TravelStream™ news feed for member popusa2008 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/popusa2008 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:45:24 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/popusa2008/1/1227195720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/popusa2008/1/1227195720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/popusa2008/1/1227195720/tpod.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:45:24 -0500 USA Canada & Alaska 2008

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Anaheim, California, United States

Day 193 AnaheimAgain today is a "Free Breakfast" but we take back to the Room for a little space. Mind you the space, even though most likely 5 times the size of the Castle, has piles of "Stuff" building on the spare beds, as well as on top of the already packed suitcases. Oh boy hopefully Qantus have been notified of our impending departure, and schedule a huge plane to carry us home!We had arranged to meet with Owen & Bev at 3pm, so any plans of "Stumping around shopping centres" had to be structured around a return home at about this time.Karon decided it was time to check out a close place for a haircut, this left the boys to relax and take time out.Obviously it was time to catch up on the blog and a little photo posting, coupled with rest the feet, knowing a further onslaught was inevitable.Well Karon's parting words when she left at around 9:30am were, "if I am not back in an hour you know I have an appointment"Well 2.5 hours passes and morning tea as well before a knock on the door and our third party member returns, feeling a lot better after her "girlie things" having been sorted!Time to eat a quick lunch before hitting the shopping centres again! (Just as well The boys took advantage of the morning rest period.) Time was not wasted because of the 3pm deadline.We managed to find the closest Wal Mart, to obtain a few items we had been researching, and lo and behold! Next door is a Mervyns! "who the heck or what the heck is a Mervyns? One could ask.Well it appears to sell shoes and clothes, Earnie required shoes, so lets look!Oh boy! There goes the last of the time used up before the deadline. The shop had "Bargain basement Going out of Business" prices. With up to 70% off! We cannot walk past that, now can we?Earnie managed to find his shoes, GREAT! But that doesn't mean we escape, we have to wander around with the other 80% of Anaheim, (Escaping the smoke and ash falling from the sky because Southern California is burning), according to the news and we are in fierce smoke laden ash filled winds!A few "bargains" under our arms we head back a little late for our 3pm meet up time, but no problem really because our friends are late in arriving.We settle in and unload our bargains, and wait for them to turn up. Arriving a little later and won out and tired because of "last minute packing and shopping" they relaxed and had a cuppa and a shower and change before embarking to the airport for their midnight flight.Out travellers walked down the road a little to an $8 per head buffet, (the food reflected the price, certainly not a return visit place).Home to our stationary residence (how weird is this?) and watch a Julia Roberts Movie before retiring.The plan tomorrow is to visit Venice Beach, (if the roads and fires allow us through) to take more time to absorb the culture of the area.Yes we are still enjoying ourselves with lots yet planned (according to the navigator) so if you are not bored out of your brains, stay with us for the updates.Mind you we are a little humbled by noticing that the numbers of viewers is still high, and we thank you sincerely for giving your time to staying with us all the way.Certainly over the next few days we hope to reflect and attempt to summarize our highs and lows, and keep watching this space, yet to come is the report on; "the Taps and Toilets" of the USA! Day 194 Anaheim - Venice BeachThe day we woke to, was clear blue skies as opposed to the ash and smoke filled sky the previous night. Not because the fires had gone away, simply the fact a wind change had cleared our particular sky space.It looked like a good day for the beach day we had planned, after breakfast we loaded into the car to head out.Mandy took her time to play the game for some reason and took us a little longer before we could leave to enable us to ensure we didn't get lost on the freeways that snake throughout the greater LA city and surrounds.It was not long before we heading in a northerly direction and up on the freeway could observe the dense smoke filled sky ahead of us.The traffic flow was light being a Sunday morning, yet they still travel fast and change lanes without a lot of warning if any!Never mind, Mandy directed us safely through the various route changes and lane shifts to land us at Venice Beach. The trip was about 45 mins, the arrival time coincided with coffee time. We had also arrived a little early for the street vendors, with some still setting up or waking up.We wandered along checking out a few stalls as well as some of the shops.There was a purpose to the wanderings; a couple more suitcases were required. Keeping an eye open for a coffee shop for the much required kick start beverage, we also were checking prices for the bags.We did find a restaurant that would serve us coffee and tea as well as some pancakes. (mmm yummo BUT!) As we were eating, some performers began a dual juggling act on the footpath just alongside the restaurant, which kept us entertained as we enjoyed the sit down and break.We left the food place and began a slow walk along the footpath to again absorb the ambience of Venice Beach. No real change, the same stalls with some great handmade craft as well as the usual people with signs "I will work for Marijuana" and the odd Psychic stall offer to read palms or read the cards.Every now and then a stall with some well crafted stuff or paintings would come into view, but none of the travellers were tempted to part with any cash.We managed to run out of shops and sidewalk vendors, so headed across the expanse of sand to the waters edge.Certainly deep sand and a long walk to the waters edge. The water was low waves with some hopeful souls sitting on boards hoping for a wave, certainly not what we understand as good surf waves.The water was NOT warm enough for us to consider taking a dip, and even though it was nice enough to paddle in we certainly kept far enough away to prevent being wet.We came across a funeral service happening on the beach near the water. We previously overheard some of the stall holders talking about "permission to have Hindu Ceremony on the beach"As we walked past it broke up, and all the people attending (majority dressed in white) walked to the waters edge and threw a flower into the waves.The walk was continued and then headed back across the sand to the shop that had suitcases. Yes we require more. At this stage we have 6 bags between us and this would not fit all the amount of "stuff" sprawled around the hotel rooms.We bought two "Good sized bags" and trundled our way back to the car.Piling in and heading back to our home, with no problem retracing our steps.We arrived back and took a bit of time out for a swim and relax in the pool and hot tub, before attempting to attack the huge task of reducing a 6 month trip and Castle room size purchases, into 8 suitcases and bags.The boys sat back and offered a limited assistance as Karon with apparent practiced ease proceeded to reduce the circle and pile into various bags. Eventually the circle closed and most of the "stuff" had been Stuffed or persuaded to become up close and personal with the other purchase it was chosen to be squished in beside in the bag.Amazingly enough