Chicago

I mostly went to Chicago to visit relatives, my cousins Therese, Kathleen, Mary and John.

The city itself is quite Gothic and batman like, indeed The Dark Knight was filmed in various locations in Chicago. The Blues Brothers was also filmed here, so I had an image in mind of a dark gritty place with lots of underpasses. It's also very flat, but there are no cyclists, probably because they have no cycle lanes. It was very hot when I was there, Vegas desert heat, so the day I had in the city center I headed for the planetarium, for some silly reason I walked there in there 100 + degree heat, but it was worth it. There's also a splendid big park between the city and the lake front, surrounded by big roads of course, but makes the whole place much less of a Dark City.
They also had the Blue Man Group in Chicago for about half the price of Vegas, which makes me wonder if Vegas bumps up the price of shows. I didn't have time to see the Blue Men but might be able to catch some more shows in the Big Apple, where I was headed next.

Alcatraz

I went there, dangerous people were stored there, but not any more. Got too expensive to keep them on their own island, plus they had no sewage system. It was smaller than I was expecting.

Californian Coast

After the heat of the desert I headed to the coast south of San Francisco to cool off. I had booked to stay   in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Montara and one night which was a ? and I was going to get there (dramatic pause Jeremy Clarkson style) by local trains and buses, they said it couldn't be done, you must hire a car they cry, no I say; have legs, can walk. Have maps, can locate. But best of all have the power of Google.
Not with me all the time I might add, that would be too easy, no, before leaving a place that has Wifi I use Google map directions to the next place and click on the little bus icon, Google then describes the entire route which I write down in my scrappy notebook, it's marvelous, all I need to do then is follow the instructions I've written down.

First I took a bus, a train and then an express bus to Santa Cruz taking around 3.5 hours. Santa Cruz is a lovely little seaside town with a pier and a boardwalk with a fairground on it next to the beach, it reminded me of Brighton, but with much colder water and surprisingly not as fantastically hot as the TV may have you think about California. Quite mild in fact and chilly in the evening, plus a bit windy, so next time you're complaining about the pathetic summers in Wellington and England, think that it's not that great here. Still Santa Cruz was probably the nicest place I'd visited so far, and a place I could live quite happily, I wanted to book a surf lesson and another myth - there's always surf everywhere in California, well there was no surf till that Friday but which time I would be long gone. Lyall Bay is more reliable.

From Santa Cruz I took 4 buses to Monterey, which is another lovely seaside town. It used to have a big industry for canning sardines until they fished them all out of the water and had to stop and rethink. They still do it but in much reduced quantities. The Aquarium had been recommended to me by Kath and Andrew so I went there first, it was a splendid aquarium, the highlights for me being the big octopus sprawling over the glass and turning from red to white when it was at rest, and the big kelp forests which you could view over 2 stories, plus the sea otters cleaning themselves in buckets and with what looks like soap in the shape of kelp leaves.

Monterey's Cannery row is very quaint and touristy, with lots of nice seafood restaurants and cheesy little souvenir shops. Back at the hostel I asked about good places for dinner nearby and was given a flyer for a nice looking restaurant which $12 three course specials, great, but I'd look a bit of a sad case on my own, hmm, will probably feel more comfortable getting take away or a cafe. Back in the room, I met another girl from England called Hattie and before long I had someone to have dinner with, great. We ordered a bottle of wine to enjoy the restaurant dinning experience with and the seafood was very tasty. Hattie had hired a car from San Francisco and was travelling down towards LA, and the next day would be going through Carmel and Big Sur and asked if I wanted to join her, this was perfect as I had wanted to see Big Sur area and there was a bus that went there but it's a stretch of coast land with lots of interest points along it and having a car meant I could explore more of it. So the next day we went via the 17 mile drive which hugs the coast and past the $500 a day golf course to Carmel, a super quaint village for the rich with a white sandy beach. It was much like a nice little English village but for the lack of cream teas and the abundance of little dogs in pink vests trotted or carried along by their sunglass and 'tennis shoe'* wearing owners.
I was a bit hungry so while Hattie did some souvenir shopping I went to a bakery and stuffed my face with pastries. After Carmel we visited the Carmel Mission, a lovely Spanish church and gardens, a very peaceful place, the gift shop looked like a place Priests buy their supplies from, the was indeed a Priest in there, only I couldn't see any communion wafers, I like those.
Onto Big Sur, I don't know why it's called this, it's actually rather like Cornwall or Devon, both Hattie and myself thought so when we saw it. Everyone raves about Big Sur so I had to see what the big deal was all about. It's very nice, with lots of nice peninsulas was walking about on, with day parking areas that charge $9 to go and park there, we parked on the roadside and walked in and saved ourselves the $9 and the queue. We carried on this way until reaching the end of the line for the bus back to Monterey where I left Hattie, and she continued on her way, but I noticed a bulge in one of the tyres on her hire car, so she went back to the garage and they swapped it for the spare. She got to her destination safely. Luckily I got a lift straight back to Monterey from a lady in an open top sports car who had asked us if we needed directions when we stopped, what luck!

