January 2013 - San Diego, Fountain of Youth, Mittry Lake, Imperial Dam, Quartzsite and Mesa, AZ

 

January 1 - Happy New Year 2013

New Year's Eve Ray and I toasted each other (New York Time!) with some bubbly we had picked up on the wine tour and had a wonderful lobster and crab dinner.

Twice baked potatoes, brussels and mini homemade pecan pie finished off the meal.  Wow look at the size of those crustaceans.

We managed to last until 10 pm and were rudely awakened by the dog at 12:01 am landing on our heads!  She is terrified of fireworks.  After an uncomfortable half hour, kicking her off the bed and her getting right back on she settled curled around my head between the headboard and me.  By 1 am all was quiet so she was kicked out to the couch and the door closed.  For New Years Day we decided to have a hot tub to start our day.  It was a beautiful morning.

The afternoon found us heading downtown to visit another Diner Drive-Ins and Dives restaurant, Studio Diner. They had wonderful clam chowder and lobster bisque.  The place was packed.

There apparently was a movie studio right next door which the military were using for exercises so was unavailable to the public.

 

 Next it was off to the Balboa Park off leash dog park to wear the dog out.  She had a ball.  There was a smaller dog there who could outrun her so she spent about 20 minutes running flat out.  Freya was more than ready to go back to the truck for a nap!

We finished the afternoon by attending the Symphony, Salute to Vienna. The tickets were our Christmas present from Garrett and Sandra. The orchestra was awesome, playing Strauss waltzes. They had a Soprano and Tenor singing operettas (not our cup of tea but okay) and some ballet and the best was six professional ballroom dancers. All in all it was a wonderful day.


January 3 - San Diego the last hurrah! 

 

Well today is the day before we resume our travels, so lots of tidying, packing etc.  Ray wandered around the RV park yesterday snapping a few pics to remember the place by.  We truly enjoyed our month here, especially the hot tub.

For an RV Park the sites were not too narrow, however we are looking for the wide open spaces so Freya has more room.

After a morning of laundry yesterday, we decided to go for a walk in the Elfin Reservoir Recreational Site.  The trail was a little steep but we only walked up and then back down for about a mile.  

Freya was a little unsure of hopping from rock to rock to get over the stream.  She had a pretty good workout running here and there, so much so that she did not even wake up with a piece of steak in front of her nose.  (Ray took 5 pictures with the flash before he got the right one and she did not move!)

January 5th - Fountain of Youth

Well here we are at the Fountain of Youth! Met up with some friends who encouraged us to stay here for a few days. What a lovely, friendly resort. Again, we lucked out with a prime spot.
Friday night Bill and Elke took us for dinner to the American Legion at Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea at the suggestion of the office when we checked in. They had a few guys playing guitars, your choice of chicken fried steak or beef steak and good beer. The pics did not show it but it sure filled up shortly after we arrived. It sure is a rundown little community since the Salton Sea is diminishing every year.  You sure can see the hundreds of feet of dirt that is now dried out.

An old jail in the community

Desert Golf Course maintained  by volunteers at the FOY 

Saturday morning we started out with a fine breakfast at the hall, Bill and Elke then  took us for a tour to Slab City with the famous Salvation Mountain.  The man who built this did it over 40 years and unfortunately is now in a care home and unable to maintain it.  It is made of thousands of hay bales, who knows if it will stand the test of time.

Then it was off to Slab City. It's an old military camp built to train for WWII and there are concrete pads for tents.  It is a permanent residence for many in the middle of the desert.  It's quite the strange place as these pictures will attest.

Next it was off to the "Mud Pots". These were crazy. Located right by the Geothermal plant in Niland. The sound of the mud popping and gurgling was amazing. Probably like "Old Faithful". There are lots of other utube videos of this if you google it. This is the same thermal area tied in with the Hot Springs LTVA mentioned earlier on the way to San Diego.

 

Who knows where they will take us tomorrow...

Before dinner we went to the mineral hot tub, one of 4 hot tubs that they have here.  Nice and warm in the soft night sky.  Just as we were about to leave the power went out in the whole RV park.  Pitch dark! Wow the night sky was beautiful. Fortunately we had our things close by as we stumbled out to walk back to the trailer.

We had a wonderful three days at the Fountain of Youth Spa Resort.  Bill and Elke were wonderful hosts, taking us for a tour of the area.  South one day and then north the next. (South was the mud pots etc.) Going north we toured through Palm Springs and then over to Desert Hot Springs where they stayed last year and we surprised Ron and Penny with a quick visit.  We stopped at the Salton Sea before embarking on the trip. Wow has this body of water dried up substantially.  There are dead fish carcasses everywhere.  Kind of smelly too.

January 8th - Mittry Lake, Imperial Dam

Back on the road by 9:30 am Monday morning and headed back to the Imperial Dam area close to Yuma.  Again weather is helping to make the decision of direction!  It is going to be 70 degrees for most of this week and sunny and we also have some friends to visit in the area.  This time we decided to try to camp at Mittry Lake for a change of scenery.  What do you think?  This picture is at sunset yesterday after we arrived.  There is only one other camper in a tent in the trees behind us, quite a distance away and another motorhome with a tent set up about 200 feet away from us and that is it.  Lots of room for Freya to play, she especially likes the water.

