June 1997

A half-hour car journey into San Francisco found us crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - not so much gold as more like dark red. A beautiful morning, so we decided to park the car and walk the bridge accompanied by many keep-fit fanatics jogging or cycling the 1.5-mile span. The view across the bay looks inland, stretching from the San Francisco city skyline on our right to Alcatraz Island in the centre and Sausalito to our left. Before its completion in 1937, the bridge was considered unbuildable because of foggy weather, 60-mile-per-hour winds and strong ocean currents sweeping through a deep rugged canyon below.

Returning to San Francisco to visit Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, fish, crabs, lobsters and many species of shellfish were being cooked and prepared on market stalls. Many buskers entertained the crowds and coach loads of yes you've guessed, Japanese tourists. In the harbour, over 400 sea lions with their young lazed about upon anchored pontoons.

A ride on a cable car with George hanging on the outside (!) gave us a flavour of the very steep hills in this picturesque city. We ended the day with a walk around Chinatown and a Chinese meal in a restaurant where we were the only non - Chinese!

During our afternoon 17-mile scenic drive along Pebble Beach, we encountered an abundance of deer, native birds, sea life and wildflowers as the surf crashed on the Pacific coastline just beyond. Also at many stopping points, numerous sand squirrels were waiting to be fed by humans, many ignoring the NO FEEDING signs. The bird rock point is home to countless shoreline birds as well as off-shore herds of sea lions and harbour seals. Coffee and naughty cakes were enjoyed at Carmel Barnyard Shopping Centre, where the rich, famous and fortunate shop.

An early morning stroll along a practically deserted beach near the campsite, except for one or two dog walkers and a dead seal. Hearst Castle was our next destination, travelling along the Pacific Highway a winding, tortuous, picturesque coastal road which was slipping away in several places - one truck driver hadn't made it on an exceptionally sharp bend, truck and trailer upturned in the ravine with retrieval looking impossible. Pampas grass, asparagus fern, sedum and pink, white and orange convolvulus lined the verges and hundreds of seals basking on the beach far below. As the road became more bumpy and twisting, a crashing sound was heard as the fridge door fell off! Fortunately, no damage occurred and George was able to do a temporary repair. The tour of Hearst Castle in the Santa Lucia Mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean was most enjoyable and well worth the visit, a magnificent estate of 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces pools and walkways. If anything looked like gold, silver or Italian marble it was. A fitting memorial to William Randolph Hearst a man who was able to buy anything he wanted in life except life itself.

Left the camp, which was situated next to a golf course, without any sign of a rattlesnake or mountain lion as displayed on the warning sign. Spanish-style housing again with town names like Santa Maria & Santa Barbara. The scenery is ever-changing. Off-shore oil rigs and dolphins were spotted on the coastal route.

Read the book, seen the film and have now survived the ride through Jurassic Park, which ended a wonderful day at the Universal Studios theme park, another super BBQ and, sadly, the end of our American experience.

I had always believed that being 'big' was not everything. Seeing a mere glimpse of 'Uncle Sam' has proved me wrong - 'big' is certainly beautiful:-

Big cars (trucks of all shapes and sizes)
Big food (ample portions)
Big women (ditto)
Big men (with shorts to their knees!)
Big RV (5-star hotel on wheels)
Big spending (everything plus tax)
Big hole in the wallet

It seems to have been all a big dream. 'Have a nice day!' - we sure did - all 18 of them!

PS. Barbara, thanks for the Email, hope you enjoy our contribution to the diary.

After four months of visitors, it was somewhat strange to be able to return to our wandering lifestyle, but as we needed to be in Oklahoma we needed to start moving east.

We decided earlier that we would return to England for a few weeks for several reasons but in particular to enable Valerie to have a medical check-up. After a long frustrating process, we have finally managed to book our flights for a three-week visit. We tried various travel agents but they all had the same problem, namely locating a return flight from the UK. We should have realised it would be difficult knowing that the end of July is the beginning of the school holidays, but it turned out to be nearly impossible, however, we finally got a booking for the 10th of July from Chicago Airport. On the way to Chicago, we plan to attend two rallies in Oklahoma and then after our return, move further east to see the autumn leaves in New England.

We left the LA area and started our journey east along Interstate 40 which starts in California and extends some 2,553 miles until it reaches the east coast in North Carolina. We stopped for the night on the edge of the Colorado River at the Moabi Regional Park near Needles, after a journey of some 280 miles. Much of the countryside along the I40 in California is fertile orchards but as we approached Arizona the land became drier and uncultivated.

