FAREWELL TO THE DELTA FOR NOW

Sadly it is time to leave our watery home and head back out on the road. We look forward to adventures in the rig however. We have the interior of the houseboat finished to our liking with the final touches of an office where one set of bunk beds used to be and sliding doors (thanks to Zoe’s son) on the closets where the other bunk beds used to be. We decided to wait on the engine tune-up and pontoon cleaning until the spring. It didn’t make sense to get the engine up and running and then leave it all winter. The boat is officially christened “Sandra B” now in honor of Sandra Bullock. We plan to send her a picture with the hope that she will autograph it.

We have enjoyed watching the harvesting of the fields here. Hundreds of huge trucks with trailers rolled by the marina filled with tomatoes. We never knew there could be so many tomatoes in one area. I guess they are used for salsa, ketchup and there is a Campbell’s tomato soup factory nearby. The huge machines for harvesting the corn and grains were amazing. They go through the fields cutting down the crops, shredding the roughage and shooting the corn or grain into waiting trucks. The corn is dried corn and used for feed. These fields are where the sandhill cranes gather every fall to glean the leftovers. We went out to see them but they haven’t arrived yet. Large gaggles of geese have flown over though.

We went from the boat to the Fulltimers pre-rally of the RVW National Convention. It was nice to have a smaller group to get acquainted with. Zoe had her usual humungous campfire and we had s’mores for dinner one evening. On the last day, a bunch of us rented a ‘party boat’ (small open pontoon boat) and took a cruise with Cap’n Toni at the helm. It was a pleasant afternoon and we saw many birds along the way (coots, hawks, egrets and cormorants). There was a classic boat gathering at the marina with lots of gorgeous Chris Craft and other boats gleaming with polished woods.

From there we went on to the National Convention at the Lodi Grape Festival Grounds. The number of women and huge rigs was overwhelming. There were over 200 rigs and 400 women. Lodi was chosen as this was the site of our very first RVW Convention and this is the tenth anniversary of that event. We caught up with lots of old (literally in many cases) acquaintances and had great ‘happy hours’. The seminars and vendors were greater than ever and the whole thing was run the best we’ve seen. They had a ‘casino night ‘ one night with ‘play money’. Zoe looked like a millionaire with rack of chips in front of her at the craps table. Don’t ask about my chips at the black jack table.

From here, we head out to Morro Bay, the site of the film about our houseboat and where we will visit Zoe’s son and his family in nearby San Luis Obispo..