the job was finished and the beds were uncovered or discovered and oh gee oh damn, there is still more room! We cannot have that, now can we?So we head out for dinner and plan a trip to "the outlet shops" Gee why wouldn't we?So until then bye for now! Day 195 Anaheim Today was "Outlet Day" and it is Monday here, so we head off in time to hit the outlets at around 10am.The freeway Interstate 5, is a great link road as we take it north towards Los Angeles and then turn off for the outlet shops.One of the party had a plan and a map of the shops as well as a list. Gee organised! How scary is that.The first stop was at Starbucks to ensure the caffeine levels are at the correct height before embarking on "the Plan".Firstly we have to do a complete round of all the shops to ascertain the map is correct, and the selection and prices are compared on the first loop.Then the serious stuff begins, into the lucky chosen stores to donate part of the Castle returns to the various name brands that "happened to be in the right place at the right time" to ensure we don't return with any "spare" funds!The boys acted as walking clothes horses as the rounds were completed again and a lot of head shaking was happening, but no words could be spoken. The previous days experience had shown that the female section of the travellers was a magician in a previous life, and could make a large pile disappear into a small space.Eventually the bags hanging off the arms was getting a little too much and Earnie volunteered to take them back to the car and guard them while Karon continued the crusade to donate funds to the brands we had yet to visit.Well unsure if the shops won or the fact we had traversed the same spot at least three times, we found ourselves loaded in the car and heading home.Gee what a day! Now comes the fun part, reducing the piles into the already full bags.Again the magic happens and the bags are full(surely) and the beds and rooms take on a clearer appearance. We trotted out for dinner and a place called Denny's, this place was a pleasant surprise and the food was not to bad as well as reasonably priced.Home then and into bed. Surely this shopping must end soon!Day 196 AnaheimWith the outlet shopping done it was time to head into town to Rodeo drive and the farmers markets. Well at least that was the plan.As we all know about the best laid plans!We headed to Wal mart for a few little things to fill in some gaps in the bags! Then as we came back past our bank decided to call in to make arrangements to leave the account open but have access to wire the funds back home if required. This is simple as far as we are concerned, we did it in Australia through our banking system so we should be able to reverse the option.Well never "assume anything" Firstly gaining understanding of our requirements by the greeting person, was difficult, but we were directed to the tellers counter. Attempting to explain our requirements meet with a discussion in view behind the tellers with a supervisor. The teller, (customer service person) said we had to call the customer service number on the card to be put through to the International Wire Transfer Service, it can be handled over the phone.  Gee sounds great and easy, we head home to have a quick lunch and make the phone call before heading into our "planned Rodeo Drive" journey.While having lunch, the phone call is made, and yes, we can report the banks here use the same wonderful telephone system as we do in Australia, follow the prompts!Eventually the connection is obtained with the correct service, our requirements are explained.Veronica (our contact at this stage) explained how it all worked and suggested that some documents would have to be filled in and they were available at our local branch office. Oh dear, is this the first of the run around or surely it is simply filling in the forms.We decided to shift our priorities, and ensure we could retrieve our funds before we left in a couple of days. Back to the bank we head.A nice young lady understands the request after it was explained the "wire Service" had told us to obtain the forms here. She heads away and returns with some forms to be filled out. She said to read the terms and conditions, fill in the forms and return them to the counter. No big deal, speed read and proceed to fill in the forms. Whoops, which address do we put in? The challenge being, we had used the banks address previously for the opening of the account, BUT! (There is always a but!) This time, they were going to post out our PIN number to the address to enable us to activate the phone wire system. Here comes the rub! It could take up to a week for the pin to arrive! Whoops we are leaving in 2 days.Leaving this area blank to ascertain from the bank staff the best option, the form was filled as best as we were able, headed back to the counter. The young lady that understood the process was out for lunch, so another person came to serve.With the question being asked about the blank address space, we were told to "put in your address you live here" Upon explaining the address for our account was here at the bank, we were immediately told; "you don't live in a bank, in this building" Certainly an attitude came through.A small exchange and time out to consider (or take a few breaths) and then approach the counter again, Giving the card to the woman to check the address on the card to verify our address, she left the counter  not to return!Another woman returned with the card and attempted to go through our request. A lot of to and fro and communication challenges (one of the communicators had limited English ability) It all became too hard, so a decision to wire some funds immediately back to our Australian bank was suggested by ourselves. This we were told was difficult and might take a couple of days. MIGHT! Go tomorrow or MIGHT take a couple of days.Not wanting to upset authorities by taking too much cash through the borders of both countries, we appeared to be at a stalemate. The woman was asked to get the manager. Gee off she goes and the manager was at lunch. With insistence of a request for the manager she went back 4 times and no manager was available. The woman with attitude returned to the counter to attempt to sort the problem. (By this stage the whole bank was aware there was a conflict or problem in the service area!) Further discussion with the two women at the counter we established that the wire funds would go through the next day! It was no longer a "might go through"So we proceeded to fill out further forms to ensure a substantial amount of our funds would return home.We finished the form and asked the "attitude woman, supervisor" to check the correctness and "gee back to the beginning" Which address do we put down on the form ? she conceded that we could put our home Sydney address in the space. WHY couldn't we have done that on the first form no one was game to ask in case another explosion may occur!  