January 10, Tuesday, Day 96
January 9, Monday, Day 95
Salton Sea State Recreation Area (SRA), 148 mile jump
Bound and determined to make this blog live online, I worked until 12:30AM last night and started again about 6:30 this morning. And I finally pulled the trigger; today is the day. I feel like an expectant dad giving birth to a baby! God, that feels good! I told a few friends and family to test drive the baby carriage and give me feedback. Then, I’ll do an official announcement.
Checkout time was 11AM and we hadn’t a firm destination. Turning from blog work to important stuff like where to sleep tonight, we weighed varied pros and cons. But, basically it was obvious we wanted to be warm, i.e., we had to find a lower elevation. I remembered being attracted to the Sultan Sea because, according to California state parks, it was below sea level and the photos were awesome.
We had tentatively planned to camp at Joshua Tree National Park, but its 3000′. However, it’s just NE of the Salton Sea, so we can day trip it. And, there is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is just SW of here. So, consensus! We have a plan; now let’s see if our plan lines up with the energy force that has the final say.
What a drive! The barren vastness was stunning. The rock formations looked like something out of a Fred Flintstone cartoon. Seriously, it must get super hot here in the summer; there is no grass, no trees, no weeds, nothing. Compare that to the fecundity of the rainforests of the Pacific NW. What a dichotomy!
Portions of the ride felt like a roller coaster ride; we’d climb a steep grade that would quickly become a steep descent, so steep we couldn’t see the road below at the top of the arc. A number of descents had signs warning, “Watch downhill speed!”. When you weigh 7 tons, you don’t want to get going too fast, for sure! In one instance, as we were returning to populated areas, a long 4 mile descent ended at an intersection with a stoplight. Trailer brakes are a must!
Arriving at the Sulton Sea was a real treat. I was tired and crabby; Penny and I had trouble getting the trailer set up. Actually, it took about three tries and two different sites before we got it level and hooked to utilities. But then, we discovered Pelicans and all sorts of sea birds vacationing here. I wasn’t crabby after that! I’ll let the photos show you why:
Penny’s fried chicken legs, steamed carrots and broccoli, and a beer for dinner found us exclaiming our blessings! It is all good in our universe tonight!
January 8, Sunday, Day 94
It was 44F when I headed to the showers after trimming my beard and shaving my neck. The showers were only about 50 yards from the Ship. I dressed minimally as usual: hoodie, gym trunks, flip flops, towel, and wash cloth. I carry soap and shampoo in the hoodie pouch.
As I entered the men’s shower without using my code; the door was jimmied! It wasn’t a recent event. What good is the code? Then I saw three shower stalls. Two were missing shower heads, the goosenecks that hold the shower heads and the faucet to adjust the water temperature. The third stall was lacking only the shower head. I celebrated that, but no matter how long I ran the water or which position I placed the faucet, no hot water appeared! It was then I started cursing loudly. I managed to lather up the wash cloth to hit the important parts and stuck my head under the water long enough to lather and rinse. Worst shower ever!
The staff wasn’t there to admonish. I wanted to get to church on time and pray for these clowns! Later, they blamed thieves and a bad water heater part and weren’t about to admit any culpability. They had our money so we drove away gnashing our teeth! We will post a review on Yelp.
Our Lady of the Desert Catholic Church was a gem. Its adobe styled exterior and breezeways allowed views to the distant snow capped mountains across the Apple Valley. Huge walls of stained glass allowed streaming sunlight to illuminate the interior. A large stained glass skylight was an additional attraction. A very diverse congregation ( gringo, latino, black and native) packed the very large house and seemed one big happy family singing boisterously together. Communion!
