LAST COUPLE OF DAYS                                      All the wires plugs etc needed to keep
                                                                                   telephones, computors, cameras etc going

Tuesday 10thJuly

Well we really are down to the last few days. Yesterday we travelled out of the heat back to Los Angeles base for the electrics and aircon to be sorted. A lovely little run via interstates 15, 91 and 5 oh such fun again on some sections two lanes for fast traffic with two or more people in the car- no one in those lanes rest of the interstate solid with single person traffic.

We are now camped at Anaheim Resort Rv Park within a couple of hundred yards of Disneyland, I think the original version. Now John in particular will appreciate this our van is separated from interstate 5 by a nine foot high wall and 50 yards of ground. A quite spot, actually the site is bright and clean, the traffic noise constant day and night.

We had a firework display courtesy of Disney at 9.30, it lasted 15 minutes. I've seen fireworks like it on TV but never in the flesh so to speak, spectacular describes it .

Its quite good, the fireworks drown out the road noise and even the aircon so really one is getting a symphony of noise or maybe a cacophony would be a better word.

We chose the site to enable us to get to the centre of LA, when we asked how to get there at reception the reply was 'what on earth do you want to go there for, Hollywood and Universal studios are the places to go' an over exaggeration perhaps but I think there is in fact no proper centre. Looking up, with difficulty, metro times we found there was a metro at 9.20 one at 12 and one at 3, lousy service every one is on the roads, chicken or egg situation. The people at reception were amazed that we would think of going in by train, no we have never done that and virtually never go in anyway.

Scrap that one then.

We drove off instead to see Queen Mary, ship, at Long Beach but got waylayed en route.

We went and stopped at Huntinton Beach more by luck than judgement and now I have to give credit to the Beech Boys if they were singing about this area. It was wide open with huge beaches stretching along the coast as far as you could see, shore development was restrained, nothing tacky anywhere as has been the case with all other seashores visited. In fact with the huge beaches with lawns behind and trees, hedges the whole effect was rather refined. The beaches had lots of people on them but did not seem overcrowded, volley ball and surfing was the main occupation after sunbathing. I do not comment on the Beach Boys 'California Girls'.

On one section of a beach they were setting up a surfing village, literally a village for the American surfing Championships to be held over 9 days at the end of July. 800,000 visitors are expected.

Thought of rounding off with thoughts from America but connections so annoying having spent over two hours trying to get this blog off I have given up, bit like that with America or this area,  been there done that  I will not be back.  Not fair I know but that is life! I'm getting or have got intolerent and grumpy.

                                          All photos are Huntington Beach

Onwards towrds the end via lake Elsinore

Thinking back to Julian for a second it is the first time I have seen the local dust cart and also the sewage disposal truck shinning and gleaming in procession along with carnival floats.  Shows how the local communities value all their amenities.

From Ramon we travelled around a bit for one day somewhat aimlessly, saw some large orange orchards alongside the route 67 to Escondido.  Same route next day but from Escondido up route 6 to see the radio telescope at the Palomar Observatory, world renowned for is 200 ft lens and for the work it does.  Not too much for visitors to see but the figures a beyond comprehension.
Briefly our galaxy, we are sited towards it's outer edge is about 100,000 light years wide, a light year being many thousands of trillions of miles. Each star in the galaxy is a sun and there are multi millions of billions of them all with there own planets. The Universe, whatever that is is made up of billions x trillions of galaxies most bigger than ours.  Where are we in this, less than an atom  in the panoply of things.  Other life almost certainly, where, who knows.  When you start thinking of infinity one just goes round in circles and it becomes a useless notion.

The road to the observatory on the map seemed ok but it rose 4500ft in about 7 miles so the hairpin bends were numerous, it is easier driving uphill than down though we managed it.

The whole area hereabouts varies between virtual desert and normal looking cultivated areas.  There is no doubt that virtually all of southern California and the states to the east are carved out of desert
and exist in a desert climate with all that entails.  No rain unlike UK at present, in three months we have had about three hours of rain.

Today Sunday 8th July we have temp 96F no air con as our main power circuits have blown and we have to report to Los Angeles on Monday, all closed Sunday. Hiding under trees at campground with permission to move where we want on the site to maintain shade, site quite empty, perhaps  people know it will be hot here at this time of year.  Forecast here for 100F tomorrow and 106F on Tuesday

Here by the way is Lake Elsinore, Lake RV site reached after the observatory by going up the interstate15. Friday 3pm four or five lanes solid for 30 miles travelling 70mph or stopped.

