Running North

I have no idea what possessed Dave when he scheduled four days for a four day trip. Doesn’t he know how slow we travel? For the last four days we got up early, hit the road quickly, drove until sunset, and finally reached Tualatin, Oregon, yesterday for our service appointment this morning.  

Interstate freeway riding is boring so I napped a lot. In between here’s some of what I saw and thought.

On day one we left before breakfast then stopped along the way and watched some guys trying to learn to surf while we ate.

 

At Thornhill-Broom Beach there were lots of RVs and tents right on the beach. I must remember this for future use. Once we get our solar panels, we’ll be able to park places like that without giving up any of our comforts.

I saw a tanker truck of fruit juice. We are not in Minnesota anymore. Back there this would have been a tanker truck of milk. I wonder if Californians would find that idea odd?

That switchback on our right up the hill from us turned out to be southbound traffic instead. I’m not used to having facing traffic be on the wrong side of us but road engineers build whatever makes sense in the mountains.

At Vista del Lago there is a Water Education Center. I’d like to stop there sometime but we can’t spare the time to do so today.

Near Gorman there is a rest area with fresh water and a dump. We need to start noticing those if we are going to do much boondocking.

We stopped at a Subway inside a TA truck stop but they had no tables. It’s a good thing we bring our own.

The highway signs say Sacramento and San Franciso are a mile apart. Sometimes one is listed first then the other one is. It feels to me like kids arguing. “I’m bigger.” But, I’m more important.” “I get more visitors.” “But, yours are just tourists, mine are politicians.” “You think that’s better?!”

The tour bus that just went by said USASIA on it. Guess we know who their market is.

We just passed a feedlot. Big feedlot. Huge feedlot. Upwind of us. Dad would take a big whiff and say, “Ah, fresh country air.” He thinks that’s funny.

I just saw a bunch of power poles take off cross country. Gone are the days when you could predict what the road ahead would do by checking out the power poles.

When driving the freeway, it becomes more important to get out and walk at rest areas. No museums to do that in on this trip.

We drove behind a hill about 4:30 p.m. and instantly went from needing a visor plus sunglasses to needing to remove both. I wear my tennis type visor inside when the sun gets too low for the vehicle visor to do the job. I’m sure I look funny wearing it sideways but that’s better than sunburning my ear.

We stopped for the night at San Luis RV Resort in Santa Nella, California.

Our attempt to get away early on day two was foiled by a broken shelf support. Dave emptied the big cupboard over the sink, fixed the shelf, and put everything back differently so I can’t find anything anymore. Keeps life interesting.

Alongside the road are aqueducts–really just big canals. Nothing like the Roman aqueducts.

The farm beside the highway is advertising mandarins and lemons. More evidence we are a long way from Minnesota.

California and Oregon both require you have tire chains available when traveling through the mountains at this time of year. So we stopped at Les Schwab Tire in Sacramento and bought some. More weight to carry.

We had lunch at Nick’s Diner on Historic Route 40. Dave says that’s the same road known as the Lincoln Highway back in Illinois. I wonder how much interesting stuff it has along it?

You don’t necessarily need a CB to figure out what the truckers are up to. When all the semis are two lanes left you can bet the two right lanes are going to exit somewhere soon. Or be under construction. Whatever reason they are over there is likely to be a good one so now we move over when they do.

I saw a sign saying, “Sheriff Detention Center”. I guess that’s in case they need to detain the sheriff. I wonder what he did?

We passed a bunch of rice paddies. Are we still in California? I wonder if Viet Nam vets passing here have flashbacks? I don’t think I want to be here when they start seeing everyone as enemy.

There’s a field of fences. Do the grow them here? Maybe they are going to plant grapes on them. Or…?

This night was at Corning RV Park. Good Sam rate of $22 for full hookups.

Today we drove by Richfield, California–shades of the past! Richfield, Minnesota, is where Dave spent his early childhood years along with many other boomers whose parents took advantage of the post war housing boom there. Some of those boomers are moving back now having figured out these small houses are cheaper to heat than McMansions and, with the kids gone, they are plenty big enough. They were big enough before but we were told growing kids need lots of space.

Next to some lush landscaping was a sign saying, “Using reclaimed water.” That says several things about conditions around here.

In Anderson, California, we stopped at the welcome center to get a highway map. Yes, we are just about to leave California but we’ll be coming back in a couple of weeks. This map lists all the parks along the coast highway which should come in handy for our southbound trip next month.

We are now passing through the Shasta Mountains. The leaves on the trees here now look like early October in Minnesota.

We stopped at Vista Point to take pictures of Mount Shasta. I’m glad we don’t have to cross it. Dave says it’s 14,000 feet and we only have to go to 4,000.

We stopped in Yreka at KFC for lunch. Yes, that’s the way they spell Eureka here.

We got up high enough to be driving through the clouds. In spite of the way that sounds, it is NOT fun. Visibility is low enough to be scary.

We finally drove across the border into Oregon on a–surprise–cloudy day.

We spent the night at Joe Creek Waterfalls RV Resort in Grant’s Pass. If you ever stop here, be sure to read the funny story on the back of their brochure.

We woke up this morning to discover we had slept in the clouds last night. Whoever decided to advertise mattresses as like sleeping on a cloud had never done it. They are cold and wet.

I took another one of those water saving early morning showers today. Is it OK that I am getting used to cold showers?

My Coffee Rich was not completely thawed this morning. Crunchy milk on my cereal is not my favorite.

About 9:15 this morning the sun finally came over the mountain and it was like someone turned on the overhead light. From dark to bright instantly.

A place selling ranch fencing had a sign saying, “vinyl is final.” I guess if you are trying to keep stock corralled biodegradable fencing is not so good.

Coyote Jack’s Rawhide Dancehall make me wonder what type of dancing they do that makes their hides raw?

The next sign said:

State Police

DMV – Camping

I guess that would be a really safe place to camp as long as you and your vehicle are in compliance with all current laws.

A billboard asked, “Would your house survive a wildfire?” To which I confidently replied. “Yes, because we would drive ours out of there.”

Last night we stayed at the RV Park of Portland, in Tualatin, Oregon. For a good giggle, check out Freddy Flintlock on their website at http://www.rvparkofportland.com/.

So now we are at Upscale Auto, aka the Sprinter Store, in Tualatin getting an anti-sway bar and adjustable shocks installed. We got up at 6:20 a.m. since the shop opens at 7:00 a.m. It’s now not quite 10:30 and they say we’ll be done in about a half hour. So maybe all that food I loaded into my bag before we came in won’t be necessary.

TTYL,

Linda