Merced, California: As is my habit, I sat up in bed Saturday morning to see the lights were off on the docks at the Yacht Club... only to remember we were not in Kansas any more... nor were we at the Motorcoach Country Club. There was no lake. No yacht club. No boats. Just a few RVs and one lone palm tree.We headed out, straight north on Highway 99, to spend the weekend visiting Dave's Mom. The RV park we use while in the Merced area is on the now-shuttered Castle Air Force Base in Atwater. (Dave's dad retired as a Colonel from Castle Air Base.) The RV park is associated with the Castle Air Museum. One of the new aircraft on display at the museum is the AIR FORCE ONE used by Presidents Reagan and Clinton, five vice-presidents, five first ladies and countless cabinet members and dignitaries.
Above is the view from our front window at the Castle Air Museum RV Park: planes to tour via the museum and a whole buncha bomb casings. Empty, I assume.
The RV park has just a few back-in sites, though with full-hookups and 50 amp. There is no bathhouse. No pool. No nothing. It's a parking lot with hookups, but we have been staying here for 15+ years now. The park will soon be adding 11 more sites, including four pull-through sites. Yeah!We didn't spend much time in our motorhome, but were visiting with Mom. Brother Bill and his family were busy with a Big Birthday Bash for Ginger's mother, but we did get to see them for a bit and along with our niece, Meghan and her wife, Jamie. Everyone looked great!
Mom looked great as well, but does not like her photo taken. She does like looking at photos of her two great-grandchildren, so we showed her so many photos from our recent trip to Disneyland and our trip to Los Angeles for Passover. My mother-in-law agrees our grandchildren are perfectly adorable. We were able to video-chat with Lisa, Lenny and the kids and Grandma really enjoys these chats.
On Mother's Day we took Mom for a drive in the country to see the Merced Golf & Country Club, where they belonged back in the day and where DT learned to golf. As a boy, Dave caddied for his Dad's golfing buddies. $1.50 per nine, by the way (plus 25 cents every time anyone threw a club Dave had to fetched... oh goodness, I just love hearing this old tales... not to mention learning which of their friends threw clubs).
Not a lot of golfers. We assumed everyone was at brunch with their Mother. We also took a drive-through tour of the new modern UC Merced campus, before driving around Lake Yosemite (where I heard more tales of family picnics, summer keg parties and long Sunday runs with Dave's high school cross country teammates).
Lake YosemiteI hope every Mom was spoiled by their children and kind thoughts to those who no longer have a Mother to spoil.
Until my next update, I remain, your Merced correspondent.
RV PARK: Castle Air Museum RV Park - Bare bones, but the only show in town. Very nice hosts. Self-contained RVs only. We paid $25 per night.