SISTERS ON THE ROAD

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2009-03-08T19:39:00.004-06:00

We left Meteor Crater RV Park this morning without seeing the crater but with the aim of stopping in Winslow, AZ to see the hotel designed by Mary Coulter. We did that. Worth seeing and so is Winslow. The "historic district" of Winslow needs a guiding hand and a good infusion of cash to restore it to it's glory days along Route 66. The hotel that Coulter designed and the railroad nearly demolished was bought and mostly restored by a couple with love of history and architecture in their hearts.

We were going to go to the Acoma Pueblo but decided to push on and come home. A long, long drive but we all made it.

Still Heading Home

2009-03-07T21:21:00.004-07:00

We left Barstow, California about 8 a.m. this morning and headed to the Meteor Crater RV Park about 36 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona, a distance of 380 miles. The long drive between Barstow and Flagstaff was difficult due to strong crosswinds that made driving the Winnebago a chore for Paula and Julie. Ann and Lyn rarely feel the wind while hauling their heavy Airstream.

The Mohave Desert is rather dull at this time of year and once through the desert and into Arizona we were happy to see mountains and mesas and snow capped peaks off in the distance. The picture above is of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert heading east towards Flagstaff. If you double click these pictures they will enlarge. We are at about 5500 feet here and the temperature will be dropping to about 24 tonight.

We thought we would spend tomorrow driving the last leg home to Santa Fe, 370 miles away. But we don't really want to end our trip and decided we would stop at the Acoma Pueblo tomorrow and stay in Grants, NM tomorrow night. We will get home early Monday.

Heading Home

2009-03-06T18:08:00.004-07:00

We left Morro Bay at 8:15 this morning and hauled into a campground in windy Barstow at 5 p.m. It has been a long day of driving but the trek was helped by the beauty of the ride over the Tehachapi Summit. What glorious views of swaths of orange poppies riding up soft greened up mountains. The west side of the mountains was dotted by wind turbines marching across the crests. It was windy and the wind machines were racing.

In Tehachapi we went on a quest to find a mexican restaurant that had been recommended by Ellen. Paula does not care for Mexican food and was happy to see they had a menu for Americanos. She ordered a hamburger. Lyn, Julie and Ann enjoyed their Mexican fare. We had to decide if we were going to take the northern route home through Flagstaff and Gallup and up to Santa Fe or go south. The weather would be the decider. We called Paula's daughter, Lara, in NYC and asked her to go on the internet to see if the northern route would include snow. It would not. We trudged on to Barstow and will go on to Flagstaff tomorrow.

Morro Bay, California

2009-03-05T14:25:00.003-07:00

We walked out to the Morro Bay Rock and spoke at length with a man there who is an expert on Peregrine Falcons and other birds of prey. We had just missed a falcon who had gone off in search of food for his nesting mate. There were serious bird watchers standing by their thousands of dollars in equipment waiting for a view of the pair of falcons. It is a blustery day, cold and sunny, with rain looming our way over the Ocean.

This is tattoo day once again. This time it is Julie's turn. She is getting two tattoos to add to the one she had done years ago on South Beach. When will it stop?

This is our last night here and we leave with great reluctance. The drive back to Santa Fe is a long one and we don't expect to be home until mid to late Monday. We have already made plans to return next March for a month.

