Rollercoaster fun!

What a fun day we had yesterday. Our friends Stan, Colleen, John, and Janice in one car, and me, Ruth, Tony, and Helen in the other and we took off to explore San Diego area. Not much California sunshine, but at least we didn't get rained on. Still, the temperature was nice.

First stop was Mission Beach.

Visiting with some of our Mexico RV Caravan group!

Another travel day for us yesterday as we made our way from Borrego Springs to Lakeside, which is a suburb of San Diego.  Only a distance of about 72 miles (115 kms), so we had time for a hike first!

We drove to the trailhead for the Palm Canyon hike and paid the $8 USD ($10.50 CAD) day use fee. A little pricey, but at least there were four of us.

Borrego Springs is kind of an odd place

Odd, but worth a visit. Apparently they say that Borrego Springs was slotted in to become the next Palm Springs, but it's never realy taken off the same way.

We had decided to stay at Peg Leg Smith Monument another night just so that we could explore the town and area.

March Expenses

A bit of an expensive month but nothing that was entirely unexpected, so that was the bright side. A big chunk of it was fuel costs to get from the centre of Mexico up to the U.S. border, but we also had some dental bills.

And, I bought a couple of things on Amazon. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard month. We spent a total of $2,150 CAD ($1,650 USD). The following amounts are in Canadian dollars, so for USD equivalent you can subtract about 25%.

Not according to plan, but still a good day.

Well, yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but it was still a good day. Nice to be able to show Helen and Tony that things don't always go the way you'd like them to with our lifestyle, but you just roll with it and tomorrow is another day.

We decided that we had seen everything we wanted to in the general area near Jumbo Rocks Campground in Joshua Tree National Park and that we would head for the southern campground called Cottonwood.

Another great day in Joshua Tree National Park

Written Wednesday morning, April 6th.

Around 8:30am yesterday morning, I saw a park ranger walk by with some paperwork in his hand. I went out and flagged him down to ask about their "campground full" signs.

He says "I've only found three vacant this morning."

And I replied "Yeah, but yesterday when we arrived just before noon the sign said campground full, yet we found  at least a dozen empty sites".

Campground full? Not really...

Written Tuesday morning, April 5th.

We were headed up to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday morning, and we wanted to get a fairly early start to be able to snag one of the first come, first serve camping sites at Jumbo Rocks Campground. So at 8:00am, Ruth took Helen and Tony back to Walmart for a few last minute items in case we ended up staying up there for three nights.

Meanwhile, I got Sherman all packed up and ready to go.

Overlooking Palm Springs

We set off at 9:00am yesterday morning to do part of the hike up the mountain in behind the RV park. Almost too late, because things warm up quite quickly here in the desert and they were calling for a high of 92F (33C).

But, we had our Tilley hats with us, and lots of water.

Surprise visitors!

We didn't have much planned for yesterday, but we needed to stock up on a few things. So we hopped in the Beetle and drove 4 miles (6.5 kms) to the nearest Walmart. It's always interesting to check out prices and produce in a different country, so Helen and Tony (visiting us from England) enjoyed that part of the outing.

Nice to see my favorite Mexican beer at a great price in Walmart. 24 bottles of Pacifico for $21.97 USD ($28.60 CAD). Might have to go pick up another box before we leave here since Tony likes it as well.

Arrived in Palm Springs!

First order of business yesterday morning was to pick up our rental car. I had it booked at an Enterprise location about 3 miles (5 kms) away, but I had made a slight error and booked it for 12 noon. It was booked at a fantastic rate, and I tried to change the pickup time the day after I booked it but we would lose the great rate. So I left it booked for noon.

I called them to see if we could pick up early, and they said no...it wouldn't be ready until noon.

A nightmare of cars, buses, and taxis

Up early yesterday morning, and out for another hike just after 9:00am. A little shorter than the one the day before, but still a good workout before noon!

Lots of fun staying with Tamara and Mike, but you better be prepared to get some exercise! We've now hiked 18 miles (29 kms) over two days! Sure feels good to get back into it.

Los Angeles area is full of contrasts

What we learned yesterday is that the greater Los Angeles area is full of contrasts. They say that the area contains about 18.5 million people, and they must all own cars. And it seems that everybody is driving them all at the same time. There certainly is lots of traffic.

But while the traffic is hard to get away from, there are a lot of places in the greater metro area where you really do seem to be away from it even though it's always very close by.

We made it!

We were up yesterday morning at 6:00am, and got on the road right away. They were still calling for winds, but when we got up it was fairly calm. So we got a solid two hour drive in before we stopped for breakfast just outside of Palm Springs.

This was the last of our long driving days. We've now done 1,800 miles (3,000 kms) over the last two weeks since we left central Mexico.

Back to boondocking!

Not a very fun drive yesterday. We don't enjoy traveling on the Interstate highways to begin with, and that whole route from Phoenix area to the California border on the I-10 is quite simply...boring.

Add to that a strong crosswind that got worse as the day progressed. But still, we made it to our planned destination for the night.

No Mexico for us next year!

Woke up yesterday morning, and moved the motorhome to a nearby Safeway grocery store parking lot. We had been parked in a church lot, but of course Easter Sunday means that most churches would be busy.

Then, we went in to do some grocery shopping. Yikes!