Ventura Beach RV Resort.

Oh, MY what a difference, going from high desert to what looks like it could be Hawaii.

We arrived here on June 1st not knowing whether we were vacationing or going to be working. A quick meeting with the Manager with a planned meeting to talk in the next couple of days. Wow.. Am I sleeping? Pinch me.. LOL

After a quick set up, we were hungry and decided on pizza.

I looked up pizza on my Droid and found a highly rated Pizzaria.. called Tony's. It was NOT pizza hut  but was like a real Hut.

 The pizza is different than what we were used to but it was really good and the ambiance of the place was like being in Hawaii. 

BUT Wait....

We missed the Pizzaria at first .. then tried to find parking well the street which is next to Tony's that we turned on, just so happened to take you to surfers point beach.. OMG I was not in heaven. We decided to stop and walk around a little while so that I could take some pictures.. OK Robert stopped so he could shut me up.. LOL I was more than a little excited to be at the beach and so close there was no way that we were not going to stop for a few minutes. :)

I am so glad my husband loves me..

After we left the beach.. sighs it was so nice.. We went to Tony's Pizzaria (hut..)

We were fortunate enough to actually meet the owner.. He is rarely seen and just happened to be doing an interview while we were standing by the fire waiting for our pizza.  He stopped for awhile from his interview to greet us. I have to say he was a delight and added even more to the day. Tony is 86 years old and he opened his pizza hut in 1958.. why does that seem familiar to me?? It's the year that i was born.

We took 2 days to settle in then on the 3rd day i spoke to the manager.. on the 4th day i was working.. Robert started a few days later.

I work in the office/store, assist with Sunday Breakfasts, and also am in charge of the Resorts Face Book page and Website page.  I have yet to have a day off but then again most days i am only working 3 hours.  Robert is working four 8 hour days right now in Security. Which is different for him, since it is not like military security.

We are within a short walking distance of one of the beaches, and a little more of a walk or drive to another nicer beach. The ocean is a very nice place to relax and unwind and heal the soul.

I really love my jobs here and the area, but I am so terribly afraid that we are going to wake up and find ourselves in yet another nightmare.. Lord please no.. I am not sure i can with stand another of those right now.

We should be here until October 2011. We want to leave before winter sets in when they have flooding in this area.. Also Salt air is not good for autos or RV's.

We will take this one step at a time and savor this area and the time we spend here. And the MOST IMPORTANT reason for being in this area is to be near Robert's parents.

More pictures to come later.

www.venturabeachrvpark.com

Short Stay at Pyramid Lake CA.

This post is a little later than I had expected..

Well there is this saying that, "not all things are what they seem".. and i will kind of leave it at that....

    Here are some pictures from Pyramid Lake where we were for a LONG 2 weeks before pulling out.

 This was the view from out back window in the 5th wheel.. nice..

 Another view from our campground.

 This picture is taken from the Gate House where i spent most of my time.. Which is approx 2 miles from the campground we were to be Hosting in.

 This is the boat launch.

Map of the lake.

 See all the overgrown weeds in this shot and the next? Robert and I cleared out 24+ sites and our own with a shovel, hoe and a rake after hours at the marina and on our days off..  (well, all but one of our days off which we took to go see his parent's.)

This was the uniform for at the gate house, then we had other attire / uniforms to wear in the campground. There was No end in the supply of uniform shirts..

Preparing for the upcoming move.

I know you must think that moving while living in an RV must be easy right? You just hook onto it and move it..

NOT!!!

Especially in our case. We live in our RV full time and it is part living and part storage, not to mention that:

               We do not own a tow vehicle. What we have is Ol' Yeller.

 

You would be amazed at how many people will say to us, either joking or other wise.... How do you tow your RV with the jeep?

Well what we do may sound expensive.. but it is far from the fact. By utilizing a mover we are cutting out other monthly and bi yearly expenses. 

1. Auto Insurance
2. Extra DMV charges
3. Maintenance costs

Not to mention the dreaded payment of another vehicle since our jeep is payed off.

