Summer 2018 RV Trip

We'll after a week of planning and booking RV sites, we have our trip all planned out for this summer's exploration.  We'll be traveling 10,000 miles with the RV and 3 dogs!

We start in El Centro and head up to San Jose, CA area via Bakersfield, CA overnight for Scott to work in the main office for a couple of days while I stamp a few sites off our National Parks books.  

From there we're heading up to Eugene, Oregon to get our RV fiberglass repaired from when we tore a corner of it it last August dropping off Hunter and Cierra at their house in North Carolina.  We met a repair guy at the Quartzsite RV Show and booked an appointment with him.  He's letting us stay at his RV repair shop without having to book any outside hotels, so that's great.  In the meantime, Alyse and Lilly and SJ will be there visiting her dad so we'll do a little hanging out with them and also tour Crater Lake National Park since we'll be there 4 days.

From there we go to stop #3 - Becky & Jeff's place in Olympia, Washington for a few days and then over to Emmett, Idaho to visit with Kyle, Alyse, Lilly & SJ for a few more days before we spend a few weeks in Logan, Utah visiting Scott's parents.  At the end of April, we fly to Amsterdam, Holland for a week visit to see all things Dutch and also stop over in Brussels, Belgium for a day.

Once we get back home, we pack up the rig and head to Rapid City, South Dakota, via tourist destinations in Nebraska, where we will spend a month checking out 6 national parks and memorials and getting relaxed before a whirlwind trip to 33 overnight destinations through the entire country including a week at Lisa's in North Carolina and 5 days at Ryan's where we will spend the 4th of July at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland where the Star-Spangled Banner was written and see fireworks in the Inner Harbor.  I'd like to go to DC, but it would be a nightmare trying to get there for the day...we may try for DC another time.  Also, when we're at Ryan's we'll be going to with him to Gettysburg on July 5th for the day.

From there, we will be going through Pennsylvania and Ohio and stopping at Nappanee, Indiana for a little repair on my desk that needs to be done by the Amish cabinet maker and go into my favorite little town, Shipshewana for some shopping.  

From there, we start our main trip for Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota for the duration of the trip visiting far away and less heard of national parks such as Grand Isle and Voyageurs National Parks.  I'm excited to get to Holland, Michigan where my great-grandmother was born and do some family research!  And, once we get to Wisconsin, I will achieve a bucket list item and would have visited ALL 50 STATES in my lifetime and visit for two weeks in Door County (aka Sturgeon Bay & Bailey's Harbor where my great-grandfather and family lived while being the longest running Bailey's Harbor Lighthouse keeper). 

In mid-August will be starting our return trip back to Logan via North Dakota and go to Teddy Roosevelt National Park and finally stop for the night in West Yellowstone before cruising into Logan right at Scott's birthday, where we will spend a couple more weeks before heading out again for the southern states for our winter trip beginning in October.

Once this trip is over, we will have nearly been to every state in the entire United States of America!  Next winter, we will be in Florida and the following summer will spend the entire time in New England.  I've been across the country at least 10 times but never went to Wisconsin so, this summer will be awesome for me!  And, by next summer, I'll have done all 50 states TWICE in a 2-year period (except for Alaska and Hawaii - although we lived in Hawaii for 3 years and been back a few times)!  That's pretty awesome.  Living the RV life sure does have it's advantages!

D'Poly Taqueria

Last night we ate the an amazing placed called D'Poly.  I asked the gal who is doing my nails for the most authentic Mexican restaurant and she said D'Poly.  I also asked the place where I got my new glasses and they said the same thing, so last night we drove to Calexico and decided to give it a try and see what all the hoopla is all about. 

We went to the original D'Poly on 2nd Street - right at the Mexican border but they closed at 5 pm and we got there are 5:03 pm but the lady at the restaurant said that there was another one but only a Taqueria at 1101 Paulin only 1.5 miles north next to Hwy 111 so we drove there.  I found out later that the Cocina Mexicana (aka restaurant) is busiest in the morning as they serve breakfast and lunch there and close at 5 pm.  They say there are 3 restaurants but we haven't seen where the one in El Centro is yet and I think it closed down...I left them a message so hopefully they respond.

Once we got to the D'Poly Taqueria on Paulin, we went inside.  D'Poly has been serving Mexican food in the Imperial Valley since 1998.

Notice the smoker?  They smoke all their meats there outside.

It was small but smelled really good.  A young man cleared a table for us and we looked at the simple menu...in Spanish.

