Day 97: Back home!

Stop 62 (our final stop): Home

We had dreaded our final leg through Los Angeles. It didn't sound like much fun with a trailer. As it ended up, it was one of our faster trans-LA runs. Sweet.

We were home by noon and have worked our butts off all afternoon. Everything is out of the trailer and the trailer is bug free. Getting the truck clean will have to wait until the trailer returns to storage in a couple of days

Kristen has been busy cleaning everything that needs to be cleaned and we'll get it all back in the trailer tomorrow. Our CC&Rs will require that the trailer be out of the neighborhood by Thursday.

Final tally:

• 97 days on the road
• 62 stops
• 14,865 miles covered (12,323 pulling the trailer)
• 33 states visited (31 with trailer)
• Average MPG with trailer - 13.14
• Average MPG without trailer - 21.54
• Highest pass - 10,900 feet (between Mesa Verde, CO and Alamosa, CO)
• Steepest grade - That same pass. 8 miles before the pass, we were at 7,000 feet. 8 miles after the pass, we were back at 7000 feet.

That's it for this round of blogging. We'll be going out again soon. We're thinking of spending a couple of weeks on the beach somewhere in September and we want to spend a couple of months touring the West in the spring. I'll pick the blog back up when we go back out on the road.

-J-

Day 96: Simi Valley, CA (cont.)

Still in Simi Valley, CA

Today was zoo day. Grant and Melissa were both able to get the day off work. We got over to the house early for some of Grant's excellent fritatas and then we all took off for the LA Griffith Park Zoo.

Colton, checking out the meerkats:

Riley doing what she does:

Colton loved the carrousel (I had to pry him off, kicking and screaming when it was over):

Grant and I pretty much took turns carrying Colton on our shoulders all day:

Grant, Colton, elephant:

This orangutan appeared to be soaking her head in the water:

Colton and me checking out the giraffes:

Colton couldn't get enough of the misters:

At the playground:

Another mister:

Grandma with Riley and her new shades:

Riley in her shades (I'm thinking Paul Shaffer):

Group Photo:

Colton has new shades too:

Group photo (minus photographer Melissa). I was intentionally running Colton's head through the leaves.

There's an area at the zoo that has something to do with prairie dogs (though I didn't see any). In this area there was a hill covered with plastic bubbles where you can pretend to be a prairie dog. Grant apparently does this on every visit to the zoo and Colton thinks that it's hilarious:

After delicious dinner of Grant's famous pizza, we retired to our trailer to prepare for our final leg in the morning.

-J-

Day 95: Simi Valley, CA

Stop 61: Simi Valley, CA

Today's 165 mile hop took us to our last stop before home. Tapo Park in Simi Valley was the closest campground that we could find to Grant and Melissa's. We really didn't know what to expect there and, as we drove back the canyon, it got more and more desolate. Fortunately, the park has lots of trees and is pretty nice.

Grant, Melissa, Colton and Riley showed up as we were setting up so we gave them the tour before we all packed up and headed for their house.

Colton, checking out his loot in the trailer:

Riley, hamming it up on the bed in the trailer:

Colton had to take advantage of the playground near our trailer site.

We wanted a picture of Colton on the trailer step (to go along with the Nikos/Maya picture that we took earlier). He was having a moment (his new cars were out of sight) so Grant and Melissa had to put him in a smiling mood.

Kristen getting some Grandma time (with Melissa):

Happy Riley:

The daily trailer picture:

-J-

Day 94: Avila/Pismo Beach, CA

Stop 60: Avila/Pismo Beach, CA

We had been hearing seals (and seeing one or two) during our entire time in Moss Landing. Today, on our morning walk, we found them. Our RV Park is on the far side of the trees in this photo.

Today's 155 mile journey took us to a park that is on the road between US-101 and Avila Beach. Not our favorite park by a long way (we have all kinds of space for parking but no one else does - you can guess where they're parking).

Tomorrow, we're off to spend 2 nights at a park that is near Grant's house. Then, the next stop will be home. It's been a long trip but we'll be sorry to see it end. We're already planning the next trip.

-J-

Day 93: Moss Landing, CA

Stop 59: Moss Landing, CA

When we picked Moss Landing as a destination, our intent was to find someplace to stay while we visited Monterey. We've been to Monterey many times and seen the Moss Landing power plant's chimneys across the bay but we've never actually visited Moss Landing. As it ended up, we liked Moss Landing enough that we stayed here,

Here's our campsite:

Here's the power plant (through the fog) just across the road:

The harbor is about a 2 minute walk from our trailer site (that's the power plant in the background):

The Salinas River Estuary feeds into the harbor at Moss Landing:

Kind of foggy but you can just make out a ship that is just leaving Moss Harbor's jetties:

Horses n the beach:

Couldn't believe the length of this bird's bill:

A little bit clearer: Our trailer with the power plant in the background

-J-

Days 91 and 92: Castro Valley, CA

Stop 58: Chabot Regional Park, Castro Valley, CA

We've had no wi-fi here and, frankly, don't have that much to report so I'll break the pattern and do two days in one post.

