Back in Northern Calif

May 31 – We made an observation about the roads we’ve been driving on. We’ve found some great motorcycle roads on this trip, lots of twisties, hills and beautiful scenery. The problem is we’re doing it with the motorhome. Not so much fun in a big rig.

Once we got there, Reno was a good stop for us. There was some bad weather over Donner Summit but not too bad. Val is much better and we had a great visit with our friends. Got to park the MH in front of their house so that was free (YES), and met with a friend that Val hadn’t seen since high school. We also had to do some maint on the MH and my friend Jerry fixes gas pumps for a living so he had a truck full of tools and a head full of knowledge so things went real well. We added some air horns. We’ve had a couple of drivers ignore the fact that we are a huge vehicle and cut us off so I think they might pay more attention when I honk the air horns.
Friday night my friend Jerry and his family and I went to see some “speedway” motorcycle racing. These guys have highly specialized motorcycles that have one speed and no brakes. They fly down the dirt track and throw the rear wheel out to the side and slide through the corners. Man those guys go fast. Jerry restores old English motorcycles. He must have 30 old Triumph’s and BSA’s. I included a photo of one of his storage sheds. We left Reno Saturday morning for Calif.

We stopped at a natural hot springs on the way where Val and I had our first date. Maggie and I soaked for about a half an hour. It was nice. The guy that owns it also makes pottery and Val bought a couple of coffee mugs he made. After that we went to the town where Val and I met and boy has that gone down. Saw our old high school; we’re both very glad we left.

We’re now visiting with an old Forest Service buddy of mine. We worked together in the late 60’s, early 70’s when I was a fire fighter and Forest Ranger. He stayed with them and is now retired. It’s good to catch up on what we’ve all been doing for the last several years. Poor Maggie though; she doesn’t know any of these people so she’s been playing lots of computer games.

The weather here has been pretty nice the last few days and that’s a relief. The Memorial Day weekend will be over today and the campgrounds should start to empty out again. So, we’ll be heading out to the mountains again tomorrow to hit some places I used to go when I was younger.

Made it to Reno

May 25 – We arrived outside of Grass Valley at a beautiful campsite; it’s on Rollin’s Lake. We have a “lake view” site; it’s a nice view with all the tall pines. Since we got here about 2 we decided to clean the MH, inside and out. The gals cleaned the inside and I washed the outside. I also washed Maggie’s car. They looked so nice. Today we went exploring the gold country. We started by going to a mining museum at the Empire mine in Grass Valley. Their shafts went 11,000 ft down (in length) and were a mile below the surface.

After that we went to the see a couple of covered bridges in the area (there are only 9 left in the state of California). One was preserved and the other not. I remember the rustic one from when I was a kid. I used to fish and swim there in the summers my grandfather worked in the mines. Anyway we went to the actual town where we lived and it is so small. How small you say? It is so small the only business in town is a bar. Oh, and they have a post office too. How’s that for small. We decided to check out the locals so we went in. It was 3:00 in the afternoon and there were 3 people besides the bar owner. The gal that owned the place was familiar with my family that used to live there. She knows several of my cousins that go back and visit from time to time.

While we were there it started to rain. Remember I told you I washed the car and MH yesterday; ARGH! The bartender told us a major storm was coming and we would probably wake up to several inches of snow in the morning. I told her we were planning on driving to Reno and she said “Oh, do you have chains for your motorhome?” She told me the I-80 pass would likely be closed the next several days since they were expecting at least 6 inches on the summit. So, we’ll see what happens tomorrow I guess.

WE’RE TIRED OF WINTER! Where is the warm weather? We’re beginning to think we won’t see summer until we get back from Alaska, sometime late July.

Next Day: It’s still raining where we are and the road over the mountain pass was closed until noon. Val was not feeling well again so we decided to go to Beale AFB and see a doctor. I’ve learned a lot about the USAF healthcare system today. Beale doesn’t have an emergency room so they couldn’t see her. We had to go through a lengthy process of calling everybody and their brother from San Antonio to Calif; we ended up at an emergency room in a hospital in Marysville, Calif. Her infection she had a few weeks ago is apparently back. They gave her some more medication and hopefully she’ll be better again.
Once we finished with the doctor we left for Reno. The roads were wet but not snow covered. Lots of snow on the ground though. Got to Reno about 8:30 and are visiting our friends.

Wine anyone?

