Clear Lake to Patterson to Mojave

Odometer  63283 start

Odometer  63479 end

Miles this trip. 196 miles

Sunday November 18, 2018

I was stymied yesterday attempting to take California route 175 from Hopland over to Clear Lake.  First there were signs warning vehicles longer that 39 feet were not "recommended" on this route.  Our motorhome is only 36 feet, but we were towing a car behind that made us abut 16 feet longer, and nobody was explaining whether the articulation between bus and car made any difference.  We decided that it did, (in our favor) and resolved to go that route anyway. 

Our failed route on 175 stymied by road closure- back track to route 20

 But then, after driving several miles east to Sho-Ka-Wah Casino we encountered a flashing reader board that said "Road Closed 11-13 WY". What??  Does anyone know what that means?  This is a narrow twisty two lane road and we were going to have a terrible time finding anywhere to turn back if the road were actually closed ahead.  So I turned around at the casino and headed back to 101 and north back to Cal 20.  

I turns out that going back to Hopland and up through Ukiah and over to the town of Nice on Clear Lake is only a few minutes longer than taking hwy 175 anyway!

So- today I decided that I'd get my back roads a different way.

Today's route to I-5 and on to Patterson, CA

Instead of going over to I-5 on California Route 20, I talked Joan into going south on Cal 16 through Cache Creek Canyon where we would see the small towns of Rumsey, Guinda, Brooks and Esparto.  The combination of this beautiful drive and the chance to miss driving down I-5 was a clear winner!

Lunch stop at Yolo County regional part at Cache Creek

For some reason, the smoke in the atmosphere does not show up in the photo above, but we were struggling with a thick blanket of smoke from the Camp fire, and the Woolsey- Paradise fires.

Many of the roads we travel are not smooth blacktop, and today is no exception.  I am continually amazed at the pounding that this motorhome takes as we roll down the road.  Someone once explained it as having a home on wheels that goes through an non-stop earthquake as it goes down the road.  Kudos to the engineers and the testers at Freightliner and Winnebago.  That's part of the price for taking the roads less traveled, slower, twistyer, rougher, BUT more scenic and slower pace.  I like it!

Tucked in at Patterson, CA- It's smokier that it looks-really!

At about 3:30 in the afternoon we arrived at our destination for today- Kit Fox RV Park in Patterson, CA.  We got set up and had time for a short walk around the RV park and the adjacent strip mall before darkness descended.  My sister Phebe encouraged us to use her wifi to download several Prime movies while we were visiting and tonight we enjoyed watching the movie RIDE with Helen Hunt and an episode of Amazon's Grand Tour before turning in.



Monday
 11/19/2018
Starting mileage 63479
Ending mileage  63746
Mileage this trip 267

Patterson to Mojave, California

Today is going to be a slog down the freeway.

Today's route down 1-5

Our goal is to:
A.  Avoid big cities
B.  Get to clean air
C.  Get to Mojave for the night

We are very tired of the smoky air, and elect to get to some clear air before we stop for the night.  I don't like freeway driving, and I  have a secret weapon for this eventuality-

I let Joan do the driving and I sat and read the news!  She is a very good driver, so I can totally relax, and I've even been known to doze off while she is in the captain's chair.  I'm not always successful at getting her to drive, because she does not enjoy driving the bus. I feel that it's good to keep her skills sharp just in case.

I read out loud and we discussed the news- It made the time pass a lot more quickly

Parked near a truck stop for a quick lunch

 By noon we were on I-5 at Lost Hills, which is north and west of Bakersfield, so we pulled off the freeway for some lunch.  At first we weren't sure whether we'd buy lunch or make our own- but a quick survey on foot, had us convinced to make sandwiches and heat up some soup at home.
There were plenty of fast food places here- but we were not tempted by what we saw- so back to the bus

Traffic nearly stopped on I-5

After our lunch and back on the road, we hadn't gotten very far down the freeway when the traffic began to slow to a crawl.  Both our south-bound lanes were moving at the same 2-3 miles per hour leading me to believe that the wreck was in the northbound lane and we were in the lookie-loo lanes.

This went on for miles...

Over turned semi truck 

Sure enough, we finally came to the source of the slowdown- and it was an over turned semi- truck on the other side of the freeway, completely blocking both lanes!  

Undeterred, drivers on that side were taking to the shoulder of the road to get around the truck!

Hope the driver was okay.

We drove past the turnoff to Bakersfield and continued on to CA Route 223, which gave us a route around Bakersfield and a strait shot over to CA Route 58 which would take us up the 4,000 foot high Tehachapi summit.

Miracle of miracles, we finally drove out from under the smokey blanket that had lain over us for the past several days.

Stay tuned for our adventures in and around Mojave!

Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan