After visiting with my son and his family in Diego, I decided to travel north to visit with my daughter and her family in northern California. Last time I traveled to Vacaville, there was snow on the Grapevine (Highway 5) and I had to take the coast route. I checked on-line and the road was clear this time, so I went up that way. There was still some snow visible, but not much and it was really pretty.
While I'm here, for three or four weeks, I'll schedule my medical, dental and vision appointments which will be in San Diego. Then when I travel south I'll take care of all those things and be free to head east to Arizona again.
It was a grueling 9 3/4 hour drive from San Diego to Vacaville. I used to make the drive in 7.5 to 8 hours in my car, not a bad drive, but with The Palms, it's just a longer drive. California's rest stops don't allow overnight parking and their Walmarts aren't always as welcoming as other states I've traveled through, so that kind of leaves casinos for stop-overs. Next time I'll check my casino listing and see if there are any about halfway to Kristy's house, but this time I just pushed through until I got there.
I was surprised at how bad the 5 freeway was; even before we got to Los Angeles, the 5 was in such bad shape that I actually had a cupboard open, a drawer open and spill contents on the floor, my computer fell into Katie's bed on the dinette seat, and a couple of other things. I have things pretty well buttoned up by now when we're traveling and haven't had any problems like this in a long time, but those freeways were so bumpy, before, during and after Los Angeles, that I finally took an off ramp and pulled over to put things back where they belonged. I think Katie was afraid to move for fear of something falling on her.
You'd think that with all the taxes we Californians pay and the high price of gas here, some of the taxes would be spent keeping ALL of our roads in good repair. I guess I'll go around The Palms with a screwdriver to make sure some of them having gotten loose during that trip. I'm not looking forward to driving back along those roads, that's for sure!
I wanted to add a little warning to RVers on the road to watch out for the way some gas stations are posting their prices.
I pulled off the 5, I'm sorry I don't remember which off ramp it was and there was no identifying address on my receipt. There were lots of gas stations, all with their prices posted. I like Shell and their price was the same as some of the other lower ones, so I pulled in. After filling the tank I checked my receipt to log the numbers, and found I had paid 20 cents more per gallon than the posted price. I checked the big sign again, sure enough, it said $3.59 and I was charged $3.79 per gallon.
I went into the store and told the cashier I wanted my 20 cents per gallon back, because I wasn't charged the posted price. She kind of snickered and said I'd have to contact the owner if I wanted to complain, but the posted prices WAS $3.79 - but only for cash. When I went back out, I noticed the "cash" on the sign, but it's small enough that I never saw it, even when re-checking the sign after filling up. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, would you have noticed it?
I told her both prices should have been shown on that sign, and she said there IS a sign at the corner of the gas station that clearly shows both prices. This is the sign, in the middle of the others signs - the one with the very small numbers in black on a yellow background strip:
I had to walk closer to it to read it, and never even noticed it the entire time I was there before having it pointed out. Which, I guess, is the idea.
I CALL THIS A BAIT AND SWITCH - AND TOLD THE CASHIER I WAS GOING TO PUT THIS IN MY BLOG TO WARN OTHER RV'ERS. She couldn't have cared less. So, be warned, check to make sure you are paying the CREDIT price if you are using a credit card, which I always do in order to track the expense.
Anyway, we're here, parked in the street with an electrical cord hooked up to Kristy and Matt's garage, so we have electricity. It's been really cold, so I've been going out early in the evening and turning on a space heater so it's warmer when Katie and I return for the rest of the evening, and then to sleep.
On the evening of the 19th, when I had gone to The Palms for the evening, there was a knock at the door, and this is what I found when I opened the door - Drew had just lost his first tooth.
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It was pretty wiggly for a few days and was bothering him when he ate, and now it's gone. I think he looks pretty darn handsome without his bottom tooth!! The Tooth Fairy left him $5, which he was pretty happy about! :)
Friday we had a ladies day wine-tasting. Kristy and I went with one of her friends, Deanna, and her sister-in-law, Alison, and mother-in-law, Marie, up to the wine country in Amador County. Allison and her husband belong to a wine club at one of the wineries that has a free lunch every Friday, so we went with her to have lunch and taste some wines at other wineries, too. The lunch was delicious - this photo was from Villa Toscano's website. It was a beautiful day and we had our lunch outside - right where the umbrella is in the photo.
We had tastings at four other wineries. I think I've re-acquired a taste for red wines, some of the reds I tasted were very good. I know a glass of red wine in the evening is good for us, but I've been enjoying white wines more for quite a while. I'm going to go back to reds, I think.
It was a really nice day, but boy were we tired when we got home. I went back to The Palms at 7 and was in bed by 8. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos, but it is really beautiful country.
WELCOME to our newest followers:
Gay and Joe, who are traveling with four - yes that's four - dogs, and have completed their first year as full-timers. You guys must take a lot of walks!! Check out their blog, good-times-rollin,
Jo, who is married to Rick, has a blog entitled Rick and JoAnne's RV Travels. There is one scary photo of their motor home in 2000 - it's on January 14's post - you have to see this. Unfortunately the blog doesn't go back to 2000, so I guess we'll never know how that happened!
Katie and I are happy to have you all following along with us - Welcome Aboard! :)
And that's about it for now. I have new curtains in The Palms - they look pretty good and I'll post photos next time.
From Me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone! :)
