Day 37: Salome, AZ to Ehrenburg, AZ/Blythe, CA

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vein conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.

Philippians 2:3

60 miles – 1,109 ft climb – wind: from the west

Oh my gosh! I can’t believe we are in state number 9! California, baby! We are going to reach the Pacific this Friday!!! Which is great because we are both ready!

Bruce took off this morning around 9:00. It seems to have been the best decision to go east to west. All the blogs I read always went west to east, but the only reason I could ever find was the winds that were supposed to make it more difficult. Bruce wanted to go east to west so the sun would not be in his face every morning. I was all for this because I didn’t want the sun in my face either. Bruce has had the wind at his back or non-existent for most of the time. Only a few times in his face. The climbs have not been as terrible as they sounded in the west-to-east blogs. But maybe it’s just because those people are not rockstars at climbing hills like my husband is. Or maybe the worst is still to come. Today he had a little wind in his face, but it was a lot of downhill riding so that negated the slight wind in his face.

I started a couple loads of laundry and then took off on my walk. I have shortened my walks to 2 miles because a 5k takes too long since I am so slow. Maybe I’ll try them again when I get back to Wichita. Maybe I’ll even end up running them. Maybe I’ll run in a 5K race. Always the optimist. I slept late today because I dreamed of snakes crawling into the RV all night and I slept horribly! So first thing Bruce tells me this morning (because he had already showered and shaved at the park shower before I got up) is that he talked to the park manager who said that the only poisonous snakes around the park are rattlers and they rarely see them here. Well that’s good news. I ran in to that same guy in the laundry room and he said that he personally had never seen a rattler here. That made me feel even better. So I confidently (well maybe that’s a stretch) took off on my walk around the park grounds and surrounding roads. I saw no snakes! But I did see lots of interesting cactus. One tree had green bark. Or maybe no bark and green skin.

The highways here are lined with RV parks. Mostly empty. Some look like a field with a few RVs parked around. The RV Park we stayed at (Desert Breeze or maybe Desert Ridge. They all seem to have Desert in their name in case you are confused as to what kind of habitat you will be in) is huge, but almost totally empty. The lady at the desk told me that their busy time starts in November. Everybody wanting to escape the cold weather. I get that, but here’s the thing. Why would anyone want to come HERE to escape it? It’s basically a huge gravel parking lot with hookups, in the middle of nowhere. True, it has a common area with games and books and a great swimming pool and hot tub. But seriously. How long can all that fun last? I can’t imagine leaving your home and living here all winter just to avoid the cold. Surely there are plenty of other more scenic and more interesting places to go park your RV.

I left around 11:45 today. We started out on highway 60 and then Bruce had to ride on the shoulder of I-10 again. Both had nice wide shoulders. Parts of I-10 were as bad as a state highway. But of course more traffic. And trucks! We had mountains on both sides again today. I think someone said that one of the ranges is called the Chocolate Mountains because they are brown.

I almost caught up with Bruce at a truck stop about 5 miles from our next RV Park. Right as I was pulling in he called to see where I was. Turned out he had just left and was on the shoulder of the interstate right past the turn off. We could actually see each other once I pulled in. I needed to get gas and he wanted to keep going, so we didn’t actually connect until I picked him up in Blythe, CA. Which was unfortunate because we had a little miscommunication. Our RV park wasn’t actually in Blythe, just near it. Blythe is just over the border in California. Our RV park is off Exit 1 in Arizona. Which is how we have gotten to California already even though we are still in Arizona now. Did you follow all that?

As we approached the border into California, we had to go through a sort of inspection point. I was wondering if I was going to have to show my drivers license. Or my passport. A little different from our entry into Texas. And interestingly it was only going in. Coming back out there was zero fanfare. I think I saw a small sign that said, “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out!”

It was crazy how different California looked right across the border. Although Arizona had tons of rat-trap looking RV parks, there were not a lot of houses. It mostly just looked like desert. Pretty. But desert. Right across the border in California there were neighborhoods and apartment complexes. And grass! They must have some kind of underground watering system because we didn’t see the huge irrigation contraptions you see in Kansas.

I picked Bruce up at Jack in the Box in Blythe, CA and then we drove 70 miles to the Joshua Tree State Park. Funny thing is, neither of us actually knew what a Joshua tree looked like. We started driving through the park and I didn’t see anything that looked like what I expected. We stopped at a “lookout” point and saw these huge trees. Nothing like I expected. But very cool. Two other clueless couples were there also. We took pictures of each other in front of the trees. Since there was no phone service in the park, I had to wait to google a Joshua tree image when I got home. None of the images look like the trees we saw. So I still don’t know if we actually saw Joshua trees or not! But at least we can say we were in the Mojave desert.

When I checked in to our RV park, I commented on the little flavored creamer packs by the coffee. The lady working at the front desk said that she can’t stand to drink coffee without flavored creamer. A girl after my own heart. She gave me some Cinabon, which is her favorite.

We had our last baggie of pulled pork for dinner with potatoes and broccoli. I brought 3 cook books with me. Haven’t opened a single one. I think it’s the lack of disposal that has stolen my motivation to cook creatively. Or maybe it’s because by the time we think about eating, it’s already after 7:00. It’s like lake-time every night. Most likely, it’s just that I don’t really like cooking all that much anyway and especially not in this little kitchen. We could always just stick to pb&j’s. (Haha – that’s kinda funny. “Stick” to pb&j’s. Get it?) We had to throw out our milk and a few other things because they went bad when the fridge temporarily stopped working in Tempe. I’m still not sure what was wrong, but it’s working now. We think it had something to do with Harvey sitting still and unplugged for a couple days. The power is supposed to switch back and forth to propane, electric or whatever powers it when Harvey is on the move, but apparently there was a little glitch.

It’s hard to believe we only have 3 days left! Then a night in San Diego, a night in Monterey, a night in Madera and then heading home next Monday. We are going to take I-80 across Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, then shoot down to Denver and home on I-70. I’m excited because we will be going a completely different route than how we came out. Plus I have never been through Nevada & Utah. Yippee! It’s been a fun journey, but I’m excited that the end is in sight. And so is Bruce! But you know what this means. If you have any questions about Harvey, Bruce’s biking, our routine or anything else about our trip, you only have 3 days left to ask them. Better do it now.