WILDERNESS LAKES, MENIFEE, CA

Nov, 30, 2016

This is our first destination park of our travels. We have been coming here for many years, but we got the best site we have ever had. There are canals that go thru the park, so several sites back up to the water.  Three of the four times we have been here have been on the canal, but never as nice as this one.  Our site is on a corner, so no one is beside us. Also we got to back up further than usual, so we don't even see our neighbors. Every window has a view of the water.  The previous people had just left, our lucky day. We walk around to find a good site, then I wait there while he gets the RV. Several people stopped to ask if we were taking it, felt very lucky. All of these pictures were taken from our chairs outside . They stock the canals with birds, ducks and fish. Can't resist taking pictures of all the different birds and ducks. Sorry

The bikes  on the left are ours on the back of the RV

Denny in our chairs, relaxing after our first bike ride.

As I said before, we went on our first bike ride.  I have seen a lot of the Tiny Shows on HGTV, but never saw one in person, but saw it on our bike ride. Would love to see the inside

ON THE WAY AGAIN..........

Nov, 23, 2016

So excited, finally started on our trip. Weather doesn't really look good getting to CA, but hoping for the best.

So far so good. A little rain, but not much. Went thru the Siskiyous Mountains  with no problems. It was going to snow at Weed, CA, our usual stop after the Summit of the Siskiyous, so went on to Redding, CA. 

It has been in the news about finding a lady on the side of the road on I-5 that had been kidnapped and beaten from Redding, CA. We were driving on that exact road the day after she was found.  WOW!  Glad we didn't pass by when police  were still there.

We stopped at the Orange Grove RV park at Bakersfield, CA. It is the last park before Tehacaphi Pass. There are 3 orange trees at every spot. When in bloom, they let you pick as many as you want. Never been here this time of year to be able to pick them. I picked a bag full. They were so sweet and juicy, I have never had them this fresh.

It was going to snow the next day, so we decided to stay 2 days at Bakersfield. We saw other RV's pull in earlier than usual because I think they had planned on going over the Siskiyous  and saw the forecast of snow.

The next day we went over the Siskiyous, no problem except for fog, visibility only quarter mile. Cajon, our last pass was no problem.  Nice to be over all the passes.

ON TO WYOMING

July 9, 2016

On an earlier post, I mentioned that to get Denny to agree to this trip, I added a spot that I knew he wanted to go to. This was the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.  We had been there in 1975 and Denny always wanted to go back.  We spent 4 days there.  My shock came when I wanted to reserve a campground. When we go places, we like to get as close as possible plus we like our amenities, meaning full hookups of power, water and electric.  There was only one in Jackson, but it was $92 a night. WOW!!! have never paid that much before, but as they say in real estate, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.  There were places further away, but didn't want to spend our time and diesel getting there. When I was  first quoted that, I thought they were thinking  I wanted the adjacent hotel, but no, it was for the campground. For that price, we expected something very nice, but, again, no.  It was okay, but far from what we expected.
 When we left and got to our next campground in Idaho, we met some people that also had stayed there.  We all had a laugh about how bad it was for $92.  The campground in Idaho was 100% nicer and MUCH cheaper. 

I was actually a little disappointed in the park.  You know sometimes when you remember things, they are nicer than they really are?  Well, that was the case here. You can't really get close to the mountains, you just drive around in a big valley looking at them from a distance. Not nearly as spectacular as other national Parks. It  does have one unique fact. It is the only mountain range that actually grows. Every year it grows an inch.  I, of course, geocached along the way.

Beautiful Jenny Lake

This is a resort on Colter Bay, didn't expect to find this

This was a Virtual geocache. You take a picture of a certain place and log it to get credit. This is the only kind allowed in National Parks.  There are no containers that  you sign a log.



After visiting the park, we went to Teton Village, a ski area. Nice, but doesn't have the hills like our area. Very expensive place to ski. It is a big destination area with hotels, condos, restaurants and shopping

After 4 days, we started for home. Made a HUGE mistake. We bought a RV GPS this year. It is geared for RVs and tells you if a road isn't good for  it.  I looked on the map and decided it would be nice to take a different way out. The road looked good in the beginning. Our GPS told us it wasn't rated for RVs, but it looked good to us. MISTAKE !!!!!!!!   As soon as we  decided to go for it. it became steep and very curvy. Hills are rated for steepness, grade 6 is about the steepest you want to go on in an RV. This was rated as a 10,  no place  for us to turn around. Denny said it was the most stressful, scariest road that he has ever driven on. At the top, we had to stop because our transmission was overheated.

We definitely learned from now on to trust our RV GPS!!!


We were gone a month. Never have traveled in the summer,  it was a nice change since we didn't travel last winter

SHORT ROAD TRIP TO COLORADO

JULY 2016

We took a short road trip in the RV in July, 2016.  Our friends, Kim and Al, full timers, spend the summer in Southern Colorado.  They are also avid geocachers. They were going to a big geocaching event at Littleton, CO and wanted us to come. I knew I could never get Denny to go all that way for a weekend, so I planned a month long adventure. I included a place he had been wanting to go to for a long time as an extra incentive. To my amazement, he agreed right away. Could have blown me over with a feather, I was shocked. The reason he agreed so quickly  is that he thought it would be a good 70th birthday  present for me.  I had given him a 75th birthday party the year before.  He thought he should do something for my 70th, but he would have no idea how  to plan a party, so when I brought this trip up, he jumped on it. I would rather have a month long road trip than a party anytime.

