We visited the Garlic Capital of the World today, although there wasn’t much garlic to be had there. Gilroy claims to be the capital, and I’m sure their garlic festival that is held in July is pretty cool, but when the festival isn’t on it’s just another sad town with lots of empty store fronts. We drove through downtown and almost every other store was vacant, it’s really sad to see. Morgan Hill, which was a little north of Gilroy, was in better shape but it was still just a town and not very impressive. The drive was the nicest part of being out today as I really like this part of California; maybe it’s the green hills and the lack of people and traffic.

Mike: Did you run out of things to say? That's not like you!

At the laundry yesterday (it was raining so it was a good day for washing), there was a sign posted about a mountain lion sighting in the park; this morning I made Mike come walking with me as I think I could outrun him if we encountered a mountain lion! Well we didn’t, but we did see two bobcats. I think the first one we saw was the same one as the other day as he was in the same area; he wasn’t relaxing this time though but looking for food. The other one was at the far end of the park; he was sunbathing, just lying in the grass without a care in the world. It did get up and move as we got closer, but he wasn’t in so much of a hurry that he couldn’t take a second to scratch an itch.

Mike: Becc, very funny but looks aren't everything! Besides you run like a girl!

After getting home and getting clean we headed back to Hollister to visit Verizon Wireless to see about getting some kind of device to put us back in touch with the rest of the world. We had stopped by the store on our last visit to town but they were so busy we didn’t stay. Today we spent about 2 hours in the store with a very nice lady who has solved all our communication problems. Since we are still under contract with AT&T we couldn’t cancel their service, but we’d been reading about a wireless hotspot that Verizon sells called a "Jetpack", and it was one of those that we came home with today. If it wouldn’t work at the park we had planned to get a pay-as-you-go phone and we mentioned this to the sales chick; she proceeded to sell us a home connect device which basically gives us a ‘home’ phone anywhere that Verizon has service. We ate Chinese for lunch and then rushed home to see if both, or either of them worked. Well, Mike hasn’t stopped smiling since we got back, as the phone works perfectly, and the hotspot works even better. We can now stay in touch wherever we, even from the back of beyond, and I have no more excuses for not keeping this blog up to date.

Mike: I told you man fix things! UGH! UGH!

I was still in bed about 7.30 this morning when there was a knock at the door. Mike was already up and after the second knock he answered it only to find there was no one there. It’s probable that the woodpeckers in this place were playing tricks on him, or maybe it was one of the gazillion quail that are zipping around. Either way, I think he felt a little silly answering the door to a bird!

We took a drive around the park this morning on our way out to civilisation, and as we were driving towards the exit Mike spotted the cutest bobcat just sitting on a picnic table catching some sun; he didn’t move as we drove by and even posed for pictures. We checked out the lodge and then swung back around to see if he was still there, and found him sharpening his claws on a fallen tree trunk, before lying down and getting comfortably camouflaged in amongst the wilderness. He was very cute, I’m sure Tal-y would have loved to play with him!

We made our way back to Hwy 25 and headed north towards Hollister. On the way we passed through the town of Paicines; the RV park is in Paicines but this morning we visited the town proper. It took us all of 2 ½ minutes as it’s a wide spot in the road consisting of a country store and a post office, and there wasn’t much going on in either one. The next town we passed was Tres Pinos which was a little bigger than Paicines but not by much. Hollister was a lot bigger with plenty of shopping and a downtown devoted to food canning. On the way to having lunch we passed through a good sized residential area that was bordered by huge warehouses full of freshly filled cans. It makes sense that this area would have a major business since so much produce is grown all around this area.

Mike:  "I tawt I taw a pudy tat!"

We packed up the outside of the trailer yesterday afternoon, the awning, mat and all that stuff, so that we could get out of dodge early this morning, but at 10.30 we were still in our space and it didn’t look like we were going to be going anywhere. We’d both gotten up early this morning and taken care of all that we had to until all that was left was to hook up the fifth wheel and unhook the electricity. Mike started to get hitched up, he backed onto the trailer once, twice, three times, ten times, and just could not get the truck and trailer hitched together. He tried to get the hitch to lock around the fifth wheel pin and it just wouldn’t. He tried everything, he backed the truck in with aggression, he rocked the trailer back and forth, he fiddled with the handle, but nothing worked. He kept at it for about 2 hours, I kept my mouth shut the whole time (I’m finally learning), and then he decided to go ask for help at the ranger station. A first ranger came and couldn’t help as he didn’t have a fifth wheel and didn’t know what the problem was, so he called for help. Two more guys showed up, a ranger and a wrangler, and after much fiddling and backing up the wrangler finally managed to get the hitch handle to lock and drop. Apparently the problem was that it had seized up a little and just needed a bit of lubrication.
We finally got on the road just before eleven and from then on the rest of the day was plain sailing. We drove to the 101 and had a lovely drive north for about 3 hours. It really is a beautiful part of the state here, it’s very lush and green, with lots of space and farmland. After leaving the 101 we took a county road past more fields growing all kinds of who knows what, before picking up highway 25. We followed this twisty turny road for about thirty miles before we came to the road that this park is on. A few more miles past lots of vineyards and we found San Benito Thousand Trails where we are going to spend the next couple of weeks.