FLOWERS

                                         Flowers too few really Judith tok as many as possible
                                         though perhaps I did not stop for every one of them.
                                         Wild flowers only there were flowers in gardens.

Monument Valley

                                             Amazing zig zag colours in rock faces of hills
                                              double click to enlarge.

                                                    First view of Valley

                                                       Mexican Hat

                                         All well known lumps of rock from a variety of films

                                                  View from RV window.

                                             Last rock going south

Mesa Verde

                                           Housing built under overhanging rock

                                         Ceremonial underground circle used by the Indian
                                          villagers in around 1180AD

                                             Showing overhang of rock plus Judith blue hat.

                                                      Uninhabited

                                                      quite complicated structures

                                              Access not too easy from above.

CANYON LAND and ARCHES

                                                 En route to Moab on back road

                                             Canyon Land two day off road track both foreground
                                             and in the distance

                                            An arch in Canyon Land

                                          Through the arch. An arch is caused by erosion and a
                                          bridge by a river or stream.

                                                        Pop in the Isle of Wight

                                            Tken from 1000ft above showing the different levels and drop offs.

                                             Balancing roch in the Arches park

                                                       Arches

                                                              Arches

                                             Goodness knows where all the other rock went

                                           Arches again in different form almost house window like.

                                            Still arches park showing just how crazy erosion
                                               can make things, impossible really I think it
                                             was all little green men with a sense of humour.

Rockey Mountains Colorado

                                          Rocky mountains Colorado  we were camped in the tree
                                          to the left of the white spot in the valley 4500ft down.

                                               High Cafe Coffee, sorry no accent on this key board.

                                                           Elk at roadside.

CRAZY HORSE

                                                  Crazy  Horse  hole is gap under arm as below

                                                         Bit closer

                                          Intender finished sculpture,  long way to go yet

The Four Rushmore Presidents

                                           Washington  Jefferson  Roosevelt  Lincoln

                                                                    Washington

                                                                         Lincoln

Julian-Sandiego-Julian

JULIAN ---SAN DIEGO----JULIAN !!

Winding down a bit now we spent two nights in Julian area not doing much, coffee and apple pie or cider doughnuts and the like. A pleasant small town Julian, originally a town formed for gold mining with all that entailed but now dedicated to apples, apple pies etc.

Forward down the 79, pleasing but not spectacular to the interstate 8 and then 22 miles to it's end about 2miles from our campsite destination. Following desert driving, mountain passes and many many hairpin bends you would think a straight road would be welcome, no, it was diabolical I've come to hate interstate roads only the 5 to contend with in the near future, one of the worst!!

30th JUNE to 4th JULY

San Diego Mission Bay RV Resort a big seaside, well harbour lagoon side site full of vans, people and children just what we like. I have never seen so many skate boards used by ages 3 to 15 and all very skillful. Noisy yes but by ten o'clock dead quite on the first two nights bit noisier on the second two nights , adults not children.

Explored a bit of the city by both van and bus. Balboa Park in the centre of the town is a vast park that houses all the towns 15 museums, art galleries, Old Globe Theatre etc. An extremely good layout, lovely grounds and the opportunity to pop into any museum,some free, that you wished to investigate. A great idea to put all such amenities in one walkable area all relatively modern buildings by our standards built from 1915 onwards and spurred o by two international fairs and an Orsen Wells film Xanadu which incorporated settings of the park. The buildings range from Spanish Mexican, Victorian, Old Globe to modern Californian, quite a mixture but all fitting well together.

The Old Town situated well north of the modern town is, I think, the original old buildings and town square, altered, renovated and updated but still in their original position and layout. A tourist attraction now with most of the buildings given over to small shops and eateries but nevertheless giving some idea of layout and spaces involved. It is all sanitised now though no mud and dust and dirt around but to a jaded eye looking much more peaceful and satisfying than any modern town scape. Mind you we could not do without, water, gas, electricity, phones, transport etc. etc it just shows how times have changed and one cannot go back.

Downtown was much like any other city except being America the old buildings are venerated though I have to admit 1850 to 1920 property wherever built does not particularly set my mind on fire, I've certainly surveyed more buildings of this age than any of these cities can produce. Still for a young country they have to have something to call , their history !!

A modern mall in the centre appeared to be Disneyesqe rather than Malls as we and most others know. May levels and half levels flowing into each other gave it a different feel and certainly enlivened and in fact breathed new life into the city centre when built 1985, raised city prices and started a trend in other cities for the neon bedecked pop art style not that I've seen anything similar elsewhere.

Various other districts of the town claim their own idiosyncrasies in trying to get your attention and monies but nothing really stands out.

