Hello again, welcome back. Our last
chapter concluded on Saturday, June 29th, a few days after
we arrived in Santa Maria, California for a two week stay visiting
family in the area. Sunday we enjoyed the paper with our coffee,
then after lunch we went out to do some geocaching. Having spent a
great deal of time in Pahrump this year, where there are very few
geocaches which are both accessible to us and which we haven't
already found. As a result, we haven't done much geocaching. It was
good to get out and spend a few hours really caching. We were able
to get nine new finds, and three DNFs in the course of about two and
a half hours. After caching we went back to the coach and just
relaxed for the rest of the day.
Monday, July 1st, the middle
of the year. We left the Elks about 11:30 and drove to the town of
Arroyo Grande, about 15 miles north, to go to the movies. We saw the
movie Yesterday, which was an interesting and entertaining romantic
comedy. It was about an aspiring singer/song writer who was not
having much luck until an odd, and mostly unexplained, glitch in the
time/space continuum occurred. All the power everywhere in the world
went out for 12 seconds and when it came back on there were a number
of things which had never occurred, including cigarettes, Coca Cola,
and The Beatles. However, at the exact moment of the blackout our
hero singer got hit by a bus and knocked unconscious. His memory was
not affected, so he remembered all these things that no one else did.
He started doing what he thought were covers of Beatles songs, but
to everyone else in the world they had no memories of them. He ended
up wildly popular and famous for “writing” and performing all the
songs by the Beatles. At the end he got a conscience, admitted his
fraud, released all the songs online for free, then, of course, got
the girl in the end. An unusual premise that could have been handled
better, but the story was fun and the music was great. If you like
the Beatles and romantic comedy, then this is a good movie for you,
even if you have to suspend belief to “get it.” After the movie
we drove up to Pismo Beach and met Donna's grandson Corey in
Scotty's, one of the local bars. He had a caretaker for Donna for
the day. We had a couple of drinks, then drove up to the house for
an hour or so and spent some time with Donna. About 6:00 we left and
on the way back to Santa Maria we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in
Nipomo for dinner. Las Conzuelas was very good and we had a great
dinner. We then drove to the coach, watched some TV and went to bed.
Tuesday, July 2nd, we had a
stay at home day. I got a lot of chores done including installing a
new TV in the bedroom. About four years ago I updated the TV in the
bedroom, removing the old, heavy tube type TV and putting in a small,
22 inch LED. This also opened up a big storage compartment for
Jackie. That little TV quit working a couple weeks ago and I found a
replacement on Amazon which I had shipped to Donna's house. It was
delivered yesterday. The TV took a couple of hours and I also did a
few hours of office work and some household chores. It was a very
quiet, but productive day. Wednesday we left the coach after lunch,
about 1:00 or so, and did some more geocaching, this time to the
North of Santa Maria. In the course of a few hours we were able to
get another nine new finds, with no DNFs today. Yea! As a matter of
fact, one of the caches we found was a DNF for us a year or so ago.
After caching we stopped at a grocery store for a couple things, then
met Corey at Scotty's bar again. We had a couple of drinks, then
drove up to Donna's and spent another 90 minutes visiting with her.
We left about 6:30 and drove back to the coach, had dinner and
watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday, July 4th, Happy
Birthday America! We stayed around the coach until about 5:00 when
we left to drove up to Donna's house for the fireworks show. As I
have said before, her house overlooks the public pier in Pismo Beach
and each year they do the city's fireworks show off the pier. This
makes Donna's house the ideal place to watch the show. Back in the
early 2000's, before we sold the house and went full time in the
coach we used to drive up here from Indio to spend the Fourth of July
with Donna and her late husband Barky. We were up here at least
three different years, however, after wewent out in the coach we
were never in this part of California during the summer, so we
haven't seen a show from Donna's house since before 2005. The show
doesn't start until 9:00 p.m., so we talked, had some cocktails and
ate pizza for dinner. Corey had picked up some pizza at a local
Italian place. At 9:00 the fireworks started and it was a great
show. There were thousands of people on the beach as far as you
could see and, because fireworks are legal in the Coastal counties
over the Fourth, there were lots of private “shows” all over the
area, but the main show off the pier was wonderful. As soon as the
show ended we quickly got in the car and headed for the freeway
because if we delayed too much all the people on the beach would have
time to walk to their cars and the traffic would come to a
standstill. We were able to get down off the hill and on to the
freeway in less than 10 minutes and were home within a half hour.
