Thursday, May 9, 2013.
Location: Wofford Heights, CA, on the street outside Pebbles abode. No hookups, no cost, but showers and laundry. Soon to move over to the other side of the lake on the property she is buying.
Our last post left us on Sunday night waiting out the high winds in a little quote RV Park unquote! in Big Pine, CA. Big Pine is a wide spot in the road, and this RV park was about the same, but at least we had water and power while there.
The camp host never did show up, and she had the tokens for the shower! So their showers remained dry, and we remained dirty.
Monday, May 6. We were up and around early for us and actually pulled out about 7:30 am. It was about 40 miles to Lone Pine, and we stopped at the Interagency VC before taking a little side trip out to the Alabama Hills area.
While in the RV park Barney and Betty talked to people who had been boondocking in the Alabama Hills for a while and recommended we at least go out and see the area. Like the Monument Valley area, Alabama Hills is famous as a movie making location.
It reminded us of City of Rocks in Idaho, but is a much larger area. Breakfast was fixed and eaten before again heading south on 395.
Instead of taking the turn off towards Pebbles, we continued south to 14 towards Mojave and turned west on 58, going over Tehachapi pass to the tiny spot on the map of Keene, CA. Keene is the location of one of the newer National Monuments that Obama signed off on in October. It is where Cesar Chavez lived, and is home to the UFW (united farm workers) union. The union bought the property in the 70s and Chavez and family moved onto the property. He was a great influence in the treatment of migrant farm workers.
The property there had been a tuberculosis sanitorium prior to purchase by the UFW, and is 180 acres and a number of buildings on the property. The National Park Service only has two acres and a building or two there. There is a nice VC and very nice grounds.
A couple of water fountains are just outside the VC, with rose gardens surrounding the gravesite of Chavez. We were told that his wife still lives on the property. Of course the reason for our stop was to acquire a passport stamp for our books, and we did that.
Continuing on across Tehachapi pass, we dropped down into the Bakersfield area, and started seeing signs advertising California Fruit Depot. It sounded good, so we turned off to find it. What a great place! They are in the middle of orange groves, so processing oranges is their main business, but their little store had a huge selection of nuts and other local items for sale.
They have smoked and candy coated and just about anything else you can do to a nut, and sample dishes of each one. We were welcomed and then told to eat our way around the room. Think kid in a candy store! Lots of dark chocolate covered items: walnuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, pretzels, peanut butter filled pretzels, and on and on. There were others too, but the dark chocolate covered ones won in my book! I think they must have had 75 to 100 sample dishes out! And you guessed it, they also had oranges for sale! Also a few fresh cherries that were excellent.
Oh was that ever a GOOD stop! Who needed lunch after that!
Then it was time to find our way on out to see Pebbles. After getting through the east side outskirts of Bakersfield, we found our way into a very tight canyon that is not at all RV friendly. Our rigs qualify as an RV when it is to our advantage, but are not RVs when that is to our advantage. Well nothing in this canyon was to our advantage, RV or not. We had to ride the center line or in a lot of places ride the other side in order to not bash the cave mobiles up against the over hanging jagged boulders. And did I mention tight turns! You could almost see yourself on both sides of some of the turns. It wound around and around. Local traffic flies through there, and we pulled off and pulled off to let traffic by, but it was white knuckle and not just for the drivers! The Bakersfield side of 178 is not for sissy traffic, and certainly not for RVs, and yet the Lake Isabella area is a huge camping area. That route is on our never-again list. Maybe in a regular vehicle, but not with the cave-mobiles on. And who thought to take pictures!
But we survived and found our way on to our destination. On arrival, the final papers still had not been signed, so we are waiting it out to begin demolition and renewal processes on the new to Pebbles place.
This being posted on Thursday, we have great expectations that all will be final today and we can begin work.
More from the rock pad later, and check again for any pictures we do have to go with this part of our trip.
Location: Wofford Heights, CA, on the street outside Pebbles abode. No hookups, no cost, but showers and laundry. Soon to move over to the other side of the lake on the property she is buying.
Our last post left us on Sunday night waiting out the high winds in a little quote RV Park unquote! in Big Pine, CA. Big Pine is a wide spot in the road, and this RV park was about the same, but at least we had water and power while there.
 |
| Surprised there isn't a dust whirlwind showing! |
 |
| Isn't this pretty |
Monday, May 6. We were up and around early for us and actually pulled out about 7:30 am. It was about 40 miles to Lone Pine, and we stopped at the Interagency VC before taking a little side trip out to the Alabama Hills area.
 |
| Breakfast spot in Alabama Hills |
 |
| From distance this looked like bottom of a foot |
Instead of taking the turn off towards Pebbles, we continued south to 14 towards Mojave and turned west on 58, going over Tehachapi pass to the tiny spot on the map of Keene, CA. Keene is the location of one of the newer National Monuments that Obama signed off on in October. It is where Cesar Chavez lived, and is home to the UFW (united farm workers) union. The union bought the property in the 70s and Chavez and family moved onto the property. He was a great influence in the treatment of migrant farm workers.
Continuing on across Tehachapi pass, we dropped down into the Bakersfield area, and started seeing signs advertising California Fruit Depot. It sounded good, so we turned off to find it. What a great place! They are in the middle of orange groves, so processing oranges is their main business, but their little store had a huge selection of nuts and other local items for sale.
Then it was time to find our way on out to see Pebbles. After getting through the east side outskirts of Bakersfield, we found our way into a very tight canyon that is not at all RV friendly. Our rigs qualify as an RV when it is to our advantage, but are not RVs when that is to our advantage. Well nothing in this canyon was to our advantage, RV or not. We had to ride the center line or in a lot of places ride the other side in order to not bash the cave mobiles up against the over hanging jagged boulders. And did I mention tight turns! You could almost see yourself on both sides of some of the turns. It wound around and around. Local traffic flies through there, and we pulled off and pulled off to let traffic by, but it was white knuckle and not just for the drivers! The Bakersfield side of 178 is not for sissy traffic, and certainly not for RVs, and yet the Lake Isabella area is a huge camping area. That route is on our never-again list. Maybe in a regular vehicle, but not with the cave-mobiles on. And who thought to take pictures!
But we survived and found our way on to our destination. On arrival, the final papers still had not been signed, so we are waiting it out to begin demolition and renewal processes on the new to Pebbles place.
This being posted on Thursday, we have great expectations that all will be final today and we can begin work.
More from the rock pad later, and check again for any pictures we do have to go with this part of our trip.
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