Avenue of the Giants (Northern CA) - Day 45

Leaving Oregon and driving into northern CA, we were greeted by the majestic Redwood Forest's. We took a detour off the US 101 to follow a road called "The Avenue of the Giants" This road leads you through the Redwood Forrest's. We can not describe the immense size of these trees. They are bloody huge. The Forrest's themselves are unbelievably peaceful, the only thing that breaks the silence is the occasional bird.

We found a little campsite tucked deep into the forest, some kind soul left loads of firewood in our fire pit which we promptly lit (Saved Peter having to scavenge in all the other unoccupied campsite fire pits!)

Next day we broke camp to go and find the Giant Tree. We'll let the picture of the sign tell you the dimensions. A side note - another one of these Giants fell down in 1991 - this particular tree was 1600 years old..........lets put that another way........400 years after the birth of Christ, this little tree took root......we still struggle to comprehend this.

It was difficult to get some good shots because a) the trees are soooooo big our little camera can't get the whole size in and b) the fog/mist that rolls off the coast and into the forest's. The Redwoods thrive in these conditions and is where they get their moisture from.

For the first time in a LONG time we have been able to sleep in shorts and a t-shirt and not freeze to death......I think this may be the start of a beautiful thing!!!!

Oregon - Day 43 & 44

With only about 1500 miles to cover on this stretch of our journey, we can now take more leisurely drives and not put in the monster drives in that we did on the first leg.

Not too much to write about for this section of the Pacific coast, there are some fantastic views (if the sun is out!) Picture of the lighthouse in the distance is called Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. This area is also the southernmost extent of Lewis and Clark's cross-country expedition. (Lewis and Clark were the pioneers of the west coast. They were the first two settlers to reach the west coast from the east coast)Their journey marks the Oregon Trail which starts in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

We also spent some time in the Tillamook Cheese factory. Was actually very interesting. You can go into the factory and watch the whole production process. Cows outnumber people two to one in this county! We bought some goodies and some really good ice-cream (thought of you Kieran!) Also drove past one of the worlds largest wooden structures. World War II surveillance blimps were built and maintained here by the US Navy (Now an air museum)

We found a cool state park to stay in in Coos Bay. We set up camp and went to the beach which is in a little cove. Lazed watching the pelicans and seagulls do their thing. (No swimming cozzies yet, it's still too chilly) Before we got to Coos Bay, we crosses the "45TH Parallel" which is halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.

A message for David Meehan

Dawie Kabouter,

You're bound to find out sooner or later so best I give you the horrendous news now before you find out via another source. Hope we can still be friends when you realise that I'm current driving a TOYOTA PRIUS! They forced me to do it, Really! We got the keys to our hire car in Seattle and when we pushed the key the lights on the PRIUS lit up. Had no idea on how to switch the damn thing on and realised after 5 minutes in the car that it was in fact already on - the whoring engine is so damn quite you can't even hear it!

There are however upsides to being seen driving in "the devil's car". To put it simply - 60MILES PER GALLON!!!!! if only we had this machine on the journey across the states? doing on average 500miles per every fuel stop and it only cost 40 bucks to fill the car up. loads of these models in California as they're all eco-conscious here and I'm now laughing at the RV drivers who get 7mpg and can only drive 140 on every tank.

It no Ferrari but the money we're saving driving might get me closer to owning one one day. I dare Shelley to buy one!

Astoria, Washington - Day 42

We caught the 5.50 a.m. bus from Vancouver to Seattle, again, no problems at the US Border!

Picked up our new hire car, which to our surprise is a Toyota Prius (Hybrid) We had booked a normal, cheap, small car but we assume the Prius had to get back to California and that's why it was given to us.

We "put foot" to get us to the state border of Washington and Oregon where the 365 mile Pacific Ocean Highway 101 starts. We'll be taking this road all the way into California (CA). We've restocked our supplies and are ready for our remaining 20 days in the U.S of A

Vancouver/Whistler, Canada Days 31-41

YoYo,

Been a while since the last posting, so apologies on that front but, we've had lots to do. Vancouver started where we left off in Barnes with our old roomies 4 years ago.........lots of wine, beer and nostalgia (more on that later).

