We left Oceano and took the scenic route past Lake Cachuma
and came over the mountains to the view of the town of Santa Barbara below us. We continued along the coast towards Los
Angeles but turned east on Route 126, as we were going to skirt around the
northern edge of the city tomorrow.
As we have moved away from the coast the weather is warming
up nicely. California is a lovely spot
to be in October and we are pleased the camp site has a nice swimming pool to
relax in after our journey.
13th October – Travel to Indio, CA
Today’s journey took us on the I-5 towards Los Angeles. We then turned east and followed the I-250
along the edge of the Angeles National Forest. We passed Pasadena and San
Bernardino. It was a scenic drive
through the agricultural crops and citrus groves, with the hills
on our left.
The I-10 took us through Palm Springs passing hundreds of
wind turbines everywhere. Joshua Tree National Park was only a few miles away but we had to by-pass it as
it was still closed due to the Government shut-down. At the camp site we were into the swimming
pool to cool off.
14th October – Travel to Yuma, AZ
This is Day Four of consecutive travelling for us and our route
took us past The Salton Sea. In 1900
irrigation channels diverted water into a dry lake bed and for a few years the
area was fertile. Of course water always
takes the path of least resistance and in 1905 the Colorado River flooded and
created a series of problems that eventually led to the accidental creation of
this shallow Inland Sea; the largest lake in California. A hundred years later it is now 226ft below sea level, saltier than
the Pacific Ocean and has become a major resting stop for migrating birds.
We leave California and arrive in Yuma, Arizona to temperatures of
around 30C – time for the pool again!
15th October – Mexico
Our reason for coming to Yuma was for Alison to continue dental treatment in Los Algodones in Mexico. So we were up and into Mexico for the 10am appointment. The town was not as busy as our previous visit in April when there were still a lot of “snowbirds” coming across the border every day. We were bombarded with people toting for business and trying to sell us something.
16th October – Yuma
Our first camp site in Yuma was a little out of town so we
moved to another site nearer to the amenities.
The town of Yuma has a permanent population of less than 100,000 but
during the winter months Retirees (“snowbirds”) from the northern states and
Canada swell the number upwards to nearly 250,000.
There are many RV, Trailer and Mobile home parks in the area but most
are virtually empty waiting for the “snowbirds” to begin their migration to
their winter quarters.
17th - 27th October – Yuma
We spent the next 10 days preparing for our departure from
USA as we now only have 4 weeks left in the country. The RV needs sorting and ensuring everything
is in good repair for it to be left for 6 months. Inevitably this means something goes wrong
and we had to call out the RV Repair Man to fix the electric water heater which
has chosen this time to pack-up on us.
We had two more trips into Mexico for the remaining dental
treatment which proved successful in the end.
On one of the day trips we were accompanied by Lynn and Dave, who we had
spent the afternoons with by the pool.
Paul enjoyed bargaining with vendors for items and Alison got two pairs of glasses (for £40) as
well as a hair-cut for £2.50! Everything
is so much cheaper here including the Tequila!
We have had fresh grapefruit for breakfast on a number of occasions as the RV park is full of fruit trees.
We heard that Yuma was hosting the Arizona Hog Motorbike
Rally on 25/26 Oct so we took a trip into Downtown Yuma on the Saturday. Somewhat disappointing as we only saw about a
dozen motor bikes and the Vendors only took us about 15 minutes to walk around
(not at all like Sturgis!).
We had a brief visit to the ‘Peanut Patch’. Yuma has a lot of crops around it, such as
peanuts, alfalfa fields and citrus groves.
We also saw two fields of sheep – the most sheep we have seen in the
whole of our visit! Lamb does not seem
popular with the Americans. It is rarely
seen in the shops and hardly ever on restaurant menus. (Guess what we’ll be having for our first
Sunday roast back in UK!). Burger's! Don't think so.
Our camp site was used years ago to accommodate John Wayne
and the filming crew when producing a film about the French Foreign Legion out
in the Sand Dunes. The film was made in the 30s.
It is close to the Marine
Corps Airbase in Yuma. They flew their
aircraft anytime between 7am and 10pm every day including Sunday. We spent every afternoon by the pool watching
the Chinooks, Ospreys, Harriers and other jets flying over. The airbase has the longest runway (approx
2.6 ml) in USA.
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