We drove out of The Fountain of Youth Spa RV Resort at about 9:00a.m. and headed south to I-8. Today’s travel distance was about 300 miles – a little longer than we like but getting home a little late and tired is not all bad. The route is pretty boring except for that little tiny church on the hill and the Imperial Dunes Recreation Area – awesome.

When we got home we took everything out of the GMC and I went out to put the recyclables into the trash bin and found a big rattlesnake in my way. It was really hard to see the snake and shocking to actually see one even though you are looking for them. Ever since I found a rattler under my trash can 7 or 8 years ago I watch carefully where I step so I saw it before I got too close – unless 3 or 4 feet is too close. The photos were taken over the top of a 4-foot wall separating me and the snake. We decided to wait until morning to see if it was still there before doing anything about it – like calling for someone to get rid of it.

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Everyone from employees to other residents here are friendly and everything  is clean and works. Last night we tried the spa and today we explored the area. There were only two things to see as far as we could tell. One was Slab City and the other was some sort of mud formations called “mud pots” that are supposed to be interesting but we couldn’t find them. We were probably 100 yards from them but with no signs  and lots of mud we couldn’t find them. We did happen upon the Sonny Bono Wildlife area though, it was very pretty.

Slab City is another story. The main attraction of the place is “Salvation Mountain” which is a real piece of folk art that is rapidly disintegrating without the care of its creator, Leonard Knight, who we think is in a nursing home. As you can see from the photos, there are lots of nooks and crannies in the structure with lots of work on each one.

For some reason the Border Patrol is really busy around here. There is a checkpoint on US-111 right near this place and both yesterday and today we saw Border Patrol cars with lights flashing right here at the resort. Today they stopped a young guy in a white minivan who pretty surly works here based on how he was dressed. The Border Patrol guys detained him for about 15 minutes and looked inside his car. After apparently checking him out as OK, they seemed to bump fists as the young guy ran back to his van and got going. I wonder what it would be like to look like a Mexican and drive around here.

We are looking forward to getting back into the spa tonight. When it is cool out that 104 doesn’t seem so hot.

 

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We used the Park’s RV wash area and got Barbie and Sandy (really) all cleaned up. The coach and car were so coated with that stuff from the road that it took a lot of scrubbing with my new WalMart brush and lots of auto washing soap. I will be using that brush on the cars from now on. With both of us working it took us about an hour to get most of the oily dirt off. After we got both of them all cleaned up we all felt like a million dollars.

Bakersfield is just to the West of Tehachapi which is a 4,000-foot mountain pass. So, heading East, the first thing out of the gate is a climb from almost sea level to 4,000 feet in one long haul. I had forgotten how bad the eastbound climb was and was thinking about the westbound climb which is less than 2,000 feet I think. Any way, it was no big deal. The weather is nice and reasonable – mid-70’s – and I just downshift and follow the trucks up the hill. What’s the hurry anyway?

We decided to go down the East side of the Salton Sea this time. We like going to Yuma from the Palm Springs area and the roads that connect the two go on either side of the Salton Sea. The most direct route is along the West side but we have seen that side several times but never the East side. We have heard good things about the Fountain of Youth Spa RV Park and have been told we have to see Slab City too so we decided that, being so close to home and the weekend we could afford an extra night and still get home Saturday. We are probably spending a couple of nights here. It is very quiet – far from everywhere but lots of people spread out over a huge park so it feels safe.

 

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We are spending tonight – Wednesday – in the Orange Grove RV Park just outside of Bakersfield, CA. We have stopped here several times in the past and we love it. As you can see from the photo we got the coach and car a little dirty. We came down Calif. 99 from just south of Stockton today. Highway 99 connects all of the main farming communities in California’s Central Valley so there are lots of farm-related trucks, large and small, that are pretty muddy all the time. Combine that mud with a very dusty day because of high winds with some rain thrown in and you get a dirty GMC.

The good news is that we have now found another reason to love the Orange Grove RV Park… they have free wash area that is a concrete pad with a long hose and water provided. We plan to get there tomorrow morning and wash both the GMC and the Tracker. We stopped earlier at a new WalMart just north of Bakersfield and bought car wash soap and a nice soft – will-not-scratch – brush on the end of a collapsible aluminum pole. I was going to do the “midnight car wash” trick but now will not have to. Besides, it is still raining.

