Just a few More Hours & We’ll Be in Pasadena.

(May 14, 2009) Like I mentioned in the last entry, we left the Wal Mart parking lot about 9:30am.  We still had abut 221 miles to go before reaching Pasadena.  And as you can already tell, we don’t always make very good mileage in a day.  And since we like to stop all along the way, we decided to drive as far as the Grapevine and then go on into Pasadena the next day.  It was fun to continue on Highway 99 until it intersected with I-5.  Ahead of us we could see the area known as the Grapevine.

Thru this area we saw lots of active oil wells and some not active. This one was working.

 

This is the area that Bob and his family found closed last December, due to heavy snow & ice.  Hard to believe this desert area could have those types of conditions….but this is high desert.    The grade is somewhat steep, and the big trucks as well as some cars can have a problem with over heating.  There are places all along this route to stop and take on water.

 

 

The town of Gorman, California is pretty much located at the summit of this pass.  We pulled in there to get something to eat and some gas.  I can’t remember the restaurant, but it was a chain…like Wendy’s, Burger King one of those, I was surprised to see it in this area.  At the gas station Bob asked about a local campground and the attendant directed us to a large campground  just a couple miles away.  We pulled into the toll booth and the man assured us there were lots of empty sites but that the place would start filling up the next afternoon. He made some comment about it being, hot, dusty and noisy.  Anyway, we paid for a spot and followed his directions.  He said it would be about ½ mile to the sites and that there were several sections and we were free to take any empty spot.  We drove on sort of a bumpy, dusty road and then we came around a corner and realized we were in a ‘non-traditional’ campground.  It was a campground for folks with quad runners, dirt bikes, etc.  There were trails all over the surrounding hillsides.  The sites were all very primitive, the only convenience was a wooden cover over a metal picnic table  and a fire pit at each site…..no pavement, just a rocky dirt area to park.  Oh well, we were tired and this would certainly be an experience.  We finally found one site that was somewhat level, up from a large group of people who were there for the trails.  

Even though this area was very desolate looking, it beautiful in it’s own way.   I even found some color among the sage.

We walked around the area, to stretch our legs but the wind came up and it was quite strong.  So strong it was blowing the fine silt everywhere, including in our eyes so we headed back to the camper and locked ourselves away from it. 

As night fell the campers below us put up these interesting lights on long poles extending up into the air from their RV’s.  We had never seen that before. 

It was so quite that night, except for the wind. No traffic sounds, no airplanes ~ we both had a very restful night.   The next morning we fixed breakfast & secured everything in the camper and away we went.   Very happy to once again travel on a smooth paved highway.    Very near Magic Mountain, we stopped for lunch and then drove on into Pasadena.  We arrived at the home of Bob’s daughter and family about 2:30 in the afternoon.  It was so good to see them again, park the camper and get it settled into it’s spot in their driveway.

 

To be continued~