Day 64 Saturday March 16

B did well generally and why not

Historic Wolf Creek Inn

      Frosty leaving the inn. Minimal breakfast in the sitting room, but I recalled finishing a jar of granola meant for breakfast late last night so no complaints. Bashed up i5 all day, stopped to return keyboard and do costco at oldy moldy just to get back in the swing. Ferry was smooth except ticket woman was fussy about the vehicle length, fussy in general, never seen her before, possibly an impersonator. Laurie in chair on lawn as we arrived home waving a quarter empty wine bottle. Out to Portico just because, dog food and bread at Star store. The record ends here.

Day 63 Friday March 15

Our spot on the Sacramento at Durango RV in Red Bluff

     Early bike ride through Red Bluff with a bear claw at the only coffee and pastry place I saw; S did a walk of the same hour's duration and off we went after the standard breakfast to, S signed us up for a stay at the historic Wolf Creek Inn, to Wolf Creek. The i5 was a fine and noble engineering feat to experience after so many days of washboard or back roads. The staff at the historic inn, the woman, the kid, and the husband, was a fine feat of human hospitality but the town was straight out of a Stephen King novel. Dinner in the old inn was burgers and wine and random chats with the 12 year old.  A Gene Autry rendition of "My Daddy's on Deathrow" played in the background.
     B was added to the ticket for 10$ and is resting quietly at the foot of the bed. She has been alert and watchful since we came to this place.

Day 62 Thursday March 14

Sutter Buttes 1

Sutter Buttes 2

Sutter Buttes 3

Sutter Buttes 4

This is just an approximation

       Dipped and dived from New Melones Tuttleville Reservoir camp along the hills east of the Sacramento Valley until we took a wrong turn and descended into the valley passing through a pleasant little town called Snelling among others heading to Yuba City for a bike trail ride straight as a ruler toward the Sutter Buttes. More time travel, this time to 9th grade field trip. Parked the van and the dog on Hooper street. Wikipedia says there is no public access to them Buttes although us 9th graders went down in the ICBM underground silo and shock mounted quarters and tubes deep inside those Buttes in about 1961; we loved it almost as much as staying at school and harassing Mr. Hughes and Mr. Hooper.
     Struck out after pedal to Red Bluff posh rv park on the big river. There we are now in the pool and the tub kicking back with the duck couple who joined us there. They have a dog spa here. Also blue water fountains where if you are situated close to them it reduces the noise from that i5 bridge just up river. Tomorrow I would like to go to Shari's for Pie.

Day 61 Wednesday March 13

Angels Camp

Paicines

     Snake out of the Gabilan Mountains (breakfast at the Paicines Store which was time travel) into the big valley San Joaquin and into the industrial zone of Fresno for a visit to the Sports Mobile van conversion factory and a tour of it from Jason. It was kind of a kick. Bumble bumble up various east of 5 and east of 99 two laners all of which were fine. Eventually we are near Angels Camp the town but in a spiffy state park on New Melones Reservoir near the town where the angels camped in the past. The host was cranky and I ratted him out to the park ranger, who was himself angelic. This New Melones Tuttleville Reservoir camp is shiny and new but half closed and 95% empty.

Day 60 Tuesday March 12

start of the high peaks hike

the end of the high peaks hike

     Drove to High Peaks trailhead after a leisurely morning starting with the standard breakfast. By 12:30 we were on the up and up to the home of the condors but the buzzards had taken over the sky above the peaks and the clouds came in and the wind as well and the big dogs sat at home. After a 6 mile loop on Condor Gulch and High Peaks trails we were broken and needing rest. The tom turkey crew came into camp while I slept and S witnessed their ritual display as in the Thanksgiving paintings. There was also the coyote who came through this morning looking fit and nonchalant. S tried the showers and found them scalding and uncontrollable; the pool is still closed for winter.  The Spring Breakers are rumored to come in tomorrow and we’ll be gone. This has been a great  interlude. B is a bit bored.

