The Mojave Desert and Then Some

Thanks to my loyal readers who I didn't think were reading my bloggo because they weren't showing up as 'followers'. You know who you are -- and now I have 3 because brother-in-law Chuck signed up! I will go through Don's e-mail and figure out how to sign up for auto view and let you know what happens.

So, we left the Mt. Shasta 'death trap' at 0800 yesterday. It was a little late but the snow flurries and frozen water hose slowed us down. I drove the Jeep until we came down out of the mountains and into the valley and then we hooked it on behind and made our way down I-5 and onto CA 99 and through more grape vineyards then I could have ever imagined. There were also a few miles of olive groves culminating in Corning, CA as the olive capital of the US. Who knew?

When we arrived at yesterday's destination, Chowchilla, CA, it was such a wonderful RV (and golf) resort that I nearly hugged the palm trees that were scattered around the concrete parking areas with landscaped sites and marine type electrical hookups. Back to 50 amps! I could run the heat AND the hot water heater at the same time! We celebrated by taking much needed showers and it was, like, 70 degrees outside and warmer inside. We then further celebrated by going into town to Frasiees' Steakhouse and Truck Stop. Hmmmm. I guess after the Mt. Shasta experience we were ready for anything and, good news for us, we're still alive.

We reluctantly left a little bit of heaven this morning and headed south and then east (yea!) at Bakersfield and toward yet more mountains with, gasp, snow on top. I gotta tell you that there were vineyards that went on for miles along the highway and as far back as the eye could see on both sides of the road. After so much greenery, we were a little shell shocked to be in the desert again. And let's be clear: If you can avoid driving across any part of the Mojave desert -- do it. It's so nasty out there even the cactus won't grow in any significant way. We arrived in Barstow, CA, another garden spot (NOT), early this p.m. and have done some needed maintenance and inside cleaning, although the hearty winds are blowing sand into every crevice -- on the RV. My crevices are staying inside and reading the first USA Today I've been able to find in 2-weeks.

Tomorrow we're off to Flagstaff, AZ where it's scheduled to be 29 degrees overnight and we'll probably even run into snow on I-40. Capt. Don can hardly wait. He filled up our very own coach water tanks so we won't have to run a hose tomorrow night. I'm helping out by making strange faces, rolling my eyes and pointing out that we both DID grow up in the Midwest and have driven in snow before. Of course we didn't usually have 40 mph wind whipping us across roads in Chicago and Indiana.