Geocaching in Parker

Sunday February 27th (Day 163)

A side note to start. When Judy and I travel we both work on the blog and to keep things simple, it is written in the 3rd person. Well now, since I (Harris) am traveling alone for these 3 weeks, some folks are wondering if I’m feeling worthy of referring to myself in the 3rd person. Not really. For the remainder of the time I will use the 1st person.

Trailers on California side;Houses on Arizona side



I awoke to clear skies and a crisp 40 or so degrees. After grabbing coffee and making some oatmeal I was on the road by 8. My plan was to do a loop of caches going as far north as Parker Dam on the California side of the Colorado River and coming back on the Arizona side. Carl, my caching bud, asked if Parker was worth a stop on his way to Phoenix. My first thought was if you’re not a gambler, not really. This was before I headed out today. After the day’s trip I changed my mind (it probably didn’t hurt the cause that the sun was out and it was a pleasant 52 degrees with no wind). I left the long sleeves in Howie as I looked for the caches.

Post Office/store for Parker Dam construction workers
cache is in the tree



As I crossed the river to head north to Parker Dam, I noticed a sign that said no RV’s, cars with trailers or trucks could cross the dam. Well now, Howie is a short 21 feet. Many people don’t even consider a class B van as a real RV. I was sure that they would let me cross. As I approached the last bend before the dam where a choke point was created to prevent trucks and RV’s from approaching and which presented no problem for me, a lady came running towards me with hands waving wildly. At the same time red lights flashed on a lowering RR type bar and from the ground rose stout and menacing steel barricades. Needless to say, I stopped and pulled over to a parking spot. It seems that they meant any type of RV. I played dumb (not hard to do) and mentioned that I thought the restrictions pertained to vehicle length so there would be no problems navigating the dam. After she said that the entire category of RV’s was banned I played nice and turned around (thinking to myself that whatever I could hide in Howie in terms of explosives would probably also fit in many large SUV’s. Oh well, it was sunny and I had passed a great park (Bull Frog Park) for lunch. Caches so far brought me to a store/post office that served the Parker Dam construction worker, some spots that looked across the Arizona side of the river where homes probably start at 1 Mill and go from there, and great Parker Dam vantage points.


Parker Dam (passenger cars only!)





Bull Frog day park for lunch



After retracing my steps and crossing back to downtown Parker I headed north and did the caches on the Arizona side. While gathering four within a short walking distance tour called “Going to Grandma’s house #...) the last one was in a small cave overlooking the road. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a flashlight so I didn’t actually find that one. Completing all the ones in town I decided to do a couple more that were on a dirt road just out of town next to a signpost that said “Desert Bar” with an arrow.

Venice in Arizona?



Apparently it was started after an owner lost his lease in town so he took a couple of coolers worth of booze and started the bar (See http://thedesertbar.com/ for more info). There were cars going and coming the whole time I was looking for the caches.

Cache #4 to Grandma's house (20' inside cave)



By the third cache I was only 1.5 miles away on the 5 mile road and a fellow cacher I met highly recommended it as a place to check out even if you didn’t buy a drink there. There were helicopters dropping off people by the bar (probably some of those home owners previously mentioned) and some with tourists cameras at the ready taking pictures of bar patrons as those same patrons were shooting pictures of those tourists. I came back down the mountain and decided to was the rig since Howie was a mess from the trip down from Seattle. The dirt road didn’t add much more to what was already there.

Looking down on 3 levels of Desert Bar patrons



There were many good things today. Besides what I’ve mentioned, I ran into Glenn while geocaching just before I headed up the mountain. Parker really is a small town. I was in shorts for an hour (I got the jeans wet from washing the rig). I grilled a steak with a hash brown frozen patty for dinner at what I’m now calling Glenn’s Grove (there are some trees there) since it was his posting that lured me to the calming and scenic spot. The experimental frozen hash brown patty turned out great. And he Black Angus T-bone is always a good bet.

Looking down the Desert Bar road
(can you spot Howie?)



