Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Redding, CA

We moved from a wonderful temperate region of Grants Pass, once again to Redding, CA and its baking heat of 104 degrees F. We immediately unhooked the trailer and got the air conditioning on. We were going to just travel to West Sacramento tomorrow but we want to get the dogs and return to Santa Cruz with its temperate climate. Therefore, we are going to depart early tomorrow and push for the entire distance of about 320 miles. The thought of spending a night in hot West Sacramento just is not appealing.

I must say, despite a great vacation, I will be happy to return home. I have a rock band gig on Friday evening and need to practice a few of the songs and perhaps get in a short round of golf.

My brother leaves on Sunday so we don't have much more time to play!

-Lee, Earline, and David

Monday, 7/19/2010 Grants Pass, OR

Well today was just spectacular with the jet boat trip through Hells Canyon. The scenery was wonderful, and we saw a bald eagle catch a fish from the river in front of our boat, about 25 yards away.

There were only a few rapids to traverse but the ride was wild and the boat operator made the 2 hour trip fun. He would splash the group with sudden turns and decelerations.

The cost was only about $32/person for a 2 hour trip of about 36 miles. The longer trips provide a lunch or a dinner but it is the same trip.

I would highly recommend this excursion to anyone who comes to the Grants Pass area.

Tomorrow we start towards home and will need to stop in the Redding, CA area because the distance is too great to travel in less time. This has been a wonderful vacation! I highly recommend the RV lifestyle.

Sunday, July 18, 2010 - Grant's Pass, OR

We moved our travel trailer from Darling's Marina in Florence, OR to GRant's Pass in an easy drive of about 168 miles through scenic lands.

We decided not to call ahead for reservations and decided to just take a chance on finding a place. We chose a place called River Place RV Park, located along the Rogue River. We were fortunate to get a space for two days that was located right on the bank of the river under the shade of trees.

The kayakers drifted along the current just below some class 1 rapids.

We booker a jet boat excursion through Hellsgate rapids for tomorrow afternoon and Earline wanted to go to the Rogue Creamery, a cheese factory known for its blue cheese. This was located in Certerpoint, OR, about 28 miles from Grant's Pass. We then returned to sip margaritas on the banks of the Rogue River.

Life doesn't get much better than this!

Saturday 7/16/10 - Darling's Marina, Florence, OR

We arrived at an unexpected pleasure of nature...Darling's Marina which is located about 5 miles south of Florence, OR. It is a small RV park and we got a spot next to the water which is crystalline blue and very serene. It seems that this spot is protected from the summer winds of the Oregon Coast. Our campsite neighbors are natives of the area and wondered how we found this spot as it is not well known. I told him I found it on the Internet.

After setting up camp, we took off to explore the area of Florence and points northward. We stopped at a place called Seal Cave, but this proved to be a rip-off. They wanted $12 per person to ride an elevator down to a spot that had seals in a cave. We declined and drove north to see the Heceta lighthouse. It has a fresnel lens made in France in the 1901 that has 10 faces on it, each face flashing a light every 10 seconds and can be seen at sea for 23 miles. The original lighthouse keepers had to refill the kerosene for the lamp every 4 house (six gallons) and wind the clock mechanism that rotated the beam, every 6 hours. They worked 8 hour shifts to avoid falling asleep. All parts for the lighthouse were brought in my ship and a road had to be constructed to the top of the hill to bring the materials to the construction site. Two houses were built to house the lighthouse keepers and one remains as a bed and breakfast.

The construction of the lighthouse is by two layers of brick, an inner cylindrical core and a tapered external shape which leaves an air space between the layers. Originally, the inner and outer layers were whitewashed but as the lighthouse keepers were phased out, the government decided to paint the surfaces. This sealed the brick and trapped moisture inside which cause the iron beams to rust. They then sand blasted the paint off and this ruined the look of the brick.

The lens is now turned by motor and the lamp is electric and the structure, which still functional, is only a back-up to GPS navigation. The Oregon coast has about 9 lighthouses, each with a unique light signature of flashes and colors. This enables the sailor to locate his position provided he had a map of the lighthouse signatures.

