Rancho Oso, Santa Barbara CA 10/21-10/28

We got to Rancho Oso on October 21. It is about 15 miles from Santa Barbara, which is right on the ocean. It is located at the point where the boarder of California turns. There is a place called the Point of Conception. It has something to do with the weather because the weathermen are always talking about it. I was hoping to walk on the beach at least one more time, but we didn't. I wanted to see if the water was as cold as it was along the Oregon coast. Maybe next time! Rancho Oso was a working ranch back in the mid 1800's. Some of the original buildings are still in the park. The word "Oso" means "bear" in Spanish, but the park doesn't carry that as a theme. It still has a lot of the ranch feel to it.

We had been told about last 5 miles going into the park. The road is very narrow and if you meet another vehicle coming or going, usually one of you has to pull over and stop to let the other one get by. There are three corners where there are mirrors to let you know if there is someone coming. Terry had gout in his foot while we were at Ranch Oso. The day before we were due to leave, he got gout in his knee. He didn't think he would be able to drive the next day and he told me I would have to drive out! It wouldn't have been too bad, but we were on the cliff side of the road going out. I am sure that only through the power of prayer (more Terry's than mine) that his knee was better the next morning!

The ranch boards a lot of horses for people. This is a picture of only a few of them.

They also offer horse rides to members and to the public. The park is so big that they have a lot of nice horse trails.
There are some little cabins they rent out to the public (and to members at a discount). They only have a double bed, a set of bunk beds, and a cupboard with a small refrigerator in them. They each have a barbecue outside and they share nice restrooms and showers. They were full on the weekends. Lots of people come and bring their horses or ride the horses they board at the park.

There are also these cool covered wagons. The only thing in them are six army-type cots. There are two sets of five wagons circled around a common fire pit. I think it would be a fun experience to stay in them. There is a Chuck Wagon nearby that offers breakfast and lunch to anyone staying in the Park. The covered wagons were pretty busy during the weekend, also.

The RV sites at Rancho Oso are on seven levels, with 12-15 sites on a level. It was a little different, but it worked well. There are also a lot of rental trailers and cabins.

We got a really nice spot on the bottom level, with a tree in our front yard. We were close to the activity centers, pools, miniature golf, horseshoes, tennis court, and all of the other activities. It was really good because we were close to the adult lodge where there was Internet service. My Internet card didn't work so I had to go back and forth to the lodge to download and send my transcription to our son, Travis. We couldn't get cell service, either. There was a point about a mile up the mountain that they called Verizon Point. That was the closest place we could get cell service on our phone. So, we would either walk or drive up there to make phone calls.

There were deer that came into camp each morning and evening. They were really small deer. This doe and her yearling fawns were always there. It was fun to watch the fawns play in the meadow. They would never get too close.

Most of the Thousand Trail parks have a "country store." They usually carry many of the basics that RVers need, and souvenirs of the park. I should start a collection of t-shirts from all of our parks. Maybe that will be a project for next year.

One day we decided to go swimming. I took the camera and told Terry that there would be no pictures of us in our swimming suits. Well, Terry got in the pool before I got a chance to take a picture. Soooo, here is Terry in the pool. I wonder if there is some way I can put a password on the camera so if he ever gets ahold of it he won't be able to make it work!

Rancho Oso has two really nice pools and a big hottub. We used them several times. The big pool was not heated so we didn't ever get in it. But, the other heated pool and the hot tub were really nice.

This is one of the original ranch buildings. They now call it the Stone Lodge. They hold a lot of activities in it and this is where they have all of the meals they serve. We played ping-pong one day and played candy bar bingo. Neither of us won at bingo, but they felt sorry for us and gave us both a candy bar anyway! We had dinner there one night, with our neighbors, and had a really good tri-tip steak meal.

Most of the parks have a church service on Sunday. Usually they are held in an activity center. Rancho Oso has a seperate little church building. We don't go to the park service very often. We usually go to the LDS Church in the area.

That is what we did the Sunday we were at Rancho Oso. We went to Church in Santa Barbara. As we headed down the mountain, we thought we were above the clouds, but it turned out to be fog and we drove right down into it. We couldn't see very far in front of our car. Thank goodness we had out GPS to find the Church. This is what it looked like at 8:00 am. On our way home at 12:30 pm, we could see part of the city at this same spot, but we still couldn't see the ocean.