May 23 – We toured a couple of the wineries in Napa Valley today. Maggie got a little tipsy by the end of the first stop. I think it was the Cabernet Savi something. She didn’t like it but drank it anyway. I took a photo of one of the vineyard fields and the other is of some of the barrels they age the wine in. The Cabernet Sauvignon ages 18 months in these barrels before it is bottled. Each keg holds 300 bottles of wine. Humm; lots of party time in this room.

Tomorrow we’re off to gold country outside of Grass Valley, Calif. I’m going to take Maggie and Val to where I was a kid and my grandfather worked in the gold mines. It’s pretty up there. Lots of good fishing streams and beautiful scenery.

Boobs and Bay Area

May 22 – We had a couple more restful days in Yosemite, last one with rain. Since we had some time Maggie thought she might look better with a breast augmentation. So, we went out to see if we could let her see what she might look like with larger boobs. We found this rock; what do you think?

NEXT ENTRY: We’ve been in San Jose/San Francisco for the last few days. Yesterday we went to SF and saw Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown and drove down Lombard St, the crookedest road in the world. It was fun.

Today we visited the Winchester Mystery Mansion, built by the crazy wife of the Winchester rifle creator. The house has 35,000 sq ft, 160 rooms and has doors that open to walls, staircases that go up to the ceiling and 10,000 windows. A psychic told her that she had to atone for the deaths that her husbands’ weapons had caused and that she should build and never stop building, so she did. I think she must have had some sort of emotional problems. It’s amazing what millions of dollars can do for a crazy person.

We have one of Guy Fieri’s books on interesting places to eat. We found a place south of SF called Gorilla Bar B Q. It was great. The guy has PORK RIBS tattooed on his fingers. He’s serious about ribs. Any guess as to why the name is Gorilla BBQ?

Tomorrow we head for Napa Valley to sample some wine and check out a few vineyards. For those of you that like wine, eat your hearts out. After a couple of days in Napa we’ll drive to Reno. Talk to you later.

In the Mountains

May 16 – I can’t say enough about how impressive those huge trees are. I posted a picture of one with us standing next to it. The picture doesn’t do the tree justice. There is a lot of wildlife there too. We saw lots of birds, squirrels, dear and a brown bear. That was really cool. The view was impressive from the top of the mountain on Morro Rock. You can see Mt McKinley in the distance. It’s supposed to be the tallest mountain in the continental US. The valley where we left the MH was 92 and the mountain top was 42. We were wearing T-shirts and shorts when we left. Can you say we weren’t prepared?

May 18 – We made it to Yosemite. We have no cell service at the campground but we discovered that the Lodge does so I brought the laptop with us today so I could bring you all up to date. We’ve been here a couple of days and the weather has been cold and rainy. The clouds seem to be gone today so we’re hoping for better views. We did see a bear yesterday. The photo is of Bridal veil falls in the distance with the Merced river in the fore ground. The other one is the river we have about 50 yards from the motorhome. We can hear it whenever we’re outside. Lots of people fishing and catching trout. Send more in a couple of days.

Hollywood Anyone?

May 15 – Well, we’ve been in Hollywood for the last few days. What a place! We did the Hollywood and Vine thing, walked the boulevard with all the stars and gazed at the hand/foot prints in front of Grauman’s Chinese theater; all the normal tourist stuff. You can see the photo of Maggie and Val with their favorite stars; Mickey Mouse and Tom Selleck. We also visited the La Brea Tar Pits. It is an area that oozes asphalt from the ground. It has done it for millions of years and they have bones from all kinds of extinct creatures. The other photo is me standing next to a mastodon. It was really interesting. The place still oozes and smells of asphalt. Tomorrow on to the Giant Sequoia National Park.

Sailing, Sailing, Sailing the ocean blue

May 12 – Greetings from Oceanside, Calif. We were in Phoenix visiting my aunt and cousins for a few days and are now visiting my dad at the Ocean. You’ll notice the photos of Maggie at the helm of my dad’s boat checking out the trim off the sails and Val strapped to the mast. I won't say it was a rough ride but I got sick and we had to come in. Had a good time visiting but it’s time to start traveling again. Next stop Hollywood.

Ah; The Grand Canyon

May 6 – Photos are the Grand Canyon and Maggie trying one of her karate moves on a Ponderosa pine. Looks like she’s winning.

