We see Bear!

For four years on our travels we have seen all sorts of animals, except bear. Well now we have seen bears.
On Tuesday we drove up to the Zumwalt Meadows, a very pretty area at the head of the KIngs Canyon. On the way I saw what I thought was a tree stump about 10 yards in from the road, but it moved! So I slammed on the brakes, reversed up and there was a large brown bear, although it was actually a Black Bear. It was moving quite slowly through the tress at the side of the road, we were able to follow it in the car (going backwards), as we followed it if moved further into the woods and eventually we lost sight of it, though we did get some photos of it. We were very excited by this.
Next day we drove down to Azalea Campground to be nearer the really big trees of Seaquoia National Park. On the Thursday we drove deep into the park to visit the largest known tree in the world. A sequoia called General Sherman, siad to be more than 2500 years old! There are several asphalted paths which lead to the giant tree, as we walked along one path to the tree a bear came out of the woods, right acros the path in front of us and then back into the woods. Even though they seem to move quite slowly they do cover a lot of ground quickly, too quickly for my liking, stil I always made sure that sally was between me and the bear. They say that the best protection against attack by bear is not to be able to run fast, just faster than the person you are with!

Wednesday 21st Sept - North to A festival

Wednesday morning we packed up, returned the car and set off north. The weather was now in the 90's, which you would expect in the desert. Our route was to travel back to the I15, go north and take the 395 to Kramer Junction then to Mojave for the night. from there we will join the 99 and travel through Bakersfield to Fresno, where our Bluegrass festival is.
The little stretch of I15 north of San Bernadino is a long treacherous climb of more than 2000ft, we opted to take the truck lane and travel slowly, even so we had to turn off the A/C to keep the water temp normal, even with or uprated radiator. Once over the top we made good time along the very straight 395 to the curious Kramer Junction. Just a crossroad in the desert, but thriving on the trucks that pass through. It was busy enough to have traffic jams at the junction. We stopped for a freshen up at the Pilot Station there.
Turning West we drove through Boron, with its massive Borax mines and then along the northern boundary of the masssive Edwards Air Force Base - didn't even see any buildings or runways it is so big.
Mojave is a town situated to the North West of Edwards. It is an interesting place. It is quite industrially active. We were camped just beside its huge airport, whose three principle activities seem to be a storage dump for unwanted aircraft - huge 747s, Airbuses etc. are lined up waiting .... for what? Also a storeage area for wind turbines. To the West of Mojave are hundreds of wind turbines and the airport is used as a distribution centre for them - they are very large when you see them on the ground. Lastly, and most intriguingly, it is the home of Richard Branson's Space Plane, although we have not seen it,this is where it is being developed and built, though it will fly from an airfield in New Mexico, on the west side of the White Sands Missile Base.
On the west side of town there is a long ridge, which is completed covered by hundreds of wind turbines.
Mojave must also be a rail junction as we heard locos moving constantly through the night and saw some really large trains moving through.

Back in the Desert

Our flight back to Las Vegas was uneventful,though we appreciated the upgrade to Economy Plus on United. Sally enjoyed being able to see the magnificent countryside pass beneath us. We picked up a nice rental car, which again we upgraded to a Chevy Impala and drove hell for leather back to Banning, which we made in something under 4 hours, including a stop for dinner.
We then collapsed into bed, thanks again to Mike for moving the trailer onto its site at the KOA.

