San Francisco, California

To say I was looking forward to reaching San Francisco is an understatement.  3000 miles in 10 days back from Alaska is a lot of driving in anyone's book, let alone in a bus, and on roads that make you feel like you've bought a season ticket for the Nemesis roller coaster.  The mental image of the San Francisco skyline replacing the glaciers and evergreens of the Alaska Highway kept us going over those very long days!

I was also looking forward to catching up with Marcus, my friend of about 14 years who was coming over from the UK.  I thought I would continue the long tradition of dragging him to ridiculous places in the name of having a laugh, although hopefully this time would be a bit more glamorous; in the old days it was to dubious DJing gigs in the arse-end of nowhere with no incentive but a few cans of Red Stripe and the prospect of a greasy fry-up at the services on the way home.

We got within about 300 miles of SF and had a bit of time to spare before Marcus arrived, so there was light at the end of the tunnel.  I'd spent weeks Skyping him from various garages in Alaska, nervously exclaiming "Yeah mate, we'll make it, we're just about to leave!", at the same time wondering when someone was going to put the wheels back on the RV and whether I should be concerned that the mechanic was looking at one of the pieces of our suspension the way Tony Robinson from Time Team looks at a 2000 year old broken relic he's just dug out of the ground.

At one point, as I watched the snow start falling outside, I wondered whether Marcus had ever considered a trip to the Arctic instead....

Fortunately, it didn't come to that.  We arrived in SF on October 1st and planted ourselves at a rest area right at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We were extra-careful when planning this leg of the trip; San Francisco is NOT a city you want to drive one of these things around, for reasons that will become clear.  Also, the state of California is a lot less RV-friendly than we expected, so none of the Walmarts in the area allow overnight parking.  Sharon found some info online about this rest area and what a find it turned out to be!

The signs in the rest area say you can stay a maximum of 8 hours.  This is not enforced by the police, but instead something called a "California Peace Officer".  I can't quite work out whether these are the equivalent of the "Community Support Officers" we have back home, who tend to look a bit special and don't actually have any power, or if it's some kind of ironic euphemism, like a Peacekeeper missile.  We chanced it on the basis that they probably wouldn't be at work anyway due to the government shutdown.

After a couple of quick photos of the sunrise over the bay, we left our spot fairly early the next day to go and pick up some mail.  We have a mail holding/forwarding facility while we're out here, so whenever we're staying in one place for a few days I arrange to get it all sent to a nearby post office and collect it from there.

This time, the post office happened to be right next to a prison.  I literally had to drive right up to the prison gate and then wedge the RV against the wall just to the right.  This prompted a slightly over-zealous guard to come over and tell me I couldn't park there.  He relented when I convinced him that I was simply picking up mail and wasn't actually the worst getaway driver ever staging a prison break in the slowest vehicle I could find.

Chores done, we went to check in at our digs for the next few days.  We thought we'd splash out on a proper RV park by the sea for the first few days in nearby Pacifico.

Not knowing how suitable the airport was for RVs, I went to collect Marcus in a taxi.  On the way back, we did our best to catch up while the driver seemingly reenacted the car chase scene from Bullitt.

Marcus brought me up to speed on the antics of the various crazy people on his flight, including a woman who became so belligerent with the staff and her long-suffering husband that she started throwing food around the cabin.

Something bizarre happens pretty much every time Marcus goes away anywhere, so the story of the nutcase with the weaponised bread rolls didn't surprise me in the slightest.  In fact, this time the entire US government closed down in anticipation of his arrival, so well done mate!  This meant no visit to Alcatraz and no Yosemite National Park, but we still had plenty to occupy us.

On our first full day in San Fran, we all took the BART (their public rail system) into the city and alighted right in the middle of downtown.  The main shopping district bears a heavy resemblance to New York, which is surprising as they're very different cities:

After a while of perusing Macy's and Bloomingdales (no doubt annoying the staff by loudly and repeatedly quoting "My mom calls it Bloomies!" from Friends), we jumped on a tram and headed in the direction of Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.

