Back on the road again

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since we posted here, mostly because it wasn't very interesting. We spent the summer in Edmonton doing countertops, and we also sold the jet car operation to a fellow from Texas. Just made a deal to sell our place in Edmonton, too.

Now it's winter, and we're heading south. We left on Wednesday, destination Saskatoon. We got a late departure because we had to thaw the water lines in the motorhome so we could fill with water! Along the way we encountered quite a bit of snow and ice on the road. Also passed by the Afghan town, Kandahar (see pic). Arrived in Saskatoon after dark, filled up with gas at the Flying J truck stop, and decided to overnight there. Was about minus 12 at night, and the furnaces ran constantly. Luckily the water system did not freeze up.

We left Saskatoon early, and headed out on the 425 mile drive to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Road was in bad shape, with lots of frost heaves and pot holes, but not much snow around. Still kinda cold. We overnighted at the Walmart Supercenter in Portage.

We were going to leave Portage early, but when we went to check our propane level, the compartment wouldn't open. After a lot of messing around while lying on the cold pavement, finally got the door open. The latch had disintegrated inside because it's made of cheap pot metal. Now I'll have to make a part to fit. After our late departure, we then ran into a rememberance day parade in a small Manitoba town, finally getting close to the US border crossing about 2 hours late, only to find a HUGE line-up of cars waiting to cross. Seemed everyone in Manitoba was heading south. We waited 2 1/2 hours to cross, and endured an agricultural inspection where they seized our rice (new rule since July, no rice from South East Asia), and one can of dog food made in Canada. We stopped in to a truck stop in Grand Forks, North Dakota for gas and propane, and also took the opportunity to dump our tanks and fill with water. Nice to find gas for only 85 cents a litre instead of the $1.20 in Saskatchewan! Our original destination for the day was Wahpeton, North Dakota, but it was already dark when we reached Fargo, so we stayed at the Walmart there. It was really busy, packed with holiday weekend shoppers, and we had trouble finding a parking spot. We went in to buy a few groceries, but grabbed what we needed and ran away from the madding crowd! Spent a restless night due to the trucks left running all night.

Saturday morning we left at about 7:15 and hit Interstate 29, headed to Sioux City, Iowa. We fought 50 mph winds all the way, but finally made it to Sioux City and filled up with cheap gas before parking at the Walmart. Shopped here, and the crowds were a lot lighter. Marlene made a nice Bavarian supper of bratwurst, sauerkraut, potato salad and beer ($10.97 for 24 cans!). It was a nice, relaxed meal.

A side note, we saw several dozen deer, innumerable wolves, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, rabbits, and other unidentified squashed animals dead at the side of the road. Who needs to go hunting, just pick them up off the shoulder and take them home! Tomorrow we head to Kansas City, Missouri. Stay tuned...

We prepare to return to Arizona

Hi everyone! Today we're packing up to return to Arizona. We'll be kind of sad to leave Lake Elsinore, it's such a lovely place. Marlene especially likes the humidity here. We hope to spend tomorrow night in the desert near Quartzite, then Phoenix at a casino on Friday, arriving in Tucson on Saturday afternoon.

In Tucson we'll prepare for our trip back to Edmonton, where we'll probably stay til October (weather permitting).

We're really going to miss the cheap food and liquor here in the US. Last night we ate a 2.5 pound corned beef brisket (total price just $2.46). Who could believe you could buy a nice corned beef for just 99 cents a pound? It was so good, we went back to Vons (Safeway) and bought another one! The accompanying cabbage was just 45 cents.

Tonight we had oven baked chicken, with potatoes and fresh salad greens. We bought the chicken at Vons too... four leg/thigh quarters for just $3.33, so tonight we had 1/2 the chicken for just $1.66. The bag of fresh salad greens cost a buck at the $1 store, as did the 5 pound bag of potatoes. Accompanied by Busch Ice Beer ($14 for 30 cans) it was a great meal, and really cheap. Don't know how we'll deal with $13 chickens and $14 corned beef briskets in Edmonton!!

Our plans are evolving all the time. We have the jet car up for sale because bookings were not up to the level we had set. Getting some interest from prospective buyers, but not enough yet. In Tucson we'll also sell the Tracker, since we won't be needing it once we head back to Canada.

Yesterday we took Ben to the groomers for a full beauty treatment. You can see how good he looks in the picture above. Stay tuned for more of our travels....

Pictures above are the second corned beef we bought, and Ben.

