Canadian-Traveler

With April Gone.....It's About Time

2026-05-03T20:27:00.002-03:00

The last night frost is barely a week ago and we are still wondering how much longer the cold weather will last.

This nasty type of weather is anything but normal and Bea is showing me pictures of previous years when flowers were out at this time of the year.

Ice cold northern winds are turning even sunny days into frosty experiences.

Finally yesterday, I saw the first forsythia starting to show their happy yellow flowers and today I saw a few daffodils near our front yard apple tree.

Finding something to do during cold days I have been trying to stick to indoors tasks.

Our motorhome had been sitting quietly, untouched, until the day I discovered something wasn’t right. The passenger-side rear inner tire had completely lost its pressure—and no matter how hard I tried, it refused to take on any air.

With no quick fix in sight, I booked an appointment at a repair shop just across the border, hoping for a straightforward solution. But things turned out to be anything but simple.

After dropping off the rig, the shop owner called with an update. They were struggling—big time. The wheel nuts wouldn’t budge. Even their air tools were no match for them. In the end, it took three mechanics, a very long breaker bar, and a good deal of determination to finally loosen them by hand.

As it turned out, this was the same troublesome tire that had caused us headaches throughout our trip, requiring assistance not once, but twice before. The culprit, yet again, was the valve stem.

This latest chapter in our tire saga set us back $150—an amount that, considering the effort involved, felt almost reasonable. Now, with the repair behind us, we’re crossing our fingers and hoping this will finally put an end to the issue for good.

As if the tire troubles weren’t enough, the list of little fixes around the motorhome kept growing. This time, our attention turned to the pleated window blinds. Over the course of the trip, they had taken a beating—some were crumpled beyond redemption, while another sagged helplessly, its strings long past their prime.

Instead of patching things up one by one, we decided it was time for a full upgrade. We ordered roller-style blinds for the entire coach, hoping for a cleaner look and a more durable solution on the road.

Of course, nothing in motorhome life is ever quite as simple as it sounds. What seemed like a straightforward swap quickly turned into a labour-intensive project, demanding patience, time, and more effort than we had bargained for. Still, step by step, we’re transforming the space—making it a little more comfortable and a lot more our own.

And while I had been spending time in the bus, Bea had been busy in the kitchen department baking delicious bread and buns.

And speaking of baking, I can mention our dear neighbour Deanna. Her cakes look just as amazing as her house.

If for once the weather turns out a little sun, we take Dixie out for a forest walk. The other week we had just returned to the van and were about to drive away when we discovered this little guy: Do you know what it is?

JUST IN:

Full winter in Nova Scotia and northern New Brunswick

The news of yet another return of winter is definitely a bit unsettling. Just when we thought we were finally past the season’s icy grip, here it comes again, reminding us that the weather has a mind of its own.

It’s a harsh reminder that no matter how many sunny days we might have ahead, the unpredictable nature of winter still has a few tricks up its sleeve. I’m sure many of us are hoping it’s just a brief cold snap, but either way, it adds a bit of a chill to the air—both literally and metaphorically.

Time to pull out the extra blankets, maybe huddle in for a few more cozy nights indoors. Here’s to hoping that spring shows up soon to stay!

So Dixie says Good-Bye and takes another nap waiting for better weather.

Happy Easter!

2026-04-04T10:11:00.000-03:00

Between rain showers and snow showers I extend our greetings to my readers!

Though my personal happiness may have been more pronounced in earlier years, we are trying to keep our anger and frustration under control.

When power-hungry madmen around the globe are affecting everyone's life, there really is not much reason to be happy.

Our early return from the south, caused by health concerns, has probably saved us hundreds of $$$ as Diesel fuel has jumped with 2 dollars/gal.

The cold and unpredictable weather over the past 4 weeks has made us huddle inside, letting our wood stove work overtime consuming copious amounts of firewood.

And yes, I have seen the doctor and been to the hospital for a CT-Scan.

Charlotte County Hospital

The result was uplifting (they couldn't detect any thing wrong) but that leaves us with a huge question mark about the reason for my still ongoing headaches. So for further testing I expect a date at an MRI to dig a bit more.

As we now move through the month of April we are hopeful that we will see some better weather, so we can finally begin with outside work like starting the garden and doing needed maintenance on buildings and vehicles.

Winter Is Dragging Its Feet

2026-03-15T11:03:00.000-03:00

FRIDAY THE 13th

4:30am is not my favorite time of the day. But it was Friday and I had a 7am appointment at the hospital's imaging department for my CT-scan.

It was chilly in the house which made we wonder what kind of weather we had this morning. Stepping outside, I noticed a little fresh snow, just a dusting on the ground. Frost filled the air. Window wipers where frozen to the glass. Most of the night it had been raining then turned to snow. The roads would be treacherous. 1.5hr. drive to the hospital was not what I wanted.

An hour later I called the hospital and canceled.

They gave me a new time for Wednesday. I can live with that. It is only a little more than a year ago the hospital in St.Stephen had gotten that CT-scanner. Before that, people from Campobello had to travel 3 hours to Saint John.

Well, Bea had gone to sleep again while I made sure we had a fire in the wood stove.

Saturday, March 14. The curtains are still drawn. Daylight Saving Time and at 6:45am it is still pitch dark. So I have my coffee and another portion of disgusting news of the day. Why are we doing this to ourselves - filling our morning with atrocities happening around the globe? I make a mental note of stopping this morning madness.

Finally daylight arrives, and I pull open those curtains. What can I say...? Thick snowflakes have already covered the ground transforming it into a Christmas-style postcard picture, and more is coming down.

Oh my.....

Aren't we just a week from the start of spring?

We need to bring more firewood into the house!

Bea has an idea. She wants to bake breakfast buns. I love fresh-baked breakfast buns.

A couple of hours later the delightful smell from the baking stove is moving through the house. Meanwhile, the snow has stopped and the sun is now working overtime to melt the white stuff again. A cold wind is working against it, making outside activities unpleasant. Not even Dixie likes it outside.

