#8 Coveys Great Adventure - Arizona Part 2

Arizona part 2: January 17-31, 2015

We are certainly seeing a lot of southwestern Arizona this month. We really enjoyed staying at North Ranch and touring the area around Wickenburg, but were ready to move on and revisit one of our favorite parks, Dead Horse Ranch State Park. On the 17^th we hit the road to Cottonwood to rendezvous with Christine and Ed Woznicki. 

Dead Horse Ranch was the destination for our first RV trip, and it was just as nice as we remembered. The park has a small river running through it that creates two distinctly different sections. We like the Quail Loop campground, which is along the river and has lots of trees that shade all of the sites. The other campground is on a nearby hilltop without any trees or shade, but compensates with great views of the surrounding hills and spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

The happy wanderers

Cottonwood has two unique personalities. The newer part of town offers all the usual chain store shopping options where we stocked up on groceries, wine and a few parts for the coach. Old Cottonwood, on the other hand, is the original town comprising a number of interesting shops, restaurants and galleries spread out along Main Street that has avoided looking too much like just a tourist trap. It’s a quiet, kind of low key place to stroll around, have lunch or dinner and just relax. One shop you don’t want to miss is Ye Ole Hippie Emporium at the east end of town. Along with an interesting assortment of 60’s revival “stuff”, it has a neat selection of off-beat posters, funny bumper stickers and signs pertaining to that era, and some very eclectic period music. Kayeanne says the book selection is worth browsing, too.

Jerome clings to the side of the mountain 
above the old copper mine

Revisiting the old mining town of Jerome was one of the main reasons I wanted to return to Dead Horse Ranch. Last year we had just enough time to drive through it and realize how much there was to see. Jerome was the site of one of the richest copper mines in Arizona, but when that played out in the 1940’s, it became a ghost town. In the ‘60’s, hippies started moving in and slowly began rebuilding the town as an art and crafts center. One thing lead to another and Jerome is now a popular destination with lots of shops, bars, restaurants and a very interesting mining museum that has a mine shaft going straight down over 1900 feet. It is covered in thick glass that you can stand over and look way, way doowwwnnn. If you have problems with heights you probably want to pass on that, but the rest of the museum is certainly worth seeing, too. Don't miss all the old equipment spread around the grounds.

This is one of the easy sections

Huge sink hole near Sedona

Ed and Christine towed their highly modified Jeep along on this trip. One day we planned to head into the back country that is only accessible with that kind of vehicle, but every trail we tried to use was closed. Not discouraged, we went to Sedona where Ed gave us a demonstration of what he described as "easy" rock crawling. I was a little nervous when he just drove up a boulder field that I wouldn't have wanted to walk up, but the Jeep handled it without even working hard. Very impressive stuff. 

Problems with the complex systems in the coach are my worst fear about this whole adventure. Casa Covey has run flawlessly since September when we had a number of incidents when the engine wouldn’t fire up. I thought we’d solved that problem with fresh batteries and a new relay in the start circuitry, but it wouldn't restart after pulling into the campsite at Dead Horse. Needless to say, that raised raised my anxiety level. After a few minutes it did start, which was both good and bad news: good that we could move to a better site and get properly positioned for the week, but bad because it is much harder to find and fix an intermittent problem. Ed and I spent most of two days testing circuits, looking at wiring diagrams and talking through the circuit logic. The upshot of all this cogitating was to replace a fuel system relay and the small solenoid it energizes that in turn triggers the big starter solenoid on the engine itself. It has started flawlessly since, so we’ll see whether we nailed it this time.

 My pictures don't do it justice, so I borrowed this one

Every January, tens of thousands of RVs converge on the desert around the village of Quartzsite AZ transforming it into the largest RV gathering in the world. After a week in the relatively lush area around Cottonwood, it was time to head to Quartzsite. As you crest the hill on I10 and start down the long grade toward town, you can see RVs are spread across the desert for miles in every direction. The draw is the world’s largest RV show, but for many people the show is only an excuse to head to Quartzsite to hang out with folks that they may only see once a year. Literally hundreds of thousands of RVs bring more than a million people to this small patch of desert every year.

Abandoned mine near Quartzsite

Like last year, we joined the group of Foretravel owners that Ed hangs out with on the Internet. They generously tolerate our Monaco coach among their classy, exclusive rigs. Ed’s son, Zack also joined us for a few days, and we all went off-roading in the desert, visiting an abandoned mine and seeing some really spectacular desert country.

 The entire desert around Quartzsite is controlled by the US Government Bureau of Land Management, so it is open to public use, including camping. We just pulled off of Rt. 95 onto a dirt road that lead to a flat piece of desert and spent the next 5 nights at no cost other than the fuel we burned in the generator.

