USA Trip

And the old Pima County jail..... Me and my prickly friends...At this point, Pam read from our diary, which we'd

kept every day...10th Mar – stopped at a remote State Park – 27000 acres. At sunset the Ranger rode in to welcomeus - a rugged guy on horseback. He warned us about rattle snakes and coyotes and forewarnedus about a Vietnam veteran living in a caravan in the park who has conversations with himself allnight. That was a real understatement - he had loud conversations for hours - the words wereindecipherable, but he seemed to be either priming his men for combat or conducting courtmartials. It was a spooky feeling - sitting outside in a perfect setting, with a campfire and the onlysound in the night was this vet ranting on.\" On to Tucson Az, where we found the worlds biggest scrapyard... 4500 military aircraft at this base, some obsolete, some breaking for spares...

And those bombers cost the taxpayer $80 million a piece! On to Phoenix Az, one of America's favorite retirement cities...

Of course, retirees like their golf, so there are 80 golf courses there..

Golf courses need water, and there's not nuch naturalwater here, so they've had to build 360 miles of canals from the Colorado River.. And further up the Colarado, is the Grand Canyon...

It's difficult to grasp the size from photos - it's a mile deep, 4 - 15 miles wide

And it was cold - minus 7 deg C Now heading West on the famous Route 66 -Used to go all the way from Chicago to LA, now largely replaced by freeways...

But it's still the road to London Bridge...

... at Lake Havesu..Quartzite AZ - normal population 2500 - in winter 10000 RV's arrive to enjoy the warmth for a few months



Largest flea market we ever saw - selling rocks!Finally California - and a border post - for fruit...

Now we saw our first real desert - with dune buggies out in force... El Centro, where another canal turns the desert green with winter veg..

With so many canals from the Colorado River, it no longer reaches the sea. Then back into inhospitable rocky terrain.....

And finally to the Pacific Ocean - and San Diego...Where I had to go pose at the Hotel Coronado - Some Like it Hot..Then just north of town to Mission Bay to spend the night on the beach. When we started, Pam said she wasn't going to do all the cooking, so I had to do my share - but all I could make was curry, so here I am making yet another. Heading north up the Pacific Highway - bypassed LA due to crime warnings.

Magical San Francisco with it's delightful cable cars, and Alcatraz... It's all so steep...



After 4 days expl;oring, we crossed the Golden Gate...

And of course had to walk back to the middle to watch the ships pass underneath.. North of the bridge is Sausalito with it's marinas - and houseboat comunities...



Looking a little like Hong Kong... Spent the night in the carpark behind here - and were woken by the police at 1am and told to move on... in the morning. Only time we had any problem.Inland now - this is a replica of Mark Twain's cabin, wrote his first book here

On up to the Sierra Nevadas, site of the 1849 California gold rush. This is Chinese Camp, once home to 5000 Chinese miners, now has only 100 residents. The spectacular Yosemite...



We had one of our outdoor showers which was goinggreat, overlooking this waterfall but it was spoiled when a busload of curious Japanese tourists arrived! Next day was my birthday, so Pam made a special breakfast

Then on to Reno to try my birthday luck - I lost, Pam made it back, and we left..

Back in California, we found this river, where locals still pan for gold today..

...on the left was this camp, all to ourselves, so we stayed for 4 days. In town one day we met a woman who was so fascinatedby our story, she arranged a dinner party for us - our only meal out with locals..It's hard to make out , but the name of this town was Big Flat - so I had a flat tyre!

And of course the mountain passes were tough on the brakes...

Back to the Pacific, where we spent the night right here on the cliffs...Into Redwood country - 2000 year old trees, height of a 25 floor building

Left earthquake country and headed into volcano country - this is Mt Lassen Followed by Mt Shasta, which is occasionaly active...And Mt St Helens, which was very active in 1980, blowing the top 1300' off..

In Seattle we met an ex South African yacht broker who took us sailing..The Boeing plant - main building is about 1km square, and 11 stories high...

Even 747's look like toys in here...



