A Day at the Beach

We gathered up our picnic gear, water and food, and headed to the beach this morning. It's less than a 1/4 mile walk, and could be shorter if it weren't for Pismo Creek that originates inland and dumps into the sea just opposite our park, so that we have to hike around it. The creek is in the foreground in this pic:

A view north toward the village of Pismo Beach:

The weather was gorgeous and the birds were out playing and fishin'……

Surf was up today, with waves higher than normal. Local surf fishermen told us that the tides had been higher than usual all summer long, probably due to weather disturbances in the west Pacific.

One of the highest waves brought in a sand dollar with a passenger.  The little hitch hiker kept poking out of his home and opening his mouth. Pretty cool!

We walked south on Pismo Beach until we reached the camping area.  The large dunes next to the ocean attract off road vehicle enthusiasts and the adjacent beach is open to drive on, so many people bring their rv's and ATV's and have fun. Several rental businesses will provide buggies and ATV's if you happen to have left yours at home. At the camping area we turned back north until we got to the south vehicle entrance to the beach and turned inland to find Oceano Campground. Located in the small town of Oceano, the state park has been a mainstay for campers in the area for years. We didn't stay there this time, but wanted to see it anyway. Unfortunately the campground has fallen on hard times, and is in major need of maintenance and repair. With a nightly camping rate of $40, the campground can't compete with the private campgrounds in the area that offer nicer, cleaner sites with more amenities for only a few dollars more.

Walking toward US Hwy 1 along Pier Ave, we crossed Arroyo Grande Creek and saw a beautiful Mallard guarding his flock.

Walking north along US 1, we noticed a very tired Monarch butterfly resting in the middle of the road. Donna rescued him and gently placed him/her in the shade of some nearby bushes. He continued to slowly move his wings, so he must have been happy!

This encounter reminded us that this is the time of year for the migration of the Monarch's. Pismo Beach has the ideal climate for the butterflies to overwinter, and in one small section of eucalyptus trees thousand of them congregate. A sign hanging on a fence gave us a short lesson on the life cycle of the insects.

As we walked quietly through the grove, we at first didn't see any butterflies other than a couple of hundred moving between trees. After a bit, we learned what to look for, and with the help of volunteers with stationary scopes, we identified literally thousands of them! The dead stick of a treed limb in the center of the photo seems to have a bunch of leaves at the end.  Nope! Those are Monarch butterflies grouped together!

On another branch, hundreds of butterflies hang in a large group.  Amazing!

Donna's Fitbit says we walked about 9 1/2 miles today, and our feet, legs and backs can testify to that!  But I couldn't leave without showing you my favorite photograph of the day:

Every body of water has it's own unique features, as we've shared with you over this last summer as we've seen just a few, but there is something very powerful about the Pacific Ocean.

In the Water

After spending several days with family in SoCal, and making sure that everything was OK with them, we left this morning with Fall in the air.  We knew it was Fall because it was two degrees cooler this morning than yesterday.  Winter brings a dramatic 10 degree drop in temps, so you always know when it's Summer or Winter in Southern California. It's brutal!

A short drive north brought us to Pismo Beach.  Donna and I have spent many happy times here with our kids over the years, and the beach here still amazes. We set up camp at the Pismo Beach Village RV Park in sites 77 and then 366. Number 77 was suitable for a tent trailer, so after driving around in circles throughout the park, we finally settled in 366 which is long enough for Nessie, but is totally dirt, which is disappointing for an RV "Resort" that charges upscale prices. The neighbors are great, helping us back in, but the advertised wifi is not connectable, and the rv's are stuffed in here like sardines. Not quite our cup of tea, but perfectly acceptable for a few days.

This afternoon we walked to the beach to watch the birds play in the shallow water as the tide receded.

And to dip a toe in the Pacific Ocean.

At 6:15, the sun set; a sight that we haven't seen in roughly 5 months.

Southern California

One hundred ninety four miles west and north of Coachella, we find ourselves in a little town in the Santa Clara valley where both Donna and I were born and raised. It's an agricultural area, with tracts of citrus orchards, strawberry and vegetable fields and lovely mountains defining the valley as it rushes to the Pacific Ocean. The weather is mild year-round and perfect for flowers and crops of all kinds.

Forgive the reflections of the motorhome dash panel, but the sun was right overhead and shining right through the five acres of windshield!

I 10 west out of the Palm Springs area is known for its wind farms.  The "breeze" continually blows through the pass between Banning and Palm Springs, and over time power generation windmills have been installed. Check out the plastic bag stuck to the fence in the second photo.  No more plastic bags, Uncle Jerry!

West of Banning and Beaumont, I 10 runs through Redlands, Colton, and Rancho Cucamonga. Montclair leads into San Dimas and Glendora via Highway 57. From there, I 210 heads due west into the San Fernando Valley via Pasadena, Glendale, and La Canada Flintridge. If you've watched the annual Rose Parade on 1 January you've seen beautiful floats from all these cities. I 210 connects to I 5 just south of Santa Clarita, where we left the freeway to go to our "ancestral home".

