Day 89: Almost to the West Coast

We woke up early to get a jump on the big drive day and were greeted by a gorgeous sunrise and the moon. The day was full of ups and downs, fortunately it was all about the elevation and not the moods in the RV.

Leaving Death Valley below sea level we had to climb up to nearly 5000′ and then back down again. This effort made the RV smell hot for the first time, so we pulled over for a bit even though the temperatures all looked fine.

There was zero cell phone reception in this area, so unfortunately Rob had to miss a couple of calls. We were all eager to get back on the grid again.

Overall it was a great driving day, nearly seven hours in all. Rob took an hour shift of driving near the windmills. Then we stopped for lunch, and Rob took an important work call before driving on. We decided to push further than our tentative overnight stop, Bakersfield, and ended up in Paso Robles. Along the way we saw lots of orchards (guessing they were pistachios and almonds); we really wish we could have stopped. Visiting orchards and learning about the processing steps had been top on my stops to do list, but with COVID we weren’t able to make this happen this trip. Next time.

We arrived at our campground a full hour before the pool closed, so the boys were thrilled. This was our first time with full hookups in a few days, so we took advantage with a wild evening of laundry, showers, and super cleaning of dishes.