We're in Grant's Pass, Oregon

Wednesday Evening

Katie and I left the casino parking lot around 11:00 this morning and drove north. We ended up on the 199 to Grants Pass.  (FYI - everyone in San Diego says "the" 5 or "the" 101.  I don't know why, but when I first moved down there, it sounded so strange.  Finally I started saying it, too.  Then I moved away and dropped the "the."  I moved back and went through the "the" conversion again, and I'm still doing it.  I'm sure it will fade away when I've been gone a while.)

Along the way I took these shots:

 As you can see if you click on the photo, I had already slowed to 28 mph.

 As we started driving, Katie found the sunny spot and was enjoying the warmth.

Crossing into Oregon:

Shortly after entering Oregon, we were in a small town named O'Brien that had a little store and gas station and post office with a police car outside. I thought this was the post office, and asked the woman.  If you click on it, you'll see the Post Office.  She said it used to be, but now it is next door, so I went over there and mailed a birthday card for my daughter, Kristy, who is 38 on the 30th.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KRISTY!  I hope the card gets to you by Saturday.

I bought some snacks and went outside to take a picture of the police car.  I guess this is what happens when a state has no sales tax. 

O'BRIEN POLICE

I'm not sure these are in the right order, but a few more photos along the way:

The Klamath River

My longest and most memorable vacation was a two-week trip to the Klamath River.  We stopped first at the Pitt River, where I learned how to fish.  Then we went on to meet friends and spent two weeks in the rain fishing for salmon.  It was so much fun, and I've loved fishing ever since.  That was in the early '80s, and this is the first time I've been to Klamath since then - 30 years later!

Driving along from Bodega Bay to Grants Pass brought back so many memories of trips taken in the past with people I think about from time to time.  Great memories.

We stopped at the Trees of Mystery and I took a photo of the front of the store and of Paul Bunyon and Babe, his Blue Ox:

They had beautiful flowers all around the area.  We took a break here, but I didn't take the "mystery tree" tour. 

 Paul Bunyon and Babe, the Blue Ox

I don't know what they had to do with the Mystery Trees, but they were in front, and HUGE.  See the woman under the light post?  That will give you some perspective on the height of these concrete statues.  Paul's right hand waved and he winked and spoke to the people looking up at him.

 Along the 199 - I would have loved to pull over and fish this area.

 A little back-up - Bicyclist in Tunnel?

While waiting in line, I saw a left hand turn into a Rest Stop, so we pulled over and went in.  Took a little break.  As I pulled in, Katie threw up, so we spent some time resting and walking.  That's the first time she's been sick in The Palms, but we have been driving some pretty twisty roads.  Monday when I was talking to the man driving the new Sunseeker rental, I mentioned how I was riding the yellow line bumps on my side, otherwise I can hear vegetation on the right brushing my rig.  He said he had the same thing, also he was car sick from all the turns, and he was driving!  So I guess poor Katie did pretty well to last until this afternoon before getting carsick. 

At the Rest Stop, I started talking to a woman named Dottie, and then her husband, Roger, too.  They have a new fiver, have been RVing for 50 years.  We had a nice conversation.  I mentioned that I was in Santee Lakes in June, and he said that's where he grew up.  They now live one town over, in El Cajon, and know Santee Lakes very well.  Small world.  

When we left the rest stop, we were back in the "tunnel" line up.  When the light turned green for us, we went through, and it wasn't a bicyclist.  It was dark in there, but it looked like workmen were applying a coating to the walls on the opposite side of the tunnel, and that's why it was a one-lane road through the tunnel. 

 My least favorite driving - a barrier on the left and a concrete wall on the right.  

There were workmen on ladders putting a coating

on the walls of the tunnel on the other side. 

We ended up in Grant's Pass and got gas at a Fred Meyer gas station for $3.729/gal - I checked my Gas Buddy app on my phone and it was the cheapest around, and the station was close to where we were, so we drove over.

 Gas Station Attendant - remember when?

Gas station attendant - I had forgotten this job title existed!  I haven't seen one in California for years and years.  They were efficient, quick and polite, and I didn't have to get out of the truck.  Nice!

Then I searched Wal-Mart on my GPS, and there was a Super Wal-Mart right across the street.  I called them, and they allowed overnight parking.  As an added bonus, I just found out the McDonald's in the store has free wi-fi.  Am I hitting the right stuff, or what???  

