USA & Canada - Part 1 - Pacific Road Trip


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Published: April 30th 2011
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DaisyDaisyDaisy

The hippies are here!
27th March – 15th April 2011

For the first part of our USA and Canada adventure we hired a campervan so after arriving in LA at lunchtime, we were met at the airport by our Escape campervan, which we found was spray-painted with flowers and was called ‘Flower Power’ by the company. We objected to the corporate branding however so we named it ‘Daisy’ for our tenure with the van. It wasn’t long before we were on the road out of LA and heading north. We had 19 days until the van was due back in LA and we had the route planned. We would head up the West coast all the way to Vancouver then come back down in-land stopping off at some national parks on the way.

The first major city on the way up was San Francisco which is a full 12 hour drive and we had not slept on the plane so we settled for a campsite 2 hours north of LA. On our second day we were excited at the prospect of passing through Big Sur, a well known stop off on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Unfortunately, we had been given a shocking map by the car rental company and before we knew it we were about an hour north of Big Sur so we decided to skip it and head to Santa Cruz instead. We had a little wander about but we wanted to find a campsite before dusk so we headed off to the Monterey peninsula to camp for the night. We were immediately struck by how expensive it was to camp in the USA. They tended to have a single rate for sites regardless of how big the vehicle. Ours was the size of a transit van but the majority of the others were full sized RVs the size of coaches! There didn’t appear to be any free campgrounds (unlike Australia and New Zealand) so some drastic action would have to be taken as we headed north.

We made it into SF without having seen any campsites on route so we parked up in a McDonalds car park and used their free wi-fi – this would become a tradition of our road trip! We managed to find a site to the north of SF just across the Golden Gate Bridge. Although it wasn’t in the city itself, it was linked by a ferry which took only 50 minutes. We would stay here for 2 nights to allow us a full day in SF the following day.

At the ferry port we noticed there were numerous baseball fans and worked out that the San Francisco Giants had a match that day, starting at 11am which coincided with when we arrived. Steve was keen to see a match and who better to watch than the Giants who had won the World Series last season. We decided that Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf were more important though and we could catch a ball game somewhere else.

It was a really sunny day and made the views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from the ferry really spectacular. We went straight to Pier 33 and bought our tickets for Alcatraz and were straight on the ferry back out to the island. We were given automatic audio tour devices and we were a little sceptical after the Forbidden City debacle in Beijing where it automatically recognised where you were but just spouted irrelevant information about somewhere else in the complex! Fortunately however we were lucky as the system worked very well.
It was shocking to see how brutal the prison was and to hear some of the stories about the very high profile inmates like Al Capone and Robert Stroud (aka The Birdman of Alcatraz). It was our second prison in as many months but this made Melbourne Gaol look like a fun camp! The prison had been virtually untouched since it was closed in the 1960’s which added to the creepiness. A few hours on the island was well enough for us, so we jumped back on the ferry to the mainland where we got a tram to Market Street, the hub of the city and had a wander round. We felt we simply couldn’t spend our whole road trip getting lost, with the inadequate map we had, so we found a camping shop where we spent a good hour making notes from their various camping books before buying ourselves a decent atlas.

One thing that stuck us about SF was the large number of homeless, beggars and bums which made walking round the streets of the city quite uncomfortable, especially as we had to refuse people money every few minutes. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our day in the city and managed to leave unscathed. The ferry trip back to the campsite was lovely, with the sun setting over the city and over Alcatraz.

The next morning we took advantage of having electricity and showers at our campsite as we had decided that, after four days of campsites, it was time to lose our boondocking virginity. Boondocking is basically unofficial free camping, usually in car parks and rest areas. Obviously there is no electricity or running water but the convenience of pulling over for the night and not having to pay really appealed to us. It turned out to be a long day of driving as the 101 north of SF was closed for a 10 mile stretch due to landslides. As such we had to take a 200 mile detour on bendy mountain roads which was very frustrating and time consuming and pretty scary as the roads were terrible. It was the first time that Ellie got behind the wheel – and would be the last! When we rejoined the 101 we were pretty tired so we pulled over in McKinleyville for some dinner in Denny’s a 24 hour diner, brushed our teeth in their restroom and went to sleep in their car-park!

