Springs Elks camping club. Thursday evening, April 16th, the group headed over to the Galley Restaurant at the Chula Vista Marina for the all you can eat fish & chips dinner. We used to come to the Marina RV park right down the street from the restaurant with both the Palm Springs and Indio Elks Lodge RV groups back when we still lived in Indio. Every time we came down we would have at least one dinner at the Galley. They have excellent food and a nice outdoor patio area. The fish and chips was great and I ate way too much. Friday we pretty much stayed around the Elks Lodge with the group. We had a Washer’s tournament in the morning - neither of us made the finals, but we had fun. That evening we went into the Lodge for the Friday night dinner. I had the New York steak which was wonderful and Jackie had the salmon. We spent the rest of the evening playing table games with some of the group. Saturday we did some shopping and then had a pot luck with the group in the afternoon.Sunday morning we got up early and left the Chula Vista Lodge about 9:00 in the morning - early for us. We were headed for the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge, about a 235 mile trip through the heart of the Orange & Los Angeles Counties area. Since it was Sunday the traffic wasn’t too bad, but I was still pretty beat by the time we got to the Lodge, which is actually in Goleta, the next town West. Fortunately, this lodge lets you make reservations for their RV lot, so we knew we had a spot waiting for us when we got there. The next day, Monday the 20th, we did some local caching and found 15. Tuesday we did our laundry and then some more caching. We only did 5 because it was pretty hot and humid and we didn’t get started until late afternoon. On Wednesday we departed the Santa Barbara Elks for the 130 mile drive up to the Oceano Elks Lodge, near Pismo Beach. We always stop in the Pismo Beach area when we go through California because Jackie has family there. Her aunt and uncle lived there for many years. Although her uncle Barky died a couple years ago, her aunt Donna and cousin Judy still live there. Oceano has a very nice RV lot and is only steps from the beach. After we got settled into our parking space at the Lodge we went over for dinner. Wednesday is the Lodge’s spaghetti night. Donna, Judy, and Donna’s friend Ron met us at the Lodge for dinner.
The next day, Thursday the 23rd, we went out for some early afternoon caching, finding seven. We found some interesting areas that Jackie had never seen even though she has been coming up to this area for many years. That evening we went over to Donna’s home for dinner. Judy and Jackie fixed tacos and fixings and we had a great time just visiting. Donna’s house sits way up on a hill overlooking Pismo Beach and the ocean. Great views. Friday afternoon we went out and did some more caching and then went to Ron’s (Donna’s boyfriend) house in Nipomo for cocktails. After that he took us to a local steak house called Jocko’s for dinner. This was one of the best steakhouses I have ever seen. The prices were very reasonable and the meals were huge and tasted great. I would definitely recommend Jocko’s to anyone who is in the area. Nipomo is off Highway 101 between Santa Maria and Pismo Beach. Saturday we relaxed for most of the day and then spent the evening at Donna’s home with just her. We ordered a pizza and had a wonderful evening talking and reminiscing.
Sunday morning we left Oceano and headed for the Visalia Elks Lodge. We had never been to this Lodge before but it was located about halfway between Oceano and Lodi, our next stop, so
we decided to give it a try. The Elks camping book said they had an RV lot. We found they had about 15 spots with water and 50 amp electric on a paved surface, a very nice setup. We visited the lodge after getting setup and found it to a very nice, friendly lodge. On the way to the lodge we had noted highway signs which indicated that Visalia was only about 30 miles from Sequoia National Park, so we decided to visit the park the next day. Monday morning we headed East to the park. I had been to Sequoia once about 35 years ago and Jackie had never been. You enter the park at an elevation of about 1,200 feet and then climb up a 25 mile mountain road to the 
Lodgepole center which sets at about 8,500 feet. There was still several feet of snow on the ground at Lodgepole where we had lunch. On the way back down the hill we stopped at a couple of the natural features, including the General Sherman tree which is supposed to be the largest tree in the world in terms of volume. All of the sequoias are huge - bigger even than the Redwoods which they resemble. We spent about four hours touring the park and really enjoyed ourselves. We love going to National Parks. After leaving the park we did some geocaching on the way back to Visalia, finding five.On Tuesday, the 28th of April, we left Visalia for the Lodi Elks Lodge. Like Oceano, we always try to stop in Lodi when heading up through California. The Lodge has a nice RV lot overlooking a golf course and we have some friends, Fern and Andy Lenardini, who live in Lodi. They own a vineyard and have a wine grape wholesale business. We actually know them from Indio because they have a winter home in Palm Desert and are good friends with our friends, Barry and Colleen Cohen. On Wednesday we went out to do some local caching and found 10 caches. Thursday we found another 10. Thursday afternoon we went in to the Elks Lodge for a couple cocktails. This is a very nice friendly lodge. Their lodge building used to be the clubhouse for the Woodridge Country Club before the club built a new facility. The bar has one wall of windows which look out over the golf club. While we were at the bar we struck up a conversation with a guy at the bar who turned out to be the owner of a local winery. His winery (and family name) was Castamagna. He knows Fern and Andy and his property is just around the corner from their’s. The bar serves his wine and he bought us a bottle of Zinfandel from his winery. We were having dinner with Fern and Andy on Friday, so we saved it for dinner. Friday we did our laundry in town and then had dinner in the Lodge that evening with Fern and Andy. The wine from Larry Castamagna was excellent - and that’s from a couple people who don’t drink much red wine. The dinner was also great. The Lodi Elks has a great chef and has always put on a good Friday night dinner. Jackie had lamb and I had a nice steak - both were wonderful. We had a great visit with Fern and Andy.
