Exploring and sitting out the rain

Here's Aileen waving to Santa. Wendy & Randy beside her.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Spud the clown.

Lady clowns.

Pencil Cholla. Might be Christmas Cholla.

After the rain.

Purple Cholla.

Morning light.

On Wednesday we had 1/4 inch of rain and Thursday gave us another ½ inch. That’s quite a bit considering they only get 7-8 inches per year in this area. It’s amazing what happens to all the water as it doesn’t just sink into the ground but instantly becomes a roaring torrent. That’s how they get flashfloods in a hurry. The streets in the park slope to the centre and there’s quite a river runs down it. Surface drainage must be taken into account very early in the planning process when property is developed. Out in the desert, the roads get damaged a lot in these rains. I guess because the rain is so infrequent they don’t worry about it and just send a grader out to repair the damage. That’s one thing about this whole area; it’s all sand or gravel so the material is always there to smooth over. Every little gully has its flow of water and they keep joining others and increasing in size. Some of the washes (that’s what they call these temporary creeks) can get to be 80 – 100 feet wide and move a lot of water.
We drove the Florence-Kelvin Rd on Thursday and some of the washes were still muddy and a little tricky. When we drove north from Kelvin we passed the Ray Copper Mine which is huge. We drove along it for several miles; it’s amazing how much rock they have moved over the years. We drove through the old town of Superior at the junction where we turned west and it is in serious trouble. Over half the stores and offices are empty. It was a fairly substantial town in its time but now with the better roads is only 30-40 minutes from greater Phoenix shopping.
We had to be home in good time as we’d bought tickets for the Thanksgiving supper. 336 people were fed buffet style in nine minutes! The lady announcing said we’d all be fed and seated in less than 12 minutes and we’d said “yeah, right”! It was a very good feed but lots of people’s blood sugar got pretty elevated. After supper a professional couple did a musical skit on the 1940’s which had the guy going to war and the girl working for the war effort and finally their reunion. Their singing was excellent.
On Friday (Nov 28) we drove south of Florence and took the 96 Ranch Rd. The washboard for the first few miles was incredible! The sun had come out and we expected a warmer day but the clouds came back and the temps dropped down as low as 11C mid afternoon. The 96 Ranch was so called because they owned 96 sections of land. That’s 61,440 acres. The buildings were all abandoned and the road wasn’t much better. Some of it in the hills was bare granite shelves to drive on and there has been no maintenance on it for years. Some spots were washed badly and the brush was growing in on the sides. After passing through the 96 Hills and back into the desert on the east side we encountered some nasty mud holes. I was surprised to watch a guy with an old Suburban and a telescopic travel trailer blast through it after I’d clawed through in four wheel drive. Guess he was used to such things. We joined the Barkerville road and looked for the old community of Barkerville but found no sign of it at all. We took the Freeman Rd back west to #79 and home to Florence.
This morning we went with Wendy & Randy to the Florence Parada which I guess is Spanish for parade. It was a pretty good parade done fairly leisurely. The weather was sunny but not too warm, so perfect for both participants and spectators. After lunch we took a drive about 20 miles toward Phoenix to do some shopping. We still visit the pool and hot tub every evening after supper which makes a pretty nice end to the day. It is supposed to be sunny for the next several days and I hope they’re right.

Made it to Florence, AZ

Millet ready to harvest.

Wendy & Randy's trailer and palm tree from our site.

Our site taken from Wendy & Randy's.

A field of cotton ready for harvest.

Cotton balls bursting.

We arrived in Florence and found our way to Wendy & Randy’s before lunch. Randy had just ridden his bike out to the gate and saw us drive by so when I pulled over to try and decide which driveway to use and phoned him, he was able to say that he was looking at me. We parked in the clubhouse lot for the afternoon then were able to rent a vacant lot across and one up from them. It’s $90 per week utilities included. We went to the pool and hot tub last night and tonight. Today we went to a huge flea market south of Coolidge which was great for people watching. There was a huge crowd and we managed to leave with nothing other than the few pictures I snapped.
When we were driving here yesterday, I managed to find wide spot to park and take some pictures of cotton ready for harvest. Today Randy was able to drive in a side road to allow me some shots of millet which is also ready for harvest. We stopped at an old style restaurant in Coolidge called Tab’s and had a delicious breakfast for lunch. Following that we went to Safeway to restock the cupboards which were getting bare. Prices and selection in most of the small towns are not great. As soon as the groceries were put away, we went to the small clubhouse to listen to the regular Sunday music jam. Some of it wasn’t all that good but others definitely were. We four actually danced quite a few, joined a couple times by an old couple and later one old girl joined Aileen and I when the group did a rock and roll song.
Nov 24
We four took a drive into Mesa/Greater Phoenix after lunch and were unable to get the air card to work there either. The ball is definitely going to be in Telus’ court as either they have no service or the card is defective. We’ll be going to the pool and hot tub in a few minutes. This is a fun time of day; the pool is warm and the hot tub delightful. The weather is going downhill on us though. The next five days are possible showers or thunder showers. Temperatures will be dropping down into the 60’s for highs. Oh, poor me!

