On our last day we usually get ready to travel by organizing items so the bumps and bruises they receive on the road don’t cause any real damage…no broken dishes or stuff falling out of the fridge.
We were close to being ready when I went in to change into something warmer and Fred followed me outside. He closed to door to keep the warmth in and that was the last time we were able to get into our 5th wheel for at least four hours.
Jayco trailers and 5th wheels seem to have a problem with one of the locks slipping and locking the door on its own…it happened once before in Wickenburg, Arizona and now again today.
Our camping neighbour drove Fred into 29 Palms for cell service and to contact CAA…long story short, CAA couldn’t or wouldn’t send someone out. Too busy. And, we had topped up our CAA coverage before we left to include the RV.....so that didn't work!
Fred and Tony had to hire an independent locksmith to come out to pick the lock. Should be easy, right? No such luck. Eventually he had to drill out the lock in order to open the door. We had to pay him $100 USD to pick the lock, which he couldn’t do and now we have to spend $100 USD to get a new lock.
At least we got in and didn’t have to sleep in the truck and we didn’t find any more Kangaroo Rats in the unit. It has been a strange day and the glass of wine tastes mighty fine right now.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Rats!
When we arrived in Jumbo Rocks we took our apple cores out of the truck and put them in the belly of the Jayco to go into the garbage later. To make a story short, we forgot and the next morning we found that something had gotten into the belly and found our apples.
We set out traps and by the evening we had caught a Kangaroo Rat by the side of the 5th wheel….just looks like a large mouse with a long tail.
Nothing else showed up so we thought we had cleaned up all the mess. Until tonight!
I went to the pantry to get some juice and could smell something that reminded me of the shed when we caught mice out there.
Fred took the cover off the water system [which is in the bottom of the pantry] and sure enough we had caught a rat in there….we don’t remember even putting the trap in there….must have been in the spring when we did our spring cleaning of the unit.
Now I won’t put my feet down on the floor because I think there may be more hanging around!
BTW, these rats look just like mice so to make ourselves feel better we will try to call them mice from now on…Kangaroo Rat is just a name!!
Another BTW....we caught two more rats in the belly of the 5th wheel before we left Jumbo Rocks...the good news is that we haven't caught any for two days!!
We set out traps and by the evening we had caught a Kangaroo Rat by the side of the 5th wheel….just looks like a large mouse with a long tail.
Nothing else showed up so we thought we had cleaned up all the mess. Until tonight!
I went to the pantry to get some juice and could smell something that reminded me of the shed when we caught mice out there.
Fred took the cover off the water system [which is in the bottom of the pantry] and sure enough we had caught a rat in there….we don’t remember even putting the trap in there….must have been in the spring when we did our spring cleaning of the unit.
Now I won’t put my feet down on the floor because I think there may be more hanging around!
BTW, these rats look just like mice so to make ourselves feel better we will try to call them mice from now on…Kangaroo Rat is just a name!!
Another BTW....we caught two more rats in the belly of the 5th wheel before we left Jumbo Rocks...the good news is that we haven't caught any for two days!!
Recap
I thought I would give a recap of the National Parks we have been in since arriving in California. Furnace Creek at Death Valley seemed very primitive when we first arrived…no water at the sites, no electricity and no showers. But, they did have large RV sites, dishwashing stations, modern bathrooms and showers were available at the Ranch Swimming Pool. We also had cell service. If need be we could hook up and go fill up with water and to dump our tanks.
There was always something to do in Death Valley…hiking, golfing, swimming at the pool, eating out [we didn’t even do that] and they also had a little bar where we could watch a sporting event if we so desired.
That place was just plain luxury compared to Jumbo Rocks Campground at Joshua Tree National Park. Here the sites are obviously made for tenters so we had to do some pretty good truck driving to fit into our site. There is absolutely no cell service, no showers anywhere, no water anywhere in the park, no electricity, just ugly, dirty pit toilets and no dump stations for units like ours.
Jumbo Rocks has so impressed us with the beauty of the place that I’m sure we would return in a heartbeat. Death Valley has a different kind of beauty with a large part of that coming from the fact that it is 200 feet below sea level and the landscape is so drastic.
There was always something to do in Death Valley…hiking, golfing, swimming at the pool, eating out [we didn’t even do that] and they also had a little bar where we could watch a sporting event if we so desired.
