Our trip to Arizona

We left Brown's Bayr Friday October 26 about 1pm. We closed up the house, said goodbye to friends from the Bay and on the road we went. The fog wasn't too bad that day although as we drove through Courtenay it got pretty heavy at times. We had a lovely drive to Victoria and got settled into our site at Fort Victoria RV Park.

This is our very first outing with our new trailer so just getting used to where everything is. We weren't necessarily looking forward to our first night in the new bed as it felt like a slab of cement when I first tried it out! We plan on stopping in Oregon at Camping World and buying a memory foam mattress topper for the bed. As the bed is a California queen, you can't just buy a queen size mattress topper as it would be too long.

 We met up with Brian while in Victoria. We haven't had a visit with him in at least a year as he never had time to get up and visit us on his days off and I can't drag Doug out of Brown's Bay when we get back there! We were lucky Friday was one of his days off so we had a great visit. He was such a help for me in getting my computer straightened up! Gosh I wish he lived closer as I could use his help on a regular basis!

 Doug didn't realize how short he was until he was standing by his son!

 Saturday morning we spent some time with Brian and then off to the Coho ferry terminal in Victoria harbor. Doug took this great fall picture of the Empress Hotel with the ivy changing colours.

 Here comes our ferry! We had an excellent trip over to Port Angeles, calm smooth sailings. The boat was less than half full. There were 4 other snowbird couples with their RV's on the ferry so we all got together and sat and visited and compared notes on the trip over. Made the trip go quickly. We docked in Port Angeles about 5:30 pm and we all decided to dry camp at the 7 Cedars Casino about 30 minutes east of Port Angeles. By the time we got through Customs, it was dark and we still had to get to a grocery store for fresh fruit and veggies and get gas. The three couples on big class A motor homes all got pull over at Customs and completely searched but ourselves and another couple in a little class B motor home got waved through. We have all stayed overnight at the casino and it is very quiet and secure but we all forgot this was the weekend before Halloween and it was wild. The parking lot that is normally empty at the back where RV's park was jammed packed with vehicles. We had vehicles parked inches from our RV's and anywhere they could find to park. It was actually quite funny, mostly young people and very inebriated!! We all went into the casino, had the excellent buffet for supper and then Doug and I allowed each other $10 to gamble away on the slot machines. I very quickly lost my $10 but Doug was holding his own and up a bit. He had to make a trip to the loo so I took over for him and by the time he came back I had earned him over $27.00 so I called it quits and we were ahead by $7 - reckless spender eh? So off we went to sleep in our slab of cement bed and lay there laughing our heads off at all the drunks around us! It finally quietened down about 3 am so we got a few hours sleep. We were up and about early and headed off for Olympia, Washington and the I-5. We planned on making it to Wilsonville Oregon and Camping World come hell or high water to get that mattress pad! We had a beautiful drive, very little traffic and made Wilsonville by early afternoon. Camping World loved us as we dropped over $700 there! Doug got himself a new flat screen AC/DC TV for the trailer, new steps (2 steps( verses the one step the trailer came with, our memory foam mattress pads and other miscellaneous items. From there it was only about another 40 minutes to Champoeg State Park. This is one of our favorite parks.

 Doug getting us set up at the park. The colours of the trees and shrubs was fantastic. It was sunny and cool and so beautiful. The park was only about a quarter ful all with retirees so very quiet.

 We found this frog hopping through our campground and figured if the guys from Duck Dynasty were there, they would have caught it and had it for supper!

Do I look cold?? Doug had to get a fire going for me as I just wasn't warm enough but it was so lovely to be outside.

 The colours of the tree leaves and shrubs were just breath taking. I don't know what these shrubs are but they looked like they were decorated for Christmas

 Everywhere you looked you saw these bushes with the colourful berries

 The shrub leaves were brilliant colors.

 A close up of these cool berries

We stayed at Champoeg for 2 days. Did our little tour of the local towns close by. Great little communities, with great thrift stores. I got a bunch of balls of brand new wool for very little money and the colours of the wool were lovely. We walked the trails, had our campfires, listened to the coyotes at night and slept like babies on our new comfortable mattress. Doug was disappointed that he couldn't try out his new TV but their was no reception using the antenna at this park - oh well..... He needs to learn to read a book!

 Up early and heading back onto the I-5 and going south beyond Salem Oregon where we turned in to go east towards the town of Bend Oregon. It was one of the most scenic drives we have been on. We climbed up and over the mountains, went through quaint little farming towns in the valleys between the mountain ranges. The fall colours were excellent again.

 This areas had a major forest fire over ten years ago but it was still pretty evident the damage that was done

 As we got over the last mountain top and came down into the valley about an hour out of Bend, we came into the snow. We were quite surprised as we hadn't seen this predicted when we checked the weather 2 days previous. Luckily, they told us they had received 5 inches of snow the day before and the roads had now been cleared. That was a relief but it certainly was cool

 The more we saw the snow, the more determined we were to get over the mountains right then and there in case it snowed again. There were some very heavy dark clouds on the horizon that didn't look too promising.

 Onward we went from Bend Oregon heading to Burns Oregon. You can see the clouds and the mountains we know we have to get over! We have never gone this route before so we weren't sure what to expect.

