The RV park in Paso Robles was definitely the nicest of all the parks that we stayed at (including tonight’s stay in Morgan Hill – but only just) however it was not the best.  The best was the very first night at Big Sur, as Big Sur RV campsite was all with nature – i.e. we parked in the trees with a large stream running behind the RV – then awakening to the forest smell etc – simply magical.

We left the park this morning in glorious sunshine and mummy and Uncle Tim went for a tour of the Eberle Winery (just outside the RV park) and they ended up buying a couple of bottles (hopefully for tonight 🙂 ) of red.

Three hours later and a whole LOT of rain we arrived here at the Coyote Valley RV Park in the rain and began the big empty out and pack up of our gear in readiness for the flight tomorrow.

So, tomorrow we will be waking realtively early and getting out to Hertz to collect a minivan where we will transfer the bags and all into.  Then we will be taking the RV back to FamilyRV and hoping to get some of our deposit back 🙂

If time permits we will call in on the Folks and then head out to the airport ready for the United flight out of San Francisco International airport at 7:25pm.  We will land in London’s Heathrow airport at approximately 2:30pm UK time and then get a rental car to drive back to sunny Yorkshire.

The RV trip has been a lot of fun although we are happy that it is coming to an end as the signal for the end of our Californian Adventure has now come.  We are now looking forward to getting back into ForkHall UK, getting Elliot into a suitable school and beginning life again 🙂

Thanks for the memories United States, it has been a whole heap of fun.

Simon completed his last day at work yesterday (Friday) and is now free !!!

We have returned the VW so we now have both cars sorted out, and the rental Cadillac is well into use.  We have got used to the thumping V8 already so hopefully we will not be wasting quite as much fuel just listening to the roar from the traffic lights 🙂

Simon and Tim went out for beers and dinner with the folks from Simon’s old place of work last night and Tim managed to lose his wallet 🙁 Thankfully, the waitress took it to one side and we collected it earlier today – all contents intact 🙂

We have moved pretty much all of the big furniture down to the garage ready for removal by the various customers next week.  There is just our bed and Olly’s cotbed to come down next week.

Simon and Tim have booked a two night trip to Las Vegas starting on lunchtime on Monday to go and shoot some guns etc 🙂 Fun is going to be had.  We got a pretty good del of around $700 each for  two nights at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, the flights and a small car for hire 🙂

Vicky was out with the girls on Thursday night and again tonight – lets just hope that there food isn’t poisoned like it was on Thursday….!!!!

Simon collected Tim from San Francisco airport last night and he managed a few beers and to stay awake until gone 10pm – not bad… He brought gifts of chocolate AND noisy toys for the boys – suspect he will help them with the battery drainage in the next couple of days (once he has realized his mistake of noisy toys) since he is sleeping in the room next door to them 🙂

Simon is actually going to be finished with work by the end of this week so we have a couple extra days of stuff to figure out…

The X5 did go back to BMW yesterday without any issues and the GTI is going back to VW tomorrow – fingers crossed that will be similarly simple.  It should be a simple transaction as the VW dealership is picking up a cheap low mileage showroom condition GTI at 17K that they will sell easily for 26 or 27K 🙁 If we had more time here, we would buy the thing and sell it for 24 making a tidy profit along the way also…

Last night, Vicky suggested to Simon that he should not get a VW Samba bus (Simon was somewhat disappointed by this obviously) but then threw a curve ball – why don’t you get a 5/6 year old Aston Martin DB9 instead….. Oh crap – that is a tough call – suspect there is going to be lots of autocar web traffic from our wifi over the next few weeks…. 🙂

Vicky’s X5 is to be taken back to the dealership in the morning and left there…. So we have rented a Cadillac Escalade for the next 9 days to take us through until we collect the RV next Thursday.  Elliot’s comment following Daddy igniting the cheeky 8 cylinders was a classic – “Mummy, listen to daddy’s engine” 🙂 followed by “Mummy, make your car go fast like daddy’s” :-s

Mummy has been out in the Escalade tonight to the supermarket, and she definitely came back with a smile on her face – even she had wound the window down to listen to the growl of the large V8.  By large, I mean more than 6 litres 🙂  It is definitely a car that would facilitate the loss of ones license if driven for long enough.

We are probably looking at a serious fuel bill for the next week or so, and then the RV is actually a V10 petrol engine (for some reason not a diesel) so another week of crazy fuel consumption.  At least it will all be a pile of fun…..

So Simon has just TWO weeks to go at work, and then the mega relax can begin.  The RV trip is set in stone, Tim will be here in 1 week and all bar one item of furniture is sold…

The cars are sorted in the respect of returning to dealerships and paying them (the leases) off appropriately, a car has been rented for the week before the RV adventure so that we can get around (BMW has to go back earlier than we ideally wanted) – it is one of these bad boys…

Finally, we rented a car to get us from the RV place to the airport (1/4 the cost of a taxi all told).

Olly has taken to needing mid day sleeps again :-S He has just 20 minutes ago dropped off on the couch (yes we do still have one at the moment) and will prob sleep for another hour or so.

Grandma organised the tickets for the Santa Special at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway today / yesterday, so that will be cool and something to look forward to.  It has become part of Elliot’s Christmas routine and soon will be Olly’s 🙂

We have heard that the gear has now all been loaded onto a container although not yet on board a ship, but we are close to that by all accounts 🙂 So, cross your fingers for us that we will see all our gear in Ossett a couple of weeks after we get back – that would be a winner 🙂