Morro Bay, California

2009-03-04T19:32:00.009-07:00

Heavy overcast and rain forced cancellation of our hike on the Pecho Coast trail out to the lighthouse near the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. (A relatively rare guided tour since PG&E doesn't normally allow folks meandering across their land.) So Peter, Ellen, Ann and Julie improvised, driving around the point at Avila to get to Shell Beach Road. After walking past some extraordinary mansions looking out at the sea, we found a trail -- heading up. In soil wet from last night's downpour, we slogged on.
Eventually found a path down to Pirates' Cove. Slippery. Which Ann confirmed when we had to rappel down the last 10-12 feet to the sand, courtesy of some previous hiker who'd strung a strong nylon line down the last slick railroad tie steps. She was fine until the last 4-5 steps -- lost her footing and went down in the mud. No injuries. Some beach combing turned up some fine examples of drying seaweed (Peter's goatee in the photo was a mystery -- we're calling it pubic kelp.) On the way back from this fine, but muddy hike, we swung into a likely looking establishment along the road offering broken up wine barrels -- staves, end pieces and the like. While wandering around (admiring the vintage cars in the tumble-down garage and the fabulously feathered chickens in the yard), we encountered two fierce geese, who advanced on us with great cacophony of honking. Ann sagely warned the rest of us that geese can bite -- and these weren't being shooed away. After the big white gander plucked at her pant legs, Ann not-so-sagely turned to walk away and got a savage nip in her calf. Big purple bruise. That's it. Paula wants to upload pix and post this!!

Morro Bay, California

2009-03-02T11:31:00.003-07:00

Rainy day. Fog rolling in. Laundry, Albertson's, shopping, lunch, maybe a hike. Here are the pictures of brave Lyn getting her tattoo and a picture of the tattoo. She is still a bit red and swollen.

Morro Bay, California

2009-02-28T12:06:00.005-07:00

Tattoo day. Lyn has been talking about getting a tattoo and has now made the decision to go ahead and do it. I am in the internet cafe in Morro Bay and Lyn and Julie are up the street in the tattoo parlor. Lyn has drawn a design she wants on her left shoulder. Julie is looking at a dragonfly for her calf. Pictures to come.

This California State Park is beautiful. It has a natural history museum, golf course, diner on the estuary, marina,nature walks, hikes, and campground. The picture above is the marina and our rig, Diana Rigg, can be seen just to the right of the last mast on the right.

Morro Bay, California

2009-02-27T12:58:00.003-07:00

Laundry day. We found an internet cafe and can read email while watching our clothes spin. A gorgeous day here on the Ocean. We plan a beach walk for later.

Morro Bay, California

2009-02-26T16:22:00.004-07:00

We have settled in nicely to this lovely spot at Morro Bay State Park. Our screen rooms are up, our reclining chairs ready for our quick naps, and the dogs are happy to be parked in one place for awhile. Paula has done some painting, Julie has been organizing work projects, and there have been hikes with Ann and Lyn. Yesterday, the 25th, we hiked out to a bluff on Montana de Oro and down to a tide pool where we saw hermit crabs, anemones, turban snails, buggy whip kelp, and small tide pool fish. Off on the rocks we saw five sea lions lying in the sun , otters and cormorants. The weather has held to the high 60’s with afternoon fog rolling in. It is beautiful here.

Tuesday evening we had dinner with friends of Ann and Lyn. Ellen and Peter are from Minneapolis and spend at least two months each year up the road from Morro Bay in a small village named Cayucos. They were joined by Susan, another friend of Ann and Lyn’s. Susan is from Italy. The connections of these people are a longer story but the theory of six degrees of separation was well supported when we learned at dinner that Ellen, Peter and Susan know a couple in New York City that Julie and Paula know.

We met for breakfast in Morro Bay this morning.

Then we went on a quest for fire wood. Found it!

Morro Bay, California

2009-02-23T16:45:00.004-07:00

The drive from Bakersfield to Morro Bay was probably our shortest of the trip, 3 hours. The drive was through vast groves of flowering almond trees, miles of vineyards, some light fog and rain showers. As we neared the coast the mountains grew taller and greener, the sky cleared to blue, and we dropped down into Morro Bay. The State Park here is beautiful. The smell of eucalyptus is intoxicating. The sun is glinting off Morro Bay right now but we are shielded from the bright sun by towering pines. We walked down to the marina, a place of small skiffs and homemade boats and kayak rentals. The dogs are transfixed by new smells and we are happy to be here after eight days of travel. Pictures to come.

