10/23/2018 Stop #43 Rancho Mirage, Bounty of CA, and arrival to CalExpo

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

Always the mirage living at Rancho Mirage.  We visit here at brother Mike and Paul's desert house.  They warm up in the Summer as Mike tends to his real estate gardens and Paul is the primary caregiver for his cousin, Sharon.

 Entering Mike and Paul's Summer play land.

The front has blossoming bougainvillea!

Pool setting with moon

 Kitty ready to take a dive.

Woodstock loves the pool and the back patio is now complete with outdoor kitchen, dining area, and travertine patio flooring.

We visit Ron and Fran staying at their timeshare here at Rancho Mirage.  We have a quick overnight, so not a lot of time for 'doing nothing'.

Nice visit, Mike.  Always a Fan!

Departing Rancho Mirage, heading West and onto Northern direction to Sacramento on Hwy-5

ALONG THE HWY 5:  We hit the road, up I-5 thru  'California's Gold' offering produce to feed the World!

Governor Edmund G. Brown's CA Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines to convey water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central CA to Southern CA.    The aqueduct is the principal feature of the CA State Water Project.

All along Hwy 5 are glimpses of the CA Aqueduct.  The "Food Road" of I-5

Here is AMAZON.......com doing their 'virtual' business

We enter CATTLE COUNTRY 

CA largest beef producer and largest ranch/feedlot on the West Coast of the US.  

We love Harris Farms!

Lunch Stop

The crops grown along I-5, which stretches 1,276 miles from Canada to Mexico, feed a good part of the nation...and the world.  Below are: new, thirsty Nut Trees orchard.

We have reached our destination for a couple of months.  We are here in the RV for the Holidays at the Sacramento Cal Expo RV Park.

Home Away From Home

We are here to celebrate Angela's birthday and the holidays with Family!

10/21/2018 Stop #42 LAKE HAVASU, Arizona

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

Arrived at our Coast To Coast RV Membership Park at Lake Havasu, Arizona.  So nice to see many boats and off-road vehicles.
1

LAKE HAVASU, Arizona State Park area

 Four-wheel drive of all sorts in these parts.

Off-road road.

This is the Laundry Room for our RV Park.  Any Professional Traveler understands this to be one of the handiest 'landmarks' to the modern traveler!

The shopping mall has boats for sale in the parking lot.

One of many styling Pontoon Boats!

Onto Rancho Mirage as we head from Mazatlan to Sacramento Fall 2018.

10/16/2018 Stop #41 Grand Canyon at Trailer Village

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

We have arrived at our Grand Canyon destination after waking to overnight snow at our RV space in Flagstaff.  

 We cleared our windshield and drove up the Highway from Flagstaff to the Southeast entrance to the Grand Canyon!

We drove up from there to the necessary elevation to reach a whiteout weather system that ruled over our goal of standing on the edge of the Canyon on our first day! 

 We spent some valuable time at the Visitor's Center and drove by Architect Mary Colter's 70' Desert View Watchtower to settle into our Grand RV site at the Grand Canyon's Trailer Village.


We are celebrating our 28th Wedding Anniversary at the GRAND Canyon.  We have strolled Bright Angel Trail, explored the depths of those that came before us to the Grand Canyon, and we chose the Grand Tovar Lodge for our anniversary evening.

We have a convenient Shuttle Service just across the street from our RV space in Trailer Village.  

The steps to the Landmark El Tovar Hotel

 Inside the lobby area of this National Grand Lodge

OK, the South Ridge of the Grand Canyon thru the eye of an I-Phone

 Pretty amazing...………."blows my hair back!"

 Sitting on the ledge, sure glad it is there.

 Now standing on edge.....an no rail or wall!!!!

 


A River Runs Thru It.

 It IS awesome!

 This is a good thing!

 Final, Final pic of the Grand.!

The Railroad brought the first tourists to this Grand location.  It was the train between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California.  The Grand Canyon Railway is owned and operated by Xanterra Parks and Resorts.  

 The train arrives Grand Canyon Depot, daily, from Williama, Arizona.

For adventure, it is unique to ride a mule to go deep into the canyon and stay overnight at Phantom Ranch.

 Photo of Trail down to the bottom of the Canyon

Lovely National Park Visitor's Center

 All come for the view!

Mary Colter built this Lookout Studio now a National Historic Landmark where visitors can go inside and view the canyon from the back deck.

 Tim is getting our National Park Passport stamped!

Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 was the first thorough cartographic and scientific investigation of long segments of the Colorado River including the first recorded passage of white men through the entirety of the Grand Canyon

 


Phantom granite rock sample as we walk the Trail of Time.  As we walked this 3-mile trail, each meter signifies one million years of geologic history.

Mary Coulter Art Museum building.

 It is time to move on to Sacramento (thru Rancho Mirage to visit brother Mike and Paul) to arrive for our daughter, Angela, birthday.  We look forward to spending about 3 months in California to visit with our two (grown) children, our grandson, Jeffrey, and all our family for the 2018 Christmas holiday season!



Heading WEST!