On Saturday, the 2nd of May, we left Lodi and headed for the Carmichael Elks Lodge, about 50 miles north. Carmichael is a suburb of Sacramento. We always stop here because Jackie has a old friend, Kathy Yarbrough who lives there. The Carmichael Elks has a great RV lot and a great lodge. Two years ago when we were here we helped get Kathy and her husband Bill to join the Elks. After we got settled into the lot, Kathy and Bill picked us up and took us to dinner at a local card club where Bill works in security. The food was wonderful and very inexpensive. On Sunday Kathy came over to the coach and she and Jackie visited for a while. She also took us over to her shop so we could see what it looked like. She owns a gift shop in another suburb of Sacramento.
On Monday Kathy came by and picked us up for a tour of Sacramento. We went to the State
Capital and walked around for a while. We even went into Arnold’s office, however he wasn’t in. Jackie wanted to complain to him about the condition of California roads. We then spent about four hours driving all over Sacramento on the grand tour. This was the first time I had ever seen the greater Sacramento area. That night we had dinner with Kathy and her daughter Julie at the Joe’s Crab Shack in Old Sacramento. Julie also had her six month old daughter Bella with her. We had seen pictures of the baby, but this was our first visit in person. We had a very nice visit and a great meal. After dinner we went to the Sacramento Elks Lodge for a cocktail. This is 
Lodge 6, one of the oldest Elks Lodges still in existence. Their old building in downtown Sacramento was the largest building in the city when it was built in the late 1800's. Their “new” facility (1980's vintage) is also huge with a full gym, sauna, indoor pool, racket ball courts and banquet halls. Although there were only a couple of people there when we were, two of them took us on a tour of the building. Very impressive facility. Tuesday we did some shopping and caching in the area and not much else. Since it was Cinco De Mayo we did go out to dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant. We would have gone to the Lodge, but they were not doing Cinco De Mayo until the 15th of May! Go figure.Wednesday, the 6th of May, we left Carmichael and headed North for the 150 mile drive to the Red Bluff Elks Lodge. There really isn’t too much in Red Bluff, but we always stop here because it is about halfway between Sacramento and Medford, Oregon, and the Elks Lodge has nice RV lot. On Thursday we drove to Anderson, about 20 miles North of Red Bluff, to the UPS facility to pick up our mail. We “had” to spend a couple hours at the outlet mall because the UPS customer service office wasn’t open when we got there and we had to wait for a couple hours. Oh well, we suffered through it! On Friday we just went out and did some local caching, finding 10. That evening we went to the Lodge for dinner. They were doing their Cinco De Mayo, so they had a wonderful Mexican buffet. We ate way too much, but it was good.
Saturday we went to a local arts festival, which turned out to be pretty small. We also went to a local park for our first Geocaching “Event”. One of the local cachers, whose cache we had found and logged on Thursday had emailed us to let us know that a bunch of the local cachers were holding an event and he invited us to stop by. An event is really just a gathering of cachers for socializing and meeting. Usually they hide a bunch of new caches in conjunction with the event. We met about a dozen of the local cachers and had a nice discussion. Afterwards we went out and found another 10 caches locally.
Sunday, the 10th of May we left Red Bluff California and headed North into Oregon. We had reservations at the Valley of the Rogue State
Park, located about halfway between Medford and Grants Pass on the I-5. We have stayed at this park several times and have always enjoyed the experience. It is right on the Rogue River and is a beautiful park with lots of trees and grass. They have full hookups with 50 amps, all for $20 a night. This time the spot we picked had a clear line of sight to the TV satellite, so I didn’t have to set up the outside antenna - the dome worked perfectly. This is the first time since the 14th of April that we have parked the coach anywhere outside of an Elks Lodge. We went from far Southern California (Chula Vista, 5 miles from the Mexican border) all the way to the Northern border into Oregon staying at Elks Lodges. We spent 27 consecutive nights camped at Elks Lodges in California - a record for us.And that dear readers brings us up to the minute. We are going to be here at the Valley of the Rogue for a week before continuing north through Oregon into Washington. The plan remains to head into Canada on the 11th of June. I will try to do an update of our little blog prior to going into Canada. Until then, have a great life! We are!!!
