Journal Entry #3 - Rain, rain and more rain = flowers, flowers and more flowers

(Click  on the Thumbnails for full pictures)

It was not the best weather winter . . . but oh, the wild flowers!

We did leave Quartzsite and move onto Yuma about the middle of February. No matter how much we like the desert it was oh, so nice to get onto the dry, unsandy pavement. We thought we would stay on the pavement until there were two days without rain . . . it never did happen, so we left anyway and headed off to a California State Park - Anza-Borrego Springs.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

The main attraction in the Park is the wildflowers. Because there was so much rain this season, the flowers were not only very early they were in great abundance. I wanted to get a lot more pictures than I did but then everything has its limits!!

Here's just a few!!

Brittle Bush

Henderson Canyon

Barrel Cactus

Desert Lavender

Desert Primrose

Ocotillo

Desert Vervain

Desert Lily

The Desert Lily was quite a find, it can only be seen in bloom about every 10 years or so.

The downside of all the rain was a lot of dead trees and cacti. Because many of the trees and cacti are adapted to retain moisture, many of them got too much water and rotted from the inside out. We saw a number of trees (such as the Palo Verde) and cacti (the Saguaro in Quartzsite that had 45 arms) rot and collapse.

We stayed at Borrego Springs for less than a week and travelled around quite a bit but were not that terribly impressed - except for the wild-flowers.

On to the hot springs in Holtville Hot Springs. We were surprised at the number of people we knew from last year and realized that many Canadians spend the majority of their winter there. Besides the hot springs, it seems the primary activity is going to the flea markets in Calexico, California (right on the Mexico/California border). Now these are much different from the swap meets you generally see in Yuma or Quartzsite. From what we heard, a lot of the stuff is manufacturers over-runs, returned merchandise from department stores and discard supplies and equipment from places like large hotels replace them routinely every few year. The big thing while we were there was the duvets - now tell me, why would anybody want 20 duvets? The rationale was generally that they sold for $2.00 to $5.00 each. Still!!

Too many people . . . too close!!

If it hasn't been obvious, we are really not joiners. We joined the Escapees group because we thought we might be able to find other RV'ers we had things in common with AND we wanted to attend the Escapade in California as our last adventure before heading north. (We envisioned the Escapade as being very similar to the Seminars in Kelowna).

Holy Cow!! As the time got closer, I felt more and more like I didn't want to go. Now, Kelowna has maybe 150 RVs . . . as word had it, this Escapade was expecting over 1200 RVs. That's a lot of people but I was willing to give it a try. We arrived early in the morning (we are usually early for everything) and watching them getting all those RVs parked was like watching a dance troupe run through its most complex routine. Needless to say, we were not stacked but very close to it. We were on was the back lot in the fairgrounds and I'm sure the field over the fence had just been fertilized with the left-overs from the barns so the flies were abundant.

The sessions I attended gave me some good information and I did meet some folks with common interests (writing, computers, photography and using digital cameras and editing software) BUT the rooms they held them in were not very good. They were either too small or too big with horrible acoustics. Mind you, I wasn't feeling too good (I think I had a sinus infection and I know I had a urinary infection AND I just found out that Buddy, our dog had just died) and that could have influenced my perception.

I did talk to the editor of the Escapee Magazine and may have an article or two to submit.

Ready to go Home!!

With all that, I was ready to head on home. Fuel cost are getting pretty spendy (as they say down there). In California we were paying up to $2.40 per American gallon but they were still less than gas prices up here.

We stopped for the weekend in Quartzsite and visited with friends there, then went up to Mesquite, where we waited out the snow storm that was happening around Salt Lake City. The next night was spent in Idaho and then we drove right through to Lethbridge.

Even with the six months of mail and dust it was good to be back in Canada and good to be home.

2004 – 05 . . . Journal Entry #1 - To Travel or Not to Travel . . . That was the Question!

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We have a lot of thinking and planning to do for next year.

Are we going to continue to travel the way we have? Do we want stay in one place for a lot longer? Is the truck going to give us what we need?

I don't know whether I heard this or read it but someone said: We spend the winter following the 72 degree weather.

I do like getting away from the cold, I like seeing new and different things and meeting new and different people and always learning . . . but there are a lot of different ways to do that!!

