Three Days on the Road

We have been on the road now for three days.  Tonight finds us in Delhi, CA at the Merced River RV Park.  This is an older but well kept park, not far off the CA-99 freeway, but the noise is tolerable. 

The drives each day have been uneventful for the most part.  We have not had any rain along the way.  The first night was spent at the Seven Feathers Casino RV Park.  This is a beautiful resort with everything you could want.  Saturdays drive through the Siskiyou’s was a little bit white knuckle.  We had planned to get on the road so we would cross the pass at about noon after it had warmed up.  When we were almost at the pass there was a pickup towing a fifth wheel that had jackknifed on some ice, we were sure sorry for them and glad we had waited.  Descending down the California side is always exciting, but we made it fine.  The night was spent boondocking at the Win-River Casino.  It was a quiet and comfortable night. Today's drive was long but easy, lots of traffic but tolerable.

Tomorrow we will get to Bakersfield for the night and then on to Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA for two weeks.

More Later, Rich

The Countdown Begins

Just one week from today we are due to arrive at Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA. 

But first we have Thanksgiving, I have been preparing as much ahead as I can, today was garlic mashed Yukon gold potatoes.  All that’s left is the turkey, stuffing, and gravy.

Everyone else is bringing all the other dishes and desserts.  It is going to be a great meal with everyone.

We are pretty much ready to take off, what’s left won’t take long.  I have put the weather sticky up for the Palm Springs area so you all can see what we are in for in the way of weather (pretty hard to take huh?).  I have made a reservation for Saturday night at the Seven Feathers Casino RV Park, and the weather over the pass while cold, looks like we can make it without any problems.  The next post will likely be from the road.

More Later, Rich

The Preparations Continue

Gorgie continues to run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.  Me I’m my usual calm and collected self, NOT-we are both doing that running thing. We are worried that we will forget something both around the house and in the motor home. We will be having the usual crowd of about 20 over for dinner on Thanksgiving, so there is shopping and cooking for that and we still need to finish shopping to provision the RV. We know everything will come together but if we don’t pay attention something will surely fall through the cracks. 

We really look forward to having everyone over for the holiday, we will miss everyone while we are gone but, through the miracle of the internet and this blog we will be able to keep in touch. Now we also have a “TEXTER” on this trip, maybe Gorgie will start to tweet with her new Blackberry, then everyone will hear more from us than when we are home.

I hope you enjoy our blog, we will try to keep it interesting for you.

More Later, Rich

Snowbirds III

Every adventure should have a name, so I named this trip “Snowbirds III” since this is our third trip south for the winter.

So far we have made plans and some reservations to be at the following places this winter.

We will be at:

Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA from 12-2 to 12-16,

Desert Pools RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs from 12-16 to 12-30,

South Forty RV Resort in Tucson, AZ from 12-31 to 1-6,

St. David RV Resort in St. David, AZ from 1-6 to 1-20,

Valley Vista RV Resort in Benson, AZ from 1-20 to 1-30,

Colorado River Oasis in Ehrenberg, AZ from 2-1 to 2-15.

These are all the reservations and plans that we have made so far but other stops will include Pilot Knob RV Resort in Winterhaven, CA (Yuma),

Desert Vista in Salome,AZ, and then back to the Palm Springs area either to Desert Pools or Indian Waters.

Of course there will be stops along the way to break up the distances between destinations because we don’t want to drive more than 200-250 miles on any day if we can help it, we’ll report on those as we travel along on our Snowbirds III adventure.

More Later, Rich

What We Did This Summer

We have had a busy summer this year. We did not travel as much in our RV as we may have liked to but we did travel and did lots of projects around our place. We painted and put down a new floor in the kitchen. Installed a Gazebo on the that sure helped us enjoy our deck by providing some needed shade. We cleared all the brush across the front of the place to improve our view. Of course Gorgie did her flower gardening, so the place sure looked good all summer. I helped my brother Bob wire and set up his new machine shop at his house.

