December 21-January 3, 2009 San Benito TTN (Holister, CA)

N36°41.467 W121°18.024

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At the Pinnacles National Monument

December 28: Today, bright and sunny, inspired us to make an outing to the Pinnacles National Monument near here.  Managed by the US Department of the Interior, this is an excellent hiking area, formed by volcanic and earthquake activity.  Very strenuous and a rewarding view once we completed a mostly uphill hike which included a trek through a very dark and tight cave.  A flashlight was required in order to get through the cave.  I am left with the opinion that this is a place all should visit, and it would be preferable to do it at a much younger and fitter age!

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December 24-25 We locked up the trailer and drove to Fresno to spend Christmas eve and Christmas morning at the home of our nephew and his wife. We joined Ray's sister Carole and her husband Jim for an overnight stay. Christmas eve was enjoyed along with at least 20 other people who gathered for a Cuban Christmas eve dinner of, among other things, roast pig, rice and beans.

We arrived back in San Benito about noon Christmas day in time to experience another one of the many earthquakes (minor ones) that happen here daily. Many are a 3 or 4 magnitude on the Richter scale. Others are as low as 2 or 3. It seems to be something that the locals pay little attention to. 

Seismically, this is a very active area. Where the San Andreas fault heads NW, it intersects with the Calaveras fault,which goes NNW from there. USGS map covers a fairly large area, and shows 60 earthquakes in the past seven days. Almost ALL of these are along the San Andreas Fault, SSE ofHollister.

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December 21: We left Manteca, CA after an enjoyable breakfast with Wilhelmina and the gang (I say "gang" because there are sooo many people who attend the weekly Sunday breakfasts.) Wilhelmina's kids, grandkids, great-grandkids all gather and enjoy each others company. We left in the rain and arrived in the rain at San Benito TTN which is near Holister, CA and about 100 miles southwest of Manteca. We'll be here through January 3.

December 17-20 Turtle Beach TTN (Manteca, CA)

N37°46.396' W121°18.087'

We moved to Manteca, CA today and will be here until Sunday.  Ray's sister and husband will be arriving on Friday from Indiana.  The four of us will spend time visiting with Max's widow Wilhelmina and their children and grandchildren.  

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December 12-December 16 Lake Minden TTN (Nicolas, CA)

N38°54.085' 121°33.951'

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December 12:Our short relocation today finds us at Lake Minden TTN near Nicolas, CA. There is certainly a dramatic difference between the mountain region of Northern California/Southern Oregon and here in the low area near Sacramento. Our current elevation is 14 feet. It is still cold, but at least we see orange and palm trees.

December 11 Rolling Hills Casino (Corning, CA)

N39°52.314' W120°12.192'
We used the parking lot of of the Rolling Hills Casino as our campsite. (http://www.rollinghillscasino.com/) Just us and about 30 other freeloaders. We make it a practice to frequent the business of the parking lot we use, so into the casino we went for dinner and some games. It happened to be Senior day so we got buffet dinner for half-price. They also gave us $5 free slot play and I got really lucky. With their money, I cashed out with $180. So here is an accurate statement: Sometimes it pays to stay for free.

December 10 - Seven Feathers RV Resort (Canyonville, OR)

N42°56.163' W123°17.730'
We spent a pleasant 5 days in Washougal sitting the pets and Christmas shopping, but today it was time to make 200 miles south. We have stopped for the night at the Seven Feathers RV Park in Canyonville, OR. (http://www.sevenfeathersrvresort.com/index.php)
We will probably spend a short amount of time at the Seven Feathers Casino across the road, but will continue traveling tomorrow morning.

December 4-December 9 Gary's and Samm's House

N45°73.731' W22°15.005"
We had a slight change in plans and came from Pacific City TTN directly to Gary's and Samm's house in rural Washougal where we are currently tucked away on our spot next to the shop. We are here enjoying dog Bobbitt and cat Winnie while Gary and Samm are at Disney World with Samm's parents and her sister Dawn and Dawn's husband and their 2 kids. Dawn should win a prize for keeping a secret as she was able to plan and execute a secret trip for the kids. When they started out in Walla Walla, the kids were told they were going for a drive. When the drive became lengthy, they were told they were going to Portland for the weekend. Then it was a night in a hotel and off to the airport this morning. I will be anxious to hear the reaction when Anna and Ryan became aware that they were bound for Disney World. And of course, a part of the surprise was to find that Gary and Samm and the grandparents also flew to join them in what should turn out to be a magical vactation.

November 30-December 3 Pacific City TTN, Cloverdale, OR

N45°13.962' W123°58.092

Ferocious Guard Rabbits

We left South Beach yesterday and made a short relocation trip about an hour north to a Thousand Trails park near Pacific City, OR. We're having a bit of trouble with the internet, so I am writing this from the clubhouse which overlooks the Pacific. It's a bit windy and misty today, but fantastic view nonetheless. We'll only be here a few days, and then back up to the Seaside Thousand Trails Park. In case anyone is wondering: We will eventually start south in earnest, probably December 11 or so.

