There was a lot of discussion on how we should tackle the
over 300 miles we need to travel in the next two days. At one point I even considered driving it all
in one day to give us more time here at San Benito. But that is a long way to travel with the RV
and towed car.
Vicky was initially worried that temperatures in Southern
California would still be high and we would need to stop at a
campsite so we could use the A/C. She
found a nice place in the city of Bakersfield,
about 175 miles from here. But things
have cooled down so that won't be necessary, and when I found that Bakersfield
is a city of 360,000 people and we'd be going through it, and not even on a
freeway, I pushed for an alternate route.
Whatever happens, we start with 46 miles on CA25. This is a very narrow and twisty road with
some construction. Vicky drives safely
but it takes over 1.5 hours to reach the junction with CA198 where we stop for
a break. I take over for the next 35
miles, which at first takes us up and down steep mountain grades. Spectacular, but scary! The road eventually flattens out as we reach
the Central Valley again, seeing more fruit trees and other crops, and we reach
Interstate 5 where we can safely travel at the California "towing
vehicle" speed limit of 55mph.
We've agreed to stay at an RV-friendly truckstop branded TA,
a total of just over 200 miles drive for today.
This will leave us only 80 miles or so tomorrow. We'll follow I-5 to Santa Clarita, then take
CA 14 to Soledad Canyon Resort. Vicky
isn't happy about this. Many years ago
she drove her truck pulling a horse trailer through the Los
Angeles area and considers it a nightmare. She's worried that this driving will stress
me out.
It's for this reason that Vicky vetoed my other suggestion that
after leaving CA 25 we go down US101 and spend the night at a Thousand Trails
campsite in Santa Barbara. While this in
itself would be easy, we'd then have been driving across the LA metro area. I've chosen the Santa Clarita route as we
still get off I-5 40 miles North of LA.
However, as Vicky's driving I discover a road - CA138 - that looks
straight and will take us over to Lancaster
on CA14 without the LA area driving.
We'll come at the resort from the other direction, but it's about the
same distance.
So as we pull into the truckstop we're both happier about
tomorrow, and despite the hairy driving earlier today the drive has given us no
problems. The place is a nice
surprise. They have a large parking lot
for cars and RV's. The RV spaces are
marked and we park in the one farthest from the business area. We already agreed that we'll eat here,
knowing we'll be tired after the long drive.
They have the usual array of fast food restaurants but as we pull in we
note they also have a Black Bear Diner.
We discovered Black Bear earlier this year. They do hearty breakfasts all day, but this
time I choose a "bacon cheeseburger salad". This is a huge salad plate with ground beef,
bacon, cheese and onions. An excellent
choice. Vicky goes with a breakfast item
- Shasta Scramble, with fresh fruit.
Back to the RV for a surprisingly quiet night.
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