Bakersfield, California: You know the season is winding-down when there are fewer than 80 motorcoaches in the park. Most of these 80 have their slide-rooms retracted and are awaiting a driver to return them to their summer home or local air conditioned storage facility. Mary and Captain Jim left a few days ago. Few of our few friends remain.
You know we are getting ready to leave when a company comes to take our golf cart to her summer camp.
Our golf cart will be pampered, charged, driven, cleaned, and generally enjoy a few months rest. We hope. We have no idea. We only know our cart is returned to us each fall in fine working order.
One last lunch at Tacos Gonzalez:
We generally have lunch at Taco Gonzalez (at least) two days a week while we are in the desert. Still $1.89 for a taco. Still operated by multi-generations of the very hospitable Gonzalez family. Soccer always on the television. Dave and I will miss the food and miss the family… while we are in Oregon this summer having lunch at Cafe Yumm! – the place from home we miss while we are in SoCal.
Herbs have been harvested from our little kitchen garden, embellished with clippings from our olive tree, and will be carried north in the adorable vase-situation Riki and Lowell gave us last year (filled with tulips as a hostess gift). I spray-painted the wooden frame black – it was a dusty teal – during the off-season. Fresh herbs all the way to Oregon!
There are also a few clippings from our olive tree in the mix, because – guys, we have an olive tree!
There is big news about the campsite to the left of our lot. The lot has been sold, and when we return next fall, it will hold a beautiful fancy-new casita and a swimming pool! (There goes Leo and Lucy’s football/baseball/soccer field!) It will be such a dramatic change after six years of openness to the west. While we are excited to finally have neighbors, we are more excited about not having our motorhome exposed to sun on the driver-side all afternoon – their casita will shade us. Interesting note about our new neighbors: they have a house (with a pool) in the neighborhood next-door to this resort. Literally on the other side of the wall from the Motorcoach Country Club. This could seem a bit odd (since our other house is 1200 miles from the Motorcoach Country Club), but our new neighbors are not the only couple with a stick house in the area.
It’s a real thing.
One last look down the canal
Super windy this morning and very hazy to the north. The winds were supposed to calm by 11a, so we simply delayed our departure until then.
Pavilion ready for the summer
Casita = air conditioned storage room. Maricela checks our campsite weekly.
Slide rooms IN and ready to roll.
Elvis Has Left the Campsite
There are only a handful of campsites in this resort without easy-access angled driveways. We bought one of them. Today, My Driver reversed our 45-foot bus from its winter home on the first try. Actually, his best-ever attempt. Ding Hao!
Hitched up and ready to fight the wind on I-10.
The wind was really strong. Some of the worst we had encountered. DT just slowed down to 45mph, along with the truckers, and we slowly made the trek over the San Gorgonio pass, and finally out of the gales.
Our neighbors, Lois and Steve, were driving to the Bay Area in their truck, and were just a few miles ahead of us. Lois sent a text warning that the roof had just blown-off a “WARNING WIDE LOAD” manufactured home being towed down the far right lane. It looked like a 14-foot wide roll of aluminum foil as the metal rolled back from the roof and flew onto the freeway.
Orange Grove RV Park
We are spending our first night on the road at the ever-familiar Orange Grove RV Park, just east of Bakersfield. As is our tradition, lasagna is served on the first night of a long trip, and I made the casserole last night. Much like the short-cuts employed with the Hot Browns Sunday night, I used left-over/frozen home-made lamb ragu, and already-shredded-in-a-bag mozzarella to construct a lasagna in a loaf pan with no-bake pasta sheets. I’d surely be kicked-out of Italy for this concoction – but, hey, it was super-easy, the sauce was delicious when served it to Colleen and Rick a few weeks ago, it’s organic, and we will be happy for the easy meal after a long day on bumpy SoCal roads.
Lasagna with arugula salad
Cheesy Lasagna
Until my next update, I remain, your cheesy correspondent.
RV PARK: Orange Grove RV Park. $45 for a full-service 50-amp site, with our Good Sam discount.