White Tank Mountain Regionl Park 2/21/15

Arrival at White Tank Mountain Regional Park

We arrived at the campground early in the afternoon to meet our friends, Rich and Cathy and George and Estelle.  More couples will arrive over the next two days until we have a total of nine couples.  On Tuesday all of us will be caravanning to The Rally at the Phoenix International Raceway.  In the meantime, we are going to explore this park in the Arizona desert west of Phoenix.

We left home on Thursday morning and drove to the River Run RV Park in Bakersfield.  I wrote about it in my January blog.  It makes a nice waypoint for our travels into the southwest part of the country.

Friday was a long day of driving, about 379 miles, to Quartzsite, AZ.  At this time of year they are one hour ahead of California, so we had one less hour of daylight, according to the clock.  This view in the side view mirror caused us to pull over to the side of I-10 in southern California to get some photos.  I like the way the reflection in the side of the trailer makes it look like the trailer is transparent.  The tiny crescent moon and Venus can be seen in the upper left corner of the picture.  Perhaps it will be easier to see if you enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

 

We found a nice spot to park, for the night, on BLM land near the freeway on the east side of town.  This is our camp as seen in the morning when it got light again.  Quartzsite is much less active and less populated than it was when we were here in January.

Here is some of the scenery that we saw along I-10 in Arizona.  This is what the desert along I-10 looks like most of the way from Quartzsite to Buckeye, AZ.  That is, flat or slight rolling hills with some bushes and a few trees and mountains in the distance.  Sometimes, there isn't much scrub greenery and there is a more sandy appearance.

 

White Tank Mountain Regional Park campground is set in a beautiful native desert.  The sites are surrounded by vegetation and are spaced a good distance from each other as seen by the surrounding area of our campsite.  We have a large amount of room that is designated as our campsite.

 

We're the trailer in the middle.

 

After we were set up, we took a bike ride around the campground then went out on a trail that winds around behind our campsite.  These photos give you an idea of the surrounding area and the beautiful plants in this park.  The first is looking at our site from the trail.  You can see Phoenix in the distance.  The second is a general desert scene of a multitude of desert plants. 

 

We are looking forward to spending the next two days here.

Quartzfest 2015 Part 1

Thursday – Saturday, Jan. 15 – 17, 2015

We are headed to Quartzfest in Quartzsite, AZ.  Quartzfest is an Amateur Radio Operators Convention in the desert of southwestern Arizona.  Almost everyone attending is an RVer  We drove to the site over two days and spent Thursday night at River Run RV Park  in Bakersfield , CA.  It is a very nice park.  The sites are large and not crowded together.   However, because California has been in a drought for the last three plus years, the river was not running.  We arrived after dark, so the pictures that you see were taken on Friday morning before we left on the second leg of the trip.  It is a little foggy.  Here are photos of our campsite and the river as viewed from the back of our site.  Note that the river is supposed to be in the sandy looking beige area just before you get to the grassy bank in front of the houses.

We arrived at Road Runner BLM short term camping area after dark on Friday and found our friends Rich and Cathy, thanks to cell phones as there are no landmarks in the desert.  We set up  temporarily until morning when we would be able to get the lay of the land and decide where we really wanted to end up for the next week.

Saturday morning was spent repositioning and settling in.  This is dry camp meaning no hook-ups for water, electric, or sewer. We needed to get to a spot where our solar panels could collect sunlight for electricity.  Here is where we ended up.   There are some more folks coming to join us later in the week, so we will have a small circle, but for now there are only two RVs.  The chairs that appear to be in the middle of nowhere are saving space for the others who will arrive.

The first day of the RV Show that happens here in Quartzsite every January was also on Saturday.  We went to the Big Tent in the afternoon.  During the RV Show, the tent is filled with everything the RVer needs and “can’t live without”, everything from clothing and accessories, cooking items, food items as well as parts and pieces to repair and/or upgrade your RV, no matter what type of vehicle you have.  I forgot the camera, so there are no photos of that yet.  Those will come later when we return to see the rest of the displays.  We did find some “treasures” that we just had to have and seem to be able to find only at Quartzsite.

As you know by now, I like sunsets and we had a very nice one on Saturday night.  This is the view looking approximately west from where we are parked.  We had a campfire that can be seen in the foreground and Venus is located just above and to the left of the Palo Verde (bushy) tree in the middle of the picture.

Tomorrow is the official beginning of Quartzfest.  I have been very busy for the last few months and have not done any blogging.  While we are here, I am hoping to get some new posts up, in addition to the ones about Quartzfest, to fill in the blanks of our summer trip to Alaska, so you may get notifications of new posts that are dated between May and August of 2014.  It is not a mistake, just me trying to catch up.
 

Arlington, WA to Home 8/27 - 29/14

Day 117 - 119 of Our Summer Trip
Final leg of the four month adventure.

