2/13 Pueblo Grande Museum, Phoenix

I got bored this afternoon after hanging around the campground and headed out to this small museum in Phoenix.  It was a hot day, so I was glad there was not a lot of walking. 

From 450 AD to about 1,450 AD, the valley occupied by what is now Phoenix and its many suburbs was occupied by the Hohokam Indians.  They dug canals to bring water from the Salt River to their hundreds of small garden plots. They were successful enough in this that the area supported from 10,000 to 20,000 individuals.

This small patch of land with a mound containing ruins of some of the original buildings are all that is left.  The site is next to the Phoenix airport, which was built on some of the areas that were originally farmed.

And some of the current irrigation canals in this area follow the old Hohokam canals. I thought this plaque from the American Society of Civil Engineers was interesting.  This web site describes this in more detail:  http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/hohokam2/. 

Clearly, the native builders did not have a lot of large stones available to them, so it is amazing that some of the walls were thought to originally have been 30' high.

This is a reconstruction done by college students.

These reconstructed buildings represent the older pit houses people once lived in.

And a reconstructed ball court.

The signs said the sticks acted as a wind break to the cooking fires.  Obviously, this also is a reconstruction.

Ruins seen from the top of the mound.

Some of the exhibits from inside the museum.  This is a drawing of what the mound would have looked like originally.

 

This heat has been getting to me.  When I have been in this area in the past, it has been about 10 degrees cooler.  And up until two weeks ago, it has been freezing cold in California, Las Vegas, and here when I came in December.  Now the temperature is in the mid to upper 80s, and I am not used to it!! 

 

Better than the snow and cold in the northern states, however!!

2/9 - 2/11 Napa, CA, to Phoenix, AZ

I've gotten a bit behind on my blog. After I left Hensley Lake, I drove to Napa to spend the weekend with family and get my retinas checked out.  Once I got the all-clear from the ophthalmologist on Monday, I headed south and east to Phoenix, leaving early Tuesday morning. It was a long, 900 mile and three-day drive.  I normally do not drive that many days in row, but I had reservations for Thursday night and did not want to lose my spot.  

So here is some catch-up:  My first stop after 300 tiring miles was a very nice, and empty (just the way I like campgrounds) east of Bakersfield, CA.  Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area is a large campground on a surprisingly good-sized reservoir in this dry, desert area.  Since this was a Tuesday night, there were only a handful of other campers. Chatted with my next door neighbors a while, which was nice.  

I much prefer these quiet public campgrounds where you have lots of room between neighbors to the commercial places in towns!  No road noise and the neighbors tend to be quiet also, as they are getting away from the commercial campgrounds as well. And this one had full hookup sites for only $23 for us seniors. Note the lack of other campers in these photos!!  Love it!  

Got up early the next morning and headed south along I-5 through what they call "The Grapevine Pass" to the area around LA.  Here are some photos of the pass.  It was pretty steep most of the way, and there were two truck lanes, so I mostly stayed in the second-from-the-right lane where the only slightly slow trucks went.  The far right lane trucks tended up plug along at around 35 MPH!   My lane moved at 45-55 MPH, which meant I sometimes had to pass slower vehicles.  

Whew!  After the steep hills and a traffic accident that took 45 minutes to get through, I was happy to get to flat land, but not happy with all the traffic.   

This second day, I drove almost 290 miles, which got me to Joshua Tree National Park.  I had stayed in the southern-most campground before, and I remembered that there were no hookups, but I had forgotten at how small the sites were. 

I had to park diagonally in my site in order to fit in, and the sun was almost setting by the time I got set up.  Note the very long shadows.  

This campsite was about half-empty, which was surprisingly full for this time of year and this far out of the way. 

One of my neighbors. 

No photos from my third long day of driving, but it was mostly through a lot of dull desert.  I was happy to see Pass Mountain, aka "Slash" Mountain, that identifies you are near Usery Mountain Regional Park, near Mesa, AZ. 

This is one of my Top 10 campgrounds, and I have been here several times.  It is in beautiful Sonoran Desert and feels very far from things, even though it is only about two miles from the edge of Mesa, AZ.   

I will post photos tomorrow of the nature tour I took of edible plants in the desert.  

