FOOD
Cruising is an all day feeding frenzy as the food is included in the cost. This is a quick snapshot of daily dining options on board the Celebrity Century. Of course you could ignore all of these options and have room service all of the time, if you wished, at no extra cost.
Grand Restaurant (Deck 5 & 6)- fixed seating
> Breakfast, lunch and dinner (I only attended dinner at 8.30pm each night)
Dinner was four course meal
Islands Cafe (Deck 11)
> 24 hours: coffee, tea, juice
> 5.30am: Breakfast pastries
> 7 til 10am: Four different breakfast buffets
> 10 til 11.30am: Late breakfast buffet
> 12 til 2.30pm: Three different lunch buffets
> 3.30 til 4.30pm: High tea (cakes)
> 12 til 9.30: Ice cream available
> 12 til 10pm: Pasta and salad
> 5.30 til 9pm: Curries, sushi, burgers
> 12 til midnight: Pizza
Then there were other dining locations:
> Poolside grille on deck 11
> Aquaspa cafe on deck 11 (too healthy for me)
> Cova Cafe on deck 6 (loved the tapas from 5.15 til 11pm)
> Murano Specialty Restaurant on deck 5
Plus so many bars I can't be bothered listing them ...
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Bus blogging
Friday 27 May
Posting this blog and the other last ones on the bus to Vancouver. Whoever would have thunk it? Wifi internet on a bus?
Quick summary for now as my laptop battery is getting low.
Fairly uneventful bus journey through the night. But had a giggle at a shop in the middle of nowhere that was called, "Guns & Fishing and other stuff".
Got a new bus driver at Redding, (Oregon?) and she didn't now where the depot was in Salem. Had to ask a passenger to google it on a phone. When she finished her shift i Portland, she got on the PA system and sarcastically thanked us and hoped we were happy as she hadn't enjoyed the last hour of the journey ... seems she didn't like our quiet feedback/chatting about her not knowing where to go.
Then in Portland, a couple of dudes were directed to my ongoing bus to Seattle - express all the way, but didn't want to go all the way to Seattle. Wasn't their fault, but all they could do was get there and then find a way back to Tacoma. Bit funny - not for them, though.
And what was even less funny was my bag being put onto the wrong bus - the bus those dudes were meant to get, which wasn't express. I was already freaking out as we hadn't made up the hour we had lost and once I got to Seattle I had to find my way to a different bus company to get this bus. I had allowed two hours for the 20 min walk. Was panicking about now only having about 50 minutes to get it sorted and find where I had to go correctly, but then there was no bag!!! The bus it was on was scheduled to arrive when I was meant to be at the other depot checking in 15 minutes before departure. Luckily, another girl I had chatted with had her bag on the same wrong bus and her mother had gone to meet her at the depot in Seattle. So they drove me to the other depot with minutes to spare!
Now on the bus and arrive in Vancouver at 7.40pm tonight (five hour ride) and a new Servas host is meeting me at the depot.
Again, may not be able to Blog for a day or two or three again. I get the Alaskan cruise from Vancouver on Sunday 29 May (two more sleeps!)
Don't panic if you don't hear from me for even a week as I may just be having too much fun cruising the Alaskan regions to write anything.
And again, no time yet to sort piccies and minimise their file sizes to upload. And I have loved all the comments and emails I have been getting, keep them coming. Well, maybe not from you, Lenore, when you are panicking about me - but nice to know someone is looking out for me. Just don't panic, ok?
Posting this blog and the other last ones on the bus to Vancouver. Whoever would have thunk it? Wifi internet on a bus?
Quick summary for now as my laptop battery is getting low.
Fairly uneventful bus journey through the night. But had a giggle at a shop in the middle of nowhere that was called, "Guns & Fishing and other stuff".
Got a new bus driver at Redding, (Oregon?) and she didn't now where the depot was in Salem. Had to ask a passenger to google it on a phone. When she finished her shift i Portland, she got on the PA system and sarcastically thanked us and hoped we were happy as she hadn't enjoyed the last hour of the journey ... seems she didn't like our quiet feedback/chatting about her not knowing where to go.
Then in Portland, a couple of dudes were directed to my ongoing bus to Seattle - express all the way, but didn't want to go all the way to Seattle. Wasn't their fault, but all they could do was get there and then find a way back to Tacoma. Bit funny - not for them, though.
And what was even less funny was my bag being put onto the wrong bus - the bus those dudes were meant to get, which wasn't express. I was already freaking out as we hadn't made up the hour we had lost and once I got to Seattle I had to find my way to a different bus company to get this bus. I had allowed two hours for the 20 min walk. Was panicking about now only having about 50 minutes to get it sorted and find where I had to go correctly, but then there was no bag!!! The bus it was on was scheduled to arrive when I was meant to be at the other depot checking in 15 minutes before departure. Luckily, another girl I had chatted with had her bag on the same wrong bus and her mother had gone to meet her at the depot in Seattle. So they drove me to the other depot with minutes to spare!
Now on the bus and arrive in Vancouver at 7.40pm tonight (five hour ride) and a new Servas host is meeting me at the depot.
Again, may not be able to Blog for a day or two or three again. I get the Alaskan cruise from Vancouver on Sunday 29 May (two more sleeps!)
Don't panic if you don't hear from me for even a week as I may just be having too much fun cruising the Alaskan regions to write anything.
And again, no time yet to sort piccies and minimise their file sizes to upload. And I have loved all the comments and emails I have been getting, keep them coming. Well, maybe not from you, Lenore, when you are panicking about me - but nice to know someone is looking out for me. Just don't panic, ok?
26 May Wednesday
Up at 8am – stupid mobile phone went off - must have done something when I finally got the stupid travel sim to work. Not really keen to give out my number as I also have to pay to receive calls and SMS's.
I spent a bit of the morning organising photos from home to show hosts. In some moment of organisation I had loaded some piccies to bring, but totally forgot I had. Glad I stumbled upon them now.
Went to yarn store half a block from Joan’s house and had to control myself. But I didn't quite manage that and now I have two balls of yarn to cart around for the rest of my travels.
Speaking of travels, I met the adult son of the hosts and he is about to go to Guatamala. And then the host are off on more travels now that they have retired. Just for privacy, I won't write much specific detail about the hosts or load any piccies etc on this blog.
Then I repacked stuff and acouldn't make any improvements to system. Really annoys me that I have to remove half of my stuff to get to other essentials, but it really is the best way to pack it all up.
The very kind hosts thoughtfully provided food for my 21 hour bus trip to Vancouver – sanger, carrots, and a bottle of water. I had thought I would grab something at the bus depot, but it turned out they had nothing other than vending machines with snack food. I had expected a cafe or something ...
So I was dropped off at depot at 200 Folsom Stat 3pm for my 4pm departure.
4pm came and I was two people in the queue short of being at the door to get on the bus, when they shut the door. Bus was full! The dude just shut the door and didn't inform us about anything. Eventually I went over and asked what was going on and found out they had sent for a second bus. Nearly an hour late, we were on our way north. Turned out to be a good thing as there were less people and we could have two seats each and spread out.
Nearly gave myself food poisoning with a horrible burger I bought at the Sacramento stop. Blahahhahhhhahhhhggggg. And I really think they need to put a funnel in the bus loo so men can go (while the bus is moving) and still manage to pee without making a mess yuck!
That's all for this night other than finding it hard to get comfy and get some sleep.
Up at 8am – stupid mobile phone went off - must have done something when I finally got the stupid travel sim to work. Not really keen to give out my number as I also have to pay to receive calls and SMS's.
I spent a bit of the morning organising photos from home to show hosts. In some moment of organisation I had loaded some piccies to bring, but totally forgot I had. Glad I stumbled upon them now.
Went to yarn store half a block from Joan’s house and had to control myself. But I didn't quite manage that and now I have two balls of yarn to cart around for the rest of my travels.
Speaking of travels, I met the adult son of the hosts and he is about to go to Guatamala. And then the host are off on more travels now that they have retired. Just for privacy, I won't write much specific detail about the hosts or load any piccies etc on this blog.
Then I repacked stuff and acouldn't make any improvements to system. Really annoys me that I have to remove half of my stuff to get to other essentials, but it really is the best way to pack it all up.
The very kind hosts thoughtfully provided food for my 21 hour bus trip to Vancouver – sanger, carrots, and a bottle of water. I had thought I would grab something at the bus depot, but it turned out they had nothing other than vending machines with snack food. I had expected a cafe or something ...
So I was dropped off at depot at 200 Folsom Stat 3pm for my 4pm departure.
4pm came and I was two people in the queue short of being at the door to get on the bus, when they shut the door. Bus was full! The dude just shut the door and didn't inform us about anything. Eventually I went over and asked what was going on and found out they had sent for a second bus. Nearly an hour late, we were on our way north. Turned out to be a good thing as there were less people and we could have two seats each and spread out.
Nearly gave myself food poisoning with a horrible burger I bought at the Sacramento stop. Blahahhahhhhahhhhggggg. And I really think they need to put a funnel in the bus loo so men can go (while the bus is moving) and still manage to pee without making a mess yuck!
That's all for this night other than finding it hard to get comfy and get some sleep.
