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.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, NM and Cochiti Recreation Area, NM

I find it amazing how many national monuments (like Bandelier) I've never heard of... So now we're leaving Bandelier to head to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.

We were going to pass on this one, but my friend, Karen, told me it was worth staying an extra day to visit... Tent Rocks is almost directly south of Bandelier, but to get there, we have to make an almost complete circle back through Santa Fe.

Tent Rocks does not have a campground, but we are lucky to find the Buffalo Grove Loop in the Cochiti Recreation Area nearby. It's an Army Corps of Engineers campground. The lower campground is on a hill overlooking the reservoir. The campsites there are paved and very spacious with a really nice shelter over the picnic table. They also have water and electric and the cell tower is just on the other side of the hill. They don't take reservations, so we were lucky that at this time of year there's plenty of  space available.

We arrive on Oct. 31 and plan to visit Tent Rocks on Nov. 1. On the 1st, we drive to the Monument and find it is closed for a native ceremonial celebration.

So I console myself by making Tom take me to dinner in Santa Fe at the Paper Dosa. This is another restaurant that I saw on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Once again, I'm excited to go and hopeful that the food will be amazing...

We decide to do their tasting menu. Starters are Chile and Onion Pakora (hot chiles and red onions battered in spiced rice flour, flash fried, and served with eggplant chutney) and Chennai Chicken (fried chicken marinated in yogurt and spices served with raitha--spiced yogurt).


The second course were dosas also served with sambar and coconut and tomato chutneys. The menu description of a dosa is: A thin South Indian crepe made from a fermented rice and lentil batter. I gotta admit, I don't remember what kind I had. Tom may have even had an Uttapam: A South Indian “pancake” made from a fermented rice and lentil dosa batter—thicker and smaller than dosas with the ingredients cooked into the batter.

The last course is a curry. I have the Chettinad Lamb Curry, lamb slow cooked with dry-roasted garam masala and finished with freshly ground peppercorns. Tom had the Karaikudi Chicken Curry, Chettinad-style curry with plenty of flavor from garam masala, red chile, fennel and cumin.

All in all, dinner was an interesting experience. We'd probably need to go back and explore other dishes, as this go round did not provide any outstanding dishes.

The next day when we head out to Tent Rocks is another beautiful fall day. It's Saturday, and we head out moderately early. We don't expect to see any crowds, but the day will probably be hot enough that we don't want to be out late in the afternoon. We do have to wait a little while at the entrance. The Monument is small and has limited parking, so one car has to come out of the park for each car that goes in.

There are two trails, we start out on the slot canyon trail that takes you to the mesa above the formations. It starts out as an easy trail with some narrow spots and becomes more moderately difficult--especially if you've got old, sore knees. However, Karen was right, the trail is just challenging enough and makes the scenery seem even more special.

The beginning of the trail

More wildlife

Wildlife along the way

Yes, this is the trail

Tom at his usual photography spot (the edge of a precipice)

Once you wind your way up through the slot canyons, you'll find yourself up on top of the mesa with a commanding view of the surroundings.

 Then its time to head back down to the valley below.

A tough hike for me, but oh so satisfying. Certainly worth the extra couple of days...thanks Karen!