We looked over the menu and decided to get (1) Pollo Asada Taco for Scott, (1) Carne Asada Taco for Sue, (1) Alambre meal which was a medley of pork, beef and bacon meat with onions and mushrooms and cheese platter with tortillas, and (1) platter of 5 Chili Gueritos Rellenos.  This was probably our favorite dish of stuffed yellow chili with chicken and cheese inside.  It was so light and yummy!!  Now, I have to say a word about the condiment platter...HOT...yes, those sauces were so hot.  The black mole was very hot along with 2 other sauces on each side of the mole.  I didn't mind the red and green sauce on the far right with the spoons and the lime green sauce was actually a refreshing cucumber sauce that Scott really liked. Scott didn't eat any of the sauces.  He said they were all too hot for him.

Mexican cuisine is primarily a fusion of indigenous Mesoamerican cooking with European (Spanish) elements added after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century.  Their basic staples are corn, beans and chili peppers.  They also eat tomatoes, squash, avocado, cocoa and vanilla.

Alambre meal (center) served with corn torillas
and our tacos wrapped up on the top and bottom of the Alambre.

3 of the 5 Chilis Gueritos Rellenos - YUM!!!  Our favorite dish.

Condiment Platter

Our server was really great and was helpful explaining a few things we didn't quite understand and we had a fun time.  The food was amazing and we can't wait to try the Cochina in another week...maybe for breakfast!

Farm Smart Valentines "Date" Night

Wednesday night we spent our Valentine's in the fields of Imperial Valley on the Farm Smart "date" Night tour and dinner on the farm.  Farm Smart is an educational outreach program of the Desert Research and Extension Center located in Holtville, California.  The program began in 2001 and continues to grow and has already educated 139,000 people, mainly K-12 school aged children on how food is produced and the commodities grown in the Imperial Valley.  They have tours on a constant basis but Wednesday night was their first ever "date" night dinner on the farm.

One we arrived at 3:30 pm in Holtville (about 15 minutes east from where we are staying in El Centro) Scott checked us in.  While we waited for everyone on the tour to arrive, they had a bunch of snacks for us to choose from - tea, fruits of apples, bananas and tangerines, cookies, fruit snacks and cheese & crackers.  We sat and chatted while waiting for the whole group to assemble by 4 pm.  The people who were catered to for this event was mainly the RVers in Yuma and El Centro.  The day was SUPER cold.  Probably the coldest day of all the days since we've been in El Centro with a high of 64 degrees!  We brought our sweatshirts (and mine had mittens in them), but they weren't quite warm enough.  It even rained while we were on the tour - a rare occurrence in the Imperial Valley.  Most years they are lucky to get 2 inches of rain and so it was interesting it would rain on our day.  I also spent time checking out the buildings, taking some photos of the mini gardens and really liked the hanging water bottle garden.

Once everyone arrived, we had a cute demonstration of a garden salad made with herbs, cauliflower and spices topped with cheese.  A man from the table next to us was the gal's assistant and he got to keep his apron.  I really loved the lady's herb garden tin containers below.  What a fun way to have a little herbs in the RV or at home.

After the demo we all loaded up on the two hay wagons and started our tour to the 255-acre farm.  During the tour, we learned all about how water is brought to the Imperial Valley desert areas from the Colorado River.  We also learned that cattle is the main sustainable commodity of the valley followed by main kinds of vegetables.  Farmers from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Canada as well as sheep ranchers from Utah bring their crops and animals to the Imperial Valley to keep growing and harvesting.  Sheep are used to clean up the row of remaining veggies and stems so a new crop can be grown.  Farmers from the cold northern states and Canada come and experiment with the crops during the warm winter months in the valley.  Every year, the commodities change a bit due to what they grow from year to year.  The gardens below is where we did our picking after the tour.

As we continued on the tour, we also saw the holstein cow farm that is also on the property.  The milk from the cows is used for cheese and then the cows are eventually butchered for beef.

One interesting fact is that the farm is residence to the burrowing owl.  At one time, there were canals of water on the property that were filled in and after the fact, they realized that the burrowing owl had his habitat there so they made a large container with a large plastic pipe, dug and put it underground and added a large cross so the owls could land on the cross and then see the burrow underneath.  Other burrowing owls were located along the north perimeter of the property, next to a farm who grows the lettuce for McDonald's.  They are the cutest little owls.  My photo is blurry...we were driving fast and the wagon was bumpy.

As we progressed on the tour and stopped at each location, many people in the wagons would win some cute prizes.  But, all too soon, daylight hours were drawing upon us and we still had some veggie harvesting to do.  Each participant was given a large bag with a bottled water at registration for this part of the event.  They stopped the tour early and we headed over to pick the harvest that was available this time of year.  I ran over to pick carrots and turnips while Scott ran to the beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and radishes.  We probably harvested about 50 pounds of vegetables that we got to take home as part of the tour.  It's amazing how much food the Imperial Valley makes that can feed the world.  The totals were astounding!

