Days 160 & 161- Saturday & Sunday - A Time of Puzzles

 We do travel along CA138 which turns out to be a straight road.  We first have a few miles on I-5 going over a low mountain pass, but everything is easy.  The area has had three years of drought, which is evident from the dry scrubland we pass all the way.

This area is called Antelope Valley but a little research shows me it hasn't had any antelope (pronghorn) for many years - and not much other wildlife either!  We eventually reach the Antelope Valley Freeway a/k/a CA Route 14 and take this through Lancaster and Palmdale into Soledad Canyon.

As directed by RV Trip Wizard we leave the freeway on Santiago Road, turning right on Soledad Canyon Road.  It's a cool canyon which, I later discover, was made famous in a Steven Spielberg movie called "Duel", starring Dennis Weaver.  I've never seen it but may want to now.

We pass by Crown Valley Road and come to Bootlegger Canyon Road, where we're told to turn left to get to the resort.  We immediately see this is a problem.  It's a dirt road which crosses railroad tracks and then seems very narrow and un-RV priendly.  We stop before crossing the tracks, unhitch the car and I drive it a little way to see what's happening.  The road names tell me this is the route the GPS wants us to take, but the condition of the road, not to mention the grades, tell me this is not one we want to drive on.  I stop a truck coming the other way and he confirms this is not the way to the resort and tells me which way to go.

I return to Vicky and the cats in the RV and after considering our options we're able to turn the RV and park it safely and then drive the car down the road.  The way the man suggested (if I understood him correctly) doesn't help, so we turn around and take the first turning, which is the other end of Crown Valley Road.  1000ft down the (paved) road, and there is the resort.   I later look at the confirmation and see that the address is on Crown Valley Road.  In future I'll check addresses first!

We get the RV, drive back and check in, finding we're not the first people to be misdirected!  But the resort is down in the valley, and we find a good spot with a full hookup so the day ends well.  We check out the clubhouse and find they have a "Hometown Collection" jigsaw puzzle that we haven't done.  This is one of a series of 1000 piece puzzles by an artist named Heronim.  They feature nostalgic scenes of real places in the USA, and all have a small black cat hidden somewhere in them.  We used to borrow these from the library in Sun City and enjoy them, so we bring this one back to the RV and after a dinner of grilled hamburger and salad we start on the puzzle.

About 1am we decide we should sleep, which we do until the cats wake us up to alleviate their (sic) starvation.  We then spend all day Sunday on the puzzle, without finishing it.  This is a great stress-free day that we both agree we need.