Just kidding. It’s Nebula.
Ahh, Shasta Lake was truly magical. With a generator covered with tarp and rocks, a healthy internet connection, and a four day non stop absolute down pour of rain kept me cozy at my desktop. With a nice warm blanket, a cup of coffee, and alternating between coding and various entertainment, I felt wondrously comfortable listening to the constant patter of rain over our home.
Hannah did not share this sentiment, and quickly got a case of cabin fever by the end of the first day. While we enjoyed the end of our time there in more sunshine, we left with the desert in our sights.
We traveled south and ran errands in Redding to ensure we had fuel, food, water, and emptied our tanks. Hannah and I are suddenly early risers, especially on travel days, so we easily knocked everything out and arrived at our rest place for the night only a few hours later, just before the sun went down.
Night one was a Home Depot in Sacramento, CA. Home Depots are well known to be really cool with truckers and RVs who aren’t causing problems to stay overnight. They leave the beaming large LED lights illuminating the parking lot at night like an eerie spotlight in honor of hardware.
It was no mystery to us what was going on when we heard carts moving around well past eleven when the store closed. Still curious, we peeked to see a small community of people examining trash bins and adding things to carts filled with trash bags. While we heard rummaging throughout the night and did not get very much sleep, nobody attempted to bother us.
Night two was Bakersfield, CA at a camping world service center. It was not noteworthy and we slept very well. No news is good news.
Hannah found profound relief knowing that the rain was long behind us. I also found reprieve knowing we would have time during the day to use electronics while the solar panels provided energy.
Joshua Tree National Park
To the south east of California, Joshua Tree gets its name from the sea of Joshua trees that occupy the 1200 square mile region. Camping is available within the park, but the BLM land on the exterior provides ample space for a large amount of people. Since we spent our time here during Thanksgiving, we learned that it is an extremely popular place for gatherings and travelers alike.
Despite being surrounded with people in almost any direction, it was still serenely quiet and peaceful. Even with some off leash dogs running about, our girls had almost no trouble, and I would argue even found their own zen with us at this location.
We ran them off leash daily, practicing recall, tricks, and teaching them when to leave our side or not. They are still works in progress, but we have been absolutely thrilled with them! There were several alarming occasions where we all spotted another dog or animal and our girls bolted for it. With a loud demanding voice, literal days of hot dogs, boiled chicken, and cheese, we found we were successfully able to direct their attention back to us. Favoring the treats over the competing distraction is a huge win for us and the dogs.
We jumped with joy when we found that our large turkey breast would successfully fit in our oven, and had a wonderful day preparing deviled eggs, trying (and horribly failing) to make gluten free dinner rolls (turns out you need unexpired yeast!!), dressing the turkey, mashing potatoes.
We played music through the RV speakers and opened all of the windows. The overhead fans kept the temperature at the perfect level for the day. We popped open our last bottle of our favorite wine, toasted, and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our girls. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving watching one of the many mesmerizing sunsets that can never be replicated without seeing it with your own eyes.
During one of our many walks off leash, I turned to Izzy to see a large moving eight legged piece of fuzz walking next to her. To not avert her attention or alert her of it, I joyfully called her over to me and directed her back to the RV. “BABE, come see THE BIGGEST SPIDER YOU’VE EVER SEEN!” I yelled at Hannah from outside the RV as I allowed Izzy to enter.
Lo and behold, in the month of November, a tarantula was just making its way about in the open. Check out our social media for the video of it reeling back on Hannah and she leaned in bravely for a photo.
Of course, it does not come without work to be out here. We were lucky that there was a free water spout with potable water only a ten minute drive away. On our last shopping trip we bought a couple of five gallon water jugs for drinking and transporting water. So we regularly made trips to fill our tank for dishes, showering, and drinking water.
We often did not need to use the generator. During the day while we had access to power, we did not really spend our time using it. We did yoga in the mornings, walked the dogs in the afternoon, cooked in the evening, and only used the sun to charge batteries. When the sun went down, which it did early as it does this season, we used a Makita inverter to power our TV with a hot spot for entertainment.
The nearest major settlement was 45 minutes away, which is quite the trip for the Smart car on a 75 MPH interstate. We were lucky to have a gas station only ten minutes away for basic necessities, but we were significantly more versed and prepared for this round.
Hannah ended up taking a trip west to La Quinta to drop off some of her art to fulfill some orders and commissions she had finished, and made sure to let me know she would not be making that trip again in the Smart car. I don’t blame her.
Being only five hours from my parents home town, they took the opportunity to come and visit. We enjoyed wine and enchiladas around the campfire, enjoyed the sunset, and then the stars. We talked about how crazy everything we are doing is, how surreal it still feels to us. We talked about how the dogs were doing, and demonstrated by keeping them off leash with them.
We woke the next day, and I knocked another issue out that morning. Our rear camera is critical to me to merge while keeping an eye on the Smart behind me, and it had been having intermittent issues. That is, sometimes it cut out and you couldn’t see. I cut out some silicone holding the wiring in place and taped the hell out of the terminal between the camera and the rest of the unit. This did fix the problem!
After, we took a stroll through a walking trail with the dogs and my parents. We enjoyed the flora and fauna that is unique to Joshua Tree. My personal favorite was the Ocotillo plant.
Joshua Tree is worth your time. A quiet and humble spot in California, a silent agreement between neighbors, and a sense of peace. With plenty of options of walking and hiking trails, a nearby tank museum, lots of wildlife and plants, Joshua Tree is a wonderful getaway to reconnect with nature and get lost in the peace and quiet.
We were very lucky this time around to not have too many problems to solve. Just the same pre-existing ones which now had action plans to solve, but required time for parts to arrive at a destination we could practically retrieve them at. You can’t deliver four insanely large lithium batteries to an Amazon drop box, for example. Who knew? Read about the battery repair on the other blog post titled “You need power to poop”, it was a riot.
We didn’t stay the full two weeks, we had big plans to follow through with. Check out our social media page for a quicker update, we are already here and are so excited and happy to be here!
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