All posts by bpheasant

friends, travel, USA, vehicles

A camping expedition with a boat

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The title should have been “A boating expedition with camping”, but due to the unfortunate circumstances of this week it is the opposite. Boat hitched up to the van, Chris & I left first for Squaw Lake on the Colorado River. It was east on Interstate 8, climbing over four thousand feet from San Diego & then down in to the desert. To say the hills were rocky was bit of an understatement:

Of course, at over ninety degrees (I’m slowly learning to think American) & with no AC & the sun it started to get reasonably warm in the van. The desert was as you would expect a desert to be, but still interesting so far. I was surprised to find the All-American Canal supplies irrigation & drinking water to much of the area we drove through (part of Imperial County) & it is the largest irrigation canal in the world – there was an awful lot of crops growing & some huge lines ups of various baled hay & grass. Also of note on the long straight drive was the intermittent sightings of the US/Mexican border & the Border Patrol vehicles careening around the desert. In to Yuma (only of note to me due to the film “3.10 to Yuma” that I think I saw on a plane somewhere) to gas up the van & boat. Through the back blocks to the Imperial Dam & the turn off to Squaw Lake (really a bit on the side of the Colorado River) & the campsite – the rest of the family arrived within half an hour of us. Funnily enough, camping in the desert is rather different to the camping I was used to – rocky, hot brown.

Putting the boat in we were frustrated to find that it didn’t go – after exhausting the jumpstart packs, Eliot moving batteries from car to boat, boat to car, van to boat & boat to van & pulling the battery shield off, we found that the workshop had not earthed the battery correctly – nuts. We would have to wait for a new battery from Yuma tomorrow to give it another go. Still there were tents to put up (we managed some sort of grass by a couple of palms) & dinner to have (poor Andrea still on the soup diet throughout the weekend due to the teeth situation). Eliot got a great fire going & then it was off to bed – I didn’t sleep well, probably due to the heat & small tent.

Chris & Beverley went in to town to get supplies & a new battery. The boat started first time after the new battery was installed, so we loaded up & prepared for a day on the river. Predictably, the boat didn’t start second, third, fourth or any time (we may have worn the starter out the day before) so we spent most of the morning anchored about fifty feet from our campsite lounging in the sun, playing on tubes & getting thrown in the water. With the boat u/s, Eliot & Andrea took off back to San Diego & the rest of us went on a bit of a drive to Arizona (just across the river). Passed the military’s rather large Yuma Proving Ground (a big testing range – one of the biggest in the world), stopped for ice cream at some swanky riverside village (a lot of RVs, condos all in the middle of nowhere), found another settlement & looked down on where we should have been playing on the water.

Upon our return we took a walk up one of the hills behind our campsite – it wasn’t too big & all the rocks reminded me a bit of the Tongariro Crossing. As it was dusk, the light was pretty cool:

Here is our campsite – our tent is below the right had tip of the small island.

Another scrumptious camp dinner & some strange story-telling rotation around the campfire (mine was at its usual woeful standard) & it was off to bed. With the whole tent to myself & it being a bit cooler I slept much better & did not wake to the brilliant sunshine until 6.30. With not much else to do we packed up early, loaded up the boat & paddled it back to the ramp – we must have looked quite strange amongst all the ski boats, party boats & jet skis going out. With out the thrust of the boat’s engine, we struggled to get it to sit on the front of the trailer (the full tank of gas didn’t really help much). After much adjustments we were on our way. Of course, with in five minute of leaving we were on the side of the road dealing to this a blow out on the boat trailer. That was dealt with without a problem & we were on the road yet again. Back through the same desert & the boat rocking around on the trailer soon had me dozing off. After lunch just past El Centro, I was awake again & looking forward to the change in scenery climbing the hills.

Unfortunately, in the heat the van didn’t much like towing a boat from sea level to over four thousand feet. As the engine climbed in temperature & started steaming we pulled over at one of the conveniently placed radiator water troughs on the side of the I-8 & topped up the radiator. The temperature dropped, but we didn’t quite make it to the top. Not surprising really after all that had happened in the previous few days. So Chris & I were stuck on the side of the interstate that a van that didn’t go without making some awful noises & a boat that didn’t start. But I did get a ride in a towtruck to Jacumba & we waited for Andrea to come out with the pickup to tow the boat home. The van is still up in the Sierras somewhere with a cracked radiator. I think we finally made it home at 6pm. An eventful, but enjoyable camping trip.

city, travel, USA

Sea World

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Mostly pictures today – Sea World was great; lots of cool mammals & fishes (it turns out that ‘fishes’ is a word in the States) & some great cheesy shows. A particular favourite seemed to be getting the killer whale/pilot whale/dolphin/sea lion/whatever to completely soak those brave/silly enough to sit in the first few rows. Photos (from my little camera that was bought to fulfil the desire to easily take photos while riding – hence, they are average) will tell most of the story. While locking my bike (still making my way around streets on the bike – get a car on Monday; 15 odd miles today) up at the gates at opening time, over the PA came “Good morning & welcome to Sea World; please stand for our national anthem”. At which point everyone stopped what they were doing, stood still, hands on heart & listened/sung along – it was weird, it was only the opening of another theme park for the day. Also at the Shamu (killer whale) show all the veterans & those currently serving & their families had to stand up & be applauded. Something else to get used to I suppose.

