<<< Tuesday, 1 April 1997
By the time we had taken Ann & Richard to LA airport it was the rush hour which normally means heavy going on the Interstate roads back to Anaheim, however with two in the car we were able to use the carpool lane. It is staggering that around 90 percent of the cars in the rush hour only has one person in them, so the carpool lane was virtually empty whereas traffic was crawling along on the other lanes.
Wednesday, 2 April 1997
After washing the RV we drove north to Buellton (home of the split pea soup) which is on the Pacific Coastal Highway about 160 miles from Anaheim. The PCH (Route 1) follows the coast for most of the way, passing through Malibu and Santa Barbara both of which have extensive sandy beaches but unfortunately limited camping facilities and virtually none for RVs over 30 feet long. This part of the coast regularly suffers from floods and rock slides since the road follows the base of steep mountains. After some weeks in the desert countryside, it was very refreshing to see how green everything was. Being spring all the vegetation was a light green and numerous displays of wildflowers were sprinkled along the mountainsides.
| About four miles east of Buellton lies the Danish styled village of Solvang (sunny valley), in fact, it is probably more Danish that many places in Denmark. The village seems to comprise of nothing but tourist shops and restaurants and has four windmills, all in traditional Danish architecture. It was founded in 1910 with the purchase of 9,000 acres with the aim of maintaining Danish traditions. It is a delightful place to walk around and the Danish lunch was cheap and excellent but the gifts in the numerous shops were probably as expensive as we have seen anywhere. | |
Friday, 4 - Saturday,. 5 April 1997
We continued to travel north along route 1, the scenery is mainly soft rounded grass-covered hills in the foreground and steep mountains just inland. It would be a nice area to stop and camp but due to the terrain there is only limited ground suitable for housing, never mind campgrounds. Very few campgrounds exist and most were built years ago and cannot take the larger modern rigs. As a result of the limited choice, we decided to stop at the Dunes RV park in Morro Bay, which is located close to the beach. The view to the sea is impressive as it looks out onto an imposing rock which is the last in a chain of extinct volcanoes, but the view inland is a large concrete-making quarry!
The small town is somewhat disjointed with the freeway passing through the center. There is a very wide sandy beach but it is largely covered with seaweed and driftwood, which is put to good use as fuel for campground fires.
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Probably one of the most expensive sections of the road in the US must be the 90 or so miles of route 1 stretching from Hurst Castle to Monterey. The road is cut into the side of steep mountains which descend in places almost vertically to the sea far below. Construction took from 1919 to 1937, partly because of the slow trickle of funds, but mainly due to the major engineering problems. Due to the numerous ravines, 33 bridges were built including the spectacular Bixby Creek Bridge which spans some 718 feet and is 260 feet high. |
The road and scenery are spectacular and compare strongly with Chapman's Peak which we drove along in South Africa. It was a stimulating and challenging road to drive the motor home along, due to countless hairpin bends and narrow lanes. We would have liked to camp somewhere and spend more time enjoying the scenery but we ended up camping in Marina which is about five miles north of Monterey.
Monday, 7 - Tuesday, 8 April 1997
We decided to visit Carmel which we had previously passed through some five years ago. Nothing appears to have changed, in fact, we even had a coffee in the same sunny garden restaurant we visited on the previous occasion. Whilst having coffee we had an interesting conversation with a lady from Anchorage who was taking two months off from her business to tour the west coast, we certainly learned a lot about how cold Alaska gets. Carmel is a small very upmarket town which overlooks a wide extensive sandy bay and as in the past, the place is still expensive but continues to attract writers and artists as well as some of the rich and famous. The vegetation along the coastline is smothered with succulents ranging from browns to vivid greens, most of which were in flower as we drove along the famous coastal road from Carmel.
Monterey was established in 1770 and for many years it was famous for sardine fishing but today squid fishing is it's mainstay. The two places all tourist visit are Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf which is famous for clam chowder in a sourdough roll - delicious. Part of the afternoon was spent in the library learning what we could about Polymaelgia Rheumatica!
