Rocky Point – Page 11 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Heck of an early winter here

Nice to have a new follower, I am always amazed when that happens. Thank you. Barry and Linda are talking about boondocking sites, always an interesting subject.

The guest cabin is getting buried!

Although for the last few days I haven’t been spending much time reading. Every morning I have shoveled 2 to 4 inches of snow from the driveway, enjoying it actually, until today when we had more than a foot dumped on us overnight. It seemed like a little bit too much, I had nowhere to throw it and it’s only November. Mo tried to start up the snow blower to finish the job, but it wouldn’t go, so I shoveled and she plowed and after about 3 hours we had the driveway and road passable. This big storm has rampaged across the northwest, leaving snow in Victoria, ice in Bellingham, and wreaking general havoc on roads and highways all over the place. We knew it was coming, but the predicted temperatures tomorrow are below zero, and that’s Fahrenheit, not Celsius! The wind blew hard all night and covered the wide front and back porches with hard, icy snow that I couldn’t scrape off no matter how hard I tried. I think I am ready for a break already. Yeah, I know it’s only November.

I’ll be off to visit a friend in Florida for a week in early December while Mo keeps the home fires burning and the road plowed. The day I return, we are jumping in the Tracker and going to pick up the MoHo in Redding and find some sunshine in Desert Hot Springs for Christmas week. Whew! I am having Thanksgiving this year, so there will be some good family time there, and told my Klamath daughter and grandkids that I would celebrate a late Christmas with them when we return.

The road to Medford on the way to Costco

The road home from Medford. Class A with no chains??

Yesterday Mo and I decided to make a Costco run. For us, that is a 45 mile drive to Medford, over the pass on Highway 140, past Lake of the Woods and down the Crater Lake Highway. It’s usually a beautiful drive and we can be at the Costco parking lot in less than an hour. Not so yesterday. After our morning snow exercises, we left around ten and the storm was already coming on fairly strong. By the time we left Medford and headed back east, it was in full force, with many sliders and slow vehicles trying to get over the pass. I was especially surprised by the big Class A motorhome stranded on the pass trying to get out the the Basin. I have no clue why someone would attempt to drive a big rig like that over a stormy, snowy pass, with chains required signs everywhere, but with no chains.

Today we had to go the opposite direction, again after morning snow exercises and on another snowy, icy road. I ordered a free range organic fresh turkey from Howard’s Meats in Klamath Falls and of course needed to do the rest of the Thanksgiving shopping there as well. On the way home, we saw that Klamath Lake is beginning to freeze already, and there are still hundreds of ducks in the bay, and even some Canada geese. Tonight that little bit of open water is going to close in even more. I worry about the birds. Our lake and basin is on the major Pacific flyway and these little ones are on a clock that didn’t include subzero temperatures in November. Heck, we rarely get sub zero temperatures in the deepest of winter!

The MoHo is in Redding, where tomorrow morning the temperatures are predicted in the low 20’s. Pooh. We drained the tanks, but didn’t put antifreeze in the drains. The whole reason for that expensive storage place is that Redding rarely drops below 30 degrees and we wouldn’t have to winterize. Sigh again. Mo thought about driving down there today while I did the Klamath shopping, but 3 hours each way in a winter storm isn’t particularly fun. After talking to some folks we decided that the rig would probably be fine. The temperatures will go low, but it is inside, and the sun will be out and the temps in the 40’s by 10 am. Tomorrow is the coldest day, so we are watching the weather map on weatherunderground and hoping it won’t be as bad as predicted.

Tomorrow is the big cooking day, so as long as the power grid holds up I should be busy. Mo also got the snow blower running this evening so my shoveling time might be a bit less. Who knows. I love winter, and I love being able to leave it as well! It’s the best of all worlds.

Snowy weekend

The snow has come for real to Rocky Point, with enough on the road yesterday that Mo had to plow. She fires up the tractor for the road leading to the house (aptly named Easy Street), and I get out the shovel and do the big driveway by hand. We have a snow blower as well, but I only get that out when the stuff is really deep, at least a foot or two. Yesterday it was just 2 inches, and this morning another 2 inches. I think an hour of shoveling up and down that driveway qualifies for at least half of my ten thousand steps a day, (which I haven’t actually done in a very long time). Difference between our snow and Rick’s snow is that ours probably won’t melt. If you have a dog, or know a dog, or just want to laugh from joy, drop over to Rick’s page and check out his video of Rylie running around in the snow. Abby doesn’t get quite so excited, although I do have some videos of her doing similar silly stuff in water, warm! water that is.

