25 June – Oceanside

Up this morning for a quick scooter ride to the pier for breakfast. It was a stunning day and the swimmers and surfers were already out even though it was still coolish. The pier had loads of people fishing from it. 

We walked to the end to Ruby’s Diner. It’s a lovely spot right on the end of the pier and a great retro diner – complete with cute pink and white striped uniforms for the waitresses. We ordered up eggs, bacon, turkey sausage and hot cakes with fresh orange juice and coffee. 

Breakfast was leisurely and ended up as brunch – lots of food so no chance we would be hungry again anytime soon. We watched swimmers swimming around the pier and back – it’s about 1/3 mile long. Apparently they are training for a long distance ocean swim. We had a lovely post brunch walk along the pier and the esplanade watching the kids surf camp, some young gridiron players practicing running drills and families enjoying the beach. There were several flocks of pelicans doing synchronised laps of the beach in formation and the navy hovercrafts absolutely belting along off shore. 

After that we scooted back to the RV for a lazy afternoon, with a soak in the resort hot tub before dinner. Following dinner we went back to the beach for another stroll. Very pretty with the lights. We found an information board that told us the movie “bring it on” was filmed on the beach here. Cool. On the way to the beach we had 2 embarrassing scooter moments. First someone wound down their window at the lights to tell us that the audible indicator was terrible and we should rip it out. Then we weren’t big enough for the traffic lights to “see” us and they stayed red until we were rescued by a guy on a real bike who pulled alongside. Pretty much straight away the lights changed.

24 June – Desert Hot Springs – Oceanside

Up and keen to leave Desert Hot Springs. It was WAY too windy. Heading along the highway there were heaps of wind turbines. Hundreds of them, all different types. The wind was just insane! The fastest we could get the RV going into the headwind was 45 miles per hour. Once we crossed the mountains the wind suddenly stopped – thank goodness! The drive was uneventful, mostly on the major highway through the LA outskirts. We reached the coast at a place called Oceanside. We drove up the coast a bit past a Navy base where they were doing some sort of operations alongside the highway – lots of tanks. We ended up turning back and parking up at Oceanside RV Park, then got the scooter off and went for a ride around. Oceanside is quite pretty, the beach was nice, and we went to the harbour for a coffee in a little place overlooking the fishing boats. 

After that back along the beachfront, lots of people on bikes, walking dogs and just hanging out. Perfect weather for it! After dinner we went for a scoot down to the pier and a walk along it. 

It goes quite a way out, and there is a diner at the end called Ruby’s. Lots of people about, walking, running and lots of fishing off the pier. A guy had caught a 2 foot long stingray. On the beach there were firepits and groups BBQing and sitting round with guitars. Really nice way to end the day.

23 June - Vegas – Desert Hot Springs

Leaving Vegas we travelled South. We passed another huge solar power bank- heaps of panels and they must be generating a lot because there were plenty of EHV lines on towers heading out over the desert. 

Other than that, not much. Tumbleweeds and Joshua trees. 

And windy! The RV battled the cross winds all the way. Crossing the Californian border was funny. Nevada side: 3 lanes in each direction, divided road, lovely road surface. Suddenly down to 1 lane in each direction, not divided, road a bit crappy. A cattle grid marked the border. We followed the green corridor of the Colorado River for a while along Route 66 into a town called Needles. Lots of Route 66 signs and murals. Kind of quaint. 

Heading toward Palm Springs we could see the Salton Sea in the distance. It’s an interesting story. It’s below sea level and was created by a flood in 1905. The area had been used as farm land via some irrigation channels from the Colorado. During the 1905 floods, the Colorado breached the headgates of the channels and flowed into the Salton sink, creating massive waterfalls and 2 new rivers 60 miles long that carried the entire Colorado River flow into the basin, submerging the town of Salton and the railroad. The building of the Hoover Dam in 1935 stopped the flooding and enabled the Colorado to be diverted back to its original watercourse, but the Salton Sea remained. It is the 3^rd biggest lake in California and was set to be a huge resort /tourist area. However, over time with evaporation the sea has become progressively more salty to the point where the fish died and it now stinks of dead fish. So the resorts were abandoned and now sit as ghost towns. Boaters still use it because the high salt content means that boats float well and can go faster than usual. Overnight at Desert Hot Springs. Even though the RV park was well sheltered, it was so windy that the RV swayed sickeningly all night, not a lot of sleep. 