One Foot in the Grave

Moray eels – these were particularly ugly & this picture could well be a video – they didn’t move; did have a certain charm about them though

Beluga whale – they were cool

Fat walrus – they didn’t do much, but I do remember that they looked a whole lot cooler on a Weet-Bix card I had when I was about six or seven

We are off camping & boating (I can finally have a decent waterski – it’s been a few years) shortly – off to the Colorado River near the California-Arizona border – almost two hundred miles. Update on the mugging – spoke to the detective this morning & they recovered most of the cash I gave up; that’s a pleasant surprise & will save hassle making travel insurance claims. They must have found it on the freeway, which is quite impressive. I think all five are being charged with four counts of robbery & I would hope one of assault. I hope I don’t have to come back from Philly to appear in court.

bikes, city, friends, travel, USA

Already made the news

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Two very different parts to this blog: one, a nice tourist on a bike one – but a little boring; two, a much more exciting one – but pretty stink altogether.

With the bike together & hopefully enough sunscreen on, it was off to explore a small part of San Diego. Cruised down the hill to Pacific Beach & encountered my first four-way Stop. Not really having a clue, I soon worked out that whoever gets there first has right of way. Riding a bike around the suburban streets was pretty easy & unlike Switzerland last year, I had no problem staying on the right hand side of the road & was easily looking left first. Great walk/cycle/roller-blade way along the coast & it was getting plenty of use.

A nice sea breeze to cool the warm sun & there were plenty of people out enjoying it.

Great to see heaps of bikes out & about – cruisers now make so much more sense than they do in NZ; saw a few choppers, loaded up cycle tourists, pink titanium rims on a pink road bike, & only a few mountain bikes. Went over a couple of bridges & ended up riding around the coast a bit further to Sunshine Cliffs Natural Park, turned around & found my back home – having fun in more congested traffic. Nice to stretch the legs over twenty-four miles.

Looking where I got to on the map after my return made me realise it’s pretty easy to get a few places on bike – even if it is running knobblies. Maybe I’ll cruise down & spend the day at Sea World tomorrow.

So I wrote the first part of that yesterday afternoon – Sea World will have wait until Wednesday after last night’s events. Sometime after dinner & fruitless attempts to get a wireless router to go with Vonage (some phone system – I haven’t quite worked out what it does yet), Anna-Marie, Andrea & I headed out for a couple of beers at Andrea’s favourite bar down PB (Pacific Beach). I was pleasantly surprised by whatever beer I had – can’t remember what, but definitely not Bud – it wasn’t all bad. We strolled from the bar down to get tacos – I was thoroughly confused by Spanish menu, but whatever it was that the girls ordered turned out just fine. The complete opposite to the walk back to Andrea’s house.

After walking through an empty parking lot, some guy started walking towards us from the other side of the street – I didn’t pay much notice, as I just thought he was drunk. What transpired took a good few seconds for me to comprehend – Andrea (who was closest to Hoodlum #1) struggled with him as he tried to snatch her handbag. He wasn’t haven’t too much luck as Andrea had a fair hold of the bag, he only really had the handles. Once I had some measure of comprehension, wafer-thin (“just one more mint, Sir”) me rather ineffectually tried to break it up. Details are a bit vague at this time, but from somewhere another guy came at me with a small baton & chased me around the corner. I wasn’t too keen on this baton & crazy Hoodlum #2 breaking me in half, but thankfully disappeared in to thin air (I was to prove a pretty poor witness!) when a few green notes changed hands. By now the girls were on the other side of the intersection & Hoodlums took off in a black two-door coupe.

By now Anna-Marie was talking to 911 & Andrea had a fair amount of blood from two teeth that had moved south a couple of millimetres after a punch to the face & a nasty looking cut on one finger. Still somewhat staggered we milled around on the main road waiting for the cops to turn up – some half an hour later an ambulance turned up (the paramedic must have been to the Bernard Black School of Public Relations – she was a piece of work), Andrea pretty much had to clean herself up in the back of the ambulance & a fire-engine turned up as well (I love American fire engines – they have so much more presence than NZ ones & are a lot shinier). Eventually the cops turned up.

The two that turned up must have forgotten that good cop-bad cop is for suspects, not witnesses. The one that interviewed Andrea was quite pleasant – the tall one that interviewed Anna-Marie & I was a dickhead. It was about this time I realised how dark it had been & I was such a useless witness. Tall nasty cop pointed out that the guy with the baton never really asked me for money – but I didn’t care, that baton spoke loud enough & I am more than happy to be unharmed & slightly poorer. Sometime around this time (now probably 12.30 – 1.00 am) another unit pulled over a car fitting the rough description of ours some miles away on the freeway (we found out later that a tow-truck driver had seen these guys steal a GPS from his truck & followed them).

