With Glühwein into Christmas

 If you have ever visited a German Christmas Market you have probably had a taste of Glühwein. It is called that because it is glowing hot when you drink it and it continues to glow once you have swallowed it. So what exactly is it?

If you want to make it at home you start with a bottle of red wine. Don't take your most expensive bottle. Take a cheap one.

You gonna heat it up on the range. And you want to add a few ingredients like cinnamon, clove powder (or whole cloves) a few almonds and raisins.  And most wines need a good portion of sugar as well. Don't roil-boil this concoction - just heat it cautiously. You might also want a kettle of hot water to thin this out. Some people like it really strong, others prefer it a bit weaker. All I can promise you is that it will warm you up if you are feeling the cold of a winter evening creeping into your bones. And that is precisely the reason why Germans like it so much when hanging out on a rather cold winter afternoon/evening in the Christmas Market. It is readily available at many of the festively illuminated Christmas booths. 

I know that some towns with a heavy German population in North America are having Christmas Markets. Whether they are allowed to serve the original Glühwein containing alcohol, is up to city or state ordinances. But you can make it from fruit juices like blackberry, cherry or black currant as well.

Bea and I had a good one today. And now we call it a day. Good Night.

A Miracle Happened.

 Header Photo: Adam Woodworth Photography

Soon it will be Christmas and miracles might start to happen anywhere, but today we already got an early taste of that.

Remember that Bea lost her hearing aids yesterday?

Being on my way to Holtville this morning, I was just leaving the camp area when Jim, a dear camper friend was stopping me. His question to me was: "Did you lose a hearing aid?"

I was stunned at first but confirmed quickly that Bea indeed had lost hers. 

"I have it", he said and grinned.

It turned out that he had found it along the canal, where we use to do our morning walks. Bea had already surmised that she might have lost it on the early walk, but not noticed it missing until hours later after we had done our shopping tour.

I picked it up at Jim's rig on my return from town and handed it to Bea, who immediately confirmed it as hers. 

Now what do you think is the chance that someone finds a small hearing aid on a sandy road in the desert? I would anticipate it to be easier to win the top price at Lotto Max. 

Today, Bea was the happiest girl ever.

Reviewing the impact of last night's storm, we noticed that several camp neighbours had damaged wind barriers, one had lost his awning, while others had just gotten their furniture blown around. We had just very dirty windows, a load of sand on our outdoor mat and generally a necessary clean-up to do. The day was sunny, but on the cooler side, which was especially enjoyed by Dixie. With her thick fur she hates the hot weather.

Sorry. no pictures today. 

Never A Boring Day!

 It started out as a quite innocent day. Despite the weather forecast predicting a grey sky and possible rain, there was no sign of imminent rain, nor were there any serious clouds in the sky this morning. We did our morning walk with Dixie along the canal enjoying the sunshine and the peace.

Today's agenda was to take a drive to El Centro for some groceries and possibly to find 2 new foldable camping chairs.

We were lucky enough to find the desired chairs at Harbor Freight and the groceries at ALDI and yes, Walmart. 

Shortly after being back in camp, Bea noticed that one of her hearing aids had gone missing. She had only been out of the van once at a Dollar Store in Holtville, so she quickly went back to try find it in the parking lot. IF she'd lost it there it would be on the ground, as we had parked in the last slot of the paved parking lot.

By now the wind had picked up a lot and it hit our trailer broadside. 

While she was gone I had made myself a sandwich and was just stepping outside, when suddenly the trailer was jolted sideways and a little backwards. EARTHQUAKE, was my first thought. Holy smokes, what was happening. Walking around the trailer I saw what had caused the sudden movement. The wind had rocked the trailer back and forth and finally pushed it off of the blocks we had put under the wheels for leveling. 

I quickly discovered that the movement had caused some damage on the rear set of electric support jacks. The side which had been supported with blocks, was now bent.

OMG, what to do? While the front jacks were OK, I wasn't even able to get the rear ones entirely moved up. 

A closer look made me think that maybe I could get it straightened out by tying a rope around the bent part and pulling it with the van. It should work. At least I may be able to use the electric again. 

But Bea was gone with the van!

After an hour she was back, but without the other half of her hearing aid. Too bad!

