Lucy digging in snow pile

Shastice Park in My Shasta, CA.

Oak Grove Regional Park

Way delayed post. Sorry. It's so easy to put off. I'm going to try to keep up with my posts.

I had planned to visit Sutter's Fort but I skipped it after all. Instead, I stopped off at the nice, paid admission Oak Grove Regional Park just north of Stockton, CA.

Lucy had a blast digging after rabbits(?). There is a video if that, at the end of this post.

Loafing around

I hurried out of Oregon to avoid freezing temperatures in the mountains and ran into gushing rains in northern California. I'm not too far out from Sacramento, where I want to spend a day or two once the rain clears. It's still supposed to have freezing temperatures but at least it won't be rainy or snowy.

So, today is a big loafing around day with nothing much to do. I had a good hot breakfast at Denny's in Corning, CA this morning for $7 including a $1 tip. Their service was faster and better than most. Now I'm sitting in Willows, CA just wasting time until I head on to the next rest area for the night.

Lucy is acting depressed, probably due to the seemingly never ending rain. I can't say I blame her any. Hopefully this is the last heavy rain we see for a long while.

San Francisco Traffic Nightmare!!

On February 6, I found myself in San Francisco... downtown... after dark... on city streets.. in rush hour.. in misty rain. ARRRRGH!!!!

Here is a pic I took on the highway before I ended up in that mess.

After much cursing and accidentally running a few red lights, I was able to get on my way to Sacramento where I have been now for a week.

I am busy with buying goodies at thrift stores and reselling them on ebay which is going very well. I did that a lot back in 2001-2004 during the time I lived here from 1999-2004. (Speaking of which, as I was writing the following paragraph, a $30 item sold that I paid $2 for!)

I have also been busy visiting friends and an uncle who lives here too. As long as you keep out of business parking lots and don't take up a curbside parking place that might be used by someone regularly.. and on one complains... it seems a tiny RV like mine is able to be parked for a long period of time in the same general spot (being moved often) without being ticketed or knocked on. But I have a pretty good place I am parking. It is very noisy traffic wise but it's on a public street and isn't directly outside anyone's home or business and it's not in a "no parking" zone or fire lane.

Scott Creek Beach

After heading out from Santa Cruz, I headed up CA-1 and stopped off at a roadside beach, Scott Creek Beach. I hung around for about 30 minutes enjoying it then continued on up toward Half Moon Bay.

Santa Cruz, CA

The next morning (February 6), after departing New Brighton State Beach, I drove back to Santa Cruz to visit the beach and wharf. It was windy, a bit misty rainy and very overcast. So much for relaxing on a sunny beach!

 

 There is a large free public parking lot right across from the main part of the old boardwalk buildings.

 Someone had been on the beach earlier that morning and decided to leave some fun sand graffiti. 

New Brighton State Beach

After leaving Morongo Casino on February 4, I drove on through the northen LA area by way of Pasadena and headed North on I-5. I stopped off in Wasco, CA (North of Bakersfield) and parked overnight at a K-Mart. There was one other RV parked there. I didn't see any "no overnight" parking signs, nor did I have any problems. There was an Anytime Fitness so I was able to get a shower as well.

The next day (February 5) I headed up to Santa Cruz, CA with the idea that I would be able to stay around there for a month or two. That was quickly squished flat by how militant the local police are about RVs and the homeless in autos. I drove out to New Brighton State Beach and finally made use of the CA State Parks disabled discount card I mailed away for years ago.

The regular camping fee for a sight that isn't considered "premium" (a direct ocean view from the sight) is $35 a night. You get no hookups, bathrooms and coin operated showers (25 cents per 2 minutes). You basically just get a place to park. I paid $17 with my discount card and I still felt like I was being ripped off. I cannot imagine paying $35 for what amounts to a place to park and a bathroom.

The "premium" sites are $50 which also totally lacks hookups!

They do have a single dump station in the park and potable water throughout... someplace. I had just dumped and filled a couple days before at a Flying J so I didn't need or use those facilities.

Salton Sea

Oops... I should have posted this before the Morongo Casino post. Here is a photo I took of the Salton Sea between Niland and Mecca.

Morongo Casino - Cabazon, CA

On Feb 3 I stopped off at Morongo Casino located just off if I-10 in Cabazon, CA. They have a large overflow parking lot in the rear behind the parking garage that allows RVs and buses (but not semis) to park overnight. I went in and got the member card and got $10 in free food. They give you a choice of food credit or slots credit. I ended up spending $20 in slots as well plus eating in the food court. $30 for food, a bit of entertainment, restroom access plus a place to park overnight wasn't bad at all. I decided to move on the next day so I wouldn't be tempted to spend anymore.. heh.

Niland, CA

I am really late posting this and other posts I will be doing today. I spend the end of January down at Slab City as previously posted. Here are a couple photos I took in town at Niland, CA.

 

I wonder what this building was... a bank perhaps? It is rather massive. It's a few blocks from CA-111 otherwise perhaps it wouldn't have been left so abandoned. The rear of it is being used for a metal recycling business.

Huh... that's something you don't see everyday; horses outside of a laundromat. 

(I did laundry there before I left out on Feb 3)

Salvation Mountain

I woke up around 6:30 this morning and found it to be rather warm.

After breakfast and waking up, I biked back down to "Salvation Mountain", a giant man made mound of hay and adobe, covered in paint and portraying the message "God is love".
 
Despite not being a Christian, or in favor of religions in general, I still find it a very interesting piece of folk art. At least it's a religious piece that embraces universal love, not selective hatred.

It's very surreal, like something out of  Dr Seuss book when you walk through the inner part. That's what appeals to me about it and keeps drawing me back to see it. I love weird surreal things like that... heh.

I stopped and looked at it when I arrived yesterday, but didn't look around it much, nor did I take any photos then. I had the place to myself this morning when I went for photos and a better look around.

The photos are dark due to the overcast. I usually try not to edit my photos, so you get the impact of what I saw, not a touched up scene to make it look nicer.


For more information about the monument, visit the following links:

        Official Salvation Mountain Website

        Wikipedia: Salvation Mountain

Slab City

I decided to leave Quartzsite and head to Slab City today. I considered it yesterday, but I wanted to sleep on the idea.

So yes, now I'm in California! Yay!

I took CA-78 down from Blythe and came around that way.
My cell data service is worse here.. runnin at 1X, but it's better than nothing.
My little 12V 7" LCD TV thinks we're in Mexico. ALL the analog and digital channels are FROM Mexico. It seems Mexico does a better job of log distance TV broadcasts than the U.S. does.