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Published: January 30th 2014
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Here we are!
Me, Mary & Skip, and Lily the cat photo bomber Sun, 26 January
It was nearly noon by the time we left Picacho Peak State Park and headed north on I-10 toward Phoenix. The traffic wasn’t bad and we made pretty good time. We dropped the camper at Mary’s father’s house, where her brother, Ben, has been staying. We talked with Ben for a while before driving on over to Skip and Mary’s. Mary was just getting home and Skip was not far behind. We sat and caught up on family happenings and just had a nice visit. After a supper of Mary’s delicious chicken soup, they taught us the card game “Hand and Foot.” We had fun playing that for several hours before heading for bed.
Mon, 27 Jan
Skip was out early to the gym, then picked up donuts and bagels on the way home. We dawdled over breakfast, enjoying the food and the company. We played some more Hand and Foot, then when Mary went to visit her dad, Skip taught us to play two-handed. The thing is, two handed is almost the same as four-handed, but each person plays two hands, which confused the heck out of Kerry. So we won’t be playing that
Imperial Sand Dunes
southern California one when it is just the two of us.
We picked up Ben and the five of us went to the TeePee for some really wonderful Mexican food for supper. We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the conversation, too. Ben is heading back to Saipan next week, and it is very interesting to hear about life there.
Tues, 28 Jan
We got out fairly early, picked up our camper and turned west again. We encountered some traffic slow-downs on our way out of Phoenix, but it could have been worse. We drove out I-10 to Buckeye, then south to I-8 at Gila Bend. Note to Self: Don’t take I-8. It is rough as a cob.
We left Arizona after driving through Yuma, a completely unimpressive city. Not far into California we passed the Imperial Sand Dunes, which are quite popular with dirt bikers and other off-roaders. Then we climbed from below sea level to over 4,000’ through mountains that looked like piles of boulders. I still can’t figure out the name of those mountains. Anyway, the road wound upward through those rock piles for miles until finally starting back down.
We stopped near Pine Valley
in the Cleveland National Forest at Cibbets Flat Campground, about 5 miles off the interstate. I don’t believe there was another camper there, and it was beautiful and mostly peaceful. The only noise was airplanes and helicopters from a nearby military base.
Wed, 29 January 2014
We had a short drive this morning to Santee, CA, where we are camping at the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve. We drove into Santee to the post office for stamps and to mail some cards. They were out of post card stamps, so I’ll have to find some elsewhere.
This afternoon we drove to Ocean Beach to see the Pacific Ocean and watch the sunset over the ocean. It was about 20 degrees cooler at the beach than at the campground, and it was foggy or hazy. There were some pretty good waves and quite a few surfers out trying to ride them. As the sun got lower, the clouds got thicker (or maybe it was fog) and finally the sun just disappeared behind a cloud. No color, no pretty sunset over the water. Oh, well. As a reward, we got to fight rush hour traffic most of the
Cibbets Flat Campground
Cleveland national forest, CA way back to Santee. We do appreciate living in the country.
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Pat
non-member comment
You're here!!!
Can;t wait to see you - what will you be doing until we see you? Love you guys:)