The Traveling Ducheks

 

 

SO…January 19-25: We moved to Whetstone, Arizona.  We stayed at Quail Ridge RV Park and we really enjoyed this park.  Spaces were good sized and it was a quiet park…a bit of highway noise at night, but not too bad.  We visited Pima Air Museum in Tuscon, went to Saguaro National Park a couple of times, visited the Desert Wildlife Museum and Reid Park Zoo.  Went to this cool place called Mescal Movie Set, visited Tombstone and hiked the San Piedro Riparian Petroglyph Trail.  We really enjoyed the area.  There was quite a bit more we would have liked to do, but we figure we can save it for next time!  If you have any suggestions, post in the comments!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

January 25-27: We moved to Winterhaven, CA, just outside Yuma, AZ.  We stayed at Pilot Knob RV Resort and it was a nice park with lots of activities.  We visited Castle Dome City Mining Ghost Town, I could have stayed there all day, we did stay for several hours.  It is a well preserved mining town and there is so much stuff they have collected.  It is a self tour with some audio you can get on your phone.  Probably my favorite part was taking the truck down 10 miles of VERY washboard road and watching Ed hold on for dear life! LOL!  After the ghost town, we stopped to see Yuma Proving Grounds & Static Tank Display.  I picked up a few letterboxes along the way also.  As we were leaving, we went to the Center of the World in Felicity, CA.  We thought it was gonna be a really hokey roadside attraction, but in all honesty, it was pretty cool!  If you have time to look it up, read about it.  Really an interesting idea of the founder and we even paid the bit extra to go inside the pyramid and stand on the center of the world spot, made our wishes and got our certificate!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 27-Feb 7: We moved to Campo, CA.  We stayed at the Lake Morena State Park.  This is an awesome park and is another one that we will re-visit.  This was the first time I backed the RV into a spot.  I was nervous as could be, but I did it!  (Our previous sites had been pull-thru sites) The weekends here were busy, but during the week it was us and maybe 3-4 other RV’s.  So quiet and at night it got super dark which was great for stargazing.  We had daily turkey visitors, they run so funny!  We visited the Railroad Museum and rode the train.  We went to a wonderful candy shop called Wisteria Candy Cottage.  The toffee was divine and I only got one tiny square.  I did get honeycomb toffee and it was really good too!  We visited the Birch Aquarium in San Diego and when we got home, I found a bee stuck to my windshield.  He was alive, but barely.  I took him inside to warm him up and he stayed for 4 days before it was warm enough to send him out into the world again. There is a wonderful little hole in the wall malt shop just down the road from the campground.  We ate there several times.  They made a wonderful pizza, the breakfast was great, Ed loved the burgers and I had several sandwiches that were very good.  Prices were reasonable and the cook is pretty cool.  We visited the USS Midway, the Maritime Museum and went on a whale watching tour.  We saw 5 whales on our tour and it was great.  We also spent a full day at the San Diego Zoo.  

 

 

 

              

 

Feb 7- Feb 24: We moved to Santa Barbara, CA.  We stayed at Rancho Oso RV Park.  VERY nice park, lots to do, general store on site, gorgeous views and it is a horse ranch.  We did leave the day after arriving to go to Disneyland.  Instead of driving 2+ hours each way, we decided to stay in a hotel by Disneyland.  We, of course, had a blast at Disney, what can I say?  After 4 days at Disney, we went back to the RV. Rancho Oso has NO cellular service, they were having work done on the electric (so several days we had no electricity) and while we could text, no photos could be sent.  To get internet, we had to go to the lodge.  This is truly a ‘off the grid’ type campground and I loved it!  The only drawback is the road into the campground.  It is 1.1 miles of narrow and winding road. We took a trail called the waterfall trail, a 1 mile hike each way…..well, we got onto the wrong trail and ended up taking a 4 mile hike!  Ed was a trooper.  We had a good laugh and the waterfall was pretty.  We visited Santa Barbara Pier, but it was so foggy, you couldn’t really see much.  We liked the shops.  We also visited Vandenberg Space Force Base and on the way back, stopped at Arroyo Burro Beach because Ed had read that it was a good beach for finding sea glass.  I found a few tiny pieces, but it was fun to walk the beach…there was a ‘leash free’ dog area and that was fun…we had several dogs visit us. We had walked about a mile down the beach and a rainstorm popped outta nowhere!  We were soaked, but it made it more of an adventure to remember.  We visited Solvang for 2 days, I loved it.  I wanted to do a wine tasting, but since Ed never drinks, it wouldn’t have been much fun. We went to Lake Cachuma, I will say, the couple of lakes we have been to here leave much to be desired…there is hardly any water in them!  Cachuma has an island on it, well, you could walk to it.  We spent a lot of time at Rancho Oso just chilling.  The view was amazing, mountains all around.  I had several hummingbirds who visited my feeder frequently and also many birds who visited my feeder.  I made some friends who were in the site next to us.  They also are Thousand Trail members and we swapped tips and tricks with each other.  I kinda hated to leave Rancho Oso, but always look forward to what comes next!

 

                      

 

 

Feb 24-March 10: We moved to Morgan Hill, CA.  We are currently at Morgan Hill RV Park.  It is a big park in the rolling green hills.  We just got her a couple days ago, so I don’t know much yet.  We got a nice spot, a pull through that is good sized.  As I am typing this update, I got my first hummingbird visitor.  He’s been back for a few fill ups.  Hummingbirds are kinda a thing for me.  I have always loved them.  I put out two hummingbird feeders, one bird seed feeder and a suet basket up as soon as we get to our sites.  I really enjoy watching the birds, especially because there are so many varieties at each stop.  We got here later in the day on Wednesday, got fully set up Thursday and did our food shopping on Friday.  It is now Saturday and we try to make Saturday and Sunday our “Chill Out” days, because we don’t like to be in the hustle and bustle of the weekend crowds.  ETA; I am publishing this post late due to being sick in bed with the flu for the last 2.5 days!  Carry on… lol 

 

Now that we have internet, I will try better to update more frequently.  This made for a long post and a photo heavy one, too.  I hope everyone is doing well!