Day 8 -- Santa Clarita, California to San Diego, California -- 191 Miles

Today's goal was to drive to San Diego in time to make our evening reservation at the Santa Fe RV Park about two hundred miles away. We had only two other goals in mind and that was to fill the petrol tank and to drop off three sacks of California-oriented books at the library in my hometown of Altadena, California.

The old Altadena Public Library on north Lake Avenue (photo left) was just about my favorite place on earth back when I was too young to drive. Mom would tell me she was headed down Lake Avenue to the old "Market Basket" store, and if I wanted to come along she'd drop me at the library, and I could shop for books while she was shopping for groceries.

My main areas of interest back in those elementary school days was history in all its forms. I loved reading about Mel Fisher and Robert Marks and their separate searches for sunken Spanish treasure ships. I also loved reading about western history including everything from the Civil War to western mining camps and ghost towns. Thanks to Dad being a sailor in World War II, I loved reading about that epic conflict as well. For a time I loved science fiction, but that area of interest waned about 1962. Every time Mom would drop me off, I'd be ready with an armload of books when she came back to retrieve me.

The old Altadena library was the epitomy of what I loved about historic library buildings. It had tall ceilings, heavy wooden tables and chairs, subdued lighting, and knowledgeable librarians who demanded absolute silence. Even now, some 65 years later, I just adore that type of library. Unfortunately, along came the 1960s and libraries decided they needed to evolve with the times. The feeling of solitude and silence of the libary experience was banished in favor of a brightly-lit, single story building with modern plastic library tables and orange plastic chairs. Silence was still sought, but was not rigidly enforced. Consequently, yours truly never again visited the library with the same sense of research fascination and intrigue.

But lately, as I was combing through my many stacks of history books at home, I found I had quite a large collection of California-oriented tomes that probably should be made available to some history-loving current Altadena resident. Knowing that the Altadena library had a small area for the sale of such donations, I put together a score of books dating from the early twentieth century and foreward, and Concetta and I dropped them off this morning. As an added bonus, we visited the sales corner ourselves and came away with three books on CD that we hoped would entertain us while we're cruising in the RV.

The day was pretty bleak and foggy as we cruised through my beloved Altadena, so I wasn't tempted to shoot any photos. Sadly, it continued to stay that way through lunchtime and into the afternoon. Finally when we were getting close to San Diego County, the sun finally showed its face, but it was way too late to be stopping for photos.

So, tonight we're holed up in the Santa Fe RV Park which seems nice but which has no cable TV available for us to watch the Master Tournament of Champions games tonight on Jeopardy. But the site was reasonably level, and we have a freeway right next door to provide a continuous volumne of "white noise" for our sleeping comfort. As an added bonus the light rail trains going by are a tad less noisey and not all that frequent.

Tomorrow we'll be visiting relatives which will be fun but probably won't generate blog entries so it will be a few days before I get back to you my loyal readers. So ciao for now and happy travels of your own.

Day 7 -- Trip from Valencia Travel Village to the Ronald Reagan Museum and Return -- 100 Miles

Today we did something we've been wanting to do for many years and that is to visit the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum. Traveling in California is ALWAYS a chore with its super high gas prices, zillions of impatient drivers buzzing you on every side, and "freeways" clogged and tedious to drive. Still, since our main objective this trip was to visit relatives in both our extended families, it seemed like the best time to visit President Reagan's domain high in the hills near Santa Clarita, California.

Concetta worked hard to find the closest full-hookups camp to our quarry, but it was still an hour away by freeway. But we dutifully packed up this morning, assured the camp hosts that we'd be back, and set out into the unknown. The first thing I did was turn the wrong way right out of the park which had us approaching the Reagan facility from the east instead of the GPS-recommended west. No matter, we easily found our way and only irritated a half dozen speeding drivers in the process.

We knew a problem awaited us when we got to the museum because their website clearly said that RVs were NOT to park in the regular parking area. We were directed to park on the approach road which unfortunately was on a hill. Well, we try never to park on hills as the refrigeration system is only happy on level ground. But when we reached the parking lot, it appeared that only about 25% of the spaces were occupied, and we could easily park across a measly three or four and inconvenience no one.

So, parked safely in several spaces and as far away from the other vehicles as possible, we made ready for our walk across the grounds. And that's when a knock sounded on the door. I stepped out to find a couple of security cops smiling at me and all set to inform me that I had to park elsewhere. But when they saw my U.S. Navy hat and a smile that matched their own, they backed off telling me I had to move.

Of course I informed them that my refrigerator was not going to be happy if the rig wasn't allowed to remain level, and that caused them to scratch their heads and look around for a possible solution to our problem. In the end they allowed us to back the RV into a single space that had lots of room behind it for the extra-long tail end of our rig to hang over (see photo top right). That done, they could see that the forward part of the RV didn't really take much room over what a large car would occupy.

They asked if they could have my name and phone number just in case they ran out of spaces, and I gladly supplied them with the information. In the end the rig sat just where we parked it for the entire day and the lot still wasn't nearly full when we got ready to leave.

This afternoon, as we were about to leave, we ran into one of the two cops whom we'd talked to that morning, and he turned out to be the lieutenant in charge. He was so friendly that he walked us all the way back to our rig and talked about his life and his career and

the two kids he was raising as a single parent. His name was Tony, and we certainly enjoyed his company and the obvious concern he professed that we should have a terrific day at the museum (photo bottom left).