The American Navy is big round here and takes up large sections of the harbour and beach front which is a pity as there is no particularly pleasant property on the front anywhere near the town itself.

The beaches and sea front areas are some 3miles or further from the city and out the other side of the harbour, rather obvious really. We took the bus to La Jolla an upmarketish beach resort to the north of the well known major beaches of Ocean, Mission and Pacific. La Jolla was a seaside town with limited access to the sea but probably quite pleasing to live in. Fully developed with thousands of houses.

With the sun at last coming out 12 noon we strolled down Pacific and Mission Beach boulevard, called a boardwalk made of concrete and strolled was not quite correct either. I reckon we were , that is walkers were outnumbered by skate boarders and cyclists by at least three to one so one had to be aware all the time. The "boardwalk was only 6ft wide so chaos regularly ensued and this was a cloudy coldish Tuesday.

I've said before that I have been misled by the Beachboys records, I still like the records but you can keep Californian Beaches or the ones I have seen to date, boring, tacky in the extreme and cold water few swimmers and those mostly in wet suits. A dream destroyed.

We got vaguely caught up in 4th July Independence Day in that we had to leave San Diego as all sites were booked and we thought we might never find a site for the night, but we did. The RV and Caravan owners on the San Diego site along with the hundreds of little holiday home owners in the area certainly bedecked everything with American flags, bunting, tablecloths clothes etc intensely patriotic and I suppose way over the top to our eyes. Gosh I do lay it on a bit thick but everyone had American flag table cloths, chair backs and goodness knows how many flags flying from there vans quite amazing. I realise we are being accused, probably correctly, of having little or no patriotism in the UK but this appeared to be the other extreme.

We left on the morning of the 4th and went back to Julian as we knew they had a big celebration and parade through the town. Sitting on our chairs in the high street we watched a procession for about three hours, a bit stop start and all local with a tiny bit of military and many fire engines. Three distinct fire commands, local Julian District, county Californian Fire Service and the National Forestry Fire Service. Different job to UK Firefighters, all are paramedics and all at some time or other fight forest fires. Mention over the Tannoy and in museums in the area the fire of 2003 which would have destroyed Julian if all three brigades had not fought for days on end around the outskirts of the town. Fire Fire Fire something we know little about, Scott and Karen excepted, but a huge reality here never very far away and in the back of a lot of minds with fire warning levels at extreme virtually everywhere.

We enjoyed the morning which the whole town seemed to be enjoying too, even got given free refreshments from the estate agents outside whose shop we were sitting. Called Realtors here not estate agents.

Down in the afternoon along the 78 to Ramona where we are in Dos Pines County Park pitch 41, an extremely quiet position after San Diego.

　

Monument to Julian

24th JUNE

A drive today across variety of desert landscapes mostly inhospitable and with an occasional shack or two purporting to be a settlement and every now and then, once, a town existing for no apparent reason in the middle of nowhere. The roads 163 to 160 to 89 after Tuba city finally crossed our outward path at the junction of the 160 with the 89 which we had followed up north. The next 16miles south bought us back to Cameron Trading Post where we spent further time browsing and less money than our last visit. Still blisteringly hot here.

A good time to talk deserts and the like. The desert t areas which I have been describing as vast are indeed large covering part of California and stretching into four other states eastwards. This area amounts to approximately 500,000 square miles that is double the size of England, Scotland and Wales. An area 90% unoccupied and probably 90% of that totally uninhabitable. Leaving say a possible 10% that could be reclaimed with Massive irrigation schemes and long term strategies. Not exactly the most populous are of the USA and I suppose not the area to draw main conclusions about America, but one does!

Anyway, Cameron back to Flagstaff an uphill drive of 50 odd miles to cooler climes at I think round 6000ft. We like Flagstaff having found the Centre of the old town, about 4 blocks square on our last visit and having driven a lot recently we stayed two nights at the Fort Tuthill forestry site where we had previously camped. A Basic site but quiet.

Flagstaff library had some 30 computers, free use, plus plug in positions for individual lap top connections and free WI FI, not bad for a local library. The library was modern large and of a standard far exceeding any British library I have been in, wandering around the sections showed a huge variety and depth of books on any subject you could choose.

Out of context again and back to fires, The Rockie fire has closed the Rockie park to all and just south the Colorado Springs Fires have caused catastrophe with Lat Monday 32,000 people evacuated and 180 properties destroyed and the fire 0% contained, I will check up at our next Internet connection what the current situation holds.

