GypsyQueen Travels

Do you remember that song, Far Away Places?  As I remember, Perry Como sang it back in the 1950's.  I loved it when I was a kid, and now it means even more to me as we often follow the call of a far away place.

In fact, I recently wrote an article about just that: Faraway Places - Are They Calling You?

This week we're scurrying around the house, gathering up our food items, clothes and miscellaneous electronic and camping items to finish stocking the RV for our winter travels.  Bill has been wanting to get on the road for weeks, but we ended up taking a car trip to New York for Thanksgiving and now it's COLD in North Carolina!

Since I got my new Mac iBook, I've also started a new hobby of writing for HubPages.  See my HubPages home page with a list of recent articles at http://hubpages.com/profile/Stephanie+Henkel/.  It's been lots of fun, and eventually, I hope to make some money writing articles about the RVing life as well as other topics that interest me. 

Recently, I posted some favorite Polish Christmas recipes for making Pirogies and Sour Mushroom Soup.  I also posted two German recipes: Bill's recipe for Venison Sauerbraten and a recipe for Rouladen that we all enjoy.

There's lots to do in the one day we have left.  We even decided to print off our original checklist to be sure we didn't forget anything, and I'm glad we did.  The first thing we forgot was our Scrabble game!!!  Tomorrow it's time to gather the last minute books, toothbrushes, perishables from the fridge.  It seems that every time we go away, we have to call Jeff and ask him to retrieve a bag of potatoes or onions that we forgot in a closet.  Not this year!

* I must remember to put in a few Christmas decorations!

I was reading a note on the Escapees discussion board about the season of life and it made me think again about how good our life has been, especially these last years.  We're back home in North Carolina again, but at heart we're still full-time RVers.  Our patio garden is flourishing in the shadow of our RV, The Gypsy Queen, which is ready and waiting for our next trip.  Even Gemini seems to be waiting as he often will scoot into the RV if we go into it for anything and then refuse to come back out.

Yesterday morning Bill and I woke up early and dressed in our bathing suits for an early morning trip to the beach.  Fill the thermos with coffee, stop in Kitty Hawk for subs and donuts and head to the beach.  By 9 am we were enjoying our coffee as we watched the waves roll in to the deserted beach.  Walking along in the surf, we were reminded of the first year of our retirement when we spent months traveling from beach to beach as we followed to warm weather from North Carolina to Florida to south Texas.  It was a wonderful time for us and was followed by many other wonderful experiences in the years to come.  How often we would say to each other, "This is what life is about!"  It was and is a wonderful season of our lives.

Sometime in July, the intense heat of our North Carolina summer finally got to us.  Visits to the beach alternated with hiding out in the air conditioned house until, sometime towards the end of July, we decided to run away from home.  We turned towards Ohio first to visit Ricky and family, and managed to get there when there were no events going on at the Ross County Fairgrounds.  It turned out to be a very nice place to camp for a week.  We had the campground all to ourselves, and even had the lone shade tree to protect us from the Ohio sun.

We spent a few days in a Core of Engineer park in Ohio before going on to Linda and Ted's in Pennsylvania.  Somehow the heat followed right along, but didn't spoil our visit at all. Had some great visits and card games before we took off again.  We were delighted to hear that they were considering buying an RV.

Finally made it to New York and settled into our lovely campsite on Brian's property.   August in New York is a perfect blend of cool nights and warm days.  We attended a wedding on beautiful Cazenovia Lake, visited Brian, Jacaranda and the kids, and spent time with our friends.

Tuesday.  It's already been a week since we arrived home from our winter travels.  In the last two weeks of our trip, our laundry piled up more each day, and by the time we got home, we had worn our way through all or our towels, sheets and warm weather clothes.  The washer sure got a workout in the next few days!

It's a perfect time of year here in eastern North Carolina.  Our azaleas were in full bloom attracting many butterflies, roses are in blossom and the bluebirds have eggs in one of the bluebird houses.  Actually, they're pretty funny as they want to have both houses.  The female tends her eggs and next in one house while the male chases away any possible intruders from the second house.  I think that they'll be moving into it to raise their second brood.

Roses below are from an incredible rose bush that we planted last spring.  Yesterday I counted 37 flowers and buds on it!

Friday.  We're so lucky to be here in the Sonoran Desert while the wildflowers are blooming.  Every time we walk or drive into the desert, we come upon flowers we haven't seen before.  Unfortunately, I don't have a Western Wildflower guide, so most of the flowers are nameless here.  The yellow flowers below grow everywhere along the roads and trails and cover some hillsides completely.

