Kit and Carol on the Road

We decided to stay here in Salton City through the weekend. Today we went back to Anza Borrego and had a wonderful hike. Certainly Palm Canyon is a different place than when we were there two years ago. Tomorrow is another "do nothing" day. Then Monday we plan to head to Ajo, Arizona.
PS; We found out you have to have an "account" to make comments. Go figure. But we always welcome e-mails.

This may be an awesome year for wildflowers at Anza Borrego. Here are some photographers out already. 

This is what is left of the Borrego Canyon Palm Grove. Of 300 trees about 80 are left after a flash flood last September. You can see the remains of trunks all down the canyon. 

Anza Borrego is a California State park up in the mountains about a 40 minute drive from here. (Anza is for the Spanish explorer and Borrego the Spanish word for the big horn sheep). Thursday we thought we’d try some new hikes so went out highway 78 instead of S22. We did the one mile hike to see the Elephant Tree. There is only one left here. There are an amazing number of wild flowers in the high desert for January. It is relatively green because of all the rain. After the Elephant tree hike we intended to go to Tamarisk Grove but ended up on another 1 mile hike with awesome views up Yaqui Pass. By then we were so close to Borrego Springs that I wanted to go to the visitor center. There we learned that a huge flash flood last September took out a good portion of the palm trees up the canyon from the campground and indeed did a good deal of damage in the campground itself. We started on the walk up to Palm Canyon but I was too tired to go on this 5 mile hike. Maybe on Saturday? Maybe next year.

Frog at the Salton Sea. Some folks travel with a dog, or cat--we have frog. He is retired from his days adventuring with the kids. Here he is enjoying a picnic on a gray day at the beach.

We found Salton City on our first trip south. While we were at a museum in San Diego we read about the plan in the 50’s to create a huge resort town here on the lake—so we just had to stop. The streets are still here but not much else. The lake got a little saltier and less desirable than anyone expected. You can still see the skeletons of motels and marinas. The Salton City Spa and RV park sits near the lake pretty much in the “middle of nowhere”. We love all the deserted roads for biking and the friendliness of the people here.

Today we went to the Visitor Center for the Salton Sea State Recreation Area. It’s on the other side of the lake. Collected a little more information about this huge inland lake—it’s saltier than the oceans but not as salty as Utah’s Great Salt Lake. I knew it was largely formed when “human error” essentially dumped the entire Colorado River into this basin, but did not remember that the entire basin was created eons ago and connected on and off to the Gulf. I still have some literature to read on the lake—everything you want to know and then some.
Weather is not so great today by the way—rained last night and it’s cloudy and a little cooler.

Full moon over Fiesta RV --taken on Tuesday night. 

We have a traditional (4 years now) bike ride on a Sunday while we are in Indio. Truck the bikes to the Vons parking lot between LaQuinta and Indian Wells and ride the lovely bike trail along 111 and through some back streets to El Paseo, THE shopping street in Palm Desert. There is a lovely little bakery there where we have coffee and a goody and count the Jaguars driving by. This past Sunday was perfect bike riding weather. After the ride we come back to the park and hop into the pool. A newer traditional ride (only 2 years) is down to old town La Quinta and along a very fine bike trail at the edge of the desert and back through my favorite housing area in all of the desert communities. There is a fine little Mexican panaderia (bakery) across from the La Quinta library. In addition to these two bike rides we have been driving here and there. Have looked at other RV parks, but found nothing we really like. Also went out twice to Desert Hot Springs (about an hour drive) to see our Guemes neighbor Bev Wilcox, and back again because I forgot my shirt/ jacket there. Sunday was sunny, but it’s cloudy again. Don’t feel too sorry for us as the temperature is still in the low 70’s. We are off tomorrow an hour or so down the road to Salton City where we will stay awhile.

Picking oranges at Orange Grove RV park in Bakersfield 

Floating in a warm pool on a January Eve, watching the sun go down and the moon come up between the palm tress. Can life get any better than this? We are at Fiesta RV Park which is one of our favorite stops on the circuit. Alas, the news is sad. This park is closing at the end of the season to be replaced by low income housing

From Calistoga, we went down the Silverado Trail and across on Highway 12, through the Delta and onto I 5 south. Headed down I 5, it seems like forever. Across on Hwy 46 to 99 and into Bakersfield (where we spent the night at Orange Grove RV park and came away with some amazing tasting oranges). Up Hwy 58 through Tehachapi Pass and down 395 with all the trucks. Onto the freeways: #15, #215, #10. And at last to Indio. (where there was a detour because streets are washed out).

