Abby – Page 4 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

South to California

Hitch Itch. Full timers get it, folks with an RV parked in the shed get it too. The past couple of weeks have been focused on work and home chores, and we both knew we wanted to get in another local camping trip before we head for Colorado at the end of the month. Medicine Lake comes to mind first, a favorite high mountain destination, but we thought there might still be snow there this early. Then fate stepped in with an invitation to a retirement party in Davis, California for a colleague. We thought about it a bit and finally came up with a plan. Oroville!
There is a big lake there, nice campgrounds, my best friend and her husband are right there, and it is just a two hour drive to Davis so I could go to the party. Calling the State Recreation Area phone number for reservations, we were shocked to find that electric hookup sites (no sewer) at the Bidwell Canyon Campground cost $45.00, plus the reservation fee. Geez. California parks are too dang expensive. So I looked around a bit and came up with the KOA RV Park that is adjacent to the Feather Falls Casino and for $37.00 got a nice site with full hookups, free WiFi, cable TV and a heated swimming pool. Hmmm, not such a bad idea. We figured that we could go to the lake for kayaking without paying that crazy price.
Sunday morning we decided to drive to Grants Pass to check out another possible MoHo property and then travel south on I-5, a route we rarely travel between Medford and Weed. The day was gorgeous and cool, with a bit of cloud cover and the drive was perfect. I always smile when bloggers post the photos of amazing Mt Shasta, and decided that I didn’t need to stop once again to take one more picture of “the mountain”.
The trip was wonderful and as always it feels so freeing to be in the MoHo on the road. I said to Mo, “It isn’t just going somewhere that I love, it is the movement, the feeling of being on the road, the scenery sliding by, the skies ever changing”. I guess I like that hum and vibration somehow. Sounds completely silly to me when I write it, and yet I do know the feeling. Bet others do too.
When we arrived at the KOA we were pleasantly surprised, but not before a moment or two of confusion. You see, there are two casinos in Oroville, and I thought we were somehow going to the one that is on the road to Maryruth’s house. Instead, the GPS kept trying to send me south of town to a completely different area. Turns out we really DID have the reservation south of town and not on Maryruth’s road at the Gold Country Casino.
Once settled in, we discovered what I think is the best KOA we have ever seen. I often avoid these parks because they seem expensive and crowded. This one won a Presidents Award of some kind and I can see why. The sites were absolutely, perfectly level concrete pads, surrounded by large lawns, with a wide parking area along the road in front of your site for the toad. There were picnic tables and plenty of shade under our very own lovely oak tree. There were even two dump outlets on the site, one in front and one in back which we so appreciated. So many parks are set up for just 5th wheels and pickup trucks and the dump is completely out of reach of a motorhome.
The grounds were beautifully manicured, the swimming pool clean and heated, with an adjacent holding pen for your dog, the hot tub fresh and hot, and the clubhouse cool and roomy. The store and office had a great supply of anything you might need. With the KOA club card, which ended up paying for itself after all the freebies, got us 20 bucks in free casino money in addition to the 10 bucks we got with our site. We were also informed that a simple phone call would bring the casino shuttle right to our camp site on demand. Right to the site! Ha! The funniest part of this story is that in the four days we were in Oroville, we never managed to get up to the casino and our coupons went unused.
On Monday, we decided to explore the Thermolito Forebay area, a part of the huge Oroville Dam complex of water management systems. The forebay was a perfect place for kayaking since there are no motorized boats allowed. It’s really nice not to have to compete with jet skiis and bit boat wakes and noise. I really love the MotionX GPS app for my iPhone, mentioned by Rick recently, and have used it now for several kayak paddles. It is fun to see just how fast we have paddled, how many miles we have covered and where we have been on the map. It even links photos to the sites and then I can upload the track to Facebook or send it via email. Just tickles me no end. Of course, another quirk of GPS is the excellence of X and Y and the complete goofiness of the Z factor, elevation. We discovered to our surprise that on our nice little lake the elevation changed by 30 feet while we were out there. Too funny.
I have had a few questions from readers regarding how hard it is to get in and out of the kayak so I made a quick video of the process, just for laughs. I am still trying to figure out how to get the video to embed without any luck, so may just add the YouTube URL in case you want to see it. If I can do it, anyone can!

