Monday, March 28, 2016

We were on the road relatively early this morning at about 8:45 but we needed to stop for fuel before we hit the Interstate.

We stopped at the Pilot on Indian Canyon Road just a block from the highway to fill our half empty tank.

We had no issues this morning except for the wind wanting to tear our awning off the motorhome.  It was touch and go for awhile until we reached Tehachapi and then the wind calmed down some. 

We stopped at the Cesar Chavez National Monument just west of Tehachapi and the road into the park was steep and treacherous.  There was really no place to park a motorhome pulling a car so we took up about 6-7 car spaces in the parking lot.  Except for the man-made monument which was really beautiful, the stop was very disappointing. The Visitor’s Center consisted of about 5 rooms completely empty except for pictures around the rooms at eye level.  The site had been open since 2012.  It was not a good representation of a National Park.  We stayed for about an hour hoping to catch the movie but the time constraints prevented us from viewing it.

We were back on the highway and headed north shortly afterward to the Viking Trailer Park where we would spend the night.  By the time we got there, the park was full so we just got back on the highway and drove to the next Wal-Mart.  We stayed there for the night for free after spending $22 on Pizza from Pizza Hut.  I guess the campground was a wash when all was totaled.

We settled in for the night and set up the dish for TV for the night.  Sharon folded her tent at 9 and I was not far behind at 10.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

We stayed at our “campground” until about 8:30 this morning before we were on the road again. 

We had an uneventful day until we got to a construction area near Turlock and I mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake, and crashed into a pick-up truck at about 6 MPH.  Unfortunately I missed the brake a second time and hit him again.  My feet got tangled up in the floor mat that always creeps up under the gas pedal and brake.  What followed was a cordial exchange of information and the application of duct tape to the front of the motorhome.  The collision pretty much destroyed the fiberglass in the front of the coach.

We didn’t have another problem until we got to the campground and the road in was a narrow winding affair that we had to drive on for about six miles.  And it was all downhill all the way into the campground.  We couldn’t find the sites that were advertised as sewer, until after we were parked.  It really didn’t matter since we were only going to be here for four days anyway.  The thing that bothered us was that there was no cell phone service or Wi-Fi service but we managed to find the satellite signal for the TV.  Go figure.  So we had to drive out a ways on the entrance road to get on the Internet and make phone calls.

We just relaxed for the rest of the day having made time for Phil and Joyce Bach and Jim and Jackie Palestini over the next couple of days.  We made the phone calls making time for Port Chicago National Memorial while we are here.

We sat and watched TV for the rest of the night, and we both stayed up until 10:30 before we retreated.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

We were off to a leisurely start this morning after having Breakfast at home before we headed to Phil and Joyce’s in Martinez about 53 miles from our campground.

It took us about an hour to get there having taken a wrong turn because Sharon didn’t select the right destination in the GPS.  It didn’t affect our arrival time because we got back on route after just a couple of minutes.

We sat and chatted for about an hour or so before we left and went to lunch at a place called The Habit.  The burgers were quite good and the weather was nice enough to sit outside in comfort.

After lunch we went back to Phil and Joyce’s and chatted for awhile and then Joyce mentioned that she had made a cake for Dessert.  We stayed for a while after we had the delicious Bundt Cake and then we were back on the road to home in Winters at the Canyon Creek Campground.

On the way home the GPS took us over every back road in California.  I was P& Ming before we got back.  How we got sucked into taking that exit I will never know.  We should have just paid attention and stayed on I-80 until we hit Winters.

We got home and we were ready to just sit and gaze at the tube for the night and that’s what we did.  We snacked while we watched TV, but we weren’t hungry enough to have a meal.  We stayed up until 11 tonight before we finally gave it up.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

We were off again this morning to have lunch with Jim and Jackie Palestini in Vacaville.  Vacaville is only half the distance to Martinez so we had plenty of time to eat a light Breakfast and get on the road.

We spotted a Best Buy and we stopped to see if they could help me with the new computer.  My WordPerfect wasn’t working right and I was hoping for some help.  Unfortunately they couldn’t help me in a timely manner so we left.

We continued on to Jim and Jackie’s and made a stop at Lucky’s Grocery on the way in.  We needed a couple of things and decided to pick them up now.

We arrived at the Palestini’s and immediately started catching up on the last couple of years.  They sold their motorhome a few years ago and stopped coming to Desert Hot Springs.  We’ve certainly missed them during the last few years.  They were regulars to go to the VFW with us on Wednesdays.  While we were there we had pizza for lunch and Strawberry Shortcake later for dessert.  Jim gave Sharon and I a tour of their extensive backyard gardens.  He was identifying all the bushes and plants.

Afterwards we stood outside and talked and then finally left about 3:30.  We got caught in traffic again, but we found another Best Buy to drop off the computer, and hopefully pick it up tomorrow on our way home.

We got back home by the highway today and made it in record time.  Jim wanted us to take the back roads until I told him we did that yesterday.

