North Through California - Again

Hello again friends and loyal readers. Our last episode concluded on Friday, April 26^th, when we made the trip from Santa Maria, California, in the Central Coast region, to Fresno, in the Central Valley area of California. Our original plan to stay at the Fresno Elks Lodge, which has a very nice RV park, was foiled by the unexpected presence of the annual Clovis Rodeo. Clovis is a suburb of Fresno and is located not too far from the Elks. It seems that the lodge had no vacancies for the weekend. After a bit of frantic web searching and phone calls by Jackie as we were driving, we finally got a spot in an old trailer park on the far west side of Fresno. Actually so far west it is not even in the city limits. The park is nicely kept and the staff is very nice, but the sites are sort of odd. Most of them are parallel to the road instead of at a diagonal or ninety degrees. You have to snake the coach into the spot between the power pole and the inside edge of the spot. 

We did it without too much trouble, but after seven years on the road we have a pretty good system for parking. I think a less experienced team might have more trouble. We actually had to work our way into two spots because the first one didn't work out because a tree was blocking our satellite reception and we don't like to not have our TV. We finally did get everything set up and working and settled in for our five day stay.

Later that afternoon we took a drive over to the other side of Fresno to visit with Jackie's second cousin, Stephanie and her kids. Stephanie actually calls her Aunt Jackie since her mom Sue, who was staying at Stephanie's house for a few days, is about the same age as Jackie. Stephanie and her family, her husband Ron and their three kids, have lived in Fresno for a few years and we visited them last year when we came through the area. Ron was out of town working a construction job, so we didn't get to see him.

We visited with the family for a while and then we all went out to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner and to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday, which was today. We had a great dinner and some nice conversation. Jackie has not seen Stephanie since we were here last year, and has not see Sue for about three years. After dinner we drove back to their house, visited for a little while longer, then drove back to the coach. We were pretty tired and watched TV until bedtime, an early bedtime.

Saturday, April 27^th, we had lunch at the coach and left about noon to drive back over to Stephanie's house. When we were here last year we took the family geocaching and Stephanie and the kids seemed to enjoy it. When we were talking about it last night Stephanie's mom Sue also seemed excited to give it a try. The kids were busy with other stuff, but Jackie and I took Stephanie and Sue out and we did some caching in the area around their house. We were out for about three hours and ended up with eleven new finds, along with four DNFs. That is a lot of DNFs for us, but a lot of these caches haven't been found in several months and could be gone.

We went back to Stephanie's house and visited for a while before leaving about 6:00 to meet some other friends at the Clovis Elks Lodge. We were meeting Jeannie and LeRoy Foote. Jeannie and Jackie went to Dorsey High School in Los Angeles together and up until about three years ago had not seen each other since graduation. 

About four years ago there was a 50^th reunion of Jackie's class. Although we were not able to go, it put Jackie back in communication with Jeannie after all the years. About a year after that we crossed paths with Jeannie and LeRoy in Las Vegas. They were visiting in town as we were passing through. Last year, when we were here in Fresno, Jackie got to see Jeannie very briefly, but we didn't get to spend much time. Jeannie had called Jackie when she learned we were back in town, and told her that some friends of her's were doing karaoke at the Clovis Elks Lodge tonight and she knew that I liked to sing. They live in Clovis, not too far from where Stephanie lives.

We arrived at the lodge and met Jeannie and LeRoy, along with a number of their friends who were at the same table. Their friends were actually the one's putting on the karaoke show. Jeannie and LeRoy bought our dinner, which was very nice of them. The lodge was having their steak night and when the dinner came I was impressed with the quality of the food. They put on a pretty nice spread. There were a lot of people at the lodge, probably because of the rodeo being in town. Lots of folks in western dress. Over the evening I got to sing four songs and listened to some pretty good karaoke singers. Most were country western types, but a few sang oldies like I do. We finally left a little after nine and headed back to the coach. We didn't want to be out too late because we are on the other side of town, and the area we are in is not the nicest. I wanted to be in the coach with the doors locked before it got too late.

