Southwest USA 2012
Our epic RV trip across four states and lots of National Parks
It's one of those must-do, bucket-list, epic lifetime journeys you just have to do. Just start driving in an RV, look outside the window to see the landscapes, cities and sights change every minute.
So in 2012 it was our turn. We had booked the tickets to the city of angels, Los Angeles, booked a cheap hotel for the first night and rented the RV, and planned the roadtrip in some detail towards the drop-off point in the San Francisco area.
Day one — Arriving at the gate in Amsterdam. We travel on staff basis, meaning we only fly if there is space available on the flight. The gate agent told us it was a full flight, not sure if we would make it fit today. Looking outside, I was amazed, it was a Boeing 747-400 all-pax configuration. How on earth wouldn't it fit? We checked the booking numbers yesterday, and they looked "wide open". Something must have happened somewhere in the KLM network.
Yes, the flight was full now, luckily for us, we could make the trip if we would accept sitting on open crew seats. Next day's flight would be fully booked too, so we took that option. Ten and a half hour flight on a jumpseat… Yay!
So, no business class today, no inflight entertainment. Just a seat, and my own stuff. Lucky for me I put lost of music on my iPhone and bought a book to read at Schiphol Airport. I could find my own coffee and stuff here next to the galley in the rear, so catering-wise no problem at all. Luckily for my, I fell in a sleep for a couple of hours. This helps a lot, wasting about half of the time aboard the flight.
Arriving in LAX on a beautifull sunny day in June, the light helps you get through the jetlag somewhat. In the taxi to our “lovely” hotel downtown. In time for lunch, which we did on a square in the city centre, about a block away from the hotel. Lovely mexican food.
By 5pm, we were too tired to continue the day, jetlagged by 9 hours makes a big impact. We bought some sandwiches for breakfast. We would probably wake up somewhere around 2 or 3am, and there aren't a lot of shops open at that time to provide breakfast.
… Jetlagged by 9 hours makes a big impact.
One day in Los Angeles, before picking up the RV, we did some looking around downtown LA and then went via Hollywood Boulevard to Universal Studio's. In that Mall-like centre, we had some lunch, sitting outside in the lovely spring sun, before returning to the hotel for the evening.
Meeting our home for the next month at El Monte was a quite typical "american" expirience. Having to watch several "Safety Video's" and "How it all works video's", signing all kinds of waivers, and loading all ameneties in the vehicle.
We opted for a "smaller" size 24" Class C vehicle, and we hoped one without a slide-out, because that would be a lighter car, using a bit less fuel, however, that was unavailable and we had to take one with a slide-out. (Look closely on the photo, by-the-way, and you can spot that this slide-out sticks out a little bit at the bottom of it. This we pointed out to the employee, but he said that this was no problem at all… It would become one along the trip!)
…this was no problem at all… It would become one along the trip!
The RV was in great state, by the looks of it. So we loaded our luggage in, and then went off towards a Walmart, to get some supplies and some other shops to stock up the fridge.
On the Interstate we noticed that it was becoming very hot inside, and there was a lot of noise… We had to scream to each other! Impossible. What was wrong with it. This would be undriveable for the trip we planned. Really uncomfortable.
We parked along the interstate on the edge of LA, to check this out. Great, this would be quickly fixed, the lining of the enginge compartment was unlocked, probably to service the RV at El Monte. So we re-fastened all fasteners, and the RV was nice and quiet again, and the airconditioning worked for a little while to get te cabin temps back to normal.
Yoshua Tree
Off we went, towards Yoshua Tree National Park, for the first night. A "simple" detail we hadn't thought of that today was an American holiday, which meant the campsites at Yoshua Tree are all full. The camp hostess was kind to us to guide us to some BLM land, to sleep overnight. It actually was a strange amazing place, and we woke up in the "middle of nowhere". And the sunrise made all these beautiful colours.
A small breakfast and then a little backtrack to Palm Springs for some sightseeing and shopping for some fotgotten supplies. Sat outside the I-H-O-P, in the lovely Palm Springs southern California weather again. With the RandMcNally Roadatlas to see how we would continue in more detail towards the Grand Canyon, not by a direct route, but taking a bit of the Route 66 and then a bit more south to Sedona. Today we would have to camp near the Arizona border, which means driving a stretch. Eventually reaching Parker, Az. that evening, driving though quite boring landscape.
-Still more to add-
