Fergie Road Trip

Site 39 We haven't been near good wi-fi or cell reception for awhile so I need to start journaling on a doc instead of waiting till we have service. I basically forget the two and 1/2 hrs on the way to Mt. Hood Village. We arrived around 3:30 I think and set up camp. This was the longest day of activity so far and I'm ready to veg for a bit. Darrel biked around the campground to check it out. Day 2: Darrel made an appointment for a Hood River massage at 9:45 in Hood River and then forgot about it. He slept in till 8:30 and I asked if it was today or tomorrow. Oops. We packed up the RV, left the bikes chained up at the site and took off. The trip took 1 and 1/2 hrs, but because he already paid we tried to get there even though we knew we would be late. At least he'd get some time in. We arrived at 10:20. While Darrel got his massage I walked up and down the main street checking out the buildings and shops. It's was very hilly but the sun was shinning and wow t...

Wow! This place is a must see it's huge and has trails all over the place. We arrived way before check-in time so we drove over to the South Falls day use side. Because it was Memorial Weekend the place was filling up with cars and people. People where setting up at the picnic areas and hiking the trails to the falls. We haven't seen so many people for awhile. It reminds me of the zoo. "Silver Falls State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon, located near Silverton, about 20 miles east-southeast of Salem. It is the largest state park in Oregon with an area of more than 9,000 acres, and it includes more than 24 miles of walking trails, 14 miles of horse trails, and a 4-mile bike path." " The popular trail through Silver Falls State Park's forested canyons visits 10 spectacular waterfalls, five more than 100 feet high. The path even leads through mossy caverns behind the falls' shimmering silver curtains." I'm using their words as I...

Stopped at Santium River Rest Area, took a nap, then decided to move on to a Bureau of Land Management area (BLM) There was a poke gym on the southbound side of the rest area and a poke stop on each side, plus a hospitality house sponsored by the Masons. We are liking the woods now and wanted to find a spot in the forest. The first BLM campground was a couple hours away. It turned out not to be what we thought. It wasn't out there in the middle of nowhere but a regular campground with sites and camp hosts and it was completely filled. So we drove to the next site, for some reason only coordinates are given and not with road names so you're not sure if your going the right way. It was raining and getting late, ok and I was getting cranky. I just wanted to stop! However after some twisted road, up and down (ok not sideways) we found the campground. It was the do it yourself system and we found an empty site, there was few campers here. We paid our $7.00 and basically just we...

Steamboat Falls We managed a morning hike on the path to Whispering Camp before we took off this morning.  We are headed west on 138 and a little south to Roseburg for groceries and stopping off at several waterfalls on the way, then turning North again to our next stop Hi-Way Haven just off Highway 5. First waterfall was Steamboat waterfall. Google map took us to the side of the road on a steep cliff. After some investigation we heard the falls and climbed down the cliff. It was totally loose rocks and I figured a broken ankle was a real possibility. The guy who recommended these falls said the salmon were jumping out of the water yesterday. We didn't see any fish at all. So it was a bit of a let down. Next we went to Falls Creek Falls. The hike in was only 1/2 mile but they forgot to say steep muddy path up and down and around and took us over an hour to walk. The cool thing was the path went right up to where the falls fell into a pool.  Darrel wades into the falls p...

Trail to Clearwater Falls Apparently highway 138 is close to a lot of waterfalls. On our way to Umpqua's Last Resort we stopped at two. The first one, Clearwater Falls, is a segmented fall rushing over moss covered rocks in several streams of water. It was so peaceful. Nobody was around and we sat on the bench just observing for a while. The cold finally got us up and we headed back to the RV. The second waterfall, Toketee Falls, had more of a hike to get to it. The forestry made rock steps and wooden steps up and down the side of the mountain to the falls. At the falls was a viewing platform with a huge redwood tree growing up through the middle of the platform. This was a tiered falls with a short fall on top and a longer one on the bottom. Darrel thought this was the most spectacular one so far. It was amazing. Arrived at our campsite, they changed us from site 19 to 18 which turned out to be a good thing as nobody was on our right side and we had a nice view.  The spot...