San Francisco is ... gorgeous
25 May Wednesday
Up about 8.30am, but had a slow brekkie (tea and toast) and casual start to the day. The weather was not so lovely today – grey and rainy – so I was taken out by car to look at some of the fantastic murals and mosaics around town and also saw:
Community precincts around town
Windy little street
Coit tower
Golden gate bridge
Ex army park – Presida (have to check spelling when I locate my map.)
Haight area
Then dropped of for gallery visit (Paul Klee and the Stein collection) with Joan, but shut on Weds, so had coffee and chat. Rain finally stopped and I wandered of to check out downtown San Francisco) as they had things to do and were going out for the evening.
Looked at Maiden Lane, some galleries, high end fashion stores, Union Park, and lots of just wandering around taking in the sights. San Francisco is a lovely town and very livable. Of course I didn’t go into any bad areas but what I saw was great.
Had dinner at a Thai place, bought bottle of wine and waited for the F trolley for an hour, then two came together. Found home ok and spent hours on the internet getting organised to get to Vancouver the next day.
Bed about midnight.
Up about 8.30am, but had a slow brekkie (tea and toast) and casual start to the day. The weather was not so lovely today – grey and rainy – so I was taken out by car to look at some of the fantastic murals and mosaics around town and also saw:
Community precincts around town
Windy little street
Coit tower
Golden gate bridge
Ex army park – Presida (have to check spelling when I locate my map.)
Haight area
Then dropped of for gallery visit (Paul Klee and the Stein collection) with Joan, but shut on Weds, so had coffee and chat. Rain finally stopped and I wandered of to check out downtown San Francisco) as they had things to do and were going out for the evening.
Looked at Maiden Lane, some galleries, high end fashion stores, Union Park, and lots of just wandering around taking in the sights. San Francisco is a lovely town and very livable. Of course I didn’t go into any bad areas but what I saw was great.
Had dinner at a Thai place, bought bottle of wine and waited for the F trolley for an hour, then two came together. Found home ok and spent hours on the internet getting organised to get to Vancouver the next day.
Bed about midnight.
I'm alive!
24 May Tuesday
Up at 8.30am and showered in the bad boy (the motor-home).
Cleaned it inside, emptied grey and black water
Packed up gear
Checked directions to fuel place and depot.
Got to fuel place at 10.45am and looking good for a drop-off at 11am just around the corner. But after fuelling up, had to come out totally wrong direction to where I wanted to go. Turned right at lights to go around the block – but it was a fire station and a dead end! A ten point turn later, sitting at the same lights to exit but they would not turn green – probably activated by fire station only. So ran a red light and took off as quick as I could.
Onto highway and looking for Johnson St, Durbin turnoff for the motorhome place just two or three miles away and still looking good for the 11am deadline. You guessed it - there was no Johnson St exit – just a Loxton St, which was also another highway. And that was what I wanted. Where Johnson St came from I do not know. Also had exit 44b written down, so kept plowing along the highway to that exit, but by now I was sure I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Clever me picked the only exit (about 15 miles north into Walnut Creek) that didn’t have an overpass to come straight back out in the other direction. I immediately ended up in a little residential street, that was getting narrower and starting to go uphill. Swearing profusely, I pulled over, couldn’t find my map, and it was now past 11am. Huge reversal back into a side street and then a blind three point turn (holding up traffic) to get out of there and start backtracking again.
Got to the correct exit (one minute away from the initial petrol station) and then nearly missed the next exit from that highway… It wasn’t a good start to the day.
But located El Monte (YAY!) depot and gladly handed that bad boy over. With pleasure.
From there it was a 15 walking loop to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train for the 45 minute journey onto the other side of San Francisco’s bay where the Servas hosts lived.
The lovely hosts met me at their BART stop and I spent the rest of the arvie (by now about 1.30pm) chatting and was then taken out for a quick tour of San Francisco. As the main centre is only seven by seven miles, it is a really compact city and I saw a lot, and the view from Twin Peaks (a lookout on a small hill) gives a really good overview of the city. I loved the architecture and the distinctive San Francisco style. Evidently after the big quake about 100 years ago, much of San Fran was burnt by the ensuing fires (caused by the ruptured gas lines and gas lights etc during the quake) and skilled Irish builders rebuilt many of the houses. All gorgeous (again!) and each unique but still within the same style.
After dinner, and some wine, I got onto the internet, but quickly became tired and was in bed by about 10pm – it had been a big day.
Up at 8.30am and showered in the bad boy (the motor-home).
Cleaned it inside, emptied grey and black water
Packed up gear
Checked directions to fuel place and depot.
Got to fuel place at 10.45am and looking good for a drop-off at 11am just around the corner. But after fuelling up, had to come out totally wrong direction to where I wanted to go. Turned right at lights to go around the block – but it was a fire station and a dead end! A ten point turn later, sitting at the same lights to exit but they would not turn green – probably activated by fire station only. So ran a red light and took off as quick as I could.
Onto highway and looking for Johnson St, Durbin turnoff for the motorhome place just two or three miles away and still looking good for the 11am deadline. You guessed it - there was no Johnson St exit – just a Loxton St, which was also another highway. And that was what I wanted. Where Johnson St came from I do not know. Also had exit 44b written down, so kept plowing along the highway to that exit, but by now I was sure I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Clever me picked the only exit (about 15 miles north into Walnut Creek) that didn’t have an overpass to come straight back out in the other direction. I immediately ended up in a little residential street, that was getting narrower and starting to go uphill. Swearing profusely, I pulled over, couldn’t find my map, and it was now past 11am. Huge reversal back into a side street and then a blind three point turn (holding up traffic) to get out of there and start backtracking again.
Got to the correct exit (one minute away from the initial petrol station) and then nearly missed the next exit from that highway… It wasn’t a good start to the day.
But located El Monte (YAY!) depot and gladly handed that bad boy over. With pleasure.
From there it was a 15 walking loop to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train for the 45 minute journey onto the other side of San Francisco’s bay where the Servas hosts lived.
The lovely hosts met me at their BART stop and I spent the rest of the arvie (by now about 1.30pm) chatting and was then taken out for a quick tour of San Francisco. As the main centre is only seven by seven miles, it is a really compact city and I saw a lot, and the view from Twin Peaks (a lookout on a small hill) gives a really good overview of the city. I loved the architecture and the distinctive San Francisco style. Evidently after the big quake about 100 years ago, much of San Fran was burnt by the ensuing fires (caused by the ruptured gas lines and gas lights etc during the quake) and skilled Irish builders rebuilt many of the houses. All gorgeous (again!) and each unique but still within the same style.
After dinner, and some wine, I got onto the internet, but quickly became tired and was in bed by about 10pm – it had been a big day.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Piccies coming
Have to upload piccies for the last few blogs later, so please check back here again as there were some stunning images.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Pleasantville
PARKING FUGITIVE
Woke up to delivery trucks at 7am going about their business so gave up on the idea of sleep. And I wanted to high tail it out of their before that bang on the door happened. I had a quick shower and then moved the beast around to the main carpark as I needed to buy some spray and wipe stuff to clean the beast before returning the next morning. While there, I asked the assistant if I should head north or south on #101 to get to the turn off to Monteray (I had given up looking at signs last night as I had decided to stop at Salinas). She didn’t know, and neither did two others there – it is only about 15 miles away and a popular beach destination. Gotta love local knowledge ... and helpful people ...
Fuelled up - $100 and it didn’t fill it up and I was not even down to a quarter tank. With fuel here, you have to pay first before pumping it into your car. So when I headed over $100 I thought I might get some change, but no, it just cut out when I reached that amount. So I asked this chickibabe if she knew how to get to Monteray, and she did!
MONTERAY, HERE I COME
Off I headed and when I spied a pay phone at Marina (little town half way there) I pulled over to ring El Monte to confirm the drop off location for tomorrow morning as I didn't trust the address I found online. Got caught with that trick in LA, as Google brought up the admin location (Downtown LA), rather than the depot location (out in the industrial boondocks).
My new phone card that had 60 minutes worth of talk time at that destination rate, cut out just after confirming I had to deliver it to the industrial boondocks of San Francisco, not the central location that came up in Google much earlier. My next call was meant to be to book an RV site near there, but the bloody useless card wouldn’t work. More frustration when ringing the help number – auto message to say leave a message and they will call back … I guessing anyone who buys a phone card does it because they don’t have a landline phone to begin with and are relying on pay phones … So do NOT ever buy a Speedy Pin Prepaid phone card. They take your money and rip you off.
UPDATE: Got this sorted out in San Francisco and they reimbursed the credit amount, but haven't tested the card yet to see what sort of talk time I have again.
I’m glad I made this phone stop though as it was FREEZING and there was no way I was going to go onto Monteray beach area and be closer to the artic ocean winds.
Into the motorhome to get my map out to plan the route to the RV Park and take a chance on it having a vacancy. No map. Left the bloody thing back at the servo in Salinas. Fifteen miles back there to get it, but that round trip of 30 miles felt like 10 minutes, so back to my time vacuum ponderings regarding USA mileage.
TAMING THE BEAST
By 12.30pm I was pulling that bad boy up into bay 141 of the Alameda County Fairgrounds RV Park, on the eastern outreaches of San Francisco. Just don't understand why they subsequently directed another large RV to park right behind me when they were all of those other sites to choose from. This meant that there was less than 30cm between us and we could hear each other fart ... but of course I am a lady and I don't ...
