How hot do you like your salsa?

From Bakersfield, California, we headed south again to an old town called Victorville. We even drove on old route 66 here, which was quite exciting, although to be honest, it was just another road. We met our friend Shane at Starbucks, where he works, and headed to a state park nearby. We were fortunate enough to get the last free RV space in the park, next to a lake and near a kids park. The park also had camels roaming about the place, and lamas.

As soon as we got to the park Dan disappeared off to someone else’s RV for a beer. Wherever we go people just invite him in. I don’t know what it is about him! Then we took the kids and Shane to the park to let them burn off some steam. In the evening Dan cooked me a curry. No one seems to eat curry here in the US, and I’d been craving one for the three months we’ve been here. I ate two plates of it as it was so nice! He’s promised to cook me another one soon.

Shane wanted us to meet some of his friends so we invited them round that evening for a bit of a bonfire outside the RV. His friends invited their friends and people kept turning up. In the end it was almost a full on party till 2am, and I was worried about getting kicked out of the park, as quiet time is from 10pm onwards.

One of Shane’s old school friends, Jose, invited us round to his place the following day for a Mexican barbeque. Jose is Mexican and his parents seem to enjoy cooking. While Jose prepared the meat on the barbeque his parents (who we never even met) were in the house preparing all sorts of Mexican dishes for us to try. First they sent out a hot jalapeno salsa. They were kind enough not to make it as hot as they would eat it themselves, but still it was hotter than the average Brit was used to. Well, we had a right laugh as Jose dared Dan to eat some. His face was a picture! All the kids tried the salsa too, with some tacos, even little Barney. Jimmie ate a load and had to keep going inside the RV to get water and blow his nose! Then the parents sent out what looked like a bowl of sliced cucumber with cocktail sticks in them. They turned out to be the sort of food I could eat eternally and never get bored of. It was slices of cucumber, marinated in lime juice, jalapeno peppers and onion. It was comfort food at it’s best - and healthy too! Another dish was cubes of freshly cut melon with lime juice and chili powder sprinkled on the top. It was amazing too. Jose was cooking half a cow on the barbeque, which he sliced up and put into tortilla wraps, with rice & corn on the side. Dan is still talking about that food. I think he wants to move to Mexico.

That second night we parked the RV in Jose’s back yard as we had to leave early in the morning. Dan went out with Shane’s friends after the BBQ to a local bar, while I got a bit of sleep with the kids. The following morning (Sunday) we stopped at Starbucks to say goodbye to Shane, and headed east to Death Valley, which is where we are now for a few nights. After Death Valley we will be heading to Las Vegas, where by chance my sister and her partner will be on holiday at the same time!