December 11, 2025 – Thursday
It’s been raining for days – it’s time to head south! We got a very early start leaving the house at 5:00 AM, hooking up the toad, and departing the storage unit at 5:40. We encountered a variety of weather – but no snow! We started out in the steady rain of Washington which stopped shortly before Portland. South of Portland we had bright sunshine for a while which eventually started to alternate with fog and then became mostly fog. Our day was a long 13 hours, including stops for lunch and gas. The Rolling Hills Casino truck stop was our parking spot for the night. It was a quiet, uneventful night except for Pat’s side of the bed having an air leak which left her sunk in a depression come morning. Another project for Laurie to tend to in Yuma!
December 12, 2025 – Friday
We left a little later, 7:30 AM, to avoid hitting rush hour traffic in Sacramento. The day started out a bit foggy then turned just cloudy with a few hints of sun. Our lunch stopping spot was an empty lot near a Best Western and Quality Inn. We had called BW and they said the lot was open to anyone, but when we got there was a camera with a no trespassing sign. The lots were dirt and extremely bumpy. We saw this lot from I5 for several years and finally decided to check it out as an potential overnight stopping spot. It’s definitely a no-go for future stops. The Coalinga rest stop (about 10 miles north) looked like it would be a good place to stop and/or overnight. We had our lunch in the dirt lot and continued on our way. A short time later we stopped at Love’s for gas in Lost Hills, CA, adding 45 gallons to get us to Yuma where gas prices are cheaper. Today we stopped for the night at the Tejon Pass rest area in Lebec arriving to a pleasant 64 degrees and a mostly clear sky at about 4:00 PM. We had Trader Joe’s chicken fried rice for dinner, did a little reading, and turned in early.
December 13, 2025 – Saturday
The bed was an issue for Pat again, so she was up earlier than planned and we were on the road just after 5:30 AM. It was smooth going with light traffic all the way, including LA, since it was so early on a sunny, Saturday morning. We had muffins with our coffee mid-morning and didn’t bother stopping for lunch but did stop at Love’s for gas in Yuma. We filled up with 80 gallons so there was still 30 gallons from our prior partial fill up. Laurie decided that instead of getting 45 gallons like we did to carry us over to Yuma’s cheaper prices, we’d only do 35 gallons in the future. The weather is wonderful today with mostly sunny skies, a temperature in the upper 70’s, and a very pleasant breeze. By about 3:00 we were settled in at Sun Vista. Our dinner was leftover fried rice. In the evening, we watched 3:10 to Yuma which we’ve seen at least a couple times before. Laurie had found the air leak on our bed and put a patch on it which required our sleeping on the inflatable bed in the living room for the first time to give it time to dry. It was pretty comfortable.
December 14-17, 2025 – Sunday-Wednesday
We spent the next few days doing things around the RV – cleaning, projects, fixing the leak in our Sleep Number bed, etc. Every day was mostly sunny with highs near 80 (which they said were near record) and the low in the 50’s. We made a big grocery pickup on Wednesday to stock up basics and get reading for Daniel’s arrival tomorrow. During the evenings we watched movies.
December 18, 2025 – Thursday
Time to pick up Daniel in Palm Springs, 3 hour drive one-way. On the way there we stopped at Costco in El Centro so Laurie could order a new pair of glasses as his old pair broke while he was wrestling with the air mattress. Hopefully, the glasses will be ready when we take Daniel back to the airport on 12/26, otherwise we’ll just have to make the 2-hour round trip drive another day. The drive was smooth and uneventful, and we ate lunch we had brought during the drive. Daniel settled into the RV, we had IP Sticky Chicken for dinner and watched a movie in the evening.
Daniel’s Visit:
December 19-26, 2025
We had a wonderful week with Daniel that went by very fast. It was a very relaxed week that started out sunny and 80ish, then we had a couple cloudy 70ish days with rain and finished up with a mostly sunny 75 degree day. Our time together included:
- Shooting pool several times. (Daniel was very good)
- Laurie and Daniel playing “Satisfactory” together on the computer.
