Washington & BC!

Leaving Portland we took the historic Columbia River Hwy; beautiful viewpoints and lots of waterfalls. Spectacular structure, Vista House at Crowne Point, dating from 1916; it's an octagon shape and very lavishly appointed. Some Oregonians derided it as the $100,000 outhouse, but we enjoyed a rest stop including the marble appointments in the washrooms!  We happened upon a very nice seafood shop at Cascade Locks. Wending our way along the Columbia Gorge, we crossed into Washington. We zigzagged our way to Prosser with the aim of visiting the Gamache Winery, but being that it was a Tuesday it was closed. Denis was very disappointed but we consoled our selves with a visit to Chukar Cherries.  We visited the Grand Coulee Dam visitor centre, this dam is the largest electricity producing facility in the US, constructed during the 1930's and expanded in 1974. It also provides water to irrigate 600,000 acres of farmland, pretty impressive but they are still working on solving the issues with regard to salmon spawning.

Vista House, very high class rest stop



Multonah Falls



Denis' headstone?

We continued our way up to Omak, enjoyed a visit to Rockwall Cellars Winery and sampled some very nice wine, really enjoyed the Stampede Red. Moving on to Oroville, we were so close to Canada that the phone thought we were there. No reason to delay longer we headed across the border. Wonderful to be back on Canadian soil!

We proceeded to Penticton and met up with Sandra, also visited my cousin Vi and was privileged to meet her daughter Kathy and son-in-law, Kevin. Our main task was to get our income tax filed. We had Kelly courier our info to Kelowna and then the task was to get the dastardly deed done! We squeaked through without taking advantage of CRA's error, met the April 30 deadline without too many hiccups and are done for another year.

We continued on to Peachland and met up with more family. We had a wonderful brunch with Tim and Marg, reminisced about Newfoundland and compared our experiences in Arizona over the winter. Then we hooked up with David & Carol for a gourmet dinner and some spectacular wines...not to mention the view of Okanagan Lake. No wonder David paddles, swims & hikes!

Next it was off to North Kelowna and brunch with my cousins Eileen & Louise, which was a very overdue visit.

A night at Shuswap Falls and on to Kamloops. Denis was born here at the Royal Inland Hospital, 64 years and 363 days ago.

Major changes in 65 years!

We will be heading north to Grande Prairie & Peace River before making our way home.

Northern California & Oregon April 6 - 19

Leaving Watsonville we headed back to the coastal route, we stopped just north of Santa Cruz and watched some elephant seals sunning themselves on the beach. Boy those guys are ugly! They look pretty awkward out of the water but the literature says they are fast, we definitely didn't get close enough to find out. A little further along we saw some hardy souls surfing, or trying to, they spend a lot of time in the frigid water waiting for the right wave. Next stop at Pigeon Point lighthouse, the tallest on the west coast. The lighthouse is closed because  it's unsafe, the lightkeepers housing has been turned into a hostel. We continued on to Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, one of our most expensive spots. We were camped on the edge of the bank with no services but the place was full. We didn't want to waste any time so we drove a few miles to the Colma Bart Station (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and took the train downtown where we bought a pass for all the types of transit in San Francisco. With our pass we took a trolley to Pier 39 and wandered around the touristy shops, Denis got a couple postcards but resisted the Alcatraz t-shirt. We strolled our way to Fisherman's Wharf. Our plan was to ride the cable car to Lombard Street but the line was so long we decided to try again in the morning. Since it was a chilly day we stopped for a bread bowl of chowder before heading back to the trailer. Back again the next day and we did get our cable car ride, with only a 45 minute wait, judging by that we would have waited over 2 hours the previous evening. We decided not to get off at Lombard St because it was very windy as in the wind was blowing gale force not windy as sinuous. We took a trolley to the Ferry Building, great little shops. We found some wine to taste and a muffaletta sandwich but didn't compare to the one in New Orleans. We took a bus to the Palace of Fine Arts, a very impressive structure that was originally built for the 1915 Exposition and was not intended to be permanent. It's undergone several restorations in the last 100 years and is a Greek/Roman looking structure in a beautiful park setting with a lagoon. From there we walked along the marina and had a closer view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We took the bus back to it's closest point to Lombard & Hyde Street, about 3 blocks away, UPHILL, but we made it. Then we walked down Lombard Street and decided we needed to take the cable car back to the BART station, so we walked back up. I can't imagine who would want to live on that street. The next morning we headed through the city with trailer in tow and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped at the viewpoint and said good bye to San Francisco.

