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06.10.2003: Hamburg - San Diego
We were exhausted before we stepped onto the plane! It`s been 9 weeks - 9 long, hard and stressful weeks of sorting out, packing, throwing out, selling and thinking about what we need to take with us and what we need to do to go to North America. We are suffering from a severe lack of sleep which has built up over the weeks. This "Great Idea" of ours had better work out, cos we´re not going through all this ever again!
We managed to redecorate our flat in 7 days although we nearly gave up after the first attempt at painting one of the ceilings! (They`re over 10 feet high!) After handing over the flat on 30th September we thought we`d be able to relax a bit for the 6 days before our flight... No chance! We tried to see as many people as possible before leaving and were amazed at how excited everyone was about our new life. We just hadn`t had time to get excited! A classic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees. We also had a lot of boxes in Kirstens parents cellar that needed sorting out as we`d literally just thrown things in boxes at the end to empty the flat so we could decorate. (If anyone finds a small black alarm clock, can you take the batteries out for us before they oxidise - thanks!)
To top it all, we had to get up at 03-45 to get to the airport 2 hours before our flight to London at 07-15. We had 4 very large bags and thus made ourselves very conspicuous (or should I say suspicious!) But we were still well below the allowed limit of 2 x 32kg per person for America - we had 79kg (128kg allowed). We managed to get through security by explaining to the man sitting at the x-ray machine exactly what he was looking at! (Well, we`d got kitchen knives and utensils, a hand mixer, electric hair clippers /razors, various Tupperware and containers filled with all sorts of things. It was a bit embarrassing when he asked us about the contents of a container that showed up as empty on the screen - that's because it was filled with tampons! (Well, at least we know there`s no sharp objects in there!!)
We had to stay awake for a minimum of 26 hours because of the time difference in San Diego. The 1.5 hour flight to London and the 3 hour wait for the next flight to San Diego was uneventful as we were so knackered! A friend of ours told us that the long haul 11.5 hour flight to San Diego was quite empty and so we were hoping to be able to stretch out and get some sleep on the empty seats. HA! No chance. The flight was full and we were in a 3 seater and neither of us had an aisle seat! Then we found out that Kirstens seat wouldn`t even recline one millimetre! Fortunately, the American girl next to us said she`d move to one of the few free seats after the meal so we got the chance to stretch out over 3 seats. Still couldn`t sleep so we watched 3 films. Helen watched Charlie`s angels, Pirates of the Caribbean, and a Michael Douglas/Gwyneth Paltrow remake of an Hitchcock thriller.
We finally got to America and got through the checks without too much problem and both got 90 day visas until Jan 5th 2004. Then it was time to meet Michael and Michèle for the first time (M&M for short). We greeted each other as though we were long time friends although we`d only spoken to Michael on the phone. And then it was time to meet "Winnie", our new home, in the flesh! He`s actually smaller than he looks in the photos and shows his age when you`re right next to him. He`s obviously very photogenic!! And he`s ours!!
It was cloudy and about 19°C and we were driven to the beach where we went for a walk and coffees. Then we stopped off to fill up with petrol and gas (Michael explained everything but it was just going in one ear and out the other!) before going to our camp site. M&M made pasta and salad whilst we quickly unpacked our bags, knowing that we would have to sort everything out properly once we were alone. By 9pm (after 26 hours) Helen couldn`t keep my eyes open any longer and went to bed in Winnie. Kirsten stayed up a bit longer chatting to M&M who slept in a tent.
A very long day had just ended and the start of our new life had just begun.
07.10.2003: San Diego
Despite being exhausted we both woke up at 3am but didn`t get up until 7am for showers and breakfast. M&M didn`t have any sugar so we had coffee with honey! Michael explained a few things about Winnie as he did for the next 3 days aswell. There`s an awful lot of does and don`ts when you`re explaining things about a motor home to two absolute beginners! And neither of us have ever been in a motor home before. So Helen made notes and Kirsten took video so that when it came to us being alone we wouldn`t need to ask someone how to switch the fridge from electric to gas or how to empty the dirty water tanks.
