Sunday, October 17, 2010 Lorraine’s report
Hello again from Delta Shores RV Park in Isleton, CA, a RPI park. We moved 3 times this week, from Oregon to here by Sacramento, CA.
Last Sunday we were at 7 Feathers RV Park in Oregon. We spent a quiet day doing the blog, I went swimming, and we watched football all afternoon. Chuck and I went to dinner over to the casino; they had a steak special, a rib eye for $7.95 with the fixings, a very nice meal. We listened to a group they had at the bar, a group of three guys that sang Motown. They were good, their songs were so mellow, they brought back many memories. We tried out hand at the machines, but no luck.
Monday was a quiet day at home, doing our normal chores.
Tuesday we packed up the rig and headed south to Holiday RV Park, in Talent, OR, just south of Medford. We set up the rig, and Chuck proceeded to wash the entire coach. I needed to stock up on several things before we headed into CA. I love the fact they have no sales taxes in Oregon, and try to take advantage of that every time I can.
Wednesday found us heading into CA. What a big change in climate, terrain and vegetation. We dropped down out of the mountains and the temperature on the mirror in the rig showed 90 degrees outside. The sunshine felt so good! That night the low temperature was our high temperature for the week there in Oregon, quite a difference. We had to run both air conditioners to cool the coach.
We stopped at Rolling Hills Casino, the RV Park there. There had been a retriever dog show at the casino, so there were lots of rigs there, but we were able to find a site.
We headed into the casino to eat and found the buffet for seniors was $12.50 each; it was very good. We both tried our hand and both came out about even.
The next day we headed into Corning, CA, home of the Olive Pit. We stopped to pick up the olives we like for the holidays, and then toured the town. It was a nice small town. It had lots of closed businesses there on the main street. It seems to me a lot of small towns have been hit hard by our bad economy.
We went back over for the buffet for dinner again, this time it was $6.95 each. They had prime rib, salmon, fried chicken, steak, and all the fixings. It was Seniors Day and the place was hopping with all the people.
Friday found us on the road again, our destination was here by Sacramento. We had been here two years ago and liked the area. The area is the delta area with several rivers and the bay. There are lots of dikes with roads you drive on, and lots of farming in the area. Dinner was home.
I have to say that when we came to the road where we went either to San Francisco or Sacramento, I shed several tears, because we weren’t going into the bay area to see our daughter and granddaughter. It has been since Kaitlyn’s birthday in April for me and since Christmas for Chuck since we have seen them, way too long for me to not see them!!! And Mark was taking Kaitlyn to see his mom in Seattle, since it was his dad’s birthday today; Bill passed away in March.
Saturday, Chuck and I went exploring. We drove the delta loop; it was a sunny windy day. We then headed into Antioch Costco for several items. Then home and another home cooked meal.
We watched a very exiting Washington Husky football game. The Huskies beat Oregon State in a double overtime game, winning in the last seconds, when Oregon failed to convert the extra point. My brother, Colin, who passed away three years ago and loved the Huskies, would have loved that game.
So that’s it for me. I’m looking forward to seeing our daughter, Susy, and granddaughter, Kaitlyn this week.
Until next time……Lorraine
10/17/10 Chuck’s report
Yea, we are back in the warm weather, sometimes maybe too hot but I’ll take it. It’s good to be back on the road too.
Last Sunday and Monday we were still at 7 Feathers. We stayed there for 4 days and can you believe we only went to the casino twice? Both of us used this down time to get things accomplished around the rig and enjoy our quiet time.
Tuesday we were back on the road, heading further South. We made it all the way to just South of Medford, maybe 90 miles or so. We pulled into a campground in Talent and got set up. Lorraine wanted to go to Medford for one last shopping trip in Oregon with no sales tax. I got permission to wash our coach so I stayed back while she went into town. Boy it’s amazing how dirty it can get on the road plus we spent quite a bit of time on the coast and it might have had some salt overspray on it too. Anyway, I got it washed down and dried off, looking good once more.
Wednesday we were once again heading down the road. This time we crossed into California and stopped at the Rolling Hills Casino campground. This is a couple of exits South of Corning and The Olive Pit. We decided to stay here for two days as we don’t like to travel too many days in a row. Plus Lorraine needed a few items she likes to pick up at The Olive Pit.
Boy has the Corning area grown in the past few years! Used to be there were a couple of gas stations and the Olive Pit, now there are lots of fast food places, truck stops, hotels and shops. We drove into Corning and it’s become a much bigger town too.
