Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #36 – Getting Some Family Time!    

 

Sunday, September 4^th., 2022…… We only have a 160-mile drive today, but we have to go over I-5 past the fire. We knew that southbound I-5 was open, but we weren’t sure how many lanes plus it’s a weekend. So, we decided to leave around 9ish. I won’t need fuel for a while so only a rest stop is planned. Turned out I changed my mind!  I thought it would be better to top off at Frazier Park Flying J and that way I could go in and out of SoCal without worrying about finding a diesel station large enough for the motorhome. That was a smart move!  Traffic was ok then it wasn’t – ok again, then it wasn’t!  But, we made it in ok and got there at 12:37pm, a little early but they were ok with that and my site was open. We got in and parked and set up. We have a terrific view of the bay. But there are tons of folks out there for the day, using popups for the sun. They were almost solid all around the bay! Looking out and looking back at our rig…

We got ready and fed the dogs and then left to drive over to The Crab Cooker to meet up with the family. Only 19 of us for dinner there tonight!  There were 4 or 5 that don’t like fish (or the smell of it) and went to the Spaghetti Factory. We had a nice meal. Thanks Chris! Here are shots of that group. Little Sophia decided to sleep through it all!

After dinner we walked back to their rental. It was really awesome!  Three stories, 5 or 6 bedrooms and right on the beach!  Their view was majestic! After a visit to meet the rest of the group, we coordinated our next few days and I downloaded our tickets and parking passes for Disneyland from Angie’s phone onto Cathye’s.  We walked back to our car and went home and relaxed. But we did have to set up the remote DirecTV satellite dish!  The roof dish is toast and Gary’s guy will be getting one first thing Tuesday morning and will come install it in the afternoon! We got the dish pointed (first time for Cathye to go through this process with me!) and everything is working well. 

Monday, September 5^th., 2022……  Today we had SoCal friends and family in for the day. We did a potluck with chicken wings and hot dogs. It was nice to see everyone. Ed, Rick and Janie, Mike & Cheri, Gary & Lorna, Ken & Sandie, and Randy & Maryanne. Here are pics of that group….

After everyone left except Randy and Maryanne, we took the bikes out for a little ride. Chuckie and Bella like to ride in the transit ship with Randy!

Once we got back and they left, we cleaned up a bit and relaxed for the rest of the evening. It was a great day! Thanks to everyone for visiting!  

Tuesday, September 6^th., 2022…… Today was the AZ day.  All of the group was coming for beach day here on the bay. The crowds were all gone and they literally had the place to themselves!  I am going to try to get everyone listed here once. Chris and Angie (Cathye’s son (step); their kids Dillon and his friend Torie, Ashley and her husband Caleb, and little Sophie; Brandon and his wife Emily, and their three kids, Royal, Liam, and Kylee, and Angie’s mom, Ferrell (GG to the grandkids). The rest of the family (7 more – Brandy and her husband Brent and their kids Dalton and his wife Julie and Torie and Torie’s friend) were here just for the beach vacation and were headed back this morning. Most of these guys have only known Cathye as their Grandma so it was great for everyone to get together again! I am still struggling to remember everyone’s names!  She rented three paddleboards and a peddleboat for everyone to use and they had a ball. Cathye tried to stand up on the paddleboard but didn’t get too far before bellyflopping! But, the hot weather (temps in the high 90s) made it perfect for being in the water. Randy came by later with enough food to feed an army!  He owns a company specializing in refrigeration and services cooler units in restaurants and supermarkets and such. One of his accounts is The Newport Rib Company and he volunteered to supply the food for today. We had piping hot baby back ribs, chicken, brisket, and sausage, plus all of the fixins’!  As I said, we had plenty of food!  It was a fun day!     

Wednesday, September 7^th., 2022…… We were up and out of the motorhome at 7:15am!  We met up with them at the park around 8:00am and picked out where we will meet again. We went to the scooter rental booth and Cathye got one for the day. Her knee is really sore and this would be the best way to get through the parks! It was a good move!  We met them all again for pics at the pumpkin at the town square (Disney is all decked out for Halloween!) and then split up for most of the day. They had all of the ‘littles’ and would be going to the fantasyland rides. My goal was the Rise of the Resistance at Disney park, so we headed for that. We went through the 45minute line and got in. We only made it about ¾ when the ride shut down. We were given lightning pass tickets for later. We headed over to the Haunted Mansion and found we could use their scooter service entrance and we were given a ‘come back’ pass for 45 minutes. We hung around the area and then went straight in. The ride was really nice given that Tim Burton’s ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ theme took over the ride!  Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean and then Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, both of which we got in the same way with very short wait times. We hit the Tiki Room and then moved on back to the Resistance ride and got right in with our pass. Problem was that it broke down again! They said this lightning pass would work on any ride in Disneyland and we were headed over to Calif Adventure and would use it for Cars over there. We made the walk across the parks and hit Soarin before Cars. Soarin was the best! I had ben before when it was Soaring over California but it’s now world views and was really nice – although too short! We hit Cars next and found that they don’t honor lightning passes from Disneyland in Calif Adventure! The line was 65 minutes and we didn’t want to wait so we were done for the day. We got the scooter back and found everyone again so we could say goodbye since we would be leaving in the morning. Thanks again to Angie for setting up this wonderful day and the trip for all of the family and including us in it all!         

