Bard, Ca

Yuma is a better known town, but we’re actually camped on BLM land so you could pretty much just throw a dart at southeast Arizona pick a town of your choice. We had planned on two nights here, but the amazing sun, the endless desert, the pure and complete silence and stillness, the blazing stars filling the sky have convinced us that mainland Mexico can wait a week. Or more. We are high on a bluff overlooking canals and dams and the Colorado (or what is left of it) and it amazes me that we have seen the Colorado from the US state of Colorado, through Arizona all the way to the Sea of Cortes in Baja California. You can see this on a map; it isn’t rocket science, but it astounds me that we have followed this river from the continental divide to the sea it empties into.

If you have ever felt uncomfortable, if you have ever felt out of place, if you have ever felt, well, just a BIT too large with your vehicle, if 17 meters (or more) of vehicle gives you the heebie jeebies while driving down the street, come to Quartzsite! I headed up to “Q” very early yesterday morning. Up with the sun, it rose tentatively over the desert horizon and I rushed to close the shade so it wouldn’t wake Ellen. One of these days I’m going to get up, have charged batteries IN the camera and see if I can capture the moment on film. I snuck out (WITH coffee; I’d laid everything out the night before so I wouldn’t be without) and headed up the road, chill in the air, sun rising and alternately blinding, alone in the massive van for Q. At the beginning of the month, I’d purchased some books for the kids on Ebay and had them delivered to Q. I figured we’d be somewhere in the area. It was a nice morning drive and I was at the Post Office by 9:20. Arizona time. Our camp, deep into BLM land is actually in California but we do errands in Arizona. Q has an entire separate post office facility devoted to General Delivery. This is a town of (maybe) 5 which explodes to 100,000 in the winter with the arrival of RV’s and RV vendors and snowbirds.

After waiting 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the counter (in hindsight, Monday morning was NOT the best time to visit the Snowbird Capital General Delivery Center) I found the books had been sent to Jamie’s name and he would have to come and pick them up. There was a guy in line that I simply could not stop looking at. He was, unfortunately, directly in front of me so a direct gaze was out of the question. I know I will never become a photographer because I wanted a photo of him desperately but could not muster the courage to snap one. The sun was still new and low on the horizon. He has a very light stubble, almost like his razor just wasn’t all that sharp. The sun was picking up each miniscule whisker and highlighting it, turning his jaw into a field of sparkle. His shirt was bright and new; blue and green wide stripes tucked tightly into brand new, pressed that morning, deep blue Wranglers. His teeth were yellow from the pipe he smoked, his skin a working tan. His cowboy hat fit him like a glove. He was chatting with the man ahead of him in line and he had a deep drawl. I schemed and maneuvered the entire hour I waited, but couldn’t figure out how to take a photo. Next time I’ll have bring a duck blind along with me. The trip was not wasted, however, I found the largest laundry-mat/shower building in the free world and we’re going back today to clean up. The boys are out of socks, the bathtub is spilling dirty laundry over the bathroom and Jamie is dying to see all the RV crap.

I’ve been moving pictures from Typepad to Flickr and January and Feb 05 are complete. If you’re keeping score or something.

San Diego

A little recap for the past few days. Disneyland, as can be imagined, was a rousing success. It was such a day of perfection; the kids were in a blissful zone and as such, so were Jamie and I. There were absolutely NO LINES to speak of and the boys began to wonder why there was so much walking to get to the rides. They also became concerned a couple times that there was, in fact, no ride; just lots of walking to simply look at stuff. Can you imagine what a warped view they have of DLand? Where most children dread the lines, they never experienced one. To further rub salt in the wounds of the readers, we walked, on almost each and every ride, without regard to time of day, RIGHT TO THE VEHICLE. That’s right; we entered the ride and walked right up to the prospective carrier of death without delay. No fast pass; no need for one. To make you all feel a bit better, once we finally left, I carried Ellen out screaming for candy. She was absolutely and utterly out of control. The longest lines were at the toddler or littler kid area; Dumbo was amazingly slow. There are so few days that are geared absolutely and utterly towards the kids and this was one of them. Any ride they wanted at any time, we’d do it. We brought food in as the prospect of paying $5.00 for popcorn or $20 for a hamburger after spending THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR DOLLARS just to walk into the park was simply nauseating.