Driving up into the high mountains this morning. The forecast says snow tomorrow. Luckily, we are scheduled to stay at Lemolo Lake (KOA) for three days. I don't think we would do well driving in snow. We did see snow on the way to the campground and the peaks have snow. So beautiful. Day 2: It didn't snow here, but it snowed up higher. Lomolo Lake Trail Instead it rained all day but the trees kept it to a light rain as it filtered down. We hiked to the dam today and part way around the lake. We found a poke stop on an over grown road that isn't used anymore. It was the Lemolo Lake stop, weird. We  mostly stayed in after our hike and we watched Game of Thrones.  Before watching Season 8 we decided to go back to Season 1 and watch through the seasons up to 8. We've been watching it almost every evening as we traveled. Captain Jack Darrel Day 3:  This morning we rented a boat, got two half day fishing l...

Entrance to Hedge Creek Falls Pennys Diner Our first stop this morning was off highway 5 at Penny's Diner.  A train car looking structure on a cliff.  It had beautiful scenery and it wasn't raining. :)  (It rained all day yesterday and kept us in our RV at the last campsite) After breakfast we drove across the road under highway 5 to Hedge Creek falls and hiked the path to the falls. (Darrel braved the path longer than me, right up to the falls.) Back in the RV we drove up highway 5 to highway 97 and into Oregon. Weed Arch Our next stop was Weed, just because it was called Weed and it had a gym right off the highway. We passed into Oregon and stopped at the Welcome Center Rest Area on highway 97. It was dedicated to World War II veterans. There used to be a naval base in the area during WWII. It also had 2 poke stops and a gym. Did I mention Hedge Creek falls had a gym and two stops, also. We arrived at our first Oregon campground around 3pm. Collier ...

Baily Cove, Lake Shasta Headed to Redding this morning for some more RV purchases. Darrel got an air compressor to pump up the RV tires and stopped at Best Buy for a Ellipsis Jetpack 523F Verizon hot spot. Then we were off to Shasta. We stopped at O'Brian Rest Area where there was a beautiful view of Bailey Cove, part of Shasta Lake. Arrived at Lakehead around 5 pm. Saturday the rain started again and it's been raining all day. Just now it's pouring and cold outside but we are in our warm cozy home watching the rain come down in the woods. link to pics

Ford Dealer who actually helped! As we've been driving, our engine light went on and we've been calling and looking for a place where they will look at our engine for us. (not that many places will fix an RV so far)  We finally found a Ford Dealer in Corning that would check it out. So first thing this morning we packed up and drove into the town of Corning and dropped off our RV. Barber uses razor/Darrel is perplexed We spent the day walking around the town while they worked on our, still unnamed, RV. We visited hardware stores, a hair salon (who had no available time) : (  a barbershop for Darrel, Chinese restaurant for lunch, Olive Pitt Cafe for olives. Miles of olive trees Corning is noted for their olives. They have miles and miles of olive trees. The barbers (where you can always get the scoop) said they are in the process of pulling up the olive orchards and replacing them with almond trees as the olives are to expensive to farm. They pronounce almonds, a...

Corning RV Park This was another long drive, 128 miles with several stops.  We were 2 minutes away from the place when we came to a railroad bridge than was lower than our RV.  I called the place and got directions that skirted the bridge and of course we went the wrong way. 2 hours later we arrived to find the place not what we expected because of the rain (last 2 days) the grass area where we were to park was a muddy mess. The electrical boxes where not looking so hot. Some didn't work and the water spigots where broke or non existent. The buildings, bathroom- showers-laundry looked like they could fall over any moment. Lucky the host would only accept cash. We had to drive into the town to get enough cash. After getting cash, we decided to look for some place else. Corning RV Park We drove to the next town, Corning and stayed at Corning RV park. It cost more but was well kept. It was in a olive grove. So each site had a couple of olive trees.  The bathrooms a...