22 June –Vegas

We were up and ready to hit the road in the Corvette, headed for the Valley of Fires. It’s about 70 miles North of Vegas on a major highway, so we were soon zipping along at 75 miles per hour (yes that’s the legal limit on the major interstate highways. About 130ks) We had to stop and put the top up though because at 75 we had to hold hats on. Once we turned off the interstate onto the Valley of Fires highway we put the top down again. Steve had a blast driving! The Valley of Fires was just beautiful. The highway winds around through some pretty ordinary muddy coloured hills, then all of a sudden the rocks and mountains turn to vivid reds, oranges, pinks and even purples. 

They are fossilised sand dunes. Just awesome! Sadly it was too hot for hiking (over 109 F / 44 C) and all the trails had big warning signs saying “HEAT WARNING - DO NOT HIKE”, but we got some stunning pics from the trail heads and car park areas. 

Sadly, the camera broke so we had to use the iphone. Really bummed. It just stopped working. One minute it was fine, then next there was no power. Ros drove back to the Interstate hwy, then passed back to Steve for the run back to Vegas. Once we were back in town it was time to cruise up and down the strip (don’t judge us, everyone in Vegas with a nice car does it!) until it was time to take the ‘Vette back. Sad faces…Then back to the RV Park for dinner and a movie at Samstown cinema. We saw Man of Steel. Meh. Started fairly well, then turned into lots of CGI mayhem.

21 June – Vegas

Into the strip and a looong walk to the Luxor to see “the Bodies” exhibit. 

Excalibur

It was really cool, but not for the squeamish. If you have seen Casino Royale you will remember James Bond chasing a bad guy through the Bodies exhibit in Miami then killing him and sitting him down as if he were part of the show. Real human bodies in various degrees of dissection to show bone structure, muscles, nerves, organs etc. They preserve the bodies with polymer, so they are hard, then pose them throwing a ball, sitting down, twisting and turning so you can see the muscles and nerves in motion. They also showed things like normal lungs and smokers lungs (with a bin next to them for people who decide to quit to bin the ciggies. Quite a few packs in there!) There was a very cool display of all the blood systems. They inject polymer into the arteries and veins, the polymer goes hard, then they use acid to dissolve all the surrounding tissue, so you are left with just the circulatory system floating in a big tank. Steve thought it would add something if they also included some Siamese fighting fish in the tank… The Luxor was amazing – it’s a huge pyramid and hollow on the inside, so when you are in the foyer you are looking up at the inside of the pyramid going up maybe 20 stories high. 

From there we went to the MGM for a quick bite and a taxi to Fantasy Car Hire to pick up a 2013 red Corvette convertible for tomorrow. We are driving to the Valley of Fires and fancied a spin in a convertible. Had to go for a drive through Vegas, then back to the RV for dinner. 

Another drive after dinner? Don’t mind if we do! Back from a quick drive out to Las Vegas Lake – where all the big houses are. We didn’t feel all conspicuous like we would have driving around gated communities in the RV. Love the Corvette. The hardest part will be giving it back tomorrow afternoon!. 

20 June – Vegas

We had a lazy day – then into the Venetian for dinner and the Human Nature Motown show. 

We had dinner at Postrio (one of Wolfgang Pucks restaurants). Very yummy and dessert was divine! Something we have noticed about restaurants here is the number of staff. There is “meet and greet guy” who stands at the desk and says hello. He hands you off to “take you to the table girl” (also usually known as “very short skirt girl”) who shows you to the table. “Water boy” brings you a glass and keeps it topped up with iced water. “Waiter” (almost always a bloke), takes the order. “Delivery guy” brings the food. “Water boy” also doubles as “clears the table boy”. Oddy, the jobs are clearly demarcated and nobody steps into anyone else’s patch. The other day we arrived at the desk and “meet and greet guy” had stepped away. “Waiter” and “”take you to the table girls” stood 3 feet away from us blankly ignoring us. After a few minutes “meet and greet guy” arrived, said hello and summoned “take you to the table girl” who smiled as if she had not be ignoring us a minute ago. Strange! 

The Human Nature show was brilliant, lots of old Motown hits like Mr Postman, Save up all your tears, Stop, in the name of love, Earth Angel etc. The harmonies were great, and they did a bit of A cappella. Lots of fun dancing in the aisle and they taught us the moves for Stop, in the name of love. We got autographs and a pic after the show.

