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.