April 14, 2008

I am back again! Annoying all of you with my
travel tales....(-:


We parked the RV for the weeks leading up to the
25th of December in a parking lot/RV park that
was attached to an Econo Lodge in Ashland. It was
convenient, right next to the Interstate exit. A
very useful thing if you are doing any Holiday
shopping at the last minute...

Our plans were to find a place to store/park the
RV, and both dogs (Allie and Frankie, Naomi's
dog) while we all met up in Hawaii. Sarah was in
San Francisco for her conference and then had
some vacation time, so she was going to fly to
Kona on the Big Island on the 24th. I was going
to fly from Medford, OR, and meet her that same
day.

Naomi and then boyfriend Ross were going to work
on the 24th til 9 pm, then drive 5 hours north to
Portland, OR to catch an early morning flight to
Kona on the 25th. I dont know why, when they
could have flown from Medford, only 10 miles
away, but...I have stopped asking these
questions! They were going to spend Dec 25-30
with us then go to Oahu, where Ross' family
lives, until Jan 5.

Zach and girlfriend Courtney were going to drive
from Tempe, AZ to Denver, meet up with Courtney's
sister, drive to Cheyenne, WY, have xmas with her
family, drive back to Denver, get on a plane to
Kona on the 27th, and stay with us until Jan 3rd,
then go back to Wyoming for several more days,
before driving back to AZ. Zach has a little
Honda with no snow tires. Again, I stopped asking
questions.

Ken was going to spend xmas eve and day with his
daughters, then get on a plane on the 26th to
meet us in Kona. He and I were staying in Kona
til the 3rd of January - and after putting Sarah,
Zach and Courtney on planes, going ourselves to
Kauai and then Molokai.

The weather was getting progressively colder and
wetter as it got closer to the time to leave. We
found a storage place close by that would let us
park the RV for three weeks for $65.00, which was
a whole lot cheaper than paying for it to stay in
the RV park! But, we had to winterize it, meaning
drain out all the water, the holding tanks, the
pipes, and put in a special RV/people friendly
antifreeze. Which meant that we had to move out
of the RV before we put it in storage, which was
before we went away. So we lived for several days
in a La Quinta Inn, because they are dog friendly
- and they had a pool and a continental
breakfast.

Then Naomi and I found the North Pole Kennel a
couple of miles outside of Ashland. It sounded
like a great place to leave your dogs, yes bring
their beds and special treats and food - yes they
get to go out several times a day, yes we will
let them go out together if it makes them both
happy.

We brought the dogs over there on the 23rd, in
the morning. Allie has never been to a kennel
before (in 14 years), and she knew something was
up. Frankie is still a (very large) puppy, and he
could have cared less about staying in the
kennel, but he managed to look pretty pathetic
when we were trying to leave. Allie was trembling
nonstop, and literally moaning; Frankie was
yipping and trying to escape the wire cage, Naomi
was crying, and I was thinking that my dog would
be dead before my vacation was over...

Get in the car and run away as fast as you can,
and don't think about it much....Naomi's in the
front seat saying "I have to go back and get my
dog, its a horrible place, I cant leave him
there, do you want Allie to die?" It was not fun.

On the morning of the 24th, Ken got me up at 4:30
am (he's so good about that stuff!) so we could
drive to the tiny Medford airport and I could
catch my 6:05 am flight to Los Angeles. It was
probably the first time I have ever gotten to the
airport for an early morning flight with lots of
time to spare.

And, they wouldnt let me on the plane...But dont
you understand, I'm EARLY for once!!!

Why? Because I didnt have the paper ticket with
me.......what paper ticket? Oh crap! The paper
ticket is locked in the RV, which I havent seen
for days, which is locked inside a storage unit,
which doesnt open until 7 am, which is after my
flight leaves!

They would, however, book me on a later flight -
without having the paper ticket. Which would get
me to San Francisco late afternoon......."By the
way? ALL the flights from San Francisco or
Oakland or LA to Hawaii on the 24th have been
completely oversold (by about 60 seats apiece) -
so you will be stuck in San Francisco til
tomorrow anyway."

