Maps

There has been some question as to exactly where we are so I thought I would post a few maps showing our route down and exactly where we are camping. There are three below, each showing a finer level of detail.

Nanaimo was our starting point and each city in bold after that was a stopover. We ended up at the Lake Cahuilla Recreation area just outside Palm Springs, California.

 The arrow marks Lake Cahuilla.

 Rick

What to do on a Rainy Day in Palm Springs...

Yesterday we still were in the gloom here with light overcast and the odd sprinkle. We decided it would be a good time to go visit the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. Some of you might remember when last year we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, Arizona. That museum/zoo was outstandingly beautiful in both location and execution of gardens, and so we were not surprised when this one in Palm Springs failed to meet the same high standard. It was interesting and a fun outing, but even at 9AM opening, the crowds were substantial and the walkways not ample enough to really give people the freedom to ramble around without being obstructed by other couples or families. We covered most of the gardens, and had a nice coffee break and visited the gift shop. And then we headed home, as we had left Molly snoozing under the table in the camper and were concerned about a long absence. After spending so much time in the open desert, we found the traffic in Palm Springs annoying. Or maybe it isn't the traffic, it is simply the long long distances of high speed residential streets which join all these spaced out desert communities together. The beautiful desert landscaping that lines each and every long boulevard for miles and miles somewhat mitigates the long drive with heavy traffic, but still, it is a trial to drive long distances to access any of the basic resources (restaurants, supermarkets, Home Depot?).  If the weather had been more conducive we woud have just stayed put at the campsite and enjoyed our stay from our camp chairs planted outside the door.

Since it currently is being a non-holiday kind of weather, I thought maybe I could digress a bit and tell those of you interested just why we like this kind of lifestyle, camping out with our small fifth wheel camper.

I wasn't at all sure that I would like it in the beginning 18 months ago. But I knew that Rick hankered for another truck and he had always wanted another camper, having fond memories of us in a much younger stage of life driving the Orange Pumpkin (our 1972 orange Chevie 3/4 ton) and the truck camper across much of western North America.  All I asked was that we get a smaller 5th wheel unit and second hand so we could at least test it out first to see how much we liked it without a huge outlay of money.

So nobody was more pleasantly surprised than me to discover that I did indeed like it, and that many of the reservations I had had were not significant.

In the beginning I had a fear of loss of privacy. I imagined living cheek to jowl in some camp ground with dogs yapping, kids screaming and folks bothering us all the time. It didn't happen. Other campers are extraordinarily respectful of privacy, never crossing your campsite or letting their dog use it for a bathroom and keeping the noise down and so forth.

On the other hand, everyone waves and sometimes you do meet others with whom you voluntarily engage in chat. Just yesterday we had another camping couple drop by the campsite and ask us where we were from. They were from Victoria, also retired, and had a truck with a quad in the back, pulling a small trailer. They like to camp for free out on the desert and use the quad to explore the canyons and washes with lots of space and freedom. When they found out that we like the more desolate parts of the desert too they told us of several really superb places to camp for a few days with interesting geological features and wildlife.  Later we waved them off as they departed to explore a bit of New Mexico for the first time, before returning to Victoria in mid-April.  So this balance of privacy and friendliness seems to suit us just fine.

What I really like the most is the time when we are set up camping, and we can just sit outside reading a book in lovely weather and then hop inside to grab a sandwich or a bottle of water, or make tea with Red Rose brought from home, and have an easy slow cooker stew for dinner, all just what we want to eat and drink and prepared by our own hand and when we want to eat it. That so much beats having to drive distances to eat in restaurants. It's amazing how fast that gets tiresome when on the road. And then, to have our own satellite TV system so we can watch our local news from back home and see the weather and so forth is also a treat. And our own bed for three (yes, Queen Molly sleeps between us). I was amazed at how comfortable a lifestyle this can be for us and Molly, while retaining most of the flavour of being on holiday and away from the cares of homelife.

Some photos of the gardens below.

I think this was for the kids. It was a giant model railroad layout with multiple trains covering several thousand square feet of space.

And the one below is for Neil and Kathy.

Palm Springs...

Monday was a rain day. Yesterday was a clearing day, still cooler than normal but dry. We decided to explore a bit. We took the "Palms to Pines" highway that wiggled its way up through a canyon on the side of the mountain range ringing the oasis on the valley floor.  It went up through residential streets, past the Living Desert Museum and Zoo and then way way up in a series of switch backs to the pine forests on the top. I suppose here is a good place to add the photos, as we really didn't do much beyond this side trip and even today we just relaxed at our camper, read books and drank a lot of Red Rose.

