Colorado River Float Trip (5/15/07)

The float trip started at the Glen Canyon Dam - which is now a national security site, so we had to put all our backpacks on a separate truck when we got to the gate, and then our bus took us down through a two mile tunnel through the rocks to the base of the dam. Later, on the river, we could see the adits ("windows") into the tunnel sloping down from the top of the cliff where we started to just above the river. There is no lighting in the tunnel except the adits every so often, which also let in air, and were used to push out the excavated rocks from the tunnel.

When we got to the base, they gave us all hard hats to wear to the rafts, since we were walking under the bridge over the river, and people sometimes through pennies off - 700 feet directly over our heads. While MythBusters recently proved that unlikely to be fatal, I think it would probably hurt, so I didn't mind the hard hat!

There were dinosaur tracks in the rock at the bottom of the ramp, or at least very good replicas - they looked just like the tracks in the stone over at Tuba City. Sort of like giant ostrich tracks with 3 toes.

Our guide's name was Kelli, and she was more into history than natural history, which is okay with me since I know the natural history pretty well, having spent two weeks in a Geology of the Colorado Plateau honors field class, along with all my other geology, botany, ecology, desert ecology, etc classes and all the reading I've done, too! But Kelli focused on John Wesley Powell and his trip down this same river, showed us places where he climbed to the top, or waterpockets where he got fresh water (back then, before the dam, the Colorado was so muddy it was said to be "too thick to drink, too thin to plow"!). We also heard stories of his journey, saw formations he had named from his perspective, like Monk Rock. We stopped at some petroglyphs, went around the famous "Horseshoe Bend," saw nesting herons, ducklings, and white-faced Ibis along the river. Heard Canyon Wrens and Swifts, and in the deep shade of a canyon wall, saw a bat overhead so clearly you could see its "fingers" in its wing!

It was a nice day on the river, but one thing that was too bad is that they wouldn't let us hop on a bus from Lee's Ferry where we were camped and then take the raft back "home," saving us 2 hours of driving. The bus companies are all different contractors, I guess, and they said the one from that morning was full, anyway. So we had to drive into Page, float down the river to Lee's Ferry, get bused back to Page, and drive back to Lee's Ferry. We had dinner at Stromboli's in Page and got back after dark, pretty tired!!

For information on Glen Canyon Colorado River Float Trips, go to www.raftthecanyon.com

Navajo Country and Lee's Ferry (5/14/07)

Navajo Country

The road north (89) from Flagstaff goes through some beautiful "Indian Country" - interesting rock formations, mesas, badlands of the Painted Desert ("melting" shale hills of the Chinle formation), and small settlements with their hogans. The Navajo people in this area seemed like they may have been fairly well off or at least comfortable. Hogans were next to "regular" houses, and were framed, stuccoed, cement, paneled, or had siding. I think I saw one or two of the more traditional logs and adobe mortar, too, but most were "modern" hogans. Hogans are round or have six sides and the front doors always face east. Navajo culture is very infused with the appreciation of natural beauty, and many of their healing ceremonies are about restoring ones spirit to the path of beauty. The hogan is their traditional dwelling, but I think nowadays may be used more for ceremony and gatherings than day-to-day living. Or maybe it's the "mother-in-law unit" of the Navajo - ha. I kept thinking of how the US "gave" all this "useless" land to the Navajo - and how it is so beautiful and how that beauty is so important to them. The best natural resource of all, I'd say. It made me think of this Navajo Prayer, which I would quote to my groups when I used to lead loop trips through Yosemite's High Sierra. I would read it to them on Sunday morning, as we prepared for a 10 mile day heading down to Merced Lake from Sunrise, after a tough day getting up the "switchbacks from hell" to Sunrise the day before. The prayer has healing powers, I'm sure!

Navajo Prayer

House made of Dawn
House made of Evening Light
House made of Dark Cloud
House made of Male Rain
House made of Dark Mist
House made of Female Rain
House made of Pollen
House made of Grasshoppers

Dark cloud is at the door.
The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zig-zag lightning stands high upon it.
An offering I make.

Restore my feet for me.
Restore my legs for me.
Restore my body for me.
Restore my mind for me.
Restore my voice for me.
This very day, take out your spell for me.

Happily, I recover.
Happily, my interior becomes cool.
Happily, I go forth.
My interior feeling cool, may I walk.
No longer sore, may I walk.
Impervious to pain, may I walk.
With lively feelings, may I walk.
As it used to be long ago, may I walk.

Happily may I walk.
Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant showers, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant plants, may I walk.
Happily, on a trail of pollen, may I walk.
Happily may I walk.
Being as it used to be long ago, may I walk.

May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.
In beauty it is finished.

