Blowin' in the Wind

Up to our arrival in Palm Springs I have thoroughly enjoyed the RVing experience. Moving from place to place and seeing new things everyday really rings my bell. However, it is more expensive than just flying somewhere and staying put (and in many ways less comfortable), so for anyone who thinks RVing is an inexpensive way to travel – think again.

I had done a little research before we left, so this did not come as a surprise to me, but I thought it might be useful for readers who may be considering such a trip as we have undertaken, to see how this RVing trip compares to my more usual winter in the south.

One of the places I usually go in the winter is Puerto Vallarta. Not the hotel zone or "zona romantica" which are full of tourists and noise and where the beaches are crowded and the water is icky, but instead, I go to Conchas Chinas, a district of Mexican villas built on the hillside just south of Puerto Vallarta and overlooking the Bay of Banderas. 

Conchas Chinas is called the "Beverly Hills" of Puerto Vallarta due to its many multi million-dollar villas owned by celebrities and politicians. It is a quiet neighbourhood with no stray dogs or loud nightclubs, and the older buildings have big wooden shudders you can throw open in the morning so you can watch the whales breaching in the bay below and enjoy the sunsets at night.

Just down the hill there is a special beach where very few tourists go, where the water is a lovely dark turquoise and the sand is soft. You often find you have the beach to yourself except for the occasional vendor who walks by with shrimp on a stick. There is just something about the dramatic hillside, the stunning views, the cackle of birds in the surrounding jungle, and the sunsets that brings me back time and again.

The cost of my stays there is about $1500 CAD a month. For most people, the cost would be about $2000 CAD a week to stay in Conchas Chinas, but because of the travel club I belong to I can usually stay in wonderful resorts for far less.

In 2012 after a 2-year long, hard fought political campaign, I went to a high-end, gourmet all-inclusive in Puerto Morales where I spent the week recouperating from the campaign. I was so impressed with the quality of the food and the luxuriousness of the hotel that I went to the time share spiel. Unike most time shares where you purchase a set week, I was able to purchase 90 weeks for $9000 US. The thing is, most of those 90 weeks have to be spent at that resort because the normal contract only allows for you to use 4 "explorer weeks" per year at other resorts - using a time share platform like RCI or Interval International. 

Unlike many people who might sign on the dotted line without reading the contract, I took the 9 page contract back to my room and read every word, and came back the next day having made a few changes to it. The salesperson accepted the changes (and proably got in superior shit for doing so after the fact) because I had changed the contract to allow for "unlimited explorer weeks." 

So now, when I deposit these weeks into my FREE Interval International account, I can exchange them for stays at high end resorts around the world for a $300 US transaction fee per week. It is these weeks that have allowed me to spend my winters in luxury on a two star budget, and to stay in Conchas Chinas for $1500 a month!  So that, along with the typical $200 CAD I would spend on busses and Ubers, my total monthly cost for a spacious place with a full kitchen and ocean view is $2200 CAD.

Judith has been tallying the cost of our journey down the west coast and through wine regions, and the first month’s cost was $1850 CAD for the RV park stays and propane, and about $600 CAD for Diesel. Gas for my car (because to see or experience anything you most certainly need a car if you are RVing) was another $350 CAD. Total monthly cost was $2800.

In fairness, many people who RV just drive directly to some warm spot in the south and stay put for 3-6 months so instead of paying nightly park rates they are paying monthly park rates. These can really vary depending on where you are staying.

We are staying in Desert Hot Springs a place I do not recommend. The cost is $950 CAD.

Having never been here before when we booked, we had no idea that Desert Hot Springs was so, well, ugly. And windy. And grimy. And boring. (In fairness, Judith does not hate it here as she is far less susceptible to boredom, and she is more inclined to enjoy the activities in the park like Texas holdem and painting. Additionally, we are 45 minutes from Joshua Tree National Park and 30 minutes from Palm Springs shopping and museums etc.) 

I on the other hand prefer to be in a place where I can go walking and exploring without having to drive to do so, and I hate wind! Today it is so windy the RV is rocking and you cannot go outside as the blowing sand stings the skin and gets in your eyes. And pickleball is certainly not an option unless you want to play with someone a few miles downwind! Not suprisingly, within 5 days of being here I knew that I did not want to stay and have already booked my flights and 4 weeks in Conchas Chinas. And I am determined to find us a better place to stay until then.

So, yesterday we went in search of a little more luxury in Palm Springs or Palm Desert where it is reportedly less windy and certainly less grimy, and let me tell you – it is slim pickings. The only acceptable place we found was $4500 CAD a month and it was fully booked so we could not move to there even if we wanted to. And trust me – that place was not exactly high end in my opinion. It had trees – a nice change from the piece of sand we are staying on, but the place needed maintenance, had a significant amount of highway traffic, and was surrounded by gated communities so there was literally nowhere to walk. Although it was better than here, for 4.5 times the money, it certainly was not 4.5 times nicer! 

So while Judith is booking us into the hotels in San Diego and Temecula wine country, I am checking out other parks in southern California and Arizona (though I do not have my hopes up at this late date).

There are pros and cons to all choices, and for some people the RV life may be the ticket, but for me, if the RV is not moving down a highway, I prefer to book a lovely comfortable place with a full-sized bed and kitchen where I do not have to walk a block through a sandstorm to take a shower. As for what you prefer, the answer is blowing in the wind...