I dropped $60 at Wal-Mart, and on my trek back to The Palms, I noticed there was an Applebee's a few stores down, so I put away my purchases and locked Katie in the rig and walked over.  I ordered the fish dinner, which was really good and then a hot-fudge shooter. She forgot to put the dessert on the bill, said it would be "on the house," so I left her a big tip. And I have enough fish and broccoli left over for two more meals.

I have a full cupboard, fridge and freezer, so I'll definitely be eating in for a while.  I even got a huge artichoke at Walmart, so that will be dinner tomorrow.  Or lunch, maybe. 

We're settled in for the night, and going to bed early.

From Me and My Dog, have a good Thursday everyone!  : )

Overnighting at the Cher-Ae Heights Casino

TUESDAY
It's Tuesday evening - and we are parked in the RV lot of the Cher-Ae Heights Casino in Trinidad, CA.  It's a couple of miles from the beach we spent time at this afternoon.

I called first to see if I could overnight in their lot, and they said yes, come to the casino and complete the paperwork and then I could stay.  They were very friendly when I went in, and now I'm here overnight.  They have the usual gaming options, plus a nice, more expensive restaurant and a less expensive over the counter deli restaurant where you can get hot dogs, hamburgers, hot fudge sundaes, things like that.

The RV parking lot is above the Casino, and I am parked facing the ocean, through redwood trees.

 At the RV parking lot at Cher-Ae Heights Casino.

 The view from The Palms.

Katie and I walked to the edge and I took this photo:

 A little cove below the Casino - there is a small sail boat on the left.

A beautiful location. 

Unfortunately I'm not a gambler and I'm too frugal now to eat in their restaurant, although it had some good choices.   I plan to go over tomorrow before I leave and get a hot fudge sundae.  I feel like I ought to purchase something in return for parking here overnight, so I'm going to sacrifice myself on the altar of ice cream and hot fudge.

I'm going to eat in tonight, and have a wine/iced tea with my dinner.  

The fog that was coming in at the beach has burned off, and it's a beautiful, warm early evening.  I have the windows open, and can't believe I'm in such a beautiful location.

On another subject, I know it's not usual to drive as much as I did on Monday, especially on that narrow, windy coast route, but don't worry about me driving too far.  If I'm tired, I have no problem pulling over anywhere that feels safe and either resting, taking a nap, or spending the night.  I did the same thing on my first trip to Vacaville.  I guess it feels new and exciting and I want to get as many miles behind me as I can at the beginning.  Maybe I was a long-haul driver in a previous life. : )

I really enjoy driving this rig.  I made myself two CDs from my favorite songs, and play them most of the time. When I get tired of them, I turn on talk radio if I can find a station, and that entertains me.

When I was driving along the beach or through the redwoods, it was such a wonderful feeling to be in that beautiful environment listening to songs like Hallelujah by K.D.  Lang, Come Away with Me by Nora Jones or You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban.  Included in the mix are Elvis Presley, Billy Rae Cyrus, Sarah Brighton, Enya, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, The Canadian Tenors and more.  All my favorites from CDs I had at home and I copied them to my computer.  Then I made two CDs with the best and it ended up being 49 songs.  All kinds of music.  An on-going constant change-of-pace set of CDs.  So I am cruising along, mellowing out on the tunes, drinking my coffee, enjoying the ride.

We also stop a lot.  Even if it's just to check out an area, take Katie for a potty walk (or me), stretch our legs, etc.  I stopped once for propane (that was interesting - I'll post about that another time), once for gas. I drive into RV parks and State Parks to check them out and check pricing.

I've seen quite a few smaller rigs like The Palms since I've been on the road.  I saw another 24'  Sunseeker yesterday.  It's the first one I've seen on the road.  We passed each other a couple of times, with each of us stopping and starting again.  We both ended up stopping at the same place, and I went over to see how they liked their Sunseeker, which was a 2011 model 2300.  He said they were renting it to find out if they wanted to buy one.  It had the down bed and circular dinette, but no couch, and was very nice inside.  When they saw mine, I think they liked it better with the kitchen in the rear and the long couch, but if they had those, they would have lost their queen sized down bed.

Today, Tuesday, I've driven 106 miles - completely Highway 101, good, wide lanes, easy driving.  I had planned to continue on north after our stop at the beach, but I had checked out this casino before we stopped at the beach, and I thought I might come back for the night if they had free RV parking.  

Oh yeah, AND they have free 5-bar wi-fi.  Really sweet!

