Texas, Here we Come

We've been talking about going to Texas and changing our residency for awhile. I've been hesitant because of our health insurance coverage won't be as good if we move. But, I'm biting the bullet and we're getting it done. Our route to Texas takes us through San Diego. 

One of my favorite places to stay in San Diego has been the Chula Vista KOA, but the last time we stayed, I realized how LOUD the freeway noise is there. Also their price seems like it has increased significantly. So for our stay in March, I feel lucky to have found space at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park. It is much more affordable for a longer stay as we are here to fulfill our Christmas present to Matthew (help with some home projects)! It's about 20 minutes from Matthew's, so it works well. 

We have a site near the top of the campground with a nice view. Our site has full hook-ups and is less than half the price of the KOA.

While we are in San Diego, Tom finds a potentially perfect RV for sale in Texas. Also, because he is working, we are not able to get much done at Matthew's house. So we ask a BIG favor of him...board Tank while we go check out this RV in Texas! And we're off!

RVs and Oregon

After spending time taking care of family, we finally hit the road again in late February. We're headed north for another repair to the on-going leak issue in the bedroom slide. Winter is the worst. We have to pull in the slide every time it rains...a hardship for Tom with our "RV" queen bed, which is significantly shorter than a regular queen. 

If you review our blog, you'll see we've already tried two repairs to this slide. This time, we've got an appointment at the Winnebago repair facility in Junction City, OR. Hope the manufacturer can actually fix the problem.   

On the way up, we stop at Valley of the Rogue State Park just north of Medford, OR. Although Tom and Tank have stayed here before, but I haven't. The Rogue River Greenway, an eventual 30 mile multi-use trail that will run from Grant's Pass to Gold Hill, passes through the park. It would have made for a great bike ride. Unfortunately, we're only here for one night, so the ride will have to wait. One nice thing for an overnight stay is to have a pull-through site so we don't need to unhook the toad. 

Tank sampling the Rogue River

The next day we make it to Junction City. Winnebago has overnight parking for customers who are having repairs done. It's a small parking lot with hook-ups. Not very attractive, so no pictures to share. 

In the morning, the repair person comes and picks up your rig at which point, you're homeless. We could only stand spending so much time in the lounge of the Winnebago facility. We ventured out and found the grand opening of a new Starbucks. Not crowded, comfy chairs, wifi, outlet to recharge our phones and laptops...and on top of that, they wanted to go outside and meet Tank! 

The next day, we stopped in at the Guaranty RV cafe for lunch. What the heck, while we're here, let's take a look at some RVs, the dealership is right across the parking lot... We ended up looking at some pre-owned Tiffins and Newmars and met their Newmar expert. Ended up coming back the next day to test drive a Newmar with its Comfort Drive feature. Learned alot about what we might want in a new coach. The salesman even hooked us up with a free night in their RV park (alot nicer than the Winnebago parking lot)! Almost sorry that they didn't have an RV that fit our needs. 

Somehow this RV shopping got Wendy wanting to see the County Coaches at Premier RV down the road. Country Coach went out of business along around 2009, but Premier specializes in repair and resale of these used very high end coaches. Wow! I was ready to forget size considerations (these coaches run 40+ feet) and buy one! 

An arm and a leg later, (but hopefully with a repaired RV), we're heading back home. The last stop in Oregon is the Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville. It is a beautiful RV park that is part of the Seven Feathers Casino. We took the shuttle bus across the freeway to the casino for a belated anniversary dinner at the K-Bar Steak House.

  

At the Guaranty dealership, our salesman mentioned said that a friend told him Seven Feathers was only $9 a night. Then on the way to the Seven Feathers, we saw a billboard that said something about $9 but no explanation. When we checked in, I asked about the billboard. I was told that if you have a players club card and you asked (they aren't allowed to tell you about it otherwise), you could stay for $9 a night. You better believe I have a club card now!!! 

Half Moon Bay & Pinnacles National Park

We're headed for a quick trip to the coast before Wendy needs to head back to care for her mom. One of our favorite places has always been Half Moon Bay, so we're headed there. However, we're trying a new park this time. We have reservations for two days at Half Moon Bay State Beach.

Our arrival time is a little early, so we have to wait at the entrance. The entrance sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean; however, the campsites are actually down at beach level. We're on the inside of the loop, but we can still get a glimpse of the ocean from where we are.

We initially planned on staying 2 nights but found out there was a beach side site available for one night, so we jumped at the chance to stay another night. The beach side site had a trail at the back that went through the dunes to a spot overlooking the beach. Such a great spot; glad we stayed!

