Oz Syndrome

It rained here yesterday, and tonight it is 43 degrees out there, so it's been much colder than usual, apparently, according to the locals.  We walked the dogs past a group of people hanging out in front of someone's diesel-pusher this afternoon, and when they found out we were from Canada, one of them said, "We apologize for the weather!"

We have now experienced 4 out of the 5 days a year it supposedly rains here.  The park looks absolutely deserted when the skies are cloudy, and when the sun reappears it is like a scene from the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy's house lands on the witch and the place looks deserted until Glinda comes along with her "come out, come out, wherever you are ..." song, and then the Munchkins all pop out in full force.  It's a carnival atmosphere here when the clouds dissipate, with people on bicycles, people in golf carts, people walking dogs, people walking themselves, people in groups, people with suspicious-looking cups in hand, drinking as they amble along together.  I haven't heard anyone singing anything about a dead witch yet, though, and most of them seem taller than in the movie.

Bingo Tonight!  Oh, yeah!

Indio/La Quinta/Palm Springs, California

Another desert, this time the north end of the Sonora Desert and about 100 miles from Mexicali.  The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains make a nice backdrop to this desert, and they have snow on the tops right now, which is a great contrast with the palm trees down here on the desert floor.

We are staying in an RV resort from the 20th through New Year's as a treat to ourselves, and it's a great park with 3 pools, 2 spas, friendly people, and lots of great dog lovers.  As an aside, we had been told by someone before we left, who apparently drives around down here in an RV every winter, that it would be hard for us to find campgrounds/resorts that allow dogs.  We would like to share with this person that what you focus on expands, and our experience has been exactly the opposite, and we have been welcomed with our 3 big dogs and 3 cats at lots of different types of places.  People always want to meet Nachelnik and learn about him, all have admired and complimented him, and we have met lots of people through having him around.

It's Christmas Eve and we spent the day lounging around on the patio, enjoying the 20-plus degree sunshine.  After our barbecue tonight, an entourage of carolers made the rounds, consisting of a bunch of golf carts and people strolling along, singing carols as they went.  There is a hot buttered rum party for everyone at someone's place tonight, too.  This resort consists of a mixture of permanent park model homes, huge motorhome/diesel-pusher buses, and spots for people who come for shorter times.  The guy next to us has lived here full-time for 5 years.  He's a short-haul truck driver originally from North Dakota and now works and lives here by choice.   He said there's only him and about 6 others that live in this 500-spot park during the summer. 

The first 3 days we were here, there was major rain and flooding, and the internet was even down due to water in the phone lines.  It apparently rains here about 5 days a year, and we were here for 3 of them.  Hopefully that's the end of all the weird weather and we will have sunshine from here to Texas!

Barstow/Yermo, California

Yermo is a spit out the window on your way from Barstow, California, to Arizona on Hwy. 40.  It's in the Mojave desert, California.  There's a U.S. Marines logistics base nearby, and apparently there is a Hummer auction there in the near future, with all bids starting at $300.  

The sand around here is more like fine gravel with beige/brown tones.  Lots of creosote bushes with Joshua trees in some spots more than others.  The campground is a couple of miles from the restored silver mining town of Calico, which has been restored to the likes of Barkerville, with original buildings now housing a variety of shops and eateries.  The town is on the side of a bare mountain and has old mine shafts everywhere, which makes it kind of interesting, and it does have a great name.

We got there just after noon on a Saturday, and there were not many people about, but then a couple of tour vans arrived, and then a large bus from L.A., filled primarily with Asian tourists dressed inappropriately for hiking around old silver mines.

The campground was really nice with lots of oleander shrubs and trees giving each campsite quite a bit of privacy and shade, but the minute you walked out the back gate, you realized you were indeed in the middle of the desert.  It started raining the second day we were there.  It poured from 4:00 p.m. to after midnight.  The next day there were flash flood warnings in the area and heavy rain warnings for the San Bernardino area, which was the way we were heading to get over to the Palm Springs area.

It poured rain all the way over the mountains and down into San Bernardino.  There was freeway construction that had reduced the traffic to one lane in each direction.  We found out later that night why the Channel 2 TV van was there, setting up their equipment.  The cause of the one-lane traffic was due to a mudslide in the center of the construction, and a little while after we got through they closed the freeway until the next day.

Burgers and Windmills

Just on the brink of the Mojave, we came across our first sight of operational windmills used for generating local power.  They looked like a set of child's jacks tossed across the hillsides.  It is really heartening to see the large number of windmills that are in use throughout the Mojave and into the Sonora Desert as well.

One of California's best assets is the In-n-Out burger.  Family owned and operated, a private company since at least the ‘40s, these people have stuck with doing what they do best, which is providing great-tasting hamburgers made with the freshest ingredients at low prices.  The menu is basic.  There is a choice of a hamburger, cheeseburger, or a double-patty cheeseburger (the double-double), fries (you can watch the guy chopping up the potatoes and throwing them into the fryer), shakes in 3 flavours, and about 3 types of sodas.  Sounds simple, it IS simple, so why can't somebody get this right in Canada, too?  We were at the In-N-Out in Palm Desert, with the parking lot full of cars, the drive-thru with at least 25 cars waiting, and the McDonald’s across the street had literally 2 cars in their lot.  Speaks for itself.  More has to be said about the In-n-Out burger itself.  Fresh, fresh bun, tasty melted cheese in generous proportion, a thick slab of crispy iceberg lettuce (not shredded, not chopped, it’s an actual slab), a good slice of fresh, crunchy onion, normal size beef patty that is NOT greasy, and a great-tasting sauce complete the burger.  Pure heaven!

Mojave Desert

Travelled over the Tehachapi Mountains following the historic Pacific Coast Trail over to the Mojave Desert.  We are staying here for a couple of nights at a campground full of trees and oleander hedges that make this one of the nicest ones we've seen so far, even though it's in the middle of a desert!  We took the dogs for a run behind the campsite and noticed that there are a few RV boondockers about a mile north of the campground further up off the road and into the desert.  As has been the case with our trip so far, this campground only has a handful of people staying in it right now.

Coalinga, California

We travelled from Sacramento to Coalinga today.  This RV park backs onto miles of almond and pistachio orchards where we are allowed to take the dogs for exercise.  Very cool!  This park is situated just off the I-5 and is surrounded by miles of farmland.  There is a large orange grove across the street, too, with the trees full of oranges.  We are spending two nights here and then staying in Bakersfield in a park that is situated right IN an orange grove, and we can pick as many oranges as we want, so we'll be stocking up, needless to say...

Pistachio Nuts on Trees

 We are planning on spending a week through Christmas in the Palm Springs area, then heading over into Arizona and New Mexico.  The temperatures have been really comfortable, with daytime around 16 and nights around 45 to 50 degrees.

Brookings, Fortuna, Willits

Brookings is in the "banana belt" of Oregon, apparently, and we really felt a change in temperature when we got there.  It was a balmy steady 13 degrees.  The Coast Guard was practicing out in the giant breakers about 50 feet from the beach in the morning.  They had the type of boats that can roll over and completely right themselves after being tumbled around in the huge waves.  It was awesome to see them doing their maneuvers right in front of us.

We spent the next day traveling the Redwood Highway to Fortuna, California, and stayed a couple of nights there.  The town looks like it must have looked at least 50 years ago, with lots of old buildings and wonderful old houses.  I think the weather is going to stay warm from now on, although it's been damp so far.  There were lots of happy tree frogs in the campground, and a great horned owl came and hooted most of the two nights we were there.

We're now in Willits and will be going to Sacramento in a couple of days, then down to the Desert Springs area for Christmastime.  The band of gypsys are all doing well and are not missing the snow and cold one little bit!

Winchester Bay

We arrived in Winchester Bay on the Oregon coast yesterday afternoon.  This area has a lot of sand dunes and lighthouses every few miles.  The RV park we are in is on the Umpqua River, about a mile from where it meets the Pacific Ocean.  We headed down to the ocean this afternoon and saw our first surfer.  We're heading down to Brookings tomorrow, which is not far from the California border and about 3 1/2 hours from here.

We have been meeting lots of people who come over and want to know about Nachelnik.  The repeated comments about him always include the word "magnificent."  We did come across one guy who knew about the breed, though.  He came over when we were walking the dogs at a truck stop.  It was after dark and he stopped about 50 feet away, smoking and looking at him.

Then he yelled with a thick accent:  "Is that a sheepdog?"

I replied, "Yes, it's a sheepdog."

"Ovcharka, from Russia," he said.

"Yes -- how do you know?  Where are YOU from?"

"From Russia!" he proclaimed, as if I should have known that.

Back in JC Again

After spending 8 great days on the beach at Seal Rock, we are in Junction City for a couple of days to get the window repair completed. Grocery prices are up and down compared to Kamloops, with chicken breasts about $4/kg, but fresh strawberries about the same as Kamloops (go figure). There is also no sales tax in this state. They do give deposit refunds on cans and bottles but instead of the good old BC bottle depots, there are state-of-the-art electronic return rooms at grocery stores, Walmarts, etc., where you feed them into slots in the wall. Haven't actually tried this yet; perhaps tomorrow while doing the laundry. Sometimes it's hard to deal with all this excitement, heh, heh...

Snow!

We had snow last night at Seal Cove, Oregon!  This is a rare occurrence so it's cool that we are here to see it!  The seals were swimming right up to the beach this morning to have a look at it. There are also brown pelicans hanging out here.  Apparently it looks like fewer are making the trip down to Mexico and breeding colonies are increasing in Oregon.  They may be rethinking that strategy this morning!

Seal Rock, Oregon

November 20, 2010:  Heading back to the coast this morning to Seal Rock via Hwy. 126.  Weather should be cloudy and rainy for the next few days with perfect storm-watching conditions!

Junction City, Oregon

Currently in Junction City, Oregon.  Cloudy and rain, with hail around noon, about 7 degrees Celcius.

This town has a train track down the middle of what is now a residential street, and the trains barrel through at a good clip.  There's enough room on each side of the tracks for a smaller vehicle to park wedged up against the sidewalk.  Must be quite the rush to have the train appear in your rear view mirror, especially at night, while driving down the road.