March 8. 2010
It is an unfortunate fact my photographs don’t really capture what I see. However, I love to try!
In Arizona we noticed there was often a ring around the moon, and it had a light rainbow-color. Of course it doesn’t photograph well, but this will at least remind me of it.
There are some beautiful flowers In San Diego’s Old Town. One of the buds (about the size of my fist) looked like Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors”.
And another, smaller flower was a magnet for some lively honey bees.
In Arizona we noticed there was often a ring around the moon, and it had a light rainbow-color. Of course it doesn’t photograph well, but this will at least remind me of it.
There are some beautiful flowers In San Diego’s Old Town. One of the buds (about the size of my fist) looked like Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors”.
And another, smaller flower was a magnet for some lively honey bees.
March 5, 2010
Today we left Oasis Palm RV Park, and I wanted to jot down a few more memories before moving on. One of the nice things about the Park is that fresh fruit is so close. In fact, this is the view from our shower:
These are juice oranges – the white inside skin on them is bitter, but they give a lot of sweet juice.
They grow a lot of produce in that area, but one of the main crops seems to be date palms. These trees get very tall, and it is common to have one section planted with mature trees and the next section planted with younger trees. I learned that when a palm tree is younger, it is shorter but not much smaller. That is, the top of the tree looks about the same – it’s just how far it is off the ground that gives an indication of its age.
This morning Randy drove us from Oasis Palm to the Sweetwater Park in Bonito, in the San Diego area. The whole trip was less than 120 miles, but they were some of the hardest miles we’ve covered yet. We went south on 86 and turned west onto S22, which crosses into the Ana-Borrego Desert State Park, rising gradually in elevation. Around the town of Borrego Springs we picked up S3 south. That was a truly horrible road, in every sense of the word. I don’t know what the grade of descent was, but it was much too steep. It would never be allowed on a highway, but here for some reason, it was considered OK. And to make the road drop elevation even faster, the road was nothing but a continuous series of hairpin turns and blind-corners on the edge of the mountain, with no shoulder and no barriers to keep you from going over the side. There wasn’t a single stretch of road as much as 10 feet long that was straight and clear. It would have been trying in a car, but Randy was driving a 38’ motor coach and pulling a Jeep Commander! Every second he was on that road, he was making a turn in one direction or another, with no way to see what was up ahead or if there was a car coming towards us. My side of the road was right against the mountain – many places I could not have put my hand out the window without scraping rocks or trees. On Randy’s side the other lane ran right on the edge of the mountainside, so there was absolutely no room for vehicles to maneuver. Not only was there no shoulder on the road, but in a lot of places the edge of the road itself had eroded and collapsed. We hoped for better things after we got off the mountain, but as soon as we were in a level spot, we started seeing road warning signs such as “Rock Slide Area Ahead”. And “Sharp Turns Ahead”. And “Flash Flood Area”. And “Horse Crossing”. And “Cow crossing”. As Randy said, that road had a warning sign for everything except fire and brimstone! The road then proceeded to go up another mountain, with more blind corners and hairpin curves, shoulder-less and right on the edge of the mountain, only now my side was on the outside! I couldn’t see any of the road when I looked out my window, so I quit looking. When we finally turned onto highway 78 we thought it would get better, but that road was EXACTLY THE SAME!! Maybe just a tiny bit less elevation, but it was still impossible to see where the road was going more than 10 feet ahead. Then we pinned our hopes on 79 south, but no, that was just déjà vu all over again! At this point I have to say that Randy is a wonderful driver. We would not have tried that road if we’d know what it was like, but he did an amazing job and got us through without a scratch.
We did make it to San Diego area in one piece and visited with Randy’s brother Butch and his wife Lina. Their daughter Penny and her fiancé were there, and they offered to take us all out for dinner. So we all went to Applebee’s and over-ate.
These are juice oranges – the white inside skin on them is bitter, but they give a lot of sweet juice.
They grow a lot of produce in that area, but one of the main crops seems to be date palms. These trees get very tall, and it is common to have one section planted with mature trees and the next section planted with younger trees. I learned that when a palm tree is younger, it is shorter but not much smaller. That is, the top of the tree looks about the same – it’s just how far it is off the ground that gives an indication of its age.
