10th July, 2009. Going Home What a day (a very long one at that), up early, out to Riverside in Los Angeles to pick up the RV (had been at Richardsons Service Dept for a few warranty fixes), then back into the city to drop the RV off at the shippers, bit more to it than that as we had to secure everything for shipment, including removing the microwave and electrical appliances as USA voltage is 110 compared to our 240. Gifted the appliances to the people at the shippers and finally headed off to the airport at 3pm. LAX airport [View Full Entry]

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9th July, 2009. Buena Park, Los Angeles. Woke up tired and sore this morning after the worst nights sleep we have had since we moved into the RV, and we were staying in a motel. RV builders put in the cheapest queen mattress they can find which is also 6 inches shorter. We went out and purchased a memory topper pad before we went into the RV, one of our best purchases - has provided us with comfort and great sleep. We were going off to California Adventure Park (an addition to the Disneyland area), decided to have a look at [View Full Entry]

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8th July, 2009. Beuna Park, Los Angeles, California. Back to the place we started from, not quite, it's across the road, we are staying in a Super 8 Motel Beuna Park Hotel $130 US a night Rooms old and smelly Super 8 $ 60 Room much better and free continental breakfasts. Those Travel agents know how to get the most out of us, don't they. Dropped the RV off at Richardsons Service Center this morning all packed up and ready to ship, they are doing a little guarantee work for us before we take it to the shipper on friday. Into [View Full Entry]

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7th July, 2009. Banning, Los Angeles. Had to get up early this morning, a 69 mile drive to meet a fellow New Zealander (Grant, the guy with the funny car), he kindly made himself available as a postal address for us while we were over here - to enable Government agencies to send out Rego etc. He is over in Orange County so tried to avoid peak hour traffic (didn't work), the highway system is amazing over here and I was able to cover the 69 miles in about an hour and a quarter, Each side of the highway had up [View Full Entry]

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6th July, 2009. Travel to Banning, Los Angeles, California Left Mojave early, to beat the winds, the winds tend to push the RV around so much easier without them, hasn't changed overnight, still a barren place. Travelled to Four Corners where we turned right onto HW395 and the winds - lovely. Prior to getting to Four Corners we saw our first ever Mirage - a great Lake out in the desert - NOT - it was more sand, tell you what though if I had been thirsty I would have walked there, Also passed Edwards Air Base, which is in the [View Full Entry]

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5th July, 2009. Trip to Mojave, California Up and away again, not many of those to go now, down through Tulare, Pixy, Delano, and Bakersfield where we got off HW99. onto HW202 then up the Tehachapi Mountains, through Tehachapi and onto Mojave. Mojave is in a huge desert basin and of course in the Mojave Desert. Over the top of the Mountains and the first thing was how barren it was, only little stick trees and the Joshua Trees growing, the rest looks like it died years ago. We stopped at the Sierra RV park which was pretty good, the wind [View Full Entry]

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4th July, 2009. Visalia, California. 4th July and it's "American Independence Day", this morning we headed out to Exceter, a small town 12 miles from here to welcome in the day. Exeter has a Pancake Breakfast, Market Day, Fun Run and tonight a Fireworks display, all to celebrate the day. Nice country town feeling, everyone friendly and a great breakfast - two pancakes, two sausages and coffee all for $5, a fund raiser for a local church group, the young ones served us at the table and were extremely pleasant. The Americans don't drink a lot of hot tea and when [View Full Entry]

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3rd July, 2009. Visalia, California. Off out to Tulare this morning, approx 12 miles down the road and another 57,000 people (some cities are really close here, Fresno has 900,000 people and is 40 miles up the road). Looking for something particular as its Independence Day sales, found, purchased and stored ready for the trip home, that wasn't hard, Anyway were going to do a round trip of two other country towns but at midday when we walked out into the 96F heatwave we decided to go back to the RV park for a swim. The Fireworks sales places aren't doing [View Full Entry]

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1st July, 2009. Visalia, California. Well, big effort this morning, we drove 40 miles down the road to Visalia, a town of about 120,000 and center of a big fruit growing and farming area. Californian Raisins are grown and processed nearby. More importantly to us it is close to Sequoia, and Kings national parks, Sequoia is the home of the giant Sequoia Trees which we plan to visit tomorrow. Today we booked into the local KOA (Kampgrounds of America), we have been booked in here for a while, this weekend is American Independence day (4th July) and most campgrounds get booked [View Full Entry]

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2nd July, 2009 Visalia, California. Sequoia National Park today, off early for the 57 mile run to the park. At about the 40 mile mark you enter the park, pay the fee $25 US (which of course we don't have to as we purchased a Parks pass all those months ago) and head up an 8% incline. Climbs about 5500 ft in 17 miles, the road has numerous 10mph hairpins and speed limit is 25mph, BUT nice road and great views. This is the home of the Giant Sequoia trees and first stop was the "Giant Forest" where we viewed numerous [View Full Entry]

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