Later that afternoon, the Barbs payed us a visit to check out our tiny house and share Penny’s black eyed pea stew and fresh made corn bread. More great conversation and laughs made for an intimate evening culminated with a variety of cheesecake treats,
January 7, Saturday, Day 93
Shady Oasis
It was 34F when we woke up; about 45F inside. As per usual, I turned up the thermostat and as the furnace kicked on it made a god awful squealing sound. I was sure glad we bought the electric heater! But, we need the furnace when electricity is not available, so I started looking online for RV dealers in the area. It was only 7AM; the three I found didn’t open until 9. In the meantime, I went to the internet for advice on this problem and there was plenty. It did not indicate the need for replacing the whole fan. The fan may be contacting the housing; this can be remedied by oil and/or adjustment. Exhale!
After it warmed up a bit, I went out side to investigate the problem. It appears to be a big job to pull the entire furnace. The gas line, three ducts and power would all have to be disconnected first; all tight quarters work. Optimistically, it can be done without this drastic maneuver. But, first I needed to pinpoint the source of the noise. Penny turned on the thermostat; the fan spun up to speed with no noise! My theory is the furnace housing in distorting in the cold temps and impeding the fan blades. Let’s see what happens in the next couple of days.
Later, we went over to Barb and Barb’s for lively conversation on a wide ranging series of topics. They prepared homemade buns, crockpot pork, home made BBQ sauce, and coleslaw. We brought artisan ice cream oatmeal cookie sandwiches covered in chocolate for dessert. A good time was had by all!
Matt and Stacia had mailed Christmas presents to the Barbs’ address for her mom and I. Matt made us laminated cutting board. Stacia made us some vanilla extract and sent some great portraits of the grand daughters, Kadie, Alison and Emma.
We also sent a package there when we decided to change out our halogen light bulbs to LED bulbs. We needed 17 indoor and two outdoor, but when we shopped at the RV place in Spokane, each bulb was $17!!! However, when I mentioned that to my brother-in-law, Mike, he did some detective work on the inter web and found 20 bulbs for $16!!! As a result, we replaced all of our bulbs last night and are using only a fraction of the power we were with the other bulbs. This results in longer battery life while primitive camping.
Frankly, primitive camping sounds drastically different from our reality. What we do is a long way from primitive. We roll our trailer from spot to spot and live quite well. It is cold at night, but we have heaters. It rains, but we are not sleeping on the ground and our roof does not leak. We have a refrigerator and a freezer for food storage. We even have a microwave! (which does not work without electrical hookup.)
Same trailer; different park!
January 6, Friday, Day 92
Shady Oasis Campground, Victorville, Ca., 176 mile jump
Saying goodbye to Iris and Nancy about 9:30AM, we headed south to Ventura where we said farewell to the Pacific Ocean which we had been enjoying since Cape Flattery mid- November. Before that, we first came upon salt water in Puget Sound, November 3. The sea is alluring; its magnificence is both calming and humbling. Hopefully, the pollution by oil and plastic can be stopped before it’s too late. Future generations depend upon us addressing pollution and climate change now; we are near a point beyond which we might not recover. Butterflies, bees, birds and sea creatures are small links in the chain of life that if allowed to go extinct will result in our own extinction. Lord, help us to realize our predicament and act accordingly!
It was a long slow climb from the sea to the high desert; the topography changing from coastal to crops to horse and cattle to desert. We stopped once to dump our waste water in Santa Clarita at a Camping World; I didn’t want to haul the weight uphill. Then again for a roadside lunch as we met the Pear Blossom Hwy near Palmdale . Arriving at Shady Oasis about 3PM, we set up in a run down campground adjacent to I-15. There is virtually no one here, it’s only $36/night for full hookup, close to our friends, and cell phone service is good. We are only here three nights, so we will be fine. Last week, we were right next to an airport under the flight path, Before that, we were sandwiched between Hwy. 1 and the Amtrak track, so the noise won’t bother us.
I got back to blogging; I am anxious to go live online before our next jump to Joshua Tree National Park; it will be primitive, i.e., no computer. Penny made what she believes to be the best corn bread she has ever made. It was great with the black eyed peas stew!