I hooked the trailer up to the van and pulled it forward, so I could get the van behind the trailer. I had borrowed a rope from a camp neighbour, and tied it around the jack with the other end around the hitch ball. Bea got behind the wheel and started pulling carefully. It only took a few seconds and the jack looked straight to me. I tried the electric motor  - and lo and behold - it worked. Wow, at least something was accomplished today. 

Now, instead of putting the low side on blocks again, we rather dug a hole in the ground on the high side and rested the other side on flat plastic levelers. The whole thing took about an hour and a half to straighten up.

And we are really glad that this happened in the afternoon and not now, while the wind has increased dramatically over the last couple of hours. Even after the wind turned to the west hitting our trailer only from the rear, it is rocking like crazy. While we were having supper a rain shower came down hard on us, but lasted for a few minutes only. 

According to the weather men, the wind is gonna die down after midnight.

Looks like we never have a boring day.

An Exciting And A Bit Disappointing Day

 You may know the feeling: You have been visiting in a beautiful place years ago, and suddenly you have the chance to go there again, but when you get there, you notice all the changes that have happened and you feel disappointed. 

Since we started this journey just about one month ago I wanted to go back to Picacho State Recreation Area. It's an 18-mile dirt road starting from Winter Haven, running mainly north to the banks of the Colorado River. There is a camp area, and space for day use. Quite beautiful, and the road to it, even though being a dirt road used to be very drivable for just about any vehicle, maybe except bigger trailers and motor homes. 

It's looking much better than it is. This road has been criticized by many users on TripAdvisor. Most of it is a terrible washboard with deep sandy holes. Users have noticed shredded tires and even a broken axle along the road.

The next 3 pictures are from earlier years showing the beauty of the area

Today, any camper would have fallen apart, if such an attempt would be made. The road is so unbelievably bad and rough that after 5 miles in on it, we decided to turn around. Our van has All-Terrain tires, but I got afraid we could lose stuff from the vehicle if we would continue the remaining 13 miles - and have to go back that way. It just wasn't worth it. A sign recommending 4x4 vehicles should have served us as a warning. That sign has never been there before. While we were still jolting down the road, we met a convoy of fast-going Jeeps. All of them with huge tires. We also saw ATV's of all kind. It is obvious that it is that kind of traffic that has destroyed the road. The off-road people's demand must have been valued higher than regular visitors who came for enjoying the peace and tranquility of nature. So sad. It is a shame that the State of California does not maintain this road.

But, once out if the area, we continued to a better destination. We went to Squaw Lake and the beautiful area of the campground and boat launch. 

Beautiful Squaw Lake

Bea photographing birds.

Right away I noticed the very few campers around, and the boat ramp was totally deserted. We parked close to the ramp and set out chairs for a relaxing time at the water's edge. Home-made sandwiches are always my favorite lunch food and I had coffee as well. Bea did a lot of photographing birds. There were all kind of ducks and she even saw a Great White Egret. As a birder she is eager to add more first sightings to her ever-growing list of species.

This was definitely the highlight of our day.

But eventually we had to move on and our next goal was the Mittry Lake Wildlife Refuge. Along the way we passed the CLOUD MUSEUM. It's a pretty wild-looking collection of Model-T Fords. 

We camped at Mittry Lake many years earlier and wanted to see the place again. It is a dirt road as well, but in much better shape than the one to Picacho. And the scenery is beautiful!

Where our van is parked was our last campground years ago

Since it was Saturday, we saw a lot of human activity here as well. Unfortunately, again it was the noisy off-roaders throwing up the dust. I just have to shake my head about so much stupidity. How can such traffic be permitted in a bird sanctuary???

Eventually, we found our old campsite, but now camping was not permitted there anymore. Instead the administration had made a huge parking area on the other side of the road. Noisy people there as well. Again, so sad.

Looking across the water the peace is still there, but with the traffic on the road, this would be no place for us.

Leaving Mittry Lake Road we ended up in the City of Yuma. Yuma is a buzzling city which has grown a lot over the years. Traffic is terrible here but gas is a lot cheaper here than in California so we had to take advantage of it. A few groceries were also purchased, before we found ourselves heading west on the I-8 again. Made it home 30 minutes before sunset. I whipped up a nice salad with tuna and we had it with fresh toast.

PS.: Remember to visit "SIDEWALK", Bea's blog. She is the photographer behind many of the images you have seen here as well.