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When I moved back to Rocky Point last year, I packed up a lot of boxes of stuff, even after a year of thinning and selling and giving away stuff, I still have stuff to deal with. Mo has a small shed out back, and in that shed are some chests and boxes, including a great drawer full of travel brochures and memorabilia. I went out there yesterday to find something and came upon an old travel journal. Mo and I have traveled together since mid 2003, and it was great to find all those old handwritten stories tucked away with places, dates, all the details that we forget as the years continue. Sometimes we go to the blog to try to remember a trip, or a date, and it is a bit frustrating to find that what we are trying to remember is pre-blog.

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I decided it would be a good idea to go back in time and add those old trips and photos here. I was a little bit concerned that the posts would show up all over the place as recent, but I checked a few blog rolls and it seems that as long as I remember to put the right publish date, blog followers won’t be bombarded with ancient history. It’s fun to go through the stories and photos and get it all down in proper blog format. I find I enjoy my own memories more with the illustrations accompanying the text, so it’s a great little trip down memory lane. Mo thought is would be nice to have everything in one place as well. I didn’t start blogging our travels until we were on our cross country trip back to Florida, and we started that trip in the baby MoHo and bought the current one on our return trip, but that story is here. The prior stories are coming along. I know that I don’t often crawl back in blog archives to see someone’s history. So much is going on right in the present it’s often hard to keep up!

This week I get to remember that I really am retired. I don’t have to work at all! The weekend has been great, with shoveling, hauling another load of crackling dry juniper to the porch for the fire, cooking, cleaning, and some good knitting and tv watching as well. We had three Grey’s Anatomy shows stacked up on the DVR so that was great fun, not having to wait a whole week for the outcome, just fast forward. Today I am continuing with the cleaning projects, and have all my Cooks Illustrated magazines out on the counter looking for some new recipes for Thanksgiving. I know better than to mess with family classics, but I can at least experiment with an extra here and there. Half my children will be here with spouses and kids, the other half are in other parts of the country. I am really looking forward to a big dinner, to the cooking and camaraderie, to family time. The four years I was in California were hard for me, my family couldn’t manage the distance to travel to me, and I haven’t hosted the holiday at my home since 2003, when I still lived in Klamath Falls. Family and food and fun. Mo’s brothers are up north, and her sister is in Colorado, so they don’t often manage to get everyone together for Thanksgiving. So Mo will be here as well, patiently tolerating and even enjoying my family and all it’s craziness.

Loading up

Finally! It is Sunday and we are loading up the MoHo. Tomorrow we will be on the road again, certainly not another long jaunt, but almost two weeks of ambling down the California coast with our new kayaks. The snow melted, and even though it’s raining today, the snow level is above 6500 feet or so, higher even than our pass crossing to Medford tomorrow. Once over the pass (I can’t believe this pass doesn’t have a real name) we will be out of snow country. Of course, rain and fog are distinct possibilities, but with a cozy home, lots of fleece, and raincoats, that isn’t a problem either. The ocean is wonderful even in the rain, and fog just makes the redwoods more mysterious.

I guess you can tell who takes the most pictures around here. It looks like Mo does all the work, but not really. I am just the one with the camera. Mo has been raking and burning to hopefully get a head start on the pine needles that will accumulate in drifts by next spring when the snow melts. I worked all last week, but managed a few work days at home, which gives me a chance to run laundry loads in between uploading data. I also got the house all spiffy for our return in mid-November.

Mo is checking the tires and the air shocks while I load up the food and clothes. She also did a bit of retrofit on the cubbyhole that holds the DVR so it would stay in place. The little wooden fence will keep the remotes from hitting the driver on the head when the road gets too curvy! I stood in the MoHo for a minute and couldn’t for the life of me remember just what I needed to pack. It’s only been a month since we landed, and I cleaned everything out back then to hopefully starve the mice. Hmmm, what has to go back in? ?? I laugh when I read about everyone packing their computer cords, batteries, computers, cameras, all that techie paraphernalia. Someday maybe batteries will be implanted in our bodies and run everything wirelessly? I put in the dry foods, the kayak clothes, too many shoes, and started to get back into the routine of living in the MoHo. Only took half an hour or so to get back in the groove.

Our new kayaks are coming from Canada. It’s been a bit worrisome because of the bad weather this week, and the trucker was trapped in Montana for a couple of days. I have to say that the company has worked extra hard to get them to us in time for our trip. We are meeting the driver in Medford tomorrow (on our route) mid day to finally pick them up. It is pretty exciting. Of course, we could have taken our old trusty boats, but since we paid for these back in September, it sure will be nice to have them with us.

