2014 USA Trip

3^rd April

Kate, our taxi driver friend, took us to the airport for our evening flight to Auckland where it was raining “cats and dogs”. We caught the shuttle to the International Terminal (first time ever, usually walk). We had applied for a free upgrade to Premium Economy but assumed we had missed out until we were upgraded at the boarding gate. Air NZ have changed the design of these seats and they are now very good with huge leg room (wasted on us) but much more comfortable. The food has also been upgraded so not the hassle with packages that you get in zoo class. All much nicer making for a comfortable flight. Our prebooked shuttle took us to Ernie who was in good nick (thanks Nicola and Gary). Everything was great and in an hour we were unpacked and ready for the next 6 month adventure. Off to bed early!!

4^th April

Our first priority was to get our cellphone working again. We walked to the Outlets of Orange where there was an AT&T shop and soon had a new number and could communicate again. We had a couple of minor issues to sort out including a flat tyre and a buggered bike. A careful drive to the tyre shop sorted out the flat tyre (faulty valve) and a visit to the bike shop where we bought a bike for Val last year after the rear wheel was stolen from the Wal-Mart bikes we had bought. The bike shop staff were very helpful and fascinated with our trips. They did a great deal on a second hand mountain bike for me. After lunch we shopped up for groceries and enjoyed a movie on our new DVD player that we had bought over with us.

5^th April

This was going to be a “fix it day” at camp. We started off by stripping the old Wal-Mart bike for all the usable parts. Never buy a cheap Wal-Mart bike!! As the guy in the bike shop said “they are great unless you want to ride them!” With a few bits swapped over we now have 2 very good bikes. The other minor job was fixing the bathroom door which has always jammed. I had brought my plane over and after removing the door took a couple of mils off the hinge side. What a difference!

6^th April

We left Ponderosa RV Park, where Ernie has been stored for 6 months (excluding the 7 weeks Nic, Gary and the boys used it over Christmas) and had a huge drive of 3 miles to an RV park near the gates of Disneyland where we will visit tomorrow. The reason for this huge journey was so that we can visit Disneyland for the day and the evening but come back for a break around dinner time returning for the fireworks at 9:00pm. After settling in to the new camp we walked the 10 minutes to Disneyland gates and bought tickets for tomorrow. The temperatures are rising and today is around 27C so we had a swim before dinner. Very pleasant!

7^th April

We were at Disneyland by 10:00am. The first impressions were great with Main St leading down to the castle. Nicola had wised us up to using our fast passes (front of the queue for rides) so we hot footed it to Adventureland and the Indiana Jones ride only to find that it was closed!!!  We were close to Splash Mountain, so decided to take the ride on  a log flume which tested our thrill level with the finale being a vertical 50ft drop! We were both drenched but lots of laughs. The Pirates of the Caribbean (our best ride of the day), the Haunted House and The Mark Twain paddle steamer (very relaxing) finished our morning rides. We did not have to wait more than 10 minutes for any of these rides, surprising as there seems to be a huge number here considering it is a Monday. After lunch at Mickey’s Toontown, we caught

the show at the Fantasyland Theatre, a 20 minute song and dance performance which was a mixture of animation and live actors. Unfortunately “It’s a Small Word” and  “Nemo” were also closed so we went to Tomorrow land and drove cars on the Autopia ride. It was time for the 4:00pm parade so we had an ice-cream and found a seat to enjoy this fantastic cavalcade of floats featuring lots of the Disneyland characters. By now we were whacked so we walked back to “Ernie” for a break (nearly fell asleep) and dinner. Back to Disneyland by

8:00pm and Mickey’s show on the Rivers of America - a spectacle on the land and water including ships and monsters. Some of the fantasy bits were projected onto spray from the river. This was followed by the fireworks over the castle. What a show!! Disneyland can certainly handle huge crowds and do some fantastic lighting, sound and visual

effects. You would have to be a huge cynic not to have a big smile on your face for the whole day. We really enjoyed our “one day” experience at Disneyland.

8^th April

Off to Wal-Mart for some supplies and then to Camping World for a valve that had crapped out on Ernie before driving across L.A. to the coast at Dockweiler Beach where we will stay for a couple of nights. This camp is right on the beach. It is also on the end of the LAX runways so there is a constant stream of aircraft flying overhead. We had a flat tyre on my new bike so we spent the afternoon fixing punctures on it, and the tyres I had rescued off the old bike. (5 in total). We did a test ride on the 22 mile cycleway which runs past all the beaches on this northwest side of L.A. Lots more riding tomorrow!

9^th April

Another beautiful day, cool in the morning but warming to mid 20Cs. We headed north along the 22 mile cycleway toward Santa Monica passing Marina Del Ray, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica Pier to the end of the cycleway at Will Rogers Beach. We returned to the Santa Monica Pier where we sat and had lunch. The usual crowd of walkers, runners, skaters has to be dodged! Venice Beach is quite a seedy area with the homeless and tattoo parlours etc. It was a great ride of about 26 miles. The bikes are great! Back at our camp we went down to the beach for a sunbathe and a read. Only the really hardy are swimming. A sea fog came in this evening so we dined inside.