Chatting with the receptionist, she was the fitness trainer for our Pat Cash, tennis player extraordinaire. She was also very familiar with El Monte as many people use this RV place on the last night as it is only 3 miles from the depot and she gave me directions on where to go in the morning. What I don’t get is why El Monte don’t pass on this info to clients, along with a map of where the drop off point is, when they pickup the vehicles. It would reduce stress levels somewhat.
After plugging in the power and water, I asked if there were any shops around and was giving very good directions on how to get to the Main St – walking that is as that bad boy wasn’t going anywhere else but the three miles to the depot in the morning.
Gorgeous walk to Main St, Pleasanton – should be called Pleasantville. Absolutely stunning little village. Chocolate box houses, shops, and cafes. Saw a squirrel or two but they were too quick to photograph. I actually forgot to take my camera with me, so walked the kilometre or two back to get it as the place was so photogenic.
Had a fantastic pizza for lunch and brought half back with me for my dinner. Then later when I was checking out the other end of Main St, I just had to pop into this rose covered wine garden for a Happy Hour wine.
Just all too lovely for words.
Still got to get my head around the tax thing and the tipping thing. A $5 glass of wine becomes $5.75 with taxes and about $7 with tipping.
And they still use one cent pieces. And dimes are ten cents, but the size of an Aussie five cent piece, and a nickel is five cents, but the size of an Aussie ten cent piece. Tricks me every time, and I feel like a complete dickhead who can’t count.
Have to go now and tidy up and pack up ready for the morning.
Off to stay with Servas hosts for two nights in the heart of San Francisco.
Woke up to delivery trucks at 7am going about their business so gave up on the idea of sleep. And I wanted to high tail it out of their before that bang on the door happened. I had a quick shower and then moved the beast around to the main carpark as I needed to buy some spray and wipe stuff to clean the beast before returning the next morning. While there, I asked the assistant if I should head north or south on #101 to get to the turn off to Monteray (I had given up looking at signs last night as I had decided to stop at Salinas). She didn’t know, and neither did two others there – it is only about 15 miles away and a popular beach destination. Gotta love local knowledge ... and helpful people ...
Fuelled up - $100 and it didn’t fill it up and I was not even down to a quarter tank. With fuel here, you have to pay first before pumping it into your car. So when I headed over $100 I thought I might get some change, but no, it just cut out when I reached that amount. So I asked this chickibabe if she knew how to get to Monteray, and she did!
MONTERAY, HERE I COME
Off I headed and when I spied a pay phone at Marina (little town half way there) I pulled over to ring El Monte to confirm the drop off location for tomorrow morning as I didn't trust the address I found online. Got caught with that trick in LA, as Google brought up the admin location (Downtown LA), rather than the depot location (out in the industrial boondocks).
My new phone card that had 60 minutes worth of talk time at that destination rate, cut out just after confirming I had to deliver it to the industrial boondocks of San Francisco, not the central location that came up in Google much earlier. My next call was meant to be to book an RV site near there, but the bloody useless card wouldn’t work. More frustration when ringing the help number – auto message to say leave a message and they will call back … I guessing anyone who buys a phone card does it because they don’t have a landline phone to begin with and are relying on pay phones … So do NOT ever buy a Speedy Pin Prepaid phone card. They take your money and rip you off.
UPDATE: Got this sorted out in San Francisco and they reimbursed the credit amount, but haven't tested the card yet to see what sort of talk time I have again.
I’m glad I made this phone stop though as it was FREEZING and there was no way I was going to go onto Monteray beach area and be closer to the artic ocean winds.
Into the motorhome to get my map out to plan the route to the RV Park and take a chance on it having a vacancy. No map. Left the bloody thing back at the servo in Salinas. Fifteen miles back there to get it, but that round trip of 30 miles felt like 10 minutes, so back to my time vacuum ponderings regarding USA mileage.
By 12.30pm I was pulling that bad boy up into bay 141 of the Alameda County Fairgrounds RV Park, on the eastern outreaches of San Francisco. Just don't understand why they subsequently directed another large RV to park right behind me when they were all of those other sites to choose from. This meant that there was less than 30cm between us and we could hear each other fart ... but of course I am a lady and I don't ...
Chatting with the receptionist, she was the fitness trainer for our Pat Cash, tennis player extraordinaire. She was also very familiar with El Monte as many people use this RV place on the last night as it is only 3 miles from the depot and she gave me directions on where to go in the morning. What I don’t get is why El Monte don’t pass on this info to clients, along with a map of where the drop off point is, when they pickup the vehicles. It would reduce stress levels somewhat.
Just all too lovely for words.
And they still use one cent pieces. And dimes are ten cents, but the size of an Aussie five cent piece, and a nickel is five cents, but the size of an Aussie ten cent piece. Tricks me every time, and I feel like a complete dickhead who can’t count.
Have to go now and tidy up and pack up ready for the morning.
Off to stay with Servas hosts for two nights in the heart of San Francisco.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
More beauty
CLEAR BUT COLD
Excellent day so far, despite the cold start.
Woke up at 10.30am after a very restless night as it was sooooo cold. Before I went to bed I doubled up one of the two blankets supplied in the comfort kit. Sometime in the night I had to redo the bedding as it was still too cold. Ended up folding both blankets in half to double up the warmth and threw on my pashmina and a silk sarong. I bundled it all around me like a caterpillar in a cocoon and still I was cold.
UPDATE: It really helps to read the operating manual as soon as you can after taking possession of a bad boy like this motorhome. I noticed there was a heater, but couldn't get it to work ... found out when I queried this upon returning it that all I had to do was adjust the temp setting as it was set at a cooler temp than what the ambient temp was ... duh
Then the coyote or some other canine type of thing started up. Then I heard noises around the motorhome. And then some more canine howling. Sleep was very elusive.
MARKET DAY AT THE WINERY
BUT, woke up this morning to find that the winery is having a market day today. Walked up the hill to find lots of fresh local produce, wine, and art products on display - and samples to taste. On the way to the winery, passed by this snake skin just 20 metres or so away from the beast. It was quite large, about 5 cm diameter, which means it was fatter than that before the skin dried out.
This is inside the winery itself, and the other stalls were set up in the barn/cellar building as it was very windy on the hill and I forgot to take a piccie of them as I was too busy tasting everything.
Blew my budget on a delicious glass of chardy, a tasting package, a lovely coin purse, spiced chilli toffee walnuts and pecans and, of course, a bottle of wine (which I didn't get to taste as I gave it to my first Servas host as a thank you gift). Can’t keep up this spending habit!
PREPARING TO HEAD OUT
Then headed down to hill to the motorhome, running the genie to recharge my computer so I can nick into a coffee house in Cambria (next town along) and use the wireless broadband and have a coffee. They had a stall here at the winery and chatting with them found out the Coast Highway is closed from storm damage from here to Monterey – which was my itinerary for the day. Damn! Back to a main highway again.
Also can’t do much until the idiot who parked less than a half a metre behind me moves on, as I have to back up off the levelling block, before I can go anywhere – and I also need to make sure I am sober after that wine.
So, as soon as that happens, onto Cambria to upload stuff, search the internet to find out where in San Fran I have to deliver this beast, and then on to the Monterey region for the night, about two hours drive away.
CAMBRIA
Here I am now in Cambria – what a lovely little village. Lots of wine houses, old style buildings, quaintness, and gorgeousness (!) everywhere.
Having a coffee and some free wifi to catch up on things and find out how to offload this monster in San Fran and then have to get cracking to park for the night further north.
Really, what was this dude thinking? Check out all the open parking spaces, and this idiot parks right in front of me where I strategically parked so I could just pull out forward and straight out of the exit. Idiot!
TIME WARPING ON THE ROAD AGAIN
It’s a strange thing, driving time and mileage in the USA. I anticipate that, if I am driving at 55mph, I will chew up 55 miles after driving for an hour. Sounds fair?
Yet, even when the traffic is flowing smoothly and I have driven for an hour at 55mph, I will see a highway sign that says my destination is only 20 less miles than it was an hour ago … how can this be? I’m on a freeway with no traffic lights, nothing to slow down for, and no interruptions of any kind.
Or if it is only 30 miles left to somewhere; I figure if I crank it up to 60mph, I’ll be there in 30 minutes. No, I’m not. After thirty minutes I still have 20 miles left. It is like this mobilehome is a Tardis, but not in a good way.
WINE REGION
As I mentioned the #1 Ocean Highway was closed north of Cambria, so after backtracking south a little from Cambria I had to take #46 East through the Santa Lucia Range. Stunning scenery of lots of bumpy hills, dry grasses and rock formations (a bit like the Adelaide Hills, but more dramatic and scrunched together) all dotted with wineries especially on the eastern end of the highway. Fantastic drive, but I had to keep pulling over to let cars get ahead of me as it was only one lane each direction and the motorhome made slow work (40mph) on the hills … oh, comes the dawn, re the earlier bit about time warping.
I had to give up on the car radio as the signal dropped out every mile or so, sometimes every 10 seconds. Driving along a windy road isn’t conducive to knob switching. Actually came to like hearing one line of one song, then static, then a line of a different song, back to the original, more static and then finding the only station that was constant was one that was excited to promote that they not only played country, they also played western. No joke!
