Saturday

We were able to get on the road fairly early. It was 8:15 as I pulled our motorhome out of the driveway to begin our trip to Arizona. Our plan was to make it all the way to Earp, California before we stopped for the night. We had very nice weather as we drove down Highway 85 to 101. I was pleased to see that the traffic over the Pacheco Pass was light. We reached Interstate 5 in a short time and headed south.

I noticed some changes taking place along I-5. There are a lot of new orchards and vineyards taking the place of other farm crops as well as grazing land. We did see some grazing land still being used for sheep. Along one side of the highway, not far from where we would turn off I-5, there was a very large flock of sheep.

I saw something that probably is related to the increase number of orchards and vineyards. In one field was the largest collection of beehives I've ever seen in one place. The field must have been a quarter of a mile long and filled with beehives. As we drove by this field the motorhome passed through a cloud of bees, many of which made their mark on the windshield.

I-5 is in fairly good condition from Highway 152 to our turn off to Highway 46. The drive over to Bakersfield was routine and uneventful. We stopped at the Flying J, just north of Bakersfield, to refuel the motorhome and to have lunch.

An ultralight aircraft flies low over field across the street

While I was putting gas in the motorhome, an ultralight airplane flew by across the street. The plane was just a few feet off the ground. The pilot did this several times while we were in the gas station. I tried to get a picture, but with the plane flying so low, it was often obscured from view by the vehicles in the gas station. I don't know why this plane was flying so close to the ground. I saw another ultralight aircraft in the distance that was flying at a normal altitude.

We returned to the road, drove through Bakersfield and headed for the Mojave Desert area. This took us over the Tehachapi Mountains by the wind-powered generators and down to the town of Mojave. It appears as if there are more new generators along the mountain ridge. As on trips in the past, the image of flowers growing in neat rows on the mountainside came to mind.

Wind powered generators — like flowers growing on the mountain

As I drove down the slope, on the eastern side of the Tehachapi Pass, I noticed a new crash barrier in the center of the highway. The new barrier was notable for its height. It must've been designed to keep an eighteen wheeler from crossing into opposing traffic.

A new, very high crash barrier — notice height next to car

After finding our way through the town of Mojave, we drove by an airfield used for storing unused airliners. The airplanes are stored there because the dry desert air does not promote corrosion. I took a picture as I drove by.

Airliners in desert storage

The traffic was still light compared to trips we've taken this way in bygone years. This may be a result of us traveling during a non-holiday period in the month of January. Whatever the reason, it was very nice to have only a few vehicles on the road. Our next refueling stop would be in Barstow, California.

It was still light when re arrived at Barstow. This seemed a bit unusual to us because when we've come this way in the past, we usually arrive just after sunset. We still had a few hours until sunset on this day.

The highway, in this area, seems to now have better signage. After refueling, we found our way to the I-40 exit without any problem. After a short drive west on I-40 we saw a line of street rods heading east toward Barstow. I figured there must've been some kind of show or event that the cars were coming from or going to.

We paced this train at 70 miles per hour

For a while we paced a freight train that was running the same direction as we were. I had the cruise control set at 70 miles per hour and the train stayed with us. Then it began to pull ahead of us. It must have been doing 80 miles per hour. Before the train was completely past us, it began to slow down to a crawl. We caught up with it as it came to a stop to allow a train from the other direction to pass.

An example of the light traffic we had for the whole trip

Sunset took place somewhere between Barstow and Needles. When we approached Needles, it seemed strange that we would not be stopping there. Our normal travel plans, on past rips, would call for us to stop in Needles, California or Laughlin, Nevada. On this trip we passed our normal turn off and took the Highway 95 South exit.

We planned to stop, in Needles, long enough to have our evening meal. However, I missed the exit where we normally would find a selection of fast-food places. So, I figured we could stop at the next place along the road that offered a place to eat. As luck would have it, there was no next place. By the time we determined that we missed our chance to get a meal, it was too late to go back. So, we continued into the night.

The highway was the usual, old fashioned, two-lane highway. Fortunately it was paved well and was a smooth ride. I had several opportunities to use my passing skills to get around slower moving vehicles before opposing traffic arrived. Traffic was light enough that, many times, I was able to punch a deeper hole into the darkness by using high-beam headlights.

We finally arrived at the Big River RV Park, in Earp, California at 7:40 in the evening, or so we thought. I figured that we would arrive early enough to find the campground office open. As it turned out, because the RV park is on Indian reservation land which is headquartered in Parker, Arizona, the park was on Mountain Standard Time. So, our arrival time was 8:40PM MST. Even though the office was closed, we found a note on the door that had our name on it with the number of our campsite.

As I drove down the campground road toward our campsite, I saw Tom and Nora's motorhome near the end of the road. It turned out that our campsite was across the road from Tom and Nora and right next to Gary and Miriam's RV. Dave and Barb's motorhome was on the other side of Gary and Miriam's site.

The group of snowbirds had gathered in Tom and Nora's motorhome. They saw us when we arrived and they all came out to greet us. The campsites in this campground were very spacious which made it easy to get set up in our site.

It sure was nice to see our friends waiting for us to arrive. We received a warm welcome of hugs and handshakes so familiar to our RV club. After a brief time in the cool night, we all went to Tom and Nora's motorhome to visit and catch up on what has happened to our friends.

I brought the RV club photo album for the snowbirds to see what had happened at recent RV club outings. We talked until most of us were getting droopy eyelids. So, it was time for us to retire for the night. It had been a good day with us accomplishing our goal of making it to this place in one day.

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