Form checked and all ok we leave the bank exhausted! Oh by the way from the time we requested to see the manager, who happened to be at lunch, and the time we left the bank was 1.5 hours, certainly it appears bank managers get a good lunch hour in America! And no time left to head into town, we had spent about 4 hours dealing with the bank to retrieve our funds.Home for a drink and relax and out to Knott's Berry Farm for dinner. An extremely nice meal and certainly good value for money.Exhausted to bed!Day 197 AnaheimAfter our fun games with the bank yesterday, it was time to head into the City and check out and walk Rodeo Drive, Certainly if the bank had attitude about our funds, we figured it will not take long to spend it down in Beverly Hills.The run into the city was a little stop start and heavy traffic, certainly wouldn't enjoy doing that trip everyday. The smog cloud of brown yuck hanging over the city, is evident from a long way out. Just to excite us along the way we received a phone call from the bank to say the form was not correctly filled in, this particular person was the young lady that originally spoke to us and was happy enough to fix the form and allow us to initial the changes in the afternoon when we returned to Anaheim. (so much for the Supervisor that checked the form when we handed it in.)We eventually turned into the beginning of Rodeo drive, the drive begins in nice suburbia houses neatly trimmed lawns and well maintained houses. A lot of speed bumps and stop signs, so not good for high speed chases along this road.Eventually we came to the business end of the drive and turned into Wiltshire Avenue, driving past Julie Roberts Penthouse hotel from Pretty Woman. We drove around the block and found a parking meter on Rodeo Drive just back from the Famous corner.With no quarters to feed the meter, Karon went down the street looking for a place to obtain change. Upon her return with quarters to feed the meter, she realized she had obtained the change from inside the hotel that featured in the film!We set off on foot to walk the walk and check out the bargains along the famous Drive.With the Xmas decorations and wonderful special lights creating a wonderland, would obviously be like a magical kingdom at night.We walked up and down with a few photo opportunities and some serious window gazing, with some serious looking dudes inside the doors checking out any potential clients that may walk through the doors.Deciding that Rodeo drive didn't have a Starbucks for our coffee break we headed back to the car to negotiate our way to the Farmers Markets.This was easy and we are old hands at negotiating our way around big cities and in a car it is a lot easier than the Castle.We parked over the road from the Markets to head to the Starbucks and recharge our inner selves.  We walked around and through the markets after the coffee break and discovered another section of shops along a street attached. The Santa house in the middle of the road and the huge Xmas tree with huge parcels around the base and lights overhead with Santa sleigh and reindeer suspended above, were a sight to enjoy. Certainly creates an atmosphere of celebration. Nice shops and quaint sidewalk cafes. Certainly a revisit place for next time. We had used up the free parking allocation so headed back to the car.Time to return to the bank to finalise the wire transfer and signatures.We arrived back at the bank, gee recognised immediately by the new greeter service person, Any wonder?The young lady came to the counter and explained the shortfalls and changes made to the document, duly signed and assured the funds had been wired through, we asked to close the account and withdraw the remaining funds. Politely we were asked to leave it until Friday to ensure all funds had been transferred correctly, that was not going to happen because we fly out on Thursday, so a compromise was reached, we would return tomorrow to close the account.Another short trip to some shops, (Target) and a few more squishy things for the spaces, home to finish the packing and head out for dinner.Another day and our last sleep in Anaheim before we head out tomorrow.Day 198 Anaheim.Well the last day in USA after our trip around. Gee the 198 days of holiday have simply passed as have so many sights and experiences we absorbed on the way.Today being the final day, began with breakfast, followed by washing. Certainly not a big job, without having to deal with sheets and towels, as we did when in the Castle. Mind you the machines were very slow.A juggle around of the bags and some final closing and squishing, (just as well we all may have gained a little weight, to allow us to compress the bags to ensure the zips worked!) addition of safety locks and most bags are ready to go.With the washing done and clothes sorted, we headed to the bank for the final discussion about closing the account. This went reasonably smoothly with only a small roundabout ride, but with our funds safely in hand and a notice received from our Australian bank to let us know the funds we had sent yesterday had arrived, we headed back to the hotel to finalise the check out.We reduced ourselves into one room and obtained a late checkout for the other. Paid the account and had time to spare, so set off for a ride to Balboa Peninsula, and visited Newport Beach. Walked around the piers in Newport in amongst a cold sea fog. We had left Anaheim in sun and ran into a thick fog at the beach just down the south side along Harbor Boulevard.We had a later lunch in a restaurant, and headed back home, with one last stop off at a Wal Mart for a couple of things and sit down for a cuppa and a clean up before we head to the airport. As well, you will notice a catch up with the blog. After travelling for 198 days through or into 40 States, 5 Canadian Provinces, a total of 26,500 miles (approx: 44785 Km) in The Castle, run up maybe another 1500 miles(2535km) in hire cars, we are heading home.We have travelled by way of The Castle, hire car, Ferry, helicopter, through tunnels, over 17 miles of bridge/tunnel that went underwater halfway along, onto Islands, into back roads, up and over the top of The World highway, to North Pole to see Santa Claus, had close encounters with bears, bison, deer, elk, and other animals.Meet wonderful people, (we will not mention names in fear of leaving someone out) made friends along the way, seen so many sights and stayed in many and varied RV parks. Encountered an unusal number of different taps and toilets (Yet to be added hopefully), visited post card sights, and missed the hurricanes and rain and winds as we travelled around.How do we sum up the trip? Well basically it is impossible to do any sort of abbreviation or summation, but we guess the Blog has covered it all on a daily basis. Yet has it? Each day's entry was as best we could do, but we are sure when we read each entry it will remind us of some little thing that may have happened along the way and will keep us amused for a long time to come.Are we looking forward to heading home? Yes we do miss our home and families and we do at times weary of interpreting the slight cultural differences.Would we do it again? No doubt and certainly recommend any sort of adventure or trip along the same lines.We have all taken our own perspectives of the different cities and sights, each of us will have similar stories but slightly different maybe of some events.Are we still all talking and getting along? Yes we still discuss our options and concur on our choices.At this point you all have now arrived at the end of our trip (there will be a few more photos to be posted and the "arrived home" and the long awaited taps & toilets entry, we would like to thank you all for being so loyal to us as we trekked around the North American Continent and shared with us our journey. It amazes us that there was an average of 46.4 hits per day on our humble site, as we travelled around. We guess that some productivity gains will happen in the workplaces as we draw this to a close. The bosses and supervisors will wonder what has happened with the increased output, as those that (sshhh) check in on the work computer's have more time on their hands.Seriously folks we are amazed that so many chose to "check in" on The Three Travellers in their wonderful Castle as we discovered new fun things to visit on our way. A Big Thank you all.Tonight we run into some more Australians on the Qantus flight home and maybe they will have vegemite for the toast in the morning! Next report and photos to be posted in Australia.
