Los Algodones

Yesterday we ventured across the border for lunch and margarita's, and they were as good as we remembered them.

One of the pictures we took is the blog header, we thought something with both of us would be fun to share.

 

 

 

  Ahhh sweet

 

 

 

The weather was cool and windy so the crowds were not bad, and the line was short to get back into the USA.

There are always people begging or trying to sell you some Chiclets, so this time we gave them a buck and took some pictures.

 

 

 

                                                                                                 They are very small about four feet tall and always looking for a handout. You only see women and children.

 

                                                                                             

Well we had a good time, bought some junk, and brought back lots of memories.

More Later,

Rich

Yuma

Our drive down on Christmas Day was not bad at all. Very little in the way of traffic, the weather was nice, not a bad way to spend the day.

The name of this RV park is Pilot Knob (named after a local rock formation), it is actually located on the California side of the Colorado River in Winterhaven. It is in the desert, the wind blows often and the nights are cool. We went for a walk yesterday, south from our site for about a mile. We could see the border in the distance from where we turned around, lots of rocks and sand.  There are plenty of birds though and we have the hummingbird feeder out. We have had as many as three hummers on the feeder at once, never have we seen that before.

 

 

 

   Some of our neighbors had lights on their rigs including the rig next to us.

 

 

 

We are only here for a bit over a week and then we are off to Tucson to see my Dad.  After a couple of days there, it is Texas and the Rio Grande Valley for our next stay.  This is going to a new adventure, since we have never visited this area before. The name of the park there is The Kenwood RV Resort, LINK .

More Later,

Rich

Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas everyone!

Gorgie and I wish everyone peace, love, & happiness.

 

 

Our little Christmas shrine, small but nice.

Gorgie and Rich

Café des Beaux-Arts

Yesterday was going to be a day of running some errands and getting a date shake.  Well one of those errands was going to be a trip to the Apple Store in Palm Desert.  We were somewhat concerned about the road conditions because of all the flooding, but other than having to find our way around some closed roads and driving through sand that had been washed onto the road it was a non-issue.

Apple is located on El Paseo Drive in Palm Desert, think Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills.  Block after block of high end stores like Gucci, Tiffany, and the like.  So here we are in the “Pod Racer” with Mercedes, Porsches, and Bentleys, and I parked it in front of a high-end jewelry store.  Window shopping was a fun experience, and we talked about what fun Gloria could have with Dusty and Heather shopping here.

Our plan was to go back to Tyler’s for another of their great burgers.  As we were driving down El Paseo we spotted “Café des Beaux-Arts” (pronounced café day bowzar), check out this link  http://www.cafedesbeauxarts.com/ .

I made a Quick turn and found a parking space and in we go.  The place really had a French bistro feel to it, although the waiters all spoke spanish.  Gorgie had a Tahiti salad and I had the shrimp crepes,  boy were they good.  A spur of the moment decision turned out to make our day.

 

Tomorrow is still our travel day, so things to do.

More Later,

Rich

Stormy Weather

In my last post I wrote that all the storms coming into California were pretty much staying on the west side of the mountains and we were only getting showers.  Well Tuesday night and all day Wednesday that all changed.  It rained so hard that it woke us up during the night, we developed a small leak around the slide and I had to tilt the motorhome slightly  to keep the water out.  We spent the day yesterday inside reading and playing cards.  The local TV stations were showing the flooding and damage the rain caused, lots of road closures, and washouts.  All told we had over 4 inches in less than 24 hours.

 

This morning we woke up to sunshine, clear skies, and snow on the tops of the mountains, pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

The storms are over and the forecast calls sun and warmer temperatures (70°) or higher, just like we want it to be.

By the way Gorgie did go to the pool for water aerobics during the storm. She came home looking like a drowned rat, but had a good time anyway.

Today is going to be our last chance to get that date shake we have wanted, so we are going to venture out and fight the Christmas crowds, see if we can find our way around the road closures, to run some errands and get said shake. Christmas is still our move day.

I have updated our itinerary and the restaurants pages. Just click on the red titles above the weather banner to see.

 

More Later,

Rich

Rain in the Valley

It has been raining here the last two days.  Not the heavy rains and flooding that is happening to the west in the Los Angeles area but it has been wet and cool, not the 80 degree temperatures we were enjoying so much.

The posting has been neglected lately, mostly because we have a poor internet connection and pictures are so slow to upload that I have all but given up.

 We are down to our last few days here in Desert Hot Springs. It has been an enjoyable, time here Gorgie has read three books since we arrived, something she would never do at home.