We'll be here for five nights visiting my mother and sister.  Sis has a medical procedure scheduled, and we need to be here as a support team.  I probably won't be posting much for a few days, but check back in the first of next week to catch up.

Thanks!

Cal-i-for-nia, Here I Come!

We're back home in….California! We pulled into Indio after a 4 hour drive from Tonopah, AZ, that covered 197 rather boring miles:

The highlight of the morning was sitting on the patio watching the morning arrive while drinking coffee.  The neighbor needed a little help, so we pitched in and helped out a bit.  She is in her seventies, with a 100% disabled husband and a blind dog, but she doesn't let anything slow her down.  She drives a 40' motorhome, tows a Honda, and walks the dog.  In two days we didn't see her husband, but she said he requires a lift to get in the motorhome.  Her bedroom slide wouldn't go out when she arrived at Saddle Mountain, so she couldn't get to her closet for fresh clothes, so she just hopped in the CRV and went into town and bought several outfits! She was off this morning to the repair shop, but said that if they couldn't fix the problem, she would just drive home to SoCal (with her new clothes!).  A very nice lady with a wonderful lemonade out of lemons demeanor.

The highlight of midday was the awesome sight of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm near Desert Center.  It will be a 550 MW power plant when finished in 2015, and is built on more than 6 square miles of California desert next to Joshua Tree National Park.  The project has brought 550 construction jobs to Riverside County, and will cost 1.46 billion dollars to build. Most of the PV panels are already in place, and it is a tremendous sight just north of I 10. It appears that the desert has turned to night, with sparkling stars scattered about. Of course, environmental groups worry that desert species of plants and animals such as the Desert bighorn and the Palm Springs round tail squirrel as well as the federally threatened desert tortoise may be harmed. Again with the "precautions".

The highlight of the afternoon was finding a Texaco truck stop that had diesel fuel for $3.31 per gallon!  Arizona taxes commercial trucks at an additional $.08 per gallon, and the posted price was, of course, $3.39, which is about 40 cents a gallon less than the big truck stop chain stores.  When I went in to pay, the young lady asked if I knew what my license number was.  I did. Thats when she told me about the difference in cost, and told me that if I would list my MH license number and sign a disclaimer, the price would be reduced.  I couldn't sign fast enough! Note to motorhome owners: if your rig weighs over 30,000 lbs or has 3 axles, you will have to pay the higher price unless the station has a policy that lets you avoid it. Evidently there is a "motorhome gestapo" that randomly monitors fueling stations to make sure no one is cheating. Sheeesh!

We're spending the night at the Spotlight 29 Casino.  Officially in the town of Coachella, it is at the intersection of I10 and Hwy 86, and is a perfectly good place to get some sleep and a good meal.  The casino has a dedicated truck area, and another paved area for RV's a short distance away from the trucks.  There are only about a half dozen rigs in the lot tonight, so there's plenty of room to space out.

As we sat outside eating dinner, we watched the awesome end of the day in the desert:

Relaxing….

A huge windstorm blew through camp last night about 8, bringing some light rain and lotsa dust. So much for the car wash jobs….

The news at 11 told of torrential rain in the Phoenix area, but I guess we missed most of it.  Thank goodness!

This morning was beautiful! We were up at 7 to watch the desert sunrise over the remaining storm clouds while we drank our coffee on the patio.  This park is a whole long ways from anywhere, but does have nice rv sites with concrete patios. While we were taking it easy, we decided to stay another day, since we can't get into our SoCal park until Wednesday, and we have a stop planned halfway there already.  We hope to spend a night in the parking lot of the 29 Casino in Indio, where we can get a night's sleep and maybe a good breakfast.  The original plan was to spend two nights there, but when Donna saw that the temp was going to be 97 and she wouldn't have electricity to run the AC, plans quickly changed…..

We elected to drive Gus east into Goodyear/Avondale to do a bit of shopping and enjoy some of our favorite places. Our first stop took us to lunch at a place we've been missing since we left the west coast in June:

Oh yeah, Double Double's all around! The restaurant is decorated with it's signature palm trees, which fit perfectly into the southwest, and some very nice low-water landscaping.

A stop at Walmart for some much needed supplies, and then we were off to Starbucks.  The store in Avondale is a bit unusual in that it does not have an indoor seating space. One of five such stores they told us, there is a walkup order window, and a drive-up order window on the other side of a small, narrow shop.  On the outside there is a beautiful patio with a beautiful custom metal patio cover where patrons can sip and socialize.

With our shopping desires satisfied, we returned to Nessie for some maintenance items.  A freshening of the water tank, laundry, and a completion of the exterior cleaning took care of the rest of the afternoon.  A nice end to a nice stay at Saddle Mountain RV Park.