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Anaheim, California, United States

Day 192 Anaheim Well what do we do when we are not packing up to travel somewhere else. Gee still in the same place!Breakfast was supplied over in the pool area, so off we trot; gee we don't have to do the three step around the kitchen/dining area of the Castle.After our breakfast we programmed Mandy to take us to a shopping centre, and off we travelled.It is certainly different as we are able to move a little faster in the car as well as shift lanes in the traffic a lot more easily.We have a very short list of a few things to obtain, taking advantage of the prices and some sales that are happening.We are up to six full suitcases and with the understanding we are allowed a couple more, there doesn't appear to be any point in heading home with the chance of filling that void!This appears not to be a problem for one of the party, (the Boys are in "Tagalong mode!")So a  definite trip from shopping centre to shopping centre and special sales stores, was the order of the day. Gee does it ever end?This included a search for the Cabbage Hospital, (how come we have a Cabbage patch child looking for a parent?)Never mind, tired and still recovering from the sale of The Castle, we trotted back home to relax a little.We received a call from Nicole and Danial(they have a habit of checking in on us if we are late in posting) As well we talked to our friends, Owen & Bev, and arranged to catch up tomorrow night, before they leave to head home to Brisbane.Another tiring day!
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Anaheim, California, United States

Day 191 Long Beach - Anaheim - CaliforniaWell an early morning start for the travellers as they rose to take on the task of packing and cleaning. Breakfast first, after our last night's sleep in the Castle; then into the washing the clothes as well as packing and cleaning, to have The Castle ready for the new owners.We organised a rental company to come and pick us up to enable us to hire a car that would fit all our bags and stuff. We had a good site in the RV park, it was wide, with a concrete pad, this allowed us to pack our bags and stack them outside. Numerous trips to the dumpster, as decisions were made in respect to take home, leave for the new owners, or throw out.The bags slowly stood in line outside, and the cupboards were slowly emptied or reorganised.The boys headed away with the pickup service offered by Enterprise car rental car. They returned with a 7 seater Kia, figuring the last seats would fold down to allow the multiple bags (6 at this stage) to be loaded into the luggage area.As we closed the circle and The Castle started to take on a different look, and the hire vehicle had the suspension tested as the weight from one was transferred to the other.At 11:30am, the new purchaser arrived, Gee it is happening, we had kinda figured as we were cleaning and packing, well if they don't turn up, we had to do this job at some time.Frank ( the purchaser) turned up with his cousin, they didn't have the cheque, but asked if we had done the "smog test". We knew about this procedure from the Cruise America Frank, but hadn't had time to head out and have the vehicle "tested".This was of not a great concern of the new owner, he suggested a place "just over the bridge" we arranged to meet there after he had gone to pick up the Cashiers cheque(bank cheque in our terms)We showed a quick turnaround of the workings of the Castle,(Awning, dumping, etc) and then parted company.We set off to have the smog test completed, as well as wait for the cheques to turn up.Well gee, just "going over two bridges" as directed to take the next left turn, was an interesting fun game for us as well.We revisited the same high bridges we had visited the first day we had picked up the Castle and wanted to take the hire car back. We kid you not! We were down in the docks area and over the high bridge, with a hire car following the castle through the traffic and trucks. Talk about De Ja Vue.Never mind, we eventually, after a few back streets, turn up at "the Smog father", a smog testing station. A false start because we went in the incorrect direction, but being redirected, we left "the Castle" to be tested and walked to find a coffee, (much required by this time)Had the morning tea break, wandered back to the smog test place to find the Castle was finished and was passed.So time to wait, and wait, and wait! Yep it took around 1.5 hours waiting; we walked into a diner for a hamburger, because hunger was biting.Just as our food arrived, so did the purchaser of the Castle. So we sit down and complete the paper work and the Castle had changed hands, with us holding a cheque, and the Castle leaving without us.Yes! We still sat like "stunned Mullets" to consider we had done 26,000+ miles, in The Castle, beginning 6 months ago, and now, we are without a home. A hired car full of suitcases and a place somewhere in Anaheim to stay for a week before we climb on board our Qantus plane home.We set Mandy to take us to our new home, and away we go!Mandy being herself took us to Harbor Boulevard and proceeded to turn us the wrong way. Never mind, a U-turn is no problem in a small car, and we head back to the where we have booked in. In Mandy's defence, it doesn't help, we guess, if the street has a double numbering system, we did arrive at the correct number, just at the wrong end of the street. So we arrived at our home for the next week, (Ramada Inn, opposite Disneyland) and unpacked the car and spread all the stuff over 2 rooms.All the travellers were very tired after the early start and the events of the last couple of days, so relax in front of the Tele until time for dinner, we headed out to a buffet place we had experienced 6 months ago.An amazing circumstance! As we headed back with our plates, someone called out to Rick, he turns around and looks to see Bridget, (from way back 6 months ago from AT&T) waving to him.Amazing! We walked over to say hi. Bridget recognised Rick from 6 months ago and also has been checking in on the blog every now and again.To consider we all arrived back at the same restaurant at the same time 6 months after we meet is amazing. It was great to see Bridget again as well as her 1 year old daughter. (Jamie- Kimberly)We headed home after dinner to watch a little more Tele and then crash for the night.A BIG day with the cleaning and sale of the Castle and the money in the bank.
