Sunshine and friends

Boondocking area of Jojoba Hills SKP Park.

  One of the joys of traveling south is to meet up with friends we've made along the way. We are at Jojoba Hills SKP Park in Aguanga, CA and I finally feel like we've 'arrived' in the Southwest! No more Casino camping until our return. We love visiting this place and these people and enjoying the amenities and many activities.
   We went to church on Sunday at the Chapel in a neighboring RV community and it was a great experience. Songs we knew, friendly people, good teaching from the Word of God. And we got to ride over in an old restored trolley! I wish I'd gotten a picture of it, but I didn't even think of it at the time. In the afternoon I joined the Zumba Gold class and really got a workout!

Roasted drumsticks and pumpkin cheesecake cooked in the Sun Oven. Yum!

Roses from Diana Ruelen's garden.

    Now that we're where the sun shines and not in a parking lot I can finally get out my Sun Oven and do some solar cooking. Since the sun goes down so early (whose bright idea is this 'daylight's savings time' anyway?!) I have to get things going pretty early in the day. I made chicken drumsticks and veggies, then wrapped the pot in a wool blanket while I baked pumpkin cheesecake. Yum! We ate dinner a bit earlier than usual, but I didn't mind one bit! Then we went off for a walk, ending up at the Clubhouse. I got pulled into playing Hand and Foot (not at all hard!), but Jerry managed to sneak out. He's not a fan, and that's OK. He has enjoyed jogging the hilly streets around Jojoba as well as relaxing in the hot tub--when he's not puttering around checking or fixing things on the motorhome.
   We have taken advantage of the great shopping in Temecula, so we're all stocked up and ready for the desert. My freezer is packed! I've made more fermented salsa and Curtido, as well as water kefir, milk kefir and kombucha. Travels with my ferment-friends keeps me going. And I love to share these with anyone interested.
   All too soon our visit here is over. A week here just isn't enough time to do all we want to do and see all the people we want to see. But we made the most of our time here and we saw those we wanted to the most. Now off to another lovely place.

2 jars of Curtido and one of fermented salsa. Yumminess!

Onward to Yuma

  
18 days at Boomerville in Quartzsite, and we were ready to move on and dump tanks! We left on Sunday before the rain hit since we didn't want to get stuck way out there with full/empty tanks and have to wait for the water to go down. Halfway to Yuma I decided we were crazy to be driving on such a windy day! Driving mostly with side wind was nerve wracking, but since I was following a rig taller than ours, that was a comfort since he didn't get pushed off the road! Part of the journey was driving into the wind and it felt like it was heavy going. Jerry was driving the truck and following me. As we approached Yuma, it looked like there was a brownish cloud hanging over it, so I wasn't sure what we were getting into. Yikes! So much dust in the air. At home in Washington, that cloud would have meant rain. We found a place to hunker down at the BLM land near the VFW on Hwy 95 just outside of Yuma. It was comforting to be in the midst of so many rigs and it rained much less there than the reports of Quartzsite, so maybe it wasn't so crazy! The next day was still windy, but less so.
  We moved to Kofa SKP park and stayed there for 9 days. It was time to catch up on laundry, grocery shopping and pool time for Jerry. We met many great people there and had a relaxing time. We got in on the Renter's Appreciation Dinner which is a yearly thing, and Jerry wants to make sure we return for that next year! I had twisted my hair up after my shower earlier in the day to create some curl since I left curling irons at home, and decided that it looked good enough to leave up for the dinner. However, when I took it down, I had a mass of crazy, curly hair that was hard to contain! I'm thinking it's time for a haircut--if I ever slow down long enough to find a place to do this.
 We also got in on a craft fair, line dancing and church, among other activities at the Kofa park. We also went into Yuma to check out the Old Town area which was interesting. Lots of small shops, and we got in on the tail end of the Farmer's Market.

Jojoba Hills

We were so glad to be able to return to Jojoba Hills. It is such a beautiful park with such a lot to do that it's a treat to be able to spend time there.
  This year we were there for Christmas Eve Chili Dinner as well as the Christmas Day Turkey Dinner Potluck, both of which were great times of getting to know people. George and Diana Ruelens took us under wing and made sure we felt welcomed and had plenty to do. Diana took us to the air rifle range where we got to make sure those bulls eyes had holes in them!
   We left after 3 days, going to Pechanga Casino for a couple of nights. Jerry watched the Seahawks game from a Sports Bar and Grill in the Casino while I went shopping and stocked up. I was very glad to return to the rig after braving the crazy traffic around Temecula. I thought I was used to crazy traffic living so close to Seattle, but this! Whew!


