Sunday: Spent some
time skyping with the family today. Our
brothers were visiting Dad in DL, so we got to be voyeurs on their visit. Using the new 4G mifi, the connection was a
lot better. It was fun to connect with
everyone.
Monday: Moving
day. We were concerned about the
narrowness of future campsites not allowing us to use the garage ramp. So, we decided to install the scootie ramp
on the back of the fitty. At first I
was worried that it might cover the rigs lights (the ramp is not wired), but it
looked fine. We strapped it down as
tight as can be, but there is still some front to back wiggling (from the bike’s
perspective). Hopefully it’s secure
enough for travel. Having the scootie
out of the garage really gives us lots more space to work with in the rig. We should have done this a long time ago.
We packed up and got on the road at noon. I drove slow and steady on the 10 mile trip
to our new campground: Kern River Campground.
This is run by Kern County, and it’s not too shabby. It’s right on the Kern River, there are
HUGE yards, lots of great trees (with good variety). There is a road nearby, but it’s not that
busy. And it’s not a trucker route, so
no loud semis. The reviews for this
place were somewhat negative for being busy and loud and crowded in the
summer. But now, it’s lovely and quiet,
and there’s an onsite dump. $11/night,
which is awesome. $4 per pet per
night?!!!! Not awesome. This is a first come/first served
campground. There’s no spot to drop
your fees; instead a park ranger is supposed to come around and collect
money. We got set up pretty quickly in
our selected campsite. Missy did a
great job backing us up on the half moon driveway.
Tuesday: What a great
spot! There is a terrific amount of
birdlife to enjoy, both on and off the river.
On the river, we’ve seen at least 4 varieties of ducks and 2 kinds of
giant herons. One time I got to see a
heron snatch a wiggling fish and gulp it down. With most of the leaves gone, we can watch
the river from our living room. The
songbirds on land are lovely. And there’s
a pair of hawks that are constantly around hunting. This is a very well maintained park, with
groomed grounds and a bike path. Cassie
is enjoying the overwhelming gopher population. They are doing a serious number on the
grounds…tons of big divots from their digging. I’m surprised there isn’t a program to deal
with the problem, although I don’t know what that would involve. More hawks? Anyway, Cassie is in heaven with a life-sized
whack-a-mole seemingly erected just for her.
Wednesday/Thursday.
Chilly, windy, overcast days. We
have to use the furnace during the day to take the chill off. Lots of people use this campground for
overnighters. Not a bad situation, since
there is no ranger to collect fees before they take off again, it’s free for
them. The ranger did finally show up on
Thursday. We paid through Sat and said
we’d re-evaluate extending our stay.
The ranger didn’t ask, and I didn’t offer, so we didn’t get charged for
the dogs. If that was a holiday gift
from the ranger, thanks!
Friday: Finally,
some sun! It was still chilly, but we
greatly enjoyed the return of the big guy.
We laid out in our ginormous yard in our loungers. It didn’t last long, so good thing we enjoyed it while we
could. In the afternoon, Missy took a
trip to Costco.
Saturday: Another
chilly day, with stronger wind gusts.
We took the dogs on a walking tour of the gopher condominiums. Cassie was so fun to watch as she made her
rounds from mound to mound. And a few
times she’d catch one doing a pop-up in the distance, so we got to watch her
put on the speed. We had ourselves a
campfire before sprinkles chased us inside around 3.
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