And finally, the Canadian border... Pam had another of her diary readings here...20th April - Into Canada!It was touch and go for a while because the Canadians were not happy to let us in because our USvisa waiver expired today.Finally they let us in - for 6 months . Will need to apply for visa.Went to Amex to collect mail but they had closed office 3 years ago!Shocks awaited usHeavy traffic in VancouverLiquor prices - expensive!!We had a very strange feeling of homelessness again - the USA had become familiar and felt likehome, whereas Canada was all new and different.Lots of Japanese and ChineseStopped at a camp for the night – where we were surprised to meet a group of new S Africanimmigrants.So we began to relax a little.

We headed to Whistler, where I thought I might try a little skiing, until Pam reminded me we had no insurance. Expensive to break bones here.Came to a camp with a great Name, so stopped for a while to collect our thoughts..

Another diary note for this period....22nd AprilRaining and coldEventually we decided to go and sort out the visa problem.Phoned US embassy on a premium rate number from call box here. Cost a fortune. End of theday we ran out of money.Next day drove to nearest town to buy phone card and tried again. Finally got an appointment for2 weeks time. Took many minutes and much money.We just have to wait now.It was still raining and cold, but we felt more positive now.Went to buy supplies and back to camp.Still raining and cold. For dinner cooked chinese meal under umbrella outside van. Read booksand had an early night.Next day Still raining and cold. Nice hot porridge for breakfast. Remained inside van and read,cooked and chatted all day.And it rained all day, even some hail at one stage.Condensation in the van – everything feels damp.

I burned the table with the candle.Ran gauntlet of emotions these past few days - a real test of a relationship - very good we arebeing considerate and polite towards each other. Finally the rain eased and we could walk in the woods...After 2 weeks passing time, both here and Vancouver Island, we went to the US Embassy - andhad a hostile response. A very agressive woman stamped our passports 'visa applied for', asked afew basic questions, and then threw our passports back at us and said we'd have to go back to ourhome country and apply for visa there. Somewhat shell-shocked, we walked around town - and came across this book....

..Detailed directions to all the free forestry campsites - sowe thought we'd just lie low in BC for 3 months or so, and cross back into the States in the summer.. These are the kind of camps we found...



All were free, uncrowded, had pit toilets - just keep a watch for bears...To build bridges up there, simply fell a few trees, add some dirt, et voila..

Curry on the menu again.....This is typical of the Sounds in BC..

Logs are floated down to places like this, herded by dozer boats..

and towed down to sawmills...Summer was arriving, so a last few days in Vancouver... With more people living in floating houses...Then up to the Rockies. Camping at a lake, we saw this guy fishing..

..from a tube, in ice cold water! He gave us a couple of trout for supper. On to Banff in its beautiful setting We walked up Sulphur Mountain just behind here, and even above the snowline we were being attacked by mosquitosWe had a days hike in snow to get this pic of Lake Louise..

I had another climb in deep snow to get a shot of this glacier

and another - glaciers everywhere up here... Lake Moraine, from the back of the $20 noteEdmonton Mall - it's so cold in winter you need this giant igloo...

The Hoodoos of Drumheller, dinosaur capital of the world

And finally we had to try and get back into the States - wepicked the border with Montana because we'd heard that they were the most relaxed...

We drove up to the boom, a friendly looking guard met us at the van, paged through our passports, and then said 'I've got bad news for you' - we thought the worst, but then he said 'It'll cost you $6 each!' What a relief - we were in, and took pic of Big Chief Mountain to prove it After a quick trip through Gacier National Park

...just more amazing scenery..

We arrived at Butte, Montana - with it's huge open pit copper mine... ..just as the Olympics were starting in Atlanta Ga. Wethought it would be fun to see the SA team carry the flag, so we went to a local sports bar, but all the TVs had the usual American sports showing - no Olympics. Whenasked, the girl behind the bar had no idea what Olympicswere, but managed to tune the TV in for us. We had many beers waiting for the SA team, and finaly saw them - atwhich point the girl returned, looked at the TV, then backat us and said 'you know honey, I don't think this game is going to finish tonight!. Next was Yellowstone, and the Old Faithful geyser..