We had breakfast with my cousin, then we had to say good-bye and head for home.  We are planning to make these next few days travel days so we can get home by the weekend.  As we left Arlington, which is north of Seattle, the traffic became very heavy going through the Seattle area, even though we took the freeway that went around the main part of town.  Things cleared up the farther we got south of the Seattle metropolitan area, then we went into Portland, OR.  It had just as much traffic as Seattle with stop and go for miles.  It was only Wed., but we think there were some folks trying to get a jump on the Labor Day Holiday weekend, as well as the usual work day traffic.  We spent Wed. night in Albany, OR at the Blue Ox RV Park.  It was a very nice camp with concrete pads and a cute little seating area with the blue ox mascot and a nice shady area to sit and enjoy the surroundings.

On Thursday morning, we continued traveling south toward California. Driving on I-5, we heard a strange sound.  We looked around and, just next to us, a tent trailer blew a tire as he was passing us on the left.  We slowed down so he could get to the right side of the highway shoulder, then we stopped to check if anything had hit us and to help, if they needed it.  It turned out that this was a younger couple with three girls age about 6 - 11.  They were heading to Crater Lake, OR, from their home in Seattle, for the Labor Day Holiday.  We assisted some while the dad of the family changed the tire.  We had had blow outs on other trailers, so we knew what they were going through and they were glad to have our company on the busy highway.

Once we got on the road again, we followed this RV from Oregon and were trying to figure out what they were carrying on the back of their CRV.  When we enlarged the photo, we could see that there was a name on the items.  It turns out that these are some very expensive recumbent tricycles that are hanging on the bike rack bottom to bottom.  They are by a company called Catrike, if you care to look it up online.

Everything was going very smoothly until just after we got into CA.  You may know that California is in the third year of a drought and the forests are primed to burn because they are so dry.  Well, there are several very large fires burning in Northern CA and southern Oregon right now.  Here is what the sun looked like. 

I did not crop or enhance or color the above photos on purpose.  This is the color that the sun looked through the smoke.  You didn't need sunglasses to look at it because the smoke from the many wild fires in the northern part of the state was so thick.  A couple times it completely blocked the sun.  While I was sorting through my many photos, I noticed that I could see what looked like sunspots, which really surprised me, since I do not have a real fancy camera.  It is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-2525.  Basically I use it as a point and shoot camera and adjust the automatic scene setting once in awhile.  Anyway, I did some enhancing of the following photo and if you enlarge it, but not too much, and look closely near the center of the sun, there are two sunspots that can be seen as darker dots to the left and right just below the center.  Moving the screen on the laptop back and forth to change the angle that you see the picture may help you see the dots more easily, also.

Now that you know where to look, they can also be seen in the first sun picture, above, but you have to look closely.  Below, you can see how thick the smoke was that the sun was trying to shine through.  That is smoke, not clouds.

It was so dark from the smoke in the sky, that traffic had to turn on their headlights and the street lights came on, too.

Eventually, we got past the plumes of smoke, but we could not see Mt. Shasta or Mt. Lassen, the two higher mountains that are usually snow capped.  Mt. Shasta is reasonably close to I-5 and is easily seen on clear days.  Mt. Lassen is farther away and not as high, but is also easily seen on a clear day.  I told you that we are in a drought in California and Lake Shasta, a huge reservoir, is the lowest that we have ever seen it.  They do have to let water out to fill the Sacramento River to provide the fish with water to swim and spawn in, but soon they will not even be able to do that.

We spent Thursday night at the Redding RV Park in Redding, CA.  This campsite is located on a terraced hillside.  They claim to have views of Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen, but there was no viewing in the distance, while we were there.  The atmosphere had way too much smoke.  I took this photo just before we closed up to leave on Fri. morning.  My guess is that, if we could see one or both mountains, it would show up in the distance at the right of the picture.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, except for heavy traffic near Sacramento and in the Bay area.  It is, after all, getaway day for the Labor Day weekend. 

We have been home for a few weeks now and I am trying to catch up with my blog.  If you have been following us, there is more to come as I try to add new photos and info by back dating the posts to when they actually happened.  Stay tuned for updates.

Travel to Escapade, 5/3/14

Day 1 - Saturday, May 3, 2014
California

We are embarking on our longest vacation ever, for us.  We left home today and traveled through the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and into Nevada.  California has been in a severe drought for the past several years.  The snow pack, that we depend on to store water for summer use as it melts in the mountains and runs down rivers to supply water to the low lands and reservoirs, was only at 19 % of average for this time of year.  Some areas that they use every year to measure the snow pack and water content of that snow, had no snow at all. 

 As you can see, there is very little snow on these mountains near the town of Cisco Grove, CA.  As we continued on to the Donner Pass, high point on I-80 in CA, there was more snow, but usually it would be deeper than this and even deeper as we continued up in elevation. 

We stopped at the Donner Summit rest area and saw the following.

These castle peaks were across from where we parked in the rest area. 

This pond was the result of melting snow at the rest area.  Very beautiful anyway.  This was the deepest that we saw.

As we were heading further east on I-80, we notices a line on the mountain side.  It was the snow sheds that were built to protect the railroad tracks from all of the snow that would fall and tumble down onto the tracks.  The sheds formed a "tunnel" where the trains could have a chance to make safe passage and keep commerce flowing from coast to coast in the winter.

