Bad penny turns up in Phoenix

Hey, I betcha thought that the state troopers had us locked up or something, when we disappeared for a week.  No such (bad) luck, just one of the hazards of the trip when you're relying on the goodness of others to leave their wireless connections unsecured.  Here's a fast recap of the past week:

San Francisco - Of course we left there last Sunday, but I finally got some pics off Wendy's camera so before we leave that alone here's some of the less unflattering ones. 

The Streets of San Francisco really DO look like on TV... Wendy wouldn't let me try to fly her Cavalier like Carl used to do on TV, though.  Probably just as well.  We didn't try it with the Bounder, either...

This big horkin' tree was at the entrance tp Pier 39.  Good thing she took the pic in the morning because you couldn't get near it by after lunch. 

I suppose in this pic I was trying to look as "criminal" as possible... either that or the lunch burrito wasn't going down too well... I'll save you the bother of trying to zoom in (I don't know why it turned sideways; you'll have to rotate your monitor I guess):

Unlike this next one, where I'm just surprised as heck to be there. 

OK, that's enough laughing for one day.  If anyone wants the original of this next one to blow up for a desk photo, let me know.  I won't give it to you of course, I just want to know. 

This next one was on the fence at the RV park, and outlined in Xmas lights, so she thought it was neat. 

This next one was one that I thought was really interesting.  At a gas station at Novato they had these TV screens on top of the pumps.  I suppose so you don't miss too much of your favourite soap or something.  I thought about asking him to switch to the movie channel while I was filling the motorhome.  BTW, it was also at this station where some guy very loudly told all of us that Canada doesn't have a health care system.  Period. 

Nope, that's not my reflection in the screen. 

And finally, this one was actually from back in the Redwoods but I thought it was a good one to show that we did have some back seat drivers this trip.  One, anyway. 

Dec 20-21 - Bakersfield and Victorville - Spent the night on Dec 20 in the parking lot of a closed down (since Oct) Wal-Mart.  Nice & quiet!  This after discovering I still have a short somewhere in the tail/clearance lights, and having the MH "hood" come loose on one side and drag the ground after a hard brake stop at a light.  Tip: In California, there are advance warning lights at a lot of the intersections like in Canada.  However, unlike Canada, the advance warnings flash continually and not just when the light's gonna change, so they're pretty much useless. 

Dec 21 we stopped off to see Elaine, Mark, and Mark's sis-in-law (sorry, forgot name - my goof) in Victorville.  Getting there was an adventure, because I was soooooo positive that I had the address both written down AND punched into GPS that I never checked until after we left SF.  Discovering that I had neither address nor phone number ANYWHERE that I could find led to a wifi hunt in Bakersfield and again in Victorville to send and receive quick emails.  Thanks Elaine and Jackie.  I STILL think I have that address written down somewhere, in a safe place. 

In any event, we stopped by and had a good visit, then stayed the night at a little strip mall behind the Denny's.  Very quiet there, and convenient for breakfast in the morning too!  Only one pic to show - this one just to prove that they actually do get winter there (why anyone would want to live in a California town that gets snow is beyond me, though). 

Dec 22 - 25 - Quartzsite - In need of a few days of R&R and with Christmas quickly approaching, we'd decided to head for "Q" for some warm sunny days in the uncrowded desert. 

Nope, the Saguaro's not getting held up (as far as I know).  Or wearing glasses.  I hope someone else sees that too, or I've been 'netting too long. 

We got the sunshine and open space, but the temperatures weren't very co-operative as you can see.  I braved the shorts, but had to stay with the jacket and socks since the highs were only getting into the high 50s during the day...

... and down into the high 20s at night.  Yup, that's frost on the car - BRRRR.  Wendy hasn't made it into shorts yet, although she did use the machete in preparation.  Still, I hope these pics elicit some sympathy, especially since I hear the last couple weeks have been so nice back home. 

