Labor Day Trip

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Ok, a late post here.  It is now a bit past Labor Day 2013 but I am here to talk about it nonetheless.

After coming back from our previous 17+ day trip this was a quick turnaround (2 weekends).  We thought about just cancelling our reservation and staying home but there was one thing that kept our commitment.  Our granddaughter!

I made the reservations at Oceano campground at Pismo State Beach on the coast months ago and we told our granddaughter that we would take her along.  It was a good choice and we are glad we went through with it.

One of the things that I was working on was a front hitch for our bike rack (I talked about it in our Alumafandango threads).  I purchased one but part of the task was to remove the nuts off the front leaf springs and put on a helper bracket.  I could NOT get those nuts off!  I had to take it to a suspension shop but eventually got it on:

Front Hitch

Bike Rack 1

 

We went through Cholame, near where James Dean was killed.  We told our granddaughter about it and she was mesmerized about it and kept talking about it.  We told her we would stop on the way back so she could see the memorial.

We got to the campground just around dark.  Here was a shot from next day:

Oceano Campground

 

Our granddaughter, Paige, thoroughly enjoyed herself.  We went to the beach both days and she spent at least 3 hours in the water each day.  We don’t know HOW she did that as the water was so cold but there were many others that did so also and she made a few friends.  We also had a campfire one night with her cooking ‘Smores.  She really liked to ride her bike around the campground which kept her busy.  We rode with her a couple of times.

On the last day we took a walk around the pond that is by the campground.  It turned out to be longer than we though and here are a few pics:

Roger and Paige

Roxie and Paige

 

One evening Paige told us that she had never seen the sunset.  So what did we do?

Sunset

 

It was just a short walk from the campground to see the sunset.

It all comes to an end as usual.  We did stop at the James Dean memorial on the way back to show Paige.

One more thing about the bike rack on the front.  It performed well, but it did scare us from time to time because it sure did bounce at times!  Here is what we saw:

Bike Rack 2

 

We are very glad we went because it meant a lot to Paige.  Roxie turned around in the truck and told her, on the way home: “We did this trip just for you”.  Her positive reaction to that statement was all we needed.

Roger

Alumafandango trip – Days 16 & 17

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As I write this we are home. Thus begins the unpacking, cleaning, etc. cycle. Since most of the last three days were travel related, the information may not be very exciting but here goes.

We left the Boomtown KOA and headed westbound on I80. I don’t think I have ever driven this stretch of road let alone with our trailer. The uphill was not bad to Donner pass as it was a short piece of long uphill. However the downhill into the central valley was a bit more. The warning sign stated 40 miles of downgrade! Ouch! However it was not as bad as advertised. There were stretches of 5-6% downgrades but they were relatively short.

We stopped at the first rest area on the downhill and it further provided evidence to my theory. The theory is that California puts its’ nicest rest areas as the first ones that travelers hit when they enter the state. Then they think ALL California rest areas are like that. Psstt. They aren’t.

We spent the night in Sacramento to visit Roxie’s sister for a bit.

The next day was the day everyone dreads in a vacation. The last one home.  It was uneventful other than the temperature was over 100 after we left Stockton.

In summary, the trip was very good. It did prove that we can stay at length in this trailer. I am not sure we could do that in our old 25′. We will now anticipate the time when retirement comes (look on the right side of the blog to see the time).

I will probably have an addendum for the whole trip in a bit. This is after I see Roxie’s pictures and if I think of anything to say that I missed.

Thanks for reading the trip!