Friday, February 2, 2007
Stagecoach Trails, Julian, CA - Jan 31-Feb 1
Most Passport America parks have a limit on the number of days you can stay. This park has the unique requirement that you must stay at least 2 nights. Thus, we could stay one night for $22, or two nights for $22. Our reservation with Pat & Dennis started Feb 1, so we called ahead and were told that arriving a day later would not present a problem.This park is surrounded by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and is mainly geared for campers with horses, with large pull-through spots and lots of corrals. The address is Julian, but that little town is about 10 miles away and 3000 feet higher. You wouldn't want to take your trailer there!
Julian was founded just after the Civil War by a pair of cousins and ex-Confederate soldiers seeking their fortunes in the largely unsettled West. They were still there when Fred Coleman, a black cattleman, found a few flecks of gold in a creek in 1869, starting a brief gold rush. Many of the brick & wood buildings constructed in the 1870s still survive.
Julian is most famous for its apples - Julian apples took 1st Prize in competitions at the Chicago and San Francisco World's Fairs, as well as top awards at the LA County Fair for 22 years - and more specifically for its apple pies. Julian pies are sold all over Southern California and are shipped all around the world. We each had a slice at a market in Santa Ysabel and they truly are that good. We followed our yummy dessert with dinner of pizza in Wynola.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
SKP Kofa Ko-Op, Yuma, AZ - Jan 24-30
The last time we tried staying here it was full, but that was immediately after the big Quartzsite gathering (typically runs the last 2 weeks of January). We hoped to have better luck getting in during "Q", and we did. This is another RV co-op built by members of Escapees. We have no interest in putting our name on the list for a lot here, even though Yuma is generally quite warm in winter & the people here are friendly. Yuma is ugly with bad traffic. They do have a killer bridge group where we could really hone our skills, but at $6 each we would go broke even faster.We enjoyed eating out at two different restaurants with our Freethinker friends: Howard & Marilyn from The Ranch, Lloyd Treichel, and Bill Garmire. The conversation was quite stimulating.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Pioneer RV Park, Wellton, AZ - Jan 23
We only stayed one night here also, in part due to our schedule, but mainly because they out-and-out lied to us. When we called to see if there was space for us, they said probably not in with hook-ups, only in boondocking. "But" they said, boondocking includes electricity. Of course, once we got there (and had to wait over an hour), they changed their tune -- it turns out only a few boondocking sites have electric, and the one camper they were counting on leaving decided to stay. So they led us to the "boondocking area" which is little better than a wide spot by the road, not much different than pulling off the side of a road in town except that here we were only 100 feet from I-8. Our good friends Shirley & Henry were staying here, & it was good to see them, but we will not be back to this park. Doug & Henry had a good time laughing at the pictures of the Banzai Pipeline competition in Hawaii that Doug's son-in-law Bryan took. Some surfer mag paid his airfare & hotel expenses to photo the competition, and the pictures (at www.pezpix.com) are great -- funny, if you enjoy seeing upside-down surfers about to find out why they use beach sand to make sandpaper.Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Augie's Quail Trail, Gila Bend, AZ - Jan 22
We only stayed one night at this Passport America park, partly because we started heading towards CA later than we originally planned, and partly because there really is not a lot to do in Gila Bend. At $11/night for full hookups, the park makes an acceptable alternative to dry-camping, but we have recently heard (but have not verified) that Augie's no longer accepts Passport America. $22/night when Gila Bend is literally surrounded by thousands of acres of dry-camping for free is no choice at all. We wish them luck trying to create a "destination park" in an area that is NOWHERE!Monday, January 22, 2007
Madison Driveway, Tucson, AZ - Dec 30-Jan 21
As of our last update, we were parked in Doug's dad's driveway because Gayle had fallen and cracked his left femur shortly before Christmas. Since we were conveniently in Benson at the time, we drove the 60 miles and parked at his house in order to oversee the first stage of his rehab. It's not often that we can park our trailer in one spot for over 3 weeks without dumping, but since Gayle's house was available for showers & other bathroom & kitchen necessities, we were able to keep from filling either holding tank. Luckily, we arrived just in time for the New Year's Eve fireworks display put on by Westward Look (a resort just across the street from Gayle's house), preceded by a delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant with friends from the Boulder area who happened to be vacationing nearby.
Initially, much of our time was spent shopping & cooking, but with Gayle's in-home physical therapy doing wonders, our time helping gradually diminished until we were only cooking dinners and providing companionship. It was nice being able to spend time with Gayle, but we certainly were not chained to the house. We managed to get away to play bridge a few times and take in a movie ("Flushed Away" -- quite funny but we'll probably rent the DVD since we missed half of it laughing at the other half). We visited nearby Gallery in the Sun, designed by artist Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia. 
Constructed with traditional adobe bricks crafted on-site, it is home to nearly 15,000 DeGrazia originals. Doug was fully prepared to dislike the museum, but we were both actually fascinated by the tracing of his changing style over the years, including a Master of Arts thesis from the University of Arizona exploring the relationship of art and music.
Gayle had inherited a Lincoln Town Car from Gertie, but was unable to register it due to administrative red tape -- a sore subject for Gayle for at least a year. We decided to give it a try. First we got online & then managed to get to car inspected and registered in a single morning. Gayle was quite surprised & pleased (as were we!). Brother Bob's arrival allowed us to continue with our travel plans to meet up with friends in Yuma and CA.Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Madison Driveway, Tucson, AZ - Dec 30-Jan ??
Now we are parked in Gayle's driveway. Gayle's progress has been amazing -- he is a model student, doing all the exercises that the home therapist assigns. We saw in the New Year watching a short (~5 min) but exciting fireworks display put on by Westward Look Resort. The fireworks are launched at the stables right across the street from Gayle's house, so we just pulled up a couple of lawn chairs, sat back, and enjoyed.
While here we received some very sad news -- our rental agent in Longmont wrote to tell us that Trish Lehman, the grad student who was renting our condo, died while cross-country skiing alone on Christmas Day. We did a search and found articles written in the local papers. They described a pleasant, out-going teacher admired by friends & coworkers. We both had been looking forward to meeting her when we visit the Boulder area the summer. Now we both have a great sense of loss for a person we never knew, but are almost certain we would have liked.
The cats are still doing well. Rainbow always seems cold (she sits in front of the heater when it's not on and meows meaningfully while making fierce eye contact!), so we bought her a little pet sweater. She didn't take to it -- after sulking around with her tail down, she managed to Houdini her way out of it three different times. Next we're going to try a electric heated cat bed that turns on when it feels a cat on it. If it works, we'll probably have to get another, since Amber will almost certainly take it over. We already have two non-electric thermal-pad blankets, which the cats like. However, they don't seem to be warm enough for those cold mornings.