COMPLETING THE CIRCLE

Sunrise from the windshield as we start our "stop and drops" home

Bessie has now made 3 “Grand Circles” (from NC to CA and back) and depending on how you measure it we have made 4 in vehicles and 8 or more if you include flying over the middle of the US. Bessie has traveled at least 36,000 miles since we bought her in 2010.  Each time we learn something new about our vast country.  Some of the things that struck us this time:

The desert bloom in Arizona and California was spectacular.  The desert is not always brown.  But I’m not sure I’d feel that way if I had never seen the desert brown in the summer.  While the blooms were amazing on their own, the contrast to the other times we had seen the desert was what made it so special.  Seeing California’s “golden hills” green was pretty amazing too.  I had never thought of Southern California as having seasons, but their spring is truly special.

Each town, city and region has something special.  This time we discovered dates in the desert.  Where else can you get a “date shake” or a 3 pound box of dates for $15?  Unfortunately we only bought one, and they didn’t last as long as they should have!!

 Another example is the rocks, geodes, and petrified wood in Quartzsite and Holbrook.  The first time I learned about geodes were when Dave and his Dad brought some back on Dave’s first cross-country trip when he was in high school.  They are still fascinating.  We are bringing some home to Abbie and Ella.  Will they find them fascinating and remember their first encounter with them?  Will they make a Grand Circle, and take their children on one?

One of the delights of this trip was the serendipitous discovery of RoadSideAmerica.com.  It helped us find some really quirky, fun, and unique examples of Americana as we traveled.  We’ll never forget the 5 million barrel oil tank in Texas, or all of the fiberglass statues in Hatch, NM. We have told almost every camper we’ve met about the site!  Yesterday, it lead us to a small restaurant in Little Rock that had a miniature train similar to the one at old Charlotte Hotel restaurant, close to the ceiling of the restaurant.  The big difference was it was rigged so that the train delivered your food to you by lowering a boxed tray down to your table.  The place was packed with families with children!  (See the video at www.all-aboardrestaurant.com)  

train, delivering food at All Aboard Restaurant

Another good website or actual app we discovered is “RV Parks”.  It gives you a map of the RV parks and RV friendly businesses (ie. where you can actually park a big rig and/or get gas – see July 7, 2011 post:  "How to Put Gas in the RV") in any area you zero in on.  Their park ratings are pretty meager, but it has helped us out several times and is easy to use.  On each trip, we remark about how much we rely on the internet and GPS.  I am continually amazed at how Mom and Dad did even more Grand Circles without either (and stayed married!!).  I keep a paper atlas by my seat, but it’s the GPS and Google Maps that really gets us there.  And without them we would have trouble finding the fun stops after we settle Bessie into a park.

The bronze statues on the Canal Walk in Oklahoma City

(one of our early homeward stops)

And now for Deb’s list of funky signs. 

•     Soulman’s BBQ
• Sharon’s BBQ (in Abeline, Tx…. My sister is Sharon… who knew she could wield a green egg!! NOT)
• St. David’s RV Park  (the Saint part eliminated it from being “my” David’s… lol)
• “Left lane closed… use both lanes….Take turns merging… merge here”   - what a better way to handle a lane closure!!  Seen in Texas.
• Hogs and Hops BBQ (you know what you can get there!!)
• Simply Kneaded (I thought it was a bakery, turned out it was a massage parlor!)
• Slim Chickens (a not-fried chicken fast food place)
• Hog Wash (a car detailing place in Arkansas – Razorback Country)
• OK RV Park (and you would just have an OK time there?... lol   I was really hoping it was an OK KOA!)
• And my favorite:  ROOT 66 RV PARK (from the homemade sign, I think it was true a misspelling!)

So far I’ve been unsuccessful at finding all 50 state license plates.  Three have eluded me.  I still hold out a little hope for Vermont and Rhode Island, but now that we’ve left the West, the odds of seeing Hawaii are slim. (I saw 3 Alaskas!!)

