Miscellaneous Items

Here are a few miscellaneous items from our travels this winter.

We were travelling from Arizona over to a campground for a few days near La Quinta CA close onto Palm Springs. Google often wants to take you down the Interstate and so we got out our trusty California Road Atlas and found a road that "on the map" connected through a neat place called Box Canyon and that would allows us to continue onto our nightly camp sight. So we took the back road indicated on the map and the road started to deteriorate rather rapidly. The shrubs and bushes were growing up through the now-not-maintained pavement and the road was narrowing. Nature was taking the land back. There were also a number of small bridges over arroyos that given the recent rains could have been damaged. Fortunately no other misdirected fools seem to have taken this short 5 mile road. About where we thought we should be connecting to Box Canyon we realized the pavement ended and we had this sign. Not good, since backing up the trailer a long ways is doable but not a pleasant task. Fortunately George walked about a half mile down the sandy track and realized that it connected albeit over a less than nice dirt pathway to our destination. So we gingerly drove through without any major problem. The map lies and we have noted in our atlas not to ever take this rodent trail again. Besides in a few years it will not be passable.

My sister, Signe, came over for a visit at our campsite and she loves rocks, all shapes and sizes. We suggested we take her over to see Box Canyon and she agreed since she had never been there. Here are a couple of images that give you a feel for box canyon. The canyon is the result of upheavals from the San Andreas fault that runs near this area. We are just a little north and east of the Salton Sea.

After touring Box Canyon Deanna and Signe wanted to have lunch. Chinese food they said, we want Chinese food. Not being familiar with the area they Googled up some restaurants in Indio and settled, finally, on a traditional Chinese eatery. This image shows pages from their extensive and well done menu. They also had more Americanized fare than you see here. They wanted Chinese they said however they did not get these more exotic dishes.

Staying connected in this digital world while out traveling can present some problems. Cell service is becoming more widespread, though depending on your carrier you may or may not have coverage in some areas. There is an increasing amount of Wi-Fi available at many campgrounds. Some of the Wi-Fi is great and sophisticated and much of it less so. We had campsites where each person got their own pass code that was good for a short period of time giving you a somewhat secure connection. We also saw public Wi-Fi networks. You can if you have a good cell signal use your smart phone as a mobile hot spot and connect your computer to that hot spot and perform your financial transactions. Just be careful when doing this and make sure you have a good strong password and only have the hot spot on for the limited time you are using it. So there are various options for connectivity.

We were staying at an RV Park called Stagecoach Trails just west of Anza Borrego. We stopped there and did a big batch of laundry. It is a great park and nice facilities. They advertise W-Fi but in actuality their W-Fi is really limited. You can sometimes do e-mail, just plain text no image no nothing. It kind of works in that mode. Unfortunately George needed to update a web site. In the picture below you can see the Wi-Fi antennae on the building and the laptop on the wooden spool. This is line of site and close proximity and it still took forever to get the limited update accomplished. We often get used to the high speed broadband connectivity but as you travel about you find out that is not always available.

Stagecoach Trails got it's name from the Butterfield Stagecoach line that came through this area in the mid 1850's. Here is a well done replica of a Stagecoach out of all metal. Someone took some time and put in a lot of effort to build this. It won't deteriorate much in this harsh desert environment. It is at the entrance to the RV park.

The RV Park is in a location called Shelter Valley. No cell signal here and not much of anything else. There are no stores, no gas stations, no Starbucks. It is remote. There is a small store at the campground and they have some basic staples. Here is half of the Ice Cream counter. They actually had 8 different flavors of hand dipped ice cream and it was wonderful. The store also has a small deli, makes sandwiches, and wonderful hand made pizza. We had one of their pizzas on the last day there.

In this image we have started our trek north towards home. Our first stop was at Mojave Narrows Regional Park in Victorville. We just barely made it to the campsite before the howling winds and blowing rain caught us. For all of the afternoon and most of the evening the reported winds were 25-35 with gusts to 55. The trailer was really rocking. This picture shows we decided to keep the slide out in so the awning over the slide out would not get ripped off. It got a little cramped but certainly livable for a short period.

This was the firepit by our campsite the next morning after the storm had lessened. We didn't want a campfire at that point and certainly could not have started one if we wanted. Lots of rain and standing water everywhere. At least the winds had died down.

Deanna took this Raven image at one point out the front door of the trailer. It sounded and looked like he was complaining about the miserable weather.

When we left Mojave Narrows the next morning we headed west. Our intended route was over to I-5 west of Bakersfield and then north towards home. There was some ugly but drivable weather around. This image is just above Mojave, CA. They have an airport there where many large commercial airplanes are stored. They also have a lot of windmills for power generation. There was a huge number of them as we climbed up through Tehachapi and headed west.

