After veering off to the exit for Dallas, I asked Kieran if he had also noticed the dark clouds appearing from the murky skies. He told me that there must be some heavy rain coming our way.

We left Canyon Lake the very next day to head to Austin but stopped to wander along a small town called Gruene beforehand. Here we stopped to have a few drinks in the oldest dance hall in Texas.

With both of our tubes tied to one another, the river softly pushed us around with it's gentle current. This lasted for hours. We were told how perfect our timing was and how lucky we were.

We hired bikes and rode around the city finding thrift shops to wander in. However we spent most of our four days here by the Riverwalk. A place where boats circle a timid river which is hugged by sidewalks on either side filled with miles and miles of busy bars and restaurants with colourful umbrellas.

The one thing we learned from this situation though is this; sometimes a flat tire is not a bad thing at all; sometimes it leads you to a lovely small town where the locals are only too happy to give you a personal tour of their patch of dirt, a humble place where they were born and raised.

Once we got to the heart of Alpine, I didn't want to leave. The RV parks were too far from everything in town so we had to stay in a cheap motel while we were there. This allowed us freedom to explore the main streets by foot.

For two full days/nights the weather nearly got the better of us. With 60mph winds blowing our van from side to side the morning we left Arizona and headed towards Texas, all we had to do was look up at the grey unfriendly clouds and realise that a bit of trouble was ahead of us.

We came across a small town called Tombstone on the way to Bisbee. We stopped here because we got told that we would get to see cowboys have a gunfight show on the streets. The town is straight out a Spaghetti Western film and the locals all appear to be stuck in yester-year.

We left Anaheim the next morning and headed East towards Desert Hot Springs. We drove for seven long hours in the blazing heat. I kept my eyes wide open and gazed outside my window with wonder. I watched the tall palm trees that had occupied us all over California transform into stubby cacti.

Our last morning in L.A was spent checking out of our hotel and packing all of our belongings into our beautiful camper-van we now call home. Kieran had bought me a lavender tulip plant to occupy us on the road. I remember this morning well — our eyes were full of excitement and wonder.

On our third day we walked all day throughout the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. On this day, I also lived out another peculiar dream of mine — to get groceries in brown paper bags. It may have something to do with watching Home Alone 1 way too much as a youngin' and being envious of Macaulay Culkin doing his own grocery shop.

On our second (but first full day) in Los Angeles we bought more freedom by hiring a car to galavant around the city. We were given an adorable red convertible and drove all day with the roof down and wind in our hair. This place is surrounded by tall palm trees and odd people. Just the way I like it.

The first night we climbed the roof was the night before we visited Disneyland. I was cooking dinner inside the van and heard some fireworks outside. I quickly realised that it was the nightly fireworks coming from Disneyland as I rushed to climb to the roof for the first time I got to watch it from high up.