Botanical Garden and California Here We Come

With our day pretty well planned for us, I snuck away while Terry and his mom decided to rest from our morning activities.  I figured this was a great time to view the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.  It’s always been one of my favorite places to visit and especially at this time of year it had to be gorgeous.  I was beat and really wanted a nap too but I knew I had one little window and that was while they were resting. It was hot and it was packed but not too hot or too packed to enjoy it and that I most definitely planned to do.

On display at the botanical gardens were works by Dale Chihuly with his Chihuly glass objects.  These were stunning pieces of glass art placed into the landscaping.  His work has been on exhibit around the world and currently are in over 200 museums.   His pieces were amazing!

After taking a few hundred pictures, I made it back just as Terry and his mom were ready to go again.  Yeeks!  I was beat.  However,  first thing I was supposed to do was look at her computer.  She had been having a problem with one of her programs on the new Apple she had.  I know nothing about an Apple except what’s on my iPhone so she was pretty much out of luck.  I told her to just use the new Toshiba laptop she had instead.

Everyone was hungry again and another plan slowly materialized.  This time it was the Olive Garden.  It was close and we’d been there before. The food was good but we hit another hitch as the service was not so much.  Our salad and appetizer arrived at the same time.  With the salad still sitting on the table and appetizer not quite finished, here came the main course.  What gives with service lately?

Time flew and soon it was time to say goodbye.  Age changes all of us.  Terry can see the difference in his mom.  He’s thinking maybe this winter we need to finally settle in around this area.  It definitely wouldn’t be my choice but I think he probably is right and that’s what we should do.  The problem is going to be finding a place we like.  Where?? That’s a problem for another day though.

The next day was to start early.  We figured since it was Easter the freeways around Phoenix would be nearly empty at 6:30 in the morning.  I guess that goes to show you we know nothing about the traffic in that city.    The only thing we could figure is that all the people on the road were either the preachers trying to get to church on time or it was the Easter bunnies on their way to deliver their eggs.

The plan was to hook up the Jeep to the motorhome on the other side of Phoenix.  That was the plan but that didn’t happen.  Just before we stopped for that hookup the motorhome had a glitch.  It  lost all power …. all power including steering and brakes. There was nothing – nada!  We were lucky we weren’t hooked up.  The motorhome wouldn’t even turn over for a bit but eventually it did and we carefully made it just outside of Parker when the little “red” battery light started blinking.  

We figured it had to be the battery but when does a battery stop when you’re moving?  We’ve never had that happen before.  We were happy  Napa was open on Easter Sunday.   Terry changed out the battery and when it still wouldn’t start changed out the cables … still wouldn't start.  However, we do have a battery booster and with a push of that button we were rolling again!   We were hoping that was all there was to it. 

Yucca Valley Elks

The road was like a roller coaster —  up and down and up and down.  Terry swears that hills don’t have a side that goes down.  He thinks all sides go up.  It was hot and we were ready to stop.  We finally pulled into the Yucca Valley Elks.  We were the only ones there and we were happy.  There was no grumpy host and only great folks sitting out on the patio.  Duchess was ready to call it quits for the day too.

Maybe I’m getting used to this earlier time now.  I woke up at 5:45 instead of 4:00 AM on Monday.  Even Terry beat me up and that NEVER happens.  We had another day of travel before a two night rest.  This time our destination was the Elks at Bakersfield.  After all Ed and Linda were planning on arriving Tuesday and figured they needed a welcoming committee.

The motorhome purred even though we were still a little apprehensive but it was another day without anymore glitches.  We’re pretty confident now it was just the battery.  Whee  … that could have been a close one had that happened going down Tehachapi so we were lucky we had the warning when we did.

Bakersfield Elks

Again, there’s not much to say about the terrain in the Mohave Dessert.  It’s very different than the Arizona deserts and we were certainly happy to leave it behind us and happier yet to finally pull into the Bakersfield Elks.  They have four sites here and for our first night we’re the only one in any of those sites. The folks at this lodge again were terrific.  

BBQ Wagon in the Elks parking lot – Dinner!

Again I apologize for all the pictures. I know when you’re in a bad area using an aircard lots of pictures may bog your blog down.  At times I’ve not been able to read a blog at all because of that.  Here’s hoping I can upload this blog now and you can read it.

‘Tis life on the road.

Yes, Officer, I did see the speed limit sign. I just didn't see you.