In a word, hot. The Fat Kiwi isn't really known for its air conditioning, although it works in a pinch (we got it fixed before we left). But America in general is pretty warm in the summertime. We're using up a lot of sunscreen. It seems you need to have SPF 50 or 70 for it to have any effect. And neither of us can live without sunglasses, particularly in national parks. The higher up you go in elevation, the clearer the air is, and hence the light is harsher. It's not for nothing that everyone in America seems to wear sunglasses.
The second word would be, busy. We imagined we'd have more time on the road to do blog posts, email etc, but in reality we get up reasonably early, make breakfast, and get on the road to our first destination of the day. We spend time at our destination, make lunch, get back in the car and drive some more to our next destination, rinse and repeat. Then around 10pm we start working out where we'll sleep for the night. Unless we're in a national park, when the problem should have been solved hours earlier (i.e. before lunch) or we're in trouble! By 11pm we make dinner, and fall asleep. This is our day. There is also lots of time spent stoppng for petrol.
At present, we only have one power point available. Usually this is taken up with the GPS charger and the power inverter to run the laptop. Except we're usually out of cell range somewhere in the wops so there's none or sporadic internet for blogging, and the laptop only charges when the Fat Kiwi is stopped. (Quirk of the car battery - don't ask.)
We're also spending an awful lot of time etc at the mechanic's! In the paraphrased words of a couple who did a year-long road trip around America: an RV is both a car, and a house. This means you get all the problems of a car, plus all the problems of a house. We just got out of the mechanic's in Mineapolis, and I think they did something to our house battery. Now when we wake up every morning, the house battery has drained overnight. Which means our fridge is a bit unhappy.
Overall though, it's fantastic that the Fat Kiwi is more like a house on wheels. Even if just for the fact of having a stove, a toilet, and running water. It means you can do things like park in a rest stop or Walmart car park for the night. And we're having lots of fun. More blog posts to come, promise.
Showing posts with label Fat Kiwi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fat Kiwi. Show all posts
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
An afternoon in Liberty Lake, WA
The Fat Kiwi decided to break in several important places: the electricity, the water pump, the grey water and the sewage (especially worrying!). So it became a van for a few days, which was very inconvenient for us. In a small town just out of the city of Spokane, called Liberty Lake, we were holed up for an afternoon on a hot sunny day while the RV mechanics worked on it. Another couple we met had been waiting for parts for three weeks for their RV to be fixed!
Liberty Lake was a sort of Everynewtown, USA. There weren't many people about, and the town itself consisted entirely of the traditional strip mall pattern with an Albertsons, a Walgreens, Pizza Hutt, Starbucks, about five fast food places and various other chain stores. Another store was being built. It looked like a toy made of plasterboard. The air was hot, and dusty. It was a long walk between the RV place and the mall area. While someone had at least made an attempt at a pavement in some places, this wasn't really a town made for walking.
The houses had that cookie-cutter look when an entire town is stamped into being by the same developers in a matter of months, which can't develop 'character' with simply a coat of paint and some different lawn ornaments.
Lacking anything to do, we got haircuts. The hairdresser who did Brendan's hair was large, cheerful and had blonde highlights pulled into two small buns near the top of her head. She chatted away amicably to him. The hairdresser who did my hair thought we were from England, despite repeated statements to the contrary. She stopped at one point to take a phone call from her pre-teen son, suggesting if he was bored that there was plenty of garden out back which needed weeding.
With the Fat Kiwi back in action, we drove through the northern part of Idaho. The Fat Kiwi really didn't like all the hills here. This part of Idaho used to be one of the main silver mining areas in the States, as well as metals such as gold and lead.
On into Montana, which is mostly rural. A town called Rock Creek Lodge had just finished holding its annual "Testicle Festival". One can only surmise what goes on there!
Here is a typical roadside sign. All along the freeways, at each town the signs look like this. They show which companies offering fuel, food or lodging are available, and have been a real lifesaver for us many times regarding fuel. Sometimes you can see the petrol stations from the freeway, but often you wouldn't know they were there and have to rely on the signs for guidance. This sign is from Montana.