When we got back to the Elks lodge we felt that we were in a war
zone. There were fireworks going up all over the neighborhood
surrounding the Elks Lodge. We watched a little TV and went to bed
listening to the bangs.
Friday, July 5th, we had
another stay at home day until about 4:00 when we left to drive to
Nipomo, about five miles north, for dinner at Jocko's, our favorite
steak house. We always go to Jocko's at least once anytime we visit
this area, and today we were also celebrating Corey's birthday.
Corey and Pia met us for dinner and the four of us had a wonderful
dinner. I had the big, 20 oz rib eye, or Spencer as they call it
here. Jackie and Pia had lamb and Corey had halibut. Everything was
great except that Corey had to send the halibut back because it was
overcooked. The second one was not too much better, still a little
overdone, but he ate it anyway. We all took leftovers home. Donna
didn't come tonight because she no longer does well in noisy, crowded
places, so Corey took some food home to her. After dinner we drove
back home, relaxed with the TV for a while. Our relaxation was
interrupted about 8:15 while we were watching a movie on the TV. All
of a sudden the coach was rocking back and forth and the shaking went
on for about 20 seconds. Not real severe, but definitely detectable.
Both of us said “earthquake” and decided that it was either a
small one close by or a big one a way's off. Turned out to be a 7.1
quake about 150 miles northeast in the Mohave Desert near the town of
Ridgecrest. They had experienced a 6.4 on the Fourth, which was the
largest Southern California quake in over 10 years, but because it is
a small, rural city there were no deaths or major injuries and only
moderate property damage. They have had thousands of smaller after
shocks from yesterday, but this new 7.1 becomes the main shock and
even the 6.4 is now considered a “foreshock.” As soon as we felt
the quake we switched to the Los Angeles network and within five
minutes they had cut away from regular programming with news about
the big quake. We watched that coverage until bedtime, but no more
shaking for us.
Saturday, July 6th, we went
out after lunch and did some more geocaching in the southern area of
Santa Maria and the small town of Orcutt. We got five new finds and
three DNFs for our trouble. After caching we went back to the coach
and just relaxed for the rest of the day and evening. Sunday we had
our usual relaxing morning with the Sunday paper and morning TV
shows. About 2:30 we left the RV park and drove to Grover Beach, a
small community south of Pismo Beach, to visit Jackie's cousin Pia's
house. We have seen Pia a couple of times since we have been here,
but we wanted to see her new cat, Pickles. Pickles was a stray that
they picked up near Bakersfield a couple months ago. Although in
feral conditions, it clearly was not a lifetime feral cat as it
quickly adapted to living with Pia and her significant other Wil.
Pickles is a smallish female, about the size of Benji, who has some
tabby markings and some calico coloring. A very pretty cat, and
quite friendly. After visiting with Pia for a while we went on to
Pismo Beach and spent a couple hours with Corey and Donna. About
6:30 we headed back to Santa Maria, did some burgers on the BBQ for
dinner, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Monday, July 8th, was
laundry day. We left the coach after lunch and went to a nearby
laundry. The one we use is only a mile from the Elks, very big and
fairly new, so the equipment is in good condition. They also have
staff cleaning the place all day, so it is nice and clean, although
there was a bit of a funky smell, probably a clogged drain somewhere.
After laundry we did a Walmart run, then went back to the coach to
put everything away. We had dinner, then watched TV until bedtime.
Tuesday was our last full day here in Santa Maria. I did a little
cleanup outside, took down the screens and got ready to travel
tomorrow. About 2:30 we left and drove up to Pismo Beach and Donna's
house. We spent a few hours with Corey and Donna. Pia was also
supposed to be there, but she had to take her cat to the vet and got
hung up there. About 6:00 we left Donna's, went back to the coach
and relaxed the rest of the night.
Wednesday, July 10th, a
travel day. We were packed up, hooked up and on the road about
10:45. Today's leg is about 132 miles to an RV park outside of the
town of Coalinga, just off of Interstate 5. We got into the RV park
about 1:30 and hooked up the utilities. Since we are only here for
one night we didn't unhook the car, just set up the minimal stuff
inside and relaxed for the rest of the day. This was the first time
in two weeks we had to run the A/Cs. We went from a nice 75 to a
toasty 95. Thursday was also a travel day, this time heading north
on I-5 160 miles to Lodi. It was freeway all the way although we did
make a fuel stop about 100 miles into the trip. We arrived at the
Flag City RV park about 1:30 and got parked and set up. We are going
to be here for three nights, so we have time to do some shopping,
chores and geocaching. After we got set up we just relaxed in the
coach for the rest of the day and evening.
