Adventures of Beth and Dan: Palm Springs to Bordertown, Nevada

So Zoey, I apologize for not blogging for a few nights. Our night in Palm Springs was interesting. The fellow who runs the park there is unique! Needless to say he has lost most of his teeth but unlike you they won’t grow back. He drives an old car with no windshield and he has not current tags in his license plate!! Dano walked to our spot before we drove the fifth wheel on so we could see what we were getting into. There were only three overnight spots! All others were full time old broken down campers. It was sad to see so many down and out people. The fellow beside us said to Papa “ Just tell your wife it’s only for one night”! Right off the bar the electrical circuit kept shutting off so Papa went to the care takers old rv to get help. He had two very mean dogs and there was no way to knock on his door. Fortunately, he came out and pointed to a button hanging off a pole. I guess you push that when you have a problem. So we were able to take power from another empty sight and made it through the night

The next morning we took off for Barstow, California and took interstate 15. We had horrible winds up to 30 mph. Our lane of traffic was ok but the opposite lane was backed up for at least 20 miles!! Our camping spot was a clean, small property called Newberg Springs. I think you would have liked it Zoey. There were two nice ponds and lots of Mallard ducks. The park had only about 20 sights but almost all were taken from folks wanting to pull over for the night and get out of the wind. There was a cool old caboose there too for kids to explore and the lady running it had two twins about 3 who you could have played with. We didn’t do much that day because of the winds. To even go outside was an event!

Frazier did really well so far. He settles right down to sleep once we get on the road. He only “talks” to us when we slow down or stop. Once inside the rv he explores a little and then wants a snack. He has discovered our bed and he likes to sleep in his bed once the fireplace is on. It’s pretty cozy in the living room. We can read stores there.

The next morning we took off for Mammoth Resort in the town of Mammoth Valley. We drove through the cute town of Bishop and got gas there. I could have stayed there a few nights. It had lots of unique stores, bars, restaurants and a cool vibe to it. We were able to find diesel at an Arco station which had room for us but it was certainly busy. Getting fuel is still nerve wracking. We look for Pilot or Flying J… somewhere where we have lots of room to negotiate.

As we left Bishop our weather turned wet, cold and snowy!! Going up to Mammoth is about 7000 ft and it was our first long haul. The truck did great. We were surprised to see the park was almost full!!! The folks that checked us in had to put us in a 30 amp spot. It was a blizzard with snow covering us as we parked and both set up. We had a dickens of a time getting into our spot because of a few parked cars in front of us :(. But Papa negotiated it. Once we got inside we turned on our heat sources and cranked up the furnace. After several disappointing tries we gave up. It never would ignite. We dressed warmer and hot out the electric blanket we had packed just in case!!! Betsy Story you would have been proud of me. We had a very toasty night and Frazier jumped up on the bed that night!!! He never does that but I think somehow he knew there was a warmer spot up there than anywhere else in the rv. It snowed most of the day. We did take the truck off the rv the next morning so we could go explore more of the town and ski hill. We also needed diesel. We were shocked to see a huge crowd of folks skiing!! The gondola and chair lift were both running. Almost all parking lots were full. Hence the reason the rv park was full. It was still windy and cold. Not a great sunny spring day but when you are a hard core skier you indulge yourself.

Anyway back to the camper , hook up, do our walk of safety around the outside ( that’s for you Tessie!) load up Frazier and we were out of there heading to Bordertown, Nevada where we will spend two nights and take a little break from driving and do some much needed organizing.

Zoey, here is the route we travelled from Barstow to Bordertown, Nevada. Can you figure out how many miles that was? Dad might have to help you ❤️

It was very foggy and cloudy going to Barstow.

Do you know what causes fog Zoey?

We saw these outside Palm Springs. There were hundreds of them. What are these Zoey and why are there so many here?

Here we are setting up in Newberry Springs. It was a clean little park but full by end of the windy day.

Above is one of the ponds and the old caboose you could explore.

We had some spectacular views of the Sierra Mountain Range as we headed to Mammoth. I’m sure they could use the moisture as so many places are in a drought. Zoey, do you know what a drought is?

Frazier slept through much of the drive in his cat bed

He curls up in the back seat and snored happily

Here was the park and of course Dan had to cover his pickup in the back to keep snow off the hitch. Even tent campers were braving this weather to ski!!

We drove up to the ski hill to check it out. We had planned on riding the gondola on a sunny day but no such thing today unless you had you ski stuff on!