Gila Bend, Az

Sorry no images for this post. It seems the WiFi here doesn't have enough room to allow picture uploads.

I bought the battery charger yesterday morning and had it on all day and night and this morning the batteries were fully charged. I tested every cell in all four batteries and every cell claimed to be excellent. I did find a couple of loose connections the other day and it would be nice if that turns out to be the problem. We’ll have to keep an eye on it for the next while and if the batteries start to lose charge again it’ll be back to the drawing board.
We left Quartzsite mid morning today heading east on I-10 and had our lunch at a highway rest area. We made an extended stop and took it easy for awhile. Tonight we’re parked in Augie’s RV Park in Gila Bend where we stayed back in February when we got together with Wendy and Randy. We’d been looking for somewhere to wash the trailer ever since we got to the dry country and for $6 were able to use Augie’s hose/wash station and wash both units. The only downside to it is the water in southern California and Arizona is salty and leaves a film on the surface when it dries. However, both truck and trailer look much better after removing all that road crud from all the rainy areas and salt in the Siskiyou Pass. There was lots of smog around us all day and increasing cloud as well. The warmest temperature I noticed today was 26C which is about 5C less than we’ve been having. It actually felt cooler, especially when I got the spray from the hose Aileen was wielding at the wash site.
Tomorrow should see us arrive in Florence where we’ll probably stay a few days. We decided going to Wickenburg was too far out of our way and we’ll likely head there in February anyway so why duplicate. We faced fairly heavy head winds all the way on I-10 and then cross winds down 85 almost to Gila Bend. The winds cause some trailer action when vans and big rigs pass you going the same direction. A driver has to stay more alert and be ready to instantly correct for the effect. Some times it causes you to veer toward the unit passing and some times it tosses you to the side of the road. All part of the joy of heading down the road!

Still in Quartzsite

This is a Gray Hawk, I think. He's checking out our trailer.

The lovely Palo Verde tree. One of the tallest growing plants in the area. 20-25 feet tall.

Typical type of area we walk.

Nov 19, 2008
Are we having fun yet? That’s a dangerous question these days. We still have not received a satisfactory answer from Telus on whether we should have wireless internet in the US and now we find that our solar power additions that we paid dearly for before departing Salmon Arm aren’t performing as they should. When we ran out of battery in Gleneden, I put it down to being under the trees and the clouds. Same thing in Errington and Goldstream. Each time our four six volt batteries would last about four days. However, we’re now in pure bright sunshine and our batteries died after four and one half days! There’s a problem somewhere but how to find it. Several calls to the installer had me crawling under the trailer checking fuses buried in its bowels then buying a battery tester and undressing all four batteries. All I’ve learned so far is that yes, all the batteries are low on power. For tonight we’ve moved into Quartzsite and The Split Rail Campsite with full hook ups and tomorrow I must buy a battery charger to get the batteries fully charged so I can test their specific gravity and see if one is defective. If that proves to not be the problem then I guess we’ll be visiting one of the solar dealers here before we move along.
We are enjoying the weather although we spend much of the day seeking the shade. Temperatures are running 28-32C. We do walk morning and evening when the temperature is cooler and most of the hotter part day does have a nice cooling breeze. There seem to be lots of coyotes everywhere and seven quail visited our site every morning and evening. Here at the Split Rail, Aileen said she and Mitzy saw huge numbers of quail on their after supper stroll. All the entry stations for the BLM long stay camping (where we just were) have book exchanges in them and the volunteers who man the stations are very chatty. It’s easy to spend an hour or more listening to the stories and banter. They are usually older men and women from a wide range of backgrounds and from many different parts of the country as well as Canada.
We’ve gone exploring a little in the immediate area and have seen some interesting places. You don’t need to go far to run out of people. There seem to be lots of RVs moving through the area but not a lot staying here yet. There appears to be about the same number heading to Yuma as there are coming from Yuma direction. It’s the same on the I-10 freeway, equal numbers in each direction. Gas is $2.07 here today and I read it’s about $1.75 in Oklahoma so that probably accounts for some of the extra movement. Of course our dollar is getting pretty beat up again so we’re paying considerably more when the exchange is factored in. We splurged tonight and went to the Mountain Quail Cafe for a tasty supper. We’ll probably be here another night in order to get the batteries fully charged so will join the park people in their regular Thursday potluck supper. As soon as we can, the plan is to move on to near Wickenburg for a couple nights then on to Florence.