The next day I headed up to Montara which involved an express bus to San Jose, train and another bus to Montara lighthouse where there was a HI hostel. The hostel was picture perfect on an outcrop above a beach, such a lovely location. I wandered around the area and found harbour seals warming themselves on the beach and a rock pool area where I crouched and watched hermit crabs crawl over anenomies for a few hours before seeking some dinner. The only thing here was having to cross the Highway which wasn't nice but I did find a nice low key little place with some friendly cats where I ordered fish and chips.
The next day I planned to camp at the nearby State Beach camp ground at half moon bay, I took the weekend bus service down and walked to the campground and was finally able to take advantage of being a hiker, so saved $20 on the camping fees. The campground was very nice, right next to the beach, albeit a bit windy. That night I heard some fighting between some dogs and local wildlife which I think were racoons or something, I peaked through the tent and saw something the size of a well padded cat run towards the long grasses.

Sunday Service no 17

I had to take the Sunday bus service out of Half Moon Bay to Pacifica, then another bus to Daly City and then a metro service to San Francisco the next day, and the first bus was at 8:45am according to the Schedule I had picked up off the bus previously, I needed to get this bus as I had to be at Pier 33 in San Fran for my Alcatraz tour departure at 2.50pm. I packed up and was out of the campsite by 7.45am, I got to the stop early and waited, the departure time came and went, after 15 mins and a bit of muttered cursing it was apparent no bus was coming so I started to walk, the 12 miles to Pacific with about 12kgs on my back. I went past the next stop and saw the bus going in the other direction so went to ask why no bus had arrived at my stop, it turned out my schedule was 2 years out of date, and the next bus wasn't due for a few hours. Thanks Samtrans service 17, great job.
The chances of getting my Alcatraz tour was dwindling fast, I had to book ahead 2 weeks to get a spot due to popularity, so I walked for 3 miles and was feeling good until I saw a map and found I had far more to go than I thought, at which point all my energy went, and with no other options I made my way back to the Highway and tried my luck hitch hiking. I waited there with my thumb out for 10, 15 minutes or so, until about 100 cars had passed, I sighed I had just started to walk to where ever the nearest stop was, which was somewhere at least a mile away when a smart white SUV came back from the other direction and made a U turn to where I was. The guy had passed me and then thought twice and came back to get me, he took me all the way to San Francisco and dropped me at the bus stop that took me all the rest of the way into town. Thanks fly fishing guy! I was back at the hostel shortly after noon, quicker than I would have on the buses, had Samtrans put the right schedule on board.**
And thats why I always pick up hitchhikers.


*Trainers
**What happens when you don't use Google

Canyons of the West

After arriving back from Yosemite, seeing Kath and Andrew, I flew out on the 5th July to Las Vegas to pick up the Green Tortoise Canyons of the West tour.
I had 2 nights in Vegas, so I booked to see a show called Legends of Vegas. This comprised of a number of lookalike and soundalike acts of famous bygone and current acts. It was a lot of fun, and there is only so much time one can wonder around the crazy casinos which are freezing inside, and wander around the strip which is sweltering. Shows, if one can afford them is the most fun option.
The hostel the tour picks up from was only $17 a night, and although the room was a mix of prison style beds and hospital sparseness, it turned out I had the room and bathroom all to myself, and therefore a very relaxing place, with a hostel named 'Sin City', that was surprising.
I was ready the next morning for the 7.15am pick up and met some of my fellow tourers, including a couple from Sacramento called Drew and Mary and Cathy from very near Brighton who was concerned about the quantity of tea they would have on board. The Green Tortoise combines buses and tours together to make a number of tours from few as possible buses and drivers, one of the GT's extreme efficiencies, more of which we would learn as the tour went on.

