Big Ugly Hole in the Ground

Today we drove down to Tombstone and Bisbee. We didn't stop in Tombstone as it was early and very "tacky touristy" looking. Very predictable, unfortunately. We continued on to Bisbee, AZ which is known for a very large open pit copper mine. It doesn't appear to be larger than the one in Butte, MT but still big... and ugly looking. The color of the water in the bottom of the pit is a little scary looking. Downtown is built in a canyon and everything is up and down, including the houses. Bisbee is a very interesting town full of artsy shops showing gems, indian art, sculptures of all types, lots of antiques and a few coffee shops.

After touring around Bisbee we drove back via Sierra Vista and Ft. Huachuca. The desert scenery is really beautiful and stark as the pics show. We stopped to visit the Historic Fairbank Town and took a picture of the school building. It is pretty much what's left of the ghost town.

Tomorrow is our last day here with power so Lou will get busy with the sewing machine and work on some of her projects. I may do some really important stuff like check fluid levels, air pressures and count the tires. Then, I may go fishing in one of the "lakes" they have here since a license is not required. Supposedly there are bass, catfish and bream in the lakes. We'll see:)

Cactus, Airplanes and Tombstones

After a delightful visit with Lou's 2 nephews, Mike and Kevin, in Chandler, we are on the road again towards Texas. We had a great Thanksgiving (Thank you Kevin and Cindy for including us). Since we took a lot of street space at Mike's, we felt that we needed to get moving. An added impetus was an offer for 5 days and 4 nights FREE at an RV Resort in St. David, AZ. Of course, we'll have to listen to a sales pitch in the AM as an accomodation. But with full hookups, it's still an offer hard to refuse. St. David is between Tucson and Tombstone so the location will allow us to check out the area and revisit the gunfights at the Tombstone OK Corral:)

On the way here, we stopped at the Pima Air & Space Museum so I could go drool over all the neat airplanes there. The collection is very large and diverse including the SR-71 Blackbird and the Super Guppy. Don't laugh, that's what they called it. I was surprised that there was not a P-51, P-38 or F4U Corsair. It turns out that they are being built in a different hangar and not open to the public as yet.

After that, we stopped at the Saguaro National Park and took the drive through tour. Saguaros are a very interesting (and slow growing) species taking 50 years to attain a height of 7 feet. By 100 years the saguaro may have reached 25 feet.

The attached pics should be self explanatory as to airplane or cactus:)

Thanksgiving in Chandler

The turkey is officially dead and consumed. We joined Kevin Burns and his girlfriend's family for dinner today and enjoyed getting to talk with him. Our visit to Chandler has given us the opportunity to visit with Mike and Kevin both. The gathering in Spokane for Grandma Marie's memorial was nice but there was too much going on to actually talk much with either one.
It's actually raining in the Phoenix area! The clouds look like those in the Orlando summer sky. Large cumulonimbus and rain clouds with lightning are really pretty. We'll wait for the weather system to pass on before we hit the road again.
And, yes, I forgot to take the camera with me today - so no pix.
Tomorrow, we'll plan our next destination point to begin the rest of the journey towards San Antonio. We plan to arrive in the San Antonio area around Dec. 20th. Along the way I want to see the Pima Air and Space Museum near Tucson. Perhaps we'll check out one of the "Free 5 Day/4Night offers at one of the resorts along the way. Perhaps not:) We'll know after we call them to see what it's all about.
It's raining again. A really pleasant sound on the RV's roof. Time to sign off for tonight.
We hope that everybody had a great Thanksgiving!

Safe and sound in Chandler, AZ

We have arrived in Chandler to visit with Mike and Eva Burns. We are parked in front of their house and may be here through Thanksgiving before moving on again. We had our mail forwarded here so we can get caught up with the bills and late political stuff:)

The trip from Blythe was uneventful, YEAH!, through a lot of beautiful desert country. I'll worry about pictures on the return from San Antonio. We bought gas at Costco for $1.83/gal. Love the direction that the prices for gas are going:)

Brain is fried so that's all for now. More later.