Skip and Sheila with the dance floor behind

Patrice and Norm, tablemates

  Returning to Jojoba on Monday, we stayed a week and got in on the New Year's Eve Party which was great fun. We started out sitting at different tables which forced us to talk to those around us, but eventually people made sure we were reunited. The prime rib meal was great and the live band and dancing was lots of fun. I was shocked to hear my name announced during a break from the dancing. "Who wants me and why?!" I was the first to win a door prize! It was a gift certificate for the charming Richie's Diner in Temecula, so we convinced George and Diana to go with us the next day and help us spend it. And, yes, I was able to find something to safely eat;  an excellent, slightly modified Cobb salad.
  I enjoyed many good walks around the park, while Jerry went for runs and then sat in the hot tub. I got a chance to watch a beginners pottery class in the new ceramics center as well as watch a class on wood carving. Not feeling the need to take up yet another hobby, I was content to watch and chat.


kumquat

  We made sure to stock up on the lemons hanging on the trees there, and we were also blessed with some lovely limes and grapefruit that people had grown in their yards. On one of my walks, I asked a man what the unusual small oval orange fruit was on a shrub in his yard. He told me it was a kumquat, something I had only heard of. He generously gave me one to eat, which you eat whole and it was yummy: tart and sweet at the same time. He has a gorgeous cactus garden, and now I regret not whipping out my phone and taking pictures of it! It's such fun to see what people with a green thumb can do.

  

Park of the Sierras

     We originally planned to stay 3 nights here giving us a day to rest up after going to Yosemite Park, but after looking at our schedule, we figured we could add in a couple more nights and leave on Monday instead of Saturday. This allowed us to go to church with a couple in the park. It was a great Palm Sunday service and I was very refreshed.
    This park is very beautiful with some elbow room between sites, lots of trees and rolling hills. And grass. Lots of grass. Grass that they need to keep mowed and cut back because of the drought and county regulations. This is not the best environment for someone with grass allergies, so we will take that into account when we time our next visit.
     We happened to be there for two  potlucks so we were able to meet several people and that is always informative and fun. We also went to an Open House of a couple that have just finished with their custom built 5th wheel. It includes several innovative ideas and I was inspired to see how they went about this.
     After 6 nights we are on the road again, driving a longer leg to get to Rolling Hills Casino to park for the night. Another day's drive should find us in Oregon.

Vista del Lago and noisy pipes

Driving through the LA area to our next stop from Morongo Casino, we knew it would be a longer leg than we preferred, so we planned a stop at Vista del Lago Visitors Center. It had a beautiful view of Pyramid Lake.

Vista del Lago Visitor Center view from back deck.

It is run by the California Dept of Water Resources. We enjoyed the many varied displays and seeing how they are managing the water in this drought situation. I learned more about the geography and locations of things in California which had been pretty vague. It made a great stop to eat, rest, and see something interesting. And they had enough parking space for us!

     By the time we arrived at Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, CA, it was clear that a hole had developed somewhere near the front of our exhaust system. It was quite loud! We made a stop at a handy AutoZone for patching materials and Jerry got out the tool box and went to work. He was visited by a fellow RVer offering help as well as a security guard who wanted to talk about Washington weather and said we could stay and long as we wanted to.

    The patch helped tone down the noise, but by the time we neared Fresno, it clearly was not working any more and the sound was deafening! We had to yell in order to be heard. So we made some calls and ended up at A to Z Muffler who got us fixed up and back on the road in a couple of hours. If our rig had been as much as 5" longer, it would not have fit on the lift. It was a little unnerving to see my rolling home lifted up in the air, but interesting to be able to look underneath. When we left, it sounded SO much better!

   We were relieved to be able to pull into Park Sierra in Coarsegold, CA and stay for a few days. It was so much fun for me to pull in and have a site with a view of trees!

Hwy 41 north of Fresno, CA on the way to Coarsegold

The drive from Fresno was beautiful and it was fun to see the different trees and rolling hills. It reminded me of the South Salem area and the oak trees of the Willamette Valley. I did find out that many of the trees in the area are Blue Oak.

Our boondocking site at Park of the Sierras.

We got the full tour of the park and met several really friendly people. I made good use of their laundry facility and shower as well as visiting the library.

Standing in front of the Coarsegold creek. Because of the drought the water level is very low.

From desert Boondocking, to SKP parks

Kofa Ko-op SKP Park, the next stop, in Yuma.