Lee's Ferry

After crossing the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River, we turned off to check out Lee's Ferry. Lee's Ferry is where the only crossing of the Colorado was for miles and miles for the early settlers, and now it is the put-in for river trips down the Grand Canyon, and the take-out for river trips down what is left of Glen Canyon below the dam in Page. It is a beautiful setting, with the Vermillion Cliffs as a backdrop to the north and west, and other, equally red cliffs to the south and east, with a campground overlooking the Colorado River right above Pariah Riffle. Pariah Riffle is the first rapid that Grand Canyon trips go through, and is formed where the Pariah River enters the Colorado. We had a great campsite with a view of the river and could hear the rapids as we slept. The first night we both laid out in our lounge chairs and stargazed in the warm desert evening. The next night, Devin ended up going out alone and sitting under the stars for an hour or so after midnight. He says it was magical. Warm desert evening with billions of stars and the sound of the river rushing by. We camped there two nights, enjoying the white noise of the rapids, the changing light on the red rocks, and the starry night skies. We went down to the put-in area and watched as the huge pontoon rafts were set up from semi trucks the day before their departure - it was quite the scene! They left the next morning and we could hear the "whoo!" as they went over their first rapid and got a small taste of things to come. We would love to do a Grand Canyon river trip some day!! Of course, you need reservations way in advance, and lots of planning and preparation for those, so we settled on a float trip from Page back to Lee's Ferry the next day.

That night we had a gourmet barbecue feast! We had purchased a "Santa Maria Style" marinated vacuum sealed tri-tip roast from Trader Joe's before leaving, and this was to be its night to be barbecued! So we got out our Weber Baby Q and the grilling supplies, and our new meat thermometer (Christmas Gift from Darby and Jean, making its debut performance) and set to work. Devin enjoyed playing with the Meat Thermometer - it is a remote digital style one, and once he figured it out, it worked great! I got to work making appropriate side dishes - it was hot, so I didn't want to cook inside, so I made some things to share the grill:

Veggie Grill Pockets

This idea came from our friend Anita - she did this out at Coon Hollow last December:

• Take whatever veggies you'd like to grill and place them on foil squares - I put Carrots, Brussels Sprouts, and Onions on the bottom, since they can take longer to cook, and broccoli and mushrooms on top.
• Sprinkle on whatever seasoning you like with your veggies - I used lemon pepper
• Add some dabs of butter
• Wrap tightly and place on the grill
• Leave it on the grill till it's steaming hot - we just left it on as long as the meat, which was about 45 minutes on low heat to get all the way done - the broccoli was a bit overdone, but the rest was perfect!
  

Speedy Grilled Potatoes

I thought baked potatoes would be good with the tri-tip, but they take so long, so we did this, instead:

• To speed it up, if needed, par boil potatoes
• Slice into "Texas Fries" - slice large baking potato in half, then the halves into lengthwise strips. We made each strip about 1/8 of the large baking russet we had, but if you slice them thinner, they'll cook faster, but they may fall through the grill! Also, if you have a short potato, you can skip cutting it in half. Another way to speed up the cooking is to par boil them all cut up, which is what I did.
• Take potatoes out of water when you can stick a cooking fork in a little easier, and let them drain or pat dry on paper towels (the whole par-boiling can be skipped and then you go directly to the next step)
• Toss potatoes in a bit of olive oil and seasonings - I used Rosemary, Balsamic Vinegar, and some of Trader Joe's "21 Seasoning Salute."
• Place directly on grill!
• Turn over after they start to get grill marks on one side
  

The only problem with these is that it takes a while to turn them all over individually - if you have a larger grill, you could put them in a grilling basket and turn them all at once. Keeping the lid of the 'cue open longer made the meat take longer to cook - but that was okay, because it gave more time for the side dishes! These were DELICIOUS!!!

Blackwater, Bakery, and Bonito (5/13/07)

Dump Station Event

When we left Dead Horse Ranch State Park, we went to their dump station to dump our wastewater tanks, as usual, and had an "event" - no, it was nothing like Robin Williams in "RV"! But sort of funny in a gross way... While we were there, another RV pulled up in the next lane (there were two sewage drains in the same concrete pad) and started getting their hoses set up to dump their tanks, too. Now, dumping isn't really all that bad, for those of you who've never done it out there. There is a procedure - and specialized equipment to make it easier and neater. We use a PVC elbow to connect the flexible hose to the drain hole in the ground. Another important piece of specialized equipment is "the rock." There is always a rock that people place judiciously on their hose-drain connection to make sure the waste goes down the drain! Some drain fittings have threads and we can screw one side of our elbow connector right in so there is no need for a rock, but many don't, so the rock is a bit of insurance to make sure the hose doesn't come out while dumping. Other specialized equipment we use is a small folding chair, hand sanitizer, and oh yeah, common sense!

