November 22, 2007 Happy Thanksgiving

We had a quiet day catching up on things. We did walk around the park and took this picture of a blooming Bradford pear tree.

Then we had pork loin, cranberry sauce, sweet potato, salad, rolls and mince pie for dinner. Lots of leftovers.

Mark (our eldest) left for Florence, Italy to run a 26 mile marathon on Sunday for Aids Los Angeles. We will be looking forward to his return and his sharing the trip, etc.

We have much to be thankful for and we are grateful for all of our family and friends.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

11/21 Headed to Paso Robles

As the geese were flying overhead, we readied our rig to head to Paso Robles. We also made a Costco run and filled up with diesel at the Flying J. Our last lower price diesel I'm afraid (3.44/gal).

You can barely make out this huge flock of geese, but we could sure hear them.

The traffic was heavy on our way south but the only problem we had were the mergers. They just keep coming expecting you to slow down and let them in. This one guy came right up beside us and kept coming even though he was running out of road. He just shrugged his shoulders, like "oh well". They just don't have the concept of yielding.

We went south on I-5 and then turned west on 152. It was all good roads and took us through a variety of truck farms. In Gilroy, garlic capital, our eyes watered at the odor. They must have been processing the garlic. Further down the road they were harvesting iceberg lettuce. The fields are constantly rotated year round. As we got closer to Paso Robles there were acres of grapes again. We also had the aroma of eucalyptus every now and then.

We pulled into Paso Robles RV Ranch mid afternoon in warmer weather...or at least we thought so.

November 18 Being with family

There is one thing that you miss when travelling, and that is being with family. We feel very blessed to have this time with our cousins. Today we shared in their home. They have a lovely home in Concord and beautiful flower gardens. At the entry is this huge lemon tree that is loaded with lemons. What a harvest when they are ripe. We had another great visit and shared in a very yummy meal. Tom grilled salmon on the barby and Denna added the veggies & bread. While eating our meal, in came their son Dale with wife Leslie and 2 daughters, Tori & Taylor. The energy level certainly got higher. I am sorry I didn't get a picture while they were there... They are about 5 & 7 yrs old, the same as our grandsons. It was fun just to watch the dynamics. Thank you Denna & Tom for a really great day.

Nov 16th and 17th.. touring with the cousins

Happy Birthday Bob!!! #69...On the 16th Tom & Denna came over for a visit and to see where we were located. They have camped up in this area but not at this park. We talked family and shared pictures for about 3 hours before they scooted for home. The next day they came back and took us for a tour of the delta. They took us to places we would never have found on our own. Like the little city of Locke. It is the only rural Chinese town left in the United States. In 1915, the town was built after a fire destroyed the Chinatown in nearby Walnut Grove. Because the California Alien Land Act prohibited Chinese from owning property, the Chinese built the town on land owned by George Locke. Today, the town still looks almost as it did 50 years ago. It was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1970. The Chinese were responsible for building the levees, harvesting and working the pear orchards, and building the railroad.

Denna & Tom Borges in the memorial garden in Locke
Typical building in Locke. Business on the main level and home upstairs.
The back of the triangular monument in the garden. One side is in english and one side is in chinese. The third side is a bronze casting depicting the town and it's residents.
The bottom panel shows the main street of Locke, the next panel shows the harvesting of pears.
The next panel is building the railroad and the top panel is building the levees.
Looking down main street.

We also drove by the Grand Island Mansion (owned by Shirley Temple Black's in laws) built in 1917. It is a beautiful building and now used as rental for weddings etc. We had dinner at Rogelios in Isleton and it was a 4 country menu.. american, italian, mexican and chinese.

We drove into Rio Vista to experience Foster's Bar and Grill. When you go in the front door you see mounted heads of every animal imaginable. Dad would have loved it. There was even an elephant head. Most of it was moose, deer, bear etc. We didn't stay, just looked.