Anyway, after this wine region experience I felt I could forego the Napa and Sonoma wine valley areas north of San Francisco. Well that, and of course I was totally over driving this monster one more mile than I had to.
AND FARMING TOO
I finally hooked up with #101 heading north again between two ranges and drove a through very wide valley filled with farms. Very picturesque. Then this black and white highway patrol car come belting along in the lane next to me and just after it got in front of me, their brakelights came on and I thought they were after me. But no, they chucked a u-turn like maniacs across the dusty, grassy wide area between the two sides of traffic to chase down someone going the other way – just like in the movies. Phew!
Anyhoo, on I drove to Salinas, just short of my target of Monteray.
PARKING FOR NIGHT THREE
It was 8pm, the sun was setting, and I didn’t want to drive in the dark, so when I spied a Walmart (free overnight parking in the carpark) from the highway, I thought it had my name all over it. Thirty minutes later after having a very exasperating search for it after exiting the freeway, back on, exit again, loop back again, I finally parked and asked a woman in the 7/11 shop how to find it. I also made the most of the forced 7/11 shop and bought a cheap bottle of wine.
Annoyingly, I had headed the right way first time, but didn't go far enough down the service road. So, headed back to Walmart, and parked the beast out of the way and to my delight the spot was level and didn’t have to manoeuvre or bring out the wheel stand ramp thing.
Just about to get settled in for the night when the security guard drives up. “No overnight parking here, ma’am.” “But, but, but, Walmart allows it” “Not here in Salinas, too many dumped their waste here and now the city forbids it” “But where else can I go now?” (me nearly in tears of frustration as this was the first night I actually parked where I had been told it was legal).
So she told me to park over behind some unrented building further down in the complex and to cross my fingers that the city cops didn’t appear and move me along. Right next to where I parked, was a strawberry farm. Very tempted to jump the fence and pick some, but thought I had better be good as I had been permitted to park overnight illegally.
The only bonus was that I had a bottle of wine now, and I knocked off half the bottle. Which also meant I didn’t have a plan B if I was told to drive on as I would have been over the limit. So cold again that as well as my PJs I had to wear two pairs of woolly socks, a merino thermal t-shirt, and a windcheater to my cocoon bed again.
Again, a very bad sleep, waiting for that bang on the door. But it didn’t come.
UPDATE:
.... pity the security officers weren't more diligent in their patrolling for this young girl.
PS When I get back home I want to have a go at making those spiced toffee walnuts and pecans. They were fantastic! Ingredients are: Nuts, sugar, honey, rosemary, salt, black pepper, and chilli.
Excellent day so far, despite the cold start.
Woke up at 10.30am after a very restless night as it was sooooo cold. Before I went to bed I doubled up one of the two blankets supplied in the comfort kit. Sometime in the night I had to redo the bedding as it was still too cold. Ended up folding both blankets in half to double up the warmth and threw on my pashmina and a silk sarong. I bundled it all around me like a caterpillar in a cocoon and still I was cold.
UPDATE: It really helps to read the operating manual as soon as you can after taking possession of a bad boy like this motorhome. I noticed there was a heater, but couldn't get it to work ... found out when I queried this upon returning it that all I had to do was adjust the temp setting as it was set at a cooler temp than what the ambient temp was ... duh
Then the coyote or some other canine type of thing started up. Then I heard noises around the motorhome. And then some more canine howling. Sleep was very elusive.
MARKET DAY AT THE WINERY
Then headed down to hill to the motorhome, running the genie to recharge my computer so I can nick into a coffee house in Cambria (next town along) and use the wireless broadband and have a coffee. They had a stall here at the winery and chatting with them found out the Coast Highway is closed from storm damage from here to Monterey – which was my itinerary for the day. Damn! Back to a main highway again.
Also can’t do much until the idiot who parked less than a half a metre behind me moves on, as I have to back up off the levelling block, before I can go anywhere – and I also need to make sure I am sober after that wine.
So, as soon as that happens, onto Cambria to upload stuff, search the internet to find out where in San Fran I have to deliver this beast, and then on to the Monterey region for the night, about two hours drive away.
CAMBRIA
TIME WARPING ON THE ROAD AGAIN
It’s a strange thing, driving time and mileage in the USA. I anticipate that, if I am driving at 55mph, I will chew up 55 miles after driving for an hour. Sounds fair?
Yet, even when the traffic is flowing smoothly and I have driven for an hour at 55mph, I will see a highway sign that says my destination is only 20 less miles than it was an hour ago … how can this be? I’m on a freeway with no traffic lights, nothing to slow down for, and no interruptions of any kind.
Or if it is only 30 miles left to somewhere; I figure if I crank it up to 60mph, I’ll be there in 30 minutes. No, I’m not. After thirty minutes I still have 20 miles left. It is like this mobilehome is a Tardis, but not in a good way.
WINE REGION
As I mentioned the #1 Ocean Highway was closed north of Cambria, so after backtracking south a little from Cambria I had to take #46 East through the Santa Lucia Range. Stunning scenery of lots of bumpy hills, dry grasses and rock formations (a bit like the Adelaide Hills, but more dramatic and scrunched together) all dotted with wineries especially on the eastern end of the highway. Fantastic drive, but I had to keep pulling over to let cars get ahead of me as it was only one lane each direction and the motorhome made slow work (40mph) on the hills … oh, comes the dawn, re the earlier bit about time warping.
I had to give up on the car radio as the signal dropped out every mile or so, sometimes every 10 seconds. Driving along a windy road isn’t conducive to knob switching. Actually came to like hearing one line of one song, then static, then a line of a different song, back to the original, more static and then finding the only station that was constant was one that was excited to promote that they not only played country, they also played western. No joke!
Anyway, after this wine region experience I felt I could forego the Napa and Sonoma wine valley areas north of San Francisco. Well that, and of course I was totally over driving this monster one more mile than I had to.
AND FARMING TOO
I finally hooked up with #101 heading north again between two ranges and drove a through very wide valley filled with farms. Very picturesque. Then this black and white highway patrol car come belting along in the lane next to me and just after it got in front of me, their brakelights came on and I thought they were after me. But no, they chucked a u-turn like maniacs across the dusty, grassy wide area between the two sides of traffic to chase down someone going the other way – just like in the movies. Phew!
Anyhoo, on I drove to Salinas, just short of my target of Monteray.
PARKING FOR NIGHT THREE
It was 8pm, the sun was setting, and I didn’t want to drive in the dark, so when I spied a Walmart (free overnight parking in the carpark) from the highway, I thought it had my name all over it. Thirty minutes later after having a very exasperating search for it after exiting the freeway, back on, exit again, loop back again, I finally parked and asked a woman in the 7/11 shop how to find it. I also made the most of the forced 7/11 shop and bought a cheap bottle of wine.
Annoyingly, I had headed the right way first time, but didn't go far enough down the service road. So, headed back to Walmart, and parked the beast out of the way and to my delight the spot was level and didn’t have to manoeuvre or bring out the wheel stand ramp thing.
The only bonus was that I had a bottle of wine now, and I knocked off half the bottle. Which also meant I didn’t have a plan B if I was told to drive on as I would have been over the limit. So cold again that as well as my PJs I had to wear two pairs of woolly socks, a merino thermal t-shirt, and a windcheater to my cocoon bed again.
Again, a very bad sleep, waiting for that bang on the door. But it didn’t come.
UPDATE:
.... pity the security officers weren't more diligent in their patrolling for this young girl.
PS When I get back home I want to have a go at making those spiced toffee walnuts and pecans. They were fantastic! Ingredients are: Nuts, sugar, honey, rosemary, salt, black pepper, and chilli.
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Much better day
IN SEARCH OF A BEACH
Woke up at 9am in the carpark, and had slept on and off for 12 hours or so and felt much better. Had some cheese slices on bread for brekkie, tidied up, and headed out to do battle with the highway traffic again at 10am.
After a while, I got off the highway to check out the beach, but the turnoff I picked was a small dead end with a smaller turning loop at the end. Bad choice, so back to the freeway to find a better beach.
My next choice led to a resort carpark (near Arroyo Grande) that had ample parking and turning space, so I parked the beast and went for a walk out to the coast. Saw an oil rig in the distance, and beautiful native flowers all around, and hoped the oil rig never had a disaster to ruin this gorgeous beach.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
So after a windy walk (brrrrr) it was back into the beast and onto Highway 101 (Ventura Highway), looking for the off ramp to Highway 1 to take in the coastal views. Got the exit number wrong and found myself in the suburbs of a place called San Juan Obispo instead. B*gger this, I thought, and pulled into a donut place carpark to ponder what a d*ckhead I am. By now it was 2.30pm so made some lunch (more cheese and tomato on bread) and ate it while I read the operating manual of the motorhome. Turned on the water pump and felt very clever to have water.
Time to keep going, so off we (that's the beast and I) went and got petrol. Another very clever thing to do. $84.03 for 20.3 gallons for about 240 miles, but I don’t think I fully filled the tank as it kept cutting out, so the fuel usage may not be quite accurate. I also think the tank wasn't fully filled when I picked it up, so I paid for more fuel than I used.
