Road Trip Part 8 - "He threatened to call the police!"

May 2012

Leaving Yellowstone, we were facing an epic 17-18 hour journey back down south to California and Lake Tahoe. To say it was a driving stint and a half is an understatement – it was bad! Split between the 3 drivers (in theory) it didn’t seem initially too bad, just the fact that we were cooped up in the RV for that amount of time was going to be grim. Barney took the first stint through Montana and down through Idaho. Stopping around 10 for dinner off the highway, we went into Denny’s (never heard of it before) which was open 24 hours a day. Ugh, to be working some of those hours…. After a massive discussion/argument over eating in or take out (have to admit that was my fault) we found out the place had run out of fries. What sort of a diner runs out of fries?!

Belly’s filled (despite a lack of fries) it was my turn to drive, Wahid having drunk alcohol during Barney’s stint and despite his protests we didn’t let him drive. We were all disappointed in his attitude, but yet again I stood in for the team and got driving through the night. With Michael riding shotgun, the radio blaring and the two of us singing along at the tops of our voices the first part passed pretty quickly. Apart from the boredom of a dead interstate. No wonder the speeds are so slow in the US… Reaching 12:30 people started to get into bed, with Antonio replacing Michael as co-driver. The interstate by this point had turned to highway, in the proper middle of nowhere – endless darkness of either side of us as be ploughed through the farmlands. Tiredness was starting to hit me, with a bit of a turning mistake which resulted in me being on the left hand side of the road after turning left out of a junction. Ooops! With an ‘oh shit’ and quick swerve I got back on the right, and luckily no one (especially cops!) was about to see it happen! I drove till 2am with Antonio falling asleep in the passenger seat – and her job was to keep me awake! – stopping in the town of Wells, NV (yeah, me neither) to crash out.

A sober Wahid drove the next stint in the morning, whilst I lay asleep on the couch for most of the morning – about time I had a lie in! Waking up and looking out of the window I was greeted by that all too common blue and white sign of Walmart. At least the sun was shining though I guess! Stocking up on the essentials, like rum, meat and chocolate we carried on, arriving into the Lake Tahoe area early afternoon. It was really interesting crossing the state line from Nevada to California (Lake Tahoe straddles the two), in an urban area that had built up around the Lake. The Nevada side of the Tahoe strip was full of casino resorts and liquor stores where as the Cali side had noticeably more expensive gas, and generally more high end establishments around. I still cant get over how much prices change when crossing the state borders, and also local alcohol licensing laws.  It really made budgeting and planning a lot harder as we couldn’t predict how much things would cost.

The RV site we were aiming for was near the lake edge, set in a pine forest (well the whole area is in a pine forest really!), and it reminded me hugely of Centre Parcs. Unfortunately the site we were going to stay in didn’t have hook ups –an issue as we hadn’t been in an RV park since Yellowstone and so was low on water and needed to dump the sewage rather urgently! After a debacle trying to get a refund, we found another RV site nearer to the lake edge, with full hook ups for a cheaper price –bizarre logic there! The evening was spent chilling out, with reggae playing out the iPod, the sun shining, and the BBQ going for a perfect eve with everyone getting merry. Being knackered from the late night driving, I crashed out early, missing out on the fun of Jon going skinny dipping in the lake. By himself…

It's all in prep...

Getting his grill on!

The next day was a lazy one, with a very nice but very expensive lunch right on the lake, including a very nice cocktail at $8 a pop. Ouch! The only bad point of the day was having to sort out a flat tire on the RV, which involved yet more calls to Cruise America to get someone to come and sort it out. We weren’t allowed to change the tire ourselves due to health and safety, and our safety was gonna cost us $100 for the callout, plus the cost of repairing the tire. Ugh… Thankfully a mechanic turned up within ½ hour and replaced the tire pretty quickly, finding a screw embedded in it. Once he had gone however we had the rest of the afternoon free to lounge on the beach by the lake and chill out. I decided I  wanted to go for a swim, and then quickly abandoned the idea when I felt the temperature of the water – bloody freezing! Finding a Frisbee from somewhere a game of ultimate Frisbee got going, and due to my positioning on the waters edge more often than not I had to go in and retrieve said Frisbee when some threw it too hard or missed a catch. I think I lost a fair amount of my manhood going in and out that water!