Denis & friend

Nice street music
 

Ready to go!

Golden Gate after we crossed

We continued on the coastal highway, very winding roads uphill and then down. Stopped at Bodega Bay and bought oysters, they have picnic tables & BBQ's set up so you can feast right on the spot. We continued on and camped in Ocean Cove on the edge of the ocean and enjoyed half our oysters that evening.  Continuing on the scenery has been incredible, we drove through Mendocino, lots of interesting shops but no place to park. Camped just up from the beach again, very windy but beautiful. We are now in redwood country, visited the Chandelier drive-thru tree at Leggett, couldn't drive through, even just the truck was too big. We drove the Avenue of Giants and on to Fortuna. We continued making our way north along the coast when possible, spending our night in California in Crescent City.


Ocean front property, for a night anyway

Just a bit too big!

You could hollow this out and have a cabin

We kept to the coast, scenery is beautiful, we've had heavy rain and the waves are tremendous. We've been stopping at fish markets and are really enjoying the huge oysters.
Made our way up to Tillamook and stopped at both cheese places but we bought wine at Blue Heron. Leaving Tillamook we drove by the blimp hangar that is now an air museum, headed away from the coast now, Denis has a must stop in McMinnville. He visited the Evergreen Aviation Museum home of the Spruce Goose, prototype aircraft, I'll leave it to you to check out the details.



Denis has decided on his next career

Hey Kelly & Quinn, I think there's riptides here

We are still in Oregon but within shouting distance of Vancouver, Washington. We've come to roost in Portland for a couple days, the campground is on Hayden Island. It's a large nice and convenient place to stay but just west of the airport, east of the train bridge and beside the shipping channels, it's very noisy to say the least. We wandered around the downtown and had lunch in old town. There was a block of booths set up along the sidewalk selling all manner of food, we were pretty boring and had lamb gyros but tried different vendors. We shopped Trader Joe's, I had been told I had to go to a Trader Joe's and we have seen a few but this was our first opportunity to stop. We also shopped for oysters, the price seemed not bad until we saw the size, they were 1/4 the size of the ones we bought a couple days ago. Yesterday we went back downtown to the Saturday Market, it's huge. We wound our way through most of the booths and then went to the Farmer's Market, which is also in the downtown area. After our strenuous morning of shopping we drove up to the Pittock Mansion and took the tour.  Today is a catch up day - laundry, etc. and tomorrow we are on the road again for our last week in the US and then the Okanagan, it's the spring wine festival!

Grand Sights - Natural & Manmade

 From Lake Havasu we took the road to Topock and picked up the 'Historic Route 66'. We wanted to make a stop in Oatman, lots of unique old buildings. The highway winds through this small town, crowded with tourists, but it was not possible to find a spot to park our 38' rig, more a Miata or motorcycle town.  We continued on to Kingman and then Williams, camped for 2 days. It was a little strange to see snow on the higher mountains and we needed some heat at night, big change from the 100+ temps in Havasu. In the morning we headed for the 'Grand Canyon', we took a 'flight seeing' tour. Denis got to be the co-pilot and he didn't even have to fight any Asian tourists for the privilege. After our flight we drove to Grand Canyon village and walked a mile or so along the rim, what a sight, a stupendous obstacle for the pioneers. We drove east to Desert View Watchtower, built by the Santa Fe railway in the 1930s for the tourists to view the canyon. Very busy at all stops but I guess that's to be expected with one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We continued our circle drive to Cameron, Flagstaff and back to Williams.

 

A couple of old fogeys among the rocks

View from the tower

We headed towards Sedona via the scenic route, very beautiful drive but not the best road for truck and trailer, steep grades and hairpin bends. Denis and 'the beast' did very well, the trailer and I just rode along. When we arrived in Sedona, again no place to park so we continued on to Cottonwood. Beautiful little town, historic old places - hotel where John Wayne & other famous actors stayed. We found some wine to taste, there are several wineries but no vineyards, the grapes are imported from California. We went back to Sedona without the trailer and toured and wandered around, very busy place kind of like Banff. We didn't experience any of the 'metaphysical vortexes' which the city is known for but it is a beautiful place to visit. We did go to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, very impressive structure. Also went to Tlaquepaque Village which is a arts/crafts shopping area built to resemble a Mexican village. I wasn't that eager to go there but it was a very peaceful place after the chaos of downtown.