Nov. 15th, Isleton, CA and the Delta

We drove from Cloverdale to Isleton today. Isleton is on an island in the delta (a group of islands between the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers). In the island area you drive on top of the levees. In the NW we call them dikes. There are little fingers of waterways everywhere you look. There is a lot of fishing done on the rivers and sloughs. Right now they are fishing for striped bass. They built the levees to keep the rivers from flooding the land and as a result the farms and businesses are below the levees (several hundred feet). It is a weird feeling pulling the Montana down a narrow two lane road on the levee and turning down hill into the RV park. We are at the Delta Shores Resort and Marina. It wasn't a bad park, but it wasn't the best. At least it is fairly quiet and has full hook ups.

The one thing we are noticing is that there are a lot flowers in bloom as we go further south. Lots of birds around here along with water fowl. We even have seen a Magnolia in bloom with dinner plate size blossoms. Usually you see those in the southeast.

We called Denna and Tom (Denna is Myrna's cousin) to let them know we were here and they are coming over tomorrow for a visit.

November 10 to 15th Santa Rosa

We started off Saturday with RAIN.. and lots of it. It was an indoor day and we watched a movie, "Losing Isaiah". That was a tear jerker. Since we don't have TV to entertain us, we are finally watching some of the movies purchased a yr ago and never watched. You need down days now and then.

Sunday turned out sunny and beautiful. We went for a drive and stopped at a fruit stand. We bought apples, squash, tomatoes, watermelon and oranges. We drove through lots of vineyards and groves of eucalyptus trees. The aroma is so heavenly from those trees. That evening our movie of the day was "Narnia". We really enjoyed it.

Monday was baking day and made an apple pie from the apples. Mmmm good and the aroma was delicious. The movie of the day was "The Aviator". The Howard Hughes story. A very interesting story and rather sad.

Tuesday we drove to Santa Rosa after picking up Schaeffer's mail. We took several shots of the vineyards as we were driving in.

The leaves are turning color and falling off in the rows.
The different colored leaves provide a great contrast.

You can see the rows of grapes all the way up the hills, everywhere you look.

I love this shot.

Wednesday we went to visit Doug and Sharon Henry in Forestville. They are friends from the Montana Forum. It is always good to renew these friendships as we sometimes don't see them for a year or two. We saw pictures of their brand new twin grandson & daughter. What fun they will have. They have a very lovely home and room to park several rigs. Hmm, makings of a mini rally. It was nice out today, 75 degrees. Love that sun.

Nov. 9th at NACO - Russian River

This camp ground is built on 40 acres up and down a canyon above the Russian River. It is a beautiful spot and I am not sure when they developed it. It has electric/water hook ups, no sewer. They have a honey wagon that will pump out your tanks 2 times a week for a price. We got very creative with using water. The campground showers were not bad and above the showers is a propane heater. A very welcome addition. The sites are all paved and quite level. The access roads are very narrow and curvy. Very difficult for big rigs.

We did spend some time walking around the campgrounds and down to the river. We managed to see deer at dusk and lots of stellar jays.

The river is quite low at this time. It is also a good fishing river for chinook salmon. Right now the fish are not running.
This was looking west and there is a mallard duck swimming away from us. You can kind of see him in that dark area.

This is a shot from the road above the canyon. You can see the river and the area where we took the previous shot from. The campground is above that cleared area there.

You can see the sign "TT Camping", our rig is right behind the letters CA. You can see some white showing behind the G, that is Schaeffer's rig.

November 8th Going to the Russian River

We left Garberville about 10 am. The fog was finally lifting and we headed down the redwood highway. Up and down through the hills etc. Finally we started seeing vineyards, everywhere. Every hill and valley, wherever there is tillable land and where they could irrigate. On our way we received a message from Shirley. Two nights before she took Gene to the hospital with internal bleeding and a heart attack. He was transported to Santa Rosa trauma center. So after finding the campground and setting up our rig, we took off to Santa Rosa to find them. He was in ICU and Shirley came out to talk to us. Then they let us in so we could give him a hug and let him know he was not alone. He actually was looking pretty good after all he had been through. The long and short of it was, he would be in the hospital for a week. He had 7 pints of blood, the heart damage was very minor and he was able to go back to Washington on the 19th. Hopefully they will be able to travel again soon when he gets his strength back and the ok from the Dr.