The pieces of equipment our dump neighbors were lacking were the latter, the elbow connector, and the rock. The man put their hose directly into the hole, and the woman came over to "help" and put her foot on the hose, which popped it back out of the hole and pointed it at us! Neither noticed this before pulling the valve release handle on their RV and sending their blackwater streaming toward us, though I was saying "Oh no! Stop!" Luckily, it didn't come out with the force of a geyser like in the movie, and was mostly clear liquid, and Devin managed to avoid the stream, but it was funny to watch the woman, with her foot on the hose holding it out of the hole, saying "DO SOMETHING!!" to her husband!! Ha. They apologized multiple times and we said, hey, it all smells the same whether it's yours or someone else's, and we ALL sooner or later have "accidents" at dump stations! That's why we are always careful what we touch and use hand sanitizer immediately afterwards.

Some words about waste... when you carry around your own water supply (we have a 75 gallon tank) and your own waste, you become acutely aware of conservation. One thing we find is our grey water (from the sinks and shower) fills much faster than the black water (from the toilet). RV toilets are very water conserving, and ours has a little hose you can use if you need to clean the bowl rather than filling it all the way up with water. We have a system of wash and rinse water for dishes, where we keep both in tubs, and last time's wash water becomes the dirty pre-rinse water of the next set of dishes, and last time's clean rinse water becomes the soapy dishwater. So by the time the water is ready to dump, it's been used to rinse, wash and pre-rinse dishes. We then dump it down the toilet since that tank fills slower. This, along with our solar panel set up, extends our stay when "boondocking" or "dry camping," which is what we did for a week in the Kaibab National Forest.

But I get ahead of myself - back to the journey!

Flagstaff

We arranged to meet our friend Graci for breakfast at Brandy's in East Flagstaff the next day, and had a nice visit, meal, and got some great baked goods for the road. Graci was moving to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon that day, and starting work with the NPS the next day. We caught her between finals and moving!

We stayed that night at Sunset Crater National Monument. The Forest Service Campground, Bonito, just outside the Park is very nice. We learned a valuable lesson the next day - we both thought the other was in a hurry to get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, so we did not unhook and stay an extra day to explore Sunset Crater :( We both said later that we would have liked to do that. Better communication next time, and we won't miss any more opportunities to explore.

Sedona (5/12/07)

The next day we drove into Sedona - I was expecting it to be in a deep canyon (Oak Creek Canyon) but it is out in the open with great views of surrounding red rock formations. It's a nice town, and I can see why people like it, but the north part of it before you get to Oak Creek Canyon heading up to Flagstaff is VERY touristy! Tons of Jeep tours of the surrounding red rock areas. Not as many new age crystal healing type places as I had expected to see - I guess that part of the community has been somewhat eclipsed by the tourism part, at least on the surface. After eating breakfast at a nice little cafe in the other part of town (Taste Cafe), we stopped in at the Visitor Center (and got free cookies because it was "Tourist Appreciation Week"! Yay us!) and got some basic information and maps of the Jeep trails we wanted to explore. We would have liked a much better map, but the National Forest map for $10 wasn't all that much better and for one day of exploring, we decided to forgo buying it.

Schnebly Hill: We started with Schnebly Hill Road, and it was quite scenic! The road leads to views of Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon and the surrounding redrock formations from the Mogollon Rim. Not really a Jeep trail, though, since we saw quite a few regular cars - though it was pretty rough for a regular car. On top, we tried the "Hot Loop" trail for a short distance to get to the very top of the mesa. The Jeep does very well! Later we found out that T.C. Schnebly founded Sedona, and the town is named after his wife (after the postmaster general in Washington rejected his other ideas of Oak Creek Crossing and Schnebly Station!)

Broken Arrow: Next we wanted to try the famous "Broken Arrow" trail, which is maintained jointly by the Forest Service and Pink Jeep Tours. Pink Jeep is the largest and most highly regarded of the Jeep tour companies in Sedona, and they have an arrangement that they are the only tour company to use the Broken Arrow trail. The place was crawling, literally, with Pink Jeeps! Ha. On overhearing the guides at the beautiful "Submarine Rock" formation, I was impressed with their knowledge of geology and natural history, and also of their concern for the environment. They obviously talked about staying on the trail, responsible backroad use, preserving native flora and fauna, etc. I saw one guide bending over an Agave by the trail up the rock and talk about how it was getting trashed by people walking on it, or maybe driving over it. It was neat to see that level of caring in a tour guide.

