Southbound and down...

Well, mostly westbound actually.  One would think that the weather would be good in Alberta in the fall, or at least Ian Tyson and Neil Young would have you think that.  Sometimes they lie though.  Like this year.  The pretty white flakes started drifting down in mid September and didn't stop, so by the end of the month we took the hint and hitched up the wagon. 

Too early to head south yet, so we decided to dash across the mountains to BC for a bit.  Forecast for the north Okanagan looked good, and our friends Rod and Pauline assured us there was room in the forestry camps there.  So off we went.  

Made it across the pass with a couple weeks to spare from the look of it!

Spring and Summer 2018

Once April 17 came along we figured we'd better head north whether spring had arrived there or not.  What is with you Canadians, anyway? Can you not warm up n a reasonable month...say March?  Sheesh!  Anyway, after a fairly uneventful trip up I-15 we landed back in Ardrossan April 21.  Just in time for the last big snow dump of the winter. 

Summer was spent as usual, I picked up a job at one of the local RV dealers for a little extra spending cash, we worked on some renovations on the landlord's house (flooring, walls, and kitchen cabinets this year, and we did a little camping in Alberta and at Fraser Lake with family. 

Unfortunately, my mom passed in June so our July trip over that way was a little sadder than usual.  We spent some time going through stuff in the house, and my son came over with his kids so we got to spend some time with them. 

Snowbird Mesa northbound

Holy procrastination Batman!  Somebody needs a kick in the butt (figuratively of course) now and again or this blog will never get updated, and I'll never remember where we've been or what we've done.  If you're not me and you're reading this, what that means is that I'm actually in 2019 right now and I've time-travelled back to catch up.  More so than usual, even.  So the next few posts will be very brief, which might actually be a blessing.  

Anyway, here we are in April, sitting on Snowbird Mesa near Overton NV waiting for winter to loosen it's grip on Alberta before we head north.  After Quartzsite, we wandered over to Why AZ where we stayed at Gunsight Wash (32.23833, -112.75382) with friends from Saskatchewan (Wayne and Brenda).  While there we toured around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (again), and took a day trip down do Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) in Mexico.  We also had a tour of the US Border Patrol facility just north of Why.

This is one of the safety stations along the border.  Activate a switch and the Border Patrol comes to rescue you.  Flashing blue light at the top can be seen for miles. 

Back road through Organ Pipe

How Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument got its name. 

This is the current "wall" along the Mexico border. 

On Feb 8th we met up with the Escapee Boondockers again a little bit north at Ajo AZ (32.43933, -112.83855).  While there we toured around a bit and took in some old time fiddlin' in the town square.

Camping at the Ajo Rodeo Grounds. 

Poor old Saguaro.  

Feb 13 we headed back over to Yuma and set up at Kool Korner (32.80355, -114.49498) for a week.  I got my fishing fix (unfortunately not my catching fix) up the road ad Mittry Lake.  Oh, those wily Bass!

On Feb 20th we headed over to California (after making sure we were topped up with fuel, of course) and met up with a small group of the Boondockers on Ogilby Road (32.82077, -114.81807).  We discovered that you don't really want to drink Yuma well water and acquired a couple jugs to keep stocked with salt-free dispenser water.  A lesson learned.

Have to sneak in a sunset pic.  Not sure where this was but it could have been Ogilby. 

Feb 28th we headed back for Quartzsite, via Blyth CA, and stopped over for a few days at our usual spot on Plomosa Road (33.76696, -114.17686).  On March 3rd we headed accross the mountain to another Boondocker rally at 33.83066, -114.04696.  Enroute we made sure we completely drained the yucky Yuma water from the tank and replaced it with fresh Bouse water from the Community Park.  Well worth the $2 to fill up.  We crossed back over to the Quartzsite side on March 14th with friends Rod and Pauline from the Boondocker group and settled in there until the 23rd.  While we were in the Bouse/Quartzsite area this trip we got in a couple of Jeep tours with the Bouse Ghost Riders (led by Dan Malone), did a backroad trip into KOFA National Wildlife Refuge, and I even managed to catch a few Striped Bass on Lake Havasu (thanks to Mike from Havasu Landing for showing me some tricks).

Hah!  Snuck another one in.  

Yummy water hole in KofA. 

Lunch time! 

Some Striped Bass about to become dinner.  Note the trick: use small fish to catch bigger fish.  Ahhh! 

Scrap pile at the bombing range.  

Close up. 

Hunting for more. 

Fine looking bunch of wheelers.  

On March 24th we treated ourselves to a night at the Scenic Road RV Park in Quartzsite - off season rates of $18 per night being only slightly higher than the usual cost of fluid exchange at most dump stations - and enjoyed using the electric toaster, coffee pot, and air conditioners for a night until the novelty wore off.  Then on March 25th we packed up, said adieu to the southern desert, and started the trek north.

There you go. 

We stopped off at Laughlin NV, paying $35 for a week of dry camping at Hurrah's (35.14320, -114.57977) as I was hoping to do a little fishing on Lake Mojave.  Unfortunately the winds weren't cooperative, coming from the north and creating 2-3 foot rollers.  After 3 days of that and no change in the forecast we pulled up stakes and headed for Overton.  We did manage to get the RV and generator serviced at Swanty's in Bullhead City, which was the other reason for the stop there, so we're good for another year.

The winds are a little calmer up here on Lake Mead, so as I said we're staying on Snowbird Mesa (36.48037, -114.45422) and I'm doing a little fishing (launch at Echo Bay) while we're waiting for spring to come back to Canada.  Hurry up, you guys.

Back in the desert again

After enjoying a few days of (relatively) balmy weather we headed back over to Vanderhoof on Jan 6 for another short visit with my mom before heading back south.  We felt as though we'd helped out with the new baby about as much as they could stand us...

