Back in California to Party With Friends

Hello again, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter ended on Saturday, July 6^th, when we moved from near Grants Pass, Oregon, south to Redding, California. When we got to Redding it was over 100 degrees, so we did little outside work and after getting the coach set up pretty much stayed inside in the air conditioning. We did make one quick run to find a nearby geocache, just so we could keep our consecutive days streak going.

Sunday, July 7^th, was predicted to be another hot day, close to 102 degrees. After lunch we left the RV park and went out to do some shopping. We stopped and picked up one geocache on the way to Costco, but it was too hot to do any more. We had to return to Costco because now that we are back in California, we can buy our vodka at Costco instead of very expensive State liquor store, as is the law in Oregon.

After our Costco run we also made a stop at Walmart and then a local Raley's store. Walmart for general supplies and Raley's because they had pork ribs on sale. Later in the week we are traveling to Mineral, California, in the mountains east of Redding, to attend the Bullock's 50^th Anniversary party. We are going to be up there for a week with a lot of our friends, and there are no stores around. One of the nights is going to be a “rib fest” so we needed a couple racks of ribs to contribute. Once we were done with our shopping we went back to the coach and stayed inside the rest of the day and evening.

Monday, July 8^th, another hundred plus day predicted for Redding. After lunch Matt Bullock came over to the coach to replace the faucet on our kitchen sink. Matt is the son of our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock, and Matt owns and operates a plumbing business here in Redding. Our kitchen faucet was badly worn out but if I bought one at an RV place it was close to $300 and even home improvement store charged more than $200, and then I would have to put it in. It is not the most accessible location and it sounded like way too much work. Matt came out and installed a nice, top of the line brushed chrome Price-Pfister faucet for $205, and he did it in an hour instead of the two or three it would have taken me. Not to mention no leaks with a professional.

Just as Matt was leaving our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock pulled into the Elks park. When we left Harrisburg last week for the Rogue River State Park Ray and Suzie went south too, but not as far. They stopped at the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville. They had planned on staying there until Wednesday when we all go into Mineral for the week of fun surrounding the Bullock's 50^th Anniversary party. I guess they weren't having much luck because the called us the last night and checked to see if there was room in the Elks for them. We said there were always a couple of spots open during the early afternoon, so they said they were coming.

We let them get moved in and set up and then the four of us went out to do our laundry. After laundry we stopped to try and get one geocache to keep our streak going. We had trouble with the first two caches we went to and didn't find them, but the third time was the charm and we had our find for the day. We stopped at the Dollar Store for a couple of things and then went back to the coach.

About 5:30 we got together with the Babcocks and had cocktails. The four of us then went out for dinner a local Chinese restaurant that had a pretty good reputation. Lim's was not too far from the Elks and it wasn't very busy. We ended up getting the dinner for four people, which was a lot of food. Chow mein, soup, egg rolls, sweet and sour pork, fried rice, and fried shrimp. The quality of the food was so-so. It tasted OK, it was just a little bland. The pork chow mein had very little meat and most of it actually looked more like deli ham than pork. Not a place I would recommend for Chinese. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Tuesday, July 9^th, I was up and out of the coach by a little before 8:00 a.m. and took the Jeep down to the local dealer for an oil change. The Jeep dealer in Redding was only a mile or so from the Elks, so I got there pretty quickly. They were done with the oil change by 9:30 and I drove to the Post Office to mail some packages and stopped to pick up one nearby geocache. I was back at the coach by a little after 10:00.

Around noon Peggy Bullock came to the coach and picked up Jackie and Suzie Babcock and the three of them went off to lunch. I stayed around the coach and got a few little chores done. The women got back about 3:30 and Peggy left to go back up home. We went over to the Babcock's about 5:00 for cocktails and then Ray served up a great meal of seafood curry. He is a good cook and the food was excellent. Way better Asian food than we had the night before. We finally went back to our coach about 8:30 and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, July 10^th was another moving day. We left the Elks, with the Babcock's right behind us, about 10:00 a.m. and started the 75 mile drive from Redding to the little mountain town of Mineral, about 40 miles east of Red Bluff, California. Mineral is the town where Peggy and Vernon have their cabin and where their 50^th Anniversary celebration is being held. The first 25 miles were mostly freeway, from Redding south to Red Bluff. After Red Bluff we went east on State Route 36. The first 20 miles of that route were OK, mostly straight road with rolling hills. The road was two lane, but not too narrow. The last 20 miles were up into the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and the trip got intense. The road narrowed and we were in a lot of curves and steep hills. Some of the areas were 20 and 25 mph sections. The worst part was going up over 3,000 feet in elevation in about 15 miles. We were pulling our Jeep, which is very heavy, and the steep grades were causing the coach to overheat. The outside temperature was in the 90's and I actually had to stop at one point and let the coach cool down. I never got any warning lights, but the gauge was showing the engine temp in the red. I didn't want it to get hot enough to set off the warning light, because then it might be too late.