Ed and Christine

Our group comprised about a dozen coaches, with some leaving and others arriving every day. Visiting each others rigs, talking about upgrades, solving problems and general palaver made for a very pleasant visit that we now look forward to every year. The RV show was interesting, too, but we managed to keep our wallets (mostly) closed. Maybe next year.

On January 26, Ed and Christine headed back to California and we pointed the coach toward Tucson where we will spend February at Justin’s Diamond J RV Park. More on that next time.

#7 Coveys Great Adventure - Arizona Part 1

Arizona part 1: January 1 -17, 2015

On New Years Day, we hooked up the wagons and headed east, looking, among other things, for warmer weather. Our departure was delayed a few hours by…ice. Yup, it sleeted and snowed overnight (it’s SoCal! WTH??) and we were stuck until it all melted. One of the first hard lessons we learned about living with an RV was that frozen awnings and slide covers must be fully thawed out before you try to roll them in. Really bad damage will occur if you try to rush things, so we waited until the sun rose over the hills surrounding Meadowbrook and eventually melted all the ice.

After being in one place for a month, the first few miles on the road can be a little exciting. Despite checking and double checking drawers, doors, latches and switches, Kayeanne seemed to be popping up every 5 minutes for the first hour to deal with the latest crash, bang, boom or thud. Someone once described RVs as earthquakes in motion, and I believe that’s pretty accurate. We’ve had drawers come right off the slides and end up in the middle of the floor, shower wands hit the floor with a frightening crash, pantry racks shoot out of cabinets on right turns and many other interesting events. One of these days we have got to write up a pre-departure checklist!

Saddle Mountain RV Park

Late that afternoon we pulled into Saddle Mountain RV Park in Tonopah, Arizona, about 50 miles west of Phoenix. Why it’s called Saddle Mountain I never figured out since the park is located in the middle of a very large, flat desert, over 25 miles (no exaggeratio

n) from the nearest supermarket. Tonopah consists of a freeway interchange, two gas stations, a nice RV park, a popular local’s bar and grill, and a huge poultry operation that you could smell 10 miles away when the wind was right. Luckily it was about that far from the park, because the stench driving by it was almost intolerable.

Sunset from the coach at SMRVP

Surrounded by desert and by surprisingly huge farms, SMRVP turned out to be a happening place, especially if you were into off-roading with Jeeps or quads. Everyone seemed to have at least one or the other or both. We found a large, end row space in the short timers section with a great view of the desert. Most of the park spaces are rented for several months or year round by snowbirds from all over the US and Canada. A full roster of activities filled the park calendar every week. Kayeanne went to two beading get-togethers. The dogs and I spent many hours hiking the trails and dirt roads in the desert near the park.

After a week we had exhausted Tonapah's many attractions and were ready to move on to North Ranch, an Escapees Rainbow Park near Wickenburg, AZ. Despite the sparse amenities (no pool or spa) and really poor WIFI, North Ranch turned out to be one of our favorite parks, so far. The Escapees is an organization formed in 1978 specifically to support full time RV'ing. Run exclusively by volunteers, the park has a couple of hundred privately owned sites of various sizes and several dozen transient sites that rent by the day or week. We spent 10 days in site 29, backed up to the field that contains the dog park and with a great view out the windshield over the park and desert to the distant mountains.

North Ranch Park Model

North Ranch is a very interesting mix of people at various stages of life. All are retired. Many of the sites are occupied by folks who, for one reason or another are no longer traveling full time. Some still have RVs and go on the road for part of the year, but others have sold their rigs and settled permanently at NR.

A number of the NR sites contain “park model” RVs, a hybrid between a large travel trailer and a mobile home. Park models are roughly 3-600 sq.’, depending on whether they have been added onto or not. Although they are towed onto the site like a trailer or a 5^th wheel and are built and titled like an RV, they are really never intended to move again. After delivery, the wheels and axles are removed and semi-permanent supports are added, similar to a mobile home. Park models are very popular throughout RV parks in the Sunbelt because of their relatively low cost and quick delivery.

One of the larger NR home sites

NR also has many larger lots, up to a quarter acre, allowing people to build more elaborate homes that often incorporate a large garage specifically to house their RV.

NR is a happening place. There's a comprehensive activity schedule (pickle ball, beading, off-roading, Chi Gong classes, dance classes, happy hours, breakfasts, lunches, etc, etc, (phew!).  The proximity to Wickenburg and the surrounding area proved to be a real bonus for us. Wickenburg is clearly a small town in the best sense of the term, but it is large enough to offer two good markets, a couple of sizable hardware stores and a few good restaurants. With Amazon deliveries by UPS, FedEx and USPS right to our site, all of our basic needs were met. One market even carried a few decent wines at reasonable prices!

