Back at the Orange Grove

Saturday morning we bid farewell to our neighbors at ORI and started the trek north back to Oregon.  Our first overnight was at the Orange Grove RV Park....one of our absolute favorite overnight stops.  Not only is this one of the friendliest, best people watching parks arounds, but you are literally parked in the middle of an orange field (orchard)...whatever they are called.  This stop all of the oranges are gone, but all of the trees are in bloom and the scents are amazing....it is like being parked in a nursery.

We took our favorite back route up through Yucca Valley, turning west at Barstow and coming in on the 58.  As any RVer knows....there is always something that happens during these travels.  For us, we were dealing with an engine that was pushing the edge of overheating as the cooling fan is not kicking in when it should.  This of course made the Tehachapi pass more invigorating than we would like and put me into a mini-breakdown (nothing unusual).  Luckily I did some reading last night and if I can find the fan controller below that radiator and just unplug it that should put the fan on high for the remainder of the trip.  Of course these things happen on weekends always so you learn how to use your online resources.  We are going to leave the fan plugged in and give another try today as most of our route is flat, but at least have a potential temporary fix if it happens again.  Off today to Lodi (queue the song) to see friends that moved there from Portland.  Happy travels everyone!!

Southward Bound

So much for keeping up on daily updates...best laid plans again.  Anyhow, we started our trek south on Tuesday (2/25) through southern Oregon, over Mt. Shasta, and landed in Red Bluff on Tuesday night at the Durango RV Resort.  We have stayed here before and love the convenience, large sites, and the local Italian restaurant across the street (Luigis).  We met a fun couple from Portland that are headed south as well on their way to San Diego.  We also realized that we would be at the same landing spot in Bakersfield Friday night, so agreed to catch up there.

Durango RV Resort

On Wednesday we then headed south again, traversing the death defying roadwork on Highway 99 to the town of Fresno.  Neither of us had been to Fresno so wanted to check out the area a bit more given that we had an extra day planned on our route south.  There are virtually no parks in the area, so we ended up at the one that was most centrally located in the city (Blackstone North RV Park).  Centrally located is certainly accurate, and the place was clean and fairly spacious for being in the middle of the city.  Having only heard negative things about Fresno, I was amazed at how friendly everyone one, how varied the sections of the city are, and how much pride residents have in their city.  We can now check that one off our list.

Blackstone North RV Park

After the most torrential downpour I think we have experienced in an RV (other than maybe one in Florence when camping with my brother), we were ready to head south again to Bakersfield for a night at our favorite park in the area (Orange Grove RV Park).  The forecast was for heavy rain showers and wind and the trip did not disappoint.  One section of Hwy 99 was actually flooded requiring us to SLOWLY work through the lane...we then made it 3 miles before the turnoff to HWY 58 east in Bakersfield and HWY 99 was closed requiring us to meander the city streets with our trusty phone apps in hand through yet another torrential downpour.

Torrential rains in Bakersfield

Orange Grove RV

The sun appearing again

Kasha taking in some sun/birds

Finally, we landed at the Orange Grove and are settled in for the night.  The torrential rains let up and Kasha was even able to enjoy some sunshine in her favorite place.  We met up with our fellow travelers from Portland, compared the sizes of our picked oranges along with inappropriate comments and then crashed after a long day on the road.  Saturday we be our final trek south to the Palm Springs area.  We will keep you updated!