Getting a tram in SF is an essential tourist activity and, judging by the prices, they know it.  $6 each for about a mile!  We probably should have just made a run for it - if I know anything about tram engineering.... OK fine, I don't, but they seem to have a fairly limited range of movement; they're hardly going to chase you down an alleyway.  You'd be fine as long as you didn't do that annoying thing they do in movies like Prometheus, where they run in the same direction as whatever's chasing them instead of just moving slightly to the side.

We stopped off at Lombard Street, famous for being one of the most crooked streets in the world.  It's built on a 40 degree slope with eight switchbacks crammed in:

Nearly as bad as some of the roads I've had to drive the RV on!

In fact, the steep hills are a defining characteristic of San Francisco.  There's actually some kind of city ordinance which dictates that people should turn their wheels in when they park so that if their parking brake fails, they roll into the curb instead of causing a pile-up in the road.

Feeling hungry, we next headed over to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.  Painting a different picture of San Francisco life to the bustle of downtown, the water's edge was adorned by fishing boats moored up after supplying the catch of the day to the various restaurants clustered around the wharf and along the pier.

While on the search for somewhere to eat, we came across a Zoltar machine on the pier:

Yep, it's the fortune-telling machine from the movie "Big".  Marcus played it but unfortunately it had run out of fortune cards.  Plus he failed to grow up at all during the rest of the trip, so I can only assume it was faulty...

The next day, Sharon's feet were killing and she didn't want to go back into town, which can only mean one thing.... she needs comfier shoes.  OK two things - the shoe thing, plus: Lads on tour!

Marcus and I went back into the city and decided to get off the bus at a different stop.  After walking past two smackheads helping each other shoot up in an alleyway and a man having a conversation with a traffic light, we figured we'd probably ended up in the wrong part of town.

After a beer or two, we drifted back towards the Fisherman's Wharf area, partly because we liked it there and also because I'd spotted an In N Out Burger there the day before.  For anyone not familiar, In N Out is a fast food chain which, ironically, is probably most famous for its "secret" menu which is not displayed in store.  Amongst other things, this includes "animal style" burgers and fries, which are cooked with peppers, onions, mustard and extra dressing.

It also used to be the case that you could have as many burgers and cheese slices as you want in one bun.  One famous case involved a "100x100" (100 burgers and 100 cheese slices!).  When we went in I was slightly disappointed to be told that they only do up to a 4x4 these days.  My heart, on the other hand, virtually skipped a beat in relief at this news.

Marcus was impressed: "It's garbage.... but it's the best garbage in the world!". We went for another beer to calm the meat-sweats before heading back to the RV.

The next morning we moved to Sausalito, a very pretty and upmarket neighbouring town of San Francisco.  After failing miserably to find anywhere official to park the RV, we stopped at the local yacht club, which seemed to have an abundance of space in its "members only" car park.  Armed with the most polite versions of our British accents we could muster, we went to the office to see if we could blag a night.  The woman who worked there wasn't getting the message, but a local overheard us and informed us that the car park is patrolled by the harbourmaster, who didn't work on weekends.  Good enough - looks like we'd found our base for the night!

Marcus had a slightly more upmarket dining suggestion for the evening than the previous night's orgy of ground meat and inexplicably yellow cheese:  a Portuguese restaurant called "Grubstake" that someone back home had recommended.

Tucked out of the way on the edge of town, as a tourist you'd probably never discover it for yourself without a bit of local knowledge.  We had some amazing steaks washed down with good beer and wine, and got talking to a great couple called Joe and Zue who lived upstate in wine country, but seemed to be regulars at the restaurant and knew the owners.

We stayed to chat for a while and they ended up very generously giving us a ride back to Sausalito afterwards, with a quick stop on the way to get some more pics from the Golden Gate Bridge at night:

Always good to meet new friends and we'll definitely be in touch the next time we come back to San Francisco.  That was a great night and rounded off our time in the city perfectly.

The next day, with US Congress still trying to agree on who was going to pick up all the toys they'd angrily strewn all over the Whitehouse lawn, our plans to visit Alcatraz and Yosemite were still on hold.  We decided instead to drive down the coast towards Big Sur, a famously beautiful stretch of California coastline.

