Here we are, on the road: We’re in Santa Clara, California

Sunday, October 24, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Hello from a happy camper in Santa Clara, CA, the Elk’s Lodge back parking lot. We finally arrived here on Wed; being only 86 miles away from our granddaughter for almost a week. It was all I could do to not drive over from Isleton, CA to see my grandbaby and daughter.

It was nice to visit Mike and Linda, friends who live in Auburn area, and our friend, Jeanette who we met two years ago at Quartzsite, AZ. We called Linda to let her know we were in the area, and wouldn’t you know, they were heading out with their old car club rally, but they said they would be home Monday. The last time we tried to visit with them, they were away on a fall road trip to the Midwest.

We drove up to Auburn for dinner on Monday, early afternoon. Linda had invited Jeanette, who lost Bill last November. It was our first time seeing her since Bill passed. We enjoyed a wonderful visit with Mike, Linda, Jeanette, and Jeanette’s friend of 35 years, Penny. Thank you all for great food, and making great new memories!! See you in Q this year.

The other memorable event of the week was our drive through the delta area. We found the restaurant, Foster’s Bighorn Restaurant we had found two years ago. This restaurant is full of stuffed animals and animal heads from all over the world. We went inside and I had to take pictures again, most likely like the ones I took before, but this place is amazing. The owner was the hunter that bagged all the animals, too numerous to count. It was a beautiful day for a ride, sunny, warm, mid 70’s with a slight breeze to cool you; all in all, an enjoyable day.

Then we came here, and I got to see Kaitlyn. She was as excited to see me as I was to see her. We pick her up after her school, before she heads into day care. We then spend the afternoon doing art work and writing, eating and watching her movies. She loves to be with us here.

This Elk’s lodge is just a parking lot behind their building. It is in an industrial area so it’s noisy, with all kinds of businesses here. It has only 30 amp, no sewer, but water. The Elks rent out their patio on weekends for parties, and boy, was the one last night extremely loud. We had to turn up the television to hear the game, the music was so loud. The good part is that we are only 4 blocks from our daughter’s condo, and it’s cheap for this area, only $15.00 a night. Our other RV Park charges $275.00 a week for 30 amp, water and sewer.

We went to the Stanford/Washington State University food ball game on Sat. Susy had asked us to watch Kaitlyn so she and Mark could attend their band reunion at the game. Of course, we were happy to do it. Stanford won, and I think both Susy and Mark had a blast with the band, and we had fun with Kaitlyn.

So that is it for me. Until next time………..Lorraine

10/24/10 Chuck’s report

We started the week with a very rainy Sunday at Delta Shores RV park in Isleton. We mostly stayed inside and enjoyed a quiet day together. And I might have spent a minute or two taking a peek at a football game, might have but not sure.

Monday we had made plans to drive to Auburn on the other side of Sacramento to visit with our friends Linda, Mike and Jeanette. We first met them at Quartzsite three years ago and have gotten together a few times over the years since. We have stayed at Bill/Jeanette’s place in Lincoln, before he passed, a couple of times too. Last time we were at Bill/Jeanette’s we met a friend of her’s from Texas, Penny, who happened to be up for a visit again, good to see her again too.

We got to Linda’s place and shortly after Mike came down from his place in Grass Valley. They took us for a tour of Auburn, pointing out the sights and good places to eat. After our short tour, we returned to Linda’s house. Mike and I stayed there while Lorraine and Linda made a quick trip to a grocery store. While they were out, Jeanette and Penny came by and shortly thereafter all of us were together. We had a very good dinner and there was much laughter during our conversations, just like you would expect from friends that don’t get together too often. We may have stayed later than expected as it was late when we got back to our coach but we both agreed we had a good day. Thanks Linda, Mike, Jeanette and Penny for a good time and being good friends too.

Tuesday was to be our last full day in the Delta area so Lorraine wanted to take advantage of the full hookups to do laundry. We also took advantage of another good day to tour the Delta area a bit more. We went to Isleton, Rio Vista and couple of very small towns. While we were in Rio Vista we went into a bar/restaurant we’ve been to before (Foster’s Bighorn) but couldn’t resist making another stop this time. This is the place with all the stuffed animals the owner shot from around the world back in the 20s and 30s. He had them stuffed, mounted and sent back to Rio Vista where he mounted them on the walls of his bar/restaurant. What a collection, if you are ever in town, I would recommend a look see.

Wednesday we were on the road, heading South. We wanted to check out the Elks Lodge in Santa Clara for a place to park our rig. We knew it only has 30 amp and no sewer at each site, only a common sewer dump site but it was only about three blocks from Susy’s place and two exits away from Kaitlyn’s school. And it was less than half the price of the place we normally stay, a good thing as prices are a bit high here in the Bay area.

Once we got to the Lodge we decided to stay here for at least a week and move if we decided we didn’t like it here. So far everything is working out fine. We can use a normal water hose to dump our gray tank each day after showering. We may have enough 3” hose to reach the dump site to dump our black tank each week without moving but that remains to be seen. If not, we will have to pull in the slides, raise the jacks and move to the dump site then reverse everything and get back into our place, a bit of a hassle we would like to avoid if possible.

But everything considered, the main reason we are in town is to spend time with our daughter and grand daughter. We were able to pick up Kaitlyn after school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. She stayed with us overnight on Friday as Susy and Mark wanted to play in the Stanford Marching Band on Saturday and they would have to practice late Friday night and early Saturday morning in order to play with them during the game Saturday afternoon. So we’ve accomplished our main goal for this week, ha. By the way, Stanford won their game against Washington State, 38 to 28, yea.

Lorraine is knitting a blanket for one of Kaitlyn’s Christmas presents. She’s been working on it for the last 10 days or so, even with bad arthritis in her hands. She said it takes 6 skeins and she’s working on the fourth now so she’s on the downhill side I guess. Looks good to me, I’m sure Kaitlyn will like it too.

I guess we didn’t head far enough South or maybe should have gone to the desert because the forecast for today if for heavy rains and high winds, glad we aren’t driving. Who was it who said “it never rains in California”?

Our plans have us staying here for another week, want to spend Halloween with them before we head out. We have made reservations in Laughlin, Nevada for after we leave here. It’s a bit unusual for us to make reservations that far in advance but we got a coupon in the mail with a special offer in Laughlin that we wanted to make sure we could use, two weeks for the price of one. We will come back here for a couple of weeks over the Thanksgiving holiday too.

I guess that’s enough rambling, I’ll stop now, add some pictures and get this posted.

Driving through Sacramento on the way to Auburn.

A picture of a overpass, second one is a view over the valley.

In Auburn, Linda’s home town.

A local dentist makes these cement statues and places them throughout the town, neat.

Linda on the left, Jeannette on the right.

Jeannette’s friend from Texas, Penny. Mike resting in his chair.

Linda’s backyard pool and the table set for dinner.

Back in Isleton and more pictures of the Delta.

Our coach at the Delta Shores campground.

The stuffed animals in Foster’s Bighorn bar/restaurant in Rio Vista. What a collection, couldn’t shoot lots of these today because some of them are protected species.