Then when I pulled out from there, I didn’t realise I had to turn left straight away to get back onto the highway … so cracked another right on a road full of houses but didn’t want to fall for that same trick of turning into a dead end street and having to reverse again. So thought the road is very wide – I’ll crack a U-turn. But not quite wide enough. Had to do a three point turn again. Sigh… And hold up a car going through…
But onwards and upwards.
TARGET: HARMONY
My target to stay the night was a little town called “Harmony” less than a 200 mile drive today, just off the highway on the coast. Turns out it was littler than I thought. Population 18. Yep! And those 18 are artists! The town consists of a stained glass studio, pottery studio, post office, and a very pretty wedding chapel. All very quaint and there is a winery on the hill above, which I’ll go to tomorrow before I leave.
I bought a pair of spiral earrings and then asked if I could camp the night just outside, which the potter duded said was ok. Good location, near enough to people but still private and quiet, and surrounded by scenery.
(Taken from the winery, that's my monster parked down there where I slept the night)
BREAKING NEW GROUND AGAIN
Again, new things to do. Had to level up the motorhome by driving 20cm up a little ramp thingy for one side. Then turned on the water pump and the hot water for a shower. Yay! Then I turned on the generator so I could nuke some food in the microwave. I know it sounds like nothing, but it was intimidating to try it for the first time in case I cocked it up and broke something.
The only thing I can’t work out is why didn’t I buy some wine yesterday so I would have something to drink in the evenings? Lucky for me there is a winery 200 hundred metres away and tomorrow is another day.
Woke up at 9am in the carpark, and had slept on and off for 12 hours or so and felt much better. Had some cheese slices on bread for brekkie, tidied up, and headed out to do battle with the highway traffic again at 10am.
After a while, I got off the highway to check out the beach, but the turnoff I picked was a small dead end with a smaller turning loop at the end. Bad choice, so back to the freeway to find a better beach.
My next choice led to a resort carpark (near Arroyo Grande) that had ample parking and turning space, so I parked the beast and went for a walk out to the coast. Saw an oil rig in the distance, and beautiful native flowers all around, and hoped the oil rig never had a disaster to ruin this gorgeous beach.
So after a windy walk (brrrrr) it was back into the beast and onto Highway 101 (Ventura Highway), looking for the off ramp to Highway 1 to take in the coastal views. Got the exit number wrong and found myself in the suburbs of a place called San Juan Obispo instead. B*gger this, I thought, and pulled into a donut place carpark to ponder what a d*ckhead I am. By now it was 2.30pm so made some lunch (more cheese and tomato on bread) and ate it while I read the operating manual of the motorhome. Turned on the water pump and felt very clever to have water.
Time to keep going, so off we (that's the beast and I) went and got petrol. Another very clever thing to do. $84.03 for 20.3 gallons for about 240 miles, but I don’t think I fully filled the tank as it kept cutting out, so the fuel usage may not be quite accurate. I also think the tank wasn't fully filled when I picked it up, so I paid for more fuel than I used.
Then when I pulled out from there, I didn’t realise I had to turn left straight away to get back onto the highway … so cracked another right on a road full of houses but didn’t want to fall for that same trick of turning into a dead end street and having to reverse again. So thought the road is very wide – I’ll crack a U-turn. But not quite wide enough. Had to do a three point turn again. Sigh… And hold up a car going through…
But onwards and upwards.
TARGET: HARMONY
I bought a pair of spiral earrings and then asked if I could camp the night just outside, which the potter duded said was ok. Good location, near enough to people but still private and quiet, and surrounded by scenery.
BREAKING NEW GROUND AGAIN
Again, new things to do. Had to level up the motorhome by driving 20cm up a little ramp thingy for one side. Then turned on the water pump and the hot water for a shower. Yay! Then I turned on the generator so I could nuke some food in the microwave. I know it sounds like nothing, but it was intimidating to try it for the first time in case I cocked it up and broke something.
The only thing I can’t work out is why didn’t I buy some wine yesterday so I would have something to drink in the evenings? Lucky for me there is a winery 200 hundred metres away and tomorrow is another day.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Horror day
What a horror day!
THE PHONE SAGA
Had to ring the LA office of El Monte RV (the company I’m relocating the motorhome for) between 8.30 and 9.30am to confirm pick up in the arvie or have booking cancelled. Also had to shower, pack up, eat brekkie, and have a quick moment on the internet Hotel before checking out at 10am of the Stay Hotel. Or so I thought – had I read my booking info correctly, I didn’t have to check out until 12noon. But I did still had to ring El Monte by 9.30am.
Of course I still haven’t worked out the new global sim for my mobile – I think I need to buy a more modern phone for it to work – and had to go in search of a public phone. So, at 8.45am I found two public phones around the corner and neither worked, but still managed to eat my coins before I discovered this and the last one connected me through to emergency medical aid …
Back to the hotel to see how much it would cost to ring from the phone in my room (I know, why didn’t I think of that before?) and was told it would be a long distance call as it was in another part of LA. Instead the receptionist sold me a phone card for $5 and during the convo, I mentioned how I had to ring by 9.30am and was getting a bit anxious as it was now after 9.15am. Up to my room to ring using my brand spanking new phone card and the bloody phone wouldn’t give me a line out or even let me ring the receptionist.
Back downstairs again to find out why the phone wouldn’t work – and can you believe it – she said she hadn’t unlocked the phone!! She just sold me a phone card to use on the room phone and knew I had to make a call asap and she didn’t think to unlock the phone? Aye curumba! By now it is after 9.30am (it’s a long journey from my room to reception) and I am in a bit of a flap.
Finally, back up to my room and now I can make a call, say I’m confirming my booking for today for a pickup to San Francisco and the stupid b*tch at El Monte tells me I have to call a different number. I ring the other number and it is the San Francisco office and no, they don’t want to talk to me at all, I do need to call the LA office – which I had. Ring the LA number again and get the same girl, Bridget, and no apology from her.
THE SAGA OF GETTING TO EL MONTE'S
Then I find out their office is way out in the eastern suburbs and, no, they only do a shuttle bus run to and from the airport, not Downtown LA. When I asked about public transport she had no clue, but offered to call me a cab. Knowing the distance involved I guestimated a cab would cost about $75 and this was confirmed with the hotel receptionist. To get to the airport for the $15 shuttle would cost another $7 plus mucking around. So, got out my handy Metro guide and spent $1.50 to get the metro to the end of the eastern line and a free transfer to a bus that took me 300 metres walking distance to El Monte.
What I have found in LA is that all service staff seem to want you to spend more bucks than you need to. Must be the secret LA game plan to boost the flagging economy.
OUTFITTING THE BEAST
Next I was sat down to watch a DVD of how to operate the motorhome in German. Had to go out and get the girl to play an English version for me. Maybe they thought I was German as they had my name recorded as Wildehhearg – although that sounds more like something the Swedish Chef from the Muppets would say. Wil-de-hherrrrg.
Next we had to sort out the costs and what extras I wanted. $50 for sheets, blanket, towels, pillow and one set of crockery and cutlery – I took that. They wanted $125 for cooking equipment, kettle and toaster – I said no thanks. And they will charge $75 bucks at the end to empty liquids and clean motorhome, or I can pay $25 now for them to do it at the end – I said no thanks, I’ll empty and clean it as I can pay $25 - $40 on my last night to stay at an RV campsite and empty everything then and enjoy the other site amenities at the same time, and spend a buck for some disinfectant to wipe everything down at the end.
MASTERING THE BEAST
After that I was taken out to the motorhome – all 28 foot of it, that’s about eight and a half metres long – to inspect it for damage and be given a walk though of how to operate the generator, gas, water pump, water heater, auxiliary power, toilet, fuel, etc and then how to empty all liquids at the end. She said the most important thing to remember was to fold up the step before taking off and if I do need to reverse, I should have someone guiding me (not just me, all drivers).
I thought to ask the chickibabe how to get onto the freeway from their yard and she said: “I don’t know”. Can you believe it? The motorway was right outside their office and she didn’t know how to get on it??? She then ‘very helpfully’ circled an area on my map (that mainly showed arterial roads and not too much detail) two or three times in heavy pen that blocked out any details now, and said, “You are here”.
After the chickibabe went back to the office, I sat in the motorhome for about 30 minutes trying to work out how to get out of LA and get onto the coastal highway. But first, I really needed to know how to get on to the nearest motorway from where I was as one does not want to be driving aimlessly in LA traffic in an unknown area in a very long motor home.
So, I went inside and asked a guy and he google mapped it and printed out directions and ran me through them.
That was the easy bit.
HERDING THE BEAST OUT OF THE YARD
By now it was 2.30pm and time to get that baby started and head off in it on the wrong side of the road and try to dodge peak hour highway mania.
As I sat in the driver’s seat, I wondered if it was too late to cancel the whole thing and go back to the nice Stay Hotel for another night or two and get a bus to San Francisco.
But I thought I had better suck it up and get on with it so off I went. Like the directions said, I turned left, then left again, crossed over a couple streets, crossed over 166th St and then missed the ramp onto the highway. Can you believe it? One minute out on my journey and already I had f*cked up. All I could do was keep going until the next street and crack a rightie hoping to go around the block and come out for a second attempt from the other direction. Only flaw was that the second turn led me into a dead end street. Now I had to do the one of the two main things she told me to avoid. I had to man-handle that monster into a three point turn that included REVERSING in a small residential street.