We left the Canyon of The Weird the next day (the place we camped was truly, full of absolutely The Most LA People on the Planet; the day we entered, a Sunday, we were stopped at the entrance gate trying to gain access. People from nowhere (we were so far out in the canyonlands it frightens me to think of where they appeared from) appeared behind us, honking and sighing and gesturing as they were In A Very Big Hurry and couldn’t believe the audacity of an RV entering an RV park to cause such a blight on their day. It was SO LA.

We found a beautiful San Diego County park just east of Chula Vista and saved ourselves some driving as our normal haunt in San Diego is Portrero Park, some 45 miles east of San Diego. The kids are loving the park; lots of grass and roaming and trees and pine cones to torture and pine needles to poke with and sap to rub all over their body (and then demand peanut butter (and RARE ORGANIC pb at that!) to remove it with). They have been playing for two solid days. The girls play horse/owner imaginary games and the boys play a weird merge of Star Wars and Harry Potter imaginary games.

Today I headed to Potrero to pick up some mail and in a spark of genious, decided to head over to Tecate (Mexico) to get cheap diesel (it is about 1.80/gal or .50/litre there as opposed to $3.00/gal here) and take the toll road to TJ as I figured it would be faster than the meandering SR94 in California that takes about a hour to traverse. I was right; it took only 15 minutes to drive from Tecate to TJ, but it took 45 minutes to find diesel (asking 4 seperate times) and once in TJ I ended up going BACK to Tecate after getting bad directions (and the complete and utter lack of directional signs on the freeway leading me astray). So, I spent 4 hours looking for freaking diesel, driving from Tecate to TJ, from TJ to Tecate and then back to TJ again and then waiting 45 minutes at the border to cross. I’d read in the paper about a border chase of a vehicle that had crossed at Tecate and then back the same day, running drugs and was worried I’d get hassled at the border. By the time I got there, I was so happy to simply FIND the damn border that I answered each question truthfully. The border official wondered why I’d spent the day in TJ, leaving my family in San Diego (I corrected him twice that I was in TECATE) but didn’t question the South Dakota driver’s license and California plates. I was about to tell him that the only reason I crossed the border was to save $1.20/gallon in gas fees (about $40/tank) but he waved me though. Now that’s what I call a thorough investigation!

So, tomorrow we head somewhere; we can’t pick up mail in Quartzite until Monday, so we’ll meander and wander in the desert for the weekend. Or we’ll be here. Or we’ll be at Portrero. Or who knows.

Dis-en-ey-Wand

Yes, with Ellen, Disneyland is a 4 syllable word. We went to Trader Joes today to stock up for the upcoming “Special Day” with food that isn’t soup or pot roast or tamales or lasagne or something that needs to be heated up. The kids have already blasted through an entire bag of bagels and the Joe’s O’s (an Oreo type thing without hydrogenated oils) have taken heavy causalities. AAA was unable to come up with any kind of discount and from what I’ve been able to find on the Internet, Dis-en-ey-wand does not really offer any. So we’ll be pillaging from the “college” fund (yeah, unschoolers with a college fund) and going to Disney. It has been so incredibly windy here that it is quite disconcerting. Apparently, the gusts are only 40-50mph but it feels like a hurricane.

Not much to say; I really wanted to upload photos, but they just aren’t happening on this freebie link. I did, however, make a return to the dark mistress this morning; very contrary to my nature, I awoke at 7am (practically the middle of the night) and did Yoga. Ellen did just fine without me.

no grapes on the Grapvine

Ellen insisted on pancakes (blueberry, to use up the last of a can of blueberries purchased in, well, Arizona? maybe?) this morning, so in addition to sausages, we had pancakes. The sink was full of dirty dishes but no water with which to wash them. I always underestimate the amount of water we need boon-docking and HATE to drag water around the planet so I always err on the side of too little. Somehow, even with what I thought was a late start, we were on the road by 10:30. I have always avoided The Grapevine (in southern California) as it always seems to eat a handful of cars on each summit attempt. It really isn’t a bad drive but hauling something, I suppose it has a bad reputation in my mind. Plus, the very last speeding ticket I got was somewhere above the Grapevine; headed north, while doing somewhere around 80mph in a sporty Datsun 240Z. Back in the days…