Friday, July 12th, we had a
chores day in Lodi. We first went to a place in town called Fiori's
Butcher Shoppe. Peggy had called Jackie and asked if, since we were
in Lodi, could we go by Fiori's and pick up some of their special
spice mix, salt, pepper, and a variety of other stuff. Apparently
everyone in the Bullock family uses this stuff and they were running
low. At Peggy's request we bought ten 16oz bottles to bring up with
us next week when we go to Mineral. Fiori's also has a great deli,
so we had lunch there. Jackie had a nice, big salad and I had an
Italian hero type sandwich. The food was pretty good and the place
was very busy. After lunch we went to a Great Clips and both got
haircuts. Jackie does hers once a month or so, I go about five
months between haircuts. We then went to the nail salon in the
nearby Walmart to get our toes done. I just get a clip, Jackie gets
a full pedi. Once that was done we did our grocery shopping, then
headed back to the RV park. We got everything put away and stayed in
for the rest of the day.
Saturday, July 13th, we had
a free day. About noon we left the coach and drove east about 45
miles to the town of Fairfield, a distant suburb of the Oakland/San
Francisco metro area. We went to visit the Jelly Belly Candy Company
and take the factory tour. For the one person out there who doesn't
know what a Jelly Belly is, it's a small, gourmet jelly bean and they
make a couple hundred different flavors. Those that have eaten them
will attest that they pretty much taste like whatever they say it is.
A good example is buttered popcorn. You put this little white jelly
bean in your mouth, bite it and you taste buttered popcorn. They
have every type of flavor you could want. The factory tour is very
similar to what you get at the Tillamok Cheese factory. You go
upstairs and then walk around the entire factory on a balcony that
has windows looking down at the production floor. Unfortunately, we
were there during the three week maintenance shutdown, so none of the
machines were running and the only people on the floor were a couple
of maintenance guys working on stuff. It was still very interesting
as they have a bunch of short videos and a lot of displays to look
at. We also got free samples for taking the tour. Yea! Of course,
after the tour we went into the gift shop and I got a great tee shirt
and a little stuffed animal jelly belly mascot for the dashboard of
the coach. After the tour we did a couple of geocaches in Fairfield,
then drove back to Lodi and did a couple more around the area where
the RV park is. We ended up with seven new finds and one DNF. We
went back to the coach and relaxed for a while, then about 6:00 we
went to the Denny's across the highway for dinner. After dinner we
went back to the coach, watched TV and relaxed for the rest of the
night.
Sunday, July 14th, another
travel day. We packed up and were on the road a little after 10:00,
heading north on I-5 to the city of Red Bluff. We arrived at the Red
Bluff Elks Lodge about 1:30 and found an RV spot to park in. It was
not difficult as we were the only one's there. They have 17 spots
with 30 amp and water, with a dump station on site. We are here for
two nights, so we set up and then went into Red Bluff to a Mexican
restaurant called La Corona. Peggy had told Jackie that they had the
best chili colorado in the area and we had to try it. We called and
determined that they were closed tomorrow, so we decided to go for a
late lunch. The food was very good as was the service. We had a
great lunch, I did have the chili colorado and it was quite tasty.
After lunch we went back to the coach and tried to stay cool by not
moving around much. In 95 degree weather it is tough for the coach
to stay cool inside with only the one air conditioner that you can
run on 30 amps. We had a quiet rest of the day and evening.
Monday, July 15th, we went
out after lunch to Walmart to get some supplies, did two geocaches in
the area, and went back to the coach. About 6:00 we walked over to
the Elks Lodge, had a cocktail and then took in their weekly Monday
steak sandwich. For $12 you got a good sized steak on a bun, fries
or onion rings, and a salad bar. Not a bad deal. After dinner we
went back to the coach and relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.
Tuesday, July 16th, another
moving day. Or so we thought until our world turned upside down.
