We got a late start on Sunday, actually hooking up the car right at noon. We had been packing the coach back up for days as we had pulled everything out from inside and underneath for a thorough cleaning after San Eljio State Beach.
The traffic in LA was slow moving in a lot of places and continued to get worse as we drove along. It was Sunday afternoon, where the heck were all these folks going? It’s never good to hear google nav announcing that traffic is building on your route, multiple times during your drive thru LA.
We eventually got thru and started out toward Magic Mountain and eventually the Grapevine. I had planned a stop in Castaic at a truck stop about 2.5 hours into the trip, but with all the traffic, it was more like 3.5 hours before we arrived. I pulled into a fuel lane and Kathy took Dusty for a walk. When I eventually got up to the pumps and looked at them, they said it was B20 fuel. I had never seen it so high and decided to pass on the fill. I didn’t actually need the fuel as we were only 100 miles from home, it was just the only place to get off the freeway for a bit.
We proceeded north on I-5 and I was amazed by all the traffic once we arrived at the Grapevine. I had never seen so many cars and trucks on that stretch of road before. We headed down the long grade and realized it isn’t nearly as steep or long as a lot of the grades we traversed last summer. It’s only 6% and just 5 miles long. We saw many 10 % grades and some were 20 miles long going over the Rockies.
We arrived at the Bakersfield resort a little after 5pm and pulled into a nice wide and long pull-thru site. Tomorrow will be a quick and easy getaway..
They have a restaurant at this RV park that is quite good! We were able to take Dusty and eat on the patio where I ordered a beer during happy hour and got one that was almost too heavy to lift. The weather was beautiful for June in Bakersfield, low 80s!! We had dinner there and breakfast the next morning. Both times met nice people who had interesting tips on places to go.