From Vegas the bus took us to Zion NP where we would swap buses and meet the rest of the group that would make up our Canyons tour, the other group had already been on the bus for a week on tour up north involving Yellowstone, and then our first bus then went somewhere else with people swapping over from the second bus. Anyway, Zion National Park is a canyon with a popular hike to the rim of the canyon called Angles Landing, it was hot and I couldn't be bothered to perspire more than I needed to, so I took a walk into the canyon up the river to The Narrows, which is where the canyon walls become close together and get, well, narrow. The river also becomes quite deep in places and we had a 6pm curfew time to get back to the bus for dinner at the campground, I had gone walking with Cathy and what we mostly wanted was a swim, we found a perfect spot next to the campground and let the river float us down a bit before returning to our new bus and experience the madness that was dinning with the Green Tortoise.We were also meeting the old group, and we were to be known from then on as the New Group, but never told anything how the whole bus set up goes. Dinner and sleeping arrangements and bus life in general is quite a palava, it was going to be a long week.
Travelers on the tour were made up of Germans, Australians by the majority, some local Californians, Chinese, a few Brits, a lady from Portugal and a guy from Argentina.

The next day the bus took us to Bryce canyon where it immediately started to rain, and heavily just after my small group of new group people consisting of Mary, Drew, Ana, Cathy and me had started our walk, we hid under a tree but we were all soaked anyway. The rain eased and so we carried on with our walk, the path  zig zagged down an area called Wall Street, where the canyon walls became close and then continued on through The Queens Garden and back to where we started. Afterwards we were taken to some hot springs called Mystic Springs, which on first arrival looked like a dump, after a look around it was still a dump but with some nice hot springs above it, where you can soak in old bathtubs whilst the Mystic Springs run over you. This night we were also introduced to the Bus Toss and the Miracle. These are things the Green Tortoise is particular font off, that and finding amazing dumps. The bus toss is where everything comes of the bus and is packed away to prepare for the overnight sleep on the bus, the Miracle is then the transformation of the bus into sleeping mode, whereby different parts of the bus have knicknames which meant nothing to the New Group and we were never told anything, our head driver Jimmy, would call out things like; 'who wants to sleep in the cave, need two more people for the cave, the honeymoon suites...' I later renamed the Honeymoon Suite to The Operating Table, more anon.
After a sleepless, squashed and totally crappy night on the bus, we woke up* at Arches NP where it was 110 degrees Fahrenheit** and the landscape had arches in it. After bus tossing, another miracle and the palava of breakfast we were off to explore Arches. Arches was hot and had arches, apart from that I wasn't feeling so great and mainly hallucinated about showers and cold beer.

From Arches we we delivered to the town of Moab, where myself, Cathy and Ana dashed all the way to the other end of town to the local swimming pool in the few hours of free time we had before having to be back on the bus. Nearby there was a Hollywood film crew setting up trailers and busing large prop items around including a train and set paraphernalia, apparently it was ohnny Depp film and everyone on the bus got excited, I was more concerned about the prospects of finding my wine in the communal cooler box. Camp that night was by the river, which was fast flowing but nice for a dip whilst hanging onto a root by the edge, and far more relaxed as it wasn't a night drive and everyone had the comfort of tents and a bit of personal space.

Day 4 of the tour involved some more faffing around in Moab and then onto a swimming hole, which was actually a reservoir, and a little bit dump like but actually very nice for swimming, we which needed as we were then heading on to Monument Valley made famous by all those John Wayne Westerns, where there would be no water at all at the camp site. That evenings camp was on first glace a desolate wasteland, but looking right over the Colorado river as it winds its way to the Grand Canyon. It was baking hot and dinner prep tressel tables had been set up behind the bus to catch the shade as the sun slowly went down, there was no other shade, gradually the bus shadow grew longer and longer until the sun finally went down and one could step outside of the shadow boundary without spontaneously combusting. Distant storms persisted for several hours which made up the evenings entertainment. It was an amazingly remote place to be, let alone camp.