In the desert oasis

Here we are, at last, on the edge of the CA/AZ border outside of beautiful(?) downtown Blythe, CA. What a great place to spend our anniversary, huh? Friday, we had a delayed departure from Lompoc because we both wanted to go see Solvang before we left. The delayed departure put us in the middle of Friday rush hour traffic in the LA area. It's a REALLY BIG area for traffic. It slowed our travel significantly with stop and stop and go (a little bit) and stop. Well, all the "stops" did a number on the brakes. They got hot and started to disappear. Finally made it across 24 lanes of traffic (actually 4) and got off in Irwindale to check them out. We have now joined the legions of RV'rs that have stayed at a Walmart! whoopee.... It was noisy but allowed me to verify the brakes were still OK after they cooled. Hit the road again in the AM.

Made it to Beaumont and stayed in a very nice County Park up on a hillside Saturday and Sunday nights. Price was nice also. With the Passport America discount, it was only $6 per night. (Paul's idea of "nice" is almost empty:) The stop there also allowed us to catch up on our laundry and for me to get a much need haircut.

On the way here we visited a Costco in Coachella for provisions and Gas for the RV. $1.84/Gal!! Then we visited Love's Truck Stop to dump the tanks and T/A America for propane. 3 hours later, we have full gas, water tank and empty holding tanks. Not many miles covered today but great progress in maintaining our valuable resources.

Tomorrow, we may make it all the way to the Phoenix area, or not. We will see the Mike Burns family while there and spend Thanksgiving somewhere yet to be determined. We need to find a spot for a week or 2 to rest up for the final dash to San Antonio for Christmas. At 150 to 200 miles per day, we need to monitor our progress and plan accordingly as to where we'll be staying between Phoenix and San Antonio as well as in the San Antonio area. It is a 5-6 day run with the RV and do not want to be late!

More new parts!

Slowly rebuilding the old motorhome on this trip. First was the transmission. Today, we added a new distributor cap and rotor. Much less expensive than a transmission. Anyway, the engine is purring smoothly once again and the transmission is shifting as it should. We got lucky again with a competent and honest truck mechanic that diagnosed our problem starting with the simple things (spark plug wires, etc) and then the distributor. He didn't even try to sell us a new distributor! I'm still tired of meeting the mechanics on our journey but it seems to be inevitible these days, even for those with much newer rigs than ours.

We enjoyed our visit to San Simeon and Cambria. Saw the Hearst Castle (from a distance) and some more beautiful beaches and cliffs. We stopped at the Elephant Seal Viewing at Piedras Blancas where the elephant seals come to rest and procreate. They keep the beach pretty busy with a diversified schedule.

Sept-Oct is the time for the young-of-the-year and juveniles to haul out to rest.

November is when the subadults males haul out. Mature males begin arriving at the end of the month.

December - The bulls continue to return. Females arrive. The first birth is usually mid-month.

January - Females continue to arrive. Peak of births usually last half of month.

February - Births continue. the peak of the mating is around Valentines Day. More females leave.

March - Last adults leave. Weaned pups teach themselves to swim.

April - Females and juveniles return to molt.

May - Females and juveniles molt.

June - Subadult males molt.

August - Last of males molt

Then, it start all over again.

When you first see them on the beach, it looks like a lot of driftwood laying around... until they move.

We are now in a county park in Lompoc, CA, just south of Vandenberg AFB. Tomorrow we journey Eastward which means we will avoid LA and miss seeing family in the San Diego Area.

We are getting a little travel weary of spending 1,2 or 3 nights in different places and are looking forward to being able to stay put for a week or 2 or 3 or 4 at a time. So, it's onward to Arizona where there are no beaches.

