Karin Bartsch's Journals

Our former lot in Tierra del Sol RV Resort was not available this time, so we rented lot 414 for 4 weeks. As soon as we had arrived, friends stopped by to hug. The word had spread that Dieter and Karin are coming. When we were finished setting up, our friends Dick and Myrtle came over and I served a drink, coffee and lemon cake. In the evening I took some pictures ( please, go to the page "Karin's Pictures" and click on the album Florence,AZ  to see those ) and put my bread machine to work to bake a Raisin Bread for the Saturday Breakfast in the clubhouse.

Febr. 09th:

Boy, we knew it. I have hardly time to look into websites or forums. In the meantime we have been seeing a doctor here and having had lab works done - results not available yet. And one "Happy Hour" chases the other.....and that applies also to the dinners......

Our friends Dick and Myrtle from Wisconsin invited us to park our trailer again in Winter, Wisconsin, this summer. We agreed. Please, look up the page "Itineraries" to learn of our plans.

The weather is phantastic, as always in Arizona in the winter. Sun is shining brightly and lets us think of summer - well - at least of nice springs!!

As soon as we had set up our unit, connected everything, and set down to have our last cup of coffee for the day, I recognized voices outside the open entrance door - our newest camper friends Jim and Carol. They camp also in Casa Grande. They told us that their friends Charlotte and Rick are in Desert Shadows RV Resort also and they  come in a few minutes with Pizza, I do not have to cook. They brought their chairs, like campers always do, and we put our nesting tables outside. That was a wonderful surprise meeting and early dinner in the afternoon.

Today is Monday, 3 days later, and I have laundry day and will bake a cake. Tomorrow we visit our friends Dick and Myrtle in Florence, I am looking forward to all the hugs!!

The weather is mixed right now, cooler than usual, we have the electric heater running.

Our back window shows us the west - suddenly Dieter said: Look out the window! The sun was setting - one of the typical spectacular Arizona sunsets... I ran to grab my camera and stepped onto the upper step outside, stretched out my arms high up to snap this shot

We have been several times in this Colorado Oasis  Resort, but this time we are not parked directly at the river's edge for a change. But that is fine too, our gravel lot is very straight, it was not necessary to put wood underneath the tires to level the trailer. We have the afternoon sun at the entrance side and seating area. Not sitting directly in the sun is managed nicely by a big green sun umbrella placed strategically. Our drive today was only 104 miles long on Interstate 10...sun shining, not too hot, traffic moderate. We switched from Pacific Time Zone to Arizona Time Zone, which made our trip 3 hours instead of actual 2 hours drive. It took Dieter one hour to connect everything outside and make it homey....and I needed the same time inside to put EVERYTHING where it belongs. When we sat down for lunch, all was done.

Hi, friends and relatives,

we hope that your holidays were very good and that Santa was very generous.

Instead of posting a picture with a bottle of open chamgagne for our wishes for the New Year, we are posting ourselves, the very newest picture taken on Christmas Day 2011. We came back from a walk - no festive clothes, just the usual....This resort has new owners, is totally overhauled and is very nice.

 We hug you all, wish you the best and stay young and happy, as we are.

On our way west we observed fields and fields of green, different vegetable fields and more and more Date Palms. Pleasing the eye were also plantages of wine, olives, oranges, mandarines....Water canals for irrigation of all this California farming. This all would be not that impressive and rich would it not be for Mexican workers, who come with buses everyday to maintain and harvest the fields. What would Arizona and California do without them??  On our way we had the Salton Sea on our right side, quite a site to see also.... I tasted the drinking water out of the faucet right away after our arrival here, because I was reading that Desert Hot Springs has the best drinking water. It is true!! We do not have to buy drinking water as long as we are here.....