- Dinner out at Lin’s for their wonderful Chinese buffet.
- A visit to Martha’s Gardens for a delicious date shake. (Now up to $9 each but worth it once a year)
- Watching a new movie every night. (Some nights with shakes)
- Grilling dinner a couple of nights.
- Good conversation and just enjoying each other’s company.
All too soon it was 12/26 and time to make the 3 hour trip to the Palm Springs International Airport to get Daniel on his way back home. On the return trip we made a stop at Costco in El Centro to get gas, shop, and check if the glasses Laurie ordered last week were ready. Of course, they said the glasses had just shipped and would be in the next day, so another trip to Costco is in our future. Daniel’s trip home went smoothly, and he still has a week off work.
December 27, 2025 – March 3, 2026
Back to just the two of us. We had a similar routine most days and a lot of our activities were on repeat throughout our stay. The site on our passenger side remained empty until the last day of January when the same people who have been there the last two years arrived. The same people stayed on our drivers side our whole stay. They were gone a lot, never sat on the patio, and were very quiet. It was a nice change from last year’s party people.
The weather was a mixed bag with temperatures ranging from around 70 to the upper 90s, sun mixed with some cloudy and partly cloudy days, a couple of very windy days, and only a few brief rain showers.
Some of our activities included:
- Early morning coffee getting caught up on news on CNN, followed by breakfast.
- Computer time (programming, games, shopping, poking around), reading, cruise planning, Passover planning, cross stitch.
- Afternoons sunning on the patio when the weather allowed.
- Playing pool.
- Riding bikes around the park.
- Grocery pick-ups, usually Friday mornings, with a couple other shopping trips.
- Evenings watching various TV series: Bosch, Bosch Legacy, A Spy Among Friends, and Day of the Jackal.
- Some evenings watching a movie: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, The Accountant 2, Wicked, Gladiator II, Thunderbolts* (*The New Avengers), and Parasite.
- Pat’s birthday: getting free b-day drink at Starbucks, playing pool, sushi that we picked up from Fry’s earlier in the day for dinner, and making contact with the kids in the evening. Pat took a raincheck on breakfast, and later Laurie made a delicious German Pancake.
- Keeping the hummingbird feeder fresh. In the early weeks two hummingbirds visited throughout the day. One would sit and feed while the other would hover while eating, but never both at the same time. Later in our stay one would just briefly visit late afternoon/early evening.
- February 28th was the annual yard sale for the back half of the resort. We took off on our bikes just before 9:00 and there were already loads of bikes, golf carts, people walking, and a few cars. We soon decided it was too congested to ride in the back half, so we started just riding around the front half. There were other things going on during the day and they had a taco truck setting up for lunch. It was a pleasant 75 degrees but was on its way up to around 98 which was why we got out early.
- February ended with about a week of near-record 90+ degree temperatures, up to 97/98 degrees a couple days. The mornings were still pleasant. On the worst days we kept the shades closed, ran a fan, turned on the air in the afternoon, and (of course) ate ice cream in the evening.
- March 3rd was a Blood Moon Eclipse which we pulled ourselves out of bed to observe/photograph. The eclipse began around 4:04 AM (with partial phases starting earlier), and reached its maximum, “blood-red” state at 4:33 AM. Laurie stayed up, but Pat returned to bed after about 30 minutes. It was cool to see.
March 4, 2026 – Wednesday
Time to head home! We did most of the prep work yesterday so this morning we just had to disconnect the hook-ups and a few other things. We pulled out of Sun Vista at 8:15 AZ time and arrived at the Tejon Pass rest area just before 2:00 local and WA time, 3:00 AZ time. The drive went well with just a few areas of traffic that slowed us down some at a few spots. On arrival the pass was around 60 degrees and very breezy. Nice (for Pat at least) after Yuma’s 90+ temps. After lunch we went for a short walk around the rest area before settling in to relax. We chatted, read, and did Sudoku. Dinner was leftover Bang Bang Shrimp from last night. Bedtime was about 8:15.
