North To Alaska – Day One!

With mixed feelings, today we left our Winter Home Base at Outdoor Resorts Indio and pointed Julie North.

I have been feeling bittersweet and not sleeping too well, as we were starting to make new friends at our new property in Southern California. Easing my mind however, is the fact that A) Over the next three weeks, Coachella and Stagecoach Music Festivals will bring close to one million attendees just a few miles from our resort. B) Temperatures this week in Indio reached 100 degrees. C) There’s this place called Alaska….and she is calling / screaming our names. Over our first two months here, I’ve loved being able to get around town without my GPS, something that has been a necessity over our non stop four years on the road. Having a pool and hot tub less than fifty steps from our lot has been awesome. Bella has loved her countless hours outside in her kitty tent. Lynn lounges in the back yard, crocheting to her hearts delight. We had pickle ball lessons, a few cocktail hours with new friends and hell, if I’m being honest…it has been nice just having a legit mailing address for more than a week and awesome to have Amazon / UPS / FedEx deliveries right to our door.

The temps this morning were in the mid-70’s and before getting on the highway, I topped off the fuel tank with 65 gallons ($271 at $4.17 / gallon) and got on I-10 West. Just past Palm Springs, we encountered the most intense dust storm we’ve been through in the rig with only 3-4 car lengths of visibility. We were down to around 30 MPH at times with hazard lights blinking and the whole storm lasted for around ten miles.

Since Day 1, we started each and every trip in the motorhome with Jerry Reed’s “East Bound And Down” and maybe a year ago, added Brothers Osborne’s “Midnight Riders Prayer”. Today, we added a third song, Johnny Horton’s “North To Alaska” and will play these three, in this order throughout this voyage to and from Alaska.

While California has some beautiful places, today we saw none of them. If you are scoring at home, resist the urge to visit places such as Beaumont, Redlands, Colton, San Bernadino, Oak Hills and Victorville. As Nancy used to say, “Just Say No.” We did go over a few mountains, as we left Indio’s lack of “elevation” of fourteen feet BELOW sea level and climbed to just over 4,000 feet. Driving through El Cajon Pass was reasonably scenic and it allowed us to escape the hour or so of drizzle we encountered climbing out of the Coachella Valley. By the way, drizzle and wet road grime are super cool three days after hand washing the motorhome. At one point in the drive, the outside temperature was 49 degrees and I worked through significant winds diagonal and from the front for most of the drive.

Two and a half hours later, we rolled into Adelanto, California’s “finest” RV Park for one brief night. Directly across Rt 395 is the Southern California Logistics Airport, formerly George Air Force Base. Also, less than four miles away is the Victorville Federal Penitentiary. Notable residents include Lenny Dykstra of Mets and Phillies fame and the former leaders of the Latin Kings and Varrio Gardens Hawaiian Gangs. Terrorist organization residents include Black Liberation Army, Aryan Nation (presumably in different cells) and The Cuban Five Network. Other dirtbags here were connected to the 1981 Brinks Robbery, a Honduran drug lord that killed American tourists, another that killed US Customs Agents, bombers of the San Diego Federal Courthouse, the brother of the Honduran President and a Los Zetas cartel member that massacred hundreds of men, women and children in Coahuila, Mexico. I’m guessing Lenny Dykstra did not have much jail credibility in this joint. And to think, as we have prepped for a Canadian border crossing, our current self defense is bear spray and perhaps a meat tenderizer.

So, Day 1 is in the books. Tomorrow, Bishop, California awaits, 211 miles to the North, as our well-dressed friend keeps a watchful eye on our Coachella Valley property.

Lynn’s Two Cents – Why oh why did we leave Indio? Oh right. It is about to be over 100 degrees for the foreseeable future and 99% of the RV park will be empty. It was a great run and we are looking forward to returning in October. Until then, ADVENTURE AWAITS!