Day 1 Time to Hit the Road!

October 5, 2016

With all the furniture moved out and stored, we wake up after a restless night in the fifth wheel with a neighbor having yard work done (A JACKHAMMER at 6:45am), another neighbor bringing in a barrel, not to mention the cars leaving for work in the wee hours of the morning.  Awe, the joys of suburbia and sleeping "on the street". By 7 am our wonderful neighbor, Cyle who has been more like a son over the years, brings coffee.  Now THAT was a good start to the day.  Much to my surprise my friend Lisa returns to finish helping me pack the fifth wheel and before long, Cyle returns with my much needed second cup of coffee. In the meantime, David and Taylor return from their own exhausting move and prepare to send us off!  After waiting for the housekeeping service to arrive to do the "move out" cleaning, we continue to pack and realize our 9am take off time was not going to happen.  We continue to work and as time gets closer, my stomach is churning with the thoughts of leaving family behind .  By 1:00pm (so much for 9am), the fifth wheel (Edna) is hitched up and ready to go.  My wonderful 6'3 first born child wells up with tears as do I as we say "goodbye" and we prepare for our year long departure, I can't help but ask myself, "what am I doing"?  As we slowing drive away from the neighborhood, I cry for the next few minutes!

Our dogs, Daisy and Gracie don't know what's happening as they whimper and cry for the first hour.  Eventually they settle in for the six hour car ride first to Santa Nella, Ca. Our first challenge was going down the Grapevine at a 6% grade with big rigs flying by us but  I have the utmost confidence in Perry and of course, Edna.  They both handled the elements beautifully!  Around 7pm we arrive at Santa Nella RV Park and are assigned a pull through lot.  Getting a pull through lot while pulling 33 feet is something any RV owner could hope for since you don't have to maneuver backing in....no easy task I may add.  The unhitching process couldn't have been any easier.  We breathe a sigh of relief !  We're pretty hungry at this point and enjoy some Chinese take-out (not much around here) and we're also very tired and can't wait to settle in for our first night sleep. Considering we were right across the street from a truck stop, we slept pretty soundly (at least until 5am) when I realized I was no longer in my king-sized bed but a queen with a 60 pound dog laying on my feet. As I nudge her to get off my legs this resulted in a major leg cramp. Okay, somethings got to change here and some dog boundaries have to be set!  Up at 7 to get my coffee and catch up on the latest news and emails, Perry joins me an hour later and we're ready to plan our day in the little town of Santa Nella.

 After trying to find space for all our belongings (not an easy task moving from a 2350  square foot house to a "mini house" on wheels), Perry convinced me to go to two wildlife refuge parks in hopes of spotting Sandhill Cranes and Tule Elk.  He grew up in a little town in Washington state and remembered seeing the cranes as a young boy.  Not knowing what to expect and driving out in the middle of nowhere, we come across the first preserve with not a soul in sight.  You drive through the marshland to find the wild cranes and we did just that (5 miles) to spot them.  Mind you I was born a city girl and could admire a beautiful animal (or bird), but after looking at its grey colored body and listening to its unique sound for five minutes, that was enough for me but "no", NOT my husband.  As I see him enjoying nature, I thought to myself "he's a nature person and I'm more a people person" and now in this new stage of life, he IS  right now my only "PEOPLE" person.  Ahh.....the old expression "opposites attract"!   Off to the next preserve to look for elk! We drive around the five mile loop and Perry spots antlers several hundred yards away.  In his excitement he grabs the binoculars and darts to the lookout.  The dogs got excited and Daisy flies out the open window to join him.  All I could think about were her sutures still in her belly from a minor surgery and praying she doesn't tear them open.  Gracie and I soon follow to spot the elks' antlers that could have easily been confused as tree branches.  It didn't take long for us to realize were being eaten alive by mosquitoes.  As we drive off, Perry admitted it wasn't what he thought it would be, but it didn't matter because it's one memory of many to follow.  There are no grocery stores in Santa Nella and we had no food in "Edna" so as we head back to camp, Perry was in search of Mexican food for dinner.  Time to settle in to night two in truck-noisy Santa Nella.

(Sidenote)
Santa Nella is a few miles from Los Banos a small farming town where we had our van stolen in 2000.  We came back from a camping trip in Oregon and at the time our kids were quite young.  Los Banos was a place to" hang our hats" for the night. I had an arm full of children's' items to put back in the van but when I looked for it in the parking lot,  it was .....GONE! Stranded in Los Banos!  Ahhh.....distant memories!

Fast forward sixteen years, who would think I'd be "camping" once again not too far from this not so pleasant memory?  I can't wait to head out in the morning for Chico, California where our youngest attends college.  We cannot wait to see him!