11 for 2011: Camp in a New Place

The perfect opportunity for us to try a new camping place came about when I was tasked to conduct a training in Ridgecrest, which is pretty much in the middle of no where.  But it was only an hour away from Lake Isabella, and work was paying for my mileage, so I definitely had to take advantage. 

The view from the visitor's center.  This particular welcome center was the most paltry of any that I had ever been to in terms of resources, but at least the view was pretty!

This was the first camping trip in which we didn't book any sites ahead of time.  Since it was relatively early in the camping season, Easter weekend, and the tail end of spring break, we knew that most sites wouldn't be at full capacity, so Jerry decided it was best to just drive around and find a campground that we'd click with.  Also, there wasn't much on the internet about Lake Isabella to help us make an informed and detailed decision anyhow.  (If you know Jerry, he is very meticulous in his research about picking a campsite- he'll actually go to Google Maps to view the site and to determine the proximity to bathrooms/water/trash etc.)

After passing up a handful of camping grounds around the lake, we ended up at Tillie Creek.  It was well maintained and pretty clean.  We were warned that it could get pretty windy at Lake Isabella so we made sure our own site had lots of trees.  Our site was awesome in nearly every way- except we didn't think that we'd end up with such terrible neighbors to the right.  All was quiet and peaceful- we had just finished up setting up camp when an SUV rolled up next to us blasting head-banger heavy metal music.  It was so bad that the folks two campsites away got annoyed too.  Not only did they have lousy taste in music, but they also were the "trying to be cool" types with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  Ugh.  Such posers.  Anyways, I have the bigger mouth and more confrontational attitude in the relationship, so I got to be bad cop and walk over to tell them to turn it down.  It was so loud that they couldn't even hear me.  They turned it like, SLIGHTLY down.  And male jerk #2 muttered not so quietly, "Don't be mad, neighbor" in a mocking tone.  Oh no they didn't.  But I let it go.  For the time being. 

The rest of evening #1 was quite nice.  Male jerk #1 came over and apologized for the music and said "oh we're actually quiet and respectful campers, sorry about the music earlier."  Alright, peace offering, I was satisfied with that.  (For the time being.)  We cooked a really tasty dinner, explored the campground via our bikes, and then had the BEST CAMPING SHOWER EVER.  I mean seriously Tillie Creek campground rocks for their FREE SHOWER with PERFECT TEMPERATURE and STEADY WATER PRESSURE.  And throughout night #1 instead of head-banger music, they were playing 80s classics!  The neighbors had redeemed themselves (for the time being). 

Day 2:

We drove around the lake and stumbled upon Campground 9, which was the perfect place to ride our bikes!  We had discovered the evening before that many of the trails near the lake weren't suited for biking as it was quite sandy and full of water filled ditches.  Campground 9 was perfect- paved, barely any cars or people (just some folks fishing) and had such gorgeous views.  I got in a lot of practice- over 10 miles! 

 

Along Sierra Hwy, there are a lot of horses and cows.  I asked Jerry to briefly stop so I could snap some shots.  One of the horses was super friendly and such a camera ham!  The other one (with the white mane) just wanted to eat haha.

So things got really interesting, or worse depending on the way you see it, after we settled into our tent for the night.  Instead of the nice 80s music from the night before, they continued blasting the heavy metal junk since the late afternoon.  On top of that, they were talking so loudly that you could hear everything they were saying on top of the music.  And it was not the most thrilling or scintillating conversation either.  Examples:

Chicken:

Female jerk: I'm making chicken.  How much chicken?  Do you want some chicken?  There's leftover chicken.  What should I do with the chicken?

Pillow:

Male jerk #1: Dude, that was my F'ing pillow!  Why'd you throw my pillow over there? Bro, that sucks what you did my pillow.  F you. 

Male jerk #2: Laughing uncontrollably.

Their own dog barking:

Dog: Bark bark.

Male jerk #2:  SHUT IT!

Dog: Bark bark.

Male jerk #2: Be quiet!

Dog: Bark bark.

Make jerk #2: SHUT the F UP!

(We actually don't mind dogs barking as it's natural for them to bark.  Funny how that was the one noise that they couldn't stand.)

Jumping over the fire pit while taking pictures:

Male jerk #1: I'm going to jump, you better take the picture.

Female jerk: I TOOK THE PICTURE!

Make jerk #1: No you didn't!  Do it again, you better do it right!

Male jerk #2: Dumbass, you didn't use flash!

Female jerk: Just shut up and jump again so I can take the F'ing picture!

It's too much to type, but imagine this particular conversation to go on for many more excruciating minutes.

At one point during the night, I couldn't stand it any longer and shouted out, "SHUT UP!!!!"  And for a glorious moment, it was silent.  For the time being.

And then:

Male jerk #2: You be quiet!

Me: Have some F'ing respect!  

Male jerk #1: Bitch!

Me: So much for being quiet and respectful campers!  

Female jerk: You shut it!

Male jerk #2: Let's turn on the music even louder.  (They actually turned it off completely a little bit later on, so go figure.)

Maybe I should have gotten up and walked over and politely told them to be quiet, but after dealing with a whole afternoon/evening of head banger music and on top of that trying to ignore their absolutely terrible meaningless conversations, I just had it and blew up (from the safety of my tent, no less).  Stupid jerks.  They are totally the reasons why people think Americans are so ugly.  Of course, while I was riding on my wave of bravado, Jerry was scared that they were gonna come over and vandalize our campsite.  So after giving me a proverbial pat on the back for speaking up, he then implored me to not say anything more.  Needless to say, I slept like crap the rest of the night.

The next morning we woke up fairly early, around 6:30.  Simultaneously packed up and cooked breakfast.  We could have been loud and obnoxious, but there were other campers around us, and it didn't seem fair to impose noise on our non-jerky neighbors.  We hopped into the truck and drove away just as they were getting out of their tent.  See ya NEVER jerks!  Enjoy your cancer sticks and beer. I heard that lung and liver cancer are real treats.

I don't want to end on a bitter note, because we actually had a nice time overall.  We cooked tasty food, got in lots of great biking, had beautiful weather, and the cherry on top were the nice hot showers.  The drive back was relatively short and scenic.  (I say this because Sundays usually mean a long and dreary 5-7 hour drive back, whether it's leaving Vegas, Union City, Yosemite, Death Valley, etc.) 

We were able to check out the Red Rock Canyon State Park.  It's so pretty!

Jerry took the opportunity to "gas" up the truck.  We generally bring extra gas on camping trips, and it was especially handy this wknd as we knew Costco was closed on Sunday.

More pretties:

Our final stop was at the Mojave Air and Space Port.  Worth a quick drive around, if you've got time to spare.

4 down, 7 to go!