We moved to Camp Verde, east from Cottonwood. We visited Montezuma's Castle, cliff dwellings 15 stories high, Montezuma was never this far north but the name stuck. On the road again, headed west. We stopped in Jerome, lucked out and found a place to park truck and trailer. It was a copper mining town and is built on a mountain, actually called Cleopatra Hill with an elevation of 5,000'. In the 1920's the population was 10,000 and today the permanent population is less than 500, in the 1950's it was considered a ghost town. Now there are a lot of artists, artisans, antiques and collectibles in interesting buildings. But alas we had to leave, headed down Mingus mountain another scenic byway, I saw it referred to as a great motorcycle drive. Denis does love those Miata roads, but this rig is a bit more unwieldy. Well we are trying to avoid interstates and take the road less travelled!

We camped in Ash Fork and then picked up 'historic route 66 again. We stopped in Seligman and wandered through many original businesses from the heyday of route 66. Between there and Peach Springs, we went to the Grand Canyon Caverns. They are 40 miles from the canyon but we were told that if they set off coloured smoke bombs down there, 2 weeks later it can be seen in the canyon. 

A couple icons in Seligman

We spent one night in Kingman where Denis visited the railway museum; and stayed one night in Bullhead City, across the river from the casino lights of Laughlin. Then it was on to Boulder City for a week! While there we visited the Hoover Dam site, an engineering marvel of the 20th century and the new bridge which bypasses the dam, a 21st century marvel. We went into Las Vegas, first visit for both of us. Mind boggling is an apt description of the strip and it's attractions. We experienced the 'Fremont Street Experience' and it's wild and zany characters but didn't gamble, it's too high tech, where did the one-armed bandits go? We took a drive along Lake Mead and through the Valley of Fire, rocks as red as in Sedona or on PEI. We visited the Mormon Fort, who knew, Las Vegas was originally a small settlement of Mormons who built an adobe fort at the springs? Temperatures have been over 100 and Denis is very brown.



In the Valley of Fire

And now we start our journey home - headed into California, we spent a night in Bakersfield
(home of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard) we drove by Buck Owens Crystal Palace. We took another road less travelled from Bakersfield to McKittrick to Santa Margarita and onto San Luis Obispo where we experienced more parking issues so we went to the beach. Spent the afternoon parked by Avilla Beach, listened to the surf and watched the people and dogs frolicking in the waves. When we were in Cottonwood a couple from Santa Barbara chatted with Denis about the trailer then to our surprise, at Avilla Beach they spotted our rig and stopped for a chat again.


Along the coastal highway near Big Sur

We've been having problems finding a place to camp, everything is full so we've headed away from the coast a bit. We are in Watsonville for a few days and will do day trips to explore a bit in this area. 

California & back to Arizona

We retraced our path and headed back to Tucson, it's perplexing how a place, which is just an assortment of buildings and natural elements not much different from many other places, can captivate a person but we are both drawn to Tucson.  We drove up to 'Old Tucson' where many movies were made but didn't do the tour, instead we opted for a drive to Gates Pass. Denis made his pilgrimage to the aviation boneyard and we visited the site of the only remaining Titan II missile (during the cold war there were 54 of them, 18 each in Arizona, Arkansas & Kansas. We went to the St Xavier mission and spent a day downtown, I went back to the Old Town Artisans while Denis toured the Presidio. There was a different volunteer during Denis' visit (to the Presidio) than mine, this man looked like the undertaker from an old western movie. He was very tall, dressed all in black with a very pale complexion and he followed Denis around. We rode the trolley and had a nice lunch at the historic train station.

Titan II missile, not secret any more

From Tucson we headed southwest to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a whole lot more cactus! We spent a night in Ajo, a former mining town, but now a pretty depressed area. After consultation with the weather network we headed back to Yuma for a night and then on to El Centro, California. Notable because the area is 200+' below sea level. It was raining and we didn't see much to reason to linger so we headed north along the east side of the Salton Sea. Between Niland & Indio we happened upon a hot spring resort, not fancy but the water was awesome and we stayed for 2 days.

Kind of weird, looking up to sea level

We continued up the Coachella Valley to Palm Springs, actually 9 small cities make up the greater Palm Springs area. We didn't realize how much we were missing green until we got there, with 100+ golf courses there is an abundance of trees and grass. We were going to ride the tram but it was 24 F and a foot of snow at the top so we decided to forego that opportunity. Since we missed the view from the tram we drove up to Vista Point for a spectacular view of the valley. There are more windmills than I've ever seen at the end of the valley heading towards LA, I tried counting them but there were too many. We enjoyed a visit to Cabot's Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs and an evening at Babe's BBQ & Brew Pub. 