Suspending the travelogue for a minute: weight is a big deal on RVs. Tires, wheels and axles are rated for maximum loads and really bad stuff happens if you ignore those ratings.

Steer tire failure can be really serious
(from Michelin website)

We had the coach weighed in Paso Robles on a truck scale that scared me silly because it showed that we were right on the max weight limits on the steer (front) and drive (dual) axles. We had less than 1,000 lbs. available out of a 47,000 gross vehicle weight limit. Yikes! I suspected that we were heavy, but not that heavy.

Truck scales just give an axle weight, so you can’t tell whether one side (wheel) is carrying a disproportional share of the load and might be over its limits. I lost a lot of sleep over this because tire pressures have to be adjusted to match the load. Too little pressure leads to catastrophic tire failures. That is bad in a car; it can be extremely serious on a coach like ours. Without good weight data you are only guessing at the right pressures.

Finding a place to weigh individual wheels is not easy. North Ranch is one of three Escapees sites that offer the SmartWeigh service, a process where each wheel is weighed independently. Weighing the wheels individually gives vital information about what share of the load each one is carrying. It turns out that we are right on the limits but not over on any given wheel, and I had guessed pretty close on the pressures. We can’t buy any pottery, iron or glass souvenirs, and we need to drink up the wine cellar but I now sleep better. 

Wickenburg has a legitimate western heritage dating back to the mid-1800s. It is a for-real cowboy, cattle herding, ranching town that is only beginning to be yuppified (real word) and is quietly resisting that insidious fate. Many of the ranches are still operating, although some are being turned into golf courses surrounded by faux-adobe ranchettes. 

The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is a must see. Many local museums are not, but this one is worth the time. It has accumulated a really nice collection of Remington bronzes and paintings, but the highlights for me were the photographs from 1900 to the 1980's of the people who worked the ranches over several generations, especially the women. When we go back to NR I’ll spend more time at the museum. Walking around the small downtown area is a relaxing way to spend an afternoon, too, with a couple of ice cream shops and several eateries to pass the time and sustain life. The library has strong free WIFI; drop a couple of bucks in the jar on the way out, please.

Until we spent a couple of hours in Jerome last year I didn’t realize how big mining was and is in Arizona. NR is roughly 60 miles from Bagdad, AZ, a town I'd never heard of. Bagdad is the location of one of the largest open pit copper mines in North America, and it is also one of the few remaining “company” towns in the country. Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) owns every building and employs every person in town, even if they don’t work in the mine itself. When people retire they have to leave town. Many have lived there all of their working lives and retirement can be especially traumatic for them.

Getting to Bagdad takes a little effort. Its located about 40 miles up US93 from Wickenburg, then about 20 miles across the desert on 2-lane swoopy, curvy roads (fun!) that climb into the mountains. Bagdad is a clean but rather colorless town. It had one gas station, one market, one fire station, one .... etc, etc. It also had one 9-hole golf course that was free to whoever showed up to play. Carts were $5 per round, but you could walk the course and pay nothing. We had to play, but the less said about that the better. We stunk.

The pit is several miles across

As interesting as Bagdad town wasn’t, the reason we were there was the mine. Once a day FCX escorts visitors to an overlook where the active mine can be seen. The pictures can’t begin to show the scale of this place. Underground mining began in the 1920s, and open pit mining started in 1945. The current pit is over 2,000 feet deep and miles across. As they dig away one mountain they create another with the scrap rock and dirt that has to be cleared from the ore-bearing rock. It is called overburden. It turns out that the key to open pit mining economics is how much overburden there is and what you have to do to get rid of it. 

That little truck climbing the hill is three stories tall

The scale of operations and the apparent capital investment is just staggering. From our vantage point, dump trucks seemed to be dogging it up a small grade. Then a pickup truck came along to give some scale to things. The mine dump trucks are simply enormous. They are so big they have to be assembled on site. The reason they crawl up the hills is because they are carrying a few hundred tons of overburden or ore. They are roughly ten times the size of conventional dump trucks! Bagdad operates 12-hour shifts around the clock, 365 days a year. The mine never stops working.  It’s a fascinating place, we learned a lot and really enjoyed the day.

Wow, I can run on! We left North Ranch on January 17, bound for Dead Horse Ranch State Park to explore Sedonah, Jerome and Cottonwood, and then on to Quartzsite with Christine and Ed Woznicki. More soon, stay tuned.

