Archive for March 2024
The Underside, and the Bright Side of Oregon
Yesterday (Thursday) after our stay at JD Hemphill’s Ranch thanks to Harvest Host, we drove north to Standish CA, and then followed HWY 395 further northeast to Alturas, CA. We ate a massive breakfast at the Wagon Wheel Cafe, and then continued until we hit 299 just past Canby, CA. When HWY 139 cut off to the northwest we followed it all the way to Klamath Falls, OR. This highway route is one of my favourites for scenery, low traffic and for uninterrupted listening of my iTunes playlists! We had some beautiful sunshine, and a few snow squalls (nothing sticking), but felt that we were lucky to have missed the major weather that went through the night before. Too soon, folks! Too soon!
After purchasing fuel, and a few groceries in Klamath, we found our RV Park, RJourneys, heading out of town on Hwy 97 which leads to Bend, OR. It was a chilly night and with -2º predicted, I chose not to connect our water hose. Good plan, Stan!
This morning, on the south (under) side of Oregon, here is what was happening at 6:30 a.m.:
Unfortunately, the law in Oregon states that in certain areas and during posted winter conditions, all vehicles under 10,000 lb (that’s “pounds” for the younger generation), and pulling a trailer must carry chains. As a comparative side note, in California, any vehicle with 4-wheel drive is exempt from this rule. Since we had not brought our chains, we were a bit concerned as the fine for not abiding by the law is $880.
I found an App (OR Road Report) which shows all highways and all possible risks. It includes all the road cams, so I spend much of the next 2 hours checking the road cams.
We waited until almost 9:00 a.m. and since the snow had basically stopped falling in Klamath Falls, and the road cams all looked passable, we continued on our way. Needless to say, as we headed north on 97, we caught up to portions of the snowfall, but nothing was sticking so at Hwy 58 we turned west to head over Willamette Pass to Eugene. The rest of the ride was beautiful, and restful, until I turned too early to get onto I-5, and we wandered around the countryside for a few kilometres before finding our way back onto that vehicle conveyor belt!
We landed at Portland-Woodburn RV for the second time this trip and are now comfortable in our very filthy TruckHouse Jr. The afternoon and evening were beautiful with temperature at 17º. The bright side of Oregon – is here!
Tomorrow, we hit our second Harvest Host site at Port Angeles, and then on Sunday morning we “Coho” it back to Victoria for our final leg over the Malahat.
Looking forward to getting home, cutting the lawn and getting into our hobby habits – quilting and woodworking.
Love and best wishes to all!
Tony, and Sandy
Pahrump…Harumph
Day 1 of our journey towards home has ended. We are now at Brown’s Millpond RV Park, just north of Bishop, CA. It was a beautiful…sort of day, but more on that later.
Yesterday, after a quick stop just outside of Lake Havasu City, we headed towards Needles, and then Boulder City. The plan was to get an RV site at Boulder Beach Campground. The weather was fabulous and skies clear. As we pulled up to the registration gate at BBC the lady asked if we had a reservation. Uh…no! The website that we looked at said “First Come, First Served”. “Sorry sir, that is no longer the policy…you must have a reservation online. If you pull a U-ey ahead and leave the park area you can pull off the road and use your phone to book a site – if there are any available.” This was perhaps the most frustrating time for us. We would seem to find an available site, only to mess up on one of the other details. For example, when entering a date, it asked for Arrival and Departure dates. If you put in those two, you would be charged for 2 nights! If you didn’t put in two dates, you wouldn’t find an available site. After about 3/4 of a very frustrating hour, we gave up and headed out. Our original intention had been to go to Tonopah, but that now seemed like a rather distant destination given that we had already driven over 2 hours.
So…we opted for Pahrump, NV! We had stayed there a number of years ago when the place we stayed at was called “Terrible’s Casino at Pahrump! And…at that time, Sandy had played slots while we waited for a dinner seat, and she had won about $130 – plenty to cover our RV site, and our meal! It really wasn’t terrible…that is the name used by Jerry Herbst who financed the place. I found this reference on the internet…
“Herbst founded Terrible Herbst in 1959. The name repurposed an old slight toward his father, Ed, who opened Martin Oil in Chicago in 1938.