We are off to Yuma on Christmas Day (poor planning on my part), it's only a three hour drive so not too bad.  We plan to go out to a dinner at the local casino.  Hopefully we will have a better conection when we get there so we can update Gorgie's iPad, and get some pictures on the blog.

More Later,
Rich

Viva Las Vegas

We rented a car and made a mad dash to Las Vegas, to join Pam and Steve at the Fitz.  They are fun to be with and we had a great time.  We left here on Friday and returned on Monday.

 

  The only luck we had was a $1558.25 Royal Flush on a 25₵ video poker machine.

 

 

 

 

 

   Guess who that lucky person was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drive up and back took us through some pretty, open desert country. Sure wouldn’t want to break down out there.

  We are now back in Desert Pools RV and having a wonderful time.  Yesterday we went to lunch at the Fisherman’s Market and Grill LINK for some of the best fish and chips in Palm Springs.  Last week we a couple of great burgers at Tyler’s in downtown Palm Springs  Link to reviews .  More adventures are on the way,  Watch here to see what we do next.

More Later,

Rich

80°’s

The post title pretty much sums up what we are doing.  It’s shorts and tee shirt weather, and is going to be for the next several days.  Gorgie has settled into her water aerobics routine in the mornings and I have met some very nice folks who like to chat.  Book reading and general goofing off is a great way to spend the day. We have done our shopping to reprovision the cupboards, I think a trip to get a date shake is in our near future.

We had the road grime washed off, I put on the solar screens, and the hummingbirds are feasting at my window.

 

This has been a wonderful start of our trip to the Rio Grande Valley.

More Later,

Rich

The Indio Tamale Festival

We went to the Tamale Festival in Indio yesterday, and had a great time.  We sampled chicken, cheese w/jalapeño, chili colorado, shredded beef, corn w/chilies, belgian chocolate w/raspberries & glazed walnuts, pumpkin w/currents & a jamacan rum sauce.  Sounds like a lot but we didn’t eat a whole one of each, we shared and they were small and only $3.00 each.  It was fun and almost like being in Mexico,  most folks were Hispanic and the entertainment was all in Spanish.

Santa has a bag full of tamales

 

 

 

       The line a Grandma Lupe’s was an hour and a half long.  We missed out.

 

 

 

    One of several entertainment stages.

More Later,

Rich

We Have Arrived

It was a long drive to get here. Other than the nervousness of getting over the pass it was not bad at all.  Of course traveling only 200 – 250 miles a day takes the fatigue out of it.  The two days in Bakersfield at the Orange Grove RV Park were our first in warmer weather.  Yesterday we pulled in to Desert Pools RV Resort for a three week stay.  The temperature was 72° and sunny.  How nice was that?  It will take a couple more days to get settled, (no hurry for us).

Today we are headed to the Indio Tamale Festival we had the strawberry tamales last year and are looking forward to them again.

More Later,

Rich

Orange Grove RV Park Bakersfield, CA

We spent the last two nights here in Bakersfield surrounded by groves of oranges.  Yesterday we had fresh squeezed juice and boy was that good.  Here is a LINK to the park.  We spent most of the day sitting outside reading in the sunshine, it was a comfortable 64°.  Today we are moving into the desert at Mojave, CA for one night, at Sierra Trails RV Park LINK a drive of only about 60 miles but it is over the Tehachapi pass and into some dryer weather, it may shower here and we can’t have that.

 

 

 

   Orange Grove RV Park

 

 

 

We are due into Desert Hot Springs on Saturday and the weather looks even better there.  I don’t think I’ll have an internet connection until we arrive there, so.

More Later,

Rich

Winter Wonderland

Sunday’s drive south to Seven Feathers was an easy drive.  There were showers off and on but nothing too bad.

Debbie and Jerry drove down in their Beamer to have dinner with us and see us off, thank you very much that was nice. They stayed in the hotel because their motorhome is being repaired.

The drive from Canyonville to Redding was another story all together.  Luckily the road was mostly free of snow but there were a few patches of frost and ice here and there.  That section of I-5 is difficult enough with it’s twists, turns, climbs, and downgrades with perfect conditions let alone snow and ice.  We have seen a small amount of snow on the side of the road before, but this time it was a lot. The roadside snow lasted almost all the way to Redding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excuse the dirty windshield, we got sprayed pretty good by passing vehicles.

We spent the night in Redding at the Redding RV Park,  a nice enough place for one night.  I bought a Passport America membership and staying here only cost $15.40.

