First the tires. We continue to have issues with tires on the r.v. We have so far replaced the two front tires, in Lake Charles, and the left rear tire, in Tuscon. And still we have issues, this time with the right rear tire. As any of you who have done extensive travel will agree, having good rubber under you is critical to one's feeling of confidence. Now we have a slow leak in the right rear tire probably because of a leaky valve. This has to be repaired, and hopefully we will get it done tomorrow. No more driving with this worry. We are in a good r.v. park in Pismo Beach, which has an r.v. service as part of its business, so we will try to get in tomorrow to get the tires properly set up.
As for other tire issues, yesterday Gail and I went for a bike ride, and made the error of going off pavement down a dirt path. Result: yours truly got a flat tire. Thankfully, the tire was repaired by a local bike shop guy this morning. Story: down the main street of the town came jogging, pulling a little cart behind him, a bald young guy in excellent shape. I had seen him a little earlier, and as luck would have it, as I was crossing the street from the bike shop, along came this guy. I stopped him and asked where he was aiming for. "Patagonia" he replied, as calmly as if he had said two blocks down the street. "Which Patagonia do you mean?" I asked, thinking there was maybe such a place in California. "The tip of South America," he replied. "How much do you do each day?", next question. "Oh, between 25 and 40 miles, but I take time off some days." I wished him well, and shook his hand. Shook my head!
When I returned to the bike shop, I relayed the story to the owner, a guy in his late 30s with a bit of an accent. "Patagonia," he said. "That's where I'm from. Used to live there, in Chile. He probably started out in Alaska," was the matter-of-fact comment, as though it's no big deal to jog from one end of the two continents plus Central America to the other end. Another coincidence. A guy is jogging to Patagonia, and the guy fixing my tire is from there.
Going back! We had some fine times in Joshua Tree National Park, doing several hikes of merit. It's a fine park with fascinating scenery, rocks of all shapes and sizes in amazing configurations, and the symbol of the park, the Joshua Trees, all over the place. They aren't really trees, but are of the yucca family, but they have the stature of trees, so are well named. The nicest hike was a 3 mile jaunt over a ridge (300 foot elevation) down into a canyon that contained about 30 large palm trees, similar to ones we'd seen in Palm Springs. I'll try to attach a photo.
We left the park and headed up to the north, through the Sonoran Desert for miles and miles. Empty, but for low growth plants and Joshua Trees. Nothing else! A few people actually try to live there, but what they do to make a living is beyond me. We ended up at a Lancaster Fairgrounds RV site that had promised a place for us, only to arrive at twilight to find no space available. So we set up for a night of dry camping, and fortunately a kind manageress allowed us to stay for no charge.
We had thought to go north from there, up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada to Death Valley, but checking the weather made for a change of plans, as the night-time temps were predicted to be in the low 20s. So we opted to head for the coast and do the scenic route again. Good decision, as it's been much nicer weather-wise. The drive is beautiful, and we've managed to get sites on the beach both last night, at Carpenteria, and tonight at Pizmo Beach. Walked the beach, enjoyed the sunsets.
Crossing the mountain and down to the shore again today, we drove through an amazing agricultural area, centered around Guadalupe. Talk about massive large scale farm operations. As far as we could tell,, most of it was to produce berries, but there seemed to be a lot of other produce being grown as well. But on a massive scale. No wonder California is the source of so much of the produce we enjoy at home.
Tomorrow hopefully we get the tire problem looked after. Then we can be more relaxed as we head further north. We may stay here another couple of days, as we're in a nice park with a restaurant and store, right on the beach. What the Hell! Friend MacKay keeps sending us pictures of the snow banks, incentive enough to delay our journey north. Still plan to hit Vancouver by the end of the month.
That's it for now. More later. Stay tuned.
The pictures. First, the flower of the Joshua Tree, signalling the start of a new branch. Second, Larry trying to move what looked like a precarious boulder with one finger. Didn't work. Third, a complex of branches on an old Joshua Tree. They only grow about an inch a year, so you can only imagine how old this baby is. Next, our elephant rock. If you look closely, you can see the shape of the elephant in the rockface. Many images come to mind as you wander through these rocky pathways. Finally, Gail delivering a lecture from behind a large stone dais. I listened!
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