The Redwoods November 6 to November 8

I am not sure what word describes the redwoods. Awesome, magnificent,spectacular, old, reverent, beautiful, etc. We spent a part of 2 days driving through various groves. They also have several miles called The Avenue of the Giants.

The huge trees make a great contrast for the fall colors.
This is highway 101 going through the redwoods.

This ancient redwood has a huge burl on the side of it.

This is in the Richardson Grove. In England we would call this a one track road.

This is at 2 pm and the redwoods are so dense, you have to have your headlights on to see. The road is also very narrow. You can barely see a reflector that is on the side of a tree on the right hand side.

Nov 5th, Garberville, CA

Our mail was supposed to be delivered to the RV Park and when it wasn't, we wondered if it was at the post office. We headed down there first thing in the morning. We had some books to mail to Ben, our 7 yr old grandson. He made the honor roll with all A's and this was a reward. Sure enough they had put our mail in the general delivery box and it had arrived on Friday. So back to the rig, hooked up and we were out of there by 10 a.m.

We headed south past the last of the ocean for awhile. It was up and down hills and around the corner was another beautiful picture. The rock stacks sticking up out of the water and the waves crashing on the shore.


Then we headed inland away from the ocean and found ourselves driving through the beginning of the redwoods.
The autumn colors mingled between the evergreens were very dramatic. Pictures just don't do it justice. We went through an incredible mile or so of very large redwoods. It was the Richardson Grove State Park. Coming out the other side was the Richardson Grove RV Park. It is a campground run by the Assembly of God church. It is also part of Passport America. We were in the middle of the redwoods, so no cell service and no satellite. At least they offered free wifi.

November 4th, Time to move on, but we didn't

Well we were supposed to pull out and we couldn't because our mail didn't arrive. So we waved good bye to Schaeffer's knowing that we would see them again at Cloverdale/Russian River on the 8th. They were stopping in Eureka at the Elk's club and we were going on to Garberville for a few days. We spent the day cleaning and getting the rig ready to travel tomorrow.

November 3rd, Celebration Day

Today we are celebrating, Shirley's 65th birthday and our 46th Wedding Anniversary (on the 4th). We started the day by driving north to Bandon and touring the Historic Bandon and all of it's little shops. They had a real variety of galleries with all kinds of art. Too bad we don't have any room to display any, but it sure is fun to look.

We came back to Port Orford and went down to the dock to have dinner. It was in a little shack of a restaurant named Griff's. They had the best food. Bob had fresh crab louie, Shirley had Ahi & prawns, Gene and I had steak and prawns. The green salad we started with had small shrimp on top. All in all an excellent meal and the price wasn't bad.

Griff's on the wharf
Enter all who dare!!
The awesome foursome.
Sunset and the end of a perfect day.

November 2, Cape Blanco State Park

We started off our day by driving up Coast Guard Hill and couldn't really see a whole lot. We would need to do a 3 mile hike to get the best views. Gene and I were not up to hiking. So we headed back down and toured the Visitor's Center and the port. We had lunch at the Crazy Norwegians and had the best fish and chips yet!! Then we headed north to Cape Blanco State Park. We were hoping to see the light house. We got as far as the sign and the closed gate. Tours stopped the end of October. So we took a tour of the campgrounds, which were very nice and roomy. Then drove down to the Hughes House. The Hughes family came there in the late 1800's and built their home and dairy business. Of course it was closed as well. We were several miles out from the main road and I can't imagine living out here, raising a family, running a business etc. The house was a gorgeous late 1800's home. Wish we could have seen inside.

This was as close as we could get to the lighthouse.
This was the view to the north. A gorgeous coast line.

Nov 1, off to Port Orford, OR

We were ready to head out on Nov 1st and the convoy headed down 101 SOUTH. Wow the scenery is gorgeous and the sun is shining. We even saw brown pelicans standing on the beaches, waiting for a feed? We pulled into Evergreen RV Park in Port Orford and had some misgivings about this park. Very small and difficult to park in. No anything like the web site. It is Passport America, so it is half price. We will stay only 3 nights here as we are expecting a mail delivery. There are several dumpy TT, where low income renters are living. The owner is also a fisherman and has several fish boats etc around the area.

