Hooray For Hollywood

Originally Posted on Just We Family Blog

Vacation Blog – Day 4

Our day got started a little later than we would have liked from our Vacaville stop but after a couple of stressful days driving through four seasons of elements and varying elevations, I know Captain Tight Grip was enjoying a few deep breaths closer to sea level.

What happens to us as we get holder where heights are concerned? I loved rides as a kid and I’ve driven through the Pocono’s and through West Virginia. My cousin also lived close to the central Pennsylvania border, and sometimes I would cross and zip my Fiero up and down the steep inclines just for fun. He also lived at a hilltop resort – literally called Hilltop, along the Southern Tier Expressway. Heights never seemed to bother me but for some time now, I am more of a stand five feet back from the railings edge kind of guy.

While it was nice to meet green, flat plains, I’ve come to terms with the fact that mountains are just part of most of our journey. Not that I didn’t have this in the back of my mind. For one thing, I stayed with a friend in Hollywood for nine days at 26. I remembered it being in a valley and driving up a long windy road to get a good shot of the Hollywood sign, but I arrived and left California, by plane that time so I was not exposed to anything like this.

While today’s early journey was mostly flat, there were many inclines without guard rails where a slight oops might not have sent you down a canyon, but the drop would have at least done some damage if not still death.

That was nothing apparently, because then we met 4,000 feet elevation again although this time, through four lanes of traffic where I could at least plop myself in a middle lane and slowly trail a transport through windy, awe-inspiring views. Thankfully there wasn’t snow and ice, so there was that.

I met a nice young man getting gas just before flat land met another National Forest because along the west coast, both those words seem to signify biggy-sized. He was stationed locally, but he was from San Diego. We talked about the crazy gas prices in California, and the fact that we should visit his hometown during our travels.

Thank you for your service, young sir.

It wouldn’t be right to arrive at our next RV site in the daylight, so we didn’t, but thankfully night manager Albert was a treat to have help us 10-point turn our RV backwards into a site. He also let us borrow an extension for our waste connection, which fell off while we were unloading. Albert was not as lucky as I have been to avoid excrement on my fingers. He was a kind, understanding champ. Quite a character.

It was a lot of driving through 2,000 miles or approximately 21 hours on the road, to finally kiss the ground in Hollywood but if nothing else, I can say we did it. It was no small feat but for the most part, the feet weren’t insignificant.

---

Back to Day 3 – Vaca Ville California

Day 5 – Just Wanna See Some Palm Trees