Paso Robles recap

The weekend started out uneventful.  We setup the trailer to go to Paso Robles on Friday.  Took our time, brought stuff from the house, chasing cats out of the trailer and finally on the road.  We stopped in Hanford for lunch and I checked the trailer tires for any hot ones, as I always do.  One was warmer than the rest.  I saw the tread was bulging out all round the tire.  I have already replaced a trailer on highway 41 in 104 degree heat and I did not want to do anything close to that this time.  We stopped at Carrol’s tires in Hanford and got new one (~$94).

We made it to Wine Country RV around 2pm and setup the trailer.  We went around and met people from our San Joaquin unit and the Central Coast unit.  We then returned to the trailer for a bit to unwind.  That evening we went to eat in Paso and went to Good Ol’ Burgers.  We have been there many times over the years and have always enjoyed it.  Their onion rings are outrageous:

Coincidentally our son was also in Paso visiting a friend and they joined us there that evening.

We went back to the trailer and opened the door and something ran out of the door!!  It was one of our cats that had stowed away!  Now what do we do?  Damn cat!  Down to WalMart to get food, cat box, litter.  That put a damper on things for me.  Roxie thought it was hilarious.  All in all the cat did not do too bad.  The pathetic part was that we actually looked in the trailer for that cat before we left.  Grrrr…

Saturday we wanted to go see the Airstreams at Sky River RV, and I was also looking for a 12V lamp for the oven.  I went to the parts at Sky River and asked about the bulb.  They didn’t have one.  I also asked him about the Airstreams as there were NONE on the lot.  He told me they move them to a lot in San Luis Obispo.  We had nothing else to do and didn’t know what to do for lunch so it was off to SLO!

We went to the new Airstream lot and looked around.  We do want to get another Airstream in about 4 years but will always look when we get a chance.  They had numerous models but we really liked the 27FB Classic and the 30′ Classic.  We will see how it goes.

One thing we like to do when we go to Pismo Beach is Roxie eats clam chowder at Splash Cafe and I eat tri-tip at Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ.  Luckily they have them in SLO also so Roxie picked up her bread bowl with clam chowder and we both went to Mo’s.  I love the garlic fries but not so much with Roxie due to how long they remain.  That evening we went to a chinese buffet with the WBCCI units (17 people).

Sunday morning had a meeting regarding the state of the WBCCI and what can be done to help it out.  Essentially it is dying.  They are not getting younger people attracted to the club.  Joe tenBerge, Region 12 2nd vice president, was there to talk about the subject.  I told him about Airforums and there were many discussions about the WBCCI there.  He said he has seen them but they were very negative.  Well sometimes you have to swallow the negative to learn things.  He said he would look around there.  I was surprised how many from OUR unit have never heard of Airforums OR Airstream Life magazine.  I need to educate them.

We had a lunch of tri-tip sandwiches with the units and then in the PM, ice cream sundaes.  That evening we saw a couple of trailers from the Airforums Western Womens rally but did not meet any of them.  Monday was the trip home.

We are thinking about going to the Bass Lake rally in April and/or a rally in Tehachapi in May.  We will see.

Anza Borrego

We tried to do this earlier in the year.  We were going to meet some friends there and just relax.  The winter is the best time to go to the desert but if you hit the spring at the right time it can be even better.  I remember we went to Red Rock State Park one weekend in the spring.  The weather was cool but the wildflowers were blooming all around.  We saw many of them on a ranger walk.  We were hoping that visiting Anza Borrego State Park at the end of March might give us some nice wildflowers also.  At least we had reservations this time.

Before we left we had a minor modification done to the trailer.  When we refloored our house with laminate flooring we got some extra for the trailer.  The installer (our neighbor) did the trailer for us also.  We no longer have the white carpet (well mostly white) and have a surface that is easier to clean.

