May 1st - Saturday
In the morning, we picked up Sara and headed over to Balboa Park. We enjoyed browsing in the artist village, riding on the little railroad, and walking through the botanical garden. We then decided it was high time we make this an official coast to coast adventure so we headed to Coronado. With the Hotel Del in the background, we stuck our toes in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean. After some relaxing at the beach, we headed back to the RV and had a burger cook out on the grill. 

May 2nd - Sunday
We joined Sara at her church, Jamul Community Church. Alex loved playing with the other kids, toys, and on their nice playground during the services while the girls enjoyed their time at junior church. After we dropped Sara off, we did a little shopping, grabbed a bite of lunch and then, since it was a scorching hot day, went to see "Home on the Range" which the kids enjoyed and gave Bill a chance to snooze. We then went back to our camp and spent time in the pool. Alex had five older teenage girl 'rescuers' when he climbed down the ladder at the deep end of the larger pool. They didn't know that he doesn't like getting his face wet and won't let go of the ladder! Maybe by summer's end we can get him doing some basic swimming. 

May 3rd - Monday
We readied the RV to move on to our next site. Our particular Thousand Trails membership is a bit complicated and we can't stay in any park more than 4 nights or we have to stay outside the parks in our region for 7 nights. If we stay at one park and leave, we also have to stay  out the same number of nights before we return...Whew! Since we have to wait 7 nights before we can go to our next TT park we are going to take advantage of some of the associated resort parks international that we only have to pay $8 a night for....today we're headed off to our first of these, the K.Q. Ranch in Julian, CA. 

The weather is 20 degrees cooler here (83 degrees vs. 103 in Jamul).  After setting up, we went to the nearby town and had some delicious pie at the Julian Pie Company. The apple pie is made with the locally grown apples that the town became famous for in the 1896 world's fair. After we returned to the RV park, the kids played on the playgrounds and then we all went swimming in the wonderfully warm pool. Tonight Becca helped make dinner.

May 4th - Tuesday
We are in Julian, a small town up in the mountains that is known for its gold mining history and its apples.  Like in Jamul, the evidence of the July fires driven by the Santa Ana winds is all around us.  Many other campgrounds in the area are still closed and the roads are blocked by crews cutting down the burnt dead trees do they won't fall on the road.  The town of Julian was evacuated and many homes were destroyed. This campground sustained a bit of damage but reopened in January and plans it's grand re-opening next weekend. The girls did a lot of schoolwork. Bill, Becca, and Alex took an afternoon swim and then we all toured the area a bit. That evening, the girls and Sandra went swimming in the pool. This campground has the nicest pool of the trip - clean, Olympic sized, heated, and not crowded. The sunset that evening was spectacular due to some smoke haze from some distant fires. 

May 5th - Wednesday
Bill took the girls on a hike at Volcan Mountain. They saw a snake, squirrels, butterflies (including a California Sister), and a fawn. Meanwhile Sandra took care of Alex who is a big "Bob the Builder" fan and he enjoyed watching the real tractors that were driving through the campground doing work.  In the afternoon, we went to the King Leo candy factory. The 'tour' consists of looking through large windows into the factory but no one was working (they either had stopped for the day or had taken a break after the large tour bus came through). We drove around for a bit to Mesa Grande looking for signs of the Himalaya mine (they have been reported to have tourmaline in the tailings) but were unable to find it. It was a very pretty drive though! Back at the park, the kids spent time at the playground before we all went swimming again.

May 6th - Thursday
Off we go - to exactly where we don't know. We decide to head back to the coast and see what we find. We wind up in Oceanside at the Oceanside RV resort which is a few blocks away from the beach. We enjoy the cable TV and then head over to the beach to watch the sunset after dinner. The clouds come in and block most of the view but the kids still have a blast playing in the sand and surf. It has been the most expensive campground of our trip so far and while nice, it's not worth staying longer so we plan to head out the next day.