We finally arrived in the town of Mineral, population 123, about noon. We and the Babcock's checked into the Lassen Mineral Lodge and RV park, the only RV park in town, and got our sites. They have full hook up sites, water, sewer and electric, but the power is only 30 amp. If it doesn't get really hot that should be fine. The sites are small, and back in, and are set amongst the trees. Once we got into the site we had plenty of room to put out the slides though, so we are snugged in among the pines. We are parked right next to our other friends, Gary and Ramona Wilson. The Babcock's are on the other side of the Wilson's.

Our roof satellite dish wouldn't work with all the trees, but I got our portable dish out and had TV working pretty quickly. It is not the HD we have gotten used to, but it will do for a week. I tried to help Ray get his portable dish setup, but he was having some issues I couldn't solve. We are going to try again with his tomorrow.

About 4:30 we went to Peggy and Vernon's house for the evening meal, the first of our week long celebration. The Bullock's actual anniversary was a couple weeks ago, but they chose this date as a convenience for friends and to try to ensure they would have nice weather. The “official” party is on Saturday, but because they know that many of their friends were coming up on Wednesday and staying for week, they just planned out a week long series of parties. Yea! We also got our first look at the Bullock's house. They bought this piece of property many years ago and it just had a 20 by 40 cabin, built in 1937, on the lot. They now have an almost 3,000 square foot house, multilevel and fully modern. The house is gorgeous and the lot is beautiful. Not everyone that is coming to the party has arrived yet, but there were still a couple dozen people at the house, most of whom we know. We had cocktails for a couple hours and then a pot luck dinner that was great. It was wonderful to be around friends, new and old, and we had a great time. We finally helped cleanup and left about 8:30 or so and went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Thursday, July 11^th, we woke to beautiful blue skies and perfect weather. Although it was hot during the day, the evenings cool off nicely and the sleeping was great. We hung around the coach until after lunch when we went out to try and find at least one geocache to keep our streak going. We first stopped at Peggy and Vernon's house to drop off some stuff for the party tonight. Unfortunately, we had a rough caching day. We couldn't find the first three caches we went after. The first one we just couldn't find, even though it had been found just a couple weeks ago. The next one was one that Peggy and Vernon, who live up here, have looked for twice and not been able to find. It is somewhere in a pile of huge rocks, which this afternoon were hot from the sun and I was not dressed to spend a lot of time crawling around on hot rocks. The third was in the woods and had not been found in over a year. We didn't hold out too much hope for that one, and we were proved true. Couldn't find it. Finally on the fourth search we found our cache for the day.

About 3:00 we went over to the Bullock's because I needed to get the karaoke & music stuff set up for the party. We just stayed there after everything was set up since we were having an early dinner. About 4:30 the rest of the crowd arrived. There were all the same people that were there last night, as well as a dozen more. Our friends Curt and Sharon Minard had arrived at the RV park with their coach this afternoon. They live in Carmichael, near Sacramento and have known the Bullock's for years. We met them through Peggy and Vernon and have camped with them several times. They have a Monaco Knight with the same floor plan as ours, but a year newer. Sharon is the gal who used to sing with a country band and loves when we do karaoke.

Peggy's son Larry cooked up a huge mess of pork ribs for dinner and then the rest of the meal was pot luck. The ribs were great, as was all the other food. About 6:00 or so I started doing karaoke and there were only about four people who regularly sang, but there were a few, including some of the little kids, who tried various songs and everyone really seemed to enjoy the entertainment. We finally quit about 8:00 when it started getting cool and people starting leaving for home. We are just going to leave the equipment there so we can do music any night over the rest of the week we are going to be here. We helped clean up and were back at our coach about 8:30 and stayed in the rest of the night.