We got checked in and drove in to the park to find a space; there are lots of 50 amp spaces here so we headed for that section first. This place is huge, there are over 500 spaces, and the spaces themselves are huge. The only problem is that the park doesn’t look like it’s been mowed since Mike was a little boy. It was difficult to find the spaces as they are all so overgrown with long grasses; we had to literally wade through the grass when we eventually picked a spot to get everything set up. The trailer came off the truck without any issues this afternoon, and we got everything else done fairly quickly which was good as by the time we got here it was almost time for dinner. I think it’s going to be a nice fortnight here as it’s quiet and peaceful, the only issue we have, as usual is no Internet; and we can’t even tether to my phone here as we have absolutely no cell service – good old AT&T!

Mike: I'm still going to fix this problem! @#%&$#@

It’s been really hot here again today, even at 7 o’clock this morning it was close to 70 degrees. We sat out on the patio first thing, eating breakfast and keeping cool from the slight breeze blowing through the park.

Then around mid morning we headed over the arena to watch the ranch dogs performing, and they were amazing; their names were Cutter and Meg and they herded cattle and sheep respectively. They are both Kelpies, which is an Australian breed that is a cross between a Border Collie, a Terrier (Manchester I think he said), and a dingo. It was really cool to watch, and I think the dogs could have gotten the job done without their masters, as they both needed very little instruction. Meg does competitions and Cutter only works on the ranch here; it was easy to see Cutter felt right at home cos half way through the herding of the cattle he took a time out to go take a dip in the water trough. Then when his performance was over he took another dunk to cool off – can’t really blame him, as it was super hot, the sheep were panting under their wool coats.

After the dogs came the bull-bucking demo. They have several young bulls here that they get prepared for rodeos and such; even at 2 years old they were some big boys. They didn’t have actually riders today as they are too young, they use remote control dummies that they can be released off their backs whenever the wrangler wants to, to simulate a rider; they work their way up to 8 seconds as the bulls get older and stronger. It was a really good demonstration.

Mike: The dogs were amazing and so was the dummy! (not talking about Becc)

We’ve spent the last few days at the park, strolling down to the Santa Ynez river, and watching and feeding the local wildlife; the ground squirrels are everywhere and they all seem to have babies. There are also deer here and lots of hawks and other birds; they have rattlesnakes too but we haven’t seen any of those yet.

Then this morning we took a short drive to Lake Cachuma. We had intended to go for a bit of a walk for a while but decided not to when we had to pay to get into the recreation area. We probably would have if we’d been going for a few hours but since we hadn’t intended to do that we just turned around and left. Now Mike is napping and I’m off to do some reading. It’s 91 degrees outside so we are in here with the air running and it’s lovely and cool – I have such a tough life!


Mike: Me too!

Since we’ve been here I’ve been really good and have been getting up early (because Mike makes sooo much noise when he gets up it’s hard to stay sleeping) and going walking. I went this morning, and after I got back Mike decided that today would be a good day to walk to the waterfall that is somewhere on the 300+ acres that belong to the park. Well since I was already sweaty I figured why not, so off we went. I was actually a nice walk, past the horses and the wagons, and off up the side of the mountain. It wasn’t too far to walk but it was a little steep and really uneven in places, and sometimes I forget just how old Mike really is; actually I don’t think it has anything to do with his age, he’s just so flipping awkward and a bit heavy footed. But he did fine. I stayed in front of him most of the way so that if he fell (and it sounded like he did a number of times) he wouldn’t land on me. The walk was nice, along a trail that ran alongside and over a stream/river, and the waterfall was really pretty when we eventually found it; it wasn’t that hard to find really as it was in a box canyon so we couldn’t go wrong. It was very peaceful with the only sound being the water falling over and onto the rocks. It was also nice and cool, a good few degrees lower than when we started as the sides of the canyon blocked the sun. I doubt whether most of the oldies that RV make the walk but I’m glad we did, and Mike managed it without falling on his face, yeah.

Mike: Becc, I didn't fall and I'm light footed just like a little fairy!

