Windseeker Motor Coach Travel Log
with Joe and Libby

Moving to Vancouver, WA Home to Oregon Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Oregon in May - back home for 3 weeks Clear Lake, CA - the sailing season begins Northern California - San Francisco Bay area Southern California - our old stomping grounds		Sedona, Arizona - the beloved Red Rock region Tucson, Arizona - historic western town Phoenix, Arizona - State Capitol Quartzsite, Arizona - Huge RV Show and Rally Paso Robles, San Simeon and Hearst Castle Heading south for the winter in 2013
~~~~~ RV Park Reviews ~~~~~

June 2013 - April 2014 On hiatus from our RV travels, I have created a special blog page and picture galleries just for our new home.

June 29 - Our new home Libby has an uncanny ability to scour the listings and to cut thru all the crap and come up with the perfect home. The timing has to be right and I guess the timing was now because she cut right to the chase and found our new home, a gorgeous place pictured at the right on the east side of Vancouver, Washington just on the other side of the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, just a couple miles from Steamboat Landing Marina. Funny how we have looked far and wide and now come full circle and decide to relocate right close to home. Check out details of the new place HERE.   Travels in the Windseeker Coach will continue in the spring of 2014.

Mouse over photos to enlarge

Selling our home & buying a new one

June 28 - Home to Oregon Well things took an unexpected turn and a buyer came up for our house... Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. A family made an offer where the husband is going to be working at Intel. We accepted the offer and the house has gone into escrow, inspection is this week and so we decided to cut our travels short and head back home. We couldn't decide on a home in Liberty Lake, WA so we are shifting our focus to Vancouver WA, just across the river from Portland where we have lived for 20 years. Familiar territory, good home values with lower property taxes and NO INCOME TAX. We will have have to be content with sailing the Columbia as we have done in the past when we are home. Everythiing is a compromise on some level... this seems like the most logical choice. We have several homes lined up to look at this week. Hopefully we can make our selection before our own house closes escrow on August 7th.

Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - June 2 - July 27

June 26 - Bluebird Wanderlodge A classic Bluebird Wanderlodge, 1990 vintage coach pulled into the space directly across from our coach today. These were top of the line coaches in their day and they still have something of a cult following. They're still a great looking ride.

June 26 - Corey the giant killer On our morning walk thru the park today we encountered this affable 160 pound Great Dane. Corey was undaunted and wanted to play! That is why we call him Corey Courageous. The look on the Great Dane's face, says "Are you kidding me?"

June 23 - Ironman Triathlon Sunday The Coeur d'Alene Ironman competition was in full swing today with beautiful sunny weather and highs predicted in the mid 70's. Hundreds of cyclists could be seen riding by Blackwell Island RV Park today on this leg of the grueling 112 mile bicycle competition. We left that to the hardcore cyclists and did our own 5 mile version around the park with the Westies in tow in their new Doggyride Bike Trailer. We purchased this neat little unit brand new on Craigslist for about half of retail so we could do more biking this summer and take both dogs along. I have been carting Corey around in the basket I rigged on the back of my bike, but this way he and Gracie can both ride along in calm comfort.

June 21 - Coeur d'Alene Prevost Rally The Marathon Prevost Club is holding a large rally here this week, "Pristine Coeur d'Alene" rally. Over 25 off the world's finest motorcoaches are assembled here at Blackwell Island RV Park. It is really something to behold... and there are lots more photos on our gallery page. At the right is a new iteration of the classic "bus" style motorcoach. Marathon builds both the classic and the modern style, but I am particularly enamored of the classic like this one.

June 20 - Inclement Idaho weather Well in May everyone thought summer had arrived early in the Pacific Northwest. We had clear uncharacteristically warm sunny weather in Oregon in early May, and even in June when we arrived here in Coeur d'Alene, it seemed as though summer was upon us. But Mother Nature had some other plans for us. Rains moved in a few days ago. High today was only about 50 degrees and it has been raining hard all day. And the forecast is for more of the same tomorrow, the first official day of summer. Fortunately the weather is supposed to break for Saturday, the Coeur d'Alene Ironman Triathlon competition. Maybe we can get back out on the water this weekend.

