my life

Today was the first day of our trip down the West coast.

We had arranged to hire a car with Esther and Darran to go down there with and so got up quite early to phone around a few places to see what the best price was. We didn’t get that far, as most of the rental companies required you to be over 25, or the price went sky high.

Because obviously, when you hit the age of 25 the ‘I’m a safe driver‘ neuron fires in the brain and you don’t have any more accidents.

Seeing as Esther was over 25, and we weren’t getting very far over the phone we decided to just go to the airport and try and pick up a bargain.

We all got on the bus and went down to the airport and managed to get a pretty good deal. Only me and Esther could drive, but our reward was a Dodge Stratus.

Everyone had a slight scare in the car park when I set off on the wrong side of the road, after reminding them to remind me to drive on the right. Seriously, I wasn’t messing about. The rental car guy looked a little worried as we drove away.

The highlight of the initial drive was the discovery of the cruise control function which meant that I could drive without my feet. And if you’ve ever been in a car with me, driving without my hands, no feet as well are a scary thought indeed!

We were making our way down to Santa Cruz, a place special in the heart of Shaun, the half-alien we had met a few weeks previously. It was here he lived in the mountains as a self-proclaimed Opium God whilst aristocrats brought him drugs and paid for him to live. But that’s another story.

The drive was absolutely amazing. With a sound track of Belle and Sebastian (thanks Jen!) we stopped off frequently to look at the magical ocean views. The best of which was at sunset where we took loads of photos.

We arrived in Santa Cruz later that evening and cruised around looking for a motel. The thing about the States was it is actually cheaper to stay in a motel most of the time, rather than hostels.

It becomes even cheaper when you manage to scam 4 people in to a room the management think only has 2 people in.

Me and Esther booked the room, and then James and Darran would sneak around stealthily in the shadows, making their move when the coast was clear. This made it probably the cheapest accommodation to date.

After we had unpacked our things we decided to go out and see what Santa Cruz had to offer. Esther and me had left the room (legitimately) then James and Darran snuck out of the dark and round the back to meet up.

What Santa Cruz (although I keep wanting to write Satan Cruz for some reason – crazy fingers) had to offer was a Blackpool style amusement arcade and rides.

The arcade was named ‘Casino’, but contained absolutely no gambling as this is illegal in the state of California. If that doesn’t fall under the trade description act….

I had a go on an MTV drum machine game and played along to Paradise City, then we all went on a turn of the century roller coaster, which was actually really, really good.

Darran was dissapointed at not being allowed in the 3D Kids Playground, but we managed to persuade him not to go in, after some of the kids leaving looked dissapointed to say the least.

The whole place was starting to close anyway so we went bowling. Me and James were convinced that we would whoop collective ass after our 4 hour Jacksonville bowling marathon.

We took pride in explaining the intricate skill of the game of beer drinkers, and wiped the floor with everyone.

We got back to the hotel late, and after another entrance that would have been envied by the SAS, Esther gave tarot card readings before we all crashed out. Of course, she predicted that.

I said goodbye to Sandra today and checked back into the GT hostel. There’s a diffent crowd in there now. Nice people, but after meeting so many new people, sometimes you just can’t be arsed to meet any more.

It’s the same old thing: where are you going? Where are you from? Etc, etc.

We played a few games of pool with a few new lads and went to bed early. We’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow – we’re hiring a car and travelling down to our final destination with Esther and Darran.

LA here we come.

6am this morning! 6am!

I thought there was only one 6. Turns out there are two of them – there’s an AM too!

We left our tent at that time and went to eat a breakfast of eggs, potatos and ham. A strange combination, but quite tasty and very filling.

After taking down our tent, we got our raft ready for another day on the river.

We were out for just 2 hours today, which doesn’t seem like a long time, but after the late one last night, it was long enough.

Adam fell out of the boat today. Very funny, made even funnier by the fact that he took it so seriously and that it wasn’t just bobbing down a river in a rubber thing for him – it was navigating a World first expedition or something!

So when he fell in, I was most amused.

When we had finshed the rafting (and Adam as still going on about how he could have averted the accident, etc) we started our journey back to San Francisco, via the Napa Valley. One of the World’s most famous wine-making regions.

Adam and Rianda (his wifey) spent a whopping $800 on wine today.

Now, I’m no wine expert or anything, but to me it didn’t taste that much differnt (if at all) fom the stuff you can buy in Tescos for a couple of quid. Each to their own I suppose.

After a lot of wine tasting and a big meal in The Black Bull, me and Sandra went back home and staight to bed. Knackered.

So it was early to rise this morning – 8am no less!

We were picked up by Adam – one of Sanrda’s clients in his Jeep stlye thingy – and drove 40 miles to our white water rafting destination.

When we got there, we got kitted out with our helmets and life-saving stuff (and, of course, the raft) and went out into the water.

Such fun!

Much better (and faster) than that rubber ringing thing we did in Zion.

We got to take a water-proof bag in the raft with us and had a nice little picnic on the side of the river about half way through – and what a view too! Unbelievable!

After about 5 hours of bobbing up and down the river (and getting stuck on rocks) we went back to the camp and pithced our tent. It was getting dark so we had to hurry up as dark in this place means REALLY dark. You couldn’t see anything at all.

The rafting organisers (as part of the package) organised a massive buffet meal that night – lots of nice food and as much of it as you could possibly eat.

Pair that with all the drinks you could possibly drink, it made for a really good night!

We started drinking our free margaritas quite early and when everyone was suitably pissed, they started handing out glow sticks to everyone – 80s raver stlye!

Everypone had a great night, flapping our glow sticks and dacning to Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On‘ and other funky soul classics.

As the night drew on the morning came closer, we all left and went back to our tents for a good night’s sleep and to prepare our selves for the next day’s rafting.