We would normally tend not to move but every couple of years.. unfortunately this year was a bit different and we did move more than we would have liked to have, but still we saved.

As we prepare for this next move there is packing to be done, re-organizing of furniture and other items so that they do not move or break in transit. Cleaning and Shopping. It is all a part of the lifestyle..  even with all this..

It's still far easier than moving from a stick and brick house to another.. since we do take our home with us where ever we go..

 Happy Trails.. My next post will be of the arrival at 

Pyramid Lake Campgrounds.

Lone Pine and Boulder Creek RV Park

Lone Pine.. Where is that? 

That is the question i hear most often when i mention where we are.
It is on Hwy 395 between Bishop and Ridgecrest. Still not sure.. ok well have you heard of Mono Lake? and Los Angeles? Ok well it is between those areas.. Maybe this map will help.

What is here?
Oh my.... well, lets see, it is called:
                         The Gateway to Adventure.
              Well that is interesting since all i see is high desert!

                                          OH but wait! There is always hidden treasures in the desert.

   There is Death Valley, Mt Whitney, The Alabama hills, Ghost Towns, Manzanar, and Movie road.. just to name a few..and then there is fishing, hiking, climbing, skiing, prospecting, rock hounding and more to be done around this area as well.

Movie road?
    Well here in Lone Pine they have filled movies since back in the 1920's. Remember The Lone Ranger?

In the The Alabama Hills there are some very unusual and unique rock formations.. The movie "Tremors" was also filmed here?

This is the link to more information regarding movies filmed in the Lone Pine area.

Lone Pine Film History museum

How many do you remember?

The campground which we worked at here is called Boulder Creek.

This is a view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and a part of the Alabama hills.

Large Lizard who seems to like living near us.

One morning the sunrise was amazingly colorful. This picture is taken facing the storage area and the Inyo mountains.

While here my long time friend / sister came to visit. I had not seen her in many years.

It has been Interesting and quite a learning experience while here.. but we will be moving very soon. Robert's Parents really need us closer to them.  So our next destination will be Pyramid Lake California, where we will be campground Hosts.

 The new park is in the growth phase of  re-opening after years of neglect from being closed. 
This is going to be a fun and challenging position.  

I do have to say that I do enjoy being a campground Host and I am looking forward to it.

But mostly, I am looking forward to being able to spend some time and helping Robert's parents.. We will be approximately One hour from them.

Pictures and updates to the Blog maybe awhile since internet will be via my Droid phone until we get internet up and running at the park.

Angels Camp RV Resort in Angels Camp California

Angels Camp RV Resort

What a nice park in the Mother Lode area not far from Sonora and is only 16 miles from the Columbia State park.

The Manager Sterly gave us a call and even arranged a mover for us to come over and work here. I do not know who was more anxious for us to get there.. us or him.

 Judy, Sterly and Nola are great people they have a nice park which is situated in levels. They also have a few really cute sleeping cabins available.

Our site at Angels Camp RV Resort

The quaint little town of Angels Camp, Historically known for Mark Twain's Frog Jumping Contests ever year.

Look closely at the car in the picture.. Do you think they forgot something? Like taking the hose out when they left the gas station.

   The 6 months which we were there we had some fun.
I attended a play with my friend Vicki and Jane.. Jane's husband is one of the actors in the play.. I grew up with an appreciation for the Arts.. I had a wonderful time.

Robert and I went to a Christmas Dinner up in the town of Murphy with good friends and co-workers Larry and Kathy.

This guy was a crack up.. just one of the musicians playing while dinner was being served.

We even attended a wine tasting in Angels Camp..

Even tho Robert does not drink he was a good sport and had fun too. Here he is with Nola. She is one amazing lady, she is 80 yrs old and she is full of spunk and vinegar.

Met up with Vicki for Yogurt.. YUM YUM and to see her new car that she has nick named Sassy.

A view of the front of Angels Camp RV Resort from hwy 49. There are more sites in the back.

Daffodils by the office.