Tom in his happy place

Spectacular sunsets too

From Half Moon Bay, we're working our way southeast to see Pinnacles National Park. Our next stop is Moss Landing, which is between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Home base will be the KOA, which is walking distance to Moss Landing Harbor entrance. The harbor offered a little bit of otter watching, and the Salinas River State Beach.

The night before we're scheduled to head to Pinnacles, Wendy gets a family emergency call, and she heads back home. This means Tom and Tank will be bachelors again and have a boys only trip to Pinnacles.

We had a long hike and Tank was pretty tuckered out once we got home.

One last post for 2019

After 3 years of being on the road, Wendy finally breaks down and lets Tom get his GIANT La-Z-Boy recliner for Christmas!

...no more going in and out without Tom's permission.

Just for chuckles, we wrap up this year with Tank dressed up in some of the "ducky" toys he's destroyed this year (Tom wants it known he took no part in this).

California Central Coast

We're now in the lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so on Friday, December 6th, we leave the Stockton area for Bakersfield, where Tom and Tank will spend the night while Wendy takes her sister and mom back home to Pasadena.

The next day, when Wendy returns to Bakersfield from Pasadena, we continue over to Morro Bay on the central coast. The Morro Bay area is one of our favorite areas in California to spend time. The weather is generally mild and agreeable, and the coastline is beautiful.

He's a little early, but while we are at the campground, we get a visit from Santa.

Before heading north, we take a side trip inland to Paso Robles to check out the wine country. We get a nice site at Paso Robles RV Ranch & Campground as the base camp for our visit. The campground is the only privately owned RV park left in Paso Robles and was a very well-kept and relaxing place to stay.

Our first stop was Oso Libre Winery. The wines were good and our server was very informative. We probably lingered a little longer than we should have, at the cost of seeing more wineries.

We had planned to have lunch along with our tasting at Oso Libre, but their kitchen was closed, so we stopped at the next food joint, which turned out to be AronHill Vineyards. Yay, we were still able to get our tasting and lunch!

Final stop for the visit is to Fratelli Perata Winery. Wendy wanted to visit, if for no other reason than to support a UC Davis viticulture and enology grad. Unfortunately, the day was winding down, so visit was very short.

Now it's Dec 16th, so we need to start making our way north. We've snagged a spot on the beach (ok, ok, it's winter, so there's all kinds of availability) at Seacliff State Beach.

We have a great visit taking walks along the beach.


There was only one stormy day with waves lapping at the camping area. Guess Tom thought the best remedy was to take Wendy to lunch at Cafe Sparrow, a must visit French cafe.

Unfortunately, Wendy was not enamored with the flavor of her pork belly sandwich. When the waitress asked how things were and noticed Wendy's hesitancy, she immediately made it right, and brought a new dish.

Heading Home for the Holidays

When we leave Carlsbad Caverns, it's now a dash across Arizona to make it back to California to take care of some business and get home for Thanksgiving. We stop in Benson, AZ then make our longest stop (2 nights) is at Leaf Verde in Buckeye, AZ. We stop there to visit friends and play pickleball nearby in Surprise, AZ.

We stop at the River Breeze RV Resort on the Colorado River in Ehrenberg, AZ, just shy of Blythe at the California border. We have some business at the California DMV and are hoping that Blythe with a population of about 21,000 will have a short line!

Successfully completing our business, we head to familiar ground, Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA.













Here, we relax, celebrate a birthday, and let Tom test out his shoulder playing pickleball.






















The Cathedral City hot air balloon festival was coming up the next weekend, so while we are there, we are treated to hot air balloons flying overhead.

Birthday dinner is at the POM Restaurant in the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino.

Fajitas for me

Onward to our favorite KOA in Chula Vista, where the crowds dissipate after we arrive...

But the big treat of the visit is to see our son Matthew and his first house!

Unlike last year, Matthew will not be carpooling home with us. We take our time and hit another favorite, Pala...

and a new one for us, the Madera District Fairgrounds, a cheap one night stop.

Carlsbad Caverns, NM

We have one more planned stop in New Mexico before we turn for home, and that is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We head that way via Roswell, NM and spend a couple of nights at the Red Barn RV Park.








It's just on the outskirts of town with unknown potential for seeing any aliens...

aliens, smaliens, just another hoax if you ask me!

From there, we land at White City RV Park, which is just a gravel parking lot on the entrance road into Carlsbad. The weather is finally starting to turn a little rainy, so maybe it's a good thing we will be underground tomorrow!

When you get to Carlsbad Caverns, there are 2 ways to enter the caverns. One is to take an elevator 75 floors down to the Big Room, or you can walk down into the caverns through the natural entrance. From the natural entrance, it is a 1.25 mile hike down into the caverns. We didn't want to miss anything, so we took the natural entrance.

What appear to be wires are actually handrails of the trail switchbacks down below.