Following the Schaeffer's
Side of the road rest stop.
Some of the gorgeous coastal scenery.

I have to admit that the owner of the park is a nice guy and the natives are friendly. Shirley had precooked short ribs the day before, so we feasted that evening on short ribs, baked beans, red potatoes and salad. A great ending to a moving day.

Oct 27 Going south down the coast

We took a day to see what we could find south of Newport. We went into town first to put diesel in the truck ($3.59/gal) and saw a farmer's market. It was the last one of the year, so wasn't very big. We did buy some sourdough bread (which was good) and some other bakery goods like scones. Then headed south. We went as far as the Sea Lion Caves. We elected to not see it as it was a little pricey and we had seen it before. I don't think it has changed much. It was a beautiful day for a drive and we stopped at various view points, also found a beach to walk on.

This shows the bridge into Waldport. We stopped here at a sea food market and had fish & chips. The tide was in and the sea spray was coming over the rocks and into the parking lot.
I think they call this a devil spray. It was fun to watch as the waves would hit and the spray would come up through a hole in the rocks.
Heceta Head lighthouse from a viewpoint across the bay. 12 miles north of Florence. The light was illuminated in 1894. It is an automated beacon and can be seen 21miles from land. It is rated as the strongest light on the Oregon coast. The historic assistant light keeper's house (Heceta House, built in 1893) is available for bed and breakfast rentals. There is a day use fee in the parking lot ($3).
Another view from the view point.
All up and down the coast are these rocks, jutting up out of the ocean. They call them sea stacks. Another beautiful day and another walk on the beach.

Oct 25/26 Catch up days

We all need those now and then. You know, to do laundry, read, clean, do nothing!! It turned out to be expensive catch up days. Schaeffers had brakes fixed on the car and new tires put on. We had a new rebuilt transmission put in the truck. This had been an ongoing problem and was only getting worse. That is what happens when you are towing max load.

Oct.24 Oregon Coast Aquarium

It was a cool and drizzly day and probably not the best type of weather to take in the aquarium. It was a good experience however, even when we got cold!! There is a beautiful wood carving of turtles in the entry way. They had quite a few displays of hands on things for the kids. There were outdoor displays of the seals, otters and birds. Then they have a tube walkway under the shark tank which was awesome. They also have benches where you can sit and watch the activity. We spent more time indoors (warmer).

Gene & Shirley Schaeffer with Bob at the carving.
Jelly fish, hard to take a picture through the glass and do it justice.
A school of anchovies for you anchovie lovers. They feed these fish to the puffins.
Sea Pen Anemone (ptilosarcus gureyi). They send out the frond from the base and feed on the lichen in the water. If they are disturbed, they retract that frond into the base.
We are in the under tank tube to see this shark swimming by.
Lobster anyone.. They were huge.
How is this for color. It was in one of the saltwater tanks. Nemo was there too, but didn't get a picture of him.

This tank was full of these gorgeous jelly fishes.
Here we are by the jaw of a great white. We certainly enjoyed it here and would recommend it to any age.

I had put a roast in the oven before we went here, so when we got home, dinner was almost ready and did it ever smell good. After dinner we had another round of MT and so far the ladies are winning. Shirley-2, Myrna-1.

Oct 22nd and the Devil's Punch Bowl

The Devil's Punch Bowl is a huge round hole in the rocks with an opening out the front to the ocean. The day we were there it was low tide, so it wasn't as dramatic as it could be. The water swarms in and at high tide or large surges, actually pops up in the air. The last time we were here about 30 yrs ago, the opening wasn't this large.

You have to use your imagination for this one, but looking out to the ocean from punch bowl in line with those rocks about 1/3 of the way in from the left, is a small water spout. We spotted a whale spouting. If the picture was larger, it is easier to spot. We watched it several times as it worked its way south.
This is a view to the south looking down on Beverly Beach.
Just love the sound and sight of the surf crashing against the rocks.