November 1 to 7, 2007

 

 

 

 

November 1 to 7, 2007

Keremeos, B.C. to Topaz Lake, Nevada

 

Thursday ; Keremeos, B.C. to I-90 rest area near Ellensburg, Washington

Well ... we're finally back on the road again. We've all been suffering a teensy bit of "hitch itch" the last couple of weeks. It's great to be travelling, back on the road of / to adventure. It was a bright, sunny day today. A very pleasant day for travel.

This morning, in addition to regular departure preparations, I had to turn off the water main to our lot, on the street in front of our lot, and turn off the main power breaker for our lot in the hydro kiosk at the end of our street. I also had to remove the Wi-Fi and satellite dish cables, then remove the Wi-Fi transceiver / antenna from the utility pole I installed on our lot. To discontinue our Wi-Fi service for 6 months, China Creek Internet required me to return their equipment. HMPH !

We drove to Keremeos, where I dropped Joanne off at the medical clinic for a doctor's appointment to review some x-rays she had taken at Penticton Hospital last week. I went to put air in the truck and trailer tires, and run a few last minute errands in town. I picked her up at the clinic and we headed east on Hwy. 3. We stopped in Cawston to drop off the China Creek equipment. Halfway between Keremeos and Osoyoos we decided to cross the border at Nighthawk, instead of crossing at Osoyoos into Oroville, Washington, the main border crossing in the Okanagan / Similkameen region. There was a little "back road" following along the Similkameen River, to cross the border at Nighthawk. There's nothing at Nighthawk except a little border guard shack on each side of the border, each shack staffed by one border guard. Too bad the border guard on the American side was such a p***k, with attitude. The border crossing process only took 5 to 10 minutes, but he was rude and surly, with a "bully" mentality fromstart to finish. First time we've ever encountered anything like that crossing the border in either direction. In the future, we'll use the Osoyoos / Oroville crossing.

After crossing at Nighthawk, we meandered along a narrow, winding road following the Similkameen River until it flowed into the Okanagan River at Oroville, Washington. We stopped at Prince's, the large grocery store in Oroville, to buy groceries and have lunch. Prince's was accepting Canadian money at their checkouts, paying U.S.$1.03 per Canadian dollar. WOW ! ! ! I've never experienced an exchange rate like that ! WOO-HOO ! ! !

From Oroville we headed south on Hwy. 97 which follows the Okanagan / Okanogan River all the way until it flows into the Columbia River, then it follows the Columbia River. At Wenatchee we turned east on Hwy. 28. At Quincy we turned south on Hwy. 281. At Interstate 90 we turned west. We stopped for the night at a rest area on I-90 just east of Ellensburg. We're a little more than halfway through the state of Washington, north to south.

 

Friday ; Ellensburg, Washington to LaPine State Park near Bend, Oregon

The temperature this morning was 28º F., but it was a sunny, pleasant day. We drove about ten miles east on I-90 to Ellensburg where we filled up with diesel at Flying J. We headed south on Interstate 82 to Toppenish, then turned south on the resumption of Hwy. 97. At the Columbia River Gorge, the border between Washington and Oregon, we stopped at Maryhill State Park where we had lunch, then went for a long walk with Teddy and Bo beside the Columbia River through the lovely state park. Teddy likes to go for walks on sunny fall days as long as someone carries him. It was such a lovely park we considered staying overnight, but decided it was too early to stop for the day. We crossed the Columbia River onto Oregon and continued south on Hwy. 97.

We stopped to refill with diesel ( again ! ) at Madras. We stopped again at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, a rest area, to view the Crooked River from the old highway bridge 300 feet above the river. Quite a vista ! We continued south through Bend, and stopped for the night at LaPine State Park just as it got dark. This is a very nice state park. We've stayed in Oregon state parks before, and we continue to be very impressed with Oregon's state parks. If tomorrow is another nice, sunny day, we'll stay here, rest, hike, and have a campfire.

Whew ... two days of hard driving, over 1000 km. / 600 miles.

 

Saturday ; LaPine State Park, Oregon

BRRRRR ... the temperature this morning was 20º F., although it was sunny, and warmed up nicely throughout the day, reaching 54º F. by mid-afternoon. I was surprised by the low morning temperature, given that we are over 1000 km. / 600 mi. south of home, in the same mountain range ( the Cascades ) as at home. I suppose we're at a higher elevation here, though. Keremeos is about 1100 ft. ASL, and I think we're about 2500 ft. ASL here at LaPine State Park. Maybe all those RV's with Canadian license plates that we see on the highways heading south are creating a vortex, pulling down cold Canadian air. HA HA HA !

