What a view going into Cochella Valley

Feb 1/17  Weather sunny and 78, low 55
When we drove into the Palm Springs area a few years ago we approached it from the Northwest.  This time we are westbound on Interstate 10, totally different view. There is a 6% grade for 10 miles descending into the Cochella Valley, which was no trouble just take our time.  

Cochella Valley map

The views out our motorhome window of the surrounding mountain ranges were beautiful and covered in "snow".    We had forgotten how high the ranges are and how low the valley is; it took us by surprise. 

interstate 10 westbound into Cochella Valley

look at those mountain tops

We are going to stay for a month in Indio which is a city in the Cochella Valley       (the others are La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Cochella, Indian Wells, Bermuda Dunes, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs) and do a bit more exploring of the area.  The motorcycle riding is great here with the nearby mountain ranges however; we might not be able to get into some of the roads as we heard there is up to 4 feet of snow over 7,000 feet!  Yikes!  How amazing is that?  In the Valley the weather is consistently beautiful 70's to 80's with low humidity.  Nice.

view from the pool/clubhouse area in our rv park

Our park for the month is Indian Waters RV Resort, nice park with a great view.  We have a big long pull thru, which is so much easier for us pulling the trailer.  The park has a calendar full of activities so Rosey just might have to partake in some; keep you posted on what those might be like.  No not bingo; thinking more along the lines of yoga and line dancing.  I got this Fitbit charge 2 for Christmas from my boys and it counts my steps everyday.  It is a great little gadget motivator.  Every hour it tells me to keep moving!!!   There is an older fellow (I will guess he is about 75) across from us and he wears a Fitbit.    He walks and goes to line dancing and it all counts as steps; he had over 12,500 the other day!  Gosh, I've been cruising along at 8,000 plus steps thinking that was ok.  So maybe line dancing is the key to health?  

that little wrist Fitbit will make you get up and go

Now made even better

Jan 31/17  Weather sunny, 77 high 52 low
Yuma is warming up day by day.  Soon in the 80's.  However we are moving on to California for Feb 1.   Yuma did have the best Fry's Grocery store we have ever been in.   While picking up some food we found a display of Ducktape with about 40 different scenes and colours !!!

flamingos walking along the little campers

Cloud Museum and a fine layer of dust

Jan 28/17  Weather sunny 75 high low 52

Johnny Cloud cruising around his museum talking to the patrons

There was a small brochure at the park office when we checked in that interested Billy so we thought we would go take a look today.  It is not far from Yuma about 10 miles into California near a little village called Bard.  We looked on Roadside America which often lists obscure and unusual places but did not see it in their listing.  After we spent a few hours at the personal museum of Johnny Cloud; we just might have to tell Roadside America about the place.  It definitely should be on their site...... and the American Pickers would have a ball at this place!

a very early bicycle

spinning wheel

Cushman scooter

 A long time Bard, California resident who began the collection in 1989. The collection includes cars, trucks, tractors, power tools, hand tools, household equipment, boat engines, wheels, items from local businesses including the old Bard Post Office, plus many more items too numerous to mention. The collection is vast, overwhelming, well organized, and incredibly impressive.  Oh and the fine layer of dust on everything is free!

parked outside, there is a honor system box inside the gate for $5 admission

a row of pulleys

a very old RV

branding irons

row after row of old vehicles

hey Billy and Rosey whatcha doing?

the cars and trucks are in pretty good shape

Did you eat your Vegetables?

Jan 27/17  Sunny 72 high, 50 low

cabbages

red lettuce and green lettuce

We went out into the nearby countryside about 50 miles for a ride and there are fields and fields of beautiful looking fresh veggies.  We saw kale, red lettuce, green lettuce, romaine lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts, date palms, oranges, lemons, and onions.  The fields were spotless from weeds.   We did see crews of workers hoeing in the fields. 

date gardens

large diesel powered pumps move irrigation water from the canals to flood the fields

Romaine Lettuce - so thick

After the notorious summer heat here in Yuma, the temperature drops just enough to create the country’s longest growing season.  Yuma County is the winter lettuce capital of the world, supplying a whopping 90% of the nation’s leafy vegetables between November and March.  The crops look beautiful.

Exploring Yuma

Jan 26/17  Weather sunny, 68 high low 48. 
We are happy with our choice of RV parks, although there are probably a hundred to choose from.  Down our street is an RV park and another RV park and our park and then another RV park and so on.  Anyways we are at Las Quintas RV and we have a big long pull thru so we don't have to unhook for the week.  Sorry, only drawback was the wifi was painfully slow and so no uploads to the blog till we get to the next stop. 