The trail is interesting, in that at the beginning is a roadblock of rocks across the trail, obviously meant to keep out non-high clearance vehicles. There is a parking lot by it so folks can walk or mountain bike into the area, but it is open to private parties in their own or rental off-road vehicles. We saw mostly Jeeps, but one Hummer (which I think would have been too wide to go much farther than where we saw them). We actually scraped a little bit going over the "entrance" rocks - we are basically stock - the slightly larger BF Goodrich off road tires give us only about a half inch lift from stock. Most folks doing these sorts of trails will get a lift kit and lift their Jeeps 2-3 inches, but that would make it a bit hard for Devin to get into and out of, and since it's our only car now, that's not practical. Shortly after entering the trail is your first climb over slickrock, and a sign saying "if you can't make this climb, turn back now" which gives you an idea of more fun to come. We made it no problem, and all the others as well.

Devil's Kitchen: At the first fork in the road, we went right, and accidentally discovered the "Devil's Kitchen" sinkhole. That's where we saw the Hummer. And two people up above the sinkhole preparing to rappel down into it. So we stuck around to get photos! After the man had rappelled down, two pretty large loose rocks fell down from the wall and hit him right on his hardhat! I saw the rocks fall, then heard a loud THWACK! and an equally loud "OUCH!" It's a good thing he was wearing a hardhat and that the rocks hit him there, instead of an arm - I think they would have broken his arm. The woman rappelled down with ease and smiled and waved for the camera, then we left. Hope they made it out okay!

And I hope they didn't disturb any bats, since May is when they start having babies. Their ropes were mostly in the air, and not on the sinkhole walls, so I think they had a good chance of not disturbing baby bats. The sinkhole was fenced off with barbed wire, had "revegetation/restoration area" signs outside it, and there was an interpretive sign in the parking lot on not disturbing the bats, so I had mixed feelings about watching the couple rappel into the sinkhole, but I didn't figure saying anything would help, since none of the signs or fences did, so I just took photos and chatted about climbing.

Submarine Rock: When we went back out to the main trail, we followed a convenient Pink Jeep to another side trip - Submarine Rock. I followed the tour groups up and listened in on the geology schpiel a bit, and took photos. The road up there was a bit exciting - the steepest attempted so far in the Jeep. Oh but there was more to come!

Mushroom Rock and the Road of No Return:

At the next fork, we went right again - with no map to guide us, we weren't sure where this lead, but Devin had seen Jeeps crawling around on the slickrock there, so we went up. First we came to a rock that looked like a giant mushroom, and discovered that the trail went around the rock! Next we went up a very steep hill that Devin wasn't to thrilled about coming back down, so I scouted the trail ahead while he sat up on the slickrock with a great view down to Submarine Rock below. The trail seemed to keep going, and before long, another group of Pink Jeeps came along, so we decided to watch where they went and what they did. They had some fun with their passengers, is what they did!!

There is a loop over the slickrock after the steep grade, and we had a perfect view as Pink Jeep after Pink Jeep toyed with their passengers and we heard screams, squeals and lots of nervous laughter. On driver actually stopped at the steepest part of the descent and handed out brochures - ha!! A couple in a rental Jeep had come up just ahead of the pack of Pink Jeeps and after watching them do the loop, they decided to try it, too. Jeff, the guy, said he was afraid of doing a "Dukes of Hazzard" at the end, but they executed the descent perfectly. They had a hand-drawn map of the trails from their rental company (Farrabee) which was much better than what we had, and they shared it with us - we were considering going back, but this was a one way road! Good thing we looked at the map. They also gave us something to look forward to/dread - at the end of this side-loop were the infamous stairsteps back down to the main trail. Oh boy.

So we continued on, and when we got to the stairsteps, I could NOT believe that this was a road!! We were going straight down!! I thought we were going to flip end over end, and all I could say is "ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod" in a rather shrill voice. Devin was laughing. He's evil! He wanted the camera to get a picture of my face, but the battery died. Finally, when I realized we really weren't going to flip, I got the spare battery in and tried to take some pictures with my sweaty, shaking hands! But the Jeep handled it all with aplomb. Devin also is a very good driver, and knew to keep it slow and controlled, unlike that video we saw online of the Bronco going out of control and flipping over coming down the Lion's Back in Moab. After this, though, the Lion's Back should be no problem for us - ha!

After we got to the bottom we pulled over and just were laughing - so elated to be alive - ha!

We decided not to finish the rest of the trail (we missed Chicken Point and some more views) because it was getting late and we had to drive back to Cottonwood. We did drive up Oak Creek Canyon, past Slide Rock State Park, just to check it out, since we would not be going that way in the Moho to Flagstaff tomorrow. We enjoyed our day of exploring around Sedona, and would recommend Pink Jeep Tours to anyone coming to the area who wants a thrill and a good tour - be sure to take the Broken Arrow trail!

