Retirement

Damsel and I haven’t been on a road trip for nearly a year, so we’re planning to head out sometime next month. We have two objectives that involve family; the first being to be present for our great grandson’s first birthday party in Santa Rosa California and the second is to make a second visit to see our newest grandson who will be in Palm Desert when we visit. The rest of the trip will be for us to enjoy the scenic outdoors of the west.

The first leg of the roadtrip, depicted to the right, takes us from our town, scenic in its own right, up along US 93 through the Joshua Tree Forest, quaint little town of Wikieup, AZ and dumps us on I-40 heading into Kingman.

From Kingman, we head north along US 95, across the (relatively) new Hoover Dam bypass bridge, and on into Las Vegas. From there, we head briefly into California to visit Death Valley.

After the brief foray into Death Valley, we again take to US 95 into Nevada again and go through some old ghost towns, some still active mining towns and the towns of Tonopah and Hawthorne. Next will be Walker Lake, which often serves as a mirror for the mountain ranges beyond. There is some very breathtaking scenery in Nevada and a photographer’s wonderland.

As we continue northward to Reno, The Biggest Little City in the World, we plan to visit some of the shopping places in town. Afterwards, we will camp in the mountains on the Nevada side of the state line, postponing our entry into the People’s Republik of Kalifornistan. Then after becoming subjects, rather than citizens, we will enter with our weapons stowed in accordance with the unconstitutional laws of that state and travel to the Santa Rosa area where our great grandson and our three granddaughters reside.

After the festivities in Santa Rosa have concluded, we will head over to visit one of Damsel’s younger sisters who lives in Stockton. We will probably camp in her driveway before continuing on southward to the next stop in Bakersfield.

Some of the legs of this trip are a bit ambitious, since we tend not to tow the trailer more than four hours per overnight stop, but the timing of this excursion requires a few over six-hour legs with fuel stops as required. Damsel and I conclude that it will be worth the extra endurance to be able to see everyone and everything planned.

The last part of the trip has us to cleverly avoid going into the insane driving mess known as the Los Angeles Basin, but rather to skirt north through the High desert until such time as we can descend through Yucca and Morongo Valleys on our way to the final overnight destination in Palm Desert. After our visit there, we’re headed back to our beautiful little home.

Within a few days of getting home, another branch of the family will probably visit us as guests in our home. It seems like it will be a nice beginning to fall second spring in our Arizona paradise.