Hi there, good to see you back. Our
last chapter concluded on Wednesday, July 2nd with our
arrival at the Elks Lodge in Fresno, California. We came here to
Fresno because Jackie has a cousin, Stephanie, who lives here with
her husband and three kids. We arrived from the very nice 72 degree
temperatures of the Central Coast to the 105 degree heat of the
Central Valley. Wow, what a change. We got set up in the lodge
about 3:00 and then just hung out in the air conditioned coach for
the rest of the day.
Thursday, July 3rd, Jackie
was still not feeling well. She came down with a cold or allergies,
I tend to think allergies, a couple days ago and is sniffling and
coughing and headachey. I went out this morning and got some
medications for her, and then we spent the rest of the day in the
coach. Stephanie's mother Sue and her sister Cherie are coming up to
spend the holiday weekend with Stephanie. Sue and Cherie are
Jackie's first cousins. We were going to go over to Stephanie's
house, but she called and said that they would not arrive until late
afternoon, plus Jackie was not feeling up to par, so we said we would
just come over tomorrow. With that we stayed in the coach and tried
to stay cool while Jackie worked on getting better.
Ron cooked some chicken on the BBQ in
the early evening and we had a very nice, casual dinner. About 7:30
or so some friends of Tyler's, who were a little older, came over
with some heavy duty fireworks, mortars and the such, and they
started doing those in the front of the house. By this time there
were explosive sounds coming from all over the neighborhood, so I
don't anyone was paying too much attention. About 9:00 we decided it
was time for us to go home, so we packed up and headed back to the
coach and bed. It was a very nice holiday with family.
Saturday, July 5th, we spent
the day at home. Jackie's family was busy with baseball games and
other family activities, so we didn't get with them today. Since it
was still very hot today, we decided we didn't need to try and cook
and heat up the coach, so about 7:00 we went out to a little taquaria
just down the street for some dinner. We were about the only
non-Hispanics in the place and the food was quite good. I had the
carne asada and it was very tender and flavorful. After dinner we
went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.
Sunday we had a nice morning with the
Sunday paper and our coffee. About noon Jackie's three cousins came
over and picked her up for a girl's lunch. The four of them went out
and had a very nice lunch. They got back to the coach around three
and then the four of them sat and talked for another couple of hours.
Jackie really enjoys her opportunities to get together with her
family. She grew up with Cherie and Sue and was around for a lot of
Stephanie's growing up. The girls left around five and we had
cocktails and dinner and then watched TV the rest of the night.
Monday, July 7th, another
travel day. We were packed up, hooked up and pulling out of Fresno
by about 10:30, heading 140 miles northwest to Lodi, California. We
try to stop in Lodi when we go through this area because we have
friends there, Fern and Andy Leonardini. Like many of the people in
Lodi, they grow grapes on some land they have outside of town. They
grow Zinfandel grapes but they don't have a winery. They just grow
the grapes to sell to private vintners. We met Fern and Andy back
when we still had the house in Indio. They had a winter condo in
Palm Desert and were good friends with Barry and Colleen Cohen. We
grew close with them through that friendship and stop to visit when
we can.
We arrived in Lodi around 2:00 and
headed for the Elks Lodge where we usually stay. However, when we
arrived at the lodge we found the entire parking area completely
ripped up and construction people all over the place. They were
replacing the pavement. Although it looked like there might have
been a spot open, we wouldn't have been able to get to it any time
soon. I knew of a private campground a few miles west, near
Interstate 5, so we drove over there. We checked into the Flag City
RV park and got set up in our spot. We will be here for three days.
We were still all set up and relaxing by 3:30, plus we now have 50
amps and full hookups, so the heat will not be such a problem. Since
we had a long, stressful day, we just stayed in for the rest of the
day enjoying the air conditioning.
Tuesday, July 8th, we left
the coach about 11:30 or so and headed for the little town of
Lockeford, about five miles east of Lodi, where Fern's daughter Lisa
owns a restaurant called The Country Cafe. She has had the place for
many years and we have talked about going there, but never made it.