Coachella Valley is a large valley landform in Southern California. The valley extends for approximately 45 miles (72 km) in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the saltwater Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) wide along most of its length, bounded on the west by the San Jacinto Mountains and the Santa Rosa Mountains and on the north and east by the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner and along the centerline of the Little San Bernardinos. The fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain.  Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs are twin cities, only some miles apart from each other and divided by Interstate-10, Desert Hot Springs north of the Highway and Palm Springs south of it.

The surrounding mountains peak at around 11,000 feet or 3,400 meters.

Our RV Resort Pilot Knob is located outside Winterhaven, about 7 miles west of Yuma on I-8, Exit Sidewinder Road. You are able to look at pictures of this place when you open the Photo page. The album is right on top.

We arrived here today at noon, all is fine! Sune is shining and the warm temps are such that we do not have to switch the Air Conditioner on. We are just finished setting everything up and connecting all hoses outside - now Dieter and I will have a drink to relax. Cheers!

11.29. The day before yesterday, on Sunsay, we were visited by our long-time camperfriend Pat from Yuma, we had a wonderful afternoon, with laughter, much talk and a nice dinner. Today we drove two times the short distance to Algodones, Mexico, to have our dentures lined. And Dieter bought a new edition of his prescription glasses because his old one was a little scratched already. These businesses went fast, sufficient and we liked the prices. While we had to wait, we sat down outside at a street restaurant and ordered a Margarita. Listening to live music and watching people going by and observing the street dogs killed our waiting time quickly... We also wandered around in those areas where one business is followed by another. My dentures and Dieter'd partials are fitting fine now We bought 2 blankets for our 2 lazy chairs, which have some damage from the nails by our late cat and which we want to be covered. The blankets are woven by a Mexican Indian and have an Indian pattern which we like. 

The mini blinds are not completely closed therefore the area looks just white...For our leather couch we once bought a woolen blanket with the same pattern but reversed colors - tan background with darker pattern

Today Dieter drove our long and heavy unit (about 13 tons both vehicles together)  safely from Pahrump, NV to Ehrenberg, AZ. It was already uncomfortably cold there because of the elevation. Our old truck managed nicely to take the Wheeler Pass to Las Vegas on Rt. 160.  7% down and upgrades for miles. The crest had the elevation of 5460' (about 1830 m) .  But there are the first and the second gear....It was overcast and the temps were just right. The more south we came and the elevation got less and less, we could feel the change of temps. We had to fill the truck up just in case in Searchlight, NV, and therefore we could drive on through Needles and continue on Rt. 95 south. This road leads through wild desert and is prone to flash flooding, therefore it has about a thousand "dips" built in. At some places you would think you ride a roller coaster.  

We will now be in River Oasis RV Resort for 2 weeks, we parked here already several times and I move the photo album up front in the photo page. I will be updated when I take new pictures. When we arrived here, we had lost one hour because we changed from Pacific to Arizona timezone, which never changes. Therefore we arrived 30 min. late, the office closed at 4 PM. But as registered guests the resort layout with the designated site was handy outside in the box. We have a site at the Colorado River again, a wonderful view. The setting sun gave the palms a magical light, I took my camera and made a picture from the inside through the window at the dinner nook. 

Five days are over in this resort, where we are allowed to stay only one week at a time. Our solution is that we booked Charleston Peak RV Resort for 3 weeks, here we are for one week, then 2 weeks at the first one again, one week here and the last 2 weeks in Pahrump, NV at the first one again....makes it 9 weeks overall, by moving back and forth only 4 miles each time.  Do you have a headache by now???

Sofar it had been very hot and since yesterday a coldfront is passing through, with lightning, rain, rain with sun and pretty strong windgusts. Shortly before sunset I captured a rainbow today.

We arrived safely and set up at noon time in this wonderful Charleston Peak RV Resort. Sun is shining brightly and  high temperature is 97 degr.F., which is  37 grad Celsius. Lots of free spaces because of the heat, but we love it. Talk to you later..... 

Our time here is almost over. In August we had 2 potluck BBQ Dinners, the first at our place and the second one at North Eagle Lake, where Craig and Sharon are campground hosts. The men cared for grilling and the women had some nice food cooked. Those gatherings are always fun! Please, see the photo album of Susanville 2011.