Wednesday, 9 - Thursday, 10 April 1997
After an early morning walk alone on the totally deserted beach - that is except for a dead seal - we continued our journey north and moved inland to San Juan Bautista which even today appears to have a strong Mexican influence. The Old Mission was built in 1797 and in the early days some 1,200 Indians were served meals three times a day, some of the cooking facilities can still be seen. It is still out of season so we were almost the only people visiting the village, but judging by the number of restaurants, antiques and gift shops it must get very busy during the summer.
Saturday, 12 April 1997
We spent a very enjoyable day with Sikko Wittermans and Iain Stewart and their families both live south of San Jose. Both of them are now working in the new Philips CFT greenhouse (ideas) facility. Philips is putting a high priority on forging alliances with companies like Microsoft and Intel to ensure Philips is at the birth of totally new products, as well as the emerging integration of computers and television. Their job is to set up an R&D and manufacturing facility for these products as well as others such as cell and video phones. Sikko is now General manager and Iain is Purchasing manager. George was also able to catch up with what has been happening with Philips at large, within both DAP and Hastings. It seems as you would guess, that a lot has happened but most of the same problems exist like the Hastings factory is going through a bad period due to exchange rate movements, the factory will produce three million kettles this year but another million will be made in Poland to reduce the cost price.
We have visited many splendid houses in our time and the house Sikko is living in ranks highly, it belongs to an American plant director who is now working for Philips in France. The almost new house is located in an exclusive country club near the Silicon Valley, many of the houses are around one million dollars, all of which have excellent views of the rolling hillside. Sikko's house overlooks the golf course, in fact, the first tee, however, one needs to earn $50K a year and also to be able to put down a large entrance fee! to join the exclusive club. We were very impressed, let's hope the Philips shareholder gets good value.
Sunday, 13 April 1997
We had our second transatlantic Internet conversation with Kevin, June and family which yet again turned out to be an excellent and cheap way of keeping up with the family news and technically worked well.
Iain invited us to spend the afternoon visiting his house which is a two-level cliffhanger on the side of a large range of hills overlooking downtown San Jose. It is a nice rambling multilevel house and garden with a large lounging and BBQ area. So some time was spent catching up with the Philips news and then off to the local Outback restaurant which, however, due to its excellent steaks, was so busy that we decided to eat elsewhere.
Monday, 14 April 1997
There are many superstores in the USA however George, Fry's Electronics rates as number one. As there are several such stores in the San Jose area we had to make a pilgrimage to the nearest, where he spent about three hours walking up and down the hundreds of rows gazing at every possible electronic gadget imaginable. Fortunately, he managed to resist diving too deeply into the bank balance.
Tuesday, 15 April 1997
After a very enjoyable few days visiting ex-Philips colleagues, today we drove the 115 miles north to Sonoma to spend a few days with Pat and Dick who are American friends we originally met last June at the Newmar factory in Nappanee, Indiana. Even though their house was in an area of small roads we thankfully drove directly to the house without a mistake thanks to the GPS system. Their large house is built on one level like many American places and has enough ground to park two RV's as well as four cars. At the bottom of the garden is a large duck pond from which came the noise of numerous birds enjoying the afternoon sunshine. We spent the afternoon exchanging experiences, Pat preparing an enormous BBQ while George and Dick played with Dick's new computer.
Wednesday, 16 April 1997
In the morning Pat took us on a guided tour of the area which is delightful countryside reminiscent of parts of the French wine country. Sonoma valley and the nearby Napa valley are famous wine regions which have an ongoing professional rivalry, which is nicely captured by the tee shirt slogan "Sonoma makes fine wines - Napa makes fine auto parts" - for our non American readers Napa is also the name of a nationwide chain selling car parts.
Probably one of the most famous American realist writers was Jack London, writer of many books including Valley of the Moon. He lived for many years in a large house near Sonoma, where he died in 1916 aged 40 after an extremely well traveled and active life. The stone-built house located on large wooded grounds is now a museum that contains many of his life possessions.
