Back to Florida

East bound

When we arrived at Verde Valley TT

we were told that all amenities were closed!

And the near by National Park sites.

Thanks Covid 19.

We had been looking forward to re-visiting the area,

 playing pickleball, and catching up with 

RV buddies we often see here.

As clearing came (two days of rain) we headed to the Sedona area

 and enjoyed a mostly driving tour of the town

 and surrounding red rock area.

North of Sedona we climbed in elevation

 and ran into the last spring snow.  

We drove up and out of Oak Creek Canyon,

 going from a couple inches of snow to about a foot.

(Slow motion film on cell phone)

We decided to head back to Florida to shelter-in-place.

Sunset Point rest area on I-17.

The blooming desert along I-10.

Another rest area, this one is near Las Cruces, NM

and has the world's largest road runner.

Cheap fuel for our return trip from Buc-ees, 

somewhere in Texas.  

In the Texas Hill country.

Louisiana, Atchafalaya NHA and rest area.

Atchafalaya NHA and rest area.  We over-nighted here.

Another damn rest area, this one in Mississippi.

Alabama RV park.

  We stopped early and enjoyed the hook-ups.

Oak leaf hydrangeas on our property in Tallahassee.

New begonia for the patio at our Ocala home.

U-pick blueberries, yum.

California

California

2020 route

From Yuma we visited this ghost town and mine.

 We had a nice walk in the desert.

Some of the ruins.

Our site in Palm Springs Thousand Trails.

Pickleball heaven in the Springs.

West of the Salton Sea is the town of Borrego Springs

 surrounded by this state park.

The Visitor's Center is where we were introduced to the area

 and the Sky Art Metal Sculptures.

The Juan Bautista de Anza NHT runs

 through here along with a sculpture.

Some of the sculptures are inspired by fossils from the area.

Some inspired by the local history.

And some by whimsy.  

This 350 foot serpent dives under a road, has the head of a dragon,

 body of a serpent and the tail of a rattle snake.

  It was the 129th sculpture installed.

We enjoyed a late lunch and margaritas after touring.

We cannot pass up a National Park!

A nice slow walk in the desert.

2003 Split Rock

2017  Split Rock

2020  Split Rock

Another short walk behind Split Rock.

Santa Rosa San Jacinto Mountain National Monument

is just outside Palm Desert and a beautiful drive into the mountains.

We traded date palm trees for eucalyptus trees when we 

arrived in Wilderness Lakes TT, near Menifee.

Daily pickleball here.

A short hike to an obscure water fall in the

 Cleveland National Forest.

We had a little rock scrambling to do.

Our site in Pio Pico TT near Jamul.

We enjoyed both palm and eucalyptus trees here

but no pickleball.

 

This is our great niece, Kendall.  

We traveled over 2300 miles to have lunch

 with her in Encinitas.

After lunch a visit to Moonlight State Beach. 

We took the Old Town Trolley tour of San Diego.

 

This is in the Italian section of the tour.

We ended the tour in Old Town for

 a late lunch, music, and gigantic margaritas.

Winter 2019-20

Winter 2019-2020

Westward bound

Florida route.  Once again we rented our home to Gloria for the winter.

  She takes good care of our home while she escapes the cold of Canada.

Celebrating an early Christmas with our son, Brian.  

Cindy did a tremendous amount of work in preparation. 

 Her family joined us.

Thank You!

Of course we traveled through Alabama, Mississippi, and New Mexico.

 Fortunately nothing exciting happened on I-10.

The Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is also 

known as America's foreign country. 

 It is a mostly untouched river/swamp system. 

We overnighted in the welcome/visitors center.

Merry Christmas.

Onward through Texas, only took  a week and a half!

Waco Mammoth is a new National Monument and our

 376th National Park site we have visited.

The dig site tour.

Arizona route.

Crossing Texas wore us out, so we stayed in

 Wilcox for a couple of nights.

  This visit to Chiricahua National Monument is a repeat visit.  (1999)

Beautiful tree, Judy and a pretty good picnic lunch in the monument.

We spent 2 weeks in the Yuma area and twice visited our friends

 we met while on our 2005 Copper Canyon, MX tour.

Joann and Nai

Missed you Don and Barb, but we did toast you.

We took a drive to visit the world's largest gem/RV show.

We bought neither!

  Jefferson Davis wanted to transport goods

 and people across the desert via camels.

  The Civil War stopped the experiment.

Syrian caretaker, Hadji Ali (Hi Jolly) remained

in Quartzite and the camels were set free. 

The last reported camel sighting was 1942.  

Los Algodones, MX is a border town near Yuma,

 but across from Winterhaven, CA. 

It is a dental/optical/tourist town that draws thousands daily.

  We visited 4 times and it would be safe to say that we enjoyed

 APPROXIMATELY 4 margaritas.

  Plus several meals, music, dancing, and hair care.

first

second

third

Lunch with Nai and Joann.  And fourth.

Music and dancing.

During hair styling.

The new hairdo/color/cut.  And fourth, again.

Shrimp cocktail.  And fourth, again.