Heading out of the center of the universe

Now my story about Houston follows along the same lines as that about Dallas so don't think you are in for many surprises. Visiting Portuguese family seems to be like this, you get so content with the company and the food that you never actually do anything.

It was my intention to go to NASA Space Center, but as I mentioned above, the opportunity just passed me by and we ended up just hanging out with the cousins instead, playing basketball in the front yard, or talking a load of BS in the kitchen while drinking gallons and gallons of milk. I believe here they think it'll bring eternal life, because in one weekend in Houston we drank 4 gallons of milk. Thats 4 x 4 gallons for you metric system users out there.

I would definitely say the highlight of my weekend was Celia telling everyone we were going to watch a 69'ers game in Atlanta when we all know that its actually the 76'ers, or just 6'ers, and 69'ers is something different entirely.

According to the new road trip itinerary I had had created in Dallas to try and stop us wasting too much time in one place, especially when we get staying with family, we should have left on Sunday after church, but it was another case of the women in my life forcing my hand, so we only left on Monday. This at least gave me one more day to wallow in Chris and my Pictionary success of Saturday night. I believe they call it a gift.



Coming back to the church I just mentioned. It was really something else, Joel Osteen has his ministry based in Houston. The church there is the old Houston Rockets basketball arena, seating (according to Google) about 16k people, so when you arrive there not expecting it, the jaw dropping moment is quite special.

When Monday arrived, we sadly bid farewell to the crazy cousins and headed out of the 'center of the universe' as they call it. We were off to New Orleans, LA

San Antonio

We left Dallas a little sad but excited about our next leg of the trip. Off to San Antonio, TX which according to most is the prettiest town in Texas. Can't wait, as Dallas is not your average Mona Lisa. The plan was to stop off in Waco and Austin on route, but we were running late as usual and got stuck in rush hour traffic which forced us to go straight through. It's a pity as Austin is the capital city and the home of Lance Armstrong with a Capitol (no spelling error) building as beautiful as the one in Washington, DC.

Well we were happy enough in San Antonio with its fantastic buildings, taking a leisurely trip down the river walk and learning of it's importance in Texan history with the battle of the Alamo.

The Battle (and siege) of the Alamo took place at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas (then known as "San Antonio de Béxar") in February and March 1836. The battle was between the Republic of Mexico and the rebel Texian forces, including both Whites and Blacks (from the United States) and Tejanos (Mexicans in Texas), during the Texians' fight for independence — the Texas Revolution. The 13-day siege started Tuesday, February 23, 1836, and ended on Sunday, March 6, 1836, with the capture of the mission and the death of nearly all the Texian and Tejano defenders, except for a few slaves, women and children. Despite the win, the 13-day holdout stalled the Mexican Army, and allowed Sam Houston to gather troops and supplies for his later success at the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texian revolutionaries went on to win the war.

With the history lesson over we went through to Seaworld, San Antonio where Celia was going to have what they call in this part of the world an "experience" with the Beluga whales. This involves going in the water with them, feeding them, doing tricks, etc.. she had been looking forward to it for a week or so since we had found out about it, so when we arrived and Seaworld was closed for a few days, there was a bit of disappointment hanging in the air. Celia did take it well in the end and even better once we had bought some new clothes.

Off to Houston to visit the crazy Prima.

Dallas in a nutshell

When we arrived in Dallas we did the same thing we tend to do whenever we find a comfy bed to rest our head, sleeeeppp. It also helped that it rained for more than a day which tends to keep me on the couch watching sports, college basketball this time round.

We were slowly starting to meet all of Omar's brothers, four of them to be exact - plus one sister. Each of them with an amazing character. Ozzie and all his stories about Africa; Odi has his 6 beautiful daughters, Osi is hunting mad and has his 17 guns plus more knives, torches and everything for the outdoors; Orlando, well he is the oldest and more mature which just leaves Omar himself who is the BS'ing champion of the US and even gives me a run for my money. Not forgetting there's the sister Odilette, who doesn't need 3 sisters to match the crazy of the brothers - she has it all in one basket.

All the family was going to be up in Dallas for easter which also happened to be (according to Celia) our six month anniversary. So embarrassingly they threw a party for us on the Saturday where I was forced to display my talents on the BBQ.