The first scary thing that happened is that we had a  tire blowout  going down the road at 60MPH.   It happened on I-82 outside of Prosser, WA.  The road was pretty rough, but we thought it was because they had grooves in the pavement, but we didn't remember being quite so rough. When we got past it, the tire blew. Luckily there was a big enough space to pull over. The tire was toast. Denny put on the spare and we went to Costco to get a new one. The luckiest thing is that there was actually a big enough space in the parking lot to pull over our rig.  They gave us a new one and we were on the road again. It only put us back 1.5 hrs, so we felt lucky.

We left June 26th and got to Montrose, CO. on June 30th. We visited for a day and left for Littleton, CO.  on Friday.  The mega event was held Saturday. Had a lot of fun meeting fellow cachers. Even saw some cachers I knew from Seattle. People come from all over the world to go to these mega events.

On the way there, we stopped at Pikes Peak. We had never been there. It is over 14,000 ft. It was quite the road up there. It is a paved, but very curvy and steep with lots of switchback turns. The scariest thing is that there are  no guardrails. YIKES!!

 It was very cloudy so we didn't really get to see much at the top. Only on the way down did the clouds dissipate enough to see, but really no safe place to pull over for pictures.  Denny took this picture of my friend Kim and I finding a geocache. If it looks like I'm clinging to the rock for dear life, I was. It was very steep.

After the event, we went back down to Montrose for another week.  Kim and Al do LOTS of off-road 4x4 trails. They asked us if we were afraid of heights and we said no. Didn't realize why they asked us that. We went offloading 3 times. Very scary, but exciting. Off roading in the Colorado Rockies is quite the adventure. We went directly over the top of mountains, all above 12,000'.  We were above the snow and tree line. We can cross it off our bucket list,  eventho it was never really  on it. Ha. The trails are very narrow. If you have a 4X4 coming the other way, you both have to get over to the edges as far as possible.  If you are on the outside, it is very scary because the  drops are steep at 100-500' down.  Sometimes we came within inches of the edge.😱  Pictures can't really do it justice, but here are a few.  In the pictures, the roads look a lot wider than they really are.

Summary of Our Trip

May 8, 2015

I'm blaming it on Senioritis, but I forgot to summarize our trip 2 years ago. Better late than never.

We were gone 8.5 months, from August 22, 2014 to  May  8, 2015.  We traveled 14,658 miles, covering 15 states.  We went to 9 states we had never been too, so all of our travels over the years  have taken us to 46 states.  Somehow we missed South Carolina and West Virginia when we traveled to the East Coast.  Doubt if we will ever get back there again. We have been in Alaska and Hawaii, but without the RV, so I didn't include them.

We used 1182 gals of diesel, costing $4058.00. The most expensive diesel was in Medora, North Dakota at $3.99 per gal.  The least was in Buckeye, Az at $2.51 per gal.

We stopped at 39 parks during the 8.5 months. The most we traveled between parks was 341 miles. The least, 13.


When we talked about this one trip, I noticed we had never been across the Northern United States, so off we went. We went east as far as Michigan, then south to Texas, over to AZ and  ending the last 2 months in Palm Springs.

We had several highlights on our trip. One of the most meaningful was that we were in Billings, Montana on the first anniversary of my mothers death. Hadn't planned it, it was just a good spot to stop for the night. Didn't realize the significance until we were almost there. Billings, Montana is where my parents met and married. They both attended Rocky Mountain College.  It is a very old working college. When you work, part of your pay goes toward tuition.  I never really thought that it would still be there until we stopped and I asked the park manager. She gave me directions.  All of the old buildings were still there. It was amazing to see all the buildings that I had seen in pictures. Even got to see the cafeteria where they met. Also the room in her dorm where the boys would pickup their dates. Everything was still there. Very moving experience for me.

On our travels, we were able to visit on a more one on one basis with all my cousins and their husbands. I see them at reunions but it is a hectic time. This was so nice to visit them at their homes.  A lot of the husbands don't come to the reunions, so it was a great getting to know them better.

Also spent 2 weeks each with my Aunt Laura and Aunt Louise at their homes. It was such a treat. Especially with my Aunt Laura because she passed away a few months later. Also spent some quality time with my Uncle Burl, who has since passed away. It meant so much to me.

Another big highlight was getting to spend 2 weeks at the family farm in Kinmundy, IL. My great grandparents built it and it has been in the family ever since.  Again, I am there for reunions, but it is so hectic. The trees were  beautiful in their fall colors.  Having coffee on the front porch was priceless to me.  During the week it was very peaceful, but on the weekends, my cousins who still live in the area all came to visit, which was a lot of fun.  To be able to feel the quietness of the farm was something I will never forget. I love the farm.

Another one of the highlights is that Darin (Denny's son), Heather and our 2 grandkids spent winter break at Palm Springs with us. It was great to see them and we had a great time.

I doubt if we will ever take another long extended trip like this.  It is our 2nd time taking a 8.5 month trip.  Our usual trips are 5.5 months. I loved it, but all the driving wore Denny out. He is getting tired of all the driving because it is so stressful. Our RV and truck are a total of 55' long and weighs 25,000 pounds. He says the older he gets, the more stressful it gets.   He is 76 yrs old.

This was a trip of a lifetime and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think I could easily live full time in the RV but Denny isn't quite ready for that, doubt  he ever will be.

Til next time..........