The next morning we went into K-Mart to buy a couple of items, use the facilities and brushed our teeth and headed north again.
It would only be a short drive today as we were still recovering from 9 hours of driving the previous day. We drove through the Redwood National Park and even drove through a Redwood tree – we paid the $5 in advance and headed up to the tree and when we saw it we were a little concerned that Daisy might not fit through the gap. We pushed one wing mirror in (the other one was fixed in place) and negotiated our way through - only just making it! We stopped the night in a basic campsite just before the Oregon border and chilled for most of the afternoon as the next day would be another long day of driving followed by a night in the Milo McIver State Park.

After a good few days of driving, we eventually reached our next destination, Portland. We were fortunate to be in Portland on a Sunday, when the ‘Saturday Market’ was in full swing so we got to see lots of local produce and art, as well as lots of eateries including a hot cider stall. The further north we were getting (and after 9 months of being in hot countries) we were finding the temperatures increasingly cold and we don’t have that many warm clothes with us, so the hot cider was a real relief. It was then time for a walk around the time, which it turns out is very small, and very very quiet on a Sunday. So, it was off to the cinema for us where we watched ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ which we thought was a bit rubbish. We did however get a nice big American sized popcorn which made it all better! After the cinema we found the library, which is housed in a really beautiful building, and then sought relief from the cold inside where we found free internet and books about Seattle and Vancouver, so we read up about our next two destinations. It was a really rock and roll day for us in Portland!!

After all the excitement of Portland, we were back on the road and into Washington state where we found a ‘Jack in the Box’ burger place for dinner and
Drive thru tree, KlamathDrive thru tree, KlamathDrive thru tree, Klamath

Half an inch to spare each side!!
then settled down for a night’s sleep in a rest area on Interstate 5, just to the south of Seattle.

After a free tea and coffee at the rest area in the morning we were on our way to Seattle. We stopped at a tourist information looking for guidance on where to stay and were pointed in the direction of an RV park to the north where we could catch a bus into town. First stop in Seattle was Pike Place Market which is famous for the fishmongers throwing fish around! We also did the obligatory tourist activity of grabbing a drink in the world’s first Starbucks before buying some bubble gum to stick onto the lovely ‘gum wall’. After wandering around the city taking in the atmosphere and checking out the sites, we booked ourselves onto Bill Speidel’s (deceased writer and preservation activist) underground tour of Seattle. Basically about 30 blocks of the city burned down in the 1890’s and the authorities came up with a novel method of rebuilding which also helped to address the sewer issues. Soil was brought in from surrounding hills and the ground level was built over which allowed a new sewerage system
Portland Saturday MarketPortland Saturday MarketPortland Saturday Market

But its a bloody Sunday!
to be installed. The result was a defunct underground network of streets, alleyways and buildings which have been left pretty well untouched – fascinating stuff, possibly even for non planning geeks too!

The day had come to an end and we absolutely loved Seattle, despite the rain and cold, as it had a wonderful trendy / bohemian vibe. So much so we decided to come back the following day as we hadn’t had the chance to view its most famous landmark, the Space Needle.

The next day was clearer so the views from the Space Needle were impressive. It was also interesting to see how the building was controversial as not many people thought it would work. It was planned as the centrepiece for a world Expo which was supposed to symbolise the 21st Century space age 30 odd years early. The day before the Expo it was completed and the skyline of Seattle was changed forever. We could have stayed a lot longer in Seattle as we loved it, but a new country beckoned.