Sunday, April 28^th, we were looking at a very hot day with temps in the low 90's. Certainly a change from last week along the coast when we had to wear jackets most of the day. About 1:00 Stephanie and Sue, along with Stephanie's daughter Madison, and one of Madison's girlfriends, came over to visit and see the coach. They had all seen the coach before, but it has been a while and they wanted to see the new kitty too. After a brief visit, during which the new kitty pretty much ignored them, we headed out to do some geocaching in the area around where the RV park is. We only did a couple close to the RV park, because, as I said, it is not the nicest neighborhood. When I went out at 7:30 a.m. to get the Sunday paper for Jackie there were already a couple of hookers on the street.

We took the two kids with us and Stephanie and Sue followed in Stephanie's car. We had a good caching run, getting a dozen new finds with only two new DNFs. The kids really had a great time and became very competitive in looking for the caches. They actually found about half the caches on their own. We had several finds on the campus of Fresno City College, which has a very nice campus a few miles from our RV park. Since it was a Sunday there was no one around the campus, which made caching much easier. About 3:30 or so Stephanie gathered up the kids and they returned to their house. Ron was home for the afternoon and they wanted to spend some time with him before he returned to San Luis Obispo where his job is currently.

We drove over to Clovis to do some shopping at Walmart. The only super center in the area was in Clovis, so that's why we drove back over there. We got our shopping done and then drove back to the coach where we had a quiet dinner and watched TV for the rest of the night.

Monday, April 29^th, we were again promised a very hot day. We thought about going out to walk around the mall or something, but finally just decided to stay at home for the day. We both spent the day on the computer and playing games. I got some admin work done, a few bills, renewing insurance, that sort of thing, but neither of us even walked outside the coach. When we went to bed at 10:45 I did my walk around and realized that we had not even unlatched the front door all day. Nice quiet, relaxing day.

Tuesday, April 30^th, another warm day in Fresno. We didn't have any plans for the day, so we decided to go the mall after lunch. We like to walk around the big malls, more for the exercise than the shopping. We walked the entire mall and the only thing bought was some cosmetics that Jackie needed. After the mall we did stop at a Sketchers shoe outlet that was near the mall and we both bought a new pair of sneakers. Just to kill some time we took a drive to downtown Fresno and did some sightseeing. Although we have been to Fresno a couple of times, we never made it downtown. We did get one geocache downtown, just so we could say we got one today. After our touring we went back to the coach, had cocktails and dinner and watched TV the rest of the day.

I did a very sad phone call today. Regular readers will remember our good friends Barry and Colleen Cohen, who live in Indio, not too far from where our old house is. Although they have lived in a motor home full time for the last eleven years, they haven't been able to travel much because Barry owned a business and couldn't get away for long periods. Last year he sold his business finally and this past winter they sold their expensive lot at an RV country club, thus freeing them up to finally get out and do some traveling.

I got a call from Barry today that Colleen has been diagnosed with cancer and it doesn't look good for her. It has spread beyond where they think any surgery would do any good. With chemo they can extend her life, but it still looks like a year or less. Both Jackie and I were very heartbroken to hear this sad news. We were looking forward to seeing our good friends on the road. Hang in there Colleen, we love you.

Wednesday, May 1^st, May Day! May Day! We packed up the coach and left our little RV park in Fresno about 10:00, en route to our next stop, Carmichael, California. Carmichael is a suburb of Sacramento, at the northeast edge of the city, about 175 miles northwest of Fresno. The trip was pretty simple, straight up the Highway 99 freeway to Sacramento. The 99 freeway is not a real nice road, it has a lot of truck traffic and is pretty torn up in a lot of places. However, one of the worst stretches, through the Modesto area, has been resurfaced and was far better than it was last year and the years before when we traveled this route. There were still some rough spots along the trip, but we got to Carmichael in one piece about 1:30 or so.

