Day 8 - Santa Monica

On our last day, we had a beautiful morning wakeup in Malibu (sleeping with the waves as a natural lullaby was the best!). After a quick breakfast and packing and cleaning sessions, the ladies were dropped off (along with all the luggage) at our hotel - the Embassy Suites LAX South. Here we stayed put and caught up on reading and Facebook while the guys went to return the RV. We'd miss it, but man, doesn't a real bed sound like a dream right now? After a few hours of bugging for a room to put our luggage in, we all relaxed RV-less and planned our afternoon and evening.

To get to Santa Monica Pier, we needed to take a local LA bus called the Big Blue Bus from the airport to Santa Monica. This was probably the most productive people-watching I've done in a long time. First, we headed out on a shuttle from the Embassy Suites to LAX and found the bus bay we needed. The eventual bus ride (with its rotating cast of characters as passengers) took about 35 minutes. Once we headed to the pier, we found the "ceremonial" end of the Route in Palisades Park, just a block from the Pier itself.

A plaque commemorates Will Rogers as the father of Route 66 and along with the many things along the Route in his name, this is the final stop. While the "real" end is somewhere at Santa Monica Blvd/Freeway and Ocean Avenue, this area is MUCH less gratifying and so we enjoyed taking pictures in the park and celebrating the end of our journey.

After photographing the end of the Route, we headed to the Pier and walked along to see the restaurants, carousel, and feel the ocean air for the last time.

After a quick walk and some last-minute souvenir purchases, we headed to dinner a bit early at a GREAT tapas place INSIDE a Nordstrom called Blue Stove. For a cheaper-than-typical-California price but at the same gorgeous quality, we had a wonderful early dinner and end to our adventure. I found it a great time for a champagne (ok, it's really prosecco!) toast:

We walked back to our Big Blue Bus and headed back to the Embassy Suites for a relaxing night of hot tubbing, packing, and getting ready for the flight home the next day!

Added: Day 9 - Heading Home! We had a famous Embassy Suites omelette/made-to-order breakfast and then headed to LAX for our trip back to Philadelphia through Phoenix. All flights were uneventful and smooth and we made it back (with all 12 pieces of our luggage, too!) in one piece. I already miss the California air, but it's nice to be home with all our memories. Now, to go through the pictures!!

A note from Siobhan: Thanks to all for reading about our adventure - it's been a ton of fun (even with our Internet issues!) keeping up with everything and making our trip into a story. I feel so blessed and happy that I can travel like this with Chris and his family and I am so glad I have been so welcomed to be included on the trip! We had such a wonderful time and would rent another RV in a second! Any ideas where we should go next?!

Day 7 - California

We awoke in much better spirits today at the Shady Oasis and took our time having pancakes and taking showers in the California sun. We are headed toward some rough roads today – Los Angeles County freeways. We planned our route last night and are hoping for the best! The mild and sunny weather in California this morning helped quite a bit.

Our first stop was the California Route 66 Museum where we met the exceptionally friendly staff for a trip down Route 66 memory lane and some group pics. Check out Facebook for the shots they took of us!

Our next stop was the first McDonald's which contained a museum and TONS of McDonald's memorabilia, which we of course loved for the memories it brought back and the history we learned.

From here, we headed out of Victorville and found some great signage on our way out of town:

Along our drive through San Bernardino County, we first encountered the crazy mountains that met us after such a long trip in the desert yesterday. Cajon Pass was our first glimpse at these mountains and how the roads and railroad tracks have been carved through them:

We also saw a ton of signage along the old route through the county:

After a while, we moved from the old route to the freeway in Los Angeles County to move to our RV Park quicker - which we soon found out was NOT the quickest way. We encountered LA traffic very soon and sat in it on our way to the Malibu Beach RV Park for the night. Soon enough, we hit the Santa Monica beach and got our first views of the Pacific Ocean!

Once we checked in and registered, we nestled in and started the charcoal grill for a dinner of steaks and potatoes. Just what we had planned for the last night in the RV! After dinner, Chris, Shawn, Amy, Kathy, and I walked down to the beach for a closer look at the ocean and a couple of photo ops. We got VERY friendly with the Pacific on the rocks on the beach (and our clothes are now drying), but got some great shots!

Chris and I escaped a bit too late and got a bit wet from the spray - but we walked away without too much problem:

Our delicious dinner was finished off with some popcorn and s'mores outside on the grill. A wonderful last night in the RV and almost end to our trip - it's been a great journey!!

Day 6 - Lake Havasu to California

The light this morning made us sad we had missed the view from our site last night! The RV park was situated right on the lake and we had a wonderful view (once the morning rain stopped and the sun made us a little warmer) for pictures:

We made ourselves some eggs and hashbrowns and headed out in the spotty, rainy but warm weather to go down to the London Bridge in downtown Lake Havasu City. We got some great pictures of this old English monument, transplanted to Arizona in 1971 (FYI – it’s the second most popular tourist attraction in Arizona, second to the Grand Canyon!):

After this break, we headed back out on the road for a long stretch through the desert heading into California.

Along our way, we drove through Needles (supposedly the hottest town in America, it was a balmy 70 degrees) along a bumpy road and headed to Goffs where we stopped for some lunch. Since Shawn and I have been on a mission for tumbleweeds, Amy and Shawn stopped and set up a great picture when we found some tumbleweed on the side of the road. We, of course, took pictures (and a video) of them setting this up and chasing it down the road!

We then followed down the road through Fenner, Essex, Danby, and many other smaller towns with signage and historic sites along the road, including the Amboy Crater and Lava Field.

Along the route were a few landmarks called the Shoe Tree (there was also a Bra Tree and Underwear Tree - I spared you pictures of those) which was a collection of travelers' donations of shoes along the years.

We then traveled down the road through many other smaller towns and made a stop in Barstow for some group photos and shots of signs.

Outside of Barstow before a small town called Helendale, we came across the Bottle Cactus Ranch – a great garden of bottle and glass creations by a local man. It was SUCH a cool stop.

We then headed directly to dinner at a place I had found via Yelp called Out of This World BBQ in nearby Apple Valley. 

Once we were filled with good amounts of BBQ (we definitely needed a break from southwestern & Mexican food), we headed out – and then our night got interesting.

Our reservations were set up to stay at the Mojave Narrows Regional Park RV area in Victorville – confirmation accepted and deposit paid. I should mention at this point that we had been driving at least 7 hours and the sun was just beginning to set and we were ready to relax for the night. However, the San Bernadino County park that we pulled in to was most definitely closed for the night. We called many answering machines and several phone numbers (including a sheriff’s office, who had NO IDEA what we were referencing in our questions) to no avail. Luckily, technology was on our side that night and Chris was able to pull up a closer RV Park where we could register and stay for the night. Thankfully, the staff at the Shady Oasis (which very much lived up to its name for us!) were extremely helpful and we settled down for the (cold!) evening, made more drinks than usual and planned our disappointed phone calls for the next day.

All what you sign up for when traveling on the road!

All in all, a great day with lots of history and fun –