Bakersfield, California

2009-02-23T09:16:00.003-07:00

This campground is bliss. We have internet service, cable television, a laundry, hot showers. We will be moving on shortly for Morro Bay, a 140 mile trip from here.

It rained all night. The freight trains close to our sites went through about once an hour. I imagine the full timers here get used to that noise quickly.

We watched the Oscars all the way through to the end -- an event we rarely stayed up for back east because of the late hour. This morning was full of emails and watching the news. We feel like we are back in civilization.

On to the Pacific Coast!

Bakersfield, California

2009-02-22T17:53:00.007-07:00

We left Joshua Tree National Park a day earlier than planned.

The Boy Scouts drove us out of there. At 6 a.m. about 50 of them did a rousing chant on the level of reveille. We knew the day would be filled with their fervor for all things loud.

We headed to Tehachapi but found the commercial campground there dreary, shall we say. We drove on to Bakersfield and found a campground with wifi and cable. We can watch the Oscars and get email. Life is good!

What is not so good is that I cannot upload pictures I have attached to posts I have done here since our trip began. The software is giving me fits.

Tomorrow we head for Morro Bay. We will be there for eleven days and I am sure there is no internet service available in the State Park. We will try to connect and let you all know what we are up to but cannot promise posts will be anymore timely than these last were.

Joshua Tree National Park

2009-02-22T17:48:00.005-07:00

We went into Joshua Tree, the town, to have lunch as the Crossroads Cafe, a restaurant noted for good food and a funky atmosphere. The cafe met expectations. Joshua Tree would be a dreary little desert town but has enough small businesses to make it interesting.

After lunch we were on our way into the National Park for a tour of the Keys Ranch. There is a longer story here but simply put the Keys Ranch was the homestead of a man and woman and their kids who lived in a spectacular but isolated setting deep in what is now the Joshua Tree National Forest. They raised a family there, farmed there, mined there, died there, and are buried there.

Ann fairly hummed with delight at all the rust (old mining equipment, old cars and trucks, bed springs, etc.) that we saw at the ranch. Ann collects rusty things and works them into art pieces. We were told going in that it was a museum and that we were not to touch anything, not to take anything away. If there wasn’t a locked gate a mile away from the entrance to the ranch we would go back with the truck and load up.

Joshua Tree National Park

2009-02-22T17:48:00.004-07:00

Last night the Park tripled its occupancy with the arrival of troupes of boy scouts and rock climbers. It appears that the boy scouts do not have a patch for ability to keep public toilets clean.

There went the neighborhood.

We did our laundry in Twenty-nine Palms, a small desert town inhabited by young couples tied to the Marine military base here. The couples are fresh faced and don’t have much money but he has a job. In this economy these couples probably count themselves lucky.

We decided to leave tomorrow, a day early, and head for Tehachapi, another small desert town in the Mohave Desert, on the way to Morro Bay. We believe that there is an RV park in Tehachapi that has wireless internet service. We have been unable to upload any of these missives to our travel blog because of the lack of internet service here. We hope we can connect tomorrow.

And then watch the Oscars.

Joshua Tree National Park

2009-02-22T17:47:00.009-07:00

As the sun came up and heated up the rocks we saw many climbers scaling the mountains near us but our quest for the day was to find Paula and Julie a better site to park Diana Rigg. We found the Park Ranger and were able to get into a site where we leveled up nicely and have a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains. We are about a mile from Ann and Lyn’s site. Once settled in, Ann, Julie and Paula chose a hike to 49 Palms Oasis, a three mile strenuous hike with a 350’ gain over narrow rocky goat mountain paths to the top of a 3000 foot mountain that then took Ann and Julie (Paula stayed at the summit due to a hurting ankle) down 300’ to the 49 Palms Oasis in the canyon. There are seven oases in the Park. We don’t plan on seeing them all. Or, anymore.