   On Valentine’s day we pulled into the no-frills boondock parking. This is the closest we have been parked to other RVs and surprisingly it didn’t feel cramped. Maybe because everyone is so friendly! This is a small but nice park with a pool and hot tub. We got in on the Valentine’s Day Dance that evening which was quite fun. We met some great people and I got to dance a bunch. I even got in on the line dancing and pretended I knew what I was doing!

   The next day we went with some new friends to the Arizona Market which is a series of vendor booths set up under a permanent roof. It was a step up from what we saw in Quartzsite and we had fun browsing through the shops. I even found a couple of dresses that made their way into my wardrobe and Jerry acquired a tiny fan to go in the RV fridge.

  That evening after having our own little jam session with the clubhouse piano (and my recorder and BethAnn’s mountain dulcimer and violin), we then moved on to our rig to play cards—Hearts, of course! The next day I had an ‘off’ day with tummy ickies and spent most of it in bed. Happily I was much better the next day which was good since we were off again to North Ranch SKP Park between Congress and Wickenburg.

Methuselah is home to lots of birds.

The name of this large Saguaro!

   Finding the boondocking area at North Ranch not to my liking, we were pleased to find we could get a hook-up site and so we moved. Later that day I discovered we were plunked right down in the middle of some our Boomers group (originally met at Quartzsite) and saw some familiar faces! We enjoyed chatting with them at the Boomers 4:00 Happy Hour.

   North Ranch has deeded lots rather than lease lots. It was very interesting to walk around and look at all the different things that people had done from full houses to just an empty lot with RV hookups and all kinds of variety in between. There were some pretty amazing RV garages or covered areas, some had upper story decks. Easy to get in more walking than expected with so much to look at! And they have this fabulous cactus garden where I took bunches of pictures. One Saguaro dated back to 1600! It was home to many birds and the bird chatter and song around it was fun to hear.

   The next day we went into Wickenburg and went first to the Library (a very nice one!) in order to get some internet and catch up on things. Turns out AT&T has no towers near North Ranch, so we didn’t have any internet at the rig. We drove around Wickenburg a little and poked our noses into a few stores and headed back in time for me to join a Hand and Foot game in the evening. It’s the first time I have had a chance to play that game for years! Great fun and good comradery.

Big trees!

Jerry bearly gets away from the shopping!

   On Friday we drove up (and I mean UP!) to Prescott to see Jerry and Trudy Hokensen. The road up into the mountains was curve after curve after curve. Happily, there is another way that we took back home which was much better. We ate lunch with them in this very cute, very Western themed diner, then did some window shopping in Downtown Prescott. There are lots of great stores there, and someday I want to go back and spend more time checking them out! After being in small towns and out in the desert so much, it was exciting to at least see some familiar big box stores and some nice upscale shops.

Jerry and Trudy

    We had originally thought to leave on Saturday, but Jerry and Trudy decided to come see us at North Ranch, so we happily put it off a day. They trusted their GPS and ended up going around the mountain which took way longer and involved 20 miles on a dirt road, but we had a nice visit anyway.

    While waiting for them, I had a very relaxing day puttering around my little home. It was so nice to have hookups so I could run my food dehydrator which is a problem on the solar panels since it has to run for so long and daylight runs out before I’m done. I got caught up on several things (including laundry in their very nice laundry room) and it felt pretty luxurious to be able to use however much power I needed and not have to make the water stretch quite so far. I wondered if we would get spoiled!

    On Sunday we moved to Casa Grande (south of Phoenix) to the RoVers Roost SKP Park to check that one out. It is the first Escapee park built and is small but with a nice atmosphere, very welcoming people and while they don’t have a pool (North Ranch doesn’t, either) Jerry says the jogging is good there as the desert ground there is soft dirt instead of rocks. And we had internet there. I found the piano to be nice and the showers also. Of course getting in on Hand-KNEE-and-Foot (another variation of the game) was great fun.

   Only two nights here before heading off to Estrella War, but I’ll save that week for another post.

Leaving Jojoba Hills

  Jerry’s post 1-12-15

I did snag some of the lemons before leaving Jojoba! Here's a pic of my stash. I didn't even begin to make a dent on the loaded trees there. 

Fortunately, we were invited to watch the Seahawks-Panthers game with two other couples at one of the couples' nice 5th wheel RV. It was a great Seahawk party and chance to get to know more Jojoba folks. The hostess brought out some limoncello she had made (involves soaking lemon rinds in vodka). It was very good, and that encouraged me to go pick some more lemons. I quickly learned that lemon trees have these sharp things that try to snag clothing and skin, but managed to survive.

