Wednesday, July 19, 2017

July 17th.....The Good, Bad and The Ugly... Russian River to Oakland to Solvang to Santa Barbara.....

So not all goes smoothly on each trip....
and
 Kim and I also had our bad days.....

We had to get tires for our rig....
(we bought them in Oregon, cheaper and no taxes)
Looked at the bright side....
did not have a blow out with the old tires!

Staying at South Jetty, Florence Oregon was very tight
 (which will explain the need to make a claim from backing into a tree stump and damaging the front bumper of the truck)
 and
 had no sewer hookup...

Oh and there is Russian River....

Since we had a great time there on our way up to Oregon we decided to stay there on our way back down....

But....

It was very hot there this time.

They were pretty full so we had to climb up a windy hill in which I jumped out of the truck because I was going to have a heart attack going up it!!!

They have no pools (you have to hike down to the river if you want to get wet....which I was not going to do in the heat)!

They had 30 amp that barely worked so we could not use our AC!

And to top it off....

A water main broke
 so
 we had no water for the last full day and night!!!

Couldn't wait to get out of there!!!!


So after staying at the Russian River we decided to head back down and pass through Oakland
where
 we met Kamron
 to
give him a huge hug
that would have last us until the next visit.

Kamron surprised his dad
 with
 some tennis shoes. 
Kim just loved them and he had a smile
 on his face all day
 while he wore them.

Kim had me to snap a pic of this stadium for his friend Jose.




Just passing through Pismo Beach.....

weather was great but had to move on to Buelton!!



So we settled in to our RV Resort in Buelton near Solvang....

Glad to be here to relax for a few days....

We stayed at the Flying Flags RV Resort
where they have
 paved sites, clean facilities,
50 amps, three pools, cafe, store, cabins, safari huts, vintage trailer site rentals and much more.

Nice place!!!




After recouping for a day from our traumatic journey from hwy 101 and the Russian River
we had to relax.


We drove in to Santa Barbara for the day because it has always been a favorite place to go.

BUT....

We have to say....

WHAT HAPPENED TO STATE STREET IN SANTA BARBARA?????

It is NOT that thriving tourist riddled town with all the ritzy shops anymore!

In fact we were really disappointed to see that almost half of the shops were closed for business and the town looked very tired.

Also, there were so many homeless people in the area that we felt like we were in downtown LA!

So we decided to make the best of it
 and
 walked the farmers market that was being held
 right down the middle of State Street.






So since we didn't get to stroll down the boulevard of State Street like in past times....

We decided to go to our favorite spot
The Brewhouse
 in
 Santa Barbara
where we always stop to get their
famous
Raspberry Chocolate Chipotle Cheesecake
 and
 Beer!!!

But Of Course.....

IT WAS CLOSED FOR REMODELING!!!

So much for Santa Barbara!!!!

The only highlight of the day was this beautiful tree
that I had to take a picture of on our way out of town!!!




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