For those who read to the bottom of the last post and expect us to be
headed for Alaska soon. We have had to postpone that trip yet again.
My mother's continued decline and frail condition does not permit us to
under take a trip where we will be out of communication for several days
at a time and unable to get back to Rochester in a couple of days once
we know we need to return.

We do plan to get out of Rochester in July and probably head north and
west. It remains to be seen when and where.

This is being posted on the blog as well as direct to all of you.

Paul

Well a week has passed since I last wrote in the journal. That week has been mostly Pesach here in Covesville in Hungrytown Hollow. We got in mid day on Friday in time for Carol to pitch in with Malena to prepare a lovely Sedar meal. Dan ran the Sedar, as he described it, at 78 RPM. This was to keep the boys interested and from falling asleep. After the meal there was the inevitable meltdown and we delayed the completion of the Sedar until they had gone to sleep. The next day they demanded that we finish the Sedar as they felt they had missed something. This resulted in a rather unusual meal as we did not do a complete Sedar, however after the repeat meal we did “finish” the Sedar for the boys still running at 78 RPM.

While here I have received the replacement part for the Tow Defender which had broken a second time and I have installed that part. I sure hope it holds together for a while now. I also pulled out the drawer I repaired earlier in the trip and redid the track so it is more level and square. It should be smoother than it has been now. Other than an expiring NYS Inspection I have no other service issues for the moment.

This weekend the 26^th and 27th we are taking off with the boys to a nearby Federal Campground for a Saturday night overnight in the coach. We have not told them the plan yet, but will probably set it up tonight over dinner. It should be fun for all of us and it will give Malena and Dan a 24 hour break that I am sure they can use. The weather has gone from hot and sunny on our arrival to chilly and gray and rainy and back to hot and sunny, so far. Carol and have taken several hikes, mostly in the neighborhood. Yesterday we went off to Ragged Mountain Natural Area right in Charlottesville and had an incredible 2 hour hike with a lot of elevation change (read that as several stiff long climbs) and lots of beautiful views. Dan tells us that most f the territory we hiked will be submerged by a new dam being built to increase the areas water reserves. A really significant loss to the area, but necessary nonetheless.

This will be either the last post or the next to last post of this trip. We will be in Rochester not later than May 2 as we have company coming to town and we need to catch up with Rochester before we head off to Alaska in June.

The last posting elicited a response from the Topfs who we last saw in January at Deer Creek in Florida, where they were wintering. At the time of their response they were in Jackson, MS headed for Memphis, TN. A quick look at the map showed that with a minor adjustment Memphis could be on our route. It took us a few minutes to decide that Land Between the Lakes, KY would be there another year, but the Topfs were heading our way now. We set out from Springfield, MO headed toward a campground in West Memphis, AR on the banks of the Mississippi. The rain and stms we had experienced and that had preceded us were playing havoc with the rivers and streams. As we drove we saw that everywhere we turned the water was over the banks, in some places seeming to threaten the highway itself. Many side roads were inundated and we saw parks and campgrounds ad lakeside houses all underwater. Soon we had a call from Shelley, the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis was underwater and did not expect to reopen for three weeks. Shelley located a campground in T O Fuller State Park on the Tennessee side of the river that was above the floods. They went in there on Friday and we joned them eaerly Saturday having spent the previous night in a Wal Mart Parking lot in Jonesboro, AR. (actually, as I write, we are in a Wal Mart parking lot in Smithville, TN).

On our way into Memphis we realized, with my sister Sandy’s help, that my cousin Bob Levey teaches in Memphis during the week. A phone call and an email yielded contact and a date to have dinner together on Monday night. After some confusion, the restaurant Bob suggested is located on a back alley and is hard to locate for the uninitiated and it also is closed on Monday, we met in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel, the home of the trained lobby ducks. We had a drink there and then moved on to Club 61 for dinner and much more talking. We certainly have gotten together with many people in many different ways on this extended trip.

Tueday we waited for the FedEx package with the tax returns that needed to be signed and posted with the appropriate checks enclosed. Having dealt with that, we went back to Memphis to go to the Cotton Museum. This museum is located on the old Cotton Exchange trading floor which has been preserved as it was when the business faded away from a live exchange to traders sitting at computer terminals with even faster access to pricing and news. In the process we learned just how important cotton was and is to Memphis. This was the center of the cotton trade not just for the US but for the world in its time. That time was as recent as the 1960’s The coming of electronic communications moved the trading away from the street and government grading eliminated the jobs of many people who had graded and blended cotton before the standardization. Still much of the cotton trade is based in Memphis. Carol and I were both fascinated with the videos of the many characters giving their oral histories and the history of cotton, the blues and Memphis that is housed in that museum. Earlier we had taken a tour of the Sun Recording Studio which was the place that first recorded Elvis and Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins and Howlin’ Wolf and . . . well this list seems almost endless. The actual studio is as it was 40 years ago and the microphone that they all used for vocals is prominent in the studio.