Hope you have enjoyed the travel blogs. we tried to give a little perspective on the places we went and some of the things we saw and did.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments. Stay Safe

A brief Look at Anza Borrego

This is one view of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. It is a large state park in Southern California spanning over 600,000 acres and taking up much of one fifth of San Diego County. It is a dry place of much beauty and vast open vistas. There are two communities within the park, Borrego Springs (by far the largest) and Shelter Valley (a small really rural location). There are lots of hiking trails and things to see and do in the park. We stayed in the Campground in an Area called Palm Canyon.

The first day we got there this was the view from our campsite. It is a really beautiful location. There are lots of big horn sheep up in the mountains you see here. The campsites are adequately spaced out so that you don't feel too crowded onto the neighbor. Around Parker, Arizona many of the commercial parks, not the state park, are what we call Sardine Parks where they stuff as many RVs into a given area as they can. This was certainly not a Sardine Park.

This is basically the same view as we showed above. The only difference is that it was a day later and one of the many winter storm that are moving through southern California had moved in. On Friday it rained quite a bit. One of the Rangers we spoke with said they got an inch of rain on Friday with more anticipated over the next few days. He then mentioned that historically they only get 3 inches of rain a year, it is a dry spot. At one point he also stated that the highest recorded temperature there was last year at 124 degrees, that is hot.

As you drive around Borrego Springs you will see a lot of large metal sculptures. A fellow named Ricardo Breceda developed them and many of them are incredible due to their size and detail work.. There is a great deal of information regarding the myriad of sculptures on the internet. One link is here - http://www.desertusa.com/borrego/bs-art.html. This is the popular sea serpent. Part of it is one one side of the road and part on the other.

This is the stunning head of the serpent. It is really large and quite dramatic. Here is another link to the artwork with a slideshow presenting many images. - http://www.abdnha.org/borrego-springs-sculptures-of-ricardo-breceda.htm

The green plant that you see in the foreground is an Ocotillo (pronounced - Oh-co-tea-yo). It is normally a dry looking spindly plant that on a cursory view appears dead. When the rains come it produces these lush green leaves. Quite amazing to see the plant transform in such a dramatic fashion. It has no leaves when there is no moisture to conserve nutrient and minimize evaporation.

When the leaves are produced the Ocotillo also makes a number of blossoms which the hummingbirds love. In front of the visitor center is an extensive nature trail and signs identifying many of the cactus and plants that can be found in the area. The park seems to be very intune with passing along useful information and educating the public.

This is the visitor center with a great deal of information and presentations on a variety of subjects within the park. It is built underground and fascinatingly done. The structure conserves energy in the hot dry summers.

This was one of the door handles on the doors going into the visitor center. Though quite fascinating and well done, I think they would be a bit ostentatious on our front door either at home or on the trailer. They really fit in here however.

This was a view across the desert. You can see the snow on the higher mountains in the distance. This picture was taken Saturday morning as Friday's storm subsided and passed on through to the east. We thought this was going to be a warm desert excursion.

We went into Borrego Springs for lunch one day and stuck our nose into some stores for some curiosity shopping. We found this Oregon Pinot Wine in a can and became curious as to storage and consumption. Do you keep it in the ice chest with the Budweiser? Do you sniff the pull tab when you open the can and check for oxidation? The advantage is that this wine should last forever as no air can get in. Put this on the shelf beside your twinkies and you will have food and beverage to last a millennium. No, we did not try the wine.

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you get a chance to visit Anza Borrego it is well worth your time. Don't go in mid summer unless you love the heat. Early March should be wonderful this year as with all the rain the wildflower bloom will be spectacular.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

One Look at the RV Lifestyle

In this post we thought we would give you a little insight in the RVs of the camping world. We wanted to try and give you a view of some of the many different rigs that people travel in. There are not right or wrong choices it is all a matter of personal preference and finances. As we shall see there are a lot of different options.

This is our travel trailer. It is about 24 feet long and seems really well made. It is very well insulated. At 24 feet it is on the smaller side, not the smallest by any means but certainly below the average size. Great for trips but not extended living especially in cold and rainy weather. We are here in Buckskin Mountain State park near Parker Arizona along the Colorado River. We like this park because the sites are spread out and you have a fair amount of separation between units. Additionally there are some nice hiking trails and a decent selection of birds to find.

Here is the Entrance Station to Buckskin Mountain State Park where you check in upon Arrival. We stayed here for a couple of weeks in late December and Early January. The road comes in from the right and you stop at sign you can see in the distance. We are standing in the cactus garden where you can learn about some of the different types of cactus.

Just to the left but unseen in the first picture is the gift shop where they sell T-Shirts and what not. They also have a DVD loaner system and a book exchange where you can take in a book and trade it for a different one, both programs are no charge.