We have to help in the Historic Railroad Depot next Sunday for 4 hours one more time and we have to shuttle the bikes for the trail riders one more time to Westwood next Saturday. The new hosts for Hobo Camp are Mike and Anita,  work here till end of November. They arrive on Sept.6.  and we are leaving on Sept. 7, but Dieter will introduce Mike to his work on the Bizz Johnson Trail first and we leave about noon. The drive to Fernley. Nevada,  takes only a couple of hours.

We liked the area very much and our surroundings are wonderful. Our boss Stan Bales is admired by us for all the work he does, he created more trails since we left here in 2008, the Ranch Park in Susanville and the future Modoc Trail ( Rails to Trails program). He also spearheaded the repair of one of the Trail bridges over the Susan River near Devils Coral Trailhead. The Bizz Johnson Trail is in the Rails to Trails Hall of Fame and Stan gets Awards often.

http://www.blm.gov/ca/news/newsbytes/profiles/bales_eaglelake.html

He is also a co-founder and lifetime member of Lassen Land and Trails Trust, a non-profit organisation to benefit events for the enjoyment of the public.

http://www.llttweb.org

I myself am in the process of cleaning, washing all the carpets, cleaning all the mini blinds - 13 overall - the dust is remarkable because in high summer we have young people taking the sandy Hobo Camp Road as training tool for racing. Sometimes we had to interrupt our sitting outside and go inside the trailer until the dust settled......We did not have any rain here this summer.

Dieter will rake the pathways and picnic areas one more time, take our outside carpets up and stow them away before we wash our trailer.

Till my next blog:  Take care! And, please, do not forget to look into other pages of my journal also. Thank You!

The entire trail from Miller Road to Bridge #4 looked like we had snow again 2 weeks ago - it still is partially there. Can you guess why? The big old Cottonwood Trees along the river released their cotton - it was abundant this year, the shoulders of the trail in that area really looked like covered in snow, and it looked like heavy snowing at times - with the sun shining, it was a sight to enjoy.

Our friends Franz and Marjie suggested they would like to show us real snow and lure us away from Hobo Camp for a day. We agreed on July 08. and I cooked a complete picnic meal to contribute to this wonderful event. Franz was the driver of their Subaru and we were surprised to hear that we would see Mount Lassen. We left Hobo Camp at 10:15 AM (after having done all morning chores) and returned 5:15 PM. Then we opened up the picnic chest again and ate the rest of the food. They left at 8:30 PM and took us both with them to the gate, so we could close it and walk down home.

Thanks so very much for this wonderful day, Franz and Marjie!!

The description of our tour is best done by looking at the pictures I posted on the page "Karin's Photos"  (first album). This album has only 30 pictures from the 60 taken, but those are pretty representative of our day.

The picture shown here serves as a little preview.....

Checking out the Bizz Johnson Trail every day we enjoy nature like this, which sweetens the chore of collecting trash and cigaret butts. Why are some visitors not respectful of nature so beautiful as this area

On June 2. 2011 we looked again at snow falling down when we looked out of the windows at breakfast at 7:30 AM. The temperatures are way under "normal" for this time of year. The wind is cold most of the time. In between all that crazy weather the sun is shining often, but the warmth from our fiery friend in the sky is not the winner yet.

"I want to sit outside!!!!!!"

Did you enjoy the little movie (last post)? Without having a concept or script, it does not sound very professional, besides, this time it was the second time that I had the Flip Camera in my hands again; in 2008 in Ehrenberg, AZ, I made the first little video with it. 

It is still cold here, today we had several snow showers, but the snow not staying on the ground. After our arrival here we could see on our daily walks how the trees had buds, they opened, and now the shiny green leaves transform the area.  Yellow and white flowers bloom ( see pictures in the Photo Page from 2008 / Hobo Camp).