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Long Beach, California, United States

Day 190 Pomona - Long Beach CaliforniaToday was head back to the original Castle home and check out what we had to complete to transfer Our Castle back.We knew we were in LA traffic fairly quickly as we headed up on the freeways and progressed the 45 miles towards Carson, the home of Cruise America.After about an hour of the tense fast drive and traffic lane changes in the Castle, we safely turned into the Cruise America Depot. The amount of Castle Cousins in the yard was mind blowing. They were packed completely bumper to bumper Clone images of The Castle. Some cleaned up for sale and others still decked out in the Logo and pictures of the Cruise America trade mark.Wow! would they really buy back the Castle as they had written would happen or would we have to pay them? That is the question.The three Travellers trekked in to Frank's office they had been seated in, those many days ago. Gee has time really passed?Frank greeted with his usual bright smile and inquired if we had been having fun and where did we go.After the opening greetings the paper work was pulled out, it was a surprise to us to see Frank reach in and find it immediately; our experience from our previous visit, his filing system was rather questionable. A mention here that Frank did tell us business had been bad or very quiet, so maybe this is how he manages to keep up with the paperwork.Frank began doing the calculations and the deductions for the miles over the free 12,000 miles.The  Original arrangement being the first 12000 miles free and 32c/mile, the amount of the guaranteed price would be reduced. Gee if we had travelled 26,000 miles less 12,000 it left a lot at 32c.Never mind Frank was not going to argue about returning  of the Castle, so we figured we would at least quit our home.The sums done and the figures came out at $11,016.00, Frank was keen for us to sell it privately, he suggested we would easily get $15,000. We explained we had a few people call us but hadn't made an offer. Working out we would only require to pack our stuff (collections of 6 months travelling sort of stuff) and return the Castle and Cruise America would send us a cheque.So leaving the office we set Mandy to take us to a shopping centre in Long Beach.We arrived shortly and set off to search through a JC Penny's store.The boys soon tired of that game and decided to head out to the Castle and relax to give Karon free space and time.The Boys were relaxing in The Castle, when Earnie spotted a woman coming up along side. After saying Gidday, her and her husband wanted to have a look at the Castle, they had observed the For Sale Notices.They left with our details and commented about letting us know. We recontacted a couple of the people that had called us at the bottom line price (Frank had suggested$15,000) One lot were honest enough to say they were only dreaming, the other guy made noises about attempting to sort out a time to have a look.We finished the shopping and had lunch, tracked our way to an RV park in Long Beach. We received a phone call from the couple that had looked at The Castle in the car park to tell us they had arranged the money and make arrangements to take over our home.The three travellers were, as the saying goes! "Stunned mullets"  we immediately said, well tomorrow is good for us. (We were not that stunned not to ensure they didn't have time to change their mind).So an arrangement was made for them to come to the RV park at 11:30am the next morning.A night was spent considering the steps we required to take if this actually turns out to be "the Deal". Gee we have to search for a place to live the last week as well as organise a vehicle. Losing our home and means of transportation is quite a shock.
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Pomona, California, United States

Day 189 Santa Barbara -  Pomona -Los AngelesWith the plan to have The Castle Cleaned, we set off to find a place in Santa Barbara. Mandy directed us accurately to the destination we chose (advertised as a truck wash) to find it to be a simple servo. Never mind we filled with gas and set off South to complete the circle we began those few months ago.The trip down the coast line from Santa Barbara would have to be our best Coastal run we have experienced. The views of the ocean, were superb, the ocean was flat and the sun was sparkling of the water,  a great sight to absorb. At least it was not blocked by high rise or private homes. From our highway perch we observed a section of the "road adjacent to the beach", lined with RV's all with unrestricted views of the water. Obviously a free park and certainly a known spot for the campers.The route eventually took a track inland to take us to our destination, this was a skirt along the East side of LA towards Pasadena, to our present location of Pomona.We stopped off at a Wal Mart for a morning tea break, and to set our sights for an RV dealer that advertised a "Wash rack" (we figured this would be a place to clean the Castle) also we figured we might get a price from them about buying The Castle.We had a couple more phone calls as we were driving along, from people that had taken our number from our For Sale Notices on the windows. We visited the RV centre and arranged for the Castle to be cleaned, there was no interest in purchasing the Castle, they offer a Sale by Consignment Service,  of course is not applicable for us.We spent an hour waiting for the Castle to be returned and happily paid the fee for the clean, The Castle, came up beautifully sparkling clean, a home to be proud about.We headed out to a shopping centre and parked up to enjoy a lunch. Programmed to the nearest KOA  at Pomona.We arrived and used up our rewards points for our nights stay, set to a little cleaning up and sorting of stuff, as well as plan tomorrow.Tomorrow is planned to return to Cruise America, so sort out the return of the Castle process.This will give us guidelines of what we will have time to spend the next few days before our flight home.