 We got to Burns and the temperature had dropped to -4C so we figured we had to soldier on and gt over those mountains. They looked pretty daunting from the distance. We went up and over just fine, passing though the alpine village of Austin Oregon and they had over 1 foot of snow and were just getting cleared from the streets. The highest pass we went over was above 7700 ft. Spectacular scenery but I was so thankfully to get down to lower levels. Problem with that was we were now in the middle of nowhere and I mean nowhere! We had to drive for about another 3 hours to finally get to a little town on the border of Oregon and Nevada and found a little RV park we could stay in for the night. That was an epic day - over 12 hours of driving and it was pitch dark when we finally got stopped for the night. That last 3 hours was the lonliest drive - I think we only met about 3 vehicles the whole time! We were up early the next morning and meandered our way through Nevada, pretty boring scenery so I didn't take any pictures. We stayed that night at Paranagut Wildlife Sanctuary. It was dark when we got there also so I didn't get a chance to take any pictures. We must of been tired from 2 days of long driving because we both had a restless night. In the morning when we were having coffee, I had to tell Doug about a dream I had. I was laughing so hard as I tried to tell him that he had a hard time understanding me. In my dream I was at Brown's Bay and I had my Mom (she has been dead for over 10 years) and our daughter Catherine (she was little in the dream) in our golf cart and I was roaring down the hill to the marina and I took a corner too sharp and Mom and Catherine went flying out of the golf cart (Kath & T does this remind you of Vegas?) and Mom landed flat on her back with her legs in the air and her dress over her head. Catherine was laughing so hard and wouldn't stop no matter what I said -that was all I could remember, a bit bizarre eh? Well it turns out Doug out did me! He had a nightmare verses my funny dream. He was in the Powell River cemetery at night and my Dad rose out of the grave and was chasing him around the cemetery and he couldn't get away from him. I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what we had eaten that caused such dreams so ended up figuring it must have been the long days of stressful driving!

 The next day we had a short 3 hour drive to one of our favorite State Parks in Nevada: Valley of the Fire State Park, about 20 miles north of Las Vegas.. We got the same campsite as we have had for the last 4 years! It is our favorite spot and it was a lovely sunny warm day so we were so happy to get settled in there. Out came my shorts and my book and Doug wasn't going to budge me!

 We stayed here for 3 days and had a campfire each night. Since I was in shorts and it cools off at night, I had to use a blanket to keep warm. I refused to take my shorts off and put pants on!

 Doug is hidden in this picture close to the rocks. He was exploring around looking in all the little caves to see if he could find anything of interest. I was pretty boring company as I was reading my book and didn't want to be disturbed. We drove into the little town of Overton on Lake Mead and did our laundry, washed the truck and visited the local thrift store, I got a couple more pocket books for cheap and a great pari of sweat pants to wear around the fire instead of using the blanket!

 After our 3 days in Nevada, we headed into Arizona and to our all time favorite State park - Alamo Lake. The lake is a reservoir created by damning the Bill Williams river. It is quite remote, very beautiful, it has lots of wild burros that wander through the park, lots of coyotes that howl at night. Just what we like! On the 38 mile drive in to the park from Wendon Arizona, we saw fields and fields of cotton. We had never seen cotton grown in these fields as we have never been in this area in November. We usually visit on our way home in April when they are growing vegetables in the fields. It was neat to see

 We came across a family of burros as we took a drive out to the dam to see how low the water level was. The dark one is Dad and the light one is Mom They are so pretty but man God didn't give them a voice! The racket they make when they brae is quite funny!

 This was the young burro and he wasn't afraid of us at all. He was so cute

 Doug standing out at the overlook looking over the lake. It was a cloudy day but very warm, about 26 degrees.

 Looking down over the dam end of the lake and you can see how low the lake is. They had minimal rain this year and after about 11 years of drought, it is very obvious.

 Looking towards the dam, you can see the white areas at the bottom of the dam. This area was covered in water the last time we were here.

 One of the boat launches - the only one of 4 that is still able to be used. The end of the ramp is above the water line but they can still get their boats launched if they have 4 wheel drive. It is an extremely steep back down, hard to show this with a picture but I was certainly glad he was in the truck and not me!

 As we were driving along, we saw this tarantella crossing the road. We had seen one earlier that was even larger! It reminded me to keep my feet elevated when I was sitting around the fire or reading my book!!

 

 This is the view from our camp spot. We stayed for 3 nights and one night we were the only ones in this part of the camp ground. Very quiet people wise but boy the burros and coyotes made up for it. Loved it!

 Note I made Doug give me one of the firewood bundles to put my feet up on - had to protect myself from the tarantulas! That night when we were sitting around the camp fire, Doug felt something around his ankles and when he turned the flash light on, there was a mouse sitting between his feet! Next thing we know, out pops a mouse's head from a hole on the edge of the campfire ring - I guess our fire was getting things a bit hot for them! That did me in when I saw 3 more mice - into the trailer I went lickedy split! Doug was only out for another half hour or so when the coyotes started to howl and they sounded like they were right in our camp spot. It was so dark out there who knows. It convinced him it was time to come in for the night. It was a wonderful spot for star gazing and watching the air force jets do their night maneuvers right over head.

 This is our spot with no one else within site. We had electricity and water and they had clean showers with lots of hot water

Here I am sitting out over looking the lake early in the morning. I am still in my pj's enjoying the view and my coffee. It was always cool at night and first thing in the morning but warmed up to mi 20's in the day.

From here it was a short 4 hour drive to our house in Apache Junction. It was definitely warmer in the valley. We have been here for 2 days and the temps are around 26 - 28 degrees in the day. Lovely! So nice to see all our Arizona friends again. I will take some pictures tomorrow of our place once the gardener does all the trimming for me and the place looks spruced up. We are still unpacking and getting sorted up so no relaxation yet!