“Back in Chicago, every time my dad would open a new service station, the competition would say, ‘Here comes that terrible Herbst,’” Jerry Herbst said in 2014.
Since the brand’s arrival, the Terrible name has existed in the Las Vegas Valley atop gas stations, casinos and the family’s motorsports team, with some of those ventures controlled by Jerry Herbst and others by his sons Ed, Tim and Troy. Pahrump Valley Times – November, 2016.”
Off we headed following “Roada’s” instructions on the Map App. Usually, we work together through heavy traffic, but as we headed through Las Vegas, Sandy was busy and occupied trying to register us at the newly named place of “Lakeside Casino and RV Park”. Traffic and overpasses, exits and entrances, lanes and speedsters kind of had me on edge, and I missed the proper turn off to head West on Hwy 215. So, we had to work our way through more main street traffic and occasional construction to get back onto our path.
The Lakeside Casino RV park is still very beautiful. We stayed out of the casino because of the smoking, and unfortunately had a dead 30 Amp connection that we didn’t notice until bedtime. No problem. Everything else worked on DC power.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we continued our journey, opting to go through Death Valley to Bishop and then up Hwy 395 towards Reno, rather than the less scenic route to Tonopah. What a beautiful travel day – beautifully clear skies, with temperatures up to 21º and sparse traffic.
Since we have been through this route previously, we didn’t stop anywhere, but we had both forgotten the length of the climbing route out of Death Valley, and the subsequent twisting and narrow climbing route over the Malpass Mesa Wilderness that finally leads down to Owen Valley and Lone Pine. Sandy was literally “on edge” throughout this second climb.
The Brown’s Millpond RV Park just north of Bishop was a good place to stay last night. A lively creek wanders between the sites, and the views of the Sierra Nevada snow-capped peaks are fabulous.
Anyway, today has a possible encounter with snow as we get further north towards Susanville. We are trying our first “Harvest Host” site tonight at J.D. Hemphill Ranch near Buntingville.
Love and best wishes to everyone, and we so appreciate your comments, as always.
Tony, the Quill, and Sandy, soon to be a Quilter again!
Heading Home – March 25, 2024
Today we “pull up our trailer pins, and we can get away together for good”! (‘Donkey Town’ – Mark Knopfler). Our travels will take us north through Nevada, starting with a short day at Boulder Beach Campground near Boulder City, NV. I have been toying with two routes – one, more easterly through Ely, NV, and the other to the west through Tonopah, NV. Ely is showing some potential for snow, while Tonopah is going to see some stronger winds. I will probably opt for the winds rather than snow.
Our three nights at Lake Havasu City have provided us with a nice opportunity to do a bit of bike explorations as the City is jumping with Car Shows, Blues Music, and all the other stuff associated with a busy spring break weekend.
We hit the very warm temperature of 34º on Saturday. Loud engine noise is frequent from unmuffled cars, large ‘cigar boats’, and many motorcycles. Our Lake Havasu State Park site is lovely, and a bit removed from most of the activity. (We were very lucky to nail down a 3 night stay!) Yesterday, during our bike ride, clouds piled up ominously to the north, and we hurried back expecting a storm. We rushed to dismount, and rack our bikes, and just got things away when a few hard raindrops fell. And that was the end of the rain! Instead we had another spectacular sunset.
TruckHouse Jr. is so comfortable, and pulls effortlessly behind the GMC. We are thrilled with everything about our Escape 5.0TA! Sandy is finding that she is generally sleeping much better than normal. This is a great improvement! (No yardwork, no quilting, and two minutes to sweep and wash floor!) FYI…I also do a bit of work! (I washed TruckHouse in Yuma, and I cook on occasion, as well as try to beat S to doing the dishes, though I frequently lose that race.)
We look forward to our return home on Easter Sunday. Until then…
Best wishes, and much love to everyone!
