We have spent a great deal of time in Scout exploring California. In 2015 we visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon. There are two sets of entries for Joshua Tree, and three sets of entries for Death Valley. In 2016 we did a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway and visited Anza Borrega State Park. While California is mainly famous for its cities, there is plenty of back country to explore also. 2018 and 2019 our son Dylan was working in San Diego, which gave us an excuse to visit that beautiful city. Since we began the blog, we have spent more time in California than any other place.
January 23, 2020 Death Valley NP
I woke up early and decided to head over to one of my favorite places. Zabriske point overlooks the gold canyon, and after today I
January 22, 2020 Death Valley NP
I started the day by heading over to the visitors center to see what ranger talks were available today. I was there as they opened
January 28, 2019 Death Valley NP
We are both still struggling a little bit with our medical issues so it is time to head home so we can see see our
January 27, 2019 San Diego CA
Today is Dylan’s birthday so we planned a big day around town to celebrate. We started out with a seafood brunch at Point Loma Seafood.
January 26, 2019 San Diego CA
Dylan suggested we head up to San Juan Capistrano to visit the mission there. It is about an hour north of here and you have
January 25, 2019 San Diego CA
This morning Dylan came over to give us his car for the day. We planned a shopping trip to stock up for the ride home,
January 24, 2019 San Diego CA
Not much to talk about today. We did the laundry, and both tried to relax and recover from our ill’s. Dylan joined us for lunch,
January 23, 2019 San Diego CA
Not a very interesting travel day. Both of us have been dealing with nagging medical issues so we decided to use today to go by
January 22, 2019 San Diego CA
Today we shifted to San Diego to see our other son Dylan. The drive over was pretty uneventful. Ton and I were talking about the
August 19, 2018 San Diego CA
Our final day with Dylan on this trip was the San Diego Zoo. Dylan is a member of the zoo so we were able to
August 18, 2018 San Diego CA
Dylan swung by to pick us up about 930. After a breakfast of noodles prepared by Ton we headed off to our first stop of
August 17, 2018 San Diego CA
Today we headed into San Diego to spend the weekend with our son Dylan who is working there for the Fish and Wildlife Service. We
August 16, 2018 Victorville CA
Today was a travel day. We wanted to avoid Los Angeles so we decided to head east and go around LA. So we headed east
August 15, 2018 San Luis Obispo CA
Today we started the day visiting one of our favorite places in central California. Near San Simeon there are beaches that are covered in Elephant
August 14, 2018 San Luis Obispo CA
It was time to finally leave our friends Pae and Supachai. For our going away Pae prepared a great Thai breakfast of Cao dom. Ron
August 12, 2018 San Francisco CA
Today we played tourists in San Francisco. We headed into the city early to beat the traffic and headed to the Embarcadero area. We lived
August 11, 2018 San Jose CA
Today was much more relaxing than yesterday. We started with a nice breakfast near our friends apartment. On Saturdays they close the street in front
February 12, 2018 Blue Lake CA
Good Brew Hunting continued today with two stops as we continue our very slow pub crawl north. After a slow start in the morning we
February 11, 2018 Petaluma CA
Ton has dubbed the rest of our trip north good beer hunting. The plan is to move north roughly following US101 through Northern California and
February 10, 2018 Baker CA
Ron is under the weather so today was about getting as far north as Ron could take and then to rest. We did make one
February 9, 2018 China Lake CA
Today was a travel day. We got up early and tried to clean some of the sand from Scout. Parking directly on the beach is
February 8, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA
We had a slow start to the day. One of the things about staying on a military base is that sometimes you share your campground
February 7, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA
The first job for today was to try to sort out our camera. It suddenly stopped working. We are not sure if the battery has
February 6, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA
Ton brought up the idea of heading over to the coast. Our original hope was to stay at the Navy park on Coronado Island in
February 5, 2018 Joshua Tree NP
Today we visited one of our favorite national parks. Ton really loves cactuses and Joshua Trees. It was originally in our plans for the trip
November 5, 2017 Pacific Coast Highway CA
Ron was very excited as we were going to take one of his favorite drives, the Big Sur. The plan was to drive down to
November 4, 2017 Monterey CA
The day started out with a quest for a longer sewer hose for Elephant. The sewer hose for Elephant is about 8 ft long and
November 3, 2017 Monterey CA
Originally we planned to spend two nights in Yosemite NP, but due to very cold temperatures there and concerns about road closures we had to
November 2, 2017 Death Valley NP
We had planned to head to Zabriske point for sunrise, but everyone overslept. In the end we got there about an 90 minutes after sunrise.