We left Kumeyaay camp at 11-30 am not knowing that we were supposed to leave at 10am as they close for 2 nights every week. The first thing we needed was an address in San Diego otherwise we wouldn`t get anywhere. So we went to UPS as we had found out on the internet that you could get mail boxes for $20 a year. Obviously the internet had dropped off a zero as it cost $200 a year! So we asked them where the nearest post office was. But they wanted 2 utility bills ( e.g. water or electricity) as proof of address. Fortunately, Kirsten had seen a place advertising mail boxes which we`d passed on the way so we went there and got a mail box address for $35 for 3 months hoping that in the next 3 months we could find a free alternative.
There was a DMV office nearby (the equivalent of a local DVLA to get vehicles registered and the road tax paid) but the queue was out into the street. At least the security guy on the door was entertaining. When we told him we wanted to register a motor home in a new name he shouted " Phewweeeeee, that gonna take a laawwnng time. Ya gotta git in this queue ( the one in the street) just to git yourself a number and thin ya gotta git in that queue ( the one inside which was even longer!) So we decided we would do the DMV tomorrow. It was already 4 pm anyway. So we drove towards a new camp on the opposite side of San Diego on the beach. We stopped off at Michaels bank on the way and paid in $8000 travellers chequess that we`d bought with us to pay for Winnie. So he was now ours but we still couldn`t drive him!
Then we went to a supermarket. Now that's an experience in America. Helen always used to take the mickey out of the Americans who always say that England is "really cute, Everythings soooo tiny". Now we know why ... Because everything in America is soooo huge. You can`t just walk down the street to the local supermarket. You need a car because everything is so spread out. We actually drove 150 miles in 4 days in San Diego just going to the various offices to sort out the paperwork for Winnie. Of course this meant that everything we needed to do took a lot longer than we had anticipated.
Anyway, back to the supermarket - everything was bewildering. Don`t bother looking for what you want cos you won`t find it! Helen gave up looking for cereal as there was just too much choice and no recognisable brand names. Sausages are a big NO and if you want healthy food then try leaving the country!!! A lot of things are very expensive here. Potatoes are huge and cost twice as much. Bread and cheese are also very expensive, the bread often has sugar in it - in fact a lot of food that shouldn`t have sugar in it, does have in America. The cheapest things are meat, chips and soft drinks - The healthy American diet!! We managed to find a pee bottle to use in Winnie. If you use Winnies toilet you have to go to a dump station every day as it`s so hot and the toilets we`ve had in the camp sites so far are very clean.
We got to the beach camp at San Elijo State Park at 5pm. Michael prepared the fire and we marinaded chicken in curry paste. We put potatoes in the fire, grilled the chicken and did a carrot, zucchini, garlic stir fry as accompaniment. Yummy! After washing up we chatted until about 10-30pm. We`d just been talking about Harry Potter when Michael came back from the loo and said he`d seen magic! Well, we didn`t know what he meant so he took us to the beach and lo and behold he was right. The waves were being lit up by bright blue (electric blue) plankton. On the sand, every time we took a step our feet and about 4cm all around them were lit up in a bright blue for a few seconds before fading away. We were creating our own light show! Absolutely amazing!
We got to bed at 11-15 pm when the extremely loud trains had stopped going passed the camp site for the night. (They started again at 5-15am!)