May 7th - Friday
We decide to go to the National RV factory in Perris, CA and pick up some spare parts and possibly do the tour. While eating lunch, we spot another family walking through the parking lot with young girls. They caught our eye and we wondered if they had an RV here or are just looking. Turns out we catch their eye too. They stop and ask the girls if their parents are available. They are planning to start full timing for a year, beginning no later than August. We invite them in to share our experiences. We have a delightful time getting to know them and their girls who are the same ages as ours. Everyone takes the factory tour while Sandra stays with Alex.  Bill found it very informative and interesting. He and the girls have also acquired some safety glasses (they require you to wear them on the tour through the factory) which can be put to good use again when rock hounding! Afterwards, our new friends, Pete, Michelle, and their girls Savannah and Miranda, help get us set up at the nearby state park at Perris Lake where we'll stay for a couple of nights. Bill gets the bikes down and takes the kids bike riding around the park where they check out the lake and playground.

May 8th - Saturday
Unfortunately the adults didn't sleep too well last night. One fellow camper was playing music with a throbbing bass after 10 p.m. and at 2 a.m. Bill had to ask others who were several sites away to turn their piercingly bright halogen lights away from pointing at our bedroom window! However, we slept in until nearly 8 and then Bill took Alex and Becca for a bike ride across the dam. After lunch we set out to have pictures developed, try to send our camera off for repair, and check email at the library. After, the kids enjoy more playground fun.

May 9th - Sunday
After a restful night's sleep (the campground was calm and quiet last night!) we went to church at Calvary Chapel in Menifee with our new friends, the Perez family, and then we enjoyed a tasty lunch at Rosa's Cafe and Tortilla Factory. We then joined them for the afternoon at their home and had dinner with them. We had a wonderful time.

May 10 - Monday
Again the campground was very peaceful and almost deserted after the weekend crowds had left. We packed out and headed out to another Thousand Trails campground, Soledad Canyon in Acton, CA. We have friends nearby in Palmdale. We found a nice, shaded site with a view of one of the playgrounds and close proximity to the pool and laundry. The kids explored the grounds and were delighted to find a play area for Alex called Toddler Town.

May 11 - Tuesday
Becca and Bill got an early start to check out a rock hounding site, an abandoned copper mine, that is very close to the campground.  Later, we visited our friends Jani and Jeff in Palmdale.  Jani and Bill worked together at Oxbow in Florida for 10 years.  Jeff, who works for NASA, was transferred to Southern CA about 4 years ago. The kids swam in the pool and Jeff treated us to dinner at the "Wing and a Prayer" restaurant, a pilot hangout near Edwards Air Force Base with lots of flying memorabilia decorating the walls. 

May 12 - Wednesday
Today we visited Devil's Punchbowl County Park with Jani and Jeff and some of their family.  It is an LA County park on a fault line parallel to the San Andreas fault which is very near here.  Sometime in the past an earthquake created the bowl and rock formations here.  They also have several live snakes and birds at the park.  With ranger supervision, they have a kestrel that will perch on your arm.  Bill, Alex, Jeff, Lindsey, and Stephanie hiked the one mile trail down into the bowl.  Later, the kids had a great time swimming in the pool with Jeff while Bill played football with Kaira, the family Australian Shepherd whose catching is better than Bill's throwing.  We enjoyed a tasty dinner of  barbeque chicken prepared by Jeff and Stephanie.  Jani then showed Laura some Pilates exercises that will help her hip flexibility and leg strength.

May 13 - Thursday
While Sandra packed up the RV, Bill and the girls went back to Palmdale to pick up a video from Jani and get Alex's hair cut.  Then it was on to the Rancho Oso campground near Santa Barbara.  Part of the trip was along Route 101, the Pacific Coast Highway which in places gives fabulous views of the Pacific.  In the late afternoon we took a car trip to nearby Solvang, a town where all the buildings are designed to look like a Danish village.  We bought some Danish pastries from a Mexican woman dressed in Danish clothing. Looking through our CA rockhounding book, we found a collecting site near our campground and found some nice chocolate colored jasper to add to the girls collection. 