Here's a last look at the southern part of Jojoba from a hill we hiked up to the top of.

Linda’s Post 1-12-15

Sunday we left Jojoba Hills after being there for a week. We debated the several options for going south from there and settled on Hwy 78 through Julian and south on Hwy 79 to I-8. I had asked some ladies in the sewing room what they thought of that route and they said they’d rather be the driver since that narrow and winding road could be a nail-biter at times. I got to see up close what they meant! It is a beautiful drive and the change in terrain was fun to see. Many campgrounds along the way. Many turns, some of which turn right back around on yourself. Seeing the signs that shows curves with a 15 mph added to it had me hanging on. No pictures of that section of road! I’m thinking we won’t be going this way again any time soon. Narrow and no margin for error, but a full two lanes and paved. Definitely a road best traveled by motorcycle. It actually turned out to be helpful that it was totally overcast and rained on us here and there. No sun stabbing us in the eyes as we negotiated all those crazy turns.

It took much longer than we expected to get through the mountains from Aguanga to I-8. We weren’t done with mountains, however, and one section of I-8 we drove the 6% downgrade at 35 mph. (As posted for trucks). By the time we got to El Centro and stopped for gas it was already dark. Our GPS was less than helpful in finding a gas station for a big rig, so I got on the internet (love having a hotspot as we go!), checked Google, looked at them from the satellite view and found a truck stop. Those are nice because you know you can get the rig in and out and not have crazy corners to try to negotiate. There were about 20 semis parked so I asked if we could park for the night and they said, “sure, no problem!” That’s all I wanted! I was so tired I didn’t care where we were. Besides fighting another cold and feeling it, I was not willing to push ourselves, get out to the desert and try to figure out where we were going in pitch black darkness! Quite the contrast from Jojoba Hills--semis all around us coming and going and running their engines. Earplugs are helpful.

This morning it was an easy hour drive to our piece of desert and I was so glad to be doing it in the daylight! Not only were the views fantastic, but scouting around to find just where we wanted to spend the next few days was better done in full daylight and in the truck. Snugged up against the mountains, it is so beautiful and peaceful here. We took so many pictures! And then the sunset put on quite a show so we had to get more of that, too. It was pleasantly warm, but not too warm today. Thermometer inside read 73 degrees mid-day, but with the windows open and a gentle breeze blowing through it was quite comfortable. I am so used to warm temps being combined with getting dark late in the summer that the 5:30 full darkness keeps taking me by surprise!

American Girl Mine Rd off of Ogilby Rd 

After all the fun and socializing at Jojoba Hills, I’m actually a bit relieved to be off by ourselves for a few days to catch up on things and rest.

The coordinates for where are currently are:  32.837858,-114.817858   If you put that into Google maps search window, it will show you where we are camped. 

Activities at Jojoba Hills

Jojoba Hills Park is such a fun place! We have extended our stay to Sunday which will make it a week. Not only are there many things to do and get involved in, but the friendly people just draw you into whatever is happening. We went to a Happy Hour unexpectedly this afternoon because we were wandering around taking pictures of all the beautiful cactus gardens near the Club House at the right time. We enjoyed talking with several people and increased our understanding of various aspects of the RV lifestyle. We have found “Our People”! J It is a great deal of fun to be around others who have the same love of RVing as we do.

The Art Center is near where we are parked which is very handy. I have visited there several times not only to work on things on my own but to take a watercolor class and a drawing class. I have learned so much! I am inspired to continue working and honing my skills.

 I also visited the sewing center and helped a neighbor by hemming her skirt, plus I sewed two more leg covers (rash is still with me, but slowly healing). 

I have also taken advantage of the exercise room which is very well equipped, and afterwards enjoyed the sauna and a shower. One day I read magazines in the library (and nearly fell asleep), went for a walk, and joined a group of people for a potluck dinner. And all of that is only scratching the surface. I have yet to try the miniature golf, pickleball, air gun range or the games room. We will have to come back!

Jerry's fun at Jojoba Hills

Jerry:

This is the third day I've been jogging around in this resort, swimming in the pool, and hanging out in one of the hot tubs. I'm loving the upper 70's sunshine and might even get in shape with this motivating environment, lol. Linda has been enjoying the Arts Center (painting), the sewing center (19 stations), exercise room and sauna. The members here have quite a life, I'm just glad they let me join the fun for a week. I'll miss the pool when I go camping in the desert after this, heh heh.