Hello Oregon

Left Corning, California, yesterday morning. It was Sunday and there was a riod run heading south all morning with hundreds of beautiful cars, so that was cool. Another hot day, around 30 C all the way. It was cooler here this morning at 18 C, and hundreds of frogs were singing all night. We have been in the desert for a month so it was nice to hear them again!

Heading up to Tumwater, Washington, for a night to stock up on groceries before getting back into BC. Hopefully that will help ease the sticker shock of food prices once we get home and severe depression will be avoided this time :(

BTW, some of these blog posts are done on the road via my iPhone and T-Mobile WiFi Hotspot, which loads photos in random order. So if you don't see a comment under each pic, check back later as I will ad them from my laptop when I have time.

 

Above:  A couple of Bandidos passed by

Above:  Most of the vintage cars were heading south on a rod run towards Corning, CA; however, this guy passed us heading north

Grapevine

Just going up the dreaded Grapevine Hill between Samta Clarita and Sacramento. It is 35 C right now, noon. Just passed a highway sign "Radiator water 1 mile.". Should get about 10 degrees cooler once we get to the other side of this puppy.

Ah, just dropped 7 degrees C at Gorman, just before the big downgrade onto Grapevine. This road is total shit, like spring breakup in the Cariboo.

Just pulled into a big truck stop at Lebec, CA. Two CHP cops were leading a guy in handcuffs to their car. One was carrying a bag of ice. After we filled up we went and parked at the other end of the lot. We noticed two fire trucks, two sheriff SUVs, four marked CHP cars, and one unmarked car surrounding a parked rig.

One of the CHP came over and started chatting with us Good sense of humor. I guess they have a lot of domestic violence calls to that truck stop. I was impressed with the turnout.

Okay, we made it through Grapevine and can smell the millions of sweet orange blossoms blooming in this valley. Yay.

Handmade Aqua Soap

We searched out the College of the Desert Street Fair yesterday at the behest of a close relative who was excited to know we were in the Palm Springs area, home of her favorite soap!

This is a huge fair and has everything from Farmers' Market products to handmade clothing, crafts, and then your carny-type vendors with their unlicensed designer-brand knockoffs, plus a huge food area with everything from tamales to falafel. The only thing missing was Vince, the Sham-Wow guy.

We found the Aqua Soap display without much trouble. I am not one for spending a lot of money on fancy soaps, but his chunks of glycerine-based soaps were very generous in size for $5.00 each, 5 for $20, or 12 for $40.

I was sent to get patchouli, blue patchouli, grapefruit, and lavender bars. I had to ask the fellow for the grapefruit, which was, of course, right in front of me. He turned out to be Larry, the creator, owner, and maker of each bar he sells.

We started chatting with him and found out he is very proud of his soap and loves what he does (full points for him on the Universal Principles of happiness and well-being!) And, of course, great to know that you are bringing that great energy into your home!

He uses 60% coconut oil, makes a clear or colored base, uses gorgeous scents from varying sources, then throws in small chunks and curly-Qs of opaque colors of soap, which end up being suspended in the clear glycerine, so the resulting bars are each one unique and a work of art.

I ended up getting 12 out of the over 100 different fragrances, then he said he was going to give me a baker's dozen and that he wanted me to pick something out just for me, so I got a bar of the opaque-colored goats' milk soap in cucumber lime. Hmmmm!

He makes these all in his home in an industrial-sized kitchen, and his friends help him wrap the bars in cellophane and attach a sticker because "my hands give out." He makes tens of thousands of bars a year. It was great to support this guy and I'm so glad we found his soaps!

Larry's website: http://www.aquabathandbody.com

Coachella Music Festival

Huge music festival (see previous posts). The RV park is heating up with partying festival goers. Lots of fun!

Winds kicked up this afternoon to over 50 mph, then came the rain. I have an image of Woodstock in my head and am glad I am not at the probably rather muddy festival!

Through the Desert Some More

Spent a few nights in Benson enjoying the nice 25-to-30 C. sunny weather, complete with a hot spa and nice pool, then headed out on the morning of April 8th for the Palm Springs area of California, Indio to be exact.  We really like the RV park here, it's a mix of permanent park models and people like us, three nice pool/spa areas, and palm trees everywhere.  We originally were leaving on the 13th, but decided to extend it until the 20th, taking a chance on what the Coachella Music Festival festivities might bring.

This is a huge (75,000 people a day) music festival about 4 miles from here.  it starts tomorrow for 3 days, but the town is already buzzing and motorhomes and campers of every description are filling up the park, and the city!  Just went out for groceries and saw cars packed with people everywhere, wearing a lot of interesting outfits.  Both cars and RVs have writing all over them in rainbow colors, like "Coachella or Bust," or "Carpoolchella," which is a promo for people to carpool to the festival and win a prize for best decorated vehicle.

Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre are performing, along with over 50 or so other artists, both local and international.  They are having the exact same lineup again next weekend because they can't fit in all the people that want to go.  Both weekends have been sold out for a long time.  Yee haw!

Above, early morning in the Arizona desert

Above, a green adobe on the way into Douglas, AZ

Above:  Glamis, the Imperial Valley Sandunes, where thousands come to camp and run their ATVs and dune buggies and just generally party!

Above:  On the way into one of many Border Patrol Checkpoints along I-8 in southern Arizona near Mexicali, Mexico (you can see the wall separating Mexico and the US in the background)

Above: I-8 is a much nicer way to travel with the RV than I-10, you go through some nice BLM land reserves with thousands of big Saguaro cactus

Above: One of the dingy little stores in Douglas, Arizona.  Note the yellow tulle foo-foo prom dress

"Welcome to Glamis"

Fitty Cent

I know I have said it a million times, but I can't believe how cheap food is down here. And a guy from Tennessee ( with the BEST Tunnsea accent) said prices have gone up noticeably for groceries in the past year. Wild!

Case in point: At a local little grocery store in Roswell, not one , but TWO different brands of BBQ sauce, 2 for a buck! That is 50 cents each, for those of you who can't do the math. Sick!

We left Roswell and drove through Las Cruces, NM, over to Benson, AZ, on Wednesday.  We had to delay our trip by two days due to high winds and snow in New Mexico.  Sheesh!

Anyway, back in the land of the giants in Benson, where it seems most people are around 6 feet tall or better.  We drove to Tombstone yesterday and poked around there for a bit.  Lots more people than last winter, I guess since it's Easter weekend.  Then we drove south 20 miles to Douglas, which has a crossing over to Mexico.  We saw the big wall stretching parallel to the highway for the 20 miles, but didn't have any urge to go into Mexico.

Above:  Yes, 50 cents each.

Above/Below:  Pistachio Nut Farm in Tularosa, New Mexico, on the way to Las Cruces.  They have a huge store that sells all different flavours.  We got the lemon/lime, garlic chili, and a couple bags of delectible pistachio brittle!

Above: Billions of buttercups blooming in the desert between Lordsburg, NM, and Benson, AZ

Above: Douglas, Arizona, a bordertown to Agua Prieta, Mexico

Cowboy Action Shooting

We went out to watch a couple of our New Mexico friends have some fun this morning. It's called cowboy action shooting, and they all dress in 1800s garb and bring rifles, pistols, shotguns, and compete in timed events.

They have a bunch of different things set up that look like Old West buildings and they have different targets set out behind those. They take turns, one at a time, picking up their rifle at the first building, shooting about 6 shots at a metal target (so you can hear the pling of the bullets), then they walk over to the second one and shoot both pistols they are packing in their holsters, I think 10 or 12 total shots, then the third one is a shotgun which they reload 3 times.

All the outfits worn were period duds they all took a lot of trouble recreating. There were about 6 women shooters and about 14 men. A nice Sunday morning out here in Billy the Kid country!

Above:  The building  behind is one of the places where they stood to shoot through the window, you can see the square targets in the distance

Above: The shooting buildings in the background, and foreground are a couple of gun carts that they pack all their firearms and ammo back and forth to the trucks in.  To the left is a table where they load their pistols, shotguns, and rifles just before going to shoot.  There is a table on the right side of the buildings as well, and they immediately take their firearms there after shooting to inspect and make sure they are all empty.  So no loaded firearms other than the person's who is target shooting at that particular time.

Above:  Watching the action

Above:  A couple of competitors and the table where they check to make sure their firearms are unloaded after they finish shooting

Above:  Lineup of people waiting their turn to shoot

Above:  This young guy was the only one who had both pistols out at once and was shooting alternately, left hand/right hand.  Very impressive!

Above:  One of the lady shooters at her gun cart