All in all it was a great week spent in Dallas, we went through to Fort Worth to see cowtown and it's longhorns, Cabellas outdoor store which is pretty much like heaven is intended to be, then to the Texas Motor speedway where they were testing some Indy Cars. This is pretty exciting watching them tear around the oval track with the methane fumes rushing through your senses every time they are near. I would now love to go watch oval track racing.

The icing on the cake for Celia was a visit to Southfork Ranch where they filmed the hit TV series Dallas. Fortunately I am young enough not to have remembered being put through all of that dribble, so I just came along for the BS'ing. Turns out they never filmed any of the indoor scenes in the at house, they were all done on a set in LA, so they cheekily take you on a tour of the inside of the house which has nothing to do with the show..... It was still fun for all those interested to see the pool area and the outside shots of the house as used in the series. Celia made us pose for a couple painful pictures around the breakfast table and pool having a Dallas style cat fight. We'll let the pictures will tell the whole story.

And before I forget, we also went to downtown Dallas via all of the sports stadiums present and the ones they are building, finally stopping off where they assassinated JFK, I am too a believer in the conspiracy theories and he was indeed picked off by the Republicans who never fancied that Democratic candidate/actor too much.

It was sad to say goodbye to all the brothers and Prima Theresa, but we would catch up with Odilette and her sons again in Houston. Being around all of the Portugeezeers with their big families made me realise that a large family would be nice and not such a burden at Christmas time, so watch this space.

The gorgeous drive to Dallas

Had I known that the Arizona countryside was some of the most picturesque we would see for a while, I would have paid more attention. As we made our way into New Mexico, enjoying watching the dust storms in the distance, I worked on my Air drumming and my drive-dancing which has evolved quite a lot since I managed to operate the cruise control.

What was a great drive turned into a very boring one as the highway patrolmen kept us at standstill on the motorway for more than two hours as there were high winds in the area. This left us with little confidence for our tent which had already suffered two brutal wind storms, one in Kaikoura and the other in the Mojave desert. We did manage to get as far as Las Cruces, NM, where we found a place to stay for the night, most importantly - with HBO and breakfast.

We were in for a long day with our ETA in Dallas at 8pm, 10m hours on the road would not be joy ride. Now if you have ever driven down I-10 and 1-20 in Texas you will understand how little there is to see, so you even get excited when some tumbleweed comes blowing past.

My day was made when some state trooper on a power trip ticketed me for being a few miles over when there were clearly many cars flying past me. My downfall being the Georgia reg. I had in small town Texas. $180 thanks very much. I could not hold in my excitement, and along with the great scenery I was over the moon to be in Texas. I needed to get out that car badly and smash a few Shiner bock at Celia's cousins house. Only 3.5 hours to go.

Phoenix

I would like to tell you much about our trip to Phoenix and the lovely drive through Arizona, but it was largely uneventful. The highlights being the many tall cactus we saw along the road. I had to resort to air drumming to entertain myself which Celia found most amusing, she says my action is too stiff for a drummer. Well I am still learning.

We eventually managed to find a place to stay for the night just outside Phoenix on Lake Saguaro after many hours of frustrating driving. We had bought a patch to fix our hole in the tent, but all it managed to do was make it 5 times the size, so sleeping on the ground sheets was the only option once again and it made me pretty grumpy as i was starting to enjoy these creature comforts. Well nothing I experienced that evening could have matched the grumpiness shown by Celia (and me) when we realised before church on the Sunday that this campsite had no running water whatsoever, not even a tap. Well you should have seen the two of us walking into the majestic 'Phoenix First' church. Boemelaars is a word that comes to mind and I'm sure they must have thought we were perfect candidates to get saved. They had a fantastic easter production on and an easter egg hunt which was sadly only for children.

This actually got me thinking about the easter bunny hunt they have on in NZ every year where everyone goes out and, instead of finding eggs, shoots as many cute little bunnies as they can on the easter weekend. Only the Kiwis.