Sometime Wednesday as we were driving through Arkansas, and we realized we were truly back in the South.  The hills and mountains had trees (as opposed to scrub and rocks) and the deciduous trees were leafing out with that wondrous “new spring green.”  Redbuds and Dogwoods were sighted and admired along the interstate!  So we have reveled in two different springs, the amazing desert bloom, and the familiar but still glorious spring in the Southeast.  Mollie tells me that when I get home, our crabapple tree is about to bloom, and “my” doves have returned to nest in the planter I put out for them on my front porch.

As I write this we are barely out-running a storm that is marching across the Southeast.  It is just about the first rain we’ve encountered.  We are between Birmingham and Atlanta.  Depending on the weather, we will stop for the night, or push on to Charlotte.  We had thoughts of investigating  a park on Lake Hartwell near Clemson, that we might like to bring the girls back to this summer, but with the weather will probably push on the Charlotte.  (We did.)

NOT PETRIFIED IN THE FOREST

The Painted Desert is AWESOME

Friday we returned to the Colorado River at Blythe.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get a riverside spot, but “near the laundry” was just as good, as that need was becoming paramount.    With good cable (it was here we earlier watched Downton Abbey), Deb looked forward to some March Madness.  Unfortunately the time difference was working against us and the only game of any interest we could watch was the USC girls’ game, which they handled with little trouble.  We were able to catch up on scores though and realized the ACC was reigning high, and the other NC teams, UNC-A and Wilmington did not fare quite as well.

Saturday we set off for Arizona, skipping the sites in Quartzsite this time except for their cheap gas.  They were having a Latino Rock Festival… we think they meant music not actual rocks, but in Quartzsite, it is hard to tell.  Mexico license plates dominated the truck stop.  We put Holbrook and the Petrified Forest in our GPS.  Immediately we were informed of an almost 2 hr. traffic delay on I-17.  We monitored it through lunch and the timing had not dwindled so we regrouped and plotted a course through the mountains.  Bessie and Bert performed admirably over the almost 8000 ft. mountains and we saw snow on the ground in the shade, and beautiful desert and mountain vistas littered with saguaro cacti and long leaf pine.

We settled into our campsite about 5 pm….just in time to find most of the rock shops closed.  The local at the RV Park however did point us to “the best one” that was still open.  Dave had been researching petrified wood slabs as a possible table top for his new room and this was one of our “missions.”  We saw a few we liked, but decided to do some comparison shopping the next day, and hoped that the blue laws in Holbrook were lenient.    RoadsideAmerica.com had many pins in Holbrook, most connected to the many concrete dinosaurs dotting the yards of the rock shops.    We took a few pictures for Ella and texted them to her.  According to Emily she is down with a tummy virus.

I asked Dave to abandon Bessie for the night and to stay at this Route 66 "Motel" but he was too  loyal to Bessie!

On Sunday, we drove back through town and hoped the shops would open after church (only about ½ did).  Roadside America had pointed us to a potentially interesting group of “dinosaurs” that were mechanized.  We took the long route to get there that went through the center of the national park.  I didn’t remember this as my favorite park, and couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for the “dead, petrified forests” other than mildly interesting “drive-bys.”  However, when we got to the Painted Desert vistas, my enthusiasm returned.  Each vista was more amazing than the next, and definitely worth the drive.

Stewarts Rock Shop was fun, if a little disappointing.  Go to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13649 to see the Roadside write up.   We laughed at the manikin eating dinos, but were disappointed that they no longer moved.  We did not send these pictures to Ella as she has been in the habit of feeding her dinos Abbie’s small stuffed or plastic pets, and we were afraid for the Barbies if she saw these!!  (When asked why she was feeding cats and dogs to her dinosaurs, she told her mom, “Well they aren’t vegetarians!!”)  We had hoped to find good prices at Stewarts since it wasn’t not on the “main drag”, but he was very proud of his rocks! 

