I know people who do it regularly, and I always thought they were nuts…but we did it, we camped over Thanksgiving!!

Last year the kids were here for Thanksgiving so their in-laws got them this year for the actual day.  We did get together for an awesome Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before at Nikki and Elliott’s house with the family and Lee was in town, and it was wonderful!

We didn’t want to eat a turkey burger and watch Seinfeld re-runs on Thanksgiving day, and our friends John and Craig lost Craig’s mom this year and wanted to spend the holiday with us…so off we went to Boulder Creek in Lone Pine for what turned out to be one of our best adventures yet!

We arrived Wednesday night and enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner prepared by John then started the preparation for Thanksgiving dinner.  Gary deep fried the turkey and John and I prepared all of the dishes from scratch.  We had Craig’s mom’s famous stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, homemade bread and cranberry conserve, pumpkin pie and pecan pie.  All homemade and all delicious!!

Friday we explored the Alabama Hills area of the beautiful Eastern Sierras, and we also visited Manzanar. Such a great day!

Naturally formed Heart in an Arch.

Up to Whitney Portals where it was COLD!

Another successful adventure!

 

We headed down to the beach on November 11th for a couple of nights.  It’s so gorgeous there! From the RV park you literally walk across the bike path and you are on sand.  And the sunsets, spectacular!  Only one problem…loud traffic on PCH.  Next time we will stay on the beach side for sure.  All the kids and grand kids joined us and we had a great time together!

While in Long Beach a couple of weeks earlier, we noticed a hose hanging down under the RV and our electric mirror adjusters and windshield mounted fans didn’t work.  So when we got the call that the backordered light was in we headed for Camping World Bakersfield. It took a little while but they solved the problem for the mirrors and fans, installed the light, fixed the hanging hose and we were on our way to Orange Grove for a nice restful overnighter.  Next adventure is Bolsa Chica State Beach!

Everything was done except one light was back ordered.  We drove up Friday night and came back the same night.  So nice to have it back.

Marlowe’s baby dedication to the Lord was the next day so we drove it to Lakewood and stayed at Golden Shores RV Resort in Long Beach.  Great location and park, but with the wonderful festivities we were only there to sleep.  Will visit again for sure!

 

 

Where is our RV? Hurry up and fix it Camping World!

Update: They serviced the slides, fixed the water tank and vibrating awning rail, and recalibrated the jacks.  Waiting for parts to fix the transfer switch, 2 more lights, an A/C vent, blind over the buffet, trim pieces on front of coach and around all 3 slides that discolored horribly in less than a year, even after we bought the warranty that includes sealing them, a burner on the stove that never lit, and I think that’s it.  Gosh!  HURRY! We really want go camping the end of October and we have 2 planned for November!  Ben at Camping World Bakersfield is a really nice guy and keeping us informed.  Can’t ask for much more.

Well we took a day off to spend Gary’s birthday weekend in the RV at Orange Grove but that stinky electrical smell revisited us the next day after we arrived.  This time, the transfer switch box got so hot we unplugged it and after time to cool, shore power never worked again.  The nice folks at OG offered to let us stay and use generator power but that’s not much fun so we packed it up and came home.  Tyler at Valencia Camping World got a nice and much deserved promotion so they have a new service writer who was no help, and after 2 weeks of not returning emails we ended up taking it up to Camping World Bakersfield where we got great service.  Ben up there has been keeping us informed, and as always, there are other little things that need fixing, including our slides that are shimmying.  He lubricated and adjusted those which should be done once a year anyway. Hope to get it back soon!  We want to go camping……..

We have been so busy since our Memorial Weekend trip up to French Camp and we were itching to go so we ran up to Orange Grove  a couple of weeks ago for 2 nights.  When we arrived and plugged in everything seemed fine but some stinky electrical smell and a very hot inverter box had us scrambling.  We unplugged and decided to move over one site and try again before heading home.  Gary also left the cargo door open since it was really hot up there, and for the rest of the weekend everything was fine and the box stayed cool.  Still need to talk to Camping World about that.

We brought the bikes and rode them all over including to the California Fruit Depot where we scored some goodies for the trip.

We swam all weekend and Gary won the Saturday night poker tournament.  Great time again!!

 

We accepted an invite from our great friends John and Craig to camp with them at their favorite spot in the Eastern Sierras called French Camp at Tom’s Place.  It’s about 30 minutes past Bishop.  Now, this is my favorite part of California so I had no problem saying YES even though it would be our first time “Dry Camping” YIKES!  I figured these two would be the best to learn from and I was right!

We headed up on Friday, arriving around 7pm.  Loved the campground!  We were right in the middle of huge boulders and trees with a stream going through at the back of the camp.

We had a great time exploring with Craig and John.  They know the area very well and have been camping there for years. We had a great dinner of pot roast at the local camp restaurant the first night and cooked the rest of the time.  On Saturday we visited the craft fair at Mule Days in Bishop and Craig found a nice hat!  It’s his color!  More exploring of the rugged parts yielded some gorgeous pictures.

Dry camping was a breeze. We learned SO much about our coach that we didn’t know like how the batteries work and that we do have some electrical outlets that work on battery!  The Keurig was too much for battery power but we worked around that by using the generator anyway.  We filled up with water before the trip but lost 1/3 of it on the way up. Craig said it was flying out as we passed them on a steep grade.  Something must be wrong there…the overflow must be open all the time.  Need to ask Camping World about that.  Luckily the camp did have water only 200 feet away so we were able to fill up using a nice 200′ flat hose the guys carry with them.  Need to add that to our list of necessary equipment.

A trip into Mammoth on Sunday to meet some of Craig and John’s friends was a lot of fun and soon our trip would be ending.  Lots of memories though and a new favorite camp site for use.  Can’t wait to take the family to French Camp…I’m thinking Fall colors up there will be gorgeous!