The next day we went into Monument valley itself and we had the choice between a horse ride or a jeep ride, most people opted for the jeep mainly because of the heat. It turned out to be much cooler than expected and the Jeep ride was like a land rollar coaster and a lot of fun, you can drive around the monuments or mesas as they are called, but the roads are sand and bumpy so anything without good ground clearance and 4 wheel drive would not be recommended. This was highlighted as we were just finishing the tour and a car barely out of the parking lot had a front wheel in a big sandy ditch and a rear wheel in the air. Oh dear. From MV the bus took up to Lake Powell, Cathy had been looking forward to this as a friend of hers had been there and said how nice it was, after all the dry red hot rocks, some nice quaint lake front town with margaritas and icecreams sounded great.
We passed a power station and a thousand pylons and transformer stations and before arriving at the Green Tortoises swimming hole of choice, a furnace next to a damn and rather reminiscent of a dump.The water was lovely but to get to it, we had to cross smooth rocks that joined the car park to the reservoir, so no beach as such and certainly no margaritas.Crossing those rocks was the hottest temperatures I have ever experienced. That evening we had a whole 5 hours to ourselves before the next dreaded night drive which would lead us to the final canyon of the trip, the Grand Canyon, where we would spent 2 glorious days in one place.We first went to the supermarket and I downed a pint of cold water, then we went to a bar and then to a pizza resturant, and then to a dive bar where Jimmy had said to meet at a certain time, although he didn't show up, didn't matter, we played pool badly and enjoyed air conditioning before once more returning to the bus for the miracle and the nightdrive. I really wanted a bunk but just incase myself and Cathy took a honey moon suite which is on top of the dinette and has very little head space above it, underneath this was The Cave sleeping area. This was the only place from the outside an observer could see people sleeping on the bus, as it was half way up the window, and felt rather like being on an operating table, or a morgue table, all we needed was some little tags around our toes.

We made it! to the Grand Canyon and I even got some sleep on the Operating Table, by 8am we had mircaled, breakfasted and packed up the bus again ready to explore the canyon. A bunch of intrepid's were heading down into the canyon to the base on the Bright Angle Trail to camp and come up the next day, but I choose to do the rim trails instead. Throughout the few days distant thunderstorms threatened us, and could be seen sweeping through the canyon, this keep temperatures down and hiking more pleasurable, on the second day in the canyon, we hiked down to a point called Cedar Ridge to get a different perspective. The campsite was the most comprehensive of the trip and a proper campground, with shower, albeit pay showers, but showers none the less, flush toilets and shade. The Grand Canyon has a free shuttle service much like a lot of American National Parks, which makes it very easy to get from one part of the park to another and keeps cars of the road.

Sadly, our crazy tour was almost at an end, through all the complaining and bizarre camp locations, the heat, the dumps, the bus tossing and miracles; it had become life and normal. We would shortly be heading to Las Vegas where the tour officially ended and my new friends from groups old and new would go their separate ways, either back to normal life or to continue with theirs travels and find new adventures.

*I was already awake
**43 degrees Celsius

Notes:

• The Green Tortoise, follow link for details on this particular tour, but they do many more, including Canada, Alaska and Mexico, from a few days to several weeks.

Yosemite

I loved Yosemite, it was everything I had hoped for and more. I took the Amtrak from San Francisco, which involves a bus across the big grey bridges to the Oakland side of the city, the train to Merced and another bus up to Midpines where the Yosemite Bug hostel awaited.
This was the only part of the trip I had booked accommodation for before I left NZ, I must have booked it in March as I was not going to miss out on this place. It was the main reason for visiting this part of America.
It took 5 hours to travel there from SF and on the way I met 3 people from Carolina also destined for Yosemite to walk the John Muir trail, a 215 mile hike, one of the premiere hiking trails in the US. I was fun sharing the journey with them and especially seeing the degrees to which 'packing light' can be taken, including drying out tooth paste into dots and putting into a tiny container to save weight. They even bought me some cookies while we waited for the connecting bus in Merced.

I arrived at the bug and found it was more like a resort than a hostel, there's a spa, a cafe serving breakfast and dinner and you can also get a packed lunch, it even has it's own hiking trail that loops around it. The dorms and buildings are scattered about a wooded hillside area about 25 miles out from Yosemite park itself. I had booked 6 nights at the Bug.
The next day I hiked up to Nevada falls which is on route to half dome, to do half dome you now need a permit which I would have to apply for over the internet and go into a lottery system and hope for the best.
I had reached the top of Nevada falls and was returning back when I bumped into my friends from the bus again, I had assumed they would have been long gone by now as they were planning to get up early, but it would appear they had been delayed getting their back country permits. I was given a trail name of 'Cookie' as I had just eaten some cookies. They had a long walk ahead of them of a number of weeks of hiking, I hope the toothpaste pellets last. Good out there guys.
That evening I made some new friends at dinner, Erico and Marion, we had an enjoyable evening in the spa and restaurant, they were both leaving the next day.
I had a rest day where I did not too much, I hadn't really stopped, so I just needed to relax for a day.
I applied for half dome permit twice, but both times failed the lottery, you have to apply 2 days prior to when you want to hike, which meant I couldn't apply any more times as I wouldn't be there. I decided instead to hike up to Glacier Point as a fall back plan, I was reading my book on the eve of my last day in Yosemite when some late arrivals from Sacramento came into my room, they were part of a 11 person group all with permits to hike half dome the next day, I wished them luck and told them of my unsuccessful lottery attempts. They asked what I was doing the next day - it turned out they had a spare spot, as they had 12 permits and would I like to join them to hike half dome. I hugged them! Yes, thank you!