So we stay where we are. Well - not quite. We are out of a few supplies and I drive across the border. My goal - the Dollar store. Milk is cheaper there. Another stop at the IGA and I get some more stuff. They got eggs for 2bucks.

But while eggs are cheap, gas prices are soaring. "A small price to pay", says the president. He should ask those people with a minimum wage who have a daily commute.

Let this lighten your day....

The Greyest Of Grey Days

2026-03-12T13:18:00.001-03:00

HOME FOR A WEEK

Waking up on this day I found the outside world in a state of 500 shades of grey. So with a 100% of humidity we won't be moving around outside.

So time for reflection.

Clearly, we have been busy getting ourselves reinstalled in the house. And that didn't just happen without hick-ups.

Like in years earlier, we found that we had way too much stuff in the motorhome. Our clothes, our kitchen utensils and our gadgets had to find their original places in the house.

The most overshadowing problem has been the water supply. We had days with absolutely no water from our well, and then suddenly water was running for 2 days, just to fail again. On and off it went, never to be reliable. We still hope that milder weather will help to restore a normal water supply.

Then one afternoon our power went out. There wasn't any storm going on, so we wondered about the reason. Shortly before dark, the power came back on. Later we heard that someone had hit a power pole in an accident.

Personally, I still had to deal with my headaches. After a doctor's visit I got a referral for a CT-scan, which will be done tomorrow, Friday. I hope that Friday 13 doesn't imply anything sinister happening.

The past 2 days have been warm and sunny. In fact, day temps climbed up to 10C (50F) and the warming sun even made it possible to sit down outside coffee in hand.

Snow was finally starting to melt and I was able to fix an electrical issue on our motorhome. Before we left in October, I had removed our Magnum Inverter/Charger as I couldn't get it to work. A 3000W Renogy inverter from our trailer was installed instead, which got us through the winter. Now, I tested our Magnum and to my surprise found that it actually was working. So the Magnum was reinstalled in the motorhome and it is working just fine.

A successful job like this and it makes me feel good.

The coming days will be significantly colder with temps below freezing again. Thankfully, we have lots of firewood so we will stay warm. Our central heating which is run by an electric forced-air furnace has been disconnected. Running that in cold temps is the same as registering for bankruptcy. If I'd be 30 years younger I'd install solar for the house and kiss the power company Good Bye. Besides of firewood, we use a couple of electric oil radiators which are much more efficient than the furnace in the basement.

So we should be fine riding out the last weeks of winter.

I have had days with contemplating whether we left California too early in a panic. But two facts have made these thoughts go away.

As you all have noticed gas prices are on a steep rise due to the illegal and completely unnecessary war the orange pedo-ape has started. And now Iran promised that they will not allow any oil to pass through the strait of Hormuz. But we still got home on much lower prices, and if we have to stay home next winter we will do so.

Number two has more natural reasons: Temperatures in Holtville, CA have risen into the 30s C and will peak at 41C for March 20. This would have been forbiddingly too much for us and directly deadly for Dixie.

So with that consolation in mind, I can live through a grey day and stay in front of my wood stove.

Best way to spend the day

The Homecoming

2026-03-05T19:18:00.000-04:00

The trouble of returning home after months of absence can be that "normal" functions" in the house don't function any more.

This time we discovered that our deep drilled well did not have enough water to provide us with running water. But I think you read about that already in my previous posting.

This is not a good situation. Nobody can live without water.

First day we got by with using our 2 5gal containers we had in the motorhome. But then we had to seek help from our neighbours.

Then of course, our house was really cold. We connected 3 oil-based radiators and got a roaring fire in the wood-burning stove.

Our property here has been "blessed" with lots of snow. This white stuff is in the way when trying to get into the garage, or the wood shed. And some of it is frozen to a heavy ice barrier. Yesterday we had sunshine and no wind, but today olde sun didn't show itself and we got subzero freezing conditions.

A fellow islander came by with his truck and plow. He pushed a lot of snow out of the way. This makes room for parking our trailer and being able to drive close to our wellhead. Our plumber had suggested to fill water into the well. With our 50gal water tank that could help.

This morning I had my medical appointment. I will have to go for a CAT-SCAN the coming week.

I was still tired after that long haul homewards. Notice that I am not young any more.

Home Free!

2026-03-04T04:54:00.001-04:00

Yes, we made it home - yesterday. But we got way too busy to do a posting.

Yesterday, started with -11C (12F) and that caused a whole lot of problems. Overnight there hadn't been enough battery capacity to run that little fan, so the water was frozen again. But worse things were underway.

Under a routine walk-around I discovered that passenger side tire was down quite a bit. So I unpacked our air hose and connected into the compressor outlet. After starting the engine I noticed air gushing out from that connector.

Removing the air hose didn't make a difference. The connector didn't close. I tried multiple times but it didn't work. Then, finally after using Bea's hair dryer on it, it did close. But I didn't dare to try the air hose again.

So we left with a low pressure tire. Bea went onto the internet and found a tire service in Portsmouth, NH. We pulled into their yard and found two helpful guys inside the building.

When one of them started looking at the valve stem of the inner tire he discovered a damaged valve stem. A minute later he had gotten a new flexible stem from the shop and put himself under the motorhome to replace the old one.

At the tire service

It takes a service minded person to do this outside in freezing temperatures. He finished his work by controlling both sides of rear tires and even our trailer.

When it was time to pay, the manager didn't want any money, instead he hinted to pay the worker directly, which I did. What a good man and a good outfit!

\We went back to the Interstate and continued for our last miles northward. We had lost about 2 hours that morning but made it to Bangor,ME before noon.

3hrs later, we reached Canada Customs, where our bus and car was searched by two agents! This is quite crazy, given the fact that we are locals here and would never even think of smuggling anything through the border. But I get it. There was no traffic and the agents must have been pretty bored.

We unloaded the car in the Roosevelt Parking Lot then continued home.

