Las Vegas and The Rose Bowl

We were headed to Las Vegas hoping to meet up with friends.
As luck would have it they were going to Valley of Fire State Park just as we were getting there and grabbed a site for us.


Truck and Trailer in Camp siteGoing down the rocksUs and our friends
Structure on right is not ancient but a prop from "The Professionals" a 1965 movie

fire in the rockssteven restingValley of Fire

Mountain Sheeppetraglyphs


 We spent Monday and Tuesday socializing and hiking with our friends and went to Las Vegas on Wednesday.  While in Vegas I took the truck in for it's first oil change and we went to one of our favorite restaurants Lotus of Siam.  After about a week our friends headed East and we headed into California and the Coachella Valley for several weeks of hiking before heading to Sunset Vista in Huntington Beach for a few days and then went to Dockweiler Campground under LAX for Richard's birthday and Hanukah party.

On December 29th we left Dockweiler and went to East Shore Campground in Pamona, Ca to join the Fantasy RV Rose Bowl Tour. All the floats are made with organic material such as flowers, bark even coconut gets into the act. All the white you see is shredded coconut pasted in place.
We celebrated New Years Eve at a group party on December 31st watched the ball come down in Times Square in real time and broke up for an early start and went  to the Rose Bowl Parade at five AM on January First.

leopardsFiremenCalifornia Dairy

Prior to the Parade we had the opportunity of working on the floats. 
Debby painting buterfly'sDebby in front of float


After the Parade we viewed floats and returned to the campground for a goodbye dinner. Most people left the next morning we hung around because we had an appointment to purchase new trailer tires at a local tire dealer after the Holiday. While hanging around we had the opportunity to go to to The Gardens of Descano an outdoor light exhibit our daughter -in- law Jennifer had told us about.

Enchanted Forest of lightforestfield of glass tulips

Debby in wonderland

Alice in No just Debby in Wonderland stepping on circles that lit

After the Holiday we got our new tires and went to Rancho Jarupa  A Riverside, California County Park Campground, where we had stayed while waiting for Richard and Jennifer's wedding in 2013, we  followed this with a week in Lytle Creek and another membership park we had staid in while waiting for the wedding. In Lytle Creek we hiked on the Etiwanda Falls Trail in Rancho Cucamonga.
Snow covered Mount BaldyStream leading to Waterfall

Hiking in Rancho Cucamonga


From Lytle Creek we went to Desert Hot Pools the former membership park in Desert Hot Springs, California which had been our home park. While there we hiked in several places including  Andreas Canyon which is open to the public for hiking, picnicking and horseback riding all for a fee. The canyon is in Palm Springs on the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indian Reservation. The the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians live on this reservation which is their ancestral home and own  the nearby Aqua Caliente Hotel and Casino.
hole in rock where grains were ground
Hole in rock caused by grinding grains and nuts

Indian CanyonStream


  We left Desert Hot Springs and spent a night in  Ehrenberg, Arizona at  the Colorado Oasis Campground,  another former membership park that still honors our membership for a discount rate. From there went to the annual RV gathering in the desert at an impromptu village, which appears at the same location on approximately the same day every year on  the BLM lands surrounding Quartzsite, AZ  called,  Boomerville.  It's populated by the RV'ers of the Escapee's Boomer group. We are not actually in that age cohort but the group is not ageist. There are members older and members younger in addition to actual Boomers.

Boomerville, quartszite, AZ

Debby in Quartzsite, AZOur home and Debby/wind blown hair in Quartzsite,AZ


Quartzsite,AZBLM in Quartzsite, AZ


After a week of terribly cold and windy weather without shore hook ups we returned to Colorado Oasis for one night to empty our tanks and recharge our batteries before going to Lake Jennings, a San Diego County water district park for a few days.  The park was a real tight fit for our rig and I got stuck in the soft soil pulling into our camp site with the trailer and had the opportunity to use the four wheel drive on the new truck.

campsite after using four wheel drivecampsite after use of four wheel drive

path in Lake Jennings ParkOverlook of valley below Lake Jennings Park

To be continued