They have several of these colorful signs in the park by the river. The water is the Colorado River and the far rocky side is California, we are standing in Arizona. During the summer the river and the park gets a lot of use for water sports. However it can be really hot here in the summer 120 degrees plus and it does not cool down at night.

Most important of all is that the little visitor center sells ice cream. They have a variety of different ice cream bars, cones, and sandwiches. They are the prepackaged kinds, no hand dip here but what the heck we are camping and roughing it. The butter finger bars were great.

In the cactus Garden mentioned above they have a Desert Tortise habitat and a resident tortoise. Here is Bucky, they believe he is about 50 years old. He was out of his den several days while we were there. Not real fast and didn’t move much but a neat critter.

Here is the full image of Bucky His shell is rather neatly patterned and colored. Some people feed him apples or lettuce. He is supposed to be hibernating but one of the volunteers keeps feeding him and I think he has gotten so he likes to eat more than sleep. Hard to tell if he is overweight.

This is one of the small trailers that you see. There is everything and anything in trailer sizes, configurations, and tow vehicles. Whether you have a motor home or a trailer is partially a function of cost and partially a function of choice. The smaller trailers are great for short duration trips and don’t require expensive tow vehicles. In this case the truck is a Nissan Frontier, a small pick-up but then the trailer is small

This trailer is a brand called Casita. They are very well made and well insulated. You need to decide how much room you want. Can you even stand up in this? Most of these have a small combination toilet and shower which seems really cramped to us. You can see the rectangular air conditioning unit on the roof. Bet that would keep this trailer cold when it got hot.

This is a bare bones unit. It does not appear to have a heater, propane tank or battery. The battery and propane would normally be visible on the trailer tongue between the vehicle and the front of the trailer. It is a tent trailer and opens and expand out for sleeping. I am surprised that the Subaru Crossteck can pull this. The label on the side of the trailer reads “The Tangerine Tortoise” Maybe it does not pull it very fast. Some good friends of ours, Rodger and Ginger, have a tent trailer but theirs is much nicer than this one.

Here are some larger units. Most of these are nicer than our home and cost much more. They have every convenience you can image. This one is towing a jeep. The towed vehicles are collectively called a “Toad” it is a play on word for “Towed”. When you get to a campsite you unhook the jeep and you can go to town or sightseeing or wherever. I think this unit had 4 slide outs that really expand the living area.

Here is a large fifth wheel trailer. It is 44 feet long. It is a design called a “Toy Hauler”. The left or rear portion of the trailer can be used as a garage to carry your ATV. This model has two gas tanks 30 gallons each to provide fuel for your ATV. In this case the people lived in it full time and did not have an ATV. You can see the porch on this side and another one on the back. Both of them have the railings, they are just laid flat in the back. Both porches are suspended on cables and the owner said the one in the center of the trailer could hold 3,000 lbs. The back porch is used as a ramp when you have an ATV. The garage area in this case is used as additional living space. It has 3 air conditioners.

Here is another common method to move your ATV, a trailer behind your motor home. There were also a number of smaller toy haulers that were 5th wheel trailers or basic pull trailers and they had the ATV in the back garage. You will find anything and everything in RV configurations.

Since we mentioned ATV here is one example. If they are licensed for the highway they can leave the park here go up the highway and turn out into the desert. There are trails and terrain where they can ride. Many of them go out via the back trails to the Desert Bar we mentioned in an earlier post. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. This one carries four people. The owner claimed he got about 100 miles off an 8 gallon tank of gas. That seemed a little low mpg to us but he may really get his foot in it.

This fellow came driving by in the RV park. As mentioned earlier lots of different colors and configurations. Looks like they could be a lot of fun.

Several of our friends have asked about the weather down here in Arizona. The image above is of an RV park across the Colorado River and hence in California from where we were staying. As you can see it is a beautiful day. However we have talked with several people whom live here full time and they all say this is the weirdest and wettest weather they have ever seen for this time of year. It maybe weird and wet but certainly not nearly as uncomfortable as the winter in Walla Walla and numerous other locations.

When it gets cold down here it is best to stay together for warmth. The dog bed provides lap warmth and keeps both Deanna and Yogi warm. It was in the low 50’s this day and a chilly wind. Sill not nearly as cold as up north.

We have gotten a lot of rain. This is a desert but you would not know that from the amount of rain we have gotten. Here, several of the RV sites are flooded and the puddles stayed around for several days.

One thing we have always enjoyed about Buckskin Mountain State Park are the birds one can find there. There were three Common Loon on the river. Other birds of note include: Vermillion Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, Says Phoebe, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Abert’s Towhee, California Quail, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rump Warbler, American Widgeon, Ring-neck Ducks, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Double-crested Cormorant, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk and various other species. They were nice birds, all.

