We make tracks around 11am Spring, Leila and David drop us off at the local Bart station and we catch the train to Fremont. It's about an hour's commute to there and when we arrive it's a bus ride for 30 mins from the station to Newark Mall.

When we get to the mall we follow google maps to the Cruise America depot but sadly the map takes us to the back of the depot which is fenced off so we have to walk a mile in the opposite direction to find the entrance - if you're doing this make sure you take the John Muir street route. We learned the hard way and poor Matt carried the bulk of the weight in the dead heat walking along a busy highway, not our finest hour, we were quite scared actually.

When we arrive, we discover bedding and crockery isn't included - it's $110 for two sleeping bags and some towels and then another $100 for the kitchen stuff - Jacq has a moan and is overhead by a rep, an older guy who services the vans he gives her a wink and whispers that he'll throw the crockery in our van for free - when the sales rep comes back we decline all the options and are delighted when our RV turns up to see its stocked ;)

It's great has a double bed, table and seats and kitchenette with bathroom and shower - we love it!! We've decided to head to a Goodwill store for bedding and find Hope Station down the road which has a great variety of blankets etc and we manage to get a wok and whisk also all for $20. Sod your $110!

We make tracks for Santa Cruz - we plan to wake up there in the morning and look around. We head to West Cliff Drive which has the most beautiful views of the town and sea, you can't however camp overnight here between 12am & 5am. The guy parked next to us, Dave, recommends we find a residential area and park there as everyone does but be quiet so we drive off to Columbia drive and park up - it's not a great night's sleep were pretty nervous in case someone does come out and scold us and our backs are not loving being back on sofa mattresses.