Maryruth and Gerald came out to our little shady campsite that evening and we all went up to the Feather Falls Brewery where we were able to use the other coupons that gave us a discount on food. After dinner when we thought about playing the slots we all thought better of it and just went back to the campsite instead. Tuesday was our day to visit at their home, to see all the beautiful garden work that Gerald has done, and enjoy some of Maryruth’s legendary cooking.
Often Oroville can be unbearably hot, and just the week before we were there the temperatures were in the triple digits. For us, instead, we had beautiful skies, not a speck of smog or haze, and temperatures in the mid to high 80’s. Couldn’t have been more perfect.
On Wednesday Maryruth took us out to her sister’s houseboat for an afternoon on the water with lots of good food and drink. The shuttle picks up passengers at the marina and takes you right to your boat, and even let us bring the dog. We settled in with sunscreen, comfy chairs, and good conversation with a view of the water all around us. Abby and I both even managed a good swim. Mo was a bit concerned about getting her back on the deck of the houseboat, but in nothing flat, with a little encouragement, Abby learned how to climb that ladder right back up on the boat.
Thursday morning we decided to explore some other areas for kayaking, including the Afterbay and the Diversion Pool. The big lake itself it fine for kayaking as well, but not nearly as interesting. The last time we were there we encountered a lot of wind and boats, and there is a large area of houseboats near the launch that require navigating through before you get to some more open water.
I left Mo in the shade of the oak tree mid morning to go meet my friends in Davis. There are so many people that I know from California, and it was so good to see everyone. Dean Burkett, who had a position in Chico like my position in Oroville had also come to detail and map for me while I was there and we developed a great friendship.
When I had my retirement party two years ago, Dean gave up a 22 year tradition of attending a rendezvous to come to my party instead. You can bet I wasn’t about to miss his retirement send off! I also got to spend quality time with the other two “Sue’s”. We are all a rather interesting phenomenon in California, all GS-12 managers, all in California, and all named Sue. In a career choice that at one time didn’t have many women, this is particularly funny. We called ourselves “the three Sues,” Sierra Sue (me), Coastal Sue in Arcata, and Valley Sue in Davis. Plus we all have kayaks! The three sues kayak trip is still in the works, but we keep talking about it. I still sometimes get emails meant for one of the other sue’s and they get mine. It IS a funny thing.
I stayed much to late and arrived back home to the KOA far too late for Mo and I to attempt to gamble away our coupons as originally planned. Instead we got a few hours sleep before taking off the next morning by 6:30 AM. After all, I had a quilt class in Merrill, at the Tater Patch and couldn’t miss it. It was the final class in a group of three that I have attended. We decided to leave early enough to take the back route home, via Highway 70 along the Feather River, north to Lake Almanor and Susanville, and then on to Merrill. It was a gorgeous drive over a road I haven’t seen for more than 40 years and I loved every minute of it.
We arrived in Merrill just a few minutes before my class started, unhooked the baby car so Mo could go on home, and I managed to finish the series without falling asleep at the machine. Let me tell you I was one tired puppy when I pulled into the driveway in Rocky Point that evening, glad to be home and completely satisfied with what turned out to be a really great week.
Next up: an amazing kayak on Shoalwater Bay and camping at Eagle Ridge just ten miles from home!

We found the sunshine on the Spring Equinox

There is a certain color of green in the California coastal range that comes after the winter rains. Sometimes when the sunlight pours over the hills, that green can be so intense it feels as though it expands your vision into something psychedelic. The timing has to be just right, and this year is a dry year so that neon green is a bit less dramatic, but still there if you look at just the right moment.