This afternoon we hiked around each of the three large loops of the campground, two of which are closed for the winter, then we hiked along the banks of the Deschutes River. What a great day to be outdoors. What a great day to be alive ! We spent the latter part of the afternoon sitting around a campfire. The weather was nice enough to inspire me to barbecue. Great steak !

In the evening while Joanne baked cranberry oatmeal muffins I worked on updating my investment files and setting all the clocks back an hour.

 

Sunday ; LaPine State Park to Talent, Oregon

Today was another gorgeous sunny day, with temperatures ranging from 18º F. this morning to 60º F. this afternoon.

As we were on our way out of LaPine State Park this morning, we stopped to hike to The Big Tree, Oregon's largest Ponderosa Pine. Back on Hwy. 97, heading south, we stopped to refill a propane tank in Wickiup Junction. We turned east on Hwy. 138 heading for Crater Lake National Park, even though signage indicated the national park was closed for the winter. It was a gamble that paid off. The national park main road was still open. We turned south into Crater Lake National Park.

After seeing a picture of Crater Lake this summer in the travel blog of our full time RV / Escapee friends Cathy and Jan Emrick, I wanted to visit Crater Lake. It was spectacular, on a par with Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Alberta. Joanne thinks Crater Lake was even more picturesque than Lake Louise. Perhaps she's right. Crater Lake is remote, without the crowds found around Lake Louise. And Lake Louise doesn't have an inactive volcano island in the middle of the lake.

After having lunch we continued south through Crater Lake National Park, exiting the national park onto Hwy. 62 heading west. We wanted to cut over to Interstate 5, heading for a Passport America park with cable TV, so that we could watch tonight's season premiere of Amazing Race. Hwy. 62 was a veryscenic route through thick forest, large Ponderosa Pines and Lodgepole Pines right to the edge of the road. Oregon certainly has a lot of trees ... and hillbillies / mountain folk ! From Hwy. 62 onto Hwy. 234 heading southwest, then onto I-5 heading ... WOO-HOO ... south ! Interstate 5 is the main highway heading south, on the west side of the U.S.. It starts at the Canadian border just south of Vancouver, and extends to the Mexican border just south of San Diego.

We stopped for the night at Talent, Oregon, about half an hour north of the Oregon / California border. After we set up in our site, Joanne walked over to the Wal-Mart across the street. Bo is sooooo happy tonight. Joanne bought him a new "chicken ducky" retriever toy at Wal-Mart. It's his favourite toy, available only in the U.S..

 

Monday ; Talent, Oregon to Susanville, California

This morning in Oregon the temperature was 32º F.. This afternoon in California it was 84º F.! WOO-HOO !

Shortly after departing Talent, continuing south on I-5, we stopped in Ashland, the last town in Oregon before entering California, to buy diesel. Fuel prices are lower in Oregon than in California. Well ... pretty much all prices are lower in Oregon than California. Oregon has no state sales tax. And California is generally more expensive than anywhere else, on everything. Hey ... it's California !

We stopped at the first city in California, Yreka ( pronounced "why reeka" ) to buy groceries. California may be more expensive than Oregon, but it has nicer grocery stores. Large produce departments with more variety, fresh products, natural products, sushi, etc.. Hey ... it's California ! And they understand the concept of customers using their own cloth bags to pack their groceries. Most of the United States doesn't "get" the use of cloth grocery bags.

At Redding we turned east on Hwy. 44. It was our intention to stop for the night at Shingletown, just before Lassen Volcanic National Park, and tomorrow we would visit the national park. But the RV park at Shingletown listed in the Passport America directory would not honour the Passport America rate, so we did not stay. So there ! Occasionally we encounter parks listed in the Passport America directory that have one excuse or another for not honouring the Passport America rate. We refuse to stay at parks who get listed in the directory but refuse to honour the rate.

So we continued driving east on Hwy. 44, entering Lassen Volcanic National Park about 3:00 P.M.. Since it now gets dark by 5:30 P.M., that didn't leave us much time to see the sights in the park. Well, that was okay, because there wasn't really all that much to see in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Maybe we've travelled and seen so much, we're a bit spoiled ? ! We drove leisurely through the park, stopping only once to get out and take a look at some fumaroles ( little smoking, gurgling holes in the ground ... geyser wannabes ). It was first time Bo has seen gurgling, smoking holes in the ground. Dogs are not allowed to walk around the geyser / fumarole areas of Yellowstone National Park that we visited last spring. He was quite puzzled by gurgling, smoking holes in the ground. Hey, Bo ... they didn’t have anything like that back in sweet home Alabama, did they ? HA HA HA !