Lake Tahoe

Chillin'

Putting the big toe in. Cold run back to the beach not captured

Jon, Michael and I went for a shopping trip later in the afternoon, which isn’t really mentionable except for the fact that we got the tyre fixed for free (amazing what an accent can get you!) and Michael in his infinite wisdom (I have no idea why ) decided to empty the RV sewage in the carpark of the store. Now we had don’t this before in a Walmart car park when the sewage was overflowing (literally into the sink-eww!), but had been raining and we parked the RV directly over the sewage drain and emptied it subtly. Michael however decided to empty the sewage on this occasion in a dry car park well away from a drain, thus leading to the sewage to spread ALL over the car park and attract the attention of other shoppers. One of which threatened to call the police. So I arrived back from paying for the shopping to find Michael in an absolute panic going “we gotta go, we gotta go” and Jon laughing hysterically. Once I had realised what had gone on and called Michael a few choice words we hurriedly left the store car park, negating the need for more gas, and headed back to the RV park, with Michael convinced that the police were following us. This hilarious attitude was capitalised by everyone else well into the next day, especially when a police cruiser made a round of the RV park – brilliant!

That evening was another BBQ evening, although the noise had to be kept down due a couple of polite requests from other RV-ers around us – fair enough – though imnot sure how well we carried out these requests, especially as the merriness started. Good job we were leaving the next day I guess!

Racoooooon!

Feeding the chipmunk...

and feeding the alcoholics

I was also starting to see  dissatisfaction among others in the group towards the lack of contribution by some to general RV life, especially the shit jobs that had to be done – which pleased me no end because it meant I wasn’t the only one, apart from the fact I am probably a lot worse at holding it in than the others. Its always the same people driving for hours, hooking up the RV, putting in gas and do other shitty jobs whilst some others just sit around and manage to do as little as possible. My biggest source of complain was the ‘feminist’ nature of some of the girls, wanting everything equal (fair enough) except when it doesn’t benefit themselves. Prime example are the fact that two of the girls have yet to sleep on the floor, with one going “fuck that” when confronted about it. Sorry love, if you want to be equal then get your rights and responsibilities in order first. No one can have it all you know, especially on in an RV. This especially come to a head when one girl was up later than most drinking, and being unable to find a suitable sleeping spot for her precious head (ie a bed) she decided to push me over on the bed above the cabin and stretch out. To say I wasn’t happy is an understatement – you just don’t take someone else's bed space like that, especially when they are tired and already asleep. Get on the floor like others have had to do. 

But anyways, Lake Tahoe was a beautiful part of the world and I’m glad we managed to have a few days chilling there, and I would definitely recommend going there. Just maybe stay away from the main strip and head more into the Cali side where it’s a bit quieter and a hell of a lot more picturesque!

Road Trip Part 7 - "Gawd, this place is dreamy"

May 2012 

 The drive to Yellowstone was again an uneventful one. The landscape changed again from mountainous rugged to flat and green to mountainous again. The weather also became more like home; much, much colder and much wetter. So much so I had to buy another hoodie in Walmart (admittedly I did lose the one I had bought with me in Vegas…). On route we stopped off by the side of the road to stretch our legs, and commented on how like England it was. The clouds were low and grey, drizzle was in the air and everyone was shivering in the summer clothing we had been wearing for the last few weeks. The route north straddled the Wyoming/Idaho state line, and so I took great delight in announcing the entry to the state every few miles. We went through miles and miles of farmland, with signs warning of loose livestock, and endless pickups passing us bye. Due to the wild goose chase of trying to find the Great Salt Lake earlier in the day we had left SLC late, and so stopped in Jackson, Wyoming for the night. Arriving in the pissing rain me and Barney got incredibly annoyed at some of the group who refused to budge from the RV to help park it and hook it up when we arrived at the park.  The evening was pretty unremarkable – the usual good food from Wahid, some booze and debates on whatever was hot topic of the day – except it rained all night. Just adding to the illusion of being back in Britain there!

Stopping by the side of the road in the UK...sorry, Wyoming.