Yup, that is us with the best spot, right in front of the water!  In the distance are the chocolate mountains where we camped at the base of these mountains at Senator's Wash at the Imperial Dam LTVA in early November.  We are about 15 minutes away from that site so still have access for garbage, water and sewer.

View out the bedroom window! 

This is a beautiful wet land area, lots of birds with fish stocked in the lagoons.  Very peaceful.  This will be a well-deserved rest after the hectic stay in San Diego.  Staying at camp today and just chilling!

January 14th - Sandstorm Mittry Lake 

We are still camped at Mittry Lake.  Ray took the trailer up to Imperial Dam yesterday to empty and fill with fresh water.  We lasted 7 days... wahoo.  It has been quite windy and cold although the sun shines brightly every day.  This morning the wind was quite brisk and we noticed a huge dust storm up at the Imperial Dam area across from us.  You can see that the mountains in the distance are starting to get hazy.

And then they disappear.  We are lucky that the grasses in front of us stop any dust/sand from blowing at us.  I am glad we are here instead up the mountain at Imperial with the winds that they have been receiving so far this month.

There was one other unit here with us until this morning.  A very interesting fellow and his wife with his daughter and son-in-law.  The couple are 88 years old with their retired kids coming with them to help out.  He was a marathon canoer including portages up until a couple of years ago.  There was an article published about him at age 80.  We can only hope that we will do as well as they are at that age.  Still camping!

Laundry day tomorrow in preparation for leaving for Quartzsite which is not too far away. They are 9 degrees colder than we are and it is freezing here in the morning! However by Friday Yuma should be 72 degrees.

 

January 16th - Back to Imperial Dam

 It has been an eventful couple of days.  We kept hearing the water pump coming on at Mittry Lake for two days.  After some sleuthing around realized that the basement was wet again!  It appeared we had another plumbing leak and could not see where it was coming from.  We emptied the basement and moved everything inside and started calling repair shops.  Some said not until January 31st ... not waiting.  We luckily found an RV repair shop by the name of CJ's Repair.  They were awesome and said that they could take us 8am Wednesday morning.  Sold! On Monday night, no water, and cold.  We ran out of propane at 3:30 am.  We called it quits, took the trailer in a day early just to park it and registered at the Motel 6 for a nice warm night, hot shower and they were also dog friendly.  Not the best motel we've stayed at but at $49.99 for the night, Sold!  This morning we arrived for our 8 am appointment and after they had a look it turned out it was just a pinhole leak in the water line for the ice maker.  They fixed it in about 5 minutes and charged nothing.  Wow, we were so relieved that Ray dropped off a case of beer for their trouble.

Next we went back to Imperial Dam after doing our laundry and will stay for 2 days before heading up to Quartzsite 2 hours away for the big RV show.  We took some pictures before leaving 2 days ago of the armaments that they have on display on the Yuma Proving Grounds.  Ray also went to the Yuma Prison to take pictures.

All of these army pieces have been tested on these proving grounds at some time.

 This was the prison that was the destination in the movie Three-Ten to Yuma where they guy was to take the prisoner to the train that left at three-ten to Yuma.

January 17th - Imperial Dam LTVA again! 

 Ray finally got the opportunity to take some pics of the wild donkey's this morning just up the road from us.  Here you go.

January 23 - Quartzsite

Just a quick note to let all of you know that we have been at Quartzsite since Friday dry camping with Bill and Elke.  Having a blast but too busy going to the show every morning and as the weather is fantastic, spending the afternoons sitting in the sun!  Will catch up this weekend with all of the pictures.

 

January 24th - Quartzsite in the sun!

We have had quite a busy week visiting the "Big Tent" and Tyson Wells street vendors.  Every day we left at 8:30 am to get a  good parking spot with Bill and Elke and came home at lunch. Afternoons were spent relaxing in the sun with a couple of bevies.  It has been amazing!  Tons of stuff to buy if you were so inclined. We did get a flagpole.  Here are some pictures of our week.

I think this picture was taken by the ultra light guys who flew over camp daily in the morning before the winds came up.

View of the street scene at Tyson Wells

Inside the Big Tent

Cheers to us!

Ray managed to get Elke to play the guitar with him.

This morning I awoke at 5:30 am to some raindrops on the roof .... had to think for a minute what it was!  Then remembered all of our chairs and stuff were around the campfire.  We are so used to sunshine we just leave everything out ready for the next happy hour! Out I went in my housecoat and slippers, holding a flashlight as it is pitch dark, and moved everyone's things under our awning.  The weather report is just calling for 20% precipitation so hopefully just enough sprinkles to dampen down all of the dust.

January 29th - Mesa, AZ

 We left Quartzsite on Friday morning, January 25th before the rains began and headed to Mesa to meet up with our friends Ed and Jean Proteau. We also were able to have a visit with Faith and Rob Como. At this resort, Mesa Spirit, there are a lot of Port Alberni people here! Huge resort with over 1100 campers! Lots of pools etc. Doing some shopping ... checking out a few things like a Lazyboy for Ray as he is having such difficulty with his back and leg. We think another operation is upcoming when we get home.

We have booked in for a week as that was the better rate and are planning to head down to Ajo, Arizona after this and visit the Organ Pipe Cactus Monument.  There is a campground or we will be boondocking.  All to be decided when we get there!

Pretty tight spaces though!  Freya will be glad to move on!