Today we had made arrangements to meet Fern there for lunch. We
arrived around noon and met with Fern and Lisa, as well as several
other employees. We had a nice lunch and had a chance to talk quite
a bit with Fern. I actually had dinner, liver and onions, and it was
outstanding. Jackie had the chicken fried steak & eggs which she
said was OK. We visited with Fern for a couple of hours before we
left the restaurant to do some exploring.
The first thing we did was a little bit
of geocaching. We haven't been caching much lately because of the
heat, but today was not quite so hot. We only cached for a short
while but got four new finds. We then spent a hour or so exploring
the countryside east of Lodi, which, like most of the rest of the
area, is mostly vineyards. We then drove into downtown Lodi, a very
quaint little area, and walked around for another ninety minutes of
so. About 5:00 we drove over to the Leonardini's house for
cocktails. Fern's husband Andy is having trouble with emphysema, so
he doesn't get out much any more and we wanted to visit with him
while we were here. We brought some nice cheeses we bought in Lodi
and some crackers and had a very nice visit with Fern and Andy.
About 7:30 we left and headed back to the coach where we spent the
rest of the evening with the TV.
Wednesday was a stay at home day.
Jackie is getting better, but wanted to take a another day to rest
and try to shake the sickies she has. Thursday was our next travel
day. We were on the road about 11:00, headed north to Carmichael, a
suburb of Sacramento. The trip was only about 47 miles, but we hit
some heavy traffic once we got into the middle of Sacramento. Even
with that we were parked and setup at the Carmichael Elks Lodge by
1:00. We are going to be here for five days, mainly visiting some of
Jackie's long time friends. Jackie used to work with Kathy Yarbrough
back in the 80's and has known her daughter Julie since she was ten.
Julie now has a five year old, Bella, whom Jackie adores.
About 5:30 we left the coach and drove
to a restaurant called Pete's Original Restaurant and Brewhouse to
meet with Kathy and her family. Kathy and her husband Bill arrived
first and Julie and Bella came along a few minutes later. The food
at Pete's was pretty good. Both Jackie and I had pasta dishes, mine
was shrimp in a tomato basil sauce, hers was linguine with chicken.
Her's was pretty spicy, but she liked it. Mine was also very tasty
with a lot of shrimp. We had a great visit with everyone and stayed
for a couple of hours. The only problem was about halfway through
dinner a musician they didn't know was going to be there that night
started playing. That made conversation difficult, but he took a
couple of breaks, so we still had a chance to talk. We finally left
just before nine and headed back to the coach for the night.
Friday, July 11th, Happy
Craps Day. (7-11, duh) We left the coach after lunch and Jackie got
a quick haircut. After that we did some geocaching since it was
supposed to be a cool day today. We managed to get a half dozen new
finds in a few hours, including another milestone, number 6,500!
Yea. After caching we stopped at Walmart and Sam's Club for a few
things before heading back to the coach. We had thought that Kathy
and Bill might come over for a while, but they called and told us
that they were tired and wouldn't make it, so we just had dinner and
relaxed with the TV until bedtime.
Saturday we stayed in for most of the
day, another recovery day for Jackie. Around 5:00 we drove over to
Kathy and Bill's house for dinner. They live in Citrus Heights, the
next neighborhood north of Carmichael, only about five miles away.
They live in a retirement community of park models and have a nice
little place. They even had wild turkeys wandering around on the grass and in the streets. They had ordered pizza and we had pizza and salad for
dinner. It was a very nice dinner and we talked before and after.
Around 9:00 we decided we needed to head for home, so we left and
drove back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night. Sunday
was a stay at home day also.
Monday, July 14th, we went
out after lunch and did our laundry and also stopped at Walmart for
supplies. About 5:00 we walked over to the Lodge for drinks and
dinner. Bill and Kathy met us in the bar and we had a cocktail then
had the Lodge's Monday night Spaghetti dinner. It wasn't too bad,
the meat sauce was very good. It wasn't an all you can eat like some
lodges, but the plates were big enough that you got plenty and didn't
need to go back. You also got salad and garlic bread, so you were
not going to leave hungry. After dinner we had another drink and
chatted with Bill and Kathy. We left and went back to the coach
about 8:00 and stayed in the rest of the night.
Tuesday, July 15th, another
travel day. We packed up and left Carmichael about 10:30 and started
north on I-5 headed for Corning, California, about 125 miles or so.