Tonopah, Arizona

One Hundred and Eighty Seven miles northwest of Tucson is the little wide spot known as Tonopah, Arizona.  There is an offramp, three gas stations, a restaurant that is part of the Shell gas station, and Saddle Mountain RV Park. The park is super clean, with Palm trees at each spacious site, and it's a Passport America park, so it's only $18 a night!.  This time of year there isn't much going on here, because it's still warm from the summer off season, but a few hardy souls are out, and we're scattered around the park.  Many of the sites are purchased by people who return year after year, and other sites with or without park model trailers on them are for sale. The only problem I can see is that the nearest "anything" is east in Buckeye or even farther east into the Avondale, Glendale, Phoenix area. That would be about 60 miles to Phoenix; a little far for a dinner out! The park is designed for snowbirds, so maybe it's all about social hour here, because there's not much in the way of amenities other than a swimming pool.

We went into Casino Del Sol for breakfast this morning, having survived the night in an hispanic concert parking lot.  I was so tired that I fell asleep while the party was still going on. Donna waited about 30 seconds, and then she went to sleep, so we didn't get to see or hear the end of the concert or the departure of hundreds of cars from all around us.

Strangely, we were up early this am, probably because we've gained another hour in our headlong rush to the west coast.  We're finally on Pacific Time, Hooray!! On the way to breakfast, we saw an Ocotillo cactus just starting to bloom.

The breakfast was great, the weather was perfect (70 deg at 9 am), so we hit the road.  A few miles on I 10 go us to Casa Grande where we jumped off onto I 8 to bypass Phoenix. The first few miles of I 8 were a little sketchy:

But then the road smoothed out and we were in the middle of a Saguaro Cactus "field".

At Gila Bend we turned north on Butterfield Trail and picked up I 10 again at Buckeye, where we turned west. Eighteen miles from Buckeye we were in Tonopah!

Today's trip was uneventful and smooth. We arrived at our "home" early enough to do some much needed cleaning, and even washed most of Nessie and all of Gus.  They needed a bath! The park has its own well, and also its own sewage disposal facility, which may not be particularly unusual, but when I was washing Gus, I noticed that the car didn't water spot as has been the case throughout the midwest. I hope I was using the correct water….

When the sun goes down in the desert, it gets really dark very fast.  I wanted to wait until the sun was off one side and the front of Nessie before washing, and I had to wait until the sun set.  Within 30 minutes I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.  We're out in the middle of nowhere, more than a half mile south of the freeway, and there are very few lights in the park.  That's a good thing, though, since for the first time on this trip we can see the night sky without much light pollution.  It is gorgeous! We've enjoyed a cup of mocha outside marveling at the infinite beauty of the universe.  It truly is awe-inspiring!

We just talked to our daughter, who ran in her first Nike half marathon today in San Francisco. She's always loved running, and has been training for the long distances recently. She finished well, 1723 out of a field of more than 25,000! Congratulations, young lady!

Tucson, Arizona

I10 between Las Cruces, New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona is just about as flat and straight as could be built.  Other than a few speed changes in Deming, NM and Benson, AZ, the speed limit is 75, and it is strictly observed! If you go any slower, you get run over, and any faster the troopers are all over you, so 75 it is….

We fueled Nessie yesterday as we arrived in Las Cruces, so we were on the road bright and early with no holdups. We stayed at the Coachlight Motel and RV Park last night. It's a minimal park, with gravel interior roads and basic amenities. They offer free ice to their RV guests, and the wifi system is the fastest that we've experienced on this trip. Not bad for a Passport America rate of $18!

Two Hundred and Eighty miles west, we're in the parking lot of the Casino Del Sol Casino in west Tucson. The casino has several huge parking lots, and generally only the lot closest to the casino is used by guests.  The other two lots are pretty much up for grabs by truckers and RV'ers. We've stayed here before and noticed that their is a party atmosphere among the RV'ers staying in the parking lot. It's a bit different this time, though, because there are only three other RV's in the lot we're in, and four trucks in the other lot. Maybe everyone else heard about the special event tonight at the event center of the casino.  You know, the one that's a couple of football fields away from us….

Tonight the event is a special performance of Larry Hernandez and Ramon Ayala direct from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. We're enjoying the music from the parking lot, where we can hear it better than if we were in the amphitheater! The weather is warm, and the stars are out, and the music is good.  The parking lot is filled with cars at this point, with Gus, our towed, disconnected and parked right behind Nessie, and parked cars all around.  We hope that all these cars leave before tomorrow morning or we're staying here another day!

When we arrived in Tucson this afternoon, we drove a short distance to look at an RV park that we're considering staying in for a while this coming winter. While we were cruising the park, we happened to drive by a Dutch Star motorhome much like ours. Parked beside it was a red Jeep, and  after zeroing in on the personalized license plates, we knew that we had stumbled upon a wonderful couple that we met at the Newmar factory in 2013, and haven't seen in over a year.  Dale and Lisa are from Michigan, where we recently spent some time, so we compared notes on everything from water softeners to free campsites, and most everything in between. DnL are in the southwest for a few weeks after spending most of the summer in Michigan.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with old friends, and made plans to get together again in the future. On the way back to Nessie, we again marveled at the strange and wonderful coincidences that have followed us this year. Had we taken a different road through the RV park they're staying in, we would never have seen them!

Tomorrow is shaping up to be another travel day.  We'll let you know where we land!