I’ve previously chronicled our hurried drive to Illinois and to our dear Emily.

We made it to town on July 1.  We stayed at Double J Campground in Chatham.  It is definitely one of the nicest parks we have stayed at.  We were all the way in the back, away from any unnecessary noise.

We made it to Illinois on time.  Our first day, we got a long overdue workout in and then headed to the house.  I’ve seen her since my Dad passed, but haven’t been back to the house since then.  It looked beautiful as always and it was good to see my stepsisters and their families.  I got to meet Emily’s brother, who I had heard so much about, but barely remember meeting at their wedding when I was 15.

It was her last day at home.  They took her into a hospice care center not long after we arrived.

She knew we were there.  We had a few days of bonding and tears and laughs and good conversations with her lovely friends, her girl-gang.   There was only one person left to make it to town that she knew was coming and that was Meghan.   Less than 3 hours after she arrived, our dearest Emily went to be with her love, Everett Ryan.  She was surrounded with all the love she gave so unselfishly and effortlessly to all of us.

The next few days were filled with the normal things that happen, but we got a BBQ in at our place and some swim time at my stepsister’s house.  We finished a week of love and mourning by some drinks at a local brewhouse and then said our goodbyes…

Here’s to you, Emily Ryan.  You are so very loved.  RIP.

 

We left Lake Mead and headed north and into higher elevations.   The deserts in Nevada weren’t nearly as scenic as California, but we were steadily rising and not long after we crossed over for a short time in Arizona, we looked like we were heading straight into a mountain!. Well, sort of.  Virgin River Gorge!

That was a pretty amazing drive and as we left the Gorge, we were now gazing at a colorful landscape that was our entrance into Utah!

We stayed at Willow Wind RV Park in Hurricane.  What a lovely park – lots and lots of trees and a close walk into town.  We spent our first night stocking up on groceries and hanging out with a beer or three in our lovely oasis for the week.

Since it was the weekend, we elected not to go to Zion Canyon right away.  We drove up to the northern part of the park, Kolob Canyon, which we figured would be less visited.  Well, we figured wrong!  We were able to drive up to the vista for some great views and a short hike, but couldn’t park anywhere to get to the longer trail we wanted to.  But it was beautiful!

After we left, we decided to go check out one of the two state parks nearby.  The first being Quail Creek.  Since we were supposed to be in Utah the entire month, we decided to buy a state park pass.  This was a nice park around a reservoir with a beach and boat ramps.  We took a walk around part of it.

We got up the next morning and headed straight up to Kolob Canyon by the time they opened the gate and got right into the lot for the hike we wanted to do:  Taylor Creek Trail.  It hiked deep into the canyon and Kolob Arch and we had over a 100 stream crossings round trip!  After such a great hike, we decided to check out another state park, Sand Hollow, and maybe get a dip in.  NOPE.  The hike took everything out of my knee and I could barely walk.  Time to go home and get some rest.

So, now we have an off day.  We drove into St George and got some lunch, stocked up on some stuff at Camping World, and then headed to a liquor store to get some beer.  We picked up various 6 packs of Utah beer and I will add Wasatch Brewing Company’s White Ale to my list of favorite beers tried on our trip!

We got up the next morning and made into the parking lot at Zion Canyon by 8:30.   But the views on the way were already a harbinger of the goodness to come!  Put Zion on your bucket list!  You have to take a shuttle into Zion Canyon as there really is no place to park or even drive.  We got off to view the Court of the Patriarchs and its short trail and then jumped on a longer one out to Emerald Pools.  Just gorgeous!  Weeping Rock was next and then a jump on the shuttle to go hike The Narrows!  We weren’t really prepared to hike several miles of water hiking, but we did go a bit upstream in the frigid water!  On the way out of Zion, we stopped at Jack’s Sports Grill in Springdale (what a lovely town) for a beer and ended up partaking of their BBQ – and it was some of the best brisket I’ve ever had.

