Zipping Through California Oct. 25-30

Hi Everyone...I took this photo today with that neat feature of the iPhone...self photography! Fun to feel like I'm looking at you while I write.

Well, I'm a week late in posts so I'll go back to last Tuesday:

 October 25th...Paul's Birthday and we were on our way down the state from Redding to Sacramento. Leaving much earlier than we usually do, we got to Paul's cousin Lois's house by noon.

 Lois and Owen have a property right along the Sacramento River and, lucky for us...a large yard to pull into for the next 2 nights. After visiting over lunch Lois suggested we ride our bikes along the levee bike path into Old Sacramento.  What a perfect afternoon; hot, clear skies and the river right along our way. Had birthday chocolates and coffee before heading back to the house.















Later that afternoon we found a new car dolly WITH BRAKES in the nearby town of Lincoln, thanks to Craig's List, so Paul's birthday evening was spent getting the dolly and towing it back, including time for a nice dinner at Cattleman's Restaurant to celebrate. His birthday present this year was to find an 88 key portable piano that would fit in the motor home...and he did!  Here he is playing it for his sister. I know...can't believe we can get one more thing in this motorhome, but we do!  The piano goes into a cloth carrying case and fits perfectly behind the sofa! Now I get my evening concerts once again like old times.

It has a really great sound, not so electronic sounding and with a full keyboard he's having fun playing again.

Wednesday turned out to be a "fiddle with the motorhome day" so I got a haircut, did some grocery shopping and then sorted through some of our cupboards that needed it. We loaded everything up on Thursday morning and finally got away and on the road mid afternoon saying grateful good byes to Owen and Lois.

We did a short 65 mile drive to Lodi, stopping along the way to drop our old yellow dolly at a consignment trailer place in Lockeford. Then arriving at the Lodi Elk's Lodge in the darling town of Woodbridge we made plans to meet MarLyn, Paul's sister, for a visit and a birthday celebration dinner.  The park was in a wonderful setting right next to a beautiful golf course and the Lodge treated us to a 2nd drink as a welcome. This is a park we could have stayed at for a week...so relaxing and beautiful... if we hadn't had plans to get moving on.  Dinner was delicious at the Woodbridge Inn right across the street.

I hadn't seen MarLyn since she'd had those rough back surgeries in March and it was fantastic to see her doing so well! It was so nice to have the evening to visit before she left for her drive back to Copperopolis. It also happened to be the 6th game of the World Series that night...that game that never seemed to end, so we listened to it on the radio before going to bed that night.  What an exciting game!!!

Friday morning Paul noticed a leak as he moved the motor home so out came the tools to do a fix it on the transmission hose that had gotten brittle and was leaking. How lucky that PK is such a mechanic! It took about an hour to get it tight and working...YIPPEE and we decided we really wanted to bike around Lodi Lake where Paul had been a life guard all the summers of his college years.

We still had a lot of miles to drive that day and made it from Lodi to Bakersfield, one long, very hard drive. But since there's really no reason to get to Bakersfield early, getting there at 5:30 was fine. A very lonely looking Elk's Lodge, but friendly people and a place to watch the 7th game of the World Series. Perfect! We were back on the road by 8:30 the next morning making another long drive from Bakersfield to Las Vegas. 5 hours later with the climb over Tehachapi Pass and the long climb north of Baker done, we were so happy to reach Vegas...and the Motorhome did so well! I think we were both much more relaxed and confident having the new car dolly for the car, Paul says the brakes really do make a difference.

The weather was warm and lovely for Vegas, again another Elk's Lodge was our home in North Las Vegas. We wanted to take advantage of being in that busy city, so I called and got us tickets for

playing at Mandalay Bay...such a wonderful evening!!!! The costumes and music were fantastic, what a treat to see!

Sunday we made plans to connect with Norma, a dear friend of Mark and Peggy's who we've come to know well also.  So, another fun night in Vegas..this time the 3 of us took in the show Tony and Tina's Wedding.  It's an interactive dinner show, a little crazy, very funny and one I'd wanted to see for a long time. We, the audience, actually attend the wedding of Tony and Tina and also the reception where dinner and wedding cake are served and we danced with the members of the wedding party. While it was not quite the caliber of the performance night before, it was lots of laughs and great to see Norma again.

So, now we had the biggest driving part of our trip behind us and we set out Monday morning for new adventures in Zion National Park. After Las Vegas we were so excited to be heading to a National Park and some natural beauty!

Here's my favorite sign for the week:

so why can't they just call them speed bumps like everyone else does???? Undulations...really?