#6 - Coveys Great Adventure - Christmas at Meadowbrook RV Park

December 2014

Kayeanne has decided to publish her own blog, so watch for it coming soon.

It was great to get together with so many of our friends from Thousand Oaks and Pasadena during the latter part of November, but we needed to move closer to family in Hemet, CA for Christmas. I don’t remember how we found Meadowbrook RV Park in Perris, CA. At first glance, it didn’t seem very interesting: a 55+ residential park with a few short-term spaces is not usually what we look for when searching for a place to stay. Something on the website caught my eye, though, and we ended up spending the month of December.

Casa Covey fit right in among the full time residents

Meadowbrook is a co-op formed in the mid-80’s by fulltime RV’ers who wanted a home base that fit their unique needs. It is a very eclectic mix of about 160 park model RVs, 5th wheels trailers and motor homes nestled in a small valley off Rt. 74 about half way between Perris and Lake Elsinore. The park is spotless, with wide roads, a small pond, and some shade trees. Cell phone service is not good because the park is in a valley, but we did get WIFI via the hotspot feature on our phones despite missing lots of voice calls. For some reason, WIFI seems to be easier to connect to than voice when conditions are marginal.

One of the many park model homes that
permanent residents have built

This park is a real gem: it's clean, very quiet, and the residents couldn't be friendlier. Everyone also seems to be dog friendly; Lucy in particular became very popular because she is quite outgoing. There are trails around the perimeter of the park that Lucy, Schroeder and I hiked at least once every day. Since we were staying for the whole month, management found us an unoccupied resident’s site rather than putting us in the transient area. Because we were in a “resident” site, people treated us like a local. The neighbors couldn't have been nicer.

Meadowbrook is surrounded by hiking trails

One reason we chose Meadowbrook was its proximity to Ed and Christine Woznickis. When we camped together in Nevada City, Ed and I decided to tackle a major upgrade to Casa Covey. Our coach still had a square CRT-type TV that dominated the overhead cabinets over the dashboard. Not only was the TV not up to modern standards, the cabinet that housed it had some serious drawbacks: it hung down several inches below the adjoining cabinets, obscured the view through the windshield and caused real pain to both of us. We have several lumps on our heads from knocking into it. It had to go.

The new TV and cabinet mods transformed
the front of our coach

Once we got to Meadowbrook, Ed and I pulled out the old TV (yikes, it was heavy!) and managed to remove the cabinet without doing any permanent damage to the adjoining cabinets or ourselves. A local woodworking shop did a great job shortening the cabinet by 6 inches and adding a filler strip on the back that matched the original cherry wood and finish. We re-installed the cabinet (making the whole assembly a little stronger in the process) and mounted a new flat screen TV that looks like it was a factory job!  No more lumps on our heads, and it really opened up the view through the windshield. I love it when a plan works!

Meadowbrook gave us good access to our family in Hemet for Christmas, but it seemed like we spent December in the car. We made trips to Thousand Oaks, Los Angeles, San Pedro, Pasadena, West Covina, Temecula, Carlsbad, Redlands, Riverside and other places I forgot. We wracked up over 2,000 miles on the car! It certainly was great to see everyone, but by the end of the month we were ready for some peace and quiet.

Really?? We are out of here!

Beyond spending time with our friends and family over the holidays, we came back to SoCal for the warm winter weather. The Oregon coast was getting decidedly nippy when we left.  So we were more than surprised when we woke up on December 30^th to snow, ice and temperatures in the 20’s. RV’s do many things well, but freezing temperatures, snow and ice aren’t what they are designed for. It was clearly time to move on, so on the first day of 2015 we pulled out for Arizona.

#5 Coveys Great Adventure - November 2014: Nehalem to Simi Valley

November 2014                 

Be sure to read Kayeanne’s thoughts, below.

After being in one place for 6 weeks it was really time to move on. We wrapped up our camp hosting stint at Nehalem Bay State Park on November 1^st and hit the road south looking for warmer and dryer climes. I can't recall three dry days in six weeks, so we were ready for a change. Our first stop was at Valley of the Rogue State Park (VRSP) near Grants Pass, Oregon for a couple of nights, and then on to Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley California to meet our friends Ed and Christine.

VRSP is located a few miles south of Grants Pass OR, right on the banks of the Rogue River. This is another great Oregon State Park, with all of the things we have come to expect from OPRD: big sites, easy access for large rigs, fire pits, picnic tables, clean modern facilities and hands-on camp hosts. The park stretches for a couple of miles along the river, with excellent walking and biking trails. Half of the park was closed for the off-season yielding a huge area for the dogs to explore, which they took full advantage of. About the only negative was the close proximity to the I5 freeway. Traffic noise was always evident, but after awhile it kind of faded into the background.