The girl in the gas station we stopped at was blonde, and couldn't have been much older than 18. She was taking out frozen doughnuts to drop in the deep fryer, setting them in neat rows on a metal tray. She looked at me. We had a short conversation about the doughnuts which wasn't really about the doughnuts. It was underpinned by the unspoken feeling that she was incredibly bored. Having worked retail, I could certainly commiserate.
I sat in the car and tried to imagine spending a lifetime in a small, bland city like this, a lifetime spent making doughnuts in a service station just off the highway. I wondered whether she had much option. I hoped it was simply her summer job for college.
Liberty Lake was a sort of Everynewtown, USA. There weren't many people about, and the town itself consisted entirely of the traditional strip mall pattern with an Albertsons, a Walgreens, Pizza Hutt, Starbucks, about five fast food places and various other chain stores. Another store was being built. It looked like a toy made of plasterboard. The air was hot, and dusty. It was a long walk between the RV place and the mall area. While someone had at least made an attempt at a pavement in some places, this wasn't really a town made for walking.
The houses had that cookie-cutter look when an entire town is stamped into being by the same developers in a matter of months, which can't develop 'character' with simply a coat of paint and some different lawn ornaments.
Lacking anything to do, we got haircuts. The hairdresser who did Brendan's hair was large, cheerful and had blonde highlights pulled into two small buns near the top of her head. She chatted away amicably to him. The hairdresser who did my hair thought we were from England, despite repeated statements to the contrary. She stopped at one point to take a phone call from her pre-teen son, suggesting if he was bored that there was plenty of garden out back which needed weeding.
With the Fat Kiwi back in action, we drove through the northern part of Idaho. The Fat Kiwi really didn't like all the hills here. This part of Idaho used to be one of the main silver mining areas in the States, as well as metals such as gold and lead.
On into Montana, which is mostly rural. A town called Rock Creek Lodge had just finished holding its annual "Testicle Festival". One can only surmise what goes on there!
Here is a typical roadside sign. All along the freeways, at each town the signs look like this. They show which companies offering fuel, food or lodging are available, and have been a real lifesaver for us many times regarding fuel. Sometimes you can see the petrol stations from the freeway, but often you wouldn't know they were there and have to rely on the signs for guidance. This sign is from Montana.
The girl in the gas station we stopped at was blonde, and couldn't have been much older than 18. She was taking out frozen doughnuts to drop in the deep fryer, setting them in neat rows on a metal tray. She looked at me. We had a short conversation about the doughnuts which wasn't really about the doughnuts. It was underpinned by the unspoken feeling that she was incredibly bored. Having worked retail, I could certainly commiserate.
I sat in the car and tried to imagine spending a lifetime in a small, bland city like this, a lifetime spent making doughnuts in a service station just off the highway. I wondered whether she had much option. I hoped it was simply her summer job for college.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Fat Kiwi Flaps It's Wings
Of course, being a Kiwi, it stays firmly and slowly on the ground while it does so. Monday was a long day finishing our packing and cleaning, and we didn't get the van back from the mechanic until 7pm! So our original goal of leaving at 5am for our first day was missed by a few hours.
Now, however, we're on the road properly. We essentially decided to drive part of the way to our first destination last night, and then to start tomorrow as if it were our first day.
Currently we're en-route to our first destination, Mt Shasta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Shasta. We'll be there for a few hours to take a look around and will then continue north over the border to Crater Lake in Oregon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake, where we'll stay the night.
Now, however, we're on the road properly. We essentially decided to drive part of the way to our first destination last night, and then to start tomorrow as if it were our first day.
Currently we're en-route to our first destination, Mt Shasta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Shasta. We'll be there for a few hours to take a look around and will then continue north over the border to Crater Lake in Oregon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake, where we'll stay the night.
