Retirement

We made the trip from Stockton to this campground today. We don’t usually drive for more than four hours per leg, but we wanted to exit California before stopping for the night. This trip, using the scenic route we took, was a little under six hours of driving time.

We used CA 88 out of Stockton across the Sierras (still lots of snow, BTW) and thence via US 395 back into California for s spell and then across the desert just north of Mono lake into Nevada again terminating here in Hawthorne. We were as high as 8,500 feet MSL and are at 4300 feet at “Whiskey Flats.”

Tomorrow won’t be as scenic as we make our way across the great basin of Nevada. Tomorrow’s destination is in the little town of Ely at the confluence of US 50 and US 6 in Eastern Nevada. We will report in at that time.

One of the slogans for this campground is “Best kept secret in the LA Basin.” I have to admit that I never heard of it until finding it on-line. Now that we’re here, I can see that this place, surrounded by dense urban infrastructure, is rendered obscure because it is nestled in the hills and is not seen from any of the several freeways in the area.

Normally, we try to avoid the LA basin, but this park is the closest to where the kids and grandson live. Damsel and I enjoyed the visit this afternoon and evening with the nineteen month old boy and his Dad. We saw them last month in Palm Desert, the halfway point, but due to work and other obligations, they couldn’t make it out there this month. We also expect that there will be no visiting for a while because of the same business obligations on the kids’ part as well as the higher summer temperatures in the desert.

Next stop on our excursion will be in the San Joaquin valley for an overnighter before heading up to see family in Northern California. We anticipate posting another camping photo at each campsite.

Over the past several weeks, we have been planning on our spring excursion to visit relatives and to take in some scenic places on our way back home. The process for making a travel plan is much the same as preparing a flight plan with certain differences, of course (winds aloft may not affect our ground speed, etc.).

Lots of things require some planning: travel times, rest stops, fuel consumption, provisions (water, food, etc.) and camping facilities. While there are several on-line utilities to assist in this planning, we have supplemented them with some home-grown tools. We have spreadsheets which enumerate the itinerary and project the fuel consumption and refueling stops.

We already have the GPS programmed for the next trip. There is a utility on our Garmin to plan each day’s travel, including times, distances and fuel consumption. It’s a very handy feature. In addition, we have the “GAS BUDDY” application on the Android which finds fuel sorted by price for a given area.

At this point, we are probably finished with the planning, including the food menu, which Damsel has under control. The on-board freezer and fridge have the basics in stock and we will be doing additional shopping as we go along the way.

The route plan depicted above is the basic loop where we plan to travel. The map excludes a couple of side trips which will be made using a rental car. We have no desire to drive the 35 foot diesel into the San Francisco Bay area where the grandkids (and great grandkids) live, so we will rent for that day.

So, that’s it for the spring plan. We will post our progress when we are underway. We still have some minor chores and appointments to complete before departure. We anticipate a good trip, good weather, good visits with everyone and some spectacular scenery in the great American West.