Final night in the bay area

We are again on the street, this time in Mountain View (map), just about a mile from our last digs on the street in Sunnyvale. We ran out another 72-hour stint there, and decided we ought to move along before the constabulary took notice (although they'd passed us every day there with nary a raised eyebrow -- we are not the 'droids they're looking for). Felicia, of course, passed Hawaii without incident, allowing me finally to stand down (and unpack my bag).

Before leaving Sunnyvale we stopped at the Elks lodge, as long as it was right there across the street, to dump our tanks before heading up the hill tomorrow. We were only 30% full, but that's still nearly 500 pounds of weight -- no sense hauling an extra quarter ton up the hill unnecessarily. We were also nearly out of water and I put perhaps 20 gallons in, which will cover any needs until we are settled in the Sierras. I also let them know we would not be needing their parking, and made a small donation to cover the dump station, and the fact that we've been using their dumpster.

Last night we had one final visit with our friends in Milpitas while we still had the car. Today we did some final errands, and returned the car in a complex dance involving borrowing yet another car, then getting a ride back here. At least we got in a final dinner with our friend Eric and daughter Emily and were able to say a proper in-person "thank you" for letting us use the car.

Tomorrow morning we will head up to Menlo Park and pick up our nieces, who really wanted to ride up to Bass Lake in the bus instead of their mini-van. Mom will be along for the ride, too, thus allowing dad to come up in the van after work, and alleviating the need for them to bring two cars. We're really looking forward to having them aboard, although it means we will not be able to make any stops we otherwise might, such as checking out our friends' Italian restaurant in Los Banos, which we'll be passing through.

I'm expecting Bass Lake to be something of a zoo, this being one of the last summer weekends before many schools start, but at least we have a reservation for an RV space at the Elks lodge down the hill at Yosemite Forks. This place is very familiar to me -- I worked in Oakhurst for about a year, and I lived in a 32' class-A I owned at the time, parked right there at the lodge under a special agreement (the normal stay limit is two weeks). That said, I am hoping we will be able to find a more rustic spot in the forest once we arrive -- I know the girls were really hoping for a campfire.

Once we are done at Bass Lake, I have a wonderful route mapped out that will take us north through Yosemite, then east through Nevada on US-6 en route to Colorado, and mostly staying in relatively cooler temperatures than we would experience along the I-40 corridor to the south. Southern Colorado is blissfully cool, yet within striking distance of Hurricane Alley should an Atlantic storm start to develop, as well as centrally located for anything else that might arise. At this writing, however, it is beginning to look more and more likely that we will not even make it out of California -- there are serious wildfires in southern California (LaBrea) as well as just a few miles west of where we sit right now (Santa Cruz). If either of those starts to consume residential structures, we may well have work to do right here in-state.

Photo by romainguy