Well, that's where we left off. It is hard to realize just how the problems with the truck coloured everything we thought and did. Now, I can't imagine doing anything else (mind you, we have been able to eliminate the truck issue). As time goes by, that situation could change but, in the meantime, being on-the-road is our life-style of choice (that's one decision made - not bad, eh?).

THE TRUCK - the bane of our existence . . . so . . . after agonizing for a few weeks we starting touring the dealerships. We have ended up with a three year lease on a 3/4 ton gas Chevy extended cab with full warranty coverage for the full three years. Such a deal we couldn't refuse - it's costing us $111.00 per month. Couldn't not take it!!

So we're feeling a lot more confident about travelling and that put a whole new light on our winter sojourn. The truck's maiden voyage was the second week in May to visit my cousin in Winnipeg (trailerless). The second day out found us stranded in a snow storm in Brandon, Manitoba. We were stuck there (along with at least 100 trucks) for about 40 hours. Not an exciting time, but we managed to check out the 4 wheel drive and it works good. The truck has more bells & whistles that we expected but I'm sure we'll get used to them.

THE SUMMER OF '04 - I have become far more reflective this summer . . . I'm getting a sense of ME. I seem to have lost the feelings of panic and urgency I have experienced the past few years. I'm not afraid of NOT being a part of the workforce anymore . . . my community is as transitional as I am. My goal is to do what I enjoy and leave behind what I don't enjoy.

The summer excursions were so much more relaxed and enjoyable. On the way to the Seminars in Kelowna, we met up with friends at Vernon and toured around there for a while. We all went onto the Seminars (we did three sessions this year . . . "Relationships on the Road", "What do you Mean ... Of Course I Communicate!" and a new one on "The Quartzsite Experience") renewing old relationship and meeting new friends.

On the way back, we accidentally came across a great little RV Park at Midway, BC (Surprise!! Midway is halfway between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, just at the US border) and based ourselves there. We toured into Washington, over to Oosoyoos, toured wineries, bought fresh fruit and veg's and got lost a few times and found a "Shoot Out" and pig roast at the local pub in Midway.

Getting Going

This is the first time we have managed to leave in decent weather . . . it was so pleasant . . . no snow or rain, a little windy but tolerable. It's getting tougher to find new routes and go to places we haven't been before. Our first destination would be Canyon de Chelly in Arizona but there is so much fun in making plans and mapping out the route we would take. We left on October 9th and our first stop was at Dillon, Montana where we dry camped behind the Super 8. We heard about this from a friend. They charge $3.00 a night if you want to plug into electricity . . . well worth it. Next we stopped at Springville, Utah at the Wall Mart Hilton.

As we headed along I-70 towards the road that would take us down to Moab, Utah, we remembered that the friends we spent last Christmas with in Quartzsite were work-camping in Fruita, Colorado about 100 miles away. We called them and ended up spending a couple of days in Fruita (so we can now say we've been in Colorado, too). It was great to reconnect and we spent OUR CANADIAN THANKSGIVING with them. What a new experience for them!

Off to Moab, Utah!! . . . I do keep forgetting how commercial some of these places can be. Moab is another tourist town. From what I could see, it caters to those "Canyoneer" types - young, physically VERY fit, that hike, tent, buy L. L. Bean clothes and equipment, drink Cappuccino, frequent expensive eating places and pay $5.00 for 5 minutes Internet time at a Cyber Cafe. Beyond that, the Arches (Arches National Park) are another natural spectacle.

Apparently, there are massive salt beds underneath the park that resulted from evaporation of the sea water that covered the area about 300 millions years ago. As the climate and natural forces changed, much of the debris was compressed into rock and the salt layer shifted, buckled, liquified and reposited itself, thrusting some of the rock up into domes and down in cavities. Underground faults resulted in vertical cracks. The movement of the salt layers and surface erosion helps create the environment we see. The process continues . . . you can see so many of the layers and just imagine all the power and forces that must have existed to create all the waves, holes and arches. There are canyons throughout the whole area and you really get a sense of what the world must have been like millions of years ago.

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona ! ! Our first targeted destination! We finally made it there about the middle of October. It is unique in that, even though it is a National Park, it is in Navajo lands and very much controlled by them. There are no fees to enter the park or stay at the campground. There are actually two canyons, Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly. You can tour along the North and the South Rims but you must have a guide to go down into the canyon or explore the trails or ruins.