Below are brittlebush in bloom.  These plants grow in neat mounds and dot the landscape, particularly in washes and protected areas.

Close-up, the brittlebush flowers look a lot like daisies, but there are hundreds of blooms on each bush.

These tiny purple flowers grow on banks as well as among the rocks on the flats.  Often there are several other flowers mixed into their groups, so you'll see dots of yellow and lighter lavender among the clusters.

We almost missed this spectacular bloom as it was hidden on the bottom of a scraggly cactus.  Soon they'll be easier to find -- there were many buds on this plant.

These tiny blue miniatures are so small that you'd miss them if they weren't really close.

Desert lilies dotted one hillside.  From a distance, they don't look like much, but close-up, they're as pretty as any cultivated lily.

Wednesday.  Our section of the campground is called Hurricane Ridge;  how aptly named today!  Winds carrying dust and sand are blowing 40-50 mph and rocking the RV as we try to stay anchored on top of our little hill.  We rolled up our big awing and brought the slide in to save the canvas from being tattered by the wind.  How glad we are that we're not any closer to the Imperial Sand Dunes!  Even here 30 miles away, we can see the haze of sand in the western sky giving the sunset a weird blurry orangey look.   I can't imagine what happens to paint on vehicles parked on the sand when the wind blows like this.   Although the forecast called for rain today, so far we've only seen a few clouds.  Average Yuma rainfall for March is less than a half inch, so we're not  worried.

Stopped at the Quechan casino on the way to my dentist appointment this morning to pick up our $10 free play (on Wednesdays for the 55+ players only).  How fun to win a few bucks on the penny machine and not have time to lose it again! 

Monday.  This marks our 5th week at Imperial Dam Recreation area!  In the few weeks we've been here, the hills have turned from brown to green and now wildflowers are starting to bloom.  The showiest blooms are the bristle bushes covered with hundreds of yellow flowers and yellow buttercup-like flowers that sometimes cover a hillside.  There are a dozen different purple flowers, but the only ones I recognize are lupines.  Creosote bushes are blooming with tiny yellow flowers.  My favorite of all are the beavertail cactus that dot the hillsides. They have beautiful bright pink flowers and some of them have 20 or more blooms.  More subtle flowers can only be seen close up.  There are tiny white daisy-like flowers blooming right against the ground.  Miniature pink, purple, white and yellow flowers pop up among the rocks.

We watch more carefully for snakes on our walks as it's harder to see if they're lurking among the new growth of flowers and bushes.  Thankfully, we haven't seen any, yet!

In between dentists visits, we've managed to see a little bit of Yuma.  We visited the Quartermaster's park and outdoor museum one day.  Last Saturday, we watched the air show at the Marine base and spent time at the Yuma Swap Meet.  With connstant sunny weather, Yuma is a perfect place this time of year! 

Yuma Proving Grounds is only a few miles from our camp, and we go onto the base for gas, laundry and the convenience store.  Last week we discovered that there's also a nice museum showing the history of the base when it was used as a desert training grounds during WWII.  It's still used today to test new equipment and to train troops in desert warfare.  From our camp, we can sometimes hear the boom of guns or bombs and one day we saw a bunch of parachutists dropping down onto the desert.

So it sounds like we're off and running every day, but in reality, we spend a lot of time sitting in our lounge chairs in the shade of our awning just watching the burros or reading.  My pile of pretty rocks is growing as I can't resist the polished little red, orange and yellow rocks in the desert.  One of these days, I'll have to sort through them so that I can leave some here for the next person to find!

Wednesday.  Had a 3 hours session in the dentist's chair yesterday, so decided to hang out at at camp today.  Amazingly, I have no pain or bad effects from the work he did preparing 6 teeth for crowns which will be put in on Friday, but I've been very careful not to irritate the temporary crowns. 

Bill and I were feeling restless this morning, so took a 2 hour walk in the hills near our camp.  After being warned that the rattle snakes are awake, we never walk without our walking sticks, and we're very careful about where we walk and where we put our feet.  We know to never step over a rock or log without seeing what lies on the other side, and we don't even walk too close to bushes without looking underneath them.  Most of the terrain here is open and stoney, so it's pretty easy to see well ahead of where we're walking.  A small herd of 5 donkeys watched us from a high vantage point as we walked.  They seem very curious about people -- I'm sure that some of the campers here feed them, which makes them pretty tame.

