4-26-13 – a very busy day

Left the Bakersfield Elks about 10 am.  They were sure nice folks.  We took Highway 99 south to pick up Highway 166 – a designated scenic route in parts of it.  And it was…

The first part was flat farmland with mountains on two sides.  Saw alfalfa, fruit  trees including orange trees being trimmed to be square for easier picking.  Lots of new fruit trees, roses at the entrance to a trucking company.  Oil wells, skinny sheep, pinto ponies and birds nests on the top of poles were in our sights.  There are lots of wells (oil or gas) and very few signs of people.  We skirt the Carrizo Plain National Monument on the east side and then the south side.  After Maricopa (900’) 83 miles to go it is 2:10 pm.  Pink oleanders bloom profusely along the edge of people’s properties.  A large M on the mountain proclaims Maricopa is alive and well.  Oh, oh – up we go – steep incline ahead!  We should have guessed with a sign outside Maricopa that 166 was open…lol.  It doesn’t look very steep in this pix but we had to stop about five times to let truck cool down as it was overheating.  We would go up about 145’ in .4 miles and beep, beep our overheat signal would scream at us.  Egads.  Took us over a 1/2 hour to get up this huge grade with very little relief of flatter land.  Finally at the top at 2:54! 

 

Stayed on the high desert flatland for a while.  Saw more farming with irrigation pipes, workers walking along rows of plastic tending new plantings.

Near Curyama, saw these trees trimmed.  Why?  Curyama had a hardware store and elementary school – that’s it.  Then a large estate with horses in the field which is ringed with tall poplar trees.  Four huge harvesting machines are in the next field.  Wonder what they are picking?

New Curyama is a bit larger with high school, library, two eateries and a motel. 

Fifty miles to go and we start downhill gradually.  We see jersey cows, ranches, ads for Branger bulls, green mountains replace the beige and we skirt Las Padras National Forest.  We had a “dirt devil” swirling around and actually hit our truck with a bit of debris it picked up.  That’s a first!

Now  black cattle replace the rich brown ones and then white cattle.  This ranch house was right close to the road.

Look – it’s a DQ rock – looks like a chocolate twist!  LOL

Lush greenery with all shades of green from the very light new tree growth to the dark green of live oaks.

Yes!  We are finally here!

Beautiful Elk’s Lodge in Santa Maria, CA.  Got set up and registered.

We are in the parking lot but have water and electricity @ $20/night.  No other RVs here but regular RV lot with sewer hookups is full with a dog show this weekend held on the Elk’s grounds.  May peek at that tomorrow or Sunday. 

Went into the Lodge for dinner.  Cook your own meat.  This is a huge lodge with 4500 members!  They had the food set up in the dining room, but after you picked out your meat (J and I each chose huge rib-eyes…off my diet for tonight!).  We put wooden markers with our name on them into our steaks. Then we took the plates out to the grilling room on the patio.  This is a separate building about 80’ square with a huge grill pit in the middle!  The grill was probably 18’ x 6’ and the pit bottom was probably 3’ lower.  The huge metal grate already held lots of meat being cooked.  They had sections designated for beef, pork, chicken and fish.  A chef periodically checked the pit and added more wood.  WOW!  What a setup.  There was a bar in this room as well as tall round cocktail tables to sit at while you waited for your meat to cook.  After grilling, we went back inside the dining room and picked up the rest of our food.  They had salad bar with lots of choices, baked potatoes sour cream and chives available, steak fries, pinquinto beans (famous for them here in Santa Maria along with tri-tip roast.), and garlic toast.  A lot of food for $13!.  I brought half of my meat and 2/3 of my potato home.  A full and blessed day.  Our truck didn’t burn up (as we saw a large scorched area on the road up the grade.)  And we met some really nice people and we had a scrumptious dinner.  Off to explore tomorrow!  Yippee.