[Remember, you can see larger versions by clicking on individual photograph]

Our campground yesterday morning after the sky had cleared .

Driving though Palm Springs on the way out of town.

Heading out of town.

 Into the foothills.

 Climbing out into the pine forest near the summit. We turned around near here.

On our way back down. That is the valley floor in the distance. If you look closely you can see the highway snaking around below.

Saying Goodbye

Rick's father was one of 11 children, 8 of them were boys. Although most of them lived in Missouri, Rick did manage to meet several of them as a child. Yesterday morning the last uncle, Bill Wilkins, passed away peacefully in Missouri. Unfortunately we never met Uncle Bill on our visits to Missouri. He was an independent old bachelor, and lived to age 90.

This is our way to say good-bye to him and to share with our friends and family something of his life and the significance of his passing. God Bless, Uncle Bill, and safe journey.

Uncle Bill is the uncle on the far right. (Thanks to cousin Sue for the photo)

Four of the Wilkins Brothers.

She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain when She Comes....

Yesterday morning dawned beautifully at the Shady Lane RV Park. I had a last minute discussion with Jim about the strange trees in the park. He was full of interesting information. First of all, this park was established in 1929. The date of 1977 just refers to the present owner and when bought the park. And the strange huge trees I asked about were planted in the beginning, according to Jim...sometime around 1929. They are "Athel" trees, he explained, a member of the salt tree family. On further questioning, he offered that they were not native Californian trees as he was born there and never seen any others before. According to Jim, their only disadvantage was that their branches did not grow from the trunk like ordinary trees, but out of the bark and in windy periods were prone to crashing down, so the extreme pruning they used was necessary to protect RVs and vehicles and people. I was quite pleased now that I had taken the time to ask him about them.

(Note: a little investigation revealed that Athel trees are an invasive kind of Tamarind found throughout the southwest US. See http://www.desertmuseum.org/invaders/invaders_tamarisk.php)

Before we left Barstow, we did a leisurely cruise around town and found a number of its charms. Barstow has a number of interesting desert buildings, is an Amtrak Train Centre on the Santa Fe Line, has a great little section of the old Route 66, and a well preserved Main Street...here are the photos of our last twirl around town.

We departed around noon in a leisurely fashion and headed south down highway 247, another 2 lane road that wound around rock outcroppings across dusty ancient sea beds...

We traveled for about an hour, eventually crossing the last mountain pass and down into the town of Yucca Valley. The last rim rock was outstanding and we commented that it was very reminiscent of similar rim rock that we had seen on our road trip down the Baja Peninsula of Mexico in 1991. Mounds of huge rounded balls of rock clustered together in the most interesting of shapes.

The houses here were very similar to the Santa Fe style in New Mexico and were a sharp contrast to the usual dilapidated desert trailer homes scattered across the dusty plain.

Yucca Valley was in the heart of the Joshua Tree territory and many fine specimens rose out of the town's vacant lots and lined the main street. The Joshua Tree is not a tree at all, but a member of the Agave plant family. There is a whole National Park named after them and dedicated to preserving them. They are, indeed, unique.

Now we were very close to Palm Springs, and the snowy mountain top we could see rising over the rim rock was in fact part of the mountain chain that ringed Palm Springs. We plummeted downwards, over the last height of land around 3,000 feet into the valley below where Palm Springs lay at 417 feet above sea level.

The temperature shot upwards from 60 F to a very soft and pleasant 77F and we rolled down the windows and enjoyed the mild breezes as we cruised through Indio to the Riverside County Park, tucked around a man-made fishing lake, just up behind the Jack Nicklaus golf course. It is the only public campground inside Palm Springs and it is a little oasis of peace backed by wonderful craggy mountains in a very sheltered situation. We fell off to sleep with no road sounds to distract us.

In the morning we woke up to the strangely familiar sound of pitter patter on the roof. I guess we just had to bring a bit of our BC weather south to Palm Springs!!   Today we resigned ourselves to a soggy foggy miserable day and did shopping, cleaning and organizing. The day went pleasantly enough but certainly gave us no opportunity for any photos of merit.

Tomorrow the sun is supposed to shine so hopefully our photos will continue. The relaxing part of the trip has just begun.