So, as stupid as I felt for completely forgetting
I even had a paper ticket (who gets paper tickets
anymore?) I did feel a little better knowing that
I would have been stuck in LA anyway...now at
least I would be stuck in San Francisco! And hey
- I could call Sarah, who was waiting for her
flight in Oakland, to see if she could be one of
the "bumped" people from her oversold flight -
and then we could spend the night in San
Francisco together! And fly together to Hawaii on
Christmas day, even if on different airlines.

Which is what happened...

Sarah brought some excellent wine and cheese with
her when she met me at the airport, which was a
great thing, as all the restaurants in the
neighborhood were closed by the time we got
there.

As it turned out, Naomi and Ross were actually
the first ones to arrive in Hawaii.....they got
there about half and hour before Sarah and
several hours before me. So they all took a cab
to the condo we had rented (4th floor,
oceanfront, 3 bedroom, 2 bath - really
lovely,which was amazing because it had terrible
reviews), and left me a message to pick up the
rental car and meet them there.

What rental car? Was I supposed to rent a car? I
didn't....and then I couldn't...In case anyone
has not heard, the weeks from Dec 21 to Jan 6 or
so are the absolute busiest in Hawaii for
tourists. There were no rental cars available for
the time frame we needed. With both Sarah and I
calling every rental agent on the entire island,
we managed to get one car for three days, and
then a truck for 24 hours a few days later, and
then another car for the last 2 days.

So here are some pictures of the sunset over
Kona, on my way from the airport to the condo on
the 25th....from the window of the rental car...

and Naomi, Ross and Sarah

and Allie in her hula outfit

more Hawaiiana to come....

April 7, 2008

Hello!

I am almost to the Holidays, I am sooo excited,
because there is so much to tell after the
holidays.

We drove up Rt 101 from Agate beach up to
Brookings, OR on Dec 13th. It is a beautiful
coastal road, very windy (long I, not short!)

Brookings is a harbor town in Oregon, about 13
miles north of the CA town of Crescent City. It
is called the Banana Belt of Oregon, because in
general the temperature is 10-15 degrees warmer
than say here in Ashland. It is also one of those
places in Oregon that you cant get to very
easily...from Ashland you have to drive 45
minutes north to Grants Pass, then go south into
California, then north from Crescent City to
Brookings, a two hour trip if you are not a crow.
Its that darn Coastal mountain range -dont ask me
if its the Siskiyou's, or the Cascade's...because
I dont remember!! They are big and they are in
the way! But oh so pretty.

And the redwoods are spectacular much of the
drive. There is a place on the way called "Trees
of Mystery". Which has all these "build-up" type
of billboards along the way..."Come to the trees
of mystery, you'll be glad you did, you'll be
sorry if you don't"....."The trees of mystery,
where you will discover the answer for
yourself"..

The billboards had pictures on them of cable car
like contraptions going up into the Redwood
forests, with question marks...spooky!

So we had to stop. I realized when we did stop
that Naomi and I had stopped there years ago when
we were driving from Acadia, CA up to northern Or
looking at colleges. I remembered this quite
clearly once we stopped because the place has one
of those giant statues of Paul Bunyon in the
front with his blue ox, whatshername, Belle?
Bluebell? Ollyollyoxenfree?

Well, I have to tell you that I leaped out of the
RV with my camera (the sun was all wrong of
course) to take a picture, because I am sure that
on the last trip Naomi refused to let me take a
picture of something so silly - and I snapped one
of Paul and then turned to take one of
Bluebell(?) and did a double-take, because her
head had turned into one of those Beetlejuice
heads, toy sized. So wrong! What the heck?
Where's her head?

I was so put off by her shrunken head that I
didnt want to take the cable cars into the
redwoods - I mean if that could happen to
Bluebell, what could happen to us? So we bought
some fudge, and a book about Paul Bunyan for "my"
first graders, and discovered that Bluebell's
head was "in the shop", and continued on our way
to Brookings.

We had a mission in Brookings, to discover how
much it might cost to live there in an RV. We
thought that a 2 hour drive to Ashland might be
the perfect thing. At that moment 3 of our
combined 6 kids lived in Ashland; Ken's daughters
Dylan, 10, and Morgan, 15, and my daughter,
Naomi, 20.

