We finally made it to Southern California. Left Manteca on Monday and spent the night in Tulare on Hwy. 99. No pictures 'cause it was just a basic RV park off the freeway for overnighters. Tuesday was going to be a long drive for us, a little over 250 miles. Not really far but we have been trying to keep the mileage down to 150 or so between stays. We are now is Menifee (Lake Elsinore area) at the Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails Park. We are scheduled to be here for 10 nights. Allows us to spend Christmas with family. Since this blog is titled "Views from our front porch" here are the pictues from our front door. Stand in the door and look to the right and this is the view.

Stand in the door and look to the left this is the view. Yeah....it a dairy. We not only have the view but we have the flies and smells associated with a dairy. I guess you can't have everything.

We're looking forward to spending time with family and friends before heading out to San Diego for a week.

Lots of Luck on the road

Well, we made it to Manteca, CA and are at Turtle Beach Fishing Camp, a Thousand Trails Park.

The trip to get here was quite the experience. We couldn't have driven more than 100 miles from Redding when someone driving by was honking and pointing the the RV. We couldn't see any thing wrong but slowed down and pulled off at the closest exit. Fortunately there was a Travel Plaza just off the exit. As we were pulling off Gordon could see the front tire on the rig was just barely hanging on. We never even felt the blow out or any change in pulling the rig at 65 miles an hour in the pouring rain. A phone call to our emergency road side service and 15 minutes later a young man was there to change the tire out to our spare. Looked like we hit kind of road hazard because there was a quarter size hole in the side wall of the tire. We followed him 2 miles to their tire store and they had a replacement for our same tire. We were so fortunate in that it happened close to civilization instead of on the curvy mountain roads and it didn't cause any other damage. Usually a blow out will take out the other tire next to it and will also rip up the side of the trailer when the rubber starts to rip apart. We had no damage and the other tire was fine. Think we are going to stay here at least 2 nights. It's a fairly nice park and the people are friendly. Folks next store just had us over for breakfast burritos.

Finally on the road

We did it! We finally pulled out of the driveway about noon on Thursday. We didn't drive too far, just to Canyonville, OR where we spent the night at Seven Feathers RV Resort. Very upscale place. Drove to Redding today. Just another 200 miles to a park we have stayed at several times, Mt. Gate RV Park. We made it through the mountain passes with out any problems. Snow all around but the roads were clear. Not sure where we are going to stop tomorrow. I guess we'll know when we get there.

Countdown 'till take off

Counting down the days until we are back on the road. It has been one thing after another keeping us from heading out. We had planned on leaving mid September and here it is almost Christmas and the 5th wheel is still parked in the front yard.

Now with a re-built Gordon (2 new hips and cataract touch-up), my Mom settled in her new apartment, and the frantic eBay sales completed we are more than ready to leave. Just watching for the weather to calm down enough to be able to drive safely.

I’ll try to keep this blog updated a little more thoroughly than I did on the last trip.