Travel we did our only RV travel was a week at Ocean Shores for the fourth of July, and a weekend trip to the Lucky Eagle Casino. But after all the projects were complete we did some traveling. Labor Day we went on Bob and Annie’s boat The “Ann Marie”, the weather started out crummy so we just stayed at their dock for a couple of nights until it improved then we went up to Beacon Rock and tied up at the dock there and had a wonderful time. Four days later we flew (first class) to Maui for two weeks in the condo that Deb and Jerry just bought over there. We helped them do some decorating and made some other minor improvements. Two weeks in paradise with perfect weather really spoiled us, but someone had to do it. Yesterday we returned from a six day stay at Bob and Annie’s timeshare in Vegas, believe it or not but we returned home with more money than we left with. And again the weather was perfect.

In 32 days we depart for our winter snowbird travel in the motorhome. We have been busy making plans and some reservations in Southern California and Arizona. We are going to be staying in the Palm Springs area the month of December. Two weeks in Indio and two weeks in Desert Hot Springs. We are not making all our reservations in advance so that we can return to a resort if we want and have some flexibility as to where we go next. I’ll post updates here as we make those plans.

 

More later, Rich

We Are On The Move

As you know this is our travel blog so we have not posted here since returning from our snowbird adventures in March.  But that doesn’t mean we have not traveled anywhere.  This week we are at Ocean Shores RV Resort, just north of Ocean Shores, WA.  This is our home park and our favorite place in the system. 

We were here for the week of Memorial Day at the end of May.  Gorgie went to Walla Walla with Heather for a couple of days to decorate the new Sweet Valley Wines tasting room Sweet Valley Wines.  She also went to Columbia River Gorge with Dusty to celebrate Dusty’s birthday.  They stayed at the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort where they were pampered with soaks, massages, wraps, great meals, and a wine tour of the gorge.  There were also a couple of trips to the Oregon coast one with our friends Deb and Rob to look at investment properties.  As you can see we have not let any moss grow under our feet.

This place is filling up fast I think there may be more people here than we have ever seen.  We can’t save spaces they are all first come first serve, so to speak.  Dusty and Jedd are coming tomorrow as are Deb and Jerry. I hope they can get a spot not to far from us.

I seem to be adding to this a little at a time and not posting.  I’ll Put this out now and add more in the morning.

More Later, Rich

Almost Home

We are taking some extra time getting home.  We wanted to stop at Southern Oregon Diesel on the way through Roseburg, OR.  We liked the service that they gave us when we broke down last fall.  Thursday was when they could get us in so we stayed two nights at Seven Feathers RV Resort, that is a really nice place they keep the landscaping and facilities just perfect. Well, they changed the oil and filter, and the transmission fluid and those filters.  I asked them to investigate an air leak that I thought was coming from the valve that adjusts the air in the air bags.  It turned out to be a hole in the left front air bag.  Since Monaco has shut down and no longer answers their phones they could not get a part number.  Now of course that number is on the top of the bag and to read it you have to remove the bag.  That turns out to be a three hour job, then once its out you can forget about driving anywhere.  The closest source was in Fresno, CA. so they had it sent UPS red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the night at Camp Gregory behind the shop, they have water and electric so it wasn’t too bad.  We did find a great Italian restaurant in Sutherlin though, Pedotti’s. If you are in Sutherlin or Roseburg they are worth a visit. LINK .

All said and done we were on the road at 2:30 and the thought of getting stuck in Portland traffic on a Friday night was not on the top of our priority list so we stopped for the night at a nice RV park just south of Eugene (Deerwood RV Park) LINK .

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will be home this afternoon.  I’m going to try and put together an album when things settle down to share more pictures with everyone. So keep watching the blog for a while.  We may continue to post as we usually go somewhere at least once a month we’ll see.

More Later, Rich

HOMEWARD BOUND

We left Nevada on Saturday and entered California.  After several miles the landscape started to change.  We went from desert and dry to green and trees.  The green rolling hills of Southern California are so beautiful with those happy California cows you see on the TV advertisements.  While driving north on CA-99 we came upon so many beautiful wildflowers and I tried to get a good picture while driving down the freeway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we are in Redding and hope to make it over the pass today without any trouble.  Yesterday when we arrived at the campground, we went for a walk and it was windy and cold, then it rained pretty hard.  We have to remind ourselves that because of the rain, we have wildflowers and green grass.  We have seen blue jays and squirrels here too and we realize we have missed seeing them.