Grand Canyon

Now that we had done Vegas we could head out to the Grand Canyon and see what the rest of the world has been going on about for all these years. We headed out there towards sunset but our timing was off once again and what was meant to be a romantic stroll on the 'Sky Walk' turned out to be... well nothing, we were too late to enter the park. Once again we had to scramble to find a place to stay before nightfall - panic stations (for me). There was a little spec on the map nearby called Meadview which has been the smallest town (that existed on the map) we have seen in the U.S. Never found anywhere in the town to camp, but fortunately the owners at the video store knew exactly the place and little did we know it was the find of the trip.

Turns out Lake Mead dries up a fair bit over the winter so we were able to camp right in the basin where the lake meets the Grand Canyon. The reds, the oranges, yellows, greens and blues - apart from being the first four colours of the rainbow shone brightly across the canyon making for great viewing which still don't think our pictures will ever do it justice.

We headed back to town for dinner, indulging in Chicken Fried Steak (steak fried like chicken in crumbs), rib-eye, and a jug of Sam Adams, making my driving back to the canyon basin in the night more auto pilot than anything else.

My evening of fun and games was not to end so well as when we got back to the tent our inflatable mattress was no longer inflatable as it had a big fat hole in it thanks to me, it seems that in my quest to achieve the ultimate night's sleep, I went slightly overboard. Try as I might, the piece of gum I was chewing did not block the hole either, so much for all the years of watching McGyver, you big liar. It was back to the ground sheets and the cold hard floor.

Vegas

We drove all day through these little dorpie's scattered all over the desert, crossing the Hoover dam, stopping for a couple quick pictures. As we passed over the last mountain range before the road down to the city, Vegas came into view and it sticks out like a sore thumb in the desert, something definitely not meant to be there.

Approaching the strip from the south you first past Mandalay Bay with it's golden reflective glass windows, then the Luxor with its great glass pyramid, 'New York New York', the MGM Grand and the golden lion in front of it, right through to the iconic Bellagio, Caesers Palace, the Mirage, plus many truly beautiful structures right up until one of the oldest Casinos on Las Vegas boulevard, Circus Circus.

Now Celia and I had been trying for days to get online and book a hotel in Vegas but had no luck finding an Internet Cafe so we were left to stay in a dodgy 'Motel 8' room. Not the greatest way to do Vegas, but at least it was opposite the Mandalay Bay and easy access to all the hotels and casinos.

After washing up and putting on our best evening wear (jeans and trainers) we headed out for dinner.Smith and Wollensky's was the target but the menu denied us outside the restaurant. Neither of us wanted to pay $45 for a steak no matter how hungry we were. I was pretty pleased as I was here for the buffet. You don't

a) Go to Vegas without having a legendary buffet

or

b) Get an ample stomach like mine without having had a couple buffet's in your life before

We opted then for the buffet at the Bellagio as we wanted to go there anyway, me because I had seen it on 'Ocean's 11' and Celia - well I'm not to sure. The way into the hotel is truly spectacular as you pass the lake with the musical fountains, the entrance hall with the glass flowers hanging from the ceiling. I personally was looking for the signs to the buffet and only spotted the flowers due to that.

Well all I can say is that I had to pray for forgiveness that night for being such a glutton. We rolled out of there and try as we might, couldn't even suck in our stomachs. Now when you load your plate at a buffet, the items you choose have not earthly place in being there together. On my plate I had turkey, Alaskan king crab legs, potato strudel, prime rib, sashimi, california rolls - and that was just the first plate.

The key with a buffet is stay way from the carbs, the rices, potatoes, breads, etc. They will fill you up. I perfected this technique about 7 or 8 years ago when I went to Namibia and Celia's cousin, Mauro and I had 12 plates of the most fantastic buffet at the Kalahari Sands hotel. Job done.

With the food out the way, we attempted to walk around town which was actually a good thing as I don't believe we would have manage with our bellies so full. The casinos are all as beautiful as the next and although I would love to stay at one and be spoiled for the time I'm there, I'm not much of a gambler, and there is not much else to do in Vegas. Maybe I'm just a bit biased as I am on a budget trip. Put a wad of cash in my pocket and we'll talk again. I did gamble the $20 I did have in my pocket and sad to say it lasted a whole 3 minutes in which they never saw me gambling and I never got free drinks like the rest that were sitting there.....