Joshua Tree National Park

2009-02-22T17:47:00.008-07:00

Julie and Paula were up at six to walk the dogs in this glorious place. There is nobody camping near us. We have absolute peace and quiet here although we understand that tomorrow and through the weekend the campground will be full.

Julie, Ann and Lyn are off to explore the many nature walks in the Park. Paula has decided to blog, read, sleep, and get some sun. Tonight the four of us will grill steaks and sit by the campfire.

____

Julie here… The three of us could not budge Paula from her collapsible lounge chair in the sun , so we set out to see more of this park’s astounding rock formations (many of them adorned with ropes and intrepid climbers) and surprising greenery. We did relatively short-loop nature hikes at the Oasis of Mara and Cap Rock (where an enormous should-be-teetering boulder sits atop a huge mass of granite) and an especially lovely one in Hidden Valley, where legend has it that rustled horses and cattle were pastured. Home by 3:30 to start the campfire and fire up the grill!

Joshua Tree National Park, California – February 17, 2009

2009-02-22T17:46:00.002-07:00

We arrived at Joshua Tree National Park about 5 p.m. after a grueling eight-hour day of driving. Our trip was made longer by stops at Camping World and IKEA just outside of Phoenix. The latter was a one-hour stop in one of our favorite places. We sorely miss the IKEA we used to regularly visit in New Jersey. The stop was a treat and we stocked up on candles and napkins and placemats and other unnecessary stuff.

We entered the Park at the South and drove 50 miles to the north entrance. The natural beauty of the Park was pretty astounding and we grew more and more excited as we drew closer to Indian Cove campground where we had reservations. As we found our sites the sun was falling, the wind was up, and the temperature had dropped low. Ann and Lyn managed to get their Airstream into their site but we could not get Diana Rigg into the site we reserved. All civility broke down in the dark and cold and finally we moved to a vacant site whose pitch was not as deep as the original site. Ann and Julie managed to get us settled while Lyn and Paula drank wine in the warm Airstream.

Mesa, Arizona – February 16, 2009

2009-02-22T17:36:00.002-07:00

Another long day of driving – 285 miles between Deming, New Mexico, and Mesa Verde, Arizona. We stayed at the Mesa Spirit RV Resort. This park was paved over and its 1,000 -plus sites housed mainly retired full timers ensconced in their little metal shells, or “park models,” with tiny yards of gravel and kitschy adornment out front. As we waited to be checked into the “resort” we saw many retirees speeding by on their three speed bikes or oversized one speed tricycles. One senior citizen of uncertain age, zipped by on her purple Honda motorcycle, cigarette hanging from her lips, orange hair flaming like a spring globe cactus in the Arizona sun.

With four dogs among us we were covertly watched by the dog pee and poop police. Dogs are not allowed to pee on the street at Mesa Spirit RV Resort. One of our dogs, the mild mannered and ever gracious, Peach, did pee on a street in the “resort.” The offender is pictured above. A neighborhood watch fossil sprang into action at Peach’s transgression and yelled out to the mid-60ish, Lyn, “Young lady, dogs are not allowed to pee on the street at the Mesa Spirit RV Resort. You must be on the right street here for that.” Later, we wondered who lived on the right street for dogs to pee on in Mesa Spirit RV Resort. Probably overnighters such as ourselves. Peach had not peed on our street. We continue to ponder what would have happened had Peach pooped on the wrong street.

Deming, New Mexico – February 15, 2009

2009-02-21T13:21:00.001-07:00

We are on the road again with Ann and Lyn. They are pulling their Airstream and we are in our Winnebago View. We drove from Santa Fe to Deming, New Mexico in five hours, a trip of 300 plus miles. This drive south is familiar to us – 100-mile views to distant mountains to the south, parched dry and brown land. Once we were south of Albuquerque we passed through Socorro and then headed down to Truth Or Consequences and to Hatch and into Deming. The poor economy shows in these small towns. We stayed at the Little Vineyard RV Park in Deming, a graveled affair with no vineyard in site. The next morning we were up early and on on our way to Mesa, Arizona.