May 14 - Friday
Laura and Sandra went on a horseback ride.  In the afternoon we went to Santa Barbara to get our mail, have the brakes on the car looked at, and check out the town.  Santa Barbara has palm trees and beaches, just like home in Florida.  The difference is Santa Barbara has hills and mountains in the background.  It is a very attractive city but the real estate prices are higher than the mountains that give its beauty. After walking through the shopping areas along State Street, we went over to Chase Palm Park and rode on a vintage carousel. Then the kids had a blast playing on a nautical themed playground. We wrapped our visit up with a walk down the pier where the kids had ice cream and the adults had fish tacos. 

May 15 - Saturday
We intended to go to Oxnard for a strawberry festival today but the brakes on the car weren't repaired until mid-afternoon so we decided to let the kids spend the day doing activities at the campground instead.  The campgrounds we have been to have very little for kid specific activities during the week but often have quite a lot on weekends. The Rancho Oso Campground had a fairly long list of kid friendly Saturday events on their schedule including a golden horseshoe hunt, a scavenger hunt, a nature walk, and s'mores in the evening.  After Bill got back from the car repairs we all did a hike to a waterfall near the campground.

May 16 - Sunday
Today was a long travel day to Morgan Hill, CA.  Sandra drove the scenic route which included about 70 miles on the narrow, windy, and hilly Route 1 along the cliffs overlooking the Pacific.  There were not many big RV's towing cars on this stretch of road.  Just north of San Simeon we saw dozens of elephant seals on the beach.  There were also quite a few very contented cows with ocean front pastures along this sparsely inhabited stretch of California's central coast. We drove past San Simeon, Big Sur, and Monterey along this route. We encountered some traffic from the Castorville artichoke festival (Hey - Marilyn Monroe was crowned artichoke queen here back in '48!) 

May 17 - Monday
Today we took the kids into San Francisco for the day.  Having been there several times each, there were many things that we wanted them to see.  We managed to squeeze in Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, the youth hostel where Bill stayed 20 plus years ago when he was here, lunch in Chinatown, Coit Tower, Lombard Street, the sea lions on Pier 39, ice cream at Ghiradelli's, and Golden Gate Park.  We wanted to take a ride on the cable cars but the lines were too long.  Heading south, we drove through the impressive campus of Stanford University.  Also on the way home, we stopped in Sunnyvale to see Bill's nephew Bobby who recently moved to California from North Carolina.

May 18 - Tuesday
We did lots of errands today: prescription refills, photos developed, and food supplies stocked up.  In the afternoon we went to the National John Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA, the town where the author grew up and is buried.  The center has many well done,  interactive exhibits that are scenes from his work and the volunteers who work there are extremely nice. Even the kids enjoyed being able to touch and climb on things such as a model pony (from "The Red Pony) and going through the new agricultural exhibit wing too. 

On the way back to the RV we stopped at a couple of roadside farm stands and got some cherries and garlic (cherries are in season and Gilroy, CA bills itself as the garlic capital but we noticed a lot of the garlic came from El Centro, CA...).  We had hoped to hook up with Bobby again this evening for dinner but he ended up working very late.

May 19 - Wednesday
Travel day to Yosemite Lakes campground just outside Yosemite National Park. We picked up some fresh mushrooms at a farm in Morgan Hill in the morning.  The afternoon was schoolwork, driving, and setting up in a new campground.  Our campsite is right on the south fork of the Tuolumne River so after dinner we set up our chairs next to the water and talked with our campground neighbors on the west side while listening to the banjo playing of our neighbors on the east side. 

May 20 - Thursday

We left North Palm Beach 4 months ago today.  Time and miles are flying by.

