5^th June: Long day driving today – 8 hours, but with Richard to share the driving now, that is quite doable. Camped in a small and picturesque private camp ground, under the trees, just outside the entrance to the Sequoia National Park in CA. The heavy snow melt this year is gushing and gurgling its way down the river, about 50 feet from the RV….such a pleasing sound as I sit here in Mandy, after the noise and traffic of the cities. We would have preferred to have camped in the Park itself, but campsites are booked months ahead for the bigger National Parks in CA. Perhaps that is good, as the snow level is currently at 6,000ft and above, where many of the camp sites are. We are only at 3,000ft here so no problems with dealing with the white stuff.

Okay, so moving back a month, there I was heading south west out of Sedona to catch up with Richard at the RV dealership in Quartsite AZ to have my recalcitrant awning repaired after it had jammed opened. I had really enjoyed this period exploring on my own, but now it was time to join Richard again as he tackled the worst of the desert. As things would have it, the dealership was on Richard’s planned path. He arrived there first and called to say, "oops….the dealership is closed until next winter". Dang! He elected to cycle on to Blythe in 105 degree temp….crazy man that he is. When I caught up with him that afternoon, he was entrenched in Blythe’s McDonalds, reveling in their air conditioning, and had consumed numerous ice cold milk shakes and orange juices. By now we were both totally fed up with deserts, low humidity (3%, which played havoc with our sinuses), the constant wind (20-40 knots) and the dust – the wind having followed us through western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and into eastern California. In my humble opinion I can only sum up the area from western Arizona into eastern California as a God forsaken part of the world, and judging from the sparse population, perhaps many share that thought, although parts of it did hold its own enchanting beauty (for short periods of time).

It was a sight for sore eyes to see the fields of alfafa in the Imperial Valley but the desert still clung on doggedly a short distance from the irrigation canals. I ended up spending 5 days in beautiful El Centro (ignore the sarcasm) in the Imperial Valley in what constituted RV city, complete with named roads, guttering, sidewalks. We had the 400 odd capacity campground almost to ourselves, but in winter it apparently becomes a thriving city of its own, during the gathering of the snowbirds who flock there in their RVs for the winter to escape the cold up north. We used El Centro as a central point as I ferried Richard out in the morning to his stopping point from the previous evening where I had picked him up…we did this either side of El Centro. The winds however raised their wicked heads in final defiance, or perhaps it was farewell, and we found it necessary to huddle inside Mandy for 3 days until the wind Gods looked favorably upon us again. Neither Richard nor the RV could begin the ascent out of El Centro over the ranges with the 60-70 knot wind gusts through the canyons. Richard’s fitness was now at its peak, with thighs (and even buns) of steel, so he found it difficult to remain patient, but, finally, the winds abated some and off he went to tackle the last of the higher elevations while Mandy, Walker and I went on ahead to set up camp each night.

Finding suitable camp sites and combining this with very sketchy internet access, has turned finding campsites into a very time consuming process. There are a wealth of RV camp sites/resorts listed on the internet and we also belong to several RV clubs, but the truth is that camp grounds come in all shapes, sizes and states of repair or disrepair. They range from trailer parks where folks one step ahead of homelessness reside, to the most exquisite and expensive parks and of course everything in between. As they are all lumped together, I find I have to research each and every one of them before making a decision on a camp ground for a night or two or three. The State Parks in California are popular and tend to be booked out months in advance, but sometimes we get lucky.

The mountains were just lovely and we reveled in the eucalypts, the tall pine and fir trees, the great expanses of wildflowers which dotted the mountainsides, the alpine meadows and the fabulous views. I was out walking this inviting landscape one day and found myself chuckling as I recall in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi I needed to be alert for wild boar when walking Walker, then in the desert regions it was the rattlesnakes and in the mountains on the eastern slopes it was mountain lions and now on the western slopes it is bears. What variety….so far, so good!

After 81 days, including weather delays, bum recovery time, and rest days, Richard walked his bike over the sands of Ocean Beach, San Diego to the Pacific Ocean where he dipped the wheels of his trusty bike into the water thereby completing the trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. It also happened to be a dog beach, so Walker had a blast, as the picture tells, while Richard walked the bike back up to the car park, and for the last time, unpacked his gear and sank into the seat of the truck with a big smile on his face. Fantastic Richard and not a single puncture/flat tire!

I found a less populated State Park in the ranges behind San Diego where the Pacific Crest Trail passed. This is a hiking trail which runs along the Pacific Crest range, from Mexico to Canada. Walker and I totally enjoyed its delights on our daily walks and I am inspired to perhaps spend 4-6 weeks walking part of the trail (backpacking) at some point in the not too distant future….but not on this trip. Anyone interested in joining me?

We were exploring some of the hills and valleys of this area and happened upon a gliding center. Made some enquiries and, voila, within the hour both Richard and I were receiving flying instructions in our respective, two seater gliders. We each took to the skies with our instructors for 45 minutes…..fun, fun, fun. The weather turned nasty the next day, so to avoid being snowed on, we wandered down to San Diego and located the RV dealership there. We left Mandy with them for a week to address her wayward awning and a few other minor things and headed to Los Angeles in the truck. I also had to replace that dang fifth wheel hitch on my truck. It seems I had given it a hard life, which leaves me a little confused..…me thinks the locking device was faulty, (this had caused some interesting moments), but I would have a tough time proving that, so smiled graciously and paid for a new one.

Yes indeed we did stay aboard the Queen Mary, not for one, but two nights in Los Angeles. Walker got to spend a week in a cage free kennel with other dogs, which he seemed to have enjoyed. Richard and I then flew to Washington DC for Kate’s graduation. This was an all weekend affair, and although we ate way too much over the 4 days, the sun shone brightly (for the first time in a rainy week) for the officially graduation ceremony which took place on the lawns of UVA. It was a lovely family weekend for us, with many a proud moment. Trav wanted to explore DC, so Monday we all took the metro into the city and spent the day walking this culturally rich area before boarding our flight back to LA that evening. Long day, as the flight was delayed due to bad weather. We finally got into our hotel in LA at the time equivalent of 6am (3am LA time). Walker was delighted to see us the next morning, so to prove to him we had not abandoned him, we headed back to revisit the dog beach in San Diego where he ran and ran and ran. Picked up Mandy from the dealership, lashed Richard’s bike to my bike on the bike rack fitted to the back of Mandy and off we headed in the general direction of Las Vegas…..yeah I know, we were back tracking. We figured we had both missed out on the Grand Canyon and we also had a friend we wanted to see in Las Vegas….so why not.

Camp sites were at a premium in Las Vegas, so we ended up at shooting range on Sheep’s Head Mountain. They had 80 RV sites which had a fabulous view overlooking Las Vegas and to our awesome delight we found we were the only campers there……fabulous…one of the better campsite we have spent time in. While there, Richard tried his hand at Trap shooting, but as the wind was "doing its thing" again (yep we were back in the desert again), I held out for a calmer day when we both spent the morning trying our hand at archery…what great fun that is. The gusts of wind that barreled through this area were so strong, that we actually tied Mandy down for fear she would be blown over in the campsite.

Okay, this is long enough, as I am sure your coffee is either cold or finished by now and others things are calling. We are currently in Oregon, heading for Canada early next week. I promise to follow up with the rest of the story between Las Vegas and Oregon, for I just know you are being kept riveted to your seat with this gripping adventure…..(!!)

See ya