Is there any better sunset than in the desert?

 

We spent a couple of days in Blythe, CA checking out the area and also made a day trip to Quartzsite, to get our bearings before the large crowds descend there in January.  We hope to make it there for the last couple of weeks of January, and perhaps longer.  While there, we checked with Discount Solar to get a quote on the installation of an inverter and possible solar. 

The wreaths on London Bridge in Havasu were very pretty, however we would have loved to have taken a boat tour down the lake or around, but all the businesses that conduct boat tours were closed up, as well as many of the shops around the Bridge area.  Bummer.  It was beautiful out and it would have been a fun time.

Have you ever watched the show Diners, Drive Ins and Dives? ( or something like that ...) A friend of our, Dan, watches it quite often and these pictures are for him.  In Parker, Arizona, we stopped at " Coffee Erns" and it was very interesting.  We had breakfast, the place was in total disrepair, and incredibly busy! Customers were coming in for monster take out cups of coffee. Hmm.. perhaps Coffee Erns might be the new Tim Hortons.

 

This train picture is for Sam and Lorne - this was passing by Coffee Ern's: The green units say Arizona to California and in between there was a Florida East Coast unit.  It was pulling a mixed train, hoppers and tanks, some box cars.  The white car with the two guys are taking pictures or videos as it went by.

This was our site last night on the banks of the Colorado River near Blythe, California. Yes, it looks peaceful and serene, but across the street was a local saloon open till 10 pm.  Apparently, " Bob" had to pack it in by 9:00 pm and go to bed, as his buddies were asking if he was puking outside and telling him it was too early.  It was all harmless, and we had a good laugh.  

Tonight we are at Lake Tamarisk Resort at Desert Center.  It is mostly Albertans and BC'ers here, in park models, very nice.  It is a member owned park around a lovely little lake, an oasis in the desert. Tomorrow we will take our time and drive the big one hour to Desert Hot Springs.

Lake Havasu

We had a really nice drive through the Mohave and into Arizona, and we are presently located at Lake Havasu Resort on the north end of the city, near the airport.  It is quiet, away from the busier part of town near the London Bridge.  The RV resort is fairly new, with large cement pads and all the amenities.  They sell the RV lots here, and as some are not sold, the developer allows for nightly/weekly/monthly rentals.

The park noted that there was wifi only at the office, but we are at one of the sites furthest from the office, and I do not have a booster, and wifi is coming in just fine.

Tomorrow we will be off to the local information centre and of course, London Bridge.  Our plan is to stay here for 3 days anyway, and we have to be in Desert Hot Springs on Friday. Tonight we drove out to the bridge and had a look at how it was dressed in lights for the season.

Our dog and cat continue to be excellent little travellers.

Mom, where is the grass????

those tacos are hot!

 

Our appointment at 10:00 am at Camping World did not work out very well.  Yesterday, they informed us that they were able to do the warranty work, made the appointment.  This morning, they informed us that they still had to call Jayco for authorization and that would not happen till Monday, and no, they did not have parts for the other items.  So, we packed up the RV, went back to Bakersfield, all for naught.  We left, stopped at Wally World for groceries, and headed out with only half a day left.

We are in Yermo at a KOA.  If we get an early start tomorrow, we can make Lake Havasu City, and stay for a couple of days.  After all, there is football tomorrow and Monday Night!

It was still an interesting drive, looking at the windfarms along the way, and now that we are up and out of the valley, the air has cleared.  Donald tried some tacos at a stand today - he said they were very good, but hot!

 

 The gas station fuel pumps have been asking for our zip codes, and we have used the trick of your postal codes numbers, plus 2 zeros at the end.  It has worked everywhere except at 2 places, and both of those were Texaco stations.  You can still get fuel, you just have to go in and pay cash and have the attendant set it for what you think you need.

My brother emailed today that they have had 150 cm of snow in the last 4 days - yikes!  The conversation today while driving was that we are having a hard time thinking it is December, as we have never been away in the winter.

Citrus smell...mmmm.......

Thanks to fellow blogger, Rick, we are now smelling the oranges!  We are at Bakersfield in Orange Grove RV Park.  It is lovely.  We had a 8:15 am start from Santa Nella, and believe me that is just about a record for us.  Off on the I- 5 to turn off at Highway 46, with the town of Wasco on the way.  The I - 5 was continuing to be a very bouncy, rough road and Highway 46 was so smooth!  There were miles and miles of almond farms.  Also on this highway, was Wasco State Prison, and it was very big!

As we were early into Bakersfield, we put the street address in our GPS for Camping World and spent a couple of hours there, discussing the merits of generators vs solar for our fifth wheel.  No decision has been made.  Our 5th wheel is already prepped for an on-board generator, with a start station in the kitchen area.  We are not keen on the noise, weight or fuel.  A solar set up would work well for our latitudes in the summer and here in the winter, and be more "green".  We will see and comments are welcome.

Since we did not pursue fixing the big slide in Anderson, we have booked an appointment at Camping World tomorrow at 10:00 am to have that fixed.  The Orange Grove provides a fantastic area to wash your RV's and we spent a couple of hours this afternoon to complete that task - we were filthy after the drive down.  Now perhaps, we look schmanzy enough to hang out at the Orange Grove for another day breathing in the citrus!

 Oh yes, Donald put on shorts this morning.

Arnie needs to fix some roads

We had a good drive today from Anderson California to Santa Nella.  Very foggy, but the torrential rains have left us, whoo hoo!  Both of us were quite nervous about driving through Sacramento and Stockton, but it was fairly easy, except for the terrible road bed conditions.  I am afraid our poor cat was jostled about in the fifth wheel, along with everything else. We visited Governor Arnolds website last evening, reading up about lighting the Christmas Tree and the budget deficit that California is under, but,  we did see a number of areas of road construction work going on.

It is too bad there is no pulling over on the I 5, because we saw fields of snow geese and some other birds we would have loved to see longer and closer. Tonight, we perused through our bird books, but were unsuccessful at identifying the "stork like" birds. We also enjoyed driving by many fields of olive trees and orange trees, and we could smell the oranges as we drove by.

Now that we are in the warm and drier weather, we would like to slow down and stay a couple of days on one place so we can look around.   Bakersfield seems to be the next place.

The poor dog does not sleep when we travel in the truck, so when we are stopped, she hops into one of the front seats and really passes out, as I caught her snoring within minutes.  Pretty tough for an old dog who sleeps most of the day and night.
She got a good walk to the local Starbucks this afternoon !