Day 4 & 5 – Manteca Calif to Amado Arizona

Doug and Al did some route adjustments, so that we would not have to drive through Los Angeles, which I am very thankful for.  Those big trucks drive by so fast and close to us.  Now we are headed towards Fresno and Bakersfield, Palmdale and down to Cathedral City (a suburb of Palm Springs).  Nancy and Doug are spending 2 nights with their friends George and Brenda

We pulled into a small gas station in Manteca this morning and the man running the place was from Burnaby!  Small world…

This route is fairly boring, mainly agricultural.  Again we are having mixed weather.  It is cloudy with the sun breaking through occasionally, but it is 10 degrees at 9 o’clock.  The temperature is getting warmer and warmer and that is the main thing.

About 2:00 we made to the Mojave Desert and it was bright blue sky.  It is sand and brush as far as you can see.

We kept driving and driving and the weather kept changing.  It was nice, it was cloudy.

It was late by the time we were nearing Palm Springs area, Doug and Nancy went past us and into Cathedral City.  We decided to keep going.  At about 6 pm we saw signs for a Casino in Indio and decided to go there.  We had heard that casino's let RV'ers park in their lots for free, so we thought why not.  When we got there all we could see were RV's!  We pulled into a spot between a truck and trailer and a large RV, then got changed and went into the casino.

We could have been in a casino in B.C. except for the smoke.  We each put $20 in a slot machine.  Al lost his money I hit a small pot and cashed out with $30.  We left after that and went back to the motorhome to sleep.  And in the morning this is what we saw!

We pulled out early and continued on our trek east.  At the California/Arizona border there were border patrol agents stopping vehicles, don't know what they were looking for...they just asked how many people on board and then let us through..

As we drove further into the desert we started to see RV's dry camping or boondocking every where in the desert.  Then as we drove into Quartsite we saw more RV's then we have ever seen before.  Quartsite Arizona is a very small town that caters to RV'ers with swap meets, trade shows and rally's.  Sometime in the future we would like to stop and have a couple of days checking it all out.  

We continued on through the outskirts of Phoenix..

Then Tucson (they have the loveliest overpasses, decorated with art.  and sorry i forgot to take pics, i am new to this blogging stuff)  and just south of Tucson we stopped in Amado at a really nice park and we are staying here for 2 nights until Doug and Nancy catch up to us and then we are heading across the border into Mexico!

Hasta luego mi amigos!