This trip has very pleasantly provided beautiful weather with the exception of 3 days of rain in Redding which was really quite enjoyable, however. Otherwise, it has been splendid. While most here are wishing for rain (it's very much needed) it has been great for traveling. The reservoirs are all very depleted and boating activity has been greatly restricted.

We've seen lots of wine country, strawberry, lettuce, cabbage, artichoke and other farms that are struggling with the reduced water supplies. While they need the water, we have enjoyed what we have had.

Yes, It's that pretty!

At last, a wireless signal for the computer! Time to update the blog. Caught up with our mail in San Jose. Thank you Marty for your asistance there.

From the Coyote Lake County Campground in Gilroy, we took a drive down the coast from Monterrey to Lucia. It was beautiful, sunny, clear and warm. Traffic was light and much more pleasant to drive than I remembered it to be since it was a Monday. Previously (40+ years ago, it was a weekend trip with the rest of the population on the road) it was a real parking lot.

Today is Wednesday, the 19th and we are at the San Simeon State Park. Yesterday was in the high 70's, today will be high 60's but still sunny and bright. We'll journey up the coast towards Lucia (to complete that coast highway section) but will skip the Hearst Castle tour ($20/person) and enjoy the day. Very nice town close by, Cambria, where we'll do a little running around.

The pix are of the campground area in Gilroy and, obviously, the coast highway and beaches plus an interesting roadside erosion area.

Can you smell the Eucalyptus??

Here we are nestled in among the eucalyptus trees in the Anthony Chabot Regional Park. It's 6 miles North of Castro Valley and 10 miles East of Oakland.

At the moment, there is only 1 other RV in the area but that will change this evening when the rest arrive. It will still be nice as there is plenty of space between the sites.

We will try to see Kelly Burns (if she can get back from Rhode Island), Marty Burns and Jon, Kirsten & Amalia while in the area the next 2 days before we head further South. We also hope to get connected with our mail which we had forwarded to Marty:)

The weather is absolutely beautiful. Sunny, 70's and a nice breeze (could "breeze" up to 40 MPH this evening) which is very fragrant with the smell of the eucalyptus trees. We had a very nice time at the Rancho Seco Reg. Park and visited Angels Camp and Columbia. We stopped by and saw what was a "recreation" of Mark Twains cabin where he wrote about the jumping frogs of Calaveras County. Didn't see any frogs, however.

I'll try to update any success of meeting up with the relatives tomorrow. For now, it's relax time.

Know the way to San Jose??

We're not there yet. We are now at the Rancho Seco Recreation Area nestled nicely by a beautiful lake and 2 monstrous cooling towers from a deactivated nuclear power plant. Quite a skyline here in the mostly flat cattle country near Ione, CA.

Last night we stayed at the Indian Grinding Stone State Park not too far from here at Volcano, CA. Very interesting place. There is a very large granite stone with lots of indentations where the Miwok indians ground the acorns and other nuts they gathered. Lots of history in the Gold rush area.

Today we took a drive up to Placerville, one of the first gold rush towns. Unfortunately, it's turning into a yuppie tourist haven like many of the other gold rush towns. We'll visit Angels Camp tomorrow and take a ride up toward the Sierra Mountains unless it snows:)

We'll be here 1 more night then head down to the San Jose area to see more family. I'll update again tomorrow after our jaunt to Angels Camp.

AH!! In Vino, Veritas

We had a great time yesterday visiting some (many?) wineries in the rolling hills of the local wine country. Tasted some very fine wines and munchies plus a few wines that were not exactly stellar at least to our individual pallets. We could get used to this part of Central California but certainly NOT the traffic! There appears to be an over abundance of people, all of whom are driving their car in singular mode.

