Author: Naomi Stobbe

This is our first full day here and it has been a day of exploring. We took a bike ride in the morning down to Bristol Farms to have a chai latte and a coffee. It’s a great way to start an adventure.

The streets and avenues within the compound are very lush and the water spritzes out of the irrigation nozzles many times during the day.

We stock up on groceries and pack them away in the cupboards and fridge and it feels good to be setting up house. I am glad to be getting away from restaurant food. I hope to be able to change some of my eating and exercise habits while I am ere.

We stop by the clubhouse to check out the pickleball courts, etc. but it is a weird system and costs way too much. So I guess pickleball is out. I checked out the pool closest to our place. No one there and so cool and lovely. Not exactly a lap pool but I can swim in circles and I will do that a bit. I love how close it is and the fact that I have it all to myself.

Evening was good and I had another guitar lesson. I am quite pumped about learning more stuff.

Remembrance Day, or Veteran’s Day as they call it here in the US. We had a leisurely breakfast at a cafe at our Las Vegas hotel. (Of course we had to walk through one of the large casinos to get there … NOTHING VERY SUBTLE about that!) After breakfast we headed out on the final leg of the journey. Again we tried to stay on the smaller roads. We made a short stop at the Hoover Dam, parked the van and took a few photos of the shockingly low water level in Lake Mead, and then meandered our way south out of Nevada, through the Joshua Tree National Park — no entry fee on Veterans Day, so Rudy didn’t need to show his $20 Senior’s Pass 😉 — and finally, at just before sunset, we arrive in Palm Desert. We announce ourselves at the gate to the Monterey Golf and Country Club — JP has arranged a parking pass for us — and wind our way inside the gated community. It’s lush and green and loads of palms and hibiscus and bougainvillaea. Surprisingly, I am delighted with our place. It is comfortable. The patio looks out at the golf course, with ponds and fountains. I learn that there are 37 swimming pools in this mile square complex, each with a hot tub.

I go for a walk in the evening. It is darkish and spooky because I don’t know where each of the winding streets lead. But the air is warm and I feel like I am somewhere like Mexico.

We awoke early and headed back to the Arches to get sunrise pictures. We thought we were maybe a bit too late, but just as we turned around to head back into town, the sun peeked over the mountains in the east and lit up the arches — and we got some pretty good photos. We headed back to the hotel for a ‘hot breakfast’ — ‘belly timber’ is what Naomi’s dad would have called it — not particularly good, but it filled us up.

The day progressed in a smorgasbord for ‘visual sumptuousness’. We took the road less travelled — winding and narrow, first through Escalantes National Monument, then on to Bryce and Zion National Parks. At one point the road followed the crest of a mountain, with steep drops on either side and a wind buffeting the van as we carefully navigated our way along. But the scenery was exhilarating. And our ‘discount US senior citizen’ park pass got us a ‘free’ entries into what are surely the most beautiful places in America.

After we’d spent most of the day driving through Utah, it was off to Vegas for the night. Sin City. Rudy found a ‘hot deal’ on booking.com that got us a large hotel suite at the Tuscany Suites and Casinos ($55). We wandered through several of the big casinos on ‘the strip’ but found the sights and sounds (old people sitting on stools in front of several VLTs) less than glamourous. After a supper stop at the Wahlberg burger outlet we headed back to our room and called it a night. Not too much ‘nightlife’ for us!

We arose, shook the dust off our sandals and left the Quality Inn without looking back. The Quality Inn didn’t exactly mislead us with their name — they just failed to mention that they were more ‘low’ quality than ‘high’ quality. The first indication last night that all was not as it should be was when I inserted the key to get into our room only to find that it was already occupied by another man. I didn’t stop to ask whether we could join him but rather shamefacedly closed the door and went back to the front desk. The young man hardly batted an eye and certainly did not offer any apology — he just re-keyed the card for the next room down the hall.

Breakfast seems like it is no longer a thing during these covid times. The continental offerings were a juice box and a package of trail mix which may just come in handy as we are planning to hike in Moab today.

We were in the van and traveling by 6:30 a.m. heading down a barren stretch of highway. The landscape is monochromatic and even the oil rigs and stations are painted a desert tan to blend in with the surroundings.

