Lake Elsinore, Kingsburg, Sonoma and Napa Counties

On Tuesday March 8, we left Lake Elsinore, CA after spending five nights there. We drove 250 miles to our next scheduled stop at Kingsburg, CA.

We had a nice stay and good weather in Lake Elsinore but Anne had a couple of sick days with a deep cough and cold in her chest. When her breathing got difficult on Saturday we decided to visit the Urgent Care place. They were quick, and prescribed an antibiotic, inhaler, antihistamine, and cough medicine, all of which have been helpful.

The things about this area that amazed me were the way the lake was formed within the mountains and the way the clouds would cling to the mountain tops.

We would have departed Monday if it weren’t for the dangerous Santa Anna winds forecast for ’the valleys’. Not familiar with these, it was a ‘no brainer’ for us to stay put another day. It’s a good thing we did. The forecast was accurate and the winds exceeded 70 mph in places. Trees were uprooted and trailer trucks toppled. In last nights news the most wind damage was reported in Lancaster, CA, a town close to the route we traveled today.

Leaving Lake Elsinore we were challenged to find a desirable way around Los Angeles. Hearing nothing but horror stories about the traffic we couldn’t resist getting a taste of it. We chose Hwy 210, an east LA freeway running along the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. You might call it the ‘beltway’ furthest (maybe 15 miles) from downtown LA. I was ‘up for it’ because it runs through Pasadena, and we might get a glimpse of the Rose Bowl, or the main street where the Tournament of Roses parade takes place. Well, with the heavy traffic and walled freeway we didn’t see either, but Pasadena is definitely a plush area, even in March.

Hwy 210 was mobbed with speeders and trailer trucks, and ’no’, folks didn’t ‘drive friendly‘. We held our own lane tho and made it thru even if delayed by the crowd. Fifteen miles from Pasadena a message board posted ETA’s to various spots, and it indicated 45 minutes ride to Pasadena. Not too bad I guess, because we figured the traffic was going to loosen up after that. It did!

Beyond there we used Hwy 5 to take us thru San Clarita. Here we began to climb elevations in excess of 4000 feet in the Padres National Forest. Then we swapped to Hwy 99 in a mountain pass in order to get to Bakersfield, CA. It was a neat drive with sweeping mountainside turns. Trailer trucks consumed the 2 right lanes, many climbing very slowly, and respecting that we pretty much stayed in lane 3. Cars were outnumbered on this road, and they liked lane 4. There were snow covered peaks and mountain lakes, one of which (Lake Castaic) was perhaps man made, formed by a huge dam. Another, Pyramid Lake, was surrounded by peaks, just natural as could be and full of beautiful dark blue, what looked like cold waters.

Descending a five mile stretch of 6% (steep) downgrade we entered a valley and passed thru Bakersfield, CA. Intense farmlands engulfed us on the flatland, consisting of blossoming nut trees, vineyards, and various crops thriving on both sides of the roadway. I inquired to find out that they produce a variety of vegs, onions, grapes, plums, apricots, nectarines, peaches, raisons, figs, dates, almonds, cashews, and pistachios. The vineyards are not producing right now, but appear to be high tech with sophisticated irrigation and elaborate vine draping techniques being used.

We finally made it to Kingsburg, CA, a town on Hwy 99 between Bakersfield and Fresno, where the same crops are abundant. With that, ‘DelMonte’ and ’Sun Maid’ are major local employers.

We’re staying at Viking RV Park for 2 nights, nice and small (35 sites) on mowed grass, well maintained and organized. And guess what passes by here,,,,, the railroad ! Choo choo.....

This is a ‘self-managed’ park, the first of it’s kind we’ve ever been to. Hey, why not? The office isn’t staffed, rather, on arrival you follow the yellow-dotted-road to get registered, take an information sheet/envelope from the pedestal, fill it out, enclose payment, and follow the yellow dots till you pick your spot. There’s no Wi-Fi or cable TV, but we‘re pulling in several ‘over the air’ TV stations, many of which are in HD. No Weather Channel, CNN, Fox, or ESPN tho.

I’m keying this blog entry into a Word document and will paste it into the blog when internet access happens next, probably Thursday.

Tomorrow (Weds) we plan to take a leisurely drive to investigate Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, adjacent to one another, within 80 miles east of here. Their snow covered mountain ranges are visible from here.

On Thursday we’ve decided to head to Rohnert Park, CA near San Francisco where we plan to stay at Wine Country RV Park. We have day trips planned with family and friends we want to visit in Napa, Sacramento, Tiburon (San Francisco), and The Sea Ranch.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to San Clemente (from Lake Elsinore) to see my cousin Karen. She was ’out straight’ with lots going on including a weekend road trip of her own.