We took the next day to some maintenance around the rig and then spent the afternoon swimming and lazing away at Sand Hollow on their beach.

Now for the big hike!  Angels Landing!  We were at the trailhead by 9 am to start the long hike up.  Holy switchbacks and ravines!  I’m scared of heights and was pretty unnerved when we start hitting the higher parts of the trail.  But I pressed on and made it to Scout’s Lookout and then let Ed finish the vertigo-inducing last part of Angel’s Landing by himself.  He said it was definitely worth it.

On the way out, we drove through the Zion-Carmel tunnel just to see it.  I couldn’t imagine hauling an RV up that hill and through those tunnels, but people do it.

We left the next morning to start the trip to Illinois…

I have to get better at catching up on posts.  I think my goal will be the morning we leave for a new destination, I’ll write my post of that week so it’s fresh in my head.  But I’m over a month behind right now.

We made it to Nevada and our only stop in the state on this leg would be at Lake Mead.  We stayed right in the National Recreation area, right on the water.  It was gorgeous!

The bad part of going to Nevada in June is it would be terribly hot.  We didn’t do much on our first day, other than pick up groceries for the week and set up camp.

The next morning, we got up and planned on biking the historic Railroad bike trail.  But we got a bit of a late start and it was all uphill for 3 miles and Ed was getting dizzy from the heat.  We turned around and headed back and then took a drive down to the beach and swam for awhile, which was really refreshing.  There are lot of rocks in the water there, so I’d advise anyone going to bring water shoes.

Our second full day, we took a drive over to Hoover Dam and took the tour and lots of pictures!  It’s quite the drive into the canyon to get the views.  We followed up our trip with a drive into Henderson to hit our our favorite store, REI, to get some water shoes.

 

The next day, we signed up for a raft trip down the Colorado River that started at the base of Hoover Dam and took us several miles down Black Canyon!  We even stopped at a little beach if we wanted to get in the water and swim.  It was 55 degrees, so I only got my feet wet, but Ed dove right in!  It was also the hottest day we were at Lake Mead, but the convection in the Canyon and the water spraying us down kept us cool all day.

 

On our last full day, we took a drive up to Valley of Fire State Park.  It seemed we had the road to ourselves for most of the trip.  It was beautiful and windy and we saw some wild horses and as we entered the park, an entire herd of bighorn sheep walked in front of us!

We did one really great hike at the park out to Fire Canyon Overlook – not a long hike, but a bit strenuous at the end.   It was also through a lot of sand!

After our leisurely drive back, we met up with some German tourists who were parked near us and chatted for awhile and they gave us all their supplies as they were heading back to Germany the next day.

It would have been cool to have rented a boat while we were there, but the heat was pretty bad and time got away from us.

Packed up and now headed for Utah!

After leaving Desert Hot Springs, we made our way back to San Diego for a bit.  Due to the short notice we were heading there, RV parks were hard to come by and at a premium.  We stayed at Chula Vista RV Resort in the Marina area.  Really nice place, but really expensive.  I guess you get what you pay for.

Besides spending quality time with our dearest friends Linda and the Ross clan, I was able to see a few others.  One of them being one of my Divers, dear Octo.  He was one of my favored “sons” at the Dive Locker.  It was great to catch up with him and his wife and they were headed to Zion a week ahead of us.  Met a Chick Chief who’ve I’ve been friends with for years on Facebook, but finally got to meet in person.  A quick Zoo trip with one of my wardroom wives and her minions.  And a lovely drive up to Julian, a place with so many good memories.

But here’s a fun piece.  We’re sitting in the waiting area at La Mesa RV and we get talking to a young woman there who just got out of the Navy.  She’s going to full-time with her two dogs for awhile.  We got talking RVs and then Navy.  And come to find out she literally got to GONZALEZ right after Ed left the ship and knew his name.  How small is our world and our Navy!  We’re following each other on Instagram now and maybe we’ll catch up on the road one day!