We planned a stop over at Belknap Springs, east of Eugene, OR to meet our friends Debra and Jerry but sadly Jerry’s Dad passed away on Thursday and they are in San Diego.

We will try to have the motorhome serviced at Southern Oregon Diesel on our way home and will probably be home on Saturday instead of Sunday.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Until next time,

Gloria

Summary of Trip/The Snowbirds Head Home

This winter has been the greatest time of our lives.  We are doing the traveling that we have dreamed of all of our married life.  We do miss our family and friends at home and seeing them is what we are looking forward to the most right now.

We have had the opportunity to see some wonderful country (we really like the winter desert vista’s).  The people that we have met  have been a big part of our good times.  The weather has been better that we could have hoped for with cool mornings (some frost in January), but always warm and sunny in the afternoons. There have been folks from all over the USA and Canada.  We hope to meet up with them on future trips.  Already we have reunited with people at parks that we met earlier in the season.

Last week we went to Las Vegas for four days at the Fitz down on Freemont St. (they begged us to come and gave us a corner room for three nights at no cost to us, HA-HA). We did stay within our budget and had a great time.  I also caught a bad cold and I have been moping around for that last couple of days but I’m on the mend and ready to travel.

While traveling I don’t know how much we will be able to post but I will try.  We expect to be home around the 22’nd or 23’rd of March. So it won’t be long.

More Later, Rich

Charleston Peak Winery Pahrump, NV

This morning finds us at our last stop for this season. We will be here until Saturday March 14. This is a really nice place, but it is cooler than we are used to, we have been spoiled by temperatures in the 80’s and here they are in the 60’s. Oh well I guess we need to get used to cooler weather since we are headed home from here.

We are going to take a side trip to Vegas from here for a couple of days and stay at the Fitzgerald’s, on Fremont St.  They wanted to see us so badly they gave us a free room.  Anyway it will be a change of pace, we do like it there.

Pahrump and Ehrenberg are the only two places that we stayed at both last year and this year, we plan to visit them again next year too.

Gorgie is off to exercise and stretching classes this morning, the pool hasn’t opened yet so there won’t be any more water aerobics this year.

More Later, Rich

Quartzsite Chili Cook Off

We met our friends Pam and Harold in Quartzsite where they were having a chili cook off and entertainment.  On the way in to Quartzsite I wanted to stop at the Oasis bookstore to have my picture taken with the owner.  The owner is quite famous since he runs the store naked with the exception of a “cup”.   When I first heard about him I told Richard I thought it was disgusting but the more I heard the more curious I became.  At the last minute I chickened out and we passed the bookstore.  Well, come to find out he wasn’t at the bookstore since he was part of the entertainment.  He played the piano and sang rag time music.

 

The naked book seller (with clothes on).

 

 

I found a bargain on a super king sized quilt in Quartzsite for our bed at home, quilt and three pillow shams for $139.00.  We really didn’t want to haul more stuff home but I couldn’t pass up a bargain. 

 

 

 

Pam and Harold enjoying ice cream

 

 

 

Just outside of Salome is a town called “Hope” and we couldn’t resist a picture of the sign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We leave Salome today and are heading to Laughlin, NV for a night before moving to our last two week destination (Pahrump, NV) before heading home.

 

Until next time,

Gloria

Desert Vista RV Resort-Salome, AZ

The trip to Desert Vista was only 53 miles and took a little over an hour to get here.  When we pulled into the entrance,

we spotted some folks we knew from our stay at Colorado River Oasis, Bill & Donna, and their dog Tigger.

We are parked next to them and have been having a great time playing games and visiting, they are very nice people.  Yesterday Harold & Pam drove up here from Ehrenberg to spend the afternoon, to have dinner at the clubhouse with us and play cards, what fun.

We were introduced to Kornell & Gisela, who joined us all for dinner and a card game called Pegs and Jokers.  He has a woodworking shop set up in a trailer they pull behind their motorhome, where he builds these game pieces. Well, we had to have a set.

The game can be played by 4 to eight players and is very popular in the parks. Last night there were six games going on in the clubhouse. Everything fits in that toolbox and is very portable.

Today is laundry day, but tomorrow we are going to Quartzsite for the chili cook-off.

