Hiking Mount Rubidoux, Riverside, CA

Today was another travel day.  After moving to three different sites at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside, our two weeks in the Cottonwood campground were up and it was time to move on.  We headed back to Bakersfield as planned.  We’ll here for eight nights, then move on to Pismo Coast Village for a couple of months.

We are staying at Bakersfield RV Resort on Wible Road again.  I know that many other RVers stay at Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, but we like this resort and its location. 

While we were in Riverside, we bought a bag of oranges at a stand near an orange grove.  The oranges are delicious, and while we didn’t pick them ourselves and they weren’t free, we only paid $5 for the ten-pound bag.

Dave and I both liked visiting Riverside and we both liked the RV park, so I think we’ll come back another winter for a week or two.  Near the park was Mount Rubidoux and on the north side of the mountain there is a bike path that follows the Santa Ana River. 

View of downtown Riverside from the path up Mount Rubidoux.

This bike path will eventually go all the way from Huntington Beach to the San Bernardino National Forest.  We only rode our bicycles on a small portion of the path.  We were impressed because we’ve been on “bike paths” that stop at every intersection and stop light.  Once we were on the Santa Ana path, we didn’t need to stop at all.  All the roads and freeways were overpasses above the paved bike path.  This was pure joy for even amateur bikers like Dave and me! 

Since I can’t take pictures while I am zipping along on my bike, I’ll share some pictures of the hike we made up Mount Rubidoux.  The hike offers the choice of a longer, steadier climb or a shorter but steeper trip.  The trail itself is an old road that has been locked and gated and made accessible only to pedestrians and bicyclists.  Hikers can enjoy a quick and steep 1.25-mile outing to the summit or follow the more gradual 2.25-mile ascent to the top.

The paved path up the mountain.

Along the path we saw this castle-like building which was a tribute to dogs and peace.  I didn’t quite get that connection.

Easter sunrises services are held at the cross at the top of Mount Rubidoux.  This area is owned by a private conservancy, so there’s no problem with the cross remaining at the top of Mount Rubidoux!

View from the cross back down the mountain.

What a great hike! We did it twice, but the first time we didn’t know where the road was, so we hiked up a dirt trail along the side of the mountain  We didn’t make it to the summit that day!

Temecula and Lake Perris State Park

On Thursday, December 26, Dave and I made the 41-mile drive to Temecula.  Twenty or more years ago, we had passed through Temecula on our way from Riverside to San Diego, but neither of us ever remembered stopping there.  Maybe Temecula’s “Old Town” is new, but we don’t remember seeing any signs about it.

Anyway, now we have been there.  The shops in Old Town are cute, but even after-Christmas sales didn’t entice us.  We walked around for about an hour, then had lunch in the outdoor patio of Front Street Bar and Grill.  Dave found an old favorite on the menu, a Monte Cristo sandwich, and I ordered a cup of tomato basil bisque and 1/2 croissant turkey sandwich.  The atmosphere was great, the food was great, and the company (Dave) was great.  We both enjoyed Temecula’s sunshine.

The rest room at Front Street Bar and Grill had an interesting item which I rarely see in restaurants:

The fairly new city hall was magnificent and temporarily, there was an ice skating rink set up in front.

Before we left Temecula, we drove to Pechanga Resort and Casino to check out the RV park.  I forgot to take any pictures, but the sites were very nice with lots of room for big rigs, paved sites, full hookups, shade, and yet not so much shade that our satellite wouldn’t work.  They even accept Passport America, but only for one day.

Before we headed back to Riverside, we made a stop at Lake Perris State Park.  With Dave’s off-season California state park pass which we purchased in January while at Pismo Beach, we were able to enter the park free.  We looked at the camping area where we had stayed once in 1990 after we purchased our first motorhome.  The spaces were okay, but short, and the park only has partial hookups.  From the park brochure, I wasn’t able to determine the price of a campsite.

We parked by the lake and took some photos.  I used to make day trips here when Tim was small.  It was much closer than the ocean and was a nice beach and body of water for him to splash around in. I don’t remember ever going there after Jonathan came along!

Today we are changing sites again.  This park is getting full!  We aren’t moving far, just from site 244 to 255, but we figured it was worth it to move in order to stay two more days.  Then we will have reached our fourteen-day limit and we’ll head to Bakersfield again.

Major Computer Problems

Riverside’s Mission Inn presents a “Festival of Lights” each December.  We attended on Wednesday night.   The lights were spectacular and while many people were there, the crowds weren’t too bad.  Dave’s “parking angel” helped us to find a great parking spot very close to the festivities.

BUT, all of my pictures were lost when my laptop’s hard drive crashed on Friday afternoon, just after I had published my previous blog.  We had no way to replace the hard drive and reload my computer, so Dave and I headed to Best Buy to buy me a new laptop. 

All the new laptops come with Windows 8 and touch screens.  Dave had recently gone through the learning curve with Windows 8 on his new laptop, so I figured that he could help me with the adjustment from Windows 7 to Windows 8.

