Well we are not a week into our holiday yet and I am missing my dogs like crazy. How I will make it through the month is beyond me. *sigh*
Today we left Los Angeles and started making our way north towards Seattle and Vancouver. I really love L.A but it was silly to stay there for too long this trip as we have other things we want to do this time. It will be an interesting month given that we are going north to Canada and then south to Texas, followed by a Caribbean cruise. We will be going to the very cold, and then the very warm. My lily white thunder thighs could do with a decent splash of sunlight and if it wasn’t for the fact that Greenpeace will try to roll me out to deeper water, I would be doing that when on our cruise. By the time we get there I will be absolutely busting to shake off the cold and a good bit of sunbathing would do it. Mind you given the sights I saw on the last cruise, I would appear to be quite the glamour-puss. Whilst I have fat that might threaten to fall out of my bathers, the elderly people sunning themselves on the top deck DID have something falling out. In most cases it was their very saggy genitalia. I don't think I have had a strong enough stomach to eat raisins ever since.
The drive that took us to Salinas, our spot for two nights was long and boring. There was quite a bit of rain on the way up which meant I could not do my usual and take photos of everything possible from the passenger seat. The rain also meant that the nutters were out in force driving like kamikaze pilots. As we have seen on previous trips, the bad weather will bring out the worst in drivers and also as per previous trips, we came across many accidents. Some were truly made of the stuff that would sell an insurance commercial. Also whilst on the road, the Bear made an observation and commented that on this drive there was next to no road kill. On previous trips we have come across racoons, skunks and foxes that lost after playing chicken in the traffic. Today we only saw one solitary squashed skunk. RIP Pepe le Pew.
Just while I think of it - I am just going to point out that in Australia we are getting ripped blind at the bowser. Today the Bear put $25 litres in the rental car and this was for 40 litres worth of fuel. That is probably the equivalent of under 70 Australian cents per litre. This is insane. Its cheaper here to buy petrol/gas than it is to buy water. I just find that crazy. What is crazier is how we get fuel from the same place as the yanks, yet we get charged what we do. Insane.
Arriving in Salinas in the late afternoon, in the pouring rain, was interesting at best. This was because our GPS had an absolute mind out in the town and had us running all over the place. I am thinking that because we haven’t had our American GPS updated in a few years. What was more than interesting though was the Bear having a complete smashed out argument with Siri. It was so awesome anyone would have thought they were married. I just couldn’t tell how it would end. Divorce papers or make up sex. What’s more the town was not easy on the eye (not that I can talk) and had weird road markings…and just weird streets that did not make any sense what so ever. So we were driving in the pouring rain, in an unfamiliar place, with nutter drivers out, and the Bear fighting with Siri. I was seriously hoping they would quickly get to the “no speaking” stage.
Somewhere south of Salinas we stopped at a gas station which had a general store next door. After the Bear had put in the fuel we decided to go next door to the general store to have a look just in case and buy a drink. Usually the stores away from the metropolitan areas sell some amazing stuff. Its seriously weird what you can get in the regional parts of the country. We entered the store and found that it stunk of something that was like a mixture of dirty armpits and boiled cabbage. We could not identify it, but noticed that there were too elderly men sitting at a card table next to the counter. I didn’t look to see what they were doing as one of the men got straight up and came behind the counter. He gave us a welcoming smile and with that I realised what the smell might have been. The stuff growing between his three teeth. Was that cheese and baked beans? I am sure some vomit came up and into my mouth. The Bear and I got a drink and the he asked me if I wanted anything else. I looked around but all I could see was RV sewer kits, RV sewer pipes, cleaner for RV sewer pipes and the like. There was not much more in the store other than a few grocery lines so I shook my head. I couldn’t wait to get back outside to breath in some fresh air. I have no idea why they called this is general store. Although in its defence it really was very, very general. If I was in the market for a shitter….I would have been set!
Pulling up at our hotel, we felt a sense of familiarity. We always stay with the Marriott chain, and on this occasion we were staying in Marriotts Residence Inn (more of a budget motel but is awesome because it has a kitchenette). We stay with the same chain as it does make us feel more familiar with things given the amount of places we stay when we are overseas. It was no different this time. Familiar hotel, familiar décor and smell, and of course a familiar bed. On this occasion however, unlike the places that we have stayed in the past which are used to getting tourists through, I had the feeling that this place did not. It’s a country hick town in North West California and clearly they didn’t come across too many Aussies. They could simply not understand our accents. The Americans say that we talk too fast, which I had never noticed until watching the Bear try to talk with someone. More Americans speak with some sort of drawl which stretches their words out. The length of the drawl is dependant on which part of the USA you are in. In fact, on a previous trip two years ago, when we went into a fireworks outlet in Alabama, the lady behind the counter who sold us a fridge magnet, is probably still trying to end the sentence that she was uttering when we left “Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave aaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy naaaaaaaasssssssssss daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay yaaaaaaaaaaaa’lllllllllllll”
Repeating ourselves is par of the course when we are over here, but it was particularly bad in this town. However tonight I found that I also didn’t help in making myself understood. We were doing some laundry (another reason we like the Residence Inn locations) and I was checking our clothes in the dryer. I found that they weren’t quite dry and was glad that the Bear had given me a dollar to change at the desk if I needed coins to run the dryer again. I made my way down to the front desk to ask for some change for the dryer. I spoke with a young Hispanic gentleman.
Dude behind the counter: Pardon Ma’am?
Me: I was wondering if I could change this dollar into coin please?
Dude behind the counter: Ah yeeeaaaaa. Wert wuld ya’ll like?
Me: Ummmmm…….quarters I think. Is it quarters that go in the dryer in the laundry? Or is it dimes?
Dude behind the counter: Pardon Ma’am?
Me: I need coins for the laundry.
Dude behind the counter: The lowandry? Do ya’ll mean the wash room?
Me: *confused* Ummmmm…..I guess?
Dude behind the counter: Yeeeeaaaaa sure we caaaaaaaan Ma’am.
Me: Thankyou
Dude behind the counter: Will therrrre be anaaaaything more Ma”am?
Me: No thanks. I’m all good.
Dude behind the counter: Sorry Ma’am?
Me: No thanks. I’m all……um no thanks”
For those that are interested, the washing machines and dryers take quarters.
For those that are interested, the washing machines and dryers take quarters.
Tomorrow we are going to San Jose and Santa Cruz for a drive. We have been past San Jose before (and I will now have that song in my mind for the next couple of hours) and have not been near Santa Cruz. We have a number of things that we would like to see there, so I have my fingers and toes crossed that the rain has gone by then!
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