Grants Pass, Oregon

It seems as if so much has happened since we last updated this blog.  First, we drove from Red Bluff, CA to Grants Pass, OR last Wednesday (July 21).  Linda (Jerry's sister) and her husband, Jamie, have lived there, on 14 acres "out in the country," for the last 30-plus years.  Their oldest son, Story, is getting married to Julie in September.  Here is a picture of Linda, Julie, Story and Jamie. 

Linda, Julie, Story and Jamie

And here is a picture of their daughter, Shea, and her friend, Brandon.

Shea and Brandon

Then, on July 22, I turned 70.  Linda, knowing my love for chocolate, got what was probably the best chocolate birthday cake I have ever had!  Try 7 layers, with chocolate mousse inbetween the cake layers, cream frosting and dark chocolate dripped over the top. 

Parked at Linda and Jamie's place

Grants Pass is really a beautiful place, but most days were a bit hot.  We were able to go biking one day.

Jerry and Chanti Biking

Barn in the country

Linda and Jamie's Wisteria Plant (Story and Julie will be gettting married in September under this plant.)

We ate well while we were in Grants Pass with Jerry and Linda/Jamie taking turns making the meals.

Then, on Monday, we spent the day at the Witham Truck Place in Medford (from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm) while they replaced an engine fan.  We thought that was the reason we were having trouble with the engine heating while climbing hills in this extreme heat.  And, the fan was definitely not working!

After leaving the Truck Place, we headed over to Rogue River, OR to spend one night at the Bridgeview RV Park. 

So this morning, we felt great and took our time making our way to our next stop, Crater Lake in Oregon.  But, oh no!  The RV engine started to heat up again -- and we had to stop numerous times to cool down the engine.   

At least we traveled a beautiful road and the scenery was beautiful.

What should have taken us an hour and a half took us three to four hours.  On top of that issue, we headed into a storm. 

And, if that wasn't enough, the temperature went from 98 degrees to 58 degrees and we were in hail.

Hail near Diamond Lake, Oregon

We made it, though, and are now at the Diamond Lake RV Park near Crater Lake, OR where we will be until next Tuesday (August 2).  Only now, we are having to deal with our first real bout of mosquitoes!  But, we do have our mosquito zappers!  And, we will think about our engine problem next Tuesday when we leave here.

Red Bluff, California

It was 109 driving from Sacramento to Red Bluff yesterday.  We are now in Red Bluff, California.

And, so this is the Durango RV Resort in Red Bluff.  Probably one of the nicest RV parks we have ever stayed in!

We walked around the place which borders the Sacramento River.  Every thing is clean and new.

Here we are parked in front of a fountain.

We are getting spoiled -- love paved spots!

Just showing various views here.

This is the walkway along the Sacramento River adjacent to the RV Park.

A place to rest if one so desires.

Or take a picture of the Sacramento River.

West Sacramento, California

We are still here in the Capital West RV Park until tomorrow.  And, it was 97 degrees outside today, but both our air conditioning unit in the RV and the portable one worked just fine.

Still catching up with a few more people before we leave here tomorrow (Monday).  Yesterday, my very good friend, Jenny, drove over here from San Francisco.  We went to lunch and then hung out together all afternoon.  She stayed for dinner (made by Jerry) before heading back after the sun went down. 

Jenny and Me

Then, today, Dolly drove over here from Fairfield (about 45 minutes from Sacramento) to go to brunch with me.  I worked with Dolly at Hughes and hadn't seen her in years.  Got the low-down on our former Hughes co-workers from her as she stays in touch with many of them. 

 Dolly and Me

Took this picture of the California State Capitol with my cell phone out of the window of Dolly's car.

Jerry's sister, Pat, arrived later today to join us for dinner as she was on her way to Rescue, CA to be with her daughter (Shannon) who is having shoulder surgery tomorrow.  Pat brought us our coffee and mail from Cambria.  She stayed for dinner and it was great seeing her again.

Boy, don't they look like brother and sister!!!

Heading out in the morning to Red Bluff, CA along the Sacramento River as we make our way to Jerry's other sister's place (Linda) in Grants Pass, Oregon.

West Sacramento, California

On Monday evening, we went out to the Olive Garden with Shannon (our niece), Royce, Sierra and Chase.  It was nice.

Sierra, Royce, Chase and Shannon

Another picture of these cuties: Sierra and Chase

This is a week of "catching up" with relatives and friends we have not seen for awhile.  After leaving Rescue, we drove to Lincoln City to visit Roz and Mal, our neighbors in Cambria who moved to Lincoln City a few years back.  We hadn't seen them since they moved and it was great visiting with them at their beautiful home.  And, we had a most delicious brunch that they served us. 

Roz, Mal and Chauncey in their back yard.

From there, we drove the rest of the way to Sacramento and are now staying in the Capital West RV Park.  The park is small, but paved.  And, it is HOT outside -- 109 degrees as I'm writing this.  But, we are comfortable in our air conditioned RV.  Some of you have heard us complain about the poor design for air conditioning in this Vectra (we only have one air conditioner, and it is a sub unit).  Well, we have improved this situation by purchasing a portable unit from Home Depot that supplements the one on the RV. Thank God we did that!  If you are going to do this with your RV, make sure, however, that the extension cord is the correct gauge and amperage to match that of the air conditioner and the outlet (next to the motorhome outlet in the park).  In most cases, your standard extention cord (even the orange garden extention cords) are too small a gauge and are hazardous.