Friday, July 12^th, we left the coach after lunch and took a drive into Chester, a small town about 30 miles from Mineral, on the shore of Lake Almanor. It is the closest town to Mineral with any gas stations or a regular grocery store. Lake Almanor is a reservoir created in the mid-20's by damming the Feather River. The lake holds about 1.3 million acre feet of water and is a major recreation area year round. Chester is an unincorporated town of a little over 2,100 people that was founded in the late 1890's. Originally a lumber town, the town now relies primarily on tourism for its economy. We spent a little time driving around town and taking a look at the lake, but there isn't a lot of stuff there other than restaurants, gas stations and shops. We only saw one antique store and it wasn't open. We had picked up two geocaches on the way from Mineral to Chester, and a got another two caches in town, for a total of four for the day. We stopped for fuel and to get some supplies at the market before starting on the trip back to Mineral.

When we got back to the coach we rested for a half hour or so before heading back over to Peggy and Vernon's for the night's activities. Most of the same crowd as the last three nights, with a few new arrivals. Everyone sat around and talked during happy hour and about 6:00 they started cooking hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone. We had a great meal and I started up karaoke again about 8:00. We only went for about ninety minutes tonight with mostly the same singers as last night each doing a couple tunes. We did have one new singer, Pat, who was quite good with some of the old country songs. About 9:00 we packed up and headed back to the coach where we watched and little TV and then went to bed.

Saturday, July 13^th, we were actually up, dressed and out of the coach before 9:00 a.m. for breakfast at Peggy and Vernon's. Today is the day of the actual 50^th Anniversary party and they planned breakfast as well as dinner. Their real anniversary date was about a month ago, but the weather in this part of the country can be pretty iffy then, so that's why they chose this time of summer for their big party. Peggy's son Matt cooked breakfast, bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches that were very tasty. Almost everyone who had been at the house last night showed up for breakfast. There were only a couple of sissies who couldn't get up in time.

After breakfast we visited for a while and left the Bullock's house to go out and grab one quick geocache. We wanted to keep our streak going, plus today was “get outdoors and geocache day,” at least according to the geocaching web site. We did find the first cache we looked for, just a couple miles from the campground. Once we had our cache we went back to the coach and we spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon just relaxing. It has been a hectic couple of days with all the partying, so we decided we needed a few hours of down time.

About 4:00 we were back at the Bullock's house for the festivities. The kids had decorated the house with gold balloons, table clothes, little gifts on the table, and everything. Very cute. Peggy's daughter Katie is a chef at a restaurant in Redding and she is doing the entire dinner tonight. She put out a great spread of hors de'vours, including meatballs and some great little chicken drumettes. These were basically drumsticks with the ends cut off so you just have the meaty part of the drumstick.

Before dinner we presented Peggy and Vernon with a couple of silly gifts. They had specified No Gifts in the invitation, but we decided to do a couple of things anyway. Jackie picked up a photo frame at the Goodwill store last week in Redding, one of the type with matting for eight smaller pictures. I went through our old photo files and found some pictures of us, the Bullock's, the Babcock's and the Wilson's geocaching. I added some graphics and wording that “Geocaching Friends our Special” and we put together a nice memory of our geocaching together. We also gave them a gag gift that we put together. We found some small glass candlesticks and glued two plastic Monaco Coach drink glasses on them to make “fancy redneck” glassware. They also own a Monaco Coach, so it was appropriate. Then Suzie presented Peggy with “The Flower”, an odd looking flower made with colored beads, that has been circulating among the women in our little group for a couple of years now. Suzie was presented with it back in Ohio last summer at one of the rallies, and now she is passing it on to Peggy. Everyone enjoyed that little story and joke too.

About 6:00 dinner was served. Katie had made up big pans of wonderful lasagna, a salad and huge pieces of garlic bread. Everything was outstanding and dinner was a big success. We didn't have any music or karaoke tonight since this was Peggy and Vernon's night. They brought out Peggy's wedding dress and put it on display. Katie had, unbeknownst to Peggy, saved the little dolls and other decorations from their wedding cake and they were on the top of the anniversary cake. Matt also put together a big video slide show of pictures of Peggy and Vernon all the way back to their dating days. All in all a very nice celebration of 50 years. Most people hung around after dinner and talked until about 8:30 when people started drifting away. We left about that time and went back to the coach and crashed until bedtime.

