San Antonio Lake (SAL) Rally

This last weekend we went to a rally at San Antonio Lake, North of Paso Robles in Central California. We don't normally go to rallies but we hooked up with this one a couple of years ago and the people were so nice that we have been going back every year. Actually they have the rally twice a year, first in Feb and again in Oct. Some of the same people are there every time and some are new people checking it out. Here is a little info on the area where we meet:

Lake San Antonio - South Shore
Camping
Lake San Antonio South Shore offers hundreds of first come, first serve hook-ups and regular sites on a 24 hour basis. You can enter any time but if you are leaving that day you must vacate your site by 2:00 p.m. and leave the park by sunset.

Three RV and camping areas (Redonda Vista, Lynch and Harris Creek Campground) with 500 sites are available at South Shore for individuals, families and groups.

In Feb we stay at this campground:
Redonda Vista Campground
This campground is located about a mile from the shoreline and includes 86 hook-up campsites with water, electricity and sewer and 173 regular campsites with water, picnic tables and barbeque's.

In Oct we stay at this campground
Harris Creek Campground
This campground is popular year-round because it is conveniently located close to the lake. It includes 91 regular campsites with water, picnic tables and barbeque's.

It is easy to see several groups of mule deer grazing at different times of the day and even Turkeys on a few occasions. The campsites are good sized and allow for room for your RV and tow the setting is grassy with trees and some views of the lake. The marina has a small store and a place to launch your boat. They also rent small houseboats and fishing is also allowed. In the spring of the year there are tours of the lake and eagles can be spotted along the shore.

The Rally is a small rally compared to some. It is usually comprised of people who follow the RV.net forums for RV'ers. This rally is hosted by a very nice lady, Judy, and her husband, Ray. They have a agenda set up ahead of time. We vote on food selection ahead of time and usually have a group meal on Friday and Saturday nite. On this rally we had the meat of our choice for Friday night and some of us brought side dishes and some of us brought the dessert. On Saturday night the meat was tri-tip that was cooked by some of the "Boys" from the group. It was great. Robin was busy with her Dutch Oven all weekend, Friday night she had a potato and cheese,bacon dish, yum! Saturday morning it was cinnamon goodies, and one of group made banana pancakes. Saturday night is was a Dutch Apple Carmel dessert. OH BOY!!!. Needless to say we didn't go hungry.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

I have included a link to the rally organizer's (Judy) pictures as she took alot more than I did.

RV.net Rally>

Beartooth and Chief Joseph Hwy

This was not the experience that we were quite expecting when we started this journey. We started early in the morning as we had to drive to the northeast entrance of Yellowstone park to start up the mountain. What we didn't expect was the endless road construction going on all the way up the mountain on the Wyoming side. There were several times we had to be escorted from one point to the next. Most of the outlooks were filled with heavy equipment. The pictures we got were pretty awsome but we didn't really have the time to get out and embrace the wide open spaces of the feeling of being in suspended time, I have been told by some that is what it feels like. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Yellowstone-Fall-2009

Well we have returned for our much awaited trip to Yellowstone. This is our third year for this adventure, though our first in the fall of the year.
We have never been disappointed in what we see in the park.
The scenery and animals are just amazing. I don't think there is anything, that I have seen, any more breathtaking. I know there are many beautiful sights to see is this amazing country of ours but I will have to wait to be able to see them.
For those of you who have not had the opportunity to see this park, I hope you get to at least just once.
I think I will let the pictures do the talking, although I don't think even the pictures do it justice.

Day in The Tetons

We started out early in the morning with a boat ride across Jackson Lake to an island to have a cowboy breakfast. The early morning sky was clearer than the day before. We had a couple of rain showers during the night but we were blessed with a nice clear and bright morning. It is really hard to get a picture to show the awesome views with a hazy sky. The breakfast was pretty good but it wouldn't have mattered what we ate with the view we had. Menu consisted of eggs, sausage, county hash browns, muffins, french toast and coffee.

We got back from breakfast and spent the rest of the driving around checking out all the views of the Tetons and went into Jackson Hole for lunch. If you are ever in Jackson you need to stop at Bubba's BBQ for some of their pulled beef briskit. YUM!

Tomorrow we are headed for Yellowstone for hopefully many animal sightings
Hope you enjoy the pictures

Logan UT to The Tetons

We started out about 8am from Traveland RV Park in Logan UT. Nice park to overnight, pull thru sites, FHU, free wifi, and cable. If you ever have a chance to take Hwy 89 between Logan and Garden City take it. It is a beautiful drive along the Logan River. Of course that may be just my opinion because I have been driving the
I15 for two days.
We got into Colter Bay RV park about 2:30 and set up. If you haven't been here it is nestled in the pines near Jackson Lake. We went down to the Marina and reserved two seats on the breakfast cruise on the lake. Of course that means we have to get up early in th morning.
We went for a drive down by the lake and the dam. We encountered our first moose sighting at Moose Junction (of course where else would it be).
It never ceases to amaze us as the beauty of the country side as you drive along. I know why they call it "God's Country" because nobody else could have created something so beautiful. Well I am signing off for tonight, enjoy the pictures.

First travel day to Yellowstone

Well here we are at the KOA in Cedar City, UT.
Not to much in the way of pictures, driving through the desert is pretty boring. We did take a couple of the Virgin River Gorge as we were coming up the grade.

We got underway at 4am this morning, stopped in Barstow Flying J for gas and breakfast. Actually got through Vegas without much trouble. Got into Cedar City about 2pm. There are thunder showers and a nice breeze this evening. It was a 105 degrees coming through the gorge. Will be to bed early and try to get going by 8am.

Refugio State Beach

Refugio State Beach offers excellent coastal fishing as well as trails and picnic sites. Palm trees planted near Refugio Creek give a distinctive look to the beach and camping area. A bike trail along the beach bluff connects the beach with El Capitán State Beach, 2.5 miles east. This beach is unique among Santa Barbara beaches. Many locals find that they come here rather than other beaches closer to town. It just feels different than the others. It might be the abundance of picnic tables and grills or maybe its all the quirky little palms that dot the thin strip of border grass. It could also be the camp grounds that bump right against the beach.

The campground is more primative than I expected. If you are going to setup your chairs on the sand and spend the day in the ocean or on the sand any site in this loop will work. If you are like us and just like to sit close to the water and people watch and view the ocean you will want an end site in the loop. We had site#35 and I think it was the best because when we were backed in the door opened to the site and to the view of the ocean. There were alot of tent campers and the campgrounds allowed clothes lines and towels and bathsuits hanging on them. So some of the campsites looked a little messy and crowded. The people were all friendly, the site behind us with the vintage tent turned out to be neighbors of one of Robin's aunt's when they lived in Sierra Madre so we had a nice visit with them and shared Robin's dessert with them.

This was Robin's first experience with dutch oven cooking and as you can see from the slideshow it was a huge success. She really enjoyed that style of cooking. I am sure I will be on the receiving end on lots more dutch oven cooking.

It was a great weekend the weather was sunny, the wind sometimes a little cool. Good food, good ocean views, and good neighbors made for a great weekend