We took advantage of being near a large town for the first time in weeks and hit Home Depot, Petco and a couple of other stores to replenish our stocks. Kayeanne discovered a Unity church in Grants Pass and went to services while I explored the local dog park with Lucy and Schroeder.

After a couple of nights at VRSP we moved further south to the Nevada County Fairgrounds RV Park in Grass Valley, CA. Grass Valley is about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento in the heart of the California gold country. We camped there with our good friends Christine and Ed Woznicki. 

Crusher used to separate gold 
from quartz rock

This RV park is a bit of a dichotomy: the location is great, the setting is terrific, but the park itself was a bit of a dump. Narrow sites, no fires allowed, no tables and the worst restroom and shower facilities I’ve seen in years really took some of the edge off for us. Access to the actual fairgrounds, the local area attractions and surprisingly good WIFI did help mitigate some of the disappointment. Spending several days with Christine and Ed was the real pleasure, though.

 Grass Valley and Nevada City have embraced their  rich, colorful history as the center of California’s true  gold rush. Unlike placer mining where loose gold flakes  are separated from gravel, Nevada City and  Grass  Valley focused on hard rock mining to extract  the gold from huge quantities of gold bearing quartz  rock. The mines each employed hundreds of workers,  many from Scotland and Cornwall where centuries of  coal mining had taught valuable techniques and a real  appreciation for safety. Mine shafts at the largest mines  in Nevada City eventually reached a depth of 11,000  feet and put out over 360 miles of tunnels under the  region. Mining started in the 1850's and continued until  1956.

North Star Mine Powerhouse &
Pelton Wheel Museum

Both towns have done a good job of preserving and presenting this fascinating era without becoming tourist traps. We visited the Empire Mine Historic Park in Nevada City, site of the largest and richest of the mines that flourished in the area. Unfortunately, we went on a weekday when many of the buildings were closed. Still, we were able to see the main shaft head and get a real appreciation for what it must have been like to drop two miles on a series of inclined rail cars to reach the current work zone where blasting and digging went on around the clock.

We spent a couple of fascinating hours at the North Star Mine and Powerhouse & Pelton Wheel Museum in Grass Valley, home of the largest Pelton wheel ever built. The Powerhouse supplied electricity and huge volumes of compressed air to run hundreds of drills and other equipment in the mine. Pelton wheels were, and maybe still are the most efficient water wheels ever designed.

Pelton Wheel

We arrived at the Powerhouse only to find that it was closed for the season, a major disappointment. We toured the outside exhibits and explored the grounds including the aqueduct that delivered a column of water 6 feet in diameter to drive all of the Pelton wheels in the Powerhouse. As we wandered around the back of the museum we encountered a guy clearing leaves from a bunch of large old rusty machinery and stopped to talk. It turned out that Rolf is a retired physicist, self-taught mechanical engineer, and one of the lead restorers at the Powerhouse. The pile of iron that he was clearing off was an old trip hammer, his next project. He immediately volunteered to give us a private tour. As you can imagine, we jumped at the chance and spent a really fascinating hour with a man who, it turns out, IS a rocket scientist and truly does understand what he is talking about. Even absent Rolf’s tour guidance, if you have a chance to visit this area be sure to see the Powerhouse.

Rolf and the world's largest Pelton Wheel

At Rolf's urging we also went to the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railway Museum. Not only are the exhibits themselves interesting, the work shops where the engine and rail car restorations are done are also open to visitors. All of the work is done by old retired guys who are happy to talk your ear off about what they are working on. Great stuff.

Our next stop was the Alameda County Fairgrounds RV Park in Pleasanton, CA to visit friends in the Bay area. Pleasanton has good shopping, eating, dog walking and a BART light rail station connecting it to San Francisco. The fairgrounds cover a large area with many places to walk and things to see. The RV park met all the basic needs but wasn't very congenial. The sites were supposed to be grass, but the drought had turned much of it to dirt, making it hard to keep the coach clean and unpleasant for the dogs to lie outside. We also had to use blocks under the wheels to get the coach level. 