19 June –Vegas

Late sleep in.  Sam’s Town is on the Boulder Hwy and during the night there are often cop & fire engine sirens going past. We went to the Atomic Testing Museum in the morning, it was very interesting. The US atomic tests were moved to Nevada after Bikini Atoll and the museum documents the tests, from atmospheric testing, through underground testing and through to the modern simulated testing using a Z accelerator (?). There was a room where they simulated watching a test – the floor shook, and air blasted at you to feel like the shock wave.  During the real tests in the 50’s tourists used to watch the blasts from about 20 miles away, and the army observers from open trenches only 4 miles from the blast. Obviously back before they realised the long term impacts of radiation. 

We saw a display on the largest bomb ever detonated (and the last atmospheric test) – by the Russians in the Arctic. It was 100 megatons (Hiroshima was only 6 megatons) and blasted a hole in the earth’s atmosphere that took 3 days to cover back over. 

They also had an “expose of Area 51”that was very lame… It was in a blacked out series of rooms, with spooky introductions done by the man in black, but didn’t tell us anything. It more or less said “anything you have read about Area 51 is nonsense. If we had an alien spaceship all this time we would have been able to reverse engineer it. The fact that we are still flying normal aircraft is therefore direct proof that we don’t have any alien spacecraft”. We went from the museum to the Beverly Hills Rent a Car. We were interested in finding out how much it is to rent a Corvette for the day. Sadly, the Corvettes were all out, but there was a 2012 Lamborghini there (for a mere $1200 plus taxes for 6 hours rental). The guy encouraged Steve to sit in it and start it up. Zoom Zoom! 

We went back to the strip for dinner – at the Bellagio. The restaurant is called Yellowtail – Japanese – and was really yummy. The balcony overlooked the Bellagio fountains and was a lovely place to sit and watch the twilight over the strip. 

18 June – Vegas

We have booked into Sam’s Town until 21 June.  The rate is quite cheap at the moment (a summer special) only $22.40 per night for full hook up , so we took advantage of that.  So the next few posts will be from Vegas… hope you stick with us J.  Steve very happy…. No driving for the next couple of days J.

1^st thing about Vegas.  It’s hot!  Damn Hot!  About 41 deg.  We are Tasmanians & likely to melt!

Sam’s Town  is a casino off the main Vegas Strip, but they run a bus service into the strip for free and it only takes about 20 minutes.  We took one of the morning bus runs and go dropped off at the Harrahs Casino and began to walk around. Vegas still has that jaw-dropping effect on you, even when you have been there before.  They just cannot seem to spend enough money to make their casinos stand out.  

We got concert tickets to see the 80’s rock musical Rock of Ages and also Human Nature.  We thought about getting tickets to see Celine Dion (yep… she still has a residency there), but we thought that she would go on… and on…. and on…… LOL.  We also found that Donny& Marie Osmond are still performing there (seriously, I was surprised they were still alive).

We spent some time in the Venetian Canal Shopping area watching the street performers. It is “Carnavale” at the moment so they have costumed and masked opera performers. Even a court jester on huge silts.

We had lunch at a French restaurant in the Paris Casino then continued to walk around.  

We got down to the MGM Grand and got passes to review TV sitcom pilots produced by CBS.  CBS produced Big Bang & two & half Men.  We’ll do this in the next day or so. Planet Hollywood had a thunderstorm over a pool in the miracle mile shops – thunder, and rain pouring from the ceiling. Quite fun to watch. The Bellagio has a conservatory with finches and canaries in it.

Our tickets for Rock of Ages was for tonight so we had to wander back to the Venetian to have some dinner before the show.  We had some lovely sushi.

The Rock of Ages was fantastic.  They had some great rock songs from the 80’s and the performers did a great job.  We even had fake cigarette lighters to light up for the love ballads, really cool.

After the show, we caught a taxi back to the RV and fell into to bed.

17 June – Bakersfield - Vegas

Up early (well… early when you’re holidays J) and we set of for Las Vegas.  Not a great deal to see in the Mojave Desert as it is mostly barren.  We did see some derailed train wagons (freight).  Must have happened a few days ago.  A few of the wagons were on their side and one or two were down an embankment with freight wreckage being gathered by work crews.  We also saw three fighter jets practicing… well whatever it is they practice.  This was close to the Edwards Airbase.  We went past a Borax Mine.  In general the drive is fairly boring with not a great deal to see.  There was a sign along the road side advertising 40 acres for sale.  There didn’t appear to be anything around for miles.