Day 59 Monday March 11

Carla and S go under boulders

Creek goes under the boulders

     Country Inn and Suites, did I mention the suite? Free breakfast so went whole hog; not S. Google directions to i5 and on to Coalinga for grocery and to slide onto 198 to Pinnacles National Park  on a twisting mountain road like Kern Canyon but Kern was Mordor and this soon became the Shire. Emerald hills and valleys with yellow highlights. Pinnacle had a Shangri la feel and we settled in for a two day stay. Hiked the Bear Gulch trail after a bike to the trailhead from camp. Young woman from San Luis Obispo asked it she could hike with us. The three of we went down under the boulders with the falls and creek and we were transported by the strangeness. Came back into the light and hit the Rim trail back with condors overhead. S and I decided this would be a good place to call an end to the journey and head home directly, but it is a thousand miles so who can say about good or bad just yet.

Day 58 Sunday March 10

No photo from this day so here is a nice generic

From Furnace Creek Sunset parking lot camp after french toast breakfast set off I believe north and east into the Owens Valley thence to Lake Isabella and the Kern River Canyon thus into Bakersfield from the east and finally into this Country Inn and Suites by Radisson. Thought to camp on the Kern but the toilets. In truth most camps were closed still for the winter; the ones that were open had a neglected look. Did checkin to the hot springs on the old Kern Canyon Road. S went for a dip but I walked all the way down there without proper equipment and thus just sat and watched S and the 8 or so people down there. Red Robin for dinner. Walked B past the shell shocked house next door that says it sells Christmas trees and has a couple of active dogs in the compound, also the East Indian grocery, insurance agent and pizza shop. Laundry later. Should mention the length of the hall way to the laundry room. It was the length of the building and the building was long, like science fiction long and I made many trips so that I closed all my rings.

Day 57 Saturday March 9

Death Valley Camp

     Out of Midhills early after a standard breakfast say by 7:22.  Backtracked to Kelso and then north on 127  to Baker and Shoshone with a stop at a roadside hot spring which we shared with a young plastic surgeon thinking about relocating  to Boise. Entered Death Valley; again stupefied by the scale. Arrived Furnace Creek and the mega national park concessionary complex. S deep in the abyss of my former viral experience so I went to the hotel restaurant next to the parking lot campground and had a Sierra Mist IPA. There was a guy there at the bar having chicken wings and explaining to the bartenderess that life was without purpose and he had discovered ambitionlessness to be the best course. He kind of reminded me of Country Joe MacDonald. I bought S a Dove Bar. This camp cost 7$ and is totally worth it for the human drama at play in all directions.

Day 56 Friday March 8

Standard breakfast and out of boondock spot at 8:22. Big salt truck looming in the rearview  mirror. Shortcut before 29 Palms past another salt extractor. Shortcut pretty choppy. Mojave National Preserve and the Kelso train station are ours. Train station a museum created by public upset at railroad’s plan to scrap it. Big freight came, heading south.  10 miles of dirt road to deserted camp at Midhills a part of or next to the Sheephole Mountains. Wind fierce. Took cover in juniper grove after trying an exposed view site for couple hours. Couple mile walk with B. Think B was exhausted, but not sure, she being a floppy trooper. Remains of hash for dinner. Heater on; be a cold night without it. 

No service.

Day 55 Thursday March 7

Out of Buckskin Mountain SP, across Parker Dam, into Parker for groce, diesel and propane not to mention jeans, t-shirts, socks and shorts on to hwy 62 due west into the Mohave and finally onto the haul road for a salt water evaporator off which about a quarter mile we stopped for the night. Short walk for S and a short bike ride toward the evaporator for me. Best hash yet for dinner and a tody. Landscape silent and vast. Head cold persists. S and B chipper.