We found a comfy adobe seat at the Pueblo Museum

We dropped the trailer off in Joshua Tree and  toured around the Joshua Tree Park, very interesting scenery. There is a lot of rock climbing in the area and very common to look at a cliff and see people like spiders clinging to the rocks. Then we headed east again, across the Mohave Desert from 29 Palms to Parker, even though you have confidence in your vehicle it is intimidating to see a sign that says no services for 100 miles.  I had not pictured any part of California as being that desolate.

Skull Rock in Joshua Tree National Park

Back in Arizona and on to Lake Havasu, Denis ultimate goal. We have walked over, under and around London Bridge. The weather has been around 100 F and warm evenings as well. Denis soaks up the sun and I stay in the shade. We haven't been much bothered by the fact that it's spring break and a lot of college students are in the area. Music across the channel is 'all about the bass' but they seem to shut down by midnight so it hasn't been disruptive.

We saw a lot of people in swimming attire, but this guy is the only one who got wet!

London Bridge from the island

We are setting out towards Sedona and hoping the weather is favourable, it was cold and snowing 10 days ago.

February in Arizona

We were pretty busy during our time in Yuma:  lazy mornings, pool time and then happy hour. We met a couple from near Dawson Creek and spent some time with them, but we did manage a few day trips in the area. We went to ‘the Annual Peace Country picnic’, saw a few people we knew and some familiar looking faces. On our trip out past the proving grounds we happened upon a date plantation, Denis tried a date shake. We saw a movie with Marj and Herb, we really enjoyed visiting with them, we felt a little sad to say good bye (for 3 months)! We also connected with Ed, Denis’ former boss for a drink. We visited the Yuma Territorial Prison museum, the old downtown and Prison Hill Brewery. We spent a Saturday at the Boogie, Brews & Blues Festival and another day we went to a Civil War re-enactment at the Quartermaster Depot. We spent a couple afternoons at the Swap Meet and the Marketplace.

Denis in Yuma prison, note the thickness of the walls

Old pals sharing a drink

Beautiful day of Blues, luckily we managed to get our chairs in the shade!

The last two weeks we’ve been in Casa Grande and have continued the hectic pace. We went into the Snowbird Extravaganza in Mesa, some great entertainment and some not so great. We visited the Casa Grande ruins, which are in Coolidge not Casa Grande. We have attended a few functions at the resort: an Elvis Impersonator, Valentine’s dance & a sock hop. We drove to visit the cliff dwellings at Tonto National Monument and continued on to Roosevelt Lake and Canyon Lake to Tortilla Flats. The drive along the lakes, which are created by dams on the Salt River, was spectacular; 22 miles of twisty, rough, narrow gravel and steep elevation changes, but very worth the time. We have taken a few drives in the area, one to Eloy to watch skydivers, they were amazing. My sister, Paula & her husband, Tim are here for the month of February so we’ve been able to spend some time together.  This resort is very friendly and we’ve met our neighbours from Michigan and the Donnelly area as well as several other couples from Alberta. We’ve been told that this park is 40% Canadians.

Ancient Casa Grande Ruins

Cozy cliff dwelling

They definitely had a beautiful view!

A straight stretch of the road to Tortilla Flats

This was a few minutes after the previous picture

Tomorrow we are back on the gypsy trail heading towards Tucson. Denis needs to see the aviation boneyard and a missile site south of there as well as a few other sights we missed on our way through last time.

2015 and the journey continues -

Well  I seem to have writer's block but Denis has been nagging me to get something posted  again so I'll try to work up a few relevant thoughts....

We left the truck & trailer in storage and flew home December 16. I got home in time for some of the kids pre-Christmas activities and Brody stayed with us for 4 days, he missed us but not as much as I missed them.

We had Christmas eve with Kelly, Cody & family and Christmas day with Paul, Karen & girls (they had returned from Disneyland on the 24^th). New Year’s eve we had supper with Adrienne & boys before going to Kelly & Cody’s to welcome 2015!  January 1, I drove to Peace River and saw Derek, then January 2 went on to Grande Prairie to see Dad and my sisters. Saturday we had a few gathered at Quinn’s, Byron, Stacy & kids and Shaun & Grace came over. Just missed seeing Dillon as he was still in Dawson Creek. The weather was very nasty when I was up north (a foot of snow and then -30) so it made leaving a little easier for me. We flew back to Phoenix on January 8.

