The Desert in the wintertime...

Merry Christmas everybody and Happy New Years to y’all while we’re at it. We had a very good time having Christmas at Chad and Crissy’s house in Atascadero. Jenn and Max came and spent the holiday with us. Chad had quite a collection of toys which kept us non-stop busy with the Gladiator (Max). From remote controlled drone flyers to remote controlled ATV fighters to high capacity NERF shotguns...Max was a kid in a toy store. I was a bit peeved that I was unable to fully enjoy this family time because I had picked up a nasty head cold, but I tried my best.

Good ol' Rock-em Sock-em Robots. The past lives on...

To work off the awesome BBQ rib dinner Chad put on, they took us to the Bishop Peak Natural Area, a sort of donated-to-the-county mountain park with hiking trails. This was a several hour endeavor and a medium strenuous level which got a bit frustrating with Max because he wanted to be carried the whole time. It turned into quite a workout and the view at the “top of the world” was spectacular. Jenn suffered a minor mishap while carrying Max during the downhill return, she fell and smacked her elbow pretty good. No broken bones though, just a lot of pain and minor swelling.

What's left of the XMAS cookie tray leads to...

…this serious warning sign!

The wild bunch getting ready to hike to the "Top of the World".

Well, at least Max started out under his own power...

Max, Uncle Bubba, and Oma monkeying in a tree.

Oops, didn't take Max long to con a ride.

Hooray for us!

"Look, Ma, no hands!"

One of the few times WE conned Max into running on his own power.

Max and his Mom at the Top of the World.

Chad peeks over the top rock at us.

View from the Top...

We also made a trip to Avila Beach and a stop at the farmer’s market/petting zoo on the way. Max got to feed the animals (I think his mom had more fun doing that) and then he JUST HAD to have pizza for lunch, so we stopped at a pizza place in Avila Beach.

"Don't feed him your fingers, Max!"

"Do I look guilty or what?"

Jenn had more fun feeding critters than Max!

At the pier in Avila Beach.

The coastline at Avila Beach.

Strolling the pier.

Merry Christmas everyone! From the farmer's market...

Again, all good things must come to an end, so it was “See ya later” to the family and back to “Jo Jo” Hills to pack up and prep for our next adventure. This is the only draw back to full-timing... WE MISS OUR KIDS and their families. Good thing someone invented Facetime.

True boondocking. That was next on our agenda. We decided to head out to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park which surrounds Borrego Springs. We had pre-scouted the area previously, taking the Jeep over the Montezuma Valley pass. That was an extremely steep and long mountain road and I was concerned about taking the bus over it. Thankfully, we spoke with one of our Jo Jo Hills neighbors and he mentioned an easier way for the motorhome, taking the Yaqui Pass off Hwy. 78 off Road S2. We took Yaqui Pass-it was still a bit steep and narrow but a lot shorter than Montezuma Valley...much easier travel. We found a common area for boondockers in the Clark Dry Lake area between Rockhouse Trail and mile marker 27 on Road S22. I use the term “boondockers” loosely here. My version of true boondocking is somewhere in the sticks with nobody around. Here, the boondockers were thicker than flies, some non-groups parked on top of each other. There must have been at least 50 rigs in about a half square mile area. 

Our boondock site in Borrego Springs at  Clark Dry Lake bed.

Our desert neighbors...

Jeanne getting things squared away.

There are quite a lot of activities/sights within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We only planned to stay about a week (which is what we actually stayed as it turned out), depending on the status of our gray and black tanks (this being our first actual boondocking experience excluding overnight stopovers), so we only experienced a fraction of the sights and sounds of what the park offered. First stop was the park Visitor Center for all the info we could get on the park. The booklet they give out has some crude maps with general locations of points of interest, and as we discovered during our stay, the state of California gets an “F” for signage as far as those points of interest are concerned.

The wind caves was our first exploration here. They are outside of Ocotillo Wells off Split Mountain Rd. on Fish Creek Wash. The teeny-tiny sign that points out the trailhead to the wind caves is easy to pass by without seeing, as we did. But we guess-timated the right area and ended up hiking up the back side of the steep shale mountain to the caves. Very cool formations and very dismaying to find piggy people had found their way  up and left their mark on this natural wonder (graffiti). @$$holes who do this should be shot on sight and left for wildlife consumption. This hike was about a 2 mile round trip. The drive into Fish Creek Wash was pretty scenic as well.

The wind caves at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Someone built a fire inside this cave.

Jeanne after conquering the ugly climb straight uphill. Notice evidence of graffiti at left, #&%@!!!

4-wheel master Jeanne feeling her oats in canyons on way to wind caves.

Scenic canyon to drive through.

Walk through cave.

More graffiti on caves. No respect...

Fonts Point was also pretty spectacular, particularly at sunset. This is an area about 4 miles off Road S22 and evokes thoughts of the Grand Canyon. The viewing area has no guard rails, just a steep drop off into the abyss. And the majestic beauty of the rock formations is awe inspiring.

Sunset at Fonts Point. Nice view of the full moon rising in the east.

More of the sunset over the canyons.

Backside color changes during sunset.

Dramatic skies over the Borrego Sink.

Around the town of Borrego Springs there are 2 separate areas of a property called Galleta Meadows. These are private open area properties that are open to the public. The owner allowed a local artist out of Temecula, Ricardo Breceda, to create sculptures and display them scattered about the properties. The most popular one is of the serpent. We tracked down most of the art, it gave Jeanne more opportunity to display her 4-wheelin’ mojo in the Jeep. No captions necessary, art is art...

Just prior to entering Borrego Springs on Montezuma Valley Rd. we found the trail for Hellhole Canyon/Maidenhair Falls. This is a 6 mile round tripper through thick Ocotillo and Cholla cacti to a small canyon with several oases, one of which contains a waterfall area. We loaded up the camelbacks/back packs and set out up the canyon. This hike was strenuous at times, a lot of large rock climbing/shin busting involved. Unfortunately, upon arrival to the falls we found them but a drip off the maidenhair ferns (yeah, California is still in the grips of a severe drought). But it was a very nice hike anyway...

They take their warnings seriously, signage over grave sites.

Looking through one of the oases toward the valley.

Maidenhair Falls, not much falling.

While here in the desert we drove on in to the Salton City/Salton Sea area, about 20 miles from our campsite. There outside of Salton City is the Ocotillo Wells Vehicular Recreation Area. Holy Dust Cloud, Batman! Evidently, the 1st week of the new year is the busy time here. In this VRA folks cram their rigs on top of each other while they boondock camp and operate their ATV’s, dirt bikes, and any other make of offroad vehicle through the desert and desert canyons. It was VERY packed, and not my idea of wanting to ATV in an offroad version of the L.A. freeway system at quitting time! (Later, on our way out of California and during the work week, this VRA was pretty much a ghost town, much more preferable for an enjoyable off road experience).

One of the canyons leading from the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area, note campers in far distance behind Jeanne.

One of the ATV canyons.

Our time boondocking in the desert came to an end after 7 days. We left heading into Salton City on Road S22. I have one major note of caution for other bus drivers on this road.  Once past the Ocotillo Wells Vehicular Recreation area, still on S22, the road itself is not bad...until you come within about 3-4 miles of Salton City. There, you NEED to slow way down, the road suddenly includes many major dips that will easily scramble the contents of your rig. If you think you are slowed down enough, you need to slow down MORE!  The contents of my closet got tossed to the closet floor, all items, without exception!  

From the desert we headed into Pahrump, NV, for a return stay at the SKP park there, Pair-a-Dice, for thorough cleansing, restocking, and preparation to meet Jeanne’s mom and her boyfriend, Yvonne and Gary, at Death Valley for some more boondocking time at Furnace Creek. Until then...

California Dreamin'?

Okay okay okay. I know, it’s been a while, so sue me. Well, after leaving The Ranch in Lakewood, NM, we drove into Demming and overnighted at the Dream Catcher RV Park, an Escapee/Rainbow park we stayed in previously. We had pretty much seen most of the local sights our last time through; City of Rocks State Park, Rockhound State Park, ate at the Adobe Deli. So the overnighter was sufficient for our purposes this time around. 

We got up bright and early and headed into Benson, AZ to another repeat stop, the Saguaro SKP co-op RV park. We only stayed a couple of nights, basically to catch up on laundry, since we again had ventured out during a previous stop here for their sights; Tombstone (and Boothill cemetery), Bisbee (and the Queen Mine), and Council Rocks. Something eerie happened during this stop. I took Woodrow Wilson out for a walk by ourselves through the desert outback behind this park. We walked up a lengthy wash probably a mile or so. I had taken Woody off his leash since he really enjoys running free in the desert, and he hasn’t had issues related to taking off on his own. We were poking along and without warning or reason Woody suddenly made an about-face and SPRINTED back in the direction we had come from. He disappeared quickly! Well, I headed back, practicing all of my four lettered vocabulary all the way, some of it volume enhanced, until I reached the park. I found Woodrow sitting at the front door of our rig, it appeared he jetted straight back on his own. I have no idea what had spooked him. Jeanne said he just missed her on the walk.

Next stop, back to KOFA co-op SKP park in good ol’ Yuma, AZ for a couple of nights there before heading back into California. We were getting frustrated with the water quality throughout the south/southwest (lots of mineral deposits and nasty water spotting on the Jeep and bus), so we took the opportunity to load up some gallon jugs with the co-op’s reverse osmosis water for consumption before continuing on into California. We were driving on I-8 westbound which took us into some pretty steep mountains that looked like a mega-version of the City of Rocks in New Mexico. The grade was pretty extreme as well, good enough to rival the Grapevine in intensity but less on distance. The bus took the grades like a champ.