Wednesday we left for the east and found ourselves, after heated debate, headed for Malena and Dan’s for Pesach. We had set out to drive a piece of the Natchez Trace Parkway again and so we did. Eventually we got off looking for a road to I 40 that did not go through Nashville. After many twists and a couple of wrong turns we found ourselves in Murfreesboro and on the road toward Smithville, not too much of an improvement, but at least in the right direction. Thus we find ourselves in the aforementioned Wal Mart which was in no database or book we had with us. But Carol’s sharp eyes spotted the sign hidden behind a tree and here we are. Now this Wal Mart store will soon be in the “Overnight RV Parking” database for other back road wanderers to locate and know they are welcome to spend the night.

I wrote last seven days and 1260 miles ago. We have added two more states to our map, Colorado and Kansas, and some wonderful time with friends. After leaving Moab, with a promise to ourselves to return, we drove to Simonne and Steve Shuey’s new house in Glade Park, CO. The nearest real town is Grand Junction. For those who do not trace our family, Simonne is Dan’s sister-in-law, or more pointedly, Malena’s sister. Dan described the house as being “on top of the Colorado National Monument.” I did not quite grasp the meaning until I got the directions to the house. From Grand Junction one takes the Monument Road eight miles and at least 2,000 feet up through the park to a turn out for Glade Park about a third of the way up. We had been warned that there was a low clearance tunnel that we ought to be able to negotiate, but we had our doubts. For the complete story on that read Carol’s piece “What a sight we must have been” at http://cgstudio.net/mim/ I cannot improve on her telling. We had a wonderful visit and finally got to know Steve and Simonne as individuals and not as part of a family mob. Don’t get me wrong, I love family mob time, but we had nice time with them and plenty of time to talk, ride and hike.

We kept asking ourselves, out loud even, what route will we take from here and where will we go next. I have been getting a bit itchy to get east, as we have only three weeks left in our planned outing and Carol wants to get further south to get warmer. I 70 did not seem to be a compromise so we set out on US 50. Thank you NPR! They have done two pieces on the election process interviewing people who live along this most central US highway that predates the Interstates by many years. We asked about the weather and whether the road was in good shape. We never got around to asking how it crosses the Rockies. The short answer is it climbs from 7000 feet to 11,000 feet in 7 miles and them come right back down. We crested the summit in a very low gear going about 28 mph, I had time to read the speedometer and check all my gages as the engine, for the first time I can remember, was starting to miss and it clearly was laboring from the climb and the altitude. The trip down was in the same low gear and not much faster. I did not want to lose control on the descent. We motored on into Canon, CO and found the Fort Gorge RV Park, not open, but willing to take our cash and provide electric and sewer, water not turned on yet. Having plenty of fresh water and a surplus of gray water the combination was perfect for us. We used our on board water supply and left with empty holding tanks in the morning.

While we were brooding over the route we kept staring at the maps as if they had the answer to what route we should take. We noted that Kansas City was “only” a couple of hundred miles out of the way and we had friends, Dianne and Marty Lustig, who we had not seen in many years and when last heard from were in Prairie Village, KS a suburb of Kansas City. A quick internet search revealed that a couple of that name still lived at the address and with the phone number Carol had in her paper address book. We waited until a seeming appropriate hour the next morning to call to see if they remembered us and wanted to see us. They did and they did. A review of the maps showed that continuing on US 50 no longer made sense so while Carol continued to drive east I reset the mapping software and found a route up to I 70. We crossed the rest of Colorado, the high plains, and half of Kansas that day. Enough said. We alternated drivers every two hours through four shifts and called it quits at a roadside RV park in Russell, KS, birthplace of Robert Dole and Arlen Spector.

The next day, found us stopped at an auto parts store looking for a replacement for the windshield wiper that had had enough sun, sand, salt and whatever and started to shred as we drove through the rain. Thirty minutes of fussing and finally cutting down an oversize replacement and we were underway, having noticed that our Tow Defender, which is supposed to protect the car, has broken in a new and different way. This is not a show stopper, but it is very annoying and I will be having words with the manufacturer soon. A $400 safety item should stand up to the normal abuse we dish out. If not, it is worth nothing.

