First Days in California

  October 28-29, 2012

We woke up in our sucky campsite rejuvenated.   Yesterday we couldn’t imagine feeling recovered from our road trip until after a couple of days of relaxing.  But the ugly campground and the high fee ($20/night for with NO hookups) motivated us to find a new spot.   We took off at around 9 to scout our next home.   First we drove back to look at the BLM campsite in daylight.   Although it was on the Kern river (a fun looking class 3-5…too bad it’s not running), the mountains and surroundings are rather bare.   Not too many trees.   There was an open parking lot area we could have squeezed into next to the 2 or 3 other rigs.   But Missy vetoed it, and as usual we follow UN Security Council rules.

We then headed 10 miles north to Kernville.  This is the Southern tip of the Sequoia National Forest.   We had a list of 3 or 4 campgrounds up the Kern River that were open and could maybe fit our rig.    As we checked them out, we started to get really worried.   For the most part, the fee campgrounds were tiny and not suited for big rigs.   Even if we did find a spot we could make do, the campgrounds were ugly.   Run down and not very well laid out.    But then…we spotted an oasis in the desert!    A free campground, right on the river with fantastic mountain views!!!    We scouted carefully to make sure the rig would fit, and then headed back to pack up and move the RV again.

On the way, we stopped at the ranger station.   I wanted to get a permit for campfires.  Luckily, there was a ranger there who was just on his way out.   I guess they aren’t usually open on Sundays, but he was stopping in so he was able to get me the permit and he made me a copy of the forest map.   Such a nice guy!

We got hooked up in record time….and then got the rig filled with water.    We’d been told by the host that there was a threaded spigot…but it was worn mostly free and covered in calcium.  So we had to use the camp hosts’ water.   It seemed to take forever to get filled.   Finally, we were on our way.    We stopped to fill up the propane tanks at True Value, and then got back to our new home at around 2.   It is wicked hot here.   When the sun is shining full on, it’s scorching.   Luckily, Missy got us parked to that we can sit out front and be totally shaded by the fitty.  Since the inside temp went over 80 degrees, we decided to take cold showers to save on propane.    Very refreshing in the heat.

Road Trip, Days 2 and 3

October 26-27, 2012

Day 2 of the road trip was mostly uneventful.   We put in another 10 hours of driving before stopping at a rest stop in Sun Valley, Arizona.  We were next to noisy semis like at Walmart last night, but we were both so exhausted that we slept great.   It was cold overnight, but we managed with extra layers and some use of the furnace.    The next morning we made our coffee and indulged in watching a show before we got on the road.    I must admit, although I thought we could do fine without an inverter, I am greatly enjoying using it!

Day 3 of the road trip went mostly smooth.   We had a couple of hiccups with the GPS, which made for short bits of anxiety as far as getting the rig going the right way again.   We thought we’d be at the campground (BLM) around 5:30, but we were late as usual.   This meant we were trying to find it in the dark.   It was scary not being able to see down dirt roads to evaluate if the rig would fit.   I decided to pull the plug on the BLM and we went back about 5 miles to pull into a National Forest campground: Paradise Cove (near Lake Isabella).    This campground Suuuuuuuuuuucks!   I can only assume it was named ironically.  Tight corners on the loops.  And some idiot decided to line the ENTIRE roadsides with concrete bumpers.   This meant there was NO wiggle room off the shoulder.   Parking in the dark and the concrete barriers made this one of the toughest parking jobs yet.    Missy and I almost got divorced; there was extreme snippiness going on.    But we finally got it parked.   (Luckily the entire campground was empty.   Only the camp hosts were witnesses to our fighting and prolonged parking job).  We unloaded the generator, ate dinner and went to bed.

Random Stuff from the Trip:

-In Kansas (I think), we passed the Agriculture Hall of Fame.   Missy and I both immediately added “getting inducted” to our bucket lists.   We need to research how to get in there.

-In Arizona, we passed a sign for “bulk water”.    I don’t know why, but this amused us.   Might have been the road weariness setting in.

-We alternated between listening to an audio-book and listening to tunes, both from the cell phone.    We were seriously annoyed that the app we downloaded to run both had a problem with the audio-book.  Every time it switched tracks, it would jump around to random other spots in the book.   We felt mighty stupid when we finally realized what it was…the shuffle setting was left on.   D’oh!    Missy just figured it out when we got over the California border.