We needed to get some food in today as we haven’t been to a store other than for fresh veg since we got here so we headed down the mountain to Santa Barbara this morning. We spent a while there, mostly shopping for clothes as I had a gift card that had to be spent by today, but the parking was a nightmare, it’s like Del Mar all over again. There was lots of 15-minute parking but nothing longer, so Mike kept having to head back to the truck; in the end we just gave it up and left. Parking is more of an issue since we got Xena as she has a really big bum, and she’s a very long; most place, especially touristy areas do not make their parking for duallys! We had just as much fun trying to park at Trader Joe’s in Santa Barbara, they had their own parking lot but no spaces for us, so we headed up the road to Goleta and did our shopping there. After stocking up we decided to take a scenic drive to Lompoc before heading home. This whole area is beautiful, lots of mountains and greenery; it actually reminds me a little of home with all the rolling hills. We also passed plenty of wineries along the way, which are definitely not a common sight in Wales, and there were no sheep, but other than that, the two places are quite similar – at least to me.


Mike: Zena takes offense at you saying she has a big bum! She's just a big girl!

We spent a little while in Lompoc and had some really good Mexican food for lunch; maybe the best veggie burrito I’ve had in a long while. Lompoc, for a town that is not really on the way to anywhere is actually really cool and has everything you could possibly need in a small space. Mike was mean though and wouldn’t let me visit the Air Force base or the prison. He did buy me a hummingbird feeder that I can stick on our window though so that made up for his meaness.

It’s a little bit nicer today though still super grey and windy. The last couple of days have been really ugly; the weather rolled in over the mountains on Thursday afternoon and was still with us somewhat this morning. It’s nothing like some other parts of the country have been experiencing, but we spent several hours yesterday morning sitting in the trailer with no power while a thunder and lightening storm passed right over our heads. It rained a lot too, but the park seems to dry out really quickly, there are not too many puddles left now. I really like this park, it’s possibly one of the nicer ones we’ve been too, the only down side is that their wifi is awful, and I don’t have enough of a signal on my phone to get online. Mike does go over to the lodge to check out what’s happening in the world most mornings, but each page takes days to load and it gets very frustrating. The entries in this blog may not get posted till we move to the next place.


Mike: I AM going to resolve this internet problem!!!!

After spending the day yesterday walking around the park and investigating what they have going on, today we headed north to Solvang. We have visited Solvang previously but it was raining so badly that we spent literally one minute on the sidewalk before bundling back into the car and getting out of town. There was rain forecast for today but just showers so we decided to risk it. It’s about 25 miles from the park, past Lake Cachuma and then over towards the coast, so it was a nice drive. Solvang is a cool town, Danish in heritage with lots of traditional architecture, customs, and pastries; the name means ‘sunny fields’. We spent a few hours wandering around checking out the buildings and the little stores along every street. We did get caught in a shower or two, in between getting up close and personal with Hans, and having really crusty panninis for lunch. I know, not really very Danish, but meatballs, sausage, and salted fish are never on my menu; we did go Danish though at one of the abundance of pastry shops, yummy.

 Mike: Yummy Danish pastries!

Our last morning waking up in Menifee arrived at last. We got all hitched up, said goodbye to the ducks and geese, and hit the road. We had about a four hour drive today which wasn’t too bad timewise, and the actual drive was quite nice, mostly. We did have a little bit of a problem around the San Fernando Valley as we both really had to use the bathroom and there was nowhere for us to pull over. We held on as long as was humanly possible before we saw a sign for services off the next exit. The services turned out to be a gas station that was barely big enough for us to get the trailer around. Mike did manage it with a bit of nifty driving that involved lots of forward and backward motion, and some reassurances from two guys who stopped to watch the maneuver. After relieving ourselves (and man was it a relief) we got back on the road. It was smooth sailing after that along highway 101, and we even saw the ocean. Then the horrible part came; well horrible for ma anyway, we had to go up the San Marcos Pass which is a one lane in each direction road with no shoulder that climbs from sea level to over 2000 feet in about 9 miles. I was clenching the whole way up but Xena did fine (so did Mike), and if there was any doubt about her ability to pull the trailer anywhere, there isn’t anymore.
After about 12 miles we turned off to the camp ground and drove through Los Prietos National Forest for another 5 or so miles, then we traversed another ‘lovely’ road into the park proper. This one had mirrors on it to see round the corners and if we had met anyone coming the other way I don’t think we’d have been able to pass – thankfully we didn’t. After all the anxiety we got to the park around 1 this afternoon and drove around looking for a good spot. The park is on the side of a hill and all the spaces are in rows that are tiered. It was fairly hot when we got here so we found a nice space that has lots of shelter and got all set up. The park is actually a horse ranch and we passed lots of them on the way in. It’s actually not too busy right now but I’m sure it gets fuller on the weekends. It’s a really beautiful place, nestled amongst the mountains; it’s very serene, no traffic noise, just the birds singing and the ground squirrels playing all around. I think it’s going to be an enjoyable couple of weeks here.

Mike:Yeah, Zena, my "Warrior Princess" (I mean Becc, of course!)