We had a wonderful visit visit with the Lustigs and the five grandchildren they are helping take care of. As we know about grandchildren under our care there are two wonderful moments. Hello and Goodbye. Of course by the time they are 16 they are much easier to spend a lot of time with.

Our route out of Prairie Village has taken us south to Springfield, MO where we are camped in the yard of a large truck service company. They are authorized Allison service people and we are here to have the 50,000 mile service on the transmission done tomorrow. It is really hard to believe that we have pushed this wonderful coach over 50,000 miles already and we still have a couple thousand before we get home. On the way we passed through Butler, MO the birthplace of Robert Heinlein, one of the all time great science fiction authors. We skipped Lamar, the birthplace of Harry S Truman.

The drive to Boulder City, Nevada from Needles was uneventful, hardly memorable. We covered the 89 miles in under two hours and soon we were settled into Canyon Trails RV Park. A fairly nondescript RV park on the northern edge of Boulder City, not more than 11 miles from Hoover Dam and the entrance to the Lake Meade Recreation Area. Also about 20 miles from the Strip in Las Vegas. We are no fans of the Las Vegas night life on the strip, but the airport is close and there is at least one direct flight to Rochester a day at an almost reasonable fare.

After our arrival, we got in the car and headed for the historic part of Boulder City. It is a very nice shopping area and the buildings that were put up in the 30’s when the city was built to house the army of workers imported to build the dam have been preserved and cared for. Having exhausted the immediate shopping and gallery looking we drove on to the Lake Meade Recreational Area, thanking the government for the Golden Age Passport which grants free or 50% off access to the park land we own as citizens. $20 saved here and there does mount up. We found little to do in the time we had that day as I had to get back and prepare for my departure for Rochester. We did stop in the Boulder RV park for a look see. It says in the campground guides that the park cannot take coaches with slideout rooms. Indeed many of the older sites are too tight for our coach, but in the high priced area near the lake there are lovely new sites with plenty of room and there seemed to be many that were unoccupied. During our exploration we found the entrance to the old railroad tunnel trail that passes along the right of way that was built to service the construction of the dam. Carol got to hike that while I was in the frozen north.

I was in Rochester from Wednesday evening until late Friday afternoon. I spent most of my time with my mother as planned. I stopped in the office, just to see f they knew who I was, and I went o the Jewish Community Federation to hear Megillah read on Friday. Thursday night I took grandson Josh to see Mom and then to dinner with the Perlmans, Morgans and Rita Narang before the RPO Concert. This is getting to be a regular happening. Well two years in a row anyhow.

Back in Boulder City we have gone to see Blue Man Group at the Venetian and had dinner there. The show is fantastic. I had assumed that having seats in the balcony would exempt us from direct audience participation. I assumed wrong. One of the blue Men climbed to the balcony and handed me three pieces of candy (not real candy) to throw into his mouth from a distance. I did succeed with two which, after he raised my arm in victory, he promptly deposited back in my hand. This was all captured on camera for the entire audience to see on a big screen on stage. Before I could try to figure out what to do with the wet candy, an usher appeared to take them away and give me an alcohol swab to clean my hand.

The next day, Easter Sunday, we set out for Hoover Dam for the tour of everything that the public can see. Some areas had only been reopened to public tours last fall after the post September 11 panic and security shut down of everything the government could think of. I will include pictures of and from the interior in my next photo update. The total tour took over two hours including many items that you can just walk into with no ticket at all. We left the dam at about noon and the traffic was backed up all the way into Boulder City, some five miles. This included tourists wanting to see the dam and many people just wanting to get to the other side in Arizona. This is a direct route to Grand Canyon and used to also be a trucker route. Trucks are now banned on the dam and will be until the new bypass bridge is completed sometime in the next decade. The bypass is taking longer and costing more than the dam itself and I mean in adjusted dollars.

We stopped at a dam overlook and ate the lunch we had brought along and then drove out the Lake Meade access road to Las Vegas Bay Campground where we found a promised trail on the bluffs above the lake. It was a glorious 4 mile round trip hike with enough elevation change to let us know we had hiked. Monday we sort of sat around and caught up on mail and bills and other “stuff.” Late in the day we drove back to Lake Meade and hiked the Railroad Tunnels, me for the first time and Carol for the second. We did not go through to the dam as that was much steeper and we might not have made it back before sundown when the trail closes.

