From Borrego Springs, CA to Why, AZ

(Why, AZ)  Ok, haven’t blogged for awhile so time to catch up.   We’ve been having some major downtime enjoying Southern California winter, highs in the upper 70’s, lows in the low 50’s with nothing but sunshine during the day.

It’s been a week now since we said our good-byes to  JoAnn and Doug  and left our boondocking site near Borrego Springs.   JoAnn snapped this shot as we pulled out.

We were not ready to head any farther north since we really enjoyed the warm weather.  For that reason, we decided to head back to the Rio Bend RV Resort in El Centro, CA since it made a really good spot for coming off the desert. We had intended to do their 3-nights-for-the-price-of-2 special and ended up, by the time it was all over, doing 6 nights for the price of 4. Ken seems to be losing his restlessness and need to move so often and that’s good by me. 

We didn’t do a lot in El Centro except take lots of long hot showers, wash the dogs, do laundry, sit in the sun and read, walk the dogs, clean the inside and outside of the RV, clean the inside and outside of the jeep, find a replacement for our 4 year old little vacuum and enjoy grilling and eating out.

 

I had suggested that I might go in to town for a pedicure.  That evening Ken snapped this shot of Sox giving me what he called a ‘pet-i-cure’ that he figured was probably close enough!

 

 

As usual, we met some nice neighbors at the resort.  Our neighbors across the street, like so many here, are from Quebec, and so they usually spoke French.  And, of course, with El Centro being 75% Hispanic, there was as much Spanish spoken around us as English.  We were sitting in the USA feeling like we were in a foreign country sometimes!

I’d suggest if  you are going to be at Rio Bend that you take in their Fish Fry on Friday nights at its a nice social event where we always were able to meet new and interesting travelers and enjoy some good fish and chips.

We’d also repeat our recommendation of the Italian Restaurant in El Centro called Cicinelli’s.  Ken and I had a second wonderful meal there.  In fact, I won’t make specific meal recommendations since every item we’ve ordered has been absolutely delicious.

Although we have cable at Rio Bend, Ken had the satellite up mostly so that we could continue to DVR our favorite broadcasts such as the couple hours of British BBC in the morning, the Daily Show, and the Tudors.  I personally really got caught up in the whole Egyptian revolution which was on every channel for a few days there.  I think this is a really historic time in history.  Who would ever have imagined that a major regime such as that of Mubarek could be overthrown by non-violent protest which was largely fueled by internet social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  Regardless of political views, it is intriguing to see technology is changing the role of the individual in government. 

We decided to skip a planned stop in Yuma, again.  We had intended to stop there to cross over to Los Algodones for a Mexico visit but decided we really had nothing we needed in terms of medical, dental, prescription or ‘hot buys’ that tended to be the attraction.  That meant we had trouble working up the motivation to deal with the possible hour-plus waits for the border crossing.  We were hoping to stop to see some RV friends there but weren’t finding any open RV parks that excited us, so instead we decided to drive through Yuma and head to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

I hadn’t driven much on this trip and so we decided a Sunday morning was a good time for me to get some time in behind the wheel.

 

We said good-bye to  the canals of the Imperial Valley

and the mounds of the Imperial Sand Dunes

And soon, we are once again seeing that wonderful triad of landscapes all before us at once, desert, then green valleys, with the mountains beyond.

We pulled in to Hickiwan Trails RV Park in Why, AZ, after a relatively easy 240 miles. 

I think we set a new record for ourselves in taking how long it took to decide on a site.  We had no Sprint cell phone service for the 50 miles since we left the interstate. I have to admit that in our 6 weeks on the road, we have been pleasantly surprised by our Sprint cell phone access --- this is the first time we’ve been parked where we didn’t have phone service.  No cell phone meant that wireless internet access was our only link to family and friends.  While this park advertises wifi, the signal is weak so there was a limited number of sites where we could actually get signed on.  This was disappointing since there were some sites we would have preferred that had nice desert views.  We finally settled on a site in a pretty congested area without views in order to have 1-2 bars wifi. 

The park has frequent visits from local wild burros who have learned to turn on the water spickets!  We found this out when Ken realized he would have to use a pliers to turn on the water.  The burros were good at turning on the water but didn’t seem to realize they were suppose to turn it off after they got a drink so they had to remove the handles! 

Sorry no burro pictures yet since they only seem to show up when I don’t have my camera!

We did hear them during the night braying to each other.   We’ve also been warned about a huge old bull and a mountain lion who has been prowling in the area so I’m thinking perhaps hiking expeditions might have some added adventure here!

According to neighbors, the opportunities to eat out are extremely limited so, even though it was a travel day, Ken and I worked together to throw together a pretty decent evening meal for ourselves.  One of the things I really like about our RVing time is that Ken and I seem to actually work together on more things than we do at home. 

 

 

 

 

In between cooking activities I snuck out for a few pictures of the mountains in the evening light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hugs, C