June 15 - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho In and around sailing (I think we have sailed 7 days so far since we launched the boat) we have been looking at houses in nearby Liberty Lake WA. You cannot get any closer to CdA and the lake yet be in the state of Washington where there is no income tax. Liberty Lake is a marvelous little community... clean, wholesome, family oriented, new... no homeless, no street people, no bums, no slums. It would make an ideal community to live and still be close to our beloved Lake CdA. We put in an offer on the house at the right, but they would not accept a sale contingency (no surprise there) so we need to sell our Oregon home first. We have it listed in the Oregon MLS now. so we'll have to wait and see if we can get it sold and then see where we want to move to from there.

June 2 - Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho We have arrived back in Coeur d'Alene staying once again at Blackwell Island RV Park right on the lake. We have been here before and always enjoyed it. CdA is a wonderful town... a great place to spend the summer and the lake is spectacular. We'll be rigging the Anne Marie and dropping her in the water in the next couple days for more Lake Coeur d'Alene sailing adventures.. We are also planning to look at homes for sale in the area as we are contemplating selling our Lake Oswego home and moving somewhere near a lake. Places presently under consideration are Liberty Lake WA near Lake Coeur d'Alene, Seattle near Lake Washington, and Eugene near Fernridge Lake. There are so many factors to weigh when moving. Stay tuned to the blog and I will post updates as we near a decision.

Oregon - May 6 - May 30

May 14 - Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden - Portland OR The weather was very pleasant today so we took a drive over to the other side of town to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens. These beautiful botanical gardens are located in southeastern Portland, Oregon. The gardens cover 9.49 acres and are named for Crystal Springs Creek, which flows along its western side. Crystal Springs Gardens feature more than 2,500 rhododendrons, azaleas, and other plants in a setting of small lakes, paved and unpaved paths, fountains, and small waterfalls. These gardens are a must see for anyone visiting Portland in May when our spectacular rhodies are in full bloom. And on Tuesdays and Wednesdays visitors are permitted free entry. Hard to beat!

May 6 - Back home temporarily in Lake Oswego We left Red Bluff on Thursday May 2 and drove on up to Eugene, Oregon where we spent the weekend at the lovely Premier RV Park, and then Monday morning we made arrangements to get some minor items on the coach attended to. This afternoon, we drove the two hours home in our car. We'll spend the next three weeks at home taking care of chores, medical and dental appointments, and generally attending to some neglected matters. The plan right now is to head back out on the road May 30 for Coeur d'Alene Idaho and resume our travels for the summer. I wouldn't say we needed a break by any means, but owning a large home entails a lot of responsibilities, so a stop at home was needed. We love living and traveling in our Country Coach but it always nice to be home as well :-)  I will resume keeping the blog updated once we are back on the road in early June.

California - March 3 - May 1

April 30 - Red Bluff, CA - enroute to Oregon Today, Tuesday we pulled out of Lakeport at Clear Lake and drove around the lake and over to I-5 and headed north to Red Bluff, where we pulled into Durango RV Resort, a lovely RV park, where we met up with friends Myra and Dennis Bailey who we spent time with this winter in Tucson. It was fun to visit and recount all our various adventures since Tucson with them. We celebrated and went to a local Mexican restaurant where we had fishbowl sized margaritas and some tasty Mexican food.

April 28 - Clear Lake - the end of this leg of the trip Well the last two days of sailing on Clear Lake for this leg of our journey definitely did not disappoint. Yesterday, Saturday, was perfect. Sailing from 5 until 8pm with perfect 10-15 mph breezes. It was the west thermal again so sailing close to the windward shore meant flat water and lots of fun reaches. Today, Sunday, the wind came up a little later and was a little lighter, but we still sailed 5:30 to 7:30 with very pleasant 8-10 mph breezes, occasionally higher. A friend we met snapped this photo of our boat on a fine starboard tack with Mt Konocti in the background. We have had the boat in the water 17 days and we sailed 13... about 75%. No complaints there!