Restarting the house was a problem right away. Our well pump did not produce any water, despite the power being turned on. So either our well is empty, or it is frozen. The latter being the most probable cause.

Our good neighbour Deanna had invited us for dinner so we warmed ourselves under a delicious meal.

Was This The Most Unpleasant Day?

2026-03-02T20:14:00.001-04:00

Waking up this morning it was really cold in the rig, so I was quick turning the heater on full. I think we left Freehold NJ around 7:30am.

Despite adding antifreeze to our rest of fresh water, the water froze. Our rig has a small electric heater in the wet compartment and we turned on the "system heat" button. Our solar panels should produce enough power to keep it running while driving.

And as we got rolling we joined the insane morning rush hour. Everybody was in a hurry to get to work. I have seen a lot of ruthless crazy driving in my days, but this morning took the cake. Not only were there a million of small cars but also an army of transit buses.

The goal was to get onto the "Garden State Parkway" for a short distance, than transfer to the I-287 with our aim being Newburgh,NY. The 287 becomes the I-87, one part of it veers to the north-east through New Jersey and which we cannot take because of dangerously low bridges. Instead we continued in heavy traffic towards Newburgh.

Hudson River

While the I-87 continues towards Albany, we left onto the I-84 which leads down to Connecticut and towards the I-90 meeting the I-495 through Massachusetts.

And finally we got down to the end of I-495 where entering the I-95 gave us that special feeling of almost being home. Besides of the horrible traffic volume around New York, through Hartford,CT and near the Boston area, our other big problem today was the ice-cold weather. Temps got down to -8C (17.6F) which means it gets really, really cold in the motorhome. Those Class A rigs with a rear engine have not enough dash heat to warm up the interior, something we have noticed years ago with our first Class A diesel. So we donned Polar-style clothing and yet it got cold. RVs are NOT made for winter use, regardless of what sales people will tell you.

And I need to mention the frightful state of the Interstates in Massachusetts. Despite the state cashing in on $$$$ in tolls, the roads have giant potholes and terrible bridge crossings. A true nightmare for drivers.

Below: Hartford,CT through our windshield

Once we got across into New Hampshire we turned into the parking lot of the NH Liquor Outlet. A great place to spend a peaceful night. It was also there that we discovered our water was running again. That little fan is a good thing to have.

So after many days starting from Holtville,CA this day feels like something we could have been without. Now, another cold day lies ahead for us and once being home....oh boy we have to restart the house again. But that's for tomorrow.

The NH Liquor outlet

Big Parking lot for ourselves

We Went Across The Sea!

2026-03-01T22:24:00.000-04:00

It's not the most common way people choose when they go north into the New England States but it has certain benefits and a big draw-back. I am talking about the outer route to avoid being swallowed up in big city traffic through Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Leaving our camp in South Carolina, we went north on the I-95 to Emporia, North Carolina. From there Highway 58 is heading east via Suffolk to Norfolk. From Norfolk we took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. But the problem is getting through Norfolk, a city-monster of the worst imaginable. Not only it is the horrible traffic, but worse still is missing signage to the Chesapeake BBT.

Once we reached it, our stress turned to relaxation. There is a low speed limit of 55mph and seemingly they enforce it as well. So exciting to drive on a road which all-of-a-sudden dives under the surface of the bay, while ships are happily sailing above crossing the tunnel. And then the road appears like a new-born Poseidon out from the depth and continues along bridges. But like Poseidon you get another chance to explore the depth of the Chesapeake Bay when the second tunnel swallows your vehicle. The tunnel then spits you out to more bridges until you reach Cape Charles, VA.

We stayed overnight in a big parking lot where the bridges are ending. There is a beautiful nature trail with overlook across the salt mashes. What a pleasure to walk there in utter peace after the stressful crossing through Norfolk.

The area once was of strategic importance under WWII when German submarines and warships were feared. A huge cannon was built, able to shoot at targets 25 miles away. The cannon I measured to be 23m (82ft) long. A true monster. However, it was never fired!

Overlook salt marsh

So this morning we got up really early, leaving our overnight location to reach Lewes, DE from where I had booked a ferry service to get us across the Delaware Bay.

The trip to Lewes took 3 hours and just like in Norfolk,VA the signage to the ferry terminal was abysmal. But we made it to the ferry terminal 2.5hrs. early. We were let into the staging lines as the first vehicle for the ferry departure at 12:15pm.

Our arrival at Lewes,DE ferry terminal
Courtesy WEBCAM

We knew that the ticket building has a webcam from where the full staging area can be seen. So we called our family in Germany. They went online and could see us, waving at them. So much fun! Bea's brother even watched our arrival at Cape May on the New Jersey side.

The next 2.5hours we drove along the Garden State Parkway (toll road) ending our day at the Walmart in Freehold, NJ. We have used this overnight location a couple of times earlier. It is rather quiet and peaceful here.

Because of expected frost, we bought plumbing antifreeze here to fill into our fresh water tank. Yes, we can't use it for anything else than the toilet, but that way we can let it go into water lines.

Approaching Cape May

This image shows the arrival of our ferry at Cape May, NJ
Courtesy WEBCAM

The End Of I-20

2026-02-26T11:50:00.001-04:00

Traffic can be heavy when approaching big cities
After 5 days at 650kms/day we reached Florence SC where we met with our friend Carmen. 3 days alone were spent on the I-20.

Carmen's rig, a brand new AIRSREAM

Yesterday, we had been in steady contact with our friend Carmen who drove up from Jekyll Island, GA to meet us at the "Midpoint I-95 RV-Park".

The RV-Park is an excellent choice for anyone traveling along the I-95 and wanting to take a break in peaceful surroundings with all the comforts of modern amenities.

Tall pine trees are lining the park roads and for someone like me who likes natural surroundings, the lack of concrete pads is a real blessing.

Planning ahead, we studied weather forecasts and found that it is better to stay yet an extra day to avoid getting into the coldest days back home.

This morning I also got a doctors appointment for March 5.