Tuesday morning we were up and about early and set off for Nevada Ste Park Valley of Fire. We had planned on camping at Overton Beach CG, but when we mentioned it to the ranger taking tolls (swiping National Parks Pass in our case) she said that although the maps were not updated there is no longer a campground at Overton Beach. We decided to stay at Echo Bay as it was the closest NP campground and we had no need of hookups for a one or two night stop. The first campground we came to seemed to be deserted so we went down the road a couple of hundred feet through a one lane construction zone to a much busier RV Park (note the change in terminology). There was a phone to call to register and a rather uppity young lady informed me I had to present myself at the hotel to register and besides there were no reservations available. We went back through the very narrow construction zone to the NP Campground which was very lovely and had plenty of room for our 36 foot motorhome, contrary to the listing that said 35 feet was the maximum. For $5 a night it was delightful, thank you all you underage taxpayers, we really do appreciate the benefits you are paying for us seniors. The fee for the young family across the road was $10, still a bargain. From there we drove the car up to Valley of Fire. The fire is apparent as you approach the park, the red sandstone walls stand up from the desert floor and their jagged tops look like flame. After 4 hours and two substantial hikes much of which were on deep sand, we were ready to have dinner, read a book and crawl into bed. We decided to head for Zion National Park the next day with a stop at the Overton Lost City Museum.

Resumed a week later:

WE got to our campground in Kannaraville, UT with no trouble other than the fact that Kannaraville is right next door to No Place. 45 miles from the entrance to Zion and 100 miles to Bryce. But for cheap is cheap. We paid in gasoline almost what we saved in campground fees, but we didn;t have to change campgrounds to see both parks. We spent a long day in Zion covering 12 miles of hiking in three different hikes and seeing the entire shuttle circuit. We also drove though the Zion Carmel Tunnel and took the hike up the far side of the canyon wall to look down in from yet another viewpoint. The next day I was quite ill with a cold, but we elected to press on to Bryce with Carol driving. We did the entire loop but no hikes. At 9,000 feet it was quite cold and icy and I did not have much energy. The next day, after doing laundry and some other chores we got a latish start and returned to Zion to undertake the Hidden Canyon hike. The hike to the mouth of the canyon is about 2 miles with a 900 foot altitude gain. I was recovered enough from my cold to enjoy the hike and the additional mile or so in and out of the canyon on an unimproved trail.

In case you notice that I am not raving about the views, please understand that too much eye candy leaves one unable to continue to express awe at the beauty of this part of the country. Our pictures, which will poste soon, are wonderful, but they are not much different from what you can see by going on the web and searching on the parks. We did not go off to places where no one goes, there is no such place. We saw what the active involved tourist sees and we have exclaimed WOW and similar words many times over. After four days, we moved on to Arches and Canyonland where I sit writing tonight. It is not tht I have not had what to write, but it feels like we have been on vacation and have been so busy sight seeing that I have had little time to compose my thought.
The trip to Moab, the center for all things Arches, Canyonlands, Deadhorse Point SP and any outdoor activity you might consider was uneventful, if you ignore the repeated WOWs as we entered this magnificent section of the Grand Staircase. The short story is that we have hiked in Arches and will take a ranger guided hike in the morning. We have been in touching range of Delicate Arch which is the iconic arch of this area. We took the car on a jeep trail that was rated easy and found out that easy was beyond the vehicles capability, fortunately before incurring any damage. I will not comment on the driver’s capability. We continued on Jeep Roads (note the difference between Roads and Trails) for many miles and saw a lot of out back countryside. I never knew there were two features called Monitor and Merrimac and they are next to each other and we both thought that was what they should be called before looking at the map to see what they were.

After that taste of 4x4ing or as they say around here Jeeping, we asked for the name of a reputable jeep guide and we were lead to Dan Mick by the Visitor Center person we spoke with. Dan is a wonderful character. We spent four hours in his bright red Rubicon Unlimited (the last one off the assembly line he assured us). His web site is DanMick.com and a view of Dan driving the Rubicon up Hell’s Gate which we did with him can be found on youtube He regaled us with stories of rescues and road closures by BLM and people doing stupid things getting themselves in trouble in the backcountry and he told jokes and filled us in on the geology and plant and animal life of the region all while guiding the car effortlessly through some of the most amazing obstacles I can imagine. One experience, the Belly Button. It is a hole in the rock with the bottom just a bit bigger than the car. I cannot begin to describe the walls, suffice it to say that I would not attempt to climb down them without a rope and they are bare slickrock. He descended one side of the hole and we sat and talked at the bottom for a while. I could not have climbed out by standing on the roof the car did not have. After tellilng a story about a previous trip to the bottom, Dan restarted the engine and engaged four wheel lockup in low range low and walked the car up the far wall and out onto the surface. I was leaning so far back in may seat that I could not reach the dashboard. This was only one of the many obstacles Dan handled without stopping the flow of chatter. We did have a blast and I learned a lot about extreme car handling.

