4/4/08 (Friday): We took a day off today for a little housework and shopping. I've got dinner in the crockpot (something I miss when we're on the road all day), I'm watching cable TV and enjoying my nice, clean home. So, of course, my thoughts turned to blogging! I'll catch you up to the present time before we head East again tomorrow morning.

So ... my last blog was about our tour of the Mojave Desert. The next day was going to be a short drive to Williams, AZ, gateway to the Grand Canyon. So we planned a little detour to Chloride, AZ (see the map). Chloride is in the high desert (4,009 feet) of NW Arizona. It's VERY dry and is billed as "the ghost town that never quite died." It has a population of 250 people and looks pretty poverty stricken, even in the ghost-free parts of town. Chloride dates back to 1862. In its heyday, there were over 70 silver mines in the area. Its website says that Chloride has the largest collection of yard art anywhere. I guess you could call it that! It looked an awful lot like junk to us--bathtubs, old wheels and auto parts. You get the idea.

This is the jail.

I think Wiley offended one of the yard art patrons. His cell didn't even have a cot in it!

The bank didn't look terribly secure. I think we'll stick with keeping our cash under the mattress.There was no price on these gas pumps. We paid $3.57 just outside of town.

We had lunch in the only restaurant in town. Wiley had the burger, which wasn't bad. I thought some homemade chile would hit the spot. I'm pretty sure the chile I was served was made in the home of the Hormels! It was an interesting stop, but I'm very glad we weren't planning it as a major highlight of our journey!

We arrived at our hotel in Williams, AZ (see map) at about 2 PM. The hotel is right next to the historic train depot and looks like it was built a long time ago, but it was actually built in 1995. It was quite comfortable and clean. Our package included dinner and breakfast the next morning (both buffets) in a nearby restaurant. We were quite pleased with the package we bought.






After a good night's sleep and breakfast, we caught the Grand Canyon train. It has a historic steam engine and the cars are restored from early 20th century trains from all over the U.S. It's about a 2-hour train trip to the Grand Canyon. Williams has a lot of lovely, refreshing evergreens with snow-capped peaks in the distance. After the first hour of the trip, though, we went through a transition zone of short grass prairie, then high desert.




Despite the fact that I've been to the Grand Canyon before, and knew when we got off the train that we were at the Grand Canyon, it still took my breath away to step off the train and walk over to the edge of this wonder filled place. After a short lunch break, we boarded a bus for a tour. There really is no way to capture the breadth of the vistas, the colors and textures. Incredible!

To save space and time, here's a link to lots of information and pictures about the Grand Canyon. Those of you who want to check out the history, geology, etc., can check out this link. I'm just going to post some of my photos for your viewing please, without any commentary.

Right now, we're in Holbrook, AZ (between Flagstaff and Albuquerque). Check out the link to the map. Yesterday, we toured the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. I'll blog that the next time we have an internet connection. I've spent a lot of time on this blog, so I hope I get some comments! The next couple of days will mostly be a lot of freeway driving, so I don't expect to blog again soon. Have a great week!

4/2/08 (Wednesday): Hello from Williams, Arizona. We saw the Grand Canyon today. Wow! But I'm going to keep you in suspense for a little while longer about that. Tonight's blog will cover our trip from Piru through the Mojave Desert. Because so many folks enjoyed the maps on the trip West, click on this link to see our route East (so far): Map.






The ride along I-40 was spectacular--so beautiful that it felt as much like a vacation as arriving at our destination. We reached elevations of 6,000-7,000 feet. There was snow on top of some of the mountains, even though the outside temperature was very pleasant. There weren't as many wildflowers in bloom here (it was very dry) as in CA, but the ones that were in bloom were really neat. This is desert primrose. It grows out of the bare sand in basketball-sized clumps. Traffic was light and the truck and RV behaved beautifully.


Our first stop was Mojave National Preserve (still in California). We had the 5th wheel behind us, of course, so we didn't get to visit many of the spots we'd have liked because of road limitations. But it's a 1.6 million acre park, and we were quite content with the tiny fraction of it that we saw. Among other amazing sights we saw were: singing sand dunes, volcanic cinder cones, and desesrt wildflowers.




This is the Kelso Visitor Center, which is interesting in itself. On 1862, the Union Pacific Railroad wanted to reach the rich California markets and the ports around Los Angeles. To get there, it needed to construct a railroad line across the Mojave Desert. Kelso was crucial to reaching that goal. Construction of the line begain almost simultaneously in Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles. The name Kelso comes from a railroad worker, whose name was drawn from a hat. The building dates from the early 1900's. We watched a very informative film about the Mojave Desert and then took a short walk.

On the 40+mile drive to the visitor center, we had a good view of the Kelso Dunes (the light colored dunes in the distance of this picture). These dunes were created by northwesterly winds carrying sand grains from a nearby dry lake bed. A mountain range traps the blowing sand. The entire dune system was created over a 25,000 year time period. The dunes are about 700 feet high and cover a 45 square mile area. The most interesting thing about them is that they make a booming or rumbling sound when the sand slides down the steep slopes. People drive a long sandy road, hike to the top and then run down the side to make the sand slide and boom. We didn't do this, but we heard the sound in the movie at the visitor center.

Just past Kelso Dunes, the mountains turned very dark (black and red) and had little or no vegetation on them. The whole area was volcanic, and we were looking at cinder cones and ancient lava flows. Scientists believe the cones range in age from 10,000 to 7 million years. And yet, in all those years, very little vegetation has gotten a foothold.






Our next stop in the Mojave Desert was Amboy Crater, an ancient cinder cone that was used to test the Mars rover. There were lots of lava flows--the whole area was so desolate it was hard to believe the eruption was about 6,000 years ago!

The next blog will be about our trip to the Grand Canyon (with a brief stop in the ghost town of Chloride).

Happy trails!

3-31-08 (Monday): Farewell Lake Piru! We're in Kingman, Arizona tonight, on our way to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

But first, I have some catching up to do on our Lake Piru great adventure.

We had an Easter celebration for the campers and some locals the Saturday before Easter. My fellow Workamper and friend, Linda, and I spent several hours doing face painting. It was great fun for me, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. We had a long line--must have painted 50 kids' faces!


These are the General Managers, Nita and Lon.

This is Lon with Becky, one of our new Workampers.

We enjoyed a last week at beautiful Lake Piru with my son, Mark, and his family.

We said "goodbye" to the Pacific Ocean at a little Ventura County beach.

We fed the fish at the fish hatchery just down the road from the campground.

We went to the honey farm and tasted lots of different kinds of honey. My favorite was avocado honey. Each of the boys got to buy a jar, too. Austin liked his so well that he took the whole jar on a hike the next day and ate about a third of it. He was on a sugar high for the rest of the visit!

We spent another day at the Santa Monica pier, where Wiley went fishing and the rest of us enjoyed the little amusement park (which is right on the pier).
On Thursday, we hiked from the campground all the way to the far end of the lake (note the honey in Austin's hand!). He also found a green caterpillar on the way up. He named it "Jo Jo," and we left him with deep regret in a new home, which we assured Austin was superbly suitable for a friendly green caterpillar. The knoll upon which we sit in this picture was named "Jo Jo's Knoll" in Jo Jo's honor.












The wildflowers were incredibly beautiful. It was a great hike and a wonderful way to end our stay at Lake Piru.

On Friday, Mark took us all to Disneyland. We had a wonderful (and very long) day. The boys enjoyed the rides and I enjoyed watching them. Then Mark treated us all to a night in a wonderful suite of rooms. It was incredibly nice to spend a night in a luxurious room rather than driving through weekend traffic back to camp. Thanks, Mark!

It's getting late and Wiley has fallen asleep on the couch. I'd hoped to cover at least part of our trip East tonight, but it's going to have to wait. I do want to take a few minutes to say a fond farewell to all my friends and co-workers at Lake Piru. We had a wonderful winter and enjoyed working with all of you. We hope to stay in touch, and maybe we'll work with you again sometime.

For now, goodnight. The next blog will be Joyce and Wiley's Great Adventure, Part V.

3/17/08 (Monday): Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Everyone enjoyed my wildflower pics so much that I thought I'd post a few more.
(This one isn't a flower, but I couldn't resist showing you my favorite rock. I call him "Bozo.")Wiley and I met my sister and her husband in Santa Barbara on Saturday. What a gorgeous city! On the way up, we saw acres and acres of avacado trees. No wonder they only cost a quarter apiece here! (And they taste wonderful!)