It is not difficult to pick out the various geological layering in the canyon. They have found plant fossils that give evidence that about 280 million years ago this area was subtropical. Over the next few hundred thousand years the climate changed from subtropical to desert thus creating the de Chelly sandstone, then the conglomerate layers. Massive shifts in the earth's crust along with the forces of mountain building, stream cutting, wind and erosion resulted in canyons we see today.

The reminiscent of campsites date back to the between 2500 and 200 B.C. but the farming and communities and then villages began to appear around 200 B.C. and disperse after 1300 A.D. Even so, there are still Navajo who live and farm in the Canyon today. So many of the ruins are built into the cliffs, they say for defence as well as protection. The White House Ruins are the most accessible and have been studies extensively. They think the first structures were constructed from a rather crude masonry style called Kayenta by the Anasazi, a farming people who preceded the Pueblo, Hopi and Navajo ( also connected to the Athabascans) around 1040 A.D. The cliff dwelling were built first and then the canyon floor structures with a rooms that were built up to reach within 4 feet of the upper level. At its prime this community contained as many as 80 rooms inhabited by 10 to 12 families . . . from 50 to 60 people. Evidence indicates that the "kivas" (circular rooms) were used for religious ceremonies similar to those Pueblo, Hopi and Navajo of today.

On to New Mexico . . . We actually left Canyon de Chelly sooner than we had planned. It was getting windy and colder and we just didn't want to deal with that. Beside, we were starting to get Canyoned out - I think my span of concentration is getting shorter . . . I can only absorb so much.

New Mexico is still my favourite place. The state is so unique, interesting and almost understated. The people are so proud of what they have and eager to share it. We spent a couple of days in Grants and then went on to visit with Paul and Lynn at the Sunny Acres RV Park in Las Cruces. I almost felt like we were coming home. These are the folks who took us over the the Soup Kitchen for Thanksgiving a couple years ago. We were very pleasantly surprised at the great changes in the park. I went with Lynn to an "Empty Bowls" fund raiser for the Soup Kitchen. The local Pottery Guild donated all kinds of bowl (about 1000 in total) and the local restaurants (as well as some local folks) donated pots of soup. For $10.00 you select a bowl and then move into an auditorium to get your soup, bread, be entertained and visit. To me, this was a perfect example of the creativity and innovation exhibited throughout the whole area. Good fun and good soup was shared by all!!

Onto Deming . . . where last spring we decided to just head on home (because of the truck). This was our initiation into the Escapee experience. The Escapees are an organization of RV'er who tend to travel rather than hold up in a park or at a resort. A lot of them are full-timers and a lot of them actually volunteer for the organization or work camp. Maybe we have found like-souls? Certainly there are more who have adopted our same life-style. An incredibly diverse and interesting population.

From here we will move further west onto Arizona. We'll be retracing many of the paths we've travelled before. It's going to be a challenge to discover more unique adventures . . . but we're committed.

2003 – 04 . . . The Long Way Home

Well, we were finally on our way to New Mexico. The RV Park at Picacho Peak (between Casa Grande and Tucson) was a great relief with electricity, a pool and the like. We booked in for a week . . . time to recharge ourselves and everything else . . . vacuum out some of the desert sand . . . cleanup . . . get online . . . get the laundry done . . . etc . . . etc.

The cacti were starting to bloom!! And I must say they did great desert gardens.

Our first stop in New Mexico was at the Visitors' Center just across the state line. What a different attitude. Yes, they want to attract visitors but they really believe New Mexico is a great culture and has interesting places they want to share with others (and I agree with them) as opposed to many places in Arizona that seem to resent the Snowbirds.

I saw a bumper sticker in Yuma that said, "If this is Snowbird Season, Why can't we shoot them?" To me this explains the way they feel about winter visitors.

I got a certain sense of excitement at being back in New Mexico again . . . there were so many more places I wanted to explore . . . and the attitude and spirit is just so inviting. Even the Visitors' Center extends a sense of warmth and pride.

We got the chance to use our Passport America again and stayed at a park just outside of Deming. Our plans were to go up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and then wander down to Pancho Villa State Park, just north of the Mexico border (at Columbus), then move on further up north.

The Cliff Dwellings are absolutely fascinating and everything I expected them to be . . . mind you, I just finished reading Jeanne Auel's The Shelters of Stone so was particularly prepared to see them (interesting book, well researched but to-o-o-o long!).