Not much to write home about Seattle - although Pike Place Market was a cool day out with loads of stalls selling vintage kitch (1973 PLAYBOY mags etc etc.). We also popped into the Seattle Public Library, those design enthusiasts amongst us will know it as an iconic Rem Koolhaas creation. Definately lives up to the hype with vast asymmetric, concrete spaces, signature primary colours and no lack of high spec fittings (Vitra all over the place!)

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Seattle_Public_Library.html

After 2 or so days in Seattle we took a bus from the airport to VC. At the border post we were greeted by a very serious looking crew who were taking NO crap - small heart failiure at the 1st check point where they asked for my visa and I had to explain that as a Polish passport holder I did not require a visa - a quick check down the list confirmed my statement, you'd think they would bloody well know! Another 45 minutes in the queue were spent at check point no 2 where we watched one guy get deported and another caught falsifying statements about the car he was bringing to Canada. Once again though, Kimmy did her sweat-talking PR bit with the customs officials and the rest was plain sailing (lets hope it's the same coming back in tomorrow!)

Nopiel and Mich have not changed a bit. Neil still works half days and gets paid for 3 and both are not shy of a few social glasses of wine. Mich has cool job working for the 2010 Winter Olympics and they both seemed to have settled really well into Canada (who wouldn't with ski slopes and a beach 20minutes away from your front door!).

A couple of days were spent in Whistler where Mich showed us some of the plans for the games. (Stu and Debs, thanks so much for the use of your condo - if you're ever in Cape Town give us a buzz, we'd love to have you over at our place). Although the snow has now mostly disappeared the slopes are still a hive of activity with insane people taking to the gradients with their mountain bikes! They apparently have more people hospitalised in Whistler over the summer months than winter and watching these ''nutters'', we can easily understand why.

The weather has not really played ball again and we probably could have seen more of VC but, in truth, we were more excited about visiting Neil & Mich and Mich's folks Mike and Penny. To all 4 of you, thank you so much for your company and overwhelming generosity. All the pounds lost eating canned rations around a campfire across the US have been put back on - We've had a fantastic stay in Canada and will definitely be saving our rands for a return trip in the not too distant future.

Take care, hope to see you soon in Cape Town.

Seattle, Washington - Days 28-30

Civilisation.....Yay!! Well, sort of.......... we've finally arrived in Seattle. 4808 miles from Miami , diagonally across 14 states. Dom Wigley, I believe you may owe Rogers a case of Savannah Dry??

With our budget in the red, we have decided to chill out in a cheaper camp site just outside Olympic National Park for a few days. We've given our trusty Chevy a breather and have spent the last few days completing some admin, washing(that'll be Kim's job) and a few games of Rummy. On current form, I can't wait to let Rogers loose on the tables in Vegas.... we might yet recover all the money we've spent on petrol.

Seems like there is lots to do in Seattle and we only have the Chevy for a few more days before we cross the border to Canada to visit Neil and Mich. So we're off tomorrow to play "Tommy Tourist" for the second time on this trip - not sure sure that it will have the same appeal New York did.

In summary, our journey across the US has been filled with breathtaking scenery, long drives, camping food out of tins, extreme weather (on both ends of the scale!), a few hot showers and trying to keep up with World events by reading the USA TODAY cover to cover. The yanks clearly don't have an interest in world events (unless it involves oil) so the papers and radio have been dominated by the Clinton/Obama primary election, the panic setting in about the daily increases in the gas price and the revived rivalry between the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics. Therefore, listening to the BBC World Service on the car radio has been the only way we get to hear what our Uncle's Mugabe and Zuma are up to.

We've had and interesting perspective on American thoughts about the major issues. The constant complaining about the gas price (half that of the UK)is fairly laughable when you consider the size of the vehicles they drive here......our Chevy looks like a scooter in comparison. I think Kimmy and I are both Obama fans and we're hoping for everyone's sake that he manages to expose McCain for the backward thinking cowboy that he is....only time will tell.

Looking forward to relaxing a bit now in Canada and renewing our "Barnes" days with ex roomies and a "few" bottles of RED.

