Home again....

Sorry for the long pause in the travel blog. We are home now and reflecting on the tail end of our trip. Basically, we had one issue after another and were very relieved to finally see the MV Quinsam at the Nanaimo docks waiting to transport us home to our island on the last leg.

The weekend we were scheduled to leave the campground in Palm Springs, we had a serious issue with our truck. The warning system kept giving us very strange signals such as "Service trailer brakes" when in fact we weren't at that moment even towing the trailer!!  Other ones also popped up randomly and with no apparent logic. The real problem is that this warning system also essentially shuts the truck down to "limp mode" meaning first gear. Obviously travelling over 1,000 miles on the freeway to get home wasn't going to be possible this way. The Chevie dealers were not able to help us (fully booked), and the campground's rules limited us to a 14 day stay, so one way or the other we had to leave.

Rick being the logical electronic troubleshooting genius that he is, decided that it was only the warning system which was glitched, and the warning signs it was sending were false and could be ignored. So Rick obtained an ODB scanner that permitted him to read the appropriate engine error codes and reset them, thus allowing us to utilize all of the gears. With some degree of trepidation we set off, hoping that our assessment of the problem was correct. We made it 20 miles and then the warning light went off again and switched the truck into "limp" mode. Rick reset things and we started off again. It only happened once after that and fortunately not on the freeway, but we drove the rest of the way home in the far right lane expecting at any moment to have our truck shut down. Rick did a magnificent job of handling all of this.

We had to review our itinerary for the trip home, as we didn't really want to get stranded out in the desert somewhere miles and miles from help. So we decided to take the main freeway around LA and deal therefore with the stress of the possibility instead of the engine shutting down on the massively frantically busy freeway system. I am sure you can imagine how pleasant it was to have to choose between these two stressful choices. With a hope and a prayer we continued on the main freeway from Palm Springs back towards LA. We stayed in the slow truck lane and battled terrific winds buffeting us on all sides. Just before our turn off northwards on Interstate highway 15, another little crisis descended. Ahead of us was a long semi-trailer encased properly in a huge tarp. Under the intense buffeting of the wind, the tarp gave way, was sucked under the smaller truck behind him, and then under us. The problem was, it didn't come out from under us. Other drivers frantically tried to get our attention, but we already knew. We just had no place to pull over safely. After a few very stressful moments, Rick saw an area and pulled over and stopped. By now I could smell something akin to burning oil coming from underneath us. Rick dashed out and crawled underneath and frantically unwrapped this huge tarp from around the muffler, just in time to prevent it from bursting into flames. We were a bit shaken by this bizare turn of events.

Finally, we reached our turnoff and made it away from the LA basin safely and camped the night near Coalinga. The next morning it dawned sunny and warm and we stopped for breakfast and gas at Harris Ranch. This is a cattle ranch started in 1937 by Jack Harris and today it raises, processes (and cooks in their own restaurant) a huge amount of very fine beef. We dallied over breakfast in their spacious haciena-style restaurant and then watched the chef outside preparing their smoked and seasoned prime rib roasts for the dinner menu that day...

We thought we had put the worst of our luck behind us, but Lady Luck had deserted us on this trip and before you could say "torrential rains" we ran into the last band of the massive tropical front that had been coming ashore from the South Pacific. This time we were by-passing San Francisco in heavy traffic and the rains were pounding us so heavily we could not even see where the traffic lanes were. Another scary experience and again, our sturdy RV driver pulled us through magnificently. I think his nerves were shot though, and we slept soundly that night, exhausted by the day's efforts.

We had decided the freeway was not for us, with our uncertainties of engine health so we reversed our route on the 2 lane route of highway 101, making just one detour to visit the San Gabriel Mission in Sonoma. This was the northernmost Spanish Mission in the US and we had never seen it before. So we relaxed here for a few hours and the sun actually started to break through..

Northwards we continued,  through the redwood forests. We passed through the sanctuary for the largest Roosevelt Elk herd in the world, and were able to experience a huge herd lying contently on a meadow beside the highway. They totally ignored the traffic and cameras clicking and continued to rest in the long grass. One group crossed directly in front of us, stopping traffic in both directions.

When we reached the Oregon coast,  it was just recovering from the terrific battering it had taken from the storm, so it was dark, overcast, chilly and unpleasant compared to the lovely day we had experienced on the route down...we did however get some dramatic shots of the angry sea, still boiling from the onshore storm...

Our last night on the coast was spent at Waldport, Oregon and in the morning we were blessed with a lovely sunrise to lighten our departure to Portland.

At last the tropical winds had abated, the sun returned and we made it safely into Portland that night.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we did make it home all in one piece and having a much greater respect for the planning and provisions that need to go into preparing for a trip such as this and for the unscheduled crises that can occur. We managed OK, but we have now a much better idea of how to improve it for the next time.

Stay tuned for our next adventure whenever that shall be...

Our backseat navigator "Miss Molly Jones Wedlake" would like to say a proper good-bye woof as well.

Around and About...Palm Springs revisited

We have spent a couple of days relaxing and trying hard NOT to go much of anywhere...as you can see from these photos of me and Molly at the campground. The photo of me holding a book is a reference to my close attachment to the long running Australian series "A Country Practice". Most of you will know about that addiction and my close friendship with one of the lead actors.

One morning this week Rick took this early shot of the mountains in behind the campground, and I think it caught the general ambiance of the area...

On the weekend we heard a great racket of loud music start up around the little lake from our campground...and after awhile we decided to investigate, so we walked around and saw a huge gathering of people in the day use area, all very colourful and a master of ceremonies whipping them into some kind of frenzy. On closer examination we were informed that it was a Colorvibe 5K Run for charity. I had never witnessed one of these before hence it was a real culture shock for me. The chap on the microphone was building them up to a great climax when huge swaths of some kind of scented coloured powder were ejected all over them and then they were released to run around the campground and then around the lake on their run...I hope I have given them justice in explaining this. Here are a few photos taken from our camper as they went "running" through. Although called a 5K run, we did notice that most folks were more ambling than running.

Yesterday was a day spent getting to the Moorten Botanical Gardens in Palm Springs. Here a little explanation is in order. The desert floor and oasis that makes up the Palm Springs area is about 25 miles long and Palm Springs is only the northernmost population centre. South from Palm Springs are arranged  the other centres: Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Indio. These are all connected by the main strip of highway 111, which is really a suburban 4 lane boulevard with lights every mile or so. It takes FOREVER to travel from Indio (where we are) up to Palm Springs. This time, to avoid the hassle and bustle and general clutter of 111, we tried a backway that joined up with the freeway and yet it still took forever to get the gardens.

Here are a few explanatory shots to show you what the long boulevards look like around Palm Springs proper. The other communities have similar Boulevards, with similar stunning landscaping and huge investment in palms, greenery coupled with natural desert landscaping.

After cruising through a section of Palm Springs to the base of the mountain, we finally arrived at the little gem called the Moorten Botanical Gardens. It is quite small, just a generous city lot with the original 1938 Mexican mission style house set into it. Here is a selection of photos from our time there.

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.