November 16-November 29 (Whaler's Rest TTN, South Beach OR)

N 44˚33.046' W124˚04.260'

Thanksgiving Week: We explored some new areas this week. The Yaquina Head lighthouse in Newport (http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=133)was a worthwhile adventure. After enjoying the interpretive center, we continued to the lighthouse which was open to the public. We were able to climb the 104 stairs on a spiral staircase to the top. Lucky us! We returned on Wednesday in order to walk down the path from the cliff to the tide pools and to another area where seals were basking on rocks.

Today is Thanksgiving and we had dinner with the other 80 or so people enjoying the park this week. Everything was delicious and the company most enjoyable. We leave on Sunday to travel a bit north to Pacific City Thousand Trails for a few days.

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November 21, 2008 - We took an afternoon walk along the bay street in Newport and checked out a few of the shops. There is a constant sound of sea lions barking, so I took pictures and videos of them interacting with one another. They seemed to spend their time either sleeping or complaining.

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November 16, 2008 - It was a perfect day to travel the coast along Oregon Hwy 101 from Seaside, OR to South Beach, OR. http://www.southbeachoregon.com/gon.com/ Quite a view of the beaches all along the way, a really beautiful drive when the weather is as nice as we had today. Got set up quickly at Whaler's Rest http://1000trails.com/getaways/oregon/whalersrest.asp which is just 150 yards from the Pacific. We can hear the ocean from our campsite. Access to the beach is via a walking trail, so this should be an especially enjoyable 2 weeks.

November 2 - November 15 (Seaside Thousand Trails, Seaside, OR)

N46°00.236' W123°54.224' http://www.1000trails.com/getaways/oregon/seaside.asp

November 10, 2008: The rain cleared again today so we made a jaunt from Seaside to Cannon Beach. Had clam chowder at Mo's. The restaurant sits right on the beach with a clear view of Haystack, the rock formation. We did our part for the environment by metal-detecing and removing nails, bottle caps, pull tabs, etc. As one spectator adolescent girl marveled, "I bet they are OLD nails." Kind of sweet that she was trying to be supportive of a very pathetic pile of trash. I've decided to tell people I am adding to my beer bottle top collection.


November 7, 2008 The weather in the past 5 days has been rainy with fairly high winds. Today was calm so we spent the afternoon in Astoria at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. (http://www.crmm.org/) We came away with an even greater appreciation of the Columbia River and the U.S. Coast Guard.


November 2, 2008 Arrived at the Seaside Thousand Trails park amid intermittent showers. It was an easy drive from Washougal and we were set up by noon today. We plan on a lot of outings while we are here. Seaside is on the Pacific coast and is the official end of the Lewis and Clark trail. Seaside's beach is about 250 ft. wide and is said to be the most heavily used of those along the Oregon coast. We will be here for two weeks so there should be ample opportunity for exploring the beach and historic sites close by.

October 26-November 1 (Gary's & Samm's House - Washougal, WA)

(N45°37.371 W122°15.002)

http://washougal.biz/cow/index.htm

We are enjoying good weather in a beautiful setting here at the Moller place in rural Clark County near Washougal, WA. We've used the time to visit, play games, and emulate the moles currently inhabiting the field, as we randomly dig in search of treasure. This is the general area of D.B. Cooper bail-out, so anything is possible, just not too probable. So far, our metal detectors have pointed us to 11 cents, nails, most of a toy gun, a hose nozzle, crushed cans etc. This is a good place to practice excavation since we have a bit of an in with the owner, and the moles have already done far more damage than we can ever possibly do. It truly is beautiful here, no matter what the weather is. Sunny, foggy, rainy....it is always a beautiful view out the window.

October 24-25 Thunderbird Thousand Trails near Monroe, WA

(N47°50.617 W12155.473)
http://www.thousandtrails.com/getaways/washington/thunderbird.asp
In years past, we have left the area much earlier, so we were surprised and pleased at how beautiful the fall colors were along I-5 as we made our way on this first leg of the winter journey. It was a beautiful day for the trip which was a short one as we traveled only as far as Monroe, settling in around noon at the Thunderbird Thousand Trails Park. The reason for the stop here was to be on hand for a gynmastics meet on Saturday in Issaquah. It turned into a nice family event as Gary was also on hand, having traveled from Washougal to spend Friday and Saturday nights with us at the trailer. We enjoyed Jaimee's events and visiting with Erika, Deak and the kids. After the meet, Gary, Ray and I took granddaughter Jordan back to WSU and then made the trip to Marysville to donate a bit of money to the Tulalip casino. All in all, a very enjoyable family weekend which ended with us continuing to the 2nd stop of the winter to stay on Gary's and Samm's property in rural Washougal.

