Carol's Excellent Adventures: 2015

My little orange tree!

It appears that I have now been in Mesa Arizona for a day over 2 weeks. It seems like yesterday that I pulled in, set myself up, organized my 'stuff', got boots for Lilly, (thanks Sis!)
(108 degrees is pretty toasty on the tootsies!)

...........bought drought tolerant plants to brighten my site, ..................

I am settled in now.....and figured out what days the trash gets picked up........
I am meeting my neighbors......
Larry and Dee, Eleanor and John, Gary and Lenora, and Gordan and Kathy...and Eleanor and John...so far.
Of note.....Gordan is 80 something and still runs marathons. He has a lovely, huge, gray cat named Boots.....Boots is great! He lets doggies come and sniff his butt and once that is settled, it is back to the business of relaxing.
Boots hangs out in the yard on a leash and Gordan jogs with him.

Gordan will be a good influence in my life!
(my abdominal girth issue......)

Gary has a dog named Stormy.....Stormy is the most laid back sweetie of a dog! He rides around with Gary on the golf cart and just hangs out on the back seat of the cart when it is parked in the carport.
What a doll.

Let me get you caught up to speed.

When I left the 'Alaskan group', I headed south, towards my Arizona destination.....I would drive until I was tired and then I would try to find a campground...This plan worked out well for me for the most part.....there was a day or two that I drove 400+ miles (100 miles too far, my friends....) until I could find a park to 'park' in.
One night.....I drove and drove and drove and finally saw a sign that said that there was a campground ahead!.
There was!!!!
In Walhachin, British Columbia........Walhachin, it seems, is a small ghost town in the Thompson Country region of B.C. It is located 10 km west of Kamloops Lake.......population 100!!`

YIPPEE!

It was down a 10% (at least) grade into a valley by a river.

"The Rock and River Retreat"

When I pulled in, it was a bit creepy, as NO ONE was around......and I had driven quite a ways into this valley-ish place.
I kinda parked on the dirt road and walked into the 'campground'.......(didn't want to pull in someplace that I couldn't get out of!)
A woman came out of the house and told me that there were sites available.....(the place was empty, so this was no surprise, but still creepy.....)
I got myself settled, walked along the beautiful river and borrowed one of my 'hostesses' chairs and sat and read my current murder mystery......trying to relax, you know what I mean????
Well, my hostess came out and we chatted....she is AWESOME!
Tammy owns and operates this whole RV park single-handedly..... What an endeavor!

In the morning, she called me up to her front porch and we shared a cup or two of coffee and she gave me some tomatoes out of her 'porch garden'.
(Customs took them from me the next day, but they did not want my pear!!)

Her gorgeous 3 legged dog and I have forgotten his name!!!

I got some tomatoes from her garden that the border guards took from me !

Tammy and her pooch

She not only had campsites but also had 3 tents set up for " GLAMPING"..........(glamorous camping...)

solar powered showers

She is a super awesome person and I am blessed to have crossed paths with her!

This is an odd sign to find in Canada!!

Besides just driving ungodly distances of empty desert, I stopped at Crater Lake, in Oregon. Stayed here a couple of days........
This was so incredibly beautiful!
The unfortunate part of this (minor in the big picture of things) was the smoke!!! The fires in this area of the country are/were horrible!!! When I drove through the 'wine country' is was thick, and cloud like!
Much of my trip was smoked in.
And, much of Crater Lake was smoked in.
Crater Lake is known to be the deepest lake in the US. and the 7th deepest in the world. (1996 ft deep)
Crater Lake partially fills the collapsed caldera of the ancient Mount Mazama Volcano. The caldera is a bowl-shaped depression of about 4000 ft deep.

Short hike to the Pinnacles......

So, after leaving Crater Lake, I drove with vengeance .Of course I stopped to pee and eat.....but, I drove with the mission of arriving in Mesa early enough to help out my brand new boss, Mikki.
(She is awesome, by the way!!!!)
I did run into a small traffic jam on this road that was over 100 miles of nothingness.....desert.....and nothingness......

................ an entire herd of cattle appeared in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and had to cross the road on my trek to Arizona....It was so cool.... I hadn't run into traffic for over 100 miles.....in fact had perhaps only seen 2-3 vehicles in the last 100 miles...

Video may or may not work.....

...........and low and behold, a traffic jam consisting of this really cool cowboy on horseback and I am positive that there were at the very least......a million head of cattle crossing the road!!!!

Super cool.

Okay, so I finally made it to Arizona, and I finally made it to my site.
It took me a couple of weeks to finally get myself set up.....I started work about 5 days after arriving......good thing cause my boss will need surgery and she has a lot to train me in, prior to that......
Once I got settled, and bought my cacti and other drought resistant plants.....(repeat, to re-establish my flow....)

(I have hummingbirds!!!)

.... I started exploring.......I took a cruise around Lake Saquaro on the "Desert Belle"......

entertainment................

The next day, I drove to Canyon Lake........................

Oh, and by the way............I live in a place called Mesa Regal RV resort.........I have included a few pics of the place with more to come as I explore more................

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