Yes, it is already April, and I am at last writing the final blog story about our winter trip to the Southern Deserts of California and Arizona. Yes, at the moment, here in Grants Pass, it is raining, a cold rain that brought snow to the tops of the low mountains that surround us. My body isn't necessarily happy with the damp weather, and I woke up this morning remembering how good I felt on that last morning in the dry air of eastern Arizona.
Mo and I walking the dog on a chilly day at the end of MarchNope, I have no desire to live in Arid-zona, ever. No desire to live in any part of the country that is hot and dry most of the year in spite of how my body responds to wet weather. Pretty sure I would respond just as poorly to too much heat. Mo teases me a lot about this..."too hot, too cold". Yup, that is me. I do look forward to sunny, dry days with the temperature in the mid-70s, with a few puffy whites among the blue. That happens here in May and June, then again in October. I was talking with a friend recently, and we both agreed that May and October are perfect almost everywhere.
We left our fancy park in Willcox on the morning of the 11th, with no rush to get to Wickenburg, just under 300 miles and a reasonable 6 hour drive. I asked Janna about what they considered to be the easiest route around Phoenix without driving right through the city. It was an easy trip going west toward Gila Bend, then north and back east a little bit on the I-10 with a small bit of craziness on the 303. That route is supposed to be a workaround to avoid I-17, which can be a bumper-to-bumper nightmare, but after all our time in the open deserts, it took a bit to get used to the traffic.
We pulled into Wickenburg and, without much difficulty, found our reserved RV park, Desert Cypress. I wasn't expecting much, and we were both quite surprised at how nice the park was, with plenty of space, perfectly level sites, and reasonably placed hook-ups. Knowing that rain was predicted, we dumped our tanks immediately, filled up with water, and settled in before calling Janna to let her know we were in town.
Janna and Mike invited us to dinner at their newish home, asking us to be there by 4. We were ready, and finding their place would have been easy if we had followed Janna's explicit instructions regarding the local roundabout. We all laughed when we realized that we had done exactly what she warned us not to do. Still, we had the address, and after a bit of running around, we found their lovely home.
The best part of visiting these friends is the conversation, the food, and the pups, not necessarily in that order. The visit and the dinner were so great, and we were talking and sharing so much that I completely forgot to take any photos except for a couple of the dogs playing in the nice big, safe, fully fenced yard. Mattie is almost 11, and Kayce is still a pup, and she did a lot of running around Mattie when Mattie slowed down. They got along well and had a great time together. It was fun to have a safe place with a pet we know for Mattie to play with. Janna and I talked about how unsafe it is to take a dog to a dog park anymore, and we no longer do it with Mattie.
Janna prepared a lovely meal of spaghetti with hot bread and Caesar salad, followed by a delicious strawberry cake. Mike and Janna are the perfect hosts, and Kayce did a great job hostessing Mattie as well.
We returned home just in time to settle in before a big thunderstorm struck and rain poured most of the night.
The next day, we took Janna's suggestion and decided to visit the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. The museum is a Smithsonian affiliate and is considered one of the ten best western museums in the country. The museum houses an amazing collection of Western Fine Art, including works by Remington, Russel, Catlin, and Bierstadt, among many others.
There are historical exhibits, with an amazing room-sized diorama that tells the prehistory and history of the Wickenburg area. Displays of various rooms filled with artifacts from the 19th and early 20th century were fascinating. We especially got a kick out of the projected hologram of a proprietor in the local general store that was almost spooky. I had to remind myself that I could walk out of the store without offending him.Had to take a photo of us in the bar room display mirror, a tradition we keep whenever we can
I was so grateful to Janna for suggesting the museum, especially since Mo and I don't always take the time to visit museums. Interesting that on this trip, we managed to see four truly superb museums that added greatly to our understanding of the people and history of the areas we visited.
After our museum visit, we took a bit of time to enjoy the Visitor Center, located in the restored Santa Fe Railroad Depot, where we learned that we had seen among the best that Wickenburg had to offer. After reading about the area, visiting the museum, and driving around a bit, we developed a greater appreciation for the town of Wickenburg, known as the "Roping Capital of the West". The two women who were hostesses in the Visitor Center that day had interesting stories, and one of the women had lived in Wickenburg more than 65 years.
