Don't touch the grey buttons!

You can always tell when we're in a whirlwind of activity, when there are no posts for a number of days.  We left Imperial Dam/Senator Wash on Monday and headed to Quartzsite, and yes, back to Discount Solar.  The little fix that Craig had shown us on our way to Yuma, to correct the error reading on our inverter computer display did not seem to do the trick.  The fix was to pull one of the battery leads off and shut everything down for about half an hour.  Well, that only worked for a very short while, and then we were down to no inverter.

So, the great guys at Discount Solar reset the computer, and tested it hooked up to shore power.  Lesson learned? Don't touch the 'grey' button and reconfigure the computer when we don't know what we are doing. The guys there would not charge a fee for their couple of hours of time, so we left some coffee/beer $$ for them.

Since it was late in the day, we stayed at Lake Tamarisk RV Park in Desert Centre, for an early big whopping 1 hour drive to Desert Hot Springs the next morning.  Upon arrival, our friend Ken was waiting with my bike ( he had brought it down from the Shuswap in his cargo trailer), and an invite for coffee, and another invite for dinner out! Whew long day! The Spaghetti Factory on Hwy 111, was the eventual choice. Good service, great decor, good friends. What more could you ask. Oh, and the priced were right.

Yesterday was ( whoo hoo ) Quilting Day! Only first I managed 30 laps in the pool and then the water aerobics class. Yes, the class is 7 days a week! Got to work off those spaghetti calories!  There were about 12 quilters in the clubhouse, with great projects and conversations.  Happy Hour at 4 pm in the main clubhouse and then at 7 pm....zzzzzz.........oh, those lazy boy chairs in the rig .............

Algodones, Mexico

Best place to go for a haircut in the Yuma area? Juanita's in Algodones, Mexico!  Donald had a great haircut for $5 and I had a colour and cut for $29. Can't beat that.  It was also much easier to walk around the small town as compared to April, when hundreds( thousands?) are crossing over to get their eyeglasses, some medications and their dental work done before heading to wherever home is for the summer. Yesterday, we walked right up to the customs entrance, to come back into the US, with no one ahead of us.

The big highlight of our visit yesterday was a terrific parade in town, in honour of the annual celebration of the Revolution Day.  Floats, music, bands, old cars, and lots of children dressed up in various themes.  Of course, like all small community parades, there always has to be shiny firetrucks at the end!!!  Since my hairdo took a little longer, Donald grabbed some coffee at the coffee shop near Juanita's, that has the best coffee in Algodones. They served it to him in a Tim Horton's cup!!!! However, it did not come with the timmy coffee, nor the timmy lid, and of course the lid came off and he spilled coffee down the front of his "town" shirt. Oh well, he had fun watching the parade and drinking coffee while waiting for me.

Today we are off to the Wednesday movie - LINCOLN - at the downtown Yuma theatre, followed by supper at 5 Guys Burgers. Oh, and the Farmers Market on the Foothills.

Hot and sunny at Imperial Dam

Even though there are less and less "new ways' of travelling down south from Victoria, we tried taking Highway 95 out of Needles, through to Parker and Quartzsite.  Previously we had travelled through Lake Havasu, with the 101 traffic lights to stop at in that small city.   We are thrilled with this new route, as the road surface is new, although a little rolly, and it saved at least a couple of hours.

This morning's chore was to stop at Discount Solar in Q, to inquire about getting an error message on our inverter, when we are hooked up to shore power.  The solution? Yes, Rick, you have to REBOOT. Now, the way to reboot the inverter brain is to unhook one of the big red battery lines, so that will be a job in the future when/if we get that message again.  Discount Solar was crazy busy already, and some of their technicians will not arrive till after American Thanksgiving. One of them is currently on tour with the Oak Ridge Boys, as their technician.

It is sunny, hot and beautiful as we sit here at Senator Wash, near Imperial Dam.  The plans are to be here for a couple of weeks as our 14 day pass will be up. That cost a whopping $40.  Tomorrow we are off to Yuma for the Escapee Boomer group Wednesday Movie, and that will be the new James Bond flick, Skyfall.

 

meeting northern folks

A Bakersfield stop has let us rest up with three nights here at the Orange Grove RV Park.  Some chores were in order, you know, the usual... laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning.  Last evening some people from our northern home, Dave and Rita Wilson, parked next to us and we had a great conversation, catching up.  They are continuing onto El Centro and left Orange Grove at 7:05 am. Too early for us!!

We are heading off across the Mohave towards Lake Havasu.  There is a Harvey House restoration in Barstow that Donald would like to check out, as well as a railroad museum.  As I was washing floors yesterday afternoon, he was checking out all the videos on You Tube of trains going over the Tehachapi Pass, which we will drive through this morning. I think I heard train sounds for over an hour! 

We had an email sent to us this morning from friends on the island who happened to be in Kamloops, wanting to come out to the Shuswap and visit! Yep, we replied right away that we were a little far from there at present. Too bad, and it would been a wonderful visit! They are also ex-pats from the north home.

wind farm on the Tehachapi

where to find the best dates

The wind started to blow in the evening and our rig was rocking a little bit.  Better get ahead of this incoming cool weather, even though we were sorry to leave the RV park on the canal.  Kim woke up early, about 5 a.m. and she said the sculling crews were out on the waterway, with the coaches giving instructions, even though it was still fairly dark. Perhaps they were students from the local university in Stockton or Sacramento.

The drive was fairly nice with less wind then we had thought might show up.  This evening's parking spot is Orange Grove in Bakersfield, and we have booked into here for a couple of nights. First order of business after setting up the rig and the satellite dish was to visit the local fruit and nut stand, just around the corner. Our grocery bag had about 10 valencia oranges, chocolate covered coffee beans, some pistachios and some beautiful " wet " medjool dates. Best dates ever. ever. ever.

Miss this little guy already!

A near miss and a blissful site

Having stayed in Yreka on Tuesday evening, we were able to make good time down the I5, planning to stay in around the Sacramento area.  Driving through Sacramento was quite without incident, however in Stockton were we not so fortunate.  The traffic was busy on the I5, and some small little car decided to pull out  front of us from an on ramp, doing about 20 KM an hour, opposed to our 80 KM. Yikes!!!! It is not easy to slam on the brakes with a big rig behind you.  Donald laid the horn on big time, letting this driver know that it was a very reckless move. Lots of items moved in the rig, but all we lost was the tube lighting on my new Ott-Lite. It could have been horrendously worse.

back corner of our rig, looking over the canal

The good part was, that 10 minutes later we were setting up at the most awesome RV park we have ever been in. Our rig is 5 feet from the deep water canal that runs into the port of Sacramento.  We have enjoyed a beautiful sunset, with birds, racing sculls, sailboats and an ocean freighter all at our doorstep.

looking over the lilly pad type plants in the water

Onto Bakersfield in the morning. Cooler temperatures are on the way here, so our shorts are still in the closet for another day!

Back to warm weather!

Just a quick post to say that we just crossed over into California and the temperatures are a balmy 20 C! We took the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles yesterday with an overnight stay at WMart in Chehalis.  Since we went to bed so early, we were up and on the road at 6:21 AM!!!! A new record for us and one that we don't really wish to beat.  The weather through most of Oregon was foggy and bleak, but as we came close to Canyonville and 7 Feathers RV Resort, it was beautiful, so we decided to have a quick lunch and continue on, as we have never experienced the Siskiyou Pass with sunny weather.  Lovely drive.

Tonights chore is to look again at the maps and decided what tomorrow may bring!