kyotesue

03-04-2005 Looking for a MotorHome

Transcribed from our old leather journal on June 14, 2018

We left my house at 3PM driving Mo’s Van to go to Salem. The trip turned out to be really successful. We stayed at the Salem Motel 6 as planned and had dinner with Don near his hotel at Newport Bay. It was almost 11 when we went to sleep. They gave us a handicap room which we thought was funny.

Saturday morning was a little bit crazy with me driving to Albany to visit Melody while Mo watched Don’s drills. Back together at noon and traveling south again to check out the RV Show. Stopped first at Guaranty in Junction City to look at the Dynamax. Then on to the show in Eugene which wasn’t that great. Lots of big new diesel pushers and no class B’s. We decided to drive back to Guaranty and look again and the rig really did look great and within an hour Mo had bought it for $15,000 less than they asked.

It is so great and even Mo was a little bit excited. we will pick it up on Mondy the 14th. We drove 120 over to Redmond and stayed at the Motel 6 there after a really strange dinner at Sheri’s with bad food and bad service.

Sunday morning we went back for breakfast and it was fine. Checked out the RV show in Redmond but it turned out to be a sports show so we didn’t go. On to Bend where we stopped at Target, GI Joes, and Alder River Co, where Mo bought our life jackets and Costco before heading home. We tried to get up to Newberry but still too much snow. The weather was great, though, sunny and in the 60’s.

We stopped at Collier State Park Campground and walked around for ah hour, checking out the Williamson River and kayak possibilities. Home to Klamath where we had pizza at Abby’s and then home to my houe for TV and the Sunday paper and early to bed.

On March 15th we made the long one day trip to pick up the MoHo. I met Mo at Rocky Point and we left at 8am for Junction City. I drove the van and Mo drove the Dakota. We made good time over Highway 58 and arrived at the dealer at noon.

Mo finalized the sale and we did the walkthrough till 4pm. Then across the street to trade the van and truck for a great 2002 white Blazer. The sale was easy, but the paper work wasn’t done till 8!

We drove to the Mexican Restaurant at Valley River Parkway for a great dinner and then decided to go home via I-5 since it was so late. We took turned driving and both vehicles are great. The V-10 on the Motorhome just cruises at 65 to 70 mph and climbs the passes so easily.

We got home at 1AM and celebrated with a quick soak in the hot tub under the stars. Long and very successful day!

Traveling the California Coast

Copied from our old leather travel journal in April 2011

February 27 through March 7 2004

February 7^th, Friday morning we left Klamath in the Chevy van at 8AM and drove through snow and rain over Mt Shasta down I-5. Stopped in at the Rolling Hills Casino and then had breakfast between Corning and Williams. Drove to Calistoga via Clear Lake. The road was really curvy and narrow with a 16% grade! The valley was green and beautiful and Calistoga had great shops. We took Molly in the French shop for wine and hors d’oeuvres. Enjoyed a great dinner with wine and cheese in our Motel 6 room in Santa Rosa, a really small room. Gas in Santa Rosa was 2.09 per gallon.

February 28, Saturday morning we were up early and drove from Santa Rosa to the great pastry shop in Sebastopol. What a lovely little town! Drove out to Jenner, hiked around Blind Beach and collected driftwood. Drove down the coast, had lunch in Bodega Bay watching all the water birds from our table by the water. Drove over the Golden Gate, past the Presidio, and down HWY 1 to Pacifica and Moana’s old school, her ranch in Montera, the Moss Beach house, and then over 92 to Belmont. Had a great dinner at Fresh Choice and went swimming and hot-tubbing at our hotel.

February 29 Sunday. We spent the day in San Francisco hiking up Coit Tower, walking Lombard Street, and down to Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf. Went to Pier 45 and the great museum with all the old arcade games. Went to Bubba Shrimp for a great dinner at a perfect table while we watched sailboats in the bay. Home to watch the Oscars in our motel room drinking wine and laughing a lot together at the silliness.

March 1 Monday. It was raining hard today. Moana dropped me off at a fabulous mall in San Bruno while she did her taxes and took Molly to the vet. We drove highway 82 back into San Francisco, Union Square, with the great Williams Sonoma store where I bought some wonderful Valentine plates on sale for only ten bucks. We took the cable cars up California Street to Chinatown and had a wonderful Chinese dinner at Yee’s. We were the only non-Asians in the restaurant. We had fun shopping at found dominoes at one of the little Chinese stores. Also explored some of the big hotel lobbies and took some linen towels from the Ritz. Bad! Home to our hotel for a hot tub under the moonlight again.

March 2 through March 7 Sunday

The little red journal goes silent for the last five days of this trip, so I went to the photos to try to figure out what we did and when we did it. I am so glad that we now have the blog and that I have learned to keep regular updates. The photos tell a bit of the story, but for some reason the dates aren’t set properly, and nothing seems to be in order so that was no help either. From the photos, it seems that we spent a lot of time in the Arboretum in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park, and then traveled down the coast to visit the roller coaster at Santa Cruz and then on to Monterey to have a great dinner on the wharf and join a morning history walk through the town. We traveled down Highway 1 to Carmel and Big Sur and went hiking along the ocean cliffs there. Mo took my photo next to the huge artichoke in the Artichoke Capital of the World at Castroville.

