California

Camping Day A – Near Bakersfield, CA

Bakersfield, CA

We’re camped in a place called Orange Grove RV Park a bit east of Bakersfield proper. They really do have orange trees throughout the campground, albeit not as dense as one might expect in a commercial orchard. The ladies in the office told us to come back in December when the oranges will be ripe and are free for the picking.

Our itinerary for tomorrow takes us to Palm Desert, CA. We are going to cross over the mountain range east of here through Tehachapi, CA, thence via high desert routing through Kramer Junction and on down through Cajon Pass where we will get on I-10 going toward the low desert.

I labeled the camping day as “A” because this end of the schedule was not as easily numerated as the trip going from Arizona, through Utah and Nevada and on into Central California. I used alpha designators for the last legs of the excursion to keep it simple and flexible for use in the GPS trip planning application while not having to pin down an exact number of days out for a given leg.

A Red Rose

A Red Rose

This beautiful red rose was fully open yesterday at my sister’s place in the Central California area. The rose bush is beside the driveway where our RV is parked while we are visiting with family here. Click on the image to enlarge.

We will be headed towards the southern part of the state in a couple of days for another visit with the southern branch of our California family as we make our way back home. We will see our newest grandbaby for a short window of time over the weekend. It has been a couple of months and we are anxious to see him.

Camping Day Seven – Stockton, CA

Stockton, CA

We have arrived at the family reunion location in Stockton, CA. We’re not at a campground, but at Damsel’s Sister’s place where we were just about a year ago. We had a good drive today over Donner Pass and then down through CA Hwy 49, the California gold rush highway and then on to our terminus for the day.

We plan on being here for a while for the family reunion which will take place over the weekend. We will probably be here for a week and unless there is some very compelling reason to blog about something, we will unlikely post anything during that time.

In about a week, we will head south through California’s Central Valley, stopping to camp in another couple of places on our way back to Arizona. See you then . . .

Road Closure

Road Closure

Damsel snapped this photo of one of the ADOT highway advisory signs a couple of miles south of Wickenburg, AZ on US 60/93 Northbound. I thought this was interesting since the section of I-15 that is closed is over three hundred road miles from this point. I presume the Interstate 15 closure is due to one of the California wildfires currently raging out there.

We were returning from a urology appointment in the Valley. The urologist had a little bad news when he inspected the interior of my bladder and found a small, non-invasive tumor. This is not as serious nor as invasive as the tumor he resected three years ago, so it will only involve an office visit down in Litchfield, AZ to resolve. Sedation, similar to that given to colonoscopy patients, will be applied during the trans-urethral procedure. This will not take place until October, since we have plans for much of September.

It’s a bummer that there is a recurrence, but we likely won’t have to endure more than the office procedure. Good thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

August Camping and Beyond

August Camping

We’re camped once again in the Sunny Southern California Desert to visit the yearling grandson. We have been doing these trips for a year now at about monthly intervals so the baby will know us from visit to visit. Of course, we also enjoy visiting with his parents and the other set of grandparents.

Next month, we are going to deviate from the usual back and forth across the two deserts to head out for a scenic road trip with the goals of:

  • getting away for scenic destinations
  • reunion with California family members
  • seeing our other little one, the two year old great grandson

We’re still trying to get the other family members to get on-board for the reunion and to get the granddaughter to bring her son to the reunion from the Bay Area to not-to-distant Stockton. This weekend we will get a go/nogo from the kids and grandson as to whether they can participate in the reunion.

Regardless of all the particular commitments, we will still be heading out for the scenic part of the road trip. We’re overdue for a trip like that, but when you live in a scenic and rustic town with lots of activities and attractions, you still feel like everyday is vacation. That last item may be why we haven’t felt the need to hit the road for a vacation from our permanent vacation.

Campsite Setup in Palm Desert

Campsite Setup

Our absence from posting here is, in part, due to our recent excursion to the People’s Republik of Kalifornistan. A necessary evil, since we want to keep in touch with our new grandson face-to-face in his first years so he knows who we are. We have been to this particular campground just about every month since grandbaby’s birth last August.

Bob took this image of the campsite after getting all the stuff out for grilling steaks and corn on the cob. This menu requires both camp grills since there are six steaks and six ears of corn to prepare simultaneously. The one grill hooks into the RV propane tank and the other, smaller grill, has a small bottle of propane attached. One grill for corn and one for the tenderloin steaks.

The baby’s first birthday is next month and, of course, we can’t miss that event, so we’ll be out there again in a few weeks. All of the traffic, the obnoxious politics out in K-stan and the hot weather at near sea level in the low desert this summer notwithstanding, it is worth the minor discomforts for us to be able to go to see this wonderful new addition to our family.

Kamping in Kalifornistan

Kamping in Kalifornistan

We’re here again to visit the little grandson, his parents and the other set of grandparents. The drive was OK, albeit with a lot of 18 wheelers on the road, but we’re here and camp is all set up.

The weather was good with thin overcast and haze. Not exactly a boon for scenic photography, but the conditions were such that the temperatures were lower than they have been and the winds were mostly not enough to make the drive in the 32 footer unmanageable.

The baby’s Mom and the California Grandpa dropped by this evening for a visit. We enjoyed seeing the baby after our absence of longer than we like due to logistics and other life events. We’re already planning the next visit in July and will have the dates figured out before we depart for home.

The Baby’s Dad was still in the L.A. area this evening, but will be out tomorrow for the BBQ we’re planning here in camp. The baby is cuter than ever and sporting four upper and four lower teeth. We just love him.