Lone Pine, CA

Our Motorcoach at Boulder Creek RV Resort

After a long day in Yosemite & Joe's terrifying treck down the Tioga Pass, we pulled into a great RV park in Lone Pine, CA (Boulder Creek RV Resort - in the middle of nowhere). While Joe set up, I took Tazzy for a walk. As we were walking I noticed a familiar face -  It was Sharon Frank - Remember, she & husband Larry came to visit us at Coyote Valley. Small world!
We left the next morning- we had a deadline to meet - We wanted to visit Evan in Las Vegas before we had to be at Alfateers Service Center for maintenance & upgrades to our motorhome on September 27th,

Sharon on Swing 

Mountain View at Lone Pine, CA

Yosemite

Entering first tunnel

Exiting last tunnel

After leaving Coyote Valley RV Resort, we headed to Yosemite National Park. We set up camp & got a good nights sleep. .                                                                                            
 The next day we were off to Yosemite with the dogs. After going through several tunnels, we finally started descending into the valley

Yosemite Valley

Only bear we saw in Yosemite

When we left Yosemite we decided not to hook up the car until we reached the bottom of the Tioga Pass.  We went from an elevation of over 9000 feet down to 3000 feet. The views were incredible, but I didn't get to take any pictures because I was driving the car. It was a pretty harrowing experience for Joe, driving a 40 foot, 37 thousand pound bus down a steep winding 2-lane road. Joe's knuckles were white by the time he got to the bottom of the pass. We pulled into a cafe to let the breaks and Joe cool down before hooking the car back up & moving on.

More Day Trips



Carmel Breakfast Cafe

Joe Leaning Against Clock Post in Carmel



Some other places we recently visited:

Carmel-By-The-Sea:

We had breakfast at a small cafe called From Scratch before taking a stroll downtown. The road down to the beach is steep & winding
The views are gorgeous!





Natural Bridge



Santa Cruz...again:

We visited Santa Cruz again with friends Sharon & Larry.

The waves were really high! Surfers were out in droves catching some great rides.







Day Trippin'

After 5 days of fun & relaxation, we started our 2 day trek back to Coyote Valley RV Resort (CVR) and get back to work in the cafe. I've been making some wonderful baked goods and breakfast on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. We try to take advantage of our days off to explore the Central California area. We've taken day trips to:

Monterey:

Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row Shopping District & these guys remind me of the Tut-Tut's in Thailand.

Moss Landing:

Caught this seal waving to the dogs...

OMG!! The boardwalk is sinking from all that weight of so many seals sunbathing.

Santa Cruz: Downtown Santa Cruz reminds me of Asheville - very eclectic & hippy..ish. Lots of shops, cafes & restaurants.

The beach (aka: Surf City USA) is another story. Its rugged coastline attracts many surfers & there is a memorial plaque near the lighthouse to all the surfers who lost their lives in search of the perfect wave.

Dogs are welcome to play in the water & run on the beach. Our dogs decided to just observe.

Till next time...

FIRE!!!

WOW! As I was walking Tazzy around the park the other night, I noticed smoke billowing in the distance above the clubhouse. Soon, a crowd of people started gathering around the fence line - There was a brush fire headed our way. The wind was picking up as it usually does every day around 4 to 5 pm. Sirens started getting closer & then a helicopter flew by just as the fire trucks pulled into the RV park - We all thought it was the local news copter, but then it flew back around with a hose dangling from beneath. A loud siren went off & water started spewing out over the fire. After about a dozen attempts the fire was out - No one was hurt & no rigs were damaged. Yeah! That was enough excitement for one night.

Alfa RV Rally

Six days after we arrived at Coyote Valley RV Resort, we took off for the Alfa Rally in Pahrump, NV - We made our plans to attend this rally months ago. So, we had to back-track our way almost 500 miles through California, because, guess what?... there's no shortcut through Death Valley! Go figure! Once we turned off on to Death Valley Road I swear we didn't see another vehicle all the way up to Pahrump, NV - It was kinda creepy! We did pass the sign to Zzyzx Road - What kind of name is that? So, I looked it up online & here's the link in case you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/zzyzx.

It was pretty exciting when we pulled into the Treasure Island RV Resort. There were already hundreds of Alfa Rigs lined up in rows like soldiers. Once we got registered, parked & set up we took a walk around the resort. The pool is two-tiered with a waterfall, a spa and a Tiki Bar.

We had a great time at the rally - We learned a lot of helpful info about our Alfa at the workshops and had the Alfateer Service Center tweak a few things on our coach. There were dinner parties, games & prizes, an ice cream social and a pet parade. The best part was talking to all the other Alfa owners & getting to tour the interior remodels of at least two dozen motorhomes. We got some great ideas and input - Now we know what improvements we'd like to make to our home on wheels. More to come....

Catching Up

WOW! How time flies! Just didn't have enough hours in a day to write on my blog. Because I was working so much there wasn't anything to write about - We never had time to go anywhere or do anything fun or interesting, but now we have moved on to the bay area of Northern California & we love it here.

To bring you up to date, before we left Amarillo, we had an unusual snow storm & minus 30 degree temperatures. The wind was blowing so hard there were drifts up to 5-feet high - This was in February. It was just crazy weather.

The last week of March we pulled out of Amarillo to attend a week-long family reunion of sorts at my niece, Shelly's, in Dallas, TX. My sister, Sue, fly in from Seattle; Jen, David & Willow drove down from PA & Evan flew in from Las Vegas.

Shelly has a daughter, Regan and 3-boys, Ayden, Zach & Carter. Oh! And Surprise! Shelly & her husband, Sean got a dog. Lilly is an English Bulldog & Ayden really loves her. (See pic).

Willow & Ayden hit it off right away. They had great fun playing & running around the house.

Here is three generations of the Evans clan.

While we were in Dallas we stayed at the Vineyard RV Park, about 10 minutes north of Shelly's house. Our site was among the trees next to Lake Grapevine. It's a gorgeous park owned by the city of Grapevine, purchased from the Corps of Engineers. We saw lots of wildlife by the lake, like this crane in flight, & beautiful sailboats docked by the beach. We took Sue for lunch in the quaint historic downtown area. Yum! Delicious!

After the reunion we headed for California.

The trip was relaxing & the views were incredible. Heading north on CA Route 101, we travelled through the long winding hilly Pacheco Pass & reservoir, by one of California's windmill farms and passed miles & miles of orchards & vineyards. More later.