Friday, July 18, 2008
The Great American Road Trip. And packing... ick.
The countdown is 3.5 days until we leave. The Fat Kiwi is visiting various mechanics (with much expensiveness!), trips to San Jose and back are being made with alarming frequency (for said mechanics and work-related things), and tomorrow we send off everything we're shipping to the UK. Except we're not completely packed yet. So Brendan and I are sculling caffeine while we finish off computer issues and paperwork. (I specially made mine earlier as an iced "mocha" [mo-ka] - "mochaccino" isn't actually a word in America, apparently, yet "cappaccino" is. Brendan prefers RockStar energy drink.)
So the short version of our itinerary in the Great American Road trip is thus: San Francisco to Seattle; Seattle to Yellowstone to Chicago; Chicago to Boston to New York; New York to Philadelphia and down the East Coast to Miami; Miami to New Orleans. If you need us, email first then call our cells second. Just cos it's cheaper. ;)
Yesterday we had an open house to find someone to rent our apartment. We didn't actually manage to attend! We were in San Jose at the RV mechanic's, learning how to make the Fat Kiwi work. We just made sure to hide the electronics before we left. Brendan arrived home around 7pm to find a man sitting forlornly on the steps outside the building, looking at his watch. He was an hour or so late to the actual open home, so Brendan showed him round. He was very grateful.
Our house is looking rather bare right now - we don't have any couches any more, just a small wooden chair and my computer chair. (Guess who stole that! ;)) We're trying to sell our car, which is always a frustrating exercise. People call at all hours of the day and night, and don't seem to have taken the time to read the ad. They make obscenely low offers in the hope that you're desperate enough to accept, or make appointments and don't show up. Someone called last night at 2am, and asked near the end of the conversation, whether we had cocaine. Um, no. We're selling a car.
So the short version of our itinerary in the Great American Road trip is thus: San Francisco to Seattle; Seattle to Yellowstone to Chicago; Chicago to Boston to New York; New York to Philadelphia and down the East Coast to Miami; Miami to New Orleans. If you need us, email first then call our cells second. Just cos it's cheaper. ;)
Yesterday we had an open house to find someone to rent our apartment. We didn't actually manage to attend! We were in San Jose at the RV mechanic's, learning how to make the Fat Kiwi work. We just made sure to hide the electronics before we left. Brendan arrived home around 7pm to find a man sitting forlornly on the steps outside the building, looking at his watch. He was an hour or so late to the actual open home, so Brendan showed him round. He was very grateful.
Our house is looking rather bare right now - we don't have any couches any more, just a small wooden chair and my computer chair. (Guess who stole that! ;)) We're trying to sell our car, which is always a frustrating exercise. People call at all hours of the day and night, and don't seem to have taken the time to read the ad. They make obscenely low offers in the hope that you're desperate enough to accept, or make appointments and don't show up. Someone called last night at 2am, and asked near the end of the conversation, whether we had cocaine. Um, no. We're selling a car.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Fat Kiwi is on Google Maps!
You can only see it if you look exactly at the intersection between the two streets. If you move up or down, you can't see it anymore. The cars are different. I love it!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Fat Kiwi Progress
Today Brendan and I laboured long and hard stripping off the carpet in the front seat area of the van, along with the rubber steps on the doors. We tried using straight mineral spirits on the rubber cement under the carpet, but it just wouldn't budge. So we had to try and scrape it off with a wire brush. Very slow going. One half of the passenger side has been done - it took me ages!
We then drove up to somewhere around Marin County and got petrol. We stopped for icecream next to the Frank Lloyd Wright Civic Center building, which is extremely long and bizarre. From space it looks like a robot spider leg.
Brendan found the biggest can of Rockstar energy drink ever! I had a giant Trumpet-style icecream, which in America is called a Drumstick.
Once we got back into San Francisco, we spent ages driving around SoMa (South of Market) trying to remember where we'd seen the car-wash place. Finally we found it right opposite Costco, one of our local supermarkets. I knew we'd seen it somewhere obvious.....
