We have been lounging around near our hometown of San Diego for most of December. We were able to visit our son and his wonderful fiance several times. We both got nasty colds and spent a week or so doing nothing, We made big shopping excursions to Costco and Trader Joe’s where many dollars were expended. We jammed food into all the available storage, dumped the tanks, filled up the propane and got back on the road. It feels good.
We have a scheduled commitment in San Diego in April 2017 so our journey in early 2017 will be a short one compared with our last two outings (the East Coast in 2015 and the Great Basin in the first ten months of 2016). Peggy and I speculate at this time that eastern Texas or maybe Arkansas will be about as far as we can go east before turning back west to make our April return date without cramping our style.
However, today we only made it from San Diego to Yuma, AZ. From TT Pio Pico in San Diego to a park called Adobe Sunset east of Yuma was about 170 miles. Leaving San Diego we took I-8 which climbs over not less than four 4000′ passes before descending down the frightening In-Ko-Pah grade into the desert towns of Ocotillo and Plaster City. Soon we were driving through El Centro, CA, where the ground elevation is below sea level. Despite being at an elevation that should be underwater, there are massive agricultural fields here being watered with imported water carried through massive aqueducts from the Colorado River. We failed to spot any naturally occurring bodies of water in the areas visible from the freeway.
The Adobe Sunset RV Park was quite similar to the dozens of other RV parks in the Yuma area. Many full-timers, like us, come to the southern part of the country in winter to thumb our noses at nasty weather and it seems tens of thousands of them plant themselves in Yuma for cold months. Our space was a pull-thru and had full utility hookups. There was no wi-fi in the park except at the office. The park is right next to a fairly busy road. Trains run within earshot but the volume of the fairly distant horns were not obnoxious. The cost was quite reasonable – about $28. Fuel and RV services are abundant.