We wandered around the city a little. There are lots of little pedestrian only streets (called paseos) with interesting shops. The one we walked on had many interesting sculptures. They looked like real people! Ben and I had a fascinating conversation (but I think his mind was wandering and he was concentrating on something else sometimes).








After a lovely picnic lunch on the lawn of the Santa Barbara Mission, we went to the museum of natural history. I was fascinated by the Chumash baskets. They were beautifully and artistically woven, and were so tight that they could be used for boiling food. Wiley enjoyed the fossil exhibit, including the fossilized skeleton of a pygmy mammoth that was found at the La Brea Tar Pits.



We drove back along the Pacific Coast Highway, admiring the Pacific and the hillsides covered with wildflowers. Do we have great weekends, or what?!

3/11/08 (Tuesday): Spring has sprung here at beautiful Lake Piru! We've been enjoying some beautiful weather, new friends, fun trips and a plethora of wildflowers.

We've had three new Workamper couples start in the last couple of weeks. We've become especially close to John, who's originally from Scotland. We love to listen to him talk! John arrived in a very small motor home. He knew when he came here that he wanted to buy something bigger, but he wasn't sure what. We had him over for dinner, and he fell in love with our 5th wheel. He decided he wanted one laid out exactly like ours, and we went out with him and found one! We also helped him negotiate a very good price. He's now moved in to his new home and loving it.

We took Sunday off (I've been putting in a lot of hours in the office--loving it, but needed a break). We took the Metro to Long Beach (the south end of Los Angeles) and went on a whale watch.














Didn't see any whales, but had a great time anyhow. We saw four lighthouses, lots of sailboats, big container ships, and working fishing boats.
















It took me about 20 tries to catch the light flashing in the Point Vicentes Light at Redondo Beach, where we turned and headed back to the Long Beach Harbor, whaleless, sunburned, and thoroughly contented!









I especially enjoyed seeing the Queen Mary, which is now permanently docked at Long Beach Harbor. My father shipped to Europe during WWII when this great cruise ship temporarily became a troop ship.









We also enjoyed the view of the L.A. skyline, the docks and the busy working harbor where lots of container ships (many from China) unload their cargo.










Today we took a short hike up Piru Canyon after I finished at work.




The wildflowers are just spectacular. The first shot in the blog was taken in a field overlooking Lake Piru. (And yes, those are lupine! We saw them in Maine and Florida and now they cover the hillsides in California. The yellow/orange flowers in the first shot in the blog are poppies.)

Julie's been having severe back pain and probably won't be able to come for a visit as she had planned.

So, Julie, these shots are for you! I hope everyone enjoyed their wildflower "walk."

We're happy campers here, but we're also beginning to be excited about our coming departure. We've made reservations for a trip to the Grand Canyon on an antique steam train. We'll stay overnight in an old depot hotel, have a guided tour of the Grand Canyon, and on our return we'll stay one more night in a KOA nearby. Then we'll head East, stopping (we hope) at Painted Desert and Petrified Forest among other things. We'll spend several days in FL with Wiley's family, and then head for Boone, NC, where we're expected on 4/25. It's only about 12 hours between Orlando and Boone.

Tune in again soon, and keep those comments coming!

3/3/08 (Monday): Hi--I'm back! Sorry it's been so long since my last blog. I had an opportunity to use a free ticket, and I made a trip to Michigan to see my grandkids. I had a great time!

Before I talk about my visit, though, I want to alert everyone to some changes I've made to the way you can comment on my blog. I've noticed quite a bit of spam lately, some of which I've been unable to delete for some reason. So I've added a feature that will require you to type in the letters you see on the screen before you post your comments. This should eliminate the spam, which is generated automatically to long lists of people. If anyone has any problems with this, let me know, and I'll explain it in more detail. And in the meantime, don't click on the links in any comments unless you recognize the name of the poster!

Okay--on to my family visit. I flew out on the 26th and just got back yesterday. There were several inches of snow on the ground and we had two more storms while I was there. It was beautiful, but VERY cold!







I didn't do much--just played with my grands and visited with my son and Kristin--but it was a really special visit. It seemed like a long time since I'd seen them last, and they've grown up a lot. Claire (18 months) was just learning to walk when I saw her last and now she's running and climbing with the big girls.

Unfortunately, in addition to bringing back some wonderful memories, I also brought back a bad sore throat. Oh well, this too shall pass. I'd do it all again even if I'd known I'd catch a cold.