(If this slideshow doesn't work for you, or if you'd like to see it larger, go to our Picasa Web Album (picasaweb.google.com/devinandmaggie/) and click on the Sedona Album and click "View Slideshow" for a fullscreen version.)

Jerome (5/11/07)

Jerome was really neat! And boy are we glad we didn't drive the Moho through the mountains and Jerome - steep grades, very tight turns, overhanging rocks... it would have been a white knuckle experience for certain. Jerome is an old mining town that is perched precariously on the side of the mountain overlooking Clarkdale and Cottonwood in the valley below. There is a big copper mine next to (and below!) the town, which was mined out and Jerome's population fell drastically when there was no more ore. Typical story, except Jerome is still very much alive - some people do live there, and there are lots of businesses - pretty much all aimed at tourism, but still it feels pretty thriving since it was quite busy on a Friday afternoon in early May.

We stopped and got some ice cream at a little shop there, and saw a cyclist that I recognized from two days before, when we were climbing the biggest grade up to Prescott! I asked, and it turns out he is from Manhattan Beach and is cycling across America, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and raising money for Manhattan Beach Schools! He has a blog on CrazyGuyonaBike.com

After enjoying our ice cream and the view, we explored some more on a dirt road out of town past the "Gold King Mine" which was interesting - it's the place where old trucks go to die, apparently! I think I saw a Herkemer Battle Jitney! Ha. At least an REO Speedwagon or two. It had a sign by the entrance that it was the "friendly ghost town" (I wonder if Caspar lives there?) but belying that statement, later when the gate was closed was a sign that read "if you can read this, you are in range" Ha! They take trespassing after hours pretty seriously here, I guess! We drove past and a ways on the dirt road to Perkinsville, which is on the Verde River, and got some nice views across the valley to the red rocks of Sedona in the late afternoon light. Didn't drive all the way to the river as it was getting late. There is a scenic train ride along the Verde that leaves from Clarkdale, just below Jerome, and it looks quite nice, but we decided to save our money and do more exploring in the Jeep. For more about Jerome, check out this Desert USA article.

That night there was a wonderful campfire program at our State Park - Music from "Harpy Trails," local folk musicians. They had a great song about Jerome sliding down the mountain - we learned about the "travelling jail" and they sang many other new and old songs of the west that put a nice finish on the day.

Arizona - the first few days (5/9-10/07)

Entering Arizona

First Day: Sense of Place is interesting - you don't expect to see much real difference when crossing a political border like a state line, but the border from California to Arizona at Blythe is different - first, there's the river. Crossing the still wide Colorado (before it empties its last irrigation in the Imperial Valley) and that swath of green lets you know you've crossed a real boundary. Then there is the vegetation - suddenly saguaros! The rocks change gradually to more Arizona style jagged desert peaks and shale "badlands," but you don't see Saguaros in California - Ocotillo, Cholla, Creosote, Prickly Pear, Yucca, but no Saguaros. Shortly after crossing the Colorado River, the first Saguaros show up on the red rocky hillsides, and you know you are in Arizona!

We drove out to Alamo Lake State Park for our first night back on the road. Very hot this time of year, but very nice out there. We enjoyed some of the old tourist signs in towns along the way - cute little motels with funny names, like "Burro Jim's," and a cafe that had a sign out front that said "Hot Beer, Lousy Food, Bad Service - Welcome!"

Prescott: The second night, we made it over some tough grades and windy roads to Prescott. We had internet access in the campground at Lynx Lake, since it wasn't too far from town, and Devin researched roads to avoid burning up the transmission on more roads like that! He discovered the Mountain [Roads] Directory, which has a webpage with the Arizona part free! It lists all of the grades, speed limits, curves, etc, for most mountain roads so you can make informed decisions about whether to drive your rig on them. The route we had been planning to take from Prescott to Sedona (continuing on 89 and 89A) was going to be even worse than yesterday, so we made a slight change in plans. Drive the Moho on the main highway and explore on the Jeep. We liked Prescott, and can see why Janet and Art loved it there and would love to move back someday. The old part of town with Courthouse Square is lovely!

On the way out through Prescott Valley the next day, we stopped at Ace Hardware to get some hose plugs for our water system - it had been leaking very little through the fill valve, and we decided to outfit most of our connections (grey water, tank flush, and fresh fill) with quick connects, so we would plug the other side of the quick connect until we attached a hose. Quick connects are great - we already have them on our water filter/fill system and it makes it so easy to just hook up and fill. Anyway, we had a $20 gift certificate for Ace from Devin's cousin Dave (from two Christmases ago) and we were excited to finally use it! When I went to check out, though, there was a problem. After getting two levels of managers involved and making a call to India, where the customer service for the gift card apparently was, they finally were able to give me credit. They were very nice through all of this, and even though the gift card was apparently "expired" (I thought that was illegal!!) they gave me store credit and we got our quick connect hose plugs and also a couple of bird feeders! I would definitely shop at Ace again - excellent customer service!