The Ronald Reagan Library and Museum is 430,000 square feet of the most incredible experience you'll have anywhere. They have everything from the President's personal journal and quotation collection, to his Airforce One Boeing 747 and his Marine Helicopter. The grounds are beautiful, the displays are creative and not too overwhelming, and the staff is perhaps the most friendly and helpful we have ever encountered on our many road trips.

They have a shop full of wonderful books and other memorabilia and they have a cafeteria that produced a lunch for us that totally knocked our socks off. We split the Rueben Sandwich and fries and I had a cup of coffee. We thought our lunch was the best cafeteria food we'd had in years.

Day 6 -- San Luis Obispo, California to Piru, California -- 153 Miles

Today turned out to be a fantastic day, not because we got anywhere particularly exciting, but because of the scenery along the way. Last night we camped in San Luis Obispo at, of all places, a California National Guard facility. There were only five rigs in the camp, and one of those belonged to the camp host who, we discovered, kept up the grounds, greeted new arrivals, and served as the go-to person for camp amenities.

Since Camp San Luis Obispo has only a skelton compliment of soldiers, well, unless the Guard comes for drill weekend, the grounds were as quiet as a church and not a soul disturbed the peace and quiet. That changed this morning when Mike the Camp Host hopped on his riding mower and began cutting a couple of acres of grass around the camp sites.

Our goal today was to jump back on California Route 101 after breakfast and head south. And that, thanks to Concetta's IPhone GPS, was pretty easy. The traffic was brisk even though we didn't break camp until after 10:00 a.m. But we observed the posted speed limit and managed to keep up with the flow of traffic.

We got a surprise just after our curbside lunch in Carpenteria as the GPS informed us that it wanted us to leave Route 101 and head inland on Route 154. When we got a chance to pull over and consult the map we discovered that the GPS had routed us away from the seacoast and the town of Lompoc, and sent us down the most scenic and pleasant "bypass" we've seen on this whole trip. The road was slender and winding but the roadside display of everything from beautiful farms and orchards to wild natural vegetation full of bright yellow wildflowers just took our breath away.

Speaking of Lompoc, once upon a time when I was attending the University of California at Santa Barbara, I lived for the spring quarter of 1973 in student housing in that town. I had a roommate named Dale who, like me, played the guitar. Dale also played the Banjo and we would often play togther just for fun. I dropped out of college and went to sea after that quarter, but I would sure like to learn what happened to Dale. Dale and I were matched by computer for our first Quarter together in one of the campus co=ed dorms. We turned out to have exactly the same likes and dislikes and got along fantastically.

For the whole day we had been keeping an eye out for a grocery store and a gas station that would allow us an easy offramp and onramp next to Highway 101. Naturally, we saw neither. We made a valiant attempt when we reached Santa Barbara but ended up trying to thread our way through the impossibly narrow streets in old town as other drivers tried to be patient with us. Thankfully, though we didn't find our quarry, we did make it back to Route 101 without sideswiping anyone or stranding ourselves down some deadend alley.

Our next departure from Highway 101 came when it was time to head cross country toward Simi Valley and our intended destination of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. To that end, we segued over to California Route 126 East. Once again we kept our eyes out for a grocery store and a gas station. We like to fill the tank whenever it reaches the halfway mark as some gas stations limit purchases to just over a hundred dollars. In addition, the sticker shock is noticiably lessened. Plus, we were out of several grocery items which mandated a stop for supplies even if it turned out to be one of the smaller markets.

We hadn't gone very far when we encountered the town of Santa Paula and there we found a gas station. Tank filled, we rolled around town but found no grocery store. The next town down Route 126 was Fillmore and there we found a small, sort of one-horse grocery. We knew we would probably find a better store down the road, but we decided to take advantage of the bird in the hand. Thankfully the store had most of what we needed. Naturally, just a couple of blocks further east we saw not one, but two giant stores, but we just kept rolling.

Our final stop for the day was the Valencia Travel Village near the town of Piru. The camp was truly magnificent and came complete with its own large grocery, TWO swimming pools, a hot tube, propane fill up, remote dump station, and an amazingly pleasant and helpful staff. We liked it immediately. The cost was about $85.00 a night and they take the Good Sam card.

So, showers done, Concetta is cooking dinner and I'm, well, you know what I'm doing. Tomorrow we're headed for the Reagan Library where we plan to spend the better part of the day. Tomorrow afternoon we'll be back here at Valencia for our second night's stay. And the following day we'll be headed to my home town of Altadena where I intend to donate some California books to their little sales shop. After Altadena, we'll be headed further east and south and will eventually end up in San Diego. So until then, we wish you exciting and happy travels of your own.

Day 5 -- Clovis, California to Camp San Luis Obispo, California -- 142 Miles

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.

So, after a two-day hiatus from traveling, we were back on the road this morning headed west on California Route 41 and enjoying every mile. Exiting the Clovis/Fresno area was easy thanks to Concetta's IPhone GPS, and before we knew it we were cruising through mile after mile of a great variety of farm products from fruit trees to onions and grapes. Concetta and I are probably among the rare individuals who enjoy the vista of mile after mile of crops. Today we even saw olive trees grown for oil.

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.