OOPS! Frozen Hoses

November 26, 2010

Since we got here on the 23rd,  there has been no rain, but very cold, especially at night. The night of the 24th was suppose to get down to 21 degrees.  We left the water running all night to prevent freezing.  Good thing we did. I turned it off in the morning, but before I needed to use the water, it started to freeze up.  Thursday night was also going to be very cold. We spaced out and totally forgot to leave the water on. Bad Decision. The hoses were frozen-no water. We didn't really need it so we just let it thaw naturally. It took until almost 10:00 am. 

Until today we have had clear blue skies.  Today made up for it. We had planned to do a little sightseeing, but scraped that idea. It poured. Maybe tomorrow.

Even tho we are in the middle of nowhere, it is a good base to see quite a bit.  We are about an hour away from Monterrey.  One day we plan to go on a car trip to Salinas, Monterrey, Carmel by the Sea and Big Sur. We saw all of this area in 1975, but that was certainly a long time ago.  There is also the Pinnacles National Monument. I have no idea what it is, but I have heard it is a must see place, so off we go.  There is a Christmas Lighting Parade tonight in the Historic Downtown area of Hollister. We thought of going, but Denny is fighting a cold and it is raining.  Would have been nice to see a small town parade.

This is how high tech we are now. Denny is reading the Seattle Times on his Kindle. This is our typical morning. Drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  Hopefully no one had too many hassles  dealing with all the snow.

Change of Plans

November, 22, 2010

Our first views of the ocean on Hiway101.  As you can see, the weather was rainy and very cloudy

The biggest worry about traveling south in the winter is the Siskiyou Mountains between Oregon and California.  Last year we were lucky, sailed right thru.  Not so this year.  When we were in Albany Or., we had to make the decision to go forward or choose the super secret way to go to California without going thru the Siskiyou's.  Checked the cams at the summit. The internet is a wonderful thing. The summit was very, very bad. Snowing hard, with severe winter conditions. No place for hauling a 35'  5th wheel.  We picked the super secret way. At Grants Pass, we took a right turn onto 199 to 101 in California.   Hiway 101 is beautiful, but not the best way for a large 5th wheel.  Hiway 199 takes you thru the Siskiyou's, but at a much lower altitude.  All of 199 and 101 is very, very curvy with alot of ups and downs.  Most of the time it was raining.  It is hard on the truck and RV and very stressful for the driver.  Hard for Denny to take in the beauty when he concentrating so hard  on driving.  We first stopped at Klamath, Ca. for the night.    It had been raining for days and it rained the entire time we were there. Even tho it was a flat, open space, the  ground was so saturated with water that he had to use 4 wheel drive to get out.  After 1 1/2 days of stressful driving, Denny was able to get back onto I-5. Hopefully we won't have to go that way again.

Good brakes, A wonderful thing

When we left Sat. morning, there was crystal, blue sky.  By the time we got to Olympia it was raining.  It rained off and on all the way to our campground,  San Benito in California.  South of Kelso/Longview  it was dry with no rain. As we came around a curve on I-5,  there was a very small car going 30 MPH. We were going 55-60.  First time Denny had to really use the brakes to avoid an accident. That car was coming up very fast.  It was very scary.  I had my brakes on. I don't think it helped him, but made me feel better. It certainly got our hearts pumping!  Took awhile to get back to normal. Our truck and RV is about 22,000 lbs.  I don't think there would have been much left of that little car. Not sure why she was only going 30 on the freeway.

Isn't this the tinest trailer you have ever seen?   It looks like a hard sided 2 man tent.  You would have to crawl in. Thought it might be a pop up, but it isn't.  I like our's much better

Just before we got to Albany, Or., our first stop, we decided to get gas at a truck stop. Wrong decision!  We were there about 45 minutes.  Oregon is the only state where you can't pump your own gas. There were about 10 pumps with only one guy working them.  He had to jump from one to another. He pumps the gas and does the cash/ credit card. Took us forever to get to the pump.  Then had to wait for the guy to get to us. When he did,  he said  that we had to go inside to pay for diesel.  Denny was not a happy camper. Not sure why he can do gas but not diesel.  When Denny got back,  he again had to wait for the guy to get to us. What a mess. Of course, we went on the worst possible day, middle of the day on Sat.

We were certainly glad to get to our first stop, the Blue Ox Rv campground.  We paid and went to the space they said. Oh no!, 2 small, yippee dogs were next to us. The owners weren't around.  They started barking as soon as we pulled up. No way were we going to stay next to them. Parks can make you leave if you leave barking dogs alone.  Had to change spots.

It was quite an eventful first day.



Can't Believe Our Perfect Timing

November 24, 2010

We were watching the news at a campground in Dunnigan, Ca. and saw a story about the airplane that went off the runway at SeaTac.  It also showed all the snow. WOW!  Were we shocked. When we left Sat. morning, they only talked of snow in the mountains.  They were certainly wrong. I called several people to see about the conditions and how they fared.  We left  8:30 am Sat. morning.  It started snowing Sat. night. What luck. If we hadn't left then, we would still be there. We have had a lot of bad weather, but nothing like snow. 

We are at our first official destination at San Benito Thousand Trail Preserve at Paicines, Ca. It is about 2 hours south of  San Francisco, east of Salinas. We will be here 2 weeks. I think we will have to go further south for warm weather. The park is in the middle of nowhere. We got here yesterday afternoon. The closest grocery store is 18 miles away. There are a couple of towns in between, but with only populations of around 200, the stores are more like a 7-11.  Right now there is blue sky with not a cloud in sight. It is chilly ( around 45), but nothing like your 25 degrees.

We got very quickly  into the laid back mode. We are both drinking hot tea and relaxing.  Denny is reading his Kindle. Darin and Heather got us both Kindles for a combo birthday/Christmas present. When we are on the road, we can't get any local news. We now get the Seattle Times everyday. Thanks to Darin and Heather, we are both so high tech.  Last year, getting on the Internet was iffy at best. When parks had it, it was very unreliable and in  some places we had to go to a community center. What a hassle. No more. Darin researched it for me and I  now have a device that  makes the RV and surrounding area outside a WiFi hot spot.  Denny can be on the Kindle at the same time I'm on the computer.

Had several adventures on the way down that I will post later. I wanted to talk about our good timing first.

Hope everyone is getting along in the snow. Hopefully it won't last long. One of the reasons we left early is that it is suppose to be a very hard winter. We wanted to get when it was still good. Lucky for us that we did  (barely)