On the Road Again

It is taking longer to drive through California than we anticipated.

We have to have the first RV* turned in by Monday, so we're going to skip San Diego (pout) and head for Vegas, via the Sequoia National Park. We drove through a lot of farm country, through the Coastal Range foothills. We saw grape vineyards, lots of fruit trees and nuts. We also saw oil drilling fields, which was cool. The drive was loooooooooooong, though. We ended up staying in a KOA Kampground near Bakersfield, CA, instead of at Isabella Lake, like we planned.

We stopped at the campground, located our spot and went to find a grocery store and Target store (more blankets, just in case it got cold again!) We went to Trader Joes, a gourmet/whole foods kinda store with really good prices. We bought some yummy things for supper and then stopped by Target to pick up a couple of things that we needed.

When we returned to our assigned (and paid for) camp spot, someone else had taken it!


Breakfast: Entemann's donuts in the RV
Lunch: Taco Bell
Supper: Trader Joes gnocci, jarred sauce, brushetta bread topping on Foccacia rolls, and chocolate merangue cookies. Hubby and I shared a nice bottle of Charles Shaw Shiraz , Sonoma. It was a great meal!

*We are taking an RV in need of renovation from Oakland to the rehab facility in AZ and then we're picking a newly renovated one up and delivering it to another location near the end of our route. The normal rate to rent an RV was around $100 a day, plus milage, plus a $500 one-way drop-off fee. Our cost? $26 a day, no milage fee, no one-way drop-off fee! What a deal! To deliver the renovated RV, it will be $48 a day. We just couldn't pass up such a great opportunity! And the Rv we have, that needs to be renovated, is just fine. Clean, with just a few tiny issues. We have been just THRILLED with Cruise America!

**Oh yeah, the comment about Bakersfield folks should have been posted here, not on the earlier post.

Off we go!

Today was the RV pick up day. We drove down to Cruise America RV Rental in Oakland from Travis AFB. Then Brian had to drive the van back to the Oakland Airport and take a cab back to us as we waited for him in the RV at the Cruise America parking lot.

We left the parking lot and made a wrong turn into what looked like a very, very bad neighborhood. I envisioned some scene from a Chevy Chase movie, ending with graffiti on the side of the RV and having to sell off an older daughter to gain our safety...and we weren't even on the road yet!

And the RV was noisy and tipsy...the pets were terrified (still are!)

Our home.

We drove from oakland to Monterey Pines FamCamp in Monterey. We got there very late (at least it seemed very late...it sure gets dark early here!) It was a nice park, with clean bathrooms and laundry facilities. We arrived too late for a spot with full hook-ups, so we "boondocked" it, using only our generator and reserve power. It was COLD!!! We cuddled a lot (so did the pets). We give Monterey Pines 6 stars; nothing much to do, but clean and friendly.

Breakfast: Up for grabs in the TLF

Lunch: In and Out Burger

Supper: Bear Creek Potato soup with yummy sourdough bread from Boudins in San Francisco. We forgot silverware, so we had to sop up the soup with the bread!

Weather: Good, clear. Mid-50s. Cold at night (in the 40s, I'm guessing)

An aside: We have found the people of Bakersfield, CA to be extremely friendly and we really like the area. Thanks for the hospitality.