I like trains of any kind and looked forward to riding the BART system. The nearest station was about 4 miles from the RV park and we were on the platform with tickets in hand less than 20 minutes after leaving the coach. 45 minutes later we were disembarking (detraining?) at the Embarcadero station in downtown San Francisco.  We made our way to the Ferry Building to meet Karen Mohr, a good friend of ours and designated tour guide. After a full day of sightseeing and fine wine drinking I took BART back to Pleasanton leaving Kayeanne to spend the night and following day with Karen catching up on things since the last time they had gotten together. We also spent time with our old friends Mimi and Scott Bruce. Scott cooked a terrific pot roast dinner with very tasty braised brussel sprouts

After a few days it was again time to move on. I don’t like to drive the coach more than 300 miles or so at one stretch, so to break up the trip we stopped at Yank’s RV Park in Greenfield CA. It turns out that Greenfield is part of the Monterey wine region. We spent a day wine tasting, but this area is known for growing Pinot Noir, not our favorite varietal. We found a good, reasonably priced Syrah at Scheid Vineyard but didn’t stock up.

The trail runs through a cave

Soledad, a few miles north of Greenfield is know for two things: a very large state prison and, more important to us, Pinnacles National Park. The park exists because of very interesting geological formations that are completely unique relative to the surrounding area. It turns out that these formations originated near Lancaster California, roughly 200 miles south of Soledad. Over millions of years the San Andreas fault has slowly moved the Pinnacles formations north. We spent most of the afternoon hiking the “easy” trail through the park, marveling at the rock formations. The trail goes through a tunnel that, while short, is pitch black so be sure to take a flashlight.

Unique rock formations unlike anything else in the area

Yanks RV Park is the newest, most well equipped park we've ever stayed in. Only three years old, the amenities included a pool, a spa, cable tv to each site, a dog park with dog washing station, an exercise room and a laundry. Everything was like brand new and immaculately maintained. The only drawback (aside from the cost!) was the wind. Every afternoon it started to blow and kept blowing all evening, making it about impossible to sit outside. We really enjoyed this place and will stay here again, but three nights was enough.

On November 19, we closed the circle, arriving back at the RV park we stayed in on the first night of this adventure, Tapo Canyon Park in Simi Valley, CA. We stayed in Simi through the end of November to spend time with Liesa, enjoy Thanksgiving with our family and visit our many friends in the area. We haven't been this busy since the crazy week before we left! It was great to see everyone, but we were ready for a break. We pulled out on December 1, headed to the Meadowbrook RV Park in Perris, CA where we will stay through Christmas. More about that next time.

Kayeanne’s Thoughts

We left Nehalem State Park early in the day.  The weather was good, so we had an easy drive to Grants Pass.  The most memorable part of that day for me was going around a corner and seeing Mt. Shasta in all her glory plastered in front of our huge windshield.  She was covered in snow and it was hard to even consider the idea of a drought.   

We stayed in Grants Pass for a few days, and my beading friends will find it interesting to know it is the home of Fire Mountain Gems.  I was disappointed that they did not have a factory store.  They are one of the largest beading companies in the country but are strictly on-line.   

Moving on to Grass Valley, California, we had a wonderful time with our friends, Christine and Ed.  Grass Valley is a relatively small town and is adjacent to Nevada City, only four miles away.  Both are quaint, historic gold-rush towns that have done a great job of preserving their heritage.  I could definitely settle down in this area.  It has a lovely energy with enough bead stores to keep me happy as well as a Unity Church.  While visiting the North Star Mine and Powerhouse, Christine and I were fascinated to find a stream running below the museum with several rock-balancing sculptures. It was amazing to see the formations that people had arranged, and we gave it a pretty good go with one of our own. 

The fairgrounds we stayed at were surrounded by redwoods and boasted a gaggle of geese who lived in the pond in the campground area.  We were welcome to walk through the fairgrounds with our dogs which we enjoyed doing every day although it felt a little eerie walking by all the eateries and game booths while the fair was closed.  They did host two events while we were there and lucky for me, one of them was a bead show.  The other was “The Grass Valley Alter Show, Renewal and Rememberance” which included alters created by individuals in memory of people, places and events.   We found out it has been taking place annually since 1997, and it was very interesting to see how people expressed their feelings and views of the world through this creative media.

Our stay in Pleasanton was great because we had the chance to visit with old friends.  My high-school friend, Mimi, and her husband Scott wined and dined us in their beautiful home, and Mimi and I had a chance to catch up on a few lost years.  We then headed to San Francisco to see our friend Karen, and I was lucky enough to spend the night in her downtown Victorian-style flat.  Not only was it a ton of fun, but she let me take a bath in her bathtub which I haven’t been able to do for four months!  

Greenfield was wonderful for two reasons, one being Pinnacles National Park.  We loved hiking in this beautiful rigid landscape.  We knew that the trail went through a cave but we became a little nervous when other people we had met along the way had turned back because it was too dark to see anything.  When we came upon the path leading to the cave, I didn’t believe it was a path at all.  There was water to wade through and rock walls to climb over and if Bob hadn’t scouted it out, there was no way I would have gone in.  I was up for an adventure, however, and by the time we finally found the light of day again, I felt I understood Tom Sawyer just a little bit better. 