We exited the national park to the south and turned east on Hwy. 36 / 89 heading towards Chester, looking for a suitable place to boondock for the night. All the national park campgrounds were closed for the season, as were the National Forest Service campgrounds along the highway outside of the national park. There was nowhere suitable to stop for the night in the little town of Chester. We continued east on Hwy. 36 to Susanville where we stopped for the night at Wal-Mart. It was after 7:00 P.M., we were tired, Joanne didn't want to make supper, so we went to Jack In The Box for supper. Their TV commercials are better than their food.

This afternoon I could not avoid running over a large rock on the road. Tonight I discovered that it had bounced up into the bottom front edge of the trailer, smashing and severely damaging the J-trim moulding along the bottom front edge. DARN !

 

Tuesday ; Susanville, California to Bordertown / Reno, Nevada

Today was another sunny, cool morning, warm afternoon day. I was tired from driving more than planned yesterday, so today we drove only a fairly short distance. We pulled out of Susanville's Wal-Mart, and filled up with diesel before leaving town. We headed southeast on Hwy. 395 towards Reno, Nevada. We crossed the border from California into Nevada, and by noon stopped for the night, at Bordertown, a northern "suburb" of Reno.

We stayed at Bordertown Casino & RV Resort. Very nice resort ... a bit expensive. Joanne did laundry. I removed the damaged moulding off the lower front edge of the trailer. I was unable to repair it. We walked with Bo all around the RV park, and then walked over to the casino. I downloaded and processed all the photos I took since leaving Keremeos six days ago. The RV park had Wi-Fi, so I was able to do e-mail, check investments, etc..

After supper we went over to the casino to use the free drink vouchers that we received when registering in the RV park. I had 2 free bourbons, played Keno and a slot machine. Joanne had a free glass of wine and played a slot machine. It took us an hour and half to lose two dollars. Big Canadian spenders, eh ? HA HA HA !

 

Wednesday ; Bordertown / Reno to and around Lake Tahoe to Topaz Lake, Nevada

Well we certainly have had superb weather for our first week of travel. Today was another sunny, warm day. This morning we drove into Reno, found Safari RV, bought a new piece of J-trim moulding, and drove through and out of Reno, heading south on Hwy. 395.

I wanted to see Lake Tahoe. We turned southwest on Hwy. 431 and drove up, and up, ... and up ! I had no idea Lake Tahoe was at such a high elevation. We drove over the Mount Rose summit at 8900 ft. ASL before reaching Lake Tahoe at Incline Village. I think that may be highest elevation we've taken the truck and trailer. We passed the Ponderosa Ranch, setting for the Bonanza television series from the 1960's. Lake Tahoe is at about 7000 ft. ASL and the roads around it range from 7000 ft. to almost 9000 ft.. We drove along the east shore of Lake Tahoe along Hwy. 28, then Hwy. 50, stopping frequently to sightsee and take photos. It was so lovely, we decided to drive completely around Lake Tahoe. With all the stops we made, it took most of the day.

At the south end of Lake Tahoe, at the small resort city of South Lake Tahoe ( summer and winter playground of the rich and famous ) we turned northwest on Hwy. 89 to cross from Nevada into California and follow along the west and north sides of Lake Tahoe. Beautiful lake and forest scenery, very upscale homes in little villages. I thought the areas around Lake Tahoe would be more developed. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the development of homes, resorts, and villages was done without destroying the beautiful natural surroundings. Bravo, Nevada and California. Maybe the Wisconsin Dells or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, just outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park could learn some lessons from Nevada and California !

After circling Lake Tahoe completely, back around to the Nevada side, we headed east on Hwy. 50 back to Hwy. 395 at Carson City. I stopped at Home Depot in Carson City to buy some hardware I need to install the new moulding on the trailer. Seeing Carson City on the map evokes memories for me of the opening scene of the TV series Bonanza, where the map of the Ponderosa Ranch and surrounding areas ( Virginia City, Carson City ) goes up in flames as Ben Cartwright and his sons ride up on horses behind the flaming map.

We stopped for the night at Topaz Lake where we boondocked in the parking lot of a casino.

 

DSK