To cap off the day we took the RAV4 and found a couple of way back roads some paved and some not to explore on our own with Dan’s guidance as to what we ought to be able to handle safely.

I will post this now and try to get caught up and get my picture posting to work too.

Before turning in on Saturday night we pulled in the living room slide because the wind was tearing at the topper awning (there is an awning that extends over the top of the slide out room to keep dirt and wet off of it). It is fixed to the slide out so the only way to retract the awning is to pull in the room. This makes the interior even more cozy than normal while camped. Sunday morning was bright windy and cool. We drove the 16 miles to Mitchell Caverns and bought our tickets for the 10 AM tour. This entails a mile and half hike, including the caverns and the views as we climbed to the cave entrance were wonderful. The entrance is called the eyes of the mountain. Both Carol and I thought it looked more like the nostrils.

We returned to Gee 2 for lunch and to decide what to do with the rest of the day. There was no vote for sitting still and listening to the wind. We had heard about a lava tube that it was possible to climb into and explore so that became our objective. This lava tube was formed when the lava flows from the volcano stopped and the remaining hot lava flowed out of the tube leaving behind an empty shell of cooler solidified lava (this is NOT a scientific explanation which would take a textbook). This area of the Mojave has 34 cinder cones the most recent of which is a very young 10,000 years old. The area is not an “improved” visitor site and thus there are no signs. The directions, in part, are after you find the unmarked turnoff from the highway proceed 4.8 miles up an unmaintained dirt track past the corral with the water tank. At the second corral bear left then look for a wide spot to park and follow the beaten path (over cinders) to a hole in the ground, actually the second hole is the entrance. Amazingly we found the way to the entrance and climbed down into the tube to marvel once again at the power of nature. To see pictures click here.

By this point we had done a lot of driving and the gas gage was getting below half. In the desert this is not a good idea and we were “only” 25 miles from the nearest gas station in Baker, CA. Baker is primarily a line of gas stations and road food joints off I 15. We bought gasoline at an exorbitant $3.799. The next day we filled the motorhome tank at $4.179, now I know how to spell gouge. The price was less further from the highway, but still over $4.00. Returning to Gee 2 cost almost ¼ of that new tank of gas.

The forecast was not improving. We were expecting snow above 4,500 feet (campground is at 4,200) and high winds to continue or get worse. For a third night we pulled in the living room slide and turned in to the sound of howling winds and the coach rocking as the gusts battered us. In the morning the ground was covered with something white! We are 3,000 miles from Rochester and the snow has found us! Since we had nothing loose outside, getting ready to leave was a simple as putting the bikes back on the car and stowing the rug under our entrance (held in place with a large rock). Instead of two more nights in in the high desert we headed for Needles, CA and a civilized campground with water, sewer and electric hookups and maybe as important access to NPR for news. The Needles KOA was actually no more pricey than its neighbors and it offered shaded sites. Here we are.

We have already driven to Oatman, AZ which is on the historic alignment of Route 66 and is a line up of more tourist trap shops than even Gruen, TX. It also features many wild burros wandering the streets looking for handouts. The burros are descendants of the miner’s burros from the gold fever days. This town was the center of the Gold Highway and was a movie site in How the West was Won. Now it is a large tourist shop that closes up at 5 PM. There is no place to stay and the food options are road food lunch at best.

Tomorrow we move to Boulder City, NV another short road day, so I can fly to Rochester on Wednesday and return on Friday night.

We actually stayed on in LA until the morning of the 13th. We reached
the point that the air traffic faded into the distance and the only
noise that disturbed our sleep was an unmuffled (broken muffler?)
motorhome starting up at 4:30 AM to get an early start on the freeways
two slots over from us. We had planned to go to Santa Barbara and then
swing east to get to Las Vegas where I am catching a flight to
Rochester next week. Plans do require planning and as a RVer I have
failed planning several times. There is no space on the beaches near
Santa Barbara that will hold our not so gigantic 36 foot motorhome this
week. It appears that Californians plan months in advance for these
beach sites. We are not interested in a large, expensive inland RV park
with too many amenities and not enough easy access to the sites we want
to see.