We stopped in Barstow for fuel & food supplies. Then on a little further and we stopped at Peggy Sues to have lunch.  Unfortunately it was at lunch time for they were quite busy and it was going to be a 20 minute wait just for a seat so we had lunch in the RV instead.

There was a long stretch of road (about 16 miles) that was on a slight incline and we were slowed down such that we had to join the truck lane and turn off the air con to make sure the van didn’t overheat.  Got really warm during this stretch.  The top of the pass was about 4730ft.

Almost on the Nevada border we passed by a huge solar array. It must have been producing power for the nearby casinos and resorts that were right on the border, for those who just couldn’t wait any longer to have a drink and a gamble.

We got to Vegas around 4pm and got ourselves set up at Sams Town Casino RV park.  Having travelled some 283 miles we decided that we didn’t feel too much like cooking so we went in and had dinner at a restaurant in Sam’s Town.  It was called Billy Bob’s Steak House (yes, you read correctly….Billy Bob’s steak house).

16 June – Lodgepole – Bakersfield

We spent the morning hiking and enjoying the sequoias. Just stunning! They are related to the Redwoods, but instead of growing tall and tapered, they grow big round the trunks. The really old ones are like clubs with the head end in the ground. They still get pretty tall, but get rounder every year. 

 

 We saw the biggest tree in the world by volume – the General Sherman – and it puts on enough growth every year to equal 60 normal trees (your average pine tree size).

The General Sherman's "Footprint"

We walked the Congress Trail, winding through the sequoia groves. We saw 5 groves and there are only 70 in the Sierra mountains (and in the world). It was quite something to see these huge trees, thousands of years old and realise that they are so rare. That is it, no others anywhere. 

The sequoias are amazing trees, like the redwoods they are pretty well impervious to fire, insects, fungus etc and the only thing that really kills them is being blown over. Being very fast growing and very long lived, they get really, really big.

Even when they are burnt out by fires they seem to regenerate and regrow. 

Looking up the trunks is odd, they don’t taper off as they get taller, they just seem to stop at the top.  Like they have been chopped off. 

We saw an Asian family on the trail and the kid (maybe 10 years old) was carrying an ipad. Yep. Playing a computer game while he walked! Seriously! Leaving the mountains we drove down the 7500 feet into smog. On the way in we thought it was dust from the farming activities, but at the visitor centre we saw an exhibit on how the smog is damaging the forests from acid rain. The smog from LA flows into the valley and when it is thick enough it even impacts the mountains directly. Lovely stuff. 

We went back via “cat pole” and the poor thing was still up there. Lunch in Vasalia then onto the 99 South for Bakersfield. Drive to Vegas tomorrow. It is soooo hot we have decided to avoid Death Valley and take the highway. 

15 June – Paso Robles – Lodgepole

We took the 46 out of town and more wineries. They seem fairly young plantings, so obviously an up and coming wine region. It was hot and dry, so interesting to see if they are focussing on more Spanish varietals. From the wineries, the landscape changed to desert – very dry and flat. 

Once we went under the I5, into the San Joaquin Valley the desert suddenly changed to farmland. The map showed the California Aqueduct and some of the offshoot channels were running along the roadside all the way. There is a lot of water running around in the desert here! We passed fruit trees, potatoes, lots of corn, nuts, oranges and grapes. 

We stopped at a place called Orange Cove for fuel. There were bars on all the windows, and razor wire around the garden centre…. Leaving town we pulled over next to an orange plantation for some lunch. Part way through eating we heard a cat wailing and found the poor beggar at the top of a power pole. He was screaming his little head off, and scrambling around on the cross arms, but wouldn’t come down. A lass came out of a nearby farm house and drove up to us. It was her cat and had been up there for two days. She said the power company and the fire department wouldn’t come and get him down so she was waiting for him to get down or eventually fall. Sad L. Very suddenly the flat farmland gave way to very rocky mountain ranges. We climbed the mountains to over 7500 ft, then into the sequoia forest. 

Arriving at Lodgepole campground, we got the last available RV site. Score! We had been a bit worried we wouldn’t find anything given it’s a weekend and the volume of traffic on the road in. No services and still $20 a night. We were getting full hook-ups in Oregon state parks for $25. Everything is pricier in California. Oddly, someone is playing the bagpipes...

