thewills'wanderings

href=’http://blogs.bootsnall.com/adventure/files/2009/10/pa270348.JPG’ title=’pa270348.JPG’><a <a

We spent a night in LA at an airport hotel before picking up our camper the next day. We were so excited to see how BIG it was. It even has a pop-out side that makes it even bigger when you’re not driving. We left LA and headed for the nearest campground we could find which is at Malibu Beach. This was our first introduction to the RV parks here which are full of absolutely huge RV’s. We spent an hour or so getting stocked up on food at the supermarket. Everything is just so BIG here! It’s hard to find anything in a small bottle. You buy milk and juice by the gallon and you can buy every kind of pre-packaged food you can think of. It’s quite disgusting really but very easy to shop. We’re surprised how cheap it is to shop here, especially with the exchange rate being really good for us right now. A gallon of milk(3.88litres) is $NZ1.74! With the girls being such milk drinkers, they are in heaven, especially after being in Asia for so long with milk that just didn’t quite taste the same.

From Malibu we made our way to Yosemite National Park where we spent 4 days. The scenery was stunning, with huge limestone cliffs surrounding the village. Tim met a Japanese climber and climbed Half Dome which he has always wanted to do. We did a few walks and quite a bit of rockclimbing and just enjoyed hanging out in the park.

From Yosemite we made our way to Death Valley National Park. It was amazing!We left Yoaemite in the morning and drove over a high mountain pass where there was snow on the side of the road. The scenery was stunning. The girls loved jumping out of the RV and playing in the snow. It was amazing that in 2 hours we were in Death Valley in 38 degrees absolutely dying in the heat of the desert. Death Valley was definitely an experience. It’s a real desert and so hot even though it’s not even summer. It can get up to 57degrees in summer. In our agreement for our RV hire you aren’t allowed to drive in the Death Valley until after 10th October because it’s too hot and cars blow up. We stayed the night in a campground with a pool, a very lukewarm pool, but it was better than nothing. After a very hot night we were all keen to leave the Death Valley. Pretty soon we were out of the heat and on our way to Las Vegas!

Las Vegas was never somewhere we planned on visiting but it was on our route so we decided to check it out. What a bizarre place. A big tacky city in the middle of the desert. We found an RV park a bit out of the action and decided to get the bus into the “strip”in the evening. The bus trip itself was quite hilarious, just seeing all the different people and watching them. We had some dinner and wandered around looking at all the over the top hotels and casinos and little wedding chapels just like on the movies. You don’t have look far to also see dozens of pawnshops and loansharks advertised everywhere. Unfortunately, because of the wind the shows that are on every hour, every night were cancelled which was a bit disappointing. Anyway, it was a cool experience and we finally got back to our RV park at about midnight that night.

From Vegas we headed toward Zion National Park stopping to look at the Hoover Dam which was very impressive. Tim was very excited because he’d seen it on Megastructures. The security was amazing. We had police offices search our campervan before we drove onto the dam.

Zion National Park was absolutely beautiful. We stayed there for 3 nights and did some hikes. I took the big girls for a steep climb up to Angel’s Landing, a really high point in the Park.It had exposed cliffs and chains to hold on to. The next day we all did a canyon trip which involved us walking in freezing cold water. After a while Charlotte was cold and tired, so Tim turned back with her and Maddi and I carried on with Michaella and Ashleigh. It was a fantastic trip, would have been even better if it had been summer and the water warmer! I really enjoyed doing some fun stuff by myself with the girls on those 2 days. I had ever so slightly sore butt muscles for a couple of days!(There’s been far too much sitting on my bum in the RV and eating disgustingly, yummy American food lately, so it was good to do some exercise).

We left Zion and made our way to the Grand Canyon. It was impressive, although I think Zion National Park was much more beautiful. The girls did a Junior Ranger programme at Zion and at Grand Canyon Parks which had them completing a booklet and then going to the ranger and getting it checked. They then had to take an oath to promise to look after the National parks and living things in general. It was quite funny seeing them all standing with their right hands up repeating after the ranger.

So, we’re now heading towards Los Angeles planning at stopping at Joshua Tree on the way. It’s a famous climbing area that should have some good climbs for the girls, who are now all quite hooked on climbing. They get almost as excited as Tim does when they see a big rockface in front of them. The plan is to back in LA for the night of 31st October and then we’ll do Disneyland on November 1st. That should be a great way to finish our year off! We then have the 2nd to check out Hollywood and do some shopping and then we return the RV on the 3rd and fly out at 11.45pm that night! We then lose the 4th somewhere and arrive in NZ on the 5th! Wow!

We are really loving the States. It’s just so easy after months of struggling with language. It’s the perfect way to end an incredible year. It’s also fantastic that we don’t have to worry about weight restrictions because lots of stuff is cheap here and we’re doing a wee bit of shopping. The girls have worn the same clothes for nearly the whole year, so they are loving the chance to get a few new things. We’re also loving the extroverted, friendly Americans. Okay, we do mock them just a bit, but they are so friendly and helpful, quite different from Europe. The girls do some amazing American accent impersonations, even Charlotte has started! Maddi’s the best though!

So, the questions everyone are asking or want to ask. What are we doing when we get back? Jobs? Schools? Where will you live? Well, we don’t have any answers really, but lots of ideas. The girls have interviews at Kingsway when we get back, so hopefully they’ll be there next year and we’ll be living up that way(Whangaparaoa). When we first get back we’re going to stay with Jo and John(Tim’s sister and family)in Remuera. They’ve renovated and expanded their house just for us coming back, so we can all fit!Thanks guys! I’m sure everything will fall into place when we get back, we’re still trying to pretend we can live like this forever, but no, we do need to get back to reality.

Well, must go and collect our washing from the huge dryer in the camp laundry and Tim needs to disconnect the poop pipe and we’ll be on the road again! (Speaking of poop, we are thinking the tank isn’t draining properly and Tim thinks we might need to put our hand down and unblock it. He seems to think his arm is too fat and that it’s a job for me! Oh no! Anyone seen the movie, R.V.?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 11:42 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.