Today we continue south to Patterson, CA for one night then on to Bakersfield for maybe two nights, (Gorgie wants to do some laundry).  When we get to the Palm Springs area the Indio Tamale Festival is going on and we are looking forward to the strawberry tamales.

More Later,

Rich

Almost time to go!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  The expected 26 guests dwindled to 15 mostly due to weather, Dusty and Jedd had freezing pipe problems that were bursting as it started to thaw.  Kevin's family couldn’t get out of Walla Walla because of the freezing rain over there.  We sure missed them, but we had a wonderful holiday with those who came.

  

A good time was had by all,  we missed everyone who couldn’t make it. 

We pull out of here in the morning, and it looks as though we will have a window of opportunity to get over the pass on Monday.  Right now the pass is requiring chains to get over, but the forecast looks good for Monday afternoon, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed because there is a new storm coming in Tuesday afternoon.

 

More Later, (From the Road)

Rich

Getting Out of Town

We are experiencing an early winter storm here, snow, and freezing temperatures.  I was going to put up a picture of our snow but it rained all day and washed it away.  More is expected tonight and it may not get above 32° during the day tomorrow.

Anyway our plan is to travel to Seven Feathers in Canyonville, OR, on Sunday and if we need to wait for the weather to improve before we can get over the pass and into California we’ll wait it out there.  We have a couple of extra days in our plans just in case.  Debbie and Jerry are going to follow us as far as Canyonville so we’ll have company that far.  It should be clear sailing once we get as far as Redding.  I don’t care how many times we do this we still get excited about the start of a new adventure.

More Later,

Rich

Snowbirds to The Rio Grande Valley

We are almost ready to take off for our winter adventures.  The last of our preparations are well underway.  Thanksgiving dinner will be a blast and we are so looking forward to it.  This year we are expecting about 25 folks.

This year we are stepping out of our box and will be traveling to Rio Grande Valley in Texas (RGV), for at least a month.  Our good friends Harold and Pam are wintering there and so we are going to join them. Here are our plans as they stand right now, of course everything can change at a moments notice.

11-28-10 Seven Feathers RV Resort, Canyonville, OR

11-29-10 Redding RV Park, Redding, CA

11-30-10 Kit Fox RV Park, Patterson, CA

11-31-10 Orange Grove RV Park, Bakersfield, CA

12-2-10 Sierra Trails RV Park Mojave, CA

12-4-10 Desert Pools RV Resort, Desert Hot Springs, CA (Palm Springs)

12-25-10 Pilot Knob RV Resort, Winterhaven, CA  (Yuma)

1-3-11 Tucson, AZ at Dad’s

1-6-11 Deming, NM

1-7-11 Clint, TX

1-8-11 Alpine, TX

1-9-11 Del Rio, TX

1-10-11 Zapata, TX

1-12-11 Pharr, TX  for a month or so.

1-12-11  We have changed our destination in Texas.  We will be staying at The Kenwood RV Resort in La Feria, TX   Link to Park   (edited 11-22-10)

Plans after this are not yet formed but we will probably back track through Arizona and wind up in Indio, CA to meet up with Debby and Jerry around the 15th of March. So follow along and we will post our adventures right here.    (2979)

More Later,

Rich

Planning for the upcoming travel season.

I don't know if anyone is reading this or not, but we are starting to make some plans for what has become our annual snowbirding adventures.  We have made our first reservations and they are for Desert Pools RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs, CA.  We like this place because of it's natural hot springs that fill the pool and the three hot tubs.  It is in the Palm Springs area, that we enjoy very much.  We will be there for three weeks.  Then we will move to Indian Waters in Indio, CA, a drive of 26 miles.
This year we plan to travel further than before by visiting the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for a month.  Our friends Pam and Harold are wintering at Texas Trails RV Resort in Pharr, TX, so we will be joining them there.
I'll try to recap our summer in a future post, so keep watching.

When we got Home

When we got home there were a few things we discovered about the differences between RV living and house living.

 

1. You can’t flush the toilet with your foot (well maybe you can)

2. You don’t have to lift on the handles to open the drawers.

3. There are no holding tank gauges on your bathroom wall.

4. You can run your microwave, toaster,coffee maker, etc. at the same time without blowing the breaker.

5. There is no steering wheel in your living room.

6. You look out your window and NOT find your neighbor 10 feet away.

7. Much fewer golf carts driving up and down in front of your house.

8. The whole neighborhood doesn’t get together every evening for happy hour.

9. You have the same neighbors all summer long.

10. Snow and ice is still possible.

11. Spring rains are on the way, as is the possibility of floods

12. You won’t need your A/C for several months.

13. People wonder how/where you got that tan.

14.That you have already started making plans to go back south next fall.