Hanging out in Quartzsite

Both shots taken from beside our trailer.

Nov 13
We packed up and moved on to Quartzsite today. We got on the road shortly after 9 and arrived in Q about 5 hours later. It was only 240 km. We drove via Joshua Tree Park south to I-10 and stopped at most of the displays and much of the speed was only 35 mph until we hit the freeway. At one stop we met a couple who live full time in Port Neville which is boat access only from Sayward, BC. They are spending about 6 weeks traveling in their VW camper van. It sounds like they saw some fascinating country and are now heading out to the California coast north from San Francisco. We have set up on BLM land in Tyson Wash well back from the highway 2 or 3 kms south of Q. I can still hear I-10 truck traffic but it is muted when we close some windows at bedtime. It was 29C when we arrived and had been up to 32C along the way. The ladies are not too impressed with the warmness but hopefully it will be okay parked here. There was a nice cooling breeze which helped. The humidity is 8% here, that’s right – less than 10%. Mitzy and I went chasing the sunset before supper then shot the moon when we got home. There were coyotes yodeling on both sides of us before we went walking. I haven’t heard them again.

Nov 15,
We’re still relaxing in Quartzsite. I did go to town yesterday to gas the truck, get some tourist info and a loaf of bread while Aileen had a nice long nap. In the evening we went to town and pirated an internet signal so we could catch up on things. Aileen cut my hair this morning then we took a drive over to Bouse stopping along the way at our “secret valley camp” where we had such a quiet restful stay last winter. There are very few RVs anywhere yet. Along Plomosa Rd were perhaps 15-18 in total and the BLM long term spots near Quartzsite are nearly empty. In our Tyson Wash unit there was one check in yesterday and only two the day we came. It’s a really weird feeling after it was so busy last time we were here when there were thousands of RVs. There are hardly any vendors yet and the empty buildings and parking lots are eerie. I think there are only 4 small RV dealers so far also. I’m not sure how many there will be later as some of the dealers from last winter have gone bankrupt. We carried on to Parker and had a nice Chinese lunch before going to Safeway for groceries we were unable to find in the smaller towns. Today the weather is a little cooler with the high being 27C but the air was clearer than yesterday. Aileen, Mitzy and I went for a good walk in the desert before supper last night and tonight. Darkness comes much faster than it does in BC. You think you have so much time to return to the RV then suddenly it’s dark and the going is harder. It’s a good thing our trailer is so white as it shows up well in the dusk. It really cools down in a hurry too; as soon as it’s dark the temperature plunges. We’ve decided to stay here through the weekend then carry on to the east in a few days.

Nov 16,
Aileen and Mitzty went for a couple walks this morning. I went for a long walk climbing a couple of ridges then following old walking trails along some of the ridges. No telling how old some of them are but they could date back to the miners and their mules. It was warmer with less wind today so we sat and read and the girls all had their naps. Tonight is internet piracy again so I can publish this blog and see what we’re missing in the rest of the world. We’re certainly enjoying the intense blue skies and the many stars at night. Every morning the eastern sky is orange an hour before sunrise and most evening we’re rewarded with orange or pink sky.

Staying put for a few days

Joshua Tree with Mt Gorgonio in the background. It's 11,490 feet, highest in southern California.

Jumbo Rocks area.

Typical scenery in Joshua Tree National Park.