We’ve been at the Grand Canyon for 4 days now and it has been wonderful. The weather has been the best yet (60-70) although it’s still been pretty cold in the mornings. I told you that Maggie wanted to ride the mules; she did until she found out how much it cost. To ride a mule to the bottom of the canyon and back, staying overnight, cost a mere $450 per person. A 2 ½ hour ride through the woods is only $111. We couldn’t believe it. But like I mentioned in the last post, people book a year in advance and they are full. Oh well.

Val’s helicopter ride went about the same. For a 25 min ride along one rim, across and back the same way was a mere $168. For the big tour, 45-50 min around the entire canyon was $268. She didn’t want it that bad. But again, people are lined up all day long to see the canyon from the air. They can’t fly below the rim so I figure it’s kind of like what we see from the observation points along the rim anyway.

Val is feeling better and we’re off to Phoenix tomorrow.

Hope you all are doing well.

Better Weather

May 2 – Well the weather guy was right. When we woke up this morning there was about 1.5 inches of snow covering everything. When I got out of bed at 8 it was 26 outside and 38 inside. I turned the furnace on immediately. After about an hour it was bearable inside so we got up and made some breakfast. After loading Maggie’s car on the tow dolly we headed south to Zion National Park. We checked the weather and the highs were supposed to be in the 50s: sounded good to us.

After driving a couple of hours we arrived at a sign that said RVs over 11 feet 4 inches tall would require a permit and have to pay an extra $15 to go through their tunnel. Oh, and you couldn’t be over 50 feet long. We are 12 ft tall and over 50 towing Maggie’s car. So, we stopped at a campground outside the park and unhooked the car and just drove it into the park. Good thing; I think we could have made the tunnel OK but the roads were very narrow and lots of steep switchbacks.

Val has been sick the last couple of days and decided to stay in the MH instead of going out in the 20-25 mph winds. Even at 50 degrees it feels pretty cool. So Maggie and I toured Zion without her. They have buses you ride. You cannot drive your car to the northern part of the park. It’s a good thing, there would be no place to park if everyone drove. As with the other parks in Utah, we saw lots of big rocks. This one was nice because it also had a river running through it. There was a movie by that name wasn’t there? Anyway, we rode the bus to the end of the line and took a 1.2 mile each way hike along the river. It was nice. The photos are of what is called the White Throne and the other is of a small waterfall. It was also nice to be out of the freezing temperatures. The winds have died down tonight. We’ll see if that holds.

May 3 – It was 26 when Maggie woke up this morning. We’re anxious to get out of the mountains and warm up a little. We arrived at the Grand Canyon this afternoon. It was the best day driving yet; little to no wind and clear skies. Had a couple of long and slow grades but we made it just fine. The campground in the park was full so we had to go to a neighboring national forest a couple of miles down the road. The campground just opened the 1st. There were plenty of spaces and we have a really good one where the picnic table is right outside the door. There are lots of Ponderosa and Pinon pine trees. The host running the place is very friendly and has a great golden Labrador named honey.

We took a look at the info we got when we entered the park and think we have planned our next few days. Maggie wants to ride the mules to the bottom of the canyon and Val wants to ride in the helicopter. We were told that most people make reservations for the mule ride a year in advance. Can you imagine? What kind of a person makes a reservation to ride a mule? Must be a bunch of city slickers. Anyway, the guy said they usually have a cancellation or two so maybe we’ll luck out.

Guess The Weather

May 1 – Well, we made it to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah today. The first part of the drive was great; relatively flat roads and no wind. I almost couldn’t believe it. We decided to take the interstate (I-70) as opposed to back roads thinking the smaller roads would be more challenging and have steeper hills. That concept held water until we reached the mountains. I swear we went up a 20 and 10 mile grade today. That’s some slow going when an SUV you’re towing. In Utah if you are what they call a slow moving vehicle you have to drive with your flashers on. Let me say that ours were on for quite a while today.

One of the photos is of Val and I enjoying the warm Utah sun. The other is a typical sight in the canyons.

Once we got to Bryce Canyon we went out sightseeing. It only takes a few hours to see pretty much everything if you aren’t planning any hikes. Since the weather here when we arrived was 39 degrees and the winds blowing about 15-20 we thought it would be good to do something from the car. Besides the weather guy is predicting 1-3 inches of snow tonight with an overnight low in the low 20’s and it’s supposed to be like that for the next couple of days. WE’RE LEAVING IN THE MORNING! (Weather permitting).