Sunday, July 14^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We took Dave and Karen Van Egdon with us. Dave and Karen are long time friends of Peggy and Vernon who live in the Sacramento area. We met them a few years ago when we camped with their camping group in Quartzsite, Arizona. They are geocachers, but are not as avid as we are. They generally only cache when they are with other people who are cachers. We had asked them if they wanted to go out for a couple hours to cache and they said yes.

We drove west on Highway 36 back towards Red Bluff, the road we came in on, picking up caches along the way. In a little under two hours we had six new finds with no DNF's. There was one cache that we were very close to calling a DNF when Karen looked for the third or fourth time in a particular location and finally saw the tiny little cache. The reason we only got six in two hours was that they were several miles apart and all required a little bit of hiking and bushwhacking. Nothing serious, but time consuming. After getting six we decided it was a little too hot, low 80's, and the sun was really hot, so we headed back to the coach.

About 5:00 we went back over to Peggy and Vernon's place for one more night of celebration. Tonight was actually “eat up the leftovers” night. We only had about half as many people as we had on previous nights, mostly the group that is staying in RVs up in the RV park. We talked and drank and ate leftovers and had a good time. Tonight the group broke up a little earlier because everyone was pretty much celebrated out. Also, about half the group was leaving the park tomorrow. We and the Babcock's and Wilson's are staying another couple days. We got back to the coach and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Monday, July 15^th, another glorious summer day in Mineral. This morning most of the people who had been staying at the RV park for Peggy and Vernon's celebration pulled out heading for home. The only hold outs are us, the Wilsons and the Babcocks. We decided that since we had been at the Bullock's for the last five nights, that Jackie would cook a meal for everyone that was left here and serve it here at the RV park. Since she knew she would be busy most of the afternoon we only went out right after lunch to find one quick geocache to keep our caching streak alive. We found one about five miles up the road, although it required a little hike up a low hill that had Jackie huffing and puffing for a while. After that we picked up a couple things that we had left at Peggy's, then went back to the coach. Off and on we cleaned house, relaxed, and Jackie cooked.

About 4:00 we put out cheese and crackers, using a lot of the fancy cheeses we bought when we were in Tillamook. Peggy and Vernon came over shortly after and we had a nice cocktail hour with just the eight of us. This is familiar territory as it has often been the eight of us at RV parks around the country for the last three years. About 6:30 Jackie brought out dinner, a Mexican Fiesta with both her chili rellano casserole and her taquito casserole, as well as some rice and beans. Everyone ate their fill, and then some, and then we sat around and talked until about 8:00 when the mosquito started to come out in force. We packed up dinner and everyone headed for their own places.

Ray and Suzie are pulling out tomorrow and Gary and Ramona are staying until Wednesday morning. We were going to leave Wednesday also, but decided after talking to Peggy and Vernon to stay one more day and leave Thursday. That will give us one day with just us and them.

Tuesday, July 16^th, our friends the Babcocks pulled out about 10:00 this morning. We probably won't see them again until late in the year in the Coachella Valley. We left the coach about noon and drove over to Peggy and Vernon's house to pick them up for a day of exploring. They also had their eight year old granddaughter Trinity with them. She decided to stay with them for the rest of the week after the party. With the five of us in our car we went out and did a little geocaching first. We stopped at two caches that we had not been able to find a couple of days ago. One of the two was a cache that even Peggy and Vernon had looked for several times without success. Both of them had been found yesterday by the Wilson's and the Babcock's and they gave us a little bit of a hint. It took a little looking but we finally found both of them and got them logged as found. We like fixing DNFs.

We then stopped and helped Peggy and Vernon hide one of their own caches that they had to relocate and then looked for another cache right down the same dirt road. This one was kind of odd in that Peggy and Vernon had found it a couple of years ago and remembered roughly where it was. We got to the location and I was able to find the container after a few minutes of searching. The problem was, the cache was no longer active, so we wouldn't get any credit for it. Usually when a cacher deactivates, or archives a cache, they remove the container. This one didn't.

We then started on the road up to Lassen Volcanic National Park, which is located only about ten miles north of Mineral. Peggy and Vernon, having lived in the area for decades, have been there many times, but they always like going back, and they wanted to take Trinity. We had visited the park back in 2005 on our first trip with the new motor home, but we didn't remember too much about the place. On the way up we stopped and got one more cache, making a total of three “official” finds for the day.

