JANUARY - MARCH 2014
THE SLABS, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO and TEXAS
Travelogue#1 Travelogue#2 Travelogue#3 Travelogue#4 Travelogue#5 Travelogue#6 Travelogue#7 Travelogue#8 Travelogue#9 Travelogue#10
TRAVELOGUE # 1
January 6, 2014
Greetings to everyone! And wishing you a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I'm on the road again! I left Lopez on Sunday Dec. 29th and headed south. The first day, I met Kelley for brunch and made it as far as Seattle! Had a lovely evening with the Keelers at their son's house in Queen Anne. The second day I made it as far as Salem OR. Then I chose to cut over to 101 on the coast to avoid having to go over the high mountain passes, since rain was forecast. That allowed us to stop at one of my (and Sunna's) favorite places: the Oregon Dunes. I thought about stopping at a casino on New Year's Eve, but decided something quieter suited me more, so I stopped at an RV park in Bandon OR. Had cookies and eggnog to celebrate, watched the ball drop in NY (had cable), then went to bed! The next day (HAPPY NEW YEAR!) we continued south and stopped at a lovely park in the redwoods. I made it to Oakland on the 2nd and stopped at Carol and John's house. Spent some time on Friday working with Carol on her website (see www.caroltanenbaumdesigns.com ), then Brian Nippa and his wife Karen joined us for a wonderful salmon dinner prepared by John (chef extraordinaire).
From Oakland I headed southeast mostly on Route 99 and made it as far as Bakersfield. Nice park with a spa for a welcome soak! Headed south some more and made it to Banning. We drove thru Palm Springs and now I'm only a short distance to my final destination. Since I had been doing so much highway driving, I decided to stay here for 2 nights to relax, refill, do some computer stuff, and do laundry and dump before proceeding.
Next stop, tomorrow: Slab City. The LOWS group has an encampment in what is an unregulated open desert area where camping is free but no services are available (known as "boon docking"). So for the next 5 or 6 days I'll probably be out of touch via computer or cell phone, sharing time and stories with other RVers and learning more about boon docking. I expect to be in Yuma AZ on the 12th.
That's it for now. The adventure begins! Next installment: who knows?
From down south, where it's been in the 60s – 70s during the day!
Ann
Sunna enjoying the beach and the Oregon Dunes
Hit the 100000 mile mark on my 24 year old RV!
The sun low over the Oregon Coast
Driving thru the redwoods.
Brian, Karen, and Carol
John
A photo taken from the Oakland Hills overlooking the Bay and San Francisco. You can even see Mount Tamalpais in the distance.
Sunset over the desert from Banning.
If you wish to receive my travel updates in email, contact me at apalmer123@msn.com