USA TRIP 2013

9 April (NZ)

Here we go again!!! Kate (good friend) took us to the CH airport for a 4:30pm flight to Akld and on to L.A. Fortunately we had a free upgrade to Premium Economy. Lots more leg room (wasted on us) and a better meal. The flight was not bad and we landed in L.A. at 1:30pm local time on the same day as we left. We were picked up by our hotel and transferred to the Travelodge LAX. If it was not for our bags, we could have almost walked; we were so close to the airport. Kate had told us to take a bus to the beaches. (great tip). We had a free ride as we had no change but the driver told us to hop on for a courtesy ride. Passed some nice beaches to Redondo Beach where we walked around some nice piers and harbour with a big sea pounding in to a bar/restaurant where we had a beer and burger before catching the bus back to our hotel. We were pretty tired but did not sleep very well as the room was noisy (thin walls) and over excitement!

10 April (US)

After a typical US free breakfast, we caught the free shuttle back to the airport for our flight to Phoenix (1 hour) where we were transferred by the Cruise America taxi and taken to their H.Q. We were met by David Jones who we had done all the dealings for our RV (camper) with. We recognised him as he stars on their web site. He was great taking us thru all the features and operation of our RV. Because our expectations of the camper in the UK had been exceeded by reality, we thought that this time our hopes were high and we could have been disappointed. WE WERE NOT! The R.V. is great. Everything has been replaced or updated and the end result is a very tidy unit. Thanks David. At about 2:00pm we drove very carefully to Wal-Mart (the Warehouse on steroids) for a shop for the essentials for our first night. The RV is slightly longer than our NZ camper but a lot wider! It is a 2006 Ford, with a huge V8 (5.4 litres), automatic and petrol (we will find out how bad the fuel economy is). Very smooth to drive but takes up a fair bit of the lane! The RV Park we had pre-booked was easy to find. Most of the camp seems to be permanent mobile homes, owned by people from the northern states, which are empty. (most of the snow birds flew back north last weekend)

        

April 11

Yesterday was a long day! Despite this we still did not sleep that well. The bed in the RV was great so that was not the problem. We decided to have a lazy day today so after some grocery shopping (over the road from the camp) we went to the pool for a relaxing swim and a read. We returned to the pool area for happy hour. This is a senior citizens complex so we feel fairly young. A guy played some country music and a lot of the widows line danced, however we did not feel the need to join in!!

April 12

Back on the roads of Mesa again for more shopping for our setup. Ended up on a wild goose chase for outside chairs. We were sent from one Wal-mart to another only to find that they did not have the chairs we wanted in stock. Eventually found some great chairs at The Home Depot. Finding an electric jug and a coffee plunger was another challenge and we eventually paid too much for them at Bed Bath and Beyond.
We returned to Sun Life (our retirement home) exhausted and had a great swim in the pool listening to nice music (always country) at happy hour. Still quite a few here as it is snowing up north and everyone is delaying their return.


April 13

After a morning installing some of the stuff we bought yesterday we caught the bus to Old Scottsdale. We had two changes and the ride took 1 ½ hours! The desert valley containing Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe covers a huge urban area. (1.4 million) but it is all low rise housing. Old Scottsdale is made up of Arts shops, Mexican/Indian shops and Restaurants all housed in authentic Mexican style buildings. There we lots of locals and tourists wandering around giving the place a lively atmosphere. We will probably not go into the middle of Phoenix as it is just government and business buildings. We enjoyed a pizza for lunch. It was on the menu as small but when it arrived it was enormous. Nothing is small in the USA!! On returning to our resort where again we enjoyed a swim to cool off. It is now warming up. The temperature of course is in Fahrenheit (86F) which is 30C. News of our presence here has spread thru the resort. Everyone is very friendly and want to know about NZ and what we are doing.

April 14                                                                                                              

                                        

This was supposed to be a lazy day. We installed a NZ logo on the bonnet of the RV. We have decided to call the RV “Ernie”. This is not because it is the fastest milk truck in the west but because it is big and easy, just like Ernie Ells. (the golfer, for the less sporty of you) As we were about to have lunch a lovely older couple from Illinois (Vern and Marty) stopped by Ernie and invited us to go with them to a railway park they were visiting. As it was a model railway park, we jumped at the opportunity. The O gauge, HO gauge, and N gauge layouts were great, all in a large hall covering a huge area. We walked through an old Pullman carriage on display which was used by 5 of the US Presidents. The whole park was a pleasant area with families enjoying the train theme. Back to “Ernie” for a swim at the pool where we meet two couples from
Winnipeg.
           

15 April

We had intended to buy our bikes and bike carrier today but woke to find our engine battery was stone flat!! The emergency start system was also not working. We rang David Jones from Cruise America and he had people out to fix the problems within the hour. (new battery and some other minor problems). What a great service!! On the roads of Mesa again to purchase the bike rack and bikes which we achieved in record time. We have discovered how to use the freeways which makes the driving much easier and quicker. The bikes cost around $150NZ each for which we got a reasonable looking soft tail (suspension front and back) mountain bikes. We also bought a US cellphone. We had intended to just put a new SIM card in our phone but they only sell complete phones. The good news is that the phone only cost about $22 NZ!! Our new US phone number is +1 480 544 0284. Back to the resort and pool for the last happy hour of the season. It is slightly hotter today around 33C. All the news here is of the Boston Marathon bombing.

                                                                                                           
16 April

A nice quiet morning installing more stuff. Everything is now operating as we want it. After lunch we walked across the road for groceries which cost about the same as NZ. We spent 2 hours in and around the pool before trying our new bikes out, going on a short ride up and down the canal behind our resort. Tomorrow we leave here and will head to Tortilla Forest, about 35 miles north to try out “Ernie” boondocking. (US term for freedom camping.)