This morning Randy drove us from Oasis Palm to the Sweetwater Park in Bonito, in the San Diego area. The whole trip was less than 120 miles, but they were some of the hardest miles we’ve covered yet. We went south on 86 and turned west onto S22, which crosses into the Ana-Borrego Desert State Park, rising gradually in elevation. Around the town of Borrego Springs we picked up S3 south. That was a truly horrible road, in every sense of the word. I don’t know what the grade of descent was, but it was much too steep. It would never be allowed on a highway, but here for some reason, it was considered OK. And to make the road drop elevation even faster, the road was nothing but a continuous series of hairpin turns and blind-corners on the edge of the mountain, with no shoulder and no barriers to keep you from going over the side. There wasn’t a single stretch of road as much as 10 feet long that was straight and clear. It would have been trying in a car, but Randy was driving a 38’ motor coach and pulling a Jeep Commander! Every second he was on that road, he was making a turn in one direction or another, with no way to see what was up ahead or if there was a car coming towards us. My side of the road was right against the mountain – many places I could not have put my hand out the window without scraping rocks or trees. On Randy’s side the other lane ran right on the edge of the mountainside, so there was absolutely no room for vehicles to maneuver. Not only was there no shoulder on the road, but in a lot of places the edge of the road itself had eroded and collapsed. We hoped for better things after we got off the mountain, but as soon as we were in a level spot, we started seeing road warning signs such as “Rock Slide Area Ahead”. And “Sharp Turns Ahead”. And “Flash Flood Area”. And “Horse Crossing”. And “Cow crossing”. As Randy said, that road had a warning sign for everything except fire and brimstone! The road then proceeded to go up another mountain, with more blind corners and hairpin curves, shoulder-less and right on the edge of the mountain, only now my side was on the outside! I couldn’t see any of the road when I looked out my window, so I quit looking. When we finally turned onto highway 78 we thought it would get better, but that road was EXACTLY THE SAME!! Maybe just a tiny bit less elevation, but it was still impossible to see where the road was going more than 10 feet ahead. Then we pinned our hopes on 79 south, but no, that was just déjà vu all over again! At this point I have to say that Randy is a wonderful driver. We would not have tried that road if we’d know what it was like, but he did an amazing job and got us through without a scratch.
We did make it to San Diego area in one piece and visited with Randy’s brother Butch and his wife Lina. Their daughter Penny and her fiancé were there, and they offered to take us all out for dinner. So we all went to Applebee’s and over-ate.
March 4 2010
Wednesday we drove to the Joshua Tree National Park. This is a huge national park that is comprised of two deserts. At the southern entrance we took a short walk to a small oasis. The oasis is completely overgrown with huge palm trees that almost completely hide the water. I couldn't begin to get the picture of the oasis palms to fit on this blog, but this pic shows a couple of them, with Randy at the bottom of the frame.
The desert is starting to bloom here. The cactus often has blooms, and on the ground, almost unseen, are tiny red or yellow flowers. Further inside the park there is a garden of ocotillo plants. It’s not a garden in the Midwest sense - it’s an area that contains several dozen ocotillos, and people are allowed to walk among them. Right now they are full of green leaves and several are showing red flowers at the end of their branches. These are not true cacti, and they are nowhere near as dangerous as what is in the next “garden”. That is a group of Cholla cacti. They are nicknamed Jumping cactus because the small segments of cactus at the end of their branches are very easily dislodged by the slightest touch, and will stick (literally!) to anything that bumps them. Because such a slight touch transfers them to what touched them, people often don’t know they actually did touch it and assume it “jumped” onto them. Their other nickname is Teddy Bear because the many fine needles make them look fuzzy, like a teddy bear. And anyone who knows me knows I want to touch anything that I shouldn’t, so yes, I really, really wanted to touch these fuzzy looking things. But for once, better judgment prevailed and I didn’t.
(Who am I kidding? I touched one of these earlier, and it hurt like the dickens)
We got back into the car and drove on. The next area is full of huge, huge rocks. These rocks just sit on top of the ground like they were stacked up there. They don’t match the ground rock beneath them and don’t blend into the landscape. To give some indication of the rock size, on the first picture below, Randy is just barely visible on in lower right corner. This was nowhere near the largest rock.
The rocks were in fantasic shapes, and often looked like sculpture.
Eventually (miles later) we reached the northern section of the park. This is the area that contains the many Joshua trees that give the park its name. Joshua trees, according to one source, appear to try to grow in as many directions as possible.
We drove to Keys lookout, climbed a few steps, and found a breathtaking view. The plains below stretch out below and on you can see as far as Palms Springs, which is over 40 miles away.
And on the way home, as we passed by the Palm Springs area, we saw an amazing sight – an enormous wind farm. There was easily more than 200 wind machines, all turning and generating electricity for someone and cash for someone else!
