Some much-needed family time and taking care of Business.

If you’re new here, we are Andrew and Loralee Scherf. We have been wandering the country for the last two years and enjoying the sights of our beautiful country. Even with two years under our belt, we still have so much to see. Our goal was to see all the western US and we have almost accomplished that goal. Be sure to join us on our travels by hitting the subscribe button.

If you missed our last post, we were in Monterey celebrating father/daughter birthdays. We have now returned to the Central Valley to take care of some business.

We landed at Riverbend RV park which is only a short distance from our house. If you are interested in visiting Sequoia National Park, this is a great place to stay with only 38 miles to the Visitor Center.

you can walk down to the King’s River while on the property,
We occasionally have seen wildlife. This is outside our rig.
A relaxing place to see and enjoy nature.

While we were in town, we spent some time giving our house some TLC. We had some painting done to the exterior of the house and later to the interior of the house.

We took a little break and went to a fabulous Harvest Host named Big Rock Ranch for Mother’s Day. If you’re unfamiliar with Harvest Host, it is an annual fee membership that allows you to stay overnight at farms, wineries, breweries, and more with no camping fees. At this Harvest Host, the views were amazing, and the citrus smells were outstanding.

Anothony is a retired gourmet chef and fixes a great meal in his outdoor kitchen for his guests. Juanita, his partner in crime in the kitchen, was a wonderful hostess. The food was amazing! I can’t believe they cooked it all outdoors.

A petite filet mignon, baked potato and carrots.
Chicken breast Piccata baked potato and carrots
Fresh baked bread as well.

The sunset was breathtaking before dinner, and the next morning Tony gave us a bag of citrus.

Just breathtaking!
Isn’t the saying “When life give you lemons, make lemonade!”

Our dinner was better than you would get at a restaurant, and it was a wonderful Mother’s Day. We would definitely go again.

Moving Day

Topanga moved out of the dorms and into an apartment with her best friends that she met in college. So, we packed up a U-Haul and hit the road.

After moving the girls into their apartment, we went to our Hotel Best Western Palm Garden Inn in Westminster. https://www.reservationcounter.com/hotels/show/61272df/best-western-westminster-inn-westminster-california/?

After settling in, we walked across the street to Sizzler and had dinner.

The prime rib was much better than the steak, it had so much flavor. The steak didn’t have much flavor.

From Los Angeles, we came back to the valley to take care of some more family business, and we headed to our son’s house to see our grandbaby. I can’t get enough of this little cutie and her dad. She is getting so big!

We stayed at one of our favorite Harvest Hosts in Hillmar; Ken, the host, is awesome! This is a dairy farm that provides milk for the cheese factory in Hillmar. We absolutely love Harvest Host because we get to meet the most amazing people along the way.

Getting out of the valley

After being in the valley for a month, we felt the need get away for a little bit. We traveled to Bakersfield as we traveled to Los Angeles again. This time we stopped at Orange Grove RV Park and Resort in Bakersfield off of highway 58 over the Tehachapi’s. https://www.orangegrovervpark.com/?

Each site has an orange tree and the smells are great. We have stayed here before and enjoyed it. When you get there, you first turn into the property and see the office. The check in is super easy.

Outside the office is a pool that we sat and put our feet in to cool off.

Beside the office, is a relaxing clubhouse with a pool table upstairs. We enjoyed a few games on a break for Andrew.

The view down below is a nice place to sit and relax.

They have a nice little dog park for your fur babies.

While we were in Bakersfield, Andrew decided to surprise me with a dinner reservation at the Buck Owens Crystal Palace. https://www.buckowens.com/ This is a country music Legendary Music Venue where legends have sung.

The Encore Steak Sandwich was very good!
Dorthy’s Favorite Filet Mignon was so very good. The meat was cooked to perfection of medium. I loved it!

The opening act was so fun, and Kelly was able to get people engaged with the music.

The main act was Stampede, a local band that performs often at the Crystal Palace. People were on the dance floor having a good time burning off the dinner that they enjoyed.

It was such a great date night!

We next headed down to Los Angeles and stayed at the fabulous Valencia Travel Village in Valencia. We have been here many times on our way to the Los Angeles area. While here, we visited the Canyon Theatre Guild in Newhall to enjoy the show The Play That Goes Wrong. Anything that can go wrong, did wrong; It was a quirky and funny play.

Miss California Send off

If you have been following us, you know that our youngest daughter is involved with the Miss America Organization. She is the current Miss Culver City and they had a nice send off for family and friend to wish the girls good luck for the Miss California Scholarship competition. We had a nice lunch at Fu’s Palace Restaurant in Los Angles https://www.fuspalacela.com/

She had a wonderful time and it was so nice to meet everyone and enjoy a good meal at the Fu’s Palace Restaurant in Los Angeles.

Next, we headed to Gilroy for a wedding for a family friend. Our family has known the groom for many years while the boys grew up. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, and we danced the night away at Eagle Ridge Golf Club.

It was so nice to spend time with my boys.

Stayed tuned as we go to Visalia and we pack up our house! If you enjoy reading about our adventures, please hit the subscribe button and travel with us.

Home time

After Calico we heading home to catch up and take care of some personal family

obligations. We had some highs and lows during our month long stay in Ca. We had a relaxing few days enjoying the sunsets in the Fresno area while our Jessie enjoyed Millerton Lake.

Next we made it down to Long Beach to visit with our youngest daughter while she competes in the Miss America Organization. Thrilled to report this year she was crowned Miss Culver City and will be competing once again for the title of Miss California!

While driving in Los Angeles, we stumbled upon the Space X offices.

As we headed home we stopped at our first Cracker Barrel and had lunch. Our first experience was amazing. We were seated at a table immediately. A short minute later we placed our order and started diving into some excellent biscuits. One bite later, our lunch arrived. It was soo quick. We decided to order a Cracker Barrel Sampler plate to share and it was more food than we could finish.

If I do say so myself, the chicken was the best as well as the apples.

A few days later, we went to Chowchilla to help our son move. We stayed at The Lakes RV in Chowchilla https://thelakesrv.com/. If you like to golf, this place is great because you get Complimentary Golf for 2 people per site per night! We are not golfers but this sounds like a great deal. Unfortunately we were so busy with family in the 2 days we were there, we didn’t get any pictures.

After Chowchilla, my husband and I went different directions. He went to Fresno, while I caught the train to go to Emeryville. I got to visit my daughter and see the area where she lives.

As you can see it is cold and windy, but we took a break from the rain to walk around the area. This is a cool little park with a humpback whale play structure.

My trip was cut short and didn’t even get to stay 24 hours. I was immediately called home so my daughter and I drove 4 and a half hours home to discover that our beloved Jessie had taken a turn medically and our family had to make the difficult decision to put Jessie down. He was our beloved pet for 12 years and we loved him so much. He had some health issues and we were uncertain how he would do “on the road” He did amazing and seemed to live him best life on the road. His last 6 months, he gave us 3 health scares so we knew that this was the time. There are so many things we could say about Jessie. He was a confidant, a cuddle-buddy, and above all, a best friend to anyone and everyone. If you’ve followed our blog, you know the amazing adventures we shared with him. Our travels will never be the same without him. He was an amazing co-pilot and seeing the world through his eyes is one of the things I think we will miss the most.

A few days later, we got to celebrate our daughter in law with a baby shower for our first grandchild. Her shower was a beautiful brunch and she was showered with so much love from her friends and family.

Stayed tuned as we get back on the road as true empty nesters. We are hitting the road for Cleveland Ohio. Hit the subscribe button below to follow along with us.