FRIDAY, JUNE 13. 2008
We left our little ranch May 26 headed West to San Diego for a wedding and planned stops in Las Cruces, NM to visit friends (the Topleys) and then on to maintenance stops in the Phoenix area, a stop in Yuma to visit our RV friends Cliff and Mary, and finally to San Diego as the western terminus of the trip.We stopped in Phoenix at the Freightliner dealer for repair work and at the nearby Cummins dealer for a service campaign. (There seems to always be something that needs attention on our coach.) The Topley’s daughter, Jennifer, was marrying a Naval Lieutenant in a ceremony on a Naval facility in San Diego, and being a long, long-time family friend, we wanted to be there.
The closer we got to San Diego, the more traffic we encountered, the higher the fuel prices became and the stronger the wind blew. We even had to stop at the California state border and answer questions like, “do you have any plants, vegetables, seeds, conservatives, etc. with you?” Naturally Jane being 110% honest admits to having two potted African Violets. Oh boy. The parking brake goes on while the fruit inspector scratches head unsure about the classification and status of our African Violets. Off he trots to find an expert in the classification of house plants while the traffic behind us backs up. No problem for us – we can make a pot of coffee, fix lunch, watch TV while he learns about African Violets. A couple of minutes later he returns and much to our relief we find out that we don’t have to burn, surrender or otherwise destroy our house plants. At least we had it better than two U-Haul box trucks that were being driven by a couple apparently moving to California. The inspector had them open the roll-up door and for a while, we thought they were going to unload the truck. We figure the inspectors are extremely suspicious of anybody actually moving to, and not from California and they assume a moving van is carrying drugs or even banned house plants.
After leaving the inspection stop we are enjoying a nice ride in the desert until we get near the mountains when the wind is blowing about 40 mph and of course the wind direction is not in our favor. Still we enjoy the scenery and after getting into the mountains (large hills?), the air temperature drops about 20 degrees providing a much needed relief from the heat. We finally arrived at our RV park after some interesting local street routing by our GPS. One interesting note about the Interstate highway system in San Diego is that there are usually no exit numbers and you have to make do with just the street names. If you are looking for exit number 25 on I-8, chances are good it isn’t there. We postulate that California can’t afford to put exit numbers on most road signs due to a constrained state budget and besides why bother – everybody knows where they’re going anyway (numbers? .. we don’t need no stinkin’ numbers!) After months of planning and work, Jenny and Jeff were successfully married in a beautiful ceremony on the water at a Naval facility. Jeff had his Naval buddies perform the “sword” ceremony where the newly-married couple passes under an arch of crossed swords.
After the kids were married we had a chance to relax (okay, relax more) and do some sightseeing.We always enjoy touring ships and quite pleased to discover that San Diego recently acquired the USS Midway aircraft carrier (CV-41) and turned it into a floating museum. (In prior years we have toured the Aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and the battleship USS Alabama and other smaller vessels.) After several enjoyable hours of touring the ship (pictures in our gallery) we later went on an enjoyable dinner cruise around the harbor with the Topleys, Rohanes, and Linda French.
Since diesel was over $5 a gallon in California, we were hoping to avoid buying fuel there and fortunately we left just before it was time to pump liquid gold into the Jeep. Off we go back to the East on I-8 headed to Gila Bend, Arizona. Somewhere along the way we had to stop for a Border Patrol inspection which is a fairly common event in the Southwest. We felt sorry for the agents since they were dressed in dark green uniforms and the temperature was around 100 degrees. (We wonder what bureaucrat came up with the brilliant idea to use a dark color in the desert.)
We arrived at our stop for the night in Gila Bend after filling up the coach and Jeep with much cheaper diesel – even so it cost almost $400! Ouch! Since most campers have the good sense to not be in southern Arizona in the summer, we had the RV Park almost to ourselves. We spent two days there since it was inexpensive and it was a good place to get some chores accomplished but we paid a heavy price for this – the temperature reached 110 degrees and our air conditioner could only manage to keep our coach cooled to 89 degrees in the heat of the day. We put up with it knowing we would soon be in the cooler climes of northern Arizona. The plan was to travel north to Interstate 40 and be a tourist in the Williams, Arizona area, and then slowly work our way to Amarillo for a July 4th party where we will hook up with the Topleys and Rohanes again. Williams is a little
famous for the bit of Route 66 preserved in downtown and for the Grand Canyon Railroaddepot, the origin and terminus for the 65 mile rail trip to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Also being rail fans, we planned on taking the train and looking at the amazing beauty again of the Grand Canyon. It has been probably 30 years since we were here last and just as spectacular as we remembered it. The train ride was fun taking about two hours each way. We chose the ‘luxury’ car which is on the end of the train with a platform on the rear which allows for some nice pictures (a few pictures in our gallery.) The car was extremely comfortable and had an attentive hostess and a full bar. On the return trip, the train was “robbed” by desperadoes which put on a good show and while it was all in fun, they actually were looking for money in the form of tips. We leave Williams tomorrow and travel a little more to the east – stay tuned for more!