This brings us to our present location, Hole-in-the-Wall Campground in
the Mojave National Preserve. This also brings us to our next set of
adventures. Having determined the destination we selected a route.
This route too in three Freeways in LA; the 105, the 605, and the 210
and finally on to the 15 (note as usual in California the use of the
definite article THE to describe these freeways). I had failed to read
the directions for access to Hole-in-the-Wall Campground carefully. WE
knew we did not want the Midhills Campground because the website said
that the road was not suitable for RVs. The route I chose went past
Midhills Campground, the long and hard way. Instead of paved road all
the way from I 40 we found ourselves on poorly paved road for 30 miles
or more from I 15 and the pavement stopped with 16 miles to go. Unpaved
roads are not necessarily bad, these were. The washboard in places was
six inches deep. Try to drive a 22,000 pound coach over this washboard
with the entire suspension floating. We drifted back and forth over the
road while taking and merciless pounding. In the end we had a yogurt
shake in the refrigerator, which was a miracle since we had dumped the
pickle juice in there at the previous stop, I hate to think of a pickle
juice and yogurt shake. One piece of molding came adrift in the rear
lavatory which was easily fixed with an application of glue. Our nerves
required some soothing too which was a applied at Happy Hour at new
found friend Bob and Nita Harvey’s fifth wheel just across from us.

I will not try to describe this Preserve in detail. The campground is
at 4,100 feet. We are on a plain surrounded by ridges and mountains.
The winds have been gusting to 60 mph and the temps have dropped from
the 80’s when we arrived to the 50’s. This is the desert, sun warmed by
day and chilly as soon as the sun descends. The sky is clear and the
only light pollution is from our few coaches in this small campground.
Oh it is QUIET. The only sound is the wind. I woke up several times
last night wondering where the planes were. There is no traffic, the
nearest highway is 30 miles away over the mountains. Amazingly there is
cell phone service and internet connection via cell phone is fine. I
will post some pictures soon to give you an idea of what we see out our
windows.

Today we took a hike and a drive. The hike is called “The R ings”. It
is a mile circle around the butte that is near the campground. Going
clockwise it ends in a canyon with an ascent up a slot to reach the
picnic area for return to the visitor center or the campground. This
ascent is so steep and forbidding without technical equipment that the
rangers have set large pitons with 6 inch diameter rings in them to
enable the those of us who lack technical ability and equipment to
complete the hike. These rings make the ascent merely difficult as
opposed to life threatening. We felt entitled to lunch after completing
the circuit. The drive was less challenging. We went looking for
Desert Turtles, we are still looking. Then we went to Kelso Depot,
still in the Preserve. If there is a train buff reading this Kelso
should ring a bell for you. It is at the base of the longest 2 ½
percent grade on the Union Pacific line. In the days of steam it served
as a base for the helper engines that would connect to freight trains
east bound up the grade to Cima 20 miles and 2,000 feet higher. It was
a company town and was almost completely dismantled in the late forties
with the switch to diesel electric. The depot was saved and as been
restored as a museum. It is a wonderful building and an excellent museum.

Tomorrow we expect to go to Mitchell Caverns and then take it easy until
the ranger talk in the early evening. The wind storm continues to blow
around us and there are advisories that suggest we are best off staying
put for another day or two.

After ten days on strict water conservation and limited use of electric
(batteries and four to five hours a day of generator time) in the desert
we set out for Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA. We were looking
forward to spending time with the Hoggs who are members of the Western
Horizon Club which owns the resort. Our price for the four nights was
to sit in on a ninety minute sales pitch to join the system. Things
were not quite as we expected. The resort is very nice, but has some
limitations. After our time in the desert we did not want to be on a
site with no sewer connection, free flowing use of water is a primary
luxury, it was not to be. A third of their sites have no sewer, Indio
wanted too much money. I want a sewer! The sales pitch was over
bearing and the presumed close was a bit over the top. When we finally
said NO! The response was "you can't even ask to join for four years!"
Right, and they won't take my money if I decide to buy next month, which
I won't! And they forgot that their own documents say two years. Stuff
and nonsense!

OTOH (internet speak for On the other hand) the pool was delightful the
showers in the restrooms were clean and pleasant and the rest of the
people were very friendly. We had happy hour with Pat and Bob and Bob's
nephew Drew and his wife Carol a couple of times and went out to dinner
with them as well. We also went together to the Living Desert Museum
which is well worth the trip. We went expecting to spend a couple of
hours and were there almost five hours.

The four days flew by and we were soon on our way into the inferno of
Los Angeles traffic. Fortunately it was mid day on a Sunday so traffic
was only just a bit greater than Rochester at its worst. We drove
directly to Dockweiler RV Park just off the departure end of the LAX
runways. The din of the planes is so regular that it has already
subsided into the background. Miriam, Yechiel and the boys arrived
about an hour after we got here and we played together in the coach and
on the beach most of the afternoon. Yechiel and I took bike rides with
Avtalyon and by ourselves. What a delight. After that I got out one of
my kites and took it on to the beach with Miriam and the boys to have a
kite fly for a few minutes. The breeze was strong and steady and the
kite leapt into the air. Unfortunately this was beyond the capability
of the boys to hold, so I kept the reel and let them tug on the line.
They also assisted when it was time to go, by walking the kite down to
the ground (I held the reel and they went hand-over-hand up the line to
pull the kite down out of the air). It did not want to land. After
dinner in their neighborhood and bedtime activities, we returned to the
coach and got a good nights sleep despite the air traffic, which neither
of us heard.

