Enjoying the Journey

Change in plans as our travel goes skrrrrrrrt to a temporary halt. We intended to head up through California, Oregon and on to the Seattle area in two weeks’ time. HOWEVER, it is winter and the mountains are getting snow lately. Our route goes through some of those mountains. We are stopping for about six weeks to let the weather settle down. At first I was stressed about changing plans our entire schedule, but Greg reminded me that flexibility is one of the benefits of this lifestyle. Why hurry? Enjoy the journey!

Boondockers Welcome Near Bakersfield, CA

Closed Ice Cream Shop Covered in Graffiti

Boondockers Welcome (and Harvest Host) is a program where you pay a small amount annually and then have access to thousands of free places to camp at no additional cost. Boondockers Welcome is typically on someone’s personal property. Harvest Host is similar except that you stay at businesses like vineyards, breweries, museums, farms, orchards and churches, and they appreciate a purchase or donation. You can read reviews and all the information about the location prior to requesting a stay. Of course, reviews are a huge part for all involved. We have stayed on private property, in the middle of a corn field on a farm, in the parking lot of a winery and a brewery just to name a few. You do have to be completely self-contained, so no tent camping and no outdoor toilet situation (this can mean so, so many things).

In the three-hour trip from Barstow to the outskirts of Bakersfield we went from desert, through mountains, to a valley that made us say, “Oh, look! Grass!” (We hadn’t seen anything other than occasional astroturf for a few weeks.) We also saw a permanently closed ice cream shop that was at some point overrun by spray paint-wielding experts at both graffiti and appliance removal.

Our Setup at Bakersfield Boondockers Welcome

We stayed in someone’s front yard near Bakersfield, CA! This family regularly hosts campers. They participate because they are also campers and enjoy supporting the community. The only thing they gain from participating is meeting people and, I believe, a free Boondockers Welcome membership to use for themselves. It was quiet and we felt safe there. It was right in the middle of almond orchards and had everything from visiting roosters to loose dogs to dirt roads and some of the thickest fog I’ve ever seen at night.

It was lovely having an electric hookup as the nighttime temps have required some form of heating in our camper lately which requires a lot of power! Our lithium batteries are awesome and allow us to boondock off the grid for days at a time using lights, radio, TV and even the coffee maker… but turn on a space heater and the batteries can be depleted overnight! We can recharge a bit on a sunny day with our two solar panels, but certainly not fast enough to make up for a space heater before peak sun disappears. We have a generator, but we save that for dire situations. We’ve only needed to use it once so far.

Harvest Host, Hilmar, CA

The next day we drove three more hours on bouncy roads (not Cleo-approved) passing many rows of grape vines, as well as aqueducts (a foreign concept to someone from Ohio) to stay near a red barn on a farm in the middle of cheese country. We arrived in a light, cold drizzle, so we made setting up a quick task. (We both agreed that the man who owns this farm looks a lot like Jeff Bridges.) We briefly met the one other camper, a nice lady from San Francisco and her dog.

This area has many dairy farms, loads of cows crammed together right off the road with their heads sticking through bars to eat hay and the strong scent of methane from cow farts. There are also many almond orchards all around. Hmm, dairy milk versus almond milk all in the same town!

Beale AFB FamCamp a Little North of Sacramento

The drive from Hilmar, CA to Beale Air Force Base was about three hours and involved some patience and catlike reflexes to deal with roadwork near Sacramento. Greg always stays calm and just guts through challenging driving situations. If I were towing the camper, I would have put it in park and left it all in the middle of the road.

Home of the U2 spy planes, Beale AFB has everything we need to hunker down through the worst of winter. There aren’t many people on this base, but the property itself is expansive and open with some grazing cows and distant mountain views. We will be here through February.

As we were setting up the camper we overheard one of our new neighbors on the phone (if you have a loud voice, best to shut the window if you’re on the phone #camperlife). He said something like, “Great, I have a bunch of (derogatory term) cats next to me now.” And we thought, “Lovely, we have giant, barking dogs off their leashes next to us.” The neighbors on the other side were very welcoming and chatted to us for quite a while letting us know all the base has to offer.

There is a heavily-guarded monolith on the side of a hill at Beale. It is a PAVE PAWS and was initially developed during the Cold War. It is an early warning radar that detects missiles and does some secret space surveillance, literally and figuratively way over my head. Of course, there is a ton more information available online, and more that is probably not publicly available. It feels a bit creepy to see it from our campsite…especially at night with yellow lights all around it! But it is interesting and also scary to think that we need that kind of detection. I would try to get a photo of it, but the last time I did that on a base I had pictures deleted by a security person…ask Greg about it. He was very entertained by it all.

This FamCamp has a very nice little lounge and laundry area for the campers to use. And behind it is a fishing lake and an outdoor gathering area. There are two modern washers and dryers, and they’re free! The lounge has a book exchange, DVD’s to borrow, a large TV, wi-fi and a kitchen with a full-sized oven to use. So if I wanted to roast something huge, I could do that! Or even bake in a 9×13 pan. Or bake two things at once. Or anything taller than four inches…

We have already discovered some nice services on the base, and I’m sure there are more:

Bowling alley with $1 games on Monday afternoons
Two indoor fitness centers
An outdoor fitness area with cardio and weights (think Muscle Beach minus the beach and crowd)
Running track and nature paths
Minigolf course
Free movie theater
Shopping at the Base Exchange and a nice commissary
Post office
Several restaurants, many with healthy food choices (thank you, California!)
Community center with free massage chairs

We plan on doing a few day trips while we are in the area. The first trip I think will be out to the coast which is 2.5 hours from here. Have to stay fairly close since we have Cleo and Nemo waiting for us in the camper! Speaking of the cats…they have a tree, grass and a ton of birds to watch out the windows and from the catio. They love this catio view already!