This morning we were going to leave Red Bluff and drive up the hill
to Mineral, California where Peggy and Vernon have their “cabin”
which they have added onto to the point where it is a huge house. We
were going up there for the sixth annual 50th Anniversary
party. Back in 2013 they had a huge party for their 50th,
and it was so much fun and so many people came that they continued to
have it every July. We missed a couple because of our travels, but
this would be our fourth party. However, at 7:30 a.m. my phone rang
(Jackie was still in bed) and it was a tearful Peggy telling me that
her husband Vernon had died overnight! She said he fell, hit his
head and died before she found him. You could have knocked me over
with a straw. I woke Jackie up and told her the news and we had a
good cry together. For the first few hours we were completely unsure
as to what to do, but after talking to a couple of the other RVing
couples we knew were supposed to come we decided to cancel our
reservations in Mineral and find a place to stay down here in the
valley, so we could be close but not right on top of the family. We
were working on that prospect when Larry Bullock, one of their four
children called and said that the family had decided to go ahead with
the party this weekend, but now make it a celebration of life for
Vernon. He is going to be cremated and there will be no funeral or
service in accordance with his wishes. We decided to make a new
reservation and go up on Thursday and stay until Monday.
Regular readers will know that we first
met Peggy and Vernon in July of 2009 when we began our Alaska
Caravan. They were parked right next door to us at the campground in
Dawson Creek, B.C. and we immediately hit it off. We have been best
friend's since and have traveled together at least four months of
every year, gone to a lot of rallies together and partied a lot
together. Vernon could be a grumpy old fart, but he had a big heart
and was always there to help if you needed it. I think a lot of his
grumpiness was because his health was poor. He had a bad heart, one
heart attack under his belt already and his heart only worked about
40 percent. I think he was pissed off because he couldn't do
physically what he wanted to do, was always tired and hurting. We
had some great times together and we will miss him dearly. After we
figured out what we were going to do, we spent the rest of the day
inside just quietly mourning the loss of a great friend. RIP Vernon.
Wednesday, July 17th, we
left the coach about 12:30 and drove to the movie theater to see
Stuber. Stuber is a silly, shoot em' up where a rough and tumble
undercover cop undergoes laser surgery on his eyes to fix bad
eyesight, and then gets a tip that an international drug trafficker
he has been chasing for ten years is back in town. The drug king pin
shot and killed our hero's partner ten years ago, so he has to go,
but can't see, so he calls an Uber. Stu, a mild mannered East Indian
gets the pickup and mayhem ensues. Lots of shooting, dying and
running, car crashes and explosions, and, of course, a happy ending.
Not Oscar material, but good escape-ism and funny. After the movie
we stopped at Walmart for a couple things we forgot yesterday, then
went back to the coach where we stayed in the rest of the day.
Thursday, July 18th, we left
Red Bluff about 10:00 and started the 42 mile trip up to Mineral and
Peggy and Vernon's house. Jackie followed in the car, both because
it was a short trip and because in the 42 miles the elevation changes
from under 300 to over 5,000 feet. The last time we tried it towing
the Jeep the coach overheated, so I decided to not take any chances
this time. We made it in about an hour with the coach only getting a
little hot a couple of times. We checked into the Mineral Lodge RV
park, which is about a half mile from Peggy's place and got parked
and set up. We are in the middle of a pine forest so there is no
satellite at all, although I tried for several hours to get a signal.
About 4:30 we drove to the house and had a nice get together with
the Bullock family and a bunch of friends, most of whom we know well
or at least have met at previous parties up here. We talked,
reminisced about Vernon, and had some drinks, then a great pot luck
dinner with lots of food. We left about 8:30, went back to the coach
and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Friday, July 19th we spent
the morning in the coach and about 3:00 drove down to the house for
the evening's party. I packed in the karaoke gear as there are
several people in our circle of friends that like to sing. After I
got the equipment set up we relaxed with some cocktails and chatted
with friends. Tonight was just a whole bunch of different appetizers
and snacks. About 6:00 I started the karaoke and was surprised that
we had about six people in the group who liked to sing, and most of
them were pretty good. We went until it got dark about 9:00 when the
party pretty much broke up. I stored the gear until morning since it
was on Peggy's back deck and it was pretty unlikely that anyone was
going to come in to steal it. We went back to the coach, relaxed for
an hour or so with our mobile devices, since we have no TV, and then
went to bed. Another great evening.
Saturday, July 20th, we went
down to the house about 9:00 a.m. for Larry's famous breakfast
burritos and bloody Mary's. We stayed for a couple hours, then went
back to the coach, got cleaned up and relaxed for most of the day.
About 3:30 we went back down to the house for dinner. There are
still at least two dozen people hanging out, most of them either in
the RV park where we are or the motel next door. Tonight was the big
dinner with Peggy's son Larry making baby back ribs, and her daughter
Katie making chicken. This was accompanied by a bunch of other food
brought by guests. The food was excellent and after dinner everyone
sat around a great big campfire in the back yard and told stories.
About 9:00 the party broke up, we went back to the coach, read for a
while and then went to bed.
