California and Nevada - some observations after 3 week trip

[mart166]

Hi all glad to be home (he lied)


Firstly - these are just my observations and ignore any mistakes, 2 days home and still suffering jet lag, it's 5 pm and my bodies screaming go to bed it's 2 AM. (will not mention other problems as toilets involved). It was hard trip as we crammed lots in, latest night was 11 pm, longest lay in was 8.30 am

Secondly - As a veteran vapor took month supplies, but did not vape much, so no need for supplies, and used less than half I would have used in UK, I put this down to the 100 degrees plus heat, never felt like vaping, even at bars !!!

So for all those that dont know, Heathrow airport fine for vaping, I hate flying and was on it from entry to plane gate, no problems, little tip here we returned on horrible day to night to day flight home, everyone shuts window blinds, they switch off cabin lights, vaped for seven hours in seat (stealth of course), no problems, never asked to go outside to vape once !!!

When we arrived in LA it was chaos, bomb alert at airport, but first thing i saw was lady in car with huge mod vaping away, great I thought it's going to be fun, never saw another vapour for next 3 days !!!!!

Californias laws are very no smoking - it's banned everywhere, and I never saw vapours for a few days, but you started to notice, in big towns petrol stations were selling cigalikes and small adds outside for supplies, these were pretty generic stuff, once we had a car started seeing vape shops, but these were in fairly low rent areas, not places to get out and see.

This was pretty much what we experianced for 2 weeks, it was like UK was 4 years ago, if you saw another vapour they raised the device nodded and wanted to start talking, very social, met quite a few for a chat, but apart from they were all using USA juice (been there hate it) it was all a little bit behind where we are now in UK, despite i know from what i read that california is meant to be a mecca for vaping.
I must add if I did not see many vapours, I only saw about the same smoking, it's dead there.

Onto Nevada, Gambling, Prostitutes, Smoking, Carrying any nasty gun possible (yes I did try some) all legal, so heaven lol

Lot more vaping, but same as california not many smokers, but few more cigars about.

In Las Vegas found a few more vaping places, but mainly stalls, went to one out of boredom (I was in shopping mall she was happy i was bored), mexican guy did not know why I could not attatch ego tester to 510 thread (yes i'd forgot adapter), was not there long lol. Found another one, side piece to tourist outlet, guy had bit of knowlage but was amazed i'd been vapor for 7 years, he thought it was a new thing, He had isticks, so i asked price for a 40W TC one, he looked at me blank then offered a 20W original with an American charger (oh thanks) $60, get real, I was nice enough to tell him the FT website address.

So my overall view, if your a tourist, take supplies of what you need, I'm sure if i'd ventured into central LA I could have got anything I wanted, but I never had time, I took far to much juice, but if you can tolerate other you OK (i'm fussy), and if you forget to take a syringe for mixing see the lovely girls at CVS pharmacy they are great if you tell them why, free !!!!

And one more bit of advice non vaping, if you do a high mileage trip like ours, never let your petrol tank run below half, I should know by now, but we had one day when i'm sure the car was running on my sweat, it can be hundreds of miles before fill up, and even worse when i filled it the bill was £19 for full tank thats pounds not dollars lol.

I hope someone enjoyed my little ramblings, it was once in a lifetime job, and if your thinking of doing same please get in touch, i'd advise as much as possible, obviously left a lot out here.

MP

[ian16]

Hi mart166, hope you had a good trip; we are off to California in just over 2 weeks so will bear your observations in mind. We are staying in Napa, Yosemite, Monteray Bay then onto San Francisco where I've found there is a vaping store a mile from our hotel there so that's my retail therapy sorted

I concur with you regarding the fuel gauges on American cars: last year we were driving from Key West to Sanibel in a Ford Explorer which had a digital fuel gauge. We were on the outskirts of Miami with the gauge showing quarter of a tank and the wife didn't want to come off the freeway as she thought the area was a bit rough. "We'll just get out of Miami then fill up" she says as we pass yet another sign for fuel as the digital gauge starts glowing orange. Onwards a few more miles and we see a sign- next gas station 51 miles! It wasn't long before the gauge turned red and it was one of the longest 50 miles I've ever done as the gauge seemed to be dropping quicker than Volkswagen's share price!