We vacuumed the van so it's nice now. It feels less grimy. I still want to spray it with the strongest sanitising chemicals available, though. The carpet is really disgusting.
Lastly, we painted the wooden part of the floor with nice shiny decking paint.
I persuaded Brendan to drive me out to the Broadway Tunnel, so we could see some street art created recently using soap and a high-powered water blaster to blast away the dirt. The image is surprisingly detailed.
We then drove up to somewhere around Marin County and got petrol. We stopped for icecream next to the Frank Lloyd Wright Civic Center building, which is extremely long and bizarre. From space it looks like a robot spider leg.
Brendan found the biggest can of Rockstar energy drink ever! I had a giant Trumpet-style icecream, which in America is called a Drumstick.
Once we got back into San Francisco, we spent ages driving around SoMa (South of Market) trying to remember where we'd seen the car-wash place. Finally we found it right opposite Costco, one of our local supermarkets. I knew we'd seen it somewhere obvious.....
We vacuumed the van so it's nice now. It feels less grimy. I still want to spray it with the strongest sanitising chemicals available, though. The carpet is really disgusting.
Lastly, we painted the wooden part of the floor with nice shiny decking paint.
I persuaded Brendan to drive me out to the Broadway Tunnel, so we could see some street art created recently using soap and a high-powered water blaster to blast away the dirt. The image is surprisingly detailed.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The Fat Kiwi is blue.... and Chinatown contains strange things
Today we finished painting the last of the Fat Kiwi, just before the last cans of spraypaint ran out.
Here we are:
So now the doors are on, the door handles are on, and the doors and the rest of the cabin are painted. Happiness.
We also visited Chinatown this morning, so I could buy cherries (currently in seaon and the focus of some sort of frenzy every day at the grocery stores in Chinatown. At 59-89c per pound, compared to the usual price of $2-$4 per pound in the supermarkets, I guess I can see why). The shopkeeper at each store (usually an old lady) stands, unpeturbed, in the middle of the mass of hands grabbing at cherries, dealing out large handfuls into a bag for you. She will never let you pick your own; possibly to avoid all the old ladies "cherry-picking" the best ones only. I see them doing it. Or possibly just since I'm an intruder in this strange world, and apparently she thinks I don't know any better.
We visited lots of really interesting shops. I got yelled at by the shopkeepers in most of them for taking pictures of the live and not-so-live animals.... I am so glad I'm a vegetarian, it still makes me sad to see it all.
This was a very angry turtle. It had a strange pointed snout, webbed feet and large claws. It looked up at me both entreatingly and menacing as it tried to climb out of its bucket.
The fish on the far right, closest to the man's gloved hand, was just out of the water. It flapped around. People were choosing which one they wanted.
Brendan bought eggs at a small shop called "Neverending Quail" behind the fish shop. It mostly consisted of a whole lot of chickens and quail in cages in a small room, with a tiny area for the shopkeeper to stand in front to sell the eggs, and enough space for two people to stand in line. The room also included a very angry, quacking duck in a small cage.
The chickens looked curiously at me. The quail were unimpressed, mostly since I stuck a bright camera flash in their faces. Sorry, little quail.
I think these ones were Californian female quail.
As we were leaving, I found the frogs (and was severely yelled at, but not in English - maybe they thought I was from PETA):
Yesterday and today the North Beach Festival has been pumping out loud music and loud drunk boys, essentially a wine and food festival. Apparently it's the oldest street festival in the US, and includes pizza tossing.
I checked out the aftermath last night in North Beach, but there wasn't really much to see beside drunk yuppies, girls in tiny dresses and heels on a freezing cold day, and empty white tents along the street. The traffic was atrocious though, worse than Monday-morning levels! I walked home from North Beach rather than endure bumper-to-bumper traffic on the bus for the length of Chinatown.
Today we watched many people try to park in the too-small parking space in front of the Fat Kiwi. (We did tell them not to park there - we're not sadistic.) Yesterday Brendan saw two tickets and one tow happen on that spot!
