(RV 27) A 600 mile detour to Donner Summit. Back to 101 at Morgan Hill and then South again.

After a couple days at Crescent City we drove 153 miles to Benbow, CA. A beautiful ride with many redwood vistas. For some reason, I guess wanderlust, we drove 271 miles across the Coast Range, across the Sacramento Valley, and up to the summit of the Sierras to Donner Summit. The Thousand Trails Park at Donner Summit was not far from the Donner Party Monument. We stayed a week at this park. We visited Lake Tahoe and Reno. We were to visit all these spots again.

We drove 286 miles to San Benito. We were not too thrilled with San Benito so we moved 50 miles over to the TT San Jose park. This park is not in San Jose but is about an hour south of San Jose in Morgan Hill. Nearby is Gilroy, the garlic  capital of the world. Garlic ice cream, anyone? They have it. There is lots to see around Morgan Hill. One nice trip was to the new aquarium in Monterey.

We drove south 170 miles to Moro Bay. This is where I tramped around in  the sand and rode landing craft around Moro Rock and made practice landings up the coast. We were in a RV park backed up to the beach. A short walk and  we were walking on the beach. We were not far from the Moro Rock. Here is a photo.

There is my trusty Ford and our Alfa home. On the other side of the fence is the beach. We had a nice visit with Jackie's Mother in San Luis Obispo.  This picture of Jackie and her Mother was taken on the pier at Pismo Beach. It was 1988.

Then south for 193 miles to Valencia. This RV park was at the intersection of the road from Ventura and highway 99 which ran from LA to Bakersfield. This was very familiar country. I rode a bike through here going  from Weedpatch to Pomona when I was barely a teenager. It was on the way to many oilfields. There was a large good restaurant at this intersection that I ate at many times. A few miles away in Newhall I was a big shot district manager for Schlumberger for a few years.

This intersection was called Castaic Junction. Here is an old picture of Tips. It is no longer there.

James Dean stopped here for his last piece of pie and glass of milk. His fatal accident was a few hours later between Blackwell's Corner and Paso Robles.

My brother George lived over the hill in Van Nuys. He and his wife Novelle drove out to visit.

George Monson and a young old prune picker.

George and Novelle.

Notice my truck is hooked up. Ready to go the next morning right through downtown Los Angeles!

Of the nine children in my family. Five girls and four boys and their spouses (18 people). Novelle and I are the only ones still living. Novelle still lives in Van Nuys.