After being asked by other Escapee members many times over, “Have you seen Jojoba Hills yet?”, we finally made it to the Jojoba Hills SKP co-op park in Aguanga, CA, just outside of Temecula. HOLY MOLY! This 55+ park was impressive. Now, we’ve been full timin’ on the road for over 2 years, back and forth ocean to ocean a couple of times. We have been talking about having a base to operate from for a while, and with most of our families still in California and the fact that we have now wintered the last two years here, we looked hard at Jojoba Hills as that base.  We would still be Texas residents, just with a park in California to stop off for a month or two in between travels.The park itself is a gated community in the middle of the desert near the Palomar Mountains. The scenery is spectacular; mountains, valleys, sunsets. The park is run by volunteerism with a very small paid staff. The clubhouse is huge, the pool/spa area is resort quality overlooking the valley. There is a billiard room, small but effective gym/workout room (machines AND free weights), saunas, card rooms, huge media library (books, DVD’s), huge crafts room (quilting), separate arts trailer, tennis/pickleball courts, horseshoes pit, miniature golf course, a fully established outdoor airgun shooting range, on site storage area for RV’s, and exceptional landscaping throughout the park. And the town of Temecula, 14 miles away, is about 105K population with outstanding shopping areas and malls. In other words, we were so impressed we went ahead and got on the waiting list for lease holders. We started as number 16 on the list and were told the wait would probably be 2-6 months. As far as SKP parks buy-ins go, the cost to lease a space here is $30K + change, a bit pricier than most of the other parks we have been to. The beauty of the lease thing is once we no longer wish to be a member/lessee here, we get that $30K back in full. The only cost would be a monthly maintenance dues of about $280-ish. Any of the voted on “special assessments” that occur now and then are also fully refunded at termination of membership. We stayed here about a week on this initial stop, and left with an extremely optimistic outlook toward our future continued full-timing adventures with a new base to connect with.

One site at Jojoba Hills, where we stayed the first time around. TERRIBLE view, don't you think?

The pool, with another TERRIBLE view.

The building behind the pool which houses card room, library, billiard room, and exercise room.

The airgun shooting range.

The shooting stations at the airgun range.

A look down on the scattered sites at Jojoba Hills.

With the Gladiator’s (Max’s) 3rd birthday party planned for the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, we headed toward Santa Rosa. On the way, a 2 day stop was called for to visit our son and daughter-in-law in Atascadero. We stayed at the Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles. This was a bit pricey ($59 including tax and 10% law enforcement discount, others available) but a very clean, spacious park with pool, spas, and exercise room. We had a nice meal at AJ Spur’s Steakhouse and a very nice albeit short visit with the kids.

We arrived in Santa Rosa a few days before the big birthday party. It is unfortunate but Sonoma County is like all the rest of California---places to park an RV are few and far between and generally are really overpriced. The one “fairly” (pun intended) reasonable park in Santa Rosa is actually the Sonoma County Fairgrounds RV park. We stayed there before and they have the usual club discounts, but they still charge $35/night for a gravel parking lot with hookups. And the fairgrounds has a 14 day stay limit. Jeanne had previously cracked a crown on one of her molars while we were in Texas, where she got the temporary fix done. At that time she made an appointment with our previous family dentist in Santa Rosa in early December to get the permanent fix done. That took us well over the 14 day limit, but thankfully they allow hardship extensions and we definitely qualified. So we stayed until the 13th. Besides the birthday, we had a nice Thanksgiving time with our daughter, son-in-law, and Max. The one thing that struck us was the change in the Santa Rosa area. We lived there our entire adult lives and liked the area for the most part. But this visit the city got especially crowded! Traffic was a nightmare all day long. The freeway on-ramps had metering lights now and all that accomplished was to back traffic up on different highways other than Hwy. 101, which continued to be congested. And the landscape changed---there was trash/garbage alongside the roads everywhere we went and none of the governmental landscaping was kept up or neatly trimmed. It also looked as if someone brought in a trainload of transient, stinky, drunken, bums to populate downtown. Man-oh-man I don’t miss dealing with that...I managed to poke my head in on some of my former co-workers at the courthouse at lunchtime one day, had a nice visit with them. We also got a short visit with our former neighbors Cheri and Paul (next door) and Tami (across the street) one night. However, I have to apologize to Greg and Chuck and Paul for not having enough time in town to at least drive by and yell “Howdy” at ‘em. My regrettable “snub list” is starting to get unruly.

Happy Birthday, big fella!

Having WAY too much fun!