April 25 - The City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Ukiah CA Today Libby and I took a side trip to the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas located in nearby Ukiah CA. It is somewhat of a survival trip to drive there on Highway 175, easily one of twistiest roads I have ever driven on. At the left is our Chevy Suburban in the entry arch to the grounds of this international Buddhist community and monastery which was founded by Zen Buddhist Monk Hsuan Hua in 1974. As a lifelong collector of Asian art myself, I have an extensive Buddha Collection as well, so I was very interested to visit the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas. For many more photos of this intriguing spot, see our gallery page.

April 21 - Late afternoon breezes on Clear Lake We had the whole lake to ourselves on a Sunday evening... that's Libby on deck relaxing in the late afternoon breeze. Classic late afternoon thermal effect provides nice steady breezes, even on a wam clear day which saw rather still conditions all day. But the east facing mountain slopes, now in shadow in late afternoon, send the cooler air dropping down the slopes and across the lake toward the warm west facing hills on the east shore. This makes for ideal late afternoon early evening sailing conditions, a perfect end to a perfect day at Clear Lake.

April 17 - Ideal sailing conditions on Clear Lake The winds were ideal for sailing when we went out on the lake this afternoon. We headed out of the Konocti Vista Marina around 3:00 with SE winds around 8 and by the time we cleared the point and were in the clear, we had a steady 10-12 for a couple hours. We sailed almost all the way across to Lucerne on the east shore of Clear Lake, some 6 miles across. Other than a bass boat or two flying by, we had the lake to ourselves and maintained steady boat speed of around 6 mph or so all the way across. By about 5:00 pm, however, the wind started to drop off, and we only made it back about half way under sail before we had to fire up the Yamaha outboard and motorsail the rest of the way back. But no complaints, sailing conditions were near ideal with temps close to 70 and steady breezes for several hours. Corey loved every minute of it. We look forward to more of the same in the coming two weeks.

April 16 - Joe's birthday! Yep, I lasted another year! Life is good... a bit challenging sometimes, but good. Like they say, gettin' old ain't for sissies. But today was a really good birthday. Sharing it with the love of my life, we went sailing this afternoon, then came in, took the dogs down to the waterfront park in downtown Lakeport for a stroll, then came back and grilled some killer NY strip steaks and had delicious fresh gulf shrimp cocktail for dessert, Surf and Turf, plus a nice bottle of red wine, all courtesy of the local Safeway. Had a pretty sunset tonite as well, which I captured in 1's and 0's. Can't ask for better than that!

April 14 - Wind, wind and more wind! Well, after getting skunked on the wind in the fall on two previous visits, Clear Lake is proving to us that it can be a windy place. Forecast for today (right) said average wind speeds to 18 mph and it is every bit of that this afternoon. We went out for a bit late morning... and at first our windmeter was showing steady 15+. We sailed the main only with just a hint of jib unfurled to aid in tacking, but within an hour it had built to 18 with higher gusts, and we decided discretion was the better part of valor and headed back into the marina. Winds are supposed to mellow as we get into next week. 10-12 is optimal for our boat. 8 is adequate but when it starts pushing 20 it's time to bring it in.

April 13 - Wind - too much of it! After getting the boat cleaned, rigged and in the water Thursday, on Friday the wind proved to be too violent and we opted to hang back and get some chores done. I washed the coach. The whole process takes me several hours... I have to scrub the roof first and hose it off, otherwise moisture from the dirty roof will just make dirty drips down clean sides. Washing the sides is pretty easy with the extendo handle washer, and then I have a super stable collapsible step ladder for using the chamois to dry the sides . I use our softened water from the coach system so as not to get hard water spots, but you still need to dry the coach to make it look good. "He likes to keep his fire engine clean, it's a clean machine...."