Yosemite National Park is beautiful.  We are surely missing the digital camera. Hopefully Nikon has been able to fix it and is already sending it back to us. Sandra and Bill have been to Yosemite before but in both cases it was over 20 years ago.  Sandra was here on a trip with a church youth group and Bill hitchhiked here from San Jose.  It's nice to be here to re-visit the park and show it to the kids.  We drove to the park late in the morning stopping at scenic points along the way.  We took a short hike to Bridal Veil falls. We lunched next to the Merced River with views of the granite cliffs and Yosemite Falls.  In May, the waterfalls have their highest water flow and though there are many people here, it is not uncomfortably crowded.  After lunch, we went to the Visitor Center and attended a ranger led talk about the history of rock climbing in the park.  The ranger told of a Swiss blacksmith/rock climber who came here and re-engineered the European piton (rock climbing anchor) using the metal alloy from Model T Ford axles to make pitons that would work on Yosemite's hard granite.

After the Grand Canyon, Sandra had added some new sleeping bags to our camping equipment inventory.  Tonight, Bill and Laura tried them out and slept behind the RV in a tent next to the river.

We started a conversation with our campground neighbors yesterday about their favorite National Parks.  After visiting Yosemite, we asked the kids for their favorites.  Laura called it a tie between Big Bend and Yosemite.  Becca called it a tie between the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.  We all agreed that the Grand Canyon has the best architecture.  Our campground neighbor placed Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Glacier in a three way tie. We'll have to vote again after we visit Glacier and Yellowstone!

May 21 - Friday
Laura enjoyed the night in the tent. Now Alex and Becca both want their turn.  Bill wants a softer ground or more padding.  Is the ground harder than it used to be?  

The kids tried out their new gold pan in the river behind the campground. It's our new plan to finance the road trip and offset rising fuel costs. We gassed up the car this morning for 3.31 per gallon, by far the most we have ever paid.

On our way to Toulumne Meadows we stopped at a picnic area next to  Lake Tenaya for lunch and had a cookout in a snowstorm.  The clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped into the 30's, and it snowed like crazy.  Toulumne Meadows was still pretty snowy and just turning green.  Spring comes late at this elevation.  Most years, Tioga Pass, the east entrance to the park that leads towards Nevada, is not open until June.  The snow last winter was less than usual (bad news for Californians who rely on it for irrigation and drinking water) so it opened early.  We drove past the meadows to Tioga Pass at nearly 10,000 feet and then turned around and headed back. We saw a marmot and elk along the way.  Before returning to the campground, we stopped at the Fire Lookout Station and after we took in the terrific views, Alex got a thrill seeing the fire helicopter lift off the ground and watched it do practice maneuvers.

May 22 - Saturday
Today we left the RV in storage at Yosemite and drove to King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.  Since we are returning to Yosemite in 3 days and much of the mileage we will be traveling on steep, narrow mountain roads that would be harder driving in the RV, we decided to take the car and find alternate lodging for a few days.  King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are adjacent to one another in the Sierra Mountains about 3 hours south of Yosemite.  King's Canyon is the deepest canyon in the country and Sequoia National Park contains the General Sherman tree which is the largest living thing on the  planet.  This area is similar to Yosemite, with granite mountains scraped by glaciers.  It is much less well known than Yosemite and therefore much less crowded. 

Bad lodging chapter 1 - We knew it was the weekend but the ranger at the gate said that there was plenty of lodging still available in the park.  He was wrong.  After many strikeouts and phone calls we ended up at the King's Canyon Lodge.  We knew that this private lodge, not regulated by the park, was reported not to be very good. The rustic main building appropriately decorated with stuffed dead animals looked ok and we were sick of driving so we took a room.  We could have overlooked the bad decor, lack of door locks, nasty carpet, and paper thin walls.  The bed however, was the most uncomfortable thing we have ever (not) slept on. 

May 23 - Sunday
We drove around King's Canyon in the morning and went over to see the Sequoias in the afternoon. We stopped to look at some pretty falls within the canyon and walked around some of the groves of 'big trees'. We saw the General Grant, the third largest tree, along the Grant Grove Tree Trail that included many trees named after states. Some were fallen and one you could walk inside the entire length. We found egg sized sequoia pine cones and learned lots of cool facts about the trees. We also did the Congress Trail which included the sequoia, General Sherman, the world's largest living thing.

