Tuesday, February 1: Happy, Happy Birthday to our sister-in-law, Karen!!! She and my brother, Sam, own a travel trailer and have been enjoying Ohio summers at their campground, but are looking forward to some of their own travel adventures soon. I hope we are inspiring them to “just do it.”
We left the KOFA park around 8:30 this morning, anticipating a three-hour drive to our next destination, another Escapee Co-op in California. After we crossed into California and passed a sign reading “San Diego 136 miles” we both remembered when my sister, Merrily, and my niece, Landyn, drove us to the California/Mexican border in March 2006. After dropping us off at the trailhead to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hike, they drove ahead of us to a part of the trail they knew we would cross and made a creative “good-luck” sign right on the trail, using rocks. It was such a touching way to send us off on our big adventure and we are still grateful for their inspiring message.
We have reservations at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort in Aguanga, California. The park is another Escapee 55+ RV Membership Cooperative Community, located in Southern California just east of Temecula. According to their website, Jojoba Hills is surrounded by beautiful mountains and high desert. Temecula is the second largest wine region in California and a short drive to the coast, ski slopes, Los Angeles or San Diego. While at the park, we’ll have a chance to visit some of the places we passed through during our PCT hike (for example, we hitch hiked to Temecula to pick up our food package and stayed over the night to shower, do laundry and eat like fools).
Parts of our drive were through a few mountain passes, with curvy roads, boulders on hillsides (and almost no shoulder). We were happy when we started seeing hardwood trees versus cacti. We passed more than a few vineyards and wineries along the way. It was exciting to come upon metal sculptures of three wild horses which appeared to jump across the road. ahead of us. These are just a preview of the many sculptures we’ll see when we go to Borrego Springs later this week. We also passed a glider airport, full of gliders in storage. Fester doesn’t think they soar during winter months, but we plan to check on it this week – maybe we can arrange a flight.
Although we’ll still have sunny skies in California, the temps will be lower due to the mountains and elevation change. Yuma’s 70+ degree days will really be missed, but we’re ready for another change. During this morning’s drive, we passed through Anza Borrego Desert State Park (which looks pretty much like the landscape we’ve been passing- desert scrub surrounded by mountains). We passed a turnoff to Warner Springs and Borrego Springs. We’ve been to Warner Springs on our PCT hike. Our Escapee friends, Connie & Marc, spent a week at Borrego Springs after Tulsa and loved it. We plan to go there via the Jeep during our stay (maybe camp overnight).
We arrived at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort and checked in before noon. After eating a quick lunch, we took Sadie and walked uphill to one of the two dog parks here. If today is any indication, we’ll get a lot of steps in while we’re here. Our RV site is pretty far away from both dog parks, as well as the Office, Club House and Pool. We’ll need to pump up the bike tires in the morning, as this is a large, hilly park to navigate (golf carts seem to be very popular). We’re scheduled for a park tour tomorrow and look forward to it, as there’s still a lot to see and learn. Imagine my surprise when a bobcat (yes, a bobcat) walked across the patio on the site next to us. I was washing dishes and quickly grabbed the camera – unfortunately, it was a lousy shot due to window glare and a fast moving object. I’m posting the photo anyways, because it is cool.
Since today is the start of another month on the road, here are some of our travel stats to date:
- Nights: 97 (including tonight)
- Months: 3 (November, December & January)
- Miles: 3,925
- Time Zones: 3 (currently Pacific Time)
- States: 7 (Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona & California) Note: We aren’t counting Illinois because it was just a one-night stopover.
I plan to update our Yuma visit soon. Please stay tuned.
Skunky and Fester - The Next Chapter 