January 5, Thursday, Day 91
Peterson’s Yard
My mom is 92 years old today; she is still a bundle of joy, happy as a lark! You go, Mom!
Sunshine! Highs in the low 70s predicted! Bike riding weather, for sure. Penny and I took an hour or so to make our way to the Santa Barbara County Pier which juts .25 mile into the Pacific. It is a fishing pier and also seemingly a hangout for all kinds of gulls and pigeons.
Gawking more than biking, we covered about 8 miles on our bikes.
After lunch, we headed downtown via the truck to fuel up for our jump tomorrow and to visit Stearn’s Wharf, a big attraction in Santa Barbara. It is so big it has a parking lot, restaurants, candy stores, ice cream parlors, an Aquarium, to name but a few. The beach front park is extensive with many volleyball courts, lots of walking/riding trails, grass and palm trees, and fun.
A perfectly lovely day in the sunshine! We both thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. But, tomorrow we say good bye to the seashore for the first time in months to head inland and east to visit friends, Barb and Barb, in Apple Valley. It’s high desert there (3200′), so we expect cold temps. Like a good Boy Scout, I wanted to be prepared, so we stopped to purchase a small electric heater. We burn our own propane for heat currently, but we could use the camp electricity when camping with electrical hookups.
Returning home, we enjoyed black eyed pea with ham hock stew. It was delicious! Good night!
January 4, Wednesday, Day 90
Peterson’s Lot
Our hope was to visit Mission Santa Barbara today. It was overcast with high humidity, misting. The mission is another special place to me; I have visited twice before, once many years ago and once just three years. The neatest part to me is the 200 year old horticulture; the size of the cacti is unbelievable. Unfortunately, the drought has decimated a great portion of them. And, the padres were renovating the gardens to change to more drought resistant, less water dependent plants. The gardens were still beautiful and the moist leaves popped in the photos.
We both enjoyed the old architecture, statuary and paintings inside the church. Then there were the “time capsules” where completely furnished rooms were displayed exactly as they were in the early 1800s.
January 3, Tuesday, Day 89
Peterson’s Tree Care Shop Yard, Goleta, Ca., 94 mile jump
The ride from Pismo down the 101 to Santa Barbara was interesting, changing from tourist to agricultural, to vineyards, to steep rolling hills having deep cuts by the railroad and highway right of ways. Absolutely phenomenal!
On the way to Penny’s family in Goleta just outside Santa Barbara, we stopped at one of my favorite campgrounds, ever! On my first large scale trip, I was 25 years old; my wife Jacquie and I had a 5 month old son, Shawn. Following in the footsteps of another hippie couple, we bought a 1956 Chevy school bus with a 235 cu. in., 6 cylinder engine. It had been fully refurbished with the components of a wrecked RV, so the exterior looked like looked like a hippie bus. But inside it was equipped with a gas/electric frig/freezer, stainless steel sink, 3 burner gas stove with small oven, monomaniac toilet, and nicely built dinette, bench sofas, and closet.
Long story short, on our epic trip of 1974-75, we stayed at Refugio Beach State Beach, it remains, in my mind, the quintessential California beach park. Penny and I had planned to stayed there, but her cousin, Peter, offered a spot in his lot for no charge. That and being closer to her aunt and cousins swayed us to accept his offer. In addition, there was an oil spill at Refugio recently that had been fairly well mitigated, but tars balls still cover the beach and stick to one’s feet. Why not harness the sun’s clean, free energy and stop polluting our environment? Free is the problem; how are the petroleum corporations going to make a buck? Too short sighted; our kids need clean energy!
Iris and her husband, Gary, treated us to dinner at Chili’s tonight!
January 2, Monday, Day 88
Coastal Dunes RV
Its literally a day that you don’t know if you are coming or going. Check out time is 11AM; we could probably stretch that a bit. There is no one moving into this site today. Until we hear from Rey, we won’t know what we are doing. Penny thought she’d straighten up the inside of the trailer and tie things down for travel so that if we got the truck back soon enough she could help me break down the outdoor stuff.