After another lovely boondocking experience in a Washington rest area we headed for the Canadian border and entered into British Columbia. We had promised Ryan we would visit his patch and check it out and we were excited to see what Canada had to offer. We parked Daisy up in a camp site in Surrey, outside of the town, and got the skytrain to downtown. As we had a tight schedule we would only have one day and night in Canada so we were determined to make the most of it. We went down to the waterfront to take in the lovely view across the water. After a stroll around the historical ‘Gastown’ named after ‘Gassy Jack’ we headed down to Stanley Park where we looked into hiring bikes. We agreed on a tandem and off we went terrorising road and footpath users with our complete lack of control and grace! It gave the opportunity to see the various sites around the massive park in pretty good time, and even managed it over to the Lion Gate Bridge which gave a wonderful view with mountains behind.

We were fortunate that the day we were in town there was a big birthday celebration for Vancouver who turned 125. There were all sorts of performances such as music, dancing and cultural shows by
Pike Place Market, SeattlePike Place Market, SeattlePike Place Market, Seattle

Thanks for all the fish
the native Canadians which was very fascinating. Several local ‘celebrities’ were in attendance and they all recalled their favourite times in the city – all of which related to the ice hockey team, the Cannucks. We have never seen a city so obsessed with a sports team – not even Northampton Saints!

A Canadian TV station was presenting the news from the festival and Steve managed to loiter successfully in the background to get himself of national TV! Ellie was stood at the front watching it on a screen and managed to take a couple of photos of the guest appearance. It was getting late and time for a beer, so we headed to the Ivanhoe, a pub Ryan used to be the bouncer in. He said that it was an excellent pub but a bit rough around the edges – and it didn’t disappoint. It was our first beer on North American soil, believe it or not! Back to the campsite and then we would be USA bound again the following morning.

The next two days were pretty surreal and they involved 950 miles of driving. We headed east from Washington into Idaho and the amount of snow and ice on the roads made driving very difficult. At one point the temperature was down to -3 oC and we were sliding down a hill with the steering wheel proving to be an unnecessary feature to the van. We survived to tell the tale though with no damage to Daisy.

In Montana we took a little break to look into Yellowstone National Park on the internet and discovered that it was pretty much shut for another couple of weeks as it is off season and the roads are covered in snow still. As there would only be a visitor centre open we made a hasty change of plan and headed south into Idaho towards Craters of the Moon National Monument for day 2 of our ridiculous drive-fest.

When we arrived at 6pm at the Craters, we discovered that the camp ground (which was open according to the website) was closed as was the visitor centre! We had to resort to staying in the a*se-hole of Idaho, a hick town called Arco. We couldn’t believe it when the lady in the gas station recognised the accent (not confusing it with Australian like most yanks) and said she has a friend in Basingstoke and she hopes to go there some time. We hope we didn’t dampen her spirits when we told her the truth about Basingstoke but won her back when we said you don’t have to drive very long to see some really lovely places. On the way out it struck us – for someone from Arco, Basingstoke is probably going to be a paradise!!

We cooked our gourmet dinner (corned beef smash) in a snow storm and huddled around the heater in the inner sanctum of Daisy’s bosom. The next morning we were advised that the park may be closed due to Congress not agreeing a budget. We were allowed in though although the snow was, in places, as tall as Steve. We decided to do a loop of about 500m which should take about 10 minutes. There was one problem with the signs that told us to stick to the pathways...... what pathways?! All we had to go on were the footsteps of the previous people to walk the line. Sometimes they were right, but more often than not they were wrong and we slipped down into the snow up to knee level and beyond on more than one occasion! We eventually decided to go off-piste with hilarious consequences, caught on photo and film. The 10 minute walk took about an hour. We implemented different styles – Steve went with the quick light (?!) steps whilst Ellie crawled on hand and knees. Edmund Hillary we aint!

The next morning we crossed the state line in Utah and before long we had a police car behind us flashing its lights away. Over we pulled and were told that we had just broken two state laws. He asked if we had seen two police cars pulled over in the hard shoulder, to which we replied yes. He advised that in those circumstances you must pull into the next lane by law to give leeway. He said that a few officers had been hit in the last year so they have a zero tolerance policy. After disappearing into his car to check license and registration of the vehicle, he came back and told us that he would cut us a break as we didn’t know – what a relief! We apologised and thanked him and were on our way again.