Then we will have to wait for results of tests.

Carmen walking the dogs

Some Places Have Odd Names

2026-02-24T22:05:00.002-04:00

While moving from one state to the next we see a lot of place names. And most of them we just wonder about their meaning. Now today we were driving through Mississippi and near the city of Meridian we saw the name LOST GAP.

This triggered our curiosity and Bea looked it up on Google. (What did we ever do without GOOGLE?)

Down below is what we found. This was published in a WORDPRESS blog.

We concluded today's trip at after 406 miles at a Walmart in Pell City,AL.

A History of “the” Lost Gap

November 12, 2022 — 1 Comment

On November 1, 2012, Steve Gillespie, Managing Editor of The Meridian Star, referencing the book Railroads of Meridian by J. Parker Lamb, wrote an article in which he detailed the history behind the name Lost Gap:

Lost Gap (just outside of Meridian, Mississippi) got its name because of a compass failure that occurred during construction of the Southern Railroad line around 1859.

For three days two surveying crews each waited on the other to join up with them to lay out the route. Finally their search parties met up.

Underground iron deposits were blamed for the mix-up, skewing the magnetic compasses, which caused the eastbound crew to veer south, and the westbound crew to veer north. Consequently the route has an unplanned section of track running north and south — a “lost gap” in the original route survey.

The Alabama and Vicksburg Railroad operated the rail line through Lost Gap from 1899-1926. A map from this era from Mississippi Rails shows the strange curve in the rail line at Lost Gap.

WHY ALL THIS SMOKE?

Besides of dealing with strange place names, we noticed that our vision forward got sort of limited. The area around Tuscaloosa (another name with a meaning) was enveloped in a grey stinkin' smoke. Again, we googled it and found that the entire Gulf Coast has wildfires from where the smoke drifted north.

Free dump station along the Interstate

Bridge over the Mississippi

Out Of Texas

2026-02-23T23:33:00.001-04:00

Texas is a big state and crossing east/west or vice versa takes three days, unless you attempt to want to compete with an airplane.. lol.

We used 3 days and rolled into Louisiana this afternoon.

The state does not range among the financial well-off ones and accordingly, the highway leaves much to be desired. Today it got so bad that the microwave door opened ejecting the rotating glass plate sending it crashing onto the floor, leaving just about a million of tiny glass shards all over. The crashing plate made Dixie jump up and remain in anxiety mode for the rest of the drive.

Generally, the eastern parts of Texas with the further eastern areas of Louisiana and Mississippi are much prettier than the long boring plains of West Texas. We enjoyed the fresh grass and seeing trees turning green. Even the dandelions were out some places.

So our further plans are to proceed to the Florence,SC area and spend 2 nights in a nice RV park. We will be joined there by a good friend who's coming up from Jekyll Island,GA.

After that, things can get ugly, at least after reaching New Jersey and north of there. A violent winter storm has just dumped tons of snow all the way along the coast and into Canada. How we are gonna make out with that is everybody's guess. But we need to get home.

Another Day In Texas

2026-02-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

This morning our departure was delayed because of trying to get our rig out of that mouse trap of an RV site.

But eventually we got rolling on Hwy 17 towards the I-20.

Pretty soon we saw the first oil rigs, and with that all that ugly industrial area which comes with it. Odessa/Midland is growing at an alarming rate. Miles and miles of road construction going on, made us balance along a narrow strip of temporary detour.

But the I-20 seems to be in good shape, especially compared to all the other broken Interstates we have driven over the years.

After lunch my headaches were acting up again, so we shut her down in a Walmart in Eastland, TX.

Went into the market and got some missing items for the kitchen.

Too tired for pictures today.

The Trek To Texas

2026-02-22T00:41:00.002-04:00

The Interstate 20 across Texas does not count as my favorite travel route in the US. But our need to get to the East Coast makes this the best alternative. It is going east all the time and it runs through an area with warmer weather than what we would find farther north. Another benefit of it is that we don't have to climb across a major mountain range. We have gone that route earlier and are kind of familiar with it.

So this morning we left Portal,AZ at our usual "we-are-ready-time", which is 7:45am what ever local time zone we are in.

As our own tradition commands it, we stopped at the "Roadrunner Rest Area" high above Las Cruces. I have shown and described the statue of the roadrunner in an earlier posting. It is fascinating to see what garbage can used for.

Then we rolled down to the city, which is the southern-most in the State of New Mexico, before Interstate 10 runs into Texas at El Paso.

El Paso never fails to make us gasp at its steady growth year over year. We call them "Spaghetti Highways" when their intersections are built like a crescendo of roads crossing each other at multiple levels of height.

Today's crossing of El Paso went well, even with that mind-boggling amount of Saturday morning traffic we had to deal with. After roughly 45minutes and some 55kms we reached the southern end of what looks like a never ending mass of industrial and residential areas.

Border Patrol Check Point ahead

So now we were back into the desert, endless plains with sand and typical desert vegetation. Fabens is a place containing of a few spread buildings and a truck stop. We took a lunch break there and topped our diesel.

At some point the I-10 gets us to the beginning of the I-20, but before that, it climbs high, passing Sierra Blanca, a small town surrounded by mountain tops and high desert. Reaching Van Horn, yet quite a bit higher in elevation, it plateaus, now approaching the intersection with the I-20.

We had phoned the Balmorhea State Park and were told they still had 2 sites available for a one-night-stay. Now, Balmorhea is a few miles down from the I-20 intersections and along I-10. But we had been there years ago and found their overnight rate affordable. Besides, we wanted a place where we could walk Dixie without wading in the usual garbage of a rest area. For the next morning departure we only have to follow Hwy 17 which eventually gets us up to the I-20.

Balmorhea State Park once was a quaint park with simple RV-sites in a natural setting. Over the last 2 years it has gone through "upgrades" which pretty much changed it from a natural setting into a place with paved roads, concrete pads and a city-like atmosphere. And while doing that the planners ignored that bigger rigs might want to come which would need slacker curves and room for wide turns. So not the ideal place for us and our 65ft total length. But someone with a Van or small class C would be fine here. Yet, I find sites are built too close to each other.

