2018 Fall Western Trip: Heading East to Page, Arizona

Sunday, 10/14:  226 miles and parked in Orange Grove RV Park, Bakersfield, California

Sunny again this morning at Moss Landing.  Bob and Karen stopped by with coffee about 9:00 and we said our "good byes". We then stopped for fresh produce on the way out of town at a huge roadside fruit and produce stand.  While the food we bought looked beautiful, some of it turned out to be disappointing in taste.  My opinion is that too much irrigation causes the plant to grow too fast, and thus no flavor.

Driving Rt. 101 southeast through the Salinas Valley we saw some amazing looking fruit, vegetable and vineyards along the way.  Come to find out, this region is one of the major producers of vegetables in the US.  However, everything  here is dry, dry, dry.  The only way they can grow crops is from irrigation.  At Paso Robles, we turned east, out of the valley, toward Bakersfield and Needles. Once we left the valley, the landscape was much more desert like.

Orange Grove RV Park is a really nice campground, and it actually is located in an orange grove.  In season, campers are encouraged to pick from the trees located at each site.  The sites are very large, and all are level pull throughs.  The park is all gravel.  I don't think there is a blade of grass in the entire park.

The weather was nice enough to grill steaks outside for dinner.  However, we ate inside in the air conditioning.  :-)

Monday, 10/15:  260 miles and parked at Needles KOA, Needles, California

Another sunny morning, but extremely windy.  We were on the road about 9:15, and it was a terribly windy drive all day.  In fact, the National Weather Service had high wind warning posted.  Our view most of the day was dry desert landscapes.

We arrived about 2:00 at the Needles KOA.  It is a nice park, and again the all the sites are level,  gravel and  pull through.  There is no grass anywhere in the campground.  Even the dog walking area is all gravel and rock.  It is located right off I-40.  In fact, you drive on a short section of Old Route 66 to enter the park.  By evening, the campground was completely full.  It was a simple meal of hotdogs and left over vegetables.  We even had to cook the hot dogs inside because it was too windy to use the grill outside.

Tuesday, 10/16:  182 miles and parked at the Circle Pines KOA in Williams, Arizona

Remember how I was saying every day was warm and sunny?  Well, that changed!!   It was a sunny, 71 degree morning when we left Needles about 11:00, BUT,  a wet, snowy and rainy 36 when we arrived at the campground in Williams about 2:00.  In fact, we didn't even unhook the truck from the camper.  I just connected to power and water while Judy ran the slides out set inside.  The drive was all on Interstate 40, which parallels Old Route 66 in many places.  The weather was so cold and miserable that we got our Instant Pot and cooked up some home made chicken soup that really hit the spot.

We spent an evening of reading and TV watching.  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to clear, and we move on to Page, Arizona for 3 days to explore the Lake Powell area.

By the way, here is an interesting travel trivia tidbit.  Arizona is in Mountain Time.  Needles, California is Pacific Time.  But we didn't have to change the clocks today because Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time.  So for 6 months of the year, they share the same time and for 6 months they are one hour apart.