The number of miles we traveled today is sort of a guess since I didn't note the odometer in Clovis, so you'll have to forgive my guestimate. Clovis, where my cousin, Vickie, lives and where many of the children of my cousins gathered this past Monday for the funeral of Vickie's brother, Fred, is just off Route 41 to Yosemite and adjacent to Fresno, California.
Cousin Fred Jones Junior, who has born in 1932, lived to be 92 years old and was the oldest son of my Uncle Frederick Preston Jones Senior who was the second oldest son of my grandmother, Emma and my grandfather, James Franklin Jones. I put this down both for you, my reader, and to help me keep this straight in my mind.
Anyway, Fred indicated he wanted no funeral but would rather have a graveside service. Concetta and I thought the cemetery setting was truly serene and was more parklike than the cemeteries we're used to in Nevada. Funerals and even cemetery services usually seem overly flowery (no pun) and even somewhat insincere to us. But Fred Junior's graveside service was amazingly sensitive and appropriate for the gathered family members and is one we'll never forget.
Over the last few miles that we rolled down Route 41 toward San Luis Obispo, we followed a two-lane country road. It dived up and down, twisted around tight bends, and meandered its way past weathered farms and dusty fields that probably date back over a century. As we neared San Luis Obispo, Concetta began researching possible camps for the evening and surprised me when she came up with a National Guard facility that allowed non-military campers as long as you had proof of military service.
Well, after our being refused entrance to the Navy base in Millington, Tennessee back in the fall of 2022, this year I brought along my DD214 Navy separation document as proof should the need ever arise to access a military base. In 1970 I spent four months attending a Navy "A School." My duty station at the time was at the Glenview Naval Air Station near Chicago, Illinois. The Navy had consented to my attending the electronics school in Tennessee in preparation for my becoming an antisubmarine warfare equipment operator.
Today, when Concetta found the Camp San Luis Obispo reference on her phone, I readily agreed to give it a try. When we arrived at the front gate, we handed my DD214 and I.D. to the gate guard and, after he briefly scanned the information to see if my I.D. matched the Navy document, he let us right in and directed us to the Billeting office for the camp.
Inside the registration office, I encountered a good natured chap who obviously was not meant to conduct secretarial duties, but he dutifully stuck with the job until he got us checked in. Then he gave me a map and told me to have a nice day. The camp sites turned out to be easy to find and within mere minutes, we were parked in Space 8 and were ready to set up.
We found the National Guard camp was comprised of a dozen full-hookup campsites and about as many "dry camp" sites where one can pitch a tent, or park your RV without hookups. The rate for each full-hookup site is about $31.00, and the camp comes complete with a 79-year-old, ex-Vietnam vet named Bill. Bill's a very friendly, helpful, and amiable chap who turned out to be great fun to talk to, and I immediately knew I could count on him to be a straight shooter.
Tomorrow we're headed south toward Los Angeles and our intended visit to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. We will be staying near the Library for two nights before we travel on to San Diego on the 17th. So until then, we're wishing you happy travels of your own.
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