October 24, 2008 - Leaving Latitude 49

(N48° 55.996 W122°44.485)
http://latitude49resortpark.com
We are leaving our summer home here in Birch Bay, Wa. in a few hours to begin winter travel. It is beautiful here this time of year, but it is colder than RVers like. It will be some time before we reach a suitably warm climate, but we anticipate enjoying some good sites and visits with family and friends along the way. We've hugged, kissed and toasted our friends still in the park. We will miss them and the friends who earlier started their travels. I hope we all have good stories to tell when we reassemble in the Spring and Summer. Safe travels and good health to us all!

May 15 - October 23 (Latitude 49 Resort Park, Blaine, WA)

May 15
Arrived at our lot about 10:30 today. Temperature in the mid-60s and sunny. Nice change!

May 11-May 14 (Grandy Creek TTN - Near Concrete WA)

April 23 - May 10 (Gary's House near Washougal, WA)

April 22 (John Day Dam near Rufus, OR)

April 21 (Farewell Bend State Park near Ontario, OR)

April 18 - April 20 (Cactus Pete's RV Park, Jackpot, NV)

April 21:
We managed to pull off a successful visit in Jackpot by the skin of Ray's teeth. We had started the visit by being ahead $150 or so dollars. Then the cards started a campaign of ugliness and we were down a few hundred. At the final sitting, Ray had a tremendous run of good cards and came out about $300 ahead. So giddy with glee, we walked out to the trailer and noticed it was leaning seriously and very noticeably. A neighbor came out when he saw us trying to figure out what was going on. He said they had heard a huge boom and saw the trailer tip. Turned out that one of the front stabilizers had given way for whatever reason. Luckily, we had left the trailer hooked to the truck. Had we been unhooked, the trailer would have suffered a good bit of damage because it would have fallen to the frame, but the truck held it up. Another almost disaster that turned out quite lucky. I think that the pin in the stabilizer snapped because it is so stinking cold: 21 degrees this morning. We sure picked a good time to come back North, but this morning we are bound for Idaho/Oregon/Washington.

April 19:
Yet another casino experience. There is a forecast for snow showers, so we are uncertain as to when we may head out, enroute to Farewell Bend, OR. Seems really ridiculous that we are heading into cold, wet weather. Maybe we just haven't got this "snowbird" thing right. Had a fun night at blackjack last night with a drunk Russian who ended up tossing me about $100 as they were escorting him from the casino. It pays to be charming when playing with drunk Russians.

April 17 (Ward Mountain Campground, Humboldt Ntl' Forest)

We spent just one night in this extremely under-utilized campground in the Humbodt National Forest near Ely, NV. We were the only ones in the campground this year, and that is the same as last year.

April 7 - 16 (Las Vegas TTN, Las Vegas, NV)

We transitioned from the quiet solitude of the Kaibab Nat'l Forest to noisy, crowded Las Vegas. I like both experiences equally. We watched as the odometer on the truck rolled to 100K about 30 miles into the day's journey. After setting up at the RV park, we went for dinner and gaming at Sam's Town on Boulder Highway. Came home after a couple of hours with combined winnings of $110. We'll see what the tally is (up or down) at the end of 0ur 10 day stay.

April 3 - April 6 (Kaibab Nt'l Forest @ Grand Canyon

As far as a boondocking opportunity, we are glad to have found a deserted spot in the Kaibab National Forest, just a few miles south of the Grand Canyon. We'll stay as long as the water in the fresh water tank lasts. We entered the park today and enjoyed breath-taking sights.

April 2 - Wal-Mart (Winslow, AZ)

Not much to say for this stop, except it was very easy to access, and we just needed to stop for the night.

March 29 - April 1 Best Western Inn (Lathrop, CA)

In Loving Memory of Max Moller (August 5, 1937 - March 24, 2008)
We flew from Albuquerque to Oakland on Saturday. Picked up the rental car and drove to Manteca to the hotel where Jim & Carole had previously checked in. Sunday and Monday were quite full days with family honoring Max, sharing stories and pictures, and jointly attending visitation, Rosary and the funeral mass. Our return trip was on Tuesday back to Albuquerque and then the 30 mile drive to Moriarty.

March 28 (RV Sales, Moriarty, NM)

Arrived in Moriarty in time to have the trailer inspected, and to let Ralph know what work we needed done. We had thought we needed only a leak in the brake fluid line fixed. The inspection revealed a chilling sight of a shredded tire due to the failure of the caliper and rotor assemblies. The general consensus of opinion was that it was a miracle that we hadn't had a blowout. We took pictures of the damage. Maybe if I look a little closer I will see our Trailer Angel perched on the tire. Another example in our travel adventures under the heading "Yes, it was bad...but could have been so much worse."

