For our attendance at the Homeschool Association of California conference this year, we had first planned to stay at the hotel, and just park the RV in their parking lot.  But, further research found the Cal Expo RV Park that has laundry and showers, is $35 a night, and is only about 3 miles from the conference hotel.  Compared to the $120+ per night for the hotel, and where to stay was a no-brainer.

We pulled in and found the staff to be very friendly.  We knew it is just a parking lot, with some trees and hookups, but it is a well kept parking lot.  The spaces vary in size, but we got a large one with plenty of room to spread out, pop open the awning, and hang out on the front “lawn”.

While here, we’re going to visit the capital, and attend the conference.

On our way from San Francisco, we stopped off in Fairfield, CA, for a tour of the world famous Jelly Belly factory.  RV parking here was excellent, with plenty of large spaces.  We got inside and found a pretty long line waiting for the tour.  We probably stood in line for close to an hour, but the tour itself was over 30 minutes, so all in all, well worth the time and effort, and price (free!).  I didn’t see any familiar HMI software running, but plenty of box makers, conveyor belts, and control’s of all kinds.  The process they take is pretty involved, but yet they are producing massive quantities day after day.  Getting all of the historical information was cool as well.  The artwork made from jelly bellies was fascinating.  The one piece of info that still kinda haunts me is when they said it took 9 months for one of the Jelly Belly portraits to be made.  Why???  Maybe waiting for just the right shade of bean?

While we didn’t eat at the cafeteria, we did get to see how they had bean shaped burgers, and bean shaped pizza’s.  Very much into the bean.  We made it out of there with a couple of chocolate things (it is a candy making place, so not just jelly beans), some gummy worms, and a bag of “Belly Flops”, which are the beans that don’t make the cut to be real Jelly Belly’s.  These are the ones that are two or three beans stuck together, or other abnormalities.  Hopefully none of them are the rotten egg or dog poop flavor.  (Yeah, they have those there too).

So, while at the San Francisco RV Resort, I saw a Monaco Vesta rolling into the park.  Now, there are probably hundreds of these on the road, so the chance of this one belonging to Jason and Nikki Wynn, (www.gonewiththewynns.com) whose adventures I’ve been following for a few months, was remote.  It was towing a car, and I wasn’t sure they had a car.  But, I jumped on their website, saw they had a twitter account, and that they had just tweeted a few hours earlier that they were in Pacifica!  I also saw on their site where they had and towed the same car.  It had to be them.  I sent a message to them via twitter, and Molly and I ended up going over for a chat Wednesday afternoon.  What a great couple, and their friend Cassy too.  I got to here some insight in this RV living ‘thing’, and some tips on managing life with a cat on board.  It was a great meeting, and will lead to us being able to make some changes to our RV that will help with GPS guidance, the desk/workspace setup, and living arrangements for the furry family member.

If you’d like to check out some videos and write-ups of the Wynn’s adventures, take a look at their website.  www.gonewiththewynns.com

It was about 6 hours on the road today, with one stop for gas and to fix a quick lunch.  Molly did a bit better with the long journey, and spent most of the time in the back bedroom watching videos and skype/chatting with her friends.

The trip was fairly uneventful except for the last couple miles, where the GPS took us down a couple hills.  One that was 16% grade, and the second was 19%.  As a reminder, I’m in a 35 foot RV, towing a car, going a mile or so downhill at 16-19% grade.  That was by far the longest mile so far, but keeping it slow, low gears, and we came out OK.  It was narrow beach homes type streets too.  I’m sure there were several people in the area waiting to see if it would work out.

So, we made it all in one piece, and got parked here in the San Francisco RV Resort.  This is an Encore resort, and they have about 80 others in the west coast states and Arizona.  I’m sure we’ll stay at another one at some point.  The views here can not be beat.  They have completely maximized the space to get the most people in here as possible.  Some of the slide outs are just inches from either concrete bumpers that divides spaces, or to other sliders.  There’s no way any awnings are coming out.  There are some premium sites that are pull in / back in, and right on the cliff edge, with great views out over the ocean.  Those sites are of course higher priced, and they seem to have about an extra foot or two between the spaces.  They also have some newer equipment for making the hookups.  I looked around, and it just seems the sites we are at have not been updated.  The sewer’s are open and not covered, and the threads are trashed and I can’t get the drain to stay.  I had to have Diane stand on the drain outlet while we dumped after arrival (we didn’t hook up for the single night at Buellton).  She had a little fear of being involved in one of those toilet moments like in the movie RV.  No such luck for her.  All went well.

Diane has the next two days all planned out for our tour of San Francisco.  We’ll be seeing a couple sites, possibly the “Full House” row of houses from the TV series intro.  Molly is a big fan of the show.  Also, some cable car rides, a museum of sorts or two, a cross of the Golden Gate bride, and a couple other things I’m sure.

Francie has been doing OK.  There was some substantial meowing before, but that has subsided.  She tried to get herself stuck behind a cabinet drawer, but that was fairly easy to fix.  She still seems unsure of the whole thing, but also seems to enjoy having so many windows to look out

That’s it for now.

We made pretty good time with the packing.  It rained Sunday morning, so a little wet.  We’re looking forward to living in the RV fulltime, and not having to go through this very stressful and laborious acts of loading and unloading.  Diane was surprised, but all the clothes look like they will fit.  Only minor thinning will be needed.