Picking up from my last post, we did visit the Katchner caverns and both loved them, they were discovered in the 70’s by a couple university students. The site is now a state park and very impressive.  We continued down the road to Tucson. While Denis visited the PIMA aviation museum, I did a walking tour of downtown and found a 4 block long street fair. We plan to go back to for a couple days, Denis didn’t have time to tour the 2700 acre aviation boneyard and I’m sure I missed lots of interesting sights & shops downtown. We then headed to Phoenix to get settled in before leaving for home.



Sunset at Saguaro Park (Tucson)

 And now the next episode, we are back enjoying the warm weather and Arizona hospitality.

Back to Phoenix for a few days, we did a bit of exploring and we spent a day at the Barrett Jackson auction. Denis drooled over every vehicle on display, they were auctioning memorabilia that day so all the cars were still there.

Retro Rig (older than ours)

Denis had one of these but it needed major restoration, then the Miata came along

Then we decided we needed warmer weather and headed for Yuma. We are in an RV park here for a month, so it’s pretty nice to be settled for a bit. We have connected with friends from the Fort who have been coming here for 17 years, so they’ve been showing us the ropes. They took us to Mexico one morning and had us to their complex for a Ukrainian meal. We drove to Quartzsite and went to the massive RV show/flea market, we were there for about 6 hours and saw only a fraction of the booths. Also at Quartzsite there are thousands of RV’s parked all over the desert, where ever you find a spot you like. We were wondering how you’d ever find your trailer if you came back after dark. We have connected with my sister, Paula & Tim a couple times, they are 1.5 hours away.

Field of cabbages near Yuma, there are endless fields of lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, etc

Today it's raining and I'm making pea soup and we're doing chores.

 

 

Back on Mountain Standard Time!

Before leaving El Paso, Denis spent the morning at the War Eagles museum. Vintage aircraft from WWII, the Korean and Viet Nam wars; also 49 vintage cars and motorcycles. A bit of history - the first use of planes & motorcycles by the US military was when they were chasing Pancho Villa around this area. Sorry Dave no cannons but there were rockets.

War Eagles rockets

So it's good-bye to Texas and hello New Mexico. We camped at La Vina vineyard, of course tasted and bought some wine and wonderful cheese. The craft/farm market the next morning was disappointingly small. Most of the usual participants were at show elsewhere,
we bought a dozen eggs and continued on our way. We walked around a pecan grove on the vineyard property. There are miles and miles of pecan groves in Texas and New Mexico. Travelling the secondary road towards Las Cruces, we passed through the small town of San Miguel. We noticed a group of people on horseback and a crowd standing around as well. We found a place to park and walked back there to find that it was a Catholic mass being celebrated. There we about 40 people on horseback, some in full Mexican costume with suits and sombreros and ladies with full ruffled skirts. The priests served communion to the mounted participants from a set of steps.

Just a few of the vaqueros

I think the priests had a more precarious perch than the lady on horseback

Leaving the trailer in Las Cruces we drove across the highway to old Mesilla, incorporated in 1848. This area was part of Mexico until 1864 so the architecture reflects that influence and has been well preserved. The courthouse where Billy the Kid was convicted is now a gift shop. In the evening we went to the University grounds where 7100 luminarias lined walkways. Luminarias are paper bags with a couple inches of sand in the bottom and a candle. There were carriage rides, carolling, hot chocolate and kids activities; and all in your shirtsleeves and not a drop of snow. It just didn't seem quite right!

Heading west again we spent another night at a winery in Demming. We waved adios to New Mexico and moved on into Arizona. On the Arizona side of the border you travel through Texas Canyon, an area of huge boulders, quite unique terrain. We camped in Benson for a couple days. We took a day trip to Tombstone, visited Boothill and saw a gunfight. Walked around the town and took a trolley ride. Then we continued on to Bisbee, it was a copper mining town. Talk about cliff dwellings the buildings are built up and down the steep hills, we noted a lot of staircases. The town has been declared a National Historic site. It would be an interesting place to spend some time. We saw another interesting spot, maybe part of Bisbee or a separate town called Lowell; it was like an outdoor museum.
From there we continued our circle to Sierra Vista, hummingbird capital of the US, and back to Benson. Tomorrow we are visiting the Kartchner Caverns before leaving for Tucson.

Just a few collectibles including the guy behind the truck!