Last week we attended class in the Eagle Lake Field office. We had  to learn all about CPR and First Aid.  For us it was a refresher course, we went through the same class in 2008. It is mandatory for hosts as well as other BLM staff members.

Our friends Lynne and Sherm from Florence, AZ passed through Susanville 4 days ago on their way up to Washington. They invited us for breakfast in Hart's Cafe in order to meet and talk a little. Tomorrow we are invited to dinner at their residence by our Susanville friends Marjie and Franz Lattka. Franz is from Bremen, Germany, he left with his mother when he was 5,5 years old and he is retired now from being a teacher. Marjie was also a teacher. We came to know them through our "boss" Stanley Bales 3 years ago, we had nice potluck dinners here at Hobo Camp. Marjie and Franz visited us twice already since we are here this year..

The last two days Dieter was working on staking out our next travel route. He had all our membership directories open and maps everywhere and his laptop open to determine mileage in between locations. By determining the route we have to concider using our Western Horizon and Resorts of Distinction memberships as much as possible, we were buying an extension lately which allows us to stay on their places either 2 or 3 weeks, paying only 2 or 3 Dollars per night for full hook-ups and 50 Amp. electricity. Dieter managed that nicely, he also squeezed in Pilot Knob again, near Algodones, Mexico, because our dentures need to be lined or altered. By hopping from one place to another nearby back and forth saves us a lot of gasoline money. We also wanted to make sure we will be near Los Angeles to meet with our long-time camperfriends Chi and Ron Takahashi. And Lynne and Sherm were suggesting visiting them in Washington already for several years. Hopefully our plans will come to pass.

Please, check the page "Itineraries" and when we are near anyone's location, friends, feel free to contact us and visit us. Everyone is very welcome!

April 20., 2011

We arrived in Susanville yesterday safe and sound, the last stretch of highway in between Reno and Susanville is especially beautiful, we enjoyed the snow capped high mountains of the Sierra Mountain Range. After having signed some papers in the Eagle Field Office and chatting with Stan and the girls in the reception, we drove up to Hobo Camp. We just had set up our Fifth Wheel trailer and connected everything, when we had our first visitors saying hello to us, Franz and Marjie Lattka. So we sat outside and talked for quite a while to catch up with all the personal news and health issues we all had since we said Good Bye to them in 2008.

  http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/eaglelake/bizztrail.html 

  For readers of this blog a short info. We hosted the Bizz Johnson Trailhead and Picnic area (Hobo Camp) already in summer 2008. If you are interested in perusing that blog, please, go to the page "Karin's Chatting" and scroll down to April 2008  -  Sept.2008. In my Photo page I have 4 albums from our volunteering at that time. Nothing really changed - picturewise and otherwise. I will start a new album "In Susanville, CA, 2011"

. Underneath one picture which shows our location up above the entrance of the huge Picnic Area. It was overcast this morning with some raindrops. I took 3 pictures - the sun was missing, but it is shining now, short of noon. Elevation here: 4800' or 1,600 m 

I just uploaded some pictures in the Photo page - and I must say that I should have taken one more - yesterday evening. We arrived yesterday in Tonopah at about 1:20 PM and connected our electricity and drove the slide-outs out, when other camping units pulled in, two Motorhomes coming from Yuma, AZ, en-route to Oregon and one Fifth Wheel, en-route to the East. When they were finished connecting their units, we all came together, stood talking at first, then getting chairs out, one unit put their barbeque out and everybody had a favorite drink. We were sitting in between the units in a round, were talking and eating and having a good time.  Why did I not take a picture??

We left Tonopah this morning at 8 AM and arrived here in Fernley at 12:20 PM. Sunny weather, a nicely performing truck and very curious landscapes captured us. Route 95 has alongside many Ghost Towns, dried salt lakes, marshes where cows wade knee-deep in water, Yoshua Tree forests, snow capped mountain ranges near and afar. We had several summits to climb, the biggest was almost 6000' high.  On the left side hidden Death Valley in California, on the right side hidden "Area 51" . Before we drove into Hawthorne, NV, we observed the ammunition bunker areas. which really look curious! Where we re-fueled gasoline, here for $ 4.21.9 per gallon, we looked up at a big mountain with snow areas on the peaks, it is Grant Mountain, I was told.

