THROUGH THE SMOKE AND THE WIND

We had a lovely visit at Morro Bay with Zoe’s son and his family. We ate lunch at the restaurant from the film “Murder By Numbers” and visited the dock where our houseboat had been moored in the film. I wanted to be closer to the ocean so we had a lovely family picnic at El Chorro State Pak. The waves were especially high as they crashed against the shore. It was wonderful to see, smell and hear the ocean again.

We hoped to miss the fires and smoke around San Diego as we headed west from Morro Bay and chose the route through Bakersfield and down from Mohave to San Bernadino and eventually Palm Springs. We could see and smell the smoke from the fires and after we left Mohave, we wondered if we had made a mistake to take this route. It looked like we would be heading right into the smoke. Fortunately, we went right between the major fires but the wind was horrendous. Poor Zoe had a battle on her hands as the wind slammed against our rig broadside. The view of six semis with trailers turned over alongside the road did not aid our trepidation.

We made it fine to Palm Springs, however, but the wind had shifted and we were again surrounded by smoke. That did not prevent us from having great visits with our friends: Jack who had recently lost his partner; Fran and Janie who had accompanied us last year to France; Zoe’s brother, John, his new wife Donna, his son Rick with his partner. It was also a relief to see some green after going through the Mohave Desert.

We had heard good things about the Anza-Borrego area south of Palm Springs so we headed there for a few days. On the way into Borrego Springs, we passed many RV Toy Boxes camped in the desert for dirt bike and four wheeler events. The visitors’ center in town turned out to be especially interesting. The park in Borrego Springs was a gorgeous oasis surrounded by barren hills and gullies. It had a lovely heated pool that allowed me to get some good exercise for my back. All the other parks we had been to in California did not heat their pools and were too cool to relax the muscles. This park also had three two-person hot tubs that soothed the muscles also.

Now we head to the glass platform over the Grand Canyon and cooler weather.