Vicky's original plan to get us down to Soledad Canyon by Saturday
while avoiding the possibly snowy Sierras was a series on one night stays,
mostly at Thousand Trails parks, of which we're members. The one she'd planned for tonight turned out
to be full, so we decide to combine 2 days' journeys into one and drive almost
200 miles to San Benito, which is
near the west coast (about 50 miles) in the Coast Mountains. 200 miles may not seem like a long way, but
in the RV, pulling the car, it's usually our upper limit. Plus, rain was again forecast for today.
It's sunny and warm as we set out, about 10:30am.
We're not early risers and since we're only 30 miles from Sacramento
and will have to drive though the city, we want to avoid the morning commute
time, and we do so. This makes it an easy
drive to pick up I-5 south, which we'll be following for most of the day.
I'm happier driving through the city than Vicky would
be. The only scary moment is when a
taxi, who ought to have known better, buts in front of me at the last
minute. Fortunately I can avoid
him! About 30 miles out of Sacramento
Vicky has found a gas station with reasonable (for California)
prices and it's a Flying J Truck Stop so there's plenty of room for our big
rig.
Vicky goes in to use the facilities and returns with hot cinnamon
rolls from Cinnabon, a rare treat. She
also offers to drive the next step, thinking me for driving through the city. We're still in fruit growing country so at
first it's an easy drive, but then we find ourselves near the city of Stockton,
which I'm surprised to find is a port.
It looks to be 100 miles inland but my map confirms that a series of
rivers connect it to San Francisco Bay.
Vicky's more concerned that she's now also driving in city
traffic and, after about 25 miles, we're both delighted to be out in the
country again. This is the Central
Valley of California, one of the most productive farming areas in the western USA,
so it's interesting trying to identify the various crops as we drive
south. Eventually we start to climb a little,
leaving the valley to our east, and now we're passing vineyards and fruit growing
areas.
Eventually it's time to leave the freeway and head west on
CA152 into the Coastal range of Mountains.
We again change drivers, stopping at a small fruit and nut farm. Vicky gets some almonds and I indulge in
chile pineapples (another "Don't knock it till you've tried it!" as
they're sweet and hot at the same time).
There's a black and white cat sitting in the yard who walks away when I
talk to him, so I apologize to the lady in the store for disturbing her
cat. It turns out that they have a whole
family of feral cats and the one I saw is just starting to warm up to the lady after
2 years. We have a nice chat about cats
and continue our journey. Fortunately
our cats didn't see theirs!
This is a new area for us.
We drive up and down the mountains, which are really large hills -
nothing in height compared with the Sierras or the Rockies. But they are covered in something that's gold
in color and have a beauty all their own.
Once over the top and down the other side, we see vineyards interspersed
with fruit farms.
We turn onto CA156 and then some country roads that connect
us to CA25, which we'll be following after we leave here. Thanks to the long drive today, though, we
can stay for 2 nights. We're in San
Benito County
where the County Fair starts tomorrow and as we're passing the fairgrounds, a
woman decides to turn into them. For
whatever reason, she didn't see my 35 foot RV and pulls in front. Fortunately I did see her and was able to
brake, and equally fortunately nobody was right behind me. Don't know what the woman was thinking. Maybe she just wasn't thinking!
Anyway, we're soon ready to turn off on the 4 mile road to
the resort, which turns out to be wonderful.
As I said, we're in these golden hills.
Opposite the check-in kiosk is a welcoming committee of a family of
deer! We disconnect the car and drive
around to find a suitable site for the RV and see more deer, some delightful
ground squirrels of a type that's new to us, and - wonder of wonders - a
bobcat! That's one feline we've never
seen in the wild and so this makes our day.
We find a shaded pull-through site and get set up. There was supposed to be rain today but it
held off except for a very light sprinkle just before we arrived, which is a
blessing. Quill, for only the second
time, chose to lie on the dashboard as we were traveling through the
hills. Last time she did that I had to
turn on the windshield wipers which made her run away fast - she must have thought
they we're going to attack her. So I'm
doubly glad I didn't have to use them today.
Vicky is preparing a dinner of grilled chicken and the fresh
vegetables we picked up at the farmers' market in Grass
Valley while I take our laundry
over to the onsite laundromat. This is
when the rain starts. It's quite heavy
for a while, then eases off.
As I write this, I hear steady rain outside but it's snug
and warm in the RV tonight and the rain is supposed to stop by tomorrow
morning. We have a special trip planned in
the car tomorrow but to find out about it you'll have to come back for
tomorrow's post. Thanks for reading.
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