Beth’s Month

Beth

When November rolls around, I get depressed. It is Beth’s birthday (Nov 6) month and she really looked forward to her birthday. We would not let her start talking about her birthday until October, otherwise, she would start talking about her NEXT birthday on Nov. 7! I miss that.

Organ Pipe Cactus

Organ Pipe

November 1-2

If you haven’t seen these cacti, it should be a stop albeit even if it is out of the way from anything. And you have to like desert. Stayed at the State Park with same name, only 3 of us in this park, but I am sure come January it will be packed. Really nice campground, paved pads, electric and water and the best part is this park was so well developed that from a slight distance it looks just like the desert; you would have no idea that there is a campground there. Took a small hike up to a mining area, who would ever mine in this hot desert is beyond me, but someone did it.

THE WALL

Water Barrel and Flag Border Patrol The Wall Safety Sign Directions to use Safety Station

Had to drive by the wall since we were only 5 miles from the Mexican border. It is big and imposing. Here is Ty to describe this day.

The desert wind runs silent:

In the desert the wind really is silent. One evening Jane and I were sitting outside; the wind was too strong for a fire but we couldn’t hear it. There are no trees and the cactus and scrub vegetation have no leaves to create noise as the wind goes through them, kind of like watching a bat or an owl fly by. Then there is the desert wildlife. Apparently, it is out there but you rarely see it, if you are lucky you may hear a coyote as it begins a night of hunting. We are told there are deer, big horn sheep, bob cats etc. but we never saw or heard from them. As with everything that survives in the desert wildlife has adapted by laying low, staying silent during the heat of the day only coming out at night.

Then there is another type of silence, it also occurs mostly at night and is created by people, asylum seekers, drug smugglers, border patrol agents. Within the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, we had some exposure, in some case only figuratively, with all of them. The Kris Eggle visitor center is named after a park ranger who was murdered by drug smugglers in 2002. We had an opportunity to see Trump’s wall off in the distance and had to take a 20 plus mile unimproved dirt road detour to get around it. Check out pictures for this section of the blog. We came across a couple of widely space 55-gallon drums of water with tall flags, visible from miles away marking their presence. Apparently, locals were trying to help people survive rather than dying of thirst in the desert. Then there are tall towers established by the Border Patrol which allows someone to push a panic button. The sign in English and Spanish says push the button, stay where you are and someone will come to help you soon. Of course, the individual will probably be deported back to where they were fleeing and if they are asylum seekers they will probably die anyway. I think most of you aren’t reading anything new here but it was interesting and thought provoking be exposed to some of this in real time.

Coincidently I just happened to read a book called “American Dirt”. It tells a fictional story of a mother and son asylum seekers along with an assortment of other Central American and Mexican individuals sneaking across the border. It is a fictional account based on some real examples of what happens while making the crossing. The book confirmed what I have read from other scattered accounts, women will be raped, everyone will be robbed, some will be killed, some of the smugglers, “coyote” you pay to get you across the border will abandon you. Whatever your take on this whole situation I think it is a well written nonpolitical account of a human experience.

Just a side note. Jane and I have been in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and the Mohave Desert of southern California for 4 to 6 weeks, we really can’t remember when we arrived but it’s been a while. My original impression of a desert is what you might see on television you know the Sahara, nothing but sand as far as you can see. But as I said above the deserts in the US southwest are full of life. There is an amazing variety of cactus and vegetation all adapted to a harsh dry environment. Check out the picture of me in front of a Saguaro cactus must be 30 feet tall. True there is a lot of sand, most of the trails are like walking on the beach. A four-mile hike on this stuff is tiring, let alone trying to find a bike route. On the other hand, the weather is great. 70’s in the daytime with no humidity and low 50’s at night. Did I mention while we have been in the desert there has been no rain. I think we agree it is about time for us to move to a different environment but it has been an interesting experience.

TY

Tall Saguaro

London Bridge for real

London Bridge Lake Havasau Parker Dam

Pretty hectic week schedule, we traveled up to Lake Havasu City and Parker Dam which is on the Colorado River. Interesting place IF you are a water person. Meaning you have all the toys to play in the water or like to fish. We don’t do either so instead we drove around the area exploring, took a bike ride on the Havasu Island where we saw the actual London Bridge! Lake Havasu must not have had enough tourist and decided to buy the London Bridge for gobs of money, had it shipped over and voila! Tourist. Actually, they have a very nice riverfront all centered around the London Bridge which I am sure during non Covid is really busy fun place to be. River Island State Park very nice – which so far the AZ state parks are clean, and well designed.

Nov 6-7

 

Wild Burros

Celebrated Beth at Alamo Lake State Park. We watched the sunset on her birthday and out came a beautiful rainbow! Beth I am sure.

A nothing park way up in the desert mountains overlooking a man-made lake created by an earthen dam. Ty was so funny; he came in all upset when we were setting up camp complaining about all the horse dropping on our campsite. Thought someone tied up their horses to the BBQ. After setting up we took a walk around and noticed there was A LOT of horse poo then a sign: Beware of Wild Burros. Evidently, they like to camp too and frequent this area. We finally saw 5 of them as we were leaving.

