Southwest USA Travelogue - Joshua Tree National Park

You know that feeling? Demolished? Did anybody say jet-lag? We go for the Starbucks revival experience.
At 8.30 AM we are waiting outside for the included transfer to the RV-rent-office. 8.50 AM. Nothing happens except for the arrival of a limousine. A Chinese driver, must be mafia.

"Cruise America?" he asks. (Oh sorry, nothing said). "The limousine, cause I'm late". It sounds so logic. Ready for camping with a RV, transfer by limousine. Best, why not? A nice lady shows us around in our new home for the coming weeks. An extensive video instructs what to do and how (to get rid of the sht) and what not to do (never drive backwards without somebody outside). Several forms to fill in, credit card and off we go. First to a nearby Walmart. For us everything here is big. The Walmart, the packaging, the people. Lots of things to buy. Cheese, butter, toilet paper, Californian wine for just 2$. Not bad, but after paying we are over $150 poorer anyway.

OK. And now we really go. GPS directed to a camp site in Yucca Valley, not far from Joshua Tree National Park. High ways, 6 lanes, 5 lanes, lot of concrete, condition not too good. The navigation shows the lanes we can keep in green. Handy, sometimes we get an extra lane, sometimes we lose two. The further we get from LA, the less cars on the road, the less lanes, the better the road condition. (Huh?) Every now and then we feel the wind, seems to  

be normal here. We see lots of wind mills, hundreds of them. At the camp site the office is open, nobody is there. A sign reads: "Find yourself a place, back in a moment".
Very carefully we park in backwards and we attach the water and the 110 V. Yes, we got light. When we are all settled we have to disconnect again and find our selves a nice steak.

Back at the camp site we talk to some nice people. A lot of older Americans are travelling with their own RV. These guys know Holland but what for, I don't recall. We immediately receive a book about "Earthing". Nice gesture. Still have find out what it is about. Jet-lag. At 8.30 PM it is over and out.

Breakfast at 07.00 AM and we are heading for the Joshua Tree National Park visitors center. We buy a year ticket for all national parks for $ 80, so 4 parks and we're break even.Via the west entrance we enter the park. What a wonderful landscape, full of Joshua trees. According to legend, Mormon pioneers considered the limbs of the Joshua trees to resemble the upstretched arms of Joshua, leading them to the promised land. Actually, I think they are just big Yucca's. Some rock hills

seem to be built up completely of separate stones. There are not many vehicles in the park. Halfway we take an exit to the right, notwithstanding a warning that the road is narrower. No problem for our RV. From the parking we walk to the viewpoint. What a magnificent sight. With a clear sky it must be possible to look into Mexico. We cannot look that far, but the nearby city of Palm Springs, at the opposite side of the valley and at at the foot of the mountains, is 31 kilometers away! The San Andreas Fault line runs through this valley. Because of a warning for aggressive bees we don't stay to long. 

On our way to the northern entrance of the park we pass Skull Rock.

This is our first National Park and we are already very impressed.

For my video impression look at

Joshua Tree National Park

Southwest USA Travelogue: Los Angeles

I am so lucky having opportunities to visit remote spots, make films and write about it.

Today, we try to travel from Amsterdam to Los Angeles.

Traveling might be fun or just stressful. We have to transfer in Houston. Late departure from Schiphol Airport now leaves us with only one hour to go. From International to domestic. Impossible? The arrival hall is packed with people, queued for customs. A yelling lady - incomprehensible "Los Angeles or San Fransisco?" - directs us to the next hall. Queue lengths are here half the size. With the Electronic System for Travel Authorization we still have to leave behind 10 fingerprints and a nice photo. We have luck, do we? The suitcases are already on the luggage belt. However, we may have entered the United States, our suitcases have not. Another queue. No problem. We already have a boarding pass for our transfer flight, but where to drop the suitcases for our flight to Los Angeles? OK. Found it, Next queue, security check, taking too long. Now we really have to run, from the E-terminal to gate C43. Just 10 minutes before STD arriving at the gate, breathless.

So, impossible? Not for us, but for our suitcases it is...

Jet-lag. At 2 AM, sort of conscious again, the phone in our hotel room is flashing. 2.30 AM, nice time to unpack.

"Good morning. How can I help you?". Thanks to Starbucks we revive. We only have one day to experience Los Angeles, thus, renting a car is a requirement. And renting a car is easy and cheap. For the reservation in combination with the booking of the complete America trip we paid only 25 euro's (± $ 33.00), for the whole day.

Straight to Hollywood Boulevard where tourists are trampling the stars of the - mostly rich and - famous. Before we went to the USA I didn't know what to expect from the average American. One of the European prejudices of Americans is being superficial. True or not, we have met a lot of friendly Americans. While trying to pay for the parking with a credit card a big black guy immediately wants to help entering the requested data. After the "No, thank you" on his attempt to sell us a tour he still is friendly.

We drive into the hills to the Griffith park and the Observatory. To the right we look at the famous HOLLYWOOD letters on the hillside, to the left we have a magnificent view over down town LA. We descend in the direction of Sunset Boulevard and through Beverly Hills we reach the expensive Rodeo Drive. If you can't or don't want to spend money here watching the pedestrians won't bore you either.We have some early lunch at a Mexican restaurant and we are in luck. Officially not yet opened, but the Tuesday offers us three different tacos for $1 each, including a large diet Coke!

Next stop: Santa Monica. The famous Pier resembles an amusement park, but the nice weather and people passing by our terrace make our day.

Last stop for today: Venice Beach, home of the hippies. We are surprised by the smell of hash and people demonstrating for the legalization of marijuana. We known this from Holland, but hey, this is America. While the sun is trying to meet the horizon, we form part of the public watching the skaters horizontally taking the turns in the special concrete tracks.

The car navigation guides us back to the car rental and for the 25 euro (plus gasoline) we are even brought back to the hotel in a mini-van.

Watch the video impression of our quick tour Los Angeles.

To be continued...