On a quest for a fifth wheel
Leaving Ensenada we headed North back across the border, which was a long wait…three hours, damn border crossing apps are useless;) This is always an ordeal pulling a big trailer. The lanes are narrow and you have to zig and zag around the vendors and sellers, trying not to wipe out their umbrellas or churro carts…Mike is good, I have to hand it to him he does an amazing job. The border fellows are usually pleasant and to the point, this time he didn’t even ask to look in the trailer, or what we might be bringing back, just the passports, where are you going and on your way…very much a quick stop this time other than the three hour wait, always a relief. I’m not a border fan, I guess we were trained to be on our guard as suspicious, as well as somewhat nervous as we knew our mother was always either smuggling something she shouldn’t have;)… hiding the guns, or just plain not being truthful. Living on the boat all those years as children and traveling across the globe taught us a special set of skills. We developed good poker faces as kids, but it still makes me a bit anxious even though we really do behave, other than maybe a bottle more tequila than we should be allowed to have:)
We found a spot at Santee Lakes for a couple of days, usually mid week isn’t a problem, weekends are usually fully booked. We were not looking forward to trekking back to the coast from Lake Jennings so opted for a spot between, as well as avoiding the Confederate flags and Trump signs in Eastern San Diego County. A few days in San Diego gives us a chance to get the mail and visit my brother and my cousin Bronle, always a treat. Santee Lakes is a wonderful set of six man made lakes that are usually chock full of Coots, and lot’s of other interesting visitors. If you can get past the jets flying over, not a bad place to spend a few days in San Diego. Good trees for Groot to climb ( very important) and he can watch the birds as well on his daily walks with old Beezil. We got a lovely spot near the lake and settled in for a few days.
Noise, is always an issue for us, traffic and in San Diego, Air Force and Military shenanigans. When we first started this journey we entered it in a light weight trailer, our dear Myrtle, that the Toyota Tundra could pull, when we sold the Toyota and bought the Dodge Ram our horizons opened up. The Sunset Trails has been a wonderful home for the last year and a half but it’s lack of insulation and light weight build as well as a single air conditioner has limited just where we can go and stay, so we are…on a quest…we know what we want, a DRV Mobile Suites, not new, way out of our price range but a used one..so, we were off to Palm Desert to a dealer to see a floor plan we have hankered after.
The view at sunset from the Anza Borrego State Park
We decided on a stop at the Anza Borrego State Park to break the journey up to Desert Palm Springs. We couldn’t get into the park last Spring, it was completely booked but we took a chance as I’d read there were a couple of first come, first serve sights. The drive there is also beautiful, up through the East County and Ramona on the 67, to the 78 and S22 right down to the desert floor and the park.
As it turned out, there were no first come first serve sites but they did have a camp host spot available for the weekend! We were thrilled:) Last Spring it had been a a magical visit with everything in bloom, now it was dry and wind blown but just as lovely in a different way. We hiked up to the Palm Canyon behind a troupe of 30 kids…young kids…reminded me why we usually avoid weekends, everywhere. I know they are enjoying themselves and it is wonderful they have the opportunity to see this beautiful area, but the noise level was off the scale;) as they stopped for lunch and snacks at the palm canyon we slipped away…wait…ran away:) and took the high path back to the campground. We did come across one beautiful young Bighorn sheep ewe. She posed wonderfully for us on top of a rock before going back to eating the dead grass. As much of a crazy life our mother led us on it was a learning experience, she did teach us how to look and observe. She was an avid collector of seashells so was constantly pointing them out to us as well as we dove, good training for picking out Bighorn Sheep blending into the mountain side!
We battened down the hatches for rain that night and awoke to a stunning rainbow at dawn. This is such a beautiful state park. Night time astronomy was not in the cards for us, either was solar with the incoming clouds so looks like we will have to come back again to share any views through the telescopes.
