Settling in for the Month in SoCal

The view from behind the rig.

You can almost see that pot of gold and you can see the s__w in the mountains.

Rose Parade banner along Colorado Boulevard.

We have moved to SoCal and are staying at the Valencia Travel Village in Castaic and will remain here until after the first of the year. We are looking forward to going to the Rose Parade and to several related activities with a group of Escapees. Richard and Valerie Frayer, fellow fulltimers whom we have hooked up with several times, are also coming in early and we will be exploring the LA area and celebrating Christmas together. The drive here on I-5 was along the edge of the central valley farmland where there were almost no towns and only a few gas stations. Although there was a lot of traffic, it rolled right along. At the south end of the valley the road climbs to 4144 feet going over "The Grapevine" and it felt like a scene from the song Hot Rod Lincoln as the Dutch Star was passing 18 wheelers like they were standing still. Of course what goes up must come down and those big rigs were passing us as we crept down the other side.

The reason we came here early was to get the rig repaired at Final Touch Coachworks which is only a couple of miles from the park. An update on the work will be in the next blog. We have not done much sightseeing as we have been running around and doing some last minute Christmas things. We did drive to Pasadena to scope out the parade route and drove through downtown LA to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier. We didn't stop because it was getting late and due to the cooler weather we couldn't do much people watching (i.e. girls in bikinis) so we plan to return when the weather warms. The motorhome is decorated and the gifts and cards have been sent so we are looking forward to a relaxing holiday season. There has been a little bit of every kind of weather. The first few days it was sunny and warm and then a series of Pacific storms started moving through so there has been a mix of rain and sun here with s__w on the surrounding mountains. We have seen quite a few rainbows and are sure we came very close to that pot of gold.