End of the Adventure in New York City

When I returned to America after spending Christmas back home in Scotland I had decided that while I had enjoyed my adventure immensely I felt it was time I came home to my family and my two grandsons.

The first thing I needed to do was sell my beloved motor home, I had become very attached to it, it had been my home for many months and many miles.

My son told me to take it down to the car park outside Home Depot, the American version of our B&Q at the week end, stick a for sale sign on it and see what happens.

This I did, on the second week end I sold it for only a few hundred dollars less than I paid for it.

Now my adventure in America was at an end and I was making plans to fly home within days, I decided to have one last little adventure, on a number of occasions I have flown from London direct to the west coast, I have also transited through New York but never stopped to see The Big Apple.

I booked myself flights from San Diego to New York via Atlanta, much less expensive than a direct flight.

When I arrived in New York it was in the grip of winter, it was only the 26 of February after all, the sky was grey and overcast, just not what I have grown used to for so long.

The next day I stepped out into freezing temperatures but with a clear blue sky, this I thought will do me, every day I was in New York was like that.

As a tourist I set off to do the tourist thing, no shops for me, staying in Manhattan made it very easy, Times Square was on my doorstep.

One of the first sights I wanted to see was The Statue of Liberty, I quickly discovered every second person in NY wanted to go and see it, to get a ticket for a ferry was going to take a few hours so instead I stepped on to the big orange Staten Island ferry which at least let me see “Liberty” from a distance.

The next morning I was at the dockside early and got a ticket, it still meant waiting about an hour and a half but once on the island beside “Liberty” it was worth it, just standing there looking over the muddy brown Hudson river at the Manhattan skyline, I was in New York.

I walked through Central Park, wondering what the value of this fairly large area of grass and trees was worth right in central New York, the ice on the lakes was about three inches thick, while in that area I visited the Natural History Museum, I had read it was worth a visit, it certainly was.

Another day I set off to walk across Brooklyn Bridge, this I did, I think it is a must.

One place I had to visit was “Ground Zero”, I felt I must go there and remember the dreadful sights we saw on television, I stood in silent tribute trying to come to terms with the dreadful act.

The day before I was due to come home I had one last fling, I treated myself to a helicopter flight over the Hudson and East rivers, round the Statue of Liberty with beautiful views of this amazing city.

The end of what to me was the most unbelievable experience, being able to spend more than a year living in America on permanent holiday was now coming to an end, I hailed a yellow cab to take me to JFK to catch my flight to Dublin in a big green aircraft and an onwards flight to Glasgow, flying in over the Clyde through rain showers confirmed I was home.

What made it all worthwhile were the four smiling faces waiting for me at the airport.

New York City

New York, one of the most populous urban areas in the world.

The city consists of five boroughs, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island, the city’s estimated population exceeds 8.3 million people making it the most densely populated major city in the United States.

Much of New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island.

New York was founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1624, the settlement was called New Amsterdam until 1664 when the colony came under English control.

“The City that Never Sleeps” can lay claim to almost 170 different languages being spoken as 36% of its population were born outside the United States.

The great Irish famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, and by 1860, one in four New Yorkers – over 200,000 – had been born in Ireland.

The architecture in New York is obviously the “skyscraper” of which there are 5538, with 50 completed skyscrapers taller than 656 feet, this is more than any other city in the United States, and second in the world behind Hong Kong.

Flying Home For Christmas

It was now time to fly home for Christmas, something I have been looking forward to very much, in films you hear them say “going home for Christmas” I always thought it sounded nice, now I am about to fly 6000 miles to get home.

I had never been away from my family or friends for such a long time, I was now looking forward to meeting my new grandson, a lovely end to a fabulous year.

Escondido and Oceanside

Trying to move ever nearer to Temecula for my flight home I am moving a short distance to Escondido, a nice site with nice restaurants nearby, probably a posh suburb of San Diego, a couple of nights here and I moved to one of my favourites, Oceanside.

