Saturday - 16th  - Later Than Usual

As you can see by the moon-rise over the mountains, that we got into Bakersfield later than we normally like to arrive.  Setting up in the dark is no fun and we always aim to arrive no later than 4pm.  It was over 300 miles today and we did get a late start and the days are short, so we ended up arriving at twilight.  

If anyone is following us on a map, we left Vacaville, headed east to I-5 through the Sacramento River Delta.  We then turned south through the San Joaquin Valley until we turned east again just north of Bakersfield.  The roads were rough and bounced us around today.  The inside of the RV was a bit disheveled when we finally landed!  Things that normally don’t move, did.   A couple of rough railroad tracks didn’t help matters much.    I just read a book with my book group called “The American Road” about the state of roads in 1917 and the beginning of the highway system.  Well, today there were times when I felt as if I were on some of those roads that were described in the book!  A new route will be planned for the next time we make the trip through central California!  Rog wants to know if we are having fun yet!?!

Our late start this morning was due to a night as equally rough as the roads today.  We got to bed late after returning from dinner and had stuff to do which put us in bed around 11pm.  At 3am a neighbor’s car alarm went off and the dog decided she needed to go out.  We kept trying to ignore her but she was insistent.  She did do her business when I took her out so it wasn’t a wasted effort.  So, with all that going on, a different bed, different light, different sounds and not quite getting the correct weight of blankets for the temperature, we didn’t get much sleep.  

There were no adventures today, thank goodness.  Neither of us was in the mood to deal with any.  In fact, we were so selfish this morning, we double dosed Maggie so she would sleep most of the day.  We needed the break!

No matter how many times we go from northern California to southern California we are always amazed at how large the San Joaquin Valley is and how long it takes to get from one end to the other.  Orchards of citrus, almonds,  and pistachios dotted the landscape.  The grape vines were in abundance - table grapes and raisin grapes, not wine grapes.  There is one very large and stinky cattle feed lot that always grosses us out when we pass it.  We saw what Roger thought was a prairie dog town near the rest area we stopped for lunch, but I think it was ground squirrels because their tails were so long.  Are there prairie dogs in California?   Late in the day as we were turned east off of the interstate and onto a two lane state route we drove through rose bush farms. It was so pretty and a nice respite after all the nut orchards.  

We are settled in and more comfortable tonight hoping for a better night’s sleep.  We are in the middle of an orange grove outside of town and it is fairly quiet and there are no street lights.  Tomorrow we have abut 350 miles to our destination - Naval Air Facility, El Centro, CA.  It will be another long day but we will be up and moving earlier - or so the plan goes!   We are having WIFI issues right now - I hope to get this posted tonight, but will have to wait until late and everyone else stops streaming their movies!  

I took this on Sunday morning before we left.
Unfortunately the oranges aren't ripe yet.
When we usually stay here in late Dec they allow
the guests to pick all they want.  They are
very good oranges!!