Little did I know at the time, but I had also done the very first and very important thing I shouldn’t do. Yep, I had driven off with the step down, and I didn’t find that out until I pulled in for the night FIVE HOURS later. I was sure she had put it up as part of her demo … I don’t like to think of all the dangerous situations and expensive repairs that could have happened had it snagged on anything like other cars and road work barriers etc Crikey, that’s nightmare material!
So now I am on Highway 605 heading south a tad to get onto Highway 105 West and then Highway 405 North to around the main traffic cutting through the main highway across town. Whizzing along at 55 miles per hour and still the slowest vehicle. All is going fine until the traffic builds, and slows to a 5mph crawl for nearly TWO HOURS. It took me five hours to travel 100 miles.
Did I mention that for some strange reason (probably just to boggle newbie drivers of large motorhomes) it is nearly impossible to stay in the slow right hand lane? I quickly mastered knowing the road markings for entering and exiting lanes from the freeway, but would suddenly find myself in the middle lanes of the freeway - surrounded by irate drivers because I was only doing 55mph - because some genious suddenly added a lane or two on the right and I hadn't noticed I was unexpectedly thrown into the thick of the fast traffic flow.
PARKING FOR THE FIRST NIGHT
Totally stressed out, knackered, and sporting a fierce headache by 7.30pm I pulled off the highway and found a supermarket carpark at a little place called Oxnard, just short of my target of Ventura. Pulled in and the monster took up two entire car parks. I parked at the far end of the carpark, right near a hire car place and tried to pretend that the beast was just another hire car sitting there, waiting to be hired as I wasn't sure whether parking there overnight was quite legal. Anyhoo, bought some food for my travels at the discount supermarket (everything was a $1) and decided to eat at the Burger King there as well because I hadn’t eaten anything since the small bowl of cereal at the hostel about 9.45am. Back in the beast by 8.30pm and in bed by 8.45pm as I was not going a foot further.
I was too tired to even try pushing the right button to operate the water pump so I could brush my teeth or flush the toilet. Gee, it’s great to have my own toilet that is always handy – unless you are on the highway and can’t find anywhere to legally pull over on the highway when you need to go. But it does seem weird to be going to the toilet when there are people walking around the motorhome ie in the carpark.
And on that note, that’s more than enough for today.
THE PHONE SAGA
Had to ring the LA office of El Monte RV (the company I’m relocating the motorhome for) between 8.30 and 9.30am to confirm pick up in the arvie or have booking cancelled. Also had to shower, pack up, eat brekkie, and have a quick moment on the internet Hotel before checking out at 10am of the Stay Hotel. Or so I thought – had I read my booking info correctly, I didn’t have to check out until 12noon. But I did still had to ring El Monte by 9.30am.
Of course I still haven’t worked out the new global sim for my mobile – I think I need to buy a more modern phone for it to work – and had to go in search of a public phone. So, at 8.45am I found two public phones around the corner and neither worked, but still managed to eat my coins before I discovered this and the last one connected me through to emergency medical aid …
Back to the hotel to see how much it would cost to ring from the phone in my room (I know, why didn’t I think of that before?) and was told it would be a long distance call as it was in another part of LA. Instead the receptionist sold me a phone card for $5 and during the convo, I mentioned how I had to ring by 9.30am and was getting a bit anxious as it was now after 9.15am. Up to my room to ring using my brand spanking new phone card and the bloody phone wouldn’t give me a line out or even let me ring the receptionist.
Back downstairs again to find out why the phone wouldn’t work – and can you believe it – she said she hadn’t unlocked the phone!! She just sold me a phone card to use on the room phone and knew I had to make a call asap and she didn’t think to unlock the phone? Aye curumba! By now it is after 9.30am (it’s a long journey from my room to reception) and I am in a bit of a flap.
Finally, back up to my room and now I can make a call, say I’m confirming my booking for today for a pickup to San Francisco and the stupid b*tch at El Monte tells me I have to call a different number. I ring the other number and it is the San Francisco office and no, they don’t want to talk to me at all, I do need to call the LA office – which I had. Ring the LA number again and get the same girl, Bridget, and no apology from her.
THE SAGA OF GETTING TO EL MONTE'S
Then I find out their office is way out in the eastern suburbs and, no, they only do a shuttle bus run to and from the airport, not Downtown LA. When I asked about public transport she had no clue, but offered to call me a cab. Knowing the distance involved I guestimated a cab would cost about $75 and this was confirmed with the hotel receptionist. To get to the airport for the $15 shuttle would cost another $7 plus mucking around. So, got out my handy Metro guide and spent $1.50 to get the metro to the end of the eastern line and a free transfer to a bus that took me 300 metres walking distance to El Monte.
What I have found in LA is that all service staff seem to want you to spend more bucks than you need to. Must be the secret LA game plan to boost the flagging economy.
OUTFITTING THE BEAST
Next I was sat down to watch a DVD of how to operate the motorhome in German. Had to go out and get the girl to play an English version for me. Maybe they thought I was German as they had my name recorded as Wildehhearg – although that sounds more like something the Swedish Chef from the Muppets would say. Wil-de-hherrrrg.
Next we had to sort out the costs and what extras I wanted. $50 for sheets, blanket, towels, pillow and one set of crockery and cutlery – I took that. They wanted $125 for cooking equipment, kettle and toaster – I said no thanks. And they will charge $75 bucks at the end to empty liquids and clean motorhome, or I can pay $25 now for them to do it at the end – I said no thanks, I’ll empty and clean it as I can pay $25 - $40 on my last night to stay at an RV campsite and empty everything then and enjoy the other site amenities at the same time, and spend a buck for some disinfectant to wipe everything down at the end.
MASTERING THE BEAST
After that I was taken out to the motorhome – all 28 foot of it, that’s about eight and a half metres long – to inspect it for damage and be given a walk though of how to operate the generator, gas, water pump, water heater, auxiliary power, toilet, fuel, etc and then how to empty all liquids at the end. She said the most important thing to remember was to fold up the step before taking off and if I do need to reverse, I should have someone guiding me (not just me, all drivers).
I thought to ask the chickibabe how to get onto the freeway from their yard and she said: “I don’t know”. Can you believe it? The motorway was right outside their office and she didn’t know how to get on it??? She then ‘very helpfully’ circled an area on my map (that mainly showed arterial roads and not too much detail) two or three times in heavy pen that blocked out any details now, and said, “You are here”.
After the chickibabe went back to the office, I sat in the motorhome for about 30 minutes trying to work out how to get out of LA and get onto the coastal highway. But first, I really needed to know how to get on to the nearest motorway from where I was as one does not want to be driving aimlessly in LA traffic in an unknown area in a very long motor home.
So, I went inside and asked a guy and he google mapped it and printed out directions and ran me through them.
That was the easy bit.
HERDING THE BEAST OUT OF THE YARD
By now it was 2.30pm and time to get that baby started and head off in it on the wrong side of the road and try to dodge peak hour highway mania.
As I sat in the driver’s seat, I wondered if it was too late to cancel the whole thing and go back to the nice Stay Hotel for another night or two and get a bus to San Francisco.
But I thought I had better suck it up and get on with it so off I went. Like the directions said, I turned left, then left again, crossed over a couple streets, crossed over 166th St and then missed the ramp onto the highway. Can you believe it? One minute out on my journey and already I had f*cked up. All I could do was keep going until the next street and crack a rightie hoping to go around the block and come out for a second attempt from the other direction. Only flaw was that the second turn led me into a dead end street. Now I had to do the one of the two main things she told me to avoid. I had to man-handle that monster into a three point turn that included REVERSING in a small residential street.
Little did I know at the time, but I had also done the very first and very important thing I shouldn’t do. Yep, I had driven off with the step down, and I didn’t find that out until I pulled in for the night FIVE HOURS later. I was sure she had put it up as part of her demo … I don’t like to think of all the dangerous situations and expensive repairs that could have happened had it snagged on anything like other cars and road work barriers etc Crikey, that’s nightmare material!
So now I am on Highway 605 heading south a tad to get onto Highway 105 West and then Highway 405 North to around the main traffic cutting through the main highway across town. Whizzing along at 55 miles per hour and still the slowest vehicle. All is going fine until the traffic builds, and slows to a 5mph crawl for nearly TWO HOURS. It took me five hours to travel 100 miles.
PARKING FOR THE FIRST NIGHT
Totally stressed out, knackered, and sporting a fierce headache by 7.30pm I pulled off the highway and found a supermarket carpark at a little place called Oxnard, just short of my target of Ventura. Pulled in and the monster took up two entire car parks. I parked at the far end of the carpark, right near a hire car place and tried to pretend that the beast was just another hire car sitting there, waiting to be hired as I wasn't sure whether parking there overnight was quite legal. Anyhoo, bought some food for my travels at the discount supermarket (everything was a $1) and decided to eat at the Burger King there as well because I hadn’t eaten anything since the small bowl of cereal at the hostel about 9.45am. Back in the beast by 8.30pm and in bed by 8.45pm as I was not going a foot further.
I was too tired to even try pushing the right button to operate the water pump so I could brush my teeth or flush the toilet. Gee, it’s great to have my own toilet that is always handy – unless you are on the highway and can’t find anywhere to legally pull over on the highway when you need to go. But it does seem weird to be going to the toilet when there are people walking around the motorhome ie in the carpark.
And on that note, that’s more than enough for today.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
My day in LA
Thursday 10pm (Townsville time: 3pm Friday 20)
HOLLYWOOD
Well, learnt my lesson already about going anywhere with someone. Why, oh why, did I agree to head out today with my room-mate? In all of LA, all I really wanted to do on my one whole day was to go to Hollywood Boulevard (and make sure I saw the Hollywood sign) and check out the high end shops on Rodeo Drive. Then if there was time left over, maybe check out the Hollywood Farmers’ Market or the Iguana Vintage Clothing shop, or even some more of Downtown LA.
So, off we went to catch the subway (On her advice, I bought a TAP card for $2 plus paid $6 for all day metro and bus travel) and headed to Hollywood Blvd. Got there no worries - mostly good so far.
Had a look around and it was excellent that I ran into my old mate Marilyn while there.
Located the Hollywood star for our Aussie mate Cate Blanchett and found another one for a wannabe star - some tourist just scribbled their name on a blank star with a marker. (Damn! That was my plan)
Checked out the footprints etc in front of the famous Chinese place (the name of which eludes me for now) and snapped Johnny Depp’s prints. Just looked at the map and of course I meant Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Also, had a very nice cappuccino and banana cake at Starbucks coffee shop for $4.60.
FASHION SAFARI
So, then onto the high end fashion shops … my room mate said she had a better place to go rather than Rodeo Drive to look at fashion shops. First she said we needed to walk a couple of blocks away from the Metro stop where we were to catch a bus to this place, but I looked at the map and reckoned there would be a bus stop at a Metro station two stops away. Convinced her to reluctantly get the Metro to where I reckoned we could interchange and "ta dah" I was right. That should have been a red flag right then about her mastery of the public transport system ...
Oh, have to mention that most of the USA public transport systems have bike racks on the front of buses to encourage combining bike riding and public transport usage to cut down on car pollution. I think this is a great idea.
So, we catch the connecting bus and then spent an hour on the bus to get to … Westfield Plaza! Westfield bloody Plaza!
After wandering around trying to locate a few high end brand names and also finding something to eat, I discovered why she wanted to go there. She had been yesterday and wanted to return an item to a shop. F*cking b*itch - she wasted the majority of my day to return a lousy top!
PUBLIC TRANSPORT WOES
Then, after allowing her to be the public transport guru, she decided we could catch the bus all the way back to Downtown – nearly two hours through the ‘burbs and to top that off, she got us off at the wrong end of our street. Half hour of walking later – back to our room just as the sun set about 8pm. We could have connected with the Metro much earlier and reconnected with a different bus that stopped right outside our door in the space of an hour. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
No piccies after leaving Hollywood - too disappointed
Never again! Queen of my own destiny and Director of my own journey from now on!
UPDATE: I didn't really get value out of buying a TAP card and the all day ticket based on the few journeys we made that day. Would have been better to buy single journey tickets for each leg.
BACK TO HOLLYWOOD
Anyhoo, at the Kodak Theatre area (home of the Academy Awards) they were setting up for the premiere of some movie, which was pretty interesting.
And saw some hopefuls further down the road lining up for an audition and just across the road was a Harley store. Had to take a piccie of it for both bike lovers, Brian and David.
These guys were very ardently trying to save Los Angeles sinners, but I managed to get past them unharmed.
This piccie shows the start to the paved area that has lots of mosaic panels with mosaic text stories of different people who were lured to Hollywood for a life of fame and fortune. Good location to view the Hollywood sign on the hillside.
The weather is glorious, very much like the weather I left behind in Townsville.
Can’t believe my time is nearly up in LA as I leave tomorrow to head north up the coastal road … well, I hope my motorhome booking is alright and I will be leaving as planned. Also bit nervous about driving out of LA tomorrow arvie – freeway traffic will be mad, driving on the wrong side of the road, and in a huge motorhome. Wish me luck!
As I said last night, I may not be able to post anything for four or so days now.
Bye, Mandy
HOLLYWOOD
Well, learnt my lesson already about going anywhere with someone. Why, oh why, did I agree to head out today with my room-mate? In all of LA, all I really wanted to do on my one whole day was to go to Hollywood Boulevard (and make sure I saw the Hollywood sign) and check out the high end shops on Rodeo Drive. Then if there was time left over, maybe check out the Hollywood Farmers’ Market or the Iguana Vintage Clothing shop, or even some more of Downtown LA.
So, off we went to catch the subway (On her advice, I bought a TAP card for $2 plus paid $6 for all day metro and bus travel) and headed to Hollywood Blvd. Got there no worries - mostly good so far.
Had a look around and it was excellent that I ran into my old mate Marilyn while there.
Located the Hollywood star for our Aussie mate Cate Blanchett and found another one for a wannabe star - some tourist just scribbled their name on a blank star with a marker. (Damn! That was my plan)
Checked out the footprints etc in front of the famous Chinese place (the name of which eludes me for now) and snapped Johnny Depp’s prints. Just looked at the map and of course I meant Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Also, had a very nice cappuccino and banana cake at Starbucks coffee shop for $4.60.
FASHION SAFARI
So, then onto the high end fashion shops … my room mate said she had a better place to go rather than Rodeo Drive to look at fashion shops. First she said we needed to walk a couple of blocks away from the Metro stop where we were to catch a bus to this place, but I looked at the map and reckoned there would be a bus stop at a Metro station two stops away. Convinced her to reluctantly get the Metro to where I reckoned we could interchange and "ta dah" I was right. That should have been a red flag right then about her mastery of the public transport system ...
Oh, have to mention that most of the USA public transport systems have bike racks on the front of buses to encourage combining bike riding and public transport usage to cut down on car pollution. I think this is a great idea.
After wandering around trying to locate a few high end brand names and also finding something to eat, I discovered why she wanted to go there. She had been yesterday and wanted to return an item to a shop. F*cking b*itch - she wasted the majority of my day to return a lousy top!
PUBLIC TRANSPORT WOES
Then, after allowing her to be the public transport guru, she decided we could catch the bus all the way back to Downtown – nearly two hours through the ‘burbs and to top that off, she got us off at the wrong end of our street. Half hour of walking later – back to our room just as the sun set about 8pm. We could have connected with the Metro much earlier and reconnected with a different bus that stopped right outside our door in the space of an hour. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
No piccies after leaving Hollywood - too disappointed
Never again! Queen of my own destiny and Director of my own journey from now on!
UPDATE: I didn't really get value out of buying a TAP card and the all day ticket based on the few journeys we made that day. Would have been better to buy single journey tickets for each leg.
BACK TO HOLLYWOOD
Anyhoo, at the Kodak Theatre area (home of the Academy Awards) they were setting up for the premiere of some movie, which was pretty interesting.
And saw some hopefuls further down the road lining up for an audition and just across the road was a Harley store. Had to take a piccie of it for both bike lovers, Brian and David.
These guys were very ardently trying to save Los Angeles sinners, but I managed to get past them unharmed.
The weather is glorious, very much like the weather I left behind in Townsville.
Can’t believe my time is nearly up in LA as I leave tomorrow to head north up the coastal road … well, I hope my motorhome booking is alright and I will be leaving as planned. Also bit nervous about driving out of LA tomorrow arvie – freeway traffic will be mad, driving on the wrong side of the road, and in a huge motorhome. Wish me luck!
As I said last night, I may not be able to post anything for four or so days now.
Bye, Mandy
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
LA LA land
Up at 4am and at Townsville airport by 5am or so.
My last moment in Townsville at the airport.
TICKETING
Take off at 5.55am with Qantas to Brisbane, time there for a coffee and duty free shopping (bought classic Vera Wang perfume and an 8GB SD card for my camera) then boarded flight for Los Angeles.
At check in at Qantas counter in Townsville, the customer service dude was surprised at my online details as I evidently was the first person – ever - he has not had to override anything with regards to my USA entrance details. Don’t know what was going on there …
Anyhoo, at the TSV self serve check in I allocated myself one of the last few seats for the LA flight and selected the back row seat, on the aisle, no-one allocated to the seat next to me, no seats on the other side of the aisle, and just an emergency exit door. Thought I had scored well to get the only seat with no-one next to me out of a totally full plane. Then at the Brisbane check in for LA (had to get another boarding pass) the customer service dude there offered me a better seat. I said that I hadn’t seen anything better on the console, but he said he could help me. Bastard! Turns out he moved me one and a half rows forward to the only other seat that was available (and I rejected) when I had pre-selected mine earlier. This one had someone next to me, people across aisle AND no foot room in front as it had the entertainment console right in the middle of the floor. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And shooting filthy looks all flight at the ring-in who scored my seat didn’t make me feel better either - bet he was a mate of the Qantas dude.
THE LONG-HAUL FLIGHT
After a delay in Brisbane takeoff because the auto baggage scanner broke and luggage had to be hand scanned (so the story goes) I had another sleepless 12 hours or more – but did get served dinner, wine, and breakfast and watched a few movies. And Wendy and Leigh, I was very disappointed there was no hot face washer offered.
