Favorite Pictures From Our Journeys in November and December 2017

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua  Tree National Park

Had never seen a pomegranate tree before. Shoshone, CA

Sunrise - Palm Springs 

Salvation Mountain - Slab City, CA

Wish I could turn my head that far around! Lake Havasu State Park, AZ

Yucaipa Regional Park-Yucaipa, CA

Joshua Tree National Park

Trip Planning and Packing

Well, I'd love to say I was already packing for our upcoming (fingers crossed) trip down to some warmer weather.  I'm just thinking about packing.  Because I have taken up painting, I now have an easel, paints, brushes and canvases to pack.  I've learned from many full-timers that if you take along something new, you have to leave behind things you've taken before.

I will be leaving behind some books to start.  Considering I have most of my books on my iPad, this is not a big deal really.  What I will have to watch is the hard cover/paper back books I usually carry around on the subject of writing fiction.  Somehow, I have collected quite a few of these books over the years, and I admit that I have really written very little since I started writing a mystery a few years ago.

I've learned I don't need to pack around every DVD I might want to watch.  I have no problem finding things to watch on TV.  We have only camped in a few spots where we could not pick up a satellite signal, and most of those spots had campground provided cable.  We will probably bring along the Boardwalk Empire series that we have yet to watch, and my personal favorite, West Wing.

I have a tendency to bring more pots, pans and kitchen gadgets that I have ever needed.  And more canned goods than necessary.  Therefore, I will be giving serious consideration to watch what makes its way from the house into the rig.  Honestly, we mostly grill our meat and steam our veggies for dinner.  I'm not inclined to try new recipes while on the road.  Seriously, how many pans do I really need.  I hate to cook in general, and I really don't like cooking on the gas stove in the rig.  I save my experimenting for at home.  And speaking of new recipes and experimenting, I posted a recipe for turkey, bean and corn stuffed peppers on my other blog, www.betsysblahblahblog.blogspot.com  I thought it was great.  Nothing I would make on the road, but pretty tasty.

However, my biggest category for overpacking is clothing.  I have always packed for every conceivable situation or weather condition.  But, just like at home, I wear the same favorite clothes, and the rest just hang in the closet.  Do I really need to pack funeral appropriate clothes or fancy occasion clothes in the RV?  If I should find myself needing them, it makes much more sense just to go buy something to wear.  My "northern" clothes consist of jeans or sweats, a tee shirt and sweater with crocs or sneakers.  My "southern" clothes are shorts and a tee shirt, or a sun dress, with flip-flops.  One fleece jacket, one rain jacket, and one pair of rain boots should be more than enough for emergency weather situations.  My husband will be so excited if I can accomplish this.  If I start now to think about what I really want to wear, and plan accordingly, this should be a goal I can easily reach.

All of this because I've taken up painting.  And speaking of painting, here's my most recent:

I think I've come up with the main stops for our trip this spring.  We will be spending a week at the Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes in Menifee, CA.  Then off to the River Lodge Resort in Parker Dam, CA.  The next stop will be the Wine Ridge Resort in Pahrump, NV.  And we will wind up the trip at Thousand Trails Palm Springs (fingers crossed we will be able to get reservations there).

When you head south from Washington, anytime between November and April, you just never know what the weather will be like.  The Siskiyous could be clear and dry, or covered in snow.  We won't know which route south (I-5 or 101) we will use until we leave.  I have stopping points planned for each route.  Our trip back north will be toward the end of April.  I'm hoping we will be able to explore some of the Thousand Trails campgrounds in northern California and in Oregon on the way home.  At some point, you just have to get home.  For us, it will be because of property taxes and yard work.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things go as planned.  I've rescheduled this trip so many times.  It's not yet January 31st, so as our agreement goes, I am not yet able to nag my husband about when he will get to working on putting the rig back together.  Sometimes I just have to check to make sure my tongue is not bleeding.  Here's to an on-time departure!

Last Days At Wilderness Lakes TT Park; On To River Breeze In Ehrenburg, AZ

Our last days at Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes in Menifee, California were quiet.  Our major outing was into Temecula to have lunch with some dear friends.  We arrived at 11:30am at Mimi's Cafe and we didn't leave until 3:30pm!  I think we stayed through a shift change, and we are pretty lucky they did not ask us to leave.  We hadn't seen these friends in about 5 years and it was hard to say goodbye.  It was only as we were leaving that I remembered to get Kim to take a picture of me with my good friends Evie and Karen.

The food was excellent, by the way.  I had the Corned Beef Hash Eggs Benedict.  I was so focused on my food that I didn't pay attention to what everyone else ordered.  Just before we left, we decided a share a dessert sampler - brownies a la mode, bread pudding, and apple crisp.  I think I had larger shares that everyone else, and you will not hear an apology from me for being a pig.  A burp, perhaps, but no apology!

The other highlight of the day was finding diesel fuel at the Circle K in Menifee for $3.89 a gallon!

After last night's unimpressive viewing of The Wolf Of Wall Street, we decided to watch American Hustle. I gotta say, I was not very impressive.  I think for Sunday night we will stick with The Amazing Race and The Mentalist.

We were up this morning and on the road at 9:45am - Kim is still puzzled how I managed to be 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  This rarely happens.  Perhaps it was magic!

Our drive to the River Breeze RV Park in Ehrenburg, AZ was an easy 176 miles.  The only "excitement" was a crazy dust/sand storm as we drove through the Palm Springs area.

It went from this:

to this is quite a hurry.

Once we started climbing up to the Chiriaco Summit, the wind let up.  The ride down into Arizona was easy, if not boring from a visual standpoint.

We pulled in to the River Breeze RV Park.  The office was closed by our site information was written on the white board outside the office.  I had reserved a specific spot down by the river and that's what we got.

With the weather in the high 70s/low 80s, we strolled down to the river for a few pictures.

Tomorrow we plan to drive up the Arizona side to Lake Havasu City, and then back down the California side, to check out the various campgrounds.  Kim's aunt and uncle had camped at the Lake Havasu State Park and it looked fabulous.