Travel from Bakersfield to Indio, CA

We departed the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California, and headed to Indio, California (near Palm Springs).

Here’s the map route; a six hour drive in our coach. The default route was down CA-395 to I-15, but when examining the route, I saw very heavy traffic just before I-15 reached CA-138, so we decided to take a different route to bypass the worst of that:

Map route

It was very foggy in the hills after Bakersfield:

Fog

But soon cleared up:

Hills

Paladin sat on the kitchen counter again most of the time, except a few times when he came forward to say how he didn’t enjoy travel days:

Paladin

Hills and wind turbines:

Hills and wind turbines

Hills and wind turbines

Flat desert highway:

Highway

Not so flat desert road, with lots of dips, plus Joshua trees:

Desert road with lots of dips, and Joshua trees

Interesting rock formations:

Interesting rock formations

The aforementioned heavy traffic on I-15 after merging from CA-138; we missed the worst of it:

Heavy traffic on I-15 after merging from CA-138

Hills:

Hills

More wind turbines; going for quantity rather than size:

Wind turbines

Out destination, the Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance:

Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of this drive, with music!

Orange Grove RV Park

Our next RV park was Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California:

Orange Grove RV Park info

Here’s the park map:

Orange Grove RV Park map

This campground is literally in an orange grove, with orange trees between each site:

Campsite

Paladin watching me from his dash bed:

Paladin

The orange trees were full of fruit, though not quite ripe yet:

Orange tree

Campsite:

Campsite

A nice thing about (some) pull-through sites is we didn’t need to unhook our truck when pulling into the site. In fact we left the tow bar connected overnight:

Tow bar

The campground was rather empty during the week, before the weekend campers arrived:

Campground

Rather than a central septic system, they had a truck pump out multiple systems around the park; a bit unusual, in my experience so far:

Septic pumping

The pool was closed for the season:

Pool

A fun rustic-style maintenance building:

Rustic-style building

Decorations:

Decorations

So many rows of orange trees:

Orange trees

Orange trees

A full moon and campfire:

Moon and campfire

Paladin on his dash bed:

Paladin

Travel from San Benito to Bakersfield, CA

We departed Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve, and headed to Bakersfield, California.

The map route; a six hour drive in our coach:

Map route

Heading into the hills along the CA-152 freeway:

152 freeway

We followed a couple of car carriers transporting Teslas through the pass:

Transporting Teslas

Another couple of views of the very empty San Luis Reservoir:

San Luis Reservoir

San Luis Reservoir

A stop at Love’s for some diesel and DEF (and cleaning the windshield!):

Love's fuel stop

Paladin spent most of the trip on the kitchen counter:

Paladin

He seemed more relaxed about it than previous trips:

Paladin

A rest stop between two other RVs:

Rest stop

A nice thing about a motorhome is we can easily make lunch (and use the bathroom) while at a rest stop:

Making lunch

I put Paladin’s dash bed on the kitchen counter, so he’d have a more comfortable place to sit; he seemed to appreciate that:

Paladin

The I-5 freeway was primarily populated by big rigs:

Trucks on freeway

Bakersfield city limit:

Bakersfield city limit

The Orange Grove RV Park campground entrance:

Campground entrance

Campground entrance

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of the journey today (with music this time!), and a tour of the campground tomorrow.

Driving down the coast from Carmel to Big Sur, CA

We took a drive down the California coast, via Carmel down to Big Sur, just for fun.

Monastery Beach, Carmel:

Monasery Beach, Carmel

Ocean:

Ocean

Ocean

Ocean

Bixby Creek Bridge:

Bixby Creek Bridge

Bixby Creek Bridge

Bixby Creek Bridge

Bixby Creek Bridge

Bixby Creek Bridge

Point Sur Lighthouse:

Point Sur Lighthouse

On the way back, we noticed a Giant Artichoke in Castroville, CA:

Giant Artichoke, Castroville, CA

A map of our route; we went there and back basically the same way:

Map route

Clear sewer hose extension

A handy little addition to the wet bay of the coach: a clear sewer hose extension, attached below the sewer valves.

This enables me to better see the water draining from the black and grey tanks; the other end of the hose has a clear portion too, which is also useful, but this lets me see the water before it drains the length of the hose:

Wet bay

Here it is in context, draining the grey tank (from the sinks, shower, etc):

Wet bay