So we poked around, and discovered that we could
rent a monthly spot one block off the ocean for
$365/ month plus electricity and propane or on
the water for anywhere from $126 to $156 a week
including electricity.

We stayed on the water that night, at the Port of
Brookings Harbor RV Park. It was soooo windy we
thought Allie was going to blow away when we let
her out!

The next day we drove a couple of miles north to
Harris Beach State Park - which has to be one of
the nicest oceanfront parks ever. It was/is
$18/night and you can stay for 2 weeks at a time.
Unless you are a Park volunteer, and then you can
stay all summer or all winter!

During our travels we have discovered many of
these "workamper" possibilities....at National
Parks or State Parks or even privately owned
parks, if you are "acceptable" and your RV is
"acceptable" you can get a free site and hook-ups
if you commit to staying a certain amount of
time, ranging from 2 months to 6 months, and
perform anywhere from 10 hours a week per person
to 25 hours a week per person in labor.

Some of the positions sound like a lot of fun -
dress up as an 1800's lighthouse keeper and give
tours of a lighthouse....work in the giftshop at
Yellowstone....landscaping work....checking
people in to the parks...

anyway - it is something we had talked about a
lot. So we were keeping our eyes open for a good
place to apply....

Then we drove south to Crescent City to drive
north and west to Grants Pass then Ashland...we
arrived at dusk, and having made no prior
arrangements ended up at a place called Glenyans
RV Park. There was snow on the ground and it was
the coldest we had yet seen, 35 overnight! BRRRR!

We were parked next to this very strange, but
cool, looking truck/camper. There was no-one in
the office on our way in. We met the dog from the
truck/camper, but not ever the humans who lived
there! We stayed for a couple of nights, and then
moved to another location in Ashland!


We spent the next 10 days getting ready for the
holidays and our trip to Hawaii, where we were to
mmet up with Sarah, Zach and Courtney and Naomi
and Ross.

More soon! Love, Mindy

March 31, 2008

Hello all!

I am sooo behind - perhaps I should stop going on
vacation so I can write to you...

we left Oakland at 11 am - with a dead scooter
attached, and I have to say that I was very
excited about the day to come. We were headed for
wine country - which way to turn, Napa or
Sonoma????

Years ago I joined the Benziger Winery wine
club...this was during a trip in a limo, on my
birthday, with Sarah (oldest daughter) and her
roommates and co-geologists Carrie and Elowyn.
How we ended up in a limo doing a tour of wine
country is still beyond me, but we had a blast!
And after we toured the no longer memorable first
vineyard (something about the moon - had a nice
label) the limo driver said why not go to
Benzigers, its right around the corner? So we
did. He also told us that if we were lucky we
would get to go to 3 vineyards and tasting rooms
in that afternoon....

Well, we were all very impressed at the time with
Benzigers - they had an offer to join their club,
get wine delivered 4 times a year, have free
tastings that day (all 4 of us) and get invited
to their wine-club-member-only once a year gala.
Well, I didnt think too long about it, since you
could cancel at any time, and the first shipment
of wine cost about the same as the tastings would
have for 4 people....so we bacame members. Our
third vineyard that day was Imagery, which is a
sister vineyard to Benzigers - really nice wine,
known for the original works of art on the labels
- hence the name...we only drank 3 bottles of
wine in the limo between and after the
tastings...

And I have been reluctant to cancel ever since -
its really nice wine, far too expensive - but a
couple of years later, Sarah and I went to their
annual gala. Let me compliment them on their
sales strategy here - crab legs, eggplant and
garlic, gelato, shrimp and scallops, beef, all
with a taste of the wine to go with it..music by
local musicians - all at no cost to members - the
only thing they didnt provide was a place to
sleep!

So - when the choice was in front of me, I
decided to go back to Benzigers in Sonoma. In an
RV with potentially no place to park, a partner
who could care less about wine, an old dog, a
dead scooter, all at about 4:30 pm. Please,
please let them be open til 5 I kept saying!