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Santa Barbara, California, United States

Day 188 Morro Bay - Santa Barbara - CaliforniaWe left this small seaside spot to head South, we planned a stop for groceries at a Wal Mart in Santa Maria. The route was a simple trek along the 101, and headed off to find a supermarket. Back in California means we are in "Vons" country, this was the first supermarket chain we shopped at in Anaheim, so chose to re-visit that chain. This became a little disappointing; we found the Vons we visited was not the same as the original we had signed up at 6 months ago. No cream cakes! What sort of Vons doesn't have cream puffs?We stocked up as best we could and then headed to the nearest Wal Mart, to finish the stock up, Not a super Wal Mart (are the three travellers being a little fussy, or have we simply become too used  getting what we want when we are used to buying our stuff!)Never mind we found some bargains! So more suitcase packing required.We had a phone call on the road in response to our "For Sale" signs in the windows. Amazing! No follow up from the caller yet but we never know.We moved on down South along the 101 then took the 154 to take us to Santa Barbara, This took us through some back country and rolling hills, very dry with cattle grazing being the predominant farming.We came out at Santa Barbara and drove through the main street, (as you do in The Castle) but it appears to be a nice town with good shopping, along nice a nice main street with some dining on the pavement.We trekked our way carefully through too head to the beach side, to come out at a long pier into the ocean. We found a park alongside the beach and had lunch, then went for a walk along the pier (Every pier has an ice cream shop yummy!) Also out in the bay area we spotted a lot of oil rigs, and enjoyed looking at the birds and spotting one seal swimming around in the water below the pier.We looked at our options of where to stay or to travel, being around 2pm we decided to stay if we could find a park near here. The challenge being the sun disappears early so we want to be settled in a park around 4-4:30pm.We set the GPS to take us to a park on the way. About ten minutes down the road we pulled into an RV park alongside the highway, at first drive through we chose to pick another, so reset the magical little guide to take us to another park.Wow what an experience! Yes we keep surprising ourselves with our journey, NO KIDDING!The directions suggested the park was only about ten minutes away, so off we head, well the path set, took us into the suburbs and then turned up hill, we navigated our way higher into narrower roads in amongst some large houses that must have paid BIG $'s for the view of the Ocean, at one point to negotiate a right turn we were required in The Castle to take 2 bites to get around the right hand turn. NO place to turn around or even attempt to do our re-knowned  5 point turns. Just onward and upward, to "reach our destination" to find ourselves outside a private house. Enough is enough! There was a road that had dropped off to our right a little way back, so with a guide behind, we reversed into that road, to execute a turn and head back down, obviously the local residents are not used to viewing a 29 ft Castle on their  road, the cars ascending and descending the road used a lot of the road in the tight corners and had to take a little evasive action as they were greeted with our home in their face!Eventually, after what felt like forever, we returned close to ground level and found our way back to the first RV park we drove through, headed in to find the office closed but took a spot from the "self registration list" and here we are.The computer hook has worked well and so some long held up emails managed to get away.We are planning to head into LA tomorrow to have the Castle cleaned at a place that does RV service and also they advertise the buy RV's, so we will follow that up. So again the circle becomes tighter.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/popusa2008/1/1226244900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/popusa2008/1/1226244900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/popusa2008/1/1226244900/tpod.html Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:37:16 -0500 USA Canada & Alaska 2008

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Morro Bay, California, United States

Day 187 Morro Bay - Hearst Castle As indicated yesterday, we re-booked in for another night stay over here near the beach, although not warm enough for swimming, it is nice to have the ocean at our back door.We set off to revisit Hearst Castle and take one of the other tours we had yet to enjoy.Arriving at around 10:20am we chose tour 2, this takes in the upstairs bedrooms, including Hearst private rooms and bedroom.We had an hour to wait until the tour left, so lucky for us there is a small coffee cart at the visitor centre.A leisurely cuppa time, then line up for the tour.The tour bus took us the 5 miles of road to the top of the hill describing the various views and what to look out for on the way. It stopped and a different let down point than tour one, we previously had done those 5 months ago.W entered  another access point, to have another view of the main outdoor pool and entered the building via a different doorway.This took us up spiralling steps to the second floor; we viewed some wonderful rooms full of collections of antiques and furniture complete, with the ceilings from various buildings from Europe. The guide mentioned the furnishings at the time of building of this place, were reported to have cost $10 million, and she pointed out, in one of the rooms, the collection of Vases and bowls, some of these would start at auction prices now days at $10Million, to attempt to put a value on the fittings, furnishings, and collections of art and antiques, would be near to impossible. Most of the collection is irreplaceable. The art work on the ceilings as well as the decor again astounds us as we wander through the building. Through further doors and up more Spiral stair wells to come out along the "bedroom clusters" These were the clusters of guest bedrooms, for those guests not housed in the Guest houses. Each guest room had two beds, and two bathrooms for each room. Again the opulence and furnishings are simply overwhelming. We visited Hearst private bedroom, done in a gothic style, this appeared to be a favourite style, and in this room a painting was done by an artist that had a smaller painting sold at auction a few years ago for $42 million. This drives home the actual value of some