Wow! What luck and what a great end to my time in Yosemite to hike the famous half dome. We had to get up at 4.30 am in order to drive to the park and be on the trail to allow enough time (12 hours) to do the hike. We were on the trail by 7.30am, at the top by 1.30pm and 12 long hours after starting, back down by 7.30pm. Plenty of pictures were taken and we spent a few hours at the top so not the whole time was hiking, at the top was also a Marmot who liked being photographed, the cable part was interesting. We were too late to get dinner at the bug restaurant so we had pizzas instead in the park.
It's not a hike I want to do again in a hurry but it's a must do for anyone who likes to walk.

San Francisco

Bit of a gap in the blogging due to being in the desert, more later. So San Francisco, I found San Fran a  good base for exploring other places and have therefore kept returning after trips away. Currently this is the third time I've been here and will return once more before finally leaving the West coast.

In the first instance I had arrived from Portland on the Amtrak before my Yosemite adventure, I was please to find some welcoming dorm room mates and spent the next day cycling around the city which turned out to be a epic ride of 50 miles around the city. We cycled over the Golden Gate bridge along with about 500 other people, and to a little town of Sausalito which is a bit posh and there's an ice cream shop that sells 'ice cream sandwiches', so it's not just an Android operating system. We found a nice cafe to have lunch before catching the ferry back to the main city and then cycling through the city business and shopping districts to the main parks and opposite coast, and finally back to the hostel after probably cycling every hill San Fran has to offer, although after Wellington, it was a piece of cake.

I returned back to San Fran after my Yosemite trip to catch up with Kath and Andrew who happened to be there before they finally flew back to New Zealand after their epic cycling touring trip through various countries, Kath had a mission of going to Oakland to a particular diner a friend of hers had spoken about that sold a local delicacy of fried chicken on waffles with maple syrup. I opted for a lasagna as the combination didn't really sound so appealing, as I thought it was rather odd. Someone just thought if they made the signs big enough and repeated them enough, people would believe. It was a popular place so the marketing clearly was working.

I then had to fly to Las Vegas to pick up a Green Tortoise Canyons of the West tour for a week before returning to San Francisco again. The final time will be after visiting the coast just south of San Francisco to Monterey, Montara and Santa Cruz. 

Route 101 - The Oregon Coast

Route 101 is a nice seaside road that winds its way down the coast, it's fairly quiet and very scenic. It continues down into California and is one of those great road trip driving routes. The weather was wet and cold for the first few days but the coast was beautiful and rugged, comprising of what seemed to be one long endless beach with big rocky outcrops dotted around. I camped each night in Oregon State Parks, although not cheap but at least cheaper than hostelling.
On the third night I found what was to be my favourite place on the coast, and to think I initially drove past, I had stopped at another information point/ historical way point maker to read about some nice little place called Winchester, which was just back the way I came by a few hundred meters. So back I went and first found a lovely pinic spot, so I ate lunch and walked around an idealic little lake which was right next to another camp ground. Further round the headland was a lighthouse and continuing on was the little fishing village of Winchester, where I wandered around and found some local delicacy called Taffy, which are sweets make with salt water or something.

I was taking pictures of some nice old wreck that looked like it could be a painting and found a local who I fell into converstation with, he was a local artist who draws local scenes onto large shells. He recommended I stay in the campground just accross from the village and to say Mike sent me, after I while I took my leave to get some beers, I thought I deserved some after Portland and as I was leaving to get back in the car I heard a shout, I looked around and it was Mike. 'Good luck, Claire' he said, waving. I waved back, it brought a lump to my throat, these people warm my heart.
I went over to said campsite and hosts let me stay for $5! A blessed relief to the wallet, and it was probably the best campsite overall. A lovely view of the village, nice soft grass for the tent to peg into and not far from the facilites. Thanks Mike.
I continued down the 101, walking on beaches, some places reminded me of England. I reached the Redwoods on day 4 on the northern tip of California, and found a scenic drive and went through one of the oldest Redwood forests in the area, it was like an enchanted forest, the dirt track winds for some miles through the magestic trees, and it felt like a sort of ride, like the floaty river rides in Disney where you just go by slowly looking at all the wonderful things. I was heading inland towards Crater Lake, I doubt the friendly family would still be there but it seemed like a good destination and it would make the trip into a round trip then.