Nice roomy camp site by the river. First thing, Darrel went to check out the river and came running back with a cloud of mosquitos surrounding him. I started to open the side door and slammed it closed and told him to run around to the front cab door, otherwise all those mosquitos would have come in with him. By the time he got to the cab door the cloud had dispersed and he just had a few bites. I felt guilty about it until I got the biggest bite on my arm I've ever had in my life. It's a 4 inch circle. Darrel got a giant one right in the middle of his forehead. This is a beautiful place but the mosquitos are no fun. We hiked and rode our bikes around. If you don't stand in one place the mosquitos leave you alone, but if you stop to look at the deer or anything they are on you in a flash. I tried to take a picture but it was a definite challenge.  We left the campground and rode out bikes to the closest little store on the twisty mountain rode to buy mosquito repe...

Arrived early this morning 5/12 and found out check in time was at 1pm. So we parked the RV in a holding area, got the bikes down and rode around Santa Rosa. The RV park is across the street from the Sonoma Fairgrounds which are located in Santa Rosa. It's just a graveled area. We are seeing lots of permanent RV people, some are relocated from fire areas and haven't moved on yet. We rode to the California Welcome Center and stayed there reading everything and talking to the volunteers. Then ate lunch at Chevy's across the street. The bike ride was crazy as there was so much traffic. Kristie came and visited us the next day before we checked out and we caught up on stuff. We brought her the picture her Dad drew of Hawaii. She and Forrest gave that picture to us for a wedding present. I loved it but since we are trying to only keep what goes in the RV I thought if I had to give it away, Kristie is the one who should have it. She was happy to get it. links to pics ...

Lexington Reservoir Left Santa Cruz Ranch at 1pm and passed miles and miles of vineyards.  It's 76 miles from Santa Cruz to Richmond, but we stopped for gas at Costco and did some other errands and managed to get there after 5pm. We did stop at Lexington Reservoir on the way. It's a recreation area with beautiful scenery. Geraldine and Ashling's new house Upon arrival, Geraldine drove us to the house she and Ashling are moving to. Then we drove back to her current house and picked up Stephen and we all went out to dinner at The Black Bear Diner.  It was our treat for Stephen's birthday. The traffic in this area is like Orange County and LA. Stop and go.  That's another reason it took us so long to get here. We spent the night in the RV in front of Stephen's house and it was pretty crazy because of the tilt down by the curb. Seat belts in bed would have been good. Woke up early, 6 am and took off. Less traffic this morning but still more than you would ...

This was our longest drive so far and took pretty much all day. The place is tucked into the woods in Scott's Valley.  The RVs are tightly packed. So far the state parks have been the roomiest as far as sites.  Scotts Valley Civic Center The next day, we walked around and looked for pokemón. Made a poke friend, Adi, at Civic Center Park. We walked to a lunch place near the park then back to the Campground and took off for our next stop. Links to pics

Pacific Dunes  This was a short drive from Oso Park but we managed to take the whole day. I forget now what we did. The sand dunes seem like they go forever. We took a 20 minute walk out from the RV park into the dunes and all we could see where more dunes so we headed back.  The dunes were empty except for us and we did our past to try and figure out what all the different tracks were from. Animals, people, strange vehicles? Link to pics

Road to Oso Ranch This was only 11 miles east of the 101 but it felt like a hundred miles on the twisty turny road. We are very slow in the RV especially around hairpin curves. We arrived in one piece and it's very peaceful here. The we are close to our neighbor and the wi-fi barely works in the office area. Cell service doesn't really work here either.  The scenery is nice, woodsy and horses on the ranch.  There's covered wagons and tipis to stay in as well as old western store looking cabins. A fun place for kids groups.  We tried to check out the river but the mosquitos chased us away. Stayed 2 nights.     Link to pics