Prickly Pear Disaster - Week Four

 

If you have been following this blog recently you know that Judith and I have been doing some foraging. Mostly we look for mushrooms but have also had some success finding wild berries and greens, and the occasional fruit. Well now that we are in Palm Springs (which is in the middle of the desert) I suggested we go pick some prickly pear.

Prickly Pear is a flowering cactus, and the entire plant is edible. The fruit has a pleasant watermelon-like flavour. The cactus has flat, rounded “lobes” called cladodes containing large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids. The fruit also has these spines – but they are less visible, so before Judith and I realized what was happening, we both began saying ow, ouch, ooo shit, ouch! 

When I realized the gravity of our situation (as in just how many freaking spikes were imbedded in my hands), I tried using my teeth to pull the big clusters out. This my friends, is likely the stupidest thing I have ever done.

So, for the next couple of hours, Judith and I took turns with the tweezers carefully trying to pull out the thousands of almost invisible but painful spikes from our fingers and palms - all the while my tongue is hanging out of my mouth and I am drooling. It soon became clear, however, that tweezers were not going to do the trick, so out came the duct tape! 

Nope – that didn’t work either.

Judith managed to get enough out of one of her hands that she was able to Google remedies for stupid people who picked prickely pear fruit without gloves, and that sent us off to meet our RV neighbours in search of some Elmer’s glue.

We were quite a sight – both hands covered in a gooey coat of glue – waiting for it to dry so we could carefully pull the dried glue off like dead skin – in the hopes the spiky tidbits thoroughly lodge in our hands would come out. It worked!

Then there was the issue of the tongue….Glue is water soluble (and less than delicious). Nope. Duct tape does not stick to tongues – tried it. So into the bathroom we went armed with a cell phone flashlight and the tweezers. Problem is prickly pear spikes look remarkably like tastebuds....sigh.

&%$@!

I gave up on the tweezers and moved on to my electric toothbrush…nope. Next up was rubbing my tongue and lips hard with the washcloth and much to my surprise it worked! (either that or my tongue was so numb from rubbing that I couldn’t feel it anymore). 

Either way, I convinced myself that the spines in my tongue would best be dealt with by swishing a large quantity of wine around in my mouth and swallowing.

Cheers!

California WIne Country - Week three

We are into week four of our United States sojourn this winter and no one has committed Harakiri or murder yet. This pleases me. Even the wet weather has been remarkably tolerable, and all in all we are getting along fine and really enjoying all the things we are seeing and doing. Who knew RVing would be so fun? I am beginning to understand the attraction.

This past week we were exploring the California wine regions of Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma, and comparing them to the Okanagan wine region has been interesting. The Mendocino and Sonoma areas are very pretty – their rolling hillsides set them apart from Napa’s flatter, broader valley. None however are as beautiful (in my humble opinion) as the Okanagan.

The wineries varied from large impressive buildings much like our own large wineries in B.C., to smaller family run places. I cannot say I found the Mendocino area very tourist friendly: Signage was bad and places hard to find – 3 out of 4 were not open despite what their websites said, and always, the tastings were outdoors in the cold on uncomfortable chairs. Napa was the most tourist friendly – but tasting fees ran between $40 - $80 U.S. dollars.

All the wines we tasted were very good, and yet, except for the Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Zinfandel, I would say none were better than the wines we make in BC – and all were significantly more expensive. All in all, I think we are lucky in B.C. to have a stunningly beautiful wine region that is tourist friendly, with relatively low tasting fees.

 After we tired of wine tasting we headed to the redwood forest, and it really was a privilege to see these majestic, amazing, ancient trees. In the Muir National Monument outside of San Fransisco, the Redwoods were massive - some as old as 1100 years - though the biggest and oldest (the Titans) are in a forest we drove through on the way to wine country. It was pouring rain that day so we skipped out planned hike, so it is my hope to spend some more time in several other Redwood forests – perhaps on the drive home or as a side trip later this winter. 

Judith and I are now headed south on the coastal highway – looking forward to the rugged beauty of Big Sur before heading inland to get settled in the Palm Springs area for the rest of the winter. This is the part of RVing I am not sure I am going to like. As someone with a driving need for change - staying put in such a small space may not suit me...on the other hand, we chose Palm Springs to settle down for a few months as there are numerous state and national parks in the vicinity to explore (are their mushrooms in the desert?), it has good weather (though not quite as hot as I like), pickleball courts (yeah pickleball!!!), and an airport (for sneaking away if staying put is too boring for me). 

RVing may not be for everyone – and the verdict is still out on whether it is for me once we stop moving from place to place – but so far, I must admit it has been pretty fun…I feel like a snail, carrying my house with me wherever I go, and for sure there is some freedom in that. If you like a place you can stay longer, and if you hate a place you can move on! Try doing THAT with a condo!

One thing that is for certain – this trip would have been horrible without a car, and I am glad I insisted on bringing mine. All the fun things we have done we have had to drive to with the car, and it would have been impossible to do all those things without it. Driving two vehicles has for sure meant higher costs, so for people planning on RVing every year it would make good sense to spend the extra money and buy a tow kit, but for us having some time apart with our own thoughts, listening to our own music or ebooks in our own vehicles has been just perfect.