USA June, 1st, 1982 Motorhome trip through four states.

Between September 1981 and June 1982, we spent 10 months in San Diego in California. Martin was on a Rotary Scholarship studying Film and Television at San Diego State University. At the end of his course, we hired a motorhome and traveled through four states with Andrew and Nathan. Forty years later I have just transcribed our travel diary to digital. Enjoy

 Phoenix - Arizona Tuesday 1st June 1982.

Here we are, in our very own rented American Motorhome camped in a genuine American campground, surrounded by genuine American campers. We left Holtville this morning at about 9:30 and headed for Phoenix. It is still fascin­ating to see desert that's been turned into lush pasture with water, surrounded by the barrenest mountains you can imagine. The green and yellow of the fields contrasts with the brown of the mountain and the blue of the sky.

The brownness of the mountains gives away to dark blue as the ridges recede into the distance. The desert has a strange fascination, perhaps because it symbolises the ultimate test of man's ability to control and live in nature's worst, or what appears at first glance to be the worst. It's amazing what water can do, and air-conditioning! The hum of such modern-day machinery accompanies everything that man does in this environment. Including typing this.

But the desert is beautiful in its own way, and although driving along the highway at 55mph doesn't really enable you to see the life that abounds there, you can get a feeling for what it must be like. 

Leaving Yuma we climbed a small range of stark hills and came across another valley, the name of which I've forgotten but the contrast with the brown hills and green crops was most apparent. At Gila Bend, pron. 'Heel-a', the country changed, mainly because it hadn't been cultivated I suppose, tall cactus, the sort that has populated countless western's over the years, were scattered over the desert leading unto the bottom

of the hills. There were some that were still in flower, small pods at the top. In many cases they did look like a man with both arms outstretched. 

The approaches to Phoen­ix were more and more populated, as well as crops, buildings and houses start to appear. Then in the distance, tall buildings seem to vie with the hills for dominance. We will get a closer look at those tomorrow. It's amazing when you think that without water, the city of Phoenix wouldn't be, it would just be desert and cactus. 

The campground is the same atmosphere as any in Australia, this one is fairly barren and uninteresting, you wouldn't want to have this to look at every day. There are mainly motor-homes, varying in size from two person to huge 5th wheelers, a few tents, but nothing like you see in Europe or Australia now. The luxury of the motorhome is still what the Americans want.

This one is easy to drive, the cruise control makes highway driving easy, the wind tends to catch it a bit, but power steering is great. The kids cope pretty well with the travelling, it's good to be able to get up and entertain them, much better than a car. 

Until tomorrow.