08.10.2003: San Diego
We got up at 8am and went for a shower which we had to pay for (25 cent if you`re quick!) Made scrambled egg, toast and fruit salad for breakfast. The trains hooting all the time were so annoying that we wanted to move to a different site on the camp. We also wanted to get away from the huge American campervans and their noisy generators. The site we wanted had a car and tent on but no owners. Check out time was 12 o`clock and they hadn`t booked another night. So we washed up and M&M packed up their tent ready to move. Helen contacted Michaels car insurance brokers to see about getting Winnie insured. She didn´t get chance to ask many questions because it was a training day in the office and only Cindy was available but would be leaving at 2-15pm. So we needed to get a move on if we were going to get insurance. We moved M&Ms tent to the new site (which was still occupied, but still no one in sight) and left a message on it telling the wardens not to move it, and drove to meet Cindy - our next all American experience.
Cindy was tall and unusually thin for an American but with a very squeaky voice. She was also quite rude and gave us the impression that she really didn`t want to deal with us. When Michael asked if he could accompany Helen, Cindy replied "No. Just her" pointing to Helen. Cindy`s first problem was finding an office to use. Her second was finding the computer! The keyboard was on a pull out drawer under the desk and had to be pointed out to her by a colleague, Denise who was constantly asked for help. Cindy was just plain incompetent, and that's why she was the only one available as all the others were training prospective new employees! She needed training herself.
After asking for Denise`s help for the third time, Cindy was getting really pissed off which wasn´t helped by the fact that M&M`s insurance policy had been sorted out for them by a friend and was for a Toyota pick-up truck as a second vehicle and not for a motor home at all. Plus their rate of cover was so low that if they´d had an accident it would have been very expensive. So the quote Helen got was $860 for 6 months - M&Ms was $360. By this time Michael had joined Helen and asked what would have happened if he`d crashed into a BMW for example. Cindy replied angrily "I`ve got a BMW!" Then she told Helen to shoot Michael! Needless to say, Cindy did not sell an insurance policy that day!!
We then went to a Mexican café for tacos and burritos $9-67 for 2 people and to discuss the next move. We decided we needed to do some research on the internet for insurance companies that would cover us and drove to a library about 2 miles away. The libraries in America all have free internet access, you just need to put your name on the list. After 1 hour we`d got enough numbers and drove to the campsite after stopping off to do more shopping. Fortunately M&Ms tent was still there but otherwise the site was empty.
Kirsten, M&M went jogging and swimming whilst Helen stayed at home and cooked! Cauliflower with home made cheese sauce, mashed potatoes and sausages. That`s when we found out that sausages are a big NO here!
09.10.2003: San Diego
Up at 7am and 2 hours later, after breakfast, we went through the dumping station - no, not us, Winnie! Michael explained what had to be done, where all the pipes were and how to attach them etc. Helens notes looked like something had been dumped all over them - a mess!
We drove to a post office so that M&M could post packages back home and we phoned up Triple A (US equivalent of the AA) and got a years membership for $64 (£40) asd then phoned one of the insurance companies from the internet for a quote. It took a while so we went to a German café for coffee in between. But to cut a long story short, it would cost $1063 for a year to insure Winnie. But if we had California driving licenses it would only cost $443 for fully comprehensive. So we needed to get driving licenses.
We drove to a DMV, pulled a number and in the 1 hour wait, we filled out forms and read through the whole driving handbook so we could take the written test straight away. There was a lot of confusion with our numbers as one of them didn´t get called out but appeared on the screen in the wrong order. This meant that Helen had to run to a booth at the other end of the office otherwise she would have had to get a new number and wait all over again. Unfortunately she also took Kirstens forms and all the money with her. So the man dealing with her had to come and ask me first, for Kirstens form and second for $12 to pay for the test!! Helen also sorted out the registration for Winnie which cost $93 and then went off to do the written test.
In California you have to do a written test and a behind the wheel test. You are only allowed to make 6 mistakes on the written. Kirsten was lucky to get the same test that Michael had done a year ago and which she`d used to test herself on! It only took her 15 minutes. She had to wait 30 minutes for Helen who had struggled. But we both managed to pass with only 2 mistakes! Not bad for 45 minutes revision! We will have to wait for a written test until 5th November - there`ll be real fireworks that day!!!