So, we left Coos Bay on Monday morning after breakfast and final goodbyes. We wanted to go down US-101 because it is so beautiful but we didn’t feel like we had all the time we wanted. We had to get home and get ready to move Carol’s Mom down to the Tucson area (from Mesa) in a week or two, and we have new tenants moving into our seasonal rental at The Highlands where we live on Nov. 1st. So, we went back over to I-5 over Oregon highway 42 – a very nice road – and made it to Weed, CA by about 3:00p.m.  I wanted to stop at Weed and buy a t-shirt so that was our goal for the day. The campground was OK – the Friendly RV Park just south of town – but  what a cold place. It got down to 34 degrees by 5:00a.m.  It was a good thing I had the furnace going. 

Tuesday, we decided to go past Sacramento to a little county park that we had found on a previous trip when we needed a dump station between visits in San Jose and Shingle Springs. The name of the park is Dos Reis County Park in Lathrop. It is just south of Stockton on I-5. Turned out to be a really nice place to spend the night. It is far enough from the highway – about 1/2 mile – to be nice and quiet and it was not busy at all. The sites are $25 per night with electricity, sewer and water – full hookups to us. It is right on a river (there are lots of them around here) but has a really high levee between the campground and the river. Overall, very nice.

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We spent the morning learning stuff about the GMC and how to maintain it and then we played. One of our members flew around the area shooting photos of our rally and others went to the park that is also part of the aerial photos. Photos of that park – an Oregon state park – from the ground are also included. Here is a link to the post about today on our club’s web site: gmcws.org/blog/?p=1837

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We drove a little under 100 miles and arrived at Coos Bay for our GMC club rally. We expect about 140 GMCs to be here and, by evening, most are here. Here http://gmcws.org/blog/?p=1820 is a post I did for the club with lots of photos.

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This morning we left the Redding RV park at 8:00 a.m. and drove all of about 45 miles and stopped for breakfast. The other reason for the stop was to meet up with some more GMCers at the Pollard Flat truck stop. There were twelve coaches there for breakfast – some went on by themselves but most traveled together (sort of). After breakfast – not great, but OK – we drove hills and curves with lots of spectacular scenery for 3 or 4 hours before we arrived at Seven Feathers Casino and RV Resort in Canyonville, OR. This is really one of the nicest RV parks we have ever stayed in. All level concrete pads with grass in between, very clean and modern facilities, and a free shuttle to the casino (of course). We had a nice meal at their buffet, donated some money to the casino, and had a nice evening with some really great GMCers.

Tomorrow we are leaving a little later – less than 100 miles to go – and plan to arrive there at check-in time.

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 The caravan left San Jose at about 9:00 a.m. and we were supposed to meet them at the Pilot gas station just north of where I-5 and I-505 meet but we had some shopping do so we decided to go on and meet them in Willows. Our meeting place was Nancy’s Airport Cafe in Willows, CA for lunch. This is a popular place for truck drivers and locals and we can see why. They serve great hamburgers but have a big menu, great service and reasonable prices. There were eight or nine of us who met there and had a great lunch. We then left and drove to Redding to camp for the night. The weather was great – it was supposed to rain but we were mostly spared except for a few sprinkles here and there.

 

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Last night we took the Tracker out on the beach and drove two miles out and back just to make sure it was still there. It was, and it was awesome. There were not many people left there – Sunday night, work tomorrow – the sun was setting, there were 10 or 15 surfers using parachutes to pull them along the shore – kite surfing?

This morning we walked to the Old West Cinnamon Bun place again. This time we had a walnut and raisin bun with a side of cream cheese frosting – we split it again. These things are not as big as Cinnabon makes but, having tried one of them once (and never again) I can say that these are easily better.

We took our time and didn’t drive out of the RV park until after 11:00 a.m. The drive to King City was less than 100 miles but it is so nice and so quiet – especially compared to those Pismo RV parks.

Tomorrow we will spend a couple of hours in Salinas visiting our former business and helping out with some computer issues before heading to San Jose to see our son Brian and his family. We plan to stay for 3 nights so I may not add any posts for a while.

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We drove north to Morro Bay – the town with the rock – to visit our favorite garden shop “The Garden Gallery”. We managed to spend a little time and money, but not too bad. On the way back “home” we stopped at Avila Beach – the resort on the hill above it is a favorite of ours, we have stayed there a couple of times in the past – pre-GMC days.

When we finally got back we found the mini-golf course on the resort property and played a round. This time Carol got the hole-in-one, actually, she got two of them but I won the match in 19 holes anyway. We had a sudden death playoff and I won on the first extra hole.

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