When life gives you lemons, go ride Lemonade!

2019 Travels

This is liable to be a long page. We haven’t updated our travels for over a year, since July of 2018, 15 months ago. A lot has happened in the last year, but not all of it good.

After our Europe trip last year we worked until the end of the year. We did some day rides and I rode several of the “Tuesday Rides” that a member of our club plans out in the local area. Tuesday is a day off for me.

Christmas Day was our last official day of work but being a holiday and the hardware store where we both worked was closed so we didn’t work it. The pay period ended on Tuesday and we were paid on Friday. If we worked until the 31st we would have had pay arriving in early 2019 and would have to declare it in our 2020 Federal Income Tax return. This will be simpler.

After doing the “Polar Bear Run” again, we headed south. (If you click on the link you will see two of our pictures in the rotating album on the sponsor’s home page. (The yellow GoldWing picture and the one over the windshield.)

Our destination is Quartzite, Arizona where tens of thousands of RV’ers gather each January. But we are taking the scenic route.

The scenic route starts in Red Rocks Park near Las Vegas in Nevada.

They have campsites with no hookups; no water, no electricity, no sewer. But we are self contained so that is alright.

 

 

 

 

We did a hike up this valley, climbing over rocks, along side slopes and through the brush to a pass in the ridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pass looked back at our campground, in the center, and at the smog from Las Vegas, on the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a week here we went into Las Vegas for another week.

We are killing time until the “Gathering in the Desert”. Our motorhome’s manufacturer has a get-together each year in the desert near Quartzite, AZ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We parked in a row with other attendees and joined them for talk, food, sales spiels, advice and good times. This lasted 4 or 5 days.

 

 

One of the big attractions is “The Big Tent”.

There are tens of thousands of  RV’s camped all over the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land surrounding Quartzite. They have come to see the displays in the big tent as well as the hundreds of booths surrounding the tent. There is everything an RV’er would ever need, and many things you won’t, on sale here.

Other attractions are the mineral and gem stores and booths with rocks from all over the world, and the desert itself. Many of the RV’ers have brought off-road bikes, quads and four-wheel vehicles to run the trails, hills and canyons.

We had not brought the GoldWing on the trip. Although it would not do the off-road stuff I still missed having it to ride the roads in the area.

We returned home in late February to be there in time for my mother’s 96th birthday on March first.  She lives near Portland, OR. We must travel over the mountains on the California-Oregon border if we take the quick and easy I-5 freeway. A big snow storm is predicted for the mountains just as we will be there. So we decide to take the coast highway, Hwy 101. As we pass out of northern California the 101 highway in southern Oregon slides into the ocean. We backtrack to Crescent City, CA and turn east on Hwy 199 that leads inland, over the mountains, to Grants Pass, OR on I-5.

Things on the California side are not too bad, we are following the snow plow. But when we entered Oregon the plow turned around and headed back to California. We are now cutting our own tracks through the snow.

The picture is from the California side, the plow is way up ahead.

Driving a motorhome, with the car attached behind, in a snow storm, without chains on, is a new one for me. I have lots and lots of experience in snow, but in a four-wheel drive pickup, not an RV.

We made it safely over the mountains and headed home on I-5, which was bare and wet.

 

 

We arrived home to find mom in the hospital with heart palpitations. My sister, from California, had come to visit this year and was with her. Mom recovered and we all went out to dinner. In mid-May mom did it again, the hospital.

She recovered in time to do the annual visit to dad’s grave on Memorial Day. This time both my brother and sister came up from California to be there. Mom is getting frail.

She made two more trips into the hospital in June and July.

And two more in August, the second time for a major stroke. She never recovered, she died on the 30th and was buried with dad. We had a simple family funeral and a large memorial at her church. She was a fine lady who gave freely of her time and money to helping others. She lived a long, good life and was healthy and independent until this year when her health declined quickly.

 

Our travel plans for 2019 changed with her health issues. We’ll continue the travels on the next page, 2019 Continued.

There will be some more GoldWing travels there.