Today in Boulder city I went online to see how much you can get a hotel in Vegas for if you book it on lastminute.com. The answer, about $80-$100, a bit more than we paid for a motel, but then again, in a hotel you don't get the waterproof mattress protector or the dirty towels. :( If we knew we would be in Vegas that day and had internet access, we would have def booked a hotel that day. Lesson learned.

Death Valley

Just a short one about death valley which was as the name suggests full of nothing, but with so mush to see at the same time. It has the lowest elevation in North America at 282ft below sea level and covers an area of about 3000 square miles.

It was another trip into the Mojave desert, yes I know you want to say it again, 'mooohhhhhaaavvee', it's still rolling off that tongue. This place has some of, if not the longest stretch of roads of have ever seen. You reach these sections where you can see the end of the road disappear in the mountains about 20 miles ahead of you. It's really tough to explain all the different types of landscapes and vegetation that exist in that area, so I tried to plagiarise some from Wikipedia but then you'd all know thats not written me. The grammar and spelling for one would all be correct.

Here goes.

Death Valley is considered one of the best examples of the Basin and Range configuration. It lies at the southern end of a geological trough known as the Walker Lane which runs north into Oregon. The valley is bisected by a right lateral strike slip fault, the Death Valley Fault. The eastern end of the left lateral Garlock Fault intersects the Death Valley Fault. Located on the border of California and Nevada, Death Valley is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. Death valley also contains salt pans. Millions of years ago, there was an inland sea located over where Death Valley is today, but as the area turned to desert, the water evaporated, leaving behind the salt.

I know what you're thinking, that wasn't me either, you may be correct. So here goes again.

We started in the salt flats driving through the little sand tornadoes, which are harder to capture than you can imagine, before rising up towards the highest parts of the desert passing by these picturesque canyons and then back down into the basin leading to the lowest part of the park and ridiculously warm dry temperatures rising up into the 90's (Fahrenheit). That was not the only thing rising with the most expensive fuel we saw in California at over $5.50 g, about a dollar more than anywhere else we had seen.

All in all this was an amazing place to visit, or preferably drive through and just the perfect ending for California which we had spent close on a month visiting. It could have been way more, but we had more to see, so onwards towards Nevada.

Not Yosemite

The drive down along the Sierra Nevada range was one of the most spectacular drives ever, serias! We must have stopped every 10 minutes to take photos of the snow covered mountains. Looking back, they are all extremely similar. You know, 'same same, but different'. All this stopping added many hours onto our drive to Yosemite Nat. park. We also took some bad turns down roads that they said were closed for the season but we thought we'd take a chance anyway, stupid idea Dieter.

Well every road into Yosemite was closed for the winter, so all these fantastic ideas about seeing the ancient giant sequoia trees, waterfalls, deep valleys, grand meadows and vast wilderness areas went up in smoke, or buried beneath the snow that was covering the roads into it. We were bummed because this was meant to be one of the highlights of California, but still riding on a high after our trip to Tahoe, so we sucked it up and drove as far as we could by nightfall so we could try get Vegas the next day. KA CHING!

After much deliberation we chose this really cool little motel in Bishops because truthfully we were afraid of the wind in our aging tent. Behind the desk of this place was this really cooky manger who was either super smashed and stoned or a little mentally retarded but either way she was really friendly and gave us a discount on our room. After she told us that John Wayne used to stay at that motel when he passed through that area, she attempted to do a South African accent for about five minutes which was absolutely horrendous and left me laughing embarrassingly on the outside and uncontrollably inside. Maybe I needed a few more glasses of vino...What a loon.


Great news for all of you is that we saw yet another smashing sunset over the mountains in Bishops, sunset picture 652. I know you are all looking forward to seeing all 10k pics so far.

Boarding in Lake Tahoe

Well we never went wine tasting in the morning, the mood just never struck us, but we did see some beautiful fields of mustard flowers which they grow here in the off season while the grapes are not there and makes for wonderful scenery.

We headed from there through Sacramento and towards Lake Tahoe which I have seen in many pictures and movies. I was thinking Smokin' Aces with Ryan Reynolds, but for those who prefer the soppy variety, it was also 'The Bodyguard' starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.

Driving in form the California coastal region the landscape changes and the air starts getting cooler as you reach the mountains which are now covered with snow as far as the eye can see. It hasn't snowed here in weeks, but there is still enough to to keep the winter sport enthusiasts like myself happy.