We stayed mostly in Motel 6’s because we had Molly with us and they are easy and inexpensive. It was a wonderful trip and a great respite from the cold wet late winter days back in Klamath Falls.

A long weekend at the Brookings condo

Transcribed in April 2011 from very sketchy notes in our old leather journal, with help from the photos.

Mo has a condo in Brookings that overlooks the Pacific from high on a cliff. Although she offers it as a vacation rental, she can stay there for 17 days per year without losing any of the tax benefits. We had to leave Molly at Double C for boarding, however, since the condo association has a “no pet” rule.

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Mo’s brother Roger and his wife Nancy drove over from Corvallis to spend the weekend with us. We had a great time walking the beaches, cooking and eating out a couple of times. The condo is quite comfortable with two full bedrooms and an incredible view with a deck for sunset watching. The beach is private, and there is a very long steep staircase leading down to the water. We found three big old whale vertebra bones that we rescued for garden art back home.

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On the way home we stopped at the Jedediah Smith State Park, a cathedral of silent redwoods underlain by thick moss, ferns and shadowy paths.

A short weekend jaunt to Eureka

Transcribed in April 2011 from our old leather journal

This is a record of the first year that Mo and I knew each other and started traveling together

October 19, 2003

Sometimes even a short weekend can be fun. I love it when Mo says, “Hey, let’s go on a road trip”. This time we decided to travel down the Klamath River from Klamath Falls, through Yreka and to Happy Camp and across the 299 highway to Eureka. The trip took most of the day on Saturday, with lots of stops along the magnificent rivers, and a visit to a wonderful rock shop in Happy Camp where I bought a truly beautiful piece of California jade, or serpentine, with a polished surface on one side.

As we traveled across the pass toward the coast, we saw a medium sized black animal crossing the road and leaping up the slope above us. We couldn’t figure out what it was, too small for a bear but too big for anything we recognized. A bit of research later revealed images of a fisher, a rare animal in this part of the world that we were privileged to see.

We didn’t arrive in Eureka until quite late, but after settling in to the Motel, we decided to try to find a beach somewhere. Mo drove us out on a spit of land near Arcata and in the dark I ran out on the sand to smell and listen to the ocean in the dark foggy night. It was magical. On Sunday morning we went to downtown Eureka for breakfast at a great little Mexican fast food place on the wharf, with lovely fresh breakfast burritos. We walked around the wharf a bit, taking photos of the famous Victorian and then got back on the road toward home.

On the way back, we stopped along the Trinity River to watch some kayakers going down the rapids and thought of my friend Jeanne who does this kind of kayaking. Not for me, that’s for sure! We watched a couple of boaters make it and then saw one of them flip and have to swim the rapids. The sun was gorgeous, and the weekend was just the respite I needed before going back to another week of soil survey in Klamath Falls.

Off to Reno for Sue’s birthday

Transcribed in April 2011 from our old leather travel journal

Mo showed up at my house at on Friday at 7am and we took off right away for a great planned long weekend in Nevada. Drove first south on Highway 39 to Alturas and then took the back road through the Warner Mountains, high, rugged, and truly beautiful. We just ambled along checking out side roads and campgrounds in the forest land along the route. Stopped in Gerlach, Nevada, near the Burning Man site and had lunch at a little cafe. Found a cool desert lake for Molly to take a swim and another great tent campground just east of the Warner Wilderness Area. Would love to go back there and camp someday.

We arrived in Fallon in time to go to the PX there and then back to Reno for the night. Mo had reservations at the Motel 6 there in Reno because they allow pets, but somehow the reservation was for another town in Nevada. There was some sort of air show in town and all the hotels were completely booked up, but after a bit of negotiating, Mo found us a place to stay that would let us have Molly. It was late so we had a simple dinner and settled into our room for a relaxing evening.

On Saturday we got up early to a magnificent fall day in the desert. Took the Winding Hill road to Virginia City, stopping to take lots of photos overlooking the valley and climbing around the rocks. Had some early morning mimosas at the Bucket of Blood saloon and shopped in the little stores in town. In the afternoon we drove down to Genoa and the valley south of Reno just looking at homes and properties where Mo’s friend Kathy lived. We had a great late lunch at a BBQ restaurant in Carson City before going back to the motel to dress for our evening entertainment in Reno. The show, “The Best of Broadway” was great, with excellent singing and dancing and I enjoyed having a chance to get all dressed up for a change.

Sunday morning we left Reno and stopped at Boomtown for an inexpensive breakfast and a little slot play. On the way home via 395 we used our new book, “Nevada Gem Trails” to do some local rock-hounding and found quartz crystals along the highway, and carnelian and jasper on a back road just north of Alturas. By late afternoon we were starving, but nothing was open so we found ourselves settling for some really bad packaged burritos from the gas stations in Merrill around 9pm. We were pretty tired when we pulled in to my house and Mo left immediately for her home in Rocky Point while I settled in to get ready for work the next day.