We continued along the I40 for another 150 miles or so, seeing little of interest until we passed through Flagstaff and reached Meteor Crater which lies near Winslow. The crater was formed nearly 49,500 years ago by the impact of a meteorite about 100 feet in diameter, with a force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. It is claimed that this is the best-preserved meteorite impact site on Earth. The diameter of the crater at the rim is 4,150 feet; the rim itself is about 150 feet above the surrounding plateau and 570 feet above the bottom of the crater. The sides are almost vertical for some distance below the rim. NASA once trained astronauts at the crater. It is an impressive sight as the crater lies in a fairly flat area.

We stopped for the night at Holbrook, AZ where we found a good campground at a reasonable price but decided to eat out at the local Pizza Hut which could only be described as an indifferent lump of dough. This is extremely unusual since food in the States is normally excellent with large helpings and good value.

To the south of Holbrook lies the 93,533-acre Petrified Forest National Park which contains an abundance of petrified logs. Most of the brilliantly coloured trees are prone, and many are in fragments. The early dinosaurs once roamed the area, and numerous fossil bones and fossil plants have been discovered in the park.

About 225 million years ago the trees grew in the highlands to the west and southwest of this once-swampy section. Geologists currently believe that streams flowing into the basin from these highlands carried dead logs and buried them in sediments rich in volcanic ash. Silica slowly impregnated the logs until they became virtually solid stones. Iron oxide and other minerals stained the silica to produce rainbow colours. Later the region was uplifted, and erosion exposed part of the logs; many remain buried to a depth of 300 feet. There are five areas with heavy concentrations of petrified wood in the park: Blue Mesa, Jasper Forest, Crystal Forest, Rainbow Forest (comprising Long Logs and Giant Logs near US 180) and Black Forest. The Long Logs area contains the most colourful concentration of petrified wood.

Continuing east we stopped at Giant which is one of many chains of truck stops to refuel and to have our lunch. American truck stops are huge and fascinating places, offering a full range of services including free dumping of dirty water and many are happy for RV'ers to stop overnight. Fuel prices vary throughout the States, being expensive in California at about $1.45 per gallon, however, in New Mexico it is less than $1.15 a gallon (£0.19 per Litre), even in remote locations.

Having arrived in Albuquerque we decided to drive north up the SR14 which is known as the Turquoise Trail, this is an old highway connecting Albuquerque to Santa Fe; and a much prettier route than the I25. The SR14 passes through some very old coal mining towns so we decided to stop in one of the larger, Madrid and explore.

In 1959 the town which had become home to 3,000 people during the peak production years of the '20s and 30s became - virtually overnight - a ghost town with a population of 13! This happened during the fifties mainly due to the advent of diesel trains. It remained that way until the mid 70's when the miner's shacks were sold. Madrid's current "artist" population is estimated at 400. As it was lunch time we went into the Mine Shaft Tavern where you are served by the longest bar in New Mexico. The 40ft lodge-pole pine bar as well as most of the furnishings were there in 1946 when the Tavern first opened its doors, today as no doubt years ago the bar was full of numerous odd-looking characters. The focal point of the museum further down the dusty street is the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad engine number 769 built in 1900. No matter what your age you are invited to step into the cab and ring the bell!

Albuquerque is a young town with an average age of just over 27 and contains one-third of New Mexico's population. Once the home of wealthy Spanish families and from the beginning it was a trading and business centre, benefiting from the flow of commerce between Santa Fe and Mexico City, Mexico.

After a 3,000-mile oil change and washing the RV we moved on to Santa Fe some 55 miles to the north. The afternoon was spent trying to get Valerie to buy some new clothes (yes, you read it correctly) without success, then after a BBQ, the evening was spent bringing the diary up to date.

The old quarters in Santa Fe are mainly Mexican-style architecture but are now expensive tourist shops. The sidewalk outside the Governor's Palace is lined with Indians selling jewellery and the like Indians are the only people allowed to sell items from this location.

A further 290 miles along the I40 found us in Amarillo for the night. On route, the terrain for the most part is undulating, with occasional light relief from unusual billboards such as:-

A steak restaurant billboard along the I40 offering a 72 oz steak -(yes 72oz) FREE if you can eat it all within one hour! or

The bearer of this billboard (which was at least 36ft x 18ft) is entitled to one free coffee!

Amarillo itself is the capital of the oil and gas industry of the Texas Panhandle where pipelines from adjacent fields extend as far as the Gulf Coast. The city has one of the world's largest helium plants, and nearby is one of the world's largest carbon-black plants, however, we only saw factories covered in white dust! Before petroleum became the backbone of its economy, Amarillo was a railhead for the great cattle drives of the late 1800s. The only evidence we could see were large factory farming type of grassless compounds near the roadside containing thousands of cattle.

Onwards and eastwards for a further 250 miles which makes it over fifteen hundred miles since we left Valencia eight days ago; to Oklahoma City where we are glad to spend a couple of days with Pat & Dick.

