I’m back from my shakedown cruise to the lake.  Our new bug out vehicle, which I’ve named Helen, performed admirably. She’s steady and sure and cozy. I had one big wrinkle which drove me home earlier than I would have liked but I knew it was not a big deal and that Tearful would “fix it” and he did. He’s an enlightened genius.

I picked the lake for this trip because it’s close and I’d been before and loved it. The town of Lake Isabella itself is kind of a sad little place. Not much to it beyond the gas stations and the Vons, a funeral parlor in a strip mall.  The draw for me was the free camping along the lake. There were a few other RVs and the weather was lovely but like last time, the wind at night was crazy go nuts. I felt like I was on a small sail boat being tossed by waves all night long.
Sometime in the middle of the night a man started shouting a name I couldn’t quite make out but I did make out that he was calling him a child molester. It went on for a while and I finally fell back to sleep and dreamed I woke up and there was a circus setting up right outside my windows. I think I’m over camping at this particular spot.

I do love the spots I found all along the Kern River, north of the lake and a hot springs, just south of it. There’s a little town, Kernville, where I stopped in for breakfast at the Big Blue Bear cafe. Had one of the tastiest breakfast burritos I’ve ever had and stopped to watch old ladies rockin’ out on banjos at the car show.

How can you not love a place that has rooms to rent above the saloon?