And they were. And "we" bought a case of wine
after "we" tasted in the tasting room. This
company has decided to add an entire biodynamic
line.....its not good enough to produce organic
anymore, now you have to plant lavender around
the vines so they become infused, etc. Well I am
holding off on my opinion about all that - but
the wine is still delicious!

We were headed towards Healdsburg after, and a
possible visit with a friend.....and when we got
to Healdsburg, we discovered that the RV park in
the RV park book was closed for renovations
....it was now about 9 pm

So, we drove all the way back to Sonoma, and
stayed at the Windsorland RV Park - right next to
the highway on both sides! But it had a grassy
area for Allie, and when the lights were out it
didnt seem quite so noisy.

The next morning, which by the way was December
11, we drove back up to Healdsburg, and after a
poll of my best wine buddies, decided to stop at
the Simi winery for their tasting. Ken decided to
stay in the RV with Allie - ok, a lone tasting.
Turned out it was way fun - some 95 year old guy
doing the pouring, lots of stories about
grapes....bought another case to bring along,
sent some to the book club.....

ok enough about the wine tour....we drove north
to Eureka, CA that day - we took the Avenue of
Giants detour through the Redwoods - was very
impressive, those trees are massive! And tall! We
went as far north as Trinidad, CA - and decided
to park for a couple of days at the "Sounds of
the Sea RV Park" - we assumed it would be on the
ocean. It was not. It was across the street and
down the road a piece, which we didnt know until
the next day because it was dark when we arrived!
But really a very nice park, and you could hear,
but not see, the sea lions and harbor seals. It
was across the street from the Patricks Point
State Park and down and across from Agate Beach.

We walked about 10 miles over the next few
days..with Allie, because dogs were allowed and
encouraged!!! Hurray! There were several trails
and big rocks overlooking the water, or in the
water, depending on the time of day. And Agate
Beach? Well that was a really great place. You
had to walk down a trail, descending about 500
feet in a minute and a half, onto a pebble beach
that was really amazing- yes there were
agates....but every rock you looked at could have
been jade, or agate, or tigers eye or
whatever....when they are wet they all look so
special...we ended up with literally 30 pounds of
rocks...after they dried they didnt look the
same! and I have no idea what they are, but they
were pretty.

We also found incredible driftwood there, and
collected enough small pieces to send to Mrs
Meehans class! And enough leftover for any craft
project I could ever come up with for the next 20
years!

Allie had lots of fun on the beach, although she
is NOT a wave chaser at all. But she pretended
pretty well, and definitely got sand and pebbles
beneath her toes.

It was a fun place. It was sad to leave, even
though the Holidays were coming quickly and we
had all our kids to visit!

More soon!

Love, Mindy

March 3, 2008

Hello everybody!

Just so you know, I am in the process of setting
up a blog site....whoopppeeee! You wont have to
get a 17 page email from me unless you choose to
go look! Unless you are in Mrs Meehans First
Grade! But not until this one and maybe a couple
more are done...

Those seals were so darn cute we didnt want to
leave, as I mentioned. Which is why I sent a few
more photos of them earlier...

We spent the night at the Big Sur State Park
Campground, which is a really beautiful place -
especially in the daylight. After a walk around
the park, we decided that the 29 or so miles of
Big Sur Coast that we had driven in the dark the
previous night were worth driving backwards for.

There are several turnouts along Rt 1. I think we
stopped at at least 10 of them on our way back
south. They are all spectacular - the views, the
cliff-like drop-offs, the plants still blooming
in December, the color of the water below, the
tourists stopping to take pictures....

So here are some shots from Big Sur - I included
the one of the gorgeous, private beach, with its
private property sign. I didnt even notice the
sign until after the photos were in the computer!

We then drove north again, and got as far as the
Marina Dunes RV Park, just north of Monterey, CA.
I am only telling you this because if you ever
want a seaside RV park, this is a great one! It
is located right next to the huge sand dunes,
oceanfront. Of course the highway is on the other
side of the park, but it's relatively easy to
ignore, if you get a good site, which we lucked
into!

This was the first RV park where we were told we
had to empty the RV of all living things ( ie
Allie and us) while the propane was being pumped
in....in case we exploded during the filling of
the tank. Hmmmm - I guess in all the other states
it's OK to explode?