Thursday, September 8^th., 2022……  We had a bunch of stuff to do this morning to get ready to head out. I started around 8:00am and we pulled out at 10:00am. The drive today was 252 miles but it was up the coast so the ride was nice. Still pretty hot. Temps got into the low 100s but we made it with only a couple of traffic delays. We are at Wine Country RV Resort in Santa Paula. We will be here for two days. They had us up on a rise sharing a common area with the rig next to us so Cathye went and complained and now we are in a section all by ourselves!  We got the dish out and set up and then relaxed and watched tv for a while before feeding the dogs and then heading out for dinner. I have been here many times so I took us to Cool Hand Luke’s for drinks and a nice steak dinner. Very relaxing since it’s only the two of us. A late night walk in the cooler temps and then TV until bedtime.

Friday, September 9^th., 2022…… Nothing on the agenda for today. We hope later to be able to get Rylee in the Honda for a drive. First off, she doesn’t like riding in that car, plus we have the bikes on the rack on the back so she has to go in through one of the back doors. Not happy so we have to lift her up and in!  Later, we actually managed to do that quite easily and we were off!  We drove west on Hwy 46 to Cambria and drove through that little town, then went up the coast. We stopped at several beaches and pullouts but all were posted no dogs!  We drove up to San Simeon to cruise by Hearst Castle. We couldn’t get reservations back when but it sure didn’t look crowded when we arrived in the parking lot.  But we had the dogs, so we just stopped for a quick pic which Cathye blew up and did a screenshot.

Then we drove across the road to Hearst St. Beach. We saw that dogs were allowed on the beach on leashes. That would work!  Rylee has been in salt water before but this was her first outing at a beach with waves!  They scared her for a few minutes but once she got used to it she was ready to lay in the water! 

Jama not so much! A wave got her totally soaked so Cathye had to hold her for the rest of the time. We got cleaned up and left. Both of us left the dog leashes on the top of the Honda but I saw the first one fly off and was able to go back to retrieve it. The other one was still up there! Whew! We made it back home and hosed off the salt water off the dogs and rested for the afternoon. Later, we walked over to the clubhouse in the campground for the wine tasting that they do here each afternoon at 4:00pm. Tomorrow they are supposed to have tamales here in the morning. We’re not sure what that’s all about but we’ll check it out before we leave. The wine tasting was ok. Some we liked some we didn’t. But that’s why you taste! e went back later for entertainment. They had a couple playing 60s music. Terrible! - but the beer was good! We came back to the coach and watched tv for a bit. We had the results show for America’s Got Talent to catch up on. I think the finale is going to be very interesting! There are a few acts I really want to see win. More on that as we get there. As we were watching tv, I heard a noise. It was raining!  It lasted only a minute or so but the drops were huge! It cooled it off enough for a nice night’s sleep.        

Saturday, September 10^th., 2022…… On the road again today. But first up was tamales!  They have a van that comes on Saturday mornings with fresh-made tamales. Cathye was first one there and got 6 pork and 3 corn tamales. We each had one for breakfast. Yeah, I know – but we had to try them!  I liked the pork one but Cathye didn’t care for the corn inside hers. She said it was like creamed corn and was too sweet!  But we have 5 pork left so that will work! We only have 120 miles to drive today, so we were in no hurry. Check-in at Betabel RV Resort in San Juan Bautista was after 12:30pm. We got out of the park around 10:00am and made the drive with no issues. We had a glitch in the parking assignment (someone was in our site and had extended their stay) but we got another site and got in and parked and got set up. We are in a nice spot and will be here for two days. This is the closest park to Santa Cruz and Watsonville where Cathye grew up, so we were glad to get checked in early enough to be able to take a drive. Today was just around Gilroy. We needed to go to Walmart and we found the one in town. Saturday in Walmart! Once we got back, we were in for the evening.