Quartzsite and San Clemente

John and Jane met us in Quartzsite, our first stop on our way to San Clemente from Lake Havasu. The moon was full and the night sky filled with mysterious clouds. The next morning had a cloudy sunrise then a wonderful rainbow spread out above our camper! What a sendoff to California! We hit the road and another rainbow met us in windy Palm Springs right over the wind turbine farm. The San Clemente pier featured a beautiful pelican surveying his territory. A few days after we set up at the campground for our new job as camp hosts, we met Mark and Jan and drove to Dana Point to check out the big sailing ships. We enjoyed Thanksgiving at Mark and Jan’s, as well as Ron detecting the beach and I rode my bike south through the San Onofre State Beach and Camp Pendleton. The next day after work we decided to show each other where we had gone the previous day, so we started over to San Onofre State Beach, and just happened to meet up with the ranger who had hired us, Ranger Martin. What a treat we had when he gave us a personal tour of the beach – we learned so much about the history, geology and nature of the area. We also got to see Surf Beach right by the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station, a unique area decorated by surfers which include a wind vane made out of a surf board! David and Joanna came up to visit this weekend too, and we checked out beaches again with them. It was wonderful to see them again, its been a whole year! So excited to be by them and hope to get together often!

Death Valley Trip and exciting news!

John and Elizabeth called to say they were going for a job interview in Nevada. We made plans to meet in Death Valley. Our first stop was in the Mohave National Preserve Visitor Center, an old railroad station. The trees were in bloom and the bees were busy! The Preserve featured rough granite mountains as well as sand dunes and volcanic cinder cones. The next stop was the China Ranch Date Farm, which was an oasis of date trees tucked down into a valley between desolate mountains. The trees had pajamas and other coverings on the ripening dates (I suppose to keep those pesky bees off). We foundered on the rich dates, they were so good! Finally we met up with John, Elizabeth and William in Death Valley. He is only 4 weeks old in these pictures and had grown so much! He has these little smiles that come so quickly and are gone! Beautiful Elizabeth is so good with him, he really has wonderful parents and he traveled fairly well for being so little. What a treat to see the little guy and his parents – thanks John and Elizabeth for going the extra mile to make that possible!

The exciting news is this: Ron and I will be camp hosts in San Mateo Campground, a campground in San Onofre State Beach by San Clemente, California! We start next week and will work there through the winter! We are so excited to be by the beach! Also, it will be wonderful to be close to David and Joanna as well as Ron’s sisters and family! So we’re hanging up the gold prospecting for a while. We are saying goodbye to our friends here by Lake Havasu and getting things prepared for our trip there. If you pass that way, be sure to look us up!

Mohave Mountains by Lake Havasu, AZ

Ron and I are camped at the Base Camp of the Havasu Gold Seekers, a gold club that is located near the Colorado River and halfway between Lake Havasu and Kingman, AZ. The Mohave Desert is changing with the seasons, and our fall color consists of an ocotillo changing from green to yellow and then dropping its tiny leaves! Temperatures are dropping from the 100s down to the 80s, a welcome relief ! We are near Lake Havasu City, the beautiful city home of the London Bridge. Here’s the bridge, and here’s the view of the lake. I love to walk the paths through the city park and bicycle the trails and roads around town. Of course I have to show you a few pictures of the proud parents, John and Elizabeth, and the new baby William! Enjoy!

William is here!

William Glen Keefner was born to my son John and his wife Elizabeth yesterday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m.! Welcome to the world, and to the family! He is a little guy at 6 lbs 2 oz and long, 19 inches! I understand he has a lot of red hair and is very quiet, spends a lot of time wiggling and looking at his beautiful mother! Both mother and baby are doing fine. The delivery went well (in fact very quickly, as Elizabeth did her outside chores with the animals in the morning and then had a baby that evening!) I can't wait to see them and am so excited for them!