One day we went on a wagon ride pulled by a pickup truck (I was expecting horses). They took us all around the park and told us the history of Rancho Oso. It was really interesting.

We ended up at their livestock barn where they had chickens, pigs, goats, horses, and cattle.

We saw the biggest pig we have ever seen. They said he weighed over 1,000 pounds. There were actually two of them. Their names were Teeny and Tiny. They had been raised at the park and really enjoyed being petted.

They also had a "tame" wild pig. Even though it had also been raised at the park, they suggested that no one pet it but the employees!

There were a couple of goats in with the pigs. From the time this one was little, it loved to play and "butt." The gal just pushed against the goat's head and she would rear up and want to play.

When we came into the park, they told us that the tarantulas were on the move. Sure enough, the night before we left, this critter came crawling up the little hill towards our front door. I tried to get Terry to pick it up and hold it so you could see how big it was, but he wouldn't. It was almost as big as our hand. I would have held it, but I had to take the pictures!

We had met Dale and Don at San Bonita and had played cards with them. They ended up following us to Rancho Oso. When they got there, there was an empty spot right next to us so they parked there. We really enjoyed getting to know them better, playing cards, visiting, and sharing some meals. Hopefully, we will run into them again sometime during our travels.

San Benito, Hollister CA 10/14-10/21

It took us about five hours to get to our next campground, San Benito. We have decided that California does not have the best roads we have seen! Besides that, autos pulling trailers and trucks can only go 55mph on good roads where other vehicles can go 70. Although this helps us get better fuel mileage, we sure don't get there in the amount of time that Map Quest says we will! Each of the parks we have been to have all had their own personalities. San Benito was no exception. Of course, all of the parks are getting their Halloween decorations up and most of them have quite a celebration on Halloween. The ones in the woods all have really good places for haunted wagon rides and lots of places for scary goblins to jump out at you!

We got a really nice spot, with some big trees around us. We were just thankful we didn't choose an acorn tree to park under because they had acorns falling from them constantly. The weather was really nice so we enjoyed having the shade most of the time.

We hadn't been parked long when we heard tapping on our window. There were three or four woodpeckers whose home was in the tree next to us. For some reason, they would land on the rubber around our windows and peck on the window. We thought maybe they were pecking at the woodpecker they saw in the window. After a while, they became quite annoying and we would chase them off. But, soon they would be back. They must have gone visiting relatives for several days because we didn't see them. But, they were back before we left, probably to tell us good-bye.

We learned that these woodpeckers were called Acorn Woodpeckers. They would find holes, or drill holes into the trees, put acorns in them, wait for the acorns and the wood around them to rot, and then eat the bugs that came to eat the rotted acorns! These were the flagpoles by the Ranger Station. They were almost solid acorns. I guess they really get to be a nuisance because they can cause the trees to die. We saw a lot of dead trees in the park.

This park covers over 300 acres and is very flat, once you get to it. (You have to climb a steep hill and then go down a steep hill as you come into the park.) So, it was a really good place to ride our bike. The only thing is, I get pretty tired of people telling Terry that I am not pedaling. (I try to keep it a secret from him.)

All of the Thousand Trails Parks we have been in have all had 5mph speed limits in the park. San Benito had some really cute signs all over to remind you. We don't have a problem going that slow. If Terry puts the hippo (our Dodge dually) in second gear and doesn't push on the gas, it goes exactly 5mph.

This park has a beautiful family swimming pool. They also have an "adult only" pool on the other side of the park. They had just closed down this pool for the season, but the adult pool was still open. It still wasn't quite warm enough for us to venture into the pool.

The park has beautiful, big, strange trees. I don't know what kind they all were, but I know that a lot of them had acorns on them, so I guess that makes them oak trees. Some would fall over like they had died and then new ones would grow from the dead tree. (Maybe part of this is from the woodpeckers.)

None of the trees grew straight up, and they were really big. There was one that was just a huge stump of a tree, about fifteen feet tall, and all hollowed out. It was about five feet in diameter and about a third of the trunk was open. There was another tree growing inside of the trunk. I didn't have the camera with me when we saw it.