We were going to stay at the Casino there, which has an RV park,
mostly because we wanted to get the coach serviced at the Speedco in
Corning. Speedco is like a Jiffy Lube for big rigs. We have used
them for the last six years for our annual oil and filter service.
We were also meeting our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock there.
We arrived at the Speedco and Ray was
already there in line. Then he told us that Speedco no longer
carried the brand of filter recommended by Cummins, the Engine
manufacturer and the I had never heard of the brand they did carry
now, Baldwin. Then, a few minutes later he called again and said it
didn't matter anyway, because they didn't have the Baldwin filters he
needed in stock. So, we both stopped and got fuel and then went to
the RV park and checked in.
After we got set up for our two day
stay here in Corning Jackie and I drove 20 miles north to the town of
Red Bluff to take her to an urgent care. She has a boil or cyst on
her lower back that has been bothering her and we wanted to get it
looked at. We waited an hour and a half for the nurse to tell her
that she had a cyst, but unless we were going to be around for a week
or so she couldn't cut it out because that required followup care.
She gave Jackie some advice on treatment, warm compresses and
patience mostly, and sent us on our way.
We drove back to the RV park and had
cocktails with Ray and Suzie about 5:30. Around 6:30 we went to the
Rolling Hills Casino for dinner. Tuesday's is senior night at the
buffet, two for one, so it was inexpensive. The food was not too bad
for buffet fare, but not much a a variety of choices. After dinner
we gamed for a half hour or so with both Jackie and I coming out
pretty much even. We went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of
the night.
Wednesday, July 16th, Jackie
colored her hair in the morning and then after lunch we went out with
Ray and Suzie to the grocery store. Our friends Clark and Judy McKay
arrived at the RV park this morning. They are also going up to
Mineral tomorrow for Peggy and Vernon's get together. We had
cocktails with everyone at 5:00 and then the six of us went into town
for dinner. We ended up at a Chinese place that had very good Yelp
reviews, called the Flying Boat. It was in a kind of dumpy,
industrial type building, not a lot of ambiance, and the service was
one woman. It was a menu restaurant, not a buffet, but they had a
very extensive menu selection. When the food came out we astounded
at the amount of food. The plates were very large and covered with
food. I had a combo that had fried rice, sweet and sour pork and
chicken chow mien. The other plates were equally large. Each meal
also came with egg rolls and soup. I don't think that you could have
gotten more food if the place had been a buffet. We all ended up
with take home boxes with more than enough food for another meal.
After dinner we stopped at the casino again for about an hour. Both
Jackie and I ended up down about $20, not too bad for an hour of
gaming. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the
evening.
Thursday, July 17th, we
packed up and left Corning about 10:00 and headed northeast to the
little town of Mineral, about 63 miles. This is the town of 123 that
sits near the entrance to Lassen National Park and is where Peggy and
Vernon have their home in the woods. When we came here last year in
July the coach was having overheating problems because it is a very
steep grade and it was hot. The Jeep we have now is pretty heavy, so
we have to be really careful on steep and/or long grades. Since it
was a fairly short trip, we just didn't hookup the car. Jackie drove
behind me and we made the trip without any serious heating. The
coach got warm, but not alarmingly hot like it did last year. Clark
and Judy and Ray and Suzie followed along behind us.
We got to the Mineral RV park a little
before noon and got checked in and setup. It took me a long time to
get setup because where we are parked I can't use the satellite dish
on the roof. I had to put out my portable dish in the field behind
the coach, and then had to reconfigure the whole TV system because it
wasn't HD. I finally got everything setup and working by about 3:30.
Around 5:00 we headed over to Peggy and
Vernon's house, only a half mile from the park, for the first evening
of party, which is going to go on all weekend. Tonight was grill
your own meat, so Jackie and I brought some steaks and she made
wasabi cole slaw for a side dish. There were probably 30 people
there, most of whom we knew, either as RV friends, or from last
year's party here. We had a really nice night of dinner and
conversation and finally left to go home about 9:00. Peggy and
Vernon's nine year old granddaughter Trinity wanted to come and spend
the night with us. She adores Jackie and also likes our cats, and
this would be the only night she could stay with us because her dad
is coming up tomorrow. She had a nice night on the coach and seemed
to enjoy being there with us.
