DoodleCamp and Beyond

Time flies when you are having fun....

and that has just been what we are doing.

Life in the Bus is Grand!

Continuing our trek southward we crossed the Siskyou Mountains

and eventually were greeted with Mt Shasta in the windshield.

It seems that with the super large windshield in the Bus...

the views are even more impressive!

We spent a couple of nights in Red Bluff, Ca.  I'm still waiting for my new NC

plates and registration for the bus so I got a California trip permit from DMV so that

we could continue to be legal as me motored onward.

Eventually our path brought us back to DoodleCamp - Ron & Maxines house,

where the Doodles spent Christmas while we were in Europe.

You might recall that Ron is a car aficionado and expert restorer and has this

beautiful 1955 Chevy that he restored from a  dirty pile of scrap.

He took me for a ride in it to Folsom one day.

Here is the view from the front seat.

We met Kate and Maxine for Breakfast in Folsom.

One of the best breakfasts in memory!

Like many towns in the foothills of the Sierras, Folsom dates back to the 1800's and the downtown

area preserves a lot of the old charm.   Here is the hotel and on the left an old gas station.

Ron gave Kate a ride back home in the 55.

But first - a photo.

We spent a week at DoodleCamp.   Time always goes fast when we visit.

We are treated like royalty - they are such great hosts.

 Soon it was time to move on - even though my NC plates still did not arrive.

Another stop at California DMV for a second trip permit and we were ready to roll.

We stopped at the TruckTub in Stockton to give the party bus a wash.

For those of you who wonder what a Bus/Truck wash looks like...

Ladders, sprayers, mop extensions...

And lots of workers scurrying about.

After a hand wash....

A hand dry!

We left the TruckTub clean and spiffy.

The Bus and the Toad were spotless.

Our destination was the Orange Grove in Bakersfield and along the way

the flowering cherry trees (and pollinating bees) created

an insect storm that did a job on my freshly cleaned front.

Not to worry, I broke out a brush and bucket upon arrival 

and soon the bus was looking top notch again.

We picked a bunch more of the delicious navel oranges while in Bakersfield,

and spent Saturday doing some grocery shopping.

Today we headed over the Tehachapi Mountains

 to Lake Havasu State Park in Arizona.

Crossing the Tehachapis from the San Joaquin Valley you leave behind the

green of farm country and in a few short miles find yourself deposited into

the Mojave Desert and hundreds of miles of desert as you head east into Arizona.

Arriving at Havasu, we are parked just as the sun is setting over the lake.

We have just two days here and then Tues-Thurs at Lake Pleasant in Peoria, Az.

Next Friday we have an appointment with a battery dealer in Mesa to pick up

6 big Lifeline AGM Batteries for the house bank.

They are 90 lbs each!  540 lbs of batteries!

These batteries will give us 900 amp hrs of house capacity and is the

next step in our march to making the Bus off Grid Capable without the generator.

Just like the Montana - we want the Party Bus to be a go anywhere RV

powered by the sun.

The final step after the batteries will be a solar install which I will probably do

when we are parked at home this summer.

Home...  remember that place??