Our moment was during a late afternoon hike to the Coyote Ridge Trail in Coyote Lake County Park, high above the hills of the Santa Clara Valley. After waking to rain in Garberville, driving through rain as far south as Santa Rosa, negotiating huge lines of cars buying gas for 4.15 a gallon at Costco, and transiting the Bay Area freeways, we were happy to find our little park in the hills just a bit north of Gilroy off Highway 101.

We found this one using Streets and Trips, researched it a bit, and made the decision that it would be a good overnight stop on our way to Pinnacles. Just a few miles east of the freeway, the park could be in another world entirely. Rising from the valley, we drove a very narrow, winding road to the park entrance, and then after a couple of serious switchbacks, dropped down to the broad but small valley that is the home to Coyote Lake.

The campground is lovely at this time of year. I can imagine that the summer heat might be daunting, but right now the temperatures were a perfect 70 degrees when we arrived in late afternoon. A large herd of resident deer wanders around the lush grassy site, and even now after dark I can hear the turkeys gobbling.

I know it is mid week, but this park was completely empty when we arrived, and later this evening, one lone camper slipped in to a spot across the field from us. There are 18 sites with hookups, not cheap at $30 per night, but that includes a fee for the dump station we passed on the way in.

The strangest thing about this park is the strict rule regarding NO swimming in the lake. You can water ski, use jet skis, kayaks, motorboats, but you can’t swim. Makes no sense to me at all. Abby saw the water and got all excited so it was sad that we couldn’t take her down to the lake for a dip.

The best thing about this park are the trails. There are 28.5 miles of very nice trails, and we only managed to get out on 3 miles or so of the Coyote Ridge and Valley oak trail. All are dog friendly, with leashes required of course, but with no one else in the park, it seemed fine to let Abby run free. I did get a bit paranoid about the poison oak, but it wasn’t right on the trail in too many places, and hopefully we managed to keep Abby out of it.

We found amazing sunshine, and warm temperatures. All the driving, all the rain, all behind us. Sunshine ahead and I am sitting here after dark in capris and a tee shirt. Great way to celebrate the beautiful balance of light and dark that this Equinox day brings.

PS: As we packed up this morning, I learned some new things about the park. On summer weekends it is packed. During the week, however, there is almost always at least half of the hookup spaces available. In summer it is hot and dry and brown. The lake is kept at 55 percent of maximum because it is on the Calaveras Fault and they figure that the Anderson reservoir below Coyote Lake and above the Santa Clara Valley floodplain could hold the overflow in the event of dam breakage. There are only a couple of mountain lions about, covering 100 square miles each, not enough to keep down the deer population.

I had no bars for Verizon MiFi and no bars for the ATT cell phone and no television signals. I suppose someone with satellite would have had good open sky. I am now posting from Highway 101 as we head for Pinnacles, another place with no bars. We’ll be back in blogworld on Saturday. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and the prediction for today is in the 70’s. Yes!

Another Rocky Point Sunday

The air has finally started moving again, and as I look outside the bedroom window I can see the last of the leaves twisting in the breeze. There is snow on the ground, still, from our foot of snow dropped a week ago, but it is thinning. Not that bad, really, for mid November. Sometimes during this time of year in our part of the world the air gets still and cold, with fog from the basin around the edges of the lake and smoke from the slash piles and prescribed burns making the air murky. It was like this for a week or so, and then a couple of nights ago the winds started blowing, dropping pine needles into the snow like pick-up sticks, and clearing the air. I love the sound of the wind at night.

Check out that great new stain on the house! The job is finally finished, with the crew coming to put the last touches on the last day before the snow fell. They did a great job, but we certainly weren’t very happy with the amount of time they spent doing it. The job was started in late September and only finished on November 3rd. Sometimes the crew wouldn’t come out until mid afternoon and only stay a couple of hours before leaving. We live a long way from town and we could never figure out how the contractor expected to make money doing business like that. Maybe he had too many jobs going on at once and was trying to keep everyone happy. Whatever. At least the job is finished and the house looks great and we didn’t have to do it ourselves!