Bad lodging chapter 2 - We moved to the Grant's Grove rustic cabin for night number 2.  The beds were firm.  What we hadn't counted on was the wimpy propane heater being completely inadequate in the cold mountain night air.  In addition, in the middle of the night the loud rustling of mice attacking our food awoke us. In the morning, we discovered that they also chewed a strap on Alex's car seat.  The park requires you to move all food and car seats from your car so as not to attract bears. Bill has a theory that the whole thing is a setup by the mice to keep them in fat city.  Everything we moved into the cabin from the car to save from the bears, they ate.  The kids slept fairly well (oblivious to the munching mice) but immediately upon awakening piled in with Mom and Dad to warm up.  Five people in a double bed is a bit beyond the bed's designed quota. Sandra proclaims she will kiss the RV when we get back to it.

May 24 - Monday
The girls (and Sandra) completed their junior rangers programs. Each national park seems to have some slight variation on the program. There are often different activities or amounts that need to be completed depending on the child's age. A few require attendance in a ranger led activity (something the budget cutback at our national parks is reducing the availability of) and picking up a bag of litter. Sometimes you buy the book at the visitor center, other times it's free, usually you get a plastic badge, other times you also get a cloth patch.  At this park, the ranger announced the girls names and their accomplishments over the intercom at the visitor center and we got cloth patches but no pins. But whatever the variation, the girls usually learn something about the park. This time, one new thing they learned involved a type of squirrel called a chickaree that feeds on green sequoia pine cones.

The nature highlight of our day was watching a mother bear and 2 cubs in a meadow off the road in the afternoon.  They appeared to be eating plants and occasionally the two cubs would scamper and frolic. 

After the last 2 nights lodging fiascos, tonight we stayed in a chain hotel in Fresno with a spacious two room suite, comfy beds, climate control, and apparently good pest control. Ahhh.

May 25 - Tuesday
Today its back to Yosemite and back to home sweet RV.  We extended checkout at the hotel until 1:00 and let the kids turn their brains into Kid Cable Channel mush while Sandra and Bill took advantage of the reliable phone service, high speed internet, and laundry facility to get some tasks done.  We then drove back to our RV, stopping in Yosemite on the way to take in the incredible views at Glacier Point.  You can view an incredible amount of Yosemite Valley and feel like you're looking straight across to the climbers scaling Halfdome. We returned to the RV with a new sense of appreciation for its comforts after our recent lodging challenges when we left it behind. Having a private bathroom steps away, food storage that is bear and rodent free, and our own comfy beds with our own pillows and sheets is a wonderful way to travel!

May 26 - Wednesday
We had a picnic lunch in Yosemite.  It was a warm sunny day so the butterflies were all around us.  Then we hiked a mile down into to Toulumne Grove and saw some sequoias in this park. The way out was all uphill so Bill carried Laura and Sandra carried Alex while Becca carried herself and required a 'dose' of her special hiker fuel, a Jolly Rancher, to help her to the top.  

Later, we drove to Hetch Hetchy, where the Toulumne river is dammed to form the reservoir that provides San Francisco with 85% of its drinking water 160 miles away.  Our route took us slowly past a huge number of people camped on the side of the Evergreen Road that goes through Stanislaus National Forest. It turns out that they were attending a multi-day 'strawberry' music festival that occurs over Memorial Day weekend and then again over Labor Day weekend. There is a large waterfall flowing into the reservoir. We walked across the top of the dam and then through a tunnel on the other side that leads to many back country hiking trails. We took another route out to avoid the crowds. 

Becca lost a tooth today.  So far, the tooth fairy has had a amazing ability to keep up with our location.  Maybe she checks the website.

May 27 - Thursday
Once again, the tooth fairy came through.

It's our last day in Yosemite so the girls had to visit the ranger station to get their Jr. Ranger badges.  They finished the books which contained some very creative activities including one about sequoia trees that we did when we hiked into the grove yesterday and another that involved finding facts about people buried in the Yosemite Cemetery.