The Mission San Francisco Solano is the last mission in the golden chain of 21 missions which stretch from San Diego to San Fransisco. With this northernmost Mission, the Mexican government hoped to impede the expansion of the Russian colony at Fort into the warmer interior of California. The mission eventually grew into a 27 room building with over 10,000 acres of land in use. Over 900 Indian neophytes were in residence at one time. Secularised in 1834, the Mission served as a parish church of Sonoma until 1881 when a larger church was constructed. Like most of the 21 missions, hardly any of the original buildings remain having been rebuilt many time over the years.
Thursday, 17 April 1997
The Sonoma Valley is covered with numerous vineyards, many of which until recently were citrus orchards or dairy farms, but became uneconomic due to changed taxation rules. At this time of the year, the vines are full of new light green leaves, the activity is training and spraying. Most of the vineyards have daily tasting sessions, one of the largest in the valley is August Sebastiani which produces about 7 million cases a year. Somewhat surprising is the range of grapes and numerous wines produced at each vineyard as compared to say a typical French vineyard. Of course, we could not miss out on the tasting and ended up visiting three of the more interesting vineyards. All were very well organized offering tours as well as free tasting and wine at discount prices and as usual expensive gifts. Comparisons can be difficult but prices appeared to be double that in the UK, with 0.7L bottle prices averaged $15 to $25.
Pat had seen in a recent TV program, an item featuring The Pelican Inn which is an English pub near Muir Beach is some 20 minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge. After a very steep and long winding climb along a narrow coastal road we first visited the nearby beaches and then we had an excellent meal at the Inn. We were surprised to learn that indeed it was a genuine west country pub that had been shipped out and rebuilt stone by stone.
Friday, 18 April 1997
Yes, for some hours we had light rain which is the first for well over a month, is was almost like an English summer's day! Santa Rosa has a Suzuki dealership so we decided to visit to obtain a replacement electronic key for the car Dick has a similar car to us and wanted some advice on a clutch problem. It was decided to go in separate cars as we planned to do some shopping and maybe afterward explore the area, however, the rain put a stop to the sightseeing. The route to Santa Rosa was through rolling hillsides and extensive vineyards.
Saturday, 19 April 1997
After four very enjoyable days at Dick and Pat's, we traveled north through a part of Napa Valley, which may be because of the cloud and rain did not appear to be as attractive as the Sonoma Valley. We camped at Orland which is about 140 miles north of Sonoma, the park appears to be full of Escapees who like us are using it as a local springboard to the rally at Chico some 15 miles to the east. The five day rally is boondocking only so the name of the game is to leave early tomorrow morning with full fresh water tanks and empty dirty water tanks.
Sunday, 20 - Friday, 25 April 1997
The Escapee club is an RV club for full-timers and as we had heard many good reports of previous rallies our expectations were high. These larger rallies split camping into several areas, one area for those RVers who prefer to use solar power or have very limited hours when generators can be run, or into an area like ours where generators can be run from typically 7 am to 10 pm. Some 1,100 RV's arrived Saturday and Sunday, the majority electing to camp in the generator area. However, due to the pleasant temperatures, few used their generators other than for short periods, for example at breakfast time to make toast or run the microwave oven to heat water for coffee. We can hear you say what an odd way to boil water, but very few Americans seem to use a kettle. We have concluded that most Americans belong to the LEO Club - yes you have guessed correctly, it's the Let's Eat Out Club!
All Club national rallies have full-day programs which include in-depth seminars on subjects ranging from water filtration to insurance panels and pastimes ranging from fashion shows to rubber stamp art (bet you don't know what this is!). Dozens of BOF (Bird Of a Feather) groups seem to quickly get organized as people with common interests group together. BOF groups cover subjects ranging from needlework, law enforcement, religion, and bird watching. computers on the road, specific makes of RV and on to subjects such as finding a new partner and traveling to South America. In addition, the rally includes a marketplace where one can buy anything remotely related to the RV lifestyle through to a new RV, and lots of $'s gets spent in this area. During the evening, entertainment ranges from professional performers to card schools or slide shows from other RVers' travels. Door prizes are a major draw that is used to attract everybody to attend the evening shows, the prize giving lottery goes on at a fast pace for about 50 minutes every evening.