More Later, Rich

Last Day at “CRO”

 

We had heard that there was nothing much to do in Ehrenberg.  Well were they wrong.  These past two weeks have been some of the best times for us this whole season.  We have met more really nice people here, participated in more fun activities than ever before.  After two weeks in a park we have have been ready to move on, but not this time.   We want the good times to keep rolling along. 

The Nellie E Saloon

Yesterday we went to the “Desert Bar”  LINK it is located about 6 miles north of Parker,AZ, and 7 miles east of US-95, deep in the Buckskin Mts.  What an adventure, we went with another couple Harold & Pam, who we have been playing cards and games with, they have proven to be good friends and we will miss them.

 

 

Harold and Pam

 

 

 

We had a lunch of burgers and beer and spent a couple of fun hours enjoying the scenery, visiting,and people watching.

 

 

 

             Everyone drinks

 

 

 

They had a bar band that sounded just like any other bar band you have ever heard.

 

 

The Band

 

 

 

It was very crowded and getting a place to sit was a challenge but we made do.

 

 

                  

                Rustic Tables

Anyway we had a great time.  Tomorrow we travel to Salome, AZ for a week. We have heard that there may or may not be any cell or internet access there so we will see. If not, we will probably travel to town and post from there, we'll see.  I’m thinking of putting together a web album and I’ll post a link to it of more CRO pictures.

More Later, Rich

Grammie Gets New Spectacles

The trip to Los Algodones for Gorgie’s new glasses was a success.  She bought a very nice pair of “designer” glasses for $199.00. Verilux progressive with transition lenses.

 

 

Gianni Spectacles

 

 

 

 

 

       That European Look

 

 

 

While there I opted for a Mexican haircut.  My hair hasn’t been this short in over 40 years,  it’s only a ¼” from a buzz cut .  Maybe that will be next.

 

 

The $5.00 Mexican ‘Do’.

 

 

 

We went to a restaurant in Quartzsite with some of the people we played in the tournament with last week.

 

 

The Grubstake Social Club

 

 

The food was very good and a good time was had by all.

 

 

Having Too Much Fun

 

 

 

 

 

                   A Fun Group

 

 

 

More Later, Rich

Colorado River Oasis RV Resort

We have been here at the CRO since Tuesday afternoon.  The drive here was all  of 53 miles. We passed one truck mounted camper, we were passed by one car and three motorcycles.  Not a lot of traffic on Indian Route 1, it travels through the reservation almost the whole way.  We were lucky enough to score a site backed up to the river as we did last year.  This is a very nice park.

 

 

                        Site # 89

 

 

 

For several days this week we participated in a game tournament, there were six different games and it was men against the women.  Our games were two card games, (cribbage and chase the aces) and two throwing games (snake toss and bean bag baseball).  We did horrible, the game we thought we had a chance at (cribbage) Gorgie finished dead last and I was next to last.  Well this was so much fun and it was the people playing that made it a great time.  The “Games” went on for three days and the winners were given prizes at a happy hour last night.  We had never participated like this before but we had promised ourselves to interact more than we did last year.  We are so glad that we have, the people we have met here and other parks have really made this trip fun.

 

 

The Smell of Victory

 

 

 

And the Agony of Defeat

Tonight there is a Valentine’s Day dinner that we are going to attend and I’m sure we will have more good times.

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone

More Later, Rich

Sitting in Big River

It has rained on and off for the last couple of days, Saturday I thought I was at home or at the beach it rained so hard.  They don’t have gutters and storm drains in this part of the country so it all has to run off wherever.  As you drive they have these dips and that is how the water gets from on side of the road to the other, makes for some interesting driving.  We slept to the sound of rain on the roof Saturday night, that was pleasant. As the sun was going down it broke through to make this rainbow for our visual enjoyment.

 

 

Rainbow over the Colorado

 

 

This scene is from next to our site, pretty nice.  The rain has given us the chance to catch up on our reading and game playing.

We leave here for Ehrenberg, AZ in the morning. It’s only about a 40 mile drive so not too bad.  Gorgie’s glasses have developed a small crack near one of the mounting screws, so we are going to go back to Algodones, Mexico and buy her a new pair. As I mentioned before they sell them down there for only $99.00 and the wait is only 2 hours, just enough time for lunch and a margarita. Also it’s only 80 miles away, we’ll make a day trip out of it.