Here we are:
So now the doors are on, the door handles are on, and the doors and the rest of the cabin are painted. Happiness.
We also visited Chinatown this morning, so I could buy cherries (currently in seaon and the focus of some sort of frenzy every day at the grocery stores in Chinatown. At 59-89c per pound, compared to the usual price of $2-$4 per pound in the supermarkets, I guess I can see why). The shopkeeper at each store (usually an old lady) stands, unpeturbed, in the middle of the mass of hands grabbing at cherries, dealing out large handfuls into a bag for you. She will never let you pick your own; possibly to avoid all the old ladies "cherry-picking" the best ones only. I see them doing it. Or possibly just since I'm an intruder in this strange world, and apparently she thinks I don't know any better.
We visited lots of really interesting shops. I got yelled at by the shopkeepers in most of them for taking pictures of the live and not-so-live animals.... I am so glad I'm a vegetarian, it still makes me sad to see it all.
This was a very angry turtle. It had a strange pointed snout, webbed feet and large claws. It looked up at me both entreatingly and menacing as it tried to climb out of its bucket.
The fish on the far right, closest to the man's gloved hand, was just out of the water. It flapped around. People were choosing which one they wanted.
Brendan bought eggs at a small shop called "Neverending Quail" behind the fish shop. It mostly consisted of a whole lot of chickens and quail in cages in a small room, with a tiny area for the shopkeeper to stand in front to sell the eggs, and enough space for two people to stand in line. The room also included a very angry, quacking duck in a small cage.
The chickens looked curiously at me. The quail were unimpressed, mostly since I stuck a bright camera flash in their faces. Sorry, little quail.
I think these ones were Californian female quail.
As we were leaving, I found the frogs (and was severely yelled at, but not in English - maybe they thought I was from PETA):
Yesterday and today the North Beach Festival has been pumping out loud music and loud drunk boys, essentially a wine and food festival. Apparently it's the oldest street festival in the US, and includes pizza tossing.
I checked out the aftermath last night in North Beach, but there wasn't really much to see beside drunk yuppies, girls in tiny dresses and heels on a freezing cold day, and empty white tents along the street. The traffic was atrocious though, worse than Monday-morning levels! I walked home from North Beach rather than endure bumper-to-bumper traffic on the bus for the length of Chinatown.
Today we watched many people try to park in the too-small parking space in front of the Fat Kiwi. (We did tell them not to park there - we're not sadistic.) Yesterday Brendan saw two tickets and one tow happen on that spot!
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Fat Kiwi: Painting 90% finished!!
After a marathon two days of painting, and about 20 cans of spraypaint later....
From this.... (approx midday Sunday)
To this! (Approx 4.30pm Sunday)
We're really happy. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to hook up the electrical and plumbing systems... and find suitable hangers for the curtains. It's a bit crazy really. We leave on our road trip in about 43 days!
From this.... (approx midday Sunday)
To this! (Approx 4.30pm Sunday)
We're really happy. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to hook up the electrical and plumbing systems... and find suitable hangers for the curtains. It's a bit crazy really. We leave on our road trip in about 43 days!
Fat Kiwi Progress
Today was spent procuring paint, taping paper everywhere, and inhaling paint fumes through masks which made us look like Darth Vader. We're very pleased with the progress though. The Fat Kiwi has been at the mechanic's for a very long time, getting a complete tune-up.
What you see here is the panels with the cupboard doors removed, and blue or white paint applied. It already looks so much lighter and cleaner.
And, we made a trip to various supermarkets beforehand, and bought Patriotic Cookies. Brendan had been craving sugar cookies all week, so there we go. Except the ones in his cravings were pink, not white with stars on them, so he felt they didn't taste quite as good.
These cookies are the equivalent of doughnuts on the "bad-for-you-and-hence-only-occasionally-eaten" scale. They really are quite disgustingly sickly and bland, and yet you can't stop eating them.....
