Year 3 Week 21

November 5 to 11, 2006

Sutherlin, Oregon to Hemet, California

Year 3 week 21

 

Sunday ; Sutherlin, Oregon to Anderson, California

Today started out cloudy and raining lightly, but, as expected, by the time we were well into California, the rain stopped, and the sun was beginning to peek out a bit. When we left B.C. the temperatures were in the low 30's, in Washington they were in the low 40's, in Oregon they were in the low 50's, and here in Northern California they are in the low 60's. I expect they will be in the low 70's in Southern California. We know from previous experience that each full day of driving south results in about a 10 degree rise in temperature.

I was wondering why Lanoire seemed a bit sluggish accelerating from a stop, especially entering highway ramps going slightly uphill. I thought something was wrong until I realized that the temporary performance upgrade program installed into her computer had expired. HMPH ... I guess it really did make a difference in torque as well as in horsepower. I'll have to reconsider my decision not to buy a power performance "chip".

It was raining lightly as we prepared for departure from Timber Valley SKP Park this morning. We continued south on I-5. I wanted to get as close as I could to California before refilling with diesel. Oregon's fuel prices are much lower than California's. I managed to make it to Medford, Oregon before refuelling. The "distance to empty" readout was 3 miles. HA HA HA ... I've actually driven it lower than that, at least twice before. As soon as we crossed into California we stopped for lunch at a highway rest area. WOW ... California must have more tax dollars than they know what to do with ! Spiffy rest area ! After lunch we stopped for groceries in Yreka, California.

We were planning to stop for the night in Redding, but we continued a little further than that, stopping for the night at a Wal-Mart in Anderson. We did some Wal-Martin’ before preparing supper. After supper I set up our little 12 volt TV to watch Amazing Race.

 

Monday ; Anderson to Coarsegold, California

Today was sunny and warm. When we were leaving the Wal-Mart parking lot this morning, the temperature was 68 degrees. By the time we stopped for lunch, it was 77 degrees. I had to change from a long sleeved shirt to a t-shirt. Welcome to California.

We were awakened at 4:30A.M. by a Wal-Mart employee cleaning the parking lot using a noisy leaf blower / vacuum. Moron ! Teddy decided he was hungry. I fed him. Bo decided he wanted to go to the bathroom. I walked him < sigh >. The entire Wal-Mart parking lot was half filled with cars. Who the hell goes Wal-Martin' at 4:30 in the morning ? ! ? Welcome to California.

When I was walking him again just before we departed, I got a phone call from Kathie Flamm at Guide Dogs of The Desert in Palm Springs. They were forecast to have a temperature in the 90’s today. Welcome to California. HA HA HA ... Woo-Hoo ! I had a discussion with Kathie, and decided we would head to Guide Dogs Of The Desert for the weekend of November 18 / 19 to observe a graduation ceremony. One of our largest responsibilities while we’re WorkCamping there will be to prepare the graduation ceremony luncheons. We’ll leave after the weekend, and return a couple of weeks later to actually begin our WorkCamping job.

We headed south on I-5, into the Sacramento Valley, following the Sacramento River. We stopped at Corning to shop ( and taste ) at a store called The Olive Pit. The area around Corning is filled with olive groves. I tasted a lot of different olives, but didn’t buy any. While in Corning we also stopped at Flying J to refill with diesel, empty the shower holding tank, and refill with fresh water. After the olive groves we passed some cotton farms. Most of the cotton fields were already picked. Long, thin strands of cotton were floating around in the wind, getting caught on the truck’s mirrors and antenna as we drove. It looked like the truck was decorated with Hallowe’en fake cobwebs. HA HA HA !

We could see the pollution of Sacramento long before we got there. The I-5 freeway into Sacramento was 7 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic flowing at 70 MPH. It was intimidating. And ... as soon as we got near Sacramento, driving styles and attitudes changed. Self-centred, rude, aggressive driving. We know from previous experience that California has its own unique style of driving, from Sacramento and San Francisco in Central California, south all the way to Los Angeles and beyond. Kind of a "survival of the fittest" style. Kind of like "if you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch". Driving a rig that's 47½ feet long, weighing 20,000 pounds, on California's freeways, is quite a challenge.

