Hi there friends and followers. Our
last chapter ended on Thursday, September 15th, when we arrived in
Keizer, Oregon following a couple weeks of rallies. Friday was a
chores day. We went out after lunch and did our laundry. We then
did a Walmart run before heading back to the Keizer Elks Lodge, where
we are parked in their RV park. Keizer is nice because it has full
hookup 50 amp sites, $20 a night. About 5:30 we walked over to the
lodge and had a cocktail before going into the dining room for their
Friday night dinner. Tonight's special was sauteed scallops with
rice, which is what I had. I love scallops and these were very good.
Jackie had a calamari steak, which was also quite good. We tried
our hand with the video poker machines, but didn't win much. Oregon
allows slot machines in most bars and fraternal organizations. We
then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Saturday, September 17th, we left the
coach after lunch just to go drive around and get out of the house
for a while. It was raining lightly, so we knew we wouldn't be
caching or anything. After about 45 minutes, and about 10 miles from
the Elks Lodge, the windshield wipers stopped working. They got
erratic first, then just quit. Nothing I did would make them work
again, including shutting off the automatic feature. There was a
Jeep dealer very close by and we stopped there, but they were closing
and provided no help. We didn't have any choice but to slowly work
our way back to the Elks. Fortunately, it was a Sunday and the
traffic was light, and the rain stayed light too. We made it back
safely and then spent the rest of the day in the coach. If it stops
raining I will go out and check the obvious stuff, like fuses and the
connection to the sensor on the new windshield. Just prior to the
wipers stopping on us we did spot a group of deer wandering around a
residential neighborhood. We were in the city suburbs, not out in
the country, but they seemed pretty comfortable.
Sunday, another travel day. The rain
pretty much quit overnight, although we woke up to damp and cloudy
weather. We got packed up and out on the road about 10:45 and headed
south on I-5 again. We are only going about 65 miles to Coberg,
Oregon, just north of Eugene. Not too long after getting on the
freeway the rain started again and kept up on and off until we got to
Coberg. It stopped long enough for us to get parked and set up, then
started it's on and off stuff again. With no wipers, we aren't going
anywhere today. We did get a Sunday paper to read, so we will relax
for the rest of the day.
Monday, September 20th, no rain
predicted for today, so we went out after lunch to do some exploring
and geocaching. We toured around Eugene for a while and did some
geocaching. We were able to get six new finds in an hour and a half
of caching. We then visited Northwest RV Supply, which is the RV
surplus parts store here in Eugene. Among other things, they bought
up a lot of the left over parts when the various RV manufacturers
around the Eugene area went out of business back in the mid-2000's.
This included Monaco and Country Coach, so there are a lot of Monaco
parts there. We bought a couple of things, but only spent $22. Yea!
After that we did two more caches then headed back to the coach for
the rest of the night. The yellow bus and camp trailer were parked in our RV park, not too far from our space. Eugene is the home of the University of Oregon, and their mascot is the Oregon Ducks. Their colors are, you guessed it, yellow and green. You see big green and yellow "D's" all over southern Oregon. This was the ultimate fan-mobile for tailgating. Tuesday was another travel day. We had
a nice day to travel, cool but no rain. We were on the road by
10:30, headed south 155 miles to the Valley of the Rogue State Park,
halfway between Medford and Grants Pass, Oregon. We arrived at the
park about 2:00 and got moved into our site. By 4:00 we were set up
and ready for a six night stay. We didn't go anywhere, just relaxed
around the coach the rest of the day.
Wednesday, September 21st, I was up,
showered and in the car headed to Grants Pass by 8:30. I had made an
appointment on Monday to take the Jeep into the local dealer to check
the problems with the wipers. The service department was very busy,
but the service writer actually listened to me when I told him we
were full time travelers and didn't have another vehicle. He got the
car into the shop very quickly and just after 10:00 came into the
waiting room and told me all was well, the wipers were working fine.