What we did at Sarah's

Wednesday was recovery day and we just hung out at the lovely house, though we did go to Breck to get a cuppa at Clint's. Wednesday night we had an inch of snow, so that gave me a chance to try out my new Sonny A55 camera, my first venture into the world of SLR photography.
Thursday afternoon we explored Fairplay and had cup of coffee/tea in one of the many cafes and did a bit of shopping in the local Food Market store.
Friday we took a trip across the Boreas Pass route from Como into Breckenridge. It is a washboard road trail which is full of the history of the area, mining, ghost towns and railroads. As well as having breathtaking views of the Continental Divide, which it crosses at the Boreas Pass. At one time this route was the only way to get into the Breck, Vail, Leadville area, so was very important. It is now largely abandoned, with just a few bits preserved. This was a round about way to get us into Breckenridge to meet Sarah and Brianna for tea at Erics Downstairs, which was fun.
On Saturday we all went Ready Steady Fire to paint some pottery, that was great fun and needed a lot of patience and concentration.
On Sunday we decided to make a day of it and went to Pike's Peak, near Colorado Springs, to take a ride in the cog train which goes right to the top. 14,170 ft, with magnificent views all around of the Continental Divide to the West, New Mexico to the South, the plains to the East and Denver to the North. Fabulous, but cold. On the way in the train we got a good view of that fascinating but rare plant - The Bristle cone Pine. The one we saw by the railroad was said to be 2000 years old.
Monday saw us take a trip up to Silverthorne to give Sally a fix in Carters.
That was our week in Colorado, for a quiet week to start our vacation it seems to have been quite busy. We had a great time.

Long way behind!

Well we are a long way behind ourselves at the moment.
On Tuesday morning we set out to fly to denver, to visit with Sarah and Brianna. Our flight was via Pheonix - why it should be cheaper to fly several hundered miles out of our way to et to Denver I do not understand, still it gave us a chance to see National Monument Valley from the air - if somewhat distantlyi
On arriving at Denver we picked up our rental car. we have decided taht the Compact size that we booked is not quite right, so we asked for an upgrade to include a car with armrest and criuse control. Well being Express members helped. The dear lady at the desk first of all offered an upgrade for $95, but we declined - too expensive, so she then said the best she could do was $65, so we said we would leave it. So she then said to just take the upgrade car! No charge!.
We drove up to Alma and met with Sarah and Brianna. We had a very nice time, although I still don't sleep well at 10000+ ft. While we were there we did a few things we haven't had the chance to do before.

A couple of things we can do in Denver

Well we had a couple of days in Las Vegas, saw the Lights of Belagia (Titanic theme), Volcano at the Mirage and the mess at Treasure Island - what has happened to that show!!!!. Still the Red Sailed Pirate ship was still there and did its sinking routine.
On Tuesday we continued out epic mission to visit with Sarah. Flying from Las Vegas to Phoenix to Denver, picked up another hire car and drove up to Alma. We are now peacefully installed in the lovely cabin in the forest.
There has been the odd problem with the weather. In Las Vegas we had a couple of deluge proportion thunderstorms and now in Alma we have half an inch of snow! (yes it is only 14th Sept).
We have taken a few pics, but currently do not have the bandwidth to upload them.

Via Las Vegas

Picked up the hire car (upgraded to a nice Ford Escape for an extra $12) at Palm springs this morning, managed to pack up and shift the TT into storage. Set off for Las Vegas. Now tell me the logic of Dollar Rent a car. Pick up Palm Springs, drop off Las Vegas - 260 miles. Hire car cost $40, which includes a full tank of gas! Now the Escape has a gas tank of 17.5 U.S. gals which at $4.00 p g is $70. So I have rented a SUV, incl. every insurance you can imagine, or need and $70 of gas for $52!!! Excellent.
So have arived in Las Vegas and are now hiding in our room away from the hordes of people on the street and in the casinos, however we have had an excellent prime rib dinner in the Imperial Palace and are now retiring to bed, slightly knackered after our drive. Tomorrow I may be able to wheel Sally out and have a look at the Strip.

Change of Direction

We are nothing if not flexible, so we have decided to change our plans a little and we are now going to return to Colorado to see our niece Sarah anb Brianna for a week, before it gets too cold for us warmies. So we will be off travelling again tomorrow, we have decided to take in Las Vegas as well, so we are driving to Las Vegas for a couple of nights, flying to Denver then driving up to Alma. Should be a fun week.

