Finally Leaving California

We've been in California since the middle of Feb. and it's now time to move on.  I have found it hard to blog for most of that time and this post won't be anything much.

On our way south from northern Calif. we met up with our friend DeDe at the King City city park alongside the beautiful Salinas River.  We stayed there three nights visiting and catching up.

We have been in the San Diego area for the past week doing some pet sitting for my daughter (sorry, no pictures of Willie).  We also had some front end work done on the rv.

 

We also had all the brakes checked while it was there.  We've had the rv since Nov. 2013 and never had them checked.  Happily the breaks themselves were fine but sadly two of the brake hoses needed to be replaced.  When we were on our way north going through the Los Angeles area I had an occasion to hit my brakes hard, not something I do often, and the rv veered first to the left and then to the right.  When I mentioned this to the brake guy he said that's an indication of a hose collapsing so he checked them out and found two hoses that needed replacing. Glad to get that done.  I can't thank the gays and gal, Nicole, at East County Alignment and Brake in Santee, CA for taking such good care of us.  

I'm going to throw in a flower picture to break this up before I hit you with the next things.

Mmm these smell good.  Mock orange.

While in the San Diego area we stayed at Viejas casino and the Reach helicopter lives next to the rv parking area.  Here it is taking off.

While we were in the Ukiah area we bought a pod for the top of the Honda.  Got it from the Honda dealer, someone had ordered it and changed their mind so I got a good deal on it.  Even has the Honda logo on the back.

Now for the bad news.

Our sweet little red car got 'keyed' while in a parking lot. This made us so sad.  Next time I'm in a major city with a Honda dealer I will go and order some touch-up paint to fix this. 

Tomorrow night we will be in Yuma and then who knows where we'll be after that.

Thanks for reading and thank you for using the Amazon link at the top of the page to access Amazon for your ordering pleasure.

Evie and Joy

Sunset behind the Reach helicopter parking place at Viejas Casino

Home to Mendocino County, Northern California

We came home to Northern California for a few days.  As a blog writer I have no idea who reads my blog, I know how many people read it and what countries those readers are from but not who.  So it was quite a surprise when a reader flagged us down in the parking lot of Mariposa health food store, in Willits, CA.  She recognised the Escapees sticker on the back of our car and chased us down to say "hi, I read your blog".  As mom and I drove away we turned to each other and said, "well that was fun".  And that was the beginning of our short visit with friends and former neighbors. But for all the friends we were able to see there were an equal amount we weren't able to touch base with and I'm sorry, there just wasn't enough time.   

While here, we've had routine maintenance done to the motorhome and the Honda.  Last month the Honda mileage turned over to 150,000 miles, so we had a new water pump (old one was making noise, I've been hoping that it would hold on till we got here) including thermostat, hoses and coolant and fan belt, and new pollen filter inside car.

Escapees stickers that Ellen recognised.

Red solo cup sticker is from a Facebook group I belong to. 

The trees are in bloom.

A dear friend invited us to park our home on her property.  What a delight is was to be parked on a ranch with green grass and beautiful oak trees all around.  The next three pictures were taken behind the rv from left to right.

Old barn to the left of the rv.

This leaning tree can be seen in the next picture, behind the rv.

New barn to the right, with horse looking to see what I'm doing.

We'll be back soon.

Evie and Joy

Thank you, Amazon shoppers!

When you use the Amazon link on my blog to enter Amazon(just by clicking on the word Amazon), your purchases send a commission to me and mom.  Your prices stay the same.  I appreciate those of you who choose to shop Amazon from my blog.

Monterey Bay and its Aquarium

Mom and I drove from Quartzsite to Monterey, CA. to meet up with some friends.  One friend from San Francisco and one from Willits.  The first daythere mom and I drove along the coast.

The next day I met up with my friends and we went to the aquarium. 

Jellies

Sardines swimming in a big circle.

Sand dollars.

Red octopus and friends. 

Sea turtle, hammerhead shark and friends.

We stayed at the Laguna Seca Raceway campground.

  View from rv, you can see a bit of the racetrack.

We'll be back soon.

Evie

l-r  Cathy, Jolene and me.

Lunch at Silly Al's and a Drive to Crystal Hill in Quartzsite, AZ

Five of us got together for lunch at Silly Al's Pizza in Quartzsite the other day.  Sue, in green, was passing through town on her way to Why, AZ from the Palm Springs area so we decided to all be at the pizza parlor and wait for her to get into town.  

l-r Charlene, Sue, Bev and me, Kelly left before we thought to take pics.

After lunch Sue continued on to Why, AZ and Charlene , Bev and I drove in Bev's truck out to Crystal Hill to have a look around.  They hiked up the hill a ways to do they're looking and I wandered around on the flat area looking around.  The light areas on this hill is where the crystal hunters go.  Sue and Bev are in this picture but only I know where they are. Hahaha

The next few pictures are of dead Saguaros and their different stages of decomposition.

After the flesh rots and falls off only the ribs are left.

These are standing ribs.

Fallen ribs.

I was able to get up close and personal to a couple of Saguaros.

See how deep the crevasses are on this one?

And now see how shallow these ones are?

This saguaro has gotten more water.  

The more water the more spread out the skin is.

And as they use up their water supply their skin folds in on itself.

As I was standing at the base of the Saguaro, in the above picture, I was talking to it and reached out to pet it and what should I see?  Someone had pushed or hammered a crystal into it.  Can you see it? Just goes to show, you don't have to hike up the hill to find crystals.

                       

Little crystal I pulled out of the Saguaro.

More death in the desert.  A cholla skeleton. 

Be back soon.

Evie and Joy

This Ocotillo is just dormant, next time it rains here within 48 hours Ocotillos will leaf out and bloom.

Leaving Las Vegas or Something Like That

We spent last week in the Las Vegas/Lake Mead area.  We were there to rendezvous with a cousin who flew in to spend mom's birthday with us.  We were in this area a year ago but didn't do any exploring so that's what we did.

Snowy mountains above Las Vegas

The drive from the Quartzsite area to Lake Mead took several hours and it was cloudy all day long.  I was tired when we got there and I said to mom, "let's go out to eat for dinner".  Bless her heart she was tired too but she agreed and off we went.  Just about 3 miles up the road we see this stunning view.  The setting sun was shinning under the cloud cover and shinning on the opposite side of the lake.  I took lots of pictures but my poor camera is having a hard time focusing and this one was the best of the lot.

One of our drives took us below the 1990's water level.  

They just keep making the boat ramp longer and longer.

Hoover Dam.  The old highway use to go right across the top of the dam.

This is the new bridge opened in 2010.

We drove through the Valley of Fire State Park 

which is east of Las Vegas.

Then the next day we drove to the west side of Las Vegas and drove through Red Rock Canyon.  

If you look real hard you can see people walking on the rocks.

This is what happens when you dump a load of rocks alongside the road. 

Part of Red Rock Canyon seen to the right in the background.

We saw some wild burros along the road.

We're back in the Quartzsite area for a few days and then we will head back to the Yuma area for a week or two.  Today I'll meet up with a few friends for lunch in town and then maybe drive out to Crystal Hill to find some crystals hopefully.  We shall see.

By for now.

Evie

My current neighbor