The RV Park we stayed at in Bakersfield CA was literally situated in an orange grove. They had cleared out trees to make roads and pull-thru sites but left 3 trees in between each site Most of the trees are very mature and they were loaded with green oranges just started to turn orange as we were there in October. In December and January they’ll be full of ripe juicy oranges and the guests are invited to pick as many as they want! Yum! Here’s a pic:
We spent a week in Bakersfield, CA not to see wonderful sights, but just to kill some time while we’re heading south as the weather turns cooler. There’s not a lot to do or see in Bakersfield. It’s high desert and a lot of oil and agriculture. We did go see the latest Bond movie (No Time To Die). It was great!
Other than that, I took walks, we did our normal chores of shopping, laundry, etc. We’re retired so we can do nothing if we want!
Not that Bakersfield is a bad place!
One cool thing is that our RV Park is in an orange grove! Here’s my post about that (click here).
While driving from Caspar Beach to Morgan Hill we first drove on Hwy 1 (narrow road along the shore with lots of tight turns and no shoulder) then Hwy 128 (narrow and no shoulder for most of it but not as many tight turns) then 101 till we got close to Oakland where we got into I880. That’s a busy multi lane freeway.
So we’re driving along when a car pulls up on our left and the driver frantically waves and points at our rig. What!?! We pulled over and found that, for the 4th time, we are missing a wheel! Not the tire, the whole wheel! All 6 lug bolts had sheared off and the wheel just came off and ran away. A trucker pulled up behind us and said several people had slowed as the wheel bounced along down the road but it didn’t hit anything. Thank goodness!!
Well, the only thing we could do was limp off the freeway at the next exit in Hayward. We found an auto repair shop close by so we limped there only to find it was closed. Not sure if just for the day since it was barely 2pm or if it was out of business.
We called AAA for some assistance finding a place to get it repaired and they suggested a few places within a few miles. Unfortunately none of them would accept us, either too busy or the lot wouldn’t hold our rig. We started getting desperate thinking we’d have to spend the night at the side of the road with no water (our fresh water tank was empty) or electricity. I tried a Truck and RV paint and repair place about 5 miles away who agreed to help us after I did some begging! So we called AAA to see if we could be towed there to save our other wheel on that side from failing due to the heavy load. No dice! We would need a “lowboy” used for hauling heavy loads and no one had that equipment. So we ended up limping along side streets at 5mph to get there. We got there just a little before they closed.
But, they got our rig behind their gate so it would be protected and estimated 2-4 days for repair, mostly because of supply chain problems with getting the parts we needed.
So, off to a cheap motel that would take our dog. We ended up at a Red Roof Inn in Hayward and the owner was nice enough to give us a ground floor room so Laddy wouldn’t have to get up stairs (due to his weak back legs and heart problem that would be a no-go).
That all happened on a Monday, Wednesday morning the shop said the parts were being picked up and the rig would be ready that afternoon. YAY!!
We had a few hours between check out time and when the rig was ready so I looked for things we could do. Found a nice dog park but also learned that Hayward, CA has the highest crime rate per capita of any city of any size anywhere in the world. WHAT!?! Good thing I found that out as we were leaving not arriving!
But, the wheel got repaired and we made it to our next destination a couple days late.
We took all this in stride like we’ve done for all of our mishaps! Here’s a pic of our broken wheel:
While in Caspar Beach, CA we drove just a few miles south to a state park called Russian Gulch. It’s along the coast and there are several trails along the cliffs and to a sinkhole just off the shore where tidal water streams in and out.
We had postponed our visit to this park because of clouds and fog so we were happy the next morning when the skies were clear. It was a beautiful day!
The loop trail that we took to the sinkhole was just about ½ mile and very flat so that Laddy wouldn’t get winded or have trouble going uphill (heart condition and very weak back legs). He was fine and really enjoyed the short hike! He was on a mission for part of the way – forging ahead and not sniffing or looking around at all. Like he’d smelled a rabbit and was determined to find it!
It was a very nice day – here are a few pictures:
One day while we were staying in Caspar Beach we took a drive up the coast about 30 miles. We’d already been on that coastline when we came into town, but it was so foggy we couldn’t see anything.
On Wednesday the day was extremely clear, very few high clouds and no marine layer! So we jumped in the car and drove up to where Hwy 1 turns inland, and then returned along the coastline to see the shore and all the rocks in the water.
It’s amazing about those rocks! As I said in a previous blog entry while we were in Oregon, the rocky coastline is a result of the two tectonic plates along the coast ramming into each other, one side gets pushed down and one side gets pushed up.
The coastline is very rocky and in some places there’s a gradual slope down to the cliffs. We saw several farms and ranches along the shore. And, some houses perched right on the cliff. I got a good picture of one of them just above a beach with very large rocks scattered around.
Here are the pictures we took on our coastline drive:
Several weeks ago when we were travelling north towards Washington we drove Hwy 101 from Klamath to Crescent City, CA. The highway had suffered a major landslide a few months before and it was CLOSED most of the day while workers cleared it. Overnight and for 2 hours at lunchtime they opened it one lane so there were still delays. We left very early that morning so we would be past that area before they closed it from 8am-noon. It was kind of foggy that morning so we didn’t get a real good look at the area.
Now we are heading south through the same area and we learned that it was no longer closed for several hours at a time So we were able to go through that area a little later in the day and got to see it real well.
It’s a huge, high cliff that slid onto the road! I can see why it took months to get it cleared enough and secure the cliff enough to allow traffic through it again. Here are a few pictures:
We’re staying a week in Caspar Beach, CA. It’s near Mendocino and also Ft. Bragg. Our RV Park is right on the beach, literally just across the narrow country road. The beach and the RV park are in a narrow ravine with cliffs right out to the ocean. The beach area has tons of rocks and also lots of seaweed, so with the cliffs on either side the smell can’t get out.
One day I had walked over to the beach and when I got back to the road I saw a young deer standing in the road. When it saw me it moved to the other side in front of the RV park store and I got a picture of it before a car scared it enough to run. The next day I saw him again inside the RV park so it must live around here. I haven’t seen any grown deer and this one is so young, I wonder if it’s an orphan?!?
Here are pictures of the beach, the front of the RV Park and the deer I saw:
