Another Celestial Eclipse!

Having experienced the full solar eclipse in August of last year, and now hearing about a lunar eclipse with a blue moon, we had to check this out.  Unfortunately, per the published information, the moon would be too low in the sky due to the mountains to the west of us.  So why bother getting up at 4:30am when the eclipse was to occur?

At 4am, our friend Ray who we were camping with, started knocking on our RV door and shouting, "Eclipse."  Glad he got us up, as the reports were wrong, there was the moon in eclipse turning blood red as the full eclipse occurred.

A week in the Palm Desert area

We just completed a week in this desert getaway.  Staring with great camping at Lake Cahullia county park, and then: 
hiking, trails over and around the desert mountains, biking along the beautifully landscaped roads and housing developments, and touring some famous spots.  We can see why the Palm Desert area is THE place to be in the cold months of January and February.





With BIW, we pulled into site 69 at the county park, where Morey had picked out what he thought was the primo spot; right on the lake, with a tree for shade.  Oops!  No electric on this site, but all worked out great (even watched some TV) since our solar panels loved the desert photons, fully charging our new batteries daily. And the evening sunsets over the lake were stunning!

Camped with our good friends, the Feesers, who now are RVers like us.  Thanks Ray for the evening camp fires, and all of the great stories.

We biked the 8.5 miles into old town, La Quinta, a couple of times.  The first was on market Sunday, where we checked out all of the locally grown produce. 
We also stopped into the local "biker" coffee shop where we had an incredible brunch of bagels & lox (the best).

Great, flat, biking with all of the flowers, and landscaping along the route. 

Hiked the Cove-to-Lake trail which although relatively easy, did climb the desert hills to avoid hiking across the lush golf course in the valley.  The day started to heat up to the mid 80s, so we were glad to get back off the trail before high noon.

Sunnylands, the Annenberg Estate, was on our tour list.  This time we were able to get tickets to take the 90 minute tour of their home.  Built in the 70s, with an adjacent 9 hole private golf course, the modern structure and the Asian art and original masterpieces made for a very interesting tour.  Many US Presidents, international dignitaries, and famous entertainment people have visited and stayed for conferences and lavish parties. 
Ah..........the life of the rich and famous.


And then there was the "ordinary" of Palm Desert.  Shops to Trader Joes, Costco, and Walmart.  And the unordinary shopping along El Paseo with all of the designer stores and boutiques.

All in all, a nice week in the "Desert".

Is Joshua Tree National Park open during the government shutdown?

Good question. 

We called the National Park to ask if the campground at Joshua Tree was open during the shutdown; but of course no one was working at the visitor center, so no response.  So we decided to spend an extra night at Buckskin Mountain and then drive to JT and check out the status.  One thing for sure was that if the National Park campground was open, there would not be a problem getting a camp site.


Arrived at a very quiet Joshua Tree NP in the morning....no one at the check in station, no one at the visitor center, but.............the campground was open, and even the bathrooms (although unmaintained) were unlocked and available.  And we had a plethora of camp site choices.  There were maybe a half dozen other campers who took a chance like us.

Camping at Cottonwoods campground was a little challenging, as all of the inside loop sites were too short and very unlevel, and the outside loop sites were just pullouts where it would be a kamikaze move to open the slide outs on the loop drive.  Morey figured out we could drive the wrong way on the one way (which he relished) and we found a level site on the outside where we didn't extend our "couch" slide out.  Whew!  We're here.

Now for the hikes..............First the Mastodon loop hike that goes by an old mine, 4.5 miles.  And the next day to the Lost Palms Canyon, 8.3 miles.  Both were great hikes, but the final tenth of a mile to the Lost Palms Oasis (which we found) was treacherous........... 

Yep, Morey slipped and scraped up his knees pretty good on the very abrasive rocks, but he did not fall into the nearby canyon......Phew!  Both hikes were good, but maybe not a repeat in future years.

 

This is serious desert landscape.

 The night skies here are incredible!  The Milky Way is in full glory.

RVing along the Colorado River

Traveled down the Colorado to one of our favorite campsites (when off-season), Boulder Beach Campground at Lake Mead.  This time of the year, the place is empty!  Picked out a primo campsite with a great view of Lake Mead and the surrounding mountains.  No hookups, but great views.

We biked over to the visitor center and then to Hoover Dam via five tunnels on a rail-to-trails bike path.  Hoover Dam is quite an engineering marvel; and this time we really appreciated the art deco style of the visitor center, parking garage and monuments.

Following a couple of days at Lake Mead, we headed to Lake Havasu City.  Back in 1968, Robert McCulloch (remember chain saws) developed this town as a place to manufacture his power tools at a lower cost than in Los Angeles where his factory was located--And while he was at it, get into the land business.  He had the London Bridge (which was falling down), taken apart block by block, and reassembled to connect his man-made island in the Colorado River.  It took three years to reassemble and open the London Bridge to Arizona drivers.

Today Lake Havasu City has become a mecca for water sports on the Colorado and for all of the retired RVers to visit in the winter months.  We've decided that this is the RV winter capitol of the world!  We also discovered that we were at LHC during their annual hot air balloon festival!  So we packed up our motorhome and arrived in time for the 7:45am mass balloon ascension.  Unfortunately high winds kept all the balloons tethered to the earth; but still really cool!

We chose Buckskin Mountain State Park for our camping location while in this area.  A nice park right on the Colorado.  Planned to spend 4 days here, but it looks like we'll be here longer, as the government shutdown may have shutdown our plans to spent a few days at Joshua Tree National Park.  Not a bad place to be "stuck."

Valley of Fire State Park

There is a reason why Valley of Fire is the first established State Park in Nevada, it's breathtaking!  Knowing that we were arriving on Friday of a holiday weekend, we headed out early for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the park.  Good thing, as we snagged one of only two open sites with electric and water (although we could have "dry" camped).  Nice campground nestled in the red sandstone rocks.

We hiked for the next two days, all fairly short 1 to 2 mile hikes, but we needed to get back into shape.  Hikes included the White Domes, Rainbow Vista, and the Fire Wave.  Perfect weather for hiking with high temps in the mid 60s, and bright blue skies.

Morey named this rock formation, "Dog Rock."

Las Vegas, Here we come!

After leaving our house and the 18 inches of snow that befell us only days before our departure (glad for the experience...............), we camped overnight in a Marriott  Hotel close to the airport (Thanks Danny, for the comped room).  We then enjoyed the pleasures of flying.  On arrival in Las Vegas, we taxied to pick up our motorhome, releasing it from storage.

First stop, Shelton Battery for replacement batteries so that when we camp without electric, we'll have plenty of storage power to run our electrical stuff.......Then to Sam's Casino KOA campground to get our BIW in shape for our travels.  The following day we hit all of our favorite shopping places to provision our home; Trader Joe's, Costco, and Walmart.

Then, we HIT THE ROAD.

We're escaping the cold freezing weather

Heading back to Las Vegas on January 10th to pick up our motorhome, Blowin-in-the-Wind.  Temps have been in the 60s for BIW while we've been freezing in NJ.  So can't wait to get back on the road.

First stop, Valley of Fire State Park, to get warm and get our hiking muscles back in shape.  Then down the Colorado River and then heading west to the Palm Springs area.  We're staying in the Southwest where it's warm before getting back in mid March to Avalon.