On November 1st, Mo and I traveled west to Brookings for three gorgeous days on the beautiful sunny coast. On Monday, the 31st, Mo turned to me and asked, “Remind me again why we couldn’t leave for Brookings today?”. Halloween, silly! I had to be home for Halloween with my kids, actually the kids are only part of it. The rest of the story is the wonderful tradition of walking on the dark sidewalks filled with happy costumed families on Pacific Terrace, where I used to live in Klamath Falls. One more time I met my daughter and grandkids to walk through crispy leaves, smell the popcorn that one family hands out every year from their outdoor popcorn machine, and be amazed at all the wonderful decorations that line the street for a mile in each direction. There is no better place to be at Halloween than Pacific Terrace in Klamath Falls.

When we left Tuesday morning for the coast, the weather was incredible. Blue skies all the way, without even a hint of fog over the ocean to mar the views. We went immediately to Harris Beach State Park, hoping for one of the ocean view sites, only to discover that those sites were all taken, even on a weekday in November! Instead, we settled into a roomy spot just across the road from those premium sites, power and cable and water for 22 bucks and still a great ocean view.

Our main purpose for the trip was to get the MoHo settled in to her storage berth, so we immediately went to meet the owner to be sure that the unit was easily accessible. Turns out that it is just fine, and when we slid the MoHo in on Thursday morning before traveling back to Rocky Point, it was a piece of cake.

In the mean time, we spent a good deal of time looking at possible properties in the Brookings area, but none were just right for what we wanted. Still, it was fun driving up the Chetco River to look, and then to the north end of town, just hoping for the right combination of view, price, and of course a big RV storage shed to appear. We took some wild rambling roads and were surprised to discover that many roads around Brookings are incredibly narrow and steep. Saw a spot with a gorgeous view of the ocean, with the words “great for a two story cottage”. That should have been a clue, since the property was on the side of a mountain with just enough flat ground for a very tiny home, and no space for an RV shed.

We saw another truly beautiful home and giant perfect RV shed with a gorgeous view, and an unbelievable 8 foot deer fence surrounding almost all the property, enclosing 50 roses and some beautiful gardens. The price was OK, but then there was more than 5 acres that needed subdividing, with some weird garages with no windows and with people actually living in them! Very strange. All a bit too complicated, and we laughed and said, “Let’s go find the fish and chips”. Once more we went to the Chetco Café down in Harbor where the ambience is certainly funky but the fish was as perfect as last time, thin thin very crispy perfect coating on tender, flavorful perfect fish. Yum. And a decent white wine at 3 bucks a glass. Can’t beat it.

We spent the next day relaxing, or I should say Mo relaxed while I went into town to use the coffee shop internet for a work conference. Finally in the afternoon we headed for the gorgeous, sunny beach. Dinner was a perfect steak brought from home and a great campfire and then a walk that took us to the campsite of some local Rocky Point friends who just happened to be camping there as well. They invited us in to their fire, offered more wine and conversation, and the evening stretched out to the late hours with fun and laughter. Seems as though Harris Beach is a pretty popular place for most of us.

On Thursday, once the MoHo was settled in to the storage unit, we drove north to take the back road route from Gold Beach through Agness and back to Grants Pass. The road is called the Bear Camp Coastal Route, and is not maintained after November 5 through the winter and spring. We made it just in time. Although on the map the road looks like it should be a short fast way back home, in reality, it is steep and slow and absolutely beautiful. It follows the Rogue River to Agness then climbs the coast mountains before dropping back down to the Rogue near Hellsgate. Even in the Tracker, the road was a bit daunting, especially on the passenger side. It was beautiful, though, and while we may not have to do it again soon, I am glad I finally got to see the famous route over the mountains. Let me just say, DO NOT ever even think of driving this road in any kind of motorhome!