We explore southern California

We went to Temecula, about 20 minutes from Lake Elsinore, and checked out Old Town Temecula. This is a cool area, full of old restored buildings, as well as replica old buildings. There are lots of interesting stores, restaurants and bars here, as well as large crowds. Very well done.

To celebrate our wedding anniversary (21 if anyone is counting) we wanted to go for a nice meal, but on a tight budget. After some online research, we learned that one of the San Diego casinos was offering a free buffet to new player's club members, so we decided to check it out. On the way to the Valley View casino we stopped into the Harrah's casino, which was amazingly busy for a week day. At Valley View, we signed up for the player's club (for free) then went for our free Lobster Buffet. This was the best casino buffet we had ever had, loaded with split Maine lobsters, oysters on the half shell, crab legs, mussels, clams, shrimps, seafood salads, soups, sushi, and all kinds of other foods. Normally $28 a head this is probably a bargain, but for us it was FREE! What a deal. We stuffed ourselves to the breaking point, and it was all good.

A few days later, we drove to San Diego, and toured the Seaport Village at the Embarcadero. A really cool tourist area by the navy pier (where the USS Midway is parked). We had a microbrewed local draft beer to quench our thirst, then walked some more. After building up an appetite we decided to eat at the Fish Market restaurant (which was highly rated online). It was a nice meal, enhanced by being over the water. We watched a sailing regatta as we dined on fried cod, shrimps, scallops and oysters. Delicious!

We tried to take Ben to a wilderness area for some fun. When we got there, we found NO DOGS ALLOWED. This is typical California thinking: No dogs allowed, but plenty of wildlife everywhere! Also, no smoking allowed in this huge outdoor area. Also no fires, but they do have fire pits and stacks of pre-chopped firewood. We ate our packed lunch, and then toured the nearby San Antonio mission.

On Tuesday we went to LA to have lunch at the Farmer's Market. We did not like the idea of paying $14 for 3 ribs and a potato served on styrofoam plates, so we walked next door to the Grove outdoor mall and had a fine lunch at a Greek restaurant called Ulysses Village, complete with white table cloths and Greek music, in a nice setting. We had Greek beer, fried fresh calamari, a lamb gyro plate and roast leg of lamb. It was all really good, and served on nice plates by attentive staff, for about the same price as food in the Farmer's market.

After our lunch we drove to Venice beach and watched the weirdo's passing by. Surfers were enjoying the weather, and we walked the beach. Also noticed the large numbers of doctors' offices along the waterfront selling legal marijuana permits to anyone with any kind of ailment and $40 to spend! After Venice, we headed back to Lake Elsinore, a 75 mile freeway drive that took TWO AND HALF HOURS. The traffic abysmal, with long stretches of freeway turned into parking lots. People actually commute this back and forth each day. It would drive us crazy!

We were going to go to visit the Richard Nixon library and museum, and do a few other LA things, but now we really don't want to make that nasty drive again.

We have just one more week left here in California before heading to Tucson by way of Quartzite and Phoenix. We really like Lake Elsinore. It is very pretty here, and even Ben likes walking along the shore. At first, he was reluctant to go in the water, but each time he walks a little further into the warm lake. Marlene enjoys all the variety of birds here, but misses her bird watching book to help her identify all the different types.

Pictures above are from Temecula, Venice beach, from the parking lot at Valley View casino, our meals, mission San Antonio, San Diego, etc.

The Pacific beckons

Yesterday we went to the coast. Marlene packed a light lunch, and we headed up the Ortega Highway (CA74), a VERY winding mountain 2 lane that twists and climbs its way over the mountains from Lake Elsinore to San Juan Capistrano. We started out at Capistrano Beach, a nice stretch of beach south of Dana Point. After a nice walk along the seafront we enjoyed our lunch of chicken sandwiches and kosher pickles, then drove south to San Clemente, where we visited the beach and the pier, and spent some time watching the surfers perform.

After the beach, we walked back through San Clemente and visited the farmers market stalls. Lots of expensive "organic" veggies and fruits. After our long walk we were all beat (even Ben), so we made the 45 minute drive back over the mountain to Lake Elsinore.

It was a nice day, and it felt good to see the ocean. Pictures above are of Lake Elsinore (and our RV park) from the top of the mountain, beach and pier scenes.

We're back!

Hello everyone, sorry we haven't posted here in a while, but we are lazy! Anyway, when last we reported, we were in Yuma, and we enjoyed the RV park, but not the constant dust. After our discount time in Yuma was up, we packed up and went to Tucson. This time we decided to stay at the RV park we stayed at when we first arrived in Tucson last year, the Crazy Horse.