April 12 - Clear Lake, California On Wednesday April 10 we drove from Morgan Hill up to Williams, CA on I-5 to pick up our Catalina 22 sailboat from storage. There we disconnected the car from the coach, hooked up the sailboat to the Suburban, and follwing me in the coach, Libby drove that the 1.5 hours over to Konocti Vista Casino RV Park on the shores of Clear Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake located entirely within California. We've stayed here before and are happy to be back, this time with plenty of wind for sailing. We got the sailboat rigged on Friday, launched her and took her out for an excellent two hour sailing session late afternoon. The weather was perfect with temps in the 70's and the wind was steady and warm, a perfect kickoff to the sailing season and the first of four spectacular lakes we'll visit this season.

April 9 - Santa Cruz, CA For our last day in the SF Bay area, we took a leasurely day trip back over to Santa Cruz... Our 'visiting friends' marathon was over after meeting up with no less than 20 different sets of friends over the past month in California!!! Today was a 'Joe & Libby' day... we took the dogs and drove down to the beach at Santa Cruz, a place we had fond memories staying at 15 years ago, before we were marrried. We located the same little Mexican restuarant by the beach, now under different management, but the decor is pretty much the same... the surfer theme. The table/bar we are sitting at is actually an old surfboard. After lunch we took the dogs and went for a walk on the beach.

April 2 - Monterey, CA Today we took a day trip in the car and drove the 45 minutes or so from Morgan Hill down to Monterey. We walked on the beach, peeked in some beachtown shops, cruised thru Cannery Rowm and took the scenic 17 Mile Drive around the Monterey peninsula and then out through the lovely town of Carmel. No signs of Clint Eastwood. The photo at the right was taken at Pescadero Point, along the 17 Mile Drive. There are plenty of photo opps around the peninsula and Pebble Beach. I have some more cool photos on the gallery page

March 29 - April 9 - Morgan Hill, CA We left Paso Robles mid morning for a 2.5 hour drive in the coach up Highway 101 & Highway 1 to Santa Cruz and then up the hill on Hwy 17 about 5 miles to Scotts Valley and the Santa Cruz Ranch RV Resort - What a DUMP! to quote Bette Davis. After checking a couple other miserable options, we gave up on staying in Santa Cruz and drove around to Morgan Hill and the Maple Leaf RV Park, a good centralized location where we have stayed before. We will just drive in to Santa Cruz from here to visit friends... less than one hour away. We're also planning to visit several friends in the Bay area in Los Gatos, Los Altos and Half Moon Bay, and we'll also make a day trip to Monterey, Carmel and to the ocean in the next ten days before we head on to Clear Lake to start the sailing season!

March 27 - Paso Robles, CA We made it to the Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles early today, set up camp in the lovely park and went over to Sculpterra Winery and Gardens for a bit of Wine Tasting and a walk in the garden. We sampled some very tasty wine at no charge thanks to the free pass from the RV Resort, and took a walk in the gardens (right). We'll do some more wine tasting tomorrow before we move on to the Bay area on Friday where we'll meet up with friends in Santa Cruz for Easter weekend.

March 25 - Oxnard, CA On our way to Santa Barbara from L.A. a week earlier, we had stopped in Oxnard at Quinn Caterpillar to ask them about a "funny sound". The sound turned out to be insignificant, however in checking around the engine, the CAT tech noticed at we had a broken bracket holding the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) unit in place (at right). This is a large cannister located around the tailpipe, held in place by two brackets, one of which was broken, and if and when the second one broke, we would be dragging it down the highway... certainly an experience we would like to avoid. So we arranged to come back after our Santa Barbara visit and have it repaired. Fortunately the warranty covered the repair which involved fabricating a whole new bracket for it, about a $1500 repair! Quinn Cat treated us great and we were back on the road in two days.