Catching Up

2009-02-07T17:52:00.020-07:00

I have not posted to this blog in nearly a year. During that time there were numerous trips in and around New Mexico that we made with various friends. The highlight of the 2008 camping year, though, was our trip to California last October with our friends, Ann and Lyn, who were married on a pirate ship in the Santa Barbara Harbor. Here is a picture of them at the Santa Barbara Courthouse where they registered to be married. Ann and Lyn have been together 38 years.

That trip took us through Flagstaff, Arizona to Needles, California on into Barstow and the Mohave Desert. From there we skirted Los Angeles and headed to Santa Barbara and on to Morro Bay, California. Our return took us through the Central Coast wine country and back through the Mohave to the Painted Desert, the Hoover Dam and into the Grand Canyon. Our last night of camping was at the Navajo National Monument -- it was empty and wildly beautiful there. The four of us piled into the truck and drank martinis while watching the sunset over the canyon.

Our camping experiences varied from commercial campgrounds that held little interest beyond a quick overnight and moving on the next day, to state parks and national parks which held great interest for a return. One park, Morro Bay State Park, is the destination for our next trip beginning in a week.

Here are some pictures from our California trip with Lyn and Ann. The last three pictures are of Ann and Lyn's wedding on the "pirate ship." The ceremony began with shots of tequila and ended with hugs and kisses all around. Note the plastic parrot.

Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

2008-02-24T16:38:00.003-07:00

What a delight! We had a private tour of the Bosque. I learned I will never be a "birder" but will always appreciate the great care that is put into refuges such as the Bosque del Apache. There were still numerous sandhill cranes and snow geese left to admire. What a wondrous place.

Elephant Butte State Park, South Monticello

2008-02-23T16:31:00.002-07:00

Ann and Lyn had been here two years ago and had spotted an abandoned shack off in the distance. The shack had been pretty much wiped out but there were numerous rusted treasures our friend Ann coveted. She wanted to go again and see if the rusted bed springs were still there. They were. And we lugged them out of there and got them up on their Ford 250. Those rusted springs are on their way back to Santa Fe and a place in the garden on Spur Ranch Road.

On Elephant Butte Lake

2008-02-22T16:06:00.006-07:00

We decide to rent a pontoon boat and take it out on Elephant Butte Lake for three hours. Ann takes the helm and leads us out. Then Claire takes over and Julie tries her hand at it, as well. The day is beautiful, the wind chilling us but the sun warming us up. Little did I know that I was getting a serious sun and wind burn. We are told that at the height of the season this lake and the state park host up to 700,000 people, making it the second largest city in New Mexico.

Elephant Butte Lake State Park

2008-02-21T16:42:00.003-07:00

We have all gathered here. The park is huge and mostly empty. I couldn't bear to be here in the summer months when the place has hundreds of thousands of visitors. That does not appeal to me but for now being on the quiet water is lovely.

Elephant Butte State Park, New Mexico

2008-02-20T13:50:00.001-07:00

We did not want to leave City of Rocks but needed to meet up with Lyn and Ann. We settled on a site overlooking Elephant Butte Lake. The temperature is in the high 70s. J is wearing shorts. There is a slight breeze and we anticipate a great dinner tonight with our friends, a roaring campfire, and a good bit of champagne to celebrate Ann’s birthday.

The day starts out warm. The sun is hot on Diana Rigg. Ann is having an azimuth moment trying to figure out how to get her satellite dish working on the Airstream. We hear a loud “Yessss” and know she got it up and running.

We get the dogs ready and all head out to walk down to the water. The lake has greatly receded and the “beach” is quite extensive. We will drive the truck way down on the beach tonight and have a campfire.

A side trip to the Marina is where I find this weak but open signal that gets me online. Julie and Ann go down to the marina. Ann longs for another houseboat like the one she and Lyn had on the Mississippi.