of the hundreds of paintings and collectables gathered in this place. A question would have to be asked, as to why the Hearst family "gave" this to the State to be set up as a museum and allow it to become a National Monument.We went from Hearst Bedroom to his "friend's room" his wife never slept upstairs in this private area, then through to his Study. This in itself was very large and again contains many wonderful pieces, as well as many books in his library, we visited two libraries on this tour, and they hold many books.We also were able to trek up to the turret type bedroom section to view another guest's bedroom.We had a visit to one of the four, what were called the duplexes; they were single bedrooms, with a split level, for the bed area and down some steps to a lounge area that also contained a bathroom; where guest such as Carol Lombard once stayed,We proceeded back along the other "cluster bedrooms" and through one of these, to head back down another stairwell, (Certainly would be a wonderful house for kids to play hide and seek, with all the rooms and stairways.)We dropped down into the kitchen, this being a huge commercial sized area, with as can be imagined, large prep areas and cooking facilities. From this Kitchen and staff quarters area we stepped out into the back patio area, like a lot of the forty year project, was unfinished at the time of Hearst's death. This area looked out over the tennis courts and led us down into the indoor swimming pool. We took another view of this massive indoor pool that was basically never used, then back on the bus to descend to the information centre again.When this property was purchased by Hearst's parents, they purchased 250,000 acres and 50 miles of beachfront, it was developed by Hearst after he inherited the property at the age of 56. We headed across the road to enjoy our lunch in a park with an ocean view, near the pier built by the original Hearst family, to allow ships to unload goods and guests.We left and headed back to our home at Morro Bay, to have the pleasure of observing Zebra grazing alongside the highway, descendents of some of the grazing animals, from Hearst's collection of exotic animals in his large privately owned Zoo.Reset at our spot and time for some washing and a relax.Tomorrow head south to Los Angeles. Yes we have completed the circle of the country and closed some gaps in the map. The countdown is closing on us fairly quickly, we have to "sort out the Castle" and pack and ensure we have finished our shopping. We have 11 days left before we hop on board our Qantus flight home, at this stage we plan to find a handy RV park and hire a car to enable us to be mobile in LA, without having to negotiate in the 29' Castle around the fast moving traffic.It most likely will include a trip back to Rodeo Drive, and some places we had a quick turnaround last time. So the next few days will be attempting to pack bags and prepare to close off the holiday trip
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Morro Bay, California, United States

Day 186 Mariposa - Morro Bay - California.We had breaky and were doing a usual pack to leave but today was slightly out of line. Why you might ask? Well the fact is we had to leave this park without Earnie cleaning his teeth, NOPE we are NOT kidding! How could this happen. Well simple really, we headed back up to complete all the usual tasks before leaving, and the Castle all mopped ready to leave, to find the bathrooms awash with an overflowing toilet bowl!, the smell and visual we will NOT go into, but guess you get the picture.We have promised to do an entry at some stage about "Taps and Toilets" simply because we have, experienced so many different species of both. Of course our intrepid travellers have managed to overcome the difficulties before, but to paddle through the contaminated water covered floor this morning, none of us were up to the task, hence, no teeth clean for Earnie! We set ourselves a direction that will take us back to the Coast, into a section of the Californian Coast, we hadn't covered. Yet close or near to Hearst Castle, we will take in another tour of this Castle in a section we haven't seen yet. This will also allow us to complete our circle and travel the coast line we have not done.We headed off and set Mandy to take us to Morro Bay, this meant cutting back to the route 41, no problem, EXCEPT! Again Mandy has no idea the Castle takes a little manoeuvring around narrow winding roads. And the link road between where we were and the 41 was narrow and winding, and narrow and winding, gee are we repeating ourselves, well the road repeated itself a lot and it was only about 11 miles, yet felt a lot more.Thankfully we hit the 41 and headed south, this was to take us back along some of the route we travelled yesterday and back through Fresno, this doesn't concern us and we planned a stop at a Wal Mart to have morning tea. Mandy did well this time (after a couple of bad shots yesterday!) we were in the Wal Mart Car park at around 10:45am. Morning tea and a little bit of shopping, then head out to head further South on the 41 and this was a road that appeared to come out, at our destination on the Pacific Ocean, (gee back there after all this time!)Well all went well, and the road was a great drive with a steady speed limit being maintained (65mph). The country side was very dry (read EXTREMELY) and we passed though feedlots for cattle and a lot of flat land with a large irrigation ditch alongside the road. This was obviously feeding large tracts of crop land as well as some very large Grape farms.We stopped off at a rest area for lunch and continued along our route, sticking with the 41. Gee it must have been a test day for ensuring the Castle could take on narrow roads with twists and turns, the wonderful highway narrowed and became a twist and turn route, as well as climbing up before dropping over down towards the ocean. Again a lot of grape growing wine areas, very dry countryside but plenty of grape growing.Thankfully we managed to negotiate our way through and found our way to Morro  Bay. We did a drive through of the first RV park (it appeared full and with a lot of permanents), Mandy allowed us to pick another park handy and here we are, in a park right on the beach, (we walked through to have a look) and this is a holiday weekend, being the Veterans Day weekend, (we guess similar to our Anzac day) so we are pleased to have a site.The weather here was apparently warm and sunny a couple of hours before we arrived, yet to us it is similar windy and cold, we struck on our previous experience with the pacific ocean, 6 months' ago!