Nov 10, 2008
After a lazy breakfast we packed up and hit the road somewhat after 9AM. We didn’t get far as we saw a Walmart in Apple Valley and we needed to pick up a few items. Apple Valley is the cleanest and prettiest town we’ve seen in California so far. Very progressive looking, not crowded and just gives off good vibes. Our lunch was at a roadside pullout which had a marker for Old Woman Springs. The landscape is very barren but they describe the ranch surrounding the springs as a winter grazing area. It takes a lot of acres to raise a cow around here. We are at 29 Palms Resort for a couple of nights and it seems pretty good. No freeway and no train so far! I went to a meeting this afternoon where they talked about upcoming activities and won second prize in the draw they had. I got a nice one quart water cooler. Aileen and I joined a group at a Chinese restaurant for supper. Ten couples turned out and we had a great time. They were a fun group. One couple was from Vernon. Over half of them are long time visitors to 29 Palms. One couple were full timers. Earlier I’d spoken to three groups from Kamloops and there are several others here from BC. I think we traveled about 135 miles today. We went for a nice swim before bed in the huge indoor pool which we had all to ourselves.

Nov 11,
Today was a sight seeing day. We took a drive around the Joshua Tree National Park. It was mostly sunny and quite warm when you were out of the wind. The park offers some interesting and intriguing rock formations and the Joshua trees are such a unique shape in themselves. We purchased a one year national park pass for $80. This is valid until Nov 30, 2009 and can be used for admission to any national park in the US except Hawaii. We hope to make lots of use of it. We packed our lunch and sat in the sun amidst some weird rock formations to eat it. One of the major uses of the park is for rock climbing. There were lots of people all over the rocks and many of them are camping in the park and spending days playing on the rocks. There are climbing routes for all levels of expertise. We drove up to Keys View Point and were rewarded with a pretty nice view. We could see the Salton Sea about 35 miles southeast and Palm Springs way to the west. Los Angeles smog intrudes this far much of the time which lessens the view, apparently. Aileen did our laundry this afternoon and was impressed with the machines. There were nice sunsets last night and tonight. I tried some shots tonight but couldn’t come up with a suitable foreground. I paid for another night here and it sounds like I’ll have to do it again tomorrow as Aileen wants to stay for the romantic walk on the golf course under the full moon after the park Bar B Q Wednesday night. It is nice to take a break from driving and hunting for a camp spot every night.

Heading East in California

Along #138 East in California

November 8, 2008
We trudged down I-5 til after lunch then turned off on Highway 269 then onto Highway 33 at Avenal. #33 parallels I-5 for a long way and was much quieter. In fact, it was really quiet. The scenery for the most part was no better. In fact we drove by several oil patches with thousands of little pumpers rocking away. Then there’s the power lines to and the pipelines away from each pump – it’s ugly! We had hoped to find a campsite or even a boondocking area early in the afternoon but no luck. We finally found a forest service campsite at the 4800 foot level on a twisty mountain road that should deliver us out to I-5 in another 20-30 miles. The team was ready to mutiny on me by the time we found this spot at 5:30! It seemed to be the perfect spot, finally. Just us and the stars and miles away below us the lights of various small communities. However, all was shattered at 2:09 AM by a party of idiot hunters who arrived (I presume from LA or some other large city several hours drive away). Our first indication of company was when the guns started firing. Yes, at 2:09 AM – pitch dark except for the stars. And not just once but 12-15 times before I finally got through to them by flashing the truck lights and honking the horn with the remote. Of course the ladies of our team were well terrified and didn’t get much more sleep.

Nov 9
When we left this morning, we turned back down the way we’d come up last night instead of going up as we’d planned. This was decided by the fact we couldn’t turn sharp enough to make the turn and it would be miles of backtracking before a spot was found. What good fortune that turned out to be as just after we started a vehicle caught up to us and I let him go past. He had new snow on his hood and window. Definitely not the way for us to go! Tonight we are in Shady Oasis RV Park in Victorville, CA. True to form, it is right along side a freeway and there’s a train not far away. I can’t believe how so many of these parks seem to have those “requirements.” It really pays to be deaf or maybe that’s just who they cater to. It certainly plays hob with my sleeping but we’re still not far enough along to be able to boondock out in the quiet areas. We drove through some pretty serious rain this morning on I-5 and the start of #138 East. We were rewarded with an impressive rainbow. Aileen and the girls had a two hour nap this afternoon so better vibes tonight. Tommorrow we hope to go only as far as Joshua Tree (the town) and find an RV camp that’s quieter. Perhaps the next day we’ll make Quartzsite and spend a few days boondocking before heading east and south.