I have to say once again the scenery is breathtaking, I couldn't wait to get out on my board in the morning. All we need to do was sort out our accommodation as we found a fantastic camping site, except it was under a foot of snow.. not a problem if you are in an RV, but a bit cold in a tent.

Luckily we got a cheep and cheerful motel for $35 right near all the happening spots of South Lake Tahoe. Think it could have been the mountain air, but we just decided to stay in and watch cable under our cosy comforter ready for a 7:30AM start so I could pick up my rental gear.

Well I can't say there was 3 foot of powder, but it was a perfect day out with the sun shining down on us making way for a great spring day on the slopes. I got the best rental gear ever and the guy threw in so much free stuff including the mandatory helmet which I don't leave home without. No repeat of Morzine 06's "cool people don't wear helmets" hairline skull fracture thank you.

Celia out of the goodness of her heart decided to skip this one out cause she wanted to rather spend her daily allowance on some UGG boots, but being up there and having such a great day she totally regretted it of course.

The runs had been well groomed and the snow was great. They had a fantastic board park with a downhill snowboarding "race" run perfectly set up too. I don't know if it is just because I have sufficiently improved, but I loved boarding this day more than any I have had so far. It is a totally different experience than in the Alps, the runs may be better, but if you are with a group of friends, nothing can beat Europe with the drinks, mulled wine, and great food you have after a tough day on the slopes.

We had to leave that afternoon to try get down to Yosemite later that day so 2:30PM was my cut off time and I really resisted, going for one final run after another. Eventually succumbing to my lack of excuses why I was late.

What a great day and a place I would recommend anyone who loves winter sports to go and visit.

Sonoma Valley

Off we headed for Sonoma Valley on recommendation that Napa Valley was getting too expensive and commercialized. I have never been to the wine region in the Cape (SA), I know - hard to believe, but I am sure it is as beautiful as this. As it is not really yet the spring season, there are no leaves or fruit on the vines, but it still makes for amazing pictures as the rows and rows of them look perfect up on the hills.

At the visitors center in the town square they told us of a couple vineyards where they offer free wine tasting... no brainer I think. They also told us of a couple others we should try and visit even if we have to cough up tenner or more. The two that stood out are 'Buena Vista', which is the oldest vineyard in the region and the other owned by Francis Ford Coppola, and contains many pieces of memorabilia from his Godfather days.

I was pretty thirsty so we headed for Cline, which happened to be one of the free wine tasting establishments.. funny that. Now I don't really understand the whole etiquette of wine tasting, it's quite a bizarre affair. Even when trying the first glass of wine at someone's house who is fond of their wines, I feel like I perhaps might not be doing this right. Well I seem to have gotten away with it, or they didn't let on. We ended up buying a bottle of red which more than made up for their freebies. We were going to head to the vineyard across the road but without a designated driver we called it quits for a while.

We did go visit a few more vineyards that afternoon, including Buena Vista making for a very worthwhile relaxing day. We camped at a state park not too far from town that evening in order for us to hit the vine tasting with force at an early hour. We were very lucky to see many deer wandering the park that evening and finally had enough light for me to get some pictures of them.

The Mighty Redwoods

Once we left San Fran it was north towards Sonoma valley or the more popular Napa valley made famous by the move Sideways. Don't bother watching it though, it stars Lowell from the TV show 'Wings' where he should have stayed.

We drove the windy coastline for hours only to realise that if we had driven along the interstate it would have only taken us 30 min.. Nevertheless we ended up at Samuel P. Taylor National park where we would camp for the night. It could be one of the coolest spots we camped at in California. Our tent site was along this stream full of Salmon and Steelhead. Then there was the entertainment section to the site with two different BBQ's, one for cooking and one for a campfire. The section for the tent was just amazing, a gap to pitch the tent surrounded by these massive redwoods. Granted they are not as big as in the 'Avenue of the Giants', but for us it was just perfect.

We BBQ'd some pork ribs, potatoes, onions and cheesy sausages and went to bed as content as you can imagine. I was so proud of my fire that I was taking pictures of it from every angle... looking back that is a bit over the top so I decided not to feature them on this entry.. I guess this much time on the road can do that to you.