We drove that day to Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, near Sedona. It is a very nice state park along the Verde River - Arizona's only designated Wild and Scenic River (wait, what about the Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado? Doesn't that count?) Our campsite was up away from the river but had some desert trees around it for a bit of shade. We put out our awning and put out our new bird feeders and made ourselves at home. We saw roadrunners right away, catching lizards, and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds where whirring around as well. After a quick lunch of cold chicken we had gotten in Prescott (what a good idea to have food ready when you pull in after driving!), we headed up to Jerome in the Jeep.

Back in the U.S.A. (backtracking to April...)

Maybe we ARE trailer park people...
We spent a few weeks in Southern California after the Baja portion of our trip, doctor and dentist appointments (Devin got a root canal - fun, fun, fun!) visiting family and friends, and getting lots of little things taken care of. We spent a week longer than planned because Devin got a kidney infection and his doctor told him to just rest in bed - and stay there! So we watched a lot of movies and did little projects around the Moho. We stayed again at East Shore RV Park in the Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, and this time we stayed in the upper level in the "preferred" sites - wow. They are really nice! On clear days, that is. Smog ruins everything. But on clear days, or stormy days, both of which we had, the view was fantastic! San Gabriel Mountains looming up and sometimes cloud covered or snow dusted, and Puddingstone Reservoir just below. City lights off to the west and fantastic sunsets. We saw tons of birds there - to name a few:

• Ash-throated Flycatchers,
• Roadrunner (with a lizard!),
• Western Bluebirds,
• Western Tanager,
• Osprey,
• Goshawk (!),
• House Finches trying to nest in everyone's RV vents,
• Lesser Goldfinches,
• Cormorants,
• Mallards,
• California Towhees,
• Black-shouldered Kite,
• Turkey Vultures,
• Red-tail Hawks,
• Cliff Swallows,
• Bank Swallows,
• Rough-winged Swallows - lots of swallows!

There were more, but I can't think of them now. It's actually a great place - we found out there is a four year waiting list for a permanent space in the "C" Loop where we were. I can see why - you can live in the city and save lots of money on rent (I think the monthly rate there was $600-$700, plus utilities) and live right across the lake from million dollar mansions. If we liked San Dimas more, we'd consider it. So, a change of tune from the last RV Park story - I guess we could live in an RV Park if the conditions are right. The spaces were far apart from each other so each one had a "yard" and space around it for privacy, there were trees and grass, plus the wildlife from the regional park, which the sites bordered. There were trails just behind us down into the California Sage Scrub, with large patches of yellow-blooming Prickly Pear, Laurel Sumac, California Sagebrush, and other native plants. Every night, bunnies would leave little "presents" on our step, too (it's green astro-turf - I think they came up to try out the different grass and were disappointed and pooped on it - ha).

This park is really set up well with many services - they deliver propane right to your site on Fridays, they have various vendors that come in and offer services such as detailing and repair work - we had David Madrid from "Higher Power" Detailing come and wash and detail the RV - he spent almost 5 hours doing a very thorough pressure wash, wax and polish, including the roof, tires/wheels, and awning! The Moho looks really nice. We also had Bob Lodahl (RV service) come out and wire up our house batteries so they will do auxiliary charging of the engine battery, since our LP gas and CO/CO2 alarms are wired to the engine battery, when it gets low, they go off - usually in the middle of the night, which isn't very pleasant. Now, the engine battery will stay charged and that won't happen - yay! But in spite of the convenience, nice environment, wildlife, and views on good days, this is not why we bought our RV, so we were quite glad when we finally got out of there and got back on the road again.

Joshua Tree

We took one break from trailer park life when they were full one weekend and we had to move out - so we went to Joshua Tree. We stayed at Cottonwood and did a little exploring - the Geology Tour Road and Cholla Gardens, and relaxed and remembered why we are really doing this trip!