2/5 Hensley Lake Water Levels Comparison

The Hidden View campground at Lake Hensley, east of Fresno, California, is one of my favorite places to hang out for a few days.  It is always extremely quiet and because it is a Corps of Engineers campground, it also has electric hookups, is well-taken care of with paved roads and camp sites, and is a bargain for seniors.  Campsites have good views of the lake and the hills in the distance.

However, for the past couple of years, the lake has been little more than a puddle because of the drought.  But, now with El Nino, in less than two months, the lake has gone from 5% of capacity to 20% of capacity.  And even though there has not been any rain for a few days, the lake is still rising because the water is still draining off the surrounding countryside into rivers and into the lake. 

Here are two photos of the water intake tower from 2013.  In the first picture, it is way in the distance on the right.  Note how little water is in the lake.

 

Here is a similar distance view photo I took today.  Compare this view to the above.  It's beginning to look like a real lake.

 

This shows how you could walk right up to the tower in 2013.  Notice that the base is entirely out of the water.

 

And these two photos I took today, shows that the entire base of the tower is now covered with water and you can no longer walk right up to it.

 

The next few photos show the ramps on this side of the lake. First is a Google map view, with the three boat ramps numbered.  Google is slightly out of date, but you can see that the biggest ramp, #1, is completely out of the water. You can see that they added a gravel road down to the water at one point, but even that is out of the water.  Ramp #2 is also out of the water, and the only ramp usable is Ramp #3.

Here are some photos of these ramps.  This first one is Ramp #1 in 2013.

And here is Ramp #1 today:



This isn't the best photo, but this is Ramp #3 in 2013.  Ramp #2 is on the right, but out of sight.

 

And this is Ramp #3 today. Ramp #3 is that road to the left with water now covering a lot of the rocks shown in the previous photo. They have closed that ramp because it is not in good condition and is gravel. 

 

Ramp #2 in this view is way over to the right, near the porta-potties. 

Ramp #2 is the one that is open and usable today.  The rangers in the white truck had just winched the little dock up so it would not be underwater for the weekend.  They told me the water had been rising 6" per day this past week.  The big cable holds it tightly as it is guided by the curb on the right.  The ramp is a lot steeper than it looks, by the way.

 

Nice side view of the moveable dock.  They fasten a heavy rope onto the truck and just pull it up several feet.

 

Saw this lone white pelican as I headed back home after my bike ride.  The lump on his or her beak shows that the bird is breeding age.

 

 

 



2/3 What I DON'T Like About My Motorhome

Not much to post about today, so I will post about some things I have been meaning to write about.  A while back I posted what I liked about my motorhome.  In spite of my being happy with this RV and a lot of things about it, there is some stuff that certainly could have been done better by the manufacturer.

·      The biggest thing I dislike about my motorhome is common with most of the lower-cost and medium-cost motorhomes and trailers—the cheap inside finishes.  The wall covering is a sort of industrial vinyl wallpaper, and that does not bother me so much because it is at least practical and easily washable.  The thing I really, really hate is that while the cabinet doors are real wood, the cabinets themselves are thin particle board covered with a sort of really cheap paper-based wallpaper that is a picture of wood.  It does not wash well at all, and on a few of my more heavily used cabinets, it is coming unglued around the edges.  You also can’t easily patch it or stain it if it is scratched or marred. 

·      The next most-disliked thing is the incredibly cheap carpeting they put in the bedroom, around the bottom of the slide platform the couch and kitchen cabinets rest on, and in the cab area.  It matted down almost immediately.  I don’t know what it is made of, but it looks like the kind of carpeting you get when you sign up to have three rooms carpeting for $500!  Carpeting on slides, which the bedroom is on, is extremely common, and salesmen will tell you it has to be carpeting because of the slides.  Surely, they could at least have put a longer-wearing nylon or something more practical that does not mat.

·         Next is the fuzzy ceiling.  Now why you would carpet a ceiling is beyond me, but basically that is what they have done in my motorhome.  I think it collects dust, so once every six months, I end up vacuuming it with my canister vacuum cleaner.  Absurd.

·         Another thing I dislike, but one I can live with, is the fact that almost everything in my RV, and nearly all other RVs, is some version of brown.  Cabinets are cherry, walls are mottled beige vinyl wallpaper, carpeting is beige, flooring is vinyl pretending to be tile in various shades of gold and brown, couch is gold vinyl, back dinette is a patterned sort of fabric-looking stuff in various shades of gold, window shades are beige, and kitchen counter is a darker brown.   I have tossed in some throw rugs in blue to break up the brown monotony, at least.