After a great Father’s Day brunch, we finally started the trip out of California and new environs.  We stopped for the night in Barstow CA before heading on to Lake Mead!

We left Fresno and drove the 99 down to Bakersfield and then turned east through Tehachapi Pass and now we’re in the desert of California.   We had intended to make our first attempt at boondocking (camping without services), but we were driving a good clip and Ed said let’s just plow through and get to Desert Hot Springs that night.  This was our latest arrival at a campground, so we just hooked up the power and left the rest of it until morning.

We spent our first full day there doing some maintenance, going to the gym, and stocking up on groceries.  Saw that one of our neighbors had a gas-powered fire pit to enjoy, so this our latest purchase!

On the second day, we headed to our 5th national park of this adventure – Joshua Tree!  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I was blown away by how beautiful it is.  The rock  formations were ethereal in their beauty.  We got out and did the Hidden Valley Loop trail and got to see some rock climbers practicing their craft.  Another drive deeper and we’re on our way hiking up Ryan Mountain!  The views were tremendous from the top.  It was a pretty steep hike, though, and I could have used a hiking pole for some of it.  We came out the northeast entrance into 29 Palms – that’s a town I never thought I’d be in.  We had a great meal at The Rib Co before heading back for the night.

Our second day in Joshua Tree, we hit some of the shorter trails in the northern part of the park then drove all the way down to the southern entrance.  We hiked a longer trail there and though I didn’t see them, I heard some rattlesnakes nearby.  That was pretty scary.

My knee has good days and bad days.  After two days of hiking, it was acting up a bit, so I gave it a rest.

We took the Palm Springs tram up to the top of Mount San Jacinto.  They’ve changed the tram car and now it’s revolving.  Since I’m a hater of heights, it was a pretty scary trip up the mountain.  I’m standing in the non-revolving middle on the way down!  This isn’t our first trip up there, but we’ve never gone for any hikes.  This time we did – a 6 mile loop that had some pretty fantastic views!  If we had gone up earlier and had our poles, we probably could reached the summit – though there is still snow up there.

Our last full day, it was going to be 104 degrees, so we decided to spend it shopping at the outlet mall in Cabazon.  I’ve been putting some weight on with the no running and inconsistency with going to the gym, so I need some new clothes.  I hate buying clothes because of weight – but until I get this knee fixed, the goal is to NOT gain any more weight.

On our last night in the desert, we were sitting out watching the sunset and drinking some beers when Ed said “This is the life, tell me why I want to go back to work”. !!  I don’t know, dude, I’ve been telling you that you didn’t have to since before we even left!

Back to San Diego we go….

I’m a month behind on blog posts and will catch up while we are here in Springfield, IL.

My beloved stepmother, Emily, has gone into hospice for the cancer she’s been fighting since before my Dad died.  She is one of the strongest women I have ever known and I hold her personally responsible for keeping my Dad alive for so many years.  He was never in good health, but somehow made it to 82.  She sacrificed a lot to take care of him and I wonder some days if that wore on her own health.  She’s been in my life since I was 12 years old and has been another mother to me.  I hope I have been a good daughter to her.

We got word she was sicker than she had been letting on to me while we were in Zion.  I very hastily mapped us out a 5 day trip to get to Illinois and started re-working two months of plans.  I didn’t want to cross over the hardest part of the Rockies more than once this summer, so I mapped us north to Wyoming and down the I-80.  But I got a preview of the week we will spend in the Salt Lake area as we drove north:

Our first night, we stopped in Evanston, Wyoming at Phillips RV Park – which was quite lovely and trees galore.  One of those parks you wish you could spend more time at, maybe some day.   The next morning, we got off early but stopped to take a picture of this:

How cool is that!  What a nice start to the morning.   Wyoming is absolutely gorgeous and I wonder why more people don’t live here.  We stopped for the evening in Laramie and had a great steak dinner at Cavalryman’s Steakhouse – located in a old army fort building.