Part way through Sacramento we turned east onto Hwy. 50 for a couple of miles, then south onto Hwy. 99. Through Lodi ... < singing > "Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again". I can see why getting stuck in Lodi once would be enough. HA HA HA HA HA ! Just before Fresno, and as it turned dark, we turned east onto Hwy. 145 at Madera. At Hwy. 41 we turned north and began climbing up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We drove to Coarsegold, where we stopped for a few nights at SKP Park Of The Sierras. The park office was closed, so we parked in the boondock area overnight.

We really wanted to reach here today, but that was a bit too much driving for 1 day.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and warm. AHHHHH !

This morning we moved from the park's boondock area to site 118. This is an SKP co-op park, where sites not currently occupied by their residents are made available for short term renters / travellers like us. SKP Park Of The Sierras is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and they have done an excellent job of developing an exceptionally lovely RV park with minimal impact on the surrounding natural area. We took Bo up into the hills surrounding our site, for an obedience and play session. YIKES ! Then we spent the next couple of hours pulling burrs out of his coat. Poor Bo ! I found another huge ( Bull or Digger ? ) pine cone, like the one I found here last year and brought back for my sister. The odd thing is ... there were no giant pine trees visible near where I found the cone, so I don't know how it got there. Was it moved by an animal ?

We got a visit from a woman who visits and welcomes new arrivals in the park. Nice touch ! I filed Misty Venture's quarterly GST return, and made reservations at an upscale luxury RV resort in Hemet, near Palm Springs. I walked down to the clubhouse, exchanged some books, and dropped off some unwanted items at the park's bargain table.

Oh, my goodness ! The Curse Of Joanne has struck again. The Curse Of Joanne is sort of an inside / family joke. The premise of The Curse Of Joanne is that, sooner or later, everywhere that we have travelled to will be devastated by a weather event of some sort. Tonight the lead story on the national news was the flooding in Washington and Oregon caused by the extremely heavy rains of the last week or so. The news featured the destruction of the Wilson River Campground in Tillamook, Oregon. We spent a week at the Wilson River Campground a year and a half ago, waiting for Dee-Dee's transmission to be rebuilt ... for the first time ! The news showed the collapsed campground office, surrounded by the raging waters of the swollen Wilson River. Trailers were tipped over, floating away, and getting trapped in trees. The campground owner who was so helpful to us while we were stranded there was being interviewed. Not only did we stay in the Wilson River Campground a year and a half ago, we drove through the area a few days ago. The heavy rains had already begun. I'm glad we drove through and out of it just before the flooding began.

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I discovered the answer to the mystery of how do the giant Bull / Digger Pine cones end up on the forest floor far from trees. They roll ! They fall off the trees, then roll down the hillsides, bouncing in all directions, coming to rest in gullies, where they are sometimes washed even further downhill when it rains and the rain water flows through the gullies. While walking Bo this morning I discovered a couple of bunches of these huge cones piled together at the bottom of hillsides, and at the bottom of little dry gullies.

For lunch we drove a couple of miles to the Chuckchansi Gold Resort & Casino, where they have a stupendous buffet dining room, with an incredibly cheap price for seniors at lunch time on weekdays. They don't question our "senior" status. Who else other than retired "seniors" show up for lunch on weekdays ? HA HA HA ! We're old !

First stop was the soup and salad bar. Then the Italian bar. Then the Mexican bar. Then the American bar ( southern fried chicken, barbecued beef ribs, etc. ), then the Chinese bar, then the dessert bar. Joanne skipped the Chinese bar. Wimp ! HA HA HA ! But ... she did redeem herself by having 5 desserts ! HA HA HA HA HA !

She wanted to play a dollar's worth in the penny slots. Okay. I wanted to quit after about half an hour, when we were up to $4. She wanted to continue. At 45 minutes we were at about $3. At an hour we were at $2. Again I wanted to quit. She wanted to continue. At an hour and a half we were at $3. Enough ! I've got to go wash the truck. Hmmmm ... in an hour and half, we tripled our money. Maybe next time we'll play the $1000 slots instead of the penny slots. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

 

Thursday ; Coarsegold to Mojave, California

Today was sunny and warm.