It does seem a small world since we quickly meet up with a number of people we had met in Mexico or in Quartzite, AZ as well as making some new friends. It is surprising how quickly the five days go by but George still managed to find time to buy a steering aid for the RV as well as a roof mount for the satellite dish, we will not mention the clothes Valerie managed to find.
Saturday, 26 April 1997
At 7.30 am we walked in beautiful sunshine to the rallies traditional last-day "hitch-up" breakfast, the hall was already packed with groups enjoying orange juice, coffee and cinnamon buns. It is a tradition with SKPs to give each other a welcome or good-bye hug and since many of the 2,200 attending the RV rally, may not meet their RVing friends for some time, the farewell hugs were numerous and lengthy.
Our journey south to meet Susan and Ian at LA airport was initially along the I99 and then the I5, which traverses hundreds of miles of one of the most fertile regions in the USA. This vast very flat area is irrigated by the Californian Aquaduct, without which the area would dbe ry and barren, like the distant hills which have already turned brown during the past few weeks. Being mid-spring the citrus orchards were in full growth and mile after mile of fields were flooded, we assume in readiness for rice growing. The area is also famous for nuts of every description, including pistachios, walnuts and almonds, in fact, our campground near Coalinga is in the middle of an almond orchard. Almonds and pistachios are harvested in September and October respectively, the latter growing in large grape-like bunches - never knew that!
Sunday, 27 - Monday, 28 April 1997
George fitted the DSS TV mount on the roof in the morning which surprise, surprise worked perfectly the first time. The nearest habitation is the village of Coalinga which is at least 60 miles from the nearest town of any size. Coalinga must have been, in the past, a mining area, but today its prosperity depends on farming citrus fruits and nuts. However, it does have a very large high-security prison on its outskirts! Sunday was spent on routine cleaning and maintenance activities.
Tuesday, 28 April 1997
Day one for Susan and Ian began with a long flight with dramatic views of snow-covered Greenland followed hours later with the plane circling Los Angeles by night. The immigration forms were proving to be easy (thanks Barbara) until we realized we were carrying food products i.e. soya milk and yeast extract. When declared at customs though there was no problem, cows milk would have been a different story. The smiling faces of Dad and Val were waiting at Los Angeles airport and shortly after we were driven away to Long Beach where rest and relaxation led to deep sleep until 4 am when jet lag had us wide awake temporarily until we fell back into a more deep sleep.
Tip for the day: Don't panic! (especially not at customs.)
Wednesday, 29 April 1997
Swim and hot tub first thing followed by breakfast as we prepared for our trip of the day to Palm Springs. Thousands of wind-powered generators on the hillside generated a lot of interest on the way to an excellent campground. After lunch, we moved lightfoot to the tramway where many have been before. Up, up, and even further up Jacinto Mountain where some snow and breathtaking views can be seen, down 6,600 ft and we're hunting for a food store. Eventually, we found 'Vons' where we stocked up on much food and wine, (also 'Bigelows' Earl Grey tea for June). A hot swim, therapeutic bath and a BBQ tea with hummingbirds, beetles and grass hopperish spidery things being the local wildlife.
Tip of the day: taps over here usually lean, they don't turn.
Sip of the day: the cherries are powerful.
Up early for a swim and a spa then we were off toward Arizona. We decided to sample some desert living and so we found ourselves at Quartzsite, in the middle of virtually nowhere. In the small mining town nearby we bought a collection of the local rock samples including a piece of petrified wood, which apparently was part of a 30 million-year-old cottonwood tree. It was then time for some off-roading between the cacti. This area becomes very popular for RV'ers between September and April after which it starts to get very hot reaching, 120F in mid-summer. The RV'ers have virtually all left now leaving behind messages in jam jars, mining claim forms and stone figures with names given such as Mrs Pebble Quarry, Mr Stoney Quarry and their daughter Gibraltar.
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Beautiful scenery, a starry night (and yes the comet is still visible); a BBQ, marshmallows toasted on a campfire, with a mandolin accompaniment from Ian, rounded off a perfect warm evening out of doors until after midnight. >>>