BTW, in the "shorts" pic I'm holding a Christmas present from my granddaughter, of which we're about to partake.  THANKS FUZZY!  THEY'RE GREAT AT HOOCH TIME!

Thinking ahead, we brought a few Christmas lights with us (solar, of course), so we were able to do a little decorating as soon as we parked. 

Other than the obligatory shopping trip into Q on Wednesday, and a quick run down to Yuma on Thursday for some groceries and a TracPhone, we had a nice quiet hang around in the desert.  I crawled under and re-did all the electrical connections from the rear axle back (didn't help, as it turns out) and Wendy got some good cleaning and relaxing done. 

Christmas in the desert - Christmas dinner was turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yam, and brussel sprouts, of course.  The turkey and yam were on the barbeque, of course, and we decided to have dinner early (3:00) so we could prank call all the relatives and keep them from eating THEIR dinners.  It all turned out wonderful as you can see, and we had an excellent Christmas day.  Hope everyone else did, too! 

(Don't ask where we got the three-legged, one-breasted turkey.  We did pass a nuclear power plant on the way here, though.)

Finally a couple of the obligatory desert campsite shots.  I liked this spot MUCH more than the one in Novato, and it's not just because of the price.  Gotta get that internet thing figgered out, though. 

Dec 26 - Phoenix - Packed up and ran into Phoenix today, to be close by for the Canucks-Coyotes game on the 27th.  One small issue: found out when we got here that the game's not actually until Tuesday the 29th... guess who messed that one up?  Yep, that's two strikes for me now (that I'm counting - others may count more).  Oh well, it's a bit warmer here than the desert anyway, and we're camped out at the Gila River Wild Horse Casino (Don will remember that one, although they've now built a hotel here too) and borrowing their internet.  Debating whether to move to an RV park for a day or two while we see the sites; let me know in the poll what you think. 

That's it for now - more when stuff happens. 

Alcatraz & Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39)

I like this first one - looks like a ghost image in the background. 

This shower setup is thought to be the inspiration for soap-on-a-rope.

Had lunch at this place on the wharf.  Chowder was pretty good, salad and fish not so much.  Whadya expect for $57, though?

Our campsite.  Can you spot the Bounder (you should know what it looks like by now)?

I suppose they have to jam them in to pay for the solar panels (and maybe the Prius Hybrid, since everyone here seems to own one.  OK, maybe half - and the other half own Yukons and Mercedes SUVs. 

San Francisco

Bodega Bay is only about 60 miles from San Francisco, so it was an easy trip into the Novato RV Park.  Typical city RV park: packed in like a parking lot, but with hookups, wifi, and cable for not much more than Arnie wants for an unserviced site. 

We went scouting in the afternoon, which as you can see was quite nice (high around 60F, I think).  That's Alcatraz Island behind Wendy in the middle picture, and she's taking a shot of the Golden Gate. 

The day was slightly blemished by a small misunderstanding between me and GPS Lady... I thought I said to take us home while what I actually said (and it must be true because I never argue with a lady - computerized or other) was to take us on a tour of Oakland, San Jose, Palo Alto, and South San Francisco before getting us home in the midst of rush hour traffic at 5:30 tonight. 

Ah well, tomorrow's another day.  We're booked on the 10:30 AM Alcatraz tour, so I should have some more soon.  We'll push off from here Sunday or Monday depending how it goes. 

Pacific Coast Highway

Thursday was winding down the coast highway.  Sorry I don't have any pictures, but my hands were two busy sawing the steering wheel from one pin to the other to think about holding a camera.  My advice for the Redwood road goes for the costs highway as well, as they didn't want to use any dynamite at all.  Stopped for the night at the municipal campground at Bodega Bay ($22), after checking a couple of state parks and finding them all priced at $35.  They were all empty, needless to say. 

Yup, that's the campsite.  It's on a peninsula which serves as a breakwater for the bay.  You're looking south at the Pacific side and behind you is the harbour side.  Would have been nice to think of a pano picture, no? 