So today we drove 365miles (587km) and I was doing a lot better than on our first travel day.

This Was Not Easy

2026-02-20T23:59:00.001-04:00

After this morning's breakfast I decided I wanted to give Dixie and myself one last desert walk, before our daily routine would disappear in eating miles along endless highways.

Shortly before we returned to the rig, Dixie stopped walking. I called her - she wasn't moving, she even laid down on the trail, just looking at me. Of course, she had realized that this walk had been the final walk and that she would have to get into the bus for a long boring day. You might think that I just imagine this, but I'm telling you, I know my dog. And she is incredibly smart.

It took quite a bit talking on my part to make her get up and do the last steps back into camp. To me this was really heartbreaking.

But it was nearly 8am when we rolled out of camp.

This was the saddest farewell ever. And it is 20 years ago we visited this place the first time, so yes, it does feel like home.

We had a short stop at Gila Bend to check on our load and release more waste water, then back on the highway. Getting close to Tucson traffic became a nightmare. Will there ever be an end to increasing the size of that city. 4 lanes full of trucks and cars in both directions.

Picacho Peak

Stopped for lunch, after which I had to take a short nap on the couch. My headaches had started to bother me again.

Shortly before reaching Benson we got into a traffic jam several miles long. It turned out it was because of a construction site, where nobody was working. Yet they had blocked the left lane for at least 2 miles. Why are they hampering traffic for everybody if the construction site is empty?

At Benson we stopped for diesel.

Bea had then figured out that we could get to a rest area shortly before reaching the New Mexico border.

It was 7pm before we stopped driving at the San Simon rest area.

We made 406 miles and have been on the road for 10hrs.

We are both super tired.

Dixie, finally fallen asleep

We Need To Leave And Go Home

2026-02-19T23:37:00.000-04:00

The thought of going home early has been mentioned on and off over the last couple of weeks, but it took my headaches getting more intense and prevalent.

I have avoided talking about it earlier here, but since early January I have been plagued with ongoing steady headaches. Everybody gets a headache now and then but usually it is short-lived. Mine persisted and if it hadn't been for Ibuprofen we would have gone earlier yet.

Clearly, something is wrong and it needs to be evaluated - at home, where we have free healthcare.

Sooo today was the last day for us here at the Holtville Hot Springs. We hate to miss out on our last 6 weeks of winter stay, but it can't be helped.

This day had its own full agenda, as we needed to dump waste water, get fresh water and get a few things in Holtville.

Returning to camp, we hitched on the trailer and gathered all our stuff we had spread around the place, then stowing it away in the motorhome.

After lunch we loaded the car, always a job to be taken seriously, with all the tie-downs in the right places.

A light check turned out all lights working, so now we could relax.

Our neighbours, Annie and Rick came over for a last chat and say Good Bye. They had barely sat down when more people appeared. There was James from New Mexico, Jurgen, a wandering nomad from Germany, Roberta, Anne and Peter (another Peter) all from Alberta, Canada.

Talking about life in Camp and exchanging memories from past years is what camper friends do when they meet.

Besides of our friends, Dixie's friends also came: Bella, Emma and Mesa - all super active, and when they got the zoomies racing around like headless chickens, Dixie was watching all this from a secure spot between me and Anne. I wonder what she was thinking about this circus.

Needless to say we all laughed so hard watching the race.

What a great moment, this was.

I need to tell the story about Bella, Emma, and Mesa, which began 3 years ago.

It was still early in the morning when I met James at the front dumpster. He was clearly not himself so I asked how he was doing. It turned out he hadn't been able to sleep all night. A dog which had turned up with him days earlier and which he had taken into his trailer, had thrown out a litter of 8 puppies during that night. Now James was all up in arms as the mother dog wouldn't let the puppies drink.

So James was ready to run to town to get formula for dogs. However, when he came back he found his 8 puppies happily sucking milk from their mother.

6 weeks later, James had turned into a nervous wreck, other campers, incl. us, took over watch hours for the puppies while James tried to catch some sleep. And then it was time to find people interested in adopting a puppy or two. It wasn't difficult. The puppies were really cute heartbreakers, so soon all puppies found their forever homes. So Bella is the mother, while Emma and Mesa are two of her kids. The others went to other homes, one named Pedro still lives in Holtville.

These Images from 2023

We enjoyed this impromptu gathering tremendously, it is good to have friends.

Every Year In February

2026-02-11T22:29:00.000-04:00

Yes, it was that time again for the one big event in the little California town of Holtville. The annual Carrot festival was luring us into town to watch the 79th carrot parade.

While I in previous years have posted images, this year I put together a short video with some of the most interesting views taken from the sidewalk.

For those of you who are not familiar with Holtville,CA, it is a town built on agriculture. It is part of the Imperial Valley which stands for a huge percentage of all vegetables produced in the US. And in order to get those veggies to your super market, thousands of people from Mexico and Central America are working in the fields. So if you are one of those who support the removal of those people from the US, you should think about the field workers toiling in all kind of whether to actually produce your food, while others are qualified healthcare employees or construction workers.

GOLD Along The River

2026-02-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

Over the years we have been coming back to an area today known as Picacho State Recreation Area, which is a California State Park. I mention California, as the place is easily confused with the Picacho Peak State Park in Arizona.

We are reaching Picacho over an 18mile dirt road. It is a bit rough with corrugated stretches. The first part is crossing a high plateau before it descends into a valley surrounded by impressive volcanic rock formations.

Picacho, California was once a thriving gold mining town established in 1862 after Jose Maria Maville’s discovery near Picacho Peak. You’ll find this ghost town 25 miles north of Yuma, where nearly 2,500 residents once lived during its 1870s-1900s heyday. The community declined after 1910 when the Laguna Dam eliminated essential steamboat transportation and ore quality diminished. Today, you can explore remaining mill ruins and relocated graves that tell stories of frontier resilience.

