Monday was the longest travel day we will have for the whole trip of two weeks with Lassen, 340 miles, which is about 100 miles more than I like to drive in a day. In order to help the miles go by and to keep Lassen engaged Pat read a book from the dozen she and he checked out from the Livermore library last Friday. Lassen has read a number of the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine so when he saw several in the library that he hadn’t read it wasn’t difficult to select a few more. Pat often reads books for me when we travel so this activity is part of our routine. The story really does raise a few goosebumps and I enjoyed hearing the story along with Lassen.
Our destination was Rancho Oso RV Park in the rugged hills a little northeast of Santa Barbara. This RV Park is associated with the 1000 Trails network, of which we are members, so the cost for two nights was 0.00. In addition to that nice feature it is a ranch with horses and lots of other animals, as well as a full service RV park. We found a nice site to park our trailer and then headed out to explore the facilities. After dinner we played a little baseball. Lassen was keeping score and told me that it was 10 to 1. Guess who had the 1. Well, he surely ran many more bases than I did. The whole exercise was to wear him out so he would be ready for bed. When we got back to the trailer we played Uno until bedtime.
We have begun to develop a routine when we are parked at an RV park … Lassen wakes up first (about 7:00) and entertains himself until we get up about a half hour later. He helps set the table and then eats a good, healthy breakfast. After breakfast he helps clean up; Pat washes dishes, I dry, and he puts everything away. After chores are done he practices his guitar for about 15 minutes and does some situps and pushups to help him get in shape for playing football. Another chore he has when we arrive at an RV park is to put down the four stabilizer jacks after putting the plastic pads down on which the jacks will rest, and we are getting ready to hitch up he raises the jacks. This is a big help to Pat who usually has that job.
On Tuesday morning we went down to the corral and stable to see if we could arrange for him to have a horseback ride. There was space for one in a group leaving about a half hour later. So, we got Lassen signed up and fitted with a helmet. While waiting we wandered around the barnyard. We met a ranch hand who wanted us to meet the newest arrival, a seven-week old colt name Sonny and her mother, Windy. We spent some time feeding them carrots and petting them. Back at the “saddleup area” Lassen was introduced to his horse and helped to mount Bandit and given some basic directions as how to make him go, stop, and turn. Then he was off for an hour’s ride. When he returned with a big smile we learned all about Bandit and what a great horse he is. I think a few memories were made on Tuesday.
RVing Reflections 