What you see here is the panels with the cupboard doors removed, and blue or white paint applied. It already looks so much lighter and cleaner.
And, we made a trip to various supermarkets beforehand, and bought Patriotic Cookies. Brendan had been craving sugar cookies all week, so there we go. Except the ones in his cravings were pink, not white with stars on them, so he felt they didn't taste quite as good.
These cookies are the equivalent of doughnuts on the "bad-for-you-and-hence-only-occasionally-eaten" scale. They really are quite disgustingly sickly and bland, and yet you can't stop eating them.....
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Another "boot"....
So yesterday, because I'm somewhat paranoid at this point, I went and checked on both our cars. And, yes, once again, we have what is colloquially referred to here as a "boot" - another "Please move your car in 3 days or we will tow it!" notice. Luckily they only posted it two days ago, so we have to move it today. I guess it's just too conspicuous - the traffic cops are after us!
We've been trying to find a garage which can handle the over-sized height, with no luck so far. We need to get a couple of things repaired.
Here are the latest renovations: cupboards primed and painted!
Unfortunately we also covered every flat surface in a cloud of spraypaint, so we're going to have to use paint stripper on the floor.... and repaint the larger cupboard, since it dried a bit blotchy.
We've been trying to find a garage which can handle the over-sized height, with no luck so far. We need to get a couple of things repaired.
Here are the latest renovations: cupboards primed and painted!
Unfortunately we also covered every flat surface in a cloud of spraypaint, so we're going to have to use paint stripper on the floor.... and repaint the larger cupboard, since it dried a bit blotchy.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Fat Kiwi renovations
Renovations on the Fat Kiwi are progressing slowly, in fits and starts, but at least it's progressing. Today I had a day off work (since I don't currently get a Saturday), so I took the bus down to the other side of town, after calling around all the paint shops, to find some blue spray paint for the interior.
We're very lucky where we live - a major bus route goes up the street perpendicular to ours, and down the street below. So what might have been a huge mission involving many buses, only needed me to walk about 100m to the bus stop on the street to the left, and another 50m up the hill to our house when I got off. In San Francisco, this is unusual. Plus, I got to see streets in San Francisco I normally don't see.
(This lady is walking her two small dogs in the pram. I kid you not.)
So I went down on the cable car to take off all the cupboards, and promptly got back on the next cable car when I realised I'd forgotten the keys. Oops.
I got strange looks on the cable car carrying a drawer and several small cupboard doors. I could barely move because the number of tourists increased dramatically between 2.30pm and 3.30 pm, and I underestimated the amount of personal space that would be available.
Here is the current 'look" of the van:
The last major work was painting the side panels - newspaper is about to come off. It has improved the look immensely already!
The stove has been painted with clear gloss on top of the white, to keep it clean. Unfortunately the opposite has happened, and the gloss is full of sealed-in dust. Ick. At least it looks clean from this distance.
So, we have bought new door handles, and all the doors are off their hinges and have had their handles removed. Tonight I'm borrowing a sewing machine from a friend to finish off the curtains since the "no-sew" webbing didn't work so well. We're also hoping to sand and paint some of the cupboards tonight. Wish us luck!
We're very lucky where we live - a major bus route goes up the street perpendicular to ours, and down the street below. So what might have been a huge mission involving many buses, only needed me to walk about 100m to the bus stop on the street to the left, and another 50m up the hill to our house when I got off. In San Francisco, this is unusual. Plus, I got to see streets in San Francisco I normally don't see.
(This lady is walking her two small dogs in the pram. I kid you not.)
So I went down on the cable car to take off all the cupboards, and promptly got back on the next cable car when I realised I'd forgotten the keys. Oops.
I got strange looks on the cable car carrying a drawer and several small cupboard doors. I could barely move because the number of tourists increased dramatically between 2.30pm and 3.30 pm, and I underestimated the amount of personal space that would be available.