Eventually the petrol station came into view and I filled it right up and reckoned we still had a gallon left when we pulled in to fill up- though I'll never take that chance again.

One tip I'd add is if you have to return the car back with a full tank do it a few miles from the rental return station especially if near an airport- the ones near Miami were charging over a dollar more a gallon than the ones on the outskirts,though still cheap by our standards.

[mart166]

Sept 26, 2015 18:09:37 GMT ian16 said:

Hi mart166, hope you had a good trip; we are off to California in just over 2 weeks so will bear your observations in mind. We are staying in Napa, Yosemite, Monteray Bay then onto San Francisco where I've found there is a vaping store a mile from our hotel there so that's my retail therapy sorted

I concur with you regarding the fuel gauges on American cars: last year we were driving from Key West to Sanibel in a Ford Explorer which had a digital fuel gauge. We were on the outskirts of Miami with the gauge showing quarter of a tank and the wife didn't want to come off the freeway as she thought the area was a bit rough. "We'll just get out of Miami then fill up" she says as we pass yet another sign for fuel as the digital gauge starts glowing orange. Onwards a few more miles and we see a sign- next gas station 51 miles! It wasn't long before the gauge turned red and it was one of the longest 50 miles I've ever done as the gauge seemed to be dropping quicker than Volkswagen's share price!

Eventually the petrol station came into view and I filled it right up and reckoned we still had a gallon left when we pulled in to fill up- though I'll never take that chance again.

One tip I'd add is if you have to return the car back with a full tank do it a few miles from the rental return station especially if near an airport- the ones near Miami were charging over a dollar more a gallon than the ones on the outskirts,though still cheap by our standards.

Thanks for your message Ian, i'm sure you'll have a great time, just check beforehand your accomadation in Napa, thats an area thats had devestating fires, it was on the news every day, 10's of thousands displaced from homes, it's terrible. We went through Napa valley as bit of a diversion (quater of an inch on map, 200 miles extra through winding mountain roads in real terms, but great). And do not expect good wines, even though in the biggest wine growing area in USA unless you like Chardonay (we hate it).

San Francisco is fantastic, ignore following if been before, if you want to go to Alcatraz book it now, was a five day wait for tickets when we were there, and was only there 4 days ! but we conned our local tour bus company to get us tickets, cost us $12 extra but worth it. Must also take a cable car, we took the one that if you have your back to Fishermans Wharf it's slightly to the left, take from begining to end (Union Square), you'll get a slow roller coaster ride thats great, sorry cannot give no more details as I still not unpacked properly and lots of details still in travel bag. Also take one of the tour buses, gives a good insight to the city, and can use the tickets for just getting around. Also if eating in the Italian quarter, everyone recomends Tony's, best pizzas in world, one and a half hours wait when we turned up so cannot comment, but avoid like the plauge the nice looking resturant on next corner where I stormed out after half hour and our order being taken 3 times, one i can recomend is if you head out from Tony's back onto Columbus Ave, turn left its about 6 shops along, live jazz, good prices, great food, just do not ask for salt, that confused them !!

Yosemite is nice, but huge, it's $30 to get in, but that gives you 7 days entry, do not expect to see much wildlife unless your hiking, we saw 2 deer and millions of chipmunks, one unfortunatly met our tyre of rental car, silly little sod. And make sure you got fuel, its few and far between, if you cross it to the far east give Mono lakes a look, the drive down to it incredible.

One more thing, if your booked into the "unsigned hotel" in Monterey bay change your booking now, the place is a complete dump.