I booked into a very busy site one block back from the beach, to walk down in an evening watching the Pacific waves breaking on the long white sandy beach, the small groups of pelicans flying low over the surf without a wing beat, heading home to where they roost, and to watch the sun set over the sea every night was just breathtaking.

After three nights on site I decided to move once more, this time to a parking area right on the harbour side, parking is allowed for a small charge, although there is no hook up, no water or electricity I am fully self sufficient.

This was a lovely way to spend a few days reflecting on my adventure, I was parked at an angle looking over the harbour with only a sidewalk between the motor home and the harbour wall.

Sitting there I could watch boats going out sport fishing, sail boats drifting in and out, locals fishing from the sidewalk competing with egrets and California Sea Lions for a fish, often a fisherman would wind in half a fish, a Sea Lion would be licking its lips.

On two different days I took the coastal train down to San Diego, the train is called “The Surfsider”, it is immaculate, a double deck train, it takes about an hour and costs $5, about £2-50 return, a great day out in my favourite city, also no driving and no parking.

My next move is back to Temecula, my next problem is what to do with the motor home for three weeks while I am away. I was very lucky, a friend of my son’s has a large distribution depot where he was able to find me space out of the way, first class and free.

Returning to California

I am now leaving Las Vegas and Nevada heading back to California, I feel I can almost say my home state.

Crossing into California suddenly brings back memories firstly of a motor home that would not work properly then the uncertainty of setting off on my own heading for Oregon only.

Now 5 months and at least 7000 miles later and with the most fabulous memories of a wonderful new lifestyle here I am almost back where I started.

I am making my way back to my son in Temecula, but as I am now running ahead of time for a change I will take a longer route back.

Once more I will be passing by another ghost town, this one is Calico, an old silver mining town, my son and his friends occasionally bring their trailers here for a week end.

The hills around Calico are peppered with mine entrances and spoil heaps, the town is in pretty good condition with almost all of its buildings still in everyday use, I think it is cool to see the town being given a second life rather than being left to turn to dust.

The town has one main street, it runs up a fairly steep hill, walking up the street you can still see the sheriff’s office and jail, the undertaker, the blacksmith’s, a couple of saloons, restaurants, feed supplies, a harness store, a couple of hotels and a provision store, the staff working in the town all wear clothing of the period, I think lovely and most interesting.

The climate in the desert areas of California is kind to wooden buildings, being almost completely dry timber does not get soaking wet and turn green, it just turns to dust over time.

After a couple of nights in Calico I set my sights on Victorville, the nearest RV site to Apple Valley where the family I met at the start of my trip in Oakhurst live, I called twice but no reply, I was sorry not to see them once more.

The next place I will be passing through is Desert Hot Springs, it is November 17, but it is well named, it was in the high 80s and 90s, this is a town of smaller private houses, mostly older people wishing to avoid the cooler weather along the coastal areas, I suppose you could class it as a retirement community.

One night was enough, too hot, move on through Palm Springs which is rather nice, very opulent, plenty of Cadillacs and Rolls Royces.

Nellis Air Force Base

While staying in Las Vegas I visited Nellis Air Force Base, just outside town, I knew before I arrived in Las Vegas the air show was on and made every effort to go to it.

Unlike the UK, air shows and the like are all free, parking free, entrance free, just pay for the hotdogs and hot doughnuts.

The American military always put on a great show, without writing pages about it I will mention only one aircraft.

The aircraft is a second world war P38 Lightning, built in 1942, a twin engined fighter which was on a delivery flight from America to Europe by way of Greenland and Iceland along with three or four other aircraft.

They ran into bad weather and all were forced to make a forced landing on a glacier, although the aircraft overturned on landing, the pilot escaped unhurt.

During 1992 it was decided to try and find the aircraft and if possible remove it for restoration as there were no P38s left in flyable condition. When the aircraft was located it was 268 feet down inside a glacier where it had lain undisturbed for 50 years.

The way it was done was as follows, a four foot wide circular tank looking like a child’ s spinning top surrounded by copper pipes full of hot water was slowly lowered down, melting the ice as it went.