As we left the next morning, we started another mountain climb and hit the highest elevation we’ve hit so far towing the RV – 8640 feet!  Crossed over into Nebraska at lunchtime and stopped for the night at Kearney RV Park, where we had this evening view: 

We were supposed to make our next stop in Hamilton, MO, but when we got up, Ed said he wanted to plow through and finish the drive to Illinois.  We crossed two of our mightiest rivers, the Missouri and the Mississippi, saw the effects of all the spring flooding along the rivers, and crossed 3 state lines during the day.  Just on this 4 day whirlwind trip, I crossed 3 states off of ones I had never been to:  Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa.

Anyway, we made it to Springfield.  Going to be a tough week here.

We headed back to Fresno to rework our trip.  Worked on some maintenance around the RV and got in some yummy food again at Taqueria Don Pepe:

We looked for things to do in Fresno.  By the way, it’s an underrated town.  There are good places to eat, plenty of shopping, and nice neighborhoods.  And it’s on the doorstep to three national parks.  Spend a little time there if you have a chance.  One of the things we found to do was to go to Forestiere Underground Gardens.  What a wonder!  A young man moved to California from Sicily and bought some farmland that he found was no good in the intense heat.  He started digging caves under Fresno and grew gardens under the cooler earth:

Since we were once again in Fresno AND we had to cancel our 10 day stay in Yosemite, I told Ed I couldn’t leave this part of California without taking a day trip up there.  I looked into last minute lodging and somehow managed to secure two nights at Yosemite Falls Lodge!  The reservation clerk who called me to confirm said we were the luckiest people in the world as she had a cancellation come in within minutes of my sending in the reservation request.

WE’RE HEADED TO YOSEMITE!!  I can’t underestimate my excitement.  We took just the truck up and now I’m glad we did.  The roads are pretty tight going up there and we’ve made the decision that we are not driving our rig up there on a later date.  The drive up was beautiful but windy.  It had snowed earlier in the weekend, so the slopes had a light covering over them.  Of course, I’ve seen plenty of pictures of Yosemite Valley but to get the first look at it personally literally took my breath away:

We got down to the valley floor and our first stop was Bridalveil Falls and we lucked into a parking spot right away.  A short drive to the Lodge and sure enough, Yosemite Falls was literally outside our back door:

Due to the snow pack over the winter, the falls were all at a glory that they haven’t seen in years and there were plenty of people there to witness it.

We got on our bikes the second day rode all over our end of the valley and had a few short hikes, including this one to Mirror Lake:

Our third day, we went on a long hike on the Valley Loop and got to catch some climbers attempting to scale El Capitan:

We leisurely drove back to Fresno and enjoyed all the tremendous views and when we got back, we made reservations at different places in the park to come to back to in late September.

We got back and there was a camper van parked next to us.  I’m following a few instagram accounts that are camper vans, but this is my first time seeing one up close.  I really should have talked to him that night, but in the morning, I heard an Australian accent and went out to investigate.  Our camper-van neighbor and his girl are both from Australia!  We talked Down Under and travel and looked at each other’s rigs and decided to follow each other on instagram.  They seem like Ed and I’s kind of people and they seem to be doing our trip in reverse.  I hope we catch them out here again and get to spend some real time with them.

After another delicious meal at our favorite Taqueria, we were now heading back south.  We have new batteries for the rig and we filled the tanks so we can make our first attempt at boondocking/dry camping.

We were originally scheduled to go to Yosemite after San Francisco, but our darling Angelface (aka our daughter Rachel), decided to fly back from Australia to walk in her college graduation from Longwood!  So now we are looking at last minute plane tickets, a nice dress for me (I’ve put a few pounds on), and a place to leave the RV for the time we are gone.  We had decided that Fresno would be a good place to fly in and out of and we had stayed a good park there, so we tried to book it again.  No such luck.  We ended up in Chowchilla, 45 miles north.  Go figure, it is literally the nicest place we have stayed.  Our pad was right on a little lake and there was security.  Met some great people on the one night we are there before flying back East.  We knew our rig would be safe.