There were frogs everywhere! Even on the RV one night. My theory on this is that since it is right next to the fairgrounds that when people did not win the frog jump contest they let their frogs go.

The back of the park backs up to a Ranch with cattle, horses and mules.

They have very nice tent sites which are shaded including water and electric.If you would like to know more about Angels Camp RV Resort go to
http://www.angelscamprv.com/

Next we head to Lone Pine California off of Hwy 395 Between Bishop and Ridgecrest.

Indian Grinding Rock, Pine Grove CA

Before leaving Eagle lake we had a choice of 2 different campgrounds in which to spend our Winter. Both of were volunteer positions. (Something I doubt we will ever do again.)
Our thoughts were to be able to relax a bit and also do some needed housekeeping and repairs on the RV.. Well that never happened.

 One of the parks was in Colusa next to the Sacramento River, the other was at Indian Grinding Rock State Park in Pine Grove. Well both had their advantages and disadvantages.
We choose Indian Grinding Rock, since we felt that it would not be as wet and cold as it would have been next to the river in Colusa.

Years ago I had visited the park and even tho I had seen it nearly at a run as the person i was with was not interested in even being there..
 While there many years ago I had not seen the RV park at all, so I had no idea what to expect.
  We would recommend visiting this park and learning about the history of the Mikwok Indians. It is quite beautiful..

HOWEVER .. Be forewarned that this park is not for large RV's. 

It is an old park designed for very small RV's, or Tent trailers

I recommend it for basic Tent camping. 

The only hook up is for the Host site.  

The park is in a little valley with open meadows and large valley oaks that once provided the native Americans of this area with an ample supply of acorns.

This was the home of the Miwok Indians.

This is only a portion of the massive limestone rock where there are 1,185 mortar holes -- the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America.

The Hun'ge

replicas of the tepees which the Miwok Indians would have built and lived in.

The Oak Trees in this park were amazing. They were huge. We were told that some of the Indian Ancestors were buried beneath the trees.

Indian Gaming Field. On the other side of this is a small dry creek bed and just past that is the RV park.

The museum at Indian Grinding Rock

Robert trying to figure out how we are going to fit our 32' 5th wheel in a site that is probably originally designed for a 24' trailer or less.

Looking at the Host site from the position the RV would be sitting at.

The RV park is very over grown with many branches over hanging the very narrow road in the campground which could easily damage a large RV if you were even able to maneuver around the park.

A different angle looking at the Host site. I don't think that I ever fully captured the major slant of this site.

One of the things which the workers at Indian Grinding Rock kept telling us is that the "Spirits are High Here.".. Can someone please explain that one to me?

I think we visited this park 3 or 4 times trying to figure out how to  make it work before we were pulled over.

One of the trails in the park.

LOL yes.. again measuring, thinking and planning.

  Well we did finally move over to Indian Grinding Rock, however it only lasted a week.. It was a nightmare! We could not get stable. The front of the 5th wheel was so high that i could walk under it with about 12 more inches over my head before touching it.

   We were told by previous Work campers who hosted there that they had a 38' Motor Home (Class A) that they had been there for a year.
Well they also said and we can believe this .. they were blocked up really high in the front w/ wood. All I can say is that they are some very brave or is it lucky souls not to have came down right out of that site. They also had to have been hanging well in to the road.

  Well all I can say is that we chose not to live like we were walking on egg shells, and after spending all kinds of money trying to make it work threw in the towel!
I think it took all of 5 min to pick up the phone and call our mover to get us out after the decision was made to get out.

    The only thing that I wonder is, if we had made the Spirits mad at us by deciding to leave and not stick it out as we had quite a ruff winter.. with fix it issues, and expense wise.
                  When we left Indian Grinding Rock, We went back to The Gold Country RV park where they welcomed us back with open arms. We had planned on staying with them for another 2 weeks, however that didn't happen as we received a call within a week to come work at Angels Camp RV Resort in Angels Camp California. More on that next blog post.


      Indian Grinding Rock State Park is an amazing place to visit and learn..
                                  http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=553