10^th April

After leaving the beach camp we joined highway 1 to Malibu where we headed inland up into the Santa Monica Mountains to a State Park at Malibu Creek. This was a peaceful spot - what a contrast from the hustle and bustle since we arrived. Sometimes we have stumbled on an unexpected bonus. This was another of those occasions! After a bike ride and a short walk we were on the site where they recorded the exterior shots for M.A.S.H. This was an isolated gorge and instantly we recognised the hills and ridges from this TV series. There were some old vehicles which had been left behind and a map of the 4077 camp. We even walked up the hill where the helicopters landed with the casualties. Back at Ernie, the camp host bought us a King Snake to have a look at.

11 April

We drove back thru the Malibu Canyon to the Pacific Coast Highway (1) and north to a series of State Beaches where we thought we would get a camp site only to find they were all full! It is the “spring break” for some schools. The ‘1’ goes inland thru Oxnard, which seems to be a strawberry growing area. We stopped at McGrath Beach State park where there were plenty of camping sites. We discovered that it was not a very nice part of the coastline. After a walk to beach, back at Ernie, we found that we both had a thick sticky oily tar on our feet. It turns out that it is a naturally occurring oil seepage on the beach in this area. It took a hell of a lot of scrubbing to remove it! Not our best choice of camps!

12^th April

Back on the N-1 and thru the coastal town of Ventura where the boats leave for the Channel Islands (Santa Cruz etc) and after a shop we continued north where we spied some RVs parked on the beach at Emma Woods State Beach. A quick “U” turn and we checked in and found a great spot backed up to a sandy beach. We sat and enjoyed

watching the surfies doing their thing. After lunch, at low tide, we walked the length of the RV camp (90 spots all on the beach). More relaxing, reading, and surfer watching before watching the sun set over the sea. It had got pretty cool so we sat inside for the evening.

13^th April

Such a great spot we have decided to stay for another day. It was a bit warmer today but still a cool breeze off the ocean in the afternoon. A very relaxing day doing much the same as yesterday. We walked in the opposite direction today passed a lot of families on the beach enjoying their Sunday.

14^th April

We drove north along the coast to Santa Barbara where we turned inland onto the “154” and to a camp in

the Los Padres Forest Park. We had a great peaceful camp under trees. It is much warmer inland and Val did a huge wash which dried quickly in the warm breeze. Three young guys arrived next door. They turned out to be Kiwis, one from Cheyenne St. (we had lived 2 streets away). What a small world.

15^th April

We continued along the “154” thru a quaint little Scandinavian town called Solvang, with Danish flags everywhere. A lovely drive thru farming land and back on the coast to Pismo Beach. We had trouble finding the state park where we were to stay. The camping ground had the “full” sign out and we could not find the second camp. We retraced our steps and found that the camp was not in fact full. The wardens were too lazy to take in the “full” sign!! This is a huge camp with many family groups. After lunch we off loaded the bikes and rode to the main beach. The place was chocker! There is a long pier with many people fishing and a busy shopping/restaurant water front. All very vibrant. Lots of people on the beach, surfing, swimming and sunbathing.

16^th April

The sea mist was back today but it cleared by lunch time. We walked to the main beach in our bathing suits and towels for a couple of hours of sun bathing, people watching and reading. The water is still a bit cool for swimming. After tea and a walk around the camp, the cool breeze set in.

 

17^th April

The weather has deteriorated with low cloud and quite cold. We left Pismo State Beach and did a shop up at Wal-Mart. We visited the Outlet Shops and Val bought two pairs of Levi Jeans for $40. Not bad!!  Because of the Easter break there are lots of people on the roads, so we had booked a couple of nights at San Simeon State Park. Our camp is on a hill about 1 mile from the beach. As we have not seen the sun today we will walk to the beach tomorrow.

18^th April

The morning dawned misty and cold. We had bought a new picture frame and Val had some new photos printed yesterday at Wal-mart so she spent the morning mounting them. Much better than last years picture frame effort. After lunch we decided we could not wait for the sun and walked along a track to the beach. It has to be a great beach to look good on a dull day but this beach would not have been impressive on the best of days. Walking back the sun at last came out and we spent the rest of the day enjoying it.

19^th April

We drove up to the Hearst Castle visitors centre. This is a palatial mansion built by Sir William Randolph Hearst. Again the Easter crowd was huge with long lines for tickets. We decided to “flag it”. Back on the Pacific Coast Highway and suddenly the road became a twisting hilly narrow road with huge seas pounding onto a rugged coast - very spectacular and not unlike the Kaikoura coastal road. We had no booking for this night (Easter Saturday) and were relieved to get a site in a great camp at Plaskett Creek  (again with the “full” sign out.) After lunch we walked to the coast down a set of steps to a beautiful wild sandy beach with many families on it.  Later in the day we walked a track along the cliff tops giving us fantastic views.

20^th April

The road became even more spectacular and in some places was cantilevered out from the cliffs.

At the Monterey Peninsular we had thought we would take a detour past Pebble Beach and Spyglass Golf courses only to find it was a narrow toll road. We are now in an RV Park which we booked earlier for washing and the internet. We walked over the sand dunes to the beach and back past a resort with a restaurant where we booked a table for dinner tonight. It had an Hawaiian theme and the food was great. I had sword fish and Val had salmon. We will now publish the blog.