Traveling on...

We hooked a northern arc around Los Angeles to avoid as much traffic as possible pulling this behemoth. Camped for three nights—Kenny Grove Park, Fillmore, CA. LJ & Tye came out for the weekend.

Have I mentioned that we are pulling Athena fairly empty? We sold our Kenai house last year, so I have a house-full of furniture, etc. in storage. Want to see how much of that will fit in here before buying new. That meant LJ & Tye had to ‘rough it’ at a local hotel.

Saturday Greg went to get the new tires mounted then we all met for a scenic train tour through Heritage Valley—rich in citrus & avocado orchards. Stopped in Santa Paula where we played with a 5,000 pound granite kinetic ball fountain, saw the biggest fig tree ever, and enjoyed a street fair. It was a lovely, casual, easy day. Shared a good meal and conversation into the evening at the campsite.

Sunday we made brunch together in Athena. Sixteen COVID cautious months and a big, wide country have kept us from visiting in person—these three days have been a balm to my momma soul.

Back to furniture. We DID start out with a dining room table & chairs. In Austin we donated the table when we found a tabletop at IKEA we decided we could mount on a hinge and use as needed. They didn’t have in stock. We said, “no problem. We’re traveling across country, we’ll pick it up at next metropolitan area.” Sunday afternoon we headed to Burbank—the FIRST metropolitan IKEA between Austin & California that registered online as having in stock. When we arrived, sorry...that info must be wrong. Argh. Got on the internet & checked everywhere from California to Canada. The ONLY available? Las Vegas! Well, that’s not TOO much out of the way...so we pointed the rig in that direction after purchasing/confirming they had it. Bonus: touched base with some friends who moved there from Anchorage last year and got to catch up over dinner. Spent the night at Hitchin’ Post RV Park and Greg spent a little time on the strip—was disappointed in how much it’s changed in thirty (!) years.

Continued to drive across the Nevada desert. Rocky knolls on the horizon, numerous dirt devils (sand wind tunnels), Nomadland-like RV clusters, largest munition site in the world (Hawthorne), big-horn sheep. Dry camped on BLM land on Walker Lake shore. Great site but the temp is rising...we need to keep moving until it cools down a bit!

Camped at Hat Creek Campground in Lessen National Forest. Enjoyed a campfire for the first time in a while. Wandered around Lessen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. Another lesser known NP. Hiked around Manzanita Lake and enjoyed the view.

Crossed into Oregon—can’t wait to get to the coast! Pics here.