Aussies on tour - instalment #10

After picking up supplies and leaving Albuquerque, we drove up the 14, towards Santa Fe, very scenic, we arrived late, and went to our favorite night spot - unfortunately it was not there. I went into the very large shopping complex and finally found the security, who said "no" we could not stay there. Back to our lists - another Wal-Mart in. We went over to this location, had hardly turned the key off, when a security guard appeared, and said that we could not park here, when quizzed a little further, he said we could park on the other side of the car park, so all was good!. Next morning after some shopping, we went to old town, once again with a square, the third one we have visited, they are getting better & better. The square is where all these cities originated. We visited the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, (pictures 1 & 2 shown), beautiful huge church, built in three stages, over a long period of time. Finished in 1869, it has beautiful stained glass windows, and it’s place at the end of the plaza, together with its size, makes it a really dominant feature of the whole area. We walked around the town for some time, went to the post Office, for stamps etc. The attendant there had been to Australia, as have many men we have spoken to, when they were in the military. Most have been to the east coast, few to our part of the world, on the west coast. We decided that we would eat out at a local restaurant this night, to sample some more New Mexican food, right on the square, which looked nice, as it become dark, and the lights came on. We had parked in a car park adjoining the center of town, because when we arrived after four pm, there was no fee, it stays light here until after eight, so this give you quite a bit of time to explore. The following day, we experienced our first rain on the trip, not heavy, but enough to keep us indoors. The previous wet patches we experienced, were at night, and didn’t affect our sightseeing, managed to park close to a shop with wifi, so that was good. The next day, we went back to the old town area. We walked & walked; saw the oldest church in the USA San Miguel Mission (picture 3 shown), the oldest house in the USA (picture 4 shown), the Loreto Chapel, with its magnificent staircase, once again interesting and unusual architecture for us. Many souvenir shops, galleries and the entire tourist type temptations, up alleyways, and all over the place. It is a great place to wander and explore. We thought it was time to get out of temptations way and head north, on towards Rol’s ranch……….

Aussies on tour - instalment #9

The next three days at Ed’s place was a marvelous experience, he is a great host, handy with the bbq, showed me the art of garage sale shopping on Saturday morning, and a tour to some of the scenic sights around where he lives, a beautiful part of the city, he took me to an area which he claims to be one of the top ten places to live in the US, not hard to see why! Included in the tour was a visit to Lowe’s and a couple of other hardware shops. Accents once again became obvious, Ed said,” we will go in the Celica,” he pronounced it, sell-ica, we say sill-ica, another car is quite different, is Hyundai, Americans say hun-dee, we say high-un-die, Nissan, we say Niss-an, they say Nee-sun. On Sunday he took us he to Old Town, up town, in fact all over town. We went to the museum of ABQ which was very much into the local history of the city and its surrounds, we also visited the old part of town, and the old square area. This is a great place to visit, fabulous old buildings, lots of jewelry, art and pottery for sale. For lunch we went at the Frontier restaurant, to sample New Mexican food, delicious. The whole area is rich in history and, for us unusual architecture, I would say, that for a few weeks holiday, this would be a great place to base yourself, both here and Santa Fe, with so many attractions close by, and great circular drives. Our visit was made even more special, by visiting Ed, with his generosity, and also for making us so welcome.

The time had come us to depart for Santa Fe ……….