Do Terra at Yuma Market; made us think of our daughter she sells in Scotland

the veggie/fruit haul from the market plus 2 vanilla from Mexico

Every weekend the Yuma Market is open and we are on the hunt for Mexican Vanilla and fresh vegetables.  The market is the cleanest one we have been too in our travels and we scored big on what we wanted plus we picked up some new motorcycle sunglasses. 

Billy?  Billy now really was I that long????

On our way there we happened to pass a quilt shop and Billy made the turn in.  See what happens to husbands at quilt shops???  It was worthwhile as I did pick up some much needed material, now that is a big fat lie but there was some pretty cool southwest material that did make its way into our motorcycle.

Lutes Casino

beside us at the bar in Lutes

Stopped at the Harley shop which was a bit of a disappointment so the cure for that was to stop downtown at Lutes Casino.  Why a casino?  We are not sure but we were told it is a funky eclectic place and they have really good burgers.  Both are true.  Lutes is a place where you just keep looking at everything on the walls.  And the Burger was great + a cold beer at the bar.

Stuff everywhere and a lineup out the door tells you it must be worth waiting for

Road to Yuma

Jan 25/17 Weather sunny, 63 and 40 at night.  Great for driving. 
What is in Yuma, Az?  We don't know but we do know lots and lots of snowbirds go there. Over 100,000 snowbirds!!  Weather statistics state it is on average the sunniest and warmest spot in the United States.  

road to Yuma,,,, mostly nothing but mountainous landscapes

From Buckeye, our drive is short about 150 miles south then west to our  RV park in the Foothills of Yuma; Las Quintas RV Resort.  Must be busy, this was the third park I called to find a pull thru spot for the week.  
There are no towns or cities along the way. Nothing.  
What there is out in the middle of nowhere is a massive jail, massive solar panel field and massive cattle factories.  You cannot call these ranches or farms, truly they are 20th century animal factories.  

Arizona State Prison - Lewis Complex

The Lewis Arizona State Prison - is the jail we went by.  It has close to 5,000 inmates who are kept in 8 different units depending on severity.  Did you know in Arizona there are 10 state prisons and 6 privately owned state prisons???  In AZ 48,000 people in jail at a cost of $1 Billion dollars annually.   That is mind boggling.  But not as mind boggling as 1,600,000 in the entire United States in prison.  Highest % of people in prison per population than any other country in the world. And unlike China or North Korea where many are political imprisonments.   Makes you think doesn't it?

1,920 Acres of solar panels

Solana Generating Station

The Solana Generating Station is a 1,920 acre solar power near Gila Bend completed in 2013. When commissioned it was the largest parabolic trough plant in the world and the first U.S. solar plant with molten salt thermal energy storage. 

cattle feedlots - factories?

In the Wellton area the JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeding company have a capacity of 120,000 cattle.   That is a factory!!!!!    The company has a total of 980,000 cattle in the USA, in 6 states and another 75,000 head of cattle in Alberta, Canada. 

The analogy of today's drive is that when you think you are in the middle of no where - look around.  What do you see?  What is going on?  What is that?  What are they doing?  Why?  You just never know.  That's what we love about moving around.

West of Phoenix

Jan 24/17. After a successful stop at Chucks we decided to head a short distance west of Phoenix to Buckeye.  A lucky omen as our good friends are Buckeyes!  The town was named after a fellow who developed the nearby canal , called Buckeye canal.  He used the moniker of  his home state of Ohio.  

This park, Leaf Verde RV Resort, is quite nice and for many reasons we will come back in the future.   The area is near Indians and Reds baseball spring training and the NASCAR track.   The park has so many activities it takes 2 pages, one morning and one afternoon.  Gives you lots of choices to get involved.  There is a shuttle to the airport, on site warehousing, huge long level pull thrus.  Everyone is very friendly.  Elevation is 1100 feet which would be a good spot to be around our time to fly back at Christmas, no worries about frost.  Monthly Price was reasonable too, we will keep this place in mind for another year. 

Love the Plate on this Big Rig - 1FNTRK

Now that is some transportation

RV park has a beautiful mountain surrounding 

RV and Speed. Really?

Jan 24/17  Weather  - sunny but cool-ish.  60 high, night 35.  Winter storms seemed to have passed and the forecast is warming up.
Hooking up and moving on from Val Vista RV Resort in Casa Grande was so easy, everyone around us was very helpful pushing the trailer out and getting us connected.  Long time in one spot for us, since Nov 13. 

up ahead is the old GMC on a hoist, us lined up for service

this Vette is in cause it had no reverse

We have an appointment in Phoenix to work on our Banks Power System.  Basically this is an add on to boost our performance and horsepower on the engine.  You could say we have our engine "chipped up".  That is where RV and Speed come together!    It makes such a difference; without it Billy thinks our coach has no umph!!!   Since Little Rock, Arkansas our unit has been disabled since it malfunctioned.  Billy called Banks help line and they suggested Chuck's RV and Speed; he has been in the business for 50 years and that is the place we need to go to.  It turns out that Chuck's is "excellent".  They did some trouble shooting and determined no fix is needed AND they have our Banks system back up and running.  For now they suggest we drive it and use it and let them know down the road if any glitches happen; we have to return back this way in a month so we can always come back.  Happens we were the minority vehicle there.