Gila Cliff Dwellings

The more I read about the Ancient Peoples, petroglyphs and pictographs, the more I realize how little is actually known and how much is speculation.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings were (supposedly) built and lived in by the Mogollon peoples . . . a people known for their pottery, pit houses and agriculture . . . and occupied for only a short period of time (1270's to 1300's), maybe only one generation. The dwellings were built in natural caves and the location (Gila Wilderness) is rich in wild life, natural resources (like wood, clay for masonry and pottery, fertile soil and water) and conducive to survival. Archaeologists have no idea why these dwellings were abandoned but speculate that the intrusion of the Spanish or other peoples may have been a strong contributor.

We visited two of the sites . . . a smaller cave . . . probably was a single-family dwelling and the larger site with the larger multi-family cave-dwellings.

Smaller Cave

Multi-family Cliff Dwellings

Lynne's speculation . . . My thought are that the caves might have been used for winter shelter (yes, Auel's book influenced me) and that they found the caves did not give them the level of protection they wanted . . . or . . . the population out grew the space and resources . . . or . . . (like us) they were attracted to a warmer climate, further south!!

National Parks Link: http://www.nps.gov/gicl/

We got back to Deming and the RV park and whoosh!!! Suddenly there was an huge puddle of pinkish fluid flowing out from underneath the motor of the truck!!

Well, the time for the problem solvers to get to work. Each problem-solver had a different idea as to what was causing the leak. The most help came from the owner who told us about trustworthy mechanics in town (there went our trip down to Pancho Villa).

As usual, these things always seem to happen on a Friday (if not a Saturday, Sunday or another non-working holiday) so it was back to El Ranch Lobo (the RV park) to wait it out (again). Fortunately, the RV park was small and very comfortable, the host's wife and I had many interests in common and some fantastic conversations . . . AND . . . the folks beside us (from Wainwright, Alberta) took us along with them on some of their sight-seeing expeditions. We were able to experience a hail storm at the White Sands,  

 

 

 

 

 

 

go to the Missile museum again, have Mexican food at our favourite restaurant in Las Cruces and go to the Rockhound State Park with them.

As well as tugging at our purse strings, with this last episode we decided we were just not having fun anymore. So . . . with a new water pump, fan clutch, rebuilt alternator & repaired leaking oil line gasket . . . we were homeward bound.

Looking back at it now, the frustration and bad feelings about the truck were far more about not being able to find out what was wrong with it and finding someone we could trust to fix it than needing to get it fixed.

Not happy campers, we started retracing our steps back across Arizona. We stopped at Gila Bend our first night and then up to Laughlin. We went through a Quartzsite that now resembled an empty old mining town.

In our brief absence from the desert, spring was starting to show her colours. Yes, Virginia, the desert does have seasons! What we had seen all winter was the desert at rest . . . now there was a certain green tinge spreading out over the sand. The blossoms of the larger cacti, like the Saguaro, only come out at night, but we were able to capture the colourful blossoms of the Ocotillo and sense the coming of spring.

The rest of the trip home was rather uneventful. We spent our last night out in Great Falls trying to deal with the beef we still had. We were not sure what we could bring across the border so whatever beef/chicken we had left, we gave to some folks who were on their way down. As it turned out, all Canadian Customs wanted to know was the total amount of purchases we made and whether we had any alcohol . . . but . . . there is a certain warmth and security I feel when we get back into Canada.

We have a lot of thinking and planning to do for next year.

Are we going to continue to travel the way we have? Do we want stay in one place for a lot longer? Is the truck going to give us what we need?

I don't know whether I heard this or read it but someone said: We spend the winter following the 78 degree weather.

I do like getting away from the cold, I like seeing new and different things and meeting new and different people and always learning . . . but there are a lot of different ways to do that!!

2003 – 04 . . . Beyond Quartzsite

In my humble opinion, there were only two good reasons for us to go to Yuma. The most important one was to get the truck fixed . . . once we found out what was wrong with it . . . and the second reason was to get my teeth fixed . . . once they found out what was wrong with them. The side-lights would be a visit to WalMart (to replenish supplies) and, hopefully, reconnect with friends we had spent time with before.

