About 320 Miles Mark Our First Day Towards Home

Early up and early GO has always been our style. Get something out of the day and if something happens you got time to fix it.

So following our custom, we were actually leaving Quartzsite around 8am. Of course, before that I had to do a desert doggy walk. :-)

Heading north from Quartzsite

Our early departure got into an unwelcome halt just down the road from Quartzsite. Obviously some construction work was the reason. They kept us waiting for 30 minutes. When we finally were to go, there was no active construction work going on. A few workers standing around chatting was all we saw. And the right lane, recently being resurfaced was all ready, but blocked off.

One might really wonder what the purpose of such BS.

We passed Parker and Parker Dam, then got sucked into huge traffic at Lake Havasu City. I know I have mentioned this before, but that city really sucks with its terrible traffic. The city is also growing at a rabid pace. We remember this as a sleep desert town at the Colorado with the Old London Bridge being the only attraction. Well, the bridge is still there, but the athmosphere of the town is long gone.

Approaching Lake Havasu City

Eventually we reached the I-40 and were heading towards Kingman. There are tons of online comments about the state of the I-40, but experiencing the huge and many potholes, the desperate and poorly performed attempts of road repair is a whole different story. Luckily, the road improves somewhat east of Kingman, but there are still some pretty bad passages left.

The I-40 also has some pretty long uphill grades at 6% until it reaches 6800ft at Flagstaff. When we got outside at a gas station we almost froze to death. It was super cold, especially for us coming out of the warm desert. The snow along the road witnessed about recent snow showers in the area. We enjoyed the view of the snow-capped St.Francisco Mts. 

Snow-capped San Francisco Mts.

We were now getting close our destination for the day, which was the Meteor Crater Rest area, roughly 40 minutes west of Winslow. We had stopped here on our way south and after we had visited the Meteor Crater. The rest area is extremely clean, it offers potable water and the large paved area for trucks is very inviting.

After about 320 miles from Quartzsite I was tired enough to call it a day at 4:30PM

YESS, We Are Ready To Take On The Long Haul Back

This morning ran up with ample sunshine and cool air. Very inviting to do a desert walk with Dixie. And we had a special goal today. Last years stay in March, we had discovered a special circle in the desert. Somebody had invested a lot of work raking aside the black rocks for this "Magic Circle Labyrinth". It invites you to start walking from the outside round and round until you reach the center of it, which is marked with white quartz rocks. 

And last year, inside that center, we had left one of Bea's painted rocks. It had been in company with other rocks and name displays, but Bea's rock had now vanished. It was gone. So, if we should come back here next year we will put another of her art pieces into the center. This year, we found the note of an "ALIEN" in the center.

Of course Bea did the full walk-around to fulfill the mystical purpose of the circle.

Thank God we got our fuel card today. But let me fill in on what's been going on.

A couple of fellow RVers had told me about the Open Road Fuel Rebate. The card is available from a trucking company in Texarkana, TX. Unlike other cards this one is also for RVers without a DOT number, and its purpose is for DIESEL fuel only. Substantial rebates are beneficial for our wallet. And one doesn't have to use a Credit Card as the fuel costs are taken out of your US bank account. Principally available also for Canadians traveling in the US and owning a US-bank account.

Now, I had made my application in mid-february, so the fuel card should have arrived at our Holtville PO Box.

However, the card was mistakenly sent to our home address in Canada.

However, we needed the card for our home run.

So a new card was then sent by USPS priority to our Holtville PO Box. That didn't go very well, as USPS kept the shipment for 3 full days at their Shreveport, LA center before it slowly moved across the country. Once it had arrived in San Bernadino it sat another 2 days without moving. One might wonder what "priority" USPS putting on shipments. When I had noticed the extended stay at Shreveport and the slow move after that, I contacted the company again.  Meanwhile, we had run up to Quartzsite and had given up our mail box in Holtville. Now, this time the company promised an overnight service with FEDEX. And lo and behold the card arrived today at the Quartzsite pickup location. 

