A Spot of Bother

A surprise call from our agent back home brought to light some painful truths about the blog. Apparently our audience ratings were dwindling and our PR team had decided we needed a fresh element, a new and exciting character to spice up the dynamic of the trip. Enter Will, jetting in all the way from the from the exotic midlands in a matter of days.

Suddenly we had a lot of preparation to do. With an extra character and set of luggage to accommodate, Spot would need an overhaul. And with some twisty mountain roads ahead, we decided we'd ignored Spot's painful squeaking front wheel long enough and dropped him into a garage a few hours north of San Francisco. We reluctantly handed over the keys, and left the mechanic to assess Spot's ailments. We returned after a nervously forced down Mexican buffet, to find Spot on the operating table. After one look at a helpless and wheel-less Spot, jacked up in the air, we feared the worst. Thankfully It all looked worse than it was; the brakes were merely badly worn. We bit the bullet and shelled out for a new set.

That night was spent in another RV park, fast becoming our accommodation option of choice. The lovely old lady at reception/living room introduced us to her tiny yapping dogs, and produced a charmingly hand drawn and photocopied map of the park.  Then she explained about three times in minute detail (with diagrams) how to get to our pitch, which we could pretty much see from the office. Once we had settled into our space and dined on gourmet beans-on-toast over the camp fire, we were treated to a spectacularly clear starry night sky. We lay back for hours watching satellites cruising past, punctuated by the occasional shooting star fizzing across the atmosphere.

Heat Sikh-er

3 Steps to hot beans - before we discovered parafin

Unexpected guest in the toilet block

Our Actual View

The next day was mainly about getting ourselves in position to meet Will at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday. We enjoyed a leisurely morning of frisbee at the RV park followed by some post-shower sunbathing. Returning from a restroom break, Tom mischievously launched a barrage of apples from the park's orchard towards a semi-unconscious Mike. The first volley was unsuccessful but once he'd adjusted his aim, he sent over a brilliantly accurate long range golden delicious which exploded inches from Mike's face. Tom found it funnier than Mike. 

After an afternoon of Californian cruising, we hit San Francisco a lot quicker than expected and suddenly had to find somewhere to stay. The town of San Raphael looked like the best option, and after a cruise around the affluent, hilly suburbs, we picked a shady place to park up for the night. As we noiselessly maneuvered ourselves into the back of the van there was an uneasy moment when one of the neighbours came out to get into the car in front of us. We both froze, mid-move, illuminated in red brake light. Fortunately he pulled away and we were safe. To celebrate, we smashed back a couple of PBRs to get us through the night, watched the day's footage on the camera and got into our sleeping bags.