14 June Marina – Paso Robles

We realised in the morning that the RV Park was the same one we stayed in on our 2011 trip. We continued along highway 1 along the coast. Lovely views, but we decided not as spectacular as the Oregon coast. It was more desolate landscape, drier and not as many viewpoints to stop at. There were lots of houses built along the cliffs, and some built in places that surely must get battered by waves in the storms. We drove through a stand of Redwoods at Big Sur, but not as big as the old growth forests. We met some cyclists at a viewpoint who were cycling from Canada to Mexico. Interesting trip! 

We saw a beach with masses of elephant seals, but we couldn’t stop because there were too many cars in the pull off area. That was the other thing we noticed – heaps of traffic. 

We stopped at lunchtime at Hearst Castle, one of the many homes owned by media giant William Randolph Hearst. Construction of the estate began in 1919 and continued for 27 years until Hearst’s death. It really is something else to see. 

Hearst was an avid art and historical artefacts collector and had the vast fortune to buy whatever he liked. The house is huge – 115 rooms, 3 guest houses, two pools, a zoo etc etc. It is kind of Mediterranean style, but each room contains things like medieval ceiling panels, 15^th century tapestries, antique Persian floor rugs and so on. 

We did two tours – the main reception rooms and the upper floors. Each tour only went through a small number of rooms. To do the whole estate takes 4 hours on a private tour and costs $750. 

The guest list of people who stayed at the estate was a “whos who” of the times – Einstein, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, the Warner Brothers to name a few. The guide told us a story about Jean Harlow, who appeared for dinner one evening in a transparent dress and no underwear. Of course the room went completely silent as the distinguished guests tried to decide how to handle the situation. Hearst leapt up, took off his dinner jacket, wrapped it around Harlow and said “you must be cold my dear, please go up and dress for dinner”. After the tours we wandered the gardens – the pools were just amazing.

Dragging ourselves away, we drove inland, through more wine country on highway 46, to Paso Roble and the start of our run through to Sierra Nevada and the sequoia forests.

12 June – Napa & 13 June – Napa – Marina

We decided to have a lazy day in Napa. We headed into town around lunchtime for some Mexican food at a local restaurant, then went to the Napa Premium Outlets for some retail therapy (Ros) – Steve watched (and pulled out the credit card as required). We went to Oxbow markets and strolled around looking and tasting – Hog Bay oysters, cheese (a really nice brie), bitters (lots of different flavours) and mini cupcakes. Back to the RV for a rest before dinner at Morimoto Japanese. We had the tasting menu with paired sakes, just for something different.

Next morning we farewelled Napa and drove to Sonoma. It is very quaint – lots of historic buildings. The Mission was the most northern one built by the Spanish padres. The missions were built one days travel apart from Mexico to Sonoma. The priests would convert the local Indians, indoctrinate them in to the Spanish way of life and declare them citizens of Spain. The idea was that after 10 years the mission would be secularised (handed over to the townsfolk) and thereby assure Spanish “ownership” of the land. Easier to convert the locals than to settle the land yourselves… At that stage the Spanish and the Russians were competing for land in the area. We toured the mission, the local barracks and the home of General Vallejo – who commanded the garrison at Sonoma. 

 Inside the barracks

 General Vallejo's home

 The mission

The mission chapel

He was a very wealthy man and never missed an opportunity to make money. For example, the soldiers at the barracks were required to provide all their own uniform, equipment, weapons etc and their pay was set at just enough to cover the cost (essentially paying them nothing). The goods were sent from Mexico to the barracks (to the Commmandant) and Vallejo charged the men a fee for receiving their orders. This meant that over time the soldiers ended up deeper and deeper in debt. Vallejo also established a country house a mile or so from town on the land around the local spring, then started selling the water to the citizens of Sonoma, starting Americas first water company. He lost all his money though when the Americans took over California, as Mexicans had to prove their existing land claims through the American court system. Most of his land was taken and he spent the rest of his fortune on lawyers to keep what was left. Leaving Sonoma, we could see San Francisco in the distance. We crossed San Francisco Bay on a double storied bridge – very slow going through the city even with 6 lanes in each direction! 

On the way to the coast, we went through Castroville – the Artichoke Centre of the World… Artichoke fields as far as the eye could see! Finally into Marina and parked up for the night.