Back to Boston...

We were most of the way up the Californian coast when we decided to stop our travels, and turn back home. What a pair! Anyway, we are now half way home, having driven three days straight, with three more to go.

Yesterday our unstoppable van suddenly stopped.. and wouldn't start again! We called Triple-A, and were towed back to Salt Lake City, where we had set out from 140 miles earlier. The very good news is that the problem was not the fuel pump, as feared, rather a wire connector to the pump, that was easily fixed.

So, the van is going to outlive both of us! It has ploughed happily through the interstates of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and next up Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, a bit of Pennsylvania and NY before we hit Massachusetts ahead.

Last time we apologised for being such bad bloggers. Now we're apologising for ending the blog... for the second time!

Even with the shortened trip, by the time we get home we will have racked up 10,000 miles. We have taken many photos and most importantly, we have managed to not kill each other.

Of course, we still have three days to go...

(Photo taken by Marie, through the window of the tow-truck, with her iPhone. Notice the bug guts...)

Bad bloggers...

We admit it, we're bad bloggers. It may have something to do with our Different VieWs! But for a quick update - We've traversed the state of California, started in Marina del Ray, LA, visiting with Robert's sister and daughter, who is also in LA. We took a weekend trip to Ventura, on the coast - where we passed by fruit fields in the dozens, and pickers in the hundreds. Marie suggested we try our hands at laboring for a day, Robert suggested Marie do it herself and tell him about it! haha She didn't, but they enjoyed fresh strawberries and cherries. The produce in California is terrific, but the prices are surprisingly high... especially in LA! Everything's expensive - gas, food.

From LA we went up the coast to San Simeon, and toured the Hearst Castle. Both of us agreed William Randolph Hearst had more money than sense, and taste! The grounds (5 miles up a winding road from the coast) used to be populated by a veritable zoo of different animals he had imported from all around the world. Now it's limited to the occasional deer and would you believe zebras! Marie was longing to see them, but it was not happening on the day of our visit. Serendipitously, we spotted the striped specimens on our drive out of San Simeon, as they were hanging out down at the base of the mountains, by the main road!

We found a fabulous French bakery in SanSimeon, where we enjoyed the best scones on the planet. We then drove further up the curvy coast to Monterey, where we had a delicious dinner at Denny's Diner of all places! Can you tell eating has been a theme for us. We also took photos, rode our bikes, had campfires every night - roasted marshmallows, marvelled at how great the VW is holding up, and how comfortable it is. It's a nifty little home on wheels.

After San Simeon, we moved inland and spent the fourth of July weekend in Walnut Creek, SanFran, with Allison, a friend Marie met on her travels to India in 2008. Allison was a wonderful tour guide, and hostess, and we had a fine Fourth watching the fireworks and meeting friends of Allison. Stopping at friends and family along the way has been a real treat on this tour.

From Walnut Creek we set off to Yosemite, which was phenomenal. We were lucky to get in to Tuolumne Meadows campground without reservations, and had two nights there. We saw a bear and its cub while we were horseback riding through Yosemite. It was amazing! Marie's hope was to see a bear (preferably not peering in the VW looking for food..) and so our sighting was a thrill. The little cub was cunning, and to see the sun hitting both their reddish fur was heart stopping. Of course we did not have our cameras with us, and if we did we may have been frozen with awe anyway, and missed the moment! The high altitude and thin air took its toll on Robert. Marie could have stayed for weeks! We split the difference and left after two days and next travelled over the Tioga Pass up the east side of the Sierras to Lake Tahoe. We spent a night in a campground on the south side of the Lake, and enjoyed the relative luxury of a campground with showers and hot water! We cycled around with south side of the lake, and enjoyed the cool, bug-free climate.

Next stop Sacramento, where we spent two terrific days with Robert's super cousin Sue. She was another brilliant hostess, who showed us around the old town of Sacremento, which was surprising in its country charm. Robert bought a cowboy hat and Marie bought a sun hat. We indulged in a bit of retail therapy in 100 degreed Sacramento before we plotted our next steps.

We left Sacramento this morning, and will travel to the west coast above San Francisco. Three more nights in California coastal state parks before we move on to Oregon, then Washington. We have made reservations at Yellowstone in Wyoming for the 26/27 of July, two weeks time, so we have a lot of ground to cover before then. We've been eating a lot of nice food, not exercising enough for Marie's taste, too much from Robert's. We may be wearing elastic banded clothing from here on out.

Back to our starting sentiment, we acknowledge we've been less than diligent bloggers. We will try to update this page a little more often. We lost the Laundromat plot along the way, and are shooting what we like. Robert has plans to present his images at an open studio slide show presentation in September. He will also put that on his website. Marie is going to post photos in bulk on her Facebook page, where it's easier to post albums versus one image at a time here.

