Day 24 - Meteor Crater, Arizona via Grand Canyon National Park

California or Bust…

Day 24 – Meteor Crater, AZ via the Grand Canyon

Monday, November 14^th, 2011

We left the Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel (12 miles East of Kingman, Arizona) close to 8:30am and gassed up at the truck stop near the park and interstate.  The morning was cool, blue skies, views of the Hualapai and Aquarius Mountains with fog in the low lying valleys… elevation 3400 ft.

Blake Ranch RV Park east of Kingman, Arizona

Desertscape at our RV site

View of the valley and Hulapai Mountains

Today we are driving West on I-40, still parallel to old Route 66, through several mountain ranges.  Through the day we will climb to the top of the Colorado Plateau in which the Grand Canyon was carved 6 million years ago.  We took a short detour through the historic Route 66 town of Seligman.  It is a funky, quirky little town with lots of touristy shops and nostalgic gas stations and motels that bring you back to the 60’s.  There are just a few towns left along Route 66 that are clinging to it’s history to scrape out a living and not become one of the many ghost towns evident along the road.

This way to Seligman and Route 66

 

Nostalgic...



Quirky...



Funky...

From Seligman we drove East climbing through the Kaibab National Forest.  This is a very beautiful drive.  We saw snow near the Elk Ridge Ski Area and several very high snow covered mountains on our way to the town of Williams, another Route 66 town and proud to be known as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon”.  Williams seemed to be a little more modern and well off economically.  Many more tourists travel through or stay in this town on their way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon which is 57 miles North on Hwy. 64.  There is also a historic Railway that provides daily service between Williams and the Grand Canyon to an elevation of 7,000 ft… it has been running for more than 100 years.

Williams, AZ - Gateway to the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon Railway

We got to the Grand Canyon mid-day, the fog had just burned away and even though it was off season (mid November) the parking lots were filling with cars and tour buses.  We could only imagine how crowded this section of the Park could be mid-summer.  It was the first time for either of us to see the Grand Canyon and we were very excited to view this amazing natural wonder.  It is so breath taking that pictures and words can not capture the awesomeness.  We were able to walk the dogs starting at Mather Point along the Rim Trail to Yavapai Point.  From this vantage, you are really only seeing a small part of the Grand Canyon National Park which is 277 miles long and it is one mile deep down to the Colorado River.  The Colorado River is a huge, raging river and you can barely see a portion of it from the top of the canyon.

 

Riley Doodle at the Grand Canyon

 

Our itinerary did not allow us spend all day at the Park, so we jumped back in the KeyZRv and were on the road again.  Although we had a short delay due to a herd of elk crossing the road just south of the Park… that was cool!

Coming in to the City of Flagstaff we crossed the Arizona Divide at 7,335 ft. and could see Humphreys Peak which is the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 ft.  It was close to 4pm and we stopped for gas, fresh groceries and supplies to change the oil in the RV when we get to Albuquerque. 

After driving 294 miles today, we made plans to stay at the Meteor Crater RV Park.  It was very secluded and quiet with Flagstaff 37 miles to the east and Winslow at 18 miles west.  There was no “light pollution” and we could see a billion stars.

Day 23 - Leaving Paso Robles for Kingman, ARIZONA

California or Bust…

Day 23 – Kingman, ARIZONA

Sunday, November 13^th, 2011

It was nice to be in one place for a few days… but the KeyZRV was ready to get back on the open road!  We were up early to prepare for the trip and ready to roll by 8:30am.  Drew added a "tag" to the back window of the RV.  We stopped by the Wine Country RV Resort office to say goodbye to Meagan and Sheryl and drop off the second of the large wedding flower arrangements.  We’ll be back!!!



One of two of our weddding arrangements.



We wanted to drop off a couple of thank you notes to Jan and Oralia at Eberle before we left town but the gates were closed.  Drew ran up the long driveway to the main building and left them in an inconspicuous place. 

One more picture at Eberle Winery with the KeyZRV



Darn, the winery is closed!



Memories of Eberle

Tears and Joy - we're married!

Then we drove east on Hwy. 46 towards Bakersfield.  There were many times on this trip that we didn’t think or were not fast enough to grab the camera for a photo op.  We laughed when we noticed a Highway Patrol car driving slowly on the right shoulder, he was escorting three overly large sheep out of harms way.  We again saw more oil wells, cattle & vineyards… more signs posted on farmers land, “food grows where water goes”.  There were acres of pomegranate bushes. 