Early settlers quickly established placer mining operations in the area’s dry washes after 1852, extracting shallow gold deposits using primitive mining technology. Mexicans and Indians had long worked these grounds using traditional methods like dry washing and winnowing with blankets.

Desert prospectors worked sun-baked washes using ancient techniques to separate fine gold from sand in this harsh landscape.

You can still see evidence of these early efforts in the small tailings piles scattered throughout the region. The settlement, originally named Rio before becoming Picacho, formed around these mining activities.
The early mining techniques were basic but effective for the very fine gold particles typical of these desert placer deposits. The gold deposits in the Picacho Mining District consisted primarily of thin gold-bearing stringers in schist formations. By 1872, operations expanded substantially into hard rock quarrying, marking a new era in the mine’s development.

Golden Years: Peak Population and Prosperity

Picacho’s golden era transformed the once-modest mining camp into a thriving community of approximately 2,500 residents between the 1870s and early 1900s, establishing it as one of the largest settlements in this remote corner of Southern California.

Community dynamics evolved beyond mere survival to include social institutions—a school educating 90 children, multiple saloons, and even a polo field where residents could escape the rigors of daily life.

The economic backbone consisted of approximately 700 miners extracting precious ore that yielded 96,750 ounces between 1906-1910 alone.

Picacho Mills Historic Trail offering accessible pathways through structures that survived submersion

Despite low ore grades averaging just 0.15 ounces per ton, the operation generated approximately $2,000,000 during peak years.

Economic fluctuations followed mining cycles, with periodic investments and technological improvements temporarily reversing declining production trends. The town proudly claimed the distinction of being the first registered town in Imperial County when it was officially named Picacho in 1895.

The upper stamp mill, constructed in 1886 by Stephen A. Dorsey, produced an impressive 13 million dollars in gold before operations ceased in 1910.

The decline of Picacho

The story of Picacho’s decline begins around 1910, when a storm of economic and infrastructure challenges overwhelmed the once-thriving mining community.

The economic impact was swift and devastating as gold ore quality diminished considerably, making mining operations unprofitable.

The timeline of community disintegration unfolded in clear stages:Laguna Dam’s 1910 completion severed crucial steamboat transportation, dramatically increasing freight costs.
Mining operations ceased entirely by 1910 as costs soared and ore quality plummeted.

Population rapidly declined as employment disappeared and businesses shuttered.
Imperial Dam’s 1938 construction raised water levels by 20 feet, submerging much of the original townsite.

Like many ghost towns across the American West, Picacho’s story reflects the boom-and-bust cycle tied to resource exploitation and changing transportation networks.

Today, you’ll find only scattered stone ruins where 700 miners once lived, their history gradually erased by the engineered landscape that now defines Picacho State Recreation Area.

Relocated Graves, Preserved Stories

As rising waters from the Imperial Dam project threatened to consume Picacho’s history beneath the Colorado River in 1938, authorities undertook the solemn task of relocating the town’s cemetery from its original riverside location.

The relocated stories of Picacho’s pioneers now rest beside the state park campground, where twelve additional bodies from Castle Dome Landing joined them. Despite preservation efforts, most graves remain unmarked—their headstones lost during the hasty shift, creating gaps in historical documentation.

Though white fencing now protects these preserved memories near the ravine, the environmental displacement fundamentally altered the connection between Picacho’s dead and the land they once inhabited.

Today, you’ll find this historical cemetery juxtaposed against recreational facilities, a physical reminder of how water infrastructure development forever changed the landscape of the American Southwest.

What Remains: The Ghost Town Today

Today’s visitors to Picacho encounter a ghost town dramatically altered by time and environmental change, yet still revealing fascinating remnants of its gold mining heyday.

The historical significance of these ruins provides a window into California’s vibrant mining past, while archaeological findings continue to document the settlement’s evolution.

When exploring the area, you’ll discover:Two historic mills standing as primary architectural evidence, including visible stone walls and wooden poles from Dorsey’s original mill
The relocated town cemetery with its few marked graves, including Thomas Rochester’s notable memorial
A landscape transformed by the 20-foot water rise following Imperial Dam’s 1938 completion

Hola, This Is The Broccoli Express

2026-01-09T23:23:00.001-04:00

DO YOU LOVE BROCCOLI?

This afternoon we had an errand in El Centro.

On our way back, it was between Hwy 111 and Holtville, I suddenly saw a lot of white stuff ahead. It looked like a lot of cardboard boxes and they were all over our lane. Getting into the left line was impossible, as another car and a bus blocked my way. So I hit the brake and the horn, but a collision was impossible.

A split second later I realized that we just had hit a load of broccoli.

Once being through that mess, we continued our way only to see more broccoli along in the ditch along the highway.

Now, it was time to do a controlled stop on the shoulder and start picking ---- broccoli.

Lots of people were already at it, and I quickly filled two boxes, roughly 40lbs. of beautiful fresh broccoli packed with ice. Crashing to the ground, all of the boxes had opened up spilling their content. It really was mess.

Loaded with broccoli, we continued our way home to camp, where one box was left on the "Free Table" at the host station, the other one to be distributed between us and our neighbours. Tomorrow all of us may appear with green faces.

One Hour And We Were Back In Business

2026-01-07T22:35:00.001-04:00

Yuma is on Mountain time and our appointment at the RV Repair was scheduled at 9am, which, coming from California, really is at 8am, which meant we had to get up early. Two other errands were on the agenda and they had to be done before getting to CJ's RV-Repair in the foothills.

We had to stop for diesel and a dumping station.

Pilot Knob LTVA

We found both at MAVERIK Truckstop. Then we continued into the foothills.

CJ's is operating behind an RV storage and when rolling into their yard, a guy was already standing outside and waving us into a parking spot.