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Mariposa, California, United States

Day 185  Yosemite - Mariposa - California We left Bakersfield, all commenting about the nice park. No expense has been spared in creating this an RVer's friendly park.The route took us from dry arid country into a rise in elevation, but also, surprising enough into some farmland. Firstly cattle grazing country, then past some huge farms and cattle feed lots.It was an amazing transformation and this was also interspersed with fruit trees and grape or wine farms.Certainly a more interesting drive than across the Mojave Desert. The route began to narrow as we passed through Fresno and on up into the Yosemite area.The road into the park narrowed and became a little winding before we entered the actual park. This took us through some wonderful old forest and trees, Ponderosa pines, and some Sequoia as well, we believe.Again we used our National Parks pass to enter the Famous park.The park road became rather narrow and winding and took a bit of negotiating for the Castle.By this time we were searching for a place for lunch, the maps supplied are never in proportion to the actual, and they also do not supply distances.We hauled over at the first available nominated toilet area with a store handy. The facilities are similar to the ones we found in Yellowstone and as mentioned, we found them inadequate. Again this park receives about 4 million visitors a year, yet could be better set up, especially when we have found smaller national parks better set up.We had lunch and set off again. Taking it real easy, as we take the road through this side of the park rose and wound itself through some narrow sections as well as through a tunnel. Some of the vistas back down the valley were enjoyed and we pulled over after the tunnel to look down at the road way down below, this also this gave a view of the Bridal Veil Falls, as well the huge granite rocks and bluffs.Certainly a lot of wonderful colours in the trees as the end of Fall colours begin to finish in the trees that still have leaves.A lot of the options in the park, are already closed for the winter, and we had come across some damp road as we drove through the higher passes and we established this must have been from a snow fall, because in some shady sections along the road were small patches of snow still not completely melted.We chose to head around and back out through the Western Entrance of the park, rather than head further in to the information centre. This was deeper in the park and required a return trip out the same route. Rather than add time to finding a home for the night (remembering the daylight runs away early now) we tracked back out and stopped off for a different view of the Bridal Veil Falls. A picturesque spot, near a beautifully clear stream, bubbling over the rocks, playing a delightful tune of relaxation.We headed out, the road was not as narrow nor as winding as the one we took in, a rock slide had required the Park to put in a by pass and build a couple of new small bridges, to keep the road open.It was not long before we exited the park and headed for the KOA listed as the "Yosemite/Mariposa KOA"Our wonderful Mandy,managed to mislead us a little, by telling us "Youhave reached your destination" about 1 mile before we found the KOA sign.This RV park closes on the 10th November each year, so we managed to sneak in before it closed.This park will be noted as the park for stray cats! Easy to count up to 7 cats hanging around the RV's at one time.The owner explained, they came about because, some campers had abandoned them in the season, "They will be dealt with when we close for the season? The animal care people are not interested in doing anything about them, they have too many cats!"Certainly they have to be dealt with, they are a problem.We knew we were at a higher altitude, simply because of the cooler (read cold) evening and night. We had cable TV and limited internet connection, hence the "no posting night"Bad luck Danial, no snow and we head to the coast tomorrow! Maybe another trip!
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Bakersfield, California, United States

Day 184 Barstow - Bakersfield - California.The long time planned trip to the outlet stores at Barstow had at last come about.The daylight saving has thrown us a little, with the sun going down at around 5:30pm and then daylight beginning early. Never mind we had a big evening last night sorting out and packing bags. Gee that time already, well close to it and coupled with the fact that we knew the next day (today ) was Barstow day, so a sort out and list was developed to maybe assist with the onslaught of the outlet shopping.We headed out to the Outlet centre and arrived just after opening time, (what a surprise!)A fair amount of confusion became apparent, the shops didn't look the same, in fact it threw doubt as to if we were in the correct place.Never mind they are outlet shops! We all set off with some purpose, (or one of the party had enough purpose for all three travellers). A process was set up, and the shops attacked, start in one corner and proceed browsing through each store and then transfer to the next store and repeat the process in a anti-clock wise direction.One traveller decided the Castle was close enough to be the transporter of the bags back to safety and take time out. By the time morning tea arrived a second of the three travellers headed off to find a Latte to have for morning tea and retire to the Castle.The third traveller turned up (more bags in hand) had morning tea and required further assistance for the continued experience. We had discovered that the original outlet shops were back behind the ones we were in, so it was a matter of completing the task in hand then transferring to the next lot. (GREAT!)We managed to complete the first set of outlet shops and the Castle loaded with "essential Stuff" we moved out to find the old outlet shops.We found them a little set back and it revived the memories. So lunch first then hit the old outlets.How right this statement was, the outlets were old and over 50% were shut down and the ones that were left open did not take long to ascertain they had nothing to offer to the pile of goodies residing in the Castle presently.How disappointing, but that is the passing of time, things change.It was time to choose a direction, and as stated the other day we have time to head north a bit and take in Yosemite National park, so off we head.The desert eventually gave way to a higher altitude as well cattle grazing land. We travelled past a huge wind farm along the hill side and down through a pass that took us past, Edwards Air Base.Eventually after a run of around 2.5 hours we arrived in Bakersfield. This RV park ( River Run RV park), has to be one of the top parks we have stopped in on the journey.It has large sites with concrete pads a grass strip and space between the sites, Cable TV, Free WIFI, coupled with extremely clean facilities and great showers with plenty of room and plenty of hanging space. Quite a gem of a park.Tomorrow time to take in Yosemite,
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