Oil wells at work on Hwy 46

We drove on I-5 and crossed below Bakersfield on Hwy. 223 to Hwy. 58 and drove through the Tehachpi Mountains and passed the Bakersfield National Cemetary.  The summit elevation was 4,000 ft. and I know that does not sound like much except for when you go from the valley floor at 400 ft.  The grade was steep but the road was nice as we dropped down to the Mojave Desert.  To the south is Edwards Air Force Base, where the space shuttle landed when the weather was bad in Florida.  As we entered Barstow, there was another wind farm that is powered by the same prevailing Santa Ana winds as the wind farms located over the mountains to the South in Palm Springs. 

Ranches and Windmills

How many wind generators can you count???

Now on I-40 and still crossing the Mojave Desert, we passed the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center… what a challenging place to train!  But the desert also has it’s beauty and since we last passed through Southern California it had rained and the Joshua Trees were in full bloom with fragrant yellow buds.  We continued east and it was beginning to get dark… we could see the lights of the casinos in Laughlin, Nevada as we crossed the Colorado River to Arizona.  We drove 462 miles today… one of our longer days… and arrived at the Blake Ranch RV Park near Kingman, Arizona at 5:30 Pacific Time but it is 6:30 Mountain Standard Time.  As we travel east across the country, we will lose three hours in travel time.

Blooming Joshua Trees across the Mojave Desert

Brigit using Riley as a pillow

Old Route 66 parallel to I-40

Made it to Kingman, Arizona

Day 22 - Paso Garagiste Festival

California or Bust…

Day 22 – Paso Garagiste Festival

Saturday, November 12^th, 2011

Written by Drew…

The first day of being MARRIED!  Our plans today are to go to the First Annual Garagiste Festival at Windfall Farms.  Cora did some laundry and I returned the rental car.  Cora’s niece Nan and her nephew Chris picked me up and we met up with Cora at our site in the Wine Country RV Resort.  A quick tour of the motorhome, I say the size of a New York City studio apt., and we were off!

We stopped for lunch at Las Robles, the same great Mexican restaurant we stopped at the day before yesterday.   Nan and Chris liked the food as much as we did.  Then to another WINE TASTING FESTIVAL!!! Can you believe it?!?!  The Garagiste Festival is dedicated to celebrating artisan winemakers and the excellent wines they produce... Garagistes – (GAR-UH-ZHE-STUH) N, Fr. – a term originally used in the Bordeaux region of France to denigrate small-lot wine makers, producing “Vins de garage”, “Garage wine”, who refused to follow the French “rules”.  A group emerged in the mid 1990’s in reaction to the traditional style of red Bordeaux wine, which is highly tannic and requires long aging in the bottle to become drinkable.  The garagistes developed a style more consistent with perceived international wine tastes.  For red wines, this means “bigger, bolder, fruitier wines.  Production from these Garagiste winemakers are usually under a 1,000 cases annually.  That sounds like a lot to me but not in the wine world. 

The Festival was held at Windfall Farms near Paso Robles… the beautiful 700 acre property was owned by Alex Tribek for seven years as Creston Farms and operated it to raise and breed thoroughbred horses before it was bought in 2005 by the Davis Family.  Now as Windfall Farms, it is currently operated as a horse training and boarding facility with an extensive farming operation.

We arrived at the event about 1pm, it was nice and sunny but cool.  We had purchased tickets several weeks before while still in the Keys.  Nan had checked their website the day before which had indicated there were tickets available.  However, when we arrived, the sign said “Sold Out”… but since we had driven so far, they made an exception and sold two more tickets.  We’re in!

Paso Garagiste Festival Crowd

 

Windfall Farms has five or six large modern brick stables located on the property and one of them is where the festival was held.   There were probably twenty individual brick walled stalls on each side, with a long dividing corridor and a center pavilion.  Each stall housed two to three of the garagiste winemakers where they had tables set up and could pour and promote their variety of wines that they were so proud of.  Tables were set up in the center with a selection of artisan cheeses, olive & walnut oil samples and baskets of baguettes to enjoy with the wine tasting.  Nan, Cora & I enjoyed many of the wines… each with our favorites.  But the overall consensus was that we love the Paso Robles wines.  Chris, being the artist he is, had his sketch pad along with him and took the opportunity to capture his impression of the crowd.  We also joined the Rangeland wine club (just one more) where we hope to receive a shipment of nice reds just in time for our Thanksgiving Feast at The Coldirons.