We're in California

Mt Shasta, northern California

Thursday Nov 6th was a long day for us as we were on the road by 8 AM until about 4 PM. We did about 500 kms (300 miles). When I checked the webcams for the Siskiyou Pass this morning they showed snow on the side but bare pavement. We had temperatures as high as 14C all the way to Medford which made it very pleasant whenever we stopped and got out. It was 7C in the pass but only 4C just over the other side but the snow was still there and it was for a long ways down each side. Aileen is pleased we have, in theory, passed the snow zone. Further down the road Mt. Shasta presented an awesome view. I pulled over to the side of I-5 several times. I assured Aileen it was emergency parking – I had to take a shot!
We stopped for the night near Lakehead at Lakeshore Villa RV Park. Haven’t seen any sign of a lake yet but we are way too close to I-5 for my liking. We’ve spent the evening poring over the map and online (on the campground’s WiFi) looking for better ideas for tomorrow.
Friday Nov 7th. Finally getting some nice weather, it got to 21C this afternoon. Pure sunshine too! The sky against the ponderosa pines was so blue this morning – just beautiful! We pounded down I-5 all day putting on another 270 miles. I know, that’s only a part day for some of you but it’s a big day for my team. We spent an hour at an exit in Sacramento talking to Telus tech #5, again without the results we desired. This guy however said we weren’t going to get connected anyway because they don’t have any service throughout most of the US. I tried contacting the girl who sold me the system but she’s off til Monday – grrrr! The tech told me that Phoenix, Yuma and Tuscon were the only areas in Arizona where I’d get service. Not sure where that is going to lead to for our keeping up on things.
We are in the Stockton-Lodi RV Park tonight. Hopefully we’re not “Stuck in Lodi Again” as the song goes. We do plan to carry on tomorrow morning. With luck (and fortitude on the team’s part) we might even get beyond I-5 and head into the desert country where we hope, it’ll be more peaceful camping and slower travel. We found this park five miles from I-5 so we could have a quieter night. Guess what? Shortly after we were all set up, the first of many trains went roaring and blasting (his horn) past. I didn’t see any sign of train tracks when we came in so that was a nasty surprise. I think next time we come the western route we’ll try to be earlier and take the Klamath Falls – Reno route which is mentioned as a very lonely road. That’s sounds pretty good right now. Our plan for next year, if we get to go south, involves going to Yellowstone in September for the PSA photo conference then via Salt Lake to the Canyon country while the weather is still decent. The year after might be from the East so it could be awhile before doing the I-5 thing again except for north bound in Spring each time. I think we’ll be likely to do the Coast route north of San Francisco when we head back to the Island in March.

SOUTHBOUND - FINALLY!