November 8-12 unwind in Yuma

Plank Road

We made reservations for a RV park privately owned as we had a lot of “business” to take care of. We drove up to this place, had a look see and immediately drove away! It was one of the few places that did not ask for advance payment which made us suspicious. Then we drove around Yuma looking for a place to park. After the 5^th place we settled for AZ West RV Park. It was flying a Canadian flag and we surmised that it probably was a good bet we could get in since Canadians can’t get across the border right now. We were right. Typical RV “Resort” for snowbirds but not at all fancy and many older rigs waiting for the owners to return. We stayed for the week taking care of business and just relaxed.

Surprisingly Yuma had a lot to offer for the short time we were there. In this area are the Great Sand Dunes that just loom up out of the desert floor. Back in the days when cars where first started traveling across country there began the need to get across the dunes. Hence, mother of invention planks was laid down forming a “road” for travel. Only problem was it was a one car width and if you encountered another car coming at you, one of you had to back up a turn out which are very far apart to let the car pass. Needless to say, quite the traffic jam. Remnants of the plank road still exist today. Yuma downtown looked like a “happening” place, several breweries, shops, restaurants. We didn’t happen. Instead we took care of a few business items, washed Wanda and relaxed.

Unclaimed Property

Did you know (I didn’t) that if states owe you money, they keep it in an account and you have to go find it. It is pretty easy to do, just goggle the state unclaimed money and it will take you to that state website for unclaimed. Follow the prompts to see if you got any coming. I did it for Michigan and Colorado and had monies just waiting for me. Fill out the paperwork, get it notarized and snail mail.

Salton Sea

November 13-16

Salton Sea

Here is something we did not expect. Back in 1905 commercial growers envisioned that this area would become an agriculture mecca. They diverted the Colorado River just a bit for irrigation. What they didn’t plan on was a deluge of winter rains 2 years in a row that sent the river flowing in torrents following this diversion in a big way and filling up an area known as Salton Sink. SS was an ancient sea and that means that the rock around this area is mostly salt. Instead of a little water there is now a huge body of water that is 6% salter that the oceans and getting saltier every day. The area is still referred to as the Imperial Valley and it does have a lot of date palms, but the dreams of being an agriculture mecca never materializes. But what did happen is in the 50’s developers see this huge lake (largest in California) and make it a tourist mecca. They build resorts, there is boating, golfing, nightclubs, beaches, campgrounds, oh it is heaven! Big names come here Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra to name a few. However, what they don’t count on is there is little rain and the lake is evaporating (there are some streams feeding into it but not enough) and it is getting saltier and saltier and the fish are dying, and the lake is shrinking and all the fun stuff is going away. In twenty years’ time this is a ghost town. Gone are the people, the fish, the boating, the swimming, nightclubs, golf courses all of it. Only thing left is the camping.

What To Do While At the Salton Sea since fishing swimming boating out

Bombay Beach and Sacrament Mountain

Asked the ranger at the Visitor Center what to do around here. We are directed to Bombay Beach. BB use to be a huge tourist area on the Salton Sea, now it has a population of 250 who are living very cheaply in old, old trailers. Of course, we had to go see, and to our eyes it wasn’t “art” just people throwing their crap on the beach and calling it art. Some of it is very whimsical, but art – no.

Sacrament Mountain was created by some guy who got the calling to paint a mountain with all the bible sayings. I don’t know, call him crazy but people flock there to take pics (us included) and marvel at all the work this guy put into this for what? We left a donation.

SalvationMt

Ladder and Painted Canyon Hike

Ladder and Painted Canyon Trail

For the books this is the 2^nd hardest hike of our adventure. Was a real challenge to find the way into the canyon; then along comes a group that has done it before and they slipped into the crack in the wall and voila! See arrow on pic. It is only 5 miles of climbing up rocks using ladders and hand holds, walking along the slot canyon in deep sand, a mile and half walk along the ridge in the hottest sun of the day, then repelling down the canyon walls using ropes and finally the long sloshing thru sand back to trailhead. And we went early to avoid the sun ridge part but didn’t plan on how hard and long it would take us to climb up to the ridge. No complaints and Ty and I remarked that we were probably the oldest people on this trail and we made it all the way. I planned better too, had lots of water and snacks! When we got back to camp congratulating ourselves on the accomplishment; all we could muster for dinner was bourbon. 17,000 steps and 1,700 calories…Yipee!

Ranger at Visitor Center told us about this hike and I went back to tell them we did it and it was great. Turns out the Ranger never did this hike! It is rated moderate in All Trails, but we disagree.

Pointing the Way

Instead of carrions leading the way we were told to follow the arrows. Before we came upon on we were looking on the rocks for a painted arrow, then we look down and there on the ground is the arrow. Can’t miss it.

