Tally Ho Travelers

CARDELLA WINERY, MENDOTA, CA MAY 27-MAY 29 Cardella Winery was a Harvest Host layover on our way through California.  The winery, its grounds and vineyards are stunning.   Cardella's family history dates back to 1902 when Carlo Cardella emigrated from Marlia, Italy to Firebaugh. For the last 100 years the family has been growing & marketing high-quality foods. What started as a small market has since blossomed into Cardella Ranch.  Located within the San Joaquin Valley, the ranch grows tomatoes, onions, almonds and white grapes.  The vineyards were planted in 1970 and have been sold to premier California wineries ever since. Today, the winery produces award-winning varieties.   The grounds of the winery are stunning.  The venue is used for weddings and other events.  Several couples were staying overnight there and it's nice to meet total strangers who feel like quick friends.   We purchased several bottles of their wine and enjoyed a bot...

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 23-27, 2025 We headed toward Bakersfield, CA on the 23rd and stayed for four nights at Bakersfield River Run RV Park.  It was a very nice place situated right along the Kern River.  It has all the amenities that people are looking for; a pool, laundry facilities, shower rooms, exercise room, game room, and places to lounge around inside & out.   We headed to Sequoia National Park on Saturday.  It was busy with lots of tourists.  Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the trails, so most of our sight seeing was done from turnouts, parking areas, and the car.  Not ideal, but "thems are the rules."   Giant Sequoias are the largest trees on earth.  They are also known as giant redwoods, Sierra redwoods or Wellingtonia trees.  Their native environment are the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California.  However, they can be found around the world.  They are listed as a...

CASTIAC, CALIFORNIA - MAY 20-23, 2025 After we left Yucca Valley, we headed to Castiac, California.  Why Castiac, you say?  Because it was on the route to where we were headed.  We like to only travel 3-4 hours a day.  We stayed at Valencia Travel Village RV park. Travel days can be exhausting.  Making certain that everything inside the motorhome is safe & secure, which involves pulling in the slides, putting bungie cords on the cupboards and tension rods in the fridge and our coffee station.  We have to secure the locks on the closet doors, bedroom doors, hallway door and shower door.  We also have clip locks on the fridge & freezer door, so they don't come open while on the road.  We then need to check outside the motorhome and disconnect the electric, dump the gray & black tanks, and put away all the hoses.   All outside storage compartments must be checked that they are closed up tight.  We roll up our rugs and ...

YUCCA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA - MAY 14-20, 2025 -  JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK From Lake Tamarisk, Desert Center, CA we traveled to Yucca Valley and stayed at Desert Drifter RV Park for 6 nights.  We chose this place for its close proximity to Joshua Tree National Park.  We were able to enter Joshua Tree NP while we were in Desert Center (from the south), but wanted to go back for a better look.  We are glad we did - traveling the park from the North to the South was much more interesting. Desert Drifter RV park was nothing much to speak of, it looked like a parking lot turned into a RV park.  They did have a pool, recreation room & laundry/showers, and also full hookup sites.  The location was  ideal though.   As you can see - a very small place right along the roadway. We were in site 10.  It served our purpose, wasn't really busy and was close to Joshua Tree and some other walking trails in the area. Joshua Tree National Park is one of our fa...

DESERT CENTER, CALIFORNIA When I say Desert Center, California is in the middle of nowhere, I'm not joking.  Desert Center, founded in 1921 by Stephen "Desert" Ragsdate, was once a bustling roadside stop.  With construction of Interstate 10, which bypassed Desert Center, and the closure of Eagle Mountain Mine, the town began its decline.  It is now largely abandoned.   In its prime, Desert Center offered travelers a cafe, service station, repair garage and even a swimming pool.  Today, many of Desert Center's buildings stand abandoned, with roofs damaged by wind and time and graffiti defacing the structures.   Desert Center today consists of Lake Tamarisk, abandoned buildings covered with graffiti and truckers & campers stopping to rest. Further on down the road, you will find Lake Tamarisk Desert Resort.  We stayed there for four nights.  It's a very well kept resort with sites for RV and permanent mobile homes.  The residents are m...

ERHENBERG, ARIZONA - MAY 7-10, 2025 We stopped in Erhenberg, Arizona for a few nights.  We like to only travel 3-4 hrs maximum a day.  We often stay at a place just overnight, or maybe two (if there is something in the area we want to check out).  River Sands RV Resort was just a stopover.   River Sands is new and still in the process of getting fully established.  Once it's finished, it's going to be a lovely resort. Our site was long and wide.  There were hardly any people staying there, so we had nots of room to roam around.  Their Club House, pool and hot tub were beautiful.   The pool is large with lots of chaise lounge chairs and tables with chairs covered by umbrellas.   The Club House has game tables, TVs, sitting areas, an exercise room with lots of equipment, and bathrooms/showers.  There is a beach and a fishing lake, too.  For your convenience there is also a very large laundry room.  Everything was immaculatel...

TUCSON, ARIZONA - APRIL 29-MAY 6, 2025 After our time in the Phoenix area we headed to another HipCamp location - Saguaro (suh-waa-row)  National Monument West, near Tucson.  Private property located right next to the Saguaro National Park.  It was a  true desert experience.  The sunsets were beautiful, and the howls of the coyotes could be heard every evening.  We were all by ourselves on this property, which included full hookups (water, 50amp electric, and septic).  We had no idea we would enjoy the desert so much.   We were surrounded by so many different types of cacti; Saguaro, Prickly Pear, Barrel, Jumping Charro, and Octillo.  We got to star gaze at night.  For the first time in my life I was able to see the constellation Leo in the sky.  Since I am a Leo, it was a special moment for me.  The birds of the desert sang us their lullaby every evening.  We heard white winged doves, cactus wren, Gila woodpeckers and Gam...