Traveling

[O Really]

Yay, we're back in Oceanside. Walked on the beach, took in the sunset, grilled fresh halibut from our favourite fishmonger, went to stock up on groceries and got a bag of avocados for $3. Political ads are gone from TV, beaches, parks and trails are open even if restaurants and bars and most everything else indoors is closed or limited, and my favorite weather chick says it'll be 72, sunny, and the Santa Anas won't be much at the beach.
Life is good.

CBS8 Chief Meterologist Karlene Chavis.

[Vrede too]

The right-wing is a mess.

Passenger video shows terrifying moment engine of United Flight 328 was in flames

[billy.pilgrim]

O Really, this bad boy eRV has upward of 75 miles of range. Great for ring around town.

https://electrek.co/2021/02/27/awesomel ... all-catch/

[O Really]

O Really, this bad boy eRV has upward of 75 miles of range. Great for ring around town.

https://electrek.co/2021/02/27/awesomel ... all-catch/

Might be fun for a beach/park toy. Take it out and have your own hut with food, drinks, changing space, etc. 25mph would get you run over most place, though.

[billy.pilgrim]

O Really, this bad boy eRV has upward of 75 miles of range. Great for ring around town.

https://electrek.co/2021/02/27/awesomel ... all-catch/

Might be fun for a beach/park toy. Take it out and have your own hut with food, drinks, changing space, etc. 25mph would get you run over most place, though.

Hadn't thought of that. You're right, to an event like a fair or music festival or anywhere you could use a little get-away time to extend your event time.

[Vrede too]

Drone captures stunning video of Iceland volcano eruption



Iceland's Mount Fagradalsfjall started erupting on Friday evening for the first time in about 800 years, and lots of people traveled the roughly 20 miles from Reykjavik, the capital, to enjoy the view. The site was shut down to visitors on Monday due to high levels of noxious gas, but drone operator Bjorn Steinbekk captured some stunning footage of a lava river on Sunday.



...



...

This Long-dormant Volcano in Iceland Is Erupting — See the Stunning Photos

[O Really]

So unless some other calamity hits like a pandemic, this spring travel is looking good. We'll be heading out in a couple of weeks with the first overnight stop at the strange town-let of Quartzsite on the CA/AZ line. It's nothing in the middle of nowhere but becomes a 100,000 collection of RVs in the winter. Lots of them boondocking for free out in the desert, the rest of the town is mostly RV parks and stuff for RVers.

Over 2 Million Visitors a Year!
Quartzsite, Arizona, barely 18 miles east of the Colorado river, on I-10, may be the RV boondocking capital of the world. Quartzsite has become a mecca to visitors and exhibitors for rocks, gems, mineral specimens and fossils during the town’s famous two-month-long gem show and swap meet every January and February. From its humble beginnings the now-massive Quartzsite show has grown to RV-epic proportions with vendors offering everything under the Quartzsite sun.

Then it's on to Sedona and surrounding area, then Grand Canyon. We'll take in Williams, reputed to be the best restored Route 66 section, stand on the corner in Winslow, hang around Santa Fe for a bit, visit the Great Sand Dunes national park, spend a while around Denver, then on into covid-loving Wyoming. We'll go into the back side of Yellowstone, and roll along to Montana. Eventually, we'll spend most of the rest of the summer in Washington, with no reasonable expectation of making it into Canada, again.

We've been full-time in our motorhome for three years now, and traveled around for many years before that, and have never seen it so crowded. State parks get booked as soon as reservations open, commercial parks are mostly full most of the time. Pity the fool who thinks they're going to "road trip the US" this summer and doesn't have reservations yet.

[Ulysses]

[Ulysses]

I spent half a summer after graduating high school as a volunteer at a wildlife research station in south-east Arizona, in the Chiracahua Mountains. It was a wonderful experience, and it was tough to come back to a dull summer job in the City after that. Always wanted to revisit Arizona; maybe next year.

[O Really]

And tomorrow we're off. Picked an unfortunate day to drive two days through the desert. 101 in Quartzsite today.

[GoCubsGo]

And tomorrow we're off. Picked an unfortunate day to drive two days through the desert. 101 in Quartzsite today.

A/C not working?

[O Really]

And tomorrow we're off. Picked an unfortunate day to drive two days through the desert. 101 in Quartzsite today.

A/C not working?

Oh yeah, they work. Two units for the coach, plus the built-in cockpit a/c. But I really hate a/c and would rather sit with my nuts in a vice. Which is unfortunate because Lady O loves a/c and would gladly put my nuts in a vice if I refused to run it. For a "normal" warm weather travel temp, say 80 or so outside, she can stay cool by using the dash cockpit a/c and I can just turn off the driver side vents. But when it gets much over 90, we have to turn on a house unit too. Motorhome a/c's can bring down the outside temp about 20 degrees, so anything 90 or under you can get it pretty chilly if you want. Upwards toward 100, though, and even with a/c running it'll still be around 80 inside. Great for me, not so much for Lady O.

[O Really]

Perspective in weather reports:

San Diego weather chick: "We're in for a really hot day today, with highs near 80 on the coast and mid-80's inland. Don't forget your sunscreen and stay well hydrated if you're out hiking, at the beach or working in the yard. But don't worry, it will cool down by the weekend."

Phoenix weather chick: "The record high for today is 107, but we're not going to be near that. For the next several days expect very pleasant days in the mid 90's, warming up to near 100 on Thursday."

