Today we got up at 6am to clean and tidy our car. It was good to be at the circus circus rv park to be able to clean our van with the a/c running.

It was another day of putting pressure on ourselves.

We also thought we’d better book our flight to LA and a rental car at Heathrow. We booked our flight for 12.30, giving us plenty of time to drop our van off.

We had arranged to drop our van at storage between 8 and 10am but when we arrived at storage at 8.30am the guy didn’t get the memo.

Thankfully we were able to get hold of him and he arrived at 9am. Mike unplugged all the electrics and we said goodbye to Rodger.

We caught an Uber to the airport and arrived early so we asked about an earlier flight. She said one was available at 11am, so we changed to that flight. It was currently 10am.

Then we saw the queue in security. It was moving very slowly. With only 30 minutes to boarding, we were dreading changing our flights. What if we missed this one, and our original was booked out?

Finally we got our turn to show our IDs. But they didn’t accept our nz drivers licence, so I rummaged around looking for our passports.

He then sent us to a larger screening queue with extra security. Sheesh. We put our bags on the conveyer, then had to step through the 3d scanner. Something metallic showed up in my groin area. WTF????

The lady spent ages telling me exactly what she was going to do, where she was going to touch me etc. she even asked if I wanted to go to a private room!

I think it must have been a zip on my shorts that triggered it. But I got through eventually.

As it turned out, we didn’t need to run for our flight, arriving just as they were boarding.

They don’t have allocated seating on southwest, but they give you a boarding priority of a, b and c. We we’re in C, the last to board. T

here is a thing on US airlines where people take on huge carry on luggage, and if you miss out on an overhead locker, then you have to check your bag. Ours had all our camera gear and laptops so this wasn’t an option. So that added to the stress as the plane was chockers!

As we were boarding, I asked the flight attendant if there were any seats together. She said no. So I grabbed the first aisle seat I saw near the front of the plane. In front was a middle seat so I told Mike to grab that. Then a nice lady in the aisle next to Mike offered to swap with me so we could sit together. In hindsight, it might have been because Mike hadn’t showered for a week ( fyi: I had a shower that morning.)

The only problem was, we had to take our bags all the way to the back to find room.

It was an easy 1 hour flight to LA on our 737-700. They gave us pretzels and a glass of coke. We landed and had to wait for everyone to get off so we could retrieve our bags. There was a slight panic when Mike couldn’t find his. It had been moved and someone had put there bag in front of it.

We went straight to our hotel. I had a splitting headache so took a couple of painkillers and went to sleep.

It seems we like to put pressure on ourselves. We got up at 5.30am to watch the sun rise over the Tufas. It wasn’t as cool as we thought it would be, and it was freezing, the wind blowing straight off the mountains.

I rang air nz again to see if we could change our flights. There was only space left in business class but it was not too expensive.

We then had to make sure we could put our van into storage a week earlier and on a Saturday. They said this was fine. We decided to bite the bullet and change our flight to Sunday.

It was now Friday, and we had a 6 hour drive to Vegas. It was doable as long as we didn’t break down. At 2 hours east of Vegas we broke down on the side of a busy highway.

A few swear words flew out of my mouth. It was in the back of my mind this could happen, it turned out it was the switch Mike had put in, same problem as in Moab. So he fixed it quickly. Thankfully we had the foresight to buy multiple switches.

My original plan had been to drive into Vegas early morning to avoid the August heat. But we did the exact opposite. We drove in at 5pm and in a Friday afternoon too! But the traffic wasn’t that bad so we were lucky.

We arrived at Circus circus RV park at 5.30 pm and tried to hook up power, but none of the power sockets were working. Two hours later we finally managed to find one working. So much for arriving early and cleaning our car out.

We went for a stroll down the strip and had a pizza for dinner. Then we packed our bags ready for the morning.

Today we got up early to watch the sun rise, then headed to some more natural hot springs in the desert. These ones were called Wild Willy’s hot springs and are clothing optional so aptly named.

There weren’t as nice as the travertine one we visited the other day, and there were 3 other people there. But as we were leaving a large group we’re heading down, so we timed it right.

Then we visited convict lake, which has some history to the name which I’ll Google before the video comes out. It was really picturesque surrounded by mountains. We had an afternoon nap in the van .

We went back to mono lake where we camped the night before as it’s really nice there and hardly any people (they’re all in Yosemite).

We tried to change our flight but the lady said all flights were full. I’ll try again in the morning as I didn’t believe her.

Today we went to Mono lake, which is interesting for a few of reasons.

It’s ancient lake over a million years old, and it’s 2.5 times saltier than the ocean! It also has some cool statues protruding from it, called Tufas. They look like hoodoos and are made from calcium carbonate. They were really cool.

I really wanted to swim and float on the water, but there were loads of critters swimming around in there. They were just krill, and harmless, but they creeped me out. And the water felt slimy from all the minerals. So I sent Mike in. I wanted to see if he floated!

And he did! And Mike never floats!

I still wasn’t tempted. The water was so calm and I wanted to put the kayak in. But there were signs warning about strong winds after midday, and around 1pm we noticed the wind picking up so we didn’t.

We then drove about 40 minutes to Yosetime national park. It was a stunning drive in, up a steep hill to almost 10,000 feet!

We did a short hike along some of the Pacific crest trail, and 5 minutes in I rolled my ankle on a rock. My other ankle this time. I sat and swore as it hurt like mother cluckery! But after about 10 minutes I was able to continue walking.

We walked for about an hour through trees and beside a creek, and it was more a gentle stroll.

We spent the rest of our time driving through the park admiring the polished granite cliffs, carved smooth by ancient glaciers.

We headed down off the mountain and spent the night overlooking Mono lake. We saw the sunset and the moon rise. It was pretty special.

I forgot to mention yesterday how the nice man at the garage used his military discount to get us almost $200 off of van repairs.

It was great to be on the road again. Weren’t heading south towards Vegas. We drove to Lake Tahoe but it was very busy there.

The highlight today was some free hot springs. There were lots of little natural hot tubs dotted around. I was expecting them to be really busy but there was just us and one other couple and our hot tubs were miles from each other. Mike was able to have some naked time as it’s a clothing optional area.

After our swim we headed for a ghost town, which was really cool. It was an old gold mining town that was abandoned in the early 1900s and everything was left as it is.

We couldn’t find anywhere free to camp, so we stayed at an RV park.

Another day waiting for Rodger. He was supposed to be ready by 4pm but he wasn’t. I was starting to worry a bit as if he wasn’t ready today, we’d have nowhere to stay as the hotel was booked out!

I managed to get a video finished and uploaded for Saturday so that was something.

At 6pm we finally got the call that Rodger was ready.

The first thing I noticed when Mike started him was how smooth he was running. Since we broke down on Vancouver island, he’d been idling a bit rough and a bit louder than normal. Mike also noticed he’d used more water. So it was just as well we had him checked.

The next thing Mike noticed was the steering. It was suddenly tight and not flopping all over the place. It seems like the steering had always been an issue.

And it’s good to know the shocks are done, as this was something I knew we’d need to tackle at some point.

We’re heading off again tomorrow over a winding mountain road to Lake Tahoe.