·         Overall, I like my “basement” storage areas, but they put the water pump inside one of the pass-thrus instead of in a closer and larger bin area.  That means you have to almost crawl into the storage bin to get to it.  You also have to be skinny and young to do this.  Maybe someday, I will try to get someone to re-plumb this so I can reach it myself.  This is important because I have gone through four water pumps in four years, and could replace it myself if it were more reachable.  Cost for a pump is about $80, but labor is well over $200. 

·         And finally, unless I think of something else, I really would someday like to have a motorhome where I could fasten the sewer dump hose without sticking my head into the compartment!  Having it just a few inches closer to the door would be nice, as I really do not like sticking my head in a sewer compartment, no matter how clean I try to keep the compartment.

Another time I will post about how they manufacture these things and what causes them to make them the way they make them.  I visited several factories when I was shopping for a motorhome, and it was a revelation. 

 

2/2 Tehachapi Pass, California, with Snow

Tehachapi Pass is a 4,000 pass that separates the Central Valley of California from the Mohavi Desert.  Normally, it is just a scenic place to drive through, however, with the El Nino rains, they had a lot of snow and blowing up there yesterday and the day before.  I checked the weather and road conditions, and knew it was supposed to be 36 degrees and sunny today, with only 22 MPH winds, so I figured I'd give it a try.

After driving through exciting little towns like Mojave and Boron, along the north side of Edwards Air Force Base, you see the mountains arising out of the flat plain.  There is a huge wind farm here as well. I was a little worried because the wind speed was more like 30 MPH along Edwards.  Luckily, it was less in the pass itself because the nearest campground, should I have chosen to turn back, was 60 miles behind me! 

After the boring flatness of the area near Edwards Air Force Base, the mountains come into view.  This is a very heavily traveled road because it is the shortest distance between Las Vegas and most other points east and the valley and northern California.

By this point, about halfway through, there was a dusting of snow along the highway.  I saw a couple of cars full of people stopped who had apparently never seen real snow before.

This is identified on several sites as one of the most dangerous roads in California.

I stopped in the town of Tehachapi for cheap gas and almost slipped on the ice in the gas station!  Should have taken a photo.

After a few miles, however, the mountains turned into green, rolling hills!  Yes, sometimes California is really green and the poor cows actually have fresh grass to eat!  I'm sure they were ecstatic. 

Pretty rolling hills, in any case.

And finally, you can see the valley between the last set of hills. 

 
It turned out to not be as bad a drive as I had feared. I was not worried about ice as much as wind because most RVs, mine included, do not do well in winds.  Nothing like feeling yourself being blown to the side as you drive.

 

1/30 Willow Beach Campground

While it is really hard to pick out a top 10 or 20 favorite campgrounds, Willow Beach, about 12 miles downstream of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River has to be at least in the top 15 or so.  Why?

1. It has an incredible view, and I love views.  Even on days when I have a lot of work to do, being able to sit in my recliner and look out of the windows at something makes it all worthwhile.
2. It has paved roads and cement camping pads.  This is important to keeping the dust and dirt out of my home on wheels.  Many of the campgrounds on my "worst" list have had dirt roads with clouds of dust boiling up every time someone drives by.  Also, a paved or cement pad makes it a lot easier to sit and clean out storage areas or do maintenance work on the outside.
3. It has nice, big campsites, plus all sites have electric, water, AND sewer hookups!  Free WiFi as well, since there is no cell service here.
4. And, it is cheap!  My senior rate for this campground is only $17.50, which is a real bargain.

So here are some more photos.  The first is taken just on the other side of the road beside my camping spot.  Great view!  I can't see the road from my vehicle, but I can see the river.

Campsites are large and spread far apart.  See how nice the roadway and pad are?

Another slightly closer view.

The running board on the driver's side has been rusty with peeling paint for several months.  I did the best I could scraping and sanding the rust off, but I did not have any power tools.  After a coat or two of rust preventing paint, at least it looks better than it did.  When I get back to Ohio in August, my younger son will use his power tools to get it smoother and remove more of the rust.  In the meantime, this will have to do.