California Dreamin'

It was only 70° when we left Malibu Beach at 11:45 AM.  We missed a lot of LA traffic by waiting that late to leave.  The high in LA was forecast to be a pleasant 72° today.  It is 5:30 in the afternoon and I am now sitting in the motorhome at Shadow Hills RV Park in Indio, CA.  The temperature was 106° (RH was only 20%) when we arrived about an hour ago.  We only traveled 162 miles today, so why the big difference?  It’s because we are now on the desert side of the mountains.  The Sierra Nevada Mountains run almost the length of California.  The difference between the western (coastal) side of these mountains and the eastern (desert) side is quite drastic.  The coastal side is green and cool while the eastern side is brown and hot.

Internet access has been extremely poor on this trip, making it difficult to keep the blog current.  I was unable to access it while at the $70 a night Malibu Beach RV Park but seem to have a satisfactory connection here in Indio.   After leaving Paso Robles we drove down to Malibu Beach and the Malibu Beach RV Park, just a little north of LA on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).  We spent two days visiting with my son and his fiancé in Pacific Palisades.  Their house is on a hill with a terrific view of the Pacific Ocean.  Driving around the various neighborhoods was something similar to a trip to Disney World.  It was unreal!  Reading the street signs was reminiscent of both the Beach Boys and the various TV shows that have been set in the LA area.  There was Malibu Beach, Sunset Boulevard, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Freeway, Ventura Highway, Brentwood, Mulholland, and many more.  We even went through Pomona (“Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO”) after leaving LA today.

Nothing is cheap in California.  I have paid as much as $5.11 per gallon of diesel and $18 for a hamburger with fries.   LA must hold the record for the most luxury cars per square mile.  We parked in a supermarket parking lot among makes such as Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volvo, Lincoln, Bentley, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar, and Cadillac.  There are also a lot of “high maintenance” women driving these vehicles.  California is a nice place, if you can afford it.

Just before we reached Palm Springs this afternoon, I-10 passed through a huge “windmill farm”.  I have never before seen so many of these giants wind turbines in one place. I checked the internet a while ago and discovered that there are over 3,100 of them on the “farm”!  The wind blows enough to keep them turning about 300 days of the year.  With a little imagination it was easy to see them as alien machines invading the earth. 

Tomorrow we are traveling to Phoenix (Arizona) where we will spend a couple of nights so that we can experience the Apache Trail, a 40-mile circular road that winds through the Superstition Mountains outside of Phoenix.  It is billed as one of the most treacherous routes in the United States, however, after our 47 days of travel in Mexico back in January and February it will have to be extremely bad to scare us off.  We will look into renting a Jeep for the day as there are portions of the road that are unpaved in addition to steep and twisting.  The road goes by the Lost Dutchman State Park, a ghost town, Canyon Lake, Tortilla Flat, Apache Lake, Roosevelt Dam and Lake, and the Tonto National Monument. 

We plan to reach Tucson and the Discovery Owners’ Association National RV Rally on Sunday.  Meanwhile, I have posted a few more photos on a new page.

Countdown to Our Southwestern USA Motorhome Vacation

Trip Begins:  18 August 2012 in Nacogdoches, TX

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Trip Ends:  29 October 2012 in Nacogdoches, TX

Trip Length:  4,538 miles over 72 days

(First Half Map & Mileage changed on 7/30/12)

First Half:  Nacogdoches to Santa Monica – 2,439 miles

Second Half:  Santa Monica to Nacogdoches – 2,099 miles

 

Route Highlights:

Nacogdoches, TX (START)

Santa Fe, NM (1 week)

Lake Tahoe, NV (2 weeks)

Yosemite National Park, CA (2 weeks)

Santa Monica, CA (~ 3 days)

Tucson, AZ (1 week)

Deming, NM (1 day)

Alpine, TX (3 days)

Bracketville, TX (3 days)

Mission, TX (1 week)

Nacogdoches, TX (END)

Only 20 more days until we depart on our next great motorhome adventure! This trip will be longer than our Mexican caravan was in both miles and number of days.  Also, unlike our Mexican adventure, this trek across the southwestern USA will not be as part of a caravan.

All of the damages that our sojourn in Mexico inflicted upon our motorhome have been repaired and its bravery rewarded with a new Pergo floor!  We have also replaced the Saturn Vue, which required a 1,200-mile ride on a flatbed truck from Merida, in the state of Yucatán, to the US – Mexico border.  Our new “toad” is a Midnight Blue Metallic 2012 Chevrolet Traverse LTZ.

The repairs to our motorhome and the toad replacement added a rather large unanticipated chunk of change to the total cost of the trip to Mexico.  Our Mexican insurance and our Platinum Good Sam Emergency Road Service covered only a portion of the expenses.  However, it was something that had to be done.  We have just “written it off” as the cost of having fun. 

(NOTE:  For those readers who may not know about the problems that plagued the Mexican adventure, please look back through the archives of this blog.)

Prior to our departure date I plan to remove the Mexico photo pages to make room for new images I plan on posting during our southwestern adventure.

Our first major stop will be in Santa Fe, NM where I will be attending a photography workshop.  While in Santa Fe we are planning on a day trip to Bandolier National Monument.  Bandolier covers over 33,000 acres of canyon and mesa country with evidence of a human presence going back over 11,000 years.  There are petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the cliff faces, and the remains of masonry walls.  The ancestors of these ancient people still reside in the surrounding communities.

The next stop on the tour will be the southern shore of Lake Tahoe.  Here we will meet Bruce and Karen, with whom we shared the Mexican experience.  Carol Ann and I are looking forward to our two-week stay with them at the Tahoe Valley RV Resort.

From Lake Tahoe we will travel with Bruce and Karen to Yosemite National Park where we will meet a third couple, Gunther and Kandace, from the Mexico trip.  For two weeks we will make Yosemite Lakes RV Resort our base while exploring the National Park and surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains.

After saying goodbye to our friends, Carol Ann and I will journey to Santa Monica, CA for a brief stay at Malibu Beach RV Park while we visit our son, Rob, and his fiancé, Leslie, who live in Pacific Palisades.

Once our family reunion is over we will begin the homebound leg by traveling to Tucson, AZ for a week and the Discovery Owners’ Association, Inc. National Rally for Fleetwood Discovery motorhomes. 

The end of the DOAI rally will be the beginning of a “rolling rally” back to Texas.  This will include the members of our DOAI Texas Chapter who attended the National rally.  The rolling rally will spend one night in Deming, NM before proceeding to Alpine, TX for three days, followed by three days in Brackettville, TX before reaching Mission, TX in time for the annual Butterfly Festival.  We will spend a week at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort in Mission and try very hard to resist the temptation to cross the nearby US – Mexico border for a return trip to Ole’ Mexico.

After our week in Mission we will turn towards Nacogdoches and home.   We are expecting that the trip will be fun and adventuresome, however without any attendant bodily injury or motorhome damage.  Check back for blog updates as August 18^th approaches.