We'll spend the next couple of days here enjoying the company of our parking hosts and doing some more touring of the area. There is much to see here with the history of the gold rush and railroad days. We won't see all of it on this trip. Maybe on the next one:)

Sunshine and Wines

A beautiful day in Roseville, CA. Yesterday, we traveled from Bidwell Canyon near Lake Oroville to Roseville, via Marysville, to visit with Lou's cousin. The camp sites at Bidwell are "Yellowstone Level" as Adam and Aaron may remember from our trip there this past summer. We almost had enough leveling blocks to level the rig but were able to sleep without sliding out of the bed.

We are currently parked in front of their house (WAHOO, Free Camp Spot). Today, we will enjoy the sunshine (low 70's) and visit the wine country. Many think that all of California is wine country but our trip yesterday proved that wrong. We passed through walnut, pistachio and olive orchards plus many other crops like strawberries and unknown veggies. The route took us down a number of connecting farm roads, narrow and unmarked but our GPS got us here with no problems. At least 1 more night here in Roseville before we continue our journey toward the Gold Rush country of Angels camp.. or thereabouts.

Did I mention the wines? We had a glass of Double Dog Dare, Cab Sauvignon last nite. For $1.67 / bottle, it was really good. Not Rosemount or Arbor Crest, for sure, but a good table wine. May even get a couple of bottles for the trip to enjoy down the road.

Still here in Whiskeytown

Whiskeytown Lake looking West




Remnant of Town of Whiskeytown


The rains have quit for now so construction on the arks has slowed. Today was a really exciting day. We did laundry at a laundromat! Interesting experience indeed.


Weather very pleasant today, cool but pleasant. On our way back from town we noticed the mountain directly behind us had a significant accumulation of the "white stuff" on it. Time to move on southward.


A couple of pictures attached to show the area when it isn't raining. The lake and surrounding area is really pretty. The General Store picture shows all that is left of the town of Whiskeytown.

Tomorrow, we'll move on and head toward Roseville, just NE of Sacramento. We'll spend the night somewhere between here and there. Thursday, Fri & Sat nights we'll be parked in front of relatives house. After that, who knows just where we'll land. We'll worry about that on Saturday or Sunday.

Welcome to Whiskeytown

A couple days of R&R in beautiful downtown Whiskeytown. Actually, we are outside of Redding , CA at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area on Whiskeytown Lake. Whiskeytown was an actual town during the gold rush days until the dam was built forming the lake. Since the town was inundated with water, they named the lake Whiskeytown. It's a really pretty area, just a little damp with the rains from the Pacific storms. We'll probably just be here 1 more night before heading down towards Sacramento. At $3.50 per nite the price isn't too bad at all:)

The new tranny is performing as expected, nice and smooth. We discovered a small leak around the kitchen window that I'll work on when we hit a dry spell. Not sure yet just where the water is getting in.

While the stew is cooking in the slow cooker, we'll take a drive over to Weaverville (a little West of here) and look around. I've still got to get used to being a "tourist". Too many years living in Orlando, I guess. Enough for now, I'm going to read my book and listen to the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof for a while.

Our best to all!

On the Road..... Again

After contributing mightly to the local economy of Bend, OR we are once more on our way south. The transmission was indeed quite ill. We lucked out with a really good (best in town, possibly state) transmission repair shop, Scott's Performance. He happened to have a new tranny in stock that he had been saving for his own RV. The options were to get the new one and be out the same day or have our old one rebuilt and be on our way in 4 days. The cost was equivalent so we now have a brand new transmission with which to continue our journey. We are quite a bit poorer but in good spirits just the same.

After spending the night in a repair shops parking lot at no charge, we are now in Redding, CA where it is raining with vigor. In fact, it has been raining pretty much all day so we passed on going to Crater Lake as we wouldn't have been able to see much and we may have encountered some of that white stuff. We are not prepared for that white stuff!

Tomorrow we are expecting more rain from the Pacific storm that is working it's way across the state but will head south anyway as it may be a little warmer rain:) We'll work out where and how to get there this evening but it will be around Angels Camp or Sacramento or ??????

Our best to all who are trying to follow this ramble.

Paul & Lou