When we first got to the park, we noticed that the grass around the clubhouse was all dug up. We thought that was a crazy way to put in a sprinkler system. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Well, come to find out, critters were coming into the park at night and doing all of the damage!

And this is one of the critters! Yes, they have javelina pigs all over the area. It is so dry right now that the pigs go to the wet grass and root it all up looking for grubs. It is against the law to shoot them, so they just put up with them and keep repairing the lawn. I guess it happens every year. This pig looks a little funny because it is one that is mounted on the clubhouse wall and they had him all decorated for Halloween! I was pretty glad we didn't run into a real one to take a picture of. They pretty much only came out at night and you could hear them squealing once in a while.

There were also dear in the camp, and bobcats and mountain lions. We did see a bobcat one day that was perched on top of a horseshoe pit mound. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me that day, either. They told us as we came into the camp to take your camera with you wherever you went. I guess it was good advise.

Lake Minden/Yuba City CA 10/7-10/14

Terry has a sister who lives in Yuba City, CA. We have two Thousand Trail Parks within about 20 miles from there, so we chose to stay at Lake Minden this time.
It was a nice park, but separated by a lake. The older, smaller sites and the clubhouse and store are on one side and the sites with more room, ball fields, and pavilion are on the other side of the lake. But, it made a really nice walk or ride on our bike because it was about a mile and a quarter around the lake.There were paddle boats, fishing boats, kayaks, and row boats to rent. The lake is a private lake so the park charges a $5/day fee to fish in it. We heard there were lots of fish--catfish, bass, and crappie, but we never tried our luck

Most of the Thousand Trail parks have little cabins that members and their guests can rent. This one is right on the lake. What a nice view it has!

This picture is looking across the lake as we are driving around to get to our campsite. The weather was nice part of the time, but there were times that there were whitecaps out on the lake.
You can see out 5th wheel in this picture. It is the one with the "Montana" under the window, just on the other side of the white car and white pickup. Most of the time we were there, we had no one on either side of us. But, on Fridays and Saturdays, the parks tend to fill up for the weekend.

This is Terry's Sister, Barbara, and her husband, Wayne. She is Terry's oldest sister and is 19 years older than he is. Their five kids and their families all live in the Yuba City area. They had a get-together while we were there, at their daughter, Judy's, home. All of their kids (Terry's five nieces and nephews who are more the ages of cousins) were there, and most of their kids.

This is John, their oldest, who is two months older than Terry. He has an appartment at his mom and dad's home and is so much help to them.

This is Gary, their second son. We went to their home and Terry hung out with him for a day. They were going to go golfing, but the wind was blowing too hard. They have a new 5th Wheel and told us they would try to meet up with us sometime this winter. That would be fun! We actually went with Barb and Wayne to Gary's almond orchard and stole some almonds!

This is Randy. He is Barbara's third son. We hadn't seen him for a long time, so we were really glad he made it to the get-together.

Debbie is the oldest daughter. She is really good about going to her mom's home almost each morning to help her with things. Judy is the youngest in the family. We had the get-together at her house. They also have a fairly new RV (a toy-hauler) and go to southern California in the the winter sometimes. It would also be fun to meet up with them later on.

This is Debbie's daughter Tina. I had to put her picture on the BLOG for my kids. She and Judy's daughter, Amy, came to Emmett years ago and stayed with our family for a couple of days. This is Amy. Our kids remember getting acquainted with them when we went to Yuba City and parked our trailer in their back yard and swam for several days in their pool. Then later that summer, Tina and Amy got to come to Emmett. I thought our kids would have fun seeing them again. They said to tell all of you kids, "Hi."
Wayne was so good to us and got us some walnuts. They have tons of orchards and lots of other agriculture in the Yuba City area. They grow a lot of nuts, rice, olives, peaches, and plums, plus lots of other things. We cracked all of Gary's almonds with a hammer, but decided we needed something better for the walnuts. We went all over town looking for a good nut cracker and finally found one. It was just like one we had used at my brother's house to crack walnuts. Boy, did it ever do a good job. We cracked some of the nuts at Lake Minden and will hopefully get the rest done next week at San Benito.

We told Barb and Wayne goodbye and promised we would try to make this a yearly trip on our way down south. We sure had a good time seeing them and their family again.