On the Move 4-3

Did ya miss me? We had a long day yesterday and didn’t have our internet last night, but I did write about our day:

We were up just after 6 this morning and got ourselves going. We said good-bye to Maxine and Stan again, they were on their morning walk before they headed out, and they were the last to leave. We pulled out at 7.

We wanted to get going early…for us anyway…because big wind was predicted for late afternoon and early evening in the So. Cal. Desert areas and leaving early kept us from hitting any city areas during commute hours.

We took the same route we took to Palm Desert almost two weeks ago and stopped in Westmoreland on SR86 south of the Salton Sea for our toast, stopped in Mecca on 86 before Indio for fuel and toodled on north to I-10. Our next stop was the rest area west of Palm Springs for a potty break at 11:30. There were lots of wind turbines and most were running all through there. The haze or smog was really bad there today.

We followed 215 north through San Bernardino to hook into 15 north for a bit where we jumped onto SR 138 west which was an interesting piece of highway that we have never been on before, it runs along the base of the snowy mountains and high above the valley and there were lots of Joshua trees and yellow wildflowers. We stopped along there around 1:00 for another rest and wandered through Palmdale on 138 where we stopped for fuel at 1:55.

We stayed on 138 west all the way to I-5. The poppies were stunning! Never a good place to stop of course and I didn’t realize that we would be going by the road off 138 that goes through the Antelope Valley where there is a huge, often photographed area of California Poppies, but we wanted to get to 5 and hopefully beat the predicted wind. I got all of these pictures flying down the highway!

We hit I-5 at 2:52 just south of Gorman. That area of I-5 in the spring looks like a giant artist has squirted out blobs of orange and yellow paint on the green hillsides and every once in awhile you would catch a blob of purple, so very pretty.

At 3:00 we stopped at Tejon Pass rest area to have dinner and boy did it feel good to stretch. We had leftovers and salad…so very nice traveling with your home! Back on the road at 4:00, a potty break on up the road at 6:00 near Kettleman and then at 7:00 we landed for the night at the Apricot Tree Restaurant parking lot for the night, exit 368 off I-5. They allow RV’s to park in their parking lot overnight, but not truckers which is nice…quieter.

A twelve hour driving day for us and we hit a bit of wind here and there but not the huge wind and gusts that were predicted for the south areas we came through. Every time we stopped the weather was really nice and it was sunny. We are boondocking so no news or internet for us, so we don’t know if the winds were as bad as they thought they would be through there. It was just a little breezy on 5 in places which was good…better than a huge headwind. We traveled 520 miles today.

So now for today:

Our night was quiet but windy and not having our landing gear down we were a little squeakier and rockier than we normally would have been. After being in the truck for about 10 of the 12 hours we were on the road my whole body was really sore. I was surprised at how sore my neck and shoulders were and my back muscles. Every time we stopped I ran in place, stretched, took a walk so my feet and legs wouldn’t puff up like balloons; it really helped, but I still should have taken Ibuprofen before I went to bed…I would have slept better.

We didn’t have as long of a drive today so we didn’t rush to get out, I went next door to the McDonalds but the line was really long with oodles of Asian tourists, so I didn’t wait just for coffee. We hit the road at 8:38.

We stopped again at the Andersen’s Pea Soup exit and got fuel…we had to wait in line forever, they place we usually get fuel was closed so we had to wait with the truckers over at the other station. It is quiet the process, you have to wait for them to fuel, then they pull up and go in to pay, but because we don’t take as long as a big-rig to fuel up we have to wait for them to finish whatever long paying routine/shopping thing they do inside before we can leave…you are blocked in. One must have a book or something to do while waiting…smile. Larry was busy washing the layers of bug guts off the windshield.

The McDonalds at this exit wasn’t as busy so we tried their pancakes and sausage…not great, but certainly not the worst pancakes I have ever had…the coffee was good though. We hit the road again at 10:20. This picture is of the California Aqueduct that ships water from Northern California to Southern California. It is really surprising that so much of the land along I-5 is still agricultural and quite a lot is just wild still.

We stopped at the last rest area before the split to Sacramento or the Bay Area and then in Stockton we took highway 4 west to Antioch. We hadn’t been on that road in over 20 years or so, it is a bumpy, slow, windy narrow levee road, but now there was a large bypass and was quicker and easier than it used to be…it has been that way for awhile I’m sure.

We arrived at the Antioch Fairgrounds at 1:00 and we had traveled 146 miles. We were driving into a very strong headwind, which is typical for spring on I-5 in California.

The annoying thing about this place is the sewer connection is as far back as it can be and we don’t reach because of a post and our slide-out, so we dumped the gray tanks and we’ll just go easy on those and hook up and dump them again and the black tank before we leave. We have some extra hose, but it isn’t an ideal situation and there is some seepage if Larry doesn’t hold the fittings just right.

It is always amazing how dirty all the surfaces get in the trailer when we travel, I always wipe everything down after we get parked…part of the setup routine. Stuff just shakes off or out of all kinds of places while in motion, it is never bad, but our home stays really clean when every time you move you HAVE to clean…smile.

We could have gone visiting but we decided to just hang and relax for the afternoon, and you would think that I would have worked on the blog, but noooo, I procrastinated until here I am after dark pounding away on the keyboard and editing pictures. It’s a process though when I have taken so many pictures in a day. I go through and delete the horrible ones and then I go through them a few times deciding on my favorite ones and then I go through them a few more times so I can decide on the last choices for editing and posting on the blog.

Tomorrow and Sunday we will be visiting family…hopefully I’ll get home in time in the evening to keep you posted!

If you click or double click on the photos they should come up bigger so you can see them easier. I posted so many I thought making them small might help speed up your loading.