Roadside America points out that folks added these gimicks  to get folks to stop
especially after I-40  replaced Route 66 

On the way back to town and through it, we stopped at a few more shops but didn’t find better prices or any slabs we liked better than at the first shop on Saturday.  Dave had researched  prices over night on the internet and realized that what we were seeing were fairly priced.  After examining several and wrestling with himself over the buying one polished versus unpolished (much cheaper, but not sure if he wanted to learn on something that would require a 2500 mile trip to replace!), Dave chose a beautiful polished piece.  Now he’ll just have to engineer the stand or “legs” for the table.  We all know he has the expertise for that!! 

Back at the RV Park, Deb finished the pillows to go with the girls’ “blankies” and our washing-machine- tub fire attracted a fun couple from Oklahoma.  We drank wine and swapped stories of our day in and out of the park and promised to send them information from our “been there” notebook on the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and California Wine country.

We could see I-40 from our site and it looked like the pipeline to home to Deb.  Dave outlined several possible stops depending on how the traffic and his driving endurance holds up each day.    As I write this we are progressing through New Mexico and will probably be close to Texas tonight.  Roadside America gave us a much needed stretch break outside of Albuquerque.   It pointed us to the “singing highway” designed by National Geographic as an experiment to see if, given a reward, folks would reduce their speed to a set speed limit.    Finding it right beside I-40 on a parallel road (the old Route 66), we were unsuccessful on our first pass with the RV.  But a drop point was convenient, and we unhitched Bert and drove the ¼ mile stretch 3 more times, taking a video on the last 2 passes. The music is caused by the tires going over rumble strips at the "right" speed.  You can see them in the video. You may have to listen carefully, but it is worth it! 

Unless we find something worth an extra night, our plan is to bring Bessie home with a series of “stop and drops” from here on out.  I’m sure we’ll drive by some places we will want to return to, and we’ll probably miss some great “finds” by sticking mostly to I-40, but we both feel we’ve been successful this trip seeing several things “well” and not setting too ambitious of an itinerary.  Hopefully we will return to whatever we learn we are missing.  

FOUR DAYS AT THE BEACH

Should the caption be...
Bert:  When I grow up I want to be...     OR
"Now don't get an inferiority complex, Bert!"

Monday we settled into Silver Strand State Beach.  We had an ocean front space with just a small berm between us and the ocean.  The beach was pristine (nice sand but virtually no shells!) and the water COLD. It always amazes me how children under about 10 seem to be oblivious to temperature.  They were all frolicking in the waves while the grownups shivered.  Just north of us was a navy installation and we could hear them firing ordinances occasionally.  That made us all mind the “do not enter signs” with no trouble at all.  Beside us were 2 couples (sisters) from Arizona and New Mexico.  They joined us as Dave inaugurated his “new” fire-pit-made-from-a-washing-machine-tub that we got at the flea market in Quartzsite.  His feet made out of large bolts worked perfectly. 

Tuesday we decided to just “hang out” at the beach.  Dave tinkered with Bert and finally found the loose wiring short in his AC.   The AC now works but does not cut off when the fan goes off, so we have to be careful about that.  The tiny part that would fix it is not available, but Dave thinks he can solder it at some point to reconnect the fan sensor.  The good news is that the AC now works on our command, instead of Bert’s.   Deb broke out her sewing machine and made some things for the girls.  She ran out of material before she got to the pillows to go with their summer “blankies”, but a trip later in the week to Wal-Mart fixed that.

Wednesday we drove into La Jolla and pretended we were rich.  The art galleries were especially rich with one specializing in Picasso and Chagall.  This is where Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) lived during much of his writing and one gallery was dedicated to him.  Deb found several things she liked but we resisted.    We drove up to the top of Mt. Soledad and looked for his house, but decided it must be in the gated enclave.  We went into Old Town San Diego for lunch and then walked around the Gas Lamp quarter and Seaside village near the harbor.