Finally, after this was done, the wagons took us over to our cars where we could load up our treasures in our vehicles and then we continued over to the dinner portion of the night.  We got back to the picnic tables that fortunately had a very large lighted tent over them.  Students from the local high school involved in 4-H and culinary arts were our volunteer servers.  We first has appetizers consisting of orange date shakes (date shakes are a popular thing in the Imperial Valley!), stuff jalapeño dates, cheese-filled dates, bacon-wrapped dates, date tarts, beet hummus with crackers, etc.  I think the bacon-wrapped dates were outstanding.  Who would have thought to put the two together, but it works!  Those were the first to go!

After the appetizers and little amuse bouche hors d'oeuvres, the main course was served on the opposite side of the appetizers.  The dinner portion consisted of Tri-tip steak or chicken (or both), creamy potatoes, green beans, green salad with tomatoes, corn or white muffin and date shakes were still in the making.

About the time we were finished eating dinner, a man from the Imperial Date Gardens of the Bard Valley came and made a presentation to us all about dates and how they grow, are harvested and packaged.  Check out the link above to order those beautiful Medjool dates online.  They are so yummy!  Get the chocolate covered!

Apparently, in 1927, there was an infection of all the date trees and they lost the entire crop.  21 date palms were sent from the middle east.  9 survived and because of those 9 palms, there now thousand of date palms growing (incidentally, now feeding the entire world).  Dates are shipped back to the middle east because at one point, they lost all their date trees as well.  So, those trees feed the world!  Scott and I drove through the Bard Valley a couple months ago when we went to Joshua Tree and the Salton Sea.  They palms are impressive!  One male palm can fertilize between 25-40 female palms each producing fruit.  The thorns on the trees can be about 5" long and will take off your fingers, so they use a curved sickle-type knife to removed them.  Bags are then used to cover the immature dates until harvest time where they removed the ones ready to be harvested and let the others mature until they are ready to harvest.  I think there are about 50 pounds of dates that comes from one pod area.  Once dates are harvested, they are frozen for 9 days since they don't use any pesticides on their palms to kill and bacteria before shipping.

Once his interesting and informative presentation was over for our "date" night, it was time for the raffle.  I'm sure everyone won something during the raffle.  Desert Trails gave away two 18-hole golf excursions with golf cart.  We won one of those by default and we also won a gardening glove with alfalfa seeds to grow and sprout for salads or sandwiches and also (my personal favorite and what I hoped to win) a carton of Medjool dates!!  Yippee!! 

We had such a fun time and despite the cold and wind, it was a fun night to celebrated Valentines day and "date" night.  It was so cool that night we just left the produce in the car, but the next morning we spread out our free harvest.  We made a delicious stew with the food plus an onion we dehydrated before we left on our trip and some sausage.  So yummy!  We had so much we even gave away from cabbage, carrots and turnips to our neighbors on both sides of us and across the road.

Our Newly Redecorated RV Office Furniture

Well, the long wait is now officially over and our custom made desks made by our Amish cabinet maker, Gene Miller, from Country Craftsman Woodworking were delivered on Thursday.  Gene did a great job on the furniture and we had him specifically design each desk to our individual specifications.  He also ordered the Corian counter tops to match the counters of our kitchen and bathroom.  You'd never would have known it wasn't originally part of our rig.  He specifically designs things to go into the RV so he's quite good at his job.  Scott's desk and the tops came in pristine condition however my desks bottom packaging was gone and so there was (1) some water damage to the base of my desk, (2) a cracked from edge and (3) the desk pulls were disfigured because the shippers shipped the desk upside down.  Such a shame.  We called Gene and he said he's remake the front of my desk and and get it fixed.  So when we head toward Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakota's this summer we'll stop by and get it repaired.  So, here are photos from start to finish.  I'll just make notations on the captions.  Aren't they fabulous?!  These desk drawers shows are 3 feet DEEP!

Original Living Room

We removed both sofas when we went back to Logan in December.

Scott was using the kitchen table as his work station.

I was using a small folding table for my station.

Now the desks are installed!

Scott's zone.

Scott's pull out drawer for printer and hard drive.

Center desk drawer and another pull out section.

My desk area.

Center pull out keyboard drawer for me since I'm short.

I have two smaller drawers made for pens, paper, etc.

Plus two pull outs on the top for research and stuff.

And two deep filing drawers with side storage.

The next things we did was to purchase office chairs.  I thought we should go to Staples and look but Scott said he wanted one from CostCo so we went there where he bought his chair.  The chair was too big for me in the arch of the back so yesterday I went to Staples where I found even better chairs.  I came back and picked up Scott to look and he did agree mine were better so we returned his and bought mine.  The chairs I found were $229 each but I got them on special for $129 each!  They recline really far and can be adjusted in the lumbar, height, width, arm rests and head rest, etc. and much better than the $100 chair Scott found.  My chair is assembled but Scott's won't be here until Tuesday.

So, now to get all the photos scanned (that's all the boxes there now) and then things will be neat and orderly.