Next day, Dec 9, we were on our way to the San
Francisco Bay Area to meet up with Sarah, who was
in town for a geologists National Science
Foundation (?) Conference. We hadn't really done
any research into where we were going to
stay....but Sarah and her friend, former
roommate, and co-geologist, Carrie, went online
while we were driving...and they found a state
park in the middle of Oakland with RV sites!

Anthony Chabott State Park is at the top of one
of the highest "peaks" in Oakland. We used
Cynthia, the GPS, to help us get there. It was a
wee bit hairy going on all those major highways.
Then we took a turn, and began going uphill. And
uphill, and uphill. Soon we were on a dirt road,
looking at one another and questioning how we
were ever going to get out of there if we were,
perchance, in the wrong place.

We were in the right place! The State Park had 4
RV sites with hook-ups, and many beautiful
camping sites. If you walked to the edge of the
site you had an overlook of the city that was
spectacular! There are a couple of photos of the
campsite here. We arrived mid-afternoon. Our
mission, if you will, was to meet up with Sarah
and her friends in Berkeley, at Cesar's, a great
tapas-style restaurant, for dinner.

Several phone calls later, Sarah was stuck in
traffic in San Francisco with her friend, Bunny,
in a rental car. In the meantime we discovered
that the Park had a "curfew" - meaning that you
could not drive in the entrance after 10 pm. Now
that would be ok, except that the entrance was
fully 2.5 miles from the campsites, and there
were those spikey things sticking up in the
driveway, so that if you tried to come in after
10 pm you would ruin your tires!

We were going to take the scooter from the
campsite to the entrance of the park, then get a
cab to the BART (train) station in Oakland, then
ride the train to Berkeley - then it wouldnt
really matter what time it was when we got back
because the scooter could get around those nasty
spikes.

Well - glitch #1 - the scooter didnt start. Not
even a chance of flooding it, it was dead.

Ok - plan #2. We called the cab back (this was
the fifth cab company we called, most of them
only did city driving, and had never heard of the
State Park!) and asked if they could pick us up
as we walked towards the entrance. They said
yes....so we walked and witnessed a gorgeous
sunset - no photos, dang - and the cab brought us
to the BART station, where there are some very
cool photos that Ken took of people on the
escalator zooming the lens!

We got off the BART at the downtown Berkeley
exit, which is when we found out that Sarah was
stuck in traffic on the other side of the Bay. We
were supposed to meet up with Carrie outside the
station and then go to the resaturant... which
did happen!

All I can say is YUM...what a great place to go
eat! A changing menu of small plates with
signature cocktails - tables that are either
shared with other people or the right size for
your party....always packed, always terrific,
always a bit loud (if you are old, (-:-)

We got a ride back to the RV with Sarah and Bunny
in the rental car - before 10, no slashed tires!
The adventure will continue the next day!

Love, Mindy

February 1, 2008

Hello!

San Lois Obispo is on the California coast. We
decided to drive up the California coast in order
to avoid the snow falling in all the National
Parks we intended to visit! We had planned on
going to Bryce, Zion, Yosemite.....guess we have
to do this again next year!

The coastal route was still relatively safe to
drive an RV on! After breakfast at our fine hotel
we got into our very chilly RV and headed north.

First stop - the Hearst Castle. I dont know why I
got intersted in visiting all these American
versions of gluttony, but I simply had to see how
the Hearst Castle compared to the Biltmore.

We were able to drive right in to the huge RV
parking lot, Allie was in heaven. It was the
biggest and best parking lot she has ever seen!
We took a walk for 1/2 an hour and she didnt see
the same thing twice.

Then, into the big dog house she went, so that
the humans could tour the castle. It was very
different than the Biltmore. For one thing, you
had to go on a guided tour, and you had to choose
which guided tour you wanted to go on....lets
see, do we want to go on the tour where we can
see the swimming pools, or the one we can check
out the pantry and kitchen areas, or the one that
has the guest houses and gardens...it became an
easy choice once they told us that tour number 1
had a free IMAX movie with it, on the building of
the Castle, that you could view immediately after
the tour.