As we drove the rest of the way to Yellowstone the next morning the scenery became more and more stunning, with snow starting to appear on the ground as we climbed elevation, but there wasn’t any worry as the roads were clear. I took the last leg into Yellowstone National Park ($25 for 7 days like the Grand Canyon – absolute bargain!), and was told there was an expectation of 6 inches of snow that day by the ranger in the booth. Couple this with the signs everywhere suggesting using snow chains in the park made me begin to worry slightly. But then, how bad can it get? Looking at the map we were given, we aimed for the lake, slowing down to see why loads of vehicles had pulled off haphazardly to the side of the road. Pulling over (rather neatly I hasten to add!) we saw a crowd of people excitingly look towards a bear in the distance. Seeing a Grizzly Bear within ½ hour of arriving in Yellowstone was pretty damn cool you’ve gotta admit! It was rather amazing see the Grizzly within 100meters just rambling around, and hilarious seeing all these guys with stupidly huge camera lenses (something to make up for maybe?!) try and outdo each other on knowledge of Grizzlys.

Scenery on way into Yellowstone

Grizzly!

Moving onwards, with everyone keenly looking out for more wildlife, we passed the large lake (with a couple of illegal U-turns prompting angry honking and Michael leaning out of the window to tell the drivers to fuck off in his thick Glaswegian accent!) and saw the first of many of the Yellowstone hot springs. There were lots of signs all over warning people to keep off the area around the springs due to thin ground. Apparently people had fallen through and been badly burnt from the temperature or toxicity of the water. Lovely…

Driving away from the lake we headed towards Old Faithful; a spouting geyser which erupts every 78 minutes (give or take 10 mins). The weather had begun to come in at this point with it raining pretty hard. Undeterred we headed out towards the geyser, braced for the 2 mile walk the guide book indicated from the car park. Two hundred meters later we arrived. Errrmmmm, what?! We were then informed it was another 45 minutes until the next eruption. Bit too much advance planning there! The others went in search of a coffee, and I struck out alone to wander around the other hot springs around us. The whole area looked very post-apocalyptic, with steam constantly hanging in the air and not much vegetation immediately around the springs themselves. Old Faithful is the most predictable and regular empting geyser in Yellowstone (by comparison, the next frequent erupting geyser erupts between every 4-50 years, and hasn’t since 1995!). It is also the second highest, spraying water 100ft into the air.

 

 

Meeting back up with the others, we began out wait for the Old girl to begin her eruption. Entertainment was provided by this incredibly full on Yank with his camera ‘trying to get the crowd going’; his wife and kids getting more and more embarrassed with his antics. Highlight of the moment? Asking a Korean guy where he was from to the reply of ‘Oh cool. I’m from Oklahoma”. Good one buddy… Old Faithful was in a ‘playful’ mood to quote a Park Ranger, erupting 10minutes late with lots of ‘pre-play’ as the same Ranger called it (chortle!). When it did get going however it was an impressive sight, although unfortunately the column of water was hidden by all the steam being produced. Lasting about 2-3 minutes, it was a cool thing to see, and something one definitely has to do when in Yellowstone. However, it was slightly spoilt by the usual American crap of applause and wooping. Please, its nature not a performing monkey…

We got back in the RV, and after some tricky maneuvering to get some gas we continued our drive around Yellowstone with Wahid at the wheel. Our progress was hampered however by a Bison in the road, causing a rather large traffic jam behind him. To be fair to him/her/it, he/she/it was being very law abiding; on the right hand side of the road and everything! Although he did not give one shit about anyone else and took his sweet arse time. Eventually however the Bison moved off the road, and resuming normal speed he went a bit further down the road to come across a ‘fuck load’ (as Wahid put it in his best Attenborough voice) of Bison a short distance away.  

Bison! Bison everywhere!

The weather was starting to come in as we left the ‘fuck loads’ of Bison and began to look for a site to stay the night in. Finding an RV site, we trawled around looking for a flattish spot to hole up in for the night, with the snow starting to come down thick. This gave us a particular worry as we weren’t sure what the deal would be on clearing the roads in the park, or even if we could get the RV out of the park with the strong possibility of ice, which would affect our ability to get out of the RV site and onto the main Yellowstone road. After finding an ideal spot, on flat ground, not many hills to get out of and a toilet block metres away we were set. Until someone came along and asked us to move as they had reserved the spot. Bloody wanker… With a bit of an issue getting out of the spot (it was a tight one) we then found another one, slightly raised off the road but about as good as we were going to get considering the weather at that point. Settling down in the RV wrapping up tight (at least as best as possible as uncharacteristically for me I didn’t bring much warm gear – I thought we would be in the desert the whole time!), with the windows and curtains closed to conserve heat. Except this went to shit when the smokers wanted a fag without going outside. But there you go. I would love to say the night passed uneventfully as the snow fell around us, but it didn’t. The bloody carbon monoxide alarm kept going off, much to our alarm (especially in a snowy Yellowstone with no signal), and eventually turning off the propane fully and opening air vents seemed to do the trick. We hoped at least!