Here is the current 'look" of the van:
The last major work was painting the side panels - newspaper is about to come off. It has improved the look immensely already!
The stove has been painted with clear gloss on top of the white, to keep it clean. Unfortunately the opposite has happened, and the gloss is full of sealed-in dust. Ick. At least it looks clean from this distance.
So, we have bought new door handles, and all the doors are off their hinges and have had their handles removed. Tonight I'm borrowing a sewing machine from a friend to finish off the curtains since the "no-sew" webbing didn't work so well. We're also hoping to sand and paint some of the cupboards tonight. Wish us luck!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
The first "Fat Kiwi" story.... our van is too ugly for Nob Hill
Yesterday, I was walking home from checking on our other car, parked out of sight around the corner (so I'm paranoid, and with good reason!) when I noticed a police car parked in the middle of our street. I had this weird feeling that they were looking at our car, so I went and asked. Turns out, they were. Some old lady complained that it had been there for two weeks, and that she couldn't see around the corner, and so she called the police!
So apparently there's this bylaw that you're supposed to move your car every 3 days, but I don't know how much it's enforced. So they were going to tow it away in 3 days!
Feeling extremely lucky that I happened to run into the two policemen, I went inside. That night there was a knock on our door, and a different policeman was standing there, to tell us about our car. I still think it's because the van's just too ugly for the snobby Nob Hill residents in the two apartments opposite us. Which is incredibly funny, for some reason.
So today I called AAA to get the battery started since it went flat, and we couldn't move it for street cleaning (hello parking ticket!) The AAA guy and I were trying to get the bonnet open with fingers and screwdrivers. An old lady drove up in her flash BMW or whatever, and proceeded to give me a huge lecture about how she was the one who had called the police, and how we were totally irresponsible for parking it on the corner and how her grandkids were that age or something. Heinous old woman. I tried to explain that, well, we were moving it, but she was completely and utterly rude, and I couldn't get a word in edgeways.
It took us a veeeery long time to find a park on a street where we could park perpendicular, since the handbrake is dodgy. It's really far away - I'll have to take the cable car just to work on it.
So apparently there's this bylaw that you're supposed to move your car every 3 days, but I don't know how much it's enforced. So they were going to tow it away in 3 days!
Feeling extremely lucky that I happened to run into the two policemen, I went inside. That night there was a knock on our door, and a different policeman was standing there, to tell us about our car. I still think it's because the van's just too ugly for the snobby Nob Hill residents in the two apartments opposite us. Which is incredibly funny, for some reason.
So today I called AAA to get the battery started since it went flat, and we couldn't move it for street cleaning (hello parking ticket!) The AAA guy and I were trying to get the bonnet open with fingers and screwdrivers. An old lady drove up in her flash BMW or whatever, and proceeded to give me a huge lecture about how she was the one who had called the police, and how we were totally irresponsible for parking it on the corner and how her grandkids were that age or something. Heinous old woman. I tried to explain that, well, we were moving it, but she was completely and utterly rude, and I couldn't get a word in edgeways.
It took us a veeeery long time to find a park on a street where we could park perpendicular, since the handbrake is dodgy. It's really far away - I'll have to take the cable car just to work on it.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Introducing... The Fat Kiwi!
Once again we managed to find ourselves in San Rafael, that town in Marin which the guidebook calls "boring" and which is only prestigious in any way (especially for our Cali-girl friend, whose parents live there) because it's right next to San Francisco. It's a very average and unassuming town, in a posh Marin southern-California-looking-with-Spanish-Mission-style-buildings way.
So, why were we in San Rafael? To buy THIS:
The Fat Kiwi: Possibly the Ugliest Van in Existence.
This is The Fat Kiwi: our new campervan for our road trip. A 1979 Dodge Maxivan (yes, not a minivan), which is a four-person campervan. It's hilarious. (Note the falling-off Dodge sign on the front.)