Getting the Truck Fixed

From the time we left Mesquite, we felt a vibration. So in Las Vegas, Fred took it to a garage that had done some vehicle repairs for friends. They couldn't find anything wrong and suggested that maybe the wheels needed balancing and so it was done. NO, still we were joggling along. Well, there was no one in Quartzsite to look at it, so we went off to Blythe California . . . maybe wheel bearings . . . no . . . maybe the differential . . . no . . . maybe the drive shaft was not balanced . . . well, we can't do it here . . . you need to go to Yuma or Phoenix . . . no, we don't know anyone there, etc, etc. Hence . . . off to Yuma.

On one of our trips to Laughlin from Quartzsite, we met some folks from Yuma who said they knew of a couple of good mechanical shops and offered to line us up with them. AND we will be forever grateful! Five weeks and quite a few hundred dollars later we had new U-joints, a disengaged 4 wheel-drive transfer case, new oil cooling lines, an oil change, axles on the trailer aligned, a new tire for the trailer.

The bright side was that we encountered some wonderful people who helped us not only find a place to get the truck fixed, but also get around when we were without transportation.

Again, we camped on BLM land without hook-ups. And again, we were impressed with the diversity of RV's that were there. From the ridiculous to the sublime - a half million $ Blue Bird bus sitting next to a tent! But the sunsets were spectacular.

Getting my Teeth Fixed

Algodones is where many Winter Visitors go for glasses, dental work and to have prescriptions filled almost free! For many Americans the cost of their health care, drugs, dental work is so high, a few trips down across the border is well worth it. For example, I had my teeth cleaned for $25 (USD) and had two teeth extracted for $40 (USD) each. Chelation treatment are also accessible and reasonable.

Getting my teeth fixed meant doing the Algodones thing. Now, Algodones is a small Mexican border town

south of California and just a few miles west of Yuma. I'm not sure how many streets there are, but each street has walkways that lead into plazas that house pharmacies, dentists, optical places, doctors and vendors. Vendors line both sides of every street selling jewellery, leathers, trinkets, and whatever for almost free.

In the main plaza, there are young Mexicans who use canned spray paints and various

pieces of plastic and paper to create the most incredible scenes on RV wheel covers, Satellite dishes, vases, plates, or even canvas (if you supply it). These kids are so talented and skilled - I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.

Depending on your timing, it could take up to an hour to travel the three miles from Highway 8 to the parking lot just on the American side of the Mexican border. From there you walk probably a block across the border. The return trip can be even more horrendous. We've seen line-ups almost a mile to get back across the border. BUT the savings are worth it and I have not talked to anyone who was any more displeased with their treatment than they were at home.

Holtville and the Hot Springs

What with our returned confidence that the truck would (likely) transport us where we wanted to go and two less teeth, we ventured on to the Imperial Valley and the Holtville Hot Springs in California.

There is another Long-term BLM Campground just out of Holtville (the Carrot Capital of the world) called the Oasis Desert Hot Springs. By this time, people were starting to leave but some of the core residents were still there and had been there all winter - they had quite the compound.

The main attraction here is the mineral hot springs (that is about 120 degrees F).

Fred just loved them and would go down (about a block) at least once a day. The water was so hot people would go down, fill up containers and bring them back to do dishes and laundry.

Imperial Valley

I just never expected the Imperial Valley to be as vast as we discovered that it is. According to the brochures, there are over 462,200 acres under cultivation (vegetables and field crops) with an extensive below sea level irrigation system. There are three main canals that feed the fields from the 82 mile-long All-American Canal. Surprisingly, most of the valley lies below sea level.

Each vegetable field we saw extends over about 40 acres, and in the case of this cabbage field, it seemed to take about a week to harvest it. Apparently, each field is inspected and must be certified ready to harvest. Each vegetable MUST be a certain size (to fit into the containers). Any that are too big or too small are left on the field or dumped.

As opposed to the Yuma area, people are allowed to glean the fields. Some of the all winter folks actually can and freeze some of the vegetables they collect.

AND THEN IT GOT HOT!!

I couldn't believe it! After almost 4 month of below normal temperature, we suddenly encountered our first heat wave. And it was hot - it actually set records.

We headed back to Yuma to spend a little time with friends there. The weather was so uncomfortable we decided that we may as well start heading east and find a place that we can try out our new air conditioner (to this point, it had less than a hour on it). And here we are at Picacho Peak between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona feeling oh, so much cooler.

Next Stop - Deming, New Mexico.