It turns out that the power plug had come loose from the wiper motor.
I now feel that it was the glass installer because they had to
remove the wipers and the cowling to install the windshield. He
either unplugged it for some reason, or bumped it and loosened it.
Either way, it didn't get put back into place right and worked it's
way out after a half hour of driving. It is too coincidental that
after almost nine years the plug would come loose a half hour after
the motor housing was exposed by the installer taking the cowling
off.
I went back to the coach and then after
lunch we went out to do some geocaching. We had a good afternoon,
getting nine new finds with no DNF's in a couple of hours. We also
stopped to see some old caching friends who live in Grants Pass. We
met Russ and Nellie about six years ago while geocaching in
Quartzsite. Just met them at a cache and struck up a conversation.
Since then we have stayed in contact and visited their house a couple
years ago when we were in the area. We visited about a half hour
before letting them get back to loading their motorhome. They are
going away to a hot air balloon festival in Northern California for
the weekend. Russ used to own a hot air balloon and flew for many
years. He recently sold the balloon and is no longer certified, but
they are still balloon fanatics. After visiting with Russ and Nellie
we went into Grants Pass and we both got haircuts. We then went to
Winco for some groceries. After our errands we headed back to the
park and relaxed for the rest of the evening. A productive day, yea!
Thursday, September 22nd, the first day
of Fall. We left after lunch and drove into Grants Pass again,
stopping first at Walmart to get a couple of things we couldn't get
at Winco yesterday. We then went to the movies and saw Sully, the
movie about U.S. Airways Flight 1749 that had to land in the Hudson
River in New York after a flock of geese knocked out both engines
right after takeoff. The movie was pretty good, well written and
acted. The drama of the NTSB hearings was especially gripping, even
though I have since read that they were not quite as adversarial as
presented in the movie. We enjoyed the film. After the movie we
went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the day. By the
way, we got rained on a couple of times today and the wipers worked
as they were supposed to. Yea!
Friday we again went out after lunch,
this time driving to Medford, to the east of the park. Just before
we left we were visited by some other goecachers who were staying in
the park, actually only a couple of sites away from us. We had met
them once before, several years ago in Arizona. They were leaving
today, so we just chatted for a while. We did some geocaching,
getting eight new finds and two DNFs in a couple of hours of caching.
After caching we drove to downtown Medford, intending to stop at the
Medford Elks for a cocktail. To our surprise, we found the building
closed up and signs on the doors saying that the lodge had been
closed down. We did a little quick internet research and found that
the lodge had been closed for almost two years.
The Medford Lodge was chartered at the
turn of the century and in 1915 built the 30,000 square foot lodge
building which it had occupied until being closed. At the time the
building was built the lodge had nearly 2,500 members and was the
center of society in Medford. By 2013 they had less than 300 and
were unable to meet expenses, including the annual fees for the Grand
Lodge. The Grand Lodge told Medford that they needed to consider
merging with the Ashland Elks, which still had a viable membership.
However, the vote failed in the Medford Lodge with them wanting to
stay independent. In December 2014 the Grand Lodge revoked Medford's
charter and the lodge went out of business. Any remaining assets,
such as any proceeds from the sale of the building, will now revert
to Grand Lodge. We have been to this lodge a number of times over
the years and it is a shame to see another Elks Lodge go under.
After going by the Elks we stopped and did some shopping before
heading back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Saturday, September 24th, we went out
after lunch and went back towards Medford for some more geocaching.
As is usually the case, summer was not ready to give up. Yesterday
we didn't break 65, today it's supposed to be in the high seventies,
tomorrow in the low nineties. We had a good afternoon, getting a
dozen new finds, along with one DNF, for the afternoon. After a
quick stop for some fuel we went back to the park and stayed in the
rest of the day.
Sunday was mostly a stay at home day.
