February 7 & 8: I left Yosemite around 10:30 Wednesday morning. I had planned on walking up to Mirror Lake prior to leaving since the trailhead was close to my camp site. I walked over to the trailhead parking area and walked all around looking for a sign. There was one place where there were two posts that looked like it might be the start of a trail, but after climbing up a ways it dead ended and obviously wasn’t the right place.

I kept looking and found a trail along the road. I followed it a little way and it forked. I had no way of knowing which was the proper trail. Again, lack of signage in the park was a problem. Finally, I decided ‘to hell with it’ and went back and took off. I had to be out of the camp site by noon and was afraid if I went up the wrong trail I might not make it back in time.

I stopped by the Village where I had cell signal and looked for the route out. A different route than the way in along hwy 140 into Merced. Thank goodness, as I didn’t want to be braking through S curves at 25 miles an hour again. It was actually a pretty nice drive. The surrounding country was beautiful, rolling hills and had a lot of green on the ground and plenty of cattle. I imagine the green doesn’t last long as the weather warms up and dries out. It was totally different than the type of green hills in Washington. These were pretty treeless and rocky.

I kind of thought of stopping in Merced to get something to eat and figure out where to stay but the highway came up before the town, so I followed it. After 4 hours of driving, I was starving and saw a sign for In-n-Out so swung in there and had a burger for the first time in months. It was good but the fries were not very good at all. After eating, I sat in the parking lot and tried to find a place to stay. Not having wifi in Yellowstone I hadn’t been able to do any research. The parks I did find didn’t seem to have very good reviews so I decided to try a state park. It was the Colonel Allensworth Historical Park.

I got there around 3:30, dumped the waste water and pulled into a site. There were no hookups but I was fine with that as long as I had been able to dump. The camp host was a really nice woman. I was the only person in the park. She said there had been two the night before. She gave me some information about the park and pointed out a picture of her and two other women in period dress. She said she wasn’t bragging, but she was also a docent.

It was pretty fascinating, actually. The town of Allensworth had been started around 1906 by a former slave who had run away and joined the Union Army. He ended up retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel, the first African American to do so. He started the town as an all African American town. Sadly, they ran into water issues and then the Colonel got hit by a motorcycle in another town and killed. After that the town kind of went down hill. They have been restoring the town and it is now a historical park.

I went to fix a drink and noticed the fridge control was flashing with an F and an A. I had no idea what that meant as, of course, I had no manuals. So, I decided to start the generator to power it up and the generator wouldn’t start. I went out and checked, sure enough I was out of propane. There are two big tanks but I had been using the heater a lot the whole trip as it got pretty darn cold at night. Plus, it seems like the propane in the little bottle in the old boat lasted for years so I wasn’t expecting this.

Well, I didn’t want everything in the fridge and freezer to melt so I loaded up and took off for another park that was about 20 miles away. The sun was down and it was getting dark. Siri took me on back roads to get there and I pulled into the next park and quickly hooked up in the pitch black after 6:00. It had been a long day.

Misty by this time was so done with traveling. I had left her in the camper for the short run, which I hadn’t done before. As soon as I opened the door she tried to jump out. I grabbed her harness and pulled her back in to clip on the leash. First thing she did was roll in the dirt. Then she went to the end of the leash, per usual. After getting everything settled, I went over to get her and put her in the camper and close it up for the night. She tried to run away from me! Couldn’t get far as she was at the end of her leash, literally and figuratively. Once in the camper she stood at the door and meowed and meowed. She did it off and on all night.

I decided we both needed a break on Thursday so didn’t plan on going far. I found a park east of Bakersfield, Orange Grove RV Park. It literally has orange trees all over and a grove next door. And it is okay to pick the oranges. The trees have oranges on them but they are too high. They do have ‘pickers’ by the office so I might have to get one and try to get a few oranges.

From the last park to this one I drove along back roads through lots of vineyards and fruit or nut trees for about 20 miles before getting on the highway again. Very flat land. I arrived at the park around 1:00. I obviously needed propane but they only do it from 7:00 – 11:00 AM. So, I went into East Bakersfield and got a step ladder so I could get to the top of the propane tanks, being short doesn’t pay with this camper. I also bought a small BBQ since I had forgotten mine at home.

As soon as I got Misty out of the truck, she rolled in the dirt again. Her fur just soaks up the dust and sand! She had been pretty good on the way but it was only about 2 hours of driving. She went into the camper shortly after and stayed in there for rest of the night even though I had the leash on her and the door was open. I think she is tired of traveling.

Siri and I have had a few arguments. On the way here she had me exit the highway and told me to go on a road for 9 miles. But after a block or so she turned me around and had me go back on the highway. Then she took me through the trashy back streets of Bakersfield to the Home Depot, but brought me back through the nicer part. Go figure. There have been a couple other times where she has done something similar.

A man just came over and was checking out my Fox Landing steps and is going to come back to take a picture. Turns out he was from Everett and used to work for Amgen, a pharmaceutical company on Elliot Bay. He sat and yakked at me for a while then abruptly left.

I am going to BBQ some chicken thighs tonight, and probably microwave a sweet potato and some veggies since I can’t use the stove until tomorrow. (Update: The damn BBQ wouldn’t light. I had followed directions and the sparking/burning unit was preassembled so I didn’t have anything to do with it. I used my fire starter lighter and could hear and smell the propane, but it just wouldn’t start. It was starting to get dark, so I left it and warmed up my last Chile rellenos.)

It has been sunny and warm again today. Last night got pretty cold so probably will again tonight. Once the sun has been up for a couple hours, the camper warms right up.

There was no one around me when I parked but now, a little after 5:00, probably 30 – 50 more RVs have come in. Almost everyone has a dog and there is one somewhere inside a vehicle who barks constantly. Pretty faint but I can’t imagine having a dog bark like that in such an enclosed space. This is a huge park with a lot of amenities. Everything is very well kept, they even have coffee and donuts every morning!

I was going to stay around Indio tomorrow but a lot of the parks are pretty hoity-toity and expensive. The one I found that I wanted to stay at didn’t have any opening this weekend. So, I guess I will end up having a couple places in mind for various distances and see how Misty and I do.