This morning we departed SKP Park Of The Sierras, heading south on Hwy. 41 to Fresno. Driving through Fresno, we got onto Hwy. 99 heading southeast into the San Joaquin ( pronounced "Whakeen" ) Valley. We stopped in Fowler to refill with diesel. We stopped in Tulare to replenish groceries, and have lunch. We stopped in Bakersfield to buy some RV supplies at Camping World.

From Bakersfield, we got onto Hwy. 58 heading southeast through and over the Tehachapi Mountains into ... finally ... the Mojave Desert. AHHHHH ... I like the Mojave ! At the town of Mojave, we turned north onto Hwy. 14 for 6 miles to Sierra Trails RV Park, where we stopped for the night. Another long, hard day of driving, searching for an RV park in the dark, and having to back into a difficult site in the dark. Stressful for both of us !

 

Friday ; Mojave to Hemet, California

Today was sunny and very warm.

We weren't aware that today was the beginning of a long weekend in the United States. It was a hell of a bad time to be driving the freeways on the east side of Los Angeles. It took us about 3½ hours to travel about 30 miles. Sheesh !

This morning we travelled 6 miles south on Hwy. 14 back to the town of Mojave where we turned east on Hwy. 58. At an intersection named Four Corners, in the Mojave Desert, in the middle of nowhere, we turned south on Hwy. 395. It was a long stretch of mile after mile of nothing. Hwy. 395 ended when it reached Interstate 15 at Hesperia. We stopped at a Pilot Travel Centre, refilled with diesel, and had lunch. After lunch we continued south on I-15. Soon we were at Cajon Summit ( elev. 4259 ft. ) in the San Gabriel Mountains. The descent down into the San Bernardino Valley was 12 miles long, and it took us about an hour and a half to travel the 12 mile hill. It was the beginning of a long afternoon of 4 lane wide freeway, bumper to bumper, crawling speed. We branched off I-15 onto I-215, a bypass around the east side of Los Angeles, through San Bernardino and Riverside. Finally, after 3½ hours of creeping, we reached Hwy. 74 where we turned east towards Hemet. We arrived at Golden Palms Village at 5:00 P.M., just as it turned dark.

WOW ... 1019 RV sites. The lobby and check in desk were like a major hotel. It was difficult to get backed into our site in the dark. Two nights in a row of getting backed in and set up in the dark < sigh >. We're going to stay here for a week, rest, and get caught up on some chores. And ... hopefully ... enjoy some nice Southern California weather.

We're in between the San Bernardino Mountains to our northeast, and the Santa Ana Mountains to our southwest. We're just a few miles south of where that large wild fire was a couple of weeks ago. In today's local newspaper there was a belated obituary for one of the fire fighters killed. He was from this town.

 

Saturday ; Remembrance Day in Canada / Veterans Day In United States

Lest We Forget !

This morning we observed a minute of silence, to remember, at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, under the shade of the orange and lemon trees in the vacant site next to us. It saddens me to once again witness the difference between how Canadians observe Remembrance Day, and how Americans pretty much ignore Veterans Day. Despite the fact that it is a national holiday in the U.S., it just seems like another opportunity to go shopping. Our minute of silence was marred by a loud conversation, and a loud engine starting, in nearby sites.

Today was sunny and warm.

We walked around the resort, checking out the 3 swimming pools, 3 hot tubs, poolside snack bar, huge fitness centre, library, many meeting rooms, banquet room, laundry room, etc.. This place is similar to a luxury hotel resort, without the rooms. Quite a nice place, although a tad expensive. I think we'll consider spending an entire winter here at some time in the future. I looked in their guest book, sorted by state and province. There are quite a few B.C. people spending the winter here. A couple from Alberta, a couple from Saskatchewan, nobody from Manitoba or further east in Canada. We purchased 2 tickets to Jazz In The Palms next Wednesday, an evening of dining and dancing in the resort's banquet room, with a 5 piece jazz band. We weighed ourselves, for the first time in 2½ years, on the scale in the fitness room. YIKES ! ! ! < shudder >

It was kind of nice to have a Diet Cola with a wedge of a lemon that had been growing on a tree up until 30 seconds before it was in my drink. HA HA HA !

DSK