Flew into Richmond and drove down to Virginia Beach because not only were we there for our daughter’s graduation, we were now going to make it to the retirement ceremony of one of my best friends!!  (She had moved hers up to accommodate her son’s deployment).  So happy to be there for my Leo!  It was a wonderful ceremony but we had to turn right around and drive back to Richmond, as Rachel’s graduation was the next morning out in Farmville. 

After her lovely graduation ceremony, we headed back to Richmond for the remainder of the weekend.  Found a great sushi place, Fighting Fish, walking distance from the hotel.  Strolled over to the Virginia Capitol grounds. Walked down to the James River, where the River Rock festival was going on.  The next day, we ate another great place, Perly’s, a great Jewish delicatessen.  Walked over and toured the White House of the Confederacy.  Met up with our third daughter, Abby, and her family at Citizen Burger Bar in Carytown.

It was a great weekend in Richmond and after a stroll around Maymont, we all got back on a plane to head to our homes.  We lucked out and Rachel was on our first leg to Dallas, then she basically had to run to her connection to Sydney.  We were delayed on the ground and then diverted over Mexico because the storms in Texas were so bad, so we landed in Fresno at 2 am.

That made for a shitty next morning, as we couldn’t stay at this park, so now we headed to Sacramento for a few days before we were going to Lake Tahoe.

We stayed at Sac-West RV Park – it was nice, but a little noisy as it was right next to the freeway.  Our first full day, we took a walk around Old Sacramento then walked up to the California State Capitol building.  Beautiful grounds.

The next day, we drove up to Folsom State Recreation Area and took a hike around part of the lake. 

We were supposed to be heading to Tahoe, but a message with a friend who lives there said it had been snowing and the roads would be too tough to drive up in our RV.  So we cancelled Lake Tahoe and decided to start heading south again.   We stopped in Fresno again and reworked part of our trip.

Time to leave the wine and head for the big city!  San Francisco!  It is one of my most favorite places in this country.   When I was a brand new Sailor, I got stationed at NAS Alameda CA, which is right across the bay.  To me, San Francisco was a city not too dissimilar from Boston and it made a homesick Sailor a little less homesick.

We stayed at Candlestick RV Park in Hunters Point.   The cons:  It was little more than a parking lot with hookups and for a ridiculous price and your neighbor on top of you.  Don’t get me started on the asshole parked next to us for the last two nights.  I wouldn’t walk around that area after dark.  The pros?  It is literally right in the city.  A cheap Uber ride to go anywhere we needed to go.  The bathrooms were immaculate and the front desk was super helpful and friendly.

After getting our rig parked, we took a drive south.  Down and around the Stanford campus in Palo Alto – lovely.  The plan was to go Half-Moon Bay and drive up Route 1 during sunset.  We decided to cut over the mountains between Palo Alto and there.  We missed a turn for the road I wanted, but I found another.  Holy twists and turns!  It made that road up to Sequoia look like a freeway!  Even Ed was a little unnerved driving on it.  After we survived that drive, we stopped for dinner at Via Uno Cucina – delicious!  Then a leisurely drive back up the 1 and the sun set just as we turned into the city.

When I lived here, I had a route I would walk around the city most weekends.  I decided to take Ed on this same walk.   Union Square then into Chinatown for some Dim Sum at Hang Ah Team Room.   Some dessert in North Beach at one of the many pastry shops – this trip we stopped Victoria Bakery next to Washington Square.  A beer at La Rocca’s corner.  Down to Fishermans Wharf and some marinated calamari from Alioto’s then a beer at San Francisco Brewing Company.  Puttered around the waterfront, through Fort Mason and the Marina district, then Ed decided he wanted sushi for dinner, so we walked all the way to Japantown from there, to include going over Russian Hill.  My legs were screaming!  But dinner at Tenroku was worth it!

