While we were in Denver, we went to FedEx, UPS, and the US Post Office to see how much it would cost to send Stuart's snowboard back to Australia, to save us dragging it around the country. We were horrified when the cheapest price we were quoted was $650. Fortunately Stu had been chatting to a friend of ours from Fitzroy Crossing days while were were in Silverthorne, Colorado who had a daughter studying in San Francisco. He said if we encountered problems trying to get the board home, Casey was flying back to Perth in June and could take it back for us for free. So after learning how expensive it was going to be we decided to take her up on the offer.
So we left Denver on the Monday morning, flying Frontier Air...I love their planes as each tail has a different animal on it.....this was ours...
flying over the Rockies...
and landing in San Francisco.
We were to be picked up by a company who were handing over the RV to us. It was a free shuttle service to their outlet and we had to be waiting for them between midday and 1pm. Fortunately our flight arrived on time and we had plenty of time to find the location and wait for them. I mentioned to Stuart how amazing it was that everything had gone so smoothly. It was about 40 min drive to the location, and we were given a quick handover on the running operations of the RV. I found a company on the internet, where we are deliver the RV to Anchorage for the summer season, so there is no one way fee charge, the first week is free and then it is a reduced cost for the remaining 4 weeks, so a pretty good deal.....otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford to do it. So imagine our surprise when this is what they handed over! (just kidding)
No, this is what we got......(just tricking!!)
Remember I said how smoothly everything was going? Well we put all our gear into the RV (including snowboard), plugged in Simon, our very trusty GPS, who has travelled the world with us, only to discover the charge cord had snapped off and Simon was as flat as a tack and was taking us NOWHERE!! So here we were on the outskirts of San Francisco, planning to meet Casey, with the snowboard, somewhere else in San Francisco, in the 19 foot RV, with no directions!!!! We made our way to a Walmart, but they didn't have any cords, so spent about 2 hours driving around trying to find somewhere that sold charger cords that would fit Simon. In the end, we had to buy a brand new GPS...who is an American woman...who we refer to as Simon.. and eventually made it to the University campus on peak hour. Fortunately we were able to find Casey and it was a relief to be able to hand over the snowboard to her....where we will meet again in Perth sometime...(the snowboard that is).
So we slowly made our way out of San Francisco, in peak hour traffic,
and headed up the coast. We thought it would be good to see the Pacific Ocean and had heard that this part of the world was particularly scenic. Well it was..but the road was narrow, windy, hilly and oh so slow!! I think we travelled about 19 miles in 2 hours!!! By this stage it was about 8pm and we couldn't find anywhere to park up. The RV is fully equipped, so we don't need to stay at RV parks, but we couldn't even find one of those! Eventually, after turning around we saw a State Park, so pulled in there, were given a camp site, no power, no showers, no view...just pit toilets and it cost us $35!!!
 |
| Near our first campsite |
Anyway after a few teething problems (we couldn't turn one of the lights off in the RV, so had to disconnect the globe) we made it through our first night. We decided to continue up the coast as it really was lovely and we were told the driving got a lot easier...which it did....
coming across plenty of seals along the way...
But after such slow going and with our plan to get to Alaska, we realised that the Northern Californian coastline was not the quickest route, so we changed plans, headed inland and drove up Interstate 5, along with the rest of America! But this was a lot easier for Stu as he could go slowly and with it being 3 lanes, was easily overtaken by "the rest of America!!"
We crossed in to Oregon at night,
arriving at what would and will be many FREE overnight camping spots at ....WALMART!! Yes, most Walmart's throughout the US allow free overnight camping for RV's and caravans. There are a few etiquette rules that I watched on You-tube to make sure we got it right, and sure enough, we joined many other overnighters in the Walmart car park ( one of the rules is you must park as far away from the shop as possible in the corner). Apparently travellers are some of Walmart's biggest customers, so as long as you don't abuse it, you are welcome. God Bless America and Walmart!!!
The other thing the US does well are the rest areas for travellers....plenty of parking, space, toilets, maps and some "different"characters including this lady and her pet ferret!!!
And we passed this truck yard and for the life of me I can't work out who would want to drive these coloured trucks???
and I saw this outside a school..so typically American and not something we'd see at home...The Simpson's school bus en masse!!
Connie and Bill used to live in Oregon and recommended the Oregon coastline to us from Florence up. We were a bit reluctant after our Californian experience, but were assured by Connie and Bill it was a good road. Well, thankyou you two!! It was such a different experience...a much friendlier road
and we made steady progress up the impressive coastline.
eventually finding a National Park on the ocean. We were a bit reluctant to pay another $35 for NOTHING, but when we drove in, we were greeted by a lovely lady with a big smile, she had a fire going outside and was so helpful. We were able to use our NP's pass and it ended up costing us $12 for the site....still no power, but this time..flushing toilets and we were camped right on the Pacific Ocean.
It was such a nice spot, we virtually had the beach to ourselves and it was great to be able to stretch the legs and go for a long walk along the beach, looking at houses perched on top of the sand dunes, that looked like they would disappear into the ocean when the next big storm hit!!
The wind erosion was very evident....
and we were enjoyed a beer watching the sun go down over a very picturesque Pacific Ocean.
During the night it had started raining, but we thought it would only last a few hours...so we continued up the coast.....
where it got heavier and heavier and visibility was almost impossible.
We made it all the way up the Oregon coast, crossing into Washington State as the rain came down even more!!!
To get from Oregon to Washington, we drove across a really, really amazing bridge. It was huge and high above the water.
Once we had changed states we turned around to take a photo of the bridge, but couldn't see it for the rain!!! All we could manage was this view!!!
By this stage we knew we had to go inland as the only other way to get north of Seattle was by ferry, so in the pouring rain we hit Seattle on peak hour!! Stuart did an amazing job...not sure how he stays so calm...if it was me driving, I would have cried and got out in the middle of the traffic and refused to drive!! But he just does it!
So we got through Seattle and made our way up to Mount Vernon where we had another night of luxury planned at Walmart, before we were going to cross into Canada the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment