road trips – Page 23 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Tehachapi eastward

We are traveling east on I-40 right now after spending last night at Mo’s friend’s home in Bear Springs valley near Tehachapi. It’s a little after 11 right now and finally the air is getting clearer as we get farther east in the desert. Mo is driving but soon it will be my turn. I knitted some, fiddled with the broadband card on the computer, called John and Deanna and things feel really nice and simple at the moment.

It was really cold last night and we had the heater going all night, and then at 330 or so I got up to turn on the propane heater as well. It was about 47 degrees in the MoHo by then and my nose was cold even though it was cozy under the covers.

The cats have traveled just fine but then last night they were a little restless as well, probably because I was. We had a really nice visit with Chris and Peggy and Mo’s other student Jane came up to visit from Victorville as well. Jane and Chrissy were students of Mo’s when she was a new young teacher in China Lake in 1962. It was fun reminiscing about those days and hearing about Mo back then as a young teacher. Even then she was “firm, fair, and consistent”. That was what they like about her, and they emulated her teaching style as they each became teachers in California. They both also retired with more than 30 years of teaching.

Yesterday we stopped at a big ”family” farm on HWY 58 on the way to their house and bought some pomelos, like grapefruits except they were as big as heads. We laughed a lot about them and left them for Chris and Peg.

Jane is a cat lady so we got lots of good information about my cats and what to do about Jeremy losing weight. I guess she has more than 13 cats but refused to tell any of us the actual number.

Peggy made a great dinner for us with chicken and scalloped potatoes and also insisted on sending us off this morning with bacon and apple pie, and leftover chicken and potatoes for the road. They are planning to move to the Bear Valley house when Peg retires next spring but for now it is a weekend place. The horse barn was to die for though, since they are both horse people and Chris still rides with the sheriff posse and helps with horse rescues during the fires. I kept thinking of my sister Sally and how much she would have loved that Barnmaster barn. Heck, back in the days when I had horses I would have loved it!

It must have rained here recently because there are flowers blooming all over the desert. Some reallhy pretty kind of aster that has gray foliage. At first I thought it was rabbitbrush, but it’s not the right flower. And a beautiful bunch of lavender asters was blooming out among the creosote bushes. The skyline has that desert sharpness except to the south there is smog and smoke creeping up from LA I guess, hard to say where it is from.

It’s later on Sunday evening and Mo is showering after we finally settled in for the night at Meteor Crater. We drove a long way today, 450 miles or so, and the road were good and the traffic was light, but we were still worn out when we landed. It seemed a lot later than it was because it was dark here completely at 5pm. Must be on the eastern edge of the time zone even if it is pretty far south in Arizona.

We got to Flagstaff and needed gas so got off the freeway to try to find some kind of gas station. Finally found one, but the funny thing is that here in the desert they must actually be implementing the dark night restrictions on night lighting. I have heard of this a lot in the past and thought it was a great idea. I love the dark. But trying to find your way around in a darkened unknown city is an interesting experience. Everything looks as though it is closed. Finally managed to get gas and get the next 30 miles down the road to our reserved campground, which was very nearly closed, and yet still more than very very dark. We drove around in circles trying to find the space, and then turning on the light so we could see the campground light, but then of course we couldn’t see anything at all. It was funny. I was swearing a lot at all those dark night rules!

Now, after dinner and a glass of wine it all seems entertaining, but an hour ago not so much. Music playing on the stereo, cats napping in the front window after dinner, and praise be, my wireless att card is working. Some things make life all ok! LOLOL

Traveling the Southern Routes in December

Saturday morning December 1, 2007
We are off and running on the big trip, the one we have waited for all year. This morning we left town at 6:45 even earlier than we had planned. This trip will be our maiden voyage with the cats along and it feels as though it will be just fine. Of course there has been a bit of adjustments.

Teddy did his meowing thing for a couple of hours but now it’s 930 in the morning and he seems to have finally settled down. Jeremy is here asleep in Moana’s lap feeling safe and cozy. Right away when I let him out of his cage he found Abby’s bed and decided that it felt like home. Teddy goes back into his cage for safety, probably because he likes being in those closed spaces.

It’s also taken a bit to get used to using the laptop and the wireless card. The computer kept turning off and I already broke the antenna off the card. For a bit of time, though, I had 5 bars and managed to get gas prices. We did really well, since we paid 3.19 and every thing else around there was more.

We had a glass of milk before we left and split a yogurt a bit ago, but hopefully won’t be eating all those big breakfasts that we do sometimes when we are traveling. It’s sunny and not too cold here on 99, smoggy and hazy as usual for the central valley. The highway is pretty rough in some places but here between Fresno and Bakersfield it has smoothed out some.
I can’t believe that after all these years of fantasizing about the motorhome and a tracker that I am living it right now. A whole month on the road. So many fun things ahead of us, and who knows what kind of adventures are waiting. We will be staying with Mo’s friends in Tehachapi tonight and then tomorrow will be a rather long day crossing the deserts on the way to Flagstaff. For the moment it’s still California, and still doesn’t really feel like a real trip. The leaves are off the orchards, or turning dull brown, sometimes you can smell grapes, other time fertilizers and waste plants. Trash along the highway. I am wondering just how much that will change as we cross the country. 99 certainly isn’t the most picturesque of roads, even though it has such a long history in my life, and Mo’s life as well. We have both traveled this road for close to 50 years or more. Some things change, others never do. For instance, there are only a couple of ways to get from one end of California to the other. Old refrigerators in a huge junkyard, lots of manufactured home and rv dealers, stupid people on cell phones who don’t know how to onramp the freeways. Good thing Mo is such a good driver. Cats sleeping sun in the windows, clouds over the misty sierras in the east. Onward.

Off to Lincoln, Nebraska, to teach Basic Soil Survey

May 10 2007 Thursday

We left Jamestown traveling east to Winnemucca Nevada. Drove to Jackson via HWY 49 and then up 88 over the mountains. It was a great day with beautiful weather. The pass was open and the highway was clear. Abby did well on the trip and everything seemed fine. In Winnemucca we found our space, and even though it was near the highway with traffic sounds, we slept well. We made dinner in the motor home, pretty sure we had hamburgers but I am sure that we didn’t eat out. We then went for a long walk through town via the highway. It was sunny and warm and the wind was blowing hard. We walked back behind the tracks and found the street where the Basque restaurant was that we saw last year. Quiet uneventful and delightful evening in the MoHo for the first night out

5/11 2007 Friday

We got up early and had cereal and coffee before filling up with gas at the Maverick right in town. Our next destination to be Evanston, Wyoming. The day across the rest of Nevada was fun and then when we hit Utah the salt flats were really really what Melody calls “white hot nothing”. The Utah pavement couldn’t hold a candle to the Nevada pavement, though, and the bump bump bump was a pain. We stopped at a small rest area and made tuna sandwiches and took photos of the salt flats. There was an interesting piece of sculpture along the highway that at first looked like some kind of radar tower, but as we passed it, we could see that it was some kind of intentional art. Completely out of place out there in the desert. Then, as we crossed the Nevada-Utah line we saw signs for Drug Dogs Present and all kinds of cop cars and random drug stops. Laughed to notice a few cars stopping and turning around before they got in the thick of it. As we went through it didn’t seem to be that big a deal, but the signs evidently did their trick.

Later we managed to get through Salt Lake traffic without much hassle and the real hassle was driving over the pass up to Park City. It was long and steep and the MoHo really felt the pull. Finally on top as we reached Wyoming, things leveled out and got really pretty. Our little campground in Evanston was fine except for the owner who was a very old man and accidentally charged me 313 instead of 31.30. I got it straightened out later, but it was a big surprising when I found the ticket. We found a walking trail just a couple of blocks from our camp and took Abby on a nice long walk to town. Evanston was a sweet little town, with lots of museums and restored buildings all around. The park had a bandstand and the river walk was paved and signed well and full of flowers. Walking through the town was interesting, people were all lined up trying to watch an old theater being demolished that had burned. We asked what was going on and the people lined up on the sidewalk all said, “I don’t know”. Funny. Another quiet and peaceful evening in our little MoHo.

5/12/2007 Saturday

Up early since this was going to be a long day over 500 miles to North Platte with a stop in between to visit Mary Ann and Gail in Laramie. Wyoming was really lovely until we hit the over thrust belt where there were a lot of refineries and gas and oil wells. Then it got pretty again as we climbed up toward Laramie. We crossed the continental divide a couple of times and wondered how that happens. The best part was what we called the meringue mountains which was actually the back site of the Uinta range in Utah. They were really dramatic and lovely and I took a photo of them as we passed. Mid day we arrived in Laramie to visit with Mary Ann and they took us to lunch in town. Laramie was also quiet and clean and altogether enjoyable. I enjoyed seeing Mary Ann again, since we have been friends for more than 15 years now.

Leaving Laramie at 2 we headed on east into Nebraska toward North Platte. About half way there we dropped down a few extra miles to get into Colorado at the little town of Julesburg just so we could put our Colorado sticker up. We had great fun adding the stickers to the MoHo window. Arrived in North Platte to another fairly simple and nice campground and made dinner again in the MoHo before a good night’s sleep.

5/13 Sunday

Mother’s Day. I wasn’t using my phone much so I didn’t talk to the kids on this moms day. We got up early again and had eggs and potatoes this time, cooked outdoors over the camp stove and set out for our adventure to the Sand Hills of Nebraska. It was a nice drive, although we had to turn east on HWY 2 and didn’t have time to really explore all the way up to Valentine. Decided that it might be nice to try that sometime. We enjoyed the trip, but the winds of Nebraska are something neither of us will forget! Buffeted the old MoHo around pretty badly along HWY 2. Nebraska was pretty flat and boring, but we managed to find a small town along HWY 34 that we took to avoid the I-80 traffic and trucks. Looking for something to eat for Moms Day we found this great little Midwest place and had a moms day buffet. Just in time. There was corn fed amazing pork, fried apples, really really good corn on the cob and all sorts of goodies for 10 bucks each. Turned out to be really really fun and nice. A surprise.

On in to Lincoln along that back road and found our campsite at the CampAway park right by the freeway. It was a really nice place as well, with good facilities, close to town and lots of parks and grass for Abby to play right outside our site. Even with the traffic of the freeway, the huge trees muffled the sounds and the wind sounded wonderful. I slept great there. The park was full of huge trees and green grass where Abby could play ball in the afternoons with Moana. There was a big park across the street that had Frisbee golf and we walked there one evening and watched people playing. Abby loved the walks.

Thanksgiving trip to California

Just a quick note to anyone following my blog, I am not sure if this post will show up in all your blog rolls or not. I am backtracking here a bit, and decided to put some old journals and photos into the blog so that Mo and I could have our travel history all in one place. More times than once lately, we have wondered when we did something and gone to the blog only to realize it happened “pre-blog”. So any of you reading, if this pops us with a date of 2005 or even earlier, don’t worry, you aren’t time traveling and it isn’t a mistake. My actual hope is that it won’t show up at all. Guess I will find out if anyone starts commenting! You might notice a different “MoHo” and a different dog. Molly left us in 2006 and we didn’t pick up the new “MoHo” until December of 2007 on our cross country winter travels that year. I still lived in Klamath Falls and was working full time and Mo lived in Rocky Point. We started traveling together back in 2003, so eventually I hope to all our trips right here.

My kids are scattered around the country, and this year we decided that everyone didn’t need to make the long trek to Klamath Falls for Thanksgiving and Mo and I could go on little MoHo trip. I took off work early on Wednesday and Mo picked me up in Klamath. The MoHo was rolling along toward California by 3pm. It was our first attempt at boondocking at a Wal-Mart. We wanted to get far enough into California on Thursday to find a nice restaurant for dinner. It was dark when we arrived and we didn’t see any signs saying we couldn’t park, so settled in, turned on the lights and within an hour an employee security person was knocking on our door saying we couldn’t stay there. Redding evidently has some laws about store parking that we didn’t know about. He was nice to us, however, and told us that we could simply move to the east of the official parking lot into the dirt and safely park there. We put up the TV antenna, hoping for some diversion, but for some reason nothing worked. We walked Molly around the parking lot before going to sleep.

It was a bit of a restless night, but not bad, and by 8:30 on Thursday morning we were coffee’d up and ready to hit the road. We decided to travel west to the coast via Highway 299 through Whiskeytown and then along the beautiful Trinity River. The day was cloudy but a balmy 55 degrees, which felt warm after the cold Klamath fall air. Whiskeytown and French Gulch were pretty little towns we visited along the way, then crossed the mountains to Highway 3, to Highway 36 and finally to Highway 101 on the coast. At the top of one of the passes we saw a large cat-like black animal streaking across the road and up the hill beside us. Later I searched the internet and finally figured out that we had seen a fisher, a rather rare animal in this part of the world. I glad we both saw it.

The roads were narrow, winding and long. It was raining hard when we reached Fortuna on 101 and we decided to eat our Thanksgiving dinner at Peppers. It was a nice turkey dinner with all the trimmings and certainly not expensive. We even had leftovers to take with us, which of course are necessary for a Thanksgiving dinner.

Even in the rain, the town of Ferndale was interesting to visit. Most of the stores were closed because of the holiday and it was a bit drab in the rain, but I would love to go back there someday and shop. Later we took the road to “Centerville” which turned out to be nothing more than an empty beach. We followed a very narrow winding road up the steep hills south of the beach for a distance before deciding to turn around after talking with a local who said the road eventually came to a dead end with nothing to see.

Returning to Highway 101 we traveled south toward Humboldt Bay, looking for a place to camp in the Redwoods. the Burlington Campground showed up just after dark, and there was a space for us. We tucked the MoHo into the small spaces between huge redwood stumps and settled in for the evening. Some of the stumps were actually as big as the MoHo! It was a surrealistic place, and in the dark even more so. I went to camp headquarters to pay and managed to lose the MoHo and myself for a time before finding my way back.

We slept great in the deep dark forest, with the sound of the pouring rain keeping us in bed until quite late. Even at 9am the forest was still dim and dark as late evening. I made omelets for breakfast and we took the slow beautiful drive along the Avenue of the Giants, stopping at the visitor center. The displays were excellent, with stories of a man named Kellogg and his van made entirely of one redwood log.

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We drove south all day on the winding highway 1, through many dark and winding forests, and many signs that said “road narrows”. It was hard to imagine how the road could get any more narrow. Eventually we emerged from the forest to the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The Mendocino coast was wild, rugged, and beautiful, but the roads are incredibly narrow with very few places to pull over, and no shoulders at all. I was car-sick most of the way and was very happy to finally get to the little town of Mendocino. We did stop along the way to hike the half mile down to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, beautifully restored.

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Continuing through town just in time to settle into space 11 in the Van Damme State Park just as darkness settled in. Our late lunch of leftover turkey sandwiches at an ocean overlook should have been plenty, but Mo started a campfire and wee cooked burgers. They were great! Venus was huge and brilliant over the ocean and Mars glowed red through the redwood branches, forecasting a sunny day to come. I knitted while Mo read until lights out at 9 or so.

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The next morning we were up at 8 and after a good home cooked breakfast we packed up to go explore Mendocino. It was a gorgeous clear day, but cool and windy. we walked the town, checked out the Art Fair, I found some wonderful yarn at the perfect little yarn shop, and had a delightful cappuccino.

We decided to travel south on Highway 1 until we found a place to spend the night. Instead we saw a sign that said “coastal access” and followed it to the tiny perfect little hamlet of Point Arena. Supper at the restaurant overlooking the ocean was perfect, with rock cod and a perfect salad. Beautiful. Our plan was to continue as far south as Sea Ranch before heading inland but we hoped for someplace along the beach. Sure enough, high above the ocean, we found a wide turnout in the road, level and safe, with no signs saying we couldn’t park there. As we were settling in, a man drove up and let his dogs out of his car. Suddenly the peace was ruined by a huge tussle of dogs with his aggressive animals attacking Molly, who ended up scared, shaking, and limping a bit. I was furious! Thank goodness he left.

The evening settled into a peaceful sunset with music on the stereo, Mo reading while I wrote and Molly sleeping peacefully.At dawn, the skies over the ocean were all shades of pastel pink and lavender and the rising moon was visible in the east. We tried out the new toaster oven with some corn muffins which tasted ok, but I burned them a bit too much. Driving all day east from Gualala through Annapolis where the signs said “no rv’s” but with our little 21 footer and no tow car we did just fine. The road was really steep and curvy but not much worse overall than all those curves on highway 1! Continuing to Clear Lake and Williams we hit the interstate by 1pm to take us back north to Oregon. Stopped for a steak dinner in Redding before the last long leg into Klamath over highway 97, leaving the interstate at Weed. It’s a long stretch to do in a day, but since I had to be to work on Monday morning, it was necessary. Mo is retired but I am not, so sometimes these little trips with me are much quicker than either of us would like.

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.