We sat and relaxed when we got home having eaten a late lunch today.

Another evening of watching TV was in store for us, and also a short nap for me during the duration.  We both gave it up about 11 tonight.

Friday, April 1, 2016APRIL FOOL’S DAY

We were off to Breakfast today with Phil and Joyce and we went to a little restaurant called Sal’s Diner in Martinez.  We had a nice quiet Breakfast that was reasonable and quite good.

Then we were off to John Muir National Historic Site to catch the bus to Port Chicago National Memorial in Concord.  We were early as we wanted to be.  We had tried for 3 different years to get into Port Chicago and didn’t want to miss it because we were late. 

The tour lasted about an hour or so and was really nothing very special.  The Ranger took us out to the memorial site and gave a narrated talk about what happened and who was killed back in 1944.  The victims were loading munitions on ships when there was a huge double explosion that evaporated two ships and 324 black sailors instantly.  The memorial honors those men who were killed and those injured.  You need reservations 2 weeks in advance in order to get in because it’s an active Army Base.  We complied and were admitted on our third try.  The tour was interesting even though I didn’t care for the Ranger.  Sharon liked her though so I guess it was just a personal thing.

After the tour we got on the highway and headed back home with a quick stop at Best Buy where they provided no help for my WordPerfect.  It looks as though I’ll have to purchase another copy.

We got caught in traffic again today but it was only for a few minutes so we just got home a few minutes later.

Tonight was another TV night which is our regular entertainment. I can hardly tell when they run re-runs anymore so it seems that it’s all original programming.  Actually we’ll be so tired on the way home that I won’t care anyway.

We were up until 10:30 tonight and then we gave it all up for sleep.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

We left Winters today knowing that it was going to be a pure driving day.  And the entire day was exactly that.  We stopped at Taco Bell on our way to the Interstate for an AM Crunchwrap and Cinnabon Nuggets for Breakfast and it they were delicious.

After that we got on the Interstate and soon found the dreaded Cascade/Siskyou mountain range.  All the mountain driving stories in Desert Hot Springs involve this mountain range in the winter.  We got halfway through the mountains before we stopped for the night at Weed at 3000' elevation.  It was a bare bones campground called Friendly RV Park but it had E/W/S sites, and we managed to find the satellite for the TV.  We also had a great view of Mt. Shasta and it was loaded with snow all the way down to a few thousand feet.

The campgrounds just a few miles north were in the $40 range per night.  We paid $28 and we were just a few miles from Oregon and our National Park at the Cascade/Siskyou National Monument.

Sharon picked up Chicken Wings and logs at the Weed Flying J and after we were settled in the campground for awhile we ate the wings.  We had arrived at Weed about 2:30 and we weren’t ready to eat at that time, but it was a solution to not cooking tonight.

We had the satellite tagged so we had TV for the night.

Hopefully we’ll get through the rest of the range without weather problems.

We had our “usual” entertainment tonight since we found the satellite without any problems.

We wanted to dump our tanks tonight after Dinner and get them empty for tomorrow.

We both crashed early tonight since we had a long day of traveling.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

We had egg McMuffins today for Breakfast and then we hit the road to head north for a place called Gold Hill and the Rogue River State Park in Oregon.

We were mostly going downhill today to get out of the highest mountains.  We were only 3 thousand feet up but the 99 miles we had to travel was up and down all day.

We arrived early but later in the morning and settled into our campground and set ourselves up to make our National Parks in the next couple of days.  We were going to be here for three days so we have plenty of time.

By arriving early we talked ourselves into going to Oregon Caves National Monument  today and taking tomorrow completely off.  By reading the brochure from the park I knew that I wasn’t going to take the cave tour.  It was strenuous with 500 stairs and neither of those things are something I can do.

We got to the Visitor’s Center and it was closed.  We called the Park and they said that the only way to get the stamp was to come to the caves and get it.  The road was windy and hilly and it would take 45 minutes to drive the 19 miles to the caves.  We debated the drive and finally decided to take the bull by the horns, and drive it.  And the stories about the road were not fabricated, it was horrible and Sharon had white knuckles by the time we got there.

We also wanted to return a National Park book that Sharon bought by mistake.  The book was about 6 years old and did not contain the newer parks in the system.  They wouldn’t take the $20 book back because they said they didn’t sell it.  A lame excuse since they probably sold it 6 years ago.

We left and came back home and got back about Dinner time.

We had Pizza for Supper tonight and ended up snacking all night when we only had two pieces apiece.  We also camped out in front of the TV for our usual entertainment tonight even though we got a receiver error when we turned it on.  We contacted DirecTV and they wanted to send us a new receiver.  When I tried to explain there was no place they could send it, we finished the call.

Sharon finally figured out the way we could try to get a signal for the dish and she was right.  So we had TV for the time we’re here anyway.

We retired to the bedroom at 10:30 tonight after a long driving day for me.