RV Trip to Sedona

The purpose of this trip is to meet Hennie, Paul, Don and MaryEllen in Sedona. On the way to Sedona we will be stopping first in Modesto to see Paul and his family for the weekend. Secondly, spending a few days in Pismo Beach and than to Sedona. After Sedona we have a few days before George attends a national FRA seminar in Las Vegas before heading home.

Arrived at Paul's house in Modesto late Friday afternoon. We parked at the Modesto Elks which is located in close proximity to Paul's house. The kids and PJ were excited to see each other. Manda cooked a delicious meal and Grandma gave Evan and Ava a bath. We read stories to the kids before bed time.

Saturday morning we met Paul and the kids at the park and watched the kids play on the play equipment. There was an empty tennis court in the park and the kids and PJ ran their little legs of chasing each other around the tennis court. For lunch Manda fixed a wonderful salad and bean soup. While the kids were knapping we ran a few errands and returned to Paul’s house to watch the Oregon vs Stanford football game. We ordered pizza for dinner and enjoyed some good glasses of wine and beer. The kids were filthy from the day at the park and digging in the back yard so grandma gave them another bath. While in the bath tub both Evan and Ava pretended to shave their faces with fake razors it was real cute to watch them. After the kids went down for the evening we visited a little more before heading back to the motor home. It was a warm sunny day 93 degrees and muggy.

Grandma am I dirty enough for a bath??

Evan was pretending to shave like daddy...and Ava decided to follow suit as well. She also shaved the bottom of her feet!!!

Evan and Ava love to climb the monkey bars at the park.

                                 I am a monkey

The kids enjoyed pulling of the leaves from the tree and covering PJ with leaves!

Today Sunday we left Modesto with just a slight drizzle of rain which didn’t last long. We weren’t in too much of a hurry and left around 9:30AM and arrived in Pismo Beach about 3:30PM. We stayed in Pismo for  4 days.

The next day we wanted to see the town of Pismo so we drove around and parked and walked to a little corner café that served clam chowder. According to the restaurant review they had the best clam chowder in town. George and I agreed it was very good clam chowder. While driving through yesterday George noticed a sign “fresh cinnamon rolls” so we checked that out and couldn’t resist sharing a wonderful cinnamon roll.

    We went on daily beach walks which PJ loves.

While in Pismo it rained one day and we decided to go wine tasting. We received a recommendation on a winery, Tobin James located in Pasa Robles. It was a 45 mile drive and the last few miles we passed many grapes vineyards and wineries. Tobin James winery was the last winery on a long windy road.

The wine counter was a 140 year old beautiful old bar that the vineyard owner purchased about 40 years ago. The whole place had quite a charm as well as the staff. We should have taken a picture of the bar. On the way back to Pismo Beach we visiting a few more wineries in between the rain storm.

We decided to drive south to Santa Maria where George made a marketing call to Santa Maria Valley RR and than driving through some quaint towns.Many of these towns were pretty run down and all we saw were Mexican farm workers. We stopped in Guadalupe to take a picture of the old Amtrak station which was pretty run down. While taking a picture of the station an Amtrak train went by which was the most horrible dilapidated train I had seen in the US.

 Didn't get a good photo of this old train.

This building looks OK in the picture but not when you see it up close.

We  also stopped in Oceana where George spotted another old train station, which is now turned into a museum. It was in a relatively good condition especially after seeing the Guadalupe station.

On our way back to Pisma I spotted a yarn shop so I had to stop to check it out. Inside where 4 ladies knitting and socializing. They welcomed me as a knitter and wanted to know where I was from. It was a very quaint small yarn shop.  I purchased a sweater pattern.

The next day we drove towards Sedona stopping at Needles overnight. We went from needing our heater to having the airconditioner
on full blast in Needles.

Just before turning of the freeway towards Sedona we saw the destruction on I 40 at Belmont from the tornado that hit a small area including turning over some train cars. It was an unbelieveable site to see. There were approximately 30 railroads turned on their sides and a quarter of the Camping World building was gone and trailers scattered everywhere. They were even thrown across the freeway. Belmond is located just west of Flagstaff, AZ.