Simi Valley sunset from our campsite

The other reason I loved Greenfield was because of the Yanks RV Park.  We had a Jacuzzi, a pool and an exercise room practically to ourselves, and the dogs loved the private dog park.  We lived in luxury for four days before returning to our old haunts in the Conejo Valley. 

We so enjoyed our time in Simi Valley.  This was the campground we stayed at the first night we left and so we had come full circle; there and back again.  Being with our daughter, Liesa, was the best, and getting together with family and friends took on a new and important meaning for us.  In some ways, it feels as if we’ve been on a long vacation and are now just beginning our new lives.  Every time I leave a place, I feel a comingled sense of regret and anticipation which I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to. 

#4 - Coveys Great Adventure - Camp Hosting at Nehalem Bay State Park

November

 November 1, 2014

As you know, we haven’t been to too many places yet, but the Oregon State Park system is going to be the standard by which we judge all others. The people of Oregon clearly value these parks very highly. Despite heavy use, there is virtually no litter and I haven’t seen any vandalism or graffiti. None.

Reporting for duty in our official OPRD volunteer vests

Nehalem Bay State Park, like all parks in the system depends heavily on volunteers called camp hosts to supplement the park ranger staff. During the summer months, eight couples sign on as volunteers for one or more months. We elected to try the month of October. Since half the park closed for the winter season on October 1, there are four volunteer couples.

Camp host duties vary from park to park within the Oregon system. At Nehalem, the tasks primarily focus on “meet and greet” guests, camper registration assistance, firewood and ice sales, general grounds maintenance and fire pit and yurt cleaning. At this park we are not responsible for cleaning the restrooms and showers, but that can be part of the job at some parks.

Hosts don’t get paid money. Our agreement with OPRD (Oregon Parks and Recreation Department) is that we will provide 20 hours of work apiece per week for a month in return for the campsite and some firewood. Ignoring the cost of firewood, this works out to about $4 per hour.  We are on duty for 5 days and off for two days in a row. Our days off are Wednesday and Thursday.

Our workday begins with cleaning yurts. Yurts are circular “tents” that sleep up to 5 people. They contain a bunk bed and a futon, chairs, a table, lights and heat. The yurts are clustered around a common toilet and shower building, and all have fire pits, partially covered porches with picnic tables and parking for a couple of cars and/or a boat. Yurts are very popular and we are usually sold out every night.

Whenever a yurt is vacated it is cleaned by one of the volunteers before the next camper checks in. Cleaning one right takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how many people stayed in it and what they did. All surfaces are dusted and then cleaned with a citrus-based cleaner disinfectant, the wooden furniture is disinfected and waxed and the floor is swept and disinfected. Some of the yurts were built with floors that have wide grooves between the boards, a triumph of design in a sandy area, so the grooves must be vacuumed, too. The last step is to sweep the large porch, getting rid of the pervasive sand and pine needles. Once you clean a few you develop a system that makes it easier and faster.

One of the most popular features of Oregon’s coastal parks are the fire pits. Every campsite and yurt at NB has a steel enclosure complete with a grilling grate. I don’t know how many cords of wood are turned into smoke every day, but it is significant. On an average day during the summer, I’d guess that 200 fire pits are in use. That many fires create a lot of ash and partially burned wood. When a campsite is vacated, a volunteer tries to get to the site before the next guest arrives to clean out the fire pit and to make sure that site itself is clean. The majority of sites are left spotless, but a few need a fair amount of picking up. The tools for the job are a golf cart equipped with a metal trash can (think embers), a rake, a shovel and good gloves.

On October 1, OPRD went into their “Discovery Season”. In NB that means that the price drops, half of the campsites are closed and all of the seasonal employees leave. The remaining fulltime staff shifts their attention to construction, renovation and maintenance projects, and hands off  camper registration completely to the camp hosts at the kiosk in front of our coach. The hosts are often the only staff that most campers ever see. About 20% of campers have made reservations online and rest arrive looking for one of the “first come, first served” sites. Almost all end up talking to a host for assistance in selecting a site, filling out the right paperwork and help with whatever it is they might need.

We got “lucky” and were assigned the most visible host camp site in the park, right behind the registration kiosk. It also happens to be the only host site that our coach will fit into. Given our location, we have the primary responsibility for greeting and helping the incoming campers. It also means that we are the place people come first when they have a question or a problem. We have had people knock on the door after 10pm. Given we started about 10am, that makes a long day. That notwithstanding, we really enjoy welcoming people to the park and helping them to enjoy their stay at NB.

