I think we brought the bad weather with us. It has been rainy, unseasonably cool and very windy.  We finally had two sunny days at the end of our week here. On the first day we took a bike ride. I thought my endurance had improved until we turned to come back and found we had been pushed by a tailwind. Now that it was a head wind, it was much tougher going!

Walking proved easier in the afternoon when we crossed the dangerous Pacific Coast Highway on foot and walked through the Bolsa Chica Wetlands and Ecological Reserve. Lots of water birds and very serene for being along the highway.

The following day, which luckily for us was the best weather day of the week, we went on a whale watching cruise. Even though gray whales are migrating, we only saw one small one. But we did see two types of dolphins and a pile of sea lions on a buoy.

Balboa Island coast

Gray whale

Pacific White Sided Dolphins

Don't they look cozy?

While waiting in line, we met the people in front of us, two couples—one from Michigan and one from California. They had known each other for 20+ years. They told us their heart-warming story of the California woman, back in the '90s, being an anonymous bone marrow donor to their son who had a rare form of leukemia and even with a bone marrow transplant was only given a 5% chance of living. He is 30+ years old now and completely cancer free. She was matched shortly after giving her sample and has never been a match since!

Enjoying a cool but sunny day in Newport Beach.

Upon arrival at our beachfront "park," we were told that the Pacific Coast Highway right next to us would be closed Saturday night and half of Sunday for the Surf City Marathon. As I am typing, I am watching the sunrise and the runners while I sip my coffee from the warmth of the motor home. It's only 58 degrees this morning!

The group across from us is manning a non-sanctioned food station at mile 23 of the marathon. They are serving bacon and beer. 😂 I talked to one of the guys who said this was their twelfth year doing this, and they usually go through 50 pounds of bacon! A surprising number of runners took them up on it!

Our park is actually more of a parking lot, but it's on the ocean and has an 8-mile long, car-free running, walking, and biking path that goes into all the nearby beach towns.  On one side is the ocean, on the other the Pacific Coast Highway. The ocean is lovely, but the PCH is loud all night long. We probably wouldn't stay here again.

Night view from our RV. There are 5 oil platforms in front of us. This is the closest.

In addition to the marathon, there are many Superbowl fans here. Apparently it is a thing in LA to watch the Superbowl by the ocean. Think tailgating with RVs. Someone even brought in a truck with a mini Jumbotron!

Now it is Monday and most people have cleared out, gone home to recover from their hangovers and disappointment at their team losing the game.

Trevor came over and spent Friday night with us. It was so good to see him! I am looking forward to seeing him as much as possible this month. Happy mama!

It has been raining on and off since we got here. I even got an NWS flash flood weather alert on my phone! Today is supposed to be the last day, thankfully! We did get in some walks between squalls and some house cleaning and quilting during the rain.

Some nice walks, a few geocaches and lots of bunnies and birds at this SoCal park!

After two quiet and relaxing days near San Diego, we moved on to another park further north. Here we had our first view of the Pacific. We made it! We were welcomed by a ship and a rainbow after a small cloudburst.

The next morning we took the 3-mile hike to the beach, snagging a few geocaches on the way. At the beach, it was just us and the surfers.

First ocean visit

After our walk, it was time to move on to our next park where we get to stay for a whole week without moving!

So, as we left Catalina State Park, we decided to go to Biosphere 2 nearby.

Very cool. Inside were living quarters, gardens (fruit trees, vegetables and animals), an ocean, a desert, and a rain forest.

Rainforest

700,000 gallon "ocean"

Desert

In the early '90s, eight people lived inside this completely sealed environment for 2 years, growing their own food, getting oxygen from plants, and maintaining all of the equipment. Their only outside contact was through television, phones and the internet. It is now owned by the University of Arizona, which does all kinds of scientific research in conjunction with scientists all over the world.



Some of the current projects are assessing effectiveness of different types of solar panels, assessing the effect of different amounts of rainfall on the rain forest, and changing CO2 levels in the ocean to see the effects (the coral reef has already died).







After leaving the biosphere we had to return to Larry's to pick up our hiking pack with our water bottles in it. This set us back about 1 1/2 hours so we only made it to Gila Bend where the only option was a KOA. At least it had a laundry, so we got caught up on that. It's not all glamour living on the road!

Our next stop was the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. Not a very big site but interesting. Some of the petroglyphs were done BC!

They were prolific!

The grid was supposedly done BC.