Between getting to where we're going, finding campsites, setting up, shopping, cooking - we seem to have less time than we anticipated to get everything done, including shooting. The second half of our trip we expect to be more efficient in our traveling, and will try to spend more time shooting. Thanks for keeping up with us.

Until next time.

Photos:
1 - Girl on Venice Beach, LA (Robert)
2 - Sun star over teepee, Ridgeway, CO (Marie)
3 - Mountain scene, Ridgeway, CO (Marie)
4 - Yosemite (Robert)

5 - Street scene, Lee Vining, CA (Robert)

6 - Yosemite (Robert)

7 - Bridalveil falls, Yosemite (Robert)

8 - Battery at Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco (Robert)

9 - Fourth fireworks at Walnut Creek, CA (Robert)

10 - Skateboarder at Venice Beach, LA (Robert)

On the road again...

We're back together in the van. After some visiting with Robert's family in LA and Marie's friends in SanFrancisco, we will make our way up the west coast.

We'll post photos soon - thanks for checking in.

Blogging out

We have bad news and good news.

The bad news is that the blog is dead.

The good news is that Robert and Marie aren't.

But, they have parted ways, and ended their cross country journey.

Thank you for understanding.

Colorado tomorrow!

We have been driving non-stop since leaving Washington D.C. Wednesday, when our road trip officially started upon leaving our luxury accommodation at Matthew and Kate's. We drove through Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio that first day and camped the first night in Ohio - at a campsite set deep in the woods, down a never-ending road, that was frequented by single men and their pickup trucks with mattresses in the back. It reminded Robert of Deliverance and he observed the bathrooms were circa 1956. We set up camp.. and both agree we have brought way too much stuff with us. The skies opened up, the bugs closed in, and we hunkered down for the night. It wasn't a great night! We hightailed it early the next morning, and drove 325miles to our second campsite, in Mulberry Grove, Illinois, not so far from Missouri's border. This campsite was what we were hoping for the night before! It was beautifully maintained, run by friendly folks, clean and the birds were chirping and the sun was shining. So much so that we needed relief from the steamy heat, so we cooled off in the pool, showered in spic and span bathrooms, and relaxed after our long day of driving. We used our grill for the first time that evening - pork loin and asparagus never tasted so good! The first few photos shown are of the Kansas countryside. Marie was impressed with the wind turbine colony we passed in northwest Kansas. Perhaps one small consolation after the disastrous Gulf oil spill will be more alternative energy sources like those. The farmer posing for Robert was the third generation to work the surrounding fields, and his horses feature in another photo. Lastly, Robert and I in the oblong box we're calling home for the summer. The fireflies were big and a delight at night, and the stars were out in force. It's a pleasure to wake up to the smell of the previous night's campfires! Funny how smells take you back and make you happy.

Drive today - Robert felt like a Butterball turkey, cooking in the extreme heat of the day. It hit 95 and he made the executive decision we would not camp tonight, rather treat ourselves to Motel 6's airconditioned, if slightly antiseptic, interior.

But the smell is bearable when it means Robert is less of a bear with the heat, and when it comes with free wi-fi! So we're able to update our blog. We haven't quite figured out the blog's photo postings - would like to post more than 10 at a time, in a more orderly fashion, and with captions. For now we will just make do until we have time to investigate more.

The last few days have been about nothing but driving. We haven't yet hit our stride, or routine, and are feeling our way. Marie's worried about getting enough exercise. Robert's worried about getting enough relief from the heat. We're on a mission to reach Colorado quickly, where our first stop is to our VW mechanic for some work on the van, and a short visit with friends who live nearby. Our second stop is to visit Marie's sisters near Grand Junction, Colorado. Yay!

We also haven't figured out how to reply to your comments... so thank you Diane, Terry and Cathy.

Onward ever, backwards never!

Day Three - Almost Heaven, West Virginia

Short first entry - Apologies for the delay folks, we have just spent a lovely two days with Robert's son Matthew, his wife Kate and beautiful little Benjamin, in Alexandria, Virginia. We set out on Monday morning and drove 10 hours to get there. The van is really comfy, and rides like a dream. Alexandria is right outside of Washington, D.C., so we spent our second day, yesterday, touring around the capital, where it was a gorgeous, sunny day. We hit several of the monuments, including the tall thin Washington monument, the large, imposing Lincoln monument and then the World War II and Korean War monuments. After that we spent a while in the Smithsonian's American History museum, where we went through the American Presidents' wing. It'd take weeks to go through all of the museums and offerings of Washington.. so we'll have to come back. We wanted to get a cup of coffee at the Smithsonian, but the prices put us off our food! So we took the spiffy Metro to the Pentagon City stop, and had a more affordable lunch there. The photos were taken in D.C. Now we are wending our way along Route 70 through West Virginia. RoThe mountains and scenery are gorgeous, and the wifi is generous and free at the local McDonalds. We'll blog at length when we stop in Ohio today or tomorrow. Toodleooh.