The pictures from the drive really speak for themselves:

We stopped for a couple of nights at Sunset Beach, which we had entirely to ourselves:

We next reached the comparative civilisation of Santa Cruz.  It seemed like a fairly typical seaside town (Marcus compared it to Blackpool - still not sure whether that's an insult or a compliment) with a pier lined with shops and bars and some kind of fairground which was closed for the season.  There was also an arcade with classic games from our youth like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, and even more classic games I'm obviously far too young to remember, like Donkey Kong and Star Wars.  No Golden Axe though, to my disappointment!

We had a quick drink at a bar on the pier, followed by another swift one and a few more sneaky ones, the cumulative effect of which was that 5 hours later we were all wandering the pier, smashed on cocktails and being massively entertained by three sea lions that had flopped themselves onto one of the jetties and started serenading us.

A couple more nights of putting the world to rights and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Marcus.  I'd decided the airport looked OK to drive to in the RV, but space was tight by the departures entrance, so I pulled up out front and we said some quick goodbyes and fairly unceremoniously bundled him out of the coach on to the pavement.  Having driven past In N Out Burger again on the way in, Sharon and I decided we should really go straight back there and have another 4x4 each in his honour.  Kind of a 4-burger salute, if you will!

This was where we left the San Francisco Bay area to drive further down Big Sur before heading inland towards Yosemite.  More amazing coastal views...

...and somehow we ended up helping someone break into a car that they had apparently locked their keys in.  We were certainly equipped for the job and when it became clear that he wasn't going to have any luck with the old "coat hanger down the window" trick, he opted for the much more fun "brute force" method with a hammer.

Random people have helped us out a lot in our various hours of need while we've been here, so it was nice to be able to return the favour.  And I'm at least 70% sure that it was actually his car, so that's good too.

On to Yosemite!

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Journey South

Apologies for the recent silence on the blog; we have been rather preoccupied with tending to the whims of a diva Winnie (no that's not my new pet name for Adam) and been generally hitting the road hard in between. I think it’s fair to say that we have not been having the best luck recently, resulting in rather elevated stress levels and a distinct lack of fun!  However neither of us would swap it for a day back at work so it can't be all that bad.  To hopefully make up for the absence, here comes an epic super-blog!

After finally getting back on the road and visiting the fantastic Denali National Park, we headed off towards Anchorage.  We were not really planning much of a stay there as we had spent much more time in Fairbanks than we had planned due to our mechanical problems, so we were already 2 weeks behind schedule.

We had originally planned to head straight through Anchorage to spend one night on the Seward Highway, which is a renowned beautiful coastal/estuary area with a section of coast called the Turnagain Arm, where snow white Beluga whales are often spotted amongst the chilly glacier-fed waters. But once again Winnie had different ideas!

It's only around 265 miles from Denali to Anchorage but in that short distance we developed another worrying noise from the front driver's side tyre – a sort of clunking when we braked.  The noise persisted and got louder as we made our way through the more rural outskirts of Anchorage.

We stopped off and jacked her up to see if we could figure out what the problem was this time.  Nothing was obvious but we were still worried.  We already had first-hand experience of brake failure and it could be a while before we passed through another major town.  So despite our tight time schedule, we decided to stay put for the night and try and get ourselves checked over at another garage in the morning.

We spent the night in the Sam’s Club (similar to Costco) car-park next to the blatant "No Overnight Parking" signs and in the company of a few other motorhomes, some of which were for sale and a few that were very dilapidated but, amazingly, occupied.  The morning came and after a few hours of ringing round we managed to find a garage that was equipped to take a look at us, but not until the following day.  So once again we were grounded and just had to sit tight.

You’d think that this would be a great opportunity to explore the city of Anchorage, but there is always the worry of leaving Winnie in a car-park unattended, especially when every lamp-post sports a sign stating that unauthorized vehicles will be towed.  Plus with the worry of another huge mechanical bill, we were not really in the mood for exploring.  