Next stop was Salt Lake City in and it was a Sunday morning so church time. SLC is pretty much a shrine to the Church of Latter Day Saints aka Mormons and they were out in force in their Sunday best. We headed to the impressive Temple Square and went into the visitor centre for warmth and to find out the craic. We were approached by a Kiwi and a Pilipino lass who were missionary nuns and started talking about religion and the Mormon faith. It soon became apparent to them that we a) were not very religious and b) didn’t know too much about Mormons, and when Steve started talking about Donny and the Osmonds, they wrapped it up pretty sharply to move on to the next people. They were very polite though and welcoming and invited us to stroll around the grounds which we duly did. SLC is the spiritual home of the Mormons and it was apparent from the number of buildings dedicated to it. It was basically built from scratch by followers of the faith.

After a walk up to the Utah Capitol State Building and a walk into the downtown area, we realised that not much happens in SLC, on a Sunday at least. We got on a tram to an entertainment complex close to the Utah Jazz basketball arena for some lunch and a trip to the cinema, which has become something of a Sunday tradition. After watching the hilarious Arthur remake, it was getting on a bit and we headed south towards the National Parks of Utah. When we found a nice little rest area which would make a lovely home for the night, we parked up.

Bryce Canyon was to be our first national park stop – it’s famous for its unusual rock formations and amphitheatres caused by tectonic movement. An 18 mile scenic road runs through the park so we started at one end and saw all the big sights in between. It was really spectacular, with amazing hoodoos (red fingers of worn sandstone, limestone and mudstone) and views for miles over the untouched park. We were however a little disappointed to find that we couldn’t do any of the treks around there as the still heavy snow was making the paths un-walkable. After a hearty lunch of spam and egg sandwiches, again huddled in the warmth of Daisy we got on the road to Mount Carmel where Steve had found us a super cheap campsite for the night. As soon as we arrived we understood why it was cheap as the toilets were totally disgusting and the local caravan dwellers (that we suspect might live there) reminded us a little of trailer trash characters on TV programs such as My Name is Earl. When we asked our neighbour ‘how are you?’ we expected to hear something along the lines of ‘good thanks’ but no, he started telling us how he wasn’t too great at the moment. Unable to think of anything to say we just got into the van and proceeded to avoid him for the rest of our stay.

Our final national park with Daisy would be Zion National Park. It was much warmer and much busier than Bryce and we didn’t think it was quite a spectacular but we had a very enjoyable day riding around on the shuttle bus which took us around the park where we did some of the short walks. We were planning on staying in the park for sunset but soon realised that the large mountains were already obscuring the sun, so it would not be worth hanging around. So instead we treated ourselves to another gourmet meal of corned beef smash in the car park before hitting the road towards a nearby rest area we had in mind for our night sleep.

Unfortunately, we didn’t come across any suitable rest areas and before we knew it we had driven for 3 hours and were approaching the outskirts of Las Vegas. We had been trying to avoid going anywhere near LV, as we would be visiting the city later in the trip, but 40 miles away we could already see the bright lights. We passed through LV, giving us a little taste of what was to come and eventually found a tidy spot to sleep in a casino car park in a very weird mini-Vegas style place called Primm on the Nevada/California border. It was quite a nice spot but the constantly flashing bright lights all around the van made for an interesting night sleep.

