The last two months have flown by, but when we look at what we have done, it seems like a lifetime’s worth. Joe was reminding the kids: walking on a glacier, seeing Niagara Falls, staying with bears in Yosemite, crossing a continent, watching whales off Vancouver Island, New York city, Grand Canyon, moving a priceless telescope, driving up Big Sur, swimming above the arctic watershed, listening to the wolves, Death Valley, and the list goes on.
So how has it gone? Well, better than I think we could ever have hoped for. The kids have simply taken it all in their stride, sleeping anywhere, sleeping in one bed, and very little fighting (OK, so a bit of fighting “she called me a girl!” “well he said I had a willy!”). Though they don’t tend to go to sleep till about 10.00am, they aren’t driving me and Joe completely spare, infact we’re all getting on great. They’ve definitely become more cheeky and we have no authority whatsoever, but we’re all very close now.
Joe pointed out today that we’ve driven 6,000 miles, in a camper van and a minivan, without a bump or major incident. We’ve got very used to driving 6 lane highways and tiny hairpin roads, in whatever vehicle presents itself.
On the plus side, Jen hasn’t been sick once, and has only had two paddies! She still doesn’t eat, but seems very happy and healthy as long as she has her family, access to a toilet, her Meg and Mog book and preferably a Bible to hand. Rowan is developing a really wry sense of humour, knows how to cook her own pancake breakfast and happily trolls off to the office for breakfast by herself. Little miss independence, all over. Rhys and Row have showed an amazing apititude for learning languages, infact Rhys is super fast at learning a lot of stuff. He’s also king of the philosophical question! He’s the only one who worries about stuff, like whether the house will burn down while we’re away and if all his toys will be there when he gets back. Deep down, he does miss home.
So today we gave back our last vehicle until possibly Christmas, or May today. We hadn’t got quite as emotionally attached to Derrick as to Doris, but then he wasn’t our home, just our ride! The kids will certainly miss having a DVD player at their beck and call whenever we’re on the road, and guiltily, so will we. The last journey of Derrick was fraught, to say the least. On 2 hours sleep, I wasn’t in the best of moods. We also very nearly lost £500 of travellers cheques. Derrick had a lockable compartment under the passenger seat, where passports, tickets and money has sat for a month. Joe emptied it last night, but no travellers cheques. As I have only cashed one, in Yosemite, we knew they could have been taken/lost at any time … oh dear. Well its not the end of the world, but its a lot of money and we ransacked all our stuff, unpacking everything that had been so carefully packed, arghhhh. I was adamant they were in the car, and on the third journey to the car in the wee small hours, Joe found them, wedged in the upholstery above the lockable case! Someone would have had a nice surprise in a few months time if we had just assumed they were in our packs somewhere.
So, we set out with a deadline of 10.00am to get to the airport rental centre. We had very little petrol, and knew the rush hour would be bad, so left just before 8. It was a good 30 miles to the airport but we needed a receipt for petrol within 10 miles of the place. All was going OK, slowly, but OK, and by 9.30 we were at the exit and within sight of the rental centre. Alas, we were also in sight of a cop car blocking the sliproad, and no diversion signs. We took the next exit and I winged it, having been on the warning petrol light for a fair while. Spotting a garage, we hoofed it off the freeways and then got promptly lost. So Joe and I swapped, I had my own paddy (and then a cigarette to calm down) and Joe, miraculously, drove just a few blocks the other way to find a) the garage and b) that we could get back to the rental centre by another route. We left the garage at 9.53. If we were later than 10, we had to pay another day’s rental. At 9.58, we pulled in.
San Fran has been serendipitous all round. I think it was Heminway who said that the only place in California he had even been cold in Summer was San Francisco. But then, Herb Caen said “if I ever get to heaven, I’ll say ‘sure, its great, but it aint San Francisco.’” The sun has shone on completely blue skies every one of our days here, no fog in sight, and like so many millions before us we fell heads over heels in love with the city. Its small, with amazingly steep hills, surrounded by glorious coast, mountains, and bridges. Small, upmarket communities like Sausalito are beautiful (and wayyy expensive) and people commute amiably over a glass of wine on high speed ferries. We didn’t meet a single person who wasn’t friendly.
The city is full of music, noise, a whole raft of cultures and races and good humour. Sealion-ebrities greet you as you step off the boat at Pier 39, and drag queens parade Fishermans Wharf. Cable cars heave up Nob Hill, Russian Hill and down Market street, through Chinatown where they sell anything and everything including – much to the kids horror and delight – great big frogs for eating. Old wooden houses line the hills and the skyscrapers are modest, mingling harmoniously with the older buildings.
And so, ending on a very high note, we head off to central then South America.
Pura vida all, hasta luego.
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
StumbleUpon