Our trip down from Ft. Bragg ended up being about 200 miles. Google Maps and or GPS would have had it about 25 miles shorter but their routes would have had us approaching the Bay Bridge on I-80 and then crossing many lanes of busy traffic to make a fast lane I-80 to fast lane I-580 transition (with a very sudden merge into the fast lane coming from the Bay Bridge. It all sounded like a bit of a nightmare with a trailer so we avoided the whole mess.

Knowing the area as well as we do, after crossing the Richmond Bridge, we took I-80 a couple of mile North and then crossed over to Orinda on San Pablo Dam Road. We went out through Walnut Creek, down I-680 to Crow Canyon Road to Castro Valley.

Our campground is in a eucalyptus forest at the top of the Oakland Hills, overlooking South Oakland an Fremont. In the distance, we can hear the trains and the jets taking off at Oakland Airport.

Here's a photo of our trailer in it's site:

We've stopped in this area to visit with my Mom in Walnut Creek for a couple of days. Some very windy roads (through Chabot Park, Redwood Park, Moraga, past St. Mary's College, through our old neighborhood in Lafayette) take us to my Mom's home in Rossmore. It's much too extreme a route for the trailer, particularly when you consider the large number of bicyclists on the road.

Here's a photo of me and my Mom:

Our primary activity here was trying to get her new printer working. The printer that she'd ordered on the internet was delayed so we found the same printer in the store and arranged to return the internet printer when it arrived. The new printer could connect by USB cable or wi-fi. She didn't have wi-fi and, of course, the printer didn't come with a cable. We tried a cable that she had and, when it didn't work, the diagnostics reported a problem with the cable. A new cable didn't work any better.

I talked to Comcast and was told that we could exchange her cable modem for one with wi-fi at not cost. We drove to Concord and, after waiting in line forever, learned that she would have to switch her account to a high-speed internet account ($50 more per month) so that she could get the free upgrade. Once again, Comcast justifies my low expectations.

We stopped by Best Buy and bought a wi-fi box for $39. She now has wi-fi and the printer recognizes the wi-fi. The installation program is looking for a serscan.sys file that doesn't seem to exist. On that note of failure, we had to leave.

I'll be in touch with Microsoft, Dell and HP to find out where I can download a serscan.sys for Windows Vista 32-bit SP2 and maybe we can get her printer working soon.

-J-

Day 90: Fort Bragg, CA

Stop 57: Fort Bragg, CA

After not seeing many elk yesterday, we could hear them bugling all through the night and got out early to see if any were around. They were everywhere - probably 50 or 60 of them.

The first 3 shots are from my first trip out. That trip ended when the biggest buck that I've ever seen (black mane, 4-5 foot antlers) took exception to my being there. Fortunately, he was on the far side of the herd and had to run around the herd to get to where I had been (I was long gone when he arrived).

A little later, I went back out and took these shots of them all taking a break:

Todays route was supposed to be about 172 miles but, then we got a taste of CA-271 which connects Legget to the coast above Fort Bragg. We did about 2 miles of the narrowest, curviest road imaginable before I remembered the last time that we drove the road. That 2 miles was fairly representative of the next 50 so, when I saw the opportunity to pull a U-turn, I did. Going down through Willits and then out to the coast added about 33 miles but we probably arrived in Fort Bragg at about the same time.

Our site in Fort Bragg is very nice. Here's tonight's trailer picture:

 

 

-J-

Day 89: Trinidad, CA

Stop 56 / State 1 (again):  Trinidad, CA

Today, we traveled about 200 miles and finally found our way back to California. Our trip took us down the Rogue River as far as Grants Pass and then along a number of other rivers through some beautiful redwood forests to the coast above Crescent City.

Here's our final state sign (apologies for the glare on the windshield).

Coming down the coast from Crescent City, we passed through many more beautiful Redwood Forests (including Prairie Creek State Park where we used to go camping when the kids were young). At one point, we spotted a couple of elk beside the road and Kristen was able to get this picture of one of them.

Here's today's trailer picture. We are so deep in the forest that it is dark most of the day. Supposedly, a lot of Elk frequent the area in the evenings so we'll be going out to look soon.

Later, after dinner, we went looking for elk. This is a shot of the ocean across the road from the campground:

We didn't see any elk but we did see this sign which would seem to indicate that they should be here:

The schoolhouse that the sign refers to is in our campground:

We gave up our elk search for the moment and returned to the trailer. Later, we were watching a video (no TV, wi-fi or phone here) when what should walk past the window but a large buck:

Maybe we'll have better luck spotting elk in the morning.

-J-