Last day at Jojoba Hills

Sunday was our last day at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort.  After playing pickleball, one of  the park tour guides (resident and volunteer John Macon) took us on a golf cart tour of the resort.  We enjoyed our tour and every day we spent at this beautiful and friendly park.  After lunch we drove to Temecula for some groceries and to top off our fuel tank for our trip next day.  On the way we stopped to photo someone's wonderful metal art.  These were incredible works of art. We were unable to photograph all of the pieces because some of them were placed where there was no pull off.  This road--CA 79--is two lane twisty curvy with lots of traffic. The art is about 5 miles east of town.

Back home we traded the truck for the bike and rode over the Santa Rosa pass to Thousand Palms.  In the valley the temp was triple digits.  We were really sweating by the time we arrived at our destination, which was

 There were a lot of curves on this ride. You can see the road snaking down the hill in the picture below. Louise was taking the pics as we were going through the curves. I had to ask her to stop because her twisting to get good pics was making it hard to handle the bike in the horseshoe bend curves.

the Coachella Valley Nature Preserve.  We work camped here 6 years ago.  We were returning to meet up with fellow volunteers Dave and Donna.  We arrived in time to help Donna celebrate her birthday.

 The Palm House

This house is made out of palm logs set on end. If the logs were on their sides they would rot. Standing them on end allows the moisture to wick out the bottom. This house was built in the 40s if I remember right. The visitors center is in this building.

Happy Birthday, Donna!

Donna is on the left.

After enjoying the party and the company, we took ourselves back over the mountain.  Once we reached the top we were cool for the rest of the trip.  We arrived home safe and sound just before full dark and tucked ourselves in for the night.

Next stop, Menifee.  Later,

Louise and Duane

California bound

We pulled out of Congress, Arizona Tuesday mourning about 7:30 AM. That is early for us to get on the road but I was all loaded and wanted to get on the road before it heated up to much. We had about 300 miles to go to get to Jojoba Hills RV park in Aguanga, California. Jojoba Hills is an Escapees RV Club Co-op park. The park is really nice with a pickleball court right across the street from where they parked us.

Our campsite til Monday. 

Looking left across the street

Looking right across the street. This is a pickleball/tennis court. They play pickleball at 8 am, tennis is played in the afternoon. There were 6 of us that showed up to play on Wednesday. We were told that like a lot of campgrounds in the southwest, people leave when it starts to get hot. We were told that in the winter there are 20 to 30 people that show up to play everyday. Now they play 3 days a week. Louise and I go over to practice every day.

The road heading out of the park. This park is built on a hillside and the sites are tiered. There are 283 sites in the park. They have a great rec center with pool room, exercise room and a large outdoor pool. . I played ping pong last night while Louise played cards.

Wednesday after pickleball, we took off on the bike for the little town of Julian. Route 79 south is really curvy which made the ride a lot of fun. 

We passed a glider airport that offered rides. 

We passed through a lot of range land.

Our first stop was The Julian Pie Company. The Julian Pie Company was started in 1986 by Liz Smothers. They have 2 locations now.

I had apple crumble pie and Louise a 2 berry pie. Both were delicious. 

They have a pretty big selection of pies.

They also make donuts. We may have return June 6 lol

A winery on the way.

 This is in the town of Julian. Julian is old gold mining town. There are 2 mine tours that are open to the public but we thought the price was a little high for us. Louise took this pic and didn't check to make sure it took right. The sign reads "RONG BRANCH" saloon. We will try and do better next time..lol  (I thought  it was funny because of the Long Branch Saloon on Gunsmoke)  Julien is a big town with a school, gas station, drug store, grocery, church, a couple of restaurants and a couple of places to spend the night in addition to the usual tourist antique shop and sweet shop!  

On Main Street

The big town of Aguanga, California. One general store and a post office.  We passed through a lot of little towns like this with one or two businesses and a smattering of houses.

It was a great day for a ride. The temperature here is a little cooler then in Congress, AZ.  Today we rode to Temecula to the Walmart, the Harley shop and the Barnes and Noble. Now Louise is doing laundry and I'm working on the blog. We have a couple of other rides we would like to do before we leave this park. Monday we will head about 50 miles north to a Thousand Trails  park for a couple of weeks.

Til next time

Duane and Louise

The cactus are in bloom

We have a cactus garden across the street from our rv site. The last couple of weeks the cacti have been in bloom. 

 bird nest in a saguaro cactus

agave

Easter cactus

Over the last couple weeks I have busy riding the Harley. One day I rode to Kingman, AZ and then on to Laughlin, NV for the Laughlin River Run Bike Rally. My first stop was the Mother Road Harley dealership in Kingman. I took a short break there, then it was off to Laughlin. Louise chose to stay home for this trip. 

 There were booth after booth of things related to motorcycles and lots of bikes. I spent several hours walking, looking, walking, looking, then looking some more. After all the looking, I left with the rally t shirt and nothing else. 

Last weekend I had signed up for a Peoria, Az motorcycle safety coarse that was put on by the Peoria police department. All of the instructors were motorcycle policemen. I had to be there at 7 am. The class was held about 60 miles from where we are, so I had to leave about 5 am to get there on time. When I woke up the wind was blowing 20-25 miles per hour and it was raining. I put on my rain suit and took off. About 5 miles into the ride it quit raining but the wind was pretty bad. I made it in plenty of time. We had a short classroom discussion on bike positioning on the highway, then it was off to the riding coarse. They had 3 of the setups that the police train on. They would show us how to navigate through the cones then we would try it. One of the setups were cones in a u turn configuration with the turns being about 15 feet. That one I really need more practice on!! The power stop and the cone weave I had no trouble with. I was lucky to win the raffle that netted me a hydration vest, it helps you keep cool in the heat of Arizona.  The wind never stopped blowing during the class or on the way back to the rv. When I got back I was beat.

This morning, after I played pickleball, we headed up the hill to Yarnell for breakfast. We had been told that they have really good food at the Ranch House Restaurant. They were right. I had biscuits and gravy, Louise had a steak sandwich and fries. Both were really good. We will return another time. This place is favorite stop for the motorcycle crowd as you can see by all the bikes out front. 

 I have watch Louise or she may run off with this guy...lol  (He was very realistic looking!)

 Louise really liked this trike

That's it for now

Duane and Louise