Enough details of our visit. We will be here at least until the 10th
and I will not provide any more hour by hour descriptions unless
something of importance or humor happens.

We are sitting in this delightful spot on our ever pulsing lake. It is fluctuating like a Bay of Fundy tide. The difference is the lack of correlation with the sun and the moon. Last night is was lapping about a foot from our carpet. Today it receded 10 or more feet during the day only to turn around by late afternoon and start to return to last night’s high. I had hoped to generate a close in Google Map to show where we are, but level of detail necessary to give you an idea is not available. I suspect three possible reasons. First the area is not populated. Second it is adjacent to the Yuma Proving Grounds and US Army installation where systems of all types and tested and the Golden Knights Army Parachute Team is based in the winter, third is is next to a dam which might be considered a National Security item. Here is a clip from the DeLorme Street Atlas which I use for route information

I may have a better map from Google soon. I have things to learn.

Yesterday, Saturday, Carol and I set out to find an abandoned turquoise mine we had heard about. Using the old GPS with its very detailed topographic maps I located “Old Senator Mine” not more than a 1.4 miles from G2 as the crow flies. Unfortunately the terrain was a bit more bumpy than would accommodate a straight line route. We set out using a straight line route which took us up onto a ridge line with magnificent views. As we worked toward the mine it became very clear that we would have to find a way off the ridge line into the valley. In fact we would have to find a safe decent in any event as neither of us felt that the route we had taken up would be a wonderful route down. Eventually we came to a point where the ridge line veered off to the east and out destination was due south. We found a sort of reasonable route down although it was clear that other hikers had not used this particular decent route. We made it unscathed and continue our cross country traverse until we came to a road (kind term) that went in the direction we were headed. As we climbed toward the mine we became aware of a fence and signs that seemed to indicate we were venturing onto private property the one I remember best read “ bad dog, shotguns, KEEP OUT” We ignored these and ducked under the wire that crossed the road and proceeded up to the mine area. No dogs at all, no shot guns no people, abandoned.

We wandered around the various shafts and picked over the detritus looking for something the color of turquoise to no avail. Of course we are not rock hounds with picks and buckets so we might very well have passed over decent specimens without even knowing it. We sat on the walls of the abandoned building and ate our lunch enjoying the view before turning our path back to G 2 by way of the road we had found.

The neighborhood keeps changing as new made friends move on and new people arrive and set up camp near us. Most recently Dora and Don arrived with their friends Ken and Ellie and a third unit with Dan, a single. They set up next to us in their three units and we have had a couple of happy hours with them. . . . just came from Happy Hour and I will try to get this uploaded.

My repair achievement for the day was to buy a fiberglass repair kit and repair the crack in the left front by bonding the edges from behind. Also called a mobile welding outfit and they will be here tomorrow to solidify the repair to the rock guard. The quick fix on the road in Virginia let go when we arrived here. I hope we are done for a while.

This morning, Saturday the 16^th of February we slept in until 7 AM then puttered around getting breakfast and preparing to get underway. We could not see going hiking or even serious birding in the cold and predicted precipitation. I know 40 may not seem cold to those of you in the northeast facing sub teen temperatures and wind chills below zero, but it is cold when you expect to be out in shorts and a T shirt. Anyhow we made all the preparations to get going and at the last minute our neighbor came out off his Casita and I had to greet him with my usual big hello. We talked for a bit and then I excused myself and went in to pull in the slides and stow the leveling jacks. Usually I take a moment to take in all the obstructions around the coach before moving it. This morning I had decided to go straight back and then swing wide to align with the exit before hooking up the car. Somehow I did not have a complete image of my surroundings, but it seemed so clear as there was no RV near me and there were no trees or poles that I could see to my rear where Carol was sitting in the car waiting for me to get in position. As I moved back I immediately swung the wheel hard right to speed up the alignment process. My motion was impeded and as my foot went to the gas to overcome the rock I must be trying to roll over it came to me that there was another obstruction, the water spigot standing a couple of feet out of the ground. I had hit it with my left front tire and bent it over to a 45 degree angle and water was spouting from it. I then looked at the coach and saw a neat crack in the fiberglass just in front of and above the wheel. I spoke to the campground owner and she turned off the water and I left her my card to assure her I would pay for the repair. I applied gray tape (otherwise known as high speed tape) to the crack in the quarter panel and we were off, trying to figure out how we could avoid being distracted in the future. I think the answer is that some distractions are just inevitable and stuff happens.