Temperature and roads were normal:

A couple days there and it was time to embark on our second southward migration of the season.  Hotel stopovers at Kamloops BC, Pendleton OR, and Provo UT before rescuing Tussy from the storage yard on Jan 13th.  Here are some of the "exciting" pictures from the trip:  

(Either I made a wrong turn and got onto the ice rink, 

or somebody forgot to send the sand trucks out between Prince George and Quesnel.)

(Fatality accident just north of Lac La Hache shut down the highway for a few hours and backed up traffic quite a ways.  In BC there are usually NO alternate routes: when the highway's shut down you sit.  Fortunately even though they published that the road wouldn't reopen til 6 PM they started letting us light traffic go through around 3.)  

(Northern Washington doesn't look much different than BC, eh?)

(Southern Washington.  Yay, I can see the road again!)

(Oregon)

(Idaho)

(Utah)

If you got bored by the last few pictures, be thankful that it only took you 15 seconds to get through them.  It took us three days... 

And then 

(Yay!)

Don't get too excited though: it's only the strip.  Still a ways to go.  But soon we were able to free Tussy from the kennel (she'd survived just fine thanks).  

Move on up to the top of the mesa.  

Grill up a meal.  

And get some normal TV on the tube.  

It's great to travel, but it's sure good to get home, too.  

Next day (that would be Jan 14) we were back on Plomosa Road.  We looked up the SKP Boondockers BOF group the next day (we joined the Escapees last year, and the Boondockers in the fall).  And have been hanging out with the group since.  

(This is the Boondockers group (group fire ring just right of centre)  Lots of room between rigs.)  

(One of the other groups just to the northeast.  A little more "togetherness" over there I think.) 

Visited the vegetable vendor (in Brenda this time, for a change).  Prices might be up a bit: $28 to stock up the fridge this time.  Will have to watch the budget! 

On Friday we made a day trip up to the Lake Havasu City Balloon Fest.  Unfortunately these were the only things flying, for obvious reasons.  

Still, there were bands to be heard, expensive drinks and food to be consumed, and dozens of vendors with amazingly useless trinkets to be browsed but not purchased.  A miniature Quartzsite, but without quite as much "Made in China" atmosphere.  

Although they didn't fly that day, they did do the "evening glow" event only without the ballons inflated.  Impressive, and definitely warmed up the field, but just not the same without the balloons attached.  For better pics cruise back to my Jan 2014 blog when we attended the event.  I also have a very amateurish video on my Youtube channel if you want to have a look.  

Ma nature helped out and gave us this to the west though.  

Anyway, that's all I got for now.  Here's a few oddball shots that didn't fit anywhere else.  Talk to you later.  Stay Warm!!

(Always interesting what the Beetle People come up with. The top pic was actually in Parker, the bottom at the Balloon Fest.)  

(I always knew that.  Probably get a copyright infringement for this pic though.)

Alberta for Christmas??!! Really??!!

The gods conspired against us me to prevent a full snowbird winter again this year, and we had to go back north for a month or so.  We headed for Overton on December 4th and hung out for a day up on the mesa, loading the Jeep with Christmas presents (and what warm clothes we had with us) and organizing the motorhome (defrosting the freezer, etc.).  Wendy had her heart set on cleaning, until I convinced her that she'd probably have to deal with 1/4 inch of desert inside the coach when she got back anyway.

We thought we'd give storing in Overton a shot this year, since it makes the trip 1/2 day shorter than starting from Quartzsite like we did last year.  And since this year we were going via Vanderhoof BC for a stopover to see my mom, a 1/2 day saved is a 1/2 day earned.  Anyway, after tucking Tussy away at the storage yard next to a well-travelled reefer to keep her company we headed north on December 6th.

 

It didn't take long before the foreshadowing started:

And I couldn't shake the feeling that we were headed in the wrong direction.  

At one point I was concerned that the route we chose might be impassable!

But unfortunately we were able to continue.  

We met some interesting characters along the way.  

While the scenery along the road turned from a beautiful tan and green to a depressing white and grey.  

  

Soon even the asphalt itself had the life bleached out of it.  

Along the way we stopped off for the night at Wells NV, Kennewick WA, and Vernon BC before arriving at Vanderhoof on December 9th.  Three nights in hotels, sleeping on too hard or too soft beds that who knows how many disgusting people had slept and done who-knows-what-else in definitely made us miss having our own clean comfortable bed everywhere we go.  But on the bright side, Wendy got pretty good at using Expedia on the fly AND we loaded up with enough "free" soap and shampoo to make Bella happy.  

We spent a week at Jack and Kathy's (thanks guys) visiting my mom at the hospital, then whooshed it down highway 16 to my daughter's house in Edmonton.  Not too many pictures taken in Vanderhoof, but here are a couple of my everybody's buddy Hoover and my kitchen helper Blaze.  

OK, now I KNOW the gods have a sense of humour... albeit a cruel, sadistic one.  After basking in relatively half decent winter temperatures in the minus 10 to 15 C range for a few days the thermometer plummeted to minus infinity on Christmas Eve and stayed down until New Years Day.  Oh well, Arizona's chilly too.  Might have to put on a jacket in the evening.

Despite the temps we managed to get out and enjoy some Christmas lights.  I can't help but contrast these with Lake Havasu in the last post though.  

However, making it almost worth the trip north in the minus 1000 degree temperatures and suffering the frostbites, frozen fingers and numb head (although Wendy says I have this all the time) we did get to spend some time with some of the best most interesting grandkids in the world.  

And even to welcome one more little urchin to the tribe.  Happy birthday Sophie!  

Hope everyone had as good a Christmas and New Year as we did!  OK, now it's time to start scheming a way to get back to the desert...