March 26 - 27 (Palo Duro Canyon SP, Amarillo, TX)

Since we are planning on seeing the Grand Canyon in a week or so, this was a good place to stop while we wait for the timetable for Max's funeral. The Palo Duro Canyon was very under-utilized this week. Apparently it was quite a different story last week in the height of Spring Break which had the park at full capacity.

March 23 - March 25 (Texoma TTN - Gainesville, TX)

We left the Colorado River TTN campground and drove all the way to Texoma TTN near Gainesville. Texoma is one of the nicest parks in the Thousand Trails system. http://1000trails.com/getaways/texas/laketexoma.asp We received the sad news that Ray's brother Max passed away in Manteca, CA on Monday. Date of service is still pending so we are leaving here early to head for Albuquerque and fly from there, probably this weekend.

March 15- March 22 (Colorado River TTN (Columbus, TX)

Finally left the windy Rio Grande Valley and came back to Colorado River Thousand Trails near Columbus, TX. This was Spring Break for Erin's kids so we spent the week between Katy, TX and here at the trailer with Erin and the kids. Highlight was a trip to San Antonio to Sea World. It was 11 hours and 13 minutes of extreme fun on a beautiful day with two very well-behaved and appreciative kids. We'll be leaving on Easter Sunday to travel north to Lake Tawakani near Gainesville, TX.

TROPIC WINDS - Check out the video. No question as to the reason this RV park is named Tropic Winds. It really is a nice park, but we have rarely had a non-windy day in the month we've been here.

January 31 - March 14 (Tropic Winds RV Park, Harlingen, TX)

February 22: Time to shake off the gloom and flu that has been hanging around so far this month. The day after we lost Ginger, Ray flew to California to spend time with his brother Max prior to Max's heart surgery. (The report at this time is that Max is recovering quite well. While they were in California, Ray and sister Carole took a day trip to Yosemite. Snowy and dramatically beautiful!

I was sick with a bad cough here in Texas the entire week Ray was gone. Finally climbing out of the hole, and we ventured out on the 20th. There was an Excel Owner Appreciation Luncheon in a town nearby. Really was too large a turnout to make it very enjoyable. I think there were over 300 people there. After the luncheon we meandered on down to Mexico to Nuevo Progresso and had lunch and margaritas at the Arizona Restaurant & Bar.

February 4: Goodbye, Sweet Ginger. Today we let her go. No more head-butting, no more soft padding in the night, no mor
e kitty-scolding for being left alone. She couldn't go on, so we let her go with all our love. Suddenly, our home got much smaller. Goodbye, Sweet, beautiful girl.

February 2: This travel blog is turning more into a feline medical blog. We made a long day's journey Thursday 1/31 from Lake Hills, TX to Harlingen. We'll be at the Tropic Winds RV resort until the middle of March. That should give us time to get Ginger's medical needs met, one way or the other. Made an emergency trip to vet this morning. Too late for them to do lab tests for any conclusions, so they gave her a bunch of something by IV and gave us an appointment for Monday morning. That should tell if we are going to beat this thing or have to say goodbye. Another good vet to add to my list! I was a little worried because the clinic was in a bad part of town. We were by far the most affluent people in the no-frills waiting room. We go to the exam room and in walks a very stooped, quite elderly doctor. Come to find out he graduated from veterinary school in 1946! So well into his 80s. But good doctors seem to be in evidence no matter what the trappings or income of clients. He was right on target and we feel that we will be able to trust the advice we get on Monday. Ginger did put up her usual growly hissy fit, so we know she has a little life in her yet.

January 17 - January 30 (Medina Lake TTN, Lake Hills, TX)

January 27 - We haven't had very many outings this week because Ginger still is not eating. But luckily there is plenty to do here in the park and fairly close to the park. Here in the park we have enjoyed ice cream socials, breakfasts, craft sales and a fund-raising auction, and visiting and sharing stories and information with a handful of very enjoyable new friends. We went into San Antonio to the River Walk area this morning to have breakfast with Erin and family who were there for the weekend. Upon arriving back in the park, we joined two other couples and went geocaching for several hours.

January 17 - We made a little detour today on the way to Medina Lake Thousand Trails Park which was a brief stop in San Antonio to have the refrigerator door replaced. In the three weeks since the door fell off, we used an ice chest. That's as close to roughing it as I care to go. Arrived at yet another deer-laden park. This park is one of our favorites. Very well-run activities, great food service, and friendly helpful staff. We'll be here until the end of the month, at which time we will be going to Harlingen in the Rio Grande Valley for the month of February.

January 10 - January 16 (Potter's Creek Corps of Engineers Park, Texas)

January 10. A short move today to this Corps of Engineers park right on a lake (Close to San Antonio) where even more deer are roaming than at the previous park near Houston. Shortly after setting up, we looked out the window to see this friendly greeter.