We found a spot at the Carmichael Elks Lodge, which has a dozen or so RV spots in the parking lot. They are water and electric only, with a dump station on the property. However, the electric is 50 amp and the price, $20 a night, is pretty nice. We will be here for five nights. After we got registered and parked we set up the coach and settled in. We always try to stop in the Sacramento area when we travel through California because Jackie has an old girlfriend and coworker, Kathy Yarbrough, who lives here with her husband Bill. Kathy's daughter Julie, and her granddaughter Bella, also live in Sacramento. In addition, we have some RV friends, Curt and Sharon Minard, who live just a few blocks from the Elks.

Unfortunately, everyone we knew in the area was busy tonight, so we didn't get to spend time tonight with any of our friends. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing in the coach and watching TV.

Thursday, May 2^nd, we left the coach after lunch and drove to North Sacramento to do a Costco run. When we got in the area of the store we took an hour or so to do some geocaches, just in case we didn't have time later. We wanted to have at least a couple of Sacramento area caches under our belt. We only did three caches before heading over to the Costco. One of the caches we did was located in a park near the Sacramento Police and Sheriff's Memorial. We arrived just as they were taking down the equipment from the annual Police Memorial Day services. There were still a number of law enforcement officers in the area, all dressed in their Class A uniforms. May 15 is the official National Peace Officers Memorial Day as set by the Federal government, and the week that date falls in is Peace Officer's Week nationally. However, different jurisdictions hold their celebrations all through the month of May. I was a Sheriff's Deputy in Phoenix for 27 years and the State of Arizona is having their memorial service on Monday, May 6^th.

After our caching we went to Costco and did some shopping. Our big goal was to stock up on vodka because we will be leaving California in a week or so and moving up into Oregon. Oregon has much more restrictive liquor laws, allowing the sales of alcohol only in State operated liquor stores, which means much higher prices. In most of the southwest states, Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico, any grocery store or market can get a liquor sales license, which means competition and lower prices. There are Costco stores in Oregon and Washington, but none have liquor sales. We probably don't have enough to see us through our entire stay in Oregon, but we have enough now for a month or two.

After shopping we went back home, put everything away and rested for a while. About 6:00 we walked over to the Elks Lodge and met Curt and Sharon in the bar for cocktails. We had hoped that Kathy and Bill, who are also members of the Carmichael Lodge, would be able to join us, but Bill's dad is sick and they needed to be with him tonight. We had drinks with Curt and Sharon and then went in for a nice steak dinner in the dining room. We last saw the Minard's in Yuma back in February, so we had fun catching up with them. After dinner they came over to our coach for an hour or so to have another cocktail and talk some more. They also wanted to see the new kitty again. Benji was very outgoing with them, they must put off good cat vibes. Once they left we watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Friday, May 3^rd, we had lunch at the coach and then we packed up our laundry and went out to wash clothes. We hadn't quite met the two week mark, but our next stop is in Redding where we will be spending three days with Peggy and Vernon Bullock. We always stay busy when we are with Peggy and Vernon, so we didn't want to have to worry about doing laundry. We found a reasonably clean laundromat a couple miles from the Elks and within a couple of hours had our laundry finished. We went back to the coach, put away the clothes and made the bed, then relaxed for a few hours.

About 6:30 or so we left the coach and drove to a suburb across the river from downtown Sac, to have dinner with the Yarbrough clan. We went to Julie Yarbrough's house in West Sacramento where she lives with her boyfriend, Kevin and her daughter Bella. They have a very nice house in a really good neighborhood that is surrounded by not so good neighborhoods. You drive through what is almost a barrio and then get into an area that looks a lot like a country club. As a matter of fact, Julie's house backs up to a huge park that belongs to the homeowner's association and used to be a golf course before the developer came in and built the new homes. Both Kevin and Julie are in the mortgage industry, Kevin with a brokerage and Julie at a bank.

Also coming for dinner were Julie's mom, Kathy, Jackie's old friend from the Coachella Valley, and her husband Bill. We were met at the door by Bella, who is now four years old and much more friendly and outgoing than she was just a year ago when we were here. Last year she was really leery of me, tonight she was very easy to talk to. We had cocktails and I sat in the backyard, talking to Kevin and watching Bella play while the women were in the kitchen getting dinner ready and talking. Jackie doesn't have much contact with Julie or Kathy during the year, so she really enjoys spending some time with them when we come through town. Julie made a nice salad and some pizzas and we all had dinner out in the backyard after the sun went down.