Future Giants superstar...

Since Christmas was planned to be hosted by our son and daughter-in-law in Atascadero, we decided we would go back to Jojoba Hills and see if we could hole up there for a longer period of time and just drive the Jeep up to Chad’s for XMAS. We stopped off overnight in Atascadero again, had a nice breakfast visit with Chad and Crissy, then drove to Ventura for another overnighter. There, we found the Rincon Parkway, a Ventura County Park right on the beach in the Sea Cliff area. This is a $28/night “campground” (parallel parking spaces along the highway to fit 45’ rigs) literally boondocking on the ocean. You just can’t beat the view, we saw an awesome sunset and in the morning watched a school of dolphins swim by. This is a must-return-to destination for sure. 

HORRIBLE view!

Ho-hum, just another sunset!

Dolphins playing through...

And from Ventura it was back to Jojoba Hills SKP park. Traffic was terrible right through the heart of the beast (downtown L.A.). We got to the park and they were able to put us up. We got in just in time for their ice-cream social. And just to illustrate how small the “full-timer universe” is, Jeanne walked into the club house for ice-cream and I would have thought we ran into a rock star. She pointed across the room and said, in a very excited “I-see-a-rock-star” manner, “There’s Dave and Diane!” It seems she has been following Dave’s blog for some time since we’ve been mobile. Well, we introduced ourselves and had a nice, short visit with them, comparing some of our travels.

Well, I think I am caught up again on this thing. I will try to add posts a little more regularly but fear I will continue to fail miserably. Until next time...

Finishing up with Texas

Fredricksburg, Texas is a town of German influence/background. We stayed 3 nights at the Oakwood RV Resort, which we found in Passport America but discovered they are no longer affiliated with P.A. The town itself is small but there are a few sight-seeing locations nearby. Being in a German heritage town, we just had to eat German cuisine. We found the Auslander Restaurant on the main drag and partook of some authentic German fare (however, I had to wash it down with a good old fashion Irish pint of Guinness.)  While we were here Jeanne cracked one of her crowns so she had to get tended to by one of the local dentists. They got her right in and squared her away, no problems.

Some of the buildings downtown Fredericksburg, Texas

Library building

Cross Mountain was an early Indian lookout point overlooking the valley floor where Fredericksburg is now. Later, early Germans erected a large cross on the mountaintop, which has now been replaced with a lighted cross. We took the short walk up the hill to the cross and got a view of the valley.

The view from Cross Mountain

The cross

And what visit to this area would be complete without a visit to the megalopolis of Luckenbach, Texas. Made famous in song, this is not much more than a large ranch used for concert venues.

The stage behind the bar in Luckenbach

The old Post Office (now contains souvenir shop and the bar)

The bar

The stage and eating area behind the bar

The stage area inside the dance hall

Enchanted Rock State Park was located just outside of Fredericksburg. We hiked to the summit and got another great view of the valley. The rock formations of Enchanted Rock reminded us of Stone Mountain in Atlanta, GA.

Some of the enchanted rocks at Enchanted Rock State Park

A weird "zipper" line on Enchanted Rock

Nice view from the top

San Angelo State Park was our next stop. We stayed 2 days, the park being just outside San Angelo, Texas. The campsites were spacious with water and electric hookups, the dump station nearby. The poor lake there was all but dried up due to the drought. And hunting season was getting ready to start, many of our neighbor campers were hunters getting ready to blast away.

Next, it was off to one of the Escapee parks we have not been to yet, Tra-Park in lovely Pecos, Texas. This is one of the Rainbow parks in the Escapee system. The Escapees should consider terminating their partnership with Tra-Park. This was a TOTAL dump; run down trailers, junk piled up around them, junker cars parked all around and screaming through the park at warp factor 8, and NOISY generators, impact wrenches, various tools running right up to the 10 PM magic hour. And Pecos is an eyesore in and of itself. Driving the highways in and out of Pecos reminded me of the highways in the Bakersfield area, like driving through a county landfill site, garbage EVERYWHERE!

It was one night and out of Tra-Park. We drove into Carlsbad, New Mexico and stayed for a few days at another Escapee Park we had not been to yet, The Ranch at Lakewood, NM. This was a co-op version of the SKP system, and it was much more to our liking. A typical SKP park, very friendly folks, and lots of activities at the park. While we were there we did get some big rain,lightning and thunder, and the weather got a whole lot cooler, some days into the 40’s. 

Carlsbad Caverns was quite awe inspiring. A couple hours walk through the very large hole in the ground took us by some really cool rock formations. It was really nice to see they had a kennel on site for the puppies, although we did not need it for this round, the temperature outside was  in the mid 40’s.

"Oooooooooooh!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh!"

We sit here now just waiting for our mail, then it will be onward and westward to who-knows-where-next?