After the 5 star accommodations in Yuma the Crazy Horse seems rather run down and small, but the people here are a lot friendlier. We enjoyed our Wednesday donut and coffee mornings, and found it interesting watching the real people who live here, as opposed to the affluent Canadian tourists in Yuma. Next to us in Tucson was a serviceman with his wife and four lovely kids. He went off to work in the morning, and his wife took the older girls to school. They eventually moved out, but there were other families living at Crazy Horse, along with a complete road paving crew from Washington state with all their equipment. They were spending the winter in Tucson maintaining their stuff.

As usual in Tucson, we were treated to a daily airshow by the military from both air bases. We stayed for a month at Crazy Horse, and we had planned on going to San Carlos, Mexico next, but with the recent violence around Nogales, and the nasty fake checkpoints where bandits rob unsuspecting RV'ers, we decided to make other plans.

First, we thought we'd boondock (stay for free without hookups) for a while to save some money. We started out at a Tucson casino for a few days, while we replaced our coach batteries. The temperatures at night were falling well below freezing, and we wanted our furnace to run all night. No fun getting up in the middle of the night to start the generator! Then, our TV in the bedroom died, so we moved the front TV to the bedroom and went and bought a new flat screen for the living room. While we were at it, we bought new bedroom linens and quilt, as well as towels. With all these expenses we HAD to save some money, so we continued our boondocking and moved to Phoenix, where we stayed at a couple of different casinos.

From Phoenix we went to the Quartzite area, and found a nice spot in the desert on BLM (Federal ) land. Lovely views of the mountains, and nice and warm. We enjoyed our stay in Quartzite, and planned our next move. We studied weather across the country, and calculated costs to drive to Florida, and decided instead to go to California. Now RV parks in the LA area are very expensive, but we found a place at Lake Elsinore, about 50 miles east of LA. The RV park is right on a beautiful lake. Of course, the minute we arrived the weather changed and rains came! Oh well, it's supposed to pass in a few days. We plan to stay here for the month, and do the things around LA that we never got to do on our last trip here.

We've been working hard to get bookings for the summer racing season, but it's tough going. Don't know if its because of the economy, but it is hard slogging.

We've had a lot of nice family news lately. Miranda came home from Israel and proclaimed her trip to be the most amazing experience of her life. She definitely caught the Israel virus, and will always have the connection to the country. The other great news is Mike's brother Simon is getting married in the summer. We're already planning our trip to Ontario for the wedding!

Miranda tells us she won't be needing our place in Edmonton after May, so we will put it up for sale this summer. Our other plans remain fluid. We've attached some pics of Marlene and Ben, and Lake Elsinore. Stay tuned....

Happy Holidays

For Marlene's birthday we made a feast of roast leg of lamb, and enjoyed some nice wine. The birthday cake was a German chocolate, and it was great! On the 24th. we loaded up the car and headed for Lake Havasu for Christmas with Marlene's sister Veronica and cousin Rose. The car was loaded down with food and drink, because Marlene was making her traditional Christmas eve dinner: Home made perogies, meatballs in portabella mushroom sauce, pickled herring, dills and beets, a bottle of Spanish wine. We finished with a variety of baclava. Of course, we had to watch "A Christmas Carol" with Allistair Sim, another tradition.

On Christmas day we opened gifts Miranda had sent to us, ate a hearty brunch, watched "It`s a Wonderful Life`. Veronica and Rose laboured away on making a great turkey dinner, complete with stuffing. They also made cabbage rolls, but due to confusion at serving time, they lay forgotten in the oven until the next day!

The day after Christmas we headed back to Yuma, with Veronica following along. In Yuma we went out for dinner to Lutes Casino, a bar.. burger place..dump. It has been around since the 1800`s, but the burgers are only OK. We went back to our place and watched the Woodstock movie, a gift from Miranda.

The morning of the 27th. we went to see the old Yuma Territorial Prison, built in 1868. It was an interesting tour, with a lot of weird info. Quite a few of the inmates were incarcerated for the crime of àdultery, others for giving liquor to Indians. It was a modern prison for the times, with a library, a medical center, and workshops where the inmates could make items to sell. They even had electric light and running water.

After the museum Veronica took us out to lunch at an Italian restaurant in Old Yuma. Had a nice lunch of minestrone soup for the girls, followed by lasagna, and cannelloni for me. After lunch Veronica headed back to Lake Havasu.