California, here we come!

After spending the night in Valley of the Rogues, we backtracked to Grant's Pass and headed west to Crescent City, CA.  If you're wondering why, have a look at a map. 
This took us smack through Redwood country, wich was an awesome drive.  If you get a chance, do it.  Just make sure your brakes are it tip-top shape first, and makbe buy brakes for the toad too. 

After a great ride through the forest, with an extra hour stop along the way to let the brakes cool a bit, we reached

Yup, that's what you think it is.  But we weren't done with the Redwoods quite yet...

...and then more of...

...until it all got quite tedious, really.  Well, not really.  We stopped for the night at a little pulloff near Garberville (we were thinking of springing a few bucks to camp among the trees, but Arnie wants $35 for an unserviced site even in December, so we took a pass on that.  I've slept under trees before, and it ain't worth $35). 

Water!

Top priority for the day was to get some water on board, since we were far enough south not to worry about it freezing up.  Took a scouting trip down the Interstate to the Pilot Truck Stop hoping that they'd have RV services, but nope.  So we circled back to Woodburn to the Tourist Info booth... it didn't open until 10 so we did a little sightseeing and found a nice little covered bridge for Wendy. 

When we got back to the TI office, she gave us a nice little brochure on the state dumpstations.  Lots along the coast, but the next one on the interstate was at mile 45, quite a ways.  But, we loaded up and hit the road.  We were still thinking interstate at that point as it was still pretty damp, and we didn't see much point spending time on the coast in the rain. 

When we did stop in Valley of the Rogue state park to de-winterize, it was late enough in the day that we just decided to stay.  Nice pull through site with full services for $16 for the night. 

BTW, temps in the low 50's for high, and the low 40's for lows... still looking for some decent weather!

Spokane WA to Woodburn OR

Woke up this morning to two surprises... one was a half inch of fresh snow and the other was the above stuck to the door.  Sorry it`s not readable: I`ll translate.  It says we was BAD for parking overnight at the mall.  On the bright side, There`s no actual fine or anything and the Security Cop was pretty quiet about putting the notice on the window (he could have rousted us at 3:53 AM and told us to leave), so seeing as we`re not planning on being back this way for a while we`ll just treat this as a souvenir and a scrap booking opportunity.

After a nice IHOP breakfast, we were on our way as soon as it was light (no need for clearanceétail lights in the daytime!). 

Once we got out of Spokane we were back to bare ground again, so Gabby was again pretty happy about being able to walk on grass instead of snow.  Here are some pics of the scenery from Spokane down to Portland.  If you ever get the chance to travel along the Columbia River, you should.  It`s great! (Through-the-window pics don`t really do justice). 

We skirted around Portland, and arrived at the Woodburn Super Wal*Mart about 4PM.  It`s now about 8:45, and I`m pretty much all caught up on the emails and the blog thanks to my new buddy athomeBB29 who lent me his wifi signal.  It`s been raining pretty much since 3:00 or so, which at this point is a pretty good thing since maybe it`ll wash some of the gravel off the vehicles, and the outside temp right now is 41F.  Not balmy, but a real break from a couple days ago. 

Tomorrow we`ll hunt down a spot to take on water and de-winterize (probably the Pilot truck stop just down the road) and then we can kick into holiday mode for real. 

BTW, as I suspected and hoped, the tail & clearance light circuit seems to be fine now.  Some of the snow and slush must have gotten into the wiring at the back end somehow and shorted it out.  Something to investigate, but not today. 

On the road... again!

Sunday was relatively uneventful for the better part of the day.  We crossed over into the States (with no problems, as usual), and followed the familiar route through Bonner's Ferry and Sandpoint to Coeur d'Alene and Spokane.  Only one picture worth looking at from this portion: this is the rest area just west of Coeur d'Alene.  Note the lack of any white stuff on the ground (although to be fair the temps were still about 23F). 

