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And it is also time to do a ‘Konrad’ (as in “Adenauer”! If you are younger than 75, there is a good chance the reference to the once German Chancellor will be vague or obscure!) Aside from pin-pointing my age range, the dumb pun from my youth describes what we had to do yesterday when we arrived at the Rivers Edge RV Park in Winterhaven, CA. “Add an hour!” Technically, we are still on Vancouver (and California) time, however, since Yuma is just a shout away, we must go with the flow of time! Okay…we are now an hour ahead of our home base.

On Friday, we arrived at the Indian Waters RV Park in Indio, CA which we had pre-booked. Our fuel tank was very low, but aside from opting to wait until leaving on Saturday, fuel prices were shockingly high – as they have been throughout California! At home we fueled up at the disturbingly high cost of $1.749 per litre. That translates to about $4.965 per US gallon. (Given $1C = $.75US.) Diesel fuel prices in Indio seem to range between $4.99 per gallon and $5.399 per gallon!

The reason for that Indio stop was a dinner invitation to visit with a long-time friend, Dave, and his partner Cynthia in the nearby community of La Quinta. The cost of the RV site was as mind-boggling as the fuel prices – we paid about $150C for one night of camping! (I must admit that the RV park was very beautifully laid out and landscaped like a park!) As it turns out, when Dave and Cynthia picked us up for dinner, they absolutely insisted on us staying overnight with them, so we hastily loaded overnight essentials and headed to their lovely unit in La Quinta. Our meal, visit and overnight rest were both wonderful. However, I don’t think I would ever have dreamed of parking our truck and trailer unit somewhere for $150 per night!!

As to the blog title quote from Winnie the Pooh…it turns out that our Truck House Jr. builder name (“Escape”) was eerily apt this week! Besides the daily news of the massive snow storms hitting Northern California and the Sierras, we escaped through dangerous wind warnings yesterday as we left from Indio, CA. On our way south towards Brawley on Highway 10, we were buffeted by strong cross-winds and dust storms.

After turning east on Hwy 8, we headed downwind to our safe haven at Rivers Edge.

It is good to return here to palms, warm sun and clear blue skies. There are a couple of notable changes:

• The park has a surprising number of vacant sites;
• The facility buildings have been upgraded (including the washrooms)

The young lady who registered us had no knowledge of the reason for #1. (She may have been too young to remember COVID!) The swimming pool was actively populated, however, the median age seems to have dramatically been lowered since we were last here. (Not surprising since we were close to being the “youngsters” six years ago!)

Last night – after supper – my endlessly restless (and largely sleepless) partner tackled house-cleaning, shelf-reorganization, vacuuming and so on. (I am sure those of you who know her well are not surprised! To keep her busy, we might have to move up to a bigger unit – or rent her out to neighbours!) I needed to get out of the way, so used my slightly swollen ankle as an excuse and got it level with my torso by lying down, where the only activity possible was reading. She seemed pleased with my decision (to stay out of the way) rather than miffed! What a wonderful partner!!

And…we found a simple way to measure the level status of our unit:

Today, we begin our cycling explorations locally.

Much love and best wishes to you all!

Tony (the Quill) and Sandy (the Quilter, sans sewing machines, quilting table, shelves of material, and indoor room to spread out)