I got in trouble first thing on the tour....the
guide was very knowledgable and precise. You must
stay with the group, never leave the group, there
is another guide bringing up the rear. So we made
a stop at the first swimming pool, and while he
was talking about the construction of the pool
and how none of the fruit grown on the estate was
ever to be eaten (it is there for the smell only
- can you imagine me not being apoplectic over
that little statement, after The Community
Kitchen experience?) I went back 15 feet to take
a picture of a statue I thought was pretty - and
all of a sudden I hear, " You must stay with the
group!"

Well, really I didnt know he was talking to me,
after all the bringing up the rear guide was
standing right next to me....and then he said,
"You, with the camera, you must come back to the
group!"...

Well, there I was, contemplating my statue,
fuming about the smelly fruit, thinking about how
I was going to pick as much of it as I could and
bring it to the local Food Bank, when I realized
that he was talking to me! Fortunately, the
bringing up the rear guide was a fiesty little
woman, who snapped back at him, " What, do you
think Im not doing my job? I am bringing up the
rear here! I've got it!" She was very nice to me,
we had a good conversation about the state of the
fruit, I got my picture (which isnt great) and on
we went.

William Randolf Hearst was an interesting guy.
His father was way more interesting - he was a
rough and tumble miner, who lucked into a whole
bunch of silver, carried it on 50 or so mules
over the snow filled mountain passes, married a
young school marm from back home and bought up
every single acre of gorgeous California coast he
could for something like $0.39 an acre.

His only son William grew up wealthy, spent a
bunch of time in Europe with his mother checking
out castles and famous architecture, became a
wealthy businessman in his own right, and then
inherited a fortune, as well as a whole lot of
coastline.

Now here is where I actually liked the story line
progression. William decided to build the castle
of his dreamy youth...and to accomplish that feat
he hired the FIRST woman graduate of engineering
school in the US, who also got a degree in
architecture in Europe. It took them 29 years of
working together to finish the entire project -
which included an exotic animal zoo/preserve with
zebras, bears, elk, tigers, lions, giraffes, and
more; swimming pools with mosaic 1" tile work
that had to have a shallow end added on to it
years after it was done because none of the
famous movie stars liked it, come to find out,
most of them didnt know how to swim!; farm
animals like dairy and beef cattle and pigs to
keep the place as self-sufficient as possible;
and an entire movie theater to see the first
showings of movies he had produced, complete with
movie stars and their entourages invited for the
weekend, with very precise seating arrangements
at dinner.

Pencils in the gift shop cost $1.00 each, but the
farm, which is now a non profit, sells organic
hormone free beef for about $6.00 a pound! After
William died, the family decided to donate the
castle and grounds to the state of California
(excellent tax write off there!) and the Hearst
Corporation, family owned, still controls a lot
of coastline.

Anyway, when we left the Castle grounds, complete
with 4 lbs of steak and 4 lbs of burgers, we saw
some of the wild zebras, decendants of the ones
who were part of the zoo -they were all free
roaming then, and the workers couldnt catch them
all when the zoo animals were donated to local
zoos, so there are several dozen zebras running
around loose on the California coast! I was so
amazed that they were there, I didnt even think
of taking a picture!

We headed north to Elephant Seal Beach. Several
of the people on the tour told us that the seals
and sea otters hang out there at this time of
year, and it was well worth the short walk for
the viewing.

On our drive north to the beach a small herd of
elk leaped across the major highway in front of
the RV, scaring me half to death, but not getting
hit by any cars, trucks or other traffic!

Well, the elephant seals and sea otters took up
about 2 hours of our time - so interesting, so
noisy, so much fun to watch! Allie thought the
sea elephants were beautiful, perhaps because
their girth is actually bigger than hers!

The plan was to get to Big Sur before dark - and
no, that didnt happen....it almost happened! The
campground we were headed for was closed for no
known reason and we had to drive another 29 miles
to the next one....smile! So, yes, it was dark
and we had to back in to the rv space!

More soon!

Love from Mindy, Ken and Allie

January 25, 2008

Hello there!

