Finally in California

I am at an RV Park in Indio Ca, at an outrageous price, and then they charged me an extra $1 per dog. I am close to the gate, but it is a sharp right turn and I don't know if I can make it in one try. I'm planning to leave early so as to get through and around LA before the traffic starts to get heavy. Being Sunday morning it should be lighter.

Last night I stayed in Marana, NM, about 10 miles west of Tuscon, and had no wi-fi, so I wasn't able to post, read emails, etc. Tuscon was a tense drive - construction with narrow lanes and concrete barriers at the sides. Phoenix, this morning was a little easier, but it was more complicated getting through it.

But 1st things 1st. I had been on the road about 1/2 hr this morning when I stopped at Flying J for fuel. Most of them have an entrance that is marked Cars & RV's, so when I saw Cars I pulled in only to discover that I should have taken the next entrance marked Trucks & RV's. The lanes were narrow and since they had no pull thru spaces for RV's, the big rigs were parked every which way and blocked any turns you could make. I came head on with a woman who was trying to get to the dump station, but she couldn't back up very well, she said. Needless to say, backing up isn't an art I have perfected either, as yet. An angel came along in the disguise of an elderly gentleman (about the same age as the other solo female RVer and me) and finally got her backed up and where she wanted to go. Then he turned my rig around a sharp corner so I could go on my way, over to the proper fueling section. In the meantime, big class A's kept coming in and blocking things even more, but it finally got worked out. It took me an hour for the stop! When I told the man how wonderful he was, he said he had been a truck driver for many years. Then he said he would go see if any other women needed help!

I am really tired of desert. I'm tired of I-10. I wish I had been able to stay on I-40. Going through Quartzite was an experience however, First, you start noticing an RV or two among the desert plants & cacti, and then more and more, until all you see on both sides are RV's.

I used my slow cooker yesterday for the 1st time and made a chicken stew. It was yummy, and I will have more of it for my dinner tonight. I'm so glad to have something good to eat.

I'm off now to walk the dogs. They really take advantage of me in this RV lifestyle, and expect to be walked a time or two more than they got when we lived in NC. They are adjusting well, however, except that the one with glaucoma isn't very happy with a long walk. She just wants to go quick and get it over with and back into the RV. I'm learning that I have to watch her more closely as she will run into an obstacle rather than go around it, because she can't see. Poor thing.