The last 253 miles...

7:09 am - Tuesday - October 17th - Elks Lodge, Fontana, CA - 61° F, humidity 47%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2015 our middle daughter, Kate, married Nick.  Cannot believe it has been 8 years already!.....↴ 

Over the past almost 12 years of traveling full time in our Newell our travel style has changed significantly.  If you have been following our story for that entire time you know to what I am referring.  Our first year we traveled all the way to Florida, then back to Washington, then back to Campbellsville, KY, where we worked our first workamper job at Amazon, then back to Florida just before New Years .  I think we covered 12,445 miles from February 1st to December 31st of 2012.  To contrast that with the present, we will have only traveled 1,468 miles (when we reach GNHS) this calendar year.....724 miles north to Likely Place Golf & RV Resort, and by the time we get to Glamis North Hot Springs on Thursday, another 724 miles. I know that when we are moving consistently every few days our readership goes up, and when we sit in one place for months at a time it goes down, but there is a core group of you that read my missives most every day, and for that we are grateful.  I say that to say this.....after this winter we will not be taking anymore winter jobs.  We miss the travel, and changing our view on a regular basis.  These past few days of travel from LPG&RVR to the Elks Lodge here in Fontana reminded me of how much I love sitting behind the steering wheel of the Newell and watching the big views coming at me mile after mile. Usually, as you know, we are not inclined to travel more than 150-175 per day, but on Saturday we covered 277 miles, and then on Monday another 254 miles, and frankly I could have gone another 100 miles each of those days I was enjoying it so much.....

....let's face it, I/we have 'hitch-itch' bad, and next winter we are going to do something about it, but that is a year away, so what is going on now, today?

We knew it was going to be a hot day in Fontana Monday afternoon, so we were determined to be on US-395 heading south by 8 am in order to arrive in Fontana early afternoon, before he heat of the day hit. As we saw Bishop receding in our rear view mirrors I looked at the clock on the dash, and saw it was 8:11 m.....not too bad.  

Within an hour we had passed through Big Pine, Independence and Lone Pine and had just 196 miles to go.  In another 40 miles we arrived at the Coso Junction Rest Area where we took a break.  Many, many years ago, back in the 50's, 60's and 70's this place was called Gil's Oasis, and consisted of a two pump Union 76 fuel station.  My dad would always stop there to fuel up what ever transportation we were using at the time, and TLE and I have continued to stop there for a rest break for over 50 years as we have traveled north and south too many times to count....

....the Union 76 station is no longer there, but the memories linger to this day....

This is not Gil's Oasis, but this is exactly as I remember it (internet picture)

.....as we continued southward we left the Sierra Nevada mountain range behind, leaving just 156 miles between us and our destination for the day.  Once we hit Kramer Junction, with 81 miles to go, we took another break.  The balance of the drive I have never liked.  The traffic picks up exponentially, the quality of the road diminishes, and for the last 10 miles to I-15 there are like 15 signals that are quite poorly timed.  I think we hit every single red light Monday.  Nothing like civilization to spoil a wonderful drive....lol!

As we merged onto I-15 southbound only one obstacle remained....the 12 mile, 6% grade from Cajon Summit to Fontana.  Once we got over the summit I put the Newell into 2nd gear and let the Jacobs (Jake) Brake do its job.  The 'Jake' kept our speed down to 37 mph for the first 8 miles, and then I shifted to 3rd gear for the balance of the grade.  I-15 in this section is around 5 lanes wide each direction, and the traffic noise is overwhelming to one who has spent the last 6 months driving US-395 between LPG&RVR and Alturas (one lane each way) where three vehicles in a row is considered a traffic jam.

We reached the Elks Lodge driveway around 2 pm to find street construction partially blocking the entrance....we managed to squeeze through the orange cones, and within 20 minutes we had unloaded the VW, and backed into our spot for the next three days...

.....it costs us $25/night here for 50 amp, and water.  There is a dump station around 60 feet from the front of the Newell....when we stay here longer than a few days I can just hook up my macerator pump to our black tank and dump without moving, so it is almost like a full hookup site!  It is a good deal, and it is close to our kids.  We managed to snag site #3, which gets the shade for a few hours longer in the morning than the other sites, plus all we have to do when departing is drive straight down the driveway to the street.

The next few days will be a whirlwind of activity visiting with kids and grandkids.  I'm sure we'll be ready to head back to rural America by the time Thursday arrives.....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!