We left Vegas around noontime - after a quick zip
through Circus Circus one last time (gotta admit,
those buffet breakfasts are quite something!)

Westward Ho! That would be different than Get
Back Hoe, the womens excavation company idea I
still want to pursue....

We drove for about 3 and a half hours, into
California. And we saw a sign for Calico Ghost
Town. A very small sign, with a picture of a
stage coach on it. I said, why dont we stop at
the Ghost Town for a break?

Our "plan" for all this RV driving is to stick to
the general idea that you drive during the day,
and then you stop by 4 pm so you can hook up your
utilities and get dinner cooked and relax! We
have not been very good at sticking to this plan
- we poke around in the morning and then drive
and then its dark and we are always trying to
park in the dark! We've gotten very good at it!
Well, my backing up skills are still not so good
in the dark....I am a big supporter of
"pull-through" sites..

However, on this day (Dec 5th), we took a break
at 3:30 pm, and ended up loving the little
campground at Calico Ghost Town, so we parked for
the night! It was awesome - the campground and
surrounding ghost town are in the middle of rock
hound heaven. There had just been a raging,
flooding storm a few days earlier, and the ground
was covered with beautiful little rocks - do I
know what they are? No. But when I went walking
the dog around the campground I ended up with
about 40 pounds of the stuff in my pockets!

Then Allie and I wandered closer to the Ghost
Town from the campground, and discovered a
cemetary from the late 1800's - literally mounds
of stones with wooden crosses on top. Well, I was
hooked, there was no way that I was leaving in
the morning without seeing the town itself (which
had already closed for the day).

More than a century ago, the town of Calico was
bustling with prospectors. Founded in March 1881,
it grew to a population of 1,200 with 22 saloons
and more than 500 mines. Silver was king, and the
Calico Mining District became one of the richest
in California, producing $86 million in silver,
$45 million in borax and, of course, gold. After
1907, when silver prices dropped and borax mining
moved to Death Valley, Calico became a ghost
town.

Today, Calico is one of the few remaining
original mining towns of the western United
States. It was preserved by Walter Knott (founder
of Knott's Berry Farm and a relative of the owner
of Calico's Silver King mine). Mr. Knott donated
Calico Ghost Town to the County of San Bernardino
in 1966, and it remains alive and well as a
480-acre County Regional Park. Today, you can
visit Calico, located at the side of towering
King Mountain, where silver was king and the
hills are "as purty as a gal's calico skirt."

One third of the town is original; the remaining
was carefully reconstructed to recreate the
spirit of Calico's Old West past. The Town of
Calico is State Historic Landmark #782, and
survived into the early 1900's because of borax
mining within the District. This was the last
place in California that the Borax "20-mule
teams" were used.

There is a 3 mile trip available on a cute narrow
gauge railroad, which operates within town limits
and a hardrock silver mine offers up underground
exploration.

And, there is an "authentic" ,hmhmmm, gunfight
every day they are open, with the sheriff and his
deputies doing their job, getting rid of the bad
guys.

OK, so it was a bit silly - but what a fun 1 day
stop after the glitter of Vegas!!

So , here are some photos from the Ghost Town...

We left the campground and Ghost Town mid
afternoon (see what I mean about that plan?) And
drove to Bakersfield, CA - where we made the
decision to go another 90 miles on Rt 58 to Santa
Margerita for the night. If you get to that
junction and need to decide about going another
90 miles (mere 90) - trust me, just say no.....it
took us almost 3.5 hours to drive those 90 miles.
After we passed the sign that said, " No services
Next 70 Miles", I started having my
doubts.....after we passed the sign that said,
"No Truck Turn Around", I was simply glad it was
dark!! I did not want to see what cliffs I was
almost driving off as we went around the hairpin
turns! And, it was gusting wind by then. And then
as we approached Santa Margerita it also started
to rain. Was there an RV park anywhere in Santa
Margerita??? No. Not a restaurant either that we
saw. So we drove to San Lois Obispo.....and were
so tired, hungry and dirty that we parked in a
Holiday Inn Express parking lot and got a hotel
room, and were the last customers of the day at
the Mexican restaurant across the street!!!

Best to all!

Love Mindy, Ken and Allie