We drove back to the Kumeyaay camp and Michèle cooked stir fried rice whilst Michael showed us under the bonnet, the water heater and gas for the fridge. We washed up whilst M&M packed up the stuff they´re taking to Australia with them.
10.10.2003: San Diego
Up at 7am, showered and had breakfast. Todays hurdle was actually getting insured to drive Winnie. We had to get it done today as M&M wanted to leave in the evening to stay with friends. There was a bit of a problem as the woman who deals with foreigners insurance wasn`t in the office that day but after explaining the urgency of the situation someone else dealt with me as all the details were already on the computer. They had to fax forms through to us to complete and sign and then fax back so that we were insured. We couldn`t just pop into the office as they were in Michigan - somewhere over the other side of America!! (Not that you can just "pop" anywhere here as everything is spread out all over the place).
We managed to get the fax through, which the very nice rangers brought over to us! Helen had already got told off for leaving the campsite at 11-30 last Tuesday when we should have been gone by 10am, and also for driving over the bushes! She had neither known about the closing time nor driven Winnie yet! But she was given the nickname of "Bush Killer" - not the best nickname to have in America at the moment!
The problem came when Helen tried to fax the signed forms back to the insurance company. For some reason the fax at the campsite wouldn`t send it through. So she had to ask where the nearest fax was (and also asked if there was a "bush replacement centre" nearby! Well, at least the rangers laughed!) The nearest fax was "just down the road" that's American for "at least 5 miles away"!! So we borrowed M&Ms hire car and went off to fax the forms through and to get the insurance faxed back to us. It cost us $10 - the rangers would have done it for free. We quickly went shopping on the way back and bought a map of San Diego.
Back at the campsite, M&M had left the most complicated things to show us till last - How to get the kayak, which weighs 34kg, down off the roof and back up (if the two of us manage to do that alone Helen will eat her hat!) and how to get the bikes off the rack, attach the wheels and then reverse the procedure. The bikes are definitely very secure - breaking into Fort Knox is easier! We will never be able to remember how to get them back on to the rack. It`s easier just to leave them where they are!!!
M&M left at 6-15 pm and said they`d come for breakfast on Monday. We were totally exhausted. We couldn`t even celebrate the fact that we were now the proud owners of a motor home, were legal to drive and now it was just the two of us. All the bureaucracy had done us in. We couldn`t be bothered to cook or eat so we went for a short walk and then went to bed at 9-30pm.
11.10.2003: San Diego
Helen was woken at 3-45am by someone banging a car door and Kirsten woke up at 5-30am. Neither of us could get back to sleep so we talked over how we would go about rearranging the cupboards. We got up at 6-50am, showered had breakfast and then went up to the ranger station as there was a guided walk at 8-30am.
We were the only ones who turned up so we had a guide to ourselves. Linda is 70 years old and is a volunteer as she loves the outdoors and the warm California weather. It was a really interesting 2.5 hours, walking along some of the trails, learning about the local plant life, including a poisonous plant, and seeing some of the wildlife. Rattle snakes are common here along with mountain lions! Her political views were even more interesting. Apparently when California voted in Arnie Schwarzanegger as Governor that only proved that "America`s lost it!" She hopes that Bush doesn`t get re-elected as he`s only succeeded in turning the whole world against America!
We made her laugh because we`d brought our rain capes along in our rucksack. Well it was very foggy that morning and it looked like rain to us. But Linda explained that San Diego is usually foggy in the mornings due to the cold sea air meeting the warm land air. It rarely rains and the sun usually burns off the clouds by mid morning. It was very hot and sunny by the time we got back at 11am!
We started to rearrange the cupboards, doing the kitchen first and fitting rubber non-slip mats on the bottoms to stop things sliding around whilst driving. It took us until 5pm to get everything the way we wanted it. Helen also devised a real toilet by cutting a hole in the side of a 2 litre container which we then placed into the toilet bowl. Now we can actually sit on the loo instead of squatting over a bottle and still not have to go to a dumping station every day.
