Click on a photo to enlarge it.
After doing more research on cameras, we went to do some shopping and met Rod, Leslies boyfriend, on the car park!
So after shopping we drove to his apartment and gave him a brand new map of Baja California to replace the one he'd
lent us for the trip. Then we chatted to him about our time there until Leslie got back, fully laden with shopping.
She made us all a great lasagne. Rod offered to use his credit card to buy Kirstens camera over the internet, but
he'd have to increase the limit on it.
The next two days were spent, frustratingly, trying to buy a camera. After Rod had extended the limit on his credit
card and Kirsten had virtually completed the order of a camera over the internet, she found out that the price given
was just for the camera body and no extras - battery and charger plus software etc, even though, when she had phoned
up she had been told that the price included all of this! So she had to cancel the order and was extremely angry!
She also had to phone back to make sure that Rods credit card would not be charged.
Then we drove back to the camera shop we'd been to and suddenly the price had gone up by $100 compared to the price
he´d given us yesterday!! We don't know what it is about the Americans, but they all seem to try and deceive their
customers! We had the same problem trying to buy a mattress in Nevada, and now we´re in California and having the
same problems. How they do any business at all, defeats us! The man in the camera shop obviously didn´t care about
getting our money and just said that we´d written down the wrong price! Now we knew he was lying! We were really P´d
off, so we drove onto the beach and had coffee and apple strudel we'd bought in a German shop earlier.
After discussing all the options, we decided we couldn´t trust American businesses. Even if Kirsten had decided to
pay the extra $100, the camera would have to be ordered and the man had told us it would arrive tomorrow or the day
after. We couldn't trust him. Kirsten might have ended up paying for the camera and then waiting over a week for it
to arrive. We came to the conclusion that if Kirsten was going to get a camera at all, then we should drive the 70
mile round trip south, into San Diego and return to another camera shop where Kirsten had seen and held the new
Minolta A2 in her hands, and pay the $1200 for it.
So that's what we did. And at 5pm, Kirsten was the proud new owner of the latest technology! That evening we
celebrated with Leslie over a few beers and reminisced over our South America trip. Leslie was also in a generous
mood as she knocked a full pint all over Kirsten who smelled like a brewery for a few days! At least we managed to
spend a lot of time with Leslie and Rod, chatting over breakfast and evening meals and we said goodbye the next day
with plans to travel through mainland Mexico together next year and are really looking forward to it.
Our next stop for 2 nights was Indio, near Palm Springs at an RV park we´ve been to before. It was a spectacular
drive over the mountains and gave Kirsten a chance to test out her new camera. We also found a super deli on the way
for Pastrami and Swiss cheese sandwiches! We caught up on our computer diary and cleaned our black water tank (the
one for the toilet) and found out it was leaking! Not a nice thought. Fixing it will be our next project! Next, we
drove up to Joshua Tree National Park, one of our favourite parks. Unfortunately, we found out that since three weeks
ago, they now charge $5 a night. It used to be free, so we got a shock when a ranger asked us if we´d paid! Of course,
we paid but we decided not to stop another night and to have a driving day all the way over to Seligman in Arizona
(291 miles) to a little dry camping spot we found last time we were there. We nearly ran out of petrol on the way and
so had to conserve, but managed to get over 20 miles to the US gallon which is slightly less than a UK gallon (3.78
litres as opposed to 4.45 in the UK)
The next morning, Sunday 14th March, Helen checked the oil and the radiator and discovered what the squeaking noise was
that we´d had for over 2 weeks. We'd always thought it had something to do with either our front right tyre or the suspension.
It turned out to be our windscreen washer bottle!!! We tried to get it out to wedge something between it and the front battery
and stop the squeaking but a screw broke off, leaving half the screw in the hole. Try as we might, we could not get it out!
It must have been quite a sight - one of us holding an umbrella to protect the other from the sun as she battled with half
a screw! So the duct tape came out again - our answer to virtually every problem!
Then we drove to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, just north of Flagstaff. The campground was still closed for winter,
but the ranger on the gate told us about dry camping spots. So we found a great place for the night and had a super shower using
our solar shower outside Winnie!