Nov 17-19 Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree Rock Formations

Definitely on our bucket list and glad we made it. Still in the desert, it is where the Colorado and Mojave Deserts overlap so the topiary is the same, sand, scrub, rocks however gone are the Saguaro, and Organ Pipes replaced by the Joshua Tree and unusual rock formations. Joshua Tree’s is a cross between a cactus and pine tree with very long needles (it is actually a succulent) and it only grows in this area. Park initially was a National Monument and in 1994 was designated as a National Park. There is a valley in this area called the Hidden Valley and was used by cattle rustlers. We hiked into that area, another crack in the wall to get in and this whole area of a valley surrounded by huge rock formations appeared before us. Obvious why cattle rustlers hid out here. Also hiked up to a mine, still am in awe at these miners that hiked in for miles for gold. Rest of the hikes were the short tourist types to look at the very unusual rock formations.

Tent Camping

THE GOOD WIFE: made camping reservations for Joshua, then the day before we were to show up we get a call wanting to know how big our rig is. Turns out Wanda is too big to maneuver the roadways in the campground. The park ranger was so nice as we explained that we have no place to store Wanda for the 3 nights and she made arrangements for us to park in the Horse Campground. Ty was estatic…finally he gets to use all the tenting gear we have been lugging around. Parked Wanda loaded up all the gear and headed for our original campsite.

I really tried to be a good wife tent camper as I know this is what Ty really wanted to do. However, I will say that this is definitely the last time I tent camp. First of all, you have to bring an enormous amount of “stuff” with you just to survive 3 nights. Blankets, pillows, sleeping mats, flashlights, warm clothes, more blankets, then daytime clothes, pots and pans, dishes, eating utensils, stuff to wash it with, food (more on that later) and water. LOTS OF WATER. Of course, we had to go and buy 2 Styrofoam (sorry Janis) coolers because we don’t have any coolers, jugs of water, ice everyday;  gawd it just goes on and on! Dinners consisted of the feezed dried concoctions and actually they are really tasty or I was just really hungry (and cold) that even the desert sand would be good – and there was plenty of that in our food. See?

Now for the fun part…getting out of the tent in the morning resulted me in a downward dog position, then a forward bend for about 10 minutes before my back finally released and I could stand up. The nights were really cold, sitting by the campfire all bundled up then the thought of going into the tent and shedding clothing to get into sleeping bags was not looked forward to. Once all snuggled into the sleeping bag precariously perched on a blow-up mattress pad which son-in-law Scotty declared: “once you sleep on this mattress you will never want to sleep in your regular bed again”. Don’t know what he smokes but that never crossed my mind. Suffered thru 2 nights at 40 degrees and windy (had to use ear plugs so not to hear the rain fly flapping) with wearing a winter hat, socks, and blankets over my head when I had to admit to Ty that this is not for me. We spent the last night in Wanda at the Horse Camp. Lovely.

Catalina Hot Springs RV view

DESERT HOT SPRINGS CA

I am so geographically challenged sometimes. I always assumed that Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Thousand Palms were on the coast (which is our final destination this year). I was surprised to find out that these places were no more than a hour drive from Joshua Tree, NOT on the coast and that was good because we are in need of a place to just hunker down, regroup (laundry) and stay away from people since Covid is spiking everywhere.

This area has a lot of RV parks for the snowbirds of all sorts; the big ritzy age restricted ones ($$$$) and the family ones ($$$) and the permanent trailer parks ($$), and a Dell Webb Sun City which is HUGE. We settled for the family style which is more in line with our comfort and pocketbook style. Catalina RV Park and Hot Springs – which is a nice soaked pool that I have taken up on most days/night.

Meet Tamera and Bob Hanson

Have met a very nice couple who are down here till March but have the same distancing values that we have. We meet at each other rigs for early cocktails (dark here by 5pm), sitting 6ft or greater from each other, don’t share food or drinks with exception of shots of coconut Tequila which is kicker. Tamera and Bob Hanson and they hail from Big Bear Ca, but like us have sold it all and will hit the road for traveling around come March. Actually, they were full-timers for about 8 years, then went back into home ownership for awhile and are now back at it full time. Fun couple and we are glad to make their acquaintance as we are a little starved to talk to someone different for a change up.

Palm Oasis

This area has a lot of what is called Palm Oasis. Hiked into an area that is desert and then all of a sudden come upon an Oasis. Pretty cool. Ty likes to call these palms hula palms

Thanksgiving

A quiet one for sure, made Cornish hens, pumpkin pie, green beans, a jellied cranberry sauce and crescent rolls. Hung the Christmas decorations while dinner cooked.

Then spent the afternoon in the Hot Springs, soaking up all the goodness. We were thankful that we were able to have such a wonderful life during all this turmoil, that we have seen some incredible, beautiful USA, that our family is healthy and safe..

Will be staying here till Dec 4 then head over to the coast for our final destination of 2020.

Picture Gallery to End With

Forgive me for all the pictures – we found this area so beautiful and at every turn had our cameras out taking another. Just had to share them here.

juniper joshua tree organ pipe Saguaro JoshuaTree and Yucca Saguaro Forest great sand dunes