We got a few chores done, including modifying our travel plans
slightly. Since summer has decided to hang on for a few days, we
decided to extend our stay here in Southern Oregon by a couple of
days. It will be warm here, but not as hot as it is in north-central
California. Our next “must be” is Pismo Beach in a week, so we
had seven days to play with. About 3:15 we left the coach and drove
to Grants Pass to meet our caching friends Russ and Nellie for an
early dinner. We again went to Taprock, the very nice restaurant and
brew pub on the river. We had a great dinner and spent a couple
hours talking with them. They are a very nice couple and we were
glad we were able to spend a little time with them. After dinner we
headed back to the park and relaxed with the TV the rest of the
evening.
Monday, September 26th, we left the
coach a little before 10:00 and drove into Grants Pass to take Jackie
to the doctor. A couple of weeks ago, when we were in Astoria at the
Overland Trail Blazers rally Jackie took a fall. She caught her toe
trying to get up from a picnic table and fell on her right knee. She
got a nasty scrape, but that is pretty much healed. What is still
bothering her is the point just below the knee which still hurts to
the touch. We went to the urgent care that is a part of the local
Hospital, Asante Health Care. They have both an ER and an urgent
care. It was a very nice facility right next door to the hospital
and Jackie was in to be seen within a half hour, way less than our
last couple of urgent care visits. She got an xray and saw a doctor
who told her that it was a bad bone bruise and soft tissue swelling
that was not serious, but would take a while to heal completely. He
gave her a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and we were on our
way in less than two hours.
We went to lunch at a local Mexican
restaurant called El Charro Viejo. It is right downtown, only a
block or so from Taprock. It is in an old building that has been
nicely fixed up and the food was quite good. We both had the machaca
and eggs and it was a meal, more than enough for the average person.
We would probably go back again. After lunch we went to Walmart to
get Jackie's prescription filled. Since the pharmacy said it would
be an hour, Jackie got a pedicure while I wandered around the store
window shopping. Once her pedi was done we picked up the script and
headed back to the coach. When we got back I went outside to fix a
water leak in our wet bay.
For those who are not Rvers, the wet
bay is where you hook up a city water connection, fill your on-board
water tank, and control the valves for the gray and black waste
tanks. I had a leak in the connection for the city water and wanted
to get it fixed before it got too bad. It is a major process to take
the access panel for the bay out, since you have to disconnect all
the different inputs and valves before you can take the panel off.
You can't get at the works without taking off the panel. I got the
panel off and the leak fixed, so we would have water, but it was
getting too late to put the panel back in. I would lose my light
before I got done. Since we weren't traveling tomorrow, and I had
water hooked up for tonight, I just closed the bay door and left the
finish for morning. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV,
especially the first Presidential debate. I try to keep the blog
apolitical, so I won't comment on the debate except to say, it was
interesting.
Tuesday, September 27th, was a stay at
home day. I went outside before lunch and finished the job in the
wet bay. We then just relaxed for the rest of the day. Jackie was a
little sick to her stomach, so it was a good thing we had no plans
for today. Wednesday was another travel day. We were packed up and
on the road a little after 10:00. We headed south on I-5, our
destination Redding, California, about 166 miles away. Just before
we crossed into California we rolled over 90,000 miles on the coach
odometer. After one lunch stop we arrived in Redding, at the Elks
Lodge, at about 2:15. It was pretty warm still, very high 90's, but
we got hooked up and set up pretty quickly. We are going to stay
here for two nights. After I registered in the lodge we just relaxed
in the coach and stayed cool for the rest of the day.
Thursday was a chores day. We left the
coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. Once laundry was
done we stopped at Walmart for a few supplies. We also picked up two
geocaches for the day. We went back to the coach and put stuff away,
then relaxed for a while. About 6:00 we walked over to the lodge for
it's monthly all you can eat spaghetti night. The spaghetti was
quite good and we sat at a table with a couple of long time members
of the lodge. We had some nice conversations, including RVing, as
they had a motorhome and were members of the Redding Lodge's RV club.