We liked the buffet at the Casino, Thursday was senior day, two for one, good deal. And as an added benefit, we both walked away from the slots with some of their money, another good deal. Now in my case it was less than $3 but what the heck, a winner is a winner, right?
Friday we headed on down the road once again. Our destination this time was the Sacramento River Delta area. We were here two years ago and liked the area so wanted to stop here once again. We are able stay at this park using our RPI membership, $10/day with full hooks up. They have lots of activities here but the pool is out of service for repairs, bummer.
Back in the 1800s the Sacramento River covered this whole area, changing channels often. They built the dikes to contain the flooding and created channels that could be used for transportation too. Steamships could now travel from San Francisco to Sacramento and beyond. Once gold was discovered lots of people got to the gold fields via this area too. And another benefit was all the good land that opened for farming and other uses. So today the area has farming, fishing, tourist stuff and small communities. The dikes are 20’ or so tall so a large portion of this area would be underwater if the dikes were to be compromised, sort of like New Orleans was during Katrina. Sure hope that doesn’t happen, at least they don’t get hurricanes here.
Saturday we had breakfast at the park before heading out to tour the area. We then drove into Antioch to a Costco store for some shopping. Once we got back, Lorraine fixed a good fried chicken dinner for us and we then watched the Washington Huskies win a very good game against the Oregon State Beavers, it took two overtimes though.
The weather has been getting warmer the further South we, imagine that, huh. The Sacramento Valley can get really hot, glad we missed that but it has been getting into the 90s during the day, cooling off to the low 50s at night. It was just a couple weeks ago we were on the Oregon Coast and sometimes the highs were only into the 50s, what a nice change. Plus the humidity is much lower here, Lorraine says her joints and bones don’t hurt so bad.
We are still on track to get to Susy’s next week, probably on Wednesday. There is an Elks club a few blocks from her house that has some RV spots in their back parking lot. I called and they are pretty sure there will be some available when we are there. If we don’t stay there, we can stay at our normal place, Trailer Tel, just up the road a couple of exits. Either way, we are both looking forward to seeing Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn soon. I haven’t seen them since December and Lorraine hasn’t seen them since April. As we went by the exit to I-80 on Friday, Lorraine wanted me to turn off and head for them instead of coming here, ha.
And now for a change in our winter plans. We were planning on spending time with Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy, some of our friends from Canada. They haven’t been South for a winter yet and wanted to spend time with us so we could sort of show them around a bit. We were going to meet them in Palm Springs after the first of the year then spend time in Quartzsite, Yuma, Tucson and maybe even try Phoenix.
But once again our plans will have to be changed. I retired from the BP refinery in Blaine over three years ago. They have asked me to come back and help them during heavy maintenance periods in the past but it never worked out for one reason or another. I got an email from an ex-coworker of mine wanting to know if I would be interested in coming back next spring for a few weeks. I told him I would be interested but wanted to be sure all the details were worked out before I changed my winter plans.
Well, this week I got an official offer to return to work. They want me to start on March 1st and the job will be done in late June. I have to be back there in late February to get a physical and drug test before I start. Oh my, back in the great Northwest for another rainy season. At least they don’t get much snow during that time, guess that’s a good thing.
So I’ve been spending some time changing our plans and trying to find a place to stay back home for 4 months. With the change in plans, we will still meet our friends in Palm Springs and go to Quartzsite and Yuma but we will have to leave them to start heading home from there. At this time, we’re thinking we will stay South as long as we can and make a quick run up I-5, here’s hoping for good weather that week.
At least we were able to get a good place to stay while we are back home . Our friends, Joe/Alice, own an extra lot at Latitude 49 where they live. They are willing to let us stay there for the whole time we are back there so we won’t have to move from 1000 Trails to Beachwood and back as we usually do. Thanks for that, Joe and Alice, sure makes things easier for us, that’s for sure.
So with that look at our week, a short look ahead to next week and some information about our plans for the upcoming Spring, guess I should stop now and add some pictures.
That’s Mt. Shasta in the distance. Notice we are out of the trees at this point.
Now we are getting to Shasta Lake, it’s pretty low right now.
Out in the Sacramento River Delta area. We are always cautious when we see these windmills but it was calm today.
That’s the river directly across from our campground. We drive down the hill to get to the campground.
Lorraine likes the warm, dry weather here. Lucky we have air conditioning though.
Driving through the Delta area. All the new house must have the living area above the flood plain so they are built on pilings and such.
Boating and fishing are big in this area.
This portion of the waterway is completely overgrown with some kind of water weed, no way a boat could get though here. It is in bloom however and looks nice.
Guess I’ll save this and get it posted. Until next time, Chuck