After the lighthouse tour, we returned to Old Town FLorence for a seafood dinner at Mo's, which is right on the waterfront.

A great day!

Friday 7/16/2010 - Off to Coos Bay!

We made an easy travel leg from Crescent, OR to Eugene. OR yesterday. It was only about 86 miles and traversed some beautiful scenery, crossing Diamond Peak, which is a ski resort in the winter. Along the way, we stopped to visit Salt Creek Falls, a dramatic sight with water falling over a shear cliff 286 feet high. The falls were formed as glaciers eroded basalt, cracking a section and moving it downstream. The remaining basalt cliff is resistant to water erosion and provides a stunning backdrop to the gushing water. We took a hike 2/3 or the way down to the base of the falls, but could not reach the bottom as the trail was blocked for safety reasons.

We arrived at Deerpark RV park where we off-loaded the trailer and went in to Eugener to explore microbreweries. This made Earline happy as she just loves dark beers. We visited the High Street Microbrewery and Brewpub and took a tour of the brewery with the brewmaster. It is amazing that they can create such good tasting beer in such a humble basement facility.

We then visited Ninkasi Brewpub. This brewery has had amazing growth in volume and has won many awards. Unfortunately, they only make one dark stout beer.

Following this, we moved to the Rogue Brewpub for Earline to sample a plethora of dark beers and to eat dinner before heading back to Deerpark.

Based on this experience of beer tasting, Earline deemed this trip a 10 on a scale of 10. I am glad this made her happy!

Deerpark, while a comfortable park, is just too close to the highway to rate it for a return visit. In addition, for a luxury park, to have the rest rooms run out of TP is not fine.

-----Off to Coos Bay, OR.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Today we visited Crater Lake. the sixth National Park to come into existence. It was formed my the collapse of the magma under the volcanic cone, forming a caldera that gradually filled with water from snow melt and rains. There is no stream feeding this lake and the water is a deep blue color and is considered the cleanest large water body in the world.

One advantage of getting to be a senior is that you can get a lifetime pass to the national parks for only $10. Such a deal!

The mosquitoes were vicious at this time of the year as the snow melts into puddles. I would highly advise you to take bug spray with you should you ever venture to the park in summer.

Following the trip to the lake, we still had some time to explore other areas and we decided to visit the Lava River Park that has a lava tube over a mile long. These tubes are formed by the molten lava cooling on the outside while the liquid center continues to flow. This leaves a hollow tube that snakes like water running down a mountain.

Earline though this was going to be like a ride where she could slide down the lava tube for about a mile. I think she was a little disappointed to walk in this huge cavernous tube using a lantern for over a mile. Still, it is a worthwhile experience. This is the second time I have done this and I doubt I shall ever enter another lava tube. :)

Tuesday, July 12

We left Redding, CA at about 9:30 am and had a long drive to Crescent, Oregon (240 miles). Route % was a nice drive north of Reddind and included great vistas of Lake Shasta and the snow covered Mount Shasta, the source of water for the Sacramento River.

We stopped in Klamath Falls for a lunch of Chinese food and eventually found our RV park called Big Pines RV Park. It is a nice clean park with level, gravel pads. The only real problem is the main shower/bathroom has only one toilet and one shower.

We decided to venture to Bend, Oregon to seek out the Deschuttes Microbrewery. This brewery produces some of the finest dark beers we have tasted. Earline had one that had 11% ETOH content while I settled for an Obsidian Dark.

http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/brewery/brew-pubs/bend-pub/bend-whats-on-tap/default.aspx

After dinner, we went back to the campground which was nice and cool. We watched a DVD called RV that featured Robbin Williams and seem suitable for our road trip.

The evening was VERY cold and in the morning, we needed to start the heater.

The Beginning- Monday

Well the anticipation of this trip with a new travel trailer woke me at 3:30 am and I slept fitfully after this point in time. Earline must have also felt some sleep disturbance as she got up at about 4 am to busy herself with fabric cutting and other things to allow me to sleep a bit more. Finally, after our large cat, Princess, arrived to sit firmly upon my chest, I got out of bed to begin packing preparations.