Cora, Chris, Nan, Drew - who has purple lips?

If it matters, our most recent updated wine opinion is that some of the best new American wine makers are coming from this appellation.  Nearby Cal Poly San Luis Obispo offers a wine and viticulture program that ranks right up there with Berkley Davis.   Several of the young talented wine makers we met have attended this school.  Proceeds from the funds raised at The Garagiste Festival will go directly toward to the Cal Poly program and to build a state of the art pilot winery.

Cora, Nan & Drew at Paso Garagiste Festival

View from Windfall Farm Stable

All good things must come to an end… we’ll be leaving Paso Robles tomorrow for the long trip East.  I know Cora really enjoyed being able to reconnect with Nan and Chris and I enjoyed meeting more of her family.  We will forever have wonderful memories of our marriage and time in Paso Robles.  To anyone that enjoys food and wine like we do, Central California is a beautiful place to visit.  Don’t be fooled by the Hollywood California that you see on TV, Central and Northern California is very diverse, with rich agriculture and a laid back sophisticated style.

Riley & Brigit waiting for dinner

Maid of Honor Brigit loved her flowers!

Day 21 - Wedding Day 11/11/11 UPDATE!!!

California or Bust…

Day 21 – 11/11/11 Wedding Day!!!  UPDATE!

Friday, November 11, 2011

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
We interrupt this BLOG for a special announcement…

Really... after 10 years together, we have made it official and tied the knot!

We got married at Eberle Winery in Paso Robles with Brigit and Riley in attendance. Jeff Cotter was our Officiant, Paul Rigby played his acoustic guitar and sang some of our favorite songs, Anna Denham was our Photographer and the beautiful flowers were by “Flowers By Kim”.

We are so happy to share this news with you... it is a very special day for the two of us! More pictures and info to come...

UPDATE:

Now that the blog has caught up to this day, we can add some more details about our wedding. Many of you have asked if we had this planned… yes we did. About a year ago, we decided that we wanted to get married on 11/11/11 and then it wasn’t until about ten months ago that we thought about taking an RV trip to California and getting married at a winery. We know that the Florida Keys are a wedding destination in itself but we really wanted to do something different and away from home… just for us. We didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want anyone to make a fuss over us… LOL. It was difficult at times to be excited about getting married but not being able to tell anyone… none of our friends or family knew!

It was interesting planning a destination wedding 3,000 miles from home. Once we had decided to have our wedding at Eberle, everything else fell into place. The event staff at Eberle, Jan Erkenbrak and Oralia Guzman, gave us a couple of names of local florists and our musician Paul who knew and suggested our photographer Anna. They also suggested a wedding planner who we really did not need for our small intimate event, but the planner gave us Jeff Cotter’s name as an officiate. All amazing wonderful people that helped coordinate our wedding and make it super special to us and just how we wanted it to be.

Kim who owns Flowers By Kim emailed a few pictures of arrangements and a questionnaire to determine what style and color of flowers I wanted. We decided on two large arrangements that were amazing and too large to keep in the motorhome after the wedding. So we left one at Eberle and one at the Wine Country RV Resort. Both Drew and Riley had boutonnieres, Brigit had a neck ring of flowers, and I my bouquet wrapped in deep purple ribbon was exactly what I had imagined. I had to give up some control and just enjoy however things turned out. That included the rain… our hopes were to be married on the deck overlooking the vineyards but that changed with the weather. It didn’t matter… Drew was surprised at how easy going I was about everything.

We arrived at Eberle Winery about 3:45, both Jan and Oralia made sure that the wine cave was set up as we discussed… complete with indirect lighting, candelabras and wine barrels. We began the ceremony at 4:34 (numbers add to 11) as per Jan’s suggestion to stick to 11’s which represent the doors to opportunity and success.

For the actual ceremony, Paul sang and played his guitar for us, Drew and I exchanged our vows to each other. And our Officiate, Jeff performed the wedding ceremony with perfect words and emotion. We enjoyed some Eberle Cabernet before our vows and then toasted our marriage with some “J” champagne and enjoyed an assortment of cheese and crackers. Our party of seven… plus two dogs! When the rain stopped for just a moment, Jan rallied us to the outside vineyard through the large timber cave doors for a photo op. We slid around in the mud in our new wedding shoes… Riley and Brigit ran around like lunatics… we were laughing and having FUN!