March 5, 2026 – Thursday
The start to the day was a cold 39 degrees, but it was just chilly inside the RV. After a good, comfortable night’s sleep and some coffee, we were on the road just after 6:00. Yesterday we had almost decided to skip Tejon Pass and go an hour further to the Buttonwillow rest stop. Thankfully, we decided to stay at the pass since the Buttonwillow rest area was closed. Today we did something different and stopped for “brunch” (sandwiches) at 9:30. Usually we have the muffin early and then stop for lunch. The John “Chuck” Erreca Rest Area (MM384 near Firebaugh, CA) was very nice. Might be a place to spend the night although there weren’t a lot of truck sites. After a drive through sunny weather, we arrived at Rolling Hills Casino & Truck Stop a little before 2:00. They had a good price on diesel ($4.79) so we filled up before parking in the truck lot for the night. We have to remember that there is a limit on how much fuel you can get at the pump (in this case $175). You have to repay at the little building, pump the gas, then go back for a final receipt. You get credited back if you don’t use the full amount. Also, we made it to this fueling station from Arizona with about 9 gallons to spare so we didn’t have to pay about a $1.00 more per gallon at other California stations. We rested, read, ate Bang Bang Shrimp again, and turned in about 8:15.
March 6, 2026 – Friday
We hit the road about 6:30. The day started out sunny in California. As we got into Oregon it started clouding up, and by mid-Oregon it was cloudy with light rain. We stopped at Seven Feathers late morning to top off the diesel and eat lunch. At 3:00 we pulled into the French Prairie Rest Area a little bit south of Portland which is where we spent the night. We parked in the middle area which seems kind of dark due to all the trees. Maybe next we’ll try the last area which looked a little brighter. We talked to Mom and Dad, rested, read, and had a frozen Asian skillet meal with rice for dinner. Tonight’s bedtime was 8:00.
March 7, 2026 – Saturday
Following a quiet night we were headed home by 6:30. It was cloudy, foggy, rainy, dark, and dreary once we got into Washington. What a change from sunny, very dry, and 90 in Yuma! On the drive we passed Space Age Fuel in Castle Rock, WA, (MM 52) which had a great diesel price of $4.79. We’ll have to keep them in mind for future trips. We also stopped at the Scatter Creek Rest Area at MM 90 between Centralia and Olympia. It’s a large rest area and also has 3 dump station lanes. Another thing to keep in mind. The weather improved for a bit then went back to cloudy drizzle. There was some heavy traffic in Seattle but we made it to the storage unit before 11:00. After packing up and moving everything from the RV to the car, we headed home where we were greeted by Daniel and Nicole. It was so wonderful to see them and get/give hugs. They even helped bring everything in from the car and put away a lot of the stuff. Daniel took great care of the house. Soon Nicole parted to do some baking for a family get-together tomorrow and we had more settling in to do.
March 7, 2026 – Saturday
Following a quiet night, we were headed home at 6:30. It was cloudy, foggy, rainy, dark, and dreary once we got into Washington. What a change from sunny, very dry, and 90 in Yuma! On the drive we passed Space Age Fuel in Castle Rock, WA, (MM 52) which had a great diesel price of $4.79. We’ll have to keep them in mind for future trips. We also stopped at the Scatter Creek Rest Area at MM 90 between Centralia and Olympia. It’s a large rest area and also has 3 dump station lanes. Another thing to keep in mind. The weather improved for a bit then went back to cloudy drizzle. There was some heavy traffic in Seattle, but we made it to the storage unit before 11:00. After packing up and moving everything from the RV to the car, we headed home where we were greeted by Daniel and Nicole. It was so wonderful to see them and get/give hugs. They even helped bring everything in from the car and put away a lot of the stuff. Daniel took great care of the house. Soon Nicole parted to do some baking for a family get-together tomorrow and we had more settling in to do.