Day One

And we're off.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay area, as we do, and you depart on some out-of-state trip, there are only three ways to proceed:
1) Head North on I-5 to Oregon and beyond,
2) Head East on I-80 to Reno and beyond to such places as Colorado,
and 3) Head South on I-5 to Bakersfield and then East on Hwy 58 thru Tehachapi, Mojave, and Barstow and on into Arizona.

All of our bigger trips start with one of these paths. None of these travel days seem particularly noteworthy, and I have glossed over these legs of our trips previously, anticipating the really good stuff to follow. But maybe that's just me taking my home state for granted a little bit. Well, I thought I'd pay a little more attention to these first couple of "exit" days.

So, from our home in San Jose, we make our way over to Los Banos where we pick up I-5 South.
I-5 is the major Interstate Hwy that completely bisects California from North to South. As a result, it is packed with lots of semi-rigs transporting all sorts of goods. It is often congested and wrestling your truck and and your trailer amongst the big rigs can be very unsettling. But it is the quickest and most direct way to exit the State.

As we drove the long miles, Susan tuned into the news and we heard the launch of the Artemus II. It's pretty exciting to hear that we're sending men in space to orbit the moon after 50 years! I understand that the Artemus II rocket is the most powerful rocket ever launched in history.

Still, you always breathe a sigh of relief when you exit I-5. In our case, we followed I-5 to Buttonwillow and then took the Lerdo Hwy East towards Bakersfield.

We departed with a full tank of gas, which is 30 gallons. Pulling a good-sized trailer really impacts your fuel efficiency and we typically get 10-11 MPG. So, we're good for about 300 miles on a tank, and then we need to refill. My truck specifies that Regular Unleaded is ok, but when towing a trailer I should use Premium Unleaded. I filled up before departing San Jose and paid $5.59 per gallon for Premium. We made it to Bakersfield without refueling.

Our first night was at the Riverlakes Golf Course in Bakersfield, which is a participant in Harvest Hosts. We've stayed here before and always enjoy the serenity and beauty, especially after the last of the golfers depart, leaving just us Harvest Host campers. You can see Allan & Patricia's Airstream parked ahead of our rig, along with 4 other rigs enjoying the Golf Course's hospitality.

It turns out that today is Allan's birthday! Hobbs broke open his piggy bank and bought Allan a birthday gift!

Tomorrow we press on to Arizona!