March 21-24 - Santa Barbara, CA With our visiting in Los Angeles concluded, we headed north in the coach for Santa Barbara, where my old Key West buddy Don Tondro lives with his wife Sally. Don and I have been good friends for 45 years, and Santa Barbara is a beautiful coastal city just two hours north of L.A. We hit the weather perfectly with the forecast close to 70 degrees and sunny for the duration of our stay through the weekend. On the docket were visits to the beach, the lovely waterfront parks, Cold Spring Tavern up over San Marcos Pass, and Lake Cachuma.

March 15 - Nethercutt Car Museum - Sylmar, CA Today we took a break from visiting friends and family to take in one of Los Angeles area's true gems, The Nethercutt Collection of antique and collectible cars up in Sylmar. Neither Libby nor I had ever been there before and it is indeed a treat. J.B. Nethercutt, the founder of Merle Norman Cosmetics, built this magnificent collection of the world's finest motorcars, numbering more than 250 of the most magnificent specimens of Packards (right), Duesenburgs, Pierce Arrows, Cadillacs, Rolls Royces, Mercedes and much much more. Besides these more well known makes were many rare models like Knox, Gardner, Gobron-Brille, Reo, Pope Hartford, etc. I have some more photos on the gallery page but one really needs to see the collection in person. The museum, free to visitors, also houses his incredible collection of musical instruments and music machines.

March 3-20 - Los Angeles area - Valencia RV Park We left Phoenix early this morning, Sunday, and drove the coach the 425 miles to Valencia outside L.A. in about 8 hours or so with a few stops. We're staying at Valencia Travel Village on the north side of L.A. up by Castaic Lake and Magic Mountain. Libby was born and raised in L.A. and I spent almost 20 years here so we have a lot of friends and family in the area. We'll spend most of the next couple weeks visiting with people we haven't seen in a while. It's a very nice large park with lots of amenties including a really nice heated swimming pool . Should be an enjoyable couple weeks!

Arizona Sunshine - Jan 24 - Mar 1

February 26 - Spectacular Sedona AZ - We left Tucson on Sat the 23rd and drove up through Phoenix and on to the Thousand Trails campground in Cottonwood, AZ near the unique town of Sedona, Arizona. One of the better Thousand Trails parks, Verde Valley RV Resort is tucked away in quiet canyon and about a 15 mile drive to downtown Sedona. Sedona's main attraction is its array of red sandstone formations, the Red Rocks of Sedona. The formations appear to glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun. Today we brought our camera to photograph some of the famed red rock formations around Sedona. Once again we had spectacular weather and and we got some great photos... see our gallery page... and the special Sedona Photo Collection page which I created with more than 30 large format photos of this incredible area.

February 22 - Sabino Canyon near Tucson On our last day in Tucson we drove out to Sabino Canyon with our friends Dennis and Myra. Sabino Canyon is a natural desert oasis located in Tucson’s Coronado National Forest and is home to spectacular desert landscapes and abundant wildlife. We took the tram ride through the canyon. The weather was gorgeous and we got some great photos... see our gallery page... and the special Sabino Canyon Photo Collection page which I created.

February 20 - Arizona Sunshine - OOPS! After 10 days of absolutely beautiful weather, a cold front came through today and brought snow with it! Tucson elevation is 2800' where we are and the weather forecast was right. Temperature at noon is just 36° F and it is snowing! Glad we decided to modify our trip stay and leave Saturday instead of today! Everyone was out on the street taking pictures of their coaches in the snow! I don't think it is time to get out the snow shovels, but we are seeing a trace of accumulation on the cars!

February 19 - Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson AZ On Tuesday of week 2 we went with Dennis and Myra to visit the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum which houses a wide array of both military and civilian aircraft. Pima is one of the largest air and space museums in the world, and the largest non-government funded aviation museum with more than 300 aircraft and spacecraft on display. At the right is a photo of Dennis and me standing beside a Blue Angels jet.

February 18 - Saguaro National Park We drove out to Saguaro National Park on the east side of Tucson. Libby loves the majestic Saguaro cacti, unique to the Sonoran desert, and iconic symbol of the southwest, so we went for a late afternoon drive with the dogs out thru the park. There's an 8 mile paved loop through the park with plenty of photo opps. We have some other good photos on our gallery page...