Crater Lake used to be a volcano, with a massive laver chamber underneath that gradually emptied through successive erruptions, until there was nothing to support the mountain above and it collapsed and gradually filled up and formed a lake. There is a mini peak on one side of the lake as the volcano continues to erupt, albeit in smaller. Its a spectular place, especially as I had no expectations having never heard of it until a few days earlier. There was still snow on the rim and some areas were still closed due to snow, in one day I had gone from 33 degree heat to 12. I stayed in the campground and had nightmares about mountian lions and bears. The next day was my last full day with the car, my five quid sunglasses had finally broken so I bought a sun hat and headed up towards Portland to be near enough to deposit the car for 10am next day. On route I got stopped by a cop for driving too well, he was in an undercover car and pulled my over for not indictating when I overtook and truck, fair enough, but was mainly concerned about the fact I had kept changing speed. I explained it was an overtaking lane and he was too close for comfort behind me so assumed he wanted to pass, so I went slower as we approached the passing lane so he could pass safetly but when he didn't pass I carried on my normal speed. 'Oh' he said, he seemed surprised that it was in fact his driving that had affected mine. He gave me no ticket but just reminded me to use my indicators when overtaking. I think he learnt something too. I felt slightly smug.

Getting nearer to Portland I went through some dreery towns that the guide book said were nice and got back onto route 26 where I started looking for a place to stay, it was pissing down again and I ended up going up and down one stretch of road 5 times and yet again was practically in tears by the time I found somewhere, but I did enccounter by chance the real location of The Shining, a place called Timberline Lodge near Mt Hood ski area. It's much smaller than I expected, and was only used for exterior shots. I did eventually found a motel with a little house on the prairie style room, but the bed was uncomforable so I got out my Thermarest and slept far better on the floor.

Portland

I took the greyhound bus to Portland, the bus was completely full and the front two seats being taken up by one very large human being. I befriended the least scary looking people and sat with them at the back on the bus next to the toilet and shared snacks. In the end someone got on and had no choice but sit next to what space was left next to the large person.
From the station I got the light rail to the airport where I had booked 2 nights in the Ramada*, a proper hotel, with the luxery of a selection of toweling, a double bed and TV, desk and all that other stuff you get in generic hotels. The reason for this extravagance was all hostels were booked out and I was hiring a car from the airport so being close by was useful. I spent the next half hour trying to make a cup of tea with the tea/coffee facities, which consisted of an mini espresso making appliance which looked rather like a Fisher-Price toy. After trying to follow the instruction** and muking up the first brew I managed in the end to make a rather aweful cup of coffee.

I spent the next day looking around the centre of Portland, there are many bridges in Portland, an excess of bridges. The centre is nice enough and every street corner has a weirdo muttering to themselves. The day after the Ramada shuttle bus took me to the aiport where I picked up the hire car. They gave me a 2012 new car, cringe, it was a Kia Rio or something. I was assured it was very eccomical at 37mpg, guffaw! Thats a land rover by European standards. I spent the next 4 hours*** trying to get out of Portland on route 26 to the coast. It was aweful, I had a Portland map, but still managed to criss cross the river a dozen times over probably every possible bridge before escaping a few times in the wrong direction and finally getting the right peice of tangled spagetti that is Portland freeway system to the coast. I was in tears by the time I achieved this and thought I was to spend the entire 6 days rental trapped in Portland, bit like The Prisoner when the big bubble comes and gets him just as he almost escapes the weird town. But I did escape and it was pouring of rain by the time I got to the coast, the first tow towns seems a bit grim. It was getting late and I was on the look out for a campground, I had stopped at a roadside information point and another car pulled up and asked if I knew of any campgrounds, I said I was looking for the same thing, so we joined forces and just down the road we found a very nice Oregon state park. They told me about a place called Crater Lake and that they were going there the next day, in the car also were 4 red haired girls, they were such a lovely family, the next day they were coming back from the beach and one of the girls gave me a gift of a crab shell she'd found on the beach and just before they left, the eldest gave me a colouring in picture she had done of a seal, so sweet! I put it in my important documents folder.


*Not excatly to the Ramada, that entailed a further 
**Usablity fail
***It was closer to 5.