Today’s high 57

8:30 PM temp 55 (nice!)

Grillin' at Glenn's Grove

Parker, AZ

Saturday February 26th (Day 162)

It was very quiet here in BLM land. There may have been 7 or so cars that drove by last night. After breakfast, he headed to the closest trucker station to get some coffee (he will brew some when Rick joins him in Phoenix) so he could start his geocaching. If not for geocaching he definitely would have missed some interesting spots in Quartzsite.

3 miners keeping tabs on the cache across the street



The game plan was to cache his way to Parker, AZ where a person whose blog he’s been following is stuck for another week. He thought it would be interesting to see if he could find the guy and say hi (the person lives in a class b rv full-time and writes about his experiences). Harris was able to find 15 caches today and work in his 3+ mile walk by walking to many .3 mile caches.

Click on pic to see Howie being protected from any harm



Among the caches were:
Frisbee golf
Freedom Park
A desert garden
A geocacher with a sense of humor
Copper Mountain Mine road-- A great place to have lunch


Yup, nothing is to good for Howie's protection



Harris was almost to Parker when the weather finally caught up to him from Seattle. Since he left the Emerald City (which was on the verge of becoming the snow globe city) he’s been just ahead of chilling temperatures and precipitation. Perhaps there was a lesson for him in turning north rather than continuing east or south.

Not too many obstacles for Frisbee Golf in AZ...



When Harris pulled into Parker the rain was more than a sprinkle. He headed to the Blue Water Casino and looked for the RV that was pictured in blog he’d been following. Sure enough, he found it and parked next to it. Not wanting to intrude, Harris left a message on the person’s blog telling him that he’d parked next to him and inviting him over.

An Arizona garden



A half hour later, Glenn came over and introduced himself. Harris mentioned several times over the next couple of hours how enjoyable Glenn’s blog is and what a great voice he has in his writing. The plan now is to cache in Parker tomorrow and then head to Phoenix. If it’s too rainy Harris will head over to Phoenix and do some grocery shopping. Howie could also use a good wash.

The name of this cache was "Tucson Micro"...My 5" GPS is on top
(A sense of humor this guy)



High temp today 65 degrees
Temp at 9:45 PM 48 degrees (not currently raining)

Today's lunch spot

Quartzsite

Friday, February 25, 2011 (Day 161)

Harris had a great sleep last night. It was surprisingly quiet and the wind died down after awhile. He was on the road around 9 AM and figured that he had enough diesel to cross over into Arizona where it was 35 cents cheaper per gallon. After fueling up, it was only 15 miles to Quartzsite, home of the mega swap meet. In January the population grows by many thousands as snowbirds come to enjoy the weather as well as the wares vendors bring. Harris spent an hour looking at the tent stores in Quartzsite and found a nice sun hat for Judy. He had downloaded 20+ caches to check out while in the area.

Camel Cache



Carl, a caching buddy, told Harris of a cache that was at a site memorializing a camel expert imported by the US government to conduct experiments using camels to transport supplies in the SW desert. He was nick-named Hi Jolly by the troops. Check out the sign.


About the site



Harris was able to combine his caching today with his walk into the atv trails. After parking Howie near the Q mountain/hill, he traipsed to a cache .3 miles away. Then there was another just a quarter mile farther and another… He stopped after 3 and on the way back decided to hike up Q Mountain (sounds so much better than Q Hill). The view from up there was wonderful.

On top of Q Mt...Can you spot Howie?



The walk warmed him up enough to take off the long sleeve shirt he was wearing and regretting that he hadn’t worn shorts. So upon returning to Howie, he did put on his shorts which were worn for about 40 minutes.

Q Mt. looks smaller from here



Harris then registered for a permit with a BLM volunteer so he could camp on the BLM land for free. The volunteer is a part time gold miner who told of his claim at the 5000 foot level which has snow until late April. He hasn’t sold any yet, but he says it keeps him out of trouble. Harris was in a spot just as the sun set. Dinner was the rest of Chef’s salad purchased at Winco yesterday and a chicken poor-boy sandwich. As Harris was finishing up the blog entry he checked the night sky; It was cloudless with many stars out, but not that inky black with jillions of stars out. Maybe tomorrow night!

