Christmas 2009 Roadtrip Part 7

And so the lovely maidens arrived at the Palm Springs Thousand Trails campground once again after dark. It was a nice campground and there were many active retirees staying there. They were even having a pickle ball tournament in the morning. Pickle ball is a cross between tennis and ping pong, played on an asphalt court about half the size of a tennis court with a whiffle ball about the size of a baseball, and wooden paddles about twice the size of ping pong paddles with the short handles like ping pong paddles.

The lovely maidens even arrived at this campground before the spa/pool closed, so they high-tailed it over there to soak in the warm water of the spa for a few minutes before heading off to bed.

In the morning when Joanne opened the curtains, she thought she saw her dad working on the motor home parked next to theirs. She could only see his back at this point, and he was wearing the same kind of clothes her dad wears on his days off, including the shoes. His hair was cut and combed the same as her dad's. The only difference was that he was about 4 inches taller than her dad. So Joanne went over and introduced herself and discovered that his name was Sam Hughes, and lived in the Portland area. Raisa took Joanne's picture with Sam to demonstrate the similarities.

After touring the motor homes that were for sale at the campground, and deciding they could not afford any of them, the lovely maidens were once again on their way back home. They decided to return to the Reagan Library once again to get some more pictures of things they wish they had gotten pictures of the first time, and to purchase some books for friends that were 50% off when they were there before. The photo ops were in places they did not have to pay admission for, and when they visited the gift shop, they discovered that the sale had ended the day before. It was just as well, since if they had purchased the items had they been on sale, they would not have had enough money to buy gas to make it back home.

While the lovely maidens were taking pictures outside the gate to the Reagan Library, suddenly they heard the voice of Ronald Reagan through a speaker saying, "Allright, ladies! Stop taking pictures and come in and see me!" They had a good laugh over it and when they were finished getting all the pictures they wanted, they headed to the library. While they were taking more pictures outside the library, the security officer that was manning the security desk came up to the lovely maidens and said, "I understand Ronald Reagan's ghost can be heard sometimes at the gate." Joanne replied, "Oh, was that you?" "Was what me?" was the reply!

They travelled all day, and their destination for the night was Morgan Hill, a Thousand Trails campground southeast of San Jose. As Joanne became sleepy, she had Raisa drive while she took a nap on the bed in the back of the motor home. At about 10:30 pm, and 15 minutes from the Morgan Hill campground, Raisa exited the highway to let Joanne drive. She pulled into a mall parking lot with limited road access. In other words, it was a trap into which one could enter, but not escape to turn left onto the road, which is what the lovely maidens needed to do. Since Joanne did not see the trap into which they had entered, she did not know how to escape it to get to the campground. She drove through the parking lot in the dark until she realized there was no outlet where she was going. Then she decided to cross the 4 or 5 lanes of the street to turn left out of the entrance to the gas station. When she was 2 lanes from the center of the road, and already committed to turning left, she discovered there was a curbed median separating the 2 directions of the road, so she had no choice but to turn left into the far left lane of traffic in which the movement was to the right. Fortunately, there was very little traffic since it was so late and she managed to do an illegal U-Turn in the 4 or 5 street lanes in which traffic was supposed to be travelling right from where they turned. They travelled another block and were able to get turned around and headed on their way. This unfortunate incident ate up about a half hour of their time, and subsequently they were 15 minutes too late to the campground to be admitted, since newcomers are admitted only until 11:00 pm.

The ranger told Raisa when she called while they were on their way, that he would let them park in the parking lot, but failed to inform them that they would need to call him upon their arrival. The lovely maidens tried for 15 minutes to figure out how to get into the parking lot, and then decided they would probably need to call the ranger to let them into the park. The ranger was not happy and was not afraid to let the lovely maidens know it! This was the only negative experience the maidens had with a Thousand Trails or Naco ranger, and they decided it was best for the sake of the park that someone in authority be told about their experience with the ranger. So when they tattled on the night duty ranger to the morning duty ranger, they were satisfied to find out that this guy had a habit of behaving rudely and things would change.

So once again the lovely maidens found themselves on the highway on their last day of travel together. When they reached Willits, Joanne discovered that one of the tires was low, so she found a Les Schwab Tire Center using her trusty iphone map application, and had the tire inflated some more.

The lovely maidens finally arrived at Joanne's house in Brookings after dark, and unpacked as much of Joanne's stuff as she needed for the night. Raisa slept in the motor home, since she is allergic to cats and since that is Joanne's spare bedroom. In the middle of the night, the shrieking carbon monoxide alarm went off AGAIN, and again, Raisa didn't know how to get it to quit. She apparently didn't think it would ever happen again. But this time, Joanne was in her house in bed, and so she just waited for it to quit, which it eventually did.

The next day, Raisa packed her car and headed for home while Joanne went back to work. Joanne was proud of Raisa that she was able to make it home in one day, since her disability from her career in nursing makes it difficult for her to drive. It is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive from Brookings to Roseburg, and Raisa used to only be able to drive 45 minutes at a time.

The lovely maidens had such an enjoyable time on their trip that it was difficult for both of them to adjust to regular life, and they wish they were on a permanent roadtrip. They thank you for reading their story and wish you as much fun and adventure as they had on their roadtrip.

The End.