We had a small adventure: after stopping to take on groceries near Spokane, we had an electrical short in the clearance/tail lights that kept blowing the fuse.  Discretion being the better part of valour, and not wanting to be rear ended by a maniac on I-90, we swung into the Spokane Valley Mall to try to fix the problem.  That didn`t work so we decided to be safe and just spend the night. 

On the Road!

OK, the people who thought I'd wait until Wednesday to leave are probably the same ones who thought I should stay home - or go to Winnipeg.  Temperature was a balmy -33.7C Saturday morning, so really no reason not to head out on the highway.  I'm starting to like those little magnet mount heaters, as with one of those stuck to the oil pan all night she cranked and fired without much difficulty. 

Fortunately I couldn't tell the temperature once we were in the Bounder, as my thermometers in there were frozen up.  But this was the view out the front window when we left about 11 AM, having had the defrosters running on high since about 8 while we were loading.  Eventually I stopped and fetched a fan from the back to get the air flowing on that side. 

My travelling companion had it a little better on the right-hand side: see, she even had her coat undone at one point!

After a stop in Ponoka to warm up and mooch lunch off Red and Diane, we had an uneventful trip all the way over to Cranbrook.  I have to say I'm impressed at the Bounder's ability to handle the cold even considering the obvious fact that it just wasn't made to travel in -30 degree temps.  Have to also thank the Ford chassis as it held together very well. 

As I expected, once we got across the Crowsnest temps warmed up considerably (as far as I could tell).  I thinke we had -10 or -15C in Cranbrook overnight, and the furnace was quite able to keep up since it didn't have the 90 KMH wind to contend with. 

Make up your mind!

OK, now it's getting silly.  Looks like neither Saturday NOR Sunday is gonna be a banner travel day... but Wednesday looks OK.  What do you figure the odds are of me waiting until Wednesday (trick question, since you already know the answer)? 

Just look at the poor Bounder.  I can't possibly make her wait longer, can I?

 

Uh oh.

OK, before you write to me and tell me Blogger isn't updating properly, I'm actually posting this on Monday the 14th.  But to keep things in order I've backdated.  So maybe every once in a while you need to go back and re-read the past posts!  Just kidding (maybe).  Anyway...

As you can see from above, the weather guy changed his mind a bit from earlier in the week, and now things looked not so good for the "wait til Sunday" plan.  In case you're wondering what the value of those below-the-line days are, here's the forecast:

Brrr.  Anyway, reset departure to Saturday, and DRIVE LIKE HECK.

The plot thickens...

Hmmm.  What day did I say we planned to leave?  Oh, yeah, that would be Saturday - THE COLDEST DAY OF THE FREAKIN' COLD SNAP.  Y'know, perhaps it would have been a wise move to put a block heater in the MH this summer (but really, who needs a block heater in the summer??). 

No matter, really... I think we'll just lay over and leave Sunday instead.  Weather's supposed to be improving the whole way early next week, so no point pushing too hard and breaking something.  Keep you posted. 

BTW, check the upper left corner - Blogger now has a poll feature which might be interesting to play with.  Keep watching there - I'll try to change it regularly.  If you have any ideas send me a note. 

Getting ready to head south - 2009 edition

Here we are in the countdown for another 5 or 6 weeks south.  Two main differences this year, though: 1.  Leaving in mid December and returning late January, instead of late Jan/mid March, and 2.  My travelling companion's a lot better looking this time around (might even share my bed this time). 

Oh, there seems to be a third difference, too:  3.  Last time we got out of Dodge just ahead of the big cold snap of the winter, this time it looks like we might be a week late.  Have a look:

The original plan is to head across to Cranbrook then down through Spokane to Portland, hit the coast and wander down to San Francisco.  Couple days there, then south and east to Phoenix in time for Christmas.  My Canuckleheads are playing there Dec 27, so it would be cool to see a game.  After that???

The weather's not looking great for a Saturday departure, though, and the SF forecast is rain next week.  Have to keep an eye on that.