San Fran Sunday

To say we walked a lot on this day would be the understatement of the honeymoon. Sir Edmund Hillary, G0d bless his soul, would have been proud. Those streets don't stop going up and down, and back down again. We climbed about, not lying, like, I'm saying, almost, maybe over, one thousand steps to get to the base of Coit tower which affords you fantastic views over downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. You also get to see the most crooked street in the world which runs zig-zag for a couple hundred meters. It was apparently build in this fashion so horses could go up and down the steep hill.

We walked around the coastline having a look what the many piers had to offer, eventually stopping at pier 39 where we ate some clam chowder (not my best ever) and went to see the 'bunch.. pride.. herd..' of sea lions who were jostling for place on the jetty. We stood there for ages with the crowds laughing at the younger ones playing the fool, only for the big ol' daddy to come round and shut them up by pushing them back into the harbour water.

When our poor legs couldn't handle it anymore we we got our car back and drove around the area near Alamo park admiring the beautiful Victorian houses painted in a variety of colours. We also had a chance to drive by the house where the Manson family lived, which is a very nice house I must add, here Celia says they plotted to kill a whole bunch of people in the 70's.. never heard of them myself..?

I again attempted to get the best Golden Gate Bridge picture ever which involved me stopping the car at every inopportune moment even walking onto the tee box at this golf course. I think I put those guys off so much because 3 of them hit it straight into the bay to my amusement.

China Camp

Day two in the San Fran bay area was a busy one, but first we had a fantastic morning being awoken by the turkeys gobbling around our tent and the woodpeckers making a new nest high up in the trees. I followed the turkeys around a bit and tried to get some good pics of the males turkeys strutting their stuff around the women, unfortunately the light wasn't all that good and I think our camera needs to go in for a service, this trip has given it a few knocks, so only i'm left with a few images that i'll keep.

I managed to see the herd of white-tailed deer that we spotted with our torches the evening before but unfortunately they scattered, albeit gracefully, when they heard my size 10s coming nearer so no photo this time.

We needed the internet and ideally a phone as it was Celia's moms birthday, so we headed to the nearby San Rafael which is a very arty farty town with it's own annual movie festival to rival Sundance, so we hear. We never got the phone but got stuck outside this coffee shop chatting to an American chap who it seems, needed someone to talk to. He was jabbering way about Thailand, house prices, the government, you name it. We were halfway down the street, backing off a half step at a time by the time he realised we needed to go i think... shame.

With all the admin and emailing done at the library we headed for the Berkeley area. Being probably the most famous university town in the US, it was a must. Well it was a real student town with the exception that here the drinking age is 21 so you see a lot less drunk students stumbling down the street than in say PE or Stellenbosch.

We managed to get a nice pair of 'pumps'..? for Celia at this quirky boutique so that put a smile on her face and we headed for the pub. We each had a ginormous chicken salad and pint of cold beer, just enough to keep my beer belly satisfied. Would've stayed for another one but our parking meter was telling us to leave which left me just enough time to shoot into the Berkeley store and by a couple unnecessary items of clothing.

Staying at the campsite another evening would've been fine, but it was a bit out of the city and we really wanted to be in the heart of it so we could do loads of exploring in the morning. I think we found the last room in San Fran, obviously at a premium rate, but not enough to keep me up that night. It could have also been the 10s of episodes of 'The family Guy' I watched until I dunno what hour. Damn I love that show, it makes me laugh. I had to keep it to a snigger though as Celia was counting sheep a long time ago.

The way to San Francisco

San Francisco had some traffic backup to rival LA, but not quite and we still made it over the Golden Gate bridge in daylight. It's a real treat to be able to experience that after seeing it in so many films and documentaries, it's larger than life and an amazing engineering feat.

We struggled for a while to get to the Point Bonita lighthouse where we believed there was a campsite for us to stay for the night. Not an easy task if you don't know the area, we drove around for ages, through Sausilito and other areas north of the bridge until we eventually got to the lighthouse to find there was no campsite. Big hassle as it was now almost night and pitching a tent at night is not my favorite thing.