As we approached the beginning of the Grapevine, the haze disappeared and the mountains rose above us; the only split in the mountain range holding the road crossing to the LA basin. It was an easy drive although I did 35-40mph on the ascent and 40-45 on the descent (speed limit on the descent was 40 or 45 depending). Only saw 3 cars pulled off the road being attended to. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten about an incredibly dangerous roadside area as we approached Castaic. The kids saw Magic Mountain and much ado ensued. The boys then remembered a visit we’d made to Disneyland when I was pregnant with Sissy and the end of the story was pretty much written by then. I had planned on spending the afternoon at a park in Irvine and then boon-docking at the park or at a Walmart, but changed in midstream to find an RV park. We’re in the Silverado Canyon (or some other canyon east of Irvine and Tustin) WAY into the canyon. I spent about 2 hours trying to find the bird (satellite for internet) but too many trees and steep canyon walls nixed that idea. After spending all that time and energy Jamie found free wireless from someone here in the park. You’d think I’d learn; this is not the first, not the second and probably not the third time this has happened.

So tomorrow we try for Disney; I’m looking all over for discount tickets or some way to get cheaper tickets, but it just doesn’t look possible. The wind is simply amazing and I hope we stay at the top of this ridge tonight and don’t end up at the bottom of this canyon; it feels strong enough to push the trailer right off the edge. It sure didn’t look like smog remained in the basin today; could be recent rain or this incredible wind.

It was nostalgic driving through LA today; I spent 7 years here in the 80’s and worked in 4-5 different places and lived in countless. From 3 different beach communities to 3-4 different valley (San Fernando Valley) communities to inland. Sunday is absolutely The Only Day to drive through LA; I remember many 2 hour (one way) commutes; to go some 40 miles back in the day. The datastorm map is pretty accurate, but not completely accurate as I didn’t use exact lat/long. This park is pretty much pure permanent residents and they are all, well, pretty much all, completely LA crazy.

Taft, California

Well, not exactly Taft, but a little east of the intersection of SR43 and SR119. East of I5. North of the Buena something county recreational area. Got it? Good.

We left Harris Ranch around 10:30 this morning; leisurely morning and while I contemplated Yoga out with the cow dung and farm equipment, the cold kept me inside. I can’t ever remember such a cold winter in California. Is it just that our blood is running tropical? We had planned on stopping at the Buena Vista Kern County park, but boondocking fees were TWENTY SIX DOLLARS and hookups thirty plus. As I pulled in, the attendant asked me if we’d planned to stay just the day and I said, “at these prices I’ll be staying just long enough to turn around”. I prefer to support local parks, but those prices were simply astronomical. I stopped near a nice grassy field in the midst of farmland and we let the children loose to play. We spent quite a few hours, eating, making dinner, listening to Prarie Home Companion (I am simply LOVING Sirius radio and wonder how we survived before it) and watching the kids play. Just before sunset we packed up and headed about 2 minutes down the road to the intersection of some farm roads (but lots of gravel under us) and we’ll spend the night here.

Tomorrow we try to hunt down the source of our battery issues; they seem to be draining incredibly fast. After that, we’ll head to the LA area (I picked out some parks thanks to Google Earth and spend time at a park for the kids and decide to either spend the night there or head to a WalMart for the night. Jamie much prefers a WalMart to my kind of stealth boon-docking. Then we’re San Diego bound, but I might stop Encinitas to check out a Yoga class.

on the road again

We left!!!!!

Unfortunately, we left the A/C adapter to my laptop in Fremont. More unfortunately, we left it at the laptop repair shop to be used with the Thinkpad T30. My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite. That isn’t going to work. I know this because the Thinkpad adapters do not work in the Toshiba. So the laptop will not be fixed either. My laptop has all the passwords and email on it, so we’re running a little technically blind. What is worse, to Pike, is that we left some 20 out of 5731 lego pieces at Aunty Chris’s house. He is demanding that we return to Fremont to pick up the lego pieces. We’re hoping to have them sent with the A/C adapter, but that will probably be too little too late for him. He is quite pissed that we’re not, at this very moment, heading straight back to pick up the legos.

At any rate, updates may be very few and far between. Jamie has a Thursday appointment in San Diego with a urologist so we’ll be somewhere in the state (or Mexico) until then. Janet; I have no email addresses; could you email me (I can get new email). thanks!