Got out of Vegas alive!

We made it back to Bakersfield with our wallets!  A friend gave us tickets to Blue Man Group and that was very nice of her.  We saw them in New York about 10 years ago, and the show is very similar, but different.  A good show, but expensive if you have to pay for it.  We also saw Frank Marino's Devia show at the Imperial Palace.  This was Sandy's favorite show when he was at the Riviera many years ago.  I think we've seen it about 15 times now, and still enjoy it.

Our new favorite Casino is  the Jokers Wild, out in Henderson.  We have a nice time out there and it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg.  $1 Craps and $3 Blackjack you can play a long time.  

We stopped at the Borax mine on the way home.  Very interesting, they don't make soap there anymore.  The Twenty Mule Team has been replaced by 250 ton ore trucks and long........ trains.  Borates are found in fiberglass, ceramics, detergents, fertilizers, wood preservatives, insecticides, glass, and many more products.  There are only a few mines in the world.  This mine started in 1927 as an underground mine, and went open pit in the 1950's.  

When we pulled into camp there was this beautiful fragrance in the air!  The Orange Trees are in full bloom!  Wow what a sweet smell!  The trouble is now we can't pick the remaining oranges.  They don't want us knocking off the delicate blossoms, bummer.  I've learned a little about the life cycle of oranges, just from observations.  After picking they come right back in to prune up the trees, because once the blossoms set you don't want to mess up next years crop.  I guess the oranges turn right around and produce fruit again and take all summer to ripen, until harvest next February.  Wow, that's a long time.  All the grape yards are leafing out now, do they have blossoms too?  The nectarines were in big full bloom before we left last week.  Their orchards look like fresh snow with all the while blossoms now on the ground.  Spring has sprung in the California farm fields!  

Boondocking in Quartzsite

Our first real boondocking trip where we were planning to stay out a week or more.  We've been talking about it for a few months.  Then Sandy picked up a job in California the first part of February, so now Quartzsite is now right on the way to her work!  Gee how that just happened.

So, we looked around and found a good land mark to find our campsite, follow the yellow boot road........  Someone had decorated a desert trail with yellow boots and hats.  

We had a perfect spot right next to elephant tree, right out in the middle of nowhere, except for the other couple of thousand boondockers.  We got up on a little rise and could see hunderds of encampments through out the valley around this little town.  Each year this town gets over run with snow birds for the 10 day RV show, then Rock and Gem show, then the car show, during January and February.   

I don't have anything to compare this show with, but our neighbors tell me that there are not as many vendors at this show and the prices are higher, because the booth rentals are very expensive.  I don't know, but I do think we had better pricing at the FMCA show last spring.  So, we didn't spend a lot of money here, and we cut our stay shorter than what we planed, just because we saw it all and decided to hit the road.  It was pretty neat staying out in the desert, conserving our resources to see how long we could last, and we did a good job of it.  

Oh, and we met some interesting people on the road too.  

Sonora Desert Museum

We’re staying a few days in Green Valley Arizona, just south of Tucson.  We met up with some friends of Sandy's who she met in Australia a few years ago.  We had a great time with Al and Eleanor and toured the Sonora Desert Museum.  What a great place that was, we spent all day out in the desert with perfect weather.  If you are ever in this part of the country, this is a beautiful place.

Everything was outdoors; my highlight was a Rapture show where 4 Harris Hawks swooped over our heads.  These birds have adapted to the desert by hunting in a pack.  When the prey hides under a thorny bush, one hawk will land and attempt to flush the prey out the other side, where the others will be waiting on perches above.  These birds are like a pack of wolves, where there is an Alpha male and female, and two junior birds.  

They have other exhibits too, like mountain lions, bears, a hummingbird aviary, another bird aviary, bighorn sheep, and I've never heard of so many different rattle snakes!     

Northern Cal Redwoods

We made our way down from Crater Lake to the northern California coast to see the redwoods.  We came down highway 199, with our super-duper Trucker's GPS squawking the whole way "Not a Truck Route", and my navigation backup, the Rand McNally Trucker's Atlas, said the same thing.  But the signs said we were OK, only no trailers over 60', and we met some REALLY long trucks on some curves that were well over THAT limit!  Anyway we made it.

This tree couldn't wait for the Redwood
to decompose...

I talked to the nice Ranger about trimming trees, and he asked where we traveled from.  He told us that Oregon has THE BEST State Parks, and don't expect that in California, we charge more and give you a lot less.......  OK, scratch the Cal State Parks from our list, Walmart offers more.  He told us all the hot spots to see the Redwoods, his park and more down the coast.  We have to do a lot of hiking these next few days, because I fear in San Francisco we'll be doing a lot of EATING!

There was one tree along side the road on the inside of a curve that was notched so the big trucks wouldn't hit it.  Another tree I saw needed an notch because it was scared up, wouldn't like to be the truck to have hit it!

Tree Hugger

Spooky in the fog.

This was as tall as a Rail Car!

My rig is dwarfed by this tree.

Made in America

ABC News has a series going on this week called Made in America.  It's been very interesting so far, but it got me to thinking: Buy an RV this year, it's Made in America!  You'll help the economy, you'll see the sights, and it's a great family outing!   I know, gas prices are going up, that just means used RV prices are going down!  You can always buy used camping gear on Craig's List, or borrow from a friend.  For less than the price of a hotel room, you can drive to a state campground, sit around the campfire, teach the kids how to make S'mores,  go hiking, and just GET AWAY FROM IT ALL.  Get the kids together and go in the woods, it's the best and cheapest family time you can have!
You don't have to go very far to find a state campground.  My favorite memories as a kid were our two week summer family campouts.  My own children have grown and gone, but they still remember camping and playing board games in the tent before bed.  I know, because they will start talking, just out of the blue, about some trip we took once.   You don't have to be the wilderness guy from discovery channel, you can learn as you go.  Start out small, over night trips, not much to cook.  You have to get your feet wet setting up the tent for the first time, or backing the RV in the camp site the first time.  Don't worry, we've all been there!
Contribute to buying and doing things Made in America, and camping IS Made in America, camping IS what Lewis and Clark did, way back when!