Lone Pine - Tuttle Creek Campground

Finding a camp site here that was level was challenging so we stopped looking for one and made do with probably the best one. Its #42. It just so happens its deep and backs up to the creek. Usually its just the touch of a button but sometimes leveling the RV takes all kinds of calculations. Although the RV jacks were long enough to level the RV I didn't want the rear wheels up in the air unsupported. So I just raised the jack a little bit higher and added blocks to support the wheels & tires and then let it back down till it was level.

On our way to the campground Kathy snaps a shot of Nightmare Rock without even knowing it. This is one of the things that she wanted to find in her quest to find stuff that's weird in each town. The Oddities. Check out Roadsideamerica.com

Snake !!!

Mount Whitney restaurant & the club sandwich. This sandwich was awesome. They give you a choice between turkey and ham, ask them for both.

You have to open your mouth like an anaconda. We actually split it and barely ate it.

Thank you Danyelle for turning us on to this restaurant.

A drive worth taking is to the top of Whitney portal Road you will see a waterfall.

Apparently this is only a trickle.

We heard that in the summer there is so much water coming down that you can't hear yourself talk.

Lone Pine is rich with scenery and history. Check out this link.

They've made so many movies here its really incredible. Here's a list. Click on this link.

Cerro Gordo Ghost town.

It's a 7.5 mile drive up a winding gravel road.

I think we were the only ones up there.

We got the full tour from our tour ghost.

To learn more about this ghost town, check out this link.

I think we learned a little bit about dry camping. We already knew we can go more than 7 days on a 100 gallons of water and we did that. It was the electrical aspect and knowing what you could and couldn't use. This is an all electric coach with 8 AGM batteries. No propane and no solar.

Knowing how long the batteries needed to go without charging and how long they needed to charge became very important.

The settings on the charger unit were set wrong. After setting the charger up for the right kind of batteries and elevating the charging rate from 80 to 90 percent we could run the batteries down from 2.9 all the way to 2.1.

Then just pick a time to start the generator and run it for 2 hours to recover.

Generally I do this about 8am and 5pm.

The problem arises in the morning when I want to make my coffee without draining or damaging the batteries after watching TV at night and keeping the full size refrigerator and inverter going.

My point is I want coffee and I don't want to turn the generator on at 6 or 7am, even though I can legally do that.

So we bought one of these.

Aint it cool!

That's old school Yosemite style percolator coffee maker and a Coleman propane stove.

Let the neighbors sleep, right?

Kathy and I took Mouse down to the stream on a long leash. She sniffed around and all the sudden we watched her walk across the shallow part of the stream to the other side.
In this shot she hopped right into the deeper part of the stream.

The Mobius Arch Loop Trailhead. This is a nice trail.

If you like arches, you can't miss this one.

That would be Mount Whitney right in the center.

After the hike we scouted for future places to park in the Alabama Hills.
Kathy did a little off roading.
I goated her into it.

I told her what she needed to do and then I got out of the Jeep and took pictures of her doing it. She was pretty happy.

Review - This is a great campground. No hookups. Your spread out and everybody here is very respectful. They do have a dump station and water near the front entrance of the campground. We got Verizon 4G here. There's so much to do here, we will be back in this area someday.

Today we get ready for another move.
Tomorrow we start heading back down south.

Bakersfield California - River Run RV Park.

We visited Kathy's mom, Mary, at San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield California. 

She had a slip and fall and broke her hip. They operated on her the next day and she is now in rehab. They already have her up on her feet. Heal up fast Mary

Because our last blog, we said that we were headed to Bakersfield so Shaun gives me a call, he's on his way to Bakersfield for the races at Kern County Raceway Park.

So we get there and I ask for the senior discount. The senior discount is half price score.

Had a real good time watching the cars.

The race track is something else, I've never seen anything like it.

The track is banked, ok, but there's a rise out of turn 2 into the back straight and then it falls though turn 3 to 4.

This makes for a very fast track.

We went to Buck Owens Crystal Palace for Sunday brunch.

They had all the fixins.