With John and Elizabeth at Soda Springs

Why is it Soda Springs? A big man-made geyser in downtown Soda Springs erupts on the top of the hour. But that is not why; it’s named after the many cold springs that have carbon dioxide gas bubbling up through the waters. On one of our evening walks we scoped out one of the nearby springs where the sign described how the early settlers bottled the water for sale – an early form of soda pop! I wouldn’t drink it, too much algae on the surface. The horses are grazing in front of Monsanto’s man made lava hills. Every day the plant heats up rock, extracts the phosphate and pours the molten rock on the hills. A dramatic sight. The plant also has two huge blazing stacks sending streams of fire into the sky, burning off the gasses. They look like giant tiki torches. John and Elizabeth live a couple of miles from the plant and have quite a view of the operation. We also visited the Eastern Idaho State Fair, where we scoped out the chickens, turkeys, quilts and giant pumpkins. Another highlight was huckleberry picking. We first had to figure out what a huckleberry looked like, then hike straight up a mountain to the bushes. The mountains were beautiful and full of unique plants that I had not seen before. I made huckleberry pie but next time I’ll use more sugar. Fall was definitely in the air; our last morning dawned with a heavy frost on the windshield – time to head south! We’re excited for them as their baby is due soon in October. Our prayers for an easy delivery. They will be great parents!

From South Dakota to Arizona

America the beautiful! I decided to take a picture of the camper in each of the campsites we had on our trip to Arizona this year, showing the diversity of our country’s western landscapes. Traveling from Hermosa, SD, to our first stop, the Alcova Dam south of Casper, Wyoming, was uneventful, except for fighting the wind between Lusk and Casper (a normal occurrence in Wyoming, we’ve discovered!) Skies were cluttered with thick clouds and the sun peeked in and out. The geology of the area at Alcova Dam is spectacular, with big red and white sandstone mountains thrust up sideways and many beautiful rounded pebbles washed smooth by ancient waters.

This is where we discovered the trailer brakes weren’t working, as we negotiated the hills into the reservoir! So we headed back the 30 miles to Casper and parked at Stalkup’s RV. You can see we were nestled in with all the other overflow campers, many of whom were also waiting for Monday morning and the service department. Despite the heavy winds and rain showers we managed to find the quilt shop and the kiddie playground for Ron to metal detect.

Tuesday we were on our way to Idaho to visit John and Elizabeth. They live about 100 miles from the Grand Tetons and the country is irrigated farmland between mountain ranges covered with aspen and pines.

More on our visit with them later.

Our next stop was just north of where I-70 joins I-15 in Utah at Yuba Lake State Recreational area. People pull their campers right up to the shores of the reservoir. Signs direct you to the sandy north beach or the rocky west beach. Ron and I decided for the sand, unfortunately, thinking it would be a great place for him to detect. However, the sign didn’t tell you if you have a 34’ fifth wheel you may bog down in the foot deep sand! After putting it in 4 wheel drive and revving it up, we blew through all that sand to the firmer ground, and stayed there! The sun was bright and hot and the temps only got hotter from there!

The next night was south of St. George, Utah, in the Virgin River Canyon area in Arizona. Here we felt 100 degrees for the first time this year and it was a shock to our systems, as we experienced frost at John’s house only 2 days before! The Virgin River has carved an amazing canyon through these mountains in many shades of reds, yellows, whites and browns and again the mountains are lifted up sideways to the world and formed into amazing shapes.

Our last stop for a while is here at the gold camp north of Lake Havasu City. Even though every day it’s been hot (into the 100’s) we are getting into the pattern of getting up before daybreak, going prospecting until 10 or 11 and then resting in the afternoon until around 6, when it cools off enough to turn off the generator and air conditioner. The desert is so quiet! The only sounds we can hear are the occasional quail, a jackrabbit thumping through and a housefly or two. Ron ran over a small rattlesnake yesterday with his quad and it got so mad it bit at my tire as I flew by – I am grateful he didn’t go for my leg! We are loving this easy life and looking forward to the cooler temperatures on their way.