We reached the entrance to the park and stopped at the visitor's center, which is right inside the entrance. Lassen Volcanic National Park was established in 1907 as a National Monument and became a National Park in 1916. It encompasses about 165 square miles. Until the mid 90's there was a ski area and extensive chalet near the current visitor's center, however, that was closed and all structures were removed and the area returned to it's natural state by the early 2000's. Peggy and Vernon remembered the ski area well and Peggy actually did summer work there at one time. Lassen Peak, which is one of four different volcanoes in the park, is still atop an active geothermal area and it has been less than a hundred years since the last major eruption of the mountain. That period of activity was from 1914 to 1921. There are still frequent earthquakes in the area as well a a number of geothermal springs and mud pots.

After the visitor's center we spent a couple of hours driving through the park and enjoying the scenery. The road climbs to an 8,700 foot elevation summit alongside Lassen Peak, which rises to nearly 10,500 feet. There are a number of trails for hiking all the way to the summit. None of which we took I might add. It is a very pretty park, which is closed in the winter due to the heavy snow fall in the area. Unless you hike, however, there isn't too much to do besides sightseeing and photos. After driving about halfway through the park we turned around and headed out. The road does continue out the northwest end of the park, but it was way out of our way to go that way.

We dropped off Peggy, Vernon and Trinity at their house and we went back to the coach for about an hour to rest. About 5:30 we went over to Peggy and Vernon's again for a BBQ. We brought some nice steaks and potatoes for dinner. The only other people there were Gary and Ramona Wilson, who don't leave until tomorrow. The six of us, plus Trinity, had a very nice time talking and relaxing. The steaks were great and we finally left about 8:30 and headed back to the coach. Trinity and Jackie were getting along very well and Trinity wanted to spend the night with us. Peggy said OK, so she came back to the coach with us and she and Jackie talked and played on the computer. She likes cats and wanted to spend some more time with Benji and Smokey too. We finally all went to bed about 11:00 after a very fun day.

Wednesday, July 17^th, our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson were packed up and out of the campground not too long after I got out of bed. They are early starters. They were on the road by 8:30 which left Jackie and I as the only remaining party-goers in the RV park. Trinity watched cartoons while Jackie and I did our morning routines. About 10:30 we drove over to the Bullock's and picked up Peggy and Vernon for an afternoon in the little town of Chester. We stopped along the way to town and picked up one geocache, and then headed for a restaurant that Peggy and Vernon liked for a nice lunch. The place was called The Boat House and was on the south shore of Lake Almanor, outside of Chester, and right on the water. It was a beautiful, clear day and we sat out on the patio for lunch, enjoying the great views and the nice company. We had a good lunch, Vernon and I had prime rib sandwiches, Jackie had a burger,Peggy had fish tacos and Trinity had a quesadilla. There was lots of food and it was pretty tasty too.

After our lunch we drove into Chester and did some geocaching, mostly looking for caches that neither the Bullock's nor us had found before. We managed to get ten new finds, along with one DNF, a pretty decent afternoon of caching fun. Trinity really enjoyed caching. We have found that young kids really get into the search and get excited when the find is made. She told Jackie she was going to try and get her mother to learn about caching so they could go out together. After our caching we headed back to Mineral where we dropped the Bullock's off at their house. We went back to the coach briefly to check on the cats, then went back over to Peggy and Vernon's for dinner. We had modified leftovers from the party again, which were still great, and some cocktails. After dinner we chatted until about 8:30 when we said our goodbyes and went back to the coach to watch TV until bedtime.

Thursday, June 18^th, another travel day. Today was a short trip, we were only going about 40 miles, down the hill into Red Bluff to stay at the Elks Lodge. Since it was a short run, and almost all down a fairly steep slope, we didn't hook up the car. No sense having 5,600 pounds of car pushing me down the hill. Jackie drove behind me and, ironically, so did Peggy. She was taking Trinity back home to Redding and were going down the hill at the same time as we were.

The trip only took about an hour and we were settled into the Red Bluff Elks Lodge RV park before around noon. We are only going to stay here one night before moving on to Paradise, California, so we decided to make it a stay at home afternoon. We did go out and find one geocache and made a quick stop at Walmart and Raley's for some supplies. Peggy stopped by to say hello on here way back up to Mineral from Redding.

The finish of our week of celebration in Mineral and our arrival in Red Bluff mark a good spot to close this chapter. It has been a great two weeks with a lot of good friends. We will be wandering around central California for the next month and a half or so, so we will publish again in a couple weeks just to keep things current. Until the next time remember that challenges are what make life interesting, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. See ya!