The dancing was preceded by the Grand Entrance into the arena of all the participating tribes some of whom had come from as far away as Canada, Montana, and Wyoming. Arizona and of course 0klahoma. The costumes were spectacular in colour and design and all the dancers took to the floor for the first half hour as a warm-up opportunity. After that the dancers were in different categories including the Fancy War dance, and the Grass dance in which both the men and then the ladies competed; after which the ladies did the traditional buckskin dance and Fancy shawl dance; all very colourful and sometimes noisy.

More out of curiosity than anything we decided to attend the Newmar Full timers rally in Thackerville which is a warm-up to the Newmar International Rally being held in a week. The rally turned out to be a disappointment for several reasons. Thackerville is no more than a crossroad on the Texas/Oklahoma border with nothing of interest for tens of miles in all directions. In contrast with previous rallies, there was hardly any entertainment and our fellow RV'ers who were somewhat older than us (yes it's possible) seemed happy to do very little.

On the first evening, we were entertained by a violent thunderstorm which included some very large hailstones. Discovered the following day that the car ABS light would not go out and being miles from anywhere we had to travel 80 miles into Dallas, Texas to the nearest Suzuki dealer. It turns out that two parts need to be replaced. which he does not have in stock and it will take five days to obtain them. As there is a large dealer in Oklahoma City, near the location for the International rally, we decided to leave the problem until next week. What we found interesting was along the route to Dallas were numerous ranches which had strong similarities to the famous Southfork ranch.

The International rally did not officially start until Monday but the vast majority of the 427 Newmar RV's arrived on Saturday and Sunday. When ones see so many RVs similar to one's own, it gives one a feeling of belonging to a large family which was reinforced when we made contact with people we had met at the previous year's rally.

During the opening ceremony speeches, one of the local dignitaries proudly told us what a wonderful place Oklahoma was, part of which included having more tornadoes than any other state! 90% of the film Twister was shot in Oklahoma. We were also informed that Oklahoma was born between noon and sundown on April 22, 1889, when the unassigned prairie lands of the Oklahoma territory were opened for settlement, and 10,000 land claims surrounding a Santa Fe railroad station site were made in one afternoon. Oklahoma City blossomed overnight.

Oklahoma City's economic prosperity was largely due to the discovery of oil. The most renowned oil strike was the Mary Sudik, which blew in 1930 and lasted for 11 days, spreading oil as far as 15 miles. Even now there are producing wells on the Capitol grounds, and more than 2,000 wells are either within or adjacent to the city limits. The oil pool on which Oklahoma City rests is considered among the richest ever developed in the United States. The rally had entertainment every evening including a dance performance by a group of native American Indians. This was very fitting since Oklahoma has more native Indian tribes than any other state. The 39 American Indian tribes still represented hold regular tribal activities in and around the city. Like previous rallies every day there were numerous seminars and craft lessons as well as a large vendor display, but for once George failed to buy any new toys for the RV. However, we were able to get the electronic control module for the fridge repaired at no cost even though the warranty expired six months ago.

We also managed to get the ABS fault on the Suzuki repaired but further contact with the average USA auto repair shop continues to give us a cold feeling. The mechanic did not have the correct equipment to reset the computer fault code, so the warning light remains on and apparently will do until we have driven it 100 times, so time will tell if the problem has been solved.

As we fly from Chicago to London on the 10th of July it was time to start heading further east. After staying the night in a small town called Miami we crossed from 0klahoma into Missouri to spend a couple of days in Branson which claims to be the Country and Western capital. Country music shows did not appear until recent times, beginning with the Baldknobbers in 1960 and followed by the Presleys in 1967. During the next 2 decades, numerous music theatres cropped up mainly along SR 76, which is a two-lane road in a very restricted area. Branson is miles from anywhere and can only be reached via narrow, hilly and twisting roads unlike most of the very wide and straight roads in the US.

During Sunday afternoon in heavy but warm rain, we made an initial exploration and quickly came to a stop in the heavy traffic. Writing of the diary was just interrupted while we watched the fireflies all over the campground glowing in the evening light. Anyway, Branson appears to have dozens of interesting musical theatres so we have booked to see two shows. We ended up seeing three shows and enjoying all of them.

Branson claims to be the birthplace of tourism with vacationing in Branson beginning in the early 1900s when Harold Bell Wright's best-selling novel "The Shepherd of the Hills" was published. By the 1960s, two small businesses had opened in Branson, Marvel Cave, which eventually became part of Silver Dollar City Theme Park, and an outdoor pageant based on "The Shepherd of the Hills." Country music shows quickly followed during this period. During the next 2 decades, music theatres cropped up all over the Branson area and today some 76 shows can be seen in what is a comparatively small town. What is very noticeable about shows in the US is the way all the performers including the leads like to mix with and meet the audience both during the interval and after the show, however, this is always accompanied by a fairly hard sell of their latest tape or CD etc. >>>