First week in San Francisco

We have been here over a week already. We worked with Emily on their apartment, sanding and plastering the hall so it can be painted and Steve kept us fed. We walked around Pacifica and spent time down at the pier and at one of our favorite coffee stops the Chit Chat Cafe. All of us went to our traditional Vietnamese restaurant and walked around the the side streets of San Francisco visiting cool stores including coffee, ice cream, and donut shops. We are enjoying using Steve's BMW while we are here. We checked out the nursery that Dan and Carmen fixed up and we are waiting with great anticipation for the arrival of our first grandchild. On fridays we all got together for pizza and a movie. I replaced the ignition switch and a defective diode that was buried deep under the dash so now the Beast is whole again. That sums up the first twelve days of our stay here. We are well and enjoying the good weather, the sea breeze, and the great sunsets and being with our kids.

San Francisco

Steve, Emily, Dan, and Carmen stopped out to see us Wednesday night. It was really good to see them. We talked and Carmen opened baby gifts that family and friends sent with us from Michigan. Thursday we went into San Francisco and Steve made Steak Fajitas which we enjoyed at Dan and Carmen's Apartment. We got to see how they fixed up a nursery and see Enzo again. The nursery is really cool and our Grandaughter will love it. Friday was pizza and movie night. We all met at Dan and Carmen's apartment again, ordered pizza, and watched a movie. We had a good time. Saturday Steve, Emily, Bonnie, and I went down to the Ferry Building to shop the Farmer's Market. We filled our packs with fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese and bread and when we got back to Steve and Emily's apartment, we put some of it on the table for our lunch. It was all very good. We stopped by Dan and Carmen's to say hi before Bonnie and I headed back to the RV park in Steve's BMW. Nice ride.

We have arrived!

We had to hot wire the Motorhome to leave Vacaville but we were on the road by 10am. We drove the Beast across the Bay Bridge and arrived in Pacifica around 11:30. So we sit in the fog and enjoy the ocean. It is great! And we are looking forward to seeing our kids.

Today it's bust

We limped into California. We were doing well until we stopped at the Agricultural Checkpoint on I-80. After the usual Gypsy Moth inspection the motorhome wouldn't start. I tried to solve the problem but ended up calling Road Service because we were kinda in the way there. A man came out from Reno and chased the problem to a faulty ignition switch. He got it running again and told us to replace the switch the first chance we get. So we were on our way again and made it to Vacaville CA.  We stopped at an RV park there for the night instead of driving to San Francisco during high traffic time.  With luck, tomorrow we will reach our destination and see our kids.

California or Bust

We encountered more wind and a few rain drops as we plugged along I-80 across Nevada. It was unusually cool with the temperature in the 50s for most of the day. We are resting in Fernley Nevada tonight and will tackle the Sierra Nevada Mountains tomorrow.

Place your bets

We spent last night camped at the Crater's of the Moon National Monument. Camping here again this year reminded us of 2009 when we met Shane Little from the Netherlands who was bicycling across the US. We drank a toast in honor of you Shane and wish you well on your next adventure, across Africa. We left there this morning and landed in Elko Nevada tonight. We are looking forward to seeing our kids in a few days and being there to welcome our first Grandchild into the world.

It's Snowing

It was still windy this morning as we drove towards the north entrance of Yellowstone NP.  Driving through Yellowstone we saw a lot of animals grazing and it snowed for awhile.   The temp was 34 degrees.   We left the park at the west entrance and stopped along US 20 at the Riverside Natl Forest Campground for tonight.

More Wind

The scenery was great along I-94 as we traveled west towards Billings Montana. The sun was out, the fields were green from all the rain, and there were spring flowers in bloom along the way. When we headed west out of Billings on I-90, we saw the mountains in the distance for the first time. They were covered in a white coat of snow. Around 11:30 the wind started blowing again and by 1:30 the wind was blowing 35mph with 50mph gusts. We decided to stop early again. We stopped at a KOA in Greycliff MT but it was closed because of a recent flood. We continued on to Big Timber where we got a campsite in the Spring Creek Campground. We got a nice campsite on the bank of the Boulder River.

Out West

We crossed the Missouri River at Bismarck ND today so we are now officially "Out West". We made it to Terry Montana and found an RV park where we will spend the night. We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park along the way but the campgrounds and most of the exhibits were closed because of flooding.