When Brendan initially saw it coming down the road, he burst out laughing. When I saw it coming down the road a few days later, I burst out laughing too. It's rather comic. Brendan, in the manner common to all boys, promptly suggested painting it brown and naming it The Fat Kiwi.
The guy who sold it to us was a hippie web developer who had been working on it as his project, until he bought a boat. He took it up to Burning Man, a huge music and arts festival in the desert in Nevada, where "she was a champ". It had been towed three times in the last month, and was starting to become expensive. (Marin, it seems, has even more draconian parking laws than San Francisco, if that were possible!) He was pleased it was taking on a new life of its own, and showed us how to work half of the little 'quirks' it had.
So, The Fat Kiwi has a sink, working gas stove and (untested) oven, a shower, a toilet, a handbasin, electrical outlets, a couch which converts to a bed and a second fold-out sleeping area over the front. It's very, very dirty. The interior is brown fake wood veneer, hideous yellow carpeting and pale lino or something similar, on the walls. We just need to get the plumbing and electrical systems working!
It is also rather wide, drives like a truck and has a hole in the fuel tank which means you can only put in about quarter of a tank at any one point, or it starts dripping. It's going to be an interesting, but probably slightly expensive, 'project'. It needs a lot of work. A lot of paint. And probably a lot of mechanic (expensive!) time too. Driving it home was an 'interesting' experience.
As we were driving along, Brendan exclaimed, "Hey, there's a Jesus!" I was like, where? as I thought it was a large statue on the hill above us or something. No, here it is....
...Right above the useless rear-view mirror - unless the mirror was intended for parents to keep an eye on wayward kids. It only has two real seats.
The positive/ ironic thing is that we bought this on the same day we learned that our other car has packed up, and no longer has a 4th gear. It's not worth fixing. Although we did discover it's driveable on the freeway if you turn off overdrive. Just not good for fuel economy.
So, why were we in San Rafael? To buy THIS:
The Fat Kiwi: Possibly the Ugliest Van in Existence.This is The Fat Kiwi: our new campervan for our road trip. A 1979 Dodge Maxivan (yes, not a minivan), which is a four-person campervan. It's hilarious. (Note the falling-off Dodge sign on the front.)
When Brendan initially saw it coming down the road, he burst out laughing. When I saw it coming down the road a few days later, I burst out laughing too. It's rather comic. Brendan, in the manner common to all boys, promptly suggested painting it brown and naming it The Fat Kiwi.
The guy who sold it to us was a hippie web developer who had been working on it as his project, until he bought a boat. He took it up to Burning Man, a huge music and arts festival in the desert in Nevada, where "she was a champ". It had been towed three times in the last month, and was starting to become expensive. (Marin, it seems, has even more draconian parking laws than San Francisco, if that were possible!) He was pleased it was taking on a new life of its own, and showed us how to work half of the little 'quirks' it had.
So, The Fat Kiwi has a sink, working gas stove and (untested) oven, a shower, a toilet, a handbasin, electrical outlets, a couch which converts to a bed and a second fold-out sleeping area over the front. It's very, very dirty. The interior is brown fake wood veneer, hideous yellow carpeting and pale lino or something similar, on the walls. We just need to get the plumbing and electrical systems working!
It is also rather wide, drives like a truck and has a hole in the fuel tank which means you can only put in about quarter of a tank at any one point, or it starts dripping. It's going to be an interesting, but probably slightly expensive, 'project'. It needs a lot of work. A lot of paint. And probably a lot of mechanic (expensive!) time too. Driving it home was an 'interesting' experience.
As we were driving along, Brendan exclaimed, "Hey, there's a Jesus!" I was like, where? as I thought it was a large statue on the hill above us or something. No, here it is....
...Right above the useless rear-view mirror - unless the mirror was intended for parents to keep an eye on wayward kids. It only has two real seats.
The positive/ ironic thing is that we bought this on the same day we learned that our other car has packed up, and no longer has a 4th gear. It's not worth fixing. Although we did discover it's driveable on the freeway if you turn off overdrive. Just not good for fuel economy.
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