By this Author: Darrowood

We made it to Grass Valley CA!! We pulled into the RV Storage facility with minutes to spare. Jimmy was there to greet us. We parked the Rig and grabbed our overnight bags and we were off. Jimmy showed us place he and Becca are moving into. And we got to meet Becca’s Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. We had a nice dinner and then rested our weary heads at the Gold Miners Inn.

what a trip it has been. We are very glad to be here.

Today we drove through the desert. The amount of solar and wind power they are installing is mind blowing. There are power lines everywhere along with massive power plants. We stopped in Adalento to check on the property that Paul purchased 40 years ago. The property is still there and still undeveloped. We will just keep on hanging on to it and paying those taxes. We made it to farm town called Vidalia, about 50 miles north of Bakersfield CA in the San Joaquin valley. Driving to the KOA the road was closed and traffic was detoured. We arrived at the campground and asked the nice person checking us in what was going on. Apparently, the police and FBI had arrested 2 people in a cartel related murder. Wow….we were sure glad we had our BB gun with us. It made us feel much safer.

We left Tucson AZ bright and early. Traveling 10 west we were impressed with the saguaro cactus and Joshua trees. Came upon Quartsite AZ. This appeared to be an alternative community of thousands of RV campers living in the middle of desert. It was like the great full dead meets the burning man festival. We drove on through and decided we would be happier staying at the KOA in desert hot springs/Joshua tree National forest. The views of the snow capped mountains in the distance are amazingly beautiful.

We left El Paso with cold windy conditions and the threat of rain but it quickly warmed up and the sun came out. We traveled 10 west toward Tucson AZ. We were looking for old west ghost towns no luck but we found plenty of 21st century ghost towns on our back road travels through Texas and New Mexico. Good thing we canceled our big bend National park trip because we heard they had freezing rain and ice. Instead we stayed in an over 55 RV community on steroids in Tucson AZ. It’s “the Florida Villages” of the west.

Today we traveled from San Antonio to El Paso. The ice storm on 10 westbound was hard going. We have never seen so many pileups. Our hearts go out to those that were injured and those that lost their lives.

We stayed the night at hidden lakes campground just outside of El Paso. It was pretty and peaceful. You can almost reach out and touch Mexico from here. Las Cruces and then AZ here we come.