On Mother’s Day, my girls treated me to great seats to see the San Francisco Giants.  Oracle Park was a bucket list ballpark to see and it did not disappoint!  After the game we took a leisurely stroll down the waterfront and then a trip over Telegraph Hill to eat some great Italian at Sotte Mare – place has been there for YEARS.

On our last day in San Francisco, we took a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge as one should do if you are here.  Lunch at Fish in Sausalito – I had this great oyster dish called Hangtown Fry.  Back over the bridge to go to Golden Gate Park and walk through the Japanese gardens and the Botanical garden.  We had a wonderful time in this great place!

After catching up on projects, it was time to leave Fresno and head for our next stop and one I’ve looked forward to for YEARS – Sonoma and Napa wine country!!

Make sure when you go to California, you invest in a Fast-Pass.  EZ Pass does not work out here.  We found out the hard way when we were crossing the Benicia Bridge in the Bay Area – also, have enough cash with you to pay the toll if you don’t have the pass!

Two things I don’t like traveling with the RV – mountain passes and cities!  Getting through the Bay Area was a royal pain in the ass as we headed north.

We stayed at Petaluma KOA – I can’t say enough nice things about it.  It has probably been my favorite campground of the entire trip.  My only complaint was they put us in a section that had the playground – so there were kids all over the place – but the facilities were wonderful and it was a great location for all things we wanted to do in the area.

Our first full day, we headed up to Bodega Bay.  If you saw the movie The Birds, this is where it was filmed.  Wonderful drive out there and what a charming village – and we had some great chowder and halibut and chips from Fisherman’s Cove:

Later in the day, we met up with our friend Mike, who lives in San Mateo.  He took us to a bucket list brewery – Russian River!  So many great beers, including the famous Pliny the Elder and we shared a large flight of all their beers:

On that Sunday, we drove up to Healdsburg.  I messaged my daughter and said this is a town she would love.  Tasting rooms galore, nice restaurants, and interesting (though high-end) shops.  We had a cheap lunch at a diner in the center of town and then made our way to our first vineyard, J Vineyards.  We enjoyed sitting out on their patio with the cheese pairing they gave us with the tasting.

I have a friend that quit his job at a defense contractor and moved out here to work in a winery.  I told him we would be in town and would love to grab dinner.  He did us even better.  He set us up for a wonderful day of tastings at his favorite wineries with him.  First up, Fontanella Family Winery – my favorite wines of the day.  They were mountain grapes and we had a fantastic zinfandel up there and Rachel was a gracious host.  We also got to meet the owner when we were in the barrel room.  Next up Aonair Wines in St Helena – another lovely place and great wines.  And we even got to drive through the vineyards in a quad vehicle!  Our last winery was at Amizetta, also in St Helena and with the most breathtaking views:

Chris and TC also took us to a tasting room in Yountville and one in Napa.  I can’t remember their names because at this point I was famished from drinking all day and can’t remember them!  We had a great dinner in Napa before heading back to our “home”.

We spent a quiet day at the campground before heading up for dinner at the home of our former next door neighbors, Mark and Sheryl, who now live in this part of the world.  We haven’t seen them in 20 years, but it took less than 5 minutes for the years to peel away and bring us to our former closeness.  They have a lovely house in the hills and they cooked us a great meal!  I hope we never go that long without seeing each other again.

We spent the night at their house and on the way home, we drove into downtown Petaluma to see what the town was all about.  We found great Thai food and a wonderful market to shop at.  And stocked up with plenty of Pliny the Elders for future libations.

Our last full day there, we took a trip through the hills to Calistoga and hit our last winery of the week, Castello di Amorosa.  Our tour guide grew up two towns over from me!  We had a great time on that tour and left with plenty of wine.  We dropped over $1000 on wine, but if you’re going to go to Napa, you do that!  On the way home, we stopped in downtown Petaluma again for a great meal at What a Chicken.  It was a hole in the wall with fabulous grilled chicken.

If it wasn’t so expensive to live here, I would move here in two minutes.  Such a wonderful week!