Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, June 19th, when we left our home park in Pahrump, Nevada after two and a half months and set out on our summer travels. Our first night was a one night stand in Dagget, a small town outside of Barstow, California. On Sunday, Father's Day, we again left early to try and beat the heat. We left Dagget about 8:00 and continued west towards Bakersfield, California. We had a little easier day because the freeway between Barstow and Bakersfield was not nearly as busy as I-15 was yesterday. As a result, I was able to drive a little slower to avoid overheating and we made it up the hill over over the Tehachapi pass without any serious heating issues. We did a quick fuel stop in Tehachapi and continued on to Bakersfield, arriving at the Bakersfield RV Resort about 11:00. This is a new park for us as the one we used to use on the east side of town no longer does nightly stays. We got checked in and parked and were able to get set up just before the temps got over 100 degrees. This is a nice park with good power, so both A/Cs are running well and we are able to cool the house. After we got set up we went out for an early lunch, going to a nearby Thai restaurant called Ocha Thai, which was excellent. We had a great meal. After lunch we did a quick run to a nearby Winco to pick up some things that Walmart just doesn't carry. After the grocery run we went back to the park and stayed in out of the heat the rest of the day. We had a light dinner, then watched TV until bedtime. We are in Bakersfield for three nights, so no need to get up early tomorrow.
Monday, June 21st, we left the coach about 11:00 and went out to spend the day exploring Bakersfield. The heat wave was subsiding a little, today was supposed to be only up to 105 or so, and in the late morning, when we went out, it was not bad at all, still under 100 degrees. We started by doing some geocaching. We have geocached once before in Bakersfield, about three years ago, but we only got a few. We cached around the area of the city we are in, southwest Bakersfield, and were able to get ten new finds, and one DNF, in an hour and a half or so. We then decided to take a lunch break. We decided we would try some Greek food, so we found a place near one of the big shopping centers called the Panini Kabob and Grill. It took us a while to find it because the GPS was off, but we did and we went in. After we sat down and looked at the menu we saw it was VERY limited. A couple of kabobs, some salads, and some vegan dishes. We asked the waitress about panini's and/or Greek pita dishes, and she told us that they had reduced their menu because of the pandemic and didn't have any of those dishes currently. I told Jackie that there was nothing on the menu I wanted, so we politely told the waitress we were leaving and we did. We went two doors down to a place called Blaze Pizza, which it turns out is a fast food pizza joint. You go through a line, kind of like at a Subway sandwich shop, and custom build an 11 inch pizza, which they cook in a very hot oven in a matter of minutes. The pizzas are one price, no matter what you put on it, and they were actually quite good. We had a nice lunch, then went out and spent an hour or so driving around checking out the town. We stopped at the Elks Lodge, which we had also visited in 2019, and had a drink and chatted with some of the members. It was a very friendly lodge. After our drink we left and headed back to the RV park. We stayed in for the rest of the day, watching some TV until it was time to go to bed.
Thursday, June 24th, we had planned to go out and do some geocaching and then over to Pismo Beach to visit Corey. However, Jackie woke up this morning with what appears to be a bad head cold. She didn't feel like going out and also didn't want to go to Corey's because he is scheduled for some serious surgery in a week or so and she didn't want to get him sick. We stayed in for the day. I got a lot of office work done. Jackie spent most of the day on the couch. Friday Jackie was still feeling poorly, so we had another stay at home day. I did go out to the grocery store for a few things, but other than that I worked on travel planning all afternoon. We did some tacos for dinner and watched TV until bedtime. Saturday Jackie was feeling just a little bit better. She decided that she wanted to get out regardless, so we left the coach about 12:30 and went to In and Out for lunch. After lunch we drove up to Pismo Beach so we could at least visit with Corey for a little while. It was strange being in the house on the hill without Jackie's Aunt Donna. Corey looked good, although in a week or so he is going to have surgery to unblock an artery in his head, pretty serious stuff. It has been causing him to have small strokes. We spent a couple of hours catching up with him, then we left around 4:30 or so and drove back to the coach. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach watching TV.
Sunday, June 27th, was a stay at home day. I did get a Sunday paper in the morning, but other than that we stayed in. Jackie is still sick, so it was a quiet day with the TV. I made a pot of chili for supper and we watched TV until it was time for bed. Monday we stayed at home until about 2:00 when we left to try and take Jackie to an urgent care. Unfortunately they would not see her because she didn't have proof of a recent Covid test. The fact that she is fully vaccinated didn't seem to mean anything. After that we drove to nearby Nipomo to have dinner at Jocko's, our favorite steak house. We couldn't go last year when we were here because they were closed for Covid. We got there early and were the first one's in the door when they opened at 4:00. Corey also came and Jackie's other cousin Pia was supposed to come, but called and said she couldn't make it. We had a wonderful dinner, I had a huge rib eye steak, Jackie had lamb chops, and Corey had halibut. The meal comes with salad, sides, and dessert, so we had plenty to eat and still took leftovers home. We also had a couple of drinks and when it came time to leave the waiter told us that the manager, Ed, who is a friend of Corey's, was picking up the tab, the whole check! Talk about friends in high places. Needless to say the waiter made out as we left a nice tip for him. After dinner Corey went home and so did we. We watched some TV and went to bed.