Thursday we talked about going to Palm Springs, but instead we headed back into the mountains in search of more beauty and a little exercise. We drove out to the Painted Canyon, which fulfilled all the requirements. On the way we saw two very unusual planes overhead, which Randy recognized as Ospreys. They are a new type of air force plane that can change the direction of its engines, so it can move vertically through the air. The rest of the drive to the canyon was uneventful, except that it was a tough drive – Randy had to drive very slowly and very carefully on a pitted, sandy, rough dirt road for about 5 miles But when he parked the car and we started hiking into the canyon, it was all worth it! The part that is responsible for the name “painted canyon” is at the start of the canyon. The rock is in shades of red, light gray, dark gray and almost white.
Further on as we hiked deeper into the canyon, we found several slot canyons and explored a few of them. This is new territory for us and we both loved it! These are narrow slits in the canyon walls that wind around the harder rock columns, going up and down, following the path that was cut out by the flash floods. The slots would be a deadly place to be if there was any rainfall because there is no quick way out, but today there was no danger.
Eventually we hiked back to the car and drove on to the next canyon, which was Sheep Hole Canyon (not sure how it got its name). This canyon had a trail that led upwards. As we climbed, we found we were standing on the top of the canyon, overlooking the valley below on both sides.
The “valleys” on both sides are spectacular vistas of craggy canyons and smaller mountains. The pictures I got don’t convey the view, and I can’t get them to fit here anyway. But on the picture below you can see the trail that runs on top of the ridge – this is the trail we walked along.
A trip to Mexico
Monday: This next part will sound normal to the Arizona folks, but it may sound strange to our Midwest friends. We went back to Mexico at 8:30 in the morning to see the dentist. Her sign said the office opened at 8 am, but the office was closed. A nearby person said the office would open at 9, so we had some time to kill and decided to walk around. We stopped to read a sign about another dentist who advertized teeth cleaning for $15. And anytime you pause for even a moment in Algadones, someone is there to talk to sell you something. In this case it was a very well-spoken man in surgical scrubs who told us about the great dentist he assisted. He didn’t have the usual hard-sell technique, and our dentist wasn’t open yet, so what the heck - we decided to try it. There were two dentists working in that office, so Randy and I both got our teeth cleaned at the same time. It transpired that neither dentist spoke English. But the assistant spoke excellent English and kept checking with both dentists to translate as needed. The dentists seemed to do a nice job, and Randy and I are both pleased with the results. The dentist who cleaned my teeth said I was developing a few tiny cavities, but I decided to not do anything about that yet. Maybe the next visit. . .
After that, we had the rest of the day free, so we went to the Purple Pharmacy for a bit of breakfast. It’s a big store with more than just a pharmacy – it also has a big liquor store, a small bakery and a grill. We ordered a ham and cheese (jamon e queso) sandwich and Coke Light. Coke Light is the Mexican version of Diet Coke, and it’s actually better than our version. Their regular Coke is better than ours, too, because they still use sugar in it.
We walked around town, not really shopping, just to see what is there. Algodones is all about selling – there are dentists, optomologists, dermatologists and pharmacies everywhere, mixed right in with the liquor stores, tourist shops and street vendors trying to sell purses, jewelry, belts – almost everything!
After that, we had the rest of the day free, so we went to the Purple Pharmacy for a bit of breakfast. It’s a big store with more than just a pharmacy – it also has a big liquor store, a small bakery and a grill. We ordered a ham and cheese (jamon e queso) sandwich and Coke Light. Coke Light is the Mexican version of Diet Coke, and it’s actually better than our version. Their regular Coke is better than ours, too, because they still use sugar in it.
We walked around town, not really shopping, just to see what is there. Algodones is all about selling – there are dentists, optomologists, dermatologists and pharmacies everywhere, mixed right in with the liquor stores, tourist shops and street vendors trying to sell purses, jewelry, belts – almost everything!
Everything is a bit more casual here. One dentist had a sign outside his office that advertised “Whithe fillings and Feeth cleaning. Apparently someone told them the sign was mis-spelled, because they used a black marker to change the “F” in feeth to a “T”.
We went looking for – and found - a small taco stand that specializes in fish and shrimp tacos. It’s sort of famous in town – several people in Arizona City told us to stop there, and there was a long line waiting for those tacos. They were pretty good and there were a lot of toppings to dress them up with.
After we got back from Yuma it still wasn’t dark, so we took a walk down the All-American Canal beside the casino, just to see the area. On the other side of it is a large section of Indian-owned land that is used as RV parking. Unlike the normal RV lots, in that one you just drive down winding dirt roads until you find a spot you want to be, and stop. There were some small groups of RVs together, but a lot of them were off somewhere by themselves. I heard it’s run pretty casually – someone stops by to collect the $15-a-day fee for dry-camping, but they only do that about once a week, so you might be there for several days before you see anyone.
