RV: El Mirage

Since we got the RV back in October we had decided to keep it a secret, only telling immediate family. This was so we could surprise friends at the Thanksgiving dirtbiking meet up :) It was tough keeping it a secret and not posting anything on my blog or on facebook, but we figured it would be worth it in the end.

Anyway we also needed a lot of other things for the trip and so set about with planning for the Thanksgiving vacation. Other than regular RV vacation stuff we needed to hire a trailer for the bikes and all the gubbins that goes with it (tow hitch etc). Eventually we plan on purchasing a trailer of our own, but again we're in no rush for now a rental is just fine. We eventually got everything packed, stored and hitched up, loaded up the bikes, locked up the house and headed off to the desert. We left around 7.30 pm and hit a ton of Holiday traffic on the 405 and the 5 freeways. That part alone took us about an hour, during this time we realized that we'd forgotten the laptop back at home. :( After a little GPS detour in Palmdale we arrived at El Mirage at 11pm (it's 100 miles away from Simi). The another 15 minutes to get a camping pass and then the drive onto the lakebed to the camping spot and we were set. We did the jacks and slide and waited for our friends Janry, Meilani & William. A quick hug from them as we'd all safely arrived then off to bed for us.

Our friends had camped here for Thanksgiving before and told us it was cold at night, and we believed them but didn't really get just how cold till we were there ourselves! Wow! Freezing temperatures overnight!!! Thankfully Bob had the foresight to order a great double sleeping bag for very cold temps and we snuggled into that with the comforter ontop. The dogs had their dog beds and a sleeping bag on top of them, but man it sure was cold at night!!!

Cold foggy morning at El Mirage

Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving :) After walking the dogs I got back and started breakfast, only to find we had forgotten the Tea Bags. Yikes! Freezing cold and no morning cuppa! Ah well. Bob set about fixing his bike and I had a quick ride round on the dry lakebed. In the afternoon we went for a ride with Janry. As it turned out I also had some bike problems, seems my clutch was slipping and my gears were shifting when I didn't want them to causing me issues. Grrrr. Anyway we got back to the RV and I grabbed a shower and started dinner.

It was my first time cooking properly in the galley kitchen in the RV. We have 3 burner stove, oven and a convection oven/microwave. Turns out the bottom shelf in the oven is HOT right directly above the burner and probably not a shelf at all as it burns stuff. Thankfully just one side of the tofurkey burnt and the rest of the dinner cooked just lovely :)

Tofurkey Roast, mashed & roast potatoes, yorkshires, veggies and gravy.

We ate this with some delicious Frey white wine, mint sauce and red cabbage, Traditional English fare! Mmmm, Which was well received by both the cook and the RV driver :)

There were some teething troubles in cooking in the RV, like the tin opener not working (thank heavens for neighbors!), not having a long carving knife and basically having to make do with what we had on hand, but it all worked out fine :)

In the evening after sunset we sat around the campfire chatting, drinking and generally just enjoying the company of friends. Till it got too cold when we came in and watched some TV, lol.

Janry & Meilani's Rig, Sunset at El Mirage

The sunsets and really all the scenery is really beautiful here, you can see for miles on a clear day. It was very cold though. On the Friday we knew more campers were coming so Bob took the opportunity to take lots of pics of the beautiful sunset in the cold desert.

Sunset at El Mirage, Adelanto, CA

Friday, stuffed from dinner we waited for the other campers/riders to make an appearance. Including our friends who didn't know about the RV. They were pretty shocked, especially as it's a HUGE sucker! In the end there were 3 RV's and a trailer, and about 12 bikes! Bob fixed his bike Friday and we went out for a ride in the afternoon. Later we chilled in the RV watching movies and having dinner.

Me and the dogs in the RV just relaxing

Again another campfire was made after sunset and everyone grabbed some alcohol (if they hadn't already) and we talked and drank and had a great time. Obviously there were more people, which meant more conversation and more alcohol, so we stayed out later Friday, despite the temperature, but we also had a bigger fire :)

Orn & Gwen @ El Mirage

Saturday the weather was horrible with some showers and VERY cold temperatures in the day. We'd already decided to leave on Saturday and beat the holiday traffic returning home, and in the end we decided to pack up after lunch and head home. All that didn't take as long as we though and we were on the road by 2pm. Honestly the bigger pain was the unloading of the RV when we got home, returning the trailer and all that. Total pain in the butt but it has to be done. Then I had mountains of laundry to do as all the clothes we'd worn smelled of smoke from the campfire, dirtbike gear to wash and towels etc...

The one lesson I learned from all this is that Sky is NOT allowed to drink when she gets home/to location as each time she drinks and pukes, so not fun! We learned a lot this trip boondocking in the desert. Long list of things to get for next time, including tea bags (though thanks to Eliza we had tea for Friday/Saturday yay!) lol. We're now buying upgrades to the RV and making plans for our next trip! Maybe somewhere a bit warmer though ;)

Di

ps I did take a little video footage which I hope to upload soon!