I'll post this tomorrow, Wednesday, since I've already published a really long post today.   I'm looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.  : )

WEDNESDAY
PS:  Late yesterday afternoon, I heard a loud vehicle and looked across the parking lot, and this is what I saw:

The thing was huge, way up off the ground, looked like a tank.  They parked all night, all closed up tight, but with three side windows open.  Kind of a scary looking vehicle, but they didn't make a peep.  I slept like a log last night, and woke up at 9:45 this morning, just as they were leaving.  It's 10:30 now and Katie is still in bed.  What a lazybones!

From Me and My Dog, on the road headed north, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  : )

Foggy beach weather - yeah!

Katie and I left Vacaville at 8:30 am Monday.  We drove over to Bodega Bay and then went up Coast Route 1 from Bodega Bay to Garberville - what a trip! From Vacaville to Bodega Bay to Garberville, it took me 11.5 hours to drive 246 miles. I was driving between 35 and 40 mph most of the way, with 10 to 15 mph around some of the turns.  There were quite a few hairpin turns.  

 We had the Pacific Ocean to our left most of the way, 

the rest of the time we were driving through farming communities or forests.  

Each was a winner for beautiful areas.

 Sun coming through the trees in the forest.

There were lots of areas with road construction and many places where the road was out and narrowed to a one-lane road with temporary red lights to control the lanes of traffic.  Coast Route 1 has pretty narrow lanes compared to 101 or Highway 5.

 One lane bridge

 

 Slide - construction ongoing to repair the lane.

 

 Super narrow lane - this is the worst lane I drove in.

I don't like these concrete barriers on both sides. 

No room for error! : (

101 - Yeah! Two wide lanes each way!

There were a lot of slides.  All the construction was very interesting when you aren't in a hurry.  I didn't take any photos of the most narrow roads or the hairpin turns, for obvious reasons.  I was holding my breath and not my camera.  Lots of narrow bridges - I discovered I love driving over bridges.  The lanes are more forgiving on the right side than the roads are, so I actually had more room.

This area had signs all along the road:  Danger - Tsunami Area.

I was very happy about all the pull-outs available all along the way on the coast route.  Most of the time I had the road to myself, and could drive as slow as I wanted, and I often wanted to drive pretty slow.  When I saw a car behind me, I just pulled over and let them pass.  They were grateful, and so was I to have the road to myself again.  This is not the route to drive when you're in a hurry.

The Palms drove like a dream again.  Katie seemed happy to be on  another road trip.  Here is her new place to sit while we roll along, where she can look out the windows on both sides of The Palms.  

 Katie's new perch while riding along. 

When I started getting tired of driving, around 6, I stopped at a state park and then a private park to check on prices, and they both wanted $35 a night - the state park had no hook-ups. There was no way I was paying that much to just sleep overnight and drive on again.  Around 8, I stopped for gas in Garberville, and right next door was an RV Park.  I called them, and he quoted me $28/night with water and electricity., $33 with sewer too. 

It's called Richardson Grove Campground and RV.  I went over and found a site. There were pretty barren sites and nice forested sites, but the ones with the trees were near a group of Christian teen-agers camping and making a lot of noise.  Nice noise - signing hymns, hooting and hollering, etc, but still...  They were pretty noisy, so I opted for the plain site area.  

 Pretty barren, but it worked for an overnight.

Office and store

Sites under the trees.

This is a great campground for overnights - I don't know about longer stays.  There was no Verizon coverage, no TV and no Internet.  Since I'm traveling alone - I can only talk to myself for so long, and didn't feel like reading.  

When I checked out this morning, I noticed they are also a Passport American park, which I just joined, so I got my site for half the $33 rate, or $16.50!  Nice park, nice people, nice price.  

    

 This tent is right next to the freeway, at a 4-way stoplight crossing.  

Can't believe they are getting away with camping here.

Katie and I are at the beach at Trinidad Bay right now, taking a break, having lunch and writing the blog.  This is where we are now:

 

Haven't seen many interesting birds.

It's really quiet and pretty here, a good place to stop for lunch.  After the mid-90 degree weather in Vacaville, this foggy beach weather is really nice.

I'm looking for a great, inexpensive place to camp for a week or two - probably in Oregon.  And now... the fog is coming in and my view is going away, so...  back to our road trip.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  : )

Swimming and squirt guns

Nothing much going on - it's been a quiet week, just hanging out with Katie, taking lots of walks, and laundry and some housekeeping.  It's amazing how dusty The Palms gets.

