Monday we left Jackson and headed south towards Yosemite. We had looked at staying just outside of Yosemite (near Mariposa) but the parks we researched the last few days were all booked ergo we knew we would bypass Yosemite on this trip. We decided to keep avoiding the freeways so kept to the east side of the central valley region on highway 49. We drove through some funky looking little towns (San Andrea, Angels Camp, and Bear Valley to name a few) on the way to Mariposa, the gateway to Yosemite. The highway north of Mariposa goes up some very high mountain passes with sharp drop offs along the way and also with virtually no extra room on the edge of the road. Some very sharp curves show why the signs advise that trailers and trucks exceeding 30 ft should not attempt the highway. On one sharp curve we encountered an RV with a tow vehicle which should not have been on that highway. Being on the inside, he pulled a bit wide to make sure we both had room to get by. When he swung a bit wide, the cars behind him decided they would take advantage and pass, never mind that we were right there. We had to brake to a complete stop to let the cars sneak back into their own lane or there would have been a head on collision.
Anyway, after Mariposa we headed west to Chowchilla where we had a reservation for the night at The Lakes Golf Club and RV Resort. Turns out this place is a development where you can purchase a RV spot. The place was mostly empty and the desk guy said that they don't see many Canadians this time of year. Maybe the 39 degree Celsius temperature had something to do with it. Anyway, we ended up with a spot backing onto the little man-made lake and near the restrooms and the excellent pool. It was very very nice.
We paid $45 for the night and that included 2 rounds of golf on the "pro" course. Too bad we are not into golfing at this time. Oh well, we did go over to the course club house for a couple of glasses of wine and some excellent munchies in the "Putter's Bistro" bar.
We looked at the sales literature and the spot we were in was up for grabs at a mere $75,000 (includes 2 rounds of golf every day). On top of that would be property taxes and monthly maintenance strata fees (we didn't find out what those would be). The spot was also advertised as being available at a monthly rate of $1,250. Doing a bit of basic math, just on the sale price, if you bought this spot and stayed here 3 months every year, it would take approximately 18 to 19 years at $1250 a month to reach the $75000 total. Given that there is bugger all to do around here, other than golf and/or sit by/use the pool, it seems it would be a tough go to achieve it. On the other hand, perhaps if you were wanting to just escape a Canadian prairie winter for a few months and get some good warm/hot temperatures while you were at it, this might fit the bill, albeit a tad isolated.
While out touring the local area looking for a decent restaurant (seems mostly fast food places around here), we did drop into a local nut farm (read "real nuts" not "whackjobs") store where we picked up a couple of bags of pistachios and a bottle of pistachio butter... yummmm... and we saw our first Pistachio tree...
Sitting outside, by the lake, late in the evening and watching the stars, we did consider staying a second night but we decided to head out to the coast where we expected it would be considerably cooler. A tour of the central valley might be a lot more comfortable sometime other than the middle of the summer!
Next stop Santa Cruz. The drive across the north part of the central valley up past the San Luis Reservoir and through the very windy Pacheco Pass over the Diablo Range (part of the Coast Mountain Range) is really quite a scenic drive. Long straight roads with lots of large trucks carrying produce,like the tandem "tomato hauler" which passed us. We managed to pull out the camera and get a pic of him as he pulled back into our lane. You can't see that it was a tandem other than the shadows, so take our word for it... there was a whack of tomatoes in that thing.
As we neared Gilroy the ever popular sign for a SONIC (America's drive-in you know) appeared, at which time we decided it was time for a stop and a large diet 7-up cherry limeade along with an order of "cheddar peppers" (cheddar stuffed jalepenos) each... yummmm again. Leaving Gilroy, we continued west on highway 152 via the winding road (no long RVs or trailers advised here) over the Hecker Pass to the Mt Madonna summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains and down into Watsonville before heading north to Santa Cruz.
The last few times we have been around Santa Cruz we have stayed at the KOA just south of Santa Cruz. It is a "kid friendly" place which can get very busy (read chaotic) in the summer so we decided to try a different place. Researching Good Sam and other resources we made a reservation at the Cotillion Gardens RV Park near Felton about 7 miles north of Santa Cruz. We took highway 9 out of Santa Cruz and soon found ourselves in an extremely narrow winding little road which apparently the locals (we assume) like to use as a bit of a race course. With a posted speed limit of 35 mph we quickly found that driving at 40 or even 45 was much too slow as others sat right on our tail around the very sharp turns prompting us to "move it" by sitting on their horns. We decided a slightly longer route was a bit more to our liking and used that for the rest of our stay at this place.
The Cotillion park is tucked away in a well forested area and not a bad place overall although their restroom/shower facilites leave a lot to be desired. It is also the first place we have stayed in a long time that does not have a laundromat facility.
We stayed here 3 nights and enjoyed sitting out under the giant trees sipping wine and munching peanuts by a fire, but must admit that the open areas of places like Lakeview, Jackson and Chowchilla sure did provide fabulous views of the night skies. One evening our neighbours left their dog in their tent trailer while they buggered off for many hours. We, and others, had the pleasure of listening to the dog bark and whine the entire time. Just a tad inconsiderate!
While here we spent our daytimes in Santa Cruz, Capitola and environs. We bought ourselves some lightweight wet suits (2 mm) which we tried out at the Manresa State beach. What a difference they make in the rather cold Pacific water. Makes the swimming (mostly bobbing around) much more enjoyable than when bare skinned. You can see why the surfers this far north use wetsuits as they spend much more time in the water.
We could only reserve 3 nights at Cotillion Gardens because they had some kind of full house event going on over the weekend. We had to depart Friday morning but our stay in the area was not yet over. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were forced to try out another new place. We stayed the next three nights at the "Carmel by the River" RV park about 5 miles east of Carmel up the Carmel River valley. Another awkward place to get into if you have a very large RV or tow vehicle (once again we liked having the wee trailer), but once in it is quite nice. Each spot is separated from it neighbours by a large hedge. On their website, they advertise that they "add a sense of luxury to RV camping" but we didn't particularly notice anything luxurious especially for the rather hefty $75 per night fee. Once again the restroom and showers, although ok, were hardly "luxurious" and could have been enhanced considerably. Second place in a row with no laundry facilities, but a good laundromat only a couple of miles away, so no biggie.
Oh well, it gave us a chance to explore the Carmel and Monterey area a bit more. Carmel main street (Ocean Ave) was the usual very busy with heavy car and pedestrian traffic (appeared to be mostly tourist traffic). We did some driving around Monterey, shopped at the main Del Monte Shopping Center and did a short trip south along the coast to Big Sur and back.
We also discovered that Monterey is the host city for the Bronco League World Series with teams from America, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Chinese Taipei participating. We found out about this late on our last day in the area but did get to take in a game between Vacaville, California and Western Branch, Virginia. It was a close game with Western Branch bringing in their closer to finish off the game and an 11-10 win...
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