Sunday, July 21st, we again
were down at the house around 9:00 for breakfast, today it was
biscuits and gravy. Yum. We were there for a couple hours, then
went back to the coach and cleaned up for the day. We took a drive to the little town of Chester which is on Lake Almanor, about 30 miles Northeast of Mineral. We drove around, got a few geocaches and had some ice cream before driving back to Mineral. We went back to
the house about 3:00 and the group was significantly smaller. By the
time we had dinner at 6:00, leftovers from yesterday, it was Jackie
and I, Peggy, and her daughter Katie. Everyone else had left to go
home. We stayed until about 9:00, then went back to the coach and relaxed. Monday was our last day in Mineral. We went to the little
cafe at the Mineral Lodge for lunch, then went to Peggy's house. Now
it was just her and the dog, Belle. We helped her do some cleaning
and packing around the house and about 4:00 she left to drive to
Redding to spend a couple of nights with her son Matt. She has some
doctor's appointments and some stuff to do take care of with Vernon
and the estate. We went back to the coach and spent the rest of the
afternoon and evening relaxing. Although we didn't have any live TV
we were able to watch one of the movies we had on the DVR.
Tuesday, July 23rd, we were
packed up, hooked up and on the road by 10:00. We were only going a
little over 70 miles to the Redding Elks Lodge. We arrived at the
lodge around 11:30, got parked and did the basic setup. We have 50
amp, so we can run both air conditioners, and we need to because it
is hot. We also now have TV again! Yea! After we got the basics
done we drove to a nearby Thai restaurant and met Peggy for lunch.
We had a nice lunch, then went back to the coach and finished setting
everything up. We are staying here for three nights. Wednesday was
a errands day. About 10:00 Peggy brought Belle over to the coach for
us to dog sit for an hour or so while she ran some errands. She had
spent the last couple nights with her son Matt, but was going back up
to Mineral today. Peggy picked up the dog and we left the coach
after lunch and first took a drive in the residential area near the
Elks Lodge. Many of the homes in this area were burned in the Carr
Fire, which devastated Redding and the surrounding communities almost
exactly a year ago. All of the burned homes have been cleared, but
most of the lots are still empty. We did see a couple of new homes
and a couple more under construction, but last year was such a bad
year for California and wildfires that there are just not enough
construction workers for rebuilding the thousands of homes that were
lost statewide.
After our little tour we drove to
Costco for a few supplies. Mostly we needed to stock up on vodka
since we are going into Oregon for a month and liquor is much more
expensive up there because of their restrictive laws on liquor sales.
After Costco we went the Walmart across the street for a few things.
We then drove to Anderson, a small town about ten miles south of
Redding, to pick up our mail at the UPS store After the UPS store we
stopped at Camping World and browsed for a bit, then drove back to
the coach. We spent the rest of the day and evening in the coach.
Thursday, July 25th, we left
the coach about 10:00 and drove back up to Mineral and Peggy's house.
It took a lot less time in the car than going up in the coach. We
went up there because Peggy's grandson Troy, his wife Makayla and
their new baby Brooks, came in yesterday for a visit. They live in
the Boise, Idaho area and couldn't make here in time for the
celebration of life for Vernon. Matt had also brought up Troy's
sister, Trinity, who is 14, and lives in Redding. We wanted to go
back up to Mineral since we had not seen the family since last year,
and at that time Makayla was still pregnant. We had lunch and spent
about five hours visiting with the family. We left about 3:00 and
drove back to the Elks, then spent the rest of the evening in the
coach.
Friday, July 26th, was a
travel day. We are going about 165 miles north to Gold Hill, Oregon,
finally getting out of California for a while. We left early, about
9:00 to try and avoid some of the heat. There are a lot of hills and
mountain passes on the route north and I was worried about
overheating. We made it to the Valley of the Rogue State Park
without any problems, getting in about 1:00. We made it to our
reserved space and got parked and settled in for our two week stay.
We were quite disappointed to see that there was a great deal of
smoke hanging over the Rogue River valley and the visibility was very
bad. There is a large forest fire about 50 miles north of the State
Park and the smoke is blowing down from that. It reminded us of what
Redding was like this time last year when we were there during a big
fire nearby.
We are now over three weeks since we
published, so it is time to get this episode online. We are here in
Gold Hill, in Southern Oregon, for two weeks, then we move to
Northern Oregon for another two week stay. Until next time, remember
that the secret of success is to go from mistake to mistake without
losing your enthusiasm. See ya soon.
