We continued our southern progress today, leaving the Lighthouse RV Park in the Sacramento River Delta town of Isleton and getting back out on the substandard paving demonstration section known as CA-12. About a dozen lumpy miles later, we turned south on I-5, the main north-south interstate through California. We continued on 5 until we were south of Stockton where we swung east on CA-120 to I-99 at Manteca where we again headed south.

I-99 runs parallel to I-5 from north of Sacramento down to the Bakersfield area but we prefer I-99 since it is less boring, passing through many farming communities. I-5 mostly just passes through dead-flat farmland with nothing but more flat in the distance and an occasional glimpse of aqueducts of the California Water Project moving water from the Delta to thirsty Southern California.

According to our very shaky projection of about three hours of transit on I-99, we were flummoxed by some poor travelers whose $600,000 fancy and gigantic diesel pusher RV inconsiderately erupted in flames and backed up traffic for about five or ten miles, adding about a half hour to our trip. Near the town of Selma, a trucker who neglected to look in his mirror abruptly careened his tractor and 53′ trailer into our lane while we were occupying the space he wanted, forcing us into the #1 lane, a lane we rarely use because California limits us to 55 mph and condemns us to the ridicule and upraised middle digits of the motorists passing quickly on our left.

We finally made it to Visalia where we turned east on CA-198 and headed toward the Sierra foothills community of Lemon Cove. There we pulled into the Lemon Cove Village RV Park where we stayed as we passed through this area this last spring. When we were here back in late April or early May, our stay was pleasant with no nightime noise, balmy weather and Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks just a short drive up the hill into the Sierras.

Last time we were here, we were assigned a space where there were no substantial trees to the south, a primary requirement to get satellite TV reception. This time, despite the park being almost completely vacant, we were assigned one of the only spaces with tree to the south so we have a long piece of cable to reach our antenna which is set up in an adjacent RV space. We also found some minor issues with the site electrical pedestal but we quickly got around that. This evening, one of the very few neighbors decided that everybody in the park wanted to hear their loud music which, based on the way it sounded, was mostly solos for bass guitar, bass drum and tom-tom. The only recourse when encountering inconsiderate twits with loud music complaints is to get ahold of park staff to have them enforce the anti-jerk rules. Unfortunately, two attempts to contact management were absolutely ignored and, despite closing all our windows and doors, turning on the air conditioning and turning up the volume on our TV so even the deaf could hear it, we were still serenaded by the type of music that makes people hate those making it.

It is unfortunate that the folks running the park let assholes run roughshod over their other customers because it is a very nice park with good access roads, lots of birds (although we currently can’t hear them), adequate spaces, full hookups and some WiFi. In addition, it is located in a good spot to stop on our long treks through Central California. Maybe we should look elsewhere next time.

See the fricasseed RV. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Md5k6RrhtJUGG5Ku9