We headed on toward Yuma, which is a big city when the snowbirds are in town. We stayed in a 55+ RV resort. When checking in the desk clerk told me that the town population grows by 80,000 in the winter! We noticed that most of the license plates were from Canada and, of course, the northern US. Nice place for a night, but way too many people for us. However, the bar and restaurant on site were nice. 😃

We finally crossed into California today! But first, we saw where all of our fresh food comes from. The fields along I-8 are enormous. We saw seas of cabbage, followed by kale and lettuce. Any fresh vegetable that you find in the store was being grown there. It was amazing! We were moving too fast to take pictures, though.

We are now in a San Diego county park that is just a few miles from Tecate, Mexico. We can see Mexico from our site. 😁 We saw miles and miles of border wall between Yuma and our park.





The park is nearly deserted except for a few other campers and the hawks and vultures!

Temperatures have been fabulous the last couple of days, and last night was the first night we didn't need heat, followed by today being our first day in shorts. Woo-hoo!

We did not exceed our limit! 😜

We moved on from Kartchner Caverns, where we have stayed before, to a county park, Gilbert Ray, adjacent to Saguaro National Park West. One of a couple of great recommendations by our friend Merry! While out on a short hike through the desert, we came upon Old Tuscon Studio where hundreds of movies have been filmed. It is mainly a tourist site now but occasional movies are still filmed there. We had a fun afternoon there, which included watching a condensed re-creation of The Hanging.

The next day we hiked up Brown Mountain in the national park. After walking back and forth to the trailhead several times (dead camera battery, forgot the phone, etc) we finally started on our hike.

We reached the peak?

We thought we reached the peak but when we went around the next curve, found another higher peak! Onward and upward!

The Saguaro cacti are everywhere! I learned that they only grow an inch in the first 10 years, and don't grow their first arm until they are around 100 years old! The ones with multiple arms are between 100-200 years old! 

An old guy

Out of control

And that's why it's called Saguaro National Park! They're everywhere!

They are majestic even in death.

 

Next, we moved on to Tuscon where we spent the day hiking with an old friend, Larry. If you ever get to Tucson, don't miss Sabino Canyon. It's beautiful and right in the city. We had a lovely dinner and breakfast with Larry before we had to move on. But not before taking advantage of a real shower in his house. 😉

Roadrunner at the entrance to Sabino Canyon

Water in the desert, at the bottom of Sabino Canyon

Cactus photobomb

We got a late start so didn't quite make it to the peak, but we have to leave something for next time!

It's always sad to leave but California is calling.

Denny crossing the creek

But first, Catalina State Park, another delightful recommendation by our friend Merry. Due to poor planning, we could only get one night. However, with so many lovely hikes and geocaches left to do, we will have to go back!

There were many creek crossings. Thank goodness for strategically placed stepping stones!

Leaving Cedar

So we have been on the road for a week and are finally staying in a campsite for more than one night. We had planned to stay a couple of nights in Hot Springs National Park, but the government shutdown changed that. The Buckstaff bath was open, though, as it is run by a private company. I was so happy to get my annual mineral bath spa treatment! However, the museum that Denny likes to peruse while I am in there was closed. I sure hope the shutdown ends before we get to some planned national park stays in California!
From then onward, every night when we watched the news, there was a cold front on its way. So in the morning we would pack up and head further south. We are now a little south of Tucson and...a cold front moved in overnight! We're still going to go hiking today and spend the next 5 days enjoying this beautiful area. We probably won't have as much company hiking since the high temperature will only be 56, but as hardy-ish northern Michiganders we will be fine, especially since it's also going to be sunny!
Our new motor home is working out great! We love the extra living space and the king bed! Still trying to get the cupboards arranged, though. It's a work in progress.
We have the cat (Kismet) with us again. I know, we thought she was going to die on our trip last year. She has been very ill a couple of times but continues to do well in spite of her kidney disease. She's taken to traveling again and after the first two nights (when she meowed all night) has adjusted well.  She complains when I put on her harness but doesn't seem to mind going outdoors except when it's windy.

We stayed at Monahans Sandhills State Park in west Texas; I guess it's their version of sand dunes. Nice but much smaller. When we got to the top of a dune, I kept expecting to see water, but no matter how high we climbed or how far we walked, all we saw was more sand!

Meanwhile, on the home front, Rochelle is dealing with having a new furnace put in, some sort of water pipe leakage making the drive an ice rink and sub-freezing temperatures. I wish we were there to help!

I forgot to post that we are home as of April 1st. And it has been snowing nearly nonstop since we got here :(
No more blogging until the next RV trip!! Bye for now.