I had just gotten out the car and looked over the cliff to the beach below when I saw what I couldn't believe I did. A Californian Mountain Lion was walking along the ledge which was absolutely an incredible sight to behold. I had just seen some deer not a couple hundred yards away and now 15ft below me was the elusive Cougar. I ran back to get the camera from the car and came back to get the shot but it was gone. Absolutely gutted..I suppose sometimes it's just better to soak up the moment and forget about the shot.

We eventually found a spot to camp at China Camp State Park and in the dark, pitched our tent amongst the rustling trees and other critter noises. These drunken old men were singing campfire songs and smoking pot all night, trying their best to keep everyone in the camp awake. I was trying to get the fire going and had the food ready on the table and out the corner of my eye I spotted this pair of raccoons trying to get at the corn and steak I had just marinaded on the table. It was really sweet because I had never seen raccoons in the wild before so I couldn't be upset with the damn things for being interested in our food.

Pismo Beach, CA

Our next stop was the famous Santa Barbara which was everything we were told it would be. We never had that much time and it was not one of our planned stops, but we drove around for a while, stopped off on the pier and took some classic pictures. From there we found a great location a few hundred miles up the coast which fell within the boundaries of our new driving policy which is to find a place to stay for the night by the latest 4:30 as after that it starts getting dark and becoming an issue and places start closing.

Our stop was Pismo Beach which was this very cool little town with amazing beaches, great waves and a really cool town center. It has an outlet mall too which is a bit dangerous because on occasion I have been known to shop more than a woman.

We pitched our tent right behind the sandbank that separates the beach from the camp site and got ready for dinner. We had bought a large crab from the supermarket, granted it was already cooked, but it looked too good to pass up. We boiled some rice with the pot we bought at the thrift store and we had a meal fit for a king. It was getting cold again and the can of Sapporo I had in the boot was already cold so Celia and I enjoyed some ice cold Japanese beer with great tasting crab along one of Californias finest beaches, absolute bliss.

I woke up pretty early while Celia was still snoring away and went for a run along the beach, it's a really long hard beach where people run their dogs and ride their bicycles. Breakfast was the usual affair with my bowl of Kellogs 'All Bran' v's Celias Granola.

We rounded up our gear and headed for the Outlet Mall to end off our stay in Pismo, got a bunch of stuff for under a tenner which is unheard of anywhere else in the world and back on the 101 to San Francisco

Malibu, err.. again

We left Joshua tree that afternoon after having an eyeful of the amazing desert there and headed for Big Bear mountain. I have heard it is a great place to go board or ski as well as just a beautiful place in general. I remember hearing about Big Bear when I was much younger and my sister used to make me watch 'The Bold and the Beautiful'. They always used to go up to their cabin at Big Bear when there was a big fight or some sort of drama. Sadly never saw the cabin this time, clearly all was well in the Forrester household.

We decided not to spend the evening there as we had many more miles we needed to cover before we reached San Francisco, so we found a campsite in San Bernadino we wanted to stay at and did the hundreds of miles through the winding roads to finally get there only to find the campsite had been closed due to a mudslide or something to that effect. We were now a little stuck and couldn't find anywhere in the area we could camp so we headed for the nearest campsite we knew would be open, Malibu Creek State Park.

We arrived there after dark so putting up the tent was a little hassle, but we used the headlights of the car which worked pretty well. I got some food going on the braai and we settled in for the evening. I spotted some animals playing around nearby, obviously attracted by the smell of the food but I never managed to get a good view of them, only of the eyes using my torch. I believe they were raccoons and bobcats, but this is an unconfirmed sighting.

Just before we were about to put the lights out we decided to move the car, and yes, we had run the battery flat by using the lights for the tent. Schoolboy error on my part and we have this massive American automatic tank so push starting is not a no go. Hopefully we can sort it out in the morning.

Well I think this was the coldest evening we have had so far, the drop in temperature was so severe that it dropped below freezing overnight and we were crying out for some warmth. Morning could not come quickly enough and with our shower done and breakfast down the hatch we headed up the west coast towards San Fran.

Joshua Tree

Well we wanted to see the legendary Joshua Tree which most famously features on the U2 album of the same title so we left the LA traffic and headed towards there which was a bit out the way as we had to go back down towards the south and our eventual location is San Fran which is north, but we have time.