Friday, July 18th, we were
up and out of the coach by about 8:45. Yes, that's correct, we went
to breakfast! Part of the reason was that we had been tasked by
Peggy to provide the juice for breakfast this morning, so we had to
get up and deliver it. I suspect it may have been part of a larger
plot to get us up early, but I can't say for sure. Breakfast was
great, egg and bacon sandwiches with all kinds of goodies to go with
them. About 10:00 we left and went back to the coach where we
relaxed until we went back over to Peggy's about 5:00 for dinner.
Tonight was pot luck and Jackie had
made her taquito casserole, which is pretty tasty. There was lots of
good food and no one was going hungry. There were most of the same
people from last night, along with several additional families,
bringing the total closer to 35 or 40. I chatted for a while with a
California Highway Patrol sergeant that I met. Around dark they made
a big campfire and toasted marshmallows. A few people tried making
smores, with mixed results. We finally left to go back to the coach
around 9:00 again.
Saturday, July 19th, the
biggest night of the party. Over 40 people in the yard.
Fortunately, the Bullock's have a big deck and a huge yard, so there
was plenty of room. We went down to the house early, about 3:00 so I
could get the music equipment set up. We are doing music and karaoke
tonight, just as we did at the party last year. I had everything up
and working in about 45 minutes and we then just hung out and visited
with people.
About 5:30 we went back to the coach
briefly so Jackie could make the Ceaser salad she was bringing
tonight. Peggy and Vernon had bought a bunch of baby back ribs for
tonight and Vernon, his daughter Katie and his son Larry were busy
cooking them on the BBQ. They also had made some “chicken in a
barrel” for tonight. These were half chickens hung inside a 55
gallon drum that had a charcoal fire in the bottom. Around 6:30
dinner was served and it was wonderful. The ribs were great and the
chicken was outstanding.
After dinner we started the music and
we played and sang until almost 10:00. Besides myself there were
only three other singers, but they were all very good. Peggy,
Jackie, Judi and Suzie got up and did their version of Tequila
wearing their blinged up blue Los Algodones jackets. They will be
wearing them again at our rally next week. All in all it was a great
day and a wonderful, fun evening.
Sunday, July 20th, we had a
relaxing day around the house. I went over in the late morning and
packed up all my music stuff at Peggy's house and brought it back to
the coach. About 5:00 we went over to Peggy and Vernon's for dinner
again. Tonight was left overs night and we ate up some of the stuff
left over from the other dinners this weekend. The group was down to
about a dozen now with most of the people having left. We stayed
until about 9:00 and then went back to the coach for the rest of the
evening.
Monday, July 21st, the RV
park group is now down to just us and the Babcocks. The four of us
drove to the town of Chester, about 35 miles south. Chester sits on
the shore of Lake Almandor and is a cute little town. We had lunch
at a place called the Copper Kettle Cafe. The food was pretty good
and you got a lot for your money. After lunch we did a few
geocaches, getting three before we started hearing thunder and
decided it would be wise to quit. We then drove back to the RV park
and rested for a while.
About 5:00 the four of us went over to
Peggy and Vernon's and had a nice quiet evening with just the six of
us. We had cocktails and then did some hot dogs on the BBQ. We had
those with the last of the leftovers. We left about 8:30 and went
back to the coach for the evening.
Tuesday, July 22nd, happy
birthday to my middle child, Tracie. Today was travel day. We
packed up and left Mineral around 10:00 and drove down the hill to
Redding. The Babcock's also left and followed us down. We went into
the Redding RV park for a one night stay. We didn't even hook up the
utilities other than the electric. We even left our car hooked up to
the back of the coach. Ray unhooked his car and he and the girls
went into town for pedicures. I stayed at home and working on some
of the paperwork for our rally next weekend. Jackie wasn't feeling
too well, so I had cocktails with Ray and Suzie and then went back to
our coach. Jackie and I had dinner by ourselves and watched TV until
bedtime.
