This could be a long blog because a lot has happened (and I’ve been slack in blogging).
Here’s a surprise we’ve been sitting on for a few weeks. We may be home much earlier than planned. A mixture of circumstances has forced us to make some decisions we were holding off on but finally we have sold our entire rig and will be heading home shortly.
The first issue we had after arriving in Las Vegas was the recommissioning of the Fifth Wheel and in particular the RAM after 2 years in storage. After sinking over $4000 USD into making it roadworthy our budget took a big hit.
Secondly there’s the weather over here. We are tropical people and we cannot get used to the cold here even though Las Vegas really isn’t that cold. The last two nights I have had to go outside of the van near midnight to disconnect our water lines in case they froze and burst our plumbing in the forecast icy cold night.
Then out of the blue we had a cash offer too good to refuse for our rig. Had we have wanted to wait longer we may have got more but it was a case of the ‘bird in the hand…’ My heart nearly broke when the buyer wanted the RAM as well as we were seriously hoping to bring it back to Australia. I will really miss it and if anyone is considering buying one back home then I’d say go for it.
The final straw has been the explosive growth of the Covid virus. According to figures on www.worldometer.info the USA is having a pandemic growth just over 10 (yes, ten) times worse than Australia. While reports are that Omicron is not as harmful as earlier variants this and these other factors has helped us to make this decision.
So that’s it. We handed over the titles on Jan 12th and we flew to San Francisco on the 14th. We’ll have a week or two to look about SF if the weather allows. From there we don’t have any plans but our original tickets had us transiting through Fiji so when we alter our flights we might look at spending a few weeks there depending on covid rules.
So what have we been up to since we got here? When the last blog post ended we were still in the Plaza Hotel on Fremont St. We’d been to inspect the vehicles and they ‘looked’ good but looks can be deceiving. Using our ‘Good Sam’ membership perks (GS is a commercial version of our RACQ) we had the RAM towed to a nearby mechanic for an actual report and it wasn’t as rosy as we’d hoped. Most of the rubber seals and belts had dried and required replacement. All the fluids from a full tank of petrol to the gear box, clutch and brakes had to be replaced. The tyres had flat spots that wouldn’t come out and while flushing the radiator an inlet pipe broke forcing us to replace the entire radiator. All up it cost over $4k in repairs to get the RAM back to its former glory. Fortunately, having been stowed under cover, the fifth wheel was not in need of any work and was as good as ever (there’s a lesson there in stowage).
Once the RAM was handed back to us we were able to leave the Plaza and move into the rig over at the “KOA at Sam’s Town Casino” just a few miles away from Fremont St. (See the photos in the first gallery.) The weather here has been freezing (by my tropical standards) but the fifth wheel is a ‘cold mountain’ van meaning it is insulated for the cold climates. Luckily for Shane and I when we left the USA last time (Dec 2019) we left a range of warm clothing in the van so we weren’t going to be entirely forced to stay home all the time. To give the RAM a full on test we did another run towards Lake Mead then through the Valley of Fires before turning down the I-15 back to Sam’s. The 100 mile plus loop shook any final bugs out of the RAM and this has made me more sad to leave it behind.
We’ve also been eating out much more than usual. We couldn’t leave Vegas without a visit to one of our favourite restaurants, The Rainforest Café. With floor to ceiling jungle décor sprinkled with animatronic animals it is fun to ‘endure a tropical thunderstorm’ while eating. We also had Xmas dinner at TGIF though it wasn’t anything grand at all. On our wedding anniversary we are visiting another favourite in Red Lobster. This is obviously a seafood restaurant and we always enjoy a meal here.
Eating isn’t all we’ve done. We finally got to go to an Ice Hockey Game and what a thriller of a game it was. The local Las Vegas Golden Knights played the Winnipeg Jets from Canada at the local T-Mobile Arena otherwise known these days as the Fortress. With just 2 minutes to go we were down 3-4. Then we pulled off the most ludicrous play I have ever seen. The coach pulled the goalie off leaving no one to guard the goal. He replaced him with another striker and for the next 2 minutes we gallantly held Winnipeg off until with 8 seconds to go we scored to force overtime. With reduced numbers the fight was on with the first to score to take out the game. In the third minute Winnipeg got a shot past our goalie and it was all over but it was easy to see why Ice Hockey is such a popular sport. It was exciting.