This is a close up of the snow sheds.  They run for miles and miles.

Here is Donner Lake. 

 

All of the "Donner" names are in tribute to the Donner Party, a group of pioneers, who were caught in an early snow storm in the winter of 1846-47.  Only 48 of the 87 people survived the winter in the mountains near here.

 

Here were some interesting cloud formations that we saw.  The sunset was not very colorful tonight.

That was the first day of travel.  Tomorrow we will continue along I-80 on our way to Indiana and the Escapees Escapade.


Quartzsite, AZ January 2014

Heading Home from Quartzsite
Thurs., Jan. 30 - Sat., Feb. 1

We were planning to leave Quartzsite this morning, but the wind has come up quite strong.  Strong enough to rock the trailer more than we want to handle on the highway, so we have decided to spend another night in Quartzsite.  We'll make it home in two days.  No need to go on the road in this weather.  Tomorrow will probably be calmer. 

I haven't posted any sunset photos recently, so these are samples from the last three or four days.  

This sunset made everything look so pink!



 

This is a view looking to the east, away from the setting sun.  This is not our trailer, but one in our group of friends.

On another evening, I was able to get some of the desert plants silhouetted against the sunset.

It's Friday morning and it is much calmer and nice and warm.  We will start on the way home.

We made it as far as Bakersfield, CA  and stayed at Orange Grove RV Park.  We have stayed here before at this time of year and it is always a treat.  You see, as the name suggests, this RV park is built in an orange grove and the oranges are ripe at this time of year.

I like the way they trim the trees behind the wall.

Our campsite surrounded by orange trees.

The owners are kind enough to let their customers pick oranges in certain areas of the orange grove.  This year was very hard on the orange groves.  There were many very cold nights and there was hardly any rain.  The fruit and trees had a lot of frost damage.  Many of the lower areas of the trees have been picked bare of oranges, but there are still enough for us.  The owners have fruit pickers that they loan out to the campers so we can get oranges off of the higher branches, as we demonstrate on Saturday morning before we leave on the last leg of our trip home. 

That was fun!  I don't know what variety the oranges are, but they are just as flavorful and juicy as what we have picked here on our previous visits.

We made it home in the early evening and now are home until our next adventure.




Quartzsite, AZ, January 2014

Travel from Home to Quartzsite, AZ
Tue. Jan. 14 - Thur. Jan. 16

We left home on Tuesday headed to Arizona on one of our many trips to the annual Amatuer Radio Quartzfest.  This year we will be able to spend some time with Montana trailer owners at the "Circling of the Montanas" as well. 

The first night out was spent at Edwards AFB Famcamp.  We often stay at this location whenever our destination is in the Southwest.  Here is our campsite as we are preparing to leave and continue on our way to "Q" as it is known.

As we were getting to the border of California and Arizona on Wednesday, near dusk, the almost full moon was rising.  It was very impressive seeing the huge orange disk rising from behind the hills.  Unfortunately, by the time we were able to pull off the freeway, the moon was no longer partially hidden.  It was still very beautiful.

Since it was becoming dark and we did not want to try to find the Montana owners out in the middle of the desert, we stopped for the night about 5 miles before Quartzsite at Dome Rock BLM area.

 

There was no need to disconnect so we just opened up where we were.  This is just before we closed everything for the short ride to the Montana Circle north of town, on Wednesday morning.





Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/14-16/13

Traveling Home from Albuquerque

Yesterday was the final day of the Balloon Fiesta.  We started driving toward home then spent last night at the Meteor Crater RV Park.  This morning, we continued on the way home.  We drove to the Bullhead City, AZ / Laughlin, NV area where we discovered a great county park along the Colorado River.  It is Davis Camp Park which is one of the Mohave County Parks.  Davis Camp is actually a small village that was built for the workers on the Davis Dam on the Colorado River.  Now the County Parks have made the area into a very nice campground.  There are dry camp areas, full hook up sites and some of the remaining original cottages have been converted to cabins to rent.  The sites are first come first served so, since it was off season, we had lots of choices.  We opted for a site without hookups as the weather was not too warm and cooled off at night and those were right along the river.  This is our campsite for the night of the 14th.

Looking down from a hill that was across from the site.

Right on the river

Earl found some friends

Lots of water sports and activities were going on behind Earl.

We went out to dinner at the Riverside Casino in Laughlin, NV, just across the river.  This was a very nice place to spend the night.

 

The next day, the 15th, we drove to Edwards Air Force Base Famcamp in CA.  We have stayed here many times when we are traveling to the Southwest on I-15, I-40, or I-10.  It is a good distance from home that we can make in a 8 1/2 - 9 1/2 hour drive.  This time, we had an unusual experience,  There was a coyote just passing through the campground.

Just passing through

Coyote in Edwards AFB Famcamp, CA

We drove the rest of the way home on the 16th.  We stopped for dinner at Pea Soup Anderson's in Santa Nella, CA.  Great pea soup and chocolate shake for dinner!

 

We're home now.  I will post more when we take our next trip.