Once the aircraft had been reached men were lowered down to excavate a cave around the wreck and enlarge the tunnel.

After a month the shaft was wide enough to start bringing the wreck up piece by piece, the largest part, the centre section, took two days to winch to the surface, it weighed 700 pounds.

When all the parts were once more on the surface, they were flown by helicopter to a seaport where they were shipped to Denmark then onwards to Savannah Georgia, ending up in Middlesboro Kentucky where the aircraft was fully restored to flying condition.

The aircraft looks exactly as it did in 1942, the only difference,” Glacier Girl” painted on its nose.

Nevada: The Silver State

Nevada is called The Silver State because of the large number of silver deposits found and mined.

The Capital of Nevada is Carson City, the largest city is Las Vegas.

Nevada covers the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin, making it the most arid state in the Union.

85% of the population lives in the metropolitan areas of Reno and Las Vegas.

Daytime summer temperatures regularly reach 115 degrees.

*  *  *

From Oatman a short drive to Bullhead City, sitting on the banks of the very fast flowing Colorado river,a one night stop in a nice, brand new little site, so clean and tidy, and the weather, sunny and hot, after all, it is only the 8 of November!

Next day, drive across the Colorado and start the longest climb I think I have asked my bus to undertake all trip, heading for Las Vegas in Nevada

Some like Las Vegas, in fact millions do, some don’t like it, this is my third visit and I still get a buzz walking down the “strip” at night in the dark, visitors from every corner of the globe, and it is a pleasant 70 degrees.

I pre-booked a space in the only RV site in the centre of Las Vegas, it is in the grounds of the hotel Circus Circus, a first class site and very easy to walk one block on to “The Strip”, all other RV sites are on the outskirts of Vegas, not a nice place to be.

Walking down (or up) “The Strip” looking at all the amazing beautiful hotels all with some kind of sidewalk feature, most of them quite spectacular, it might be a mass of powerful fountains doing what fountains do but to music, or it might be two full sized pirate sailing galleons moving together to do battle, it might even be a singing gondolier punting a gondola under a bridge in Venice, it could be a volcano that explodes into a fiery show of flame and water.

Eventually, when you can walk no further, stand at the first bus stop and within ten minutes a big gold double deck bus will come along, using the cheap all evening ticket, get on and off as you please, great for tired feet, you might notice a small plate inside the door, made by Alexander’s of Falkirk, yes Falkirk Scotland.

Once more I enjoyed my visit to this unique city.

Historic Route 66

Having been disappointed by my visit to Chloride, I discovered another ghost town that I could get to if I was to drive along part of what was the famous old “Route 66”, one of the original US highways, it was opened on November 11 1926, however signs did not go up until the following year.

The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and California before ending at Los Angeles, a distance of 2448 miles.

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the 1930s, today portions remain called “Historic Route 66.”

Sometimes you have good ideas, sometimes you have bad ideas, this was not rated a good one. I set off along route 66 heading for Oatman, the road was not bad, a bit dusty, no other traffic, then I came across a warning sign, not suitable for vehicles over 40 feet, ok I thought, I am only 35 feet, I soon discovered why, the road now reduced to single track and was about to go over the Black Mountain, ok, just another little challenge.

I am now driving on a very twisty road, full lock on some corners, climbing in first gear, with no edge to the road, they just tar to the edge, big jagged rocks on the other side hell bent on making a hole in the side of my bus.

After what seemed like a couple of hours I came across this old dusty ghost town. It may be a ghost town but there are a lot of people about, some of the shops are open, the post office, I’m not sure about the hotel, it looked a bit doubtful, all the buildings are old, the town really does look authentic, a dusty main street, some broken down buildings, as it is so dry things don’t rot, they slowly turn to dust.

Everywhere you look were burros (what we call donkeys) walking, standing even lying on the road, baby ones, old arthritic ones, and everything in between.

The burros are the descendants of the ones left behind when the miners and prospectors left, they now live wild in small herds in the hills, they come down for a handout and a drink.

I don’t think anything has changed in a hundred years.