I decided to buy a HP Pavilion x2, which is a small laptop which also serves as a tablet because the screen can be separated from the keyboard.  Pretty nifty!

LUCKILY, we travel with a BounceBack back-up device, so my in-house computer expert, Dave, was able to get my new computer loaded with all of my saved files, bookmarks, etc.  I lost everything which had not been backed up, which was everything since we headed south on 12-11-13.

To complicate matters, the RV park’s internet connection, Tengo, got hit by lightning during a thunderstorm on Thursday.  It was finally repaired this afternoon, Monday.  We can use our Verizon MIFI connection, and LUCKILY, we upped our gigabytes to 10gb, so we’ve been connecting using that.  The content of almost all of my programs needed to be loaded via the internet.

We used the WIFI at the public library on Saturday for a couple of hours, and at another library this afternoon, so between that and the Verizon MIFI, Dave has pretty much gotten my computer running again.  Now I just have to learn all the changes that came along with Windows 8.  Almost all of the programs that I use, like Windows Live Writer, Adobe Digital Editions, etc. have been “improved” which pretty much means that I have to learn the programs all over again.

Last night we took a break from all the computer problems and met up with friends who live in Riverside, Roger and Peggy Luebs.  When we lived in Riverside we went to church with them and became friends and had children of similar ages. We met up with them at Romano’s, an Italian restaurant.  We had a great time catching up with each other’s lives!

Roger and Peggy

On the way back to the motorhome after dinner, we stopped at the Mission Inn’s Festival of Lights again so that I could take a few replacement pictures for the pictures that were wiped out when my hard drive crashed. This time, the crowds were horrendous, but I managed to get a few pictures and then we got out of there as fast as we could.

A

So, now I’ll attempt to publish this post and hopefully it will work!

If it's Friday, This Must Be Riverside, CA

Dave and I are having a bit of trouble remembering what day it is.  We can look at our computers and see the date, but knowing the day of the week is another matter.  Somehow, though, Dave always knows when Sunday rolls around, because he never misses watching the NFL Sunday Red Zone Channel.

We are staying at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Rubidoux, just north of Riverside.  This is a wonderful county park.  The Cottonwood section, where we're staying has been newly created with full-hookups, free wifi and cable, and spacious sites, most of which are surrounded by grass.  Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring.  The bathrooms are clean and modern.  Best of all, this is a Passport America park!  Like most PA parks, there are restrictions on weekend, holiday, and summer stays.

Site 235 in Cottonwood area, Rancho Jurupa Park, Riverside, CA

There's another campground next to Cottonwood, Lakeview, which is closer to the two large fishing ponds.  That's where we stayed the first (and only) time we were here in the past in early July, 1990.  It was the first overnight stay that we made after purchasing our very first RV, a Fleetwood Class C Jamboree. 

If you are ever need a place to camp, I highly recommend Rancho Jurupa Regional Park.  They even have cabins that can be rented.  The day use part of the park has a disc golf course, a very nice mini-golf course, a play area and water play area for children, and a camp store.  Click here for more information about the park.

Nearby Mount Rubidoux can be climbed, but cars are no longer allowed to drive along the top.  When we lived in Riverside, the 4th of July fireworks were always launched from the top of this mountain.  Inevitably, the mountain would catch on fire during this process.

On Monday, December 16,  we drove from Bakersfield to Riverside.  We took 99 South to I-5 south over the Grapevine, then 210 East, I-15 South, and finally SR60 East to Rubidoux Blvd and the park.  The traffic wasn't too bad, but some of the highways were in bad shape.  Shake, rattle, and roll.  When we go back to Bakersfield before going on to Pismo Beach, we'll take the back route-I-215 to I-15 to hwy 395 to hwy 58.  It's a little further, but should have less traffic.

Approaching the Grapevine from Bakersfield it was hazy. 

San Gabriel Mountains in the background. 

At Sylmar, civilization and the beginning of mazes of over and underpasses.

  At Valencia, even more "civilization"?

More of the San Gabriel Mountains from the 210 highway

Almost there!

The temperature in Riverside was a balmy 83 degrees when we arrived on Monday.  Yesterday there was a thunderstorm, rain, and colder temperatures.  The temperatures the next few days should be in the upper 60s and lower 70s, with no more rain predicted.  The lows will be in the mid-40s.  We will enjoy the sunshine!

A Day of Rest in Bakersfield, CA

On Friday we left the Rolling Hills Casino RV Park in Corning, CA and headed south on I-5 to Kit Fox RV Park in Patterson.  It's a Passport America park, but unfortunately we were there on Friday night, and the half-price discount is only good on Sunday-Thursday nights.  We'll have to time it better next year!  It's  not a great park at almost $40 per night, but reasonable at the 1/2 price of $20.  The sites are full-hookup, level pull-thrus.  The distance from Corning to Bakersfield is about 400 miles, and Patterson is half way, so we decided to break up the trip.