To cut a long story short, the garage took a look and said the noise was nothing to do with the brakes – just the wheels wobbling side to side as we brake!  The upper and lower balls joints were shot on both sides this time (the same parts we had just had replaced on the drivers side less than 400 miles ago in Fairbanks).  Not happy, to say the least!  The parts were going to take at least 2 working days to arrive and of course it was Friday again so no chance of getting going again until at least the next Wednesday.

We were assured it was safe enough to drive a short distance so we took the opportunity to explore the Turnagain Arm as planned and made a short visit to the unique port of Whittier and Portage. The Turnagain arm is a spectacular estuary which is subject to huge swells at high tide due to the bottle-neck effect. Sadly  the famous white beluga whales were not playing out on our visit, don't blame them really -  the weather was shite and the tide appeared too low anyhow.

Whittier is accessible only by water and a two mile single-lane tunnel through a vast mountainside.  The tunnel is shared with a train track (in the same lane) which made an interesting journey with our wobbly wheels and only inches to spare either side lol!  It's fair to say Ad was perspiring a little by the time we made it out the other side and I swear I gained a few more grey hairs!  The harbour's turquoise waters provide a dock for many cruise ships which run day trips out to see a huge glacier.  The weather was a more than a little disappointing: blustery, cold and it barely stopped raining all weekend so visibility was poor.  So much so that we didn't bother with a boat trip to the glacier. 

 The weather finally cleared up the following Tuesday and we had a fun afternoon at an animal sanctuary.  The stars of the show for me were an inquisitive red arctic fox getting frustrated and angry at a provocative bird that had found its way into his cage.  The bird managed to continually outsmart the fox by staying just out of reach- very entertaining!  My other favorite was a pair of lynx cats.  Their long-haired coats and whiskers were just gorgeous.  Later that afternoon we headed back along the same coast to Anchorage and the Turnagain Arm was even more beautiful with the sun shining down.  Once again the beluga whales eluded us.

We spent an interesting day in the garage with Roy, our mechanic, hammering out our broken ball joints.  Roy was a great character who could hardly understand a word I said – I believe the phrase "she talk funny" was used for the second time this trip!  We had a lot of faith in Roy’s skills; you need only look at his 30 year old car which he maintains himself and has managed to get a ridiculous 400,000 miles out of it (across 2 engines).

While we were there, we also got the engine pressure-tested to rule out a head gasket problem, which would have explained our occasional, mysterious loss of coolant.  In a rare stroke of good luck, this was all fine and a radiator hose was responsible for the leak.  For the time being we're just topping the coolant up when it gets low, which isn't often.

The journey south was a bit of a blur to be honest. There were a lot of glaciers, forest, lakes and spectacular mountains all showing off their unbelievable autumn colours. We were also fortunate enough to get another glimpse of the Northern Lights one clear chilly evening on Lake Klondike Campsite, Yukon.  We will definitely miss that!  We were driving hard -  often 8 hour days for 2 weeks solid on a tight deadline to meet our good friend Marcus in San Francisco on the 3^rd October.  It seems that we left just in the nick of time too: we headed south on a slightly different route than we came on which covered a lot of high ground between Anchorage and Tok.  There was evidence of new snow fall on the mountain tops and it was actually sleeting as we drove at high elevations along the Glen Hwy and Tok Cutoff road.

We encountered quite a lot of roadside wildlife on our way back.  We saw two bears at the edge of the road peering out as if trying to see if it was safe to cross, and a huge moose ran out in front of us too.  We are only too glad we did not get into a collision with anything or anyone.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful and we are very grateful we have safely made the trip, just not sure we'd do it again though!  The journey is very long and the road conditions are very taxing in places, which has certainly taken its toll on Winnie, the driver and my nerves. 

The landscape changed significantly as we came though western British Columbia, rolling fields and farmland valleys replaced forest as far as the eye could see.  We had a fairly uneventful boarder crossing much to my relief - no handcuffs this time!  We had to try to extend our VISA's for another 6 months to take us through til April 2nd.  Unfortunately they were only able to grant us 6 months exactly from that day which leaves us a week short.  This means we have to either apply online for a further extension or head out of the USA again - which will mean a trip into Mexico.  I think we'll weigh up the cost vs risk of that scenario at a later date

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Our only planned stopover between Alaska and San Francisco was in Oregon at Crater Lake National Park and wow it was worth a stop!  It's literally a huge crater left behind by the collapse of a volcano 7700 years ago.  These days the caldera is full of the clearest, deepest blue water you can imagine.  Usually the rim of the crater is drivable, offering a 360 degree view of the spectacle.  When we arrived, the north rim road was covered in snow and already closed for winter.  This wasn't a disappointment though; the dusting of snow on the hills and trees around the rim made the scene all the more enticing.