Tuesday: Decided it was time to move on, so we left the Casino this morning and headed towards the Salton Sea area. We stopped at the Red Earth Casino and Truck stop for fuel. To get the best price we had to get a player’s card in the casino. While we were there we played $1 and walked out with $2.21. Not exactly breaking the bank, but it’s better than losing!
We continued to Salton Sea and checked into the Oasis Palm RV park. It’s a small and pretty park, with pavement to park the RV on, grass between the sites, and orange, grapefruit and lemons trees beside the RV sites. Across the street from the RV park is a big grove of date palms. While we were there, they were trimming the palms. Each one of these palm trees has a short ladder attached to the upper-most part of the tree. A cherry-picker raises the men up as far as it can, and then the men climb out of the basket onto the tree ladder, climb the rest of the way up to the top of the tree, and trim it.
Eventually we made our way back to a liquor store with a good price on Chivas and bought some. We also got some Kahlua at the Purple Pharmacy/Liquor store. Everyone is allowed to bring back 1 liter of alcohol, so that was all we got. We finally did decide to get one souvenir – a hand-painted lantern. It’s got a beautiful lighthouse scene on it and an electric cord so I can plug it in. If it doesn’t get broken, it will look nice outside the RV in the evening. On the way out of town we stopped one last time at the Purple Pharmacy for another Coke Light and a donut, then went to stand in line to go back across the border. There was a long line because everyone has to go through customs, but it moved reasonably well.
And after all that, it was only 12:30! Well, we still had plenty of time to be tourists, so we headed to Yuma to check out the old Yuma prison. A lot of it was destroyed so the materials could be reused, but some of the buildings from the late 1800s are still there. The prison was functioning from 1876 through 1906. There is an old cemetery that contains the remains of 104 prisoners who died at the prison. The graves are unmarked, except for a pile of stones on top of each one. I usually like cemeteries, but this one was just sad.
And after all that, it was only 12:30! Well, we still had plenty of time to be tourists, so we headed to Yuma to check out the old Yuma prison. A lot of it was destroyed so the materials could be reused, but some of the buildings from the late 1800s are still there. The prison was functioning from 1876 through 1906. There is an old cemetery that contains the remains of 104 prisoners who died at the prison. The graves are unmarked, except for a pile of stones on top of each one. I usually like cemeteries, but this one was just sad.
Inside the old prison are several rows of cell blocks. Each cell held 6 convicts. If someone miss-behaved, they were chained to a large metal ring in the middle of the cell floor. But the bad news was that whenever anyone was chained to that ring, the other 5 people in the cell were also chained to it. So there was a lot of peer pressure to behave!
Although the prisoners may not have agreed, this was considered a very humane and progressive prison. The worse punishment allowed was the dark cell. This is a picture of the outside of the cell. . .
. . and this is a picture of the inside of the cell. Enough said.
We continued to Salton Sea and checked into the Oasis Palm RV park. It’s a small and pretty park, with pavement to park the RV on, grass between the sites, and orange, grapefruit and lemons trees beside the RV sites. Across the street from the RV park is a big grove of date palms. While we were there, they were trimming the palms. Each one of these palm trees has a short ladder attached to the upper-most part of the tree. A cherry-picker raises the men up as far as it can, and then the men climb out of the basket onto the tree ladder, climb the rest of the way up to the top of the tree, and trim it.
They grow a lot of fruit around here. Besides the date palms, we passed vineyards, cultivated fields, and groves of oranges. The oranges here are cultivated in a hedge formation, instead of trees.
We drove out to see Desert Shore, which is a small community right on the shore of the Salton Sea. It’s one of the most dismal little places I’ve ever seen, with very dilapidated trailers and houses. Most of the shoreline is fenced off and the little area that isn’t, stinks of dead fish. Glad we didn't try to park the RV there!
March 2, 2010
Friday: Got the oil changed in the Jeep and had breakfast at JBs in Casa Grande. We spent the day running around to various grocery stores, getting ready for our next trip. Then for dinner we went to Chris’s Diner one last time for their great pizza. Clyde, Nancy, Skip and Bev joined us and we had a great time visiting.
After dinner a big group of folks met at the local Moose lodge (Joe, Sharon, Marvin, Dee, Gary, Gail, Clyde, Nancy, Brad and Sue). The guys kept buying Randy beers and they wanted to buy me something, so I asked for a strawberry daiquiri. It took the bartender a long time to get an opportunity to make it, but eventually she brought over a red drink with whipped cream and a cherry on top...I've never seen a daiquiri with whipped cream.
