We're Off!

Easter Sunday morning came--Tillie was worried as I loaded the last supplies into the trailer, and knew that she was not going.  But my great neighbors will protect her from any thunder and lightning, and her good buds are coming to visit on Easter, and she and Smokey will be fine. 

The new Rockwood Roo 21ss pulled well as we headed down the coast at the beginning of a cloudy day--the grass along 128 was deep spring green, daffodils were in bloom spotted along the highway, especially near Philo, and hardly another soul was on the road.  The drive was among the prettiest I ever recall.

The RV Park at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds is a Good Sam park, and the overnight stay was $22.50 for a 30 amp site with full hook-ups.  Only a few large trees are located on the site, but many young trees have been planted  and when these leaf out the greenery will be there, growing thicker as the years go by.  The people are friendly, and the park is less than 3 miles from  my Easter Brunch destination.

The Easter Brunch at Chris & Deidra's was delicious--both vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare.  The kids really out-did themselves  One of my favorites was the apple bread pudding (or something like that), and the bacon was done perfectly and the egg dish was great, as was everything else. 

Both boys love their cousins, and Lincoln follows Hope everywhere, while Chloe tries to keep the boys a little controlled (below).  Easter bunny ears looked adorable on both girls.

Afterwards, during a break in the rain, the Great Easter Egg Hunt was held in the back yard with five (six counting the littlest one) children scurrying around looking for eggs--some real, some plastic ones filled with candy, and three special ones filled with cash.  Some easily-found eggs were placed where the three and under crowd could hunt, and the older girls had to leave those alone.  Lincoln found many, but Parker (at right afterwards) was pretty good at locating them also.   Then, to finish up, we had a birthday cake for Laura, whose birthday had been the day before.

Later, I collected Liz and we returned to the RV park to set up the rig.  The day was growing more stormy, and we had no sooner completed the setup and were relaxing inside when a sharp clap of thunder heralded a huge downpour.  We stayed warm and dry inside, then headed back the Chris & Deidra's for dinner--Gary Chu's Chinese fare delivered--it weas great, especially (believe it or not) the tofu and mushroom dish.   The two boys were really getting tired, but just wouldn't try to sleep--still they did pause in cascading over the back of the couch for a little rest with their dad.

We left them to their rest, and returned to the RV park.  The next morning was a slow and pretty trip east to the walnut ranch, where I nearly got the trailer stuck in the mud from the overnight rains.  Then, today, we headed south to Visalia, where we are overnighting, then heading south again to Barstow.  From there, we enter the desert and stay at Joshua Tree National Park.   The little Roo is performing well, and I am beginning to enjoy pulling it, even though my navigator, Lizzie, made me do a few u-turns I hadn't planned on.   But we got them done, and are now relaxing to the sounds of birds at our nice KOA campground, shown below.

Tomorrow we plan to stop at the Camping World in Bakersfield and do a little shopping before continuing south.