I'll add one more tip to yours regarding fueling, not relavant to you, but fuel is $1 a gallon cheaper in Nevada to California (after 300 miles $15 filled me to brim for car return, if only like that in UK lol).

Have fun

MP

[mart166]

ian16

I forgot to add, make sure you got warm coat, San Francisco weird, each district has micro climates, it can be 85 F at your hotel and 45 F in next district, this is particularly true for Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park or the beach where Baywatch is filmed, we froze with jackets, same applies for mountain areas at night.
For sightseeing we used these, very helpful and next door is shop selling clothing at reasonable prices (do not expect them to last long)

City Sightseeing San Francisco
Anchorage Shopping Center
2800 Leavenworth St #14
San Francisco, CA 94133
United States

Anything else i can help with drop me a PM

MP

[mart166]

Mods

I'm sorry if i've turned a vaping thread into a trip advisor type thread, but it seems a few interested, please move or lock this thread if you think it's not right for this site.

MP

[peter12]

By stealth vape you mean vape in a way that it doesn't bother any one. Or vape sneakily (I dunno howaye lile vape with small mod that is concealed in hand or vape when ppl don't loo ot whatever )?

[Greg]

Sept 27, 2015 16:21:19 GMT peter12 said:

By stealth vape you mean vape in a way that it doesn't bother any one. Or vape sneakily (I dunno howaye lile vape with small mod that is concealed in hand or vape when ppl don't loo ot whatever )?

Both usually 

[mart166]

An istick 20 with tank (unusual tanks normaly I empty before boarding planes,) but this one had juice and due to problems did not get emptied, no leaks, so it got bolted back on to replace boge carto I put in place for flight, stealth was as usual no sign of vapour, but got nudged by partner after several whiskeys that some vapour was leaking lol.

We had so many problems with flight, despite cabin crew being nice, I would have done it anyway, new thread soon, problems with BA lol

MP

[gill2009]

I've found this all very interesting mart166...although I'll never be able to go 

[VapingBad]

I found it interesting to, did a 2 week coach tour of CA in 81 and it brings back some memories, I got to go to Alcatraz getting the ticket that day & fly over in a helicopter.

[Deleted]

I'm mega suprised , when you think about all the big vaping YouTube guys they're from the USA.

Wouldn't have thought that they are behind the Uk , and here's me thinking that the US is the Mecca of vaping.

Very interesting read :-)

[MrDJ]

Vegas is still vapour friendly and every casino i went into they had signs saying vape on.
it was roughtly 40c and 95% humidity while i was out there 3 weeks ago and the air con was so cold that it was clearing the smoke and vapour as soon as it was blown out. i spent hours at the roulette table next to 3 smokers and if i had my eyes shut i wouldnt of been able to tell you someone was smoking next to me and us ex smokers can smell smoke a mile off.

ive never been to Cal or San Fran so cant compare there but i do remember 12 years ago in Florida theme parks i was made to feel like a lepper standing in a corner of the park behind a thick red line and roped off area so i wonder if thats now the same for vapours as well.

[baron]

Just to poke my nose in but No. 2 son and wife (who is S. Korean American) emigrated to Irvine Ca. about 3 years ago, and he loves it, and got a job after all the faffing about getting work visa and stuff, but job is now permanent (but keeping eye out for another one) after the 6 month work ban ended, with a travel Firm that advises on holidays in Europe and USA etc.
They live in her fathers house, and bought a Nissan Leaf -electrickery car - for local and work runs, but swaps the Nissan for her Dad's large saloon for long trips, and boy have they made some, Hawaii (her Mother lives there) Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, and goodness knows where else when they can.

I can't add to any vaping tips because neither of them smoke, so I had better shut up and leave now...

[MrDJ]

just a small win

[mart166]

Sept 28, 2015 16:46:23 GMT MrDJ said:

just a small win




[/quit


lol seems popular, i never imagined