Tomorrow it's off to Yuma for the flea market and some shopping. One of these days, we'll have to do some sightseeing!

Sunday.  It rained all night and most of the day today, only the 2nd or 3rd time it's  seriously rained in the last two and a half months since we've been in the desert.  It's March and the hills of the Sonoran Desert are turning green.  Sprouts of grasses and other plants that we hope will turn out to be wildflowers are starting to mask the gravel and smaller stones covering the ground.  Bushes and trees are starting to green up, and we see flower buds on the cactus.

The wild donkeys should have an easier time finding food.  I hope they'll still come around our camp as we do enjoy watching them.  Oh, except for two nights ago when one of them stood in the road outside our RV and started braying loudly.  I don't know if the coyotes scared him or if he was calling his herd or what, but he sure startled us up out of a sound sleep.  Then, his task completed, he wandered leisurely off down the road in the moonlight.

Our campsite is situated just in the foothills near Imperial Dam.  From our site, we can see a few of the other campers, but our closest neighbor is about 200 yards away.  We met her one day, a Canadian from Montreal, and found we have a mutual interest in collecting interesting rocks and fossils out here.  This area near the Colorado River was once under the sea, and also has a lot of volcanic rocks.  It's great for finding all sorts of interesting things.  Unfortunately, we don't know much about geology, but Nancy introduced us to chalcedony desert roses, usually white with lots of smooth swirls and bumps.  Smaller pieces can be used for jewelry as they are, but I think that jewelry makers probably polish and cut them to fit the piece.  We have found several interesting pieces in the last week, and I just discovered that we might also find opals here -- I'll definitely be looking on my next walk!

The weather has been cool and damp all day.  Tonight will be another Scrabble night.  Bill is such a glutton for punishment!  

Thursday.  Crossing the Mexican border 3 times in two weeks qualifies us as international travelers,  though we're a rather tame version.  Bill and I decided to join the thousands of people from the U.S. and Canada who cross into Mexican border towns for dental work.  Although some of the border towns have been in the news as dangerous, we feel perfectly safe crossing into Algodones near Yuma, AZ.  The Mexican town probably has 500 dentists and numerous pharmacies and optical offices within a 4 or 5 block area.  Every morning hundreds of people walk into the city, every afternoon they return with their new glasses, medicine or teeth.

On recommendation of one of the Escapees and after some research, we decided to try Dr. Juan Bernal's dental clinic.   Dentists in Mexico are certified by the Mexican government, and Dr. Bernal is a member of the American Dental Association.  He and his associates and staff speak excellent English, so there is no language problem, though they do all communicate with each other in Spanish.  Our first visit was an exam and x-rays, the typical first visit to any dentist.  Bill and I both need extensive work done, things we've been postponing because of the cost.  Although the estimate sounded like a lot of money, the total for crowns, bridges, and root canals for each of us added up to less than the cost of one bridge in the U.S.  We've been in the office 3 times now, meeting people from Canada, Washington, California, Oregon, New Jersey,  and North Carolina who are all satisfied, returning patients.  Many of them fly in to Yuma, spend a week to get their work done and fly home.  And it's still cheaper than going to their hometown dentist!

Because most patients are under time constraints, the Mexican dentists do as much work as possible in each visit. Bill should have his work completed in 4 visits total, I'll take longer because I'm having more work done now.  So far, things have gone smoothly, despite the extensive work done each visit.

On to more interesting subjects: we do a little shopping each visit and have brought back vanilla for all of our friends ( $1.20 per 16oz bottle!), a few bottles of liquor, some jewelry and leather work.  It's tempting to buy a lot of souveniers and gifts as silver jewelry, belts, pottery items, woven rugs and lots of other items are very inexpensive, but we have to keep spending under control!   Lines of people walking back into the U.S. tend to be very long in the afternoons, but, despite dire warnings on how long it would take, we haven't spent more than a half hour in line.  The line is interesting in itself as everyone is comparing dentists, eyeglasses and shopping experiences as well as some personal history.  As one person today said, "You always come back with some new friends."  Going through customs is quick and easy:  show your passport, tell them what you bought and go on.  The parking lot on the U.S. side is a couple of blocks from the border, a quick and easy walk, even after hours in the dentist's chair.

Usually when crossing the border, we like to try the local restaurants and have a little more fun.  Next week, our appointments are later, so maybe we'll get to have some lunch and a margarita!  How does tequila mix with novacain?