Thursday was our 43^rd anniversary.   We fixed a picnic lunch and drove into Balboa Park.  The art galleries in the Spanish Village there were all open (vs. the last time we were there) and we enjoyed the glass, pottery and sculptures.  Deb bought a copper necklace and some red glass balls.  With our segways finally working, (the battery arrived and Dave installed it), we decided to test them out on one of San Diego’s bike paths.  The write up in the tourist magazine said we would be in a neighborhood with “charming Victorians and a view of the harbor”.    While we did have a short ride by the harbor, National City’s bikeway gave us mostly a view of the estuary and routes under the freeways with views of SD’s homeless camps!  We would have done better on the bikeway near our campground.    However National City did have a street named “Mile of Cars Way”.  We pulled into the Nissan dealership to check on a part for Bert and the salesmen acted like Bert was a prized antique truck!! LOL 

FUN WITH THE ELEPHANT TOPIARY AT BALBOA PARK:

Can you find Abbella at the bottom of the ear?

Abbella enjoyed the sculptures... most moved!!

From there it was a quick jaunt back to the harbor, where Dave had made dinner reservations at a seaside seafood restaurant.  While we were ordering our wine, Emily and the girls called and the girls were full of leprechaun stories from St. Patrick’s Day.   The food was great and we enjoyed the bay.  There was a “busker” there who had a 5 gallon bucket full of soap bubbles and a “blower” with 2 poles and yarn so that he was making giant bubbles with the constant sea breeze.  Parents of young children were eagerly tipping him and everyone who walked by just had to smile.  Later when we came out after supper and the young children had gone home, he was still there, but  without so many “poppers” the bubbles were catching the light from the sunset and floating over the huge sculpture and over to the Midway museum. Back at the RV park we joined another “washing-machine-drum fire” with several couples across the way.  There were all local and the women were connected as retired 2^nd grade teachers, so we fit right in.

Playing with parrots before we go to supper

We didn't know when the guy said he'd make the pix for us for a discount because it was our anniversary
that ithe discount meant fuzzy and cut off!! LOL

We finally found the harbor on our segway ride

bubbles at the Midway

As I write this we have headed east, so we are homeward bound!  (of course from the Pacific, that is the just about the only direction!!).  We mapped out our route and we will spend 2 nights in Holbrook near the Petrified Forest.  Otherwise it will be “stop and drops” in order to make it home for Easter.  Tonight will be our last night in California.  We plan to stop again at the RV park on the Colorado River.  My sister and I have joked about the “golden hills” of California.  Frankly to us they look like brown dead grass.  I can truly say that this time we have seen them green, along with blooms in the desert.  

WINE, WHALES AND DOLPHINS

When we left the desert and drove over the ridge, the weather changed dramatically.  Instantly we went from HOT: shorts and sandals to getting out sweaters and long pants.  The drive to Lake Elsinore was fairly quick and easy even with the mountain in between.  The park had a great view of the lake, but the sites were VERY TIGHT.  Luckily a former truck driver was beside us, and helped us maneuver between the poles, trees (yea!) and hook ups.  I told him he had earned his stripes as a marriage saver!!  I love it when RV parks have guides to the sites.  Backing into a spot can be the true test of marriage communication!!  While Dave tinkered with the RV, I drove back to the interstate where I had eyed an outlet mall and bought an “Easter dress” and new pair of shoes.

Saturday we drove across the mountain down to the coast at Dana Point and the Festival of Whales.  Parking was easy and we had a little time to walk around before the nature lecture preceding the whale watch.  We learned a lot about pinnapeds and the research and rescue the Marine Institute is doing.  We were surprised at how few people were on our large catamaran for the whale watch.  There were probably 25 or so on a boat that would easily hold 100.  The captain and his 2 mates used drones to fly out and find and photograph the whales.  That was almost as fun to watch as the whales.  This was our 3^rd or 4^th whale watch and we saw more on it than all the others combined.  At the end of the trip, the captain said we had seen 9.  Then at one point he maneuvered us into a pod of dolphins and they swam along beside us and played and put on a real show. 