We also visited a natural hot spring near our campground at Crater Lake.  After a fairly tough cycle and 10 minutes trek up the forested hillside we arrived at the breathtaking edge of a cliff where a series of natural hot spring pools had developed.  There was only one other couple there who were just leaving, so we happily selected the most popular (and hottest) pool which was covered with a wooden shelter.

We had the place all to ourselves, the warmth of the pool soothing our aching muscles, the view and sense of freedom relaxing us.  We couldn't be more comfortable.  At least until a few minutes later when some more people showed up and we discovered just how much emphasis they put on the "natural" aspect of this experience.  Adam had a full-frontal view of a rather rotund and very naked regular to the area for about five minutes while he chatted away to us.  He commented on my new running trainers, which are a particularly bright shade of blue and orange, saying "people will spot you a mile off looking like that!".  People in glass houses, mate!

Fortunately I had my back to him the whole time, so I was spared.  Adam's grimace as the guy bent over to retrieve his towel said it all.  I had to assure him several times that rubbing the hot, sulphur-infused water in his eyes would not help him "unsee" it.  To be fair, we had been warned on a review of the hot springs to avoid it if you are offended by nudists or ganja smoking. We were sadly only confronted with the former and not the latter.

As we got further south and towards California there was another dramatic change in the landscape as the weather heated up again.  You can't miss the bright orange sandy soil against the low waterline of turquoise blue lakes in the dried out valleys.  The grass turned to a yellow parched straw with desert shrubs which is equally beautiful but in stark contrast to Canada and Alaska.

We arrived in San Francisco on time and spent a cheeky night at a rest area right at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge with fantastic views of San Fran, Alcatraz Island and the bridge itself.  We also became acquainted with the local wildlife that appeared after dark when all the tourists had disappeared.  An un-phased skunk and a family of bob cats strolled the car park checking out the bins for scraps of food. We had one of the best views from an overnight stop yet.  I think we were lucky in a way – with the government shutdown there appeared to be less security to be bothered to move us on from our spot which doesn’t officially allow overnight stays.  Marcus arrived on time and at last we could relax a little and let our hair down in the beautiful San Francisco and Pacific Coast.

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Denali National Park, Alaska

After leaving Chena Hot Springs Resort, the original plan was that we would restock our cupboards at Walmart and head on to Denali National Park.  Unfortunately Winnie had different ideas!

We discovered that we had:

• A pretty serious leak in the slide out

•  A worrying loss of coolant

• A squeaking noise from the front tires

• Developed a loud clunk every time we drove over a frost heave and tiny bumps in the road felt like we had driven over a small child

We thought we had better try and get things sorted.  With no internet to turn to, we resorted to reading the owner manual (yeah, that handbook that you are supposed to read when you first buy a vehicle!).  We have had Winnie for 4 months so it was about time to take a look.

Of course it was very little help in solving any of the issues we actually had, nor did it provide any sort of diagram labeling the gubbins of the engine.  But it did alert us to the fact that she was overdue a major 30k service.  We had just clocked 32k and, with another 3k to get back down to the lower 48, putting it off is probably not sensible!  This major service involved many other things than just changing the oil and filters.  So all of sudden we (I mean Adam) had a lot of jobs to do.  On such a tight budget we are trying to DIY as many problems with Winnie as possible.  With Adam having never even checked the oil with a dip stick prior to this trip (thanks to years of blagging company cars), it has been quite a steep learning curve!  Luckily, he is a very quick learner and self-starter in life.  So we headed back to Fairbanks to get some Wi-Fi and the Google diagnostics began.