When more cops arrived, we each got driven some miles away to where the car & suspects were found for a curbside identity parade. I got my first ride in a police car, & it’s not so bad up front. Unfortunately Officer Sean wasn’t willing to put the flashing lights on for me. When we got there Officer Sean went to sort out the identity parade, I got left in the front of the car & it was all I could do not to turn the flashing lights, the sirens, the PA or the fog horn – not to mention pull the shotgun off the rack – but I could listen to the radio as they called in the helicopter to search for more of our friends. For the next couple of hours we pretty much stood & sat around & Andrea identified a few of her belongings in the car, each of us went through looking at five hoodlums (basically they were each in a car up front of another squad car that had its spotlight on & they would bring each one out to face the light while we wandered up in turn & look at them as they did a nice little spin). Once again, I was next to useless here – one of the five looked like he was one of them, but it was dark previously so I don’t think I was much help. After all that happened we had stick around until a detective turned up to catalogue, photograph & print the items in the car & give back what belonged to Andrea.

All that remained after the Mustang was towed was for the last remaining cop – we were down to one after previously occupying nine cars, a helicopter, a fire engine & a bitchy ambulance – to take us back to Andrea’s house. Cruising down the length of the street it all happened on I got to use the squad car’s spotlight (rather poorly) as we searched for the handbag that may have been thrown out the car. Finally home & in to bed at 4am – what a night!

Today has been comparatively quiet – sleep/lie in until 11am. Andrea has of course been to the doctor & dentist – two teeth that will die with in the week & need to be replaced with titanium, a fractured jaw & no broken fingers. Six thousand bucks apparently – I got off lightly. It’s all still a bit bewildering – did that really happen to us? Normally I have no problem being the skinny little weed that I am – but for once it would have been nice to be Jack Reacher & kick some butt.

I think tomorrow should be Sea World & I probably won’t go out tonight! We even managed to make the news. This one is a bit more accurate.

around home, family, friends, travel, USA

This was supposed to go up two days ago…

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Sunday 7 June 2009

So apparently it’s 1.20 pm in LA, but after crossing the Date Line for the first time & flying through the night I feel like I usually did after a 12 hour night shift (which this flight is in some ways – admittedly there is no molten iron, dust or things to organise & the food is much better) – mostly awake, but slightly seedy. The little monitor in the back of the seat says “Time to Destination – 1:04” – the States are getting closer!

The last two weeks have been nice & relaxing staying at home in Oamaru sorting out last minute details. Apart from being chilly, the weather was generally great (although the little bit of snow down to sea level was quite exciting – & a bit early in May). Twas great to spend time with Mum, Dad & Adele before running away to the other side of the world. Saturday was another pack up before we drove up to Christchurch & the last dinner (& bottle of wine) together, before flying up to Auckland on Sunday morning. In trying to use my new cash card I managed to get it swallowed & destroyed by the ATM – which very much limited my ability to get cash around the world. Nevermind, thankfully National Bank has a few branches open on Sundays & I was able to make a withdrawl by filling in a piece of paper – how quaint – & a new card is on the way to meet me. Big thanks for Andrew & Kate for ferrying me to & from the airport, storing my stuff for a couple of weeks, feeding me & seeing me off.

0:51 – closer still.

Why have I not discovered upgrades & the Koru lounge before? I should travel more. From the huge baggage allowance (with a bike & a full pack it turns out I need it), no queues for customs, sitting in a lounge for two hours & not having to eat fast food, to great food & service, & the chance to get something resembling a sleep (I think I may have managed five or six hours – usually it’s close to nothing) it’s been great. Most importantly, however, were the couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory – Season 2 of course hasn’t screened in NZ yet (of course according to Brian, the Prime Minister of NZ, The Matrix has just come out on video). Also got a bit of a refresher of Season 2 of Conchords – may have been funnier than the first time.

Five minutes until descent…

Not long until I can put my bike together, start riding some American trails & hopefully lose a bit of weight that I’ve put from not riding & eating too much in the last few weeks. But large American portions might do me in. Blinds up – funny, this side of the Pacific looks much the same.

9.20pm

Not super tired, so trying to do the “go to bed at the normal time” to get in to a routine. First sight of US land reminded me of General Melchett looking at the wrong side of a map of the frontline – a barren featureless expanse. Then LA started – & just kept on coming. Quite the opposite of flying in to Heathrow last year – grid patterened streets, flat ground & no greenery. Despite leaving an hour late, the flight landed on time, but we did have to wait on the taxiway for a little while. Got out of LAX easily & quite glad to recognise Bev & Chris (family friends that moved to San Diego eighteen years ago) as soon as I pushed the trolley around the corner.

I never get used to looking left to cross the road quickly & this time proved no different. I enjoyed the two hour drive south to SD & the chance to have people to chat to & catch up with & discuss differences between little NZ & life in California. As expected, everything is just much bigger (fourteen lanes of freeway, SUVs, suburban sprawl, a huge Marine base & so forth). Nice to get to the Turners’ home & look out over SD, have dinner & play Boggle that was mercifully in some form of English – not Klingon. Time for a bed – must be fresh to put the bike together and start exploring (not necessarily related events) tomorrow. And try & get the wireless working.