All I can say is that the man knew what he was doing. After checking out fuses, voltage, and relays, he found the culprit. When I had my coach batteries out to connect the Lithium battery, and afterwards re-installed the old batteries, I had connected a thin red wire to the wrong battery pol. Instead of 12V it only got 6, and, obviously, that is not enough to run the slides. My fault entirely.

Well, the bill I had to pay was not scary. Or what do you think about $130?

If you get into any RV-trouble in the Yuma area we gladly recommend CJ's. Not only are they very efficient and you don't have to wait months like with RV-dealers, but they also are very friendly and accommodating. When I told him about our experiment with the Lithium battery, he agreed that the battery most likely is faulty.

Being in Yuma, we got our diesel filled up and tomorrow we gonna see some friends, we haven't seen for 2 years.

This afternoon sun got out and we did a nice walk-about at Pilot Knob LTVA. This year the desert is especially beautiful.

And Back To The Projects

2026-01-06T23:21:00.000-04:00

Lazy Holidays are over and we move back to projects, brought up from our dear motorhome.

In my posting of Dec 22 I talked about our metal roof loosening from the sidewall. Thank god I was able to fix this after I got the necessary screws. I drilled about 40 holes and got 40 screws to hold the metal in place. My way of pressing the roof material to the sidewall was working out. Of course, those screws are visible but who's looking anyway? That roof will never get loose gain.

Having finished that project, we decided to empty out our waste water tanks. The procedure of getting the bus ready to move again always involves a couple of hours preparations.

One of the last things is moving in the slide-outs.

And that's where a new project started.

None of our 3 slides were moving. Pressing the buttons yielded - nothing. Not a sound, no beeps - just silence.

I was stumped. I had only experienced this when I had started the engine without first pulling in the slides. Our bus has a lock-out switch which makes slides inoperable when the key is in the ignition position or the engine running. Similarly the same is valid with the parking brake off. With the help of neighbours I checked all related fuses and relays which could have an impact on the slide operation. All seemed working fine. Yeah, I really was stumped!

We still needed to go to the dump station so somehow the slides had to come in. Looking into our baggage compartments I saw that the electric motors were visible and accessible. One of each side and the third one mounted under our bed inside a wooden box. They just had an electric connector with plus-minus wires.

Searching auto part stores in town for a fitting plugin proved useless, so I build my own with 2 nails, wiring and hot glue. Once that was done I used the battery of my electric screwdriver and inserted 2 copper wires. Once I connected this make-shift contraption to the slide-out motor, the slide was moving. That meant that we finally could go to the dump station.

Reversing plus/minus moved the slides out again. It is a little awkward, but works fine in a pickle.

A call to two RV repair facilities didn't yield anything. The third company got us an appointment for Wednesday morning.

So we are near Yuma tonight. Our appointment is for 9am and we still have to go for 40 minutes from where we are now.

Meanwhile, we have been enjoying a super beautiful sunset.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2025-12-31T23:58:00.002-04:00

Was this the craziest New-Years Party in America?

I think so. Why? Because of campers from all walks of life and lots of different places decided to celebrate the end of year 2025 in a forlorn stretch of desert under adverse weather conditions. Two couples from Montana, 1 couple from Oregon, 1 couple from Saskatchewan, Canada, 1 lady from Arizona, 1 guy from Montana, 1 couple from Washington State, and ourselves from New Brunswick, Canada.

The weather: Rain and wind and low, low temperatures.

The theme: Dress up like the upper crust!

The Characters:

May I introduce: His highness, The Duke of Canterberry with his lovely wife Pamela Antoinette.

The Duke is a highly successful businessman in London, he routinely gets the best deals and while he is always charming the ladies, he can be quite brutal in his business dealings. Some say that Scotland Yard is onto him.

Mr. O'connor is a well known appearance of American decent, currently on business in London to strike a deal with the Duke of Canterberry. Rumours have it that Mr, O'Connor has connections to the US-Mafia. O'Connor has also been visiting his older aunt Betsy.

McRourke with his secretary.

In order to find the best story of the day there is Mr. Mc.Rourke, Chief Reporter at the London Daily at Fleet Street. He thinks that O'Connor and the Duke of Canterberry are up to some highly illegal deals involving the British crown jewels. His secretary Ms. Blackburn, is helping him to get to the facts.

Under one of McRourke's investigations he learns that another guy from the US, a certain Peter Mc.Cormack, an executive who represents a big US oil consortium from Texas is part of the ongoing deal.

McCormack seems nice enough but under his western-cowboy style his vest is not as clean as it appears. He wants to highjack the British Gasoline Market.

Naturally, McRourke has included John Colburn, detective at Scotland Yard in his research. Sergeant Colburn is ready to call in more of his staff, but waits for the final clue.

They all met at the New Years Party at Piccadilly Circus.

It is not known yet what happened right after the clock struck 12, but we will let you know as soon as possible.

Have a wonderful start into 2026!

2025-12-24T01:33:00.000-04:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

..........Hohoho

Next Project, Please....Oh Wait...

2025-12-22T23:22:00.000-04:00

Though the next project is already waiting, the battery odyssey gets another volume to it, and most likely, you're not going to believe it.

With all new batteries in place, we enjoyed an evening in our cozy home on wheels when suddenly, around 9pm, all lights went out. I mean honestly, how can all our 12V lights die just like that?

I grabbed a pocket light and went out to check on the new Lithium battery which is supposed to provide us with tons of energy. My multimeter then showed 10.3V which meant that the BMS (battery Management System) had shut down to protect the battery from further discharge. The thing had shown 14V when installed and had, within 5-6hrs, lost all workable voltage. That sure wasn't right!

In order to restore our lights, I quickly connected the start batteries with our house wiring, which provided enough power beyond the morning. The lithium was then recharged and reached 13.2V the next day. Next evening rolled around and nothing happened. Next morning, it was 5am, I woke up and couldn't see the red stand-by light from the TV. I got wide awake and walked to the front, trying a light switch, but nothing. Battery was dead again. For the second time, I had to connect to the start batteries. Now I am really upset - call me furious if you like.

