormon their whole life. Ahh, I see. Nice buildings though.
Anyway, we toured the grounds whilst they provided the historical backstory. Everything was pristine and oozed friendliness; we ooh’d and ahh’d in all the right places but all we could think about was the bit about Mormons in Dave Gormans book, Unchained America. We finally got to see the Tabernacle which was good but a bit underwhelming (maybe it had been a bit too hyped). They finally got around to asking us whether we would be interested in joining their flock (my words). I said that I found the whole thing a bit far-fetched and unless they had any actual evidence my answer would have to be ‘no’. So they walked us to the exit (I couldn’t even see the wires) and we went to hit the City.
‘I think the City is closed’. It had all the normal glass and concrete buildings, even the occasional café… but no LIFE! We figured we were just on the edge of town so wandered a few more deserted streets… ah, a policeman, we’ll ask him! Alas, it turned out we were indeed in the town centre and this was a fairly typical day. I now started to understand peoples point of view. Boise, Idaho was quiet but it was clean, tidy and pretty… this place was just quiet and dull. Quite possibly the most disappointing city of the journey so far :-/

So we didn’t bother wasting any more time in SLC and started heading west again. As we left the city we found the actual salt lake, on the way passing the Bonneville Salt Flats and a place called Wendover which was as far from the UK version as its possible to be – very flat, very hot, very deserty.

Anyway, as we approached the Salt Lake shoreline we had plans of donning our trunks and floating in the lake. This planned changed as we parked-up in the dusty, hot, dry, windswept car-park. ‘We’ll just go and dip our toes’. This plan changed after we’d walked the half mile of crusty shoreline to the water’s edge… as we walked closer to the water, vast swarms of flies buzzed around our ankles – not biting or stinging, just very annoying… we didn’t stay long!
So, back on the road, we ploughed on past the scrubland and tumbleweed for as long as we could before the heat wore us down. This point occurred just outside a place called Winnemucca, a place you’ve probably never heard of and never will again. There is nothing particularly good to say about Winnemucca, but it is the kind of non-descript small town that I wanted so see. Now I’ve seen it, I don’t need to see another! All you need to know is that it had a campground and a pool – which has become a basic requirement in these parts. After a quick dip we hunted for food. The BEST we could find was Pizza Hut. The floors weren’t particularly clean, and it took us a while to figure out why the seats were so far away from the table, (it’s because people in these parts are on the LARGE size!) but the pizza was massive and cost just $10; enough for both of us with enough left over for lunch the following day… we’re starting to get the hang of this living on a budget thing!
Winnemucca was just a stop-over so the following day we continued our journey. We were eager to get San Francisco to see Justine & Lee. We’d planned to stop in Reno next as its another one of ‘those places’ you hear about but once we reached it and found casinos, other bland buildings and not much else we decided to drive straight on through. This turned out to be a good move because instead we ended up somewhere else we didn’t plan to be: Lake Tahoe.
We already knew of Tahoe as a snowboarding destination but as we entered the valley via winding mountain roads we reached the valley floor to find more picture perfect scenery: high cliffs, trees everywhere and a lovely flowing river. Actually, what was flowing was more rafts and inner tubes than I’ve ever seen in one place before. At one stage there was gridlock.
We found a nice spot by the edge of the lake and had lunch: the remains of the previous night’s pizza. Luckily the van’s engine casing is big, flat and runs fairly hot… a perfect hotplate! We put the pizza on, went for a stroll by the lake and when we got back, lunch was ready!
After lunch, more driving.
Getting tantalizingly close to San Fran now but not quite close enough. So we found a campsite in Placerville. This was a real diamond in the rough… not far from the freeway but it was still quiet and this time no railroad. The place was pretty quiet, we found a lovely shady spot for Jeremy then headed for the pool; the nicest one so far and we had it all to ourselves. So we stayed in until we got pruny then headed to the camp kitchen which is sooo much nicer than trying to cook on our dinky little bbq. The rest of the kitchen was being used by a big family which seemed to have convened from several different states so we had fun listening to them talk, laugh, bitch about non-present relatives and finally bicker (in that order).
I won’t lie to you, this part of the trip was fairly uneventful, but San Francisco is just around the corner!