November 1, 2017 Death Valley NP
We were pleasantly surprised this morning, it turns out we both slept well. We’re not sure if it was because we were really tired, or
January 26, 2017 Death Valley NP
Ron had always wanted to visit the Racetrack Playa. Ton was a little nervous as the park service puts out very severe warnings about
January 25, 2017 Death Valley NP
it was quite warm last night and we enjoyed a good nights sleep without a heater. After we got going we started the day by
January 24, 2017 Joshua Tree NP
We are getting used to the drive from Joshua Tree to Death Valley as this is the fourth time we have done it in the
January 22, 2017 San Diego CA
Today we started out at Torrey Pines State Nature Area. The Torrey Pine tree is only found in two places in the world, one grove
January 21, 2017 San Diego CA
The theme of the trip to San Diego is mornings doing touristy things and the afternoons visiting breweries. San Diego is a great town to
January 20, 2017 San Diego CA
ell last night we had a talk about where to go next. Ton said there was a great road from where we were camped into
January 19, 2017 Anza-Borrego SP
We woke up at dawn after sleeping at Fonts Point to catch the sunrise. It was not quite the party that sunset was as, there
January 18, 2017 Anza-Borrego State Park CA
Today we reached our target to begin exploring instead of driving. We arrived at Anza-Borrego about 1:30 after driving about 250 miles. Enroute we stopped
January 17, 2017 China Lake CA
Our plans have changed. After spending last night in Reno we decided to head straight to Anza-Borrego, and then begin working our way North.
December 18, 2016 Death Valley NP
Started heading home as we have a date on Sunday for a Christmas Party and our sons are coming home next week so we have
December 17, 2016 Joshua Tree NP
Last night was spent in a great campground in Joshua Tree called Ryan where we were surrounded by granite rocks that make the park famous.
December 16, 2016 Mojave NP
Today we visited Mojave NP. The Preserve has three of the four desert environments in the western US with sections of the Great Basin, Mojave,
December 15, 2016 Mojave National Preserve
Well the nice thing about the truck is flexibility. We were originally heading towards Joshua Tree NP but a combination of the weather and some
October 18, 2016 Folsom CA
Today we had another fun day with Pae and Supachai. Supachai was meeting some of his friends from work at an Apple Orchard and we
October 17, 2016 Calaveras Big Tree State Park CA
Today we were invited to spend the night with our friends in Northern California Pae and Supachai. We were feeling a little “grangjai”(a Thai word
October 16, 2016 Yosemite NP
Today we started the day by visiting Bodie SP. Bodie is a ghost town not far from US395. It was a gold mining boom town
October 15, 2016 June Lake CA
The day started with a bear encounter by Ton. After a slow start in the morning we had pulled into the dump station at the
October 14, 2016 Mammoth Lake CA
Today we took the long way to Mammoth Lake. We decided to try two of the Sierra Passes from east to west that are closed
April 29, 2015 Manton CA
Today we are beginning to head home so the primary goal was to get north. We recently joined an organization called Harvest Host which allows
April 28, 2015 Yosemite NP
When we left Folsom in the morning we thought we needed to be in Portland on Thursday, but when we checked we found out that
April 27, 2015 Folsom CA
Today we planned a day with Supachai and Pae. We started off by going to Folsom Lake to see the fish hatchery there. When we
April 26, 2015 Kings Canyon NP
Today we woke up to quite a surprise. There was over a foot of snow on the ground. It was really beautiful, but the concern
April 25, 2015 Sequoia NP
Today we planned to move on to Kings Canyon NP, but in keeping with our history with Scout we woke up to snow. We decided
April 24, 2015 Sequoia NP
We had planned to cross over the central valley to Sequoia National Park. The night before Ton mentioned the Carrizo Plain National Monument which is
April 23, 2015 San Luis Obispo CA
Today we drove the most famous stretch of PCH from Carmel to San Simeon. The weather was perfect for the drive. Ton was very impressed
April 22, 2015 Monterey CA
Today was a day to sight see around Monterey. We started by visiting Point Lobos State Reserve. Another stretch of beautiful coast with views over
April 21, 2015 Monterey CA
Today was a kind of lazy day as we were a little slow getting going. We picked up PCH and followed it down the coast
April 20, 2015 Petaluma CA
Today the weather was tremendous, the nicest weather we have experienced since we bought Scout. In addition there was exceptionally high surf along the whole
April 19, 2015 Ft. Bragg CA
Today we would be going into new territory heading down the Pacific Coast Highway. Past trips had taken us as far south as Crescent City