One of 2 drones

The Festival included 2 areas of art, several musicians, and a lot of old English cars.  As art fairs go, it was mediocre, but we did make one really great “find”.  You’ll just have to come over and see it.  We didn’t take pictures.  But I assure you it is “cool”…After walking around a while; we treated ourselves to a late seafood lunch with a great view of the harbor and paddle boarders.

Sunday we went to church in Lake Elsinore.  We drove by the church about 10 minutes before the service and there were only about a half dozen cars, so we drove around the neighborhood for a while.  Even arriving “on the dot” there were not many folks.  It was a very “old” congregation (only 1 family with 2 children and they did not go up to the children’s sermon or dismiss for Sunday School) with a very young woman pastor.  We enjoyed her sermon very much.

Then we drove over to Temecula to check out a few wineries.  We had not had much luck there in the past, but this time we were impressed.  The town and number of wineries has grown exponentially over the last 10 years.  This time we found 2 wineries that had nice wines.  We ate a late picnic at the first one and enjoyed an Italian opera singer.  They were using a special tasting glass (“made especially for us in Italy”) that was interesting.  We'll let Glenn do the full review on it when we return.  (We bought 2 just for grins!)  All together we bought 3 bottles of wine so you can tell we thought it was good, but we weren’t blown away.

Monday morning we left the lake and drove over to Silver Strand Beach State Park.  It is on a narrow strip of land between San Diego and Coronado Island.  It is Spring Break and there are several RV’s with families here.  Just about the first children we have seen.   We have a beach front site and plan to stay here until Friday morning.  I can’t wait to see the sunset on the ocean and we may see some more whales as they have to pass by here on their way up the coast.

We have been following on Facebook and in the news and paper the election back home.  We are proud of the way our Bishop and former pastors “demonstrated” at Lenoir Rhyne during Trump’s visit.  We are really glad though that we are HERE and not there.  We have no doubt our phone has rang off the hook and we truly have not seen any political ads on the few occasions we have had TV.  This is a definite benefit of this trip we had not counted on!!!

Pastor Dick and Martin Luther at the Trump Rally - I'm sure Martin would approve Dick!!

RIVERS AND DESERTS AND SCULPTURES, OH MY!

Flowers in Anza-Borrego

We left Phoenix for the banks of the Colorado River at Blythe California!  The campsite was right on the water and it was delightful.  Across the river was another time zone, and a few miles back was Quartzsite, AZ.  It was an easy drive and as we passed by Quartzsite, we knew we would be back.  But first, Dave pulled through and got me a site with actual TV for the last night of Downton Abbey.  I got a bottle of wine, and my fill of Ladies Mary and Edith, and watched the wrap up on the whole Upstairs, Downstairs characters. 

On Monday, we decided to check out all of the “exciting” pins Roadside America had put in Quartzsite.  Before the Civil War, Jefferson Davis had the idea to transport people and goods through the desert with camels. He imported 70 of them and a Syrian caretaker named Hadji Ali.  No one could pronounce his name, so he became “Hi Jolly.”  Hi Jolly had a tough time recruiting “camel wranglers” because the animals smelled and were so mean.  After the Civil War broke out and Jefferson Davis directed his energy elsewhere, the experiment died.  The camels were turned loose in the desert; the last one (or its descendent) was sighted in 1942 (almost 100 years!).  While Hi Jolly’s  camels were not popular, however he was, so he stayed in Quartzsite.  His tomb is a national landmark.  The townsfolk, to honor him built a pyramid with a camel on top over his grave.  It is the historical highlight of the town. 

Quartzsite’s other claims to fame are its rocks, and rock shops, along with a huge flea market.  Dave  priced some petrified wood but decided to wait until we go through the Petrified Forest on the return trip.  The flea market was the junkiest of junk!   We landed a few bargains, the best of which was an electric heater for the RV for $5.  Of course it broke almost immediately, but came back to life with Dave’s magical lubrication (the desert is tough on moving parts).  After thinking about it for a while, I realized that poor towns like Quartzsite and the general countryside looks so junky because, #1 folks are fairly poor, and with nothing but desert, there are no landfills for junk.  Everything just hangs around folks’ yards:  old cars, bikes, broken tools, etc.  I guess there is no “large item pick up” in the desert.

Tuesday, it was a quick drive to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  Just driving in, we knew we were not going to be disappointed by the desert bloom.  The desert has a very green glow to it, and the flowers and plants are amazing.  Our campsite was nice, if shade-free.  After settling in, we followed the ranger’s directions to 2 flower fields.  We had met a couple on the Colorado River who had come from there, and they said, “You’ll take more pictures than you can imagine.”  And they were definitely right.  My favorites are the huge (10-15 ft.) ocotillos.  They look like green and orange fountains.  But the cacti and wild flowers just carpet the ground.  There were places that looked almost manicured, and out-shown the Botanical Garden in Phoenix by far.   Tuesday night we hiked into the slot canyon, but did not go all the way through, because we were near sunset.  This is NOT a place you want to be in the dark.  It intrigued us enough though that we decided to repeat the hike plus more the next day.

Wednesday, we made the rounds of Galleta Meadow home of the sculptures of Ricardo Breceda.  He has created HUGE rusty metal sculptures of camels, mammoths, a HUGE  Chinese dragon, dinosaurs, farm workers, even a jeep!  To see them you must follow a trail for 10 or more miles.  Abbella had a great time posing on many of the sculptures and the detail and work was amazing. 

After getting our “art fix”, we revisited the slot canyon.  This time, taking our time and going all the way through and then climbing partially up the canyon walls.  At one point the floor of the canyon was littered with caterpillars.  They would literally “rain” down from the canyon walls and then try to climb back up.  The slot was so narrow in parts, that you had to walk side-ways, and then it would open up with a natural arch.   After buying very expensive groceries in town, we built a fire and enjoyed the company of 2 couples from South Dakota.  We shared traveling and retirement stories.

Thursday we got up early to hike the Palm Canyon Oasis.  Dave had gone part of the way on Wednesday, while  I was in town and knew that it would be completed best by starting early in the morning.  We started out at 7 and didn’t get back until 11!  Granted we went slowly and took waaaaay to many pictures.  The hike consisted of a “gently climbing trail” to a palm grove oasis tucked in the “fold” of 2 mountains.  The trail was not especially steep but was extremely rocky.  The fan palm grove at the head of the spring-fed creek is truly amazing.  It forms a “cathedral” and you feel like you are tucked away in a jungle.  The heat truly got to us on the way down especially after Deb took a shortcut off the alternative trail that added half an hour of hiking!  It took us most of the afternoon to recover.

Big Horned Sheep on the way to the Palm Oasis

Abbella in the Palm Oasis

We have 3 season days:  we snuggle under blankets and sometimes run the heater overnight or in the morning, and run the AC during the day.  By 4 pm, the sun has sunk behind the mountain and it is pleasant outside especially after David builds a fire.

As I write this Dave is working on his segway….again!  First it had a flat tire and we had to go to a segway tour dealer and bike shop in Phoenix to get it fixed.  Then he got the dreaded red wrench, which means a major failure.  He has determined that it is not the electronics or “motherboard” which he had repaired just under a year ago.  But one of the batteries has failed.  This has been almost, but not quite as convoluted as the trials of Bert and Bessie last trip.  Which to catch you up, Bert’s AC still seems to have a mind of its own.  This stop has been the first that we’ve needed it, and it has “mostly” worked.  Dave plans to try a few more “fixes” when he gets a chance and I just heard him order a new battery and ask that it be delivered to our next stop.  God Bless the Internet!!  

After supper we shared our fire with Debbie and Jerry from California via St. Louis and Atlanta.  They are newbie RV'ers and we had a good time sharing our "expertise".  LOL  We realized that we are pretty seasoned having done the grand circle 4 times!!

Tomorrow (Friday) we leave for Lake Elsinore, where we will be based for the whale festival and whale watch at Dana Point.  We’ve begun discussing what we do after that.  So far we have no firm plans.  Check back and see!!