Something else we researched and purchased for our full-time living in this RV is the Wonder Wheeler.  This little unit is a life-saver.  I no longer have to carry heavy loads of laundry and Jerry uses it to do food shopping at stores within walking distance of where we are parked.  It is actually a beach cart because many laundry carts have small wheels which can break when the wheel hits a pot hole.  And, as you know, not all RV parks have smooth driving areas.

The Wonder Wheeler.

On Wednesday, while on a long walk with our dog, Chanti, I saw a very small dog walking down the middle of the busy street.  I tried to get to it, but it walked faster than I could and eventually was back on the sidewalk, but a good block ahead of me.  Finally, he had stopped and I was able to catch up to him.  You could tell that he had escaped from his owner by chewing his leash in two.  He had a bell on, but no tags.  I picked him up, and he must have weighed no more than 5 lbs.  After I got back to the RV, we took pictures of him, and Jerry jumped on his bike to go around the nearby mobile home park to see if anyone recognized the dog.  With no luck, we called Animal Rescue who came to pick him up.  We really hope he gets back with his owner as he appeared to be a very intelligent and loveable Pomeranian mix.   (By the way, he also chewed up one of Chanti's leashes that we put on him.)

  

Found young dog!

Then, last night, our godchild, Angie, and her husband, Rob, invited us to dinner at their place.  They are newly-weds, and Angie loves baking and cooking.  She asked Jerry for advice and they had fun putting together the meal.  I can't even begin to describe how delicious it was.  Angie had previously baked a chocolate cheese cake that was to die for.  Jerry and Angie made oven-baked rosemary potatos and 2-inch thick steaks with shrimp and a wine-reduction sauce with shallots.

Angie and Jerry cooking.

Steak and shrimp with rosemary potatos.

Rob, Jerry and Angie enjoying the feast!

We were going to leave here on Sunday, but have decided to wait until Monday as Pat, Jerry's sister is traveling through this area on Sunday to join her family in Rescue that we just left.  We figured that Pat could bring our mail from Cambria and coffee from the Cambria Coffee Roasting Company.

Lake Tahoe, California - July 12, 2010

This was another great week at Lake Tahoe.  Even though we don't tow a car at this time, we were able to take the trolley around part of the lake (with our cameras, of course), the bus to the casinos on another day, and ride our bikes nearly everywhere.  Here are some pictures we took while on our trolley ride:

Trolley

Lake Tahoe and small island

Snow on mountain near Lake Tahoe

Another view of the Lake

This next story is for you, Pat, since you asked if we've seen any bears.  On Sunday morning, I looked out of the window to see a bear running as fast as he could down the pavement right in front of our RV.  Two camp hosts were chasing it with some type of "clickers."  The bear ran around our RV, and you could hear the little girls behind us scream.  It then ran up a tree where it stayed to over an hour as people gathered to watch.  Here are pictures that we took with our cameras.  Make sure you watch the video, too.

Bear in tree

Bear making his way down the tree

Bear now on ground in the park

Bear running back to the woods

We read that the California Game and Recreation gets 10 calls a day for bear sightings at West Lake Tahoe (where we were).  Here is the video of the bear's climb down the tree that is a little over a minute long:

Later, on Sunday, we biked over to a beautiful walking trail behind the airport and into the woods.  Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there.

Jerry taking pictures

Came across a stream

And people enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon on the stream

Flowers in the forest

Not sure if this next picture will do justice to the experience, but here is the sky over Lake Tahoe at night.

Sky over Lake Tahoe at night

Got up this morning and drove over to Rescue, California, where we are spending the night with Shannon (our niece) and her family (Royce, Sierra and Chase).  Our RV is parked in front of their place.  We will leave here in the morning.

The Tahoe Valley Campground that we just left is a campground (as opposed to a motorhome park), perfect for tent camping, even though there were plenty of motorhomes, trailers and fifth wheelers thoughout the park.  It is a great way to enjoy nature, but not so kind on our RV.  The coach is filthy!  Right now Jerry is giving it a good wash down while I update this blog. 

Lake Tahoe, California - July 4, 2010

HAPPY 4TH of JULY, EVERYONE!

We are still in South Lake Tahoe, California.  This is one BIG RV park, nearly 500 spaces and almost all of them are filled.  Needless to say that there are lots of kids, dogs, bikes, BBQ smoke smells and happy energy all over the place.  The people across from us brought 13 bikes.  There was even a scheduled bike ride around the park. 

Bikes at the neighbor's RV

Bike parade around the park.

There are scheduled activities for park participants each day.  Last night we attended a retro "hippies" music show put on by the Max Yasgur's Farm group (Max Yasgur was the person who rented his farm to the people who put on the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 in New York). The group (dressed in tie dye clothes) was actually quite good, and we even danced to "Peaceful Easy Feeling." 

We expect that the park will clear out tomorrow and we will be one of the few that are left.  (We are looking forward again waking up to the birds instead of the dogs.)

Empty park before all the people arrived.

We are biking a lot (5 to 12 miles), taking two or three walks around the park each day (over a mile just to walk around the park) and Jerry is grilling great food every night.  We thought we'd be here for three weeks, but we lost track of time.  We have only one more week left here.  Below are pictures we took when we biked to the lake earlier this week.

The beach at Camp Richardson.

Snow still on the mountain.