World United States California Fresno

Travels With Charlie Brown (Downs)

Fresno, California May 30, 2012

Palm Springs is where Hollywood plays. I’d heard of the place but it was as foreign to me as if it were overseas. After months spent in New Mexico and Arizona, I was anxious to leave the desert and Charlie was anxious to see green grass again. And there was plenty of grass and glass to be found in the area. Green lawns and manicured landscapes along with professional offices and glass fronted restaurants filled the once barren desert locale. Nothing was inexpensive there. After much research, I found an older RV Park in Cathedral City…next door to Palm Springs that honored Passport America members and through polite negotiations secured a week-long visit. Our first day was spent trying to cool down. Though the record temperature was somewhere around 108 degrees and this particular day seemed to be trying to break that record, the temp in the coach by the time we parked was 114 degrees! Too hot. I took Charlie and found the first home improvement center and bought a new A/C filter and a high-speed floor fan. By nightfall the coach had cooled to a manageable 93 degrees! Temperatures were forecasted to stay around 104 degrees for the next few days and that kept us indoors. The few times we did venture out to explore the communities were pretty disappointing because though the lush greenery was inviting, the homes and neighborhoods were not. High walls and guarded gates surrounded almost every residential neighborhood barring access and photo ops. Finally as our week neared its end, the weather cooled enough to leave Charlie in relative comfort while I visited three of the areas casinos with moderate successes at each. Horror stories of California’s traffic, fuel prices and crime made me hesitant to do much more than run to the ocean’s edge, jump in and turn back towards the east coast. Sure, the traffic has been shocking. Twelve lanes converging traffic near the outskirts of L.A. was a true Class A driving nightmare. But once we headed past San Bernardino, the desert turned green and the traffic diminished. California cooled; rich farmlands appeared along with green rolling hills. The stories of California became just those…stories. May 28th we stopped at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster for an overnighter. It hadn’t been a long drive however the experience of skirting L.A. and the amazing traffic congestion had tired both Charlie and I. A large parking area at the rear of the fairgrounds has been converted to an RV Park. Joining two dozen other units, we gladly parked and paid the honor system manager $25 to hook up for a quiet night’s rest leaving the TOAD attached for an early morning departure. Tuesday morning greeted us with clear skies, light winds and much cooler temperatures. Driving northward towards Bakersfield was pleasant and not nearly as boring as the miles of nothing experienced between West Texas and Palm Springs. Bakersfield passed quickly looking much like California’s version of Cleveland. Trusting Verizon’s version of GPS, we landed in the middle of Fresno around noon in the Blackstone RV Park which had been rated highly online. Turns out it is not a vacation destination type RV Park rather more of a residential community however the management was able to squeeze me in utilizing a pass-through street as a pull through site for our convenience. Friends visiting the Sacramento and Frisco areas in about a month results in yet another change of plans. We will explore Fresno for about a week and continue on up towards Shasta Lake and on to the Oregon coast. When our friends are in California we will head back down to the area and explore the bay area.

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