The drive was pretty spectacular as you go through the Palm Springs area and see all the wind farms which makes my mind put 2 and 2 together and know that tonight is going to be a windy one. The landscape and vegetation change as you reach the Yucca Valley in the Mohave Desert. I love saying that word, 'Mohave', it's funny the way it rolls off the tongue. We got a great little campsite right in the Joshua Tree Nat. Park and thanked our lucky stars we bought some sleeping reinforcements, namely a blow up mattress and a thick duvet, or comforter if you live this side of the world. It was cold and with the wind picking up we would need all the warmth we could get.

We were feeling a little lazy to do a braai, so Celia and I headed for the Rib Co. we saw in the nearest town for a bit of a feast. It did not disappoint and we turned in for the night to the howls of the coyotes.

Fortunately the wind did not pick up as expected that evening and we slept pretty well. We decided to stay another night so we just say back and relaxed. Went and bought some meat and coal for this evenings dinner and caught up with some current affairs on the computers at the library.

We went for a romantic sunset walk through the desert looking for that iconic Joshua Tree picture which we sort of got (still a bit of editing required) and just appreciated this unique countryside that we had before us.

Now the wind we never got last night was here with a bit extra tonight making the task of lighting the fire that wee bit harder. Job done and the chicken was spectacular, we marinaded it in some Jack Daniels BBQ basting we bought from the Rib Co. the evening before.

We got precious little sleep this evening as our little $39 tent was not built for high winds and with enough air in your lungs you can get the tent poles to bend a fair way so during the night as you are lying down watching them bending at a 45° angle you pray for it to end.

Well it never flew away as I was sure it would and we managed to get a few hours sleep in. Our neighbours in their RV said they were worried about us in our little tent during the night. Should've invited us in - I actually really want to see inside one of those fancy RV's that warrant a $300k-$400k price tag.

We packed up our tent and took a drive through the park, going to the various lookout points and landmarks they have on offer. Celia and I even bought a couple Joshua tree seeds which we want to plant when we get back to JHB. Granted the tree takes about 100 years to get a couple feet tall, a handful of inches in my lifetime will be good enough for me.

Dream Center Sunday

We had only planned saying here at the dream center for 3 nights so sunday was time to leave, but not before we went to Angelus Temple in the morning and a great bit of teaching by Matthew Barnett. He once again had an amazing message and introduced us to a program this guy in New York is running called charitywater.org. They build wells in Africa where there is no drinking water and the amazing thing about it is every cent you give to them goes straight into building the well, not a cent for administration.

After the service Celia and I went to introduce ourselves to pastor Matthew and he is a lovely, down to earth guy. We chatted to him for about 5 minutes and he said how much he wants to come to South Africa and speak there which would be a treat for many.

Later that afternoon we went with Justin to a meeting of Red Eye, down at Dr. Tea's in West Hollywood. They were meeting with the head of the 'Beverly Hills Times' who gave a bit of a speech about his involvement in the organization which was a little confusing as he seems to want to create an army of alcoholics and drug addicts, not young people expressing their talent in a safe environment. It was so funny as he was saying he will take them all to these social function to network with others at the the Viper Room, Mercedes Benz event launch, etc. You could see all these peoples faces light up, mine not excluded, but he's completely missing the point here and only jumping on the bandwagon of high profile people giving to a charity that they don't understand.

One of the highlights of my day was meeting Adrian Grenier, the main actor from Entourage. He saw the group of people meeting up at Dr. Teas and came to see what was going on, I introduced myself and chatted to him for a couple minutes and them he was off. I must say I was a little star-struck, but at that point I knew it was time to leave LA as I had seen a celebrity so we could head off.

With the afternoon almost up, we decided to head back down to Newport to this little church called 'Newport Church', makes sense doesn't it. It's along the marina next to Joe's crab shack if anyone's interested. Now they have the services in this old nightclub there which is an amazing venue as you feel like you are at this intimate gig watching a wold class band (which is actually what they are). The problem with it is that its so small you can only fit, I'm guessing, about 80 people in it, this leads to the problem of them having 2 services on a Sunday morning and 4 in the evening. We stayed for two of them, both great messages by Matthew Barnett who was inspiring as always.

We clearly couldn't leave the Dream Center tonight so we stayed another evening and said goodbye to all the great people we had met the following day over another questionable, but free Dream Center canteen meal.