After leaving Sacramento, we headed to a Thousand Trails park in Morgan Hill, CA.  We left later in the day on Sunday, giving Molly and Diane time to participate in all the sessions they wanted to see at the conference.  It took a couple hours to get to Morgan Hill, and we got there just in time to get a spot and hooked up before it was totally dark.

Morgan hill is in a nice area, in that it’s not near any highways, railroad tracks, airport, or other noise generating equipment.  The sites all look pretty level, and there are lot’s of tree’s.  It has a huge pool, especially compared to the number of available sites in the park.  All the sites have water and electric, but none have sewer.  They do have a honey wagon service, but it could get old paying $25 every few days to dump the gray tank.  I would invest in one of those portable tanks if I planned on staying here longer than just a week.

Internet and cellular services worked fine.  I think we were right on the edge of Sprint coverage, and a booster might have helped.  The AT&T and Verizon phones worked just fine.  We got Satellite TV too, but that is a tough one here for the roof mounted dishes.  Not too many spots with the right clearing.  The spaces here can be kinda tight too.

We may be spoiled by our experiences with staff at Lake Conroe, Wilderness Lakes, Idyllwild, and even Pio Pico, in that they’ve all had some pretty friendly staff.  At Wilderness Lakes, you cannot drive, walk, or ride a bike, and not have one of the staff wave at you when they see you.  Even if they’re off scooting around on the golf carts, they’ll throw a wave and a smile at you.  Pretty much the same thing at Idyllwild.  But, at Morgan Hill, it was hard to even know who the staff were, let alone get a wave, or a smile.  Not sure if they’re more seasonal, and just getting worn down by what seems to be a constant state of being filled with campers, or what.  Nothing bad really, just not as friendly.  All in all, I got most of what I want in a site.  Respectful neighbors, electricity, level, some shade, water, and a generally calm atmosphere.  Oh, and good Internet for the worker type, and the YouTube watcher.

Enough about the park…

While there, we all went out to dinner one night with a colleague, his wife, and daughters (he has a new tiny one!)  We had a fantastic dinner at Maggiano’s in San Jose, CA.  The food was very good, and there was lot’s of it.  Both families walked away with a couple days worth of leftovers.  It was great to see Thao, and spend some non-work time with the families.

Another family outing was off to the Santa Cruz boardwalk.  This is like the runway of a larger county fair, with permanent rides, food vendors, and games.  We went on dollar hot dog and soda night, so dinner was cheap.  You buy tickets for the rides, and this night had some special ticket prices as well.  Molly had a great time on some of the rides by herself, a couple with Diane, and then one final “see if we can make him hurl” ride with Dad.  Ugh.  The ride home was on some twisty roads too.  It was all I could do to keep from letting loose of the cheap hot dog and soda.  I’m officially too old for such things now.  If you’re in the area, it’s a great spot to hang out.  There’s no fee to get in, so you have some hooligan’s hanging around that you need to keep an eye out for, but there’s lot’s of families there too, till it gets dark and cold.

Since the boardwalk rides were not quite enough, Molly and Diane also headed out to San Jose to California’s Great America (http://www.cagreatamerica.com/)  We had gotten some great tickets from another Fulltime family that was not going to be able to use them.  They both had a great time, rode several rides, and spent nearly the whole day there at the park.  It sounds like it is similar to Knott’s Berry Farm that is in Southern California, and they do have some affiliation as well.  If you’re in the area, and it’s open, it would be some good fun for the kids.  Way cheaper than the Disney prices.

Our stay at Morgan Hill ends Sunday, August 12, and we’re booking it down to SoCal that day to stay back at our favorite, Wilderness Lakes in Menifee.  We’ve got some appointments lined up before we head east, plus moving Megan into an apartment, and a couple RV projects.  Sorry this post is so late, but I’ve been working on those projects, and time has gotten away.