Aussies on tour - instalment #8

Our stop over in Carlsbad at the big “W” RV park was quite an experience, the TV program’s were constantly being interrupted by cyclone warnings, we watched with interest as the dark red patches on the screen came closer, and warnings of hail the size of golf balls, Fortunately we only got the edge of the blast, however it was enough for the van to rock & roll for most of the night.
The Caverns were absolutely amazing, you can take an elevator down, for 750 feet, or you can walk down, which we decided to do, took about an hour and a half to zig zag our way down, we hired the talking guide, and this kept us informed of what to look out for. When we reached the bottom, we entered a huge impressive area; this is the entry point for those who come down by elevator. We continued on the large circular walk, marveling at nature’s artwork. We exited the caverns by elevator after about three hours underground. The only criticism we could make was that the lighting could have been better to show the structures at their best. Up on the surface, the whole area is being upgraded, with a new visitors center, and associated buildings, which is a major project. It was back to our overnight park again, and we watched, as the cyclone seemed to be pretty close to us, just heavy rain and hail this night. Next day we drove back through Artesia, and on to Roswell, a large town, which has a center, we have found many towns here do not. This night we stayed at Sams club, first one we had seen, large warehouse type store, similar to Cosco, nothing like it in Australia. Had more rain and hail during the night, more heavy winds. It was then onto Albuquerque, no we didn’t take the straight short route, but back to the mountains, and back roads, the scenery began to change from desert to wooded.
On the way came across an interesting town called Lincoln, another town where time has stood still. We saw a guide walking the streets with tourists, he was dressed in period garb, handle bar moustache, boots and the big hat etc. They have a Billy The Kid re-enactment once a year here, and have a special outdoor arena built for it. We were lucky enough to find a picnic area just outside of town, which made an ideal overnighter. The next day we drove onto Duran, virtually a ghost town, but we found a suitable spot next to an old fire station, great for the night. It was the on to Albuquerque via Climes Corner, a huge souvenir shop attached to a truck stop selling route 66 paraphernalia. The drive into Albuquerque via the 40 (ex route 66) was quite spectacular, despite a lot of road works, the highway followed a magnificent rock canyon, we seemed to go down & down, for ages, however we reached Ed’s place with no problems…………

Aussies on tour - instalment #7

We continue our adventure......

On The drive from Las Cruces towards the White sands Memorial, it was dead flat desert country, Still with the mountains alongside, the missile testing range ran beside the road, for what must have been 50 miles. The thing that stood out the most for me, was the power poles, they carry the main grid and would have been at least 100 feet tall, two by two they went for miles. They are all over the country, hundreds and hundreds of miles, I was imagining a desolate deforested area in some other place, it must have taken many forests to achieve what they have, I guess they stand out more in the flat desert environment.I guess we are used to seeing concrete and steel supports back home'
At the White Sands Memorial Park, we did the sunset walk with the ranger, it was amazing how one could spend over an hour talking about grains of sand, it was absolutely fascinating. Being the sunset walk, we stayed to watch the sunset, of course it was dark by the time we left the Park. We then drove to Alamogordo, and noticed that our favorite overnight RV place was there, the big W. We didn’t realize how large Alamogordo was, the lights in the distance indicated a large center, we subsequently found out that it is basically only a few streets wide, this made it look larger than perhaps it was. Alamogordo center was a fair way from the old original town, and most impressive. Had lunch in the town park , which on this trip we haven"t found many in the desert environment. After lunch we left and headed towards the mountains and Lincoln National Forest. It was a great drive up through the solid rock canyons--. From a vista point we had a view back as far as White Sands,about 30 miles away. We then drove through a tunnel in the side of the mountain, solid rock, quite a feat to blast their way through . At the top of the mountain was a very unique town called Cloudcroft, once a timber town, but when the railway reached here, passengers began arriving, and is now very much a tourist town, many bed and breakfasts, and various types of accommodation. It also has the most southern ski run in the USA On the edge of town there is a park and a walk that follows the old train track, down to the trestle bridge, about a 3.5 mile walk. The trestle bridge stands six stories high, made of timber of course, when passengers rode across in the train, they mentioned the way it swayed, while looking up & down at the canyon. When it was constructed, it was the highest altitude railway in the world. It was fortunate that we were here on this day, as the Park was closed the following day, due to a fire hazard. We made our overnight stop a few miles out of town in the forest.
The next day, after buying some supplies at the local store, which was like a bit of time warp. We continued driving through the forest, once again into a beautiful valley, and found a nice forest campsite. We had just set up for the night, when a Ranger appeared, the camp ground was to be closed, once again because of the fire situation, after talking to him for a while, he said that we could stay for the night
Next day we drove to Artesia, an oil town, in fact they have a refinery right in the town, producing jet fuel . We filled our propane tank directly opposite. The best thing in Artesia I think were the sculptures, they had quite a few around the town. It was then on to another SKP park called the Ranch, the reason it was given this name was because it is in the middle of a working ranch. On the way to the Ranch we saw many oil pumps in the paddocks, first time on this trip. We arrived at lunch time, reading the signs, we decided to park out side, and walk in. At the entrance there is a cattle grid, we decided to walk around it, on the edge, to steady myself I touched a wire, remember a cattle ranch, no fences, WHACK, an electric fence , I jumped sideways, and landed in a cactus plant. When they opened the office after lunch, they welcomed us buy saying “this is the friendliest Park in the club!!. It did turn out to be, once settling in At the happy hour we were introduced to the residence, together with an English couple, Dave & Janet. We had an great two days here, with them, and hope to catch up later in Memphis, if we can trust THE white board. It was now time to head to Carlsbad..................
Until our next saga Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #6

A couple of day’s further on our adventure.....Just as we were leaving “Dream Catcher” SKIP park in Deming, we heard acouple talking with strange accents ,we all turned at the same time, andasked, are you Australians? Turned out that they were from Queensland,and are over here for five years, we went back to their fifth wheeler,and spent about four hours talking with them. By the time we left them ,and did shopping, it was getting a little late, so we spent the nightjust out of town, on a gas pipeline access road, near the Rock HoundState Park.On the entrance to Las Cruces, there is a rest area, which is more likea scenic lookout, which overlooked the city. There is a giant sculptureof a Road Runner, made completely from materials from the local tip(trash) sandshoes, computer bits, Cans, car hub caps, bits of wire,never seen junk look so good, maybe this could be taken on as world wideproject, may help clean up a whole lot of rubbish. While we were there Igot to chat to a fellow, who was working on the buildings, (hisgrandfather was an apache Indian he told me about the sculpture, andshowed me a newspaper article on the project, otherwise we may havemissed the significance of it. I also asked , what was worthy of seeingwhile we were there, he suggested that we go to the old original part oftown called Mesilla, as it happened it was Sunday, and this meant it wasmarket day in the town square which added to the appeal, it was as thelocal resident said, very old, very Mexican and very unique , the onlydownside was that we bought a coffee here, and we could not finish it.(undrinkable).We then set the GPS Organ, however I did not check the preferences. Wewere low on fuel, but we were heading towards highway 70, where onewould think that we would be able to fuel up. The GPS directed us to theshortest and possibly the most scenic, but certainly not the quickest.After leaving suburbia and the bitumen road ,still following directiongiven by the GPS ,we found ourselves in a National Park. The conditionof the road only allowed us to go at 10mph, over the really chunky,rocky road. Lack of signage didn’t help, plus our low fuel problem . Oursolution at that time was to stop and have a cup of tea , plus admirethe scenery which was quite magnificent. The mountains were so close itwas unbelievable. Pressed on after our break, decided that was all wecould do , to far to go back. We finally reached Organ, guess what! NOFUEL station in sight so we pressed on to the next town on the map,White Sands. Unfortunately we had to go straight up and over quite ahigh mountain range! Remembering the fuel, plus this mountain looming inthe we figured we would make it to White Sands. Coasted down the otherside admiring the view.( They say on a clear day you can see for seventymiles)Made it to the White Sands turn off, gas gauge toughing E, blackuniforms, guns on their hips, looking very intimidating . We weregreeted with “what are you looking for Sir,” Brian said petrol, thenfuel, and lastly gas. This got a response. “No gas here Sir ,this is aMilitary Establishment, and is a Missile test centre, Las Cruces is theclosest fuel centre.” Remember the Mountains we just crossed, rememberthe fuel gauge, but we had an ace. We had bought a 1 gallon gascontainer for times like this! Brian got it out, opened it up and lowand behold only half full! Brian discovered there is a right and a wrongway to put the cap on. Need we say more! We did make it back to LasCruces by which time it was getting dark. Took the easy way out , andchecked into the Wal-mart car park RV park!
Still hanging in here Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #5

The first stop on our trip up the mountains from Lordsburg, was at the Tyrone Mine, where copper has been mined since 1860, so you can imagine how the area that has been effected, however they are doing a pretty good job of rehabilitation, although you can never return the land to the way it was completely. Next was Silver City, a large mining town settled around 1895,it is reasonably high in the mountains. Wal-Mart was the chosen overnight sight, and it did cool down over night. The next day we drove towards the Gila Cliff dwellings. (pronounced Hila) so when we told people we had been to Gila, they had no idea where we had been. For the first part of the drive we went through the Mimbres River Valley which was so scenic,with extremely high mountains but would have been even better if there had been water in the river, and the trees had all there leaves out. On this drive we crossed the Continental Divide, (we crossed over it four times in the next few days) you just can’t go to places up here, without many, many turns, the highest point we drove was 7432 feet, however one of the mountains, Mogollon Baldly was 10778 high. We had lunch at Lake Roberts, really pretty setting, people fishing, and out in boats, spoke to a group of young fellers who were fishing, they informed me that they were giving up the fishing, and going turkey chasing. Hadn’t heard of that before. It was then on and up, the up meant that at one stage our maximum speed was 20mph. However it does give you more time to appreciate the scenery .At the end of the road, there was an impressive visitors centre, and then a short drive to the cliff dwellings carpark, and a further three mile walk to the cliff dwellings. Built in 1280”s by the Pueblo people, however people have lived here from 100’s to 1300’s. The dwellings are in great shape, perhaps not as impressive as the ones we saw on our last trip at Mesa Verde, in Colorado, but still worth the drive and walk. We spent the night at one of the free forest camps, it seems a little strange up here, that some of the camps are free, and some you have to pay for, they have National Parks, National Forests, State Parks, all with different regulations. On the drive back to Silver City we had to drive over the same ground as going up, for about half the distance, but the second part was out of this world, huge canyons, pine forests, the road snaked down around and up, around very sharp corners and vista’s galore magnificent!! We had lunch at a marvelous lookout showing high mountains and very deep canyons, the sides of which are all covered with pines On this part of the drive, we passed a push bike rider in full racing gear(lycra), remembering we are over 7000ft up in altitude, at our next vista stop, he passed us, he had a grey beard, so he wasn’t a real young fellow, we passed him again, and the same thing happened a few times, must have been a fit mountain man. Drove to Pinos altos, (Tall Pines) this village was very interesting and quaint.(population about 10), Two hotels, and what Michele called a junk shop, but the locals called a museum and an ice-cream shop, which we enjoyed. The inside was like something from two centuries past, they had a Indian sitting at the bar, from the back you would think he was the real thing, (almost started a conversation with him) the whole thing looked like a movie set, come to think of it the whole town looked like that. We made our way back to Silver City, and it was getting late, so we spent the night at Wal-Mart again.The next day we drove up the other side of the range (Mogollon Mountains)This drive was very different to the other side, more desert type country, we had lunch at Gila, near their park, and library,(about the size of a railway carriage), it was Sunday, so it was closed, turned on the computer, and wifi. After lunch drove through what they call a wilderness area, quite different to our wilderness areas back home. On towards Glenwood, for an overnight in a forest camp, next morning we made our way to the “Catwalk”. This was a 1.2 mile walk through a deep canyon, with several waterfalls along the way. Not a lot of water in the gully but a great site all the same. The catwalk itself was in some parts bolted on, and in other parts hanging off the rock walls, being deep down in the canyon. It was nice and cool, and a special place to visit. According to the brochure all the parts were flown in by helicopter and then put in place. Overnight we stayed at Bill Evans Lake, another very nice place,(if I ever get a blog up and running I will be able to share images of these places, however it is a full time job doing what we are doing).The next morning we circumnavigated the lake, by foot ,had an interesting time with part of it, we had to slide down the spillway side wall, we were over half way around, so we couldn’t go back, could we? Time to depart so we headed back towards Silver City. But drove straight through, and onto the City of Rocks State Park. We arrived too late to go in, so we camped just outside, overlooking the Rock City. Rock City was formed by a volcano, way back, they state that it was 11 times more powerful than Mt St Helens, and having been to Mount St Helens and seeing the audio visual of their eruption, makes it hard to envisage. Hard to explain what it looks like, sort of the Pinnacles back home, Stone Henge, only about a 100 times bigger, spent a couple of hours walking around the park. The whole Gila area was great, I think that we could easily spend a month here, to do it justice.It was just a short drive then to Deming. We had a look in the SKP directory, and they had a contact there called “two crazy ladies” the two crazy ladies weren’t there, but they had left two deputies in charge, the title still applied, say no more. The next day we checked into the SKP park, right day as they had a hot dog, chili & sweet night on that night. Stayed two days, Michele caught up with the washing, I washed the van for the first time. There is always a temptation to stay longer at these parks, as they have things like ice-cream and cookie mornings, cook outs and the one that appealed to me was MEWS (men eating without supervision) . However we did move on towards the White Sands Memorial.To be continued……………….Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #4

Our next enthralling episode ……………read on. We were advised that as we were in Casa Grande we should visit the Casa Grande Ruins, by Joan at the SKP Park. Once again we arrived at 5.15, the gates closed at 5.00, so we decided to spend the night over the road in the Safeway’s car park, straight opposite the entrance of the park, this gave us an early start in the morning. The ruins are in remarkable shape, considering that they are over 300 years old. The main building is four stories high and sixty feet long, made of a sort of mud, the mortar is in perfect condition, modern manufactures should copy their recipe. The village was build by the Hokokam people. There was a guide at the site who explained all there was to know about the site. I just could not imagine how they could build such a structure in the desert, without water, trees or any of the modern day equipment, we were left to fathom all that out. The weather was warming up, with the radio predicting the first triple digit temperature for the year.We decided that rather than take the I 10 to Tucson, we would go inland, towards Florence, and maybe see some state parks that were shown on the map. On the way we stayed over at the Tom Mix memorial site, I don’t know how many people remember the Saturday matinee movies, but Tom Mix was one of the cowboys that often featured in them. (so some of the older people have told me) Interesting to look at the silhouette of him and see how may gun shot wounds, and how many broken bones he sustained during his life, not much room left for any more. The memorial was constructed, because this is where he died. The short story is that there were road works here, with wooden barriers, he came down the road estimated at 80mph, hit one of the barriers, and rolled over several times. The workers saw him crawl out of his car, then a case he was carrying in the car, containing money and jewelry, fell on his head, and broke his neck, which killed him. Still it did make a nice overnight spot (thanks to day’s end),also took some nice photo’s at dusk of the Saguaro cactus which I think are unique to Arizona. Next day we drove into Tucson, once again totally different than 10 years ago, now a big city, not a sleepy Mexican looking village. Stayed long enough to have lunch and check the internet, at McDonalds, then eventually back onto what we thought was the I10 but it was a side road.Had to go through about 10 miles of road works, and all the entry and exit roads were closed to the I10 because they are rebuilding the it.We dove directly to the Saguaro SKP Park (straight past several shops including Wal-Mart) This Park is quite large about 350 sites, for the non Escapees I will try to give an outline as to what they offer. They have a clubhouse, which would be about the size of a suburban recreation centre, back home, inside, a billiard room with three full sized tables, a kitchen, two card rooms, a reading room, a library , a gym, Laundry, and a huge open area used for various activities, not to mention the self service fridge with 50cent ice-cream . The season had just finished when we arrived, so most of the activities had finished, but during the season, its all go, with just about every activity known taking place. After a two day stay at the SKP Park at Benson, we decided to move on to wherever we could manage to find a spot for the night. We left Benson rather late , after shopping, which is absolutely fatal when there happens to be a Wal Mart in the centre. I have found Brian’s weak link! Two hours later we left for parts unknown. The drive was fantastic, huge towering mountains on both sides of the highway, although they were covered by a haze which gave them a blue look, quite unique. The highway was inundated with trucks, mainly 18 wheelers ( very knowledgeable on the subject!) but they were all very big and long and going a lot faster than our little Toyota. Came across McDonalds, which made Brian’s day. Never go inside these places, only park there to get WiFi. Checked in on Libby, our daughter to make sure all was well at home(Western Australia), then had to find a night spot, low and behold over the Bridge was the local Information centre, and an Apple Pie shop(closed thankfully) on a large area , so here we stayed. Another one of the day’s end info.Up early to make the most of the day(didn’t work), Brian decided to check the voltage in the Motorhome! Doesn’t everyone! Well the voltage was down, so everything came out, volt meter, thicker wire etc. Well what does a woman do! Clean up of course. But being close to a truck stop he decided the truckies would have more tools, so we shifted 250 metres. Low and behold he found someone who lent him what he needed to fix the problem for the moment. Need stronger wire at some stage, but back on the road again. The day was freezing cold to start but became better as the day went by, so did the voltage! Back onto the I 10 ,went into Bowie for morning tea, Bowie is a town that looks like time has forgotten, so we decided to do the same, about all that was there was a Pecan grove ., It is the sort of place you could overnight anywhere. After this the scenery was bland, and the road straight, until we almost reached New Mexico. There is American history all around these parts , half a mile down the road Cochise signed the agreement with the US army, a few miles that way Geronimo was here, Billy The Kid, was in the area, Kit Carson was a teamster at a local mine, so it goes on.Arrived in New Mexico, and stopped at the welcome centre, this was the best rest area/information centre we have seen on this visit. The ladies here were most helpful giving us information of the local area, after this our travel plans altered, we were headed for the mountains, and Silver City………………….to be continued.

Aussies on tour - instalment #3

Our adventure continues......The trip from Joshua Tree, through to Blythe was an ordinary run down the I 10. When we got to Blythe it was a Sunday, not that you would know it, everywhere we went it was so busy. We replenished our supplies, and headed across the border from California into Arizona, just a stone’s throw away, to get fuel and Propane .We made it to the Flying J truck stop, and joined in the special queue set aside for RV’s, so with the dozen , or so that were there, we joined the confusion,with huge rigs towering over us. I don’t know whether it was being Sunday, or that so many “snowbirds” were heading home, or whether the fact that the gas prices are cheaper in Arizona, but after about half to three quarters of an hour we were on our way again. The GPS directed us through what appears to be minor roads on a map, but we have found out since being here that even minor roads are really good.We reached our destination at Ogilvy Rd, not far from Yuma, a well known BLM site, that boondockers use, to meet up with Ron & Gloria, who had been offering help and support via the internet, since our arrival. This is a huge area with a couple of military bases close by, it was very interesting, being in the desert, mountains behind, and groups of helicopters some with rockets attached flying together, fighter jets just a couple of hundred feet above the ground, and strange winged aircraft, which apparently have the ability to take off vertically, just needed a few tents and you could have thought that you were on a scene from M*A*S*H. In the distance was a railroad track I counted 109 carriages on one train, on our last visit here I counted 125.Our stayed with Ron & Gloria was for three nights, and during this time Gloria had medical attention in Yuma, they were kind enough to offer to take us with them, so this gave us the opportunity to go in to explore Yuma. Yuma is a little strange, as it does not appear to have a centre, but just large and spread out, growing in one direction, can’t grow south, because that’s Mexico, can’t grow east, that’s California, can’t grow north, that’ Indian country. Still it’s a nice size, with just about all one would require as far as amenities and services are concerned. Ron helped with information on our mapping software, and other pieces of advice such as avoiding cyclones, also had use of his internet wifi via satellite.It was then back onto the I 10 and headed towards Casa Grande, all was going well, until we went into Gila Bend to fuel up, McDonalds was there, so I checked whether there was wifi, yes there was , I then went to fill up the water tanks. Heard Michele make some comment about the computer, I kept filling, I then moved the van, went to log on, no lights, nothing, dead. This has been our main source of navigation, isn’t it strange how new things become the norm, and you cannot live without them, take refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, cars etc. We did make it into Casa Grande, and to the Escapees Park, at 5.30,the office closed at 5.00, as we had to rejoin the club we were turned away, come back tomorrow.Not a good day! No GPS, Casa Grande looked a lot different than it did when we were last here 10 years ago, nothing familiar at all, although the Skp park had not altered at all. We eventually found a school parking lot, which served the purpose admirably as an overnight rest area. The next morning, the staff began arriving about 7am, one lady was most helpful, giving us direction to computer repair and sales places. Being so early the only place open was Wal-Mart (open 24 hours), checked them out and then went out to Best Buys, they are more of a specialist retailer (knowledge gained from Ron), only to find out that they do not open until 10am.Had breakfast in the car park and looked at what other shops were open, waiting, waiting. After looking at the various options, the repair shop was now open. Problems with my computer, using XP, and all the new ones using Vista. Too long a story to expand on, (will respond personally if requested. Ha ha.) Two repair shops later, we went back to Best Buys and bought a new one.We then went back to the SKP Park, signed up and booked in for two days. It took nearly this long to get the computer running; the park did have wifi, but very slow, and weak. So downloading drivers etc took quite awhile. A lot of my programs I can’t install, because the original disks are home, however the GPS was up and running, no longer felt like a blind man.During our stay we met a lovely couple and as luck had it, the husband was using the same mapping software as us, and he had the day’s end (night spots) layer, right up to date, as he inputs the data each month from the club magazine, he also had the day’s end file in the same manner, most useful.After two days ( for those who do not know, boon docking fee is $5 per night, with the first night free, washers $1.00per load, dryers 25cents for 25mins) it was time to move on again.

Aussies on tour

Arrived on the coast at Capistrano, really nice, beaches & Forest Parks on the coast, bit of a shock for us though, having to pay $10 dollars to use the beach, (you can stay there all day if you wished). A few of the locals drive their RV’s to the beach, and stay there for most of the day, and then drive home, I guess it saves the expensive price tag to has a water front property.
The drive along the coast towards Santiago was nice but, very busy. We stopped at a scenic lookout and together with a whole crowd of people, watched an aircraft carrier moored well out, being loaded with helicopters, there were dozens of them,, going round and round. By the time we reached Oceanside, Michele was becoming quite agitated by the traffic and the amount the amount of people; we decided at this time that we would sell the RV and return home. After a little more thought and consideration, we thought that if we left the crowds, maybe things would improve. After leaving Oceanside, we headed inland towards the mountains, traveling through the Puma Valley and towards the mountains, it appears that almost all the mountains out of here, you have to climb at least five thousand feet to cross them, and where we are from they are huge. The climb up was once again breathtaking; being spring, there was an abundance of wildflowers all over the mountains, mainly on the western side. Our destination for the night was Borrego Springs. The decent from the mountains was at 8% and went for miles, twisting and winding down the mountain side, through magnificent rock formations, and a view out over the flat plains way down below. We stayed overnight on BLM land just east of Borrego Springs, with the mountains as a perfect backdrop, having said that, and writing this several days later, we have the picture postcard backdrops every night, so if we for get to mention them, take it as a given. Next morning we went back into Borrego Springs, had a walk around the town, and went out to the visitors centre, and did about a 3 mile walk through the desert reading the info signs etc..
Our next destination was the Joshua Tree National Park on our way we drove past Salton Sea and through another beautiful gorge called Box Canyon with once again magnificent rock formations. We reached our destination, with the help of our GPS and the co-ordinates given to us by Ron an escapee who is sited just out of Yuma, but has been very helpful in providing information and support. We were at the Southern end of the park together with another group of Escapee boondockers, Kent, Leeann, Roy & Kathy Ron & Penny & Butch and a few others, we called in to stay overnight, but stayed three, Wonderful people and good company, (not to mention wifi internet via satellite courtesy of Kent & Ron). We drove into the park, and did a walk, once again being spring there was an abundance of wildflowers, drove onto the cactus garden called Chino gardens, this was only about halfway through the park, very windy and about 30 miles, but as we were going

We Have Arrived in the USA

Well we have arrived in the US (on the 17th of March), landed at Los Angeles airport, where we caught a shuttle bus to Santa Paula. We spent the night in a motel there, the bed was most welcome, after about 30 hours since being in one. The next morning we were picked up by Nancy, (the lady we bought the RV from). We then had the usual inspection, test drive etc. It was then time to pay for it, and then to the DMV for the change of title and registration details, a slight hiccup in achieving this, but was all sorted, after a smog test was carried out. We purchased a 21 foot Toyota Winabago Warrior.
We spent another three days in Santa Paula, buying supplies and equipment , and generally preparing for our trip. We were then ready to move down to see our next contact, Bob at Riverside. On our way down, we stopped for a drink, and I checked to see if there was a hotspot there, by chance there was, among the emails was one from Tika, who suggested that we would not be far from her place, on our way to Riverside, and that we should call in. We spent a couple of days around the Pasadena and San Bernardino area’s, all late nights, I guess those of you who know Tika will understand. After this, we drove up to the mountains to Big Bear Lake.This had been suggested to us by Tika.The drive was absolutely breathtaking with roads virtually hanging off the mountain side. The drops was over 7000ft, there was snow still up high and the ski fields were still operating.Truly beautiful country, despite the winding roads, and the many turnouts we had to make to allow the traffic to flow. It was the Easter weekend, so perhaps it was a little busier than normal.
After this we remade contact with Bob from Riverside, and set up camp in his front yard, complete with water, power and wireless internet. We spent 5 days there, sorting out the little problems that we had found with the RV, due I think mainly due to lack of use, replaced all the basin and shower taps in the bathroom, located and repaired water leaks around the fresh water tank, circuit breaker, upgraded the house wiring, replaced door seals, got the windows sliding nicely, the TV antennae working, a necessity of course and replaced the seals on the sewer outlets. Had Bob working like a beaver, while Michele did her magic cleaning the inside. Every thing now works as it should and looks great.
Left Bobs on Sunday the 30th and headed for Santiago, back into the mountains with an overnight on top of one, about 25 miles east of Capistrano, looks like being a cold windy night ahead!
More to follow Brian & Michele . .