That morning Brookings was shrouded in clouds with rain coming down and snow predicted for the mountains above 4,000 feet. Sure enough at the top of the route we ran into some snow, some deer, and even a bear! I WILL learn to keep my camera in my lap and on, but instead, at the bear moment, Jeremy was snoozing in my lap and the camera was on the floor. By the time we got home, there was fresh snow over the pass on 140 but no snow yet in Rocky Point. We would have loved to stay longer in Brookings, but too many details awaited us and thank goodness the heaviest snow held off till our Friday errands were run and we were safely back at home. I can’t believe how lucky we were to get in just under the wire with the first really big snowstorm arriving the day we put the MoHo in storage in snowless Brookings. Perfect.

I spent last weekend cutting and sewing strips for my very first quilt. It was a perfect day to be playing with brightly colored fabric with the dark skies and falling snow. It is just a simple panel, with borders, and I got all the borders on and am now attempting to learn how to do the machine quilting part. Mo is worried that I will now start collecting fabric the way I collect yarn. Hopefully I will refrain from getting too carried away with all this.

I have been knitting, and quilting, and working soil survey stuff, and somehow the time to write has slipped. Winter is here, life has simplified a bit for now, and I am enjoying that a lot.

Rocky Point Sunday

No, I still haven’t put together the rest of the stories about our cruise. Hopefully I can get motivated on that project before I completely forget all the little details. Instead, we arrived home last Sunday night and Monday morning I immediately went to work at my “real” part time job, the one that needs to have 40 good hours of attention every two weeks. Working from home is great, as long as the home computer does its thing without hitches. Instead, my old Dell computer running XP (for the government software) decided to burp and then basically throw up. So it was off to town for me and a couple of days working on the reliable government computer at my official office. I am lucky in that my bosses have all agreed that it is smart to have a real workstation available for me here in Klamath Falls, even though I technically work for Portland, Oregon, for Davis, California, for Sonora, California and for Klamath Falls, 30 miles away from my home in Rocky Point.

After some serious time with my computer guru in town, we managed to get the Virtual PC XP operating system working inside my new Windows 7 Dell. I only barely understand what is going on here, but with this system, I can actually install the government (XP only) software on my new machine. Good thing, since my old machine is still at the computer guru’s house getting gutted. Possibly too much information here for anyone but Rick, but what the heck, I need to have an excuse for not writing about the cruise yet! Back home with a working system and functioning software the rest of my work week went just fine.

I didn’t write, but managed to try to keep up at least a little bit on the blog world. Something interesting appeared that I thought would be fun to check out. It seems that several RV bloggers have dogs that are some kind of blue heeler, or blue heeler mix. We have figured out that Abby is mostly blue heeler with cocker spaniel overtones. Check out Travel with the Whippets and read their stories about the ability of their dog Bandido to disembowel any toy in a matter of minutes. Hmm. Abby does that. Check out Pheebs over on Al’s website. Al has regaled us with stories of the Pheeb’s energy repeatedly since she became a part of the Bayfield Bunch family. Abby. Another story, that I seem to have lost track of, talked about another heeler’s separation anxiety and panic attacks when left for even a moment in a car or a house. Again. Abby. Could it be possible that all this energy, toy destruction, separation anxiety and absolute complete devotion is a characteristic of the blue heeler breed? Just a thought.

The colors have changed here in Rocky Point, just a bit later than last year, but still beautiful. In fact, the aspens seem to have more pink and orange tones than usual. I thought that the pink color in an aspen was related to the variety, but some of these trees are usually just yellow and this year are many shades of pink and orange, so I guess my original thought is completely wrong. Back to aspen research, I guess. In the mean time, I am just really enjoying all our fall color right here at home after traveling clear across the country and missing out on most of the seasonal brilliance on the east coast.

The burning season has opened again for a short time and yesterday Mo raked some pine needles while I cleaned out the greenhouse. Mo also tore up the old boards on the back cabin deck that need replacing and built a very serious bonfire with them. Just one whiff of that wonderful wood smoke reminded me of hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs. I said, “We have some dogs and buns in the freezer, let’s do it!” Within minutes we had defrosted the dogs and buns in the microwave, skewered the dogs to the end of the pitchfork, drug the chairs to the bonfire and had ourselves a quick, impromptu perfect hot dog supper. I’m not on the diet officially any more, but still doing the maintenance thing, so Abby lucked out and got 2/3 of my bun.

