Sunday, June 18, 2017

OMG!!!  One more night until we hit the Oregon border and civilized summer temperatures!  The Airstream is doing a great job of keeping us cool while we are inside, but we can't stay indoors all the time. 

These ladies are why we can't stay indoors all the time.  Darn their little bladders!!

This is a view of the Sacramento River near us.

We took a ride to Redding, CA this morning to see the Sundial Bridge.  It is a beautiful piece of art and functional bridge that joins the two sides of the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and is an actual working sundial.  The deck of the bridge is made of non-skid glass and the green glow under the bridge from the sun through the glass is something to see.

We spent a little while driving through downtown Redding and then we went shopping for some new pants for Gary.  It was too hot to stay outside.

On the way back to the RV park we passed an active brush fire, the third one we have seen on this trip and, we think, the fifth or sixth we have seen since we started traveling the highways and byways with our camper.  Firefighters were already on the scene.

Tomorrow we will have a long driving day from Red Bluff to Canyonville, OR.  We have stayed at Seven Feathers Casino RV Park many times and look forward to staying there, again.  Home on Tuesday.  Great trip!

Last night we stayed at the Flag City RV Resort in Lodi, CA.  It is a very nice park with concrete sites and little gravel.  Baby appreciates having her little feet on a stable surface.  We didn't unhitch the car as we were only staying one night.  Above is a picture of Gary and his girlfriend, Jazzy.

On the way to Red Bluff, CA we passed Sacramento which bills itself as America's farm to fork capitol.  There were many farm fields, gorgeous medians full of flowering bushes and acres of sunflowers in full bloom.  Mt. Lassen showed its snowy crown in the distance.

We are staying in the Durango RV Resort, one of our favorites.  It is gated and has concrete sites, asphalt roads and lots of grass for the pups. It also has an Olympic sized pool, which is unusual for an RV park.  Above is a strip mall built to look like the wild west where we had dinner at a great Thai restaurant.  I had my favorite, mild pumpkin curry and Gary had fried rice with shrimp. 

This weather report for Red Bluff speaks for itself.  Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter!

June 13, 14, 15, 2017

I haven't been able to write in days because of low connectivity.

We left Nevada and crossed immediately into California right away.  We arrived in Boron, CA and pulled into the Arabian Oasis RV Park, which was fairly horrible but the only game in town.  It was very hot, full of gravel and sand and had no fence or any other kind of security.

Boron is the home of Borax and the main street is called Twenty Mule Team Road.  It is a military area and shortly after we arrived we heard a huge explosion.  No idea what it was but it didn't happen, again.

Yesterday we left for Visalia, CA, which is a bigger town than you would expect.  Four Starbucks!! 

On the way we saw an airplane graveyard on the desert and one of the biggest windmill farms we have ever seen with almost none of the windmills turning.  Bizarre.

We are staying at the Visalia/Sequoia KOA, which is nice.  Last night we drove around and found a whole neighborhood downtown where the fire hydrants were all hand painted in support of the local symphony and charities.  They reminded me of the hydrant Jan Baker and I painted in 1976 for the 200th birthday of the country.  It was supposed to be Patrick Henry and we did it at the edge of George Washington University under the sponsorship of one of the department stores.  Great fun.

Today we spent a lazy day putting together marketing postcards for Andy, the buyer of our dry cleaning delivery business.  We enjoy helping him and will probably continue for as long as he needs us to.

Thanks for those who have asked about Baby.  She is doing much better now.  YAY!!

June 12, 2017

Shame on Arizona for the state of its roads.  Our back up camera screen which is mounted to the rear view mirror when we are towing the Airstream, got shaken off its holder because of all the potholes.  I vote for Nevada to take over the country's highways and show the other states how to do it properly.

We arrived in Laughlin yesterday.  It sits right on the Colorado River which is a major recreation area for jet skis.  On the Arizona side of the river is Bullhead, AZ, which is where most of the workers live, who cross over into Nevada for work.  Grocery stores, hardware stores and chain restaurants are on the Bullhead side.  Casinos are on the Laughlin side.  Both sides are in the desert.

Eat your heart out, Bob Cowan.  We had lunch at your favorite restaurant!

This is the most striking casino along the strip in Laughlin, the Colorado Belle.  The rest look like the usual high-rises with neon signs all over them.

We had dinner at Bubba Gump's Restaurant in the Golden Nugget last night.  Gary was in shrimp heaven.  I wouldn't be surprised if we went back tonight.  The highlight for me was the Starbucks right next to the restaurant HOWEVER, a grande mocha frappuccino light, which is my addiction, cost $7.51 instead of the expected $4.25!!!  I have never felt so ripped off!!!  There was a Starbucks in the Safeway we went to today and the drink was priced normally, so this was just a casino thing.
But....isn't this a lovely picture?  Starbucks on the Colorado.

Did you know that veterinarians around here give dogs shots for rattlesnake bites?  It doesn't guarantee the dog will live once bitten, but it gives the owners about two hours to get to a vet with antivenin.  Speaking of dogs, Baby's coughing is much improved and we are feeling more relaxed about her.

Tomorrow we will leave for Boron, CA for one night on our way home.

June 10, 2017

Baby had a better night last night but is still coughing quite a bit.  It is so upsetting.  The rest of the time she acts normally, though.  A few things that help are the cough drops, small pieces of cheese to eat, a short walk if it is cool outside and tomorrow we are going to try a lollipop.

We ate breakfast at the food cart and then went to explore a little of Flagstaff, AZ which is about a half hour away.  Flagstaff was named for the flag pole the residents made from a pine tree to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the town.   

 The pedestal of the flag represents the layers of the rocks in the Grand Canyon.

After a little walk through the old-fashioned downtown area we went to find a T-Mobile store and a Best Buy to see if we could do anything about our poor Wi-Fi and cellular reception here.  We’ll see if what we bought helps.

We ate dinner in Williams again tonight.  A sign out of town had advertised an Art Walk to be held 6 – 9.  There was no sign of it in town.  We did see someone sliding down the town’s zip line which looks like an old car sliding down the line.  I cannot imagine doing that myself but it was fun to see.

We are leaving for Laughlin, NV tomorrow morning and back to the heat.

June 9, 2017

This KOA has a food cart open for breakfast from 7 to 9.  We bought our breakfast and ate it in the trailer.  No cooking is my favorite kind.  We had a little trouble sleeping last night because of the thin air and altitude.  After breakfast, we took a little rest before we set out for Grand Canyon.  It took about an hour to get there and we went through a forest fire site that was still smoking and an active forest fire that had firefighters working on it.   It was a small fire and completely contained but very smoky.  There were tent campers right on the other side of the highway from it.  Scary.

Parking is difficult on the South Rim of the Canyon.  We were lucky and found a spot quickly.  As we were walking in we saw some idiots carrying small flowering cacti they had found off the path and just appropriated.  I don’t understand people sometimes. 

There are no words to describe the majesty of the Grand Canyon.  The place almost seems holy.  I am attaching many photos but they don’t begin to tell the story.  There were many visitors from all over the world, but most were respectful and quiet.  Some areas were crowded but, if you were patient, you could get to any viewpoint eventually.   

We walked a part of the South Rim path and then went to the Visitors Center for a short movie describing the geological history.  Then we headed back to our pups.

We went into Williams again for dinner, which we ate at Goldie’s Route 66 Diner.  After dinner, we picked up a few supplies at Safeway and headed back to the trailer after taking a detour around the nightly Wild West Show held right in the middle of town, in the middle of Route 66 itself.

On the edge of town is a wildlife refuge called Bearizona.  I think we will skip that one but I love the name.