I expect I will get a fiberglass repair kit and apply a patch from the inside of the cracked panel that will just leave a surface mark on the exterior to go with the many other stone chips and marks we have suffered over the 47,500 miles we have driven Gee 2 in almost four years.

Eventually we decided that we would continue on to Benson AZ a drive of about 320 miles. We have stopped there many times, but this year as new Escapee members, we chose to stay at the Saguaro SKP Coop on the edge of town. There was no room for hookups, but we decided to stay in the boondock area, a sort of level asphalt parking area with no water, electric or sewer. It cost $5 more than staying at the Wal Mart four miles away on the main drag with trains going by every few minute. Worth it.

I’ll save this and add to it in a day or two once we know where we are going. It appears that our next stop will be at the extreme west of Arizona, maybe just over the border into California near the Imperial Dam adjacent to the Yuma Proving Ground.

Several days later: We are “on the beach” at Senator Wash just a mile or so from the Imperial Dam on the Colorado River. The wash is an interesting body of water. It is totally artificial. It is dammed at one end and the authority fills it and drains it on a rhythm of their own devising. The area is a desert community of RVers. On the floor of the desert is a BLM (Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior) LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area). Anyone can stay there indefinitely for a semiannual fee of $180. The only facilities are a dump area, water supply and scattered washrooms. A slightly more desirable are near the water is a STVA (yup, Short Term Visitor Area) limited to 14 days in any 28 days for an annual fee of $75. The fee structure could only have been devised by a government agency and the daily rates are enough to make me confused. Suffice it to say we are in the STVA on the edge of the water,

There are two agreed reasons for the movement of the water level, one relates to the need for water for irrigation and the other to the need to generate electricity in periods of high demand and to store it in periods of low demand, so called pumped storage. Anyhow when we arrived he water was lower than we had seen in any of our past visits. Most of the lake bed was dry and exposed. We parked above the ridge line that indicates the general high water mark which left us walk of a couple of hundred feet to the water. This morning the water was within 15 feet of our outdoor carpet.

We are among a large group of people living a very water conservative life style. We arrived with 100 gallons of freshwater in our tank and an empty 60 gallon gray water tank. We still have about 25 to 30 gallons of freshwater and room for another 10 or 15 gallons in our gray tank after five days. When the gray is full or the fresh empty we will have to secure everything in the coach and drive up to the dumps to empty the tanks and pick up fresh water. This is an annoyance more than anything else. It does mean showers are brief and meal preparation is guided by limiting what will need to be washed. Dining out is not a real option as it is a longish drive on desert roads to get to a place that offers every fast food alternative and few decent restaurants. Carol is great at preparing wonderful meals from the supplies we have on board while dirtying the minimum of cookware. The grill helps on occasion.

Damages and fixes: The weld we had done back in Virginia has broken and I have made a repair with the guidance of a handy mechanical type with tools that should hold using angle iron and C Clamp. We drove 60 miles each way to Quartzite in the car to save a couple of bucks on a replacement interior light ($4.75) some replacement entry stair wraps and a couple of sundries. The lunch and the shopping made it worth the drive. I have not had much else to do on the coach unless you count cleaning and thinking about improvements.

We have met people we would never meet in our Rochester life and had some interesting conversations with people whose backgrounds don’t even begin to relate to what we usually know. Ken, a former waterworks maintenance supervisor has more tools on his coach than your normal auto mechanic has in his garage. The guy next to us, pulled out his TV and remade the cabinet to hold a lighter LCD TV on its front while preserving the cabinet for storage. Charlene, in front of us, is a loner in a converted van who lives in a dirt floored hogan with no plumbing when she is at home. And the beat goes on. No two are alike.

Our next stop from here in a week, will be an RV Resort that is part of a chain (Western Horizons for the RVers among you). They have sales people at busy fuel stops handing out coupons for 5 days four nights FREE in exchange for a 90 minute sales pitch. I have pitched uncounted numbers of these coupons over the years. When I looked at this one I realized that out friends the Hoggs will be staying at the Indian Wells Resort in Indio, CA which is between here and LA and is part of the chain. We have arranged to stay there starting on the 27^th. This will give us a chance to visit and to get our laundry done before going on to LA to visit with Miriam, Yechiel and the kids. We have no plans for what we will do between now and the 27^th but I am sure we will fill the days.

Stay tuned