We arrived in Calistoga late Monday afternoon and had a “no-drive” day on Tuesday. Calistoga is one of our favorite places to visit-- the epitome of the American small town, AND a restaurant/wine paradise. Calistoga reminds me of Anacortes; except that it has two independent book stores. The only “chain store” is the local ACE hardware. There is one stop light on the main street. This is the far end of the Napa valley, where the predominate language in the neighborhoods is Spanish, and you can still buy a house for less than 1 mill.
We ate out both nights in town: at a new tapa bar, and at our favorite Cal-Mexican restaurant. I thought we might get out of the valley without a wine tasting, but Tuesday on our bike ride I just had to check out the Bennett Lane Winery. We didn’t buy wine here but found out about the Wine Garage in town with lots of good buys. Kit spent most of the day replacing bolts on our spare tire/ bike rack. We are extremely lucky we didn’t lose the bikes as twice on the trip so far, we had bolts break.

Here I am on the beach near Cape Blanco lighthouse. 

Saturday morning we had a bit of freezing rain in Eugene so got a late start. Headed down Highway 38 to the coast. Chose to stop at Cape Blanco State Park; mostly because it's the one southern coast state park we've not stayed at before. What a pleasant surprise. Despite the wind, we were well protected in the trees. And it was so quiet--no traffic noise like Humbug Mt. Though Saturday was cloudy with a few showers, Sunday morning turned out sunny, mild (summer weather for us frozen Guemians) and relatively wind free. So we found a wonderful beach on the north side and had a fine beach walk. There are still lots of places to explore at Cape Blanco so we will have to go back. I thought it would be an easy 3 hour drive to Fortuna where we planned to stay next (and where we are now) but it was almost 5 hours of very slow driving. Wayne the truck is not known for great speed. The drive along the Oregon coast south of Port Orford has the most scenic ocean views from the highway. (so I think). We are now settled into Riverwalk RV Park which is a favorite because the hot tub is very fine and open all year. There is also a brewpub in walking distance. This is our 3rd pub in 6 nights-- Brown Lantern in Anacortes Wed. night, The Steelhead (our favorite hang out) inEugene, and now on Sunday, the Elk Creek Brewery in Fortuna. We don't usually eat out so much on the road. Alas we are now headed for Calistoga which has the best restaurants we'll find on the whole trip. We should be in Indio by the end of the week. Would love to have e-mail waiting.

Mom and I on our visit to Sweet Home 

The town where I grew up has not changed much in 50 some years. There are not many real businesses left though. WalMart has pretty much wiped out the downtown of Lebanon and is working on Sweet Home as well—though to be fair it was not all that thriving before WalMart. We spent Thursday night with my mom and did a little outing on Friday morning. The local museum was closed so we stopped at the library—which still has a total card system. I found the high school annual from my freshman year and copied some photos. On the way back to mom’s house, we passed an old friend from high school who I have not seen in many, many years—so stopped to talk briefly. We are now in Eugene for a touch and go and plan to head to the coast tomorrow so will be out of e-mail range for some time.

On Wednesday we decided we would leave on the 4:00 ferry and stay the night in town—in case freezing temperatures turned our island roads back to ice. I came home from Quilting at 2:30 and Kit went to get Wayne (the truck) to hook up. Alas, the truck battery was dead. After attempting to jump start with the car (to no avail) and attempting to jump start with the trailer battery (to no avail) he switched the batteries and got the truck running. THEN …more problems…. The ground was soft and wet enough, so that the truck wheels just spun and we could not get close to the trailer to hook up. FINALLY we built a virtual road of boards and were able to get connected. (Our neighbors will notice the mess in our yard). All of this took extra time and we only just made the 5:05 ferry. In town, we went straight to Les Schwab to get the battery checked and charged. Thus, it was after dark when we got to Fidalgo RV. LUCKILY when Kit went to fetch the battery Thursday morning it was fully charged and ready to go. So we left Anacortes at 9:15 and spent a long boring day (no traffic or weather problems) on I 5.

The road crews have been out all day sanding and then scraping our roads. IF the forecast moisture comes as rain not snow and IF it doesn't come as freezing rain and re-ice the roads--we hope to get out of here on Thursday. Something to look forward to at least. We have nearly everything loaded and ready to go.

Looks like we won't be heading out this weekend. We don't have a lot of snow here but enough to keep us at home for awhile. We spent yesterday running back and forth loading the trailer: food, clothing, books, etc. Even though Alice is quite close to the house, it wasn't fun hopping through the snow and taking shoes on and off. We want to be ready to go when the snow melts--hopefully midweek. Meanwhile--there are plenty of projects to keep us busy.

Alice in the snow --in our front yard 

We have Alice (our 5th wheel) in the yard and ready to load. Alas our planned weekend departure may be delayed. The arctic weather blowing down on us seems unwilling to let up. The forecast is for snowflurries starting tomorrow night--to be followed by more and colder arctic air. Meanwhile I guess the weather down south is not so great either.

It is New Year's Day, 2005. The wind is yowling outside and the temperature is falling. Although we are cozy in our warm cabin here on Guemes, we are already thinking longingly about lying around the pool in southern California. With luck, we will be on the road in a week.