Tag: national-parks

Day 2380

Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Day 1 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

Lets start by saying today is going to be a busy day. Our planned departure time was eight o’clock and let me just quickly say that we failed to meet that first objective. It looked like I was in good shape for meeting our departure time but everything just seemed to take longer than I had anticipated. This happening doesn’t change our destination plan, it just means that we will be a wee bit later.

Because of tightness in maneuvering around the host camp area we have to pull into the RV lanes of the Arboretum parking lot to hook up our towed. This will be the first time I get to try all the improvements that I made to the towbar, the new safety cables seem great, the new power cord connector and having the power cord ran through the towbar is a real game changer. The chance of damaging anything has all but been eliminated, in the past I have cut up the power cord when it got out of position and I had damaged the safety cables a number of time probably to the stage of compromising their integrity.

With a quick check of lights we are pulling out of the Arboretum parking lot and heading east on highway US-60, this is the most direct route back east and although the Salt River Canyon is a challenge for any large vehicle. You work your way down into the canyon bottom with numerous switch backs and with lots of “Jake Brake” operation to cross the Salt River and start the climb back up the north face of the canyon. A terrifying yet beautiful journey, as we climb the north face we are reaching higher elevations and the temperature is dropping as we are climbing and the first town we pass through is Show Low and as we look north the clouds look as if they could be snow clouds.

This group of photos was from the Salt River Canyon as seen from the drivers seat, the decent and climb back up the northern face, there were even some Mexican poppies in bloom.

We will be east bound on US-60 until we have crossed the New Mexico state line. Our first time change as we move from Arizona Standard time to Mountain Daylight Saving time. We had driven US-60 last spring but we had taking it all the way to Interstate I-25, this spring we are going to head north on State Highway NM-36 to NM-117 which will meet up with Interstate I-40 west of Albuquerque. Our destination is a RV park at a casino in an area called Casa Blanca. We had stayed there way back in November of 2019, a small park with 5 pull through sites, full hook-ups for around $20 American. We are at around 6000 feet of elevation and expect the temperature to be low enough that a heater may be required.

As we move on eastward on US-60, the weather is turning a wee bit nasty with a shower with some snow flakes. it just happens that there is a rest stop a few miles up the road and we decide to have a late lunch and give this storm a little while to blow through. Lunch today was some left over pizza warmed up in the microwave. The temperature has dropped off as we have lost the sun and the temperature is now 48ºF (8.8ºC), after lunch I tried to laydown for a nap, but I was unsuccessful, so we started Thunder and continued east to NM-36. We have never been on this stretch of road before so it is a new adventure, and while NM-36 didn’t offer much when we hooked up with NM-117 that all changed, this had to be one of the most pleasant surprises that we have had for a while.

The photos above were pulled from the dashcam that is mounted on the windshield of our coach, the data line on the bottom records date, time, speed of the coach, and the last numbers are the coordinates from each photo. This camera is ten years old so not the best picture quality, but it is reassuring to have documentation is any issue should occur.

We made it to the Dancing Eagle Casino RV campground by five o’clock, and managed to get one of the pull through sites, I only connected the power cable as we had no need of the water or sewer connection tonight. We watched television and Miss Laurie made a curry shrimp dish on rice for dinner, there was a lot of light from the casino, truck stop and the grocery store, but overall the noise level was good and we were able to operate the heater overnight.

Day 1 Stats: 305 miles (491 kilometers) and the solar harvest was 132 amp / hours the cost of camping was $20.40 US or $27.90 CDN.

Day 2316

Monday February 5th 2024

Dear Journal:

We woke this morning on BLM land just off of Plamosa Road about six miles north of Quartzsite. It was dark when we pulled in last night I knew there was a van parked just a hundred feet to our left, but no one can run a generator at night on BLM land so it was a quiet night. The occasional vehicle on Plamosa Road but we were far enough from AZ-95 that there was little or no road noise. We slept well, and as much as the forecast is for rain the sunrise this morning reminded me why I love the Arizona desert. We had just pulled in and parked, no jacks so no leveling, we closed the privacy curtain but nothing else, no slide just one easy quiet night. The news this morning showed a major weather event still moving our way, which we knew but had reservations so would just make the best of it.