On Saturday we arrived at Bakersfield RV Resort.  It's the usual place that we stay when we are in Bakersfield.  It's close to Costco, Walmart, and Camping World.  What more do we need?   We decided to "rest" on Sunday because we were tired of driving every day, and besides, Dave likes to watch football on Sundays. 

This is a very nice RV park, and is a resort in every sense of the word.  They keep the outdoor pool heated, so I went for a swim this afternoon, but my favorite was sitting in the hot tub.  I had both the pool and the hot tub all to myself.  The high temperature today was only 63 degrees, but it felt warmer than that in the sun.  Last night's low was 33 degrees, so that's quite a difference between the high and low temperatures.

This evening we went to see the Christmas light display at Bakersfield's CALM (California Living Museum).  They have a couple million lights and it was worth the 17 mile drive that that we made each way to get there.

The air was hazy, but  the moon still shone through the trees.

Tomorrow we'll get gas at Costco and then head further south as we cross over the  "Grapevine"  on I-5 and in a few hours reach our initial destination of Riverside, CA.  In 1993, we moved from Riverside to Camas/Vancouver, WA, so it will be fun to explore all of our old haunts. 

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday Dave and I headed south for the winter!  We left about a week too late to avoid the cold and snowy weather in the Pacific Northwest.  See Dave's blog to read about the problems that the freezing weather caused with our residential refrigerator. 

The Corvallis and Eugene areas got more snow than we did in Vancouver, WA. 

We headed for Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville, OR for our first night's stop.  This is one of favorite RV parks and was a good distance for us since we got a late start due to the problems with our refrigerator.  We left the car hooked up and took the shuttle to the casino and ate the rib eye special at one of the restaurants.  I like to go out for dinner on travel days!

Some of the empty sites at Seven Feathers.

This morning we left Seven Feathers at 9 am and had clear roads across the Siskiyou Mountains.  The scenery along I-5 was pretty!

Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to Oregon and hello to California.

The agricultural inspection station waved us through.  Good thing, since we had quite a bit of fruit with us.

Soon we could see our first glimpse of Mount Shasta.  This picture was taken through the motorhome's window while we were having lunch at the southbound Weed rest area. 

More pictures of Mount Shasta.

Tonight we are spending the night at Rolling Hills Casino RV Park in Corning, CA.  The temperature was in the sixties when we arrived at 3 pm.  Yes!!  We'll head on over to the dinner buffet and take advantage of the 1/2 price senior prices (ages 50+) that are offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We're eating well on our travels!

End of Long Thanksgiving Weekend

We started our Thanksgiving celebration a week ago Sunday when we drove out to our new-to-us cabin park model.  The motorhome was there already--ready and waiting for us as we arrived by car.  We did some more cabin things--Dave assembled the electric fireplace, we bought a TV, we hung a curtain over the sliding glass door, and waited for the refrigerator to be delivered on Wednesday.

Cabin living room

Cabin kitchen with new refrigerator on the left

The refrigerator arrived on Wednesday morning, and the two delivery guys from Sears had a heck of a time getting it into the its space.  We chose the largest refrigerator that would fit, and yes, we measured correctly, so it finally did fit!

Cabin bathroom is located between the kitchen and bedroom

Cabin bedroom

After the refrigerator was in, we winterized the cabin and said good-bye to our lot until spring.  We headed north on Highway 101 because Dave had a date with the Tacoma Dome.  We stayed for one night at a Passport America park in Elma, WA and paid $16.50 for a full-hookup site.  Then on Thanksgiving morning, we drove on to the Tacoma Dome.

Dave had made reservations at the Tacoma Dome RV Park, but when we arrived at noon, the park was locked up tight and no RVs were there.  Dave found the 24-hour security office but they said that we couldn't get into the lot until Friday.  That wouldn't work for us, so luckily I knew that the Puyallup Fairgrounds had an RV Park, so we headed out there. 

The fairgrounds RV Park was open and welcoming.  We paid $30 for a full-hookup site.  There are no amenities such as bathrooms or showers there, and no wifi, but we are self-contained, so that wasn't a problem.  We had a good cell signal, so we connected to the internet by using our smartphones' mifi. 

On Friday, Dave drove back to the Tacoma Dome, where the state semi-final football games were being held.  The game he was evaluating (the officials, not the players!) was at 7:30 pm, but he went early to watch the other games.  On Saturday, the game he evaluated was at 4pm, but he went early and stayed after to watch the team that our son, Jonathan, played for--Camas High School, win their first-ever semi-final game.  Next Saturday Camas will play a team from Pasco in the 4-A division final.

This morning, we said goodbye to the state fairgrounds and headed north to an RV park in Bothell.  We met up with our younger son, Jonathan and his girlfriend, Brittany at Jonathan's new house in Marysville.  They took us out for a late lunch at Olive Garden, and now we are back in Bothell at the RV park.  We head home tomorrow morning, just in time for cold temperatures and a chance of "frozen mix". 

Next weekend, we'll celebrate an early Christmas with our elder son, Tim, his wife, Kiersten, and our two granddaughters, Sophie and Anya.  Then in a little over a week, we head south for the winter!