On The Road Again!

October 25, 2012

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update.   We’ve been surprisingly busy since returning from the North Shore.    We’ve had some fantastic, fun times with Josh and Fam.   Including a sleepover at his house, and a trip to Lake City.    Max and Calvin continue to amuse and astound daily.   They both are so cute it is barely tolerable.   We’ll miss them greatly as we go on the road again.  (And we’ll miss everyone else too!).    

Other than family visits, we’ve been very busy with RV projects.   Here’s a list of what we did...listed for record keeping purposes.

1)      Replaced broken 7 way adapter receiver thing on the truck

2)      Rain-Xed the windows and side mirrors

3)      Pre-washed, washed and then re-sealed the RV roof

4)      Fixed a small tear on the living room slide roof wih aquaseal.  (which reminds me…I forgot to check it out to see if it took hold.   The weather was cold and rainy when we left…I didn’t feel like going up on the roof to check it out).

5)      Attempted to buy a new part for the faulty propane tank regulator  Accidentally bought the wrong size hose.  Tried whacking the old one to see if it dislodged some small piece of debris.   That amazingly ended up working!  So we didn’t have to pay for that repair!

6)      Jeremiah and Missy did a HUGE project with electrical.   Installed 2 6 volt golf batteries (from Costco).    They also installed an inverter (wires run up through the HVAC vent in the toilet room).   It’s on a remote starter, installed in the bedroom.    Installed a 12V cigarette charger directly to the RV electrical system.   This is a major upgrade that we hope will help us boondocking.    Ideally we will be able to charge our laptops and phone more efficiently.   Previous, we had to run the generator before the house batteries needed it….wasteful!   Also, now we can make a pot of coffee in the morning with the inverter and not need the genny.   So cool!    Now we’ll just have to have some field testing to see how long the batteries will last us between genny charges.   Also need to determine how long it takes the genny to fully charge the batteries.   

7)      Replaced faulty locking hardware on the storage doors.   Hopefully now we won’t have any more instances of doors flapping as we’re driving.

That’s all I can remember right now.

So…here’s the latest on our plans and trip.   Originally we had planned on heading to Yosemite National Park in California.    We were going to spend anywhere from 2-6 weeks there…moving south when the weather got chilly.  But when we started to look for camping in the nearby National Forests, we were bummed to find that they all closed at the end of September.     We didn’t know what to do…and spent a lot of time searching online for a Plan B.   Finally, we decided to go to Sequoia National Forest.    It’s a huge forest below Yosemite.   Top to bottom would take maybe 4+ hours to drive.   We’re going to start with the campgrounds on the southern end.    They have varying degrees of closing dates.  Some closed already, some close mid-Nov, others are open year round.    Hopefully there will be plenty of options to entertain us in the manner to which we are accustomed.  J    Note: we probably will be out of range whilst in the Forest. 

After picking our new destination, we moved on to planning a route.   It’s 32 hours of driving.   We agreed to do a 10 hour day the first day, so I picked an RV park in Nebraska we could stay at.   For the second day, we would go as far as we could and see about staying overnight in a rest stop or Walmart (estimated we’d be by Grand Junction, CO).     The next night after we’d planned our route, we checked the weather for our trip.  Shit!    Denver was getting snow!   So not only would it be scary canary driving in the mountains with precipitation, we’d have to deal with freezing temps for when we stopped for the night.     I was firmly against driving in snow in CO…so we changed to a southernly route.    Only added a couple of hours to the trip.   The new route has us going south to Wichita, KS, then going SW through ABQ, NM and then heading west to CA.    We’re going to be within spitting distance of the Grand Canyon, so Missy wanted to stop.    But, once again, most of the campgrounds are already closed for the season.    Is there usually bad weather in these areas by late Oct?    Sigh.

After spending way too much time trying to work out a travel schedule, we decided to just plan our first day  and then wing it from there.   So we embarked on our newest adventure at 10:42 am yesterday!   (Hooking up in snow/rain and wind sucked.)  We drove 700 miles and arrived outside of Wichita at 11:30pm.   It was freezing!   We bundled up in warm clothes and slept in winter hats and gloves.  We could have run the furnace to a warm temp, but for some reason we decided against it.     We both slept badly (lots of loud Semis with their diesel engines going).   Got up and made coffee with the new inverter.   That was pretty exciting!   Thanks Jeremiah!