 Leaving Hawthorne brought us immediately around Walker Lake, the road in serpentine fashion let us turn left - right - left - you get the idea. The city of Fallon calls itself an Oasis in Nevada and we agree. Location: where the unfamous Route 50 coming from Delta, Utah, meets Route 95 in Nevada. The city itself is pretty modern amidst older buildings, I guess the Naval Air Base and Coast Guard Air base does this trick. 

Desert Rose RV Park is lovely, we stay here also under the "Passport America" program, where we pay only half the price, which meant for us short of $ 40.00 for two nights. Within 2 reservations on this trip, we have already the money for the yearly fee back. Every Road Warrior should have a Passport America Directory, to help bridge the distances in between the big membership resorts.

This evening Dieter and I will watch "Dancing with the Stars",  my hubby manages most of the time to get our Television going, to get our favorite Evening news Channel.             Tomorrow we will drive to town to get gasoline, fueling is easier without the trailer hooked onto the truck. The day after tomorrow, April 19th, we will tackle the last leg on this tour, from Fernley through Reno to Susanville in California. Within my Photo page I have an earlier album " From Fernley to Susanville", where I have some pictures posted from 2008.  Take care, you all,  will post again when we have some breathing room in Susanville.

Travel weather was fine all day, no wind, not too hot, sunshine. We left Ehrenberg at 8 AM and drove US-95 North. At noon time we were in Searchlight, NV, took up gasoline in the fuel station and drove from there onto an empty lot to have lunch. Dieter went around our trailer to inspect everything and he found - a flat tire. We called our road service....Those guys came later than anticipated, we lost overall 2,5 hours. Dieter had already worked on it, released the spare tire from underneath the trailer and jacked the unit up to save the tire. He could have done everything alone but half of the the wheel locks withstood Dieter's mighty muscles. One of the Garage guys thanked Dieter for doing half the work already, I told them that I am thankful that Dieter can do all that despite the fact that he is 78 years old. Their chins dropped and the younger one said: Holy crap, is that true?? They could not believe it and told Dieter that he looks and acts 20 years younger....

We arrived at our resort at 5:20 PM. We drove through Henderson ( south of Las Vegas) at rush hour, the traffic was dense. Once we were on Route 160 West to Pahrump, it got lighter, but the mountains got higher and higher. Charleston Peak  was visible from afar already, peak is snow-covered and almost 12000' high ( ca. 4000 m hoch).  We had to use second and first gear and the lowest speed was 25 miles per hour. The truck performed very well despite its age (1999), it drives better since Dieter built the Performance Chip in - with other words: juiced it up....our trailer weighs about 19000 pounds. We drove this route already 2008 when we were headed to Susanville, but used a different member resort. Here we stay the first time, The place has about 200 sites, roomy streets. Dieter has no problem backing the trailer into a site. At the best next opportunity, I will wander around and take some photos. Till then........

April 6. 2011

The view onto the Charleston Peak is delightful, and we are looking forward to stay here for 11 days. The following picture was taken by me directly behind our rig - that view we have from our rear window. This morning it was overcast. The Resort is also a Winery and the entire property is very well maintained. The elevation is about 3000' or roughly 1000 m high and the high temperatures are about 10 degr. F. lower than in Ehrenberg.

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April 7. , 2011

We sold our folding bikes today without having them used. We had a transportation problem, no place to put them anywhere reasonable when on the road. We made a profit of 20 Dollars to sweeten the loss.......

Did you look into the page "Karin's Photos"?

 Our Resort "Colorado River Oasis"  is located right where the first  r  in the word  Ehrenberg is..    

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 View from our dining area window early this morning. The Colorado River current is very fast this spring....