We made ourselves a chicken casserole for tea and then went to a "Star Party". This was for free just like the guided walk this morning and was lead by an amateur astronomist couple with a huge telescope. We took our camping chairs with us as there were quite a few people there. We saw Mars close up, M13 (a cluster), Alberia (binary star, can only see one star with own eyes), M17 (a nebular), Andromeda galaxy ( the nearest galaxy to us which was a very faint blur!), and the Moon very close up - we could see it shimmering. Super! We got back at 8-30pm and went to bed at 9pm.
12.10.2003: San Diego
Woke up at 7am with the sun glaring through the roof window. A woman in another shower thought there was a dead scorpion in there until she tried to move it out of the way and found out it was alive!! We were lucky - we just had ants!! Well it is desert here!
We made ourselves pancakes for breakfast with bananas and then phoned our respective parents. When we got back to Winnie we tried in vain to find some shade. So we decided to put up the awning. First of all we had to saw off 3 small pieces of wood and then Kirsten honed them down to fit tightly into the end of copper tubes. These were the poles for the awning and the other ends of the wooden pieces had to be honed down to fit through the metal rings in the awning to hold it up. Meanwhile Helen read through all the manuals for the motor home and checked through all the papers. By 1pm we were sitting in the shade!
Then Kirsten made a curtain for the roof window. After eating Helen wrote the diary - she`d only managed to write 2 pages at Heathrow airport and had only had time to write notes since then. It took 2.5 hours to write 6 days. Then something started peeping. It took us quite a while to realise it was the CD player in the front which we`d never used. Then the lights started to dim and we realised that we had run the battery down in the back of Winnie. It recharges when you drive but we`d been camped up without driving since Thursday! You live and learn!
13.10.2003: San Diego
We made breakfast for M&M who arrived at 9-30am. We sat chatting to them and they were impressed that we`d already done the awning and the roof window curtain. They pointed out various things on the map for Baja California for us and marked various things on our San Diego map for us (garages they`d used for Winnie and IKEA etc!) They gave us all their supermarket cards - each supermarket has its own card which you can use to get discounts, otherwise you pay the full price. So our purse is full of cards!
At 2pm we said a sad farewell to M&M and wished them all the best on the next part of their journey. Then we packed everything up and set Winnie up so that we could go driving - nothing left out to go rolling around in the back! Helen drove onto the carpark to do a practice reverse and to get used to the automatic gear stick which is attached to the steering wheel! Then we went off in search of the laundry, driving cautiously. The laundry was further away than we thought ( like everything here) and we missed the turn off so had to go round the houses just to do a U turn! We finally got to the laundry and found we needed to buy washing powder. Fortunately there was a supermarket in the same shopping centre (a huge car park surrounded by shops!)
It was like a bulk buy supermarket, everything in packs for a 10 person household! (That`s the equivalent of a normal 2 person household in America!) We ended up buying an 8kg pack of Surf washing powder for $10 which will last us at least 1 year, if not 2!! We spent ages just looking around everything. Until today we`d never really had time to browse and check prices and just have a look what`s available. We really enjoyed ourselves and just had to laugh at the huge box of washing powder!
Finally we could do our washing. We put in two loads and then went to a pizza takeaway and sat eating our pizza in Winnie, on plates with knives and forks! A motor home has real advantages! We didn`t need to go hunting for a toilet either! The washing and drying cost us $3-50. Then we drove off to get petrol. It took us ages to understand how to use the machine!! We managed to get back to the camp safely enough and even managed to get Winnie onto his blocks so that he was level. Driving Winnie is quite tiring, you have to concentrate on getting used to driving Winnie, driving on the wrong side of the road and to all the different road signs etc. Another exhausting but enjoyable day.