The Nissan Armada is full to the brim with three sets of golf clubs, a flat screen tv, three sets of clothing, a new Casio keyboard, food, camera, computers, etc. My brother decided to hard boil some eggs to limit breakage. We have to transport all of this to the RV parking spot in Scotts Valley, start the propane refrigerator and unload the Armada to the trailer so we have some room.

We need to be in Redding, CA tonight for our first stopping point. It is about 285 miles and this should not be a problem since it is mostly freeway driving.

Well we did make it to the Mountain RV Park just outside of Redding California and the park was quite nice. We had a pull through site that made parking the trailer easy and we are getting faster at setting up the unit. The park had great facilities and very clean bathrooms and hot showers. The park host was gracious and they included a continental breakfast in the morning.

We went into Redding, CA to see the Sundial Bridge which was the first bridge of it's type to be built in the USA. The deck of the bridge is composed of green glass and marble. We then went to find a microbrewery to satisfy Earline. This proved to be more difficult than it first appeared, as Redding kind of shuts up at about 7 pm. Eventually, we found a place called the Post Office Saloon and satisfied our cravings. It was then back to the park that was still cooking at about 97 degrees.

We had the air conditioner on but Earline wanted it off for sleeping because of the noise. This proved to be an error as then we had to open the windows and the road noise from Route 5 made sleeping difficult. We all agreed it was better to be cool with noise than hot with noise.

Our First RV Road Trip

Because my wife recently was "down sized" from her job, we decided to make the most of the situation and become road gypsies. This required us to find something to suit our gypsy tendencies. Since we have long passed our prime where we pretended to enjoy sleeping on the ground with pebbles poking into our backs, we decided to purchase a Jayco 24 FBS travel trailer. This little unit has a slide to add more room in the comfy dinette area and has a RV Queen-sized bed that you can walk around for easy making of the bed. I had a Pace Arrow in the past and trying to make the bed when tow of the four sides are against the wall is not an easy task. This little gypsy unit also has a stereo, a microwave, sink, oven, freezer, refrigerator, and bathroom with shower. Nothing like roughing it a bit I say.

Now that we had decided to pull something, we next needed a "puller." My 2004 Quest van did not have the gumption to tug on the Jayco. On Memorial Day weekend, we purchased a Nissan Armada, a gigantic beast of a machine that could tow 9000 pounds while sucking your gasoline tank dry. It get 16-18 mpg around town and 8-10 mpg while towing. I chose a less efficient 4 wheel drive machine as I did not want to ever get stuck in terrain from which I could not extricate myself. I am afraid to take it to downtown Santa Cruz because the "Green Peaceniks" might spray paint my vehicle. Fortunately, there is no animal fur visible on the machine. They can't see the dog fur that gets deposited inside the vehicle.

Thus armed with these "tools", the gypsies are preparing to take to the road. We tried out the Jayco this past week with a two day excursion to Dillon's Beach near Petaluma, CA. It took us an hour to figure how to get the Jayco attached to the tow hitch, attach the load leveling bars, safety chains, emergency breakaway switch and tail light plug. All went well with the trial except that the main fuse blew after closing the slide. Fortunately, it closed before blowing as I had no spare fuse. (Now I do...I have 4 more). We decided we needed more necessities so we bought a TV and a portable generator...just in case. I also obtained a Casio keyboard to allow my brother David, an honorary gypsy for this trip, to serenade us while Earline and I drink wine. This is a civilized method of travel you know.

We were planning to go to Yellowstone National Park, but it is about 1000 miles from home and we felt we would be doing nothing but driving and since we only have 10 days for our first road trip, we are now going to go to Lake Shasta and to Oregon to see what troubles we might get into.

Today, Sunday, is one for final preparations...packing golf clubs, assembling our clothing, making bread dough, etc. Earline took our dogs to Sacramento to be cared for. We were considering taking one of our three dogs with us, but felt it might be best to travel sans canine for our first real road trip. RV Parks may discriminate agains large furry friends.