Memorable Journey

This is a road trip that started in Houston with a detour east to New York City before the long drive west to S.F. Bay Area. It all started with me promising my daughter that I would help her move from Houston to NYC and then drive the car west to home. When my mom heard that I would be driving the car across country alone, she offered to be my companion along the long trek home. I couldn't turn her down since this trek would reward her with new sights and experiences- as she likes to say "new wallpaper is good for the soul". After dropping my daughter off to her new apartment, new job, wonderful boyfriend, and new adventures in life, I drove to Baltimore to rest for a couple of days before heading off with Mom west. The east coast to west coast trek took nine days and introduced us to memorable places, foods, and people.

First stop was beautiful downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

Day two, we took a slight detour to see Stone Mountain outside Atlanta before heading to Mobile, AL for a delicious dinner of shrimp boil at the Shrimp Basket.

Day three, we strolled the grounds of the beautiful Oak Alley Plantation situated by the mighty Mississippi River before heading to Beaumont, Texas for the night. 

Day four, we told ourselves we have to experience a Buc-ee's before leaving Texas. So, we ate lunch at the Buc-ee's before heading into San Antonio, TX to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk. In my opinion, Buc-ee's is much more interesting than the Riverwalk. We ended the day with a wonderful meal at the Saltgrass Steak House and learning about the Saltgrass Trail.

Day five we drove from San Antonio past beautiful mesas and ugly fields of oil rigs until we reached Carlsbad, NM for a wonderful time shopping at a tiny art gallery and an excellent dinner at the Trinity Hotel. Sadly, I didn't stop to take any pictures that day- just a serious day of driving.

Day six started off with a visit to Carlsbad Caverns (sadly, the elevators were not in operation) with short climb down into the cavern to the bat area of the cave. And then after walking back out of the cave, we watched a video about the history of the cavern. From there we headed to White Sands NM in New Mexico by passing by the highest point in Texas (El Capitan) and skirting El Paso. After watching folks enjoying their day at White Sands, we headed into Las Cruces for the night.

Day seven, we drove to Tucson. We enjoyed the day of eating tasty tamales at the Tucson Tamale Co, visiting the White Dove Mission (San Xavier del Bac), and strolling the beautiful gardens of Tohono Chul.

Day eight was a delight!  Before wandering around Borrego Springs looking at the interesting metal sculptures, we visited Dateland for the famous, yummy date milkshake and drove by Yuma which was full of Snowbirds with their RVs. We tootled along the Borrego Salton Seaway to the Salton Sea before heading into Indio, CA for the night.

Day nine was spent driving from Indio to the S.F. Bay Area, home. The highlight of that day's stop was lunch at Harris Ranch on I-5.

Total miles traveled with mom were about 3,950. We were both surprised at the diversity of the topography and vegetation while traveling across the US-so many beautiful places. I'm so happy that my mom was able and willing to make this long trek with me. I love her so much....and thank her for being my companion on this memorable journey.

End of December Travels

On December 28th and 29th, my husband and I headed off for a three day trip to the Big Sur coast. Our first stop was exploring wonderful and beautiful Kirk Creek campground and the surrounding trails.

Site #11

We hiked up a portion of trail across from Kirk Creek campground, but had to turn back due to the sun setting.

The next morning, we ventured down a trail just behind our campsite where we were then rewarded with beautiful views.

Before heading north, we headed to Plaskett/ Sand Dollar Beach area just south of Kirk Creek for a hike along the bluff to the point and back, and then a climb down to the beach.

After taking in the views, we headed north to Pfeiffer Big Sur campground. We squeezed into our spot for the night and took a stroll around the campground.

Our discoveries were the Big Sur Creek and fungus.

In the morning, we took a dog-friendly trail (Pine Ridge trail) that led us up out of the campground into the Ventana Wilderness. We met numerous backpackers heading to the backpacker campground near a hot spring.

We opted for a short hike off a spur trail that ended with this nicely done dead-end. Finding the dog-friendly trail was such a wonderful surprise since the State Park trails are not dog-friendly. Kirk Creek was our favorite campsite and the trail up into the Ventana Wilderness was our favorite trail.

Mt Madonna and Dog Friendly Trails

Mt. Madonna County Park is serene and gorgeous in late Autumn. Few folks camp at this clean and beautiful campground during this time of year. In our section of the campground, there were only three other campers.

And there were even fewer folks hiking the vast system of trails that traverse the hills of Redwoods, Tanbark Oak, and Eucalyptus trees that make up this wonderful park. We only ran into one man hiking with his two boys on the trails, but there were numerous folks that drove up to see the White Fallow Deer and Henry Miller Estate ruins during our visit. Hearst gave Miller two deer, and today the Park takes care of the herd.

One lonely male caged away from the rest of the herd could not be bothered with us, while a curious female came over to check on us.

 Not too far down the way from the encage deer are the ruins to the Henry Miller Estate.

Once a beautiful home with vistas of the Valley, the property now only contains the ruins of the estate that children enjoy climbing while adults ponder the massive wealth of "Cattle King" Miller and his good fortune for that time period. Miller came to California in 1850 with only $6, invested in cattle and land, became one of US largest land owners, and a millionaire- equivalent to a billionaire today.

After wandering around the ruins, we take the Lower Miller trail over to the Loop Trail, which we use to hike over to the Iron Spring trail. While hiking on the Iron Spring trail there are notices to stay on trail since there is an active archery course. The Archery Range encompasses a large area with trails connecting the many target areas. This system of trails is different from the hiking trail system.

It is on the Blackhawk trail that we pass the man with his two boys. They were reading one of the directional posts and trying to figure which way to get back to their parked car up at Hilltop. It seems that they had wandered too far off their hiking route for the day.

After a peaceful night's rest and before packing up to head home, we took a short morning stroll. We were rewarded with a bench to rest and enjoy the pretty view of the valley below.

Room with a View

The road up to Fremont Peak State Park isn't for the timid RV driver. Only small RVs should attempt the drive since the road is narrow and has many sharp turns in the road. The views are spectacular, and that is what makes the drive up to the park well worth the travel. We were fortunate to pick an Autumn weekend which few campers ventured out to this park. There were numerous families who had driven up to hike up to the peak to enjoy the million dollar view of the Monterey Bay and the Salinas Valley, but after they explored the peak they soon headed back down to home.

This is a view of Fremont Peak. Next to Fremont Peak are broadcasting towers, which provided us with great service. 

We were fortunate to get a site that was easy to back into and had wonderful views of San Juan Bautista area to the Monterey Bay.

A view of San Juan Bautista and Gilroy with the Diablo Mountain Range in the far back right side of photo and the Santa Cruz Range far back left side of photo.

The view from inside our trailer back window. Many of the oak trees had mistletoe, which my husband at first thought were large squirrel nests.

After exploring the park and discovering that dogs are not allowed on many of the trails (which isn't written on the park information site), we spotted our trailer while walking around the Oak Point campground. We were camped at the Valley View campground. It's sad that dogs aren't allow on many of the State Park trails in California, while young kids can camp and trash sites with their empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, and food waste. We cleaned up the site above ours since the trash was being blown all over the campground. We picked up three trash bags of litter. There was no park ranger driving by checking the park or cleaning up sites. 

After a very quiet night and a very lazy morning breakfast, we packed up and headed home. This is a view taken while driving back down the mountain. 

Would we come here again? Only in the late fall or early spring before other campers venture out. The road up has warning signs of icy spots along the road where water from springs wet the road; so, winter camping is out. The views are worth coming back for another peek; but sadly, the no dogs on trails would make me think twice about coming here again.