Although the day had been hot, once the sun went down it got really nice outside. We had a very pleasant dinner and then spent a little time watching Bella as she did a “performance” of dance for us. She is really a bright kid for a four year old, Julie and Kevin are doing a good job as parents. We finally decided we needed to leave about 10:15 or so and drove back to the Elks lodge and home. By far the latest we had been out on the road in a long time.

Saturday, May 4^th, Happy Star Wars Day. Until last year I didn't know what that meant either. Turns out, it comes from “May the Fourth be with you.” We didn't have any social engagements scheduled for the day, so after lunch at the coach we went out to do some geocaching in the Carmichael area. We didn't seem to have a lot of luck this afternoon. Our first cache was a DNF, then we found one, then another DNF, and so on. We ended up with three finds and three DNFs. We were hoping that it was because the caches were missing, not that we had lost our touch.

We did stop at a jewelry repair shop that Jackie had spotted near the Elks yesterday. She had a couple of rings that needed some repairs and the sign in the window claimed same day service. We dropped off the rings and the owner told us that he could get them back to us at the end of the day. Since caching was not going well today, we decided to quit early and go do some shopping at Walmart. We drove to the Walmart in Citrus Heights, another suburb of Sacramento, because it was the closest super center. I read an article in the paper the other day about how hard California cities were fighting Walmart over super centers. Most of the push back is from the grocery unions because all the regular grocery stores, the Albertsons', Ralphs', Safeway's and the like, are unionized and Walmart isn't.

After our shopping we went back to the coach and when we called the jewelry shop about 45 minutes before closing time the owner told us the rings were ready. We went and picked them up. Jackie was happy because one of the rings was her wedding ring and the prongs holding the diamond in place were badly worn. She was afraid that the stone would fall out. Now she doesn't have to worry any more. The other was a ring that her Aunt Donna had given her last year. It was too small for anywhere but her pinky finger, so she had that one enlarged. The guy did a great job. We went back to the coach where we had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, May 5^th, Happy Cinco de Mayo! I read somewhere that May 5^th is more an American invention as an excuse to fiesta than it is a real Mexican holiday. Most Americans think it is Mexican Independence Day, but it's not. It commemorates the Mexican Army's victory over the French in the Battle of Pueblo in 1861. The Mexicans were considered the underdogs in the battle but they won. Although it provided a significant morale boost for the Mexican Army, it didn't alter the tide of the war. Within a year the French invasion succeeded conquering Mexico and installing Emperor Maximilian as ruler of Mexico. In Mexico Cinco de Mayo is really only a big deal in the State of Pueblo.

We left the coach about noon and drove to downtown Sacramento and the big shopping mall there. We met Julie, Kevin and Bella at the mall, which provided a handy place to park, and walked the quarter mile pedestrian tunnel under the freeway which leads to the Old Sacramento area. Old Sac is about a square mile of town right on the Sacramento River in which a lot of the old buildings have been restored. It is now a big tourist and party area with a lot of shops, restaurants and bars. After we got to Old Sac we were joined by Kathy and Bill, and Bill's brother Sarge, who was in town for a few days to see Bill and their dad, who is still in the hospital.

We tried to get into one Mexican place there, but we were trying to seat a party of eight and the wait was ridiculous. Our fault for trying to get into a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo. We eventually went across the street to a place called Ten Twenty Two where we got a nice table on the patio. The restaurant had a very pleasant ambiance and an interesting and eclectic menu. Lots of vegetarian and exotic choices. Both Jackie and I had the hamburger, which I have to say was wonderful. The only issue with the place was the service was a little slow and spotty, but we weren't in any hurry, so it was not a big deal.

We had a great lunch and good conversation. It was a lot of fun watching Bella. Jackie had picked up a kid's set of fruity scented cosmetics at Walmart and given it to Bella. She was going around the table doing everyone's nails. I narrowly avoided having pink nails when the food came to the table and she had to stop. She had done most everyone else at the table, including her grandpa Bill and his brother Sarge.