Thursday.  We woke up this morning as the sun was rising and there was a huge coyote wandering through our campsite.  Probably looking for Gemini!  I told that cat to be very, very carefull!  Actually, he only goes out with us and stays within a few feet of us at all times.  I think he must know there's danger out there because he doesn't seem to want to wander at all. 

As we were watching the coyote heading over the hill behind us, five wild donkeys came grazing up the wash in front of us.  They kept watching us, but don't seem to be at all afraid of us.  Probably people feed them.  It's tempting to try to get the wildlife to come closer, but it's a really bad idea to feed them.

Bill says that since things come in threes, we can expect to see a rattlesnake sunning itself on the hill next to us.  Uhh... hope not! 

Imperial Sand Dunes are right near the California/Arizona border, a 40 mile stretch of sand dunes that boggles the mind.  Dotted among the dunes are camping areas for atv and dune buggy enthusiasts and weekends (starting on Thursday) there are hundreds of ATVs, cycles and various other OHVs zipping around, up and over the huge dunes.  Needless to say, this is not our kind of camping, but it was interesting to see.  Oh, not that interesting when we had to drive through the dunes during high winds as we made our way to Imperial Dam.  The sand blowing in the air and across the road reminded us of blowing snow in the north, though the sand is much rougher on the paint job!  Our original plan had been to camp at Picachou BLM, but as we came close to it, we could see nothing but a giant sand storm, so we just drove on to the Imperial Dam.

Exiting I-8 in Winterhaven, CA, we drove another 20 miles north on secondary roads to get to the BLM campgrounds at Imperial Dam.  There are probably 10 campgrounds there.  The largest, The Mesa, has dump stations, water and trash containers, all of which are a luxury at BLM campgrounds here.  Sites overlooking the sparkling blue lake were taken, and parking on the Mesa surrounded by roads didn't appeal to us, so we found a spot in the hills called Hurricane Ridge.  It's less than a mile from the main area, but as we're facing east away from the congestion, we feel like we're here alone.  It's a beautiful view of the mountains, with just a bit of the lake in sight.  As we set up camp, 5 wild donkeys stood about 100 ft away and watched our every move.  The squeaky cries I heard turned out to be a flock of Gambels Quail in the wash.  This particular area must have had a volcanic erruption eons ago as the ground is covered with rocks that look like lava as well as smooth rounded rocks in various colors that look like their outer layers have been melted on.  It's very tempting to collect lots of rocks as they're so pretty and interesting -- just call me Lucy!

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  After a few days at Hot Springs BLM near Holtville, California, we were ready to go.  The town is an agricultural town surrounded by fields of lettuce, broccoli, and other salady vegetables interspersed with hay fields.  There were some cute houses in the town, and it also had a couple of apartment complexes that puzzled us as we couldn't figure out what people did for a living there -- maybe the huge farms supported a lot more people than we thought.   Most of the people we saw around town and working in the fields seemed to be hispanic.  Signs were spanish and the tiny grocery store carried a wide selection of Mexican foods, some of which I couldn't identify. Oh, but the vegetables and fruit was cheap, fresh and really good!  Avocados, lettuce, tomatoes and oranges were great!

The Hot Springs BLM where we camped is about 7 miles out of town along an irrigation canal and near a power plant, probably a thermal plant.  The campground is a favorite winter place for Canadian snowbirds who come in December or January and stay until April.  The Hot Springs is actually an oasis across the road from the campground.  It has two small pools about the size of large hot tubs that are fed by the natural hot spring, and then a pond of cooler water where people aren't supposed to swim.  The area has been fixed up with a cement patio around the pools and a hot shower area.  You are not supposed to bring soap or shampoo into the area and most people abide by the rules since there are spigots where jugs and containers can be filled with hot water to take back to camp.  We were not thrilled with either the campground, which was very dry and dusty, or the hot springs.  The pools were always a little green despite the chemicals that were added at the request of the health department.  Weekends and evenings, the local Mexican families came with their kids, so we didn't even try to get in then.  The best part was being able to take hot water back to camp as we used it for doing dishes, washing and other chores.  It was about 105 degrees -- hot!

Here we are parked on the shore of the Salton Sea in the Salt Creek campground.  You can just barely see the opposite shore through the haze which is too bad as there are some snow capped mountains there. At first we thought that the haze was fog and moisture in the air, but we came to the conclusion that much of it is smog -- too bad.

The white pelican (sorry if it's a little fuzzy) swam around in front of our camp several times while we were there.  They catch fish while they're on the water, the brown pelicans fly low over the water and dive for their food.  Both are interesting to watch.