Travels with haRVy

We enjoyed our respite with my brother and his wife at their comfortable home in Camarillo, CA. Thank you both for your gracious hospitality. I hope we didn’t take too much advantage. We stayed a little longer than anticipated (again), due to a little incident with gravity Al experienced while riding his bike. It’s been nearly two weeks now and his injuries are healing well. We are both glad to be onboard haRVy and traveling once again. I guess this lifestyle suits us as neither of us are in any rush to be house-bound again.

Our next leg will take us north on Route 395 to the east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This territory is about as different from what we experienced along the coast over the past couple of months as one can imagine. Neither of us really favor the desert, but we wanted to see new things and visit friends up the road in Minden, NV. Our first stop was for a  lunch break in Fillmore, CA, where we found an array of old railroad locomotives, cars, and even a railway turntable.

After a quiet overnight in Rosamond with Boondocker’s Welcome hosts Randy and Lois, we were off to another interesting lunch stop in Randsburg, known as a “Living Ghost Town.” It’s pretty cool – not all “done up pretty” for tourists like some similar towns out this way. We almost felt like we’d landed in a different time. Actually, it’s not a ghost town at all: there are still about 80 inhabitants living here, mostly retired plus a few originals. The buildings have been left pretty well “as they were” and many along Main Street, dating circa 1903, still stand. The original structures are now businesses including several saloons, restaurants, a general store with an original soda fountain, antique stores, and a small historical museum. They do cater to tourists, but mostly on weekends. Our visit occurred on a Tuesday, so most everything was closed. I wasn’t disappointed though, as there were photos ops galore – plenty to fill up this blog post!

A privy with an antennae?

This place reportedly rocks on weekends.

The most recent restoration on this church was in 1975. Looks like it’s overdue for another.

We saw this interesting vintage RV conversion (half bus/half VW Westfalia) inside a fenced-in roadside lot.

Later the owner appeared and invited me to take a look around his home on wheels.

Pretty nice inside. Still can’t believe he drove this all the way to Newfoundland though! Wonder how much the ferry cost him. Al is curious as to how he fit under highway bridges too.