Cyber-guerillas that we are, Monday morning sees us hiding out at the back of the Best Western in Ozona, Texas, stealing their wireless internet (we stayed at the Best Value Inn) to check our emails. The modern road trip is one of searches for free wireless, the need for electricity to charge up our iPods, digital cameras and laptops, and sighs of frustration at running out of iPod juice while driving through ten hours of desert, or full memory cards.

In other news, camping plans for near El Paso got scuppered by the most enormous, dramatic thunderstorm. And our dear little Fred, to continue his road-trip run-ins with the cops, nearly got packed off to a detention camp for six months for not having his passport with him when we had to go through a midnight road-block near the Mexico border. Apparently you can get chucked out of the country for not having your visa papers with you at all times. The guard had just confiscated about 60 pallets of marijuana out of a truck, which was sitting casually by the side of the guardhouse. I got a sneaky snap which wil probably result in my prosecution for violating Homeland Security or something, but here it is until I get my cease-and-desist notice...



More detail on California. We ate good sushi in San Francisco and wandered the hills which are unbelievably steep and like in the pictures. But the city as a whole was much less urban than I had imagined - the pretty, whimsical clapboard houses were more seaside resort than edgy urban hub. Everything was very - well, nice. We avoided LA, stopping only for a sandwich in Pasadena, but drove the Big Sur coast in between which was predictably stunning. We saw whales blowing in the ocean and dipped our toes in the water. Now we're heading to Austin, then hurricane-hit Louisiana and back to 'bama...