The Grapevine

Sunny and warm as we travel to Bakersfield. I learned to unhook the coach connections this morning. I need to be sure I can do the outside stuff as well as the inside.

We stopped for gas this morning as we left California City. Ken was talking to this guy at the pumps who was really interested in the coach. Sure enough we ended up giving our first gas station Coach House tour! We never know when or where these tours will happen.

Riding down Rte 14S we can hardly see the mountains with the haze. There were heavy fog warnings this morning so we left camp a little later than usual. We turned onto Rte 138 W which will take us to I5 N where we will drive the "Grapevine" pass today. Beautiful rolling hills look like green velvet and we can see grass! The buds are starting to show on the trees and the Cottonwood Trees are leafing. The hills are dotted with trees, not just pines, and as we came over a hill there was a sky blue reservoir sparkling in front of us. We have definitely left the desert!

The Los Padres National Forest on our left and the Tehachapi Mountains on the right we turn onto I5 N. We climb up to the summit of Tejon Pass (4144') and pass trucks full of lemons. The interstate is in awful shape! Once we get to the summit we start down the precipitous descent toward what is known as the Central Valley on the north. The descent ends in the small community of Grapevine at 1,499 feet. The pass is subject to sever weather and is often closed in the winter as road crews cannot keep up with the snowfall. We were lucky today. The fog is just hanging in the air but fortunately not on the road and the visibility is good. Coming down we see farms and cattle on the side of the mountains. The landscape has really changed. Orchards full of pink flowering trees and vinyards as far as the eye can see on our left. It is beautiful.

We turned onto Rte 99 N and enjoyed the green countryside. Our home for the next three nights is Southland RV park. We are just south of Bakersfield. We got settled in and did some errands. We had dinner at a little local place called Mary J's. Was pretty good and the menu was basic home cooking.

Back to camp we took a walk around the park and enjoyed the warm night air.