Day 45 -A day of rest at the ranch (Sep-13-2014)

A do nothing day to catch up on the laundry and get some quiet time. I didn't expect driving to be so tiring. We stayed at the campground all day and caught up with the laundry and rest. It was 98 in the shade but they have a great lounge house with TV and it was air conditioned. I'm writing this from there. Tomorrow we go to Solvang for the day for Jackie's retail therapy.

Day 44 - Down the coast to Santa Barbara and camp at Rancho Oso

About 125 miles south on the coastal highway CA-1 from San Simeon is Santa Barbara and our campsite in the Santa Ynez Mountains at Rancho Oso. Rancho Oso is a former guest ranch that was originally a Spanish land grant in the early 1800s. It  is now a campground managed by 1000 Trails, our membership camping organization. It is located slightly east of Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Mountains in the Los Padres National Forest, the largest national forest in the country. It is smack dab in the center of the Santa Ynez wine region about 20 miles west of Solvang, a town modeled after a Danish town in Europe.  We plan on visiting there on Sunday Day 46.

Rancho Oso in the Santa Ynes Mountains of the Los Padres National Forest

Day 43 - San Simeon

A short drive up the coastal highway from our campground is the state run San Simeon Castle which was donated to California by William Randoph Hearst upon his death in 1948. I took a hole bunch of pictures. Nice place but still kinda hot for our taste. This place hosted many weekend parties with movie stars, millionaires and publishers. He had over 90 different businesses including a movie studio, magazines, newspapers, ranches, wineries and mines.

Looks like a church

The gathering room

The dinning table

The game room

One of the gardens

A guest house

The Pool

Day 42 - A drive to the coast of California.

Today we drove through the San Juaquin Valley, dusty, Dry and very hot! As we went over the coastal mountain range it got a lot cooler. We camped in a state park at San Simeon and tomorrow we take a day to see William Randoph Hearst's Castle in San Simeon.

Day 41 - The Crystal Place

This evening we went to Buck Owen's Crystal Palace in Bakersfield. We had a nice dinner and listened to a country band. Tomorrow we leave and drive to the coast for some cooler weather. It has been 96 to 98 for 3 days now and it is HOT!

Day 40 - Still no more pictures.

We are camping at The River Run RV Campground in Bakersfield, CA for 3 nights. It is close to The Crystal Palace that Buck Owens built and made famous. Bakersfield is a growing city and agri area where Nuts, Raisins and table grapes are grown. The country music scene in Bakersfield is a small fraction of that in Nashville and Memphis. Today is day 2 of our stay here. Tomorrow evening we are going to The Palace for dinner and a country music show. Hopefully some pictures there as well.

Day 39 - Another  almost pictureless day and over half way through our trip.

We drove only 70 miles to Bakersfield, CA. The most exciting part of the day was the 2 road runners we saw at our campsite, No coyotes though.. A dry and dusty area due to the extreme drought in California. We are here for 3 nights so we can take in live country music at The Crystal Palace, the theater that Buck Owens, Roy Clark, Grandpa Jones and Merle Haggard made famous in the 60's TV show HEE HAW.

A real Roadrunner