BLM land about 2 miles from Quartzsite



High temp today 64 degrees
Temp at 9PM was 53 degrees

Thousand Oaks to Mulholland Drive

Thousand Oaks to Mulholland Drive

After a quiet sleep Harris was up at 5 AM. This is what happens when he goes to bed early. After finding a Starbucks to update the blog, he looked at the map and decided that taking Route 23 over the mountains to the coast would make a nice early morning drive. Traffic in town was non-existent. It was a different story while on the 101 South to link up with 23. Traffic was zooming at above posted speed limit of 65. Harris felt like he was crawling along at 60mph. After leaving Westlake in the rear view, he had the winding 2 lane all to himself. The stars were out along with a bright moon. When stopped at a pullout, a lonely howl could be heard up in the canyon.

Stopping on Hwy 23 and hearing the coyote



As a general rule, houses were large and they were gated. There were several subdivisions of McMansions with a single gate restricting access to them. The lone vehicle Harris encountered on the 50 min. drive was a garbage truck making its rounds. The best views were from places where there was no place to pull off.

The exception to those LA hills homes





Why it took 50 mins to go 17 miles



The sun was up when he entered Malibu with temps around 40 degrees (they were in the 20’s going over the pass from Thousand Oaks) and it was shaping up to be a nice day. Harris pulled over for breakfast (oatmeal and an orange)and shared the ocean view with the multi -million dollar homes. Not a bad place to be!

Malibu just after sunrise (my breakfast spot)



! He then plugged in the first geocache and let TomTom direct him to Mulholland Drive. Harris has read many books (and watched a couple of movies) that featured this road which led to this geocaching expedition. He found 6 along the drive. Unfortunately the clouds were coming in with the next storm and combined with the haze, it was not a good day to take pictures.

More of a typical "hills" house



The drive was still very much worth it and he’d do it again in a heartbeat. One thing is for certain about L.A. Everything is possible with money and there is plenty of money (or perhaps deficit spending) in Los Angeles.

Almost the entire back yard is on stilts!



He saw impossibly huge houses, weird dogs leading their masters along the many trails on this drive, and many many Mercedes, BMW’s, and exotic sports cars when he pulled over to cache or let the cars by so he could enjoy the views. It was almost 2:30 now and he wanted to beat the traffic out of town so he called it quits and headed east on I-10. It was so windy in Palm Springs that he continued on to Indio where it was much calmer (although it’s been picking up as I’ve been writing this).

An aspiring Michigan actor (w/SAG card) who has good taste in vehicles



Harris pulled off when he saw a McDonalds sign and stumbled upon his favorite store—Winco. After asking inside if he could park overnight, he purchased a pre-cooked chicken and chief’s salad and had a great dinner. After showering in Howie, he started working on what you read here. Time to sign off and finish the rum and coke!

Howie in Hollywood!



High temp in LA was 57 degrees
High temp for me was in Indio of 64 at 6PM

Two sorta homecomings

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 (Day 160)

When Harris pulled in last night he parked a couple of spots down from a Roadtrek that he thought looked familiar. This morning he asked the owner if they had met last year. It turns out that they had; like last year, he was on his way back to the Seattle area while Harris was on the way to Spring Training. Talk about feeling at home…

The back way into Thousand Oaks




This morning the temp was 45 when Harris went for a walk. There was some frost in the shady areas, but he was warm and gloveless for a change. On his return to Howie, a couple (newly retired) started a conversation about how great retirement is. Harris went on to learn lots about Frito-Lay and its approach to business. In short , it likes to own everything from the factories to the trucks to its drivers. This ensures Frito-Lay/Pepsi Cola is in control over every facet of its business. After helping them jump start their tow vehicle it was almost 10AM before he hit the road. He thought he was getting a deal after finding diesel at $3.79 per gallon. The price of diesel in California has shot up 50 cents in two days because of oil uncertainty.