Stay tuned for more exciting adventure

Futile Fall Creeking Hopes

October 3-11, 2012

Well, we were unlucky in kayaking again.  Despite being mobile and ready to pounce on any river action at a moment’s notice, we were skunked again.   We’ve come to the end of our time on the North Shore and are heading back home.   I wouldn’t be surprised if the rivers start to run once we’re safely out of state again.   Sigh.

Nothing much has been going on.   We’ve been enjoying Tettegouche through the fall changes.   When we first got here, it was warm and sunny and the leaves were just changing.   Now, it’s brisk and windy and the leaves are all gone.  It was nice to experience the fall changeover, but since it’s been getting colder and colder, we’re ready to move on to CA.

Tentative plans right now have us enjoying time with family this weekend.   After that, we’re going to look into doing some battery/inverter upgrades on the rig.   And then we’re on to CA, probably the Yosemite area.    Maybe the gods will surprise us and bring some rain into our lives somewhere in the US and we’ll get to run a river soon.  

TSP is Crowd Free!

September 29-October 2, 2012

It’s been a great stay at TSP.   So far we’ve had great weather to enjoy the fall beauty of the North Shore.  Tettagouche has always been one of my favorite state parks.  There are lots of hike options, there’s the Baptism River (which is sometimes kayakable), there’s lots of waterfalls, there’s Lake Superior and its accompanying shoreline hike.  And the campground has plenty of big-rig friendly sites, some of which are electric.    It makes for a great destination.

We’ve been lucky on this trip, because the visitor’s center and rest area are being rebuilt.   This means that the usual 100 plus parking lot can now only accommodate 10.  And whereas before construction the general public could park for free and enjoy all the hikes; now you’ve got to have the state park sticker.  Together, this means that the crowds are astonishingly light.   Never before on a sunny fall weekend day would you have the Shovel Point hike almost to yourself.  (We biked the mostly downhill route from camp in 8 minutes.  The return bike UPHILL was embarrassingly longer.  I’m not saying how much). And during the week, I can hike along the Baptism and only pass 1 or 2 couples.   It’s fantastic.   From our campsite, it’s only about a mile to the High Falls, so it makes for a nice morning hike with the dogs.

On Tuesday, Missy decided she’d like to move campsites.   She wanted one with a bigger yard and on the outer rim (so nothing but forest behind us).   I thought it was roughly comparable to where we already were, but I agreed to move.   She arranged the switch at the office and paid for another week, and we moved to our 3^rd spot of this campground.  Soon we’ll have been in them all and can write the definitive tome on the subject of the TSP Baptism River Campground.   Number 11 was uneven on the door side, so when we leveled, it meant the door/steps raised several feet off the ground.   But Missy used some good ol yankee ingenuity and built us a set of stairs using the scrap firewood lumber.   It works quite nicely!   Now that we’re moved, I have to admit that the extra big yard does make this site seem more luxurious.

I’ll close with a reenactment of one of our conversations:

Scene: Shovel Point.   Missy and Tina have been watching several groups of rock climbers make use of the cliffs.   Upon leaving, they pass a solo rock climber.

Tina:  Is that unsafe, to rock climb by yourself?

Missy:  I guess not.  It’s not like kayaking, where if things go to shit, it’s nice to have someone recover your gear and/or point out where the body ended up.   With rock climbing, if things go to shit, I imagine there’s nothing an extra person could do.

Tina:  I see your point.   If his rope breaks, I guess he’s screwed.  So who cares if he’s solo or not.  

Missy: Although…there must be some scenario whereby your safety would be helped by a buddy.

Tina:  I’ve got it!  What if you run out of energy on the climb back up?   Then a buddy can lower you down an energy bar.

Missy:   I’ve got one too!   What if an eagle attacks and mauls you?  Your buddy can help shoo away the eagle!

Tina:   So that’s probably how rock climbers word their safety posters then.   “Never Rock Climb Alone:  What if you Need an Energy Bar or Get Attacked by an Eagle?!”

Fall Pictures

Lowering the CPU on the binoculars

Shovel Point

Missy at the very tip of Shovel Point

Baptism River, right at 61.   Look closely: see the guy/dog fishing?  They are standing several feet into where the river bed usually is.

High Falls, Baptism River

Cassie, Baptism River

This rock is probably usually underwater at normal flows.   I've never seen such a smooth tunnel in a mid river boulder before.