Walnut Grove, South of Sacramento, Friday March 15

Walnut Grove, South of Sacramento, Friday March 15

Another warm and perfect morning – which makes it doubly hard to be heading north. I set out at 9am heading west on Highway 198 West to catch I-5 North. Turns out it took me a lot longer than the RV Park guy said, about an hour. At any rate, I had made the decision and kept on even though my GPS kept telling me to pull a U-turn. At least I avoided Fresno and further bumps on Highway 99N.

The western mountains finally became visible through the dust or smog, or combination of particulate matter and I was pleasantly surprised to see how beautiful they looked. They were streaked with brown and cream, and green on the north side. And I-5N was pretty quiet. I settled in driving at 55mph, the maximum for vehicles pulling a trailer and let all the speedy guys whoosh by me at their maximum of 75mph which I highly doubt they paid attention. What it meant for me is that they appeared quickly in little convoys and then disappeared just as quickly. Sometimes it seemed like I had the freeway to myself. The road surface was much better than 99 but about half way along, it started to get rough on the overpasses, and remained that way. I pretty well had to slow down for most of them, or have a real rocking ride if I didn’t. And there were a lot of them.

 One area where the lanes are close together

In the dusty sections there were posted signs in the fields saying “Congress created dust bowl” which I am not quite sure about what that means. In other areas there were canals and viaducts and beautiful green fields and orchards climbing the lower rolling hills.  I saw trees full of white and pink blossoms, and in some places the blossoms were so thick on the ground that it looked like snow. I was wishing I knew which fruit or nut the trees were. It was as though someone knew what I was thinking. Along came a sign for an orchard that said “Oranges”. The next sign down the road said “Mandarins” and I smiled at the third sign, it said “Lemons too”. The final sign said “Enjoy more citrus”.

I stopped for gas, and for a quick snack at McDonalds’, and at a “Vista” to take pictures which is a viewpoint in California where you can pull off. This one was up a hill, and it provided a nice view of the surrounding countryside.

Back on the road, I was nice and relaxed until all of a sudden I was in the midst of six lanes of traffic on the outskirts of Stockton, and it being Friday afternoon, it was pretty busy. Of course there was construction, shoulder construction, and that means no space on the right side because they put concrete barriers along there. It went on for miles. And there were lots and lots of big trucks. At one point, three of them were nose to nose coming up the ramp on the right to merge into my lane. A semi was in front of me so I couldn't speed up, one was right on my tail, and I looked to my left, and there was a big semi sitting right there and not moving. I felt like I was going to get squished big time but at the very last moment, the truck on my left seemed to wake up and pulled over one lane, and I swerved over, my heart beating like mad.

After Stockton I realized how tired I felt, it was almost 2 which meant I had been on the road or dilly dallying around for five hours and that was enough for one day. I checked my GPS for campgrounds avoiding the expensive KOA ones and found one twelve miles west on a river. I imagined fishing boats,  a nice dock to walk on, a lovely peaceful walk along the river and perhaps a bike ride along a quiet country road. It would be worth the drive I was sure. 

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a dumpy mobile home park with a busy road between it and the river, and no shoulders to walk on. And they wanted $30.00 for the site – but it had no picnic table, no fire ring, there were no washrooms, and no laundry. So once again, it was haggle time. I managed to get the fee dropped to $20.00 and that included power, but no water and no sewage. Fine. And tomorrow morning, I will get up early and sneak through Sacramento before anyone is awake. Another 231 miles to the good today.

 Once a dock, but no more, all overgrown down to the river

Hey Big Boy - a spring cleaning this year could sure make a difference!