The Flying Flags RV Park is pretty nice.  Right away the lady that checked me in let me know I’d pre-paid too much, so I got a credit to use in their impressive store.  The regular area is pretty nice for parking, hooking up, etc.  Plenty of room between sites. The long-term area seems well filled.  Likely it will not be this full in the winter.  The only thing I wish they’d improve on is the cleanliness of the bathrooms and showers.  They shut them down for a half hour or so everyday for cleaning, but should hit them every few hours.  Other than that, it’s a nice place.  It is managed by Horizon RV Resorts, and we’ll have to check out some of their other properties.

While here, we made a short visit over to Solvang.  Found a guy that does metal work who might be able to do Ed and Victoria’s fireplace doors.  Also took pictures by the Hans Christian Anderson statue, and the Little Mermaid fountain and statue.  And, we had dinner at Pea Soup Anderson’s.  I’ve been to Buellton/Solvang a few times, but never stopped at the Pea Soup spot.  Must say, a bit expensive, but plenty of patrons for a Sunday evening, so it must be doing well.  The pea soup was, well, pea soup.  Now that I’ve been, I can skip it next time.  Molly and Diane both tried the pea soup.  I think Molly wanted to like it, but couldn’t bring herself to want a second taste.

One night here, then on the road to San Francisco.

We’re heading out today.  Got the RV packed over Saturday, and finished up today, Sunday, July 31.  Going to try and post each day, or at least at each location, and try out this new blog posting theme for WordPress.  These are coming in a day late, because for some reason, my brand new laptop has decided that I turned off the wireless switch, while it is actually turned on.  Thank goodness for multiple connectivity options!

We’re heading out this weekend for a week of vacation.  Should be a good trip.  We’ll be hitting an RV place in Buellton, then up to San Francisco, over to Sacramento, then working our way home with one stop on the way.  Should be a good run for us, with 8 nights in the RV, and visiting a couple different types of locations.

We’ve also got the RV launch and work schedules lined up.  It is now set for us to head out full-time, the first week of November.  We’ll make our way to Nashville for a week or so and a work stop, up to Indiana to stay at my sisters and see the family for Thanksgiving, down to Georgia for a couple weeks of work, then back to Southern California.

Instead of being all over the place, in Florida, east coast, etc, we’ll be staying closer to Southern California for a while.  Staying close to Megan as she’s going to college is one of the desires that has come to the surface now that the reality of life is setting in.  This will work out well with my work, as the western region is more of a focus now anyway.

One other note, it seems some posts from before are not showing up on the main window.  Not sure why, but will keep my eye on it.

Things are moving forward.  Diane and I have had some discussions about timing of our departure, and then the schedule for the first few months.  It looks like Indiana for Novemberish time frame, back to CA for December/January, and then ??? for January/February.  We’d talked about Florida, but might just spend some time getting there and hang in AZ, NM, and TX for a couple months as we move across.

The RV is coming along, and fixes/updates are progressing as time permits.  After a couple orders and some searching, it looks like we have the right replacement parts for one of the drawers, and have already fixed a few other odds and ends that required parts from Winnebago.

Our latest challenge is in the area most dreaded by when people first start looking at how an RV or Camper work.  This is with regards to the waste holding tanks.  There are two, one gray, and one black.  The gray gets the water from sink and shower drains, and the black tank gets everything from the toilet.  While I have watched a few videos on how to manage and drain the tanks, it seems that what I have watched so far does not cover everything.  We need something to “flush” the tanks.  The gray is not that bad, as it does not really see any solid wastes.  The black however, is a different story.  I’ve found a few options now, and they are fairly inexpensive, $50 or less.  I need to get over to the RV, crawl under it, and see what we have.  Could be someone has installed some things already, or that I need to pick some up and get them in.  Either way, we’ll be making a big improvement on the situation soon enough.

In other news, our last trip was a last minute plan to head out for Memorial Day weekend.  This trip was our first to a KOA.  We found an open spot in Banning, CA, and stayed from about mid-day Saturday to mid-day Monday.  The location was nice, and the campground (or Kampground as they call it in KOA world) was a nice mix of long term and short term residents.  There was everything from tents to the big 40 foot rigs.  The only issue we saw was that the weather was cold and windy on Sunday, but that just allowed us to head over to Palm Springs, where it was warmer with no wind, and hang out for a while.  A good time was had by all.

The next trip scheduled is not till August.  I’m hoping we can find some more time between now and then to just get more time in the rig, but we’ll see.  The work schedule and all the activities the girls have planned could prevent any trials in June or July.  The August trip will be for a week+, so that should be fun.  Cruise up to San Francisco, Sacramento, and a few places in between.

That’s it for now.  More to follow in a couple weeks.

May the Fourth be with you.

It went fairly well.  Molly got sick the first day, and ended up sleeping both nights in the RV.  We originally had a spot that was farther away from the road, but, no electricity.  It got pretty cold that first night, and not enough battery/electricity to run the heater.  So, given the sick kid and weather, I talked to the Rangers and arranged to move to an open spot with some electricity.  Second night was very comfortable, with plenty of light, heat, and no worries of upsetting neighbors with generators and such.

We did have one issue where I crushed about 6-8 inches of the end of the tail pipe as I was adjusting the RV in our first spot.  I had the battery powered reciprocating saw and some metal/rescue blades.  Took about 5 minutes, but I was able to cut off the crushed portion so the back pressure wasn’t too big on the engine.  I should be able to get this section fixed fairly cheaply so we get the exhaust out the right way.

No immediate plans right now.  I’ll spend May working on things like the mirror, the tailpipe, and the hitch/bike/tow bar setup.  I also have to fix one of the kitchen draws and the blind over the door.  Might work on the TV’s too, and get the CRT’s out, and the LCD’s in.