Family and Friends

San Diego: People we visited while in the area were, first Devin's brother Darby, in San Diego, who took us out to brunch (Mexican Food) our first day back from Mexico - thanks, Darby! Then my niece and her husband, Sam and Paul. We got to see their "new" house (which interestingly is only about a mile from Darby and Jean's house in San Diego!) and they took us out to a delicious Mediterranean/Italian restaurant and we got all caught up - it's been quite a while since we visited with them, and we missed them! Sam loves her job at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore as the Young Adult Program Coordinator, and Paul recently left the Navy for an ideal job, converting his old plane, the S-3, into a fire-fighting plane. He is an aeronautical engineer, pilot, and flew THAT plane in Afghanistan off of the Aircraft Carrier Stennis (he is even mentioned in a "This American Life" Episode, "Somewhere in the Arabian Sea," by his call sign, "Rainman.") So he is perfect for the job, and he loves it! He gets to work from home, or fly the company plane to work when needed, he gets to be the test pilot and they are sending him to test pilot school, which is what he wanted to do in the Navy but they were jacking him around. So he is excited, and it's so great to see them both following their dreams!

Norco/Whittier: We of course visited Devin's Dad, Kent, and his wonderful "girlfriend" Marge - we are glad we got to see her one more time before she went back to Wisconsin. She's a lovely and fun person! We stayed with them while getting new tires to replace the flat tire from Mexico and the older spare we had, and also to fix a small differential leak. We went down to Norco to visit Devin's sister, Janet and her husband, Art, and we helped them all celebrate April Birthdays - Darby, Jean and Janet - we helped by making a Baja style taco stand - sort of! It rained, so our plan to have it outside fell through, but it all tasted just as good and was a hit. We invited my sister Gloria to the party and she got to meet Devin's family and they got to meet her, which was great! Both sides said they really enjoyed meeting one another and had a great time.

Pasadena: After getting the Moho back and visiting family, we headed for East Shore RV Park, as mentioned previously, and Devin did a couple of weeks of contract/consulting work for the City of Pasadena, helping them with some migration of servers back to City Hall, which has been closed for earthquake retrofit for about a year now. We went to lunch with what was left of his old crew, Nathan, Serjik, and Charles. That was funny, because we were planning to go to a health food cafe and Roundtable Pizza - both so that Serjik, who eats only healthy food, and Charles, who eats only unhealthy foods, could eat together. Ha. But the power was out because of high winds and Roundtable was closed, so we ended up going to IHOP.

Redlands/Yucaipa: After finishing up our stay at San Dimas, we headed out to Camping World in San Bernardino to get a new toilet - big fun! The foot pedal on ours broke. So we ordered one to replace it - but with a hand flush to be easier for Devin, in "parchment" to match our tub and sink. They had one for us, put it in, and when we looked at it, it was a white foot pedal model! They were surprised, because they had marked the correct model, marked the correct box, but the toilet had been boxed/labeled incorrectly and the installer didn't check it against the invoice. They didn't have the correct model in stock, so we went at the last minute to Yucaipa Regional Park and got their last site before they closed - whew!

The next day we visited my sister Gloria for lunch at a nice little Mexican food place near her house, and then had a nice visit with my mom at Somerford Place, the Alzheimer's assisted living facility where she lives in Redlands. They are wonderful there! Gloria lives right across the street and visits almost daily, too, so that is very special. After a day of visits, we drove back to San Bernardino to get our second new toilet installed (they had sent it UPS from another store) and they did it quickly in the parking lot for free. Then we met up with my niece Jenny and her daughter Jessica at Chipotle in Redlands for lunch before heading out, and we hit the road!

Day Twenty Three, Saturday, April 7: San Quintin to San Diego

Today we decided to make a run for the border, left quite early, and headed north once again. Up to Ensenada we passed through familiar, yet unfamiliar territory. We both only vaguely remembered the scenery, farms, and towns from this section – I think we were both more focused on the white-knuckle driving before! Devin was an old pro at the Baja roads by now, though, and the roads north of San Quintin are definitely better and a bit wider than the ones south. So today went fairly quickly.

San Quintin, apparently, is one of the main flower growing areas in the world - but you won't see open fields of colorful flowers. Instead there are acres and acres of industrial size greenhouses, and they bus workers in from surrounding areas. Not as pretty as fields of flowers, but interesting - next time you get flowers sent to you, remember San Quintin!

One section we both remembered was the beautiful Valley of Santo Tomas. Ejido Uruapan is in this valley, with its camping and swimming resort owned by the ejido, which this time was full and lively, even though the weather was cool and cloudy. There is a winery and beautiful scenery leading both into and out of this valley, and we remembered appreciating it on the way south as well.

Ensenada was in full tilt for the holiday weekend, with horse-drawn carriages mingling with cars, trucks, buses and even ATVs on the main highway, and everyone out on the street shopping.

Once we got through Ensenada, we passed into new territory, following the toll roads to Tijuana rather than back through Tecate the way we came. The beach is full of development and resorts – half-built condos for Anglos – I wonder if the housing bust has had even greater effects down here? In Rosarito, there was a giant plastic Jesus on the hillside, with a light on his head. I thought, when Jesus said he was the way the truth and the light, I don’t think this is what he had in mind!! The beaches were packed with spring break campers from both Mexico and probably the US. More ATVs in the streets, and lots and lots of people.

