I was too excited to get a good night’s sleep. Final
preparation before we set off at 10am into Los Angeles. It’s true what they say about the traffic here….
It’s chaos at all times of day! You can
be driving along at a reasonable speed and suddenly it’s gridlock. But we made it to Becky’s hotel in Hawthorne for
1120am to see her waiting outside for us.
How strange but amazing to see a familiar face waiting for you by the
side of the road! The parking Police
were on duty so we couldn’t stop for long, scooping Becky and her bags up and
setting a course for our first RV site which was about half an hour away. It’s great to have someone on board who has
never been to the US before - Everything we have got used to over the last nearly five months is now
new again. Also, Becky came
bearing long awaited gifts of decent instant coffee, some marmite and three months more contact lenses for me.
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| An actual Goodyear blimp! |
The plan had been to book a pricey but classy RV park for
our first two nights in LA to show Becky the finer side of the lifestyle. I had envisioned something similar to
Sebastian outlet for our $62 per night but we were sorely disappointed by
Huntington by the Sea RV Park. It was
pretty much a tarmac car park sectioned off into plots:
Yes, it was opposite the beach but we
couldn’t see that from our parking spot and there was no picnic bench or grass
to be seen anywhere. Hopefully, when we
get out of LA we’ll be able to show Coops (that’s Becky by the way) some
prettier locations as promised. We gave Becky a whirlwind tour of Harvey and
his many functions while she unpacked and settled in to her new surroundings
before we had lunch. It was a lovely
warm sunny day but we didn’t quite have the time for a dip in the pool before
the 15 minutes’ drive to Newport Beach.
The drive there was past lovely character housing and through an area
with a real holiday vibe. We
successfully found ample parking for the RV and found our way to the marina to
check in for the whale watching.
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| Girls on tour.... |
Our boat set off at 330pm for a two to two-and-a-half-hour
search for marine mammals! Even if we
hadn’t seen a thing I would’ve been happy with just the views.
On a day like this it was glorious just to be
out on the sea. About half an hour into
the trip the captain announced there was a large pod of dolphins ahead, which
he estimated to be approximately 500 Long-beaked common dolphins. The dolphins were amazing, so
playful, showing off by leaping out of the wake of the boat. I took several hundred photos, most of which
contained just sea, but I got lucky with a few snaps of leaping marine mammals.
We stayed by the dolphins for a
while before the captain explained that we should go and seek a whale if
possible. All the boats in the area stay
in touch and share whale spotting information and eventually we got news of a
Gray whale near the harbour entrance so we sped over. We can now say that we have ‘seen’ a gray
whale but I use speech marks as we must’ve seen about 2% maximum of its body
surface area! You know those images of
whales breaching out of the waves and splashing dramatically back into the
water? Well, there was none of that!
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| A Gray whale... honest |
Apparently our gray whale was
‘snorkelling’ - so barely popping his head above water as he was somewhat
nervous, so I can’t be too critical. It
didn’t help when crazy speedboat drivers flew past the whale’s location with
little consideration either for the whale or those trying to view said
whale! But we got fleeting glances, so
the boat crew had done their jobs and we were happy with the whole experience.
For the measly $14 each we had paid it was a bargain!
We were returned to shore just before sunset so we raced over to Balboa pier for some awesome views of a Californian
beach sunset before heading back to camp.
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| Not bad for Becky's first California sunsets... |
On our way out of Newport beach we noticed
that the odometer had tipped us over the 14,000 miles travelled so far
mark. We were also approached by a
pedestrian telling us that there was a nasty clunking noise coming from under
our RV somewhere. Oh dear, maybe that
off-roading venture into the desert the other night had damaged us?! We had been aware of a noise when travelling
at slow speed, but now when I lowered the passenger window it was sounding
absolutely horrific. A grinding,
metallic squeal. I urged Simon to pull
over to drop me off so that I could investigate. Thankfully, the source of the noise was the
wheel trim on the rear right wheels. The
constant vibration and shaking from our exploits had caused the rivets holding
the hub cap facia onto the rest of the wheel trim to sheer off. The noise may have sounded awful but it was
not a mechanical fault, more a cosmetic issue that would be quickly solved at a
tyre centre. Phew!
Back at the campsite it was time to get Simon’s pre-prepared
lasagne into the oven and have a planning evening. Which was a good thing, as one of the first
things we discovered was that Becky’s flight home is on Thursday 16th
not Friday 17th March as we had all thought! Meaning that we would have to be realistic
about mileage and attractions that we can fit in between here and San Francisco
as we would now aim to arrive in SF by the Monday afternoon so that we would
have a clear two days to see the delights of that City. We are still going with the flexible option. Not booking campsites ahead but having a
vague route planned to try and achieve.
We all over-ate but the lasagne was too delicious not to, so
kudos to the chef! Becky would take a
few days to get used to the time changes.
That in combination with the fresh air we had all experienced on the
boat trip meant that no one was arguing to stay up beyond 10pm. We set up the bed above the cab for Becky,
along with a foam topper for comfort and a snuggly duvet and pillows we have
invested in for guests. Hopefully it
will be sufficiently comfortable for all our visitors.
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