Day 54 Wednesday March 6

Dan's Innova after additional measures to secure it were implemented

Fox's Bar and Grill

Today on the Colorado

Today on the Colorado 2

     Long paddle home after floating downstream toward Parker with open drain plug and losing skeg in the pussy willows. Hoped to go to floating bar grill but had no funds. Saw some nice fish down below among the reeds; small or large mouth bass I suppose. Finally huffed into Buckskin and had a delicious lunch of garbanzo pasta from last night's dinner at the Pirates' Den. Wind building toward gusts of 30 so downed awning and secured the area. Dan had to tie his 1000$ inflatable kayak to our magnificent tree under and in the lee of which I now take shelter. Signed on for today, but tomorrow we will make for Mojave and Death Valle. 1:30 Calli time (west of the the middle of the river) and the wind is strengthening significantly. The wireless access point on a pole above the womens restroom is rattling.
     Later we go to the River Island Market for pizza and lasagna and take it to a pullout on the river. Later we go on down the River Drive to Fox's for a bad cocktail and hang with the locals. There was a Bernese Mountain dog on the floating bar who garnered all the love. But for the no dogs sign we would have gone and gotten Bell from the van and presented her. But no.
     Doors open the breeze flows through the bus; 7:40 Cal time, 8:40 AZ. Head cold no better maybe worse.

Day 53 Tuesday March 5

     

R and ancient mud castle - Coolidge

Buckskin Mountain SP across from big rock

R and I at Rolberto's Taco Shop

One of a number of unnecessary razor wirings in Tucson

       Hardly move day. Still in Buckskin. I picked up a cold. S walked up the rock above camp. We chatted with our neighbors David and Margaret, Dan and Elaine under the tree beside the river. Drove to the Pirates Den just a mile or two downriver, had the meatloaf and the garbanzo pasta with veggies and it was good on the deck with the ducks and coots at sunset. We may or may not leave tomorrow. B walked down illegally to the river and laid down in the cold water several times, showing real initiative in my book. Traded stories with Dan and Elaine in the dark by the bannister above the beach. Talk of destinations and equipment. Breeze and slight overcast.

Day 52 Monday March 4

PLU's at Buckskin

Looking the other way

     Ensconced at Buckskin Mountain SP. Until maybe Thursday, we are here. 150 miles northeast of Phoenix. Biked the river road amid many rv nesting areas. Lunch at the Fox floating bar and grill. Clear water running by with coots shooting to the bottom and generally busy in the moving water. Fair number of coots. Lot of old coots smoking on the lip of the floating Fox as well.
     At 2 (or some insisted it was 3) we paddle the inflatable up river a mile or 2 and take a short dip. Cold water from the bottom of the dam upstream.

Day 51 Sunday March 3

place holder

     Vacated 321 Treat St., Tucson, AZ.  Not much of a day living desert outdoor activity wise. Long driving first to get to airport in Phoenix for R to jet back to real life in the dusky dark chill of home. Meanwhile we had a couple of abortive attempts to get diesel at two mega-gas stations one with a 4 lane carwash before even starting to negotiate the elaborate freeway ways of Foenix. Tucson was big surfacely but Phoenix seems unknowable. Anyway, drive drive drive and finally around sunset we get to the very tidy and precise Buckskin Mountain SP. They provide wifi. We sit right on the Colorado in a very nice parking lot, but see photo. Free showers. Bit nose to nose. We are next a former Everett teacher and his school secretary wife whose life on the road is a close version of ours. Subculture.
Lunch at Rolbeto's Taco Shop in Coolidge. High 70's the high. Casa Grande ancient structure - capitol/church/fort?

Day 50 Saturday March 2

Pima 1

Pima 2

Pima 3

Pima 4

Penca 1

Pima Canyon 5 mile hike crisscrossing creek. Lunch from Frye supermarket deli, stick ice cream. Temp almost 80 then wind and overcast arrive. S off on bike to buy baby socks to wrap hot sauce bottles and others to reduce rattling. R, B and I walked to tony Rincon Market for a coffee. Back to Penca Restaurante for dinner and a Mexican liquor flight for me - mescal, tequila, bacanora, sotol with my no cheese chili relleno, S and R had duck and scallops. Art walk, remember the biological illustrations. Tomorrow the Phoenix airport and goodbye to R as we begin to head west and north slowly. Two nights at the slightly overdone Buckskin Mountain SP on the Colorado River northwest of Phoenix is scheduled at 35$ a night.

