Gap Filled

I gave up on Indian Hill Ranch and turned to the website "RV Parks Reviews" (see the link in the links list at right) to find another, any other, RV campground in the Tehachapi area. Turns out that the pickings are slim indeed. All the reviews make the local sites sound like fairly uninspiring grungy places reminiscent, I suspect, of Jackson Wellsprings from our last trip. A lot of talk of "long term residents". Little Starlet is still recovering from having a conversation with a (perfectly harmless) man in dredlocks who asked if she knew where "Mountain" was hanging out. I don't think we can cope with that kind of cultural clash again.

I also considered Red Rock Canyon State Park, which is a bit further away on Highway 14. No reservations possible, and the description emphasized the primitive nature of the campground - no toilets or water - and the narrow dirt roads to get to the camp sites. So, remembering our experience of getting into the campground along five miles of gravel road at Butte Lake in August, I thought, "Maybe not". I picked the best sounding of a pretty mediocre bunch and reserved a night at Sierra Trails RV Park in Mojave. They didn't even want a deposit. Make of that what you will.

Mind the Gap

We still have a one night gap in our itinerary for February. I've been trying to book a night at the Indian Hill Ranch RV Site but they are completely unresponsive. I've now sent them two emails (one back in November) and left a message on their answer phone, to no avail. I can't decide whether we should give up and book somewhere else, or whether we should wing it and just turn up. The RV campsite bible says that this is more scenic than the close-at-hand alternative, but finding ourselves with nowhere would be a tremendous pain in the wazoo.

Final preparations

Twenty-six days till we depart on our next RV adventure. I still have one night of campsite to book. Then I have to compile our itinerary and general info, get the RV rental place to take Hubby's name for collecting The Beast, and generally start to plan our packing.

Packing will be complicated on this occasion by the fact that our kitchen is being demolished on January 25. We'll be putting the contents of the kitchen into storage this week, and we need to remember to leave the appropriate stuff out for the trip!

New Year Adventures on a Mountain Top

We have just returned from two nights in a rental house in Boulder Creek with our group of lovely friends. There were ten adults and nine children. We arrived after everyone else, so all the bedrooms had been taken; and we moved into the RV parked in the garden. Thus...



Deep Thought was very excited by the idea of sleeping in a 40 ft RV, but Little Starlet was in a "take it or leave it" mood. So she stayed up at the house and slept on the floor of the library with one of her chums, in sleeping bags. Here's another picture showing the RV's main living area, which we really didn't use, but it gives you a good impression of the style choices.


Hubby and I weren't that impressed by the sacrifice of compactness for additional living space. Seemed a lot of flummery being added for no particular reason. Not enough deprivation for our taste. Despite a campaign by Deep Thought to upgrade, I don't think we'll be moving beyond our class C 25ft RV any time soon.