I noticed as we were enjoying this wonderful home moment that I had no desire to run for the camera, to turn it into a blog moment, fully documented. I just wanted to enjoy the bonfire, the fall leaves in the background, the smell of wood smoke. So, no photos, but still worth writing about so I don’t forget how wonderful simple moments can be. Last night in the hot tub there was no moon to dim the brilliance of the stars.

Today we will continue a few outside maintenance jobs and start to load up the MoHo for the short trip to Brookings. This year the snow has held off for us, unlike the east coast and unlike last year. We as yet have no snow at home or on the passes, so our journey to the coast will be in time. With night temperatures dropping into the teens and the MoHo un-wintered, we will be glad to get her safely to storage where the temperatures don’t go below freezing. A couple of nights at Harris Beach and some days walking the sands will be fun.

September 10 The Banana Belt Delivers

Clear skies, temperatures in the 80,s and new friends, it was a perfect day on the coast. Mo and I were laughing as I sat down to write this blog, trying to come up with a title. Titles shouldn’t make a bit of difference, but I have found that they do. Our blog post last spring titled “Vandalism” has received by far more hits than anything I have ever written. I sometimes wonder if folks are actually searching that word when they find it. Other titles, simple ones like “A beautiful day at the ocean” can slip by with not a soul paying any attention at all. Makes me laugh. Not that post views are the only reason to blog, but of course I can’t help noticing. I thought about the title, “Shocking!”, and then letting my first sentence be something like, “Shocking that it was 85 degrees at the coast today.”

The morning dawned brilliantly, with most of the summer fog lifting even before we were out of bed. We called the storage facility at 8:30 and “Mr. Wilson”, a charming and very accommodating gentleman, said, “If you are a Harris Beach I’ll meet you at the storage facility right now.” Seems as though he made the right purchases at the right time, with several storage facilities and home rentals scattered throughout town. He drove up in his new Prius, and measured all the door openings to find one that was 12 feet high. We found a great space, with plenty of room to back in, and he was fine with us paying him now and having the rent begin on November 1st.

With that major chore accomplished, we wandered around town a bit and did some shopping before ambling back home to our lovely sunny spot with a view of the ocean in the distance. Lunch was simple and we relaxed and waited for Connie and Tracy to appear in mid-afternoon.

Right on schedule, at 2PM, the two of them walked into our campsite with Hunter, the beautiful greyhound dog with fine manners and an incredibly sweet disposition. Hunter and Abby got along well, and Jeremy who was outside on the step, thought that this large new creature was incredibly interesting.

As is often the case with RVing friends, we launched right into comfortable conversation at the picnic table. Comparing notes on coastal weather, campgrounds, RV destinations, rig configurations and all those interesting topics that make my townie, non RVing friends look a bit vague and simply yawn. A walk down to the southern end of Harris Beach on the South Beach Trail with the dogs was on the agenda, and with a couple of camera toting shutterbugs and two happy dogs we took off walking.

The time at the beach was great, and the dogs were perfect entertainment. We laughed and talked some more and did the obligatory time-release camera shots on the beach, propping cameras on near-by rocks to take photos of the four of us together. It was great fun. Mo and I are solitary travelers, enjoying our own company and not big socializers, but now and then some companionable friends are a delight. I know our paths will cross again, and next time we might actually have to get out the dominoes!

Back at camp, with some good Alaskan Amber and a few snackies, the conversations flowed on till early evening. The two of them had a couple of hours to drive back to their camp at Cape Blanco and hopefully they made it home before dark. Mo and I decided that all the excitement was just too much fun and we skipped the campfire for the evening and settled in to watch a delightful little movie called, “Love For Rent”. I think the R rating is for some of the four letter words in the beginning, the most of the movie isn’t R at all. We both really enjoyed it.