That place was just plain luxury compared to Jumbo Rocks Campground at Joshua Tree National Park. Here the sites are obviously made for tenters so we had to do some pretty good truck driving to fit into our site. There is absolutely no cell service, no showers anywhere, no water anywhere in the park, no electricity, just ugly, dirty pit toilets and no dump stations for units like ours.
Jumbo Rocks has so impressed us with the beauty of the place that I’m sure we would return in a heartbeat. Death Valley has a different kind of beauty with a large part of that coming from the fact that it is 200 feet below sea level and the landscape is so drastic.
E Mails
On Friday we drove to Split Rock to do one last hike before heading out on Sunday. This one was a little different in the fact that the boulders were actually split from breaking away from the main wall. There was a little more climbing on this hike too.
We had only gone about 50 metres when we realized we were already off the trail and hiking through some unknown territory. Correction made and then it happened again. Now I know why a guy I talked to yesterday said he had been lost on the Split Rock Trail for over three hours before he finally found his way back to the trail. This one isn’t marked as well as the other hikes we have been on.
From Split Rocks we drove into 29 Palms for water and to pick up our E Mails. Last week we received verbal offer on our house in San Carlos from the people who are renting it and we had told them to give us a few days while we mulled it over.
I have been slowly changing my mind about selling the house as we find it very comfortable. How long do we want to do this RVing? What if one of us gets sick..where would the survivor go? Those are the type of the questions that have been rolling through my mind.
I know Fred wants to sell but he told me today that the sale was up to me. I was pretty certain I knew what I wanted so I E Mailed and said no sale, unless they want to pay full asking price. Now what have I done!
We will probably talk to them more on Sunday, November 17th when we get to Rio Bend RV and Golf Resort. Finally we will have water, electricity, internet and TV!!! I am getting excited as we haven’t had anything like that since we left home on October 19th, with the exception of the KOA in Las Vegas while we visited Diane.
We had only gone about 50 metres when we realized we were already off the trail and hiking through some unknown territory. Correction made and then it happened again. Now I know why a guy I talked to yesterday said he had been lost on the Split Rock Trail for over three hours before he finally found his way back to the trail. This one isn’t marked as well as the other hikes we have been on.
From Split Rocks we drove into 29 Palms for water and to pick up our E Mails. Last week we received verbal offer on our house in San Carlos from the people who are renting it and we had told them to give us a few days while we mulled it over.
I have been slowly changing my mind about selling the house as we find it very comfortable. How long do we want to do this RVing? What if one of us gets sick..where would the survivor go? Those are the type of the questions that have been rolling through my mind.
I know Fred wants to sell but he told me today that the sale was up to me. I was pretty certain I knew what I wanted so I E Mailed and said no sale, unless they want to pay full asking price. Now what have I done!
We will probably talk to them more on Sunday, November 17th when we get to Rio Bend RV and Golf Resort. Finally we will have water, electricity, internet and TV!!! I am getting excited as we haven’t had anything like that since we left home on October 19th, with the exception of the KOA in Las Vegas while we visited Diane.
Lots of Rest
We have no internet or TV so we have been doing an enormous amount of reading…even Fred!
We try to fill our mornings with hikes before the weather gets too hot.
There is a Trailhead right in our campground so we followed that to find the Skull Rock we have been reading about. It is hard to get a good picture of the actual rock but we think we did okay by moving farther away and climbing higher.
We try to fill our mornings with hikes before the weather gets too hot.
There is a Trailhead right in our campground so we followed that to find the Skull Rock we have been reading about. It is hard to get a good picture of the actual rock but we think we did okay by moving farther away and climbing higher.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
A Day For Hikes
Hidden Valley Trailhead was our destination this morning and the trail didn’t disappoint. It took us through boulders surrounding a huge meadow inside. The cattle rustlers used this spot to hide their theft while rebranding the stolen cattle.
It is easy to see why they did this for years as no one could get in or out without going through one opening in the canyon walls. Very interesting place.
Cliff climbers have discovered this spot and today we watched a couple of them try to climb the face of one cliff. Other cliffs have been declared off limits as the constant travel in and out by the climbers has destroyed too many native plants.
Great Views
When we got up this morning we realized what a special spot we had parked in. The campground is not called Jumbo Rocks without reason.
Boulders everywhere and climbers on top of many of them. Looks spectacular! We didn’t take advantage of the hiking trails today as we wanted to rest some plus we are here a week so we have plenty of time to climb and explore.
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