Tag Archives: 3-day getaway

Only 2 hours from some nice places…

Posted on by

Yes, another three day weekend trip thanks to Roxie's employer.  Since it was just after the 4th of July I thought where else should we go but to somewhere that would be HOT!  We had already done the cool areas, coast, mountains, etc.  Did I choose some exotic location?  Not really, we went to Stockton! 

I like to stay on the water, as you can see in the previous post.  But is there water in Stockton?  Sure is.  There is a canal that brings in largish ships to drop supplies.  They come in all the way from the ocean.

Previously the only stops in Stockton had been brief to refuel or relieve.  The one item that got me to try it out was a blog post from Aluminarium.  I loved that picture and got some reservations to the RiverPoint landing and off we went.

Here is my attempt at recreating their picture:

Sunset in Stockton

That is a JetSkier in the picture.

The daytime temperature there was mid to high 90's so we found things to do indoors.  HOWEVER, the evenings were wonderful.  The back of trailer has our bedroom in it so we would open up the windows on 3 sides and let the cool breezes just waft through the trailer.  Made the days worthwhile.

We saw many pleasure craft going up and down the waterway.  Saw some rowers in long row boats, saw a sailing class for young sailors.  A very wide variety.  However one evening it got exciting.  We heard a very LOUD horn sound.  We look toward the ocean direction of the waterway and see a very large ship heading our way.

As it got closer we see a smaller boat in front if it.  Here is that boat:

CoastGuard

It is a Coast Guard vessel.  The guy in the front is manning a machine gun.  We wondered what is going on?

Here is the large ship behind it:

EupenIn

It is pretty impressive to see a large ship go by in relatively close proximity.  I wondered why this one had a Coast Guard escort since there was another 'gun boat' guarding the rear of the ship.  I looked it up on the Internet and this ship is hauling Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).  I guess the US does not want any type of attack on this ship.

The next day we wandered around Stockton and got a good feel for the town.  We even ate at a Vietnamese restaurant (a first).  We also went to visit a very nice museum, The Haggin.

That evening we were sitting by the water and enjoying the cooling breeze and we heard the loud horn again.  We looked in the same location but there was no ship.  Suddenly, from the other direction came the large ship again.  This time much higher in the water and without any escort.  Here is a pic but not quite as nice since it surprised us and it was getting pretty dark:EupenOutbound

Thus ends our stay at Stockton.  Time to go back to the grind.

I almost forgot to tell you about the title of my post.  In some of the meetings are people that live or work in Stockton.  One of them made the comment that Stockton should have the motto of "It is only two hours from some nice places".  I don't know if I totally agree with that because Stockton was not as bad as it could have been.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Posted on by

We had another 3-day getaway so it was again time to find a place to go to.  I thought a coastal location would be nice.  Get out of some of the heat we bear here in the Central Valley of California.  We have done the Pismo area many times.  I started to look at State Parks on the coast in the LA area.  Not much available but I did find 2 spots at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura.  I got one of the spots and told our friends, the Chens, about it and they got the other spot.  So we had the location set.  It is nice because we rarely go to that area of California but it is only a 3 hour drive.

We headed down there on a Friday and started up the Grapevine in 104 degree weather.  When we got to Ventura it was 65 degrees and had a marine layer going on.  We got there about 3 in the afternoon and saw our site.  The state beach site says the site will handle 25' of RV and ours is 25' so I thought it would be perfect.  Not exactly.  I don't know what kind of foot measurements they were using but it wasn't any I was used to.  I also looked at the site at campsitephotos.com.  The spot was very short so this made backing in difficult.  Also about 15' of the spot was paved with a 4" drop to the dirt at the end of it.  Naturally this meant that my wheels would drop off the asphalt before my tongue was off the road.  This was the ugly part:

I depleted almost all my orange blocks on this setup.  You see under my stabilizer jack?  You see the creative situation of stacking?  That is because there was a rock right under where the jack sits.  I had to improvise.  Speaking of ROCKS!  Look a bit further back.  You will see a BIG rock right under our frame.  This caused issues when we were unhooking.  I could not get the tongue up high enough to get the trailer off the hitch ball.  So I unlocked the hitch in the receiver to slide the hitch out of the truck.  This did not work but the ball did come out.  We were disconnected!  But I was thinking how the heck am I going to hook up when we leave?  Oh well, that was 3 days from now.

Our friends, the Chen's arrived a couple of hours after us and had a few issues with the short spots but were able to get setup quickly.  George still hasn't posted his story from Death Valley!  Come on George!!  The Chen's only had one evening of camping we visited with them for a bit.  It was nice to be in the cool weather.  That evening we also saw numerous dolphins, seals and other aquatic life swimming by.  This thrilled children and child-like adults.

Emma Wood State Beach has about 90 spots right on the coast.  This makes this locale pretty popular.  Hence the bad:

This shows the proximity of vehicles to the road AND to each other.  But you live with it to get the good:

This is what we came for.  Right on the ocean.  Wave noises!  Sea breezes!  Ocean smell!  Sunsets:

The first full day we visited with the Chen's until they had to leave.  Too bad they couldn't have stayed longer but we made the best of the time we had.  At least they were right next to us:

The next day we headed to Santa Barbara to spend the day.  The last time I was here was for a CETPA conference in 2005 but I didn't venture out of the hotel much except to eat at the first Habit burger I had ever seen.  On our day we walked the downtown area and ate at a nice little Italian restaurant, the Olio pizzaria.  Very nice and their butterscotch pudding dessert is amazing.  After getting tired of walking we drove around sightseeing a bit before returning to the trailer for another sunset:

All good things (bad and ugly too) must come to an end.  Now the issue of hooking up with the rock issue.  The previous day I tried to chip away some of the rock with a hammer and screwdriver.  I was able to get a bit off the sides but not off the top.  I figured I am going to just jack the tongue up as far as possible.  We were able to get connected with very little issue, thankfully.  Further south from where we parked there is a section of road that is right next to the ocean AND it is getting worn away from the ocean.   You can see the ocean water pooled on the road in this shot::

We said goodbye to the coast and the cool weather.  The drive takes us over a very well traveled road, for us and the general populace.  I-5 and the Grapevine.  I can't count the number of times that we have been up and down that hill.  On the way back it happened that lunchtime was coming up.  Roxie had the idea of stopping and making our lunch at Fort Tejon State Historical Park.  One of those places we are always curious about but never stop because we are on the way somewhere.  So we stopped and had lunch.  After lunch we visited the park and learned about the local history of that area.  Learned the route is called the 'grapevine' because grapes grew wild up the canyon, not because of the roads' path.  While we were there a group of children were learning how life used to be at the fort.  They were making washing clothes, making wood and metal items, baking bread, making butter, making adobe bricks all under the guidance of mentors.  It was fun to see that and probably more fun for the kids.

The rest of the route was uneventful except right as we got home.  About 10 miles from home we saw a large dust cloud coming from the west, like a haboob.  The race was on.  Get home before it does.  I decided not to back the trailer into it's spot but just back it in front of the house.  As soon as it was backed in the wind hit!  We ran into the house and waited out the storm.

Can't wait to get out again.