We would have to have the truck back by noonish in order to avoid another day’s rent here. We talked to Rey; he said 2-3PM, so our decision was made. We paid for another night, I worked on pictures for the blog. She did a color study for the landscape in the foreground of the mural before bundling up for an afternoon painting outdoors.
This end of the campground was virtually empty by noon. There are the two camp hosts, us, and maybe one other tourist. Nice! Rey called around 2PM; I rode my bike to get the truck about 3PM. It was expensive, but I must be thankful that pump didn’t fail while we were descending a steep curvy hill at 60MPH. That would be a BIG bummer.
Both of us diligently pursued our crafts until close to 5PM. A small happy hour with cheese and crackers and a beer ensued followed by calls to check on Penny’s mom. Shirley has not been feeling well this week; but she sounded good and thought she was out of the woods.
Tonight I walked to the quick stop to pickup a couple items while Penny started dinner. On my return I hooked up the BBQ and we made a feast of shrimp and veggie kabobs. YUM!
January 1, Sunday, Day 87
Coastal Dunes RV Park, Pismo Beach, Ca.
Our last full day here so we wanted to take advantage of the on-site laundromat. Arriving at 7:30AM, we got two loads started. Penny went to shower and I got busy tidying up the Ship. There was plenty of time to get the laundry done, folded, and sorted into its proper locations. A big bowl of fresh fruit, granola, yogurt, and dates was perfect with a cup of tea. Off to 10:30AM Mass at St. Patrick’s with plenty of time. Everything is beautiful!
After Mass, we realized we forgot the Redbox movie! We had planned to visit the 1200′ pier that protrudes into the sea after church. Do we go to the pier first, or, do we get the movie returned before they charge us another $1.69? Choosing the latter to preclude another forgetful incident, we turned toward the campground. As we moved into the center lane to turn left into the RV park, the truck stalled as if it had run out of gas. I attempted to make the turn into the entrance but the power steering failed and we ended up dead in the road, blocking the northbound lane of Hwy 1.
I drained the fuel bowl hoping to flush any obstruction of the injectors. It started right up, then died after 5 seconds. This continued to happen, so I got out my road side hazard kit and set up red reflective triangles to alert northbound traffic. The park staff came out with more warning cones and warned me the CHP would not be happy with me unless I had a tow truck on the way. Penny contacted our roadside assistance company who were asking me questions I could not answer. Like where do you want to take your vehicle? “I just need it out of the road!”. The park staff suggested “Rey’s”, but of course they were closed on Sunday.
Then, the Highway Patrol arrived. At first, he was abrupt, probably thinking I was too inebriated to make the turn. Accessing the situation, he asked if I had a tow rope, which I did. Another CHP arrived and they stopped traffic in both directions so he could pull me away from the curb I had rolled into. I had to straighten the rig so he could get behind me and push me into the driveway. It was all I could do to turn the steering wheel, but we got it done!
The tow truck showed up and the cops left. Penny was talking to Rey. He showed up like an angel from heaven! It seems his wife was stuck in the traffic jam we had created, she called him; he checked his messages and heard ours. So, he came down to say he would open his gate so that the tow truck could store the truck safely inside. The tow truck driver, Marc, agreed with the park ranger that Rey is the “go-to” guy in this neighborhood. I rode with Marc to Rey’s shop where I became more confident with Rey, because he has two Cummins diesel Dodge trucks like mine. He said he knew we hoped to move on tomorrow and he would start on it first thing in the morning.
Penny had spoken to the park staff about the availability of our site for Monday night should the need arise. They said no problem; it was available for a couple of weeks at this point; someone could reserve it online, but that is unlikely. Also, we had planned to leave for a visit with Penny’s aunt and cousins tomorrow. That event was now in jeopardy; we will see.
Sunset on a very unsettling day calms the anxiety!
The PJs walking over another speed bump.