February 15 - Kartchner Caverns Today we visited these marvelous caverns now a part of the Arizona State Parks system. In November 1974 two young cavers, Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts, were exploring the limestone hills at the base of the Whetstone Mountains outside of Tucson, when they discovered an entrance to what is now Kartchner Caverns. The caverns offer a fascinating display of calcite formations which continue to grow, including stalactites dripping down like icicles and giant stalagmites reaching up from the ground. At the right is the massive Kubla Khan, 58 feet tall in Throne Room. The gift shop sells 'Throne Room' signs... we thought of getting for for our coach rest room!

February 11 - On to Tucson Sunday we left Phoenix with beautiful traveling weather and drove 2.5 hours to Tucson, an historic town with lots to see and do. We'll probably be here about 10 days staying at the Lazy Days RV Resort, a huge place with lots of fun activities to do on site. We met up with our friends Dennis and Myra Bailey who we met at the RV place in Phoenix when they were staying next to us in their beautiful Beaver Patriot Coach. On Monday, today, we all went to see and tour the Biosphere2. The weather was cold and rainy but the tour is all indoors inside the Biosphere where the weather varies according to which biome you're in. Biosphere 2 is an Earth systems science research facility now owned and operated by the University of Arizona which was originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system. Very interesting place!

February 8 - Taliesin West - architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home On Friday we visited and toured architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home, known as Taliesin West. It sits on 620 acres outside Phoenix in the desert and is home to the school run by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The complex drew its name from Wright's summer home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin and carries the unique architecural characteristics that are the hallmark of the famed architect's iconic designs. During his lifetime until the age of 92, Wright continually altered and added to the complex of buildings, all of which were constructed by students.

February 5 - Desert Botanical Garden - Phoenix The Desert Botanical Garden is located in Phoenix Arizona on 145 acres and features over 50,000 plants, including a wide variety of the approximately 2000 species of Cactus... from the majestic Saguaro to the well known Prickley Pear and the thorny Cholla. Be careful where you sit down in this place! At the right is Libby standing next to a tall Saguaro. These good old boys of the Sonoran Desert in SW Arizona must grow to 50 years of age before they start growing arms. They are a protected species and are home to many desert animals including birds, snakes and tortoises. More photos on our gallery page...

February 3 - Phoenix - day trips to Lake Pleasant and Heard Museum We have enjoyed the last few days in Phoenix... weather has been lovely. On Friday we drove up to nearby Lake Pleasant with our friends Bill and Ginny and had a nice lunch at the lovely marina and restaurant there. Lake Pleasant is larger than expected, covering some 11,000 acres when full. There are a lot of sailboats at the marina. But the lake is way down with the protracted drought here in the Sonoran Desert and a lot more shoreline and islands are cropping up. It is not a lake we would probably bring our sailboat to, but if you needed to live in the Phoenix area and were into boating this is a pretty reasonable alternative! Today, Monday, Libby and I went to the Heard Museum, a wonderful display of Native American Art from Arizona tribes including Hopi, Navajo, Yaqui and even Apache! More photos on our gallery page...

January 30 - Phoenix, Arizona We arrived in Phoenix at the Pioneer RV Resort up on the north side of town. We pulled in at dusk and secured a nice open space. But after a day in the park we researched another option, Desert's Edge RV a.k.a. The Purple Park. It is a little closer in to Phoenix and a much more pleasant park in terms of landscaping and amenities. It caters strictly to travelling RV's - no long term residents, and we secured space 416 in the back corner, a nice wide pie shaped spot surround by a tall hedge and shrubs and much more like having our own garden. We love it here. I washed the RV in our campsite and got er looking pretty sharp! Since we are facing southeast and the weather is bright sunshine and on a warming trend, we broke out our windshield sunscreen (see left). We had dinner with our friends Bill and Ginny who have a spectacular home in Scottsdale, enjoyed wine and delicious steaks and good conversation with like minded folks.

