Wednesday, June 1, 2011

First night in California.. Another Camping Park to ourselves!

So, we drove into California, we were welcome by a downpour of rain and very high winds.  We decided we should stay off the coast and get out of the mountains, so we headed south on hwy 5.  They seem to grow every fruit and nut (the edible kind) here in California.  We're seeing almond trees, peach trees, grapes (of course for our wine), crops of every size and shape, & for as far as the eye can see.  They do taste better here vs by the time they arrive in Canada in the Winter.   

So, we found our first camp ground in California, we loved it, it had 65 places to camp, only one other camper there, we stay far away. We had our spot, with our lake view.  The winds where large even when we got there, but the rain was replaced by sun, so, it was a nice night.  Duke & I explored the vast trails in the evening by walking, then in the morning we went for a short run. Short, (just 7km) but strenuous, as the area was all just rolling hills.  Someone could get into serious shape staying here for a while.

The grass was dry, Duke would run through it, when he was standing, you could just see the top of his ears.  We saw many deer, rabbits, hawks, vultures.  The vultures at one point started circling Duke,  I yelled at them, then I saw them eating something white and fluffy.  When we got back from our morning run, Jerry informed me that there were rattle snakes too.  I'm very glad I didn't know that.  The trails there went on forever. 

 On route to the camp site, make rows of something about to grow.. they grow everything in California.
 Deers kept us company at the camp ground and our our walks.
 We camped with a wonderful view of Lake Black Butte.
 The rolling hills and trails and long grass Duke bounced through like a big bunny.
 The camp layout.
 Where in California we camped our first night.. outside of Orland, Ca.
 This was a crop of something wet, we weren't sure what they were growing here, there were miles and miles of wet, maybe rice?
 In Sacramento, a typical subdivision with the tile roofs.
 So, after our camping, we decided to go find our first DDD (Diner, Drive-Ins & Dives, from the food channel) of the trip, there was one in the book, Squeeze Inn, well, it's closed unfortunately.  We called 411, they number just rang and rang then asked for a password.  So, we tried a second DDD, this one was outside of Sacramento, called Giusti's, we got there at 2pm. They were inbetween lunch and dinner, didn't serve food again till 5pm.
 So, we continued south.. without eating.  IT was a GOOD THING, as when we stopped next, they said there where Tornado warnings in Sacramento about 30mins after we left it, so, if we had found the DDD, we would have been in the middle of it.  We haven't heard any updates on the tornado, just kept going south.  

More crops, more desert like vegetation. 






So, we are going to stay outside of Bakersfield, CA tonight and get to Joshua Tree National Park tomorrow early afternoon.  We'll likely stay there for a couple of nights!

OK! That's if for now.


















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