More detours on the road - it's all part of the adventure!!

A tsunami, a rock slide, and a massive winter storm – all in one week in California! When the tsunami hit we were in Palm Springs ( no problems there) , when the rock slide occurred, our route was blocked on the Pacific coast highway and then a massive winter storm hit the Sierra mountains (2-4 feet of snow) on our way to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. It didn’t take us long to decide Rose would have a tough time in even 2 feet of snow ( and so woud the rest of us!) so we changed our plans and bypassed the three national parks for this trip (we hope to see them next year on our NW trip)and headed to Death Valley National Park and warm sunny weather! It was really quite a nice surprise- a great variety of interesting natural and human history too! Death Valley gets 2” of rain a year – we had rain AND snow the day we were there!

Next stops were Hoover Dam and Zion National Park.

We went through Vegas but didn’t stop – we’ve been there before and we need to conserve our money for diesel for Rose! So far the highest price for fuel was in California - $4.49/gallon – YIKES! Thankfully Nevada is under $4 a gallon – never thought we’d be happy to get fuel at $4 per gallon!

In Zion we had two pretty days and two days of non stop rain -  they only get 12" of rain  a year and we think they got most of it in those two days!



At the campsite…..

• Another casino parking lot - "Terrible's Town Casino"

• A beautiful spot in Zion National Park ( at least it was pretty for 2 of the 4 days we were there)

Highlights:

Death Valley National Park

• Amazing variety of colors in the rocks

• Lowest spot in the Northern Hemisphere and the salt flats

• Site of old borax plant and the “twenty mule team wagons”

• An oasis in the desert - they even have a golf course!

Hoover Dam

• Tour of the power plant and learning about how and why the dam was built

• Seeing the new memorial bridge that spans the Colorado River over the dam

Zion National Park

• Great hikes in the park

• Beautiful scenery of the sandstone canyons

• Desert Big Horn Sheep

• Time to chill at our campsite and take Molly for walks ( dogs aren’t allowed on National Park trails)

Next stops:

Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks – we’re hoping for warmer, drier weather since we’re in the desert…right now, it’s snowing at Bryce so who knows where we'll end up next!!!!

Rose safely completes the Pacific Coast Highway Obstacle Course!!!!

We wanted  to drive the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway and were told it was fine to drive it in an RV as long as you go slowly…… What a ride it was! The turns were VERY tight, there were MANY rock slide areas, the road was VERY narrow, there was quite a bit of road repair work going on and the road snaked its way along the edge of the cliffs that were 400 to 1,000 feet above the sea! The term “white knuckled” seems appropriate for me but fortunately Gary was cool and calm as usual– you would have thought he was driving on a flat interstate highway!

We made it safely to our campground in the national forest along the coast highway. It was a lovely campground with huge trees. We could see the Pacific and hear the ocean too! We stayed for four nights so we had several days to enjoy the beautiful scenery as we explored up and down the coastline to see Morro Bay, Carmel, Monterey and Big Sur. It’s amazing how much wider the road was in Scooter and the curves weren’t nearly as sharp!

After 4 nights at the campground we headed north along the same curvy coast highway to Carmel and Monterey. We had just finished the last 35 miles of “white knuckles” and were enjoying a more normal sized road with less sharp curves when we were stopped dead in our tracks by a big “ROAD CLOSED” sign. There was a BIG rock slide that day and the road was impassable….What a bummer! What do you do? You suck it up, turn around and drive another 75 miles back on the same road until we got to an intersection where we could finally get off of  the Pacific Coast Highway and travel on a more "normal" road to take us to our next destinations. Not one of our better travel days – we had to drive a total of 250 miles out of our way and were on the road for 10 hours. But – we arrived safely, that’s the most important thing!!

Highlights:

• Hearst Castle – it’s amazing what you can build when you have unlimited amounts of money!

• Monterey Aquarium – our favorite of any we have ever been to! This was our second time to visit there and it has doubled in size in the last 15 years!

• Quaint towns of Monterey and Carmel and walks on the beach

• Big Sur beaches, hikes and waterfalls

• Elephant seals and sea lions

Click on the arrow to see the video of the elephant seals

Click on the arrow to see the sea lions "barking" for scraps from the fisherman

Next stops ( if the weather co-operates) : Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks!!

Desert Trails, Tails and Tales!

We’ve spent the last week in the Sonora desert in Arizona near Tuscon and the Mojave Desert in California near Palm Springs. Besides experiencing the desert and all of the types of cactus and desert "critters", we also toured the “Boneyard” - where the US military stores 4,000+ aircraft, the Biosphere 2 experiment, the only Titan II missile silo left in the world and Tombstone- the site of the famous gunfight at the OK corral. It was fun to have such a variety of things to see!


On the road....

A first on this trip....we "camped" at a truck stop and also at 2 casino parking lots - great price (FREE) and lots of fellow campers for company! Notice the truck snuggled up next to Rose - the truck pulled up next to us during the night. What a surprise we had in the morning when we looked out the window and all we could see was the side of a truck!

The weather has been absolutely fabulous – sunny every day and thankfully it is still cool! Can’t imagine being here in the summer when it’s 110+ degrees…. A view from the casino in Palm Springs

One of our many border patrol inspections...

We've seen some beautiful desert sunsets while driving and at the "campground"

Highlights:

Tombstone

• The authentic western town from the mid 1800’s with all of its “colorful” history

• Re-enactment of the gunfight at the OK corral and other historical events in Tombstone

• Boot Hill

Saguaro National Park


• Seeing the giant cactus ( Like you see in the movies!)

•  Learning about the Sonora desert and how the animals and plants adapt to the harsh environment

Tour of the “ Boneyard” at the Air force base in Tuscon and the Air and Space Museum

• Seeing ALL of the 4061 military planes that are “parked” in the desert ( including MANY F4s that Gary used to fly!) and a great display of all kinds of aircraft - Gary was in heaven!

Titan II Missile Silo and Rocket – the only one remaining after the SALT treaty with Russia

• Tour inside the silo with the Titan missile

• Simulation of a nuclear attack on the US and what the officers at the missile site were trained to do

Visiting  Biosphere 2 

• Learning about how the Biosphere2 facility ( Biosphere 1 is our earth) where 8 researchers lived in a completely sealed environment for 18 months to simulate if it would be possible to sustain life on Mars

Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs

• Learning about the Mojave desert and the Joshua trees

• Seeing the San Andreas fault line and 1,000's of windmills

Next stop: The Pacific Coast from Morro Bay to Monterey! It’ll be great to see a lot of green trees, nice green grass and the pacific ocean ( thankfully the tsunami warnings have been canceled!)- my favorite color is green! Molly can't wait to have nice soft green grass again to "do her piddles" - she just can't get accustomed to the crunchy straw and dirt! Our plan is to drive around Los Angeles..Rose gets claustrophobic in big cities and we all prefer the countryside ( Gary and I have both been to LA and don't need to see it again) !!!