Day 49 Friday March 1

Crossing the Bear

C watching an episode of the Jack Benny Show at the Sign Museum

Looking at the Bear

     Standard Breakfast. B fed, walked and pooped, was locked in the bus and off we went on 2 bikes and one on foot to rent a third bike for R at the Fair Wheel next to the Cool Cat Laundromat of our first night. Bike guy was the not unfamiliar cranky bike shop guy so regularly encountered but for a nice Trek hybrid at 25$ a day we endured. Checked into the Tucson Sign Museum, the Rattlesnake pedestrian overpass and grabbed a brat lunch at a swell little cafe called Passe and finally, having lost R, S and I proceeded to the old Tucson Presidio where possibly hundreds of elementary students were getting the complete package including the firing of a cannon which made an absolutely stunning bang.  Lost S at that point and was on my own for to pickup script for Lisinopril and a tube for my cycle. Later property manager and her daughter came by to fix the wifi and she did. Later still S and I hit the streets for the Sidecar Bar but it reeked and had no food so off to Sushi Gardens an intense experience in a number of ways one of which was the spicyness of the spicy seafood udon soup along with the maximally chatty young man sitting next to me. So exhausted but with lots of spicy udon soup for the morning.

Day 48 Thursday February 28

Two sweeties

     Up and out to Bear Canyon 7 Falls Trail which turned out to be a episode of I Love Lucy what with our 3 selves and the 3 from Connecticut zigzagging about trying to find and keep to the trail. After a while we got it and fording the stream over and over was the highlight. Later we walked toward dinner but got tired and uberred to a mexican restaurant called Charro but it was mobbed so we walked down the street to another open air joint with both country western music and opera the latter seemingly ad hoc but authentic from a celebratory group inside at the bar. The food was decent. Uber home was with the 4th talkative white person of our Tucson uber experience and his story was of RVing to state or national parks for the summer jobs and ubering in winter in Tucson; the guy before that was military, before that I don't remember an occupation but chatty and before that a middle-aged woman trying to complete a meteorology degree from some online school based in Mississippi. Anyway we got home, minded the dog and went to bed.

Day 47 Wednesday February 27

Treat Street Bungalow BnB

Out of Palm Canyon at 8:22. Picked up R after a few fruitless loops through Phoenix International. Uber, dinner at the Penca Restaurante recommended by Penny C., Uber home and van to laundry mat. On Treat Street in Tucson at the Desert Retreat Bungalow. B not supposed to be here and WiFi not happening but otherwise nice. R got the big bed.

Day 46 Tuesday February 26

The Rapture, am version

     The van did not move today. Huge breakfast. Staring off into the distance. S hiked, then I rode the bike up the slope and hiked over to a formation of reddish rocks and met a small hawk. We had a good signal so that ate up time looking at Revels. Nothing much moved except the wind. We had Nourish Bowl with some last chunks of the 4 Steaks for supper. Later there was a fire and we discussed the pet issue to come at the bnb in Tucson plus Revels.  B seems to find the place somewhat tedious especially for movement.  Heat on at 8:24 pm but not really chill due to the thin overcast that arrived in the early afternoon right after my nap. Heat off at 8:49.