Another time we did our usual where possible and visited a Bas-Pro store. I have highlighted these stores in previous blog posts and the Vegas store is no different. The store is almost a tourist stop in itself. This store is joined to the Silverton Casino and once you’ve finished shopping (looking) you walk straight into the casino. Our stay here in Vegas has been great but the biggest surprise was when Shane and I both did the “Slotzilla” zipline. Wow, what a buzz that is. From 11 storeys up you literally fly for the full length of Fremont Street Experience at breakneck speed.
That is about it for Las Vegas though I have to mention my new little mate. 5 year old Kayden was a terrific little fellow who with mum Aleisha lived in a van opposite ours. Once we’d said hello everyday, all day you could hear Kayden “Hey Garry. Are you home?”, “Can you come out and play”, “Can I come to your place” and my favourite “what ya doin Garry?” He was never a bother but he and Aliesha added a touch of friendly welcome to us. They won’t be forgotten.
We’re now in beautiful San Francisco for 2 weeks before flying home to Townsville. Our hotel, The Hyatt Centric is just a block from the famous Pier 39 and we are loving this stay. The cities starting with ‘San’ must be the most pretty cities in the USA. San Diego was very nice. San Antonio in Texas was gorgeous and San Francisco is just as picturesque though in a different way. The architecture of San Fran has to be seen to be believed. It is definitely unique and so much is historical. We’ve been to Chinatown, driven (on a tour bus) over both the Golden Gate and the San Fran-Oakland Bridges.
I was particularly interested to walk the Haight-Asbury area where in 1967 the Hippie Movement and the Year of Love and Peace began. To see the homes of Hendrix, Joplin, Gerry Garcia and so many other founders of rock music is fabulous. Then there is the Saint Peter and Paul Italian Church (as seen in Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movie). And of course there’s riding the Cable Cars up and down the steepest hills anywhere. Shane’s favourite was Lombard street where 1 block is traversed by 8 hairpin bends to reduce the slope from an unmanageable 27 degree slope to 16 degrees. On some days there are up to 350 cars queued up to drive this block it is such a tourist magnet.
No doubt there will be more to post next time but until then take care and hopefully we’ll see you back home (maybe at Karen’s wedding).
Garry & Shane
Played catch up again and good to see your still kicking, missed the reunion as we were on the road, in fact you wandered over our tracks out west if not passed us by, out west Optus or Telstra is what you need as the providers that just use the main boys as carriers don’t work, we use Telstra pre paid @$30/mth, 10gb of data which unused can be banked, between us there’s over 400gb of data sitting there, best deal I have found actually for phones, our internet is mostly with a mobile broadband NIghthawk @70gb no landline at home so its all we use…………………….
I had been wondering how the rig was handling storage and it was sad to read you had to sell it up….. We still rumble around the countryside venturing into NSW a couple of times to visit the tribe dodging the lurgy, was quite good as few folk around and if you read the fine print crossing the border wasn’t all that difficult …………….. Various happenings mean we won’t be on the road till Aug this year so miss our autumn tour but at the moment with water and fuel costs probably better to stay at home………… I would still like a RAM 1500 but the Jeep is going great.
Hi mate, Glad to hear from you again. We eventually defeated the poor (non-existent) reception by purchasing cheap Telstra SIMs. We have dual SIM phones for travelling so it was no big deal to swap.
I was so sad to leave the RAM behind in the USA. It was undoubtably the best vehicle I have ever driven but the Australian Gov’t makes importation so hard I eventually gave up. And they are so cheap to buy over there I almost cried as the new owners drove off. I suppose the bright side is that with the hikes in fuel prices I probably couldn’t afford to fuel up here. As for the RV, I would never tow anything else than a 5th wheel after this. So easy to tow and with so much room they eat other types of RVs.
We might end up back in the USA to do the northern states at a later date but for now I am planning Bali again in May then using it as a base for more SE Asia travels. We’re also considering flying to Lisbon then driving the northern Med coast to Croatia. That’s Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia down through the Eastern Med countries to Greece. All just a dream at the moment but with planning it should happen.
Have to go so catch you later. BTW- The p/u on the Sunny Coast was a hoot (as always).