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Well, we’re wrapping up a short stay here in Sacramento. Lot’s of lightning and thunder tonight, which is a bit different than what we see down in Southern California.

Diane and Molly have had a good time with at the Home-school Conference, and I’ve been able to get some work done, as well has a whole day and a couple evenings worth of work on websites and web hosting stuff. Lot’s of fun. Most of the effort was in getting our site moved to a new host, and then also setting up a new site for my sister’s office. Check out the work I’ve done at www.chelliegardner.com. This is the updated version that is currently at www.chellie-gardner.com. We’ve moved it from Joomla to WordPress.

Anyway, nothing major here. We’re at a KOA. The West Sacramento/Old Town KOA to be exact. It’s a pretty nice facility. A bit of an odd configuration for our site, and a couple others, where there are trees and/or hookups in odd places. I flipped a coin. Sewer hookup or awning, and went with the awning. Since the girls are gone all day, I’ve kept the dishes used to a minimum, and showered at the parks showers. We’re good to go, and will dump tomorrow on the way out.

There’s a couple RV parks that are IN Sacramento. This one is a pretty nice facility. Last year, we stayed at Cal Expo, which is just a big paved lot, with a bit too much slope for my tastes. The price is right there, but that’s about it. Diane is getting more involved with this Homeschool group, so I suspect we’ll be up here again next year.

Heading to Morgan Hill, CA next.

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We had some planned “whatever” time between our departure from Southern California, and our Sacramento destination. So, I had worked it out with one of our distributors to visit with them and a customer or two in Fresno. As a result, we picked Blackstone North RV Park as a place to stay for 3 nights in order to make the visit. Everything was set for Tuesday, so I thought. As it turned out, there was some confusion, and the distributor thought that the meeting was next week. Oh well. None of us had ever been to Fresno before, so now we can check that off the bucket list….

The one thing I can say about Fresno is that it is HOT. We thought that 95-99 was hot in Menifee, but it’s 101-105 here, and a bit more humid. AC runs for nearly 18 hours a day.

I was a able to work, and the Internet connectivity is fine. The RV park is fairly nice as well. The spaces are well cared for, hookups in great working order, and they are coming around a couple times a day to pick up trash and leaves. There’s a few “permanent” residents, but it seems most of the park is people traveling in the area to visit all the national parks and forests that are an hour or two east of here. The RV parks and campgrounds there are 2-3X the price, and often don’t have full hookups. It makes this a good place to connect your house, and then venture off to the wilderness.

We also took advantage of the extra time I ended up with yesterday, and got more information on the work schedule for September. If all goes as it appears, it looks like we’ll be heading out from California over Labor Day weekend, and just heading straight for the Atlanta area. I’ll do some work for a few days, then relocate Diane and Molly to a Thousand Trails park in South Carolina, and then I’m out on the road for work for about 10 days. After that, our plans are back on track, with a trip up to Indiana to visit family, then over to Pennsylvania and other areas to check out as we head to GA/FL for Nov-Feb.

But, today, we head to a KOA in Sacramento. Last year we stayed at the State Fair grounds, called Cal Expo. This year, some friends are joining us at the conference, and they only offer RV spots at Cal Expo. Our friends will be staying in a cabin at KOA with us for a few days. After that, Morgan Hill, CA.

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We set out for our Sacramento trip, and made an overnight stop in Mojave, at the Sierra Trails RV Park in Mojave, CA. It’s in between Mojave and California City, and not everyone’s ideal stop in the summer. But, we had hookups, it was only $15.25 for the night, and a POOL! Molly and I jumped in the pool for a little bit, before we headed back to the RV for some movies, dinner, and a good nights rest before the next leg.

It’s a pretty nice park considering the location. The normal rate is $26.50 per night, but we got it for half off through Passport America. Molly, the expensive child that she is, cost us an extra $2. 🙂

http://www.passportamerica.com/campgrounds/ca/sierratrailsrvpark

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