While I was just getting started on it, she brought over a second one as a way of apologizing for the delay. And one minute later she brought over a slightly smaller third one, saying I might as well have the rest of the mix! Anyone who knows me knows I don’t have enough of a head for alcohol to handle 3 drinks! So Sue and Sharon split the small one, but I pretty much finished the other two.
As more beers were consumed, people started looking thru the karaoke book. Eventually Gail and Joe got up and sang “The Rose”. That went well so Clyde, Nancy, Randy, Gary and Joe sang Country Roads (Clyde hails from West Virginia, so it’s sort of his theme song). Next up – Joe and Clyde singing “He’ll Have to Go”, with some stranger who was moved to join them on the stage! For a finale, Randy, Brad, Gary, Joe, Marvin and Clyde sang “On the Road Again”. And on that note, we called it a night.
After dinner a big group of folks met at the local Moose lodge (Joe, Sharon, Marvin, Dee, Gary, Gail, Clyde, Nancy, Brad and Sue). The guys kept buying Randy beers and they wanted to buy me something, so I asked for a strawberry daiquiri. It took the bartender a long time to get an opportunity to make it, but eventually she brought over a red drink with whipped cream and a cherry on top...I've never seen a daiquiri with whipped cream.
While I was just getting started on it, she brought over a second one as a way of apologizing for the delay. And one minute later she brought over a slightly smaller third one, saying I might as well have the rest of the mix! Anyone who knows me knows I don’t have enough of a head for alcohol to handle 3 drinks! So Sue and Sharon split the small one, but I pretty much finished the other two.
As more beers were consumed, people started looking thru the karaoke book. Eventually Gail and Joe got up and sang “The Rose”. That went well so Clyde, Nancy, Randy, Gary and Joe sang Country Roads (Clyde hails from West Virginia, so it’s sort of his theme song). Next up – Joe and Clyde singing “He’ll Have to Go”, with some stranger who was moved to join them on the stage! For a finale, Randy, Brad, Gary, Joe, Marvin and Clyde sang “On the Road Again”. And on that note, we called it a night.
Saturday: We got up around 7 am to get ready for the Arizona City Daze parade. A lady in the RV Park likes to put together a group of people who dress their dogs in costumes and walk together as a group. We thought that might be asking a bit too much of Sugarbaby, but that Julienne would like it. And she did – she was just wonderful. She wore one of her dresses (yes…we have several dresses for her). Bev had her dog BJ ready for the parade, so we rode up with her. There must have been between 30 and 40 dogs, and they all got along really well.
In the afternoon we spend a few minutes visiting with John and Janet. They will be out on Sunday, so this was our chance to say goodbye. They have been good neighbors and we’ll miss them, too.
For dinner we just got some Subway sandwiches, and then had one last trip to the Casa Grande Cold Stone Creamery. After dark we walked over to Clyde and Nancy’s for awhile, just to visit.
Sunday: Everyone came out to say goodbye, even though it was cold and rainy, and a lot earlier that some of them normally got up! It was hard to leave, but eventually we had to, so everyone could get in out of the rain.
So down the road we headed. It’s a short drive to Yuma, about 185 miles. We stopped at Dateland on I-8 for date shakes, as recommended by several folks. The shakes are really good! They also sell several types of dates to sell. We were able to sample the date and found one we really like, so Randy bought 4 pounds of those.
We drove on to Yuma and a bit past it, to park at the Quechan Casino. They allow folks to park a couple of nights for free, if you register inside the casino.
Since it wasn’t dark yet, we decided to see what the town of Los Algadones looked like. So we drove down the road to the area with “No Parking” signs all over it and parked there, like everyone else. Then we walked across the border to Los Algadones, Mexico. The Purple Pharmacy is one of the first buildings and it was recommended as a good place to get antibiotics, so we got some there. We found the office of one of the dentists who was recommended to us but her office was closed for the day, so we planned to come back tomorrow.
Back at the casino we registered for a player’s card which got each of us $2 off the price of the buffet and $10 of free play. We did the buffet first, which was pretty good – not amazing, but enjoyable. Then we played our free money and won $22.60, which more than covered the cost of dinner and the tip.
February 25 2010
Today my cousin Chad gave us a tour of his workplace, where they distribute seafood. It was cold, but really interesting.
Today was also my last day at Cracker Barrel – and I have to admit, I’m ready to move on. The job has been a blessing in a couple of ways - a bit of ready cash, and I’ve lost over 20 lbs! But it’s time for something else.
Today was also my last day at Cracker Barrel – and I have to admit, I’m ready to move on. The job has been a blessing in a couple of ways - a bit of ready cash, and I’ve lost over 20 lbs! But it’s time for something else.
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