Two Travel Days to Desert Hot Springs, CA

We camped Saturday night at an old KOA in Victorville about 250 miles from Paso Robles.  The campground was drab, run down and next to the freeway. Hardly lived up to the advertisement, though the staff were friendly.  If only someone would have picked up the litter, would have been an improvement. We were safe, off the road, had a chance to ride our bikes and do laundry so I shouldn't whine.  The road took us pass vineyards, ranches, almond and pistachio groves, solar panel farms, oil rigs and green hills.  The scenery changed to more desert like, Joshua trees, long stretches of road into the distance. We stopped near Lost Hills for a break and to buy local nuts.

Today, it was a short 100 miles to Catalina Spa Resort in Desert Hot Springs.  Blue sky and 85*!  On those rainy winter days in Port Orchard this winter, I was thinking about being here.  We're going to park for 5 days. Ice cream social at 2 PM, pool and hot spring this evening, line dancing tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Sunshine for the next week and temps in the 80s! Yahoo!

Intersection near Lost Hills, CA where James Dean's life ended too soon.

 

More Joshua trees appearing.

Hundreds of wind mills.

San Bernardino Mountains

Wind Farms

Smog or Fog?

Hard to see the ridge lines through the haze.

Full moon Saturday night in Victorville.  Theses hills were covered in
loose rock. 

The white in the distance is a line of parked airplanes in storage.
Boeing and airlines have planes here.

More wind farms

The clouds over one of the passes were hanging low.

I was impressed with how all the orange trees were pruned flat tops.

Rows and rows of almond trees in blossom.

More oil fields.

Could have been the Clampetts traveling along Route 66

Two Days in Paso Robles

Thursday, February 18th, began as overcast and drizzly but cleared later in the afternoon.  We left 1000 Trails Campground and got on the road by 10 AM heading South on 101 to visit with our Finn friends, Paavo and Terttu Leinonen in Paso Robles.  Paavo and Terttu belong to the same Kaleva Lodge as we do in Seattle. Traffic moved along but slowed for 20 minutes for an accident.  It gave me a chance to notice that lupine was in bloom along the road banks. We had a reservation at Paso Robles RV resort which was a small, well kept park outside of town.  We got set up, had coffee at Starbucks (before Sonny totally had withdrawals from going a week without an Americano) and took the Leinonens out for Thai food. We were having coffee and desert at their home when a 3.8 quake rocked the house for a couple of seconds. The next day, we met Paavo and Terttu for breakfast. They had errands to do so we went to the Estrella Warbird Museum to check out the airplane exhibit and car collection.  "Chuck", the docent, spent 2 hours with us talking about the history of the cars. Sonny was excited to see an A-7 like the ones he worked on in the Navy. We picked up the Leinonens and drove out into the hills to a winery run by a Finnish family who named it "Kuukula", Finnish for "hills" which describes the surrounding landscape.  We made dinner back at Leinonen's before bidding them farewell. 

Sunset from Leinonen's patio.

Kuukula Winery. Portions of the walls are wired panels filled with
rocks from the surrounding hills.

Paavo and Terttu, Sonny at the bar tasting the wine options.

Kuukula Gift Shop.  "Sisu" is Finnish for intestinal fortitude.

Tasting room entrance.

Cactus garden flower

Looking beyond the tasting room to the vintner's residence on the hill.
The family has 80 acres of grapes, olives and walnuts.

Estrella Warbird Museum.
Deuce and a half on display.  My dad drove these in WWII.

Race car from the 50s next to modern day racers.

Not much body protection here and hardly comfy.

Vintage RV with tow vehicle.

Interior of the antique RV. Looked pretty comfy for traveling.

Whizzer bike

Sonny inside an Army tank trainer.

Our dad's were on boats like these during the invasion on
Normandy's beaches.  This particular boat was in Maine after the war
before being sold and moved to California.

Sonny worked on the flight deck of the USS Independence keeping these
A7s and their captains flying in the early 70s.

New, old McDonald's in Paso Robles

I would like to have a tanker this size on our property
to capture winter rain water for summer use.

Good, brown earth ready for planting in Salinas Valley.

We began to see oil wells, almond and pistachio groves.

This tree was interesting with its
gray bark near Camp Roberts.

We learned how the oil is pumped from the ground using steam to warm
the earth for easier flow.

Lupine in bloom.

Three Days near Morgan Hill, CA

Valentine's Day we were camped at Morgan Hill, CA.  We were invited to Alan and Jen's home in San Jose for dinner and catching up since our last visit. Alan and Sonny are old Navy buddies. 

Sonny and I enjoyed a lazy Monday reading in the sunshine.  Tuesday, Alan arranged a tee time for Sonny at Cinnabar Hills for golfing.  I spend the afternoon in Gilroy visiting antique stores. Jen and Alan met us for dinner at the Ladero Grill in Morgan Hill where we enjoyed Katherine Kennedy wine and good food.  Wednesday, we drove "over the hill" to Santa Cruz to have lunch and see Alan and Jen's weekend place near the beach. They gave us a tour of beach communities.

It began to rain just as we were leaving Santa Cruz. It was pretty intense at times and is still pouring now, 5 hours later. Tomorrow, we are moving down to Paso Robles to visit our Finnish friends whomoved there a few years ago

Lemon tree in the Santa Cruz house back yard. We

brought home 6 fresh lemons.

Jen and Alan, our gracious hosts this week.

 Capitola near Santa Cruz

Capitola homes along the beach.

 RV parked near the beach making a political statement.
 On the passenger door, it said "Future 1st Lady"

 The wind was blowing a gale as a storm was coming in.

 Living on the edge.

 We should post one of these on the
beach at Lake Wenatchee.

 We ate lunch at Aldos near the marina in Santa Cruz.
This view was towards the lighthouse and the marina was
behind us. The harbor was being dredged by the large
barge.

 We couldn't decide if the large birds were pelicans or
geese.

 This beach was being "plowed" by a large bulldozer that's
hard to see in this picture.  The harbor dredging was moving sand
to this location.  You can see the light house in the far distance.

 We started lunch outside on the dock but the wind forced
us inside after a while.

 Sonny and I drove over the hill through Watsonville on our way to
Santa Cruz.  Watsonville is an agriculture center for a large
variety of fruits and veggies. This field might have been
a lettuce variety.

 These wire frames are covered with the fabric to protect
the young plants.

 Some of these tents had raspberries underneath.

 This campground kitty was very friendly and seemed to be
hoping for a meal at our place.

 Alan kindly arranged for Sonny to get a round of golf here.

 Sonny teamed up with 3 other local guys to play
this beautiful course.

 Sonny pars the 18th.

Sonny is on a knee checking the green before his shot.

 The clouds are foretelling a weather change to come on Wednesday.

 Not often that I see a collection of meat
grinders in an antique store.

 Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world.

 Back at the campground, 3 very large dogs like this one greeted us at the fence.

T

We wondered about this contraption along the vineyard fence.  They 

were placed about every 10 feet.  It appeared to some kind of a trap

for wood borer beetles.

Jen has a green thumb.  She raised this giant succulent, probably 12" across.

Orchids of many colors in Jen's garden.