More Later, Rich

London Bridge

 

A trip to Havasu City was made yesterday.  We traveled there by way of some back roads and drove across the Parker dam.

 

 

Parker Dam

This is a beautiful dam built in the 1930’s in the Art Deco style, very nice.  Here is some info about it.

 

 

         Parker Dam Plaque

 

              Click on Picture to read

The drive to the dam and onto Havasu City generally followed the river and was very scenic. When we arrived at the London Bridge (yes it is the bridge that was once in the real London), we were hungry so we walked across to a nice restaurant and sat at a window seat with a great view of the bridge… So what do you eat so close to the London Bridge?  Well fish and chips of course, at least that’s what I had, Gorgie had a traditional veggie sandwich.

 

 

I took this from our table

 

 

 

After lunch we walked around on the paths in the area.

 

 

                London Bridge

 

 

 

As we were returning across the bridge we noticed a tour boat was about to depart so we jumped aboard and set sail for a one hour tour.  No big adventure nor marooning happened but it was a nice touch to an already great day.

 

 

Cruising Down the River

 

 

 

More Later, Rich

Big River, California

We are at Big River RV Park LINK, It is on the west bank of the Colorado River.  When we arrived I told Gorgie I may not be able to sleep here.  Winterhaven was next to the I-8 freeway and about a quarter mile from the rail lines, so we could hear trains and the sound of truck tires all night long, we found the sounds to be rather soothing.  Well here the only sounds we can hear are a couple of resident owls, and some irrigation pumps off in the distance, very quiet.  Well it didn’t take long to get used to this. 

Being on the west bank of the river the sunrises are outstanding.

 

 

Sunrise on the Colorado

 

Click Picture for Larger Size

 

Yesterday was laundry day, this is the first place we have stayed at that the laundry machines were outside under a roof and had a clothesline complete with clothespins.  Things dried on the line almost as fast as the dryers in the sun and low humidity.

 

 

             Outdoor Laundry

 

 

In the evening we were invited to join some of our fellow campers around a campfire beside the river, what nice people.

Today we are going to drive to Havasu City to see the London Bridge, so expect a report on that.

More Later, Rich

Leaving Yuma

All good things must come to an end. Today we travel to Big River, CA LINK. It is just across the Colorado River from Parker, AZ and from there we go to Ehrenberg, AZ so we won’t bother to change our clocks (not that we use them much).

We have had a good time meeting and visiting with folks from all across the country and Canada. Especially Mike and Eileen from Calgary, Alberta, Bob and Dawn from Niagra, New York, John and Linda from Duncan, BC (on Vancouver Island). We had some great happy hours sitting around visiting, telling lies, and laughing. We look forward to meeting up with them down the road somewhere.

There are lots of things to do in Yuma but we saved lots of those things for next time. When you start to know your way around a town it’s time to move on!

More Later, Rich

Los Algodones, Baja-California

Lots of people staying here and around this area go to Algodones for medical reasons. You can buy prescription drugs over the counter very cheap, most times for less than the copayments at home.  Also available are dental clinics and eye clinics. Bridges are done in two days for $500 and progressive lens glasses for $99 in two hours.  Some of our Canadian friends say the same glasses would cost them $1000 at home.  Well we didn’t need any of those things but we just had to visit and see what all the buzz was about.

Algodones is a very small town with only one purpose, to cater to the American senior in need of affordable care.  There are several reportedly good restaurants there, and we chose El Pariso,  It is an outdoor courtyard with entertainment. The food was very good and Gorgie reports that the Cadillac margarita was possibly the best she has ever had , aside from Patrick and Arlene's.  The place is overrun with street vendors and we waited in line for an hour to go through customs, but we would go again, maybe even before we leave on Tuesday. We didn’t take the camera with us so there are not any pictures to share, actually we haven’t taken any pictures lately.

It has been windy and cool here (mid 60’s) the last couple of days but today it’s supposed to be in the 80’s. We have been mostly hanging out reading and playing cards (Gorgie has been beating my pants off)he-he.

We are getting to know our way around town so it is time to move on. Our next stop is in Big River, CA (across the Colorado River from Parker,AZ), for a week.

More Later, Rich