Our photographer Anna took some amazing photos… and made it very easy for us to still enjoy each other and the moment. After the ceremony we wandered through the wine barrel lined tunnels of the cave. And to top it off, Paul, our strolling minstrel was serenading close behind with guitar. We made arrangements with Anna that she would edit our photos and provide us with a CD of the good ones before we departed Paso Robles on Sunday.

Please enjoy some of the beautiful photos that Anna posted on her blog from our wedding… she is very sweet and talented. http://www.simplemamasshutter.com/2011/11/wedding.html

We had made after wedding dinner reservations back in August for a very nice restaurant in Paso Robles… The Artisan Restaurant. Their menu is California inspired and features local and organic produce and proteins that are wild caught or sustainably farmed with no hormones or antibiotics. We were spoiled by the wait staff and enjoyed a romantic dinner.

Our wedding nuptials were announced via FaceBook, our blog, emails and a few special phone calls. For those of you who were worried what Mom/Maye would say... she was completely excited and happy for us when we called her on Saturday morning.  We asked if she was sitting down... it was all OK because Mom and my Dad eloped to Reno, Nevada in 1940.  We certainly surprised all of you… thank you to everyone who share our joy and happiness… we love you all!!!

Day 20 - Morro Bay, California

California or Bust…

Day 20 – Morro Bay, California

Thursday, November 10^th, 2011

Brigit and Riley had an appointment for a bath and trim at the dog groomers recommended by the owners of Cabernet and Rousanne at Eberle.  They wanted to smell and look good for the wedding.  Drew dropped them off and then went to the grocery store for milk, fresh veggies and fruit.  I went to a Zumba class at Kennedy Club Fitness taught by Sarah Cardinali… she was great!  The class was loud, high energy, fun with about 40 women, many who introduced themselves to me… I must have looked new!  One of the ladies was 75 but you would not have guessed… she was movin’ and groovin”.

We picked up the dogs around 11am and decided to have an early lunch at Los Robles on Spring & 14th, an authentic Mexican restaurant that had been recommended to us… even suggestions of what to order.   We had tacos el pastor, a supreme asada burrito and a cheese enchilada… it was awesome!  After lunch, we drove South on 101 and then West on Hwy 41 over a beautiful mountain for about 30 miles before we dropped into the town of Morro Bay.  Both Anna, our wedding photographer and Paul, our acoustic guitar player are from Morro Bay and had suggested a few places we should see.

As you enter Morro Bay, which has about the same population as Marathon, you can’t help but see Morro Rock… I forgot how big it is.  Morro Rock was named in 1542 by a Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who explored the Pacific Coast for Spain.  He called the rock El Moro because it resembled the head of a Moor, the people from North Africa know for the turbans they wore.  However, the Spanish word “morro” (pebble) is also consistent with the shape of the rock.  The town of Morro Bay was founded by Franklin Riley in 1870 as a port for the export of dairy and ranch products.  He was instrumental in the building of a wharf which has now become the Embarcadero.  We drove over to Morro Bay Beach where there were quite a few surfers riding 3-4 foot waves and then along the embarcadero to check out the shops and marinas.

Morro Rock & Beach

One end of the Marina



 Moored Sailboats



Fishing Buddies

We continued South through the town of Morro Bay following the winding road along the bay to the town of Los Osos ("the bears") and discovered Montana de Oro State Park… another place that Paul suggested we visit.  We drove through hills of eucalyptus trees which are not native to this area but were planted for commercial use.  Being naturally oily, the builders thought they would resist rotting but instead they warped too much to be used.  This Park was gorgeous and had a few campgrounds and both horse and biking trails along the coastal marshes and hillside.  There was a nice beach at Spooner’s Cove on Point Buchon with interesting rock formations and a cave.  Drew found a few more pretty and unusual rocks for his collection. 

Brutal Coast



Mountain of Gold



Eucalyptus Trees



Spooner's Cove




Cool Rock Formations



Check out geology behind us!

State Park House on the Bluff

It was late afternoon and we wanted to drive back over the mountain pass before dark.  We went back to the RV Resort, made dinner, relaxed and were looking forward to the next day… November 11, 2011!!!!