Pre Rose Parade day

I'll have to do a catch up blog post later, but want to post this now. We are sitting at the outer court yard of The Huntington in San Marino, waiting for our tour group to get here. We took off on our own, driving up to Sierra Madre to see their float and the progress made since we were there as volunteers two days ago. Our job was to cut pink roses and place them in vials. We did LOTS of them. Float making is a stunningly labor intensive volunteer operation spanning who knows how long. 

Here are some photos of that day:

Here is one photo of today:

The float will look like this and will be 6th in line tomorrow. The City of Sierra Madre float is one of only very few now entirely funded by volunteer efforts. The rest are funded by corporations. 

Arcadia, CA; Rose Festival Part 1

We arrived in Los Angeles County today after taking our time through Arizona. We are camped with about 100 other RVs in the parking lot of the Santa Anita Race Track. More photos will be posted soon. 

After we checked in with the tour people, we found we had enough time for a short run. Looking at the Google map we discovered that we are just minutes away from the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, so we decided to jog over. They have reciprocal privileges with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, so we just showed our membership card to gain admittance.

It is much much smaller than the Minnesota Arboretum. It is so dry here that it is hard to comment on the flora - nothing looks really great. There are some nice specimen trees, but very little is in bloom - due to the time of year mostly. We looped both roads. I took a photo of the carriage house on the grounds - a beautiful building. 

Also took a photo of this strange looking tree which was in bloom. One blossom was hanging down against the trunk to produce a wonderful effect.

On the way out was a view of a little cottage called The Queen Anne Cottage (1885-86). Don't know anything more about it.

On our run back in a nice neighborhood we encountered quite a few peacocks and peahens just running free, probably escapees from the Arboretum. They were completely unperturbed by us.

Tomorrow the Rose Festival activities begin.

Seminole, TX, and Lordsburg, NM

We had to stay over a second night in Seminole, TX, due to extremely high winds predicted for the US 180/I-10 Texas/Arizona corridor we are traveling. It turned out there was wind, but fortunately not 70 mph that was possible, on the back side of the huge low pressure system that marched across the US, bringing snow, ice, and heavy rains to a large area of the country. Our extra day in Seminole was well spent getting groceries and doing some wash. Very interesting town with what appeared to be a sizeable community of Mennonites. Such nice people. Energy exploration and production is in evidence everywhere there. This photo is a view from the front window of our RV at the RV park - oil tanks in the light of the setting sun.

The next day traveling through West Texas was unremarkable. Very sparse population, lots of oil well pumps, potash plants, some cotton fields, now harvested, and a few pecan orchards scattered across the flat, brown plain. It looks very dry, even with the torrential downpour we had the first night in Seminole. As we passed by the Guadalupe Mountains, at almost 5000 feet there was fresh snow on the mountains and by the road. We had lunch at a picnic turnout on US180 beside this salt pond, at a lower elevation - still cold but no snow. 

We ended up in Lordsburg, NM, last night. First thing this morning, as we were preparing to leave, Gary checked the pressure in all the RV tires, and discovered that the outside right rear tire was low. Fearing a nail in the tire, we found a place near the Interstate that serviced truck tires. They pulled the tire and found only a leaky stem, but the owner of the shop, after examining the manufacture date on our tires (3806 - the 38th week of 2006), convinced us, and rightly so, that we were due, even overdue, for new tires (some say 5 years, others say 7. We were definitely at 7 years). So Gary and I gave each other 6 new RV tires for Christmas! Merry Christmas to us! I feel that we were extremely fortunate to have 1) found a competent tire place that 2) could service us immediately, that 3) had our tires in stock, and 4) that we got new tires before something bad happened on the highway. 

We are in Buckeye, AZ tonight. 

Seminole, TX

We had to stop short tonight of either Hobbs or Carlsbad, NM. We are in a nice little campground in Seminole, TX. Thank goodness. First, it is pouring rain. Second, it is getting colder and might get below freezing not too much later, not good for driving. Third, we are glad to have found a nice RV park with space! We have learned that we have to be attentive to where we are with regard to oil and natural gas development and extraction. Oil field workers are in many places in the US where they weren't very prevalent before, as we all know from the news from North Dakota, and plenty of them have RVs. But it isn't just in North Dakota. We have encountered full campgrounds in Pennsylvania, Ohio, all over western Canada, and all over the American West. The first campground I called in Hobbs was full. We decided not to take any chances and found this one with only a couple of spaces available. We were especially lucky here because this is definitely an "oil patch". 

Now you might be saying to yourself, Yes, but you are an RV with standalone systems. You can camp in a Walmart parking lot if you want to. That is true, and many people do that, but that is not for us. We like having electricity at a minimum. Creature comforts are good!

So we stopped at about 3:30. A good day to curl up with a book. By the way, this rain is manna from heaven out here in West Texas!

Another aside: I forgot to say earlier that we are on our way to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. We bought an RV tour package that includes grandstand seating, all transportation to and from the float construction areas and the parade itself, participation in float decorating, parking and camping for our RV at the Santa Anita race track, many meals, entertainment, a wine tasting excursion and dinner at the winery, and several other activities. Now all we have to do is get there!

Dog Park

Here is the dog park in the RV park in Wichita Falls, TX, where we stayed last night. 

Wichita Falls, TX

We just arrived in Wichita Falls, TX, where it is 70 degrees! It is still windy, but the air feels very good. Prominently posted in the RV park office are signs warning people not to wash a vehicle, or even part of a vehicle due to what they call Stage 4 drought conditions. I would say that Texas is very very dry by the appearance of the dry grass, very dry soil, and the low level of water in the creeks. They have some hopes of snow here this weekend. We won't be here, but it will be interesting to see if they get any. We think we are well ahead of the expected storm. We will go further south tomorrow, maybe staying in Carlsbad, NM or maybe Hobbs, NM. It's hard to see how the snow could get that far south, but the weather can be strange and fool you!

We are driving fairly short days as it doesn't stay light very late. Much better to pull into an RV park and be able to see what you are doing for set-up. 

On the Road Again -Winter 2013-14

We departed yesterday and encountered some blowing snow on the roads in southern MN and northern IA, but by the time we reached Osceola. Ia, where we spent last night, the snow was mostly gone. We are currently about 50 miles north of Kansas City, MO, and there are only occasional patches of snow. I am still not declaring a snow-free countryside. Photo from yesterday in Minnesota. It is windy but it is almost 50 here. Good driving conditions.