JUNE 26th Flagstaff onwards

Taking the 89A known as the alternative 89 we waltzed gaily down or up and down a road which said prohibited anything over 40ft, we're well under that. A lovely road with major hills and turns and again incredible variety of scenery, from leafy gorges, called canyons, to desert mountain and of course back down again. Few towns of note but Sedona, centre of mysticism for some reason, looked awful others averagely bad. The road up and through Jerome almost beggars description I have never seen let alone driven anything like it.

Jerome, an old uranium mining town is built on the side of a mountain and it is said to have 250 miles of mine shafts and tunnels winding away beneath it. The town or parts of it apparently moves downhill at about 5 inches per year, the old court house there but now closed is 250" from where it was first built. There are theodolite markers and marks everywhere.

The road hairpins through the narrowest of streets with houses overhanging from the front and the same houses overhanging from the back as you turn a hairpin but now the site 4 or 5 storeys high and look as if they are about to collapse, some have. There are about six hairpin streets of this, it must all collapse and close one day. The road continues it's mountainous way to a town called Prescott described as a little Victorian gem in the guide book, total rubbish, it was a sprawling urban mess, fair enough we did not find the one street old centre but the place was large.

Spent the night at a forest site called White Spar.

27th JUNE It's back to California.

It's down the 89 and then the 71 and 60 to Brenda where we join the interstate 10. Again an interesting journey fro Prescott, still in the high mountains, but we were having a shorter run today and stopping at Blythe. Not a mistake but a contact with reality in this area of the world. Exited the van at a nice looking camp site called Mayflower Park at 2.30pm to find , horror of horror's the temperature was 109F about 43C, all we could do was sit in the aircon van. The aircon did not like the heat and froze and melted,water,everywhere and we found we had to set the system at no lower than the 20 degrees below the ambient temperature to avoid freeze ups. So air con to 90F!!! It was on all night. Death Valley was only 95Fon that day. Phoenix about 100 miles due east was 112 and regularly records the highest usa temperature of between 110 and 120 for the whole summer. Why live there. Palm Springs is no better and all that is is a hideously expensive resort for celebs and wannabees celebs and rich retired idiot. All you have is air conditioned with no outside life at all. Great houses lovely unusable balconies and manicured grounds which you fry if you walk in.

One afternoon and night was enough as we girded up our loins and fled westwards towards rthe coast where average summer temperature is 75F.

Blythe and area is well irrigated and agricultural as it has our old favourite the Colorado river running through it. The road no 78 followed the canals and irrigation channels for miles with curious right angled bends with stop signs every five or six miles where the irrigation channels turned. On and on we went through a variety of guess what desert scenery, some scrub some bush and even one area of pure sand dune, proper Sahara type desert!

Along the way we started to notice curious rv sites closed, open October to May. These sites sometimes three or four in one mile sometimes on their own were in the middle of the desert with nothing in either direction for 30 to 50 miles literally in the middle of nowhere. Self contained with 300 pitches or more each, big radio/tv mast and on general store, closed, no shade and that was it. The sites cater for the Snowbirds that is those retired people who live in there vans year round and travel and are down south for the northern winter months. To make it pay you have to stay at least one month preferably the the whole time to get the cheaper rates. I suppose it is a community of sorts but it puts a different slant on the "romanticism of the Full Timers" stuck out in the desert for six months.

Not following the above theme at all but thinking rvs caravans etc I I have been struck by the number of people living in caravans, or trailers as they are called over here. I know this whole area is different from the east coast but I would estimate that every town we came to had about 25% of the population living in this kind of accommodation, maybe an exaggeration but a huge proportion nevertheless. We have heard the expression "trailer trash" unfair perhaps but a telling one nevertheless. Many loans were made on such "dwellings" and these formed a substantial part of the banking crisis as they were totally unsecured and if called in worthless. That aside the standard of living in these area is poor and can in someway be likened to travellers in the UK. That is a huge number of people.

We finally arrived at a cool mountain area 4500ft and a little town called Julian centre of all things apple where it is difficult to find a savoury snack without apple lurking around somewhere or somehow. We have found the best site yet for layout etc with no dust huge amounts of trees, no pines great shade a site which would grace Europe!!!. The site is actually 98% holiday vans owned by separate individuals who come and use them whenever they want to, the usual holiday home site arrangement. No one lives in vans permanently and it is all very smart and well kept, the only site of it's type we have come across.

Hear in the USA they do not have static caravans like we do so all vans are a variety of caravans,trailers, or 5th wheelers that is those curious,to us, vans pulled by utes with a front overhang over the ute base, utes =utility vehicle a open van back with a driving cab in the front. The caravans are big and long with side slide outs and the 5th wheelers are huge all with slideouts at each side so there is a good variety of shapes around.