This place is all about live country & western music and memorabilia.

This Buick is behind the bar

The food was pretty good too. 

(Check out this link)

Review - River Run RV Park.

This RV Park backs right up to the dry Kern River. They let the grass grow tall.  All sites have concrete pads, water, sewer, 50 amp service and wifi.

We were able to use our satellite DishTV. We even had Verizon 4G.

If we ever need to go to Bakersfield I would definitely see if this place had anything

available for us.

It's getting to hot for us so North we go...

Valencia California - Valencia Travel Village.

Seemore has parked, jacks down, Dish up in seeking mode. 
The Dish is going round and round trying to find that satellite in space, crap, 
it's being blocked buy a bunch of trees. 
This is the first campground that we've been in with these tall beautiful trees.
They have cable in the campground. I had to set up the TVs to view it. 
That was a learning experience.

Laura and Shaun stop by, very nice visit stayed really late, too much fun reminiscing.

A trip to Mentryville - Pico Canyon. This is the Felton School house A little history. Mentryville and Pico Canyon have become popular shooting locations. 
It was used in motion pictures, 

Click here to check out the link.

This is one of the restaurants that was on the hit list. We used to live in Saugus Ca. and the go to pizza place was Chi-Chi's Pizza. Just the best!
Thank you Aunt Jean and Uncle Jerry for dinner.

We got Seemore a bath. It’s been 2 months and it's about time.

Saturday night dinner at the campsite with Jean, Jerry. Jamie, Jeff Haley & Allie.

Thanks for bringing over the stuff for dinner and desert. 
Jamie makes a mean Cadillac margarita. 

Jeff & Jamie kick'in it

Haley & Allie

Found a cool LED light that actually has a remote control to light up a tiki bar.
Thanks Jeff for help me mount that baby.

Pat and Dennis came by with their grandson Cole to check out Seemore.

Kathy, Dennis and Cole walked to the playground stop by campground store and bought us all candy. We're glad for the time to hang out and talk.

We had dinner with Shaun and Laura at Spumoni Pizza Restaurant.

So good, a little crown jewel in Valencia.

Thanks for the wine and dinner guys.

Vasquez Rocks great rock meant formations here it's no wonder they shot many movies here and TV shows. Chick here to see the list.

This Agua Dulce Winery. Its right down the road from Vasquez Rocks.
Very nice testing room.

We went to pick up in Aunt Jean for dinner and Rich their neighbor was hanging out in his garage. I asked me if you ever make good use of the Sanderson Headers that I gave him. He said, he did and showed me the motor that was going to go into his truck. 

Rich is a old car guy and has some beautiful cars.

We met up with Uncle Jerry for dinner at Rattler's. It’s kind of famous in the area for their tri-tip, ribs, chicken and BBQ sauce. We finished it off with some carrot cake.

Off to pick up Aunt Jean at her house so we can cruise down to BBQ bear pit.
This is a place that we've been going to since I can remember, over 50 years. 
After a update and new restrooms they decided to not have sawdust on the floor anymore.
I'm sad

My cousin Susan stopped by after a spin class. Kathy showed her around. She said she really liked the motorhome.

Kathy snapped this picture of me inside the back cause it trying to rearrange some shelves for her.

Earthquake 9 p.m. April 15th 3.1
(Just a baby)

I guess there should be at least one earthquake while we were here.

Kathy had to go back to Orange County for a dental appointment then she stopped by work to visit with some friends. No pictures but she did this one for her friends.

This one Kathy took of traffic as she was leaving. LOL !

Check this ladder it’s a 7' tall, it folds up 3 ½” x 4 ½”

Review - Valencia Travel Village.

Very nice park located right next to the 126 freeway. A lot of construction going on around the freeway right now, they're putting up a sound wall between the freeway and the RV Park. Very nice facilities here, well groomed, 4G LTE and they do have cable

if your satellite cant through see through the trees.

No campfires!

Crazy well we were headed for Lone Pine Ca. but do to a recent event ( jacks up) we will be headed for Bakersfield Ca. now 

Stay tuned...