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:

It was very foggy in the hills after Bakersfield:

But soon cleared up:

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:

Hills and wind turbines:

Flat desert highway:

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

Interesting rock formations:

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

Hills:

More wind turbines; going for quantity rather than size:

Out destination, the Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance:

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

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

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

Heading into the hills along the CA-152 freeway:

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

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

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

Paladin spent most of the trip on the kitchen counter:

He seemed more relaxed about it than previous trips:

A rest stop between two other RVs:

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

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:

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

Bakersfield city limit:

The Orange Grove RV Park campground entrance:

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

We departed Coyote Valley RV Resort near San Jose, California, and headed to Thousand Trails San Benito, California.

This was a short travel day, less than two hours.

Here’s a map of our route for this leg:

After zipping down the 101 freeway, it was time for some highway driving:

Paladin came up to see us:

He had opinions about driving:

On the step cover:

I picked up Paladin, and held him on my lap for a minute, before he wanted to retreat:

More highway driving:

Then we turned onto a more narrow road:

Reaching the Thousand Trails campground entrance:

Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse video of this journey, and pictures of the campground the following day.

Are you enjoying these posts? Let me know!

We departed Heritage RV Park in Corning, California, and headed down to San Jose, to Coyote Valley RV Resort, a bit south of the city.

Here’s a map of our route for this leg; a 5 hour drive in our coach:

Nice rolling green hills:

Not so nice heavy traffic through Vacaville:

More hills:

680 Benicia-Martinez bridge:

Super scenic industry:

Nice of California to name a freeway after us — the Sinclair Freeway:

Paladin peeking; still not super happy about travel days, but getting a little more used to them, I think:

The 680 freeway south of Pleasanton was anything but pleasant; the road surface was in horrible condition, making the coach feel like it was going to shake apart:

Paladin came further forward than he had before (I kept a close eye on him, to make sure he didn’t go by the pedals at Jenn’s feet):

Downtown San Jose off in the distance:

Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse video of this journey.

Are you enjoying these posts? Let me know!

Time to move again; we departed Valley of the Rogue State Park in Gold Hill, Oregon, and headed down I-5 into northern California, to our next stop, at Heritage RV Park in Corning, California.

Here’s a map of our route to this point, via RV Trip Wizard; we bought our coach in Kennewick, WA, and took it back to our homestead in the Portland region, then up to Mom’s place and Poulsbo RV near Seattle, then headed south via Chehalis, McMinnville, Gold Hill, and into northern California:

A closer look at a map of this leg; a 4.5 hour drive in our coach. I’ll try to remember to include a map like this for all subsequent travel days:

This was Paladin’s second journey in the coach. He didn’t seem quite as freaked out this time, though still not entirely comfortable with the experience. He spent much of the trip on the kitchen counter, where he could see out the windows from a safe space:

We always like to see and identify other motorhomes, especially other Tiffin Allegro Bus models; this one in front of us is a few years newer than ours:

Paladin:

Watching out a window:

Freeway views:

Paladin:

He ventured by my chair, experiencing the step cover:

There were a bunch of hills on this journey; here’s the Siskiyou Mountain summit:

Nice views:

Goodbye Oregon; the sign says “Oregon thanks you; come back soon”. Oregon is our domicile; we will be back, in a few months time:

Hello California; the sign says “Welcome to California”:

Agricultural inspection station; no hassle, they just asked if we have any plants or fruits, which we didn’t:

Scenic:

A stop at a Mount Shasta viewpoint for lunch:

Truck and coach at the viewpoint, with a glimpse of Shasta in the background:

Mount Shasta:

Low water level in Shasta Lake:

Paladin:

Fuel stop; we love Love’s truck stops, even easier now that we have a discount fuel card (perhaps a topic for a future post?):