Some fresh perked coffee and yes even on a driving morning there was a wee Irish blessing in my cup this morning, again a light breakfast this morning as we catch up on the news and get to see the next few days forecast, before we carefully back Thunder out of our boondocking spot, Again we are travelling light today with no towed, I will stop and get some diesel fuel in Quartzsite this morning, we noticed some good prices last night when we turned off of the Interstate.

Refueling was a pain in the butt this morning the fuel stop was a branch of the Pilot fuel company, they were understaffed, and the staff there was poor at best, when fueling it is often necessary to prepay for fuel it means walking in to the cashier, having the pump turned on with a preset amount and walking back out to the pump to actually do the fueling. But today I did as normal but found the pump quit after a few gallons, so I walked back in, and stood in line again to have the cashier tell me to “try it again“, no explanation, no sorry just arrogance, so I walked back out to find the pump working, just a couple of words would have been so much nicer!

Refueled and California bound, Quartzsite is located less than twenty miles from the state line, and of course there is an agriculture check station immediately over the state line. I’m not sure what actually they are checking for at these agriculture stops, every vehicle has to stop. We have never been asked a question in six years of travel, so it appears to me to be a “make work project” just another government waste from our point of view.

As we roll along Interstate I-10 we start to gently gain elevation as we climb up toward the Joshua Tree National Park before driving down into the bowl that is home to Palm Springs which is below sea level. This area of California is covered with lots of springs some cold others hot, the campground we are going to has many pools of hot spring water with various temperatures. Our arrival instructions from the campground just happen to match the route that Navi had planned out and we pulled into the campground at noon. There was an issue with the gate code keypad but someone helped us out with entering a code into a lower pad, we followed an orange line as instructed to the office where we were assigned a campsite.

The journey to our site from the office while short in distance but had two very sharp turns for a forty foot long coach, and neither could be made without becoming multipoint turns, once turns are more than 90º it becomes a task of epic portion. The site was tight and not the ezeist to maneuver around a palm tree in the front corner but once backing into the site the site was level. I plugged in the power but did not bother with either the water or sewer hookups as they were not handy at all.

Now you may be wondering why have we picked an RV resort in Caliante Springs California? Well there is a reason for our choice, this is where Mary & Julie have rented a park model for their winter snowbird getaway, and because they have lived in the Palm Springs area, they have offered to tour us around the area to see some of the sites. You may notice a little blue sky in the cloud cover, I’m sorry to report it never got any closer or bigger but we made the best of the weather.

We were only parked a few moments before Mary & Julie found us, their park model is on the other side of the park, but they have a rental car and have graciously offered to not only guide us around Palm Spring but to be our Uber as well. The decision was made to take in the tourist spots in downtown Palm Spring this afternoon and then a late lunch at one of Julies favorite restaurants, I found out later it was all about the margaritas. The decor of the restaurant was amazing, and while light rain kept many people away we wandered the main street and seen a number of tourist spots. What we had not planned on was some of the low lying roads being closed because of water, like many desert cities they just can not handle big rain storms because they nornally don’t get large quantities of rain. We made it back to the coach just at dark and we arranged to go over to Mary & Julies place after we had a chance to clean up and settle in to our new site.

Mary actually drove over to pick us up from our site because it was raining, but it is a short walk between our sites, Their unit is a one bedroom in the rear, with a kitchen in the middle and a table and chairs in the front, it has a covered porch which has been closed in and made into a living room. It is a small unit for a park model and it is showing its age, but comfortable enough as a winter snowbird get away, there is a par three golf course that weaves its way through the campground, lot of amenities, and located a few miles from stores and restaurants. We enjoyed some snacks, some wine and some great company, there was discussion of tomorrows adventure, and while we eliminated some because of the rain and the cloud cover, before we headed back to our coach a plan was made the Miss Laurie would cook omelets in the morning at Mary & Julies.

We returned to the coach but we were not long out of bed it had been a busy day with lots of adventures, and as much as we hated to eliminate some outside excursions, we can’t change what mother nature offers, and we have already seen many new things. And while tomorrows adventures are coming together, I was amazed at hoe much this area had to offer, looking forward to tomorrow already.

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