 One other motorhome was up on a hoist - an old GMC classic that the owner has invested over $250,000 to date and much more funding to come to finish it.  Chuck's had all kinds of old muscle cars being worked on.  The shop was spotless.  They invited us to walk around and take a look.   Very impressive, and they have a Dyno too.

this one sounds good - quite a rumble

cool

and another one and look behind it - 4 corvettes on the racks

Winter in the Desert

San Tan Mountains

Weather - last 10 days (Jan 11/17 to Jan 21/17)  sunny, cool, cloudy, rain?  yes rain..... in fact it reminds us of Scotland.  We have had all 4 seasons in 1 day.    Mostly it is jeans and sweatshirt weather.  We had 1 day at 69 and most have been around 60.  We are glad the nights are not too bad at 45 +.   We have never spent time in Arizona in January.  Apparently this is considered their winter weather and often January is not a warm month; and they get storms from Southern California every few days; we didn't know that.  We actually had one day it showered all day.  To us this was "amazing".   We have never seen it rain in the Desert.   So we haven't done too much riding since we returned from home.

nice riding into San Tan Valley

 The warm day we did throw on our leather jackets and ride up to San Tan Valley, just east of Phoenix.   Friends we made in Maui in 2010 have stayed in touch and we spent the afternoon sitting in the sun at a an outdoor bar/grill.

walking into San Tan Flats Bar and Grill

San Tan Flats Bar and Grill - lots of country music

We had a roadrunner who kept us company the whole time - guess he was looking for some scraps.  He was very bold; sitting right up beside our picnic table just checking out our food!

our little Road Runner

When a Deal is not really a Deal

Dec 13/16 to Jan 11/17  Christmas Trip Home
Weather in Ontario was not that bad.  When we first got home it was snowy but that quickly went away and for a couple weeks was mild enough to walk outside each day with a winter jacket.  The second week into January did get a cold and windy spell.  All in all not that bad.
We thoroughly enjoyed staying in Rondeau at Bye the Bay B & B.  This is a 3 story log cabin home.  We had the top floor to ourselves, and the 2nd floor and the 1st floor.  The owners were gracious enough to let us stay the month while they were in Florida.  How nice people truly are when you tell them your situation.  (We want to come home to see our 90 year old mom for Christmas).  Inside the rooms are all wood too. 

our suite

Weather in Arizona was mostly in the low 60's and down to 33 at night.  This is the neighbours report when we returned back to Casa Grande.  Apparently there were a few cloudy and rainy days too.   So a touch of winter in the desert as well.  Good news is that it was never freezing as we did not winterize our coach before heading home.   We could not find an indoor warehouse in Arizona to store it so we left it hooked up on our site.   The park is gated and secure especially since we have two little dogs next door that literally go crazy everytime we walk outside!!!  Watch dogs........   what can we say. 

Frontier airlines

So the Deal was the flight from Phoenix to Detroit non-stop on Frontier Airlines.  $122 usf inclusive of all taxes.   We could only take a bag small enough to fit under our seat.  No bags, no seat selection.  Really that is an incredibly cheap price for a flight of 4 + hours.   Check out the tail on each plane, they have a different animal painted on them.  We had a Husky going home and a Killer Whale coming back.  The kids flying can also get the collectors card for the animal when they board.  Other than that it is a no frills flight.  Oh yes you do get a free glass of water.  Ha ha.  Bring your own peanuts!

Westin Detroit Airport Hotel

Remember going home is a process.   We had a shuttle from the RV Park to Sky Harbour Airport in Phoenix.  Then the airline ticket.  Then we took Detroit Limo Service from Detroit Metro to Windsor since we didn't get in till almost 1 am.  (Time change of 2 hours).  A night at the Holiday Inn Suites in Windsor.  Next morning our son who lives in Windsor picked us up and took us to the farm.  Then we use the car left at the farm for the month.  Going back is a reverse process.  We take the car to the farm and put it away.  Then my brother gave us a ride to Chatham Bloomfield stop to get picked up by Robert Q shuttle.  The shuttle took us to Detroit Metro Westin Airport Hotel.  Next morning we had a 7 am flight back to Phoenix and then the same shuttle picked us up and took us back to the RV park.  Here is the total cost for that month travel excursion $2500 Canadian funds.  Sounds crazy when you look at the cost but there is no cost that can replace having your Mom at 90 years old.

Wildlife in Rondeau

Jan 2/2017 looked out our B &B window this morning and what did we see?

4 deer sauntering along