Tony, and Sandy
UFO and Charcuterie
Just a short note to balance off the very long previous one…
On Monday night we saw the most amazing night sky display that I have ever seen!! I was playing my guitar after dusk and facing east towards a fellow camper, Ken, who had also brought his beautiful Larrivée guitar. Suddenly he pointed behind me and said excitedly “Look at that!” It was a very strange jet-like contrail behind a very bright ball of light. Only the jet-like contrail stayed very bright behind the ball of light – unlike any contrail any of us had ever seen! Here it is:
Today, both Ken and I googled the phenomenon. It turned out to be SpaceX’s launch of Falcon 9 rocket carrying 53 Starlink satellites into orbit. It was seen as far away as Phoenix. We were even able to see the booster rocket break off!
And lastly on gastronomical issues, my talented niece, Laura, put together a charcuterie board for a family birthday at my daughter’s place. It is truly a work of art:
Not to be outdone…here is my entry into the charcuterie board contest:
Love and best wishes to you all on this First Full Day of Spring! (It used to be March 21. I feel slighted – slightly!)
Tony, the Quill, and Sandy, the Quilter
Bird Walk, Bike Rides, River Kayaking
Hello again dear friends and family!
We are now parked, once again after 8 years, in the Squaw Lake T.K.Jones campground. (Why can’t they change that name to Squall Lake??) We have just finished our 6th night here. We return to River’s Edge today to party on the 21st!
Last week on Monday March 11, we went to Organ Pipe National Monument planning on 5 nights there, but we were only able to book 3 in the non-generator camping sites. There were two other Escape 5.0s there and we chatted with both folks – Lynn and Gord from Port Townsend, and Michelle and Paul from Lake Tahoe. With more time, I am sure that we would have gotten to know them better.
Each night there were Ranger presentations at the outdoor amphitheatre. The first night was on “How to Create a ‘Monument’”, on the second night a young Navajo lady presented to us on her home in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. (pronounced, apparently, as Canyon de ‘Shay’) in northern Arizona. (By the way, a ‘Monument’ is created by the President alone, while a National Park is created by Congress.) The third night presentation was on some kind of soil covering, and since we know dirt, we didn’t go.
On the second morning we rode down to the visitors’ centre (I guess it is ‘Center’ here) to hear a presentation on a grasshopper rat. It is a fierce little rodent that can handle many dangerous enemies. Look it up!
On the third morning we joined a group doing a bird walk. No – it is not us holding our hands behind our backs, bending forward slightly and bobbing our heads as we walk!! Well, we might have walked that way, but we actually went out on a few trails to spot desert birds. We weren’t very successful. The only bird that was very clear and stood still for us was a killdeer – a shore bird…standing on the “shore” of the effleunt pond! (Well, we were hunting for birds, but…“That’s not a good kill – dear!”)
When we tried to renew our Registration, the internet was down, and even the Rangers couldn’t get us registered – so we left! Besides, Sandy had visions of hordes of Spring Breakers heading for the shores of Senator’s Wash for the weekend. That premonition was incorrect! We found lots of space at T.K. Jones campground and paid $75 for the whole year. Since the nightly fee is $15, our 6th night here was technically free. And, since the fee is good until the end of March 2025, we can stay for 2 weeks in March next year.
We have met a really nice fellow who was tenting next to us – Daniel Boone! He was from Singapore originally, but seems to enjoy himself tenting. He has an old Toyota, and plenty of technology – including a drone that he intends to use for fishing! He is really into fishing, but had not caught anything while he was here. (The drone will act like a casting rod, only putting his lure several hundred yards out in front of him.) We shared his campfire with him on a couple of nights.
We have had several bike rides, however, our attempt to cycle around Senator’s Wash panned out when we encountered the horrid road conditions from washouts and 4-wheel drives. And, although we got to the bottom of the second ravine, the loose gravel was not to be ridden on by bikes with road tires! So we headed back, walking our bikes through the worst of the road stuff. We also got a decent hike in over the hills.
On Monday, with no wind, and the potential for a beautifully warm day, we decided to try out our new Advanced Elements inflatable kayaks. With some advice from some fellow campers – we were able to get them almost fully inflated and into the water, and to paddle through the beautiful channels through reeds upstream to the next lake to the north of us. We are thrilled with their performance and ease of inflating and packing.
Much love and best wishes to you all!
Tony and Sandy
P.S. Today we return to Yuma for 2 nights before heading towards home.
roadquill1 