15. That the contents of your RV will surprisingly fill half the available space in your house, garage, and workshop. How did I fit all those clothes in the RV and why did I take them all? Where did all that stuff come from anyway?

16. It takes longer to clean the house than the RV.

17. Plus you have to mow the lawn, weed the flower beds, remember to put out the trash and recycling on certain days.  But the newspaper is delivered to you!

18. We can’t hear each other from opposite ends of the house.

We pulled into the driveway at about 1:30PM on Tuesday and we have not stopped since. We have been busy catching up with family and chores around the place.  On Wednesday we had a nice dinner with Heather, Kevin, Kolton, & Kooper at our favorite steakhouse (The Old Country Kitchen).  It was sure fun to see and visit with them.  Gloria saw her sisters and I had lunch with brother Bob.  Today we are going up to DuPont to see Dusty and Jedd’s new house, and go to dinner with them.  In between I have changed the oil in the lawn mowers and mowed everything.  There were no issues with the house and the hummingbirds were happy and well fed thanks to Bob and Annie who checked on the place and picked up our mail on a regular basis. The yard was in good shape thanks to Forrest and Gail who came over and mowed twice before we got home, it wasn’t too bad.  We want to thank everyone for all the help you gave us without you we wouldn’t have been able to live our dream life on the road, Thanks so Much! Maybe by October I’ll be caught up around here.  My intent is to publish this blog once or twice a week to let folks know what we are doing.

More Later, Rich

Almost Home

We expect to be home this afternoon.  The coach was serviced at Southern Oregon Diesel yesterday morning and it was after noon by the time we hit the road, we didn’t want to drive through Portland rush hour(s) traffic so we stopped at the Blue Ox RV park in Albany.  This is a nice, clean, quiet, & well kept park.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up on what’s been going on.

   We climbed up the hill behind the Seven Feathers Resort to get this picture.  This was taken after all the overnighters had left, believe it or not the place gets really full by evening, but one climb was enough for me (we are just to the left of the laundry/shower building) click on the picture to see a larger image.  I have also added another page to the blog that has our itinerary with links to most of the places we stayed at, it’s just above the weather sticky.

Keep looking at the blog I’ll post again after we get home.

It’s time to get ready to hit the road and it is pouring outside, figures doesn’t it.  We have mostly avoided driving in the rain but that just reminds us of the Northwest.  We are glad to be back in the green, but we did enjoy the sun and dry.

More Later, Rich

Holed up in Canyonville

We pulled in to the Seven Feathers RV Resort Friday afternoon.  It was a mostly uneventful drive.  We left Redding at about 10AM and with a fuel stop in Weed we went over the pass at about 1PM, all the frost on the road that we could see in the ODOT cameras had melted.  Jerry and Deb spent one night here with us then pushed on home Saturday morning.  We stayed again last night and will be moving on to the parking lot at Southern Oregon Diesel in N. Roseburg later this morning to wait for our 8:30AM appointment Monday to have our oil changed and have them look things over.  It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours then we will press on home.  We’ll likely lay over somewhere so we don’t have to negotiate Portland rush hour(s) traffic.

Keep reading the blog as I will post more about our return.

More Later, Rich

On the Road

We spent the Easter weekend in Bakersfield waiting for Jerry and Deb’s appointment at the Cat dealer.  The good news is that they said there wasn’t anything wrong, and on the drive north they did not have any issues.  We spent one night at Flag City RV Resort in Lodi, CA LINK, a nice place just off the I-5 freeway.  The last two nights we have been at JGW RV Park in Redding, CA LINK.  We decided to stay another night to let a storm on the pass go by.  So today we make the assault on the summit.  We are leaving here at 10AM so we hit the pass in the early afternoon and let the frost melt before we have to deal with it.

 

 

 

 

 

We have been enjoying the spring flowers along the way, although I expect there won’t be as many after today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an interesting tree stump covered in ivy, looks like some creature out of a Dr. Seuss book.

We have had a good time playing cards, cooking some great meals, and spending time together.

Tonight we expect to be at the Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, OR. LINK, for a two night stay, because we have an appointment at Southern Oregon Diesel to have our rig serviced on Monday morning.  We expect we will be home on Tuesday afternoon.  We will have been gone for over 19 weeks and let me tell you time has flown by, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that much time away.  Now we are getting excited about seeing everyone as soon as possible.

Time to hit the road.

More Later, Rich