• Bluegrass in Blythe - Blythe, California, is here because of the farms that surround it. And the farms are here because of the Colorado River that meanders by and irrigates this fertile valley called the Palo Verde. The river draws tourists to town, and the warm winters draw snowbirds. Others just stumble onto Blythe while traveling over Interstate 10, which connects Phoenix, Houston and Jacksonville with Los Angeles.

• Out of Chaos, Beauty - Of all the things that we tend to take for granted, modern roadways are perhaps the most overlooked and ignored item on the list. It’s hard to visualize a time when smooth driving lanes didn’t crisscross the country or, worse yet, when gravel and petroleum products had yet to be mixed into asphalt. But if you can’t picture America without roads, you’ll never be able to wrap your mind around what western America looked like 750,000 years ago.

• Goliaths Await - I almost didn’t make the drive. After spending a couple nights at Lodgepole Campground in California’s Sequoia National Park, and having endured the tricky, winding mountain road to get there; I stood in the Grant Grove Visitor Center and thought about returning to camp, rather than taking on another slow-going canyon drive.

• Central Charm - Gone forever is our stereotypical view of California: crowds, traffic congestion, smog, the sprawl of look-alike subdivisions and the endless monotony of the Interstate 5 corridor. Yes, California has all of those things, but there is also another California, one of quiet beaches, vast mountainous forests and broad rolling hills of pasture land and vineyards - a lovely and serene California filled with peace, beauty and spiritual energy, as we discovered on a recent trip along the Central Coast.

• Delta Delights - The California Delta is an immense outdoor playground for RV enthusiasts of all ages and inclinations. A water sports pleasure garden with 1,000 miles of waterways, it offers a mind-numbing array of wet pursuits, but sometimes lost in the water’s wake are the interesting detours available to anyone venturing into this wonderland by road.

• Chowcilla-Madera Country Fair & The Madera Speedway - Madera Country is located in the heart of the Central Valley and the Central Sierras. The fair itself is located in the city of Chowchilla. Madera County is home to several museums including the Sierra-Mono Indian Museum, the Sugar Pine Railroad, and Fresno Flats Historic Park.

• Traveling with the Grandkids - San Diego is a great destination for a long weekend or more with the grandkids. We recently took a couple of ours there for a family tradition – the 48” Trip. You know, when they are tall enough to go on the “big” rides and old enough to travel without Mom and Dad underfoot. Here are a few tips to make a successful trip with grandkids.

• John Steinbeck’s Vision of America - John Steinbeck, the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Grapes of Wrath, set off in 1960 to drive across the United States in a custom-built truck camper, accompanied by Charley, his standard French poodle. Their odyssey resulted in Travels with Charley In Search of America, a bestseller that initially sold more volumes than any of Steinbeck’s other books and won the 1963 Paperback-of-the-Year award.

• CALIFORNIA’S FALL EVENTS CELEBRATE HARVEST & HALLOWEEN - Fall is a special time of year in the Golden State, especially with California’s mix of harvest festivals and Halloween offerings.

• News Release - (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) – Camping is more popular than ever, especially with families. With summer right around the corner, there is no better time to explore the outdoors than on a California camping vacation. With hundreds of beach, mountain, desert and lake campgrounds to choose from, visitors of all ages can easily find their perfect campsite in the Golden State.