Cross Country

After spending the night in the Imperial Valley of California at Santa Nella, we awoke to more fog. This was dense, cold, claustrophobic fog. Even the orange trees were shivering in the fields. We saddled up and turned south along the flat boring section of Interstate 5. Hugging the right lane, with only 1 or 2 car lengths of vision, we were continually passed by cars and semis flinging themselves down the fast lane into a grey oblivion. Seeing an opportunity here, I dozed in the passenger seat. Eventually we turned off east and left the dreaded I 5 behind us and headed across to Bakersfield. Even though we were within striking range of Los Angeles and some of the richest real estate in the country, here we were still in back country USA. Old old mobile homes with no grass and rusting equipment and propane tanks seemed to be the most common real estate. A more boring and depressing human landscape is hard to imagine. Bakersfield is my definition of bleak. We continued east, still enshrouded in the heavy fog. We are now on our way to Barstow, which is a new route for us in our tireless efforts to find a by-pass around Los Angeles. Usually on our way to Mexico, Los Angeles was a huge mega blockade of human traffic and confusion instilling terror into our hearts as we came down the Grapevine (that last mountain pass just north of LA). Anything was worth finding that by-pass, even driving for many miles out of our way. But this crossing to Barstow was a new route.

Thankfully, we soon left the Imperial Valley behind us and started to climb and in seconds we broke free from the smothering fog into a warm, brilliantly blue California day and no flatness in sight. The land had risen into some kind of ancient eroded mountain range and we were busy crossing it. As we came out on the far side, we were now on the Mojave Desert and with a very different kind of vista stretching out in front us, one covered with tumblin' tumble weed, just like in the song "and they call the wind myriah"....

We were set to arrive mid-afternoon at Barstow, which is a sort of cross-roads at the junction of our 2 lane paved road and the main freeway between LA and Las Vegas. It was 3PM and warm (72F) when we reached the junction. And what a sweet surprise it was. Out of the desert rose a main street lined with palms. A little oasis in the desert.

After a quick shop to replenish groceries, we tootled off to find our camping spot for the night at "Shady Lane RV Park".  Oh my what a treat. A blast from the past. This was a small, immaculate desert park with a sign on the office that gave the date of establishment as 1977. And nothing looked as if it had changed. Strangely enough, on our trip down we had brought the entire series of the "Rockford Files" to watch. We were on series 3 which was shot in 1977/78. And here we were. Expecting Jim Rockford to go spinning past us any moment in his gold Pontiac Firebird Esprit license plate 853 OKG,,,,

Please enjoy our latest novel adventure as we explore a bit of the Old California of Barstow,

Setup for tea outside.

Leaving the scenic route.

Yesterday was a travel day. We came down highway 101 through the Redwood forests in thick morning fog which obliterated any opportunity for photos and kept Rick' attention riveted on the curves ahead. After a long twisting journey, we abruptly left the fog behind and followed a route of very pleasant rolling green hills. It seemed the epitome of California to me, and very pleasant for the end of January.

We turned off highway 101 and cruised around the north edge of the reservoir called Clear Lake and both of us remarked on how similar it looked to the view across our Lake Chapala in Mexico. The north shore cuddled against rising hills at its back, and houses snugged around the lake shore facing into the southern sun. We stopped for a brief Molly-walk and snapped a few photos...Here's one of them...


By afternoon we were back on Interstate 5 heading south through Sacramento and Stockton. The experience was a shock to the system. It was our first freeway portion of the trip and we quickly decided it was a most unpleasant experience compared to our enjoyable meanderings down the coastal route 101. As we learn more about this RV lifestyle, we need to re-think a lot of prior assumptions and behaviour patterns concerning freeway versus secondary roads. Freeways may be the excellent choice for cars wanting to get somewhere efficiently. But for towing a fifth wheel, where getting somewhere efficiently is not the priority, it is uncomfortable (jolting the body from the many overpasses and bridges), and stressful. In addition the views were horrible compared with the many little towns and villages and curves and dips of the coastal highway.  We learned another element about us and the RV life. Small and slow is more fun than fast and triple laned.

We pulled into a full service overnight stop at Santa Nella, California. This morning we have more valley fog lying like a blanket over the earth. We have a day ahead with not much to break the monotony of the Imperial Valley and traffic. But tonight we expect to be within striking range of Palm Springs for noon tomorrow. One day of discontent is well worth tomorrow's reward.

Clear Lake

 on the highway west of Williams Ca.