Old Mission Santa Barbara

Spain controled most of California in the 1700’s and the Spanish Franciscans friars founded over 12 missions intent upon converting the Native Americans to Christianity. The Old Mission of Santa Barbara was the 10th such mission and is considered the Queen of them all due to her white walls and the influence of Italian archecture. It was started in 1786 added to, repaired, and restored through the years but the original building is still evident.

It is an active catholic church with its own cemetery, friary, museum and gift shop. As evidenced by the tour buses, it is a popular stop in town. The chapel is beautiful with lots of colors. The statuary depicts Saint Frances of Assisi and Santa Clair of Assisi in one apse and Jesus and Mary Magdaline at the tomb.

We also took a short drive down the coast to the small fishing and resort community of Carpenteria. We took a long walk in the crisp ocean air along the beautiful beach on the nice boardwalk.

Today we are moving over the mountains into the Santa Ynez valley. They have some really good wine in this area so we might have to do some tasting.

Historic Santa Barbara

John got to be the tour guide today as he could follow the map better than I could. We rode our bikes to the downtown area then walked the Red Tile Walking Tour. We viewed seveal original homes, called Adobes, Built from 1849 to 1872 and mostly by Spainards who settled the area. Parts of the Presidio, or fort, are still standing depicting life in the early part of the 20th century. We walked on the oldest street next to the guard house of the fort, peeked in a window at the first wooden floor, and shot a picture of the oldest house.

We bypassed the Library, the Art Museum and Post Office but did go inside the Santa Barbara Court House to view the courtroom covered from floor to ceiling with a mural depictingnthe area’s history then climbed the stairs to the top of the clocktower for a great view of the city, ocean and mountains.

The weather deteriorated to wind, rain and cold starting mid-afternoon (cold being a relative term at 57°). We are in for a few days of this until it starts warming up again next week.

Santa Barbara

Having arrived in Santa Barbara on Friday we quickly adapted to the coastal lifestyle. Our RV park is locate right on the freeway so despite the highway noise it allows us easy access to bike trails that take us either to the coastal park or in the other direction to the downtown area and we are just 2 blocks from the pickleball courts.

Friday night we ate at the best seafood house on the warf. I had an amazing steamed rock crab and John tried the crab cakes. Then on Saturday night we ate ar the marina and had another great seafood dinner. Most of Sat. was spent doing chores but we did get the bikes out for a ride into town to shop at the farmer’s market and then along the shore, taking in the harbor sites like sailboats and sailboat races, sand volleyball, brown pelicans, sand sculptures, and crazy people on bike trolleys, skateboards and inline skates. The weather has been cool, 60’s, and breezy which makes me shiver to see people stepping into the ocean!

Today we headed back to the shoreline trail but this time it was lined with artists, craftsmen, jewelers and painters. We liked several paintings and one photograper, I saw some earrings and some other handmade crafts but didn’t purchase anything. We also explored the Funk Zone - an area with lots of wine tasting, breweries, shops, design centers, and arts galleries. Kind of a neat area.

Smoke Trees and Rock Houses

John is finally feeling better so on Tuesday I dragged him out on a 6 mile hike up into Smoketree Canyon where we got to climb over bolders and could have crawled under one (we chose not to endanger ourselves). Turns out we did that hike three years ago and even then we did not crawl under that bolder!

Today we drove the Jeep into Coyote Canyon on the Rockhouse Road. It was suppose to take us to a hidden spring and a view of rock houses. The spring was truely hidden and our imagination just did not work on those supposed rock houses. But we did enjoy the drive on this cool and windy afternoon. We rewarded our efforts with margheritas during Happy Hour!

Borrego Springs

The core of the state park is the small town of Borrgo Springs so on Sat., despite John’s cold, we rode our bikes the 8 miles into town, explored a bit, ate lunch and rode back , putting 18 miles on our bikes. During our exploration and shopping friends from MO ran into us at the Outfitters store. I was loking at some dresses next to a window when this lady stuck her face to the glass. Low and behold I knew her!! Sue and Rory came down from Palm Spring to explore the town too.

After church on Sunday we shopped some more and then drove around the town and came upon some metal sculptures we had not seen on previous visits. We drove through an RV community, went past a couple of golf courses and decided not to go into the park office as it was very crowded due to the holiday weekend.

The forecasted windstorm kicked in with a blast of sand and grit late Sunday afternoon and continued all day on Monday. The blast caught us off guard and filled the RV and the Jeep. What a mess! Because of the wind we did a driving tour around the area going through Warner Springs and Julian, stopping at an Escapees Park and taking a 1 1/2 hour tour, and trying to determine if we could take our 30 foot RV up and over and around the mountains. Lots of curvy, steep, narrow roads. Probably not going to drive those routes.

Anza-Borrego

When we find a place we like, we go back to it anytime we can and we are back in California’s largest state park filled with mountains, desert and dunes.

We left Lake Cahuilla on Valentine’s Day. I was feeling much better but still had a cough. Since arriving in the desert John has caught my cold and now has a runny nose and cough. The flu shot may keep it from lingering but we are still suffering.

The state park has put a lot of restrictions on the open desert areas where RVers used to camp. Now most of the sites are blocked off and we are all congregated together. Mind you the area is very large and we are not camped on top of each other. Just down the wash from our site sits another Bay Star RV exactly like ours! Of course, we met the couple and invited them in to see our rig. They bought theirs used and are wanting to upgrade the interior so they were very interested in what we had done. They are full time RVers who work from their rig, write a blog and host a Face Book site called RVtoFreedom.com for people who are fairly new to the RV lifestyle. They are a very nice couple.