January 27 - The Huge Quartzsite RV Show We spent the afternoon at the Quartzsite RV Show. Hundreds of vendors line the "Big Tent" and various aisles around it as well. Anything you ever possibly want for your RV lifestyle can be had here and the prices are pretty good. I LOVE these kinds of shows... We did our part to bolster the faltering US economy and purchased: sediment prefilter with replaceable elements to go in front of my water softener purchased recently which I intend to install while we are ten days in Phoenix a really cool micro adjustable sewer hose support system to achieve just the perfect slope over as much as 12 feet a pair of close toed Dawgs rubber clogs, like crocs but without holes to keep my feet dry when walking the dogs in the rain, wet grass, mud whatever Some really neat Just Once Tire dressing - no silicones or petroleum products to harm the tires or oil film to collect dirt - and contains UV protectant. Very impressive stuff and a small investment to take care of $8000 worth of new Michelins and keep 'em looking showroom new! A very impressive high quality Bon-Aire Original Ultimate Aluminum Hose Nozzle for RV and Car cleanup chores The nifty inexpensive portable Kleva Sharp knife sharpener which works great! several little food products several coupons and passes for 1-3 nights free stay in several different RV resorts in areas we will be passing thru All in all a very entertaining afternoon!

January 24 - Arriving in Quartzsite, Arizona We drove down from Paso Robles to Rancho Mirage outside Palm Springs and met up with friends there for dinner. We stayed at Palm Springs Oasis RV Resort which worked out pretty well. Got up leisurely this morning and headed towards Arizona... about 125 miles to the huge annual RV Rally at Quartzsite . Every winter tens of thousands of RV's of all sizes and shapes converge on this small Arizona city, many camping on BLM land or at one of dozen or more RF PArks in the area. Here we are crossing into Arizona. More photos on our gallery page

Heading down I-5 from Oregon to Arizona via California

January 22 - Paso Robles and side trip to San Simeon and Hearst Castle After passing Mt Shasta we headed down to the Bay area, crossed over to Highway 101, and stopped in the San Jose area to visit some friends. From there we cruised on down the famed El Camino Real south to Paso Robles, a good stopover from which we could make an easy day trip over to the central California coast to San Simeon to visit Hearst Castle. We hadn't been there for many many years, and this was our first opportunity to visit the famous Hearst Ranch and his fabulous 'Casa Grande' together. We had fantastic weather and spent the whole afternoon on La Cuesta Encantada, The Enchanted Hill, as William Randolph Hearst called it. There are a number of excellent photos on our gallery page.

January 16 - Lake Oswego, OR - initial outing of the new year At long last the holidays have come to an end and with it our time in the Pacific Northwest until next summer. We are heading south for the winter today following the classic 'snowbird' route. The photo on the right was captured along I-5 in northern California with Mt Shasta in the background. As you can see the weather cooperated beautifully. Lots more photos on our gallery page. We're towing our new Chevy Suburban LTZ and will spend the winter in the warmer climes of Arizona and Nevada, visiting sites and old friends. In March we'll head back up through California making a number of stops before we pick up our Catalina sailboat from storage near Clear Lake CA where we intend to spend the month of April. As explained elsewhere on the website we have adopted a more conservative alternative for our 2013 itinerary, preferring to remain in the west and near to a defined support structure as we get to know our new motorcoach.From there we'll do a summer tour of our favorite northwest lakes Fernridge Reservoir in Oregon, Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, and the incomparable Flathead Lake in Montana. For the summer I will tow the boat behind the coach, and Libby will follow me driving the Suburban. Please check back with our blog for regular updates throughout the coming year. Our proposed itineraries for the next three years (subject to change of course), are kept updated here on the website.

Send us an e-mail and say hi with any comments on our travels - or sign our guestbook! Visit the Photo Gallery for the Windseeker 2013 Western US Tour See our RV Park Reviews for the Windseeker USA Travels Back to the Blog index page for The Windseeker Motor Coach