The next morning it was time to continue westward. After making sure Joanne was safely en route to the Phoenix airport via shuttle, Phil traveled west as well, and boondocked not far from us in Vicksburg. His destination on the night of the 13th was the Joshua Tree National Park Black Rock Campground, located near the town of Joshua Tree. Mo and I were tracking severe wind advisories for the area, and we were glad to hear Phil was settled in by the time the worst winds hit around noon.
We pulled up the free camping app to find a place to land for the night and found the Joshua Tree BLM Dispersed Camping Site, just north of the town of Joshua Tree as well. It looked a bit sketchy, with some abandoned vehicles, others piled high with trash, and yet we still managed to find a spot that wasn't too close to anyone else.
The fact that we were camped in what was technically a playa made me a bit nervous, especially with the rain predicted. We didn't want to get stuck in playa mud, but the cracks in the dry ground seemed a good sign, even though it had been raining earlier in the day.
The wind was blowing hard when we landed, and Mo and I decided it was best to keep the car hooked up and keep the slide in so that the awning wouldn't flap in the high winds. It was a good choice, and we slept well in spite of the wind and our reduced space. We love that our rig is completely accessible even when the slide is in, with full access to our dinette, the bathroom, the fridge, and the kitchen.
Our goal for the next morning was a rendezvous with Phil at the Mountain Valley RV Park in Tehachapi, where we both camped on our way south. The weather forecasts weren't encouraging, with snow predicted for the night in Tehachapi with temperatures well below freezing. Phil arrived before we did, and when we got there, it was already snowing. I really didn't want to get stuck driving the pass from Tehachapi the next morning in the snow. After a bit of conversation and a phone call, we decided to cancel our reservations for Mountain Valley and continue west down the pass toward Bakersfield. There was room for us at Orange Grove RV Park, where we used to stay on our way south. It is considerably more expensive than Mountain Valley at 61.20 per night, but it was well worth the peace of mind to be out of the snow.
By the time we crossed the highest part of the pass, most of the snow had thinned, and once we were on the road heading down the hill, it was completely gone. Sometimes, when we come from the desert and drop over the Tehachapi Pass toward the valley, the smog is thick and heavy, but this time, the skies were clear and fresh from the recent rain.
The best part of the deal was that there were still plenty of oranges on the trees for free picking, and Phil and I filled a couple of bags with perfect sweet oranges. These oranges make juice sweeter than anything I can buy anywhere in a store.
As it was on the trip south a month ago, the drive north on Interstate 5 from Bakersfield to Lodi was beautifully simple, with low traffic and no wind. This is nothing to take for granted, as through the many years we have traveled this route, windy days are rare.
We settled into our sites at Flag City RV Park by 3 in the afternoon, with plenty of time to drive the short 7 miles to our favorite winery in Lodi, Klinker Brick. It was fun to share this spot with Phil, and I learned something I didn't know about my friend of almost 50 years. He is a pretty good oneophile and kept giving me "pointers" about how to taste the wine.
We had a nice time, and once again, I remembered why I love this wine so much. In fact, I liked it so much that I decided that we should become wine club members and get the big discounts that make the shipping fee every three months worth it. When I asked if we were the farthest distant members, the hostess laughed and said, "Oh no, we have many members from around the country and a few from around the world."
Later that evening, Phil pulled out his nifty little propane fire pit and we had a nice campfire, the first since our time boondocking on Ogilby road.
We had a narrow weather window to navigate on this trip home, and the weather gods were with us once again. With snow storms all around us, heavy rain on the pass from Redding to Dunsmuir and snow predicted from Shasta to Yreka, we somehow got lucky and slipped in between the roughest weather.
Phil planned to spend the night at our house in his rig, and we settled in late in the afternoon of the 16th, the very last day we had available to us with appointments in Grants Pass beginning the very next day. We woke up that night to snow, and by morning, there were a couple of inches right here at home. Phil wasn't sure how long it would last, but after checking all the webcams and seeing things beginning to melt, he left by 9 and made it home safely to Eugene without any issues on the 6 passes on Interstate 5 between our house and his.
Except for our one kerfuffle with the Tracker on our second day out, the rest of the trip was excellent. We visited friends, enjoyed warm desert sunshine for a couple of weeks, had great food and excellent company, and saw many things that we hadn't seen on previous trips.
I am not sure how many more long trips we have in our bucket, but I am pretty sure that we will keep traveling south in the winter for the foreseeable future.