Day 45 Monday February 25

Palm Canyon within Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

Its not all sweetness and light

Mostly though

Drove, after pancakes with F and E, from LTVA north of Quartzite to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, a distance of 20 miles or so. Palm Canyon is the name of this part of the refuge which is 600,000 acres so there is more. Slipped into a spot upslope from the basin bottom and only a short but strenuous bike ride to the canyon trailhead. Nice line of palms up a narrow side canyon but not oasis as is the usual way.  Felt very small again but didn't push into the boulder scramble high up the canyon. Bike ride back to van not as fun as it could have been if I had brakes on both wheels. Fried last 2 of the 4 pack of giant steaks from some grocery buy 4 days back. Cooked under a ironwood or mesquite tree for the wind break and to use up the backpacking gas bottle. Had the boiled potatoes and the cabbage salad. Couple of hot toddies due to the coolness of the night. Clear, Milky Way clear as it gets since the moon is down. Chatted with a couple of South African/Canadians in the deep dusk as they were taking their large dog for a walk; B was less than welcoming. The pair are in the wine industry in Lillooet, BC. F and E off to Palm Desert for the medical. Stay here tomorrow, go get R on Wednesday in Phoenix then to Tucson for R&R at a BnB.

Day 44 Sunday February 24

Main Street, Quartzite

Quartzite, AZ (really OZ)
     All three Sprinters and their people left Senator Wash Res. at the same time but there was still some confusion or disagreement as to what time zone or even what state we were in. M and L went off to do some preparations for the paperwork needed to get L US citizenship; F and E we would meet later in Quartzite at the Starbucks but S realized that she had been mistaken about the existence of Starbucks in Quartzite so we re-planned to meet at a small market. Which we did. S and I went to the RV bazaar to get a new chair, to the flea market but it was packing up and finally to the Quartzite Yacht Club of dinner. Much karaoke but a good yodeler and decent victuals. Out north on 95 to re-connect with F and E for cookies and beer and then rest. Very light overcast and warmer. I think where we stayed the night was a LTVA but the host was off duty and when E rousted him anyway he said no registration or money for overnighters. Pretty cold at night especially with the back door not quite closed.

Day 43 Saturday February 23

Mad Max in retirement

see camp and van by enlarging photo to max (Senator Wash Res.)

More of the Colorado River Complex - from the dam 

Two views of the same day because I lost my way:
     1. We came to Senator Wash Resevoir and sought a spot with L ang M and found one.

Rode bikes long enough to get a light fry and circle Senator Resevoir. Practiced electric bike operation and stood ready to lead F and E on in from Squaw Lake which we did at some point near noon or 1 pm. It was like a escort. We grounded on a distant cove and as the lake water began to rise we had a communal meal. A fire burned well with native ingredients and various intoxicants were brewed and swallowed. There was some argument as to which time  it was.

     2. Another day at Senator Wash Reservoir waiting for F and E to arrive from Borrego Springs for dinner and chatting away with M and L. Short ride across dam and out into the LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area) for a look about in that world. A bit of a Mad Max vibe. Mid afternoon call from F and E sent M and I out on the Haibikes to escort them in to our hidden camp on the rising waters. Fun on the turbo setting on the bike accelerating up the hills and around the bends. Sort of a tabas style dinner with guacamole, pretzels, pickles, bits of steak with various drinks. Nice fire. Broke a chair.

Day 42 Friday February 22

 

Thinking of Palm Springs

Thinking of Palm Springs 2 

      Starting to return to parts already seen recently like the Lucky store in El Centro and Senator Wash Limited Stay Area. Headed to Mittry Lake in the previously mentioned Lower Colorado River Complex with L and M but found it less than (10 miles of washboard further into the the Complex) the Senator Wash Res., on an isolated cove of which we had stayed a fortnight earlier. However someone had opened the pipes and let out a bunch of water. We found a good spot under some enormous cottonwood trees and notified F and E who will attempt a docking here at the Senator tomorrow; we have discussed how we could guide them into our spot and I think it will be with the electric bikes. It has been bandied about that I might captain one of these scout bicycles. M created a tasty dinner of stir and fry and as the night will be deeply cold we ran heaters hard in both vans which can make all the difference. Wind blowing too strong for fire outside, maybe tomorrow.