April Stalled

A wise woman friend of mine said, “if you see turbines, you know it is going to be windy”

What I want to know is why she didn’t tell me that BEFORE we went to Desert Hot Springs!

It is WINDY here.

We wondered “is the Great Adventure honeymoon over?”

Had a brake squeal on Wanda when we pulled into Catalina RV Park back in February and got right on it to find a RV repair to come and look at the brake as we did not want to drive it anywhere if we didn’t have to. First appointment to get the brakes looked at was early March – okay no big deal. Well, it turned out to be a big deal – here is the rest of the story…..

The brake fluid leaked into the brake due to a seal rupture which lead to the guy removing the wheel. The tire (which is less than 6 months old) had a bulge and very bad wearing on the outside. This means we need to replace the tire. Repair guy fixes brake, checks the others and they are ok.

Next up is to have the tire repaired. Had to find a place to repair our tires and that carried the same brand since you don’t want to mix and match tires. That appointment is mid-March. Okay we should meet our timeline of getting back on the road April 1. Not so fast, inspection of the bad tire showed that we had a bent axle! Arghhhh. We decide to buy new tires (we got rid of the China Bombs even tho they were only 6 months old) and replaced with heavy duty. But we can’t travel far with bent axle because we would be replacing tires every 200 miles.

Lets DIY Wanda since we don’t have anything else to do!

Resurfaced the kitchen and bathroom cupboards. They have taken a beating these last couple of years so I sanded, stained and sealed them. Then the kitchen island looked shabby so painted that Black Magic. It all looks really nice.

Still trying to fight the boredom, I got out my beading and made a bunch of earrings. Not sure what I am going to do with all this jewelry as I don’t wear any, any takers?

resident hummingbird

Turning the Lemon into Lemonade is how we decided to look at this delemona (spelling intentional). Hiked a lot and the desert came alive during April. Blooms everywhere and a beautiful site to see the yellow sand, green bushes and pink and yellow blossoms of the cactus. Hummingbirds continued to entertain us; I even rescued a baby that had gotten blown out of its nest. So small, with some feathers and “he” was able to drink from the feeder if I got his beak into it. With help from neighbor able to get him back into his nest. Named him “Chet”.

Even had ducks visit the campsites.

Now the Awning decides to separate from the rig. Such strong winds here, 50 mph gust and we try not to have the awning out but it is also 90-100 degrees out and we need shade. The weather pattern is there is no wind until about 2pm then it starts to blow and blow and blow well into the evening. One time we didn’t pull in the awning in time.

Repair guy comes out April 25. Well, that’s okay as we are not going anywhere.

Interesting hike up to the Bob Hope house. Looks like a mushroom, sits high on the bluff overlooking Palm Springs and sold in 2016 for $13M.

Did the Whitewater hike seems like a million times, and the Canyon Loop Trail. Suicide Rock (5miles) in Idyllwild is a 2.5 straight up affair, easy to come down.

Rode our bikes in Palm Springs a couple of times always around the golf course for 9 miles, ending the day at LaQuinta Brewery. I am beginning to find a taste for IPA’s.

I tire of hiking in the desert and Ty thrives on it, so off he goes on his 8 milers and I prefer to exercise with my videos and also Amy’s online classes. It is too hot to hike the desert unless you get started at 7am, which we did several times.

April 26, we pulled into BIG TEX axle repair and 1 hour later we are all fixed and we hit the road. On our honeymoon again! We are off to Big Bend NP Texas a 1400-mile ride.

A very quick stop to see Ginger and Jon Frankson. Some of you Anthem folks may recall that we had a couple who stayed at our house while we vacation; we gave Jon our “honey do” list and came back to all the repairs taken care of. Same couple. We showed up at their house with a “honey do” list for Jon this time too. Simple look sees at our trailer brake connection as we kept getting warning signal that it was not connected correctly. Simple fix was to clean the connections as they were all sand crusted. Jon was disappointed that there wasn’t more as he has been desperate to repair something during the 12-month quarantine and his house is all fixed. We had a very nice but quick visit catching up and being fed like kings. Upon leaving Ginger supplied me with all sorts of food treats, the best being a lemon wine vingerette which I have used every day since we left.

Ginger Jon

Arrived on April 29 long ride through rain (haven’t seen rain in 6 months) and an overnight at the Walmart parking lot. Anxious to explore! Great Adventure reboot!!!

For those of you who wonder/ponder that “wow – seems like a lot of hassle” Well, you are right – it is. But think about it. Pulling your house down the road, it is like an earthquake going on inside that thing. Not to mention that no matter the price you paid for a rig, they are cheaply put together and will always need repair. We knew that going in and accept that there will always be something. I write about it because it is part of the journey, it is not a complaint. For those of you who say I couldn’t do what you two are doing, it is probably because of this hassle and yes not for everyone.

The upside is we have so much freedom right now. We choose where to go (when Wanda is able) and when. The United States is one HUGE place and we are trying our best to make a dent. We are free spirits, love the land and the sights and we love each other’s company. Put up with the problems cause they eventually go away. Our lives our short, we need to hurry on and make the best of it while we can. Miss our children and grands terribly but we raised them to fly and so must we.

Have managed to see the entire Colorado Desert Landform. All regions are actually very diverse and we saw it not so much by terrain but by flora. Joshua Trees in the Great Basin, Saguaro and Organ Pipe Cactus Mohave Desert and the Ocotillo Cactus in the Colorado Desert are the most notable. And because we were stalled we got to see it in bloom. Breathtaking!

Colorado Desert Landform Province

Will be doin’ TEXAS in May, y’all!