December 4, 2011
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| bikers |
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| more bikers |
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| and still coming |
Left Lake Havasu City, AZ today heading for Yuma, AZ. Just north of Parker Dam we saw a police car and a few motorbikes behind, by the time we go to the dam, we must have passed over 200! They were doing a drive for Toys we found out. Some had Santa hats and different decorations on their bikes, and some looked like just regular Harley bikers. I started to take pictures, but they just kept on coming around the corner, pretty amazing and the area they were riding would have been a great ride for them.
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| road to Yuma |
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| different foliage again |
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| Yuma proving grounds |
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| Road to Yuma |
Road to Yuma down 95 was very straight. This stretch of road, approx. 40 miles, also goes through the Yuma Proving grounds, which is where they conducts tests on medium and long range artillery, aircraft target acquisition equipment and armament, armored and wheeled vehicles as well as providing training for personnel for desert conditions. There were signs everywhere that there was danger and no trespassing. We were travelling on Sunday so did not see anything. The terrain had a bit different foliage again through this area.
Before we left Lake Havasu, we had a call from Ken’s brother John who is driving truck and he was going to be in Yuma on so plan to meet up with him.
Arrived at RV Park, midafternoon set up and went to pick up John for dinner. Had not seen each other before left Canada so it was a nice visit and nice to see a familiar face.
December 7, 2011
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| Cleveland Forest |
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| Harbour by Motel |
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| Motel ad |
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| Yep, this is it |
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| Harbour |
Left today for San Diego for a couple of day trip, that was one of the reasons for stopping in Yuma.
Again, the terrain between here and San Diego changes so much, we travelled along Hwy 8, road for a while was very flat and straight. Passed through Algodones Dunes which is west of the Chocolate Mountains along Hwy 8. This is managed by the Bureau of Land management. It is between the borders of Arizona, California and Mexico. On the way to California, we went through a check point first of all to see if we had any fruit with us (same as when we went into state when we first came down). Then along the way we went through 2 border control check points. These are mobile so they can set them up whenever and wherever they want to. This stretch of highway is very close to border, you can see Mexico on the other side as well as the border fence some points along the highway. Closer to California, we started heading back into mountains again so we climbed from Sea Level just outside El Centro and up to 4180’ at the peak of the mountain in California through to the Cleveland National Forest. This is where we started seeing green again! They had trees, and grass and water………
The mountain range through here has huge boulders and shows as falling rock; these are not from being blasted but are part of the Chocolate mountains, again amazing scenery and rocks.
We booked into a little flee bag hotel called the Dolphin that I found on line and it was exactly what it said it would be, whitewashed walls, floors, everything, doors had keys, yes real keys, neon lights outside and it was right off Mission bay by point Loma. I had read that it could be noisy, but since we had the heater on at a decibel level of 115, did not hear anything else!! (they were very friendly and helpful, had continental breakfast, when we were leaving, one of the owners said we should have gotten a space heater for the room as they had them, guess they don’t leave in room in case they get stolen)even found a barber for Ken for the next day.
We went downtown to take a trolley tour through town, we have found these to be one of the best types to take, a hop on and hop off, shows you quite a bit of the city that you would not be seeing necessarily on your own and the drivers are talking all the time. Since we arrived early afternoon, we just stayed on the tour for the whole time and there was just one other couple, from Atlanta with us most of the time. Tomi, was the driver and she was good, had sound effects for different areas, music so went well. Toured the Old Town district which was the birth place of San Diego, went to Balboa park where the Zoo is, no did not go, not crazy about seeing animals behind bars, but the park itself, is larger than Central Park in New York and houses several different museums. When we finished this, we went for a drive along the bay and it was rather cool out. Went down to one of the beaches. Picture taking is rather difficult as we were constantly moving and the window had an obstruction, but we did get to see a lot. We decided to look for Cabrillo point that we wanted to see the next day and ended up at the Naval Base sentry station, nice young man with a large rifle turned us around and pointed to the way out. We keep doing this, when in Atlanta, we went to the Airforce base by mistake. All we need now is somewhere to bet lost near Army based and would have been in all of the forces downs here!!!! After some touring the manager at motel recommended a seafood restaurant on the bay that was quite good. Unfortunately, it was cold here as well so we sat inside but could see the bay from the window.
The next day, we went to Point Loma and Cabrillo monument. If you look closely at a map of San Diego, this is the tip of the point and where the rest of the base is, which this is actually around. The view was amazing, we went to the monument and then to the old lighthouse. While we were there, an aircraft carrier was coming out from the bay going to sea, these are huge. This area is also where they can sometimes see the whales come in, that is usually mid-December to January, but we have not seen any signs of them. This is also the largest military cemetery, bigger than Arlington, VA and Punchbowl of the Pacific in Hawaii combined.
From there, we went to the USS MIDWAY museum, which is actually on the aircraft carrier. The ship is 1001’ long by 258’ wide and was the 20th century’s longest serving carrier, to see this go to www.midway.org. The pictures and specs they have on are amazing. Another couple of hours spent touring this as well. It was warm on top of the flight deck in the open, but once again, cooled down really quickly.
We are going to be leaving here on Monday the 12th and heading across to Arizona City, AZ to spend some time with friends of ours that have been full timing for a while and from there????? We have lots of sun here but no warmth so now our focus is twofold, follow the sun AND the heat…..
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