The Orange Grove RV Park and an Unexpected Surgery!

After we left our overnight at the Harvest Host location in Lodi, California, we traveled south to an RV park just outside of Bakersfield.  We only planned on staying at Orange Grove RV Park for a week, but ended up staying two due to a dental emergency that came up with me (Sarah).  I had to have a molar extracted, which for some reason ended up being much more painful and took much longer to heal than when I had my wisdom teeth removed.  I also broke out in hives from the antibiotics, so my face, neck, and chest had a beautiful rash of bumps!  I had trouble with that for about a week, so we figured it was a good idea to stay put until my pain was lessened.  

Even though we were just laying low until we could move on, it really wasn't a burden to be at this park!  Each site in the park is surrounded by gorgeous orange trees, which guests are welcome to pick from as they like.  They were so good, too! It also has a nice 8 ft. pool, a small but nice gym, a very clean laundry room, and lots of designated space for the dogs.  The park was peaceful and we really enjoyed our time there.  The staff was so friendly to us, and even offered to deliver our mail to our site.  The kids loved the pool and the free doughnuts each morning after November 1st.  With all that I had heard about the Bakersfield area, I was expecting the park to be less-than-desirable, so we were very pleasantly surprised.  The only negative was the insect population!  I'm sure this is due to the fact that sugar ants love sugar and there is fruit all over this place!  We had to spray the ground around our RV to keep critters away, but after that it was only a problem in some areas of the park outside.  

Since I wasn't feeling very well, we only did a few things outside of the park.  Most of the time, we caught up on school work, went swimming, took walks, and played games.  Just around the corner from the RV park is the California Fruit Depot, which we visited once.  We enjoyed picking out dates and oranges from the farm, and even got a few date milkshakes to take home and share.  They were very vanilla-y and delicious! 

In front of one of the houses at Kern Village

The other place that we visited was the Kern Pioneer Village.  This was another ASTC Passport museum that we got to enjoy for free.  This stop was interesting.  It is a "village" of staged homes that have been relocated to this site from where they originally were in Bakersfield.  They include several homes, stables, worker's quarters, a doctor's office, a fraternity house, an authentic train engine from the 1800's, and quite a lot more.  I had mixed feelings about this museum.  On one hand, it does give visitors a feel for how the pioneers lived; how their homes and offices were equipped.  On the other hand, two things bothered me:  One, the place is in poor repair.  This was probably more noticeable to me because we had just come from the pristine High Desert Museum in Bend.  But everything is dirty and spidery and you don't really want to lean in too close to see things. Second, you can't get too close to the displays because of the plexiglass that has been put up just inside of the entryway of each building.  Some of the views are pretty close up, but unfortunately some aren't.  All in all, this was a worthwhile stop, but if I had had to pay for admission, I might feel differently.  

We took a picture of this pioneer woman because we all agreed that she looks like a relative of our friends, Taylor and Tristan Nichols!  The kids said it looks like Tristan and Taylor combined.

And this made me think of you, Dawn!  Can you imagine having to go to the dentist during pioneer times?!?  I'd have to be hurting pretty badly to make myself climb into that contraption!  Eek!

When Jordan saw this box car home, she said, "Now these people were boondocking!"  Haha.

So that was how we spent our two weeks in Bakersfield.  I'm mostly recovered now, but still have soreness and the amoxicillin rash is still fading away.  This was our first experience needing to arrange medical care on the road.  I found that because the RV life is so flexible and there are so many options available nowadays, this wasn't as difficult to deal with as I thought it would be.

NOW, who wants to see the video of me after surgery?  Jeff left two of the kids in the car with me while he filled my prescriptions and they decided it would be funny to record mom while she was out of it!  I have to say, I think I held it together pretty well, but there were a some funny moments.  I've never had general anesthesia before, so it's strange to me that I don't remember any of it!