End of the saga. 

So after picking up the card, the van could be loaded onto the trailer. This always is a two-person operation, as there isn't much margin to make a mistake. The tie-down too takes time and mistakes made could have very costly and legal consequences.

But now we are ready to spend our first day on the long haul home.

The Big Q

With lots of time at our hands we sure didn't hurry this morning. Did our usual Dixie walk, checked the news (mostly terrible stuff). Then picked up the last items around the rig. Had to say Good Bye to friends, once and then again and again to other friends. (wow - so many friends)

And finally we rolled out of camp around 10:30am. For those who already had said Good Bye the day earlier I blew the airhorn when going by their site. So much fun, and always gets a lot of attention! LOL.

I-8 was very busy with cars, but not many trucks. Interestingly, the Border Patrol Check Point between Yuma and El Centro was closed today. Free run for the immigrants! Guess the officers want to be with their families too. The Checkpoint on Hwy 95 to Quartzsite though, was open, but only one officer at the booth. Well, there wasn't much traffic on this road, and when I stopped looking out the side window his attention was already towards our van, which Bea was driving behind the motorhome. I just heard "keep on moving". I asked Bea what conversation she had with the guy. "ISLAND TOURS? Where is THAT?"

We've been asked that very same question many times.

"I'm following THAT guy" Bea answered before he ordered her to move on as well.

While we normally would have had the van on top of the trailer, we didn't bother for the shorter distance to Quartzsite today. We will need the van to go into town while we are here.

Arriving at La Posa South LTVA we pulled right up the camp road and found a suitable spot for ourselves. 

We were surprised to see that there are still a lot of campers here. Last year, we were here at the same time in march, and much fewer rigs were around.

We also notice the lack of desert flowers along the road. This years winter drought has led to a rather bleak looking desert vegetation.

If our fuel card arrives on Tuesday morning we'll get out of here right away.

Below video was made after our morning walk

Last Night

 We are having our last night in California. And the last day began busy. After our daily morning walk with Ms.Dixie, I headed on top of the roof to secure our solar panels. I added an extra bolt to each panel until there was no up-down movement possible. There was already a cold wind blowing and I got quite cold as I was on my knees to deal with the bolts.

Before I was finished, the first friend came by to say Good Bye. How nice, people here are really friendly!

But there was so much more to do. We readied the coach for going to El Centro for propane and dumping. It's not a long drive to the Desert Trails RV Park, and they have the cheapest propane in the area. On the way back we stopped in Holtville for a 5gal. drinking water from the fountain. I checked at the mail office for mail, but there was nothing.

This wild looking desert plant is the DESERT BROOM

Back in the camp we backed up to the trailer and hitched on.

Lots of stuff to stow away! Unbelievable how much of that we have been dragging around!

The afternoon got a bit quieter, more friends came by, sitting around and chatting. Our neighbours had gone to the airshow in El Centro and got back around 4pm. We sat together with them until after 6pm.

Tomorrow we will be heading over to Quartzsite.

Days In The South Are Ending

We are having March 13 and our days here are coming to an end. And as if it would make the Good-Byes easier, it is raining with strong winds today. There has hardly been any rain the whole time we've been here. Two nights ago we had a shower and now a couple of hours rain.

Yesterday our lovely neighbours invited us for Hotdogs. As usual, we had a great time with them, eating and talking about our plans. Dixie too has developed a special affinity for them. All too often she received delicious treats there, so when she is off-leash she often wanders over to our neighbours in hopes of scoring a reward.

Tomorrow we will do some grocery-shopping, Saturday we will fill up propane and use the dump station, and Sunday it is off to the north. First Quartzsite for 2-3 nights and onward to the I-40 and towards Albuquerque,NM.

Planned sightseeing along the road has been canceled. We canceled it as we have to get back to Canada before April 01. April 02 will be the day when Canada is proceeding with another round of reciprocal retaliatory tariffs worth 125bill. dollars against US-products. Since our rig was purchased in the States and we still need to import it, we don't want to risk being caught up in a stupid trade war, initially started by Pres. T-Rump.