Back on Site in Banning

Well we have arrived safe and sound at the trailer, we are grateful to Mike and Andrew for putting it onto its site at the KOA Banning. We spent most of Friday 'sorting stuff', like 2 and half hours in the the bank trying first of all to find out why Wwells Fargo had closed our account, then secondly in Bank of America opening a new account. That plus unpacking, returning the hire car and stocking up at walmart neatly took most of our time. Still is was nice to do it in 100 degree warmth.Also had to open 'new toys', to start off our new trip I have greedily bought myself a new camera,A Sony A55, sort of like an SLR, but the mirror doesn't move. More practically, we plan to spend more time dry camping, so we have taken steps to make sure our electricity goies further. 1. we have installed a second battery increase the amount of electricity we can store, 2. we have bought some LED lights to reduce the amount of electricity we use and 3. we have bought a small (30W) solar panel to help maintain the charge in the batteries, so the three pronged strategy should improve our dry camping time considerably, and we always have the generator for big energy jobs, like the microwave and the A/C if we need it.

We're Back

We are sitting in our motel room in a Rodeway Inn in Riverside. We had a safe, trouble free journey, though it was very long. The only problem came when I left my rucsack with the Laptop in it on the shuttle bus from our Travelodge Hotel to Heathrow T5, fortunately the shuttle just did a short loop and we were able to retrieve it within a half hour. As usual the views of the mountains and deserts as we flew across UT,NV and CA were spectacular. It was lovely to walk out of the airport and feel the warmth of L.A. and that characteristic smell of the tropics (I think it may come frm the palm trees). This morning we will continue via Wal-Mart to Banning and turn round our truck and trailer. Then decide where we want to go from there.

Last day at home.

It's been a busy old day today, getting everything gathered together for packing, making last minute phone calls, ensuring we have all the tickets and bookings, passports and diving licences ready, seeing friends and neighbours, organising the gardener to do the pruning and readying of the garden for the winter, setting up the lights on clock timers, ordering a taxi to take us to the station, last minute washing of clothes and the bedding, defrosting the fridge and freezer, picking up the windfalls from our apple tree - huge crop this year - hope the neighbours will come and get them while we are away - they make great apple pies ans crumbles and cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. We are tired but just about ready.

It will be a take away for dinner tonight - Terry is too tired to cook.

Had a last minute panic as the supplements and medicines ordered from my ME specialist, promised to be posted by last Thursday to arrive Friday had not arrived by yesterday. Tried to phone the surgery and couldn't get through before they closed, so had to send a message. Anyway they arrived this morning to my great relief. Some of the things I take can be got in the USA but some cannot. Panic over!

Our next blog, God willing, will be of our safe arrival in LA and getting to the rig parked in Banning , an hour and a half hours ride east of LA. We get in too late to reach it on Thursday, so are booked into a motel for the night and will arrive on Friday. The truck is in being serviced today and the trailer axles are being checked and the bearings repacked. Found a guy who would take the truck to the garage for the service and then he will do the trailer axles on site. SO, hopefully the rig will be ready for us when we get there- fingers crossed.

The weather seems to be still quite hot out there so have packed some cool clothes in my hand luggage to change into when we get there.

Nearly Ready

Well, it's now only four days before we set off for our 9th trip to the USA. Most things have been done, everything checked to see that all is up to date, tickets ordered and checked, shopping bought and ready to pack, neighbour ready to look after the house for us - no Helen this time as she has moved into her own flat, our English caravan packed away for the winter and the garden furniture moved into the garage. There are just one or two small things still to do - hairdo's, last medicines to be collected etc.

We are really looking forward to getting back to the USA as we have not had a very good summer weather wise. It's been chilly, rainy and not very sunny so 100F sounds wonderful - if not a little too hot. Thank goodness for air con!

Terry has been busy ordering things to arrive at the campsite where our trailer is stored in Banning- he's even ordered an inflatable canoe so we can get onto the water at last - he's been itching to do this since our first trip! He is planning our route and looking up campsites - they are a lot more expensive in CA than other states.

It's just a shame that we will not be able to see any of our wonderful friends that we have made during our visits as most are in Florida or travelling themselves. Anyway, we have already booked our flights for next Spring and plan to be at Jim and Connie's party in March and will be able to catch up with many folks there.