LOS ANGELES AIRPORT
Finally, arrived in LA at 7am Wednesday 18 May (crossed the international dateline) and it took nearly two hours to get through customs. First had to get into a long queue to get passport checked, fingerprints scanned, and ID photo taken. Then pick up baggage and get in even longer queue to get myself and baggage through customs a second time.
Had a coffee at the airport to wake up a bit – and was surprised to see only one or two shops etc at the arrivals hall. Then checked out how to get into LA from airport. Glad I didn’t pre-purchase a shuttle bus ticket on the flight for $38, or from the Qantas website before I left for about $13.
Paid just $7 for a direct bus (see piccie) to get to Union Central transport hub and then 35c for a DASH (inner city) bus to get to hotel. Actually didn’t pay the 35c as I wasn’t told (called Metro info first) that I needed correct change so some kind passenger paid the 35c as I only had notes.
UPDATE: Since writing this, I noticed the Metro train had a stop at the domestic airport and it appears there is a shuttle between the international and domestic airports, so worth checking that out next time for even cheaper fare.
This piccie below was taken on the bus in from the airport. That's Downtown LA in the distance.
ACCOMMODATION
Luckily, my twin bed shared room at the Stay Hotel on South Main St was ready so I could check in straight away (by now it was 11am) rather than having to wait until 3pm. This is the main reception for the building:
But, this is the actual lobby for the bit that is leased to the outfit I booked with (room is still accessible via the grand entrance though):
Unpacked a bit, chatted with Sth Korean room-mate, then had a fantastic hot shower, got PJs on was in bed by 12noon. Woke up about 5.30pm and had another shower to wash hair. Have to share the shower room with about 10 other rooms, but there is a toilet and basin in each room. For $26 a night with brekkie supplied, one can’t complain. And it is very clean, comfy, and totally without bedbugs! I had the bottom bunk.
At the time of writing this it is 10pm on Wednesday 18 May (3pm Thursday Townsville time) and fire engine sirens are roaring down the road every 30 minutes or so and lots of traffic noises.
FOOD
Just came back from braving the interesting night life (lots of vagrants etc) in my quest for junk food. I found a quite tasty grilled chicken burger with a huge slab of marinated capsicum. Bit daunted by the thought of it, but it was one of the tastiest junk burgers I have had for a while.
AND THEN ...
Off to bed soon and then hit Hollywood and Rodeo Drive tomorrow with my room-mate.
I’ll update again tomorrow night, but not sure how easy it will be to get to the internet again for the next four days or so after that while I drive the motor home from LA to San Francisco. Yep, I scored one for $1 a night, for four nights and a sweet $200 for fuel thrown into the deal.
Bye, Mandy
My last moment in Townsville at the airport.
TICKETING
Take off at 5.55am with Qantas to Brisbane, time there for a coffee and duty free shopping (bought classic Vera Wang perfume and an 8GB SD card for my camera) then boarded flight for Los Angeles.
At check in at Qantas counter in Townsville, the customer service dude was surprised at my online details as I evidently was the first person – ever - he has not had to override anything with regards to my USA entrance details. Don’t know what was going on there …
Anyhoo, at the TSV self serve check in I allocated myself one of the last few seats for the LA flight and selected the back row seat, on the aisle, no-one allocated to the seat next to me, no seats on the other side of the aisle, and just an emergency exit door. Thought I had scored well to get the only seat with no-one next to me out of a totally full plane. Then at the Brisbane check in for LA (had to get another boarding pass) the customer service dude there offered me a better seat. I said that I hadn’t seen anything better on the console, but he said he could help me. Bastard! Turns out he moved me one and a half rows forward to the only other seat that was available (and I rejected) when I had pre-selected mine earlier. This one had someone next to me, people across aisle AND no foot room in front as it had the entertainment console right in the middle of the floor. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And shooting filthy looks all flight at the ring-in who scored my seat didn’t make me feel better either - bet he was a mate of the Qantas dude.
THE LONG-HAUL FLIGHT
After a delay in Brisbane takeoff because the auto baggage scanner broke and luggage had to be hand scanned (so the story goes) I had another sleepless 12 hours or more – but did get served dinner, wine, and breakfast and watched a few movies. And Wendy and Leigh, I was very disappointed there was no hot face washer offered.
LOS ANGELES AIRPORT
Finally, arrived in LA at 7am Wednesday 18 May (crossed the international dateline) and it took nearly two hours to get through customs. First had to get into a long queue to get passport checked, fingerprints scanned, and ID photo taken. Then pick up baggage and get in even longer queue to get myself and baggage through customs a second time.
Had a coffee at the airport to wake up a bit – and was surprised to see only one or two shops etc at the arrivals hall. Then checked out how to get into LA from airport. Glad I didn’t pre-purchase a shuttle bus ticket on the flight for $38, or from the Qantas website before I left for about $13.
UPDATE: Since writing this, I noticed the Metro train had a stop at the domestic airport and it appears there is a shuttle between the international and domestic airports, so worth checking that out next time for even cheaper fare.
This piccie below was taken on the bus in from the airport. That's Downtown LA in the distance.
ACCOMMODATION
Luckily, my twin bed shared room at the Stay Hotel on South Main St was ready so I could check in straight away (by now it was 11am) rather than having to wait until 3pm. This is the main reception for the building:
FOOD
Just came back from braving the interesting night life (lots of vagrants etc) in my quest for junk food. I found a quite tasty grilled chicken burger with a huge slab of marinated capsicum. Bit daunted by the thought of it, but it was one of the tastiest junk burgers I have had for a while.
AND THEN ...
Off to bed soon and then hit Hollywood and Rodeo Drive tomorrow with my room-mate.
I’ll update again tomorrow night, but not sure how easy it will be to get to the internet again for the next four days or so after that while I drive the motor home from LA to San Francisco. Yep, I scored one for $1 a night, for four nights and a sweet $200 for fuel thrown into the deal.
Bye, Mandy
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Last night in Townsville
Not too sure about the look of the blogsite still, and now thinking about disabling the ads that I allowed, but for now my thinking is "to hell with the look of it". I need to set the blog site public so you can keep up with my travels. I'll make it look better if I get time later.
Also, just to get started with my travel updates, this blog is a bit wordy and no piccies today. I promise to change that around soon with more piccies to tell the story, rather than my ramblings.
Tuesday 17 May
Only got about four hours sleep last night
No time to check emails all day
Had to go into town to buy last minute stuff
Tidied up house
Prepare info for house sitters/neighbours
Wendy picked me up at about 6pm to stay at her house for the night
Hasty fridge emptying, final pack, and all-too-brief cat farewell
(no time for final yard watering)
Yummy Indian dinner at Wendy’s
Couldn’t sleep much even with lots of wine and a sleeping tablet.
Also, just to get started with my travel updates, this blog is a bit wordy and no piccies today. I promise to change that around soon with more piccies to tell the story, rather than my ramblings.
Tuesday 17 May
Only got about four hours sleep last night
No time to check emails all day
Had to go into town to buy last minute stuff
Tidied up house
Prepare info for house sitters/neighbours
Wendy picked me up at about 6pm to stay at her house for the night
Hasty fridge emptying, final pack, and all-too-brief cat farewell
(no time for final yard watering)
Yummy Indian dinner at Wendy’s
Couldn’t sleep much even with lots of wine and a sleeping tablet.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Preparations
I have been so busy the last week or two getting things organised and searching the internet for bargains.
So far I have found some great deals and have:
> booked accommodation in Los Angeles, New York, and London,
> booked a seven night cruise in Alaska,
> purchased a 30 day bus pass for Canada and America,
> hired a car for the UK (scored a fantastic deal from Ryanair)
But more details about all of that when they come up in my itinerary.
I'm still on the lookout for a super relocation mobile home deal to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco. And the next leg of getting to Vancouver for the cruise is still to be booked. But once these two items are taken care off then all major land travel elements have been covered.
Usually I don't prebook much in my travels, but for this trip I want to be able to focus on my travels as they happen, rather than being glued to the internet etc trying to "hunt and gather" accommodation and land travel elements for the next leg of my journey. I'm not sure how much I will enjoy travelling this way, but I will give it a go and at the end of the journey, I can assess whether or not it is a good way to travel.
So far I have found some great deals and have:
> booked accommodation in Los Angeles, New York, and London,
> booked a seven night cruise in Alaska,
> purchased a 30 day bus pass for Canada and America,
> hired a car for the UK (scored a fantastic deal from Ryanair)
But more details about all of that when they come up in my itinerary.
I'm still on the lookout for a super relocation mobile home deal to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco. And the next leg of getting to Vancouver for the cruise is still to be booked. But once these two items are taken care off then all major land travel elements have been covered.
Usually I don't prebook much in my travels, but for this trip I want to be able to focus on my travels as they happen, rather than being glued to the internet etc trying to "hunt and gather" accommodation and land travel elements for the next leg of my journey. I'm not sure how much I will enjoy travelling this way, but I will give it a go and at the end of the journey, I can assess whether or not it is a good way to travel.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Getting close to departure
My departure date of 18 May 2011 is looming and I can't believe how quickly time is passing.
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