Coming into Tijuana we saw THE WALL, and the lights, and the cleared area… still, there were loitering people nearby who looked like they wanted to brave it anyway. Tijuana is a huge city, and we just skirted it as we drove along the border, passing the infamous River District, where hundreds perished in floods several years back. The poverty didn't look as severe as it used to - maybe the road is just faster and we didn't get a good look, but in general, there did not seem to be as much desperation in Mexico as I remember from past visits. And there is definitely a growing middle class, as we saw from the families camping on the beaches for vacation during Semana Santa.

As we neared the border crossing and traffic became very dense, a couple of Tijuana policemen motioned us to the side and told us we didn’t use our blinker to change lanes. Bullshit. We are almost 50 feet long when we are towing the Jeep behind the 31' RV - no way is it even possible to change lanes in slow and heavy traffic like this without using our blinkers! This was a setup for “mordida” – they wanted a bribe!! I argued with the guy in Spanglish for a while – I was pissed!! Finally, we gave him our license and asked "what now?" He said he would give us a ticket and we said "OK." Then he said we’d have to go to the police station to pay it, and we said, “Okay!” Suddenly, he changed his tune, lost interest in us, and sent us on our way. No ticket, not even a warning. Apparently the idea of going to the police station scares most Gringos into paying the cop then and there. Hmmph. Tijuana is famous for dirty cops, and I guess with good reason. To my delight, the road, with traffic creeping along at about one mile an hour, circled around to an overpass with a great view of their little “operation”! When we got within view, I got out my camera that has 10x optical zoom and started snapping close-ups of those bastards. Guess what? They had pulled over ANOTHER RV!!! They were targeting RV’s, playing on RVers' fear of driving in Tijuana, on their fear of Mexican jails, perhaps their naivety, and definitely on their cash!! I was so mad, I yelled “MORDIDA!” out the window and Devin about had a heart attack – reminding me we were still in Mexico… oops. I kept taking photos until they BOTH noticed me. They looked pissed. I hope they are really worried!! It warms my heart to look at their faces – he he.

After such a wonderful trip, it’s too bad that our last taste of Mexico was the pit they call Tijuana. Traffic, corrupt cops, and trinkets, churros, and crap!!! Lining the road to the border were all sorts of vendors banging on our window and trying to get us to buy their cheap pieces of crap – I didn’t have a good attitude by that time because of the cops, and I wish I could say I enjoyed the zoo-like carnival, but I was just annoyed. I saw tee shirts that said unspeakable things – well, some were things I wanted to tell those bad cops – ha!

Let me pause here to say that I respect most policemen, and if I get pulled over in the states, it's probably because I was doing something wrong, and I always admit it and apologize. Everybody forgets and speeds once in a while, or forgets to use their blinker, or does something stupid, and I figure if I'm caught, I should admit it and pay the fine. I'm a pretty safe driver, so I haven't been pulled over in a long, long time, but just admitting fault and being polite often takes them by surprise and they just give a warning. The good cops, anyway. I had a housemate in Yosemite who was a law enforcement ranger and he told a story about pulling a guy over, asking if he knew why he was pulled over, and the guy said "because I was going 50 in a 40 zone." My housemate was so taken aback by his candor that he thanked him, and just gave him a warning. It's stupid to argue with cops - they know you know, and you know they know, and it just wastes everyone's time. If you were speeding or otherwise breaking a traffic law, suck it up and pay the fine! But this was a different story - these were NOT good cops, serving the public, keeping the highways safe. They were serving themselves, and keeping their pockets lined with bribe money! Grrrrr!

When we got to the border, we were pulled into secondary, sort of. I guess they usually go through RV’s, and a nice woman came in and took our oranges and avocado, while someone else went through our outside compartments. It only took a few minutes then we were set free – we were back safely in the US!! How will we get used to driving over 40 mph again?

Turns out it’s fairly easy. Devin said he’s already lost his edge, though, and is already using the entire lane. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Tsk tsk. We pulled into Campland on the Bay and got the last campsite that would fit us – this place is way more of a zoo than ANY of the beaches in Baja during Semana Santa! But it’s another kid heaven, and it’s fun to watch the kids enjoying running around. The people across from us seem to live here – they have a golf cart with spinners on it. Ha. It takes all kinds, and we are really not the trailer park kind, but it’s good to have internet access and a place to stop while we get our bearings again, visit with family (yummy brunch with Darby this morning in Old Town, tasty dinner with Sam and Paul the next day), and figure out what to do next.

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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip