Arizona Bound

Taking Highway 10 from Indio to Benson, Arizona today. Just hitting the state line at 11:45 a,m. The desert has been cultivated here into orange groves, and they are cutting alfalfa hay at the end of November.

There's Snow in Them Thar Hills

It rained a bit here on the desert floor last night, and the San Jacinto mountains have a bit of snow on them this morning, but the temperature still stayed around 14 C overnight.

Videos of the RV Park in La Quinta, California

Walked the dogs around taking video clips of the park at 7 a.m. this morning. I will upload them to Photobucket in a separate album and put a link to it in here so those interested can view them:

Click Here for Videos of La Quinta, CA

Roadrunner and Road Runner

How cool is this?  There is a roadrunner living in the big empty space across the street where we take the dogs to run!  A real one.  I didn't realize they were so big, but he's a fair size and has a long tail that spends its time flipping from pointing down to the ground to pointing straight up in the air.  He's awesome!  (Beep beep)

Above, Greater Roadrunner lounging on wall here
Below, Road Runner and Fuera (aka Wile E. Coyote)

Just another day in paradise...

It's 5:30 p.m., 22 degrees C., and we are ready to hit the pool and hot tub, watching the hummingbirds zooming around the surrounding hedges of thick, bright orange lipstick flowers as the dusky pink sky darkens into nightfall and the tall palm trees stand sentinel over all.

And yes, that was all one sentence, perfectly punctuated.

Shopping Puts me in a Good Mood Down Here

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, shopping is something I usually hate, but lordy, it actually puts me in a good mood down here.

When we got to Olympia and got set up and got the dogs walked, etc., it was time to go get some groceries.  I was tired and bitchy after all day on the road, so I dragged myself into the Super Walmart there, prepared for torture.

As I started rushing around the food aisles picking up essential food items, the burden started to lessen.  Look over there, the package of 24 hotdog weiners we bought at Cooper's last week, it's $1.99 here.  Crap, the Just Lemonade that I love is $2.50 for the $4.29 size at Cooper's, which is why I never buy it at home.  And they have a larger size, twice the amount, for $3.88.  And this is Washington State, where prices were higher than Texas last year, and the smaller-sized lemonade was $2.50 there when we left in April.

Butterball turkeys, the real McCoy, $.99 cents per pound; a 24-pack of Coke in cans for $4.99; frozen skinless boneless chicken breasts, $6.99 for 14 nice-sized pieces.  I can't go on.  I have to make a run to the store and get happy :)

God Bless American Mobile Phone Companies!

This blog can now be brought to you from the truck as we drive down the road, thanks to stopping in at a T-Mobile cellular store and buying a mobile hotspot.  This little puppy is worth its weight in gold, but fortunately was mine for only $129.99.  It's a little gizmo about the size of a smaller cell phone, and it creates your own personal WiFi (or MiFi) for up to 5 devices.  Here's a photo of it on the truck console with an iPhone 4 on the left in an Otter case:



It gives you the fastest data service available wherever you are at the time, all the way up to the latest and fastest 4G.  You can buy prepaid data cards for 1 Gb ($30) or 3 Gb ($50), either online or at stores like Walmart or Best Buy. 

We've seen the T-Mobile ads on TV in Canada, right, the hot chick in the little pink outfits?  Well, their stores are the same colour scheme, with that great hot-pink colour accenting arctic white with some touches of lime green.  I'd go in there just to hang out for awhile and drink in the colours, LOL!  And the guy behind the counter was super cool to talk to, just in a really good mood and obviously happy to be there.

Another nice surprise was when we hit our first stop in the USA, near Olympia, Washington, and we went to the nearest AT&T store to get our Go-Phone updated.  We had it on our trip last year and had let the number lapse while we were in Canada, so we needed to reactivate it, get a new SIM card, and buy some time for it.  I was figuring it would probably cost about $35 to activate it, $25 for a SIM card, and then buy $15 or $25 in time for it.

The AT&T stores are white interior with a bright orange band around the top of the walls, and they actually have a guy that comes over and welcomes you to AT&T when you enter, kind of like a Walmart greeter, only he is holding an iPad.  He takes your name and tells you that one of the people at the counters will be with you shortly.  I waited less than 4 minutes with 3 people in front of me, all buying 2-year contracts with iPhone 4s for $99.00 (gah). 

The SIM card was free, the activation was free, so I only had to pay for my $25/90 days.  We got the same plan as last year, where it costs you nothing on the days you don't use the phone, and a flat $2.00 any day that you do use the phone, with unlimited nationwide calling and texting, and 20 cents per minute to Canada.  You also get free voice mail, free call display, free conference calls, free call forwarding, and whatever else that Telus normally charges $5 to $10 each for!

I usually hate shopping, but when we go shopping down here, it actually puts me in a good mood!

Redding, Calfornia

Just pulling in for the night. There was snow on the roadside going through the mountain passes from Oregon to California today. That's all the white stuff we want to see!

On our way to Coalinga tomorrow, then Palm Springs on Thursday :)

Noon in Stockton, CA

And it's 18 degrees C. Oh, yeah!

Oregon

Coming in on I-5, through Portland.

Weird Sky in Seattle

Breaking Camp Again

Tomorrow morning we are heading for Tumwater, Washington, and will spend the night at an RV park we stayed in on our way back last spring, the one that has 10 acres of Dougls Fir/salal forest that is great for the dogs to be able to run around in.  The map on the right-hand side of the web page over there--> shows our planned route from here to Palm Springs, where we should be arriving on November 10th, this Thursday!!

It's good to be on our way south because the weather here in Aldergrove has been a bit on the chilly side.  We're not used to the dampness, and it hit minus 4 C. yesterday morning, which felt like about minus 20!  Can't wait to hit Palm Springs and that nice hot tub, LOL!  We are only making one-night stopovers en route, so there may not be any more blog entries until we get there.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this recommendation:  DQ pumpkin pie Blizzards.....oh, yeah! 

Best Little Pho House

Downtown Aldergrove on the main drag. The peanut sauce this woman makes is legend, as are rhe salad rolls.

Bright Lights Big Cities -- not

The lonely Canyon Highway is now at lot friendlier than the old days, with bright markers on the side brocades to let you know when you are plunging into the abyss and river below.

Hasta Luego, Ranch!

See you in the spring ...