After we ate we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime. The picture is the bronze Elk in the front of the Redding Lodge.
Friday, September 30th, we left Redding
a little after 10:00 and continued south on I-5. Today's destination
was nearly 200 miles away, near Lodi, California. The trip was long,
with a fuel stop and a lunch stop. We also had a lot of wind the
last half of the trip, which makes me tired. Since we are on a timed
mission to be in Pismo Beach for our gathering of friends on Monday,
we only stayed in Lodi for one night at the Flag City RV park, just
off the freeway. We had a pull through spot and didn't even unhook
the car. We got setup and just stayed in the rest of the evening.
Saturday, October 1st, was another
travel day. We left Lodi about 10:15 and continued south on I-5,
today headed to an RV park near Coalinga, California, about 160 miles
away. We had a lunch stop, but other than some heavy traffic through
the Sacramento metro area it was an uneventful trip. We arrived at
the Almond Tree RV park about 2:00. The park is just off the freeway
and about ten miles east of Coalinga. We are going to be here for
two nights, and we have never been here before, so we are looking
forward to exploring tomorrow. We spent a couple of hours cleaning,
doing windows and other chores, before relaxing for the rest of the
day in the coach.
Sunday we went out after lunch to do
some geocaching and exploring. We did most of our caching in and
around two small towns in the area, Avenal and Coalinga. Avenal came
into being in the 1920's when oil was discovered in the area. It now
touts itself as the pistachio capital of the U.S. There are acres
and acres of pistachio trees around the town. It has a little over
10,000 population, but about 1,000 of them work at the local State
Prison, and about 4,000 of them are inmates at the prison. In
California prisoners are counted in population totals for towns and
counties. Coalinga, about ten miles north, is a town of about 13,000
and is also mainly a support town for local farms, ranches and oil
fields. The railroad did run through town at the turn of the
century, and the town started out as a coaling station on the rail
line. There were coal mines in the hills to the west of town. At
that time it was just known as Coaling Station A. The railroad
signs, wanting shorter words, just said Coaling A, which became
Coalinga when the town was incorporated. We had a good afternoon,
getting a dozen new finds, and no DNFs, for the afternoon. After
caching we went back to the coach, had dinner and watched TV the rest
of the night.
Monday, October 3rd, we were packed up
and on the road about 10:30 on the last leg of our trip to Pismo
Beach. We stopped along the way to pick up a geocache at the James
Dean Memorial on Highway 46 at a wide spot in the road called
Cholame. Dean was killed in 1955 while driving his Porsche Speedster
down what is now Highway 46 when another car turned in front of him
off of Highway 41. The memorial was built by a Japanese businessman
who was fond of Dean. The memorial was built in the 1980's and is
about a thousand yards southwest of the intersection where Dean died.
We arrived in Pismo Beach, at the Pismo
Coast Village RV park, about 1:00. We are here for a gathering of RV
folks, mostly from the Sacramento metro area. We know several of the
people in the group, having met them through Peggy and Vernon
Bullock, who were members of the group. They get together for an
informal “rally” every October and this year they invited us. We
know four of five of the couples in the group already and are looking
forward to making new friends. We will be here for ten days. We got
set up in a couple hours in a site directly behind Peggy and Vernon,
and then relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we went to Peggy and
Vernon's for cocktails and dinner. Peggy made her penne pasta
dinner, which is one of my favorites. We had a great meal and talked
until almost 9:00, after which we went back to our place and watched
TV until bedtime.
This marks a good place to put this
chapter to bed and get it online. We will be here for 10 days, then
head to Pahrump, our technical “home,” for a month. We will
publish the next episode of the blog in a few weeks. Until next
time, remember that life's like Las Vegas. You're up, you're down,
but in the end the house always wins. Doesn't mean you didn't have
fun. See ya soon.
