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)

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire--but it was for a good cause

My last couple of blogs have had the wrong timeline. We stopped at all those places but a lot sooner than I said.

I decided to surprise my Mom for Mothers Day. We actually got home last Wed., May 6th. It was hard to lie to my folks but it was worth it. After we got home, I almost called her on my home phone. That would have certainly ruined the surprise. I even called her Sunday morning to wish her a Happy Mothers Day. I said we were in Oregon. We drove up and it was a complete surprise. The only people that knew were my brother and sister in law. I called them because I wanted to be sure that they hadn't invited the folks over to Whidbey Island for the day. It was nice that a lot of my relatives were also there. The lying was worth it to see their faces.

On Sat., we went to a Mothers Day get together at Darin and Heather's home., It was great to see them. The kids have sure grown up in the 5 months since we left.

The weather is a bit cold for us. We are used to 75-85 degree temps. Putting on shoes again seems strange. I have been living in flip flops.

I'm busy now unpacking and cleaning up the RV for the next trip. We accumulated a lot more on the trip than I thought. My biggest goal is to start losing the weight I gained. Groan! I didn't gain as much weight as I thought but enough that the clothes are a little tight. I hate exercise. Denny only gained 3 pounds. What's up with that? We ate the same things.

One more thing I want to mention about our trip is that we are so lucky in the NW with our water. Water everywhere isn't as good as ours, especially Az and Texas. It really is very, very hard on your hair and clothes. We bought drinking water but still had to use it for showers and laundry.

This will be my last blog until we start traveling again this fall/winter. My everyday life isn't exciting enough to write about. I'll put out an email when we start traveling again.

So long, it has been fun.

Goodbye to Arizona and California,

On the way down we spent a month in California and over 2 months in Az. Good winter places, but way to hot in the summer, especially Az.

Both Ca. and Az. are in very bad financial state. Worse than Wa. They have both closed most of the rest stops. Very hard on travelers who need a rest from driving or a restroom. All of the rest stops in New Mexico and Texas are open. We have it a little easier because we had the RV. Arizona has also closed 13 out of 17 State Parks. That is a real shame. Where do families go for a little recreation? And tourists? The state is trying to get some cities to take them over.

The desert has a beauty in itself, but it can never replace the mountains and green trees that we take for granted.

We will be very glad to get home to watch some local channels. We have Direct TV and for us to get ABC, NBC or CBS, we get an East Coast feed of New York City or West Coast feed of L.A. There is a Republican Primary going on and we are SO TIRED of the commercials for them. The race is getting very nasty. One nice thing about the East Coast feed is that we can watch some TV shows really early since we can't DVR anything.

It has been interesting to also see different newspapers around the country. Weird where they put some sections. Most areas are really big on obituaries, pages and pages of them. Much more than in Seattle.

Arizona has really fancy artwork on the sound walls that line the freeway. Very beautiful. Alot are in different colors. Certainly a alot fancier than anything we have seen in Wa.

We have really enjoyed our first trip as snowbirds. We plan on doing this every year. This time we tried to go to different places than we had been before. So many places to see in the U.S.

Wanted to mention one more thing about Texas. No Casino's. They don't allow them. The casino's right on the border of Oklahoma and Texas are filled with mostly Texans. Alot of the people think that the state is lossing alot of revenue by not allowing them.

Kudos to Denny

We left Lotus yesterday.

We really didn't want to back track to Sacramento so we headed out another way. Wrong move! Shortly after we took off, we got to a very steep, curvy road. Alot of up and down. At one time we were going downhill at a 8 1/2 % grade with switchback curves. For an RV that is very steep. Denny said it was the worst we had come across. He said it would have been easier to go to Sacramento and fight the traffic. After we got to the bottom, we started uphill again with more switchback curves. Did that for a full hour. Very stressful driving for Denny, but he did a great job. YEA! I had my brakes on the entire time. I don't think it helped Denny, but I felt better. Finally got to I-5 and started north. The Siskiyou's can be very iffy for good weather, but we hit it just right. It is quite a pull, but easy compared to what we just went thru.

We were planning to stop at Weed, Ca., but Denny felt good and it was a perfect day to travel the Siskiyou's, so went kept going. Ended up in Tri City, Or., about 100 miles north of the border. Had a long day of 425 miles. It is a beautiful little park in a small, mountainous town. Decided to stay another day. Heading to Chehalis tomorrow.

Certainly no trouble pulling a RV with this truck. The problem with a rig like this is that it is a little big to go sightseeing in. These people sure solved that problem. They have a 32' 5th wheel. Such a cute little thing.


This is Mount Shasta at Weed Ca. When we stayed there on the way down, there were clouds at the top. There is a lot less snow than we passed thru Dec. 13th

Getting closer to home!