Tuesday, June 29th, our last full day here in Santa Maria. It was also Jackie's aunt Donna's birthday. Donna and her late husband Barky had built the house that Corey is now in. Corey is her grandson and she left the house in Pismo to him when she passed a little over a year ago. We had a stay at home day again and Corey had planned to come over to our place in the late afternoon for dinner. He called in the afternoon and said he wasn't feeling well, so he decided to stay at home. We had a light dinner, then watched TV until it was time for bed. Wednesday was another travel day. We left Santa Maria about 9:30 and started the 145 mile trip north and east to an RV park on Interstate 5, near Coalinga, California. We arrived at the Almond Tree RV park about 1:00 and got settled into our spot for a one night stay. We didn't even unhook the car. For the first time in a week we were hot again, although it was only 101, not 111 degrees. After we got set up we just relaxed for the rest of the day and evening.
Thursday, July 1st, we left Coalinga about 10:30 and continued our trip to Fresno, about 70 miles. We arrived at the Fresno Elks about 1:00 and, due to a brain fart on my part, we didn't know what space we were supposed to be in and the park host was out and didn't have the information with her. Since we had an hour to kill we parked the coach in an empty spot, hooked up the electric so we could run the A/C, then went to Del Taco for a quick lunch. While at lunch I remembered where I had noted the number of our assigned spot, so we headed back to the Elks, moved the coach to our correct spot, then got our set up done. We are here for five days, hopefully visiting Jackie's cousin Stephanie and her family. Today we just stayed in and tried to keep cool. By bedtime it had cooled down enough to be comfortable and we went to bed. Friday we left the coach about 12:30 and drove to a nearby Mediterranean restaurant for lunch. Jackie had a gyro plate and I had a diced steak sandwich and fries. Mine was OK, Jackie said her gyro meat didn't have much taste. OK food, but probably wouldn't go back again. After lunch we got two nearby geocaches, then went to Costco for some supplies. After Costco we went back to the coach and tried to stay out of the heat for the rest of the day and evening.
Saturday we left the coach after lunch and did a Walmart run. After Walmart we headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the day and evening. Jackie is feeling slightly better, but still has a bad cough and hoarse voice. Sunday, Happy 4th of July! I went out and got a Sunday paper which we enjoyed with our morning coffee. About 1:30 we left the coach and drove to Jackie's cousin Stephanie's house for the day. Stephanie's husband Ron was there, as were her mom Sue and all three of her kids. Ron is a construction electrician and usually works jobs that take him away from home most weekdays but since this was a holiday weekend, he was home. We didn't make it here last year, so it has been two years since we saw the family. Jackie had a great time catching up with Stephanie and Sue. Jackie and Sue grew up together in the Los Angeles area and Jackie watched Stephanie grow up. The three kids were in and out all day, but everyone seemed to be really happy, a great family. Ron did burgers and hot dogs on the BBQ and we had a very nice dinner. About 7:30 we left and headed back to the coach. We spent the rest of the evening with the TV.
Monday, July 5th, we thought we might go back over to Stephanie's today for a bit, but Jackie was still feeling poorly, so we just had a stay at home day. Didn't go anywhere or do anything. Tuesday was another travel day. We left Fresno about 10:30 and started the 140 mile drive northwest to Lodi, California. We didn't have to leave early because even though the day will be in the low 100's, we are just going up the Central Valley, so there are no hills to worry about. We made a fuel stop in Madera at a Love's truck stop and Jackie ran in while I was fueling the coach and picked up some chicken livers at the Chesters Chicken inside the truck stop. Yea! With $200+ worth of fuel we now had a full tank. We arrived at the Lodi Elks Lodge about 1:45 and got parked in our spot. The lodge now takes reservations, so we had a spot waiting for us and it is 50 amp, so we can run both airs and stay cool. We have stayed here several times in the past, but the last time we were here was in 2013. We used to have some old friends from Indio, Fern and Andy Leonardini, who had a house here and grew Zinfandel grapes in a small vineyard. They have both passed away in the last couple years so we are now just here as tourists. We are going to be here for three days, so hopefully we can get out and do a little exploring and caching. We got everything set up and then just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We had a pot roast in the crock pot all day while we traveled, so we had a nice dinner, watched some TV and went to bed.
Wednesday, July 7th, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove to another urgent care facility to see if Jackie could get checked out since she doesn't seem to be getting over the cough. This one was affiliated with the local hospital, which was part of the Adventist Health group. Over the years we have been to several Adventist facilities and always found them to be very helpful and pleasant. They did take Jackie right in, checked her out, did some tests and even a x-ray. The PA that she saw is fairly certain that it is a severe case of bronchitis, but is not yet pneumonia. She prescribed some antibiotics to take if she doesn't get better in a few days, as well as a cough medicine. We found an excellent Mexican restaurant after visiting the urgent care and had a great, if somewhat late, lunch. It is called El Pazcifico (that's how they spelled it) and had really good ratings. After lunch we went to the Walgreens and picked up Jackie's meds, then headed back to the coach. We had leftover chicken livers as a light dinner, then watched TV until it was time for bed.
Our arrival here in Carmichael marks the three week point since we left our home park in Pahrump and also a good place to close out this episode and get it published. After our five days here in the Sacramento area we continue north for a couple more stops in California before moving up into Oregon. Until next time, remember to value your friends because they are the family you choose. See ya soon.