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Our reservations started on Monday and we had 3 nights there.  One plan was to leave early on Monday from home and get there later in the afternoon/evening for a total of 354 miles!  Roxie worked on Sunday but she had a plan.  Let’s leave Sunday night when she gets home.  I agreed that we could try and we would be able to do another first for us:

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Wal-Mart!  This was the first time we have ever stayed overnight at a Wal-Mart.  This was in Palmdale and we got there about 11pm.  I checked with the security guard and he said we would park there no problem but no longer than 2 nights.  Suited us just fine.  All that I did was put down the tongue jack (remembering to park nosedown) to level it out and I unplugged the umbilical cable.  You can easily see why Wal-Mart likes this because we proceeded to spend $80 the next morning at the store.  The nice thing was that this evening trip essentially cut the remaining distance in half making a much more managable drive.

Our friends (Rich, Eleanor and Emma) had arrived a day earlier and were not around when we arrived.  We went through our normal procedures.  When we saw the Luhr’s, they introduced us to some other Airstreamers that met them there also.  Ken & Petey, Adam & Susan were introduced to us all and the Airstream bond was created.  On Tuesday we all got together and took a road/hiking trip.  We were lucky enough to go in style with Ken & Petey.  The first spot was the slot canyon.  This is where the flooding of Anza Borrego has created very narrow and interesting canyons that you can go hike in.  We weren’t concerned about flooding at this time.

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The next stop were the wind caves.  Cavern type areas carved out by wind and rain.  This hike was a bit more strenuous than the first.  We had a steep climb to start then some up and down.  However it was well worth the hike.  The formations are very interesting and a lot of fun to scramble around on.  Here is Roxie in a cave:

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We also stopped to see Font’s Point which gives you an overview of the badlands area.  You can go to my Flickr set of this trip for other photos that I took.

Wednesday we decided to take the hike to the Palm Canyon oasis.  I remember doing this when I was a child and the others had done it many times previously so we were on our own.  The first part was ranger led and there was a big emphasis on spotting some Bighorn Sheep (the park’s namesake).  Everyone was hoping to see some and started out with high spirits.  The day was a  bit warm, very little breeze and a constant uphill elevation change.  The ranger stayed with the group about half way but there were no sightings of Bighorn.  The ranger turned back but continued on to the oasis.  About 2/3’s of the way to the end (for us) we found a little cave that was in the shade and decided to take a bit of a break.  I thought I would scan the opposite mountains for any movement (I can pick up movement pretty good).  Looking up about 2000′ above us and I saw something.  It was a Bighorn.  So now I get to tell Roxie where it is.  Not an easy task to try to tell someone which rock(s) out of thousands they should look at to see something that was so minuscule.  However she was able to see it.  I tried to tell others as they passed by but they weren’t able to see it.  But I do have proof:

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Look for the arrow and this was at maximum zoom on our camera.

We were able to complete our hike but we were pretty beat.  It was very warm at the end.  We had just purchased some water backpacks and were depleted also.  We went back to the trailer and rested a bit.  The next day we took our requisite trip to Julian.  It was about the same as it was before but we always enjoy going there.

You can see Rich Luhr’s account of their Anza Borrego trip at his blog.

Here is a shot of our trailer at Anza Borrego and a shot of my parents trailer many years ago.  Same campground but a different spot.

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Now it is time to leave.  Do we go straight home in one day?  My birth grandmother lives in Riverside and we haven’t seen her for 4 years so we will see where we can stay for the evening.  Riverside does not have too many places to camp and a weekend is coming up.  So we try for another first and see if we can take advantage of some courtesy parking.  The WBCCI has a listing for that in the membership roster book but Airforums also has a place to list such.  We looked for someone in Riverside and found Towster!  We had met Vince and Virginia at some other rallies but did not know they lived in Riverside and we contacted them about parking for one evening.  They graciously agreed and even moved their trailer so we had room for ours:

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We attempted to repay them for their kindness by taking them out to eat that evening.  It was nice to visit with them and get to know them better.  Sometimes it is hard to talk to people at the rallies since there are so many people.  We were able to visit my grandmother twice while we were there and then we pushed on home on Saturday.

A good trip, not rushed, a couple of firsts for us and new Airstream friends (Ken, Petey, Adam, Susan, Vince and Virginia).