Harris's High School




Harris took a back way into Thousand Oaks that involved getting off I-5 after climbing the infamous grapevine (Turn off just before 6 Flags) and passing through some tree farms and fruit orchards. It was very scenic, but the clouds were coming in obscuring some of the far off mountains.

They've updated the Lancer mascot!



Entering Thousand Oaks where he had gone to elementary and high school around 4:30 he promptly got lost. Nothing seemed familiar. Tomtom to the rescue! He entered the high school and found his way there. Same old buildings and grounds, but a new mascot statue. He had no clue how to get to his old house so he asked the librarian (you can always count on the librarian) where Meadows Elementary school was. Turns out he couldn’t plug it into the GPS because the school was changed into an art magnet charter school called MATES.





After arriving there he remembered how he had to walk home for those disaster drills in the 60’s so he headed in search of his teenager home. Back then it was so easy; now there are many more homes, streets, and shopping centers he couldn’t find it. After calling his brother who wasn’t available, he flashed on the name of the street—Berkshire. After plugging that in, he found that the sub-division was hidden by a bunch of newer ones. He did find the house but the owner wasn’t home. He tried to speak to the neighbor across the street but she was convinced that Harris was probably casing the place to break into later.

Where Harris grew up




Harris is typing this in the Moorpark Denny’s parking lot where he’s camped for the night thanks to the night manager which gave his blessing. Tomorrow he is off to Mulhulland Drive for some geocaching.

Temp high today was 54 (Seattle was rain and snow mixed according to Judy)

Off to Spring Training 3.0

Monday Feb 21st (Day 158)


It was a sunny and brisk day in Lake Stevens when Harris left. He was almost having second thoughts but read that the forecast for the rest of the week called for rain or mixed rain and snow so he headed out of town. The first stop along the route was a home techie support visit near Shelton, WA. Our friend Glenda had a few questions and traded a wonderful lunch for the services rendered. Harris headed out of Shelton around 6PM and wanted to at least cross over into Oregon. Three hours later he saw an exit sign that had the Hospital “H” symbol and he took the exit. He found a quiet spot and parked.

Harris has followed several blogs of people living full time in their van sized RV’s. Several times he read about such people using the hospital parking lots for an overnight stay as people headed from one place to another with the added benefit of free wi-fi. Since Judy was not along, he decided to give it a try for the experience.

After the fantastic lunch, he went easy with chips and bean dip. Very nutritious… you have your carbs, and more carbs and the beans count as a vegetable. Also no worries about possible air quality comments later. Afterwards, an episode of Boardwalk Empire and off to bed!


Finally, some warmth!

Tuesday Feb.22nd (Day 159)


First an update about yesterday’s boondocking. It was cold!! And since it was the first night of the trip, Harris had the usual hassle of adapting to sleeping on the road. So putting both of these factors together, he didn’t sleep too well. This resulted in him getting a very early (4 AM) start from Portland. This also explained how he managed to get all the way to Patterson, CA for about 670 miles traveled today. A third factor also influenced his drive (pun intended). The weather was terrible to start and only improved ever so slightly as he drove southward. Portland was in the 30’s. Southern Oregon was no better due to the gain in altitude. The pass heading into California was mixed rain and snow. One of the activities that occupied him was tracking the temperature fluctuations. The temps stayed mostly in the 40’s with clouds decreasing as he headed south. The high temp reading (58) occurred around 4PM when he reached Sacramento. From Redding south, temps stayed in the 50’s but changed with the altitude and He also finished listening to an audio book by Joseph Wambaugh called The Hollywood Hills (4.5 stars) and listened to his XM music.

Check out the pics…


Leaving Southern Washington (around 30 degrees)





Leaving Oregon (Mid 30's)





Entering Calif (Still cold)





But the sky is improving!




Now this is a great sky!




As Harris finishes the blog, the temps are dropping into the low 40's but the stars are OUT!! and the heater is plugged in!!