We have driven backroads these last two days and the landscapes make my jaw drop. The land changes dramatically hour by hour and I can’t keep myself from gaping out the windows and exclaiming inanely about how beautiful it all is. The ranches are mostly small affairs which most likely reflects a certain harshness of life here.

We arrived around noon before checkin time and managed to roust “Ernie” from room 102 at the Days Inn. He emerged with a mouth full of sausage, none too happy. Apparently help is hard to come by during the off season and he basically mans the desk about 20 hours a day. He checked us in whilst bits of half chewed sausage fell from his mouth. Despite initially seeming a bit rude and ornery, he turned out to be a very helpful character and we enjoyed our stay in the clean but well-worn room.

After stowing our bags we headed up to the Arches National Park. We pulled up to the entrance gate. We were planning to visit this afternoon and possibly come back tomorrow morning to take some ‘morning’ photos. The gate attendant gave us several options: get a daily pass for $30, or a Utah annual pass for $55. OR… I could get a ‘seniors’ annual national parks pass that was good for ALL the national parks in all US states for $20! Hmmm.. I wonder which option we should choose? We drove up to the winding road that led to the iconic red rock formations. We parked the van and hiked the windy trail to the ‘delicate arch’ which was absolutely fabulous. The grey skies and chance of showers must have dissuaded a lot of tourists — so we actually got to take photos WITHOUT the backdrop of crowds of people.

In the evening we dressed up a bit and headed to a fancy Thai restaurant in a renovated old house not far from our hotel.

On our way! Across the border. We woke up early and packed and headed south to the Peace Garden border. There was only one car in front of us and after a few questions (not ONE about our vaccination status!) and a look at our passports we were through. It was 4:30am. We wound our way down to Minot and that point I fell asleep. I awoke crossing into Montana and watched the oil pumping stations and the mobile home yards filled with vehicles of all ages and conditions. Quite a few Saskatchewan-ians on this road, heading south, pulling their fifth-wheel trailers, etc.

We ended up in a Quality Inn in Rawlin, Wyoming for the night. We’ve driven 1765kms in just over 14 hours.

Heading west on Hwy 23, Patti Griffin on the iPod, “You can go wherever you want to go”, and we are headed to California (by way of the Stobbe cabin). We will spend the night Lake George and then head for the border as soon as we wake up. The border has finally opened to non-essential travel after being closed since March 2020. We wind our way past sinkholes and sloughs. The skies are painted early winter hues of purples and greys and faded blued. Rolling hills with trees bare of leaves dot the horizon. We spot a sign for a diner in Somerset and quickly make the decision to stop for a late lunch. It’s not much to look at from the street, although actually much like you’d expect. It’s one of the half dozen buildings scattered along the main drag. There are booths and faded pictures of wildlife along with random signs about mask wearing. The benches are upholstered in brown vinyl and the corner one looks like it couldfit at tleast a dozen people. we choose a more modest one along the wall. The food is delicious in a small town way; homemade soup to go with the fries and fried chicken and also some garden fresh grreen beans (Rudy’s favourite…NOT).

The cabin is cold but not freezing. The weather is 10 degrees Celsius which seems unseasonably warm for November 7. We turn on the new heaters and the cabin is warm by the time we get back from a walk in the wood. It is dark early as it is the first day of daylight savings time. We drink a bottle of a specialty cider, a gift Augusta and James brought back from their British Columbia trip. We are cosy and warm in the darkened evening.

I love the way I feel at the start of a new adventure. The possibilities seem endless. There are so many new things that I am sure I will learn and new skills I will accomplish. It all seems entirely possible on the eve of a new chapter. I take Rudy’s guitar from the cardboard box and try a few new chords. My fingers hurt and I give up immediately. This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the trip. But tomorrow is a new day.

I continue on for 15 minutes or so and feel somewhat accomplished. I will try to keep it up. It is just a matter of some discipline. Rudy is ready. He hardly ever reads an actual book anymore. He works on his computer and consumes information online or from the TV. He says he used to read a lot and perhaps this is a push for him to do more reading.

It is only 8:40pm but I am exhausted. I’ve been up since early this morning (it is daylight savings time so it is actually 9:40pm) and given my Stobbe genetics it is a reasonable time to go to bed. If Rudy goes to bed now he will wake up at 2 and be ready to roll. But perhaps that is not so bad. Tomorrow we have a long day of driving.