The Sun Arrives at Silent Valley and We Pull Out, That is What it Gets for Arriving Late! Shocking News Received.

Monday, Feb. 13^th is moving day so that is what we set about doing. It isn't surprising to me that it was another sun-packed day and nothing but blue skies. Figures. 

By 8:30 we had finished our showers (goodbye hot long showers!) everything packed, a light breakfast done, flushed and drained grey and black water tanks and our fresh water tank filled.

Since we had a time in our heads of 9:30 to head down the mountain, less traffic going down with us, we left the slides out and relaxed with our books for an hour. It felt good not to have to rush, those days are hopefully over for the most part.

Packed up and ready to move on

We said goodbye to our neighbours, Rick and Madeline and Paul and left them with one of our business cards. We’d like to hear how Rick makes out with his axle repair. Whether we’ll hear or not, is up to them.

The mountain drive down was uneventful and when I looked at Bill a couple of times I was pleased to see that he was breathing normally and appearing quite relaxed. Ha ha, he was initially concerned about the drive but had obviously come to terms with it and did a great job getting us down safely.

Only in California will you find street names like this

 There are turnouts, some larger than others, in quite a few spots on both trips, down and up, so he respectfully pulled over when he noticed someone behind us. We are so pleased with our truck, we’ve said it before and probably often. That King Ranch transmission eased us down the hill in 3^rd gear with Bill having only to touch the brakes 3 or 4 times.

Down the mountain, into Banning

From Banning we connected to I-10 and travelled along to our turn off onto Hwy 86. 

Looks like Big Rock Candy Mountain

Hey, there is a beautiful Mobile Suite in his back door!

Palm tree nursery, early stages

We knew this would take us to the Salton Sea and Borrego Springs, our destination for a few nights at least. It was interesting to drive past part of the large Salton Sea. We've heard so much about it. It is huge! We'll go back for a day trip this week to explore.

We stopped just after turning onto Borrego Salton Seaway at the Arco station and made ourselves a bite to eat while searching on the internet for a better idea of our destination. According to friends there are all kinds of boondocking places, we just needed to find them.

At one point on Hwy 86 we were quite close to Salton Sea

By now the temperature on our gps was reading 81F so we now understand exactly why we left Silent Valley. I enjoyed the park as much as I could for what was offered but it sure didn’t provide me with the heat I crave. Now I found it.

We continued driving until we drove through Anza-Borrego State Park and then found the spot we wanted to set up camp. Oh, my goodness! First impression? We love it. The views around us are amazing, mountains, desert, hills only broken up  by the other rv’ers parked here.

Two lane highway, not much traffic at all

this is what we came for, sandy desert and mountain views

A lot of our friends prefer to find a spot off on their own with either no one in sight or only someone way off in the distance. This is our first year and we aren’t there yet. We still like to be semi-close to others in the event we’d need help of some kind, or if we left Clemson for short periods, someone would be around to rescue him if there was a 

need for that while we were gone.

On the other side of that, not too close but sometimes we don’t have a choice. When in a park, you are limited to where you can park and you can always expect someone could and might park right next door. We take each instance as it plays itself out. Sometimes WE are the ones placed right next door to someone.

We found our spot and it is the best spot in the area, naturally. We are facing southeast, even though it means sun all day. We have windows for the breeze and we have awnings when it isn’t too windy along with our sunshades. That is where I’m sitting right now, writing this post. Believe it or not, I am in the shade but only because of the glare on my laptop screen.

For those back home who wonder what this camping is
like......here are a few rv's in the desert where they just pulled
off, found a spot and set up camp. Free for up to 14 days.

So, here in the desert we are happy to have cell phone service plus wifi connection. The cell service is not A-one but it is better than what we had at Banning, so no complaints. Wifi is slower here too but it is good enough for us and not as slow as Quartzsite. Yay!

Once set up, Bill wasted no time whatsoever setting up the satellite dish and got his signal right away. Bam! With the sun beating down on our panels since this morning, we were fully charged by the time we arrived and for the rest of the day. We wanted to watch a two-hour program at 5 so we would be good to do that. Tomorrow morning he will go up and tilt the panels.

We sat outside under the awning and behind our sunshade reading into the afternoon and Bill called his Dad on Google Hangouts. All is good. What a gorgeous day and gorgeous spot! I was so enthralled with the mountain view that I found myself dozing in my chair and by the time I sat down to finish this post after supper I realized I did not get a picture of our spot. Tomorrow.

Supper was easy, leftover Cheapskate Stew heated up on the stove. There was one large dumpling left so I cut it up to share between us. I’m glad that finished it off, we can only do leftovers for so long.

We turned the television off at 7 and settled in to read for the rest of the evening. This is never a problem, especially now that we both find it a great way to pass the time.

 

The sunset tonight still wasn’t breathtaking but I have a feeling tomorrow will be another great day. I hope your day was just as good wherever you are in this world.

Before closing this I wanted to relay a sad story. Our day cannot be perfect because of this information. Bill called me in from reading at one point today after reading something on Facebook. The sister of a sweet young lady who we worked with back home posted that Trish passed away. It is devastating news, she was so alive and full of passion. I just wanted to take this time to express how sad and shocking it was to us both. The world will miss you Trish Doan. Condolences to her family and friends.

You will be sorely missed, sweetie

Thank you for reading and I would love to hear from you!