All images taken at Nehalem Bay State Park

With the help of two brothers in law, Aileen and I got my parent’s house empty finally. What a job! We feel we’ve now done our share and can carry on with our travels. We’ve both felt our feet getting itchier and have been champing at the bit to get going. I made a couple of prints from the party which I gave to Mom and Dad before we left on Thursday afternoon. I guess we neglected to say farewell to most people but we just decided it was time to go.
We spent the night (October 30) at cousin Garry’s in Duncan then moved down to Goldstream Park near Victoria for the last two nights. I had some Banking business to attend to at one of the RBC branches and I needed to restock my printer inks again. I dropped Aileen at Hillside Mall to shop for our grand daughter’s Christmas gift.
We got together with son Richard and Georgia for the morning and went for a Chinese smorg lunch. We dropped them off at a funeral for a little boy who was an even smaller premie than Georgia and was in the intensive care wing with her for their first few months. He just didn’t wake up the other morning. There seemed to be a very large turnout. We hooked the truck to the trailer while it was still light on Saturday afternoon to make it faster to depart Sunday morning. Aileen and I took Mitzy for a walk down the creek before dark then walked out to the main road to wait for Richard, Robin and Georgia. They picked us up and we all went to Langford for supper.
Sunday morning saw us on the road shortly after 7 AM and at the Blackball Ferry dock downtown before 8. Stood in line for awhile to buy our tickets then had nearly an hour before the customs inspectors arrived. Richard, Robin and Georgia came in and visited with us until the inspectors showed up. My sister Wendy and Randy were also on the same sailing so we visited some too. They plan to be in Florence, Arizona in about 3 ½ days. We’ll probably be 3 ½ weeks! After a stormy night, we left Victoria under beautiful sunshine. The high winds didn’t materialize either and we had calm water all the way. We saw a couple large whales quite close to the ship about half way across to Port Angeles. I got parked with the trailer door jammed up against the side of the boat so was unable to access my camera. I neglected to get it out earlier as I was expecting poor visibility. I always say leave the camera behind if you want to see wildlife!
We had to visit Safeway right away to restock the cupboards when we got to Port Angeles. We’d given Richard the balance of our foodstuffs yesterday to make it hassle free at the border. After shopping then lunch in the trailer we bought gas at Safeway for $2.499 US. We took Highway 101 west towards Forks then down a little farther to a free campsite I’d found on FreeCampgrounds.com and I was pleased to find it exactly as described. We’re right on the Hoh River not far from the highway. Good road into here and only a couple of young fishermen to share the area. There are about 8 sites available but only a few suitable for larger rigs like us.
On Monday the 3rd we didn’t have such a good day. We drove all the way up to the Hoh Rain Forest visitor’s centre only to find that Mitzy wasn’t allowed out of the parking lot so we turned around and left. I did get some pictures along the return route and we did see a bunch of elk so not a total loss. We hooked up the trailer and had lunch at Ruby Beach where we enjoyed some large waves and Mitzy had a good tear up and down the beach. Shortly after that it commenced to rain and in some places it really rained. We stopped along the road near Artic, Washington and had a hot drink. Aileen went online and found us a campsite in Raymond another few miles south which we got to no problem. I got quite wet doing a minimal setup and hookup. That’s when I noticed a flat tire on the trailer – great! We’ll leave it for morning and hope it’s drier. We’re parked in a pool of water as there’s water laying everywhere. When I went to go online to check weather and routes and whether there is a tire shop in this little town – population 2900, the internet wouldn’t connect. After trying everything we could think of, I called my local girl in Salmon Arm. She finally sent me to the techs. All the tech lady could come up with was that Telus didn’t have a roaming agreement with the Raymond tower. However, my cell phone works as I was talking to her on it. Apparently data is under a different agreement than voice was the story I got.
Well, Tuesday November 4th is about over and we’ve sure had a mixed bag of weather. Rain and sun alternating and together, hail several times, a couple of nice rainbows, some wind and some calm. I guess my birthday present was the new trailer tire this morning in Raymond, Wa. It was neat driving over the two mile long bridge to Astoria, Oregon. There is a pretty steep climb on part of it to put you high enough that the large freighters can go underneath on their way to Portland and beyond. We stopped at a few viewpoints along the coast this afternoon and didn’t get too far south. We drove somewhat less than 200 kms today. We were on the road about 9:30 after having the new tire installed. We’re in Nehalem State Park just south of Manzanita. Arrived here about 2 PM as the crew determined we’d come far enough. Aileen wanted time to bake me a cake so how could I argue that one? I spent over an hour with a couple of Telus techs trying to sort out my internet problem to no avail. Aileen and Mitzy went for a walk on the beach. I went with them later. There were great big waves and lots of sand so I blasted off lots of shots. I spotted a deer right when we first arrived so blasted him with lots of megapixels.
Wednesday , November 5th sees us at Harrisburg, just north of Eugene, Oregon on I5 arriving here about 4 PM. We’d left the Nehalem campground at 9:30. We tried for internet again in Newport but nothing, so decided to head inland to test the Telus tech’s idea that along I5 would work. Didn’t! The tech I called from Corvallis thinks the problem is that US Cellular is the main provider in Oregon and that Verizon is probably renting space on their towers. Since Telus has an agreement with Verizon but not US Cellular, he thinks we are denied access. I don’t know how we are going to actually find this out unless we suddenly start accessing service again down the road. Tonight we have wireless service from the campground we’re in although it’s very slow.
We had rain all day again. It rained even harder the farther inland we went. Just plain yucky! We got soaked every time we ventured out of the truck. We were looking at weather in California and Arizona tonight and Aileen says we’d better pick up the pace. That’s the opposite of what I’ve been hearing the past few days. We checked Siskiyou Pass in southern Oregon and the weather is getting iffy there. Snow is possible tonight but mid day temperatures tomorrow are promising so we may make a big push in the morning to get over it. If it looks bad then we’ll head back to the coast.
We were able to talk to Richard and Georgia online with Skype tonight although the voices were sometimes breaking up.