This season's stay might turn out to be be the last one for years to come. Thousands of Canadians have canceled their US-vacations, causing billions of dollars loss of revenue for US-tourist destinations. Yes, Canadians are united against unprovoked US aggression and rhetoric. America, as we have known it, has ceased to exist. International isolation is what America is headed for. A boycott of US-products is spreading all around the world.

This is serious.

We have good friends in the US. People we have met along the way. It is with a heavy heart, that we have to say a Good-Bye to them, given the uncertainty of not knowing whether we will return to see them again.

We would love to travel to Mexico next year, but we will still have to transit the US. 

R.I.P. Karen

 A friend called today. He had very, very sad news. His wife had passed away. They have been RVers for many years. This year they had arrived in Yuma in November. In December she suddenly felt ill and was quickly diagnosed with a mass on her pancreas.

They returned home to Prince Edward Island. Today she died of pancreatic cancer. We are devastated also for our friend, for whom this is the second time that his wife died.

R.I.P. KAREN

Bob and Karen at Squaw Lake

Pie In The Sky

 With 32C (90F) in the making, we decided to escape to some cooler surroundings. A daytrip to the Apple Pie Town of Julian, CA filled today's agenda.

We left camp early and before there was a major heat.

Now, Julian is a very small town in the San Diego Mountains, about 12km west of Anza Borrego Statepark.

At an elevation of over 4100ft the area had only 22C (71F) and was the perfect place for a get-away.

The drive led us via the city of Brawley over to the west side of the Salton Sea. The US Border Patrol has maintained a check point along that road for years, and right behind that check point, Hwy 78 turns west towards Borrego Springs. 

It's a desolate area we drove through and it is used by the crazy off-road people. Ocotillo Wells is their headquarters. All along that road until it crosses into the State Park, one can see trailers and shacks lining the road. Not a pleasant view, if you ask me.

Mystery: How did this boat get into the desert and what's the purpose of it?

Now, we continued on Hwy 78 which brings the traveler along a winding road to ever rising elevation until the town of Julian comes up. 

Julian got known because it's plentiful apples and their resulting super delicious Apple Pies. Also, it has a certain ambiente with its special wellkept architecture.

Steep grades on the road to Julian

Finding a parking spot can be a challenge, though it wasn't a big problem today, but if you end up her during a weekend - good luck!

After moseying along Main St. (it's really very short) we decided to go for the Pie. The Julian Pie Company is just down the Main St. and Bea bought 2 super delicious yummy tasty apple pies. One was for us, the other for our camp neighbours.

A look into one of Julian's Boutiques

We then sat in the van to devour our sandwiches we bought along.

Now, it still was only noon and way too early to return home as the heat always reaches its peak around 3pm.

So we found Lake Cuyamaca Recreation Area not far away from Julian. A lake seemed to be a great place to hang out on. We paid 5$ access fee and went down to the lake trail where we set up our chairs and enjoyed the scenery and the birds. Among lots of Canada Geese, some white pelicans were on the water as well. Bea took Dixiefor a walk along the lake shore and after a while I followed her. 

 

Bea had discovered a huge tree where the bark had thousands of little holes and where every hole was filled with an ekorn. We had to marvel at this grand work performed by a woodpecker. The tree was covered all around and to a respectable height with these ekorns.

Returning to camp we drove south towards the I-8. There are several California State Parks along this route. The winding road through forests of Live Oak and Conifers would be an adventure to drive with any bigger RV, but it was fun with our Van.

Stopping at Desert View Point we enjoyed an amazing overlook towards the east.

After reaching the I-8 the forest retreats from the road, giving room to large mountains vistas. 

The mountain slopes are about the strangest I have ever seen. Huge round boulders are reaching the top, some balancing precariously on others.

Strange looking structure along I-8

Back at camp we invited our neighbours for a Pie-Party.

It was a great day, but we have to weather another couple of hot days before temps will be reaching back to 23-24C.