After dinner we walked around old town for an hour or so before saying goodbye to everyone and heading back to the mall to our car. We drove back to the Elks Lodge and just stayed in the rest of the afternoon and evening. We did stop on the way back to the coach to get one geocache, which was right down the street from the Elks Lodge. After the sun went down I went outside and took down the sun screens in preparation for our departure tomorrow.

Monday, May 6^th, another travel day. We packed up the coach and got out of our parking spot shortly after 9:30. Because we had been parked for five days with no sewer, we needed to stop at the dump station located at the lodge to dump the tanks. We will not have sewer in Redding either, so we needed to empty the waste tanks. By the time we got the tanks dumped and the car hooked up it was 10:00, our planned departure time. Our next stop is the Redding Elks Lodge in Redding, California, 170 miles northwest of Carmichael. Ninety five percent of the trip was freeway, so even with a lunch stop it only took three and a half hours or so to get there. We have never stayed at the Redding Elks, which has a nice RV lot with about twenty spots with water and 50 amp electric.

We had been watching the weather and knew that there was a storm front hanging over central California that was going to cause rainy weather for the next few days. The skies didn't disappoint and when we woke up we noticed that it had been raining lightly overnight and the skies were overcast. We had light rain for most of the trip, but nothing more than what the intermittent wipers could take care of.

We usually stay at the Red Bluff Elks, which is about 30 miles south and right off the freeway. It can be a little noisy, but it is convenient to the highway and we usually only stay two or three days as a stop over anyway. However, this time our good friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock asked us if we would stay at the Redding Elks, where they are associate members and where they occasionally stay with their coach. They have a home in the mountains about an hour west of Interstate 5, right near the entrance to Lassen National Park. They are at their house now and said that they would come down to the Elks with their coach and stay there for the three days that we will be there. We always enjoy spending time with the Bullocks, so we decided to stay in Redding.

We arrived just before 2:00 and got settled into a nice spot right next to the Bullocks. They were out shopping when we arrived, but came back shortly after as we were parking. We got parked and set up and then spent some time talking to Peggy and Vernon and playing with their little dog Belle. We later got together at their coach for cocktails and then dinner. Peggy cooked a chicken casserole dish for us, made from a recipe she got from Jackie. Dinner was wonderful and we had some great conversation, catching up on what's been going on since we last saw them in Yuma about six weeks ago.

They are still having major electrical problems with their coach and they finally decided that they are going to go to Oregon and the old Monaco factory service center near Eugene. It is now part of Navistar, the truck company that bought the old Monaco company, and they will be there the same time we will be in nearby Harrisburg getting our coach remodel done. We will only be about ten miles apart, so we will be able to spend time together up there too. After dinner we chatted for a while before going back to our coach to watch TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, May 7^th, another cloudy day. Storms in the forecast, but there really aren't any threatening looking clouds around. We left the coach about 1:00 or so to just go out and do a little exploring around Redding. It has been several years since we were here, so we wanted to check out the area. Peggy and Vernon were busy most of the day with appointments, so we were on our own until late afternoon. We drove around town for a while and captured a couple of geocaches while we were exploring. We stopped and checked out the Redding Moose Lodge, which is not too far from the Elks, and had a cocktail there. An older building, but very large. They have a really nice swimming pool out back, but their RV area has no hookups, so it wouldn't be a good place to stay with the coach.

After the Moose Lodge we stopped and the grocery store and then headed back to the coach. Later in the afternoon we got together with Peggy and Vernon for happy hour and Jackie made dinner. We had her chili rellano casserole at Peggy's special request. We chatted until about 8:30 when they went back to their coach and we watched TV until bed.

Wednesday, May 8^th, we stayed around the coach and relaxed for most of the day. At about 6:00 we left with the Bullocks in our car and drove into town to a restaurant called Nello's. Peggy and Vernon have lived in the Redding area for a very long time and told us that they have been coming to this Italian eatery since they opened over 30 years ago. It is their favorite place to eat, as Peggy told us, their version of our Cactus Jack's in Indio.