Keeping warm!

Discussing what to do as the storm came in. Note the shorts!

The next morning Jon and I woke early in a bid to get going and make the most of Yellowstone for the short amount of time we had there. Getting out of the RV, the place was stunning. Snow everywhere, with that sort of silence that only fallen snow can produce. I got a few funny looks going to the bathroom in my shorts and two hoodies, meeting a couple of guys camping near us decked out in all the North Face clobber (show offs!). Getting the RV out of the spot wasn’t as hard as I feared – not icy enough to send us slipping down the slop in the next RV and kissing our $1000 excess goodbye thank god! And to my immense relief the roads were cleared.

Scenes the next morning

Yellowstone is a beautiful place, but in the snow it was absolutely stunning. It really was a struggle to keep my eyes on the road and not at the scenery around us. Pulling over a number of times to take pictures we came across a bison enjoying a hot spring, a cyote, some deer, and to top the day off already, another grizzly bear. Causing Jon to jump out of the RV as I slammed on the brakes. It was amazing to see it so close – we were within about 20ft - way closer than the park information said we should be! Jon went closer for a better photo and I hung back by the RV. Just in case it decided to change its mind and become bothered by the increasing numbers of vehicles around it. It also roused the others who sleepily had a look and went back to bed. Who sleeps when youre in Yellowstone in the snow?!

 We stopped for breakfast in Mammoth Hot Springs, with a wander around the springs there seeing the yellow stone that gives the place its name (obviously!), and then after the obligatory snowball fight drove around the scenic loop, stopping for photos at various points and playing Sigor Ros on the Ipod to add to the serenity of the place – magical! However, we couldn’t go all the way around the loop, as the road was closed at Tower, meaning we had to go all the way back around the loop (being only one road) adding roughly 2 hours to the journey time. Not including being stuck behind another Bison, causing Wahid to get road rage and everyone else giggle uncontrollably in the back. Having a late lunch by Yellowstone lake (not that much could be seen on account of the weather!) it was time to head south again to California.

Scenes from Yellowstone in the snow

Snowball Fight!

Yellowstone was stunning, even more so in the snow, and definitely a highlight of the trip. Whilst I was initially skeptical we would get there (and that fact we wouldn’t be able to afford to in terms of gas cost and mileage) I am so glad we did. I am gutted it was for such a short amount of time, and I will most definitely aim to visit Yellowstone again in the future. 

(map from Google maps)
(additional photos from Amy, Eshe and Kimberly)

Road Trip Part 6 - "We didn't go far enough with kicking your lot out of this country..."

May 2012

It was a 6.5 hour drive to Salt Lake City, being done in a day with 2 and a bit hours driving per driver. The journey passed pretty uneventfully, passing back into Utah (promptly labelled as ‘shit’ again) and north into the farming lands. With an obligatory stop at Walmart (as per usual now!) and a quick game of kick around with a football (real football you Americans!) we had found whilst waiting for those shopping to return, it was my turn to take the wheel for the final stretch, whilst everyone else got drunk in the back. The route involved negotiating the large scale and rather confusing construction projects in progress on the routes into the city, and the SatNav being a bitch. As usual! We did manage to find the RV park without any major dramas thankfully, and after parking, hooking up (no surprises at the people who did that job), and eating I simply got my head down whilst a drunken argument erupted around me.

