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January 23, 2015
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Well, here we are enjoying the nice 75 degree sunny days in Phoenix, Arizona. We left last Friday bright and early so we could arrive in Redding, California for our first leg of our journey south. The roads were clear except for one situation near Roseburg. We were sailing along when all of a sudden the big semi in front is at a dead stop with his flashers going. Apparently a car had stopped along the side of the road and their little dog sprang out of their car and was running loose on the I-5. The poor thing was frightened and his owner was trying to catch him. We scooted by as cautiously as possible and continued on our way to Redding. On our trip over Mt. Shasta we were amazed to see how low the water was on Lake Shasta. It looked like there was only half as much water as usual in the lake. There is hardly any snow on the hills and everything is very dry. They are really suffering from a drought.
On Saturday, we made our way to Visalia, California, where we spent our second night. Still uneventful until the next day when I discovered my phone was missing. It turns out that I had left it at the restaurant the night before after dinner. We called the restaurant the next day and they told us they would keep it for us. Unfortunately, Visalia wasn't on our itinerary for our return trip but we will have to swing back that way to get my phone. We had taken Route 99 and were planning on taking a shortcut east through Bakersfield - planning to stay in Barstow or even in Kingman, Arizona. We had set the GPS (I call the voice on the device "Never-Lost Nancy") for Phoenix and she was taking us to Phoenix - but by way of LA!! By the time we discovered we had missed our shortcut, we were headed up the Grapevine and all the road signs were pointing to Los Angeles! So we got ourselves turned around and headed north again to Bakersfield to find the eastern route we had intended to take in the first place, but we had lost a couple of hours of our travel time. We got into Barstow in the middle of the afternoon and debated whether to drive on the Kingman or just stay there. We elected to spend the night there, carefully picking a hotel as far away from the railroad tracks and freight trains as possible - remembering the last time we stayed in Barstow. When we were there two years ago, we found that every train between the mid-west and southern California travels through Barstow. We heard trains all night long on that trip. As I said, we got as far as possible from the tracks this time and had a restful night.
Since day two was so short, the next day we had to make the time up in order to reach Phoenix so we could pick up Bob and Jeanne at the airport that afternoon. They were flying in after visiting their kids in Denver. We thought we would outsmart the GPS this time and just put in a town close by because otherwise "Nancy" would have us headed to LA again! Well we weren't so smart after all. as the GPS had us take a turn short of Kingman and we ended up wandering around in the desert. We finally made it to Quartzite (the RV capitol of the world). It is a small town, but it still took us fifteen minutes to make it through the traffic jam of RV's along the main drag. People actually drive thousands of miles from all over the country to park their RV's in a gravel lot five feet away from each other to spend their winters here. We just couldn't do that, although Dave did point out that it was January and it was 75 degrees. Still, we are so lucky to live where we do even if it is 45 and rainy in the winter.
After driving on two-lane roads for what seemed like forever, we finally got to I-10 which took us to Phoenix. It wasn;t the route we would have chosen but it was such a relief to see signs telling us that this was the way to Phoenix. While we were wandering in the desert, Bob and Jeanne's son, Jesse called us to tell us that he was picking them up at the airport. That was good news for us since we were taking the "scenic" route! We met them at Jesse's home and had dinner with the family. It was nice to see all of them again. Their grand kids are growing up too. While there, Jesse begged us to please take some lemons as the tree was loaded with ripe fruit. Jeanne and I picked a small bag full (they smelled so fresh) and I hope to take some home. I'll smuggle them across the California border if I have too!
We're making this road trip at a great time as gas prices have been going down. When we left Oregon we paid $1.89 a gallon and by the time we arrived in Phoenix it was $1.78 at the neighborhood station and even lower at the area Costco at $1.55, so that's a good thing! We were reminded of a picture we took near Bakersfield a few years ago showing a price of well over $5.00 a gallon!
The rest of the week has been flying by. We have plans to visit with Dave's cousins Del and Bev in Casa Grande and our friends Pat and Betty in Sedona this weekend. Bob and Jeanne are so busy trying to fit all their time with friends and family before they head back to England the 1st of February.
We got this neat picture of our oldest granddaughter, Ashtin who has been improving with her defense and rebounds with her basketball team. The school recognized her with this belt to wear for a day as a reward for the athlete of the day for her great scoring game and ton of rebounds in a game this last week. Love watching her play and sorry we missed her game.