The restaurant is in a strip mall and is rather unassuming on the outside as well as inside. The wait staff was mostly male and dressed in the usual black slacks and vest, white shirt and black tie. Very elegant. We got a nice corner booth for the four of us and ordered cocktails. Peggy and Vernon knew all the wait staff as well as the owners and chefs and were telling us stories about many of them. They had told us that Nello's was a fine dining place and that it was not inexpensive and that dinner was an experience rather than an eat and run situation. The waiter was very pleasant and explained the specials for the day then left us alone for a while. They brought a couple of small plates of antipasto to the table for us to nibble on while we talked. We ordered appetizers, two orders of escargot and a plate of fried calamari. Peggy said they love their escargot and wanted Jackie, who likes the dish, to try it. I don't care for the escargot, but I do like the garlic butter sauce to dip bread in.

When the escargot came the three who ate it said the snails were good, but everyone thought the sauce was very mild, with very little garlic or butter taste. The waiter even brought extra for me to dip bread in, but it was pretty blah. When we mentioned it to the waiter he came back with another dish of sauce which he said he added garlic to. It was better, but still not nearly as good as the sauce Jackie makes when she does escargot.

The next course was soup or salad. I was the only one who had the minestrone and everyone else missed out. Their salads were kind of plain, lettuce with dressing, but my soup was outstanding. Very spicy with a lot of veggies and noodles. The next course that came was a small dish of either Cannelloni or Manicotti. The Cannelloni was stuffed with veal, chicken and cheese, the Manicotti was stuffed with ricotta cheese and prescuito. I had the Manicotti, which was excellent, and everyone else had the Cannelloni and also enjoyed it. Both came with a standard, red marinara sauce.

Then came the main dishes. I had the seafood platter, which was scampi, scallops and sole. The scallops and sole were very lightly breaded with flour and butter and grilled. There were three scampi shrimp, three medium size scallops, and a small piece of sole. All of the items were outstanding as far as flavor, however, the portions were a bit skimpy for a nearly $30 entree, even with the other courses included. The sole was some of the best I have ever had and I would have liked more. Jackie and Peggy both had veal picatta with scampi and both said it was outstanding. Vernon had the special for the day, a chicken dish, and he seemed to enjoy his meal as well. Their potions were a bit larger and more in line with the pricing. For desert they served an excellent dish of spumoni and coffee if you wanted it.

For Jackie and I dinner for two, including drinks was just under $100, which was pricy, but given the ambiance, service and quality of food, not far out of line. Cactus Jacks is also expensive, so it's what you like and want, not the price, that's important. This was Peggy and Vernon's favorite restaurant and we appreciated them wanting to share the experience with us. After dinner we drove back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Thursday, May 9^th, another moving day. We had the coach packed up and ready to go by about 10:00 and we departed Redding heading north on Interstate 5 to Gold Hill, Oregon, about 165 mile trip. We are actually going to the Valley of Rogue State Park, which is located just off I-5 between Medford and Grants Pass, Oregon. We have stayed in this park on every one of our trips into Oregon and like it very much. It has full hookup sites and is very pretty, plus you can pick your site and make reservations on line so you don't have to worry about not getting a site when you arrive.

The trip was uneventful with mostly clear skies and sunshine. We made a fuel stop and a lunch stop and arrived at the park just before 2:00. Our spot was waiting for us and we pulled in and started to get set up. We had to wiggle and maneuver a little in the spot, trying to maximize our satellite reception while finding the level spot in the parking area. There are a lot of trees in the area, so satellite reception can be iffy if not in the right spot. We finally got the right balance, we had satellite and we were pretty level, so we got our house set up for our week stay.

This is our first foray into Oregon in over two years and we are looking forward to our couple of months up here. Our arrival in Oregon marks the ideal place to close out this episode and get it published. We will be here for a week before moving on to Harrisburg, Oregon for our remodeling experience. We will probably publish again when we leave the Valley of the Rogue. Until the next time, remember that arguing about whether the glass is half full or half empty misses the point, which is this:   the bartender cheated you. Bye.