Meteor Crater and Sedona

Having had a fill of the canyon and watching my calendar I head off for another quick diversion, to Meteor Crater, a gigantic hole in the middle of high plains of the Colorado Plateau , another hole in the ground but what a hole, it has a rim of smashed boulders, some the size of small houses, the rim rises up 150 feet, the crater is a mile across and 570 feet deep, can you imagine something from space dropping to earth and making a hole like that.

From Meteor Crater I take interstate 40 then interstate 17 heading for Sedona, I had never heard of Sedona but my trusty guide book says it is worth a visit. On first impressions I would say it was a wealthy place, the number of country clubs and golf courses was rather obvious, some lovely houses as well.

Once again the area is all pink, the buildings, the hills etc, it is like wearing rose coloured glasses, a nice little town, they offer jeep tours into the red rock canyons. I decided I will never be back so lets go see a red rock canyon. It was good fun, the jeep goes places you would think impossible, and while scrambling about in the rocks we came across a group of Javalino's, small, hairy, wild pigs.

I had the motor home in a lovely small site, very well covered by trees, walking back to my site, just in front of the motor home, I saw something lying on the road, and on closer inspection it was a coiled up snake, snake number 4.

Still not being a snake lover, I enquired from the lady owner, she came over with a sweeping brush and set about trying to sweep it off the road, I don't want it run over she says, by now it should be hibernating, it was only a gopher snake anyway.

After a couple of nights in this charming but expensive town, I head due east along interstate 40 heading for Kingman.

Kingman is a truck stop, an amazing place, somewhere for truckers to rest up, have a shower, buy another piece of chrome something for the truck and, most important of all, eat, and boy, can they eat.

The RV site was adjoining the truck stop, so I had two very hearty and inexpensive evening meals, anyway, I feel as though I am almost a trucker.

I saw on the map an old ghost town not far away, Chloride, so I had to go and investigate, there was not a great deal to see, disappointed, I will look for another one before I am done.

Grand Canyon

Leaving the almost Disney like appearance of Monument Valley behind, I am now heading almost due east towards the Grand Canyon, I am not a lover of deep holes, but I must see this one after all, it is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. 

I am told the south rim is the place to go, so after a flat boring drive through a pink desert I arrive at Grand Canyon by way of Williams which is situated on the old “Route 66”, being quite a tourist centre the town of Grand Canyon was very busy, even this late in the year, a number of RV sites were full. 

I got into one, it was fine, just a large terraced parking lot, but a good point was the free shuttle bus called at the entrance and one stop took me to shops and restaurants. To see the Grand Canyon is simple, as everything is when you know how, take the bus to the central terminus, decide which direction you want to go, east or west, take the (once again free) bus the few miles to the end of its run, get off and walk back to the centre by way of the rim trail, just over an hours walk in the sunshine with an amazing view, what more could you ask and the view really is amazing, as you walk along you become aware of bluebirds flitting about.

I spent four nights here and enjoyed it more than I imagined I would, so much to see and watch. It is possible to go down into the canyon by mule train, it goes every day, no point in me going, my eyes would be so tight shut I would see nothing, the steep trail down is only a mule wide, no horses, they are not sure footed enough and are too easily spooked.

The rim trail is a tarmac footpath following the contours of the canyon sides, surprisingly it has no form of fence or wall, put one foot off the path and you will be in freefall for the next five minutes.

Where there is a rocky outcrop where a better view is possible they do have a fence, people even climb on it.

Some visitors to the Grand Canyon arrive on the daily train service, it runs from Williams, about an hour’s run, long enough for lunch, it is a vintage diesel pulling probably ten coaches, a big long silver train probably from the 50s.

The canyon is so deep, looking down on the mighty Colorado River is like looking down on a little stream.

The rock strata is amazing, being able to look at hundreds and hundreds of feet of rock face all exposed showing all the different colours, different colours depicting some huge sudden change in the geography, the canyon is about 277 miles long and ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles, and attains a depth of more than a mile. More than 2 billion years of the Earth’s history have been exposed.