In the morning we got straight on the road as we felt the eagle eye of casino security was on us but soon stopped in a very small town called Baker. We found ourselves an all-you-can-eat buffet brekkie at ‘Big Boy’ where we gorged on very large amounts of pancakes, bacon and syrup before using their restrooms to freshen up for the day. It was then back on the road in the direction of LA as we were to be returning Daisy the next day. With most hire cars in the US it seems that you have to buy your mileage and we had thought that 200 miles a day would be plenty for the trip we were taking – we didn’t however factor in how much we would get lost, along with the 200 mile detour we were forced to take – so by the time we got to Barstow (a small town 100 miles outside of LA) we were very close to our allowance and doing everything we could to limit our extra mileage. For Steve this included cutting corners on roads and parking in car parks three miles away from our destination as it was less ‘off-route!!’. We found a Maccy D’s in Barstow Station (where the restaurant bit is inside old train cars) bought a $1 coke and then spent the next 4 hours using their internet and electricity and finding ourselves a camping
Live on Canadian newsLive on Canadian newsLive on Canadian news

Where's Wally?
spot for the night. We found a campsite, located in the desert just outside of Barstow which would only cost $6 a night so we jumped at the chance of having no electric and only pit toilets and headed out into the middle of nowhere for our last night with Daisy.

The next morning was a sad one as we drove the last stretch to LA and gave Daisy back. We went only 55 miles over our 3800 mile limit, so not the end of the world. It was then on to the hostel we had booked in Venice Beach by bus, which was pretty novel. After a very quick shower, we hopped on a bus to downtown LA as we wanted to go and see the LA Dodgers play the St. Louis Cardinals. About 1 hour and 5 miles into the tortuous trip we accepted that we would not be there in time for the ballgame but there would be another opportunity the following day. We arrived in downtown 2 hours after boarding the bus and went for a wander around LA. There was a 1 day ‘pop-up’ art festival in town that night so the place was jammed with people and art exhibitions spilling onto the streets. Whilst it was enjoyable, we were pretty exhausted so after dinner in a traditional (tacky) American diner, we went back to Venice Beach, which only took 1¼ hours this time, and went to bed.

It was Friday and in the evening, Scabs (nee Abigail) and Woody would be arriving from Heathrow to join us for a cross USA road trip. We had a full day of fun and games lined up though.... starting with a trip to the laundrette for Ellie and the barbers for Steve. When the essentials had been taken care of, we hopped on another bus, which is where we seemed to spend most of our time in LA, and headed to Hollywood. We took a stroll along the Walk of Fame and paid a visit to the Mann’s Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre. After walking for ages looking for Bob De Niro, we gave up and settled for the next best thing; and walked the line over to Jonny Cash.

Not wanting to miss out on the baseball again, we made sure we were at Dodger Stadium in good time and were there
Ivanhoe, VancouverIvanhoe, VancouverIvanhoe, Vancouver

Ryan's Patch
in time for a cliché hotdog and the national anthem. We had a little idea of what was going on at times, but found it to be very entertaining. If you think cricket is dull and boring, maybe baseball isn’t for you, but we enjoyed it (well Ellie did for a bit and then found it a little boring). The game went on for three hours but it went pretty quickly because of all the pomp and pageantry the yanks put on in their typical razzamatazz fashion. The Cardinals beat the Dodgers in a very one-sided match but was a nice introduction. Steve saw enough to convince him that ESPN will be a feature of the next place we move to.

After the match, we were back on the bus to Venice where we met up with Scabs and Woody for a couple of drinks before bed as tomorrow would be a big day - it was day 1 of The Road Trip. We met up with one of Scabs’ friends from uni, Prak, who lived in LA and worked in the film industry in Hollywood – lucky devil!
The next morning we met up at Venice Beach to take in some of the street entertainment on offer there and to get a couple of photos – despite staying there for 2 nights, we hadn’t actually seen any of the area or the beach! And so it was on to Las Vegas in the Dodge hired by Scabs and Woody............

By way of an update, we have had to bring forward the end of the round the world trip. We had originally hoped to be away for 12 months but it has taken its toll and finances are looking ominous! We will therefore be landing on Sunday 7th May.

Take care everyone and see y’all soon.

S&E xx



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The Road to Nowhere......The Road to Nowhere......
The Road to Nowhere......

Well actually its Idaho
Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame

I keep a close watch on this star of mine....
Venice Beach with Scabs and WoodyVenice Beach with Scabs and Woody
Venice Beach with Scabs and Woody

The trans-American road trip begins.....


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