I have been reading the RV blogs more and more lately, and thanks to some prolific writers who mention mine now and then, I am actually enjoying some readers following Mo and I as well. Welcome to these new followers. You inspire me to take better photos and write more often. Gail Durham looks like she is enjoying Halloween very much and Kathy talked about how unique each person’s story is, and I so agree with her. The only problem I am having now is trying to read everything. The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger! whew! Life and work and travel might get in the way now and then, but it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t really appreciate this great group of people. Hi and welcome as well to Randy and Pam who are working on a Habitat for Humanity home, and to Loree, tucked away on beach making gorgeous afghans. Donna found me, both here and on Facebook, and I had to tell her I had been reading her blog a long time before she and Stu got together. Pidge and Don, The Frugal Travelers, go to some really great out of the way places I might never find without her blog.

Jeremy is watching me closely through the front window!

Happy Halloween everyone! I am going into Klamath Falls tonight to celebrate with my daughter and her family. They live in my home in a neighborhood known “the terrace”. Pacific Terrace is a double boulevard with a grassy median lined on both sides of the street with old unique homes from the 40’s. There are big beautiful trees, sidewalks for walking, and every year the entire street lights up for Halloween. Almost every house is decorated, and there are lights and kettle corn, and one person has outdoor scary movies projected on his garage door. People bring their kids from all over town to trick-or-treat here. It is like we all stepped back into the 50’s when kids could be out late and there were no scary people doing scary things to the treats. On Pacific Terrace, Halloween is still fun and fabulous.

First Snow!

I thought I had nothing to really talk about, and promised myself I wouldn’t get caught up in trying to blog every day. But then it snowed last night, and this morning it was just too gorgeous to miss. Especially since my last conversation involved the very same trees. This morning the snow is frozen solid and weighing down the young ones. Our back yard maple is just 8 years old and with the extensive shade, it doesn’t grow as quickly as it might in a warmer, sunnier climate. It really lights up the forest at this time of year, and again in the spring. Hopefully the weight of the snow won’t break any branches. The little fern leaf maple is under the fir canopy and with it’s small leaves, a bit more resilient to the snows.

Jeremy knows better, but doesn’t he make a great still-life?

Hopefully this late fall storm will pass. Monday is our day to get the MoHo out of snow country, driving west to Medford over Highway 140 and a fairly high pass. Either way out of Klamath Basin involves crossing a pass, so we are really hoping that the snow melts over the weekend and we can get her safely south without having to drive on icy roads. Can’t leave till the kayaks get here, anyway. Seems we are cutting things a bit close for this year if the snow really is coming to stay this early in the season. Often it doesn’t really hang around on the ground until after Thanksgiving.

Jeremy is quite content to sit inside when it’s cold. Of course, on the table is a serious no-no, but does he look troubled at all? The “still life with cat” was too much fun to miss before I scolded him and he ambled off to a more appropriate cat resting place.

It’s Saturday!

I had to run outside when the sun broke through the rain to catch the last of the fall colors in our yard

The rains are coming, with forecasts for high winds tonight, and it was a dark day at Rocky Point. I have had an absolutely fabulous day doing absolutely nothing. Well, almost nothing. I made a killer good navy bean soup. I also managed to download and read Rick’s blogging tips file, and have been buried in Picasa most of the day tagging photos and organizing. It’s easy to get sidetracked when doing this, especially when I find old scans of my children from the 60’s.

Welcome to the Bayfield Bunch, it’s nice to be followed! Thank you, although the blogging responsibility is starting to feel a bit bigger. I still really don’t plan to blog daily, but do hope to pay more attention to participating in this great community instead of just lurking around reading everything. After seeing all the photos of Al’s yard, I was inspired. Once or twice the sun tried to peak through the clouds and I ran outside to get some photos of the leaves turning before the winds blow them all away tonight. Of course, I had to try out the Picasa collage tool. I used this in the past, but had completely forgotten about it. I also had a ton of fun erasing telephone lines from some of my photos with the retouch tool. I can’t believe I never even saw that one before, since I used to use Photoshop a lot. I had no idea it was the same thing.

This morning we also had great fun planning a possible route for our California coastal trip commencing on November 1st. We are using the CampClub USA card and trying to find parks that will accept the discount. It’s not a small task with so many restrictions, especially on weekends and months other than January. Also, it seems that many of the campgrounds in the California state parks are closed after October. Somehow our trip is now scheduled with reservations and plans. I don’t know quite how that one happens, since I keep thinking we can just wander off and land where we land. But of course, that could put us in an unfriendly Wal-Mart with parking lot cops knocking on our doors in the middle of the night, so we opted for plans. While planning, I got lost in Google Earth, cruising around the estuaries on the coast. Our new Canadian made Swift kayaks should be here any day now, and we are excited about trying them out on the upcoming trip.