Today was wildlife day, a fitting end to our visit to Yosemite.  Just past the entry gate to the park this morning there were dozens of butterflies puddling in the moist soil next to the road.  We counted 3 species of butterflies (Silvery Blue, California Sister, and numerous California Tortoiseshells) and 1 moth.  On an afternoon hike to Vernal Falls, Bill and Becca saw a rattlesnake, our first sighting of one in the wild though many places we have visited have been in rattlesnake country.  While driving out of the valley we saw 3 large black bears in the woods next to the road.  Two were cinnamon colored and one was black.  On the road to the campground we saw a mule deer next to the road. The wildlife watch wrapped up at the end of the day with the girls being fascinated by flying ants that were emerging from their home near the playground.

We also stopped at the Happy Isles Nature Center and read about the 1996 rock fall that killed one person and nearly flattened the center. While Bill and Becca hiked, Alex napped and Sandra and Laura toured the Museum and Indian village. 

May 28 - Friday
Today was a travel day to Lake of the Springs Campground outside of Browns Valley, CA.  We stopped in Sacramento to restock the pantry.  We will spend Memorial Day weekend at Lake of the Springs campground.  According to the ranger, they are booked solid for the weekend and few sites remain when we arrive.  We set up in an area on a hill furthest from the lake that still isn't too crowded.  Lake of the Springs is one of the largest campgrounds we have stayed at with over 500 sites on 950 acres. 

Now that we are full timing, instead of looking forward to the holiday weekends, we dread the crowds they bring to the roads and campgrounds! We can't make reservations for the 4th of July weekend within the Thousand Trails system yet since we can only have one holiday weekend reservation at a time. We may also encounter problems securing sites, particularly on the weekends, once we start staying at state parks again over the summer. 

May 29 - Saturday
We were supposed to relax today after a very busy schedule over the past week and a half trying to see all we could of 3 National Parks. In the morning, we stayed at the campground, did a paddleboat race on the lake, and played at the playground. We somehow ended up doing a trip in the afternoon to check out some gold panning sites.  We didn't find any gold but Laura and Bill did find a goldmine of bugs.  At one river, there was a newly emerged dragonfly drying its wings on a rock.  Further upstream, on a damp riverbank, there were dozens of butterflies.  There were 5 species in all: spring azures, western tiger swallowtails, pale swallowtails, California sisters, and one we're still trying to find in the book.  The numerous large colorful swallowtails were especially pretty. 

Our second stop was at South Yuba River state park. We only explored the river below the old arched bridge and if fun is measured by how wet your clothes get, the kids had a blast. There was another couple gold panning there also and a sign that said "hands and pans only" with a gold miner icon indicated that this must be a common spot to stop and try your luck on the gold trail of Rt. 49 .

May 30 - Sunday
Today Sandra vowed that we would not leave the campground.  The girls did another paddleboat race in the morning. After lunch, Lake of the Springs campground had a slip and slide for kids on the schedule.  There is a big hill in front of the lodge.  On this was laid a 50 foot long piece of thick plastic sheeting about 20 feet wide but folded to a 10 foot width.  Adults held and lifted the sides and bottom.  There were 2 hoses at the top as well as a woman with a case of Johnson's baby shampoo who lubed up each kid before they were launched.  The girls loved it but only got to go down twice because the lines were so long.

May 31 - Monday (Bill's Birthday)
In the morning we stopped in Chico to visit Brooke, a former co-worker of Sandra's, and her family at their lovely home there.  We continued north to Red Bluff, and then headed east to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  The volcano here erupted in 1914 and was the most recent eruption in the lower 48 states until it was upstaged by Mount St. Helens.  The roads were open but there were 15 foot snowbanks. We had to modify our plans for a picnic lunch since the picnic area was completely snowed in. We did take in views of the peaks that form the ring of an ancient volcano that was nearly 11 miles wide. We also did a boardwalk tour of the mud pots and sulfur vents. The girls did not care for the smell! We got back to the RV for a late birthday cookout and cake.

Wade Road Trip
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