Many folks have TV along with them. We have a TV in our RV but no satellite dish and we have not as of yet turned it on. There is no over the air tv signals in this location. Here a dish is mounted on a tripod and moved away from the RV. If you park under a tree or close to a cliff that will block line of site to the satellites you would need to move your dish to a location where you can get reception. Note the large rock which tethers the dish to the ground in case of wind.

Here we have another satellite option. It is an automatic signal finder with dish inside so you just place it out in the open, make sure it is level, it finds the signal, and you watch TV. In many of the dish type devices you need to set elevation and direction and manually search for the satellite signal. From prior experience, when we traveled full time, we know that it can be frustrating to set up the dish.

Here is a standard fifth wheel trailer. You can see the dish on the roof. Some of these types are set manually and some automatically find the satellites. The large slideout that you see on this side really increases the inside space. It makes it feel larger as well.

This is the front view of the bus seen below. It appears to be an older School Bus that has been modified to function as an RV. As the sign on the front says “2 Kool 4 School”

The side of this bus has a wonderful desert Mural. A lot of detail, quite a paint job. As you travel around you will see almost anything and everything. Some done really well as this one and some not so.

This large RV came in and parked. When we walked by we could see the face of the tiger in the front window. Really interesting to see and you never know what you might find in the RV Park. Was the tiger driving and is he licensed in AZ?

This image shows the satellite dish on the roof and something that is not so obvious. The aluminium edges that you can see on the roof are solar panels. The fellow had 10, 150 watt solar panels. He really did not need to be plugged in very much and had just recently spent some amount of time dry camping in Death Valley. Dry camping means no hookups.

The couple in this unit were from Illinois and were going to be out on the road another 3 months or more. The bed is in the slide out from the back. The round globe that you see on the roof is an in motion satellite dish. That way one of you can be watching the Super Bowl or reruns of the Donald Trump Press Conferences, while the other drives down the road. Also these folks did not have a toad “towed vehicle” so if they needed groceries or lunch at a restaurant they hade to drive their RV there. They admitted it was too small for them for a long stay and said they would have something different next year.

This is what is called a “Dump Station”. Most of the trailers have tanks that will hold the sink and shower water, called the grey water and another tank to hold the black water from the toilet. Some of the sites have full hook ups meaning water, sewer, and electric, the others in this park only have water and electric. If you are in a site without sewer hookup you need to periodically visit the dump station to dispose of the waste water. You can move your RV there or as in this case use what is called a “Blue Boy”. They got that title from the obvious color though now they are available in gray and other colors. The “Blue Boys” are available in a variety of sizes from 5 gallons up to 45 gallons and have wheels so they can be moved around.

I titled this picture “The Rain Man”. It was raining and he was heading to another location so he was draining his tanks at the dump station. He did not look happy with the towel over his head to try and keep dry. The green hoses supply water to flush your waste hose and rinse any residue down the drain.

This image was just an interesting comparison of the old and the new. In the background is a newer class A motorhome with a lot of bells and whistles. In the foreground is an older Dodge Pickup and a Prowler 5th wheel with no slide outs. Quite a contrast but both work for their respective owners.

These are older Volkswagen camper vans, one of the original RV rigs. They were sharing this site. There was a Camper Van gathering in Lake Havasu just north of us, these folks were heading there and had stopped for the night. Travelling about the next few days we must have seen several hundred Volkswagen vans heading to Lake Havasu. Must have been quite a convention.

There are lots and lots of dogs in many of the RV parks. Here is a Bernese Mountain dog named Bruce. He was very friendly. I would think he is a fur machine and would fill our little trailer with shed hair rather quickly. We also encountered a dog that the owner identified as a Chi-Weenie. It was a cross between a Chihuahua and a Dachshund. It had kind of a nasty disposition and growled and barked a bit at the boys. There was also Abbey a Chesapeak Chocolate Lab cross. She was really large, long legged but very friendly.

The boys greeted the above dog Charley several times during our stay. He was very friendly. Our first encounter with Charley was on an early morning walk, his lady owner was in the process of picking up his “deposit” when Charley spotted our boys. This gave his owner quite a spill as Charley was pretty powerful! His owner claims he was a Muttay (a supposed play on French for Mutt). He had large feet and a thick chest. He had a very stocky build. When we inquired as to the breed his owner responded that his mother had papers and his father had curses. There were a large variety of dogs in the park, all shapes and sizes.

We did have some nice sunsets in the park despite the rainy and somewhat cooler weather. In this post we tried to give you a look around the RV rigs that are out there. There are many other sizes and shapes and types that we did not picture here. As we mentioned, anything and everything. Send us an e-mail if you have any questions or comments. Travel Safe, no matter which size or shape of RV you choose.