For New Year`s Eve I cooked a pot roast in wine sauce. After four hours cooking, it turned out very nice. At the community center they were having a fancy party, but we followed our tradition of spending the evening together.

We packed up and did laundry, and yesterday we moved from Yuma to Tucson. We are staying for a month in the same RV park where we stayed last November and December. We liked the place then, but now it appears a bit downscale and crowded. Boy, spend one month at a fancy place and it`s hard to go back!

Miranda is in Israel, and seems to be having a good time. We can`t wait to hear all about it when she returns to Canada.

Pictures above are the prison, and me in a cell, Veronica and Marlene in front of the community center, Marlene`s birthday cake, Christmas dinner, Marlene and Veronica in front of the prison.

We explore Yuma

Hello everyone! We are in Yuma, having arrived here on Dec. 1. So far our impressions of Yuma are not very flattering. This place is one big, flat, giant dusty RV park. Seriously, it is one "RV Resort" after another, and where there is no RV park, there are RV service places, RV dealers, RV washes, and every other service and product you could sell to the RV crowd.

The locals say that in the winter there are more Canadians here than Americans, and we believe it! Ninety percent of the people in our fancy, 5 star RV Resort are from Canada, with most hailing from Alberta and BC. There is a large group from Quebec, and a few from Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Even one from Nova Scotia. This is a nice RV park, brand new, with 453 spaces. You can also buy your space here, which seems to be popular with the Albertans. We don't quite get it... why buy a place to drive your RV to for the winter? Why bother with the RV? You can build a really nice little house in Yuma for $90,000, and that's a lot less than they pay for their RV's.

We went to both swap meets here, and all they have is a bunch of junk aimed at the over 55 crowd. We are trying to find a nice restaurant for Marlene's birthday, but so far no luck. There are a few nice parks by the river in Yuma, and we enjoy taking Ben for walks there. Unfortunately, for the past week I have been ill, so we didn't get out much. But today I was feeling 85%, so we loaded up the Tracker and headed west toward the Salton Sea, with our destination Slab City.

I have wanted to see Slab City for some time. It is a strange community, located on a former WWII army base. When the base closed the army removed all the buildings, but left the foundation slabs, hence the name. It is in the middle of the desert, about 5 miles north east of Niland, California. The first thing you see on arriving at Slab City is Salvation Mountain, a growing art installation which is the work of one man. His religious shrine is built into a hill, complete with caves. He has used thousands of gallons of cement slurry, and paints. The artist lives here, and continues to work on it. He has been featured on TV shows, and has a stipend from the Salvation Army.

There are temporary residents here, enjoying the weird people and sights, and there are more permanent camps where people live year-round. There are plenty of new, expensive RV's here too, soaking up the sun and paying no rent!

Slab City is probably the last unregulated place in the US. There are no services, the land belongs to the BLM and is open to the use of anyone. The Sheriff's deputies come through the place twice a day, but they leave everyone alone unless there is trouble. Basically, you arrive, pick a spot and set up house. There are people here with fenced yards, garages, and all kinds of odd stuff. Some people have set up house in the giant earthen ammo bunkers. Lots of solar panels in use. Only problem is you have to pack up and drive to Niland if you need fuel, water or dumping facilities.

There are several night clubs in Slab City (all of them outdoors, bring your own drinks). There's also a church, a community center and an underground "shower" in one of the old silos. People live here in all kinds of weird contraptions including old buses, old vans, shelters made out of tarps, old trailers, commercial trucks, as well as every type and vintage of RV you can think of. We were quite taken by the place!

While we were in the area we thought we'd check out the Sonny Bono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge. Kind of interesting, saw a lot of birds. We then checked out Red Mountain state park, which is a campground by the Salton Sea. We asked the ranger if the water used to be closer to the park, because it looked that way to us. He said the water started receding in the 60's and has been this low since he can remember. We noticed a freshly painted sign indicating the boat launch. Only problem is the water is half a mile away! They've probably been painting the sign every year for the past 40 years without giving it any thought... government work! The ranger gave us directions to "real nice" state campground on a lake about half an hour south of the Salton Sea, so we decided to check it out. Maybe it would have been OK, although the lake is tiny, more like a slough, but it is located between two huge cattle feedlots and a pasture filled with sheep. Imagine the smell! Well we didn't have to imagine it....Peeewwww.

Pictures above are Ben and I at a Yuma park, Salvation Mountain, some of the Slab City clubs, car art, Ammo bunker house at Slab City, old guard house at the Slabs, the Salton Sea. Stay tuned....