Desert Tripping

It was quite a road trip, so much better than my last US road trip with my daughter some years ago, mainly because IT DIDN’T SNOW! We set out for Indio, California for the Desert Trip concerts – Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, and The Who – killer lineup! My friend M. went with me on the road, as did Nash and two other friends flew down to meet us in Indio. Here are the highlights from the epic adventure:

·        We covered about 6500 kms in 15 days, with 4 days of no-driving while at the concerts.

·        We drove through 7 states – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Idaho and Utah were new for me.

·        We saw the Grand Canyon from the North Rim, which I had not done the last time and it was simply amazing. Then we drove down into the Canyon and back out the other side – bloody spectacular!

·        We camped at Wal-mart about 4 nights – free and easy to find.

·        We visited the Calico Ghost Town, pretty cool, but not as ghosty as I had hoped…

·        Lost a muffler when it came unattached from the RV on one of the two clip/mounts. So I sawed that bugger off and threw it on the side of the road. I knew it wasn’t my current muffler as I had been shown when I bought it how they rerouted the muffler and installed a better pipe. I thought it was just the old one, but it turned out to be the muffler for the generator box. I don’t have a generator so I was fine leaving it behind.

·        The campground was pretty amazing but not as lush as I had initially thought it might be. We were just lined up on a big grassy field. My cord didn’t reach to the power supply, so we used just solar, which turned out to be fine as it was hot as hell and sunny every single day.

·        The music was simply amazing. I had seen all of the acts once before, and now I got to see them again. I think Neil Young was my favorite, with Roger Waters close behind. They were definitely worth the trip to see all six in one place. At one point, Neil Young and Paul McCartney were belting out tunes together, Give Peace a Chance and Rocking in the Free World. Epic.

·        The venue was quite well done and we had no real glitches other than having to leave our glowsticks behind at security – stupid fucking rule. We saw tons in there later.

·        We didn’t see any vendors other than the food and drink ones. Bummer. Had hoped to do some Christmas shopping there.

·        We went to Santa Monica Pier for an evening to watch the sun go down at the beach and then checked out the Pier, rode the roller coaster and the Ferris wheel.

·        Camped at a gorgeous campground perched atop the cliff in Malibu.

·        We had to stop in Hollywood to check out the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theater footprints/handprints of the stars. We also tried to get as close as we could to the Hollywood Sign. That was a bit tricky. It was a very windy bendy road area where the roads were quite narrow and wound themselves around the big houses there. Then I hit a low overhung palm tree with the RV and ripped the awning clean off the RV. It was a mangled mess on the ground. Seeing nothing to salvage, I threw it on the front lawn of the guy who owned the palm tree and got the hell out of there! It also popped off the top of my fridge vent, so I kept that, threw it inside and got moving. I called my roadside assistance to check out my fridge vent as I wan’t sure what had happened up there and I didn’t have a ladder. They took hours to get back to me and were going to charge a fortune, so I told the rude mechanic to bugger off and instead we went to Walmart and bought a ladder for $54 and popped that fridge cover right back on – no other damage other than a missing awning…then I returned the ladder at the next Wal-mart I stopped at, telling them it was too short for me. No prob. Fixing the RV turned out to be free.

·        We stopped at San Francisco of course, and hung out in the Haight-Ashbury district before heading into Golden Gate Park to hang out on Hippy Hill for awhile. Love San Fran.

·        We stopped to see the California Redwoods – amazing! We camped among them too but it was pouring rain the whole entire time so we did not get to see as much of them as we would have liked. They were gorgeous trees though and the smell – mmmmm.

·        Saw my first tumbleweeds! They tumbled right across the road in front of me, several times.

·        We saw a big herd of elk on the road and had to wait for them to clear before we could continue on our way.

·        The I-5 was just as annoying as it was the last time I drove it. Loud, too many trucks, not much to look at. We had been following the 101 up the coast, but then a typhoon was heading our way so we headed inland to the I-5 as I was not willing to risk our lives and my home to high winds.

·        Nash had an awesome time in the RV, but while we were at the concert grounds, he was boarded in a cattery. He didn’t seem to like it much and scratched anyone who came near. Poor fella. But it was impossible to have him at the concert grounds with 4 women in and out the door all day and night. There was also no room!

Hugo

·        My friend M. was the best co-pilot ever! She was back there mixing drinks day and night and got me whatever my little heart wanted. Beauty!

·        Hugo went with us and had a fantastic time. Hugo is a doll/creature/thingy that belonged to a friend of ours that couldn’t come. We dressed him up and took him everywhere, even in Walmart in the cart…we go so many stares and comments. M. also held him up to the window when we passed a trucker and waved to them. Some honked, some laughed, some didn’t know what to think…we loved it all.

So I guess I proved the old girl can really make a long road trip without issue, hot or cold climate. I was ever so glad to be back in Canada though. America is a great place to visit and play – would not want to live there.