On the Road, Castaic, CA - 8/13/2016

This morning we pulled up stakes and headed out of the San Francisco Bay area on our way to La Jolla just north of San Diego.  So we got on US-101 and starting heading south.  One thing we have to pay attention to is gas prices as with an 80 gallon tank and 8 mpg mileage it doesn't take much of a difference in gas prices to see a significant difference in how much it costs to fill the RV.  What I have been doing is using an iPhone application called Gas Buddy where subscribers report local gas prices and the app then uses GPS to give you gas prices around you or for any town you select.  In this area prices were being reported at $2.85/gallon but Gas Buddy showed that if we waited to fill up in Gilroy about 50 miles south I could save 50 cents/gallon.  So that is what we did and ended up saving about $27.00.  That makes Gilroy famous for two reasons, not only is it the garlic capital of the world but it has cheap gas.

In addition, Gilroy was where we needed to leave US-101 and head east to pick up I-5 which would take us to San Diego.  As we drove thru Gilroy, Pat was going gaga over the produce prices: avocados 10 for $1.00, cantaloupes 5 for $1.00, etc.  This southern end of the Santa Clara valley is rural and has lots of farms.  After crossing the Diablo Range of hills we met up with I-5 and headed south.

We were in the San Joaquin Valley know as the "Food Basket of the World."  As far as the eye could see were farms growing almonds, pistachios, grapes, cotton, vegetables, etc.  Also a lot of locally made billboards complaining about the negative impact of government on the area.  One that we saw a lot was "Dams versus Trains" and it took some research to figure this one out.  Turns out is it a complaint that the state government is spending too much money on commuter/light rail and not enough on irrigation water projects to help the farmers.  We did see a lot of land that was not under cultivation due to lack of irrigation water.

At the southern end of the valley we came to what is know as The Grapevine.  This is the nickname for I-5 as it goes up the Grapevine Canyon (named for the wild grapes growing in the area) and over the Tejon Pass thru the Tehachapi Mountains.  You start at 1,499 ft. in the valley, climb to 4,150 ft. in the pass and then descend to 1,350 ft. at the southern end.

As we reached the south end, we left I-5 at town of Castaic as this is where we will be spending the night.  We were right next to one of the old time California amusement parks, Magic Mountain.  I can remember when we lived in LA in the mid 70s taking the kids to Magic Mountain.  Today it is owned by the Six Flags corporation.  We quickly set up camp, it was hot but since it was late afternoon it had cooled off some and was only 103 out.  Here we are set up in our camp for the night.

Very nice campground but we will be here for just one night as tomorrow we continue our drive to La Jolla.