I removed the Lithium and re-installed the 4 lead-acid batteries. They are still taking some charge.

Since the lithium was purchased via Amazon, I contacted customer service. They promised to take care of the thing.

I took a deep breath and started thinking of my next project. Our metal roof has loosened in two place from the drivers side sidewall. The roof material is standing out to the side and needs to get refastened. The main challenge is exerting enough power to the metal to press it back into place, then use screws into the wall. An examination turned out that the factory had secured the metal with rivets. Absolutely not a good idea, as the rivets had been sitting in fiberglass and had moved out from the holes.

My carpenter-style solution for getting the metal back to the sidewall is visible in the next pictures.

Using the top edges of our slide-outs as a hold, I brought a 2x4x12 into place resting on our 2 slide-outs. That 2x4 will be the threshold for shorter pieces wedged between the 2x4 and the sidewall. Thus I was able to get enough strength for bending the roof metal back in place.

An entirely different thing was to get the necessary stainless steel screws. ACE in Holtville did offer me 9 screws, (needing 60), a place in El Centro promised to order them for the next day. I will be happy if I have them after Christmas though.

This is a continuing saga, so check back later!

This Could Have Ended In Total Disaster

2025-12-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

Only a few more days and it's CHRISTMAS!

But before we can sit down with our friends and fellow campers, I had to take on "The Battery Project".

We had long since noticed that our start batteries were getting weak and so did our house batteries. After long considerations back and forth, I ordered 1 300amp Lithium Iron Phosphate battery and 2 AGM 95amp start batteries. Even though they were ordered from 2 different sources, they arrived together yesterday on a FEDEX truck. Stuff we order is usually dropped off at the host station from where we can pick it up.

The 3 cardboard boxes were pretty heavy, though the Lithium battery is actually much lighter than our four 6V flooded acid batteries.

First order of the day was to remove our old batteries. Beginning with the start batteries (also called Chassis batteries) I removed the connectors and wires. Being also AGMs they were heavy enough to lift out of the compartment. The first one still looked OK, except the usual dirt and dust. Hauling out the second I found this:

Obviously, the battery had exploded and one side being ripped open. Looking inside, everything was blackened with signs of a previous fire. I hadn't been able to see that while the battery was still in this tight compartment, but wondered how we had been able to even start the bus when we went dumping. The cause of this battery failure is most likely an overcharge with ongoing excessive heat developing. Never before had I seen such a battery damage. Because of the weakness of the battery pack I had used our external charger with 40amps, which probably had been too much.

Anyway, I was glad that I now had 2 new AGMs to put in their place.

Next was the Lithium battery, which was easy to put in place, as it takes less space than the previous 6V Trojans. The Lithium got connected to our solar charge controller.

New batteries in place

I had been working for hours in the hot sun and got pretty exhausted in the late afternoon, and it was finally time to rest into the evening hours.

After dark we sat inside when suddenly all lights died. What in the world had happened now?

With a light in my hand I went outside and connected my multimeter to the Lithium. To my big surprise it showed only 10.3V. I knew that Lithium batteries shut down when reaching 10.5V but how could this battery have lost so much power? It had shown around 13.3V when installed.

The only reason I can think of is that it wasn't fully charged at 14.4V and that I had been running our inverter from it. And outside we have some Christmas lights. The only help for the moment was to move the inverter connection to the start batteries, which I did. It worked through the evening and the night until this morning.

With the sunrise I looked at my solar charger, but it was dead. The solar charger needs power from the battery to function. Without power it cannot start utilizing the power from the sun. Only way to start charging that Lithium was with an external charger from f.ex our generator. However our mobile charger is old and cannot be used for Lithium batteries. So the need was to get a lithium charger from town. Luckily, I found a little one at Auto Zone in Holtville.

After "waking up" the Lithium I could finally use the solar charger for the rest of the day. But I also learned that it can take up to a full day to fully charge a 300amp Lithium battery. Because daylight hours close to Christmas are short, I have to continue the charging process tomorrow.

The "Battery Project" proved to be time consuming, but at the end of the day, I am happy we didn't have a fire destroying our motorhome. The right thing to do, of course, is replacing batteries in time, after noticing they won't keep the power after use. Too much charge and they can blow up.

And while we are talking about fire danger another warning:

Our neighbour had actually flames licking up the side of his Class A, because his BBQ had been placed too close to the wall and being left unattended for a short time igniting the paint on his rig. Luckily he had a water sprayer handy and could douse the beginning fire. It can happen, folks, we all can make mistakes.

Wishy Washy Window Clean

2025-12-11T23:08:00.002-04:00

I have to admit, we are tending to be lazy on those sunny California days. And surprisingly, the day temps are climbing into the 80F-range (28-29C). Most years, while approaching Christmas, the temps stayed significantly lower. So today we crept up into the shade behind the motorhome, and pretty soon our next-door neighbours came over for a chat as well. Always nice to have a social get-together.

But before settling down in the shade, I took on a little project which had been on my mind for days. I really hate it when windows are dirty and our big windshield was plastered with dead insects and road dirt. I had borrowed a long stand-up ladder from one of our neighbours and with the ladder at hand, there really wasn't any excuse for not cleaning those windows. With soapy water I went about it scrubbing off those smashed insects. It was a much bigger job than anticipated. I'm always having problems getting windshields really clean without leaving greyish streaks across the glass. After I thought I was done, Bea took out some wondrous stuff from her cleaning supplies and went all over it again ---- of course she got more dark stuff off it.

So for our next move to the dumping station in Holtville I have the luxury of a gleaming squeaky clean windshield.

When we went to COSTCO on Tuesday, we had bought one of their signature rotisserie chickens at $4.99.

I had put that chicken on our smoker BBQ to give it more taste and also to make sure it really is fully cooked. Some times those COSTCO chickens are not fully cooked. We now have gotten three meals out of it, plus a nice chicken salad. Can't complain about the pricing.

Some time next week we will go to Yuma for some errands and seeing friends.