Since John is not feeling up to par we haven’t done much. We explored Borrego Spings by car yesterday and today we revisited 17 Palms oasis in the desert and had a nice drive through the dunes, down washes and between canyon walls. When we came out of the desert we had a great view of where we had been although no roads or trails were visible. Yesterday I took a short hike up Coyote Mountain where I found some desert artwork someone had created.

Lake Cahuilla/Palm Springs

We got into our campsite last Wednesday after leaving the Fountain of Youth and feeling at least two days younger! But I started coughing, then ran a fever then coughed lots more, then got a runny nose - Yes, I came down with the flu despite having gotten my flu shot this fall. At one point I was afraid I had bronchitis so we went to urgent care but it is just the flu. It has taken about 5 days for me to start feeling better.

Poor John has had to doctor me and then take off for some excercise all by himself. He put over 30 miles on his bicycle and hiked up into the mountains one afternoon alone. It has been quite warm in the valley which makes for pleasant sun bathing by the RV. I had explicit instructions to stay in the RV or just outside the door while John was gone. He even pampered me with pizza one night.

Since I was feeling better on Saturday, we were able to have a nice dinner with our friends who are staying here for a couple of months to escape the cold. Sunday, after I went to church, we drove up to Idyllwild, a small mountain artists community about a 2 hours drive from here. It was a very pleasant afternoon with spectacular views along the route. The center of the town features a Gorilla Glue sponsored sculpture where the artist glued 4 spruce tree trunks together and then carved a bear, mountain lion, eagle etc. sculpter. It’s quite lifelike.

Today, however we are suffering through a windy day. Having left the windows cracked in the RV this afternoon, every surface inside is now covered in a very fine, powdery dust! I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow!

Inspiration Mountain

We opted to travel down the east side of the Salton Sea and stay a couple of days at The Fountain Of Youth RV Park and Spa before our stay in the Palm Springs area.

Bathing in mineral rich hot waters has definitly lengthened our lives but not sure its made us any younger! We have also found a group of avid Pickleball players so had a very active morning.

But this afternoon was much more interesting. The Salton Sea is 236 feet below sea level and shrinking yearly. Its a shallow lake and very salty - not as salty as the Great Salt Lake but more salty than the oceans. Due to irrigation and re-channeling of the Colorado River, there is little new water coming into the basin and therefore the lake is shrinking. We had lunch in a really seedy dive bar called The Ski Inn. We were almost the only ones there for lunch and the bar maid was not able to give us much information about the area except the the town of Bombay Beach is home to an arts festival in March that triples the size of the town of 1200. We found a slit in the berm so we walked past what used to be a marina and out to the water. The last boat is famous for its graffiti.

Nearby is a well known area called Slab City and Inspiration Mountain. Slab City is comprised of squatters and RVers camping on slabs of concrete left by a US marine base that closed down and removed its buildings but not the slabs. It all looks vey trashy and dilapidated, dusty and dirty but with some creative pieces here and there. Its a wonder people can live there.

At the entrance to Slab City is Inspiration Mountain. Leonard Knight, over many years, has piled up trash coverd with sand and adobe into a mountain. He then painted it and shaped it to reflect his great love for God and Jesus. He continues to add to it by taking dead trees, old wood and haybales, and shaping them into a hut then covering it with adobe and paint.

Oxbow Lake

Even though we had to travel through California to get here, Oxbow Lake is still in AZ. It is south of I-10 about 20 miles and north of Yuma about 60 miles in the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge surrounding an ox bow of the Colorado River. This is a place where the river backs up into a lowland area creating a lake of sorts while the main channel continues on. Thousands of birds migrate here for the winter. According to their literature over 288 species of birds have been recorded here along with mule deer, coyote and bobcats and many other animals. Not that we are birds hunters but it was neat seeing all the ducks and geese in one pond as well as sandhill cranes nearby and later we saw white pelicans and wild burros.

We are dry camping on the lake. We took a ride around a protected portion of the refuge where a majority of the birds are located then we followed the river a short distance to the Hart Mine Road and headed into the desert where we had lunch then explored the washes and canyons of the area.

Sauturday we got the kayak out and paddled up the lake for a bit until we felt like we were getting sunburned. Today we got in the kayak with fishing gear. I paddled while John fished. He had no hope of catching any fish as everyone we talked with said they had not had any luck. But it was peaceful and pleasant to be surrounded by grebes chirping and chortling as we paddled past them.

Believe it or not - we can get the big game on our little antenna! Its Super Bowl Time!

Lake Havasu City

John made reservations at the State Park back in July as this park is always full. In fact a lot of RVers were staying in the overflow parking lot which we have done in the past. It is so popular because it is only about a mile from the London Bridge.

We rode our bikes every day we were here. We crossed the bridge to ride on the bike/walking trail on the island several times, we tried riding south but the slog up that long hill had us worn out before reaching the top, and I went shopping on my bike.

We experienced ome of many beautiful sunsets and the rising Supermoon simultaneously!

Tuesday John received a text from our son that he was in town on business and did we want to meet for lunch! What a treat! Most days we watched ultra-light aircraft flying around us and remote control planes flew at the beach parking lot. John even took me out to eat a couple of times.