Sunday, February 22, 2009

Moving Travel Journal

Feb 17th (Tuesday) – our trailer was picked up and taken to Gib’s RV about 1pm today and we headed down Highway 101 to Brookings, OR (right on the California border) and stayed the night in a motel on the beach. It felt good to actually get started even tho it was later in the day and a short drive. I had a lovely walk on the beach and collected a few more stones and shells to wire-wrap once we get settled. All my supplies are tightly packed in our van at the moment. We are much like a turtle waddling down the road with all of our stuff securely packed under our shell.

Feb18th (Wednesday) – headed south down Hwy 101 – beautiful clear morning with sun and a few scattered clouds. I love this part of the coast drive with breathtaking ocean views and then forested roadsides with moss-covered logs and trees and lovely large redwoods. We took highway 20 east past Clearlake and arrived in Williams, CA.

The van is loaded but still getting fairly good mileage and the new tires handle beautifully. We've only had one luggage upset when Kae stepped on the brakes too hard and a couple of suitcases shifted forward. We got stopped safely and the suitcases were restored to their proper location. Next time I'll just run that yellow light!!!

Feb 19th (Thursday) We left Williams about 8am and headed down I-5 thru Sacramento and then across to Hwy 99. This is an interesting drive past many towns and lots of orchards and vineyards. The almonds and plum trees were in bloom from just before Williams all the way to Bakersfield where we turned east on Highway 58 and over Tehachapi Pass on to Mohave where we spent the night.

Feb 20th (Friday) We headed east past Edwards Air Force Base and Boron and then turned south at Kramer’s Corners onto Hwy 395. We worked our way through the Lucerne Valley down to the Morango Valley and on to Palm Springs where we took I 10 and then the cutoff down past the Salton Sea to El Centro where we headed east on I-8 to Yuma. We enjoy I-8 as there is less traffic than I-10 and it is a fairly good road surface. It takes us past a large sand dune area just west of Yuma where the sand buggies and people are having a great time.

Feb 21 (Saturday) We head east to Tucson and will spend a couple of nights visiting Bud & Jerri Finley (Clarence's sister & brother-in-law) who are wintering there. We have spent many winters in Tucson while RVing and so it feels much like coming home every time we pass through this area. We drove out to Agua Caliente Park and walked around for a while. The lack of extra water in the area has reduced the size of the ponds and lowered the water level but it is still a much loved park filled with people and a wide variety of ducks.

This beautiful painting of a desert scene can be found in my VAST team mate CeeVeeArts store:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19473830 It is so much like what we are seeing in Tucson that I asked her permission to use it to illustrate this section of my blog and she graciously said yes. Hope you will take a moment and check out her other wonderful art.

Feb 22 (Sunday) We are staying in a Comfort Inn on Tanque Verde in Tucson and they have a beautiful interior courtyard with fountains, birds, pools and a wonderful hot breakfast. I’m ready to just move in and let them feed me and do the housework but guess I’ll save this pampering for special occasions. We played tourist today and took a drive over Gates Pass to Saguaro National Park West and then back to the hotel. We used to stay in an RV park in that area so it was fun to see all the changes and what remained the same. More good food and visiting planned for this evening and then we are off again tomorrow.

5 comments:

Jean Levert Hood said...

Hey Kae!! It's good to hear from you. I'm glad everything is going well for you!

ceevee said...

Hi Kae, Interesting travels! Anytime I get a chance to visit Arizona, I jump on it, so I enjoyed your log here. And thank you for including my picture from my own recent trip. I am honored that you used it.

ceevee

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