[O Really]

Well, this years Spring adventure is off to a less than stellar start. Nothing that doesn't fall into the "first world problem" category, but still. Weather has been mostly in extremes, with 100 the highest we've had and 24 the low. Pretty much constant windy, blowing dust much of the time. I-10 is in miserable condition from east of Indio to almost Phoenix. Anyway, we spend a couple of nights in Williams, "Gateway to the Grand Canyon" and enjoyed their "Route 66" restoration section. For last springs covid-cancelled trip, we had had tickets to ride the Grand Canyon railway, but we passed on that this year. So we get to Grand Canyon park, where we had reservations at the one RV campground actually in the park. So for reservations made a year ago (not last-minute or even last month), the space they assigned us was way off level in two planes. The urban assault vehicle tried to level itself and couldn't even get close. And despite what "they say", cell service is spotty at best and non-existent where our space was. We, and most everybody else with large rigs, don't usually even bother trying to get into state/national parks campgrounds because they're just not set up for it and we all know it. But the park at GCNP says it's "paved pull-through site perfect for vehicles up to 50 feet long." They may have some of those, but that's not what we got. Anyway, we moved to an RV "parking lot" style place outside the park and will still enjoy our stay at Grand Canyon.

Between previous trips and this one, we've experienced Arizona from top to bottom, and side to side and have no idea why anyone would want to actually live here. Fly in - see whatever it is you want to see, and fly back out. We probably won't be back except (maybe) to pass through at a rapid pace.

[neoplacebo]

I might want to go to Arizona to look for poison lizards and maybe set the town of Truth or Consequences on fire on my way out.

[O Really]

So we left Grand Canyon today and continued our way across still more desert. Our route as far as Albuquerque follows, generally, the old Route 66 and we have been totally amazed at the misery and determination the Dust Bowl refugees had to follow that road to California. Meanwhile, we visited a site we didn't even know existed - a meteor crater, a mile wide huge hole in the ground caused by a meteor 50,000 years ago. Sounds like a cheesy roadside attraction, but it was well worth the visit. https://meteorcrater.com/

We've met some interesting people so far: A couple from Equador cruising the US from the Keys to LA in a rental van, and continuing to Hawaii. And a guy on his way walking from Mexico to Canada, by way of the Grand Canyon rim to rim. That seems impressive enough, but last year he completed his "Triple Crown" of hiking, one of less than 500 people certified to have done it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crown_of_Hiking Dude was about 6 feet tall, probably weighed maybe 130, carrying a big 45ish pound pack and boogying along at a brisk pace. Does about 20 miles a day out of the mountains.

Today we cruised into Winslow AZ and will "stand on the corner" for a pic by the statue and then on to Petrified Forest.
Otherwise, it's a lot of desert, lot of dust, constant wind, and wide swings of extremes in temperature. We are so done with this part of the country.

[O Really]

Winslow is really a very sad little town. The old downtown probably started to go down when the Wal-mart et. al. moved in at the edge, but it's still directly on the original Route 66 and has signs of fairly recent activity in some bars, restaurants, and shops. But most everything is closed now, maybe killed off by the covid. Except for the Corner, where anybody who is going through stops and crowds up for pics.

But if we ever have reason to drive through the desert again, we're going to just drive about 10 hours, stop for food/sleep and do another 10.

[Ulysses]

Winslow is really a very sad little town. The old downtown probably started to go down when the Wal-mart et. al. moved in at the edge, but it's still directly on the original Route 66 and has signs of fairly recent activity in some bars, restaurants, and shops. But most everything is closed now, maybe killed off by the covid. Except for the Corner, where anybody who is going through stops and crowds up for pics.

But if we ever have reason to drive through the desert again, we're going to just drive about 10 hours, stop for food/sleep and do another 10.

Couldn't be as sleepy as Bisbee.

[O Really]

Winslow is really a very sad little town. The old downtown probably started to go down when the Wal-mart et. al. moved in at the edge, but it's still directly on the original Route 66 and has signs of fairly recent activity in some bars, restaurants, and shops. But most everything is closed now, maybe killed off by the covid. Except for the Corner, where anybody who is going through stops and crowds up for pics.

But if we ever have reason to drive through the desert again, we're going to just drive about 10 hours, stop for food/sleep and do another 10.

Couldn't be as sleepy as Bisbee.

We haven't been, and aren't going to Bisbee, but it looks like it might have picked up a bit since the last time you were there.

https://passionsandplaces.com/2020/01/0 ... e-arizona/

[Ulysses]

Winslow is really a very sad little town. The old downtown probably started to go down when the Wal-mart et. al. moved in at the edge, but it's still directly on the original Route 66 and has signs of fairly recent activity in some bars, restaurants, and shops. But most everything is closed now, maybe killed off by the covid. Except for the Corner, where anybody who is going through stops and crowds up for pics.

But if we ever have reason to drive through the desert again, we're going to just drive about 10 hours, stop for food/sleep and do another 10.

Couldn't be as sleepy as Bisbee.

We haven't been, and aren't going to Bisbee, but it looks like it might have picked up a bit since the last time you were there.

https://passionsandplaces.com/2020/01/0 ... e-arizona/

Actually, never been to Bisbee, although I knew a lady who was from there.

I have been to some other towns in southern Arizona, such as Douglas, which I recently googled only to find out it's in the top 1% of worst for crime in America. Who knew? Then there is Portal. Which is tiny but lovely.