Both sides of the rainbow
We took a side trip out to see some of Ricardo Breceda’s metal art structures in Borrego Springs. I wanted to see his dinosaurs as we had missed them last time we were here. Placed out in the open, they are a fantastic sight from afar, you feel transported back to an earlier time:) Mike was a willing participant for me playing about:;) love him so much:)
With the unco-operative weather we headed North to Desert Palm Springs, a wasted trip, as it turned out the floor plan we wanted to see had been sold and was gone…grrr…we just wanted to see it. We went back online and started to look again. One came up in Lake Havesu, as well as Tucson so we headed East towards Quartzsite, and then down to the Road Runner BLM camping area to spend a few days in the quiet doing more research. We’d been drooling over these units for the last year. It seems everyone who owns one is absolutely delighted with them and all have invited us aboard to look at them which is wonderful as you can pick their brains for ideas and do’s and don’ts!
The BLM Road Runner camping area is a bleak place, we pulled in and found a spot away from the crowds but there are constant off-roaders and dust and noise from generators and lights for most of the night, not conducive to astronomy, or astro photography either. The light domes from Blythe and Quartzsite drowned out the Milky Way on a night I did some experimenting. We spent a few days though just relaxing, our trusty little Honda stopped after a few minutes so we broke out the solar panel and worked off of the inverter for a few days.
Bleak is the word here…you know me, birds, bugs, snakes I’m happy. With the exception of the desert mice that ate my old corn tortillas, which I did not see, just found them all polished off when I woke up, there was nothing other than a lone Raven the day we left. Felt odd to me. We’ll try the Kofa Wildlife Refuge further South next time:)
We headed North to Lake Havesu to see a 2010 DRV, a floorplan we were considering, much like our lighter trailer but with the amazing fifth wheel storage that Mike’s telescope can fit underneath as well as the solar scope and easy access. Hauling it in and out of the box in the back of the pickup is a back breaker to say the least. Good thing he married a strong farm girl;)
Sunset at Lake Havesu
We stopped for the night at the Lake Havesu State Park, right downtown this is a lovely place to spend the night. The sights on the far end are well spaced and back onto the bushes. We made a trip to go see the 2010 DRV and were intrigued, but it was a bit too old, but in fairly good shape. I’d found a 2012 online in Colorado and it did have all the little things we were looking for so we talked with a salesman and found out we could leave our Myrtle I here on consignment if we found a trailer elsewhere. But we had one floor plan to rule out before we made any decisions and it was in Tucson…so off we went, cats were starting to look at us like we were crazy, what’s with all the movement:)
Near the RV dealer we discovered White Tank Mountain Regional Park. This is a beautiful park with miles of hiking and so much wildlife. We were mobbed by birds as soon as we arrived:) Heaven!
We settled in and went to see the last floor plan that would rule out the Colorado one…well, we were glad we went. We’d thought that this was the one for us but seeing it in person completely changed our minds, which left Colorado..oh boy…that’s 1000 miles away. We spent a few days online talking back and forth with the salespeople in Golden, Colorado and the bank and then thought perhaps I could fly up and look, but either way, we would want to pick it up so went, well, what the heck, let’s go look, both of us.
I put a deposit down after a hurried call from the lovely lady I had been dealing with, someone else was about to put down a hold deposit and if I beat them they would hold it for me until we arrived, whew, we just got it in in time:) so the decision was made…off we went back to Lake Havesu to leave Myrtle I while we journeyed North and then hitting Highway I40 East we started. These are long days, almost 400 miles with the old kitty Beezil, he was so good sleeping by my feet most of the trip with a stop for snacks and lunch for the bipeds. Groot does not really care one way or another, he is really a trouper:)
One night in Grants Pass in New Mexico, and then snow going North on the I25 slowed us down and we only made Colorado Springs for the night in the snow. It was cold..0_0…I am so Mexican now:)
The next day we headed out early to Golden, Colorado, on our quest to see the trailer of our dreams…but that my friends is another story, so we shall see you soon and let you know how it all ends up! Saludos amigos and keep warm if you are in those northern climes….all I can say is BRRRRRR!!!!!!:)