Wednesday, July 23rd,
another travel day. We and the Babcocks left Redding about 9:30 and
started the 165 mile drive north to Valley of the Rogue State Park in
Oregon. The park is located off I-5 between Medford and Grants Pass
and is one of our favorite stops in Oregon. We had reservations, so
we were able to drive in and get set up by about 2:00. The Babcocks
are in the next space over, the McKays are just down the street, and
our friends Bob and Gloria Baron are just around the circle. The
Barons are also coming to our rally next weekend. After we got set
up Suzie and Judi came over and Jackie and they started putting
together the “goodie bags” for our rally. After about an hour
they had all 19 bags pretty much ready. The only thing they have to
do is add anything that might have come in the mail to the RV resort.
We will be there on Saturday, the day before our rally starts.
About 5:00 we and the McKays met in Ray
and Suzie's coach for cocktails. While we were there Bob and Gloria
walked by, so we invited them in too. We all sat and talked until
about 6:30 when everyone went off to their own coaches for dinner.
After dinner we watched TV and chilled until bedtime.
Thursday, July 24th, we were
up and out of the coach by about 11:30 for a shopping day. We rode
with Ray and Suzie in their car and Clark and Judi followed in
theirs, and we all headed to Medford. Our primary goal was to buy
all the stuff we needed to make the Sunday evening taco salad meal
for our rally in Canyonville. We are feeding 38 people and needed a
lot of stuff. We all first stopped at a Carl's Jr. and had lunch,
then we were off to Costco for some supplies. After we loaded up at
Costco with what we could find of what we needed, we went next door
to Walmart. By the time we were done we had close to $300 worth of
stuff for the rally, fortunately well within our shopping budget with
the rally fee revenue.
After shopping we headed back to the
park and worked to find a place to store all this stuff for a couple
of days. We managed to get most of the stuff that needed
refrigeration in our fridge, and the Babcocks found room for the rest
in theirs. Around 5:00 we got together with the Babcock's and
McKay's at Clark and Judi's coach. A little later Judi served a nice
Mexican meal of homemade beef enchiladas, beans and rice. For
dessert we had tapioca pudding, something I haven't had in a long
time. Around 7:30 we were back in our coach watching TV for the rest
of the night.
Friday, July 25th, Happy
Birthday to Jackie's brother Dennis. The six of us all drove into
Grants Pass, in our own cars, to do laundry. We found a nice
laundromat and finished all the clothes in a couple of hours. The
six of us then went to lunch at a place called Taprock. This is a
very nice restaurant and brewhouse right on the Rogue River in the
middle of Grants Pass. We have been here before. Although the food
was pretty good for the most part, the service was a little iffy.
The servers were nice enough, but things were getting mixed up in the
kitchen. We got a couple of wrong orders and the food came out
within five minutes of the soup, and some of the stuff was not hot.
They need to work on the details if they want to be considered a top
quality restaurant.
After lunch Jackie and I went to
Walmart for some last minute stuff we couldn't get in Medford
yesterday. We then headed back to the RV resort to put stuff away.
We got together with the group at 5:00 for cocktails. We were back
in the coach and watching TV by 7:00. We didn't make any dinner
because of the large, late lunch we had.
Saturday, July 26th, another
travel day. We and the Babcock's left the State Park about 10:30 and
headed north to Canyonville, about 60 miles. We arrived just before
noon and got settled into our spot at the Seven Feathers RV Resort.
This is a very nice RV park that is part of the Seven Feathers Casino
complex in Canyonville. We are here at this park to be the wagon
masters for a three day rally for the Full Timer's Chapter of FMCA.
I am the current President of the chapter and Jackie and I decided to
put on this rally. The Babcock's and Bullock's are our assistants.
The Bullock's will be up tomorrow, which is when the rally officially
starts. It is a three day rally and we are expecting 18 coaches to
attend.
After we got setup and relaxed for a
while we and the Babcock's drove over to the casino to have dinner
and do a little gaming. Both Jackie and I came out even after an
hour of gambling. We had a nice dinner and were back in the coach
before 9:00.
The Rally we are putting on starting
tomorrow is the opening rally for this summer's rally tour. It has
been about three weeks since we published a blog, and this marks a
good place to close out this chapter. The next one will be a couple
weeks down the road and will cover the four rallies that we are going
to attend in Oregon this year. Until the next time, be happy.
Remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “For every minute you
are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” See you next time.