We have hydraulic leveling jacks which, as the name suggests, are used to help keep Winnie level when parked up, but they also come in useful  to jack her up to get underneath and  have a look - not recommended according to the manual, but the only option we had.   Once underneath, Adam discovered that our brand new super expensive tires have worn unevenly.  We figured that this was probably an alignment issue due to fact that both front suspension airbags, which sit inside the spring coils, had deflated and been ripped apart.

We watched a YouTube video on how to replace the airbags (again, just for clarification, this means I watched the video and then told Adam he could do the work!) and it seemed fairly straightforward, if a little awkward to squeeze the new bag through the coils.  How difficult could it be though, right?!

So we rang around to try and source the parts in Fairbanks – not such an easy task in the most northern and remote place of our whole trip.  The plan was to obtain the parts, then for Adam to fit them in a Walmart car park and finally to take Winnie to a garage to get the alignment done and hopefully fix the clunking and the uneven wear pattern.  We were informed that the parts weren’t stocked by the RV service centre but they could order them in at a large cost for freight to Alaska and would take nearly a week.  Not exactly what we had hoped, so we tried another few places and finally ended up going to a garage to get the vehicle inspected, as by now we were concerned that there would be more damage than just the airbags after driving around with compromised suspension.  They verified that the shocks were ok but advised that the upper and lower ball joints (?!)  had gone on the driver side causing our wheel to wobble side to side.  They also said they could source the airbags a little quicker and fit them whilst the wheels were off so we agreed.

It was going to take five days to get us in due to the long weekend - Monday was Labor Day.  We  didn’t want to go too far in the RV and make our problems even worse, so we hung around in the Walmart car park for most of the time waiting for Tuesday to come.  Adam got on with the DIY engine service, resealing all the seams on the body/roof to prevent any further leaks and serviced our generator.  The weather was pretty much cold, wet and windy the whole time so that was nice for him!

The parts arrived on the Tuesday but not until after lunch time so although they started the work that day, it wasn’t enough time to get it finished that day.  They continued on Wednesday but seemed to break off to do other work in between and took until 4.30pm – another day gone!  But eventually we were all set and Winnie had a spring in her step again!

Finally the next day we set off for Denali National Park. As soon as we left Fairbanks we noticed the change in season.  The grass and trees had all started to transform into so many bright shades of orange, red, yellow and pinks.  The landscape looked a whole lot more interesting than the usual greens.

Denali is the home of Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America, as well as the Alaskan Range.  Its peak is only visible on very clear days, and I’m sad to say that we didn’t even get a glimpse of it.  However, the colours of the smaller mountains and landscape were simply unbelievable; I have never seen anything quite like it before!  Here is your reward for getting through my moany post….feast your eyes on these!  

There was a free trip to meet the sled dogs who work on the park all winter carrying supplies and materials to isolated areas. The dogs were very friendly and we had a short demonstration of them running with a cart.  There was a chorus of barks and howls from the dogs waiting to be chosen:  “Pick me! Pick me!”, they pleaded.   The five that were chosen were harnessed up and their excitement could not be contained!  They howled so loudly with eagerness and impatience; it was so enjoyable to see them so excited to run.

Denali is unlike many of the other National Parks that we have visited, in that they do not allow visitors to drive their own vehicles along the gravel road to Mount McKinley.  Instead there are shuttle buses which are priced according to how far into the park you travel.  The fares were fairly expensive and the trips were very long – up to 12 hours on a bus for the furthest trip.  We opted for the free option of driving along the paved section of road which is accessible in private vehicles up to approx. mile 16.  From there we took many stunning photos.   The mountains looked like someone had just gone mental and chucked a couple of buckets of paint around!

We had hoped for a clear night to see another fantastic show of the Northern Lights over the mountains in Denali.  That would have been fantastic (we have seen many photos taken from there) but the autumnal weather has persisted in raining more often than not, so it was not meant to be.

With time no longer on our side we had to leave Denali; we have only a few weeks to travel over 3000 miles to San Francisco to meet our visitor Marcus on the 2^nd of October.  Let’s hope Winnie doesn’t have different ideas!  Next stop is Anchorage, then back to Tok to re-join the Alaskan Highway to start making our way back South. 

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