I'm still here in the same RV park, but I'll be leaving soon.  I noticed this morning that the water coming out of the tap is not clear - kind of a light tan color, and that concerned me. I don't want to use the water at all, I don't want to shower with it, or wash my hands in it, and tomorrow I'm going to unhook from the water.  I have a tank of clean water that I can use until I leave on Monday, and I can still be hooked up to the sewer and electric until then. 

It's been really heating up here, I had the A/C on all day for the first time, and rather than going up highway 50, I'm thinking of driving up the coast instead where I can enjoy the ocean air temps.  I'm not sure yet which way I'll go when I leave, but I'm leaning toward the coast route.

My grand kids came out again and spent the afternoon with me today.  I went to Lauren's gymnastic class first, then Kristy drove us here and we had a picnic lunch in the shade under the grape arbor.  When Kristy left to go to work, we took Katie for a walk and went over to the office and got ice creams, then the kids swam. 

After swimming we walked back to The Palms and the kids had their "outdoor shower" with my outdoor shower.  I like the idea of cleaning off the pool water, and they just love that shower and didn't want me to turn it off.  They danced around in the water showering down until I finally shut it off and got them dry.

After they were dressed we filled their new squirt guns and they played with them for a while until it was just too hot, and we went inside The Palms where the A/C was going.

We played computer games until Matt came after work and picked the kids up to go home.

I need to do some shopping and other errands, so Kristy is going to lend me her car to get those things done, and we'll spend the weekend together before I leave.

I'm starting to get excited about heading out again. I'm finding that a week or two is enough in one place, and then I'm ready to move on.  That was what I had originally planned to do as I move from place to place, and that seems to be what is working for me so far. I think the heat here and the poor water quality in this RV park have also given me a reason to think about moving on, too.

I had made an appointment to have vent covers installed as well as a back up camera and a few other things, but I canceled it.  I'm thinking I'll wait until I'm further north into Oregon where they have no sales tax, and look for a good RV place there to do the work.  If you have any recommendations, let me know.

From Me and My Dog, have a good Thursday tomorrow!  : )

Grandkids' visit

It's been a busy few days with my Vacaville family.  Kristy came to get me on Friday morning and we went to Lauren's gymnastics class.  Afterward we drove Kristy to her office to see a client, and we took the car to do some grocery and Camping World shopping and lunch. Then we got Kristy, and she drove us to the RV park, where Andrew, Lauren and I had a wonderful couple of days.

We played computer games, took walks, bought ice creams to drip on ourselves in the heat, tried unsuccessfully to take naps, went swimming, did fun crafts, ate good kid meals of little blueberry muffins and fruit for breakfast, hot dogs, cheese quesadillas, chips, popcorn and yogurt treats in the evening, stuff like that.

 Popcorn and TV after dinner

 Super-duper crafts and artistry in action

 Yummy Ice Creams - available in the office.  Messy and yummy on a hot day!

 Do these kids look like they are ready for a nap????

 Beautiful Lauren

Awesome Andrew

 Andrew splashing  :)

This was the most fun of the pool time - 

Bucking Bronco Brother!

Andrew has such patience and carried Lauren on his back over and over again, playing bucking bronco.  She loved it.  They both laughed out loud the whole time.  So much fun!

They were perfect little kiddles and this morning Kristy picked us up and we met up with their Dad (who had to work this afternoon and brought his own car), Grandma, Grandma, Aunt Allison and Uncle Wes at a nice restaurant where we all had brunch.   

After brunch, Kristy and the kids and I drove to Antioch where we visited with my Mom and Dad, who will both be 89 in a few months.  Afterward, we stopped at Denny's for “lunner” – wow, the food was great! – and then they dropped me off at The Palms.  

Katie had been here alone from 9 am to around 5:30, and she did great again.  I’m really proud of her, and so relieved that she seems to be okay with being alone here.

 This evening we are chilling out, and going to bed early, then tomorrow taking it easy.  Andrew has a T-Ball game tomorrow at 5, so Kristy is going to pick me up again to go with them.   

Kristy did well on her crutches today, but after an entire day of up and down and walking, she was pretty done when they dropped me off.  Hopefully she will get a lot of rest tonight and the kids will help her, since Matt works this evening.  With Home Depot, his schedule can be early mornings to open, mornings, afternoons, evenings, and even overnight if needed for inventory.  I’ve never had a schedule like his, but he’s always had varied hours, and it doesn’t seem to bother him.

And now I'm going to relax and sip my new favorite drink - don't laugh, it's really good - iced tea and white wine with lots of ice. 

From Me and My Dog, Katie - have a great Sunday evening, everyone!  : )