On the road antics

I’ve briefly mentioned RV life in a previous post, but I'll talk about it again. Nine people in a confined space can get a bit problematical at times. Especially at night, which usually involved 3 on the double bed at the back, 2 on the bed above the cab, 1 on the bed behind the cab passenger seat, 2 (usually Amy and Kim the smallest of the group) on the ‘midget’ bed which is formed from the table, and one on the floor – most often than not one of the lads. It had come to a head once or twice that the girls weren’t pulling their weight in the RV. Both in terms of cooking/cleaning and hook ups (though I hasten to add some of the girls were better than others at this) and in terms of sleeping on the floor. It really started to grate me, and others of the lads causing bitter mutterings and raised eyebrows when some of the girls talked about believing in feminism and equality of treatment. Hmmm…. Anyways, the next morning was a slow one again. This in one way frustrated me because I wanted to go and see the city, but at the same time it was kinda a blessing as I needed time to sort out my post-trip plans. Eventually we left the RV park at 4pm. Yes, 4pm for a day’s exploring of the city.

Salt Lake City is an interesting place to say the least. The area was settled by the founder of Mormonism (LINK) and over 40% of the population is Mormon. This was definitely reflected in the architecture and layout of the city, with the Mormon Temple located at the centre with the city grid radiating out from it. This is very different to other state capitals (SLC being Utah’s capital) where the Capitol building is traditionally at the centre of the city. The place was also very clean. Not a bad thing you may think, but I mean incredibly clean – not a scrap of litter or speck of graffiti anywhere. It was almost like the film Demolition Man where any graffiti is automatically painted over! The first stop was the Mormon Temple, which was quite the imposing structure to say the least! Set in its own square and surrounded by other Mormon related buildings it was quite interesting to have a poke around and see what the religion was all about. From there it was a detour to the mall (yes the bloody mall!) for a look (a mall is a mall to me but whatever)/Amy to get her ears pierced/me to buy an incredibly delicious and cheap brownie. I suggested a walk, and Michael, Barney, Eshe and Kim joined, wandering up to the Capitol. Being the states governmental building it was rather impressive, especially with the sun setting over the city below us (the Capitol was on a hill if you didn’t work that out!).

Salt Lake City

After the obligatory photos, it was a nice walk back down to the Temple via Bigham Young’s House (the guy who invented Mormonism) to meet the others. Wahid was not looking comfortable what-so-ever with all the religion around him, much to every ones amusement, and got a taxi back to the RV park with the others. We Capitol walkers (on a tip off from the others) headed to the ‘Mormon Family Center’, where you could access databases to look up your family tree. Despite not knowing much beyond my immediate family, I found it fascinating to look up all these record to try and find my ancestors! The (rather old!) ladies in there seemed very excited to have a bunch of foreigners in there, and kept showing us the modern wonders of entering search terms and clicking the mouse – cheers ladies! Then being swept up in the spirit of the place we had a photo in a mock up of Ellis Island (the island off Manhattan Island in New York where immigrants were processed to enter the country), despite us not being immigrants or in New York. Work that one out! The guy who took the photo was an older gentleman, whose badge proclaimed him to be an ‘Elder’ (pretty high up in the Mormon Church), and he seemed a nice enough person; interested in us being foreign and all that (as usual!). However the conversation took a turn for the weird (the politest way of saying it I guess) as he told us the Americans didn’t go far enough with “kicking the British out” of America. It all became rather awkward all of a sudden, none of us wanting to be impolite and tell him where to go. Thankfully we were saved by the place closing (the God of Mormon looking down in us maybe?!), and we grabbed a taxi back to the RV for some lovely dinner and an episode of South Park relating to Mormonism – an ironically fitting end to the day!

Bigham Young's House

Capitol Building

Riding the Utah Bull. Not sure if the bull appreciated it or not.

The next day (after the characteristic slow start I’m finally starting to get accustomed to) we set off in search of the great Salt Lake. And we couldn’t find it. The damn thing is like 2000 square miles and we couldn’t find it. Typical! We later found out that the road to the National Park that was in the middle of the lake we were aiming for was shut, but at the time it was rather funny if not a bit annoying!

The Salt Lake. Apparently...

Despite the brief and rather bizarre visit to SLC, I sorta liked the place in its own way. Although its obvious that Mormonism has a huge influence on the city, it seemed more of a wealthy city in general, and there were minimal bars (not a good thing I know!) and the place seemed a hell of a lot cleaner than any other city I have been too previously. I’d never live there for sure, but as we left SLC to continue north, I thought that maybe I would return some day and spend a bit more time there actually looking around the place.

Hitting the 2000mile mark

 (map from Google maps)
(additional photos from Amy, Eshe and Kimberley)