Leavenworth, Washington - Day 27-28

Exiting West Glacier we hit yet another snow blizzard - this time thankfully we were already packed up and in the car but, for a while it was not a pretty drive! Bigass snow flakes in strong winds with icy roads made for a nervous few minutes but the most important thing was that we were dry, smelly, but dry! 536 miles further west we drove into a really bizzare little town called Leavenworth. here we are in the north west corner of the USA and all the buildings look like they belong on the set of "Sound of Music". Swiss/Bavarian mottifs and architecture all over the place! No idea what the fascintion with "little Germany is but it seems like quite a popular spot for the Seattle crowd, so much so that the KOA camp ground was completely booked up!.......JOY!...another night with no showers! The state camp park is again up high in the mountains with more peaceful scenery - just forgot to pack a portable heater! As and alternative, I have decide to grow a "Wallace" beard. This way, I will at least keep my face warm but, the down side is that the grey is showing a little more each day. A bottle of RED around the campire does the trick too.

Glacier National Park, Montana Days 24-26

After being caught in a snow blizzard in our tents we decided to pack it up at Yellowstone. Onward and upward to Glacier National Park in the upper north west corner of Montana. Arrived at East Glacier only to discover that the pass over the park was still snowed in! A Latte and a Cappa in a road side diner (it was our waiters 1st ever attempt at making an espresso based coffee - poor country boy had no clue!) we agreed to push on to the west entrance, another 100mile drive. 720 Miles of in 24 hours later the weather was till no better, as the 'pretty" picture of my angel in 5 layers, a beenie and a pair of WALMART trackie pants illustrates ( it must be love!). The main attraction at GNP is at the top of Logan Pass which crosses the park from east to west - with the pass closed we were limited to sight seeing in the lower valleys. More surreal scenery and picnic spots along rushing mountain rivers and serenely calm lakes but, disappointingly the crappy weather will not do our photos any justice. Managed to spot another Bald Eagle, this time at Lake MacDonald and with a bit of sunshine we managed a decent photo - really chuffed! (just wish our zoom was a little stronger) We've consistently being blowing our US budget with mostly long drives so decided to stay in a few State owned camp sites. the bugger is that they have NO SHOWERS. 3 Showers in 8 cold days around a campfire.... you can only but imagine what we smell like!

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming - Days 22-25

YNP was really cool, we had some good sightings and again, amazing scenery. We had a really good sighting of a Black Bear with her 2 cubs who where about a month old. She was busy foraging for food , someone in the crowd mentioned that there were cubs in the tree. Mama bear then went a little way up the tree and called them down . Next thing we notice a whole lot of leaves and branches falling out the tree and these 2 incredibly cute cubs come bounding down the tree!! Weird though because you are allowed to get out of your car and watch them. There was a Ranger there making sure that the people didn't disturb her and her little family.

Saw loads of Bison, elk, moose, birds, a coyote and a grizzly bear. We stayed in the Park itself where the campsite only has a long drop and no showers. 3rd day that we were there we got caught in a blizzard!

We woke up early for a drive, however, it started raining and we couldn't really see much so we decided to go for a mid morning snooze. We woke up at about 12 wondering why the hell we had suddenly got so cold, and low and behold, we open up the tent and it had just started snowing. We thought okay we can deal with this until the snow started falling a lot harder. At that stage we thought it best to pack up and head out. As we were driving out, roads were being closed and traffic directed back down. (our campsite was at an elevation of about 7,000ft)


We got chatting to some lady in Seattle and when we told her we were in YNP she asked if we got caught in the "blizzard!!!"


So, by the time we left YNP we were very cold and very stinky (hadn't showered in 3 days!!) And definitely much richer in being lucky enough to experience this vast and wild wilderness.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming - Day 19 & 20

Again the choice for this location is that it is the "gateway" to Yellowstone national Park. We've decided on another 2 nights here. Our new favourite campsite. We are right on the Snake River. We go to sleep with the sound of the river rushing past our tent. And Bloody hell is the water cold!

We arrived late and made meatballs out of our leftover burger patties. was goooooood, also had a cup of hot chocolate to warm us up before bed. had our first lie in - only got up at 8, normally we are up at about 5am.

Took a drive into town which is really geared towards the tourists coming through on their way to Yellowstone. Really cool town which has been here since 1901. Stocked up on groceries for our trip through Yellowstone, where we hope to have at least 4 days.

Debs - photo here of me under a shop name that I thought would make you giggle.

The blogs now finally up to date, however will be a while until we can get onto the net again.

Remember, remember the 6th June.
Granny Karen will finally join the 30's Club. Will try and call you Thursday night as I'm not sure what your plans are for Friday and with the time difference and all.