I described Nehalem Bay State Park in the last edition, but we keep discovering more, interesting things about it. Now that the number of campers has dropped off, the wildlife has started to emerge. NB has a large resident deer population that is completely comfortable walking through the campground at all hours, grazing on the grass that separates the campsites. A daily visitor to our area is a doe with two fawns. The dogs go nuts, but the deer ignore them. A family of the largest raccoons I’ve ever seen lives under the trash compactor across the driveway.

We also have a resident elk herd. I was dropping off a load of ash and charred logs to the burn pile (dump) the other day and darn near ran into them. I sat there for 5 minutes watching about 15 of them casually feeding on the grass and brush surrounding the dump. A few days later Kayeanne and I were headed to town and discovered them on the driving range that is just outside of the park entrance. They are really impressive animals, especially from 30 feet away. The bull is a lot taller than I am and is completely sure of his place in the order of things. Sorry, my pictures were lousy.

It looks like we may also have a bear in the park, too. People have reported seeing a small black bear, and I have seen piles of poo on the hiking trails that the rangers say are likely from a bear. I hope I can spot him before we leave.

We will be winding up our month as camp hosts on Saturday. We’ve had a great time and met some very nice, interesting people. Despite rain every day for the past month (it is pouring as I write this) we have signed up to host at NB next October. While hosting does save some money on camp site fees, our primary incentive isn’t financial: we simply enjoy doing it and love the area. Next year I’ll learn to fish for salmon, too.

Kayeanne’s thoughts:

As we come to the end of our month as camp hosts in this beautiful state park, I feel a sense of sadness although I’m quite excited about continuing on our journey.   We’ve come to know our fellow hosts and have enjoyed working with them.  We’re all from such different walks of life, and it’s been great to share stories and enjoy the camaraderie. 

We all show up at the meeting hall on Sunday evenings to play games. We’ve become quite expert at Mexican Train and a card game called “Golf”.  Someone lights a fire in the potbelly stove and most of the time it’s raining. There are lots of good things to eat which often include the crab or fish someone caught that day. 

Jason and Geoff 

The rangers have been great to work with and are most appreciative of their volunteers.  Cleaning yurts was not my favorite job, but I liked working the kiosk, (except when it was pouring and the wind howled).  Bob was a natural as a camp host, and I’ve never seen him greet the public with such verve and friendliness.  Everyone loved him, and I so enjoyed being with him in this environment. I’ve nicknamed him Ranger Bob!

The Oregon coast is very popular for mushrooming, and we spent a fair amount of time at it.  Searching the forest for “good” mushrooms is a bit like being on an Easter egg hunt.  It’s such a pleasure to cook and eat them without purchasing them from a market; however, we did check with the rangers before eating them. We settled on the King Bolete when we could find them because they are easy to recognize and are prized for their delicious flavor.  Sautéed in olive oil and a touch of butter and garlic, they are scrumptious!  There are also many “bad” mushrooms to watch out for, and the psychedelic ones are quite plentiful!

Yum! Really!

There are two lovely towns within a few miles of the campground; Nehalem, which is charming and rustic, and Manzanita, which is quite upscale and filled with wonderful stores stocked with unusual items that are too expensive.  There are great bakeries and restaurants, and we have been conducting a taste-off for the best clam chowder in the area.  Hands down, the Fish Peddler on the docks of Bay City wins the prize! Their chowder is the best I have ever had.

We wrapped up our stint as camp hosts this morning and are now at Valley of the Rogue State Park near Grants Pass Oregon on our way south. We miss our friends and family and look forward to being back in SoCal for the holidays. More soon.

#3 - Coveys Great Adventure - Oregon Coast

October, 2014

When we left off, we were leaving California and headed to Oregon. It turns out that September is the most popular tourist month on the coast of Oregon. “Good” weather and the return of the salmon to spawn means that campgrounds are sold out months in advance. We wanted to spend a couple of weeks at Nehalem Bay State Park but couldn’t get a reservation beyond four days, and we also couldn’t get the starting date we wanted. Plan B lead us to discover a nice private RV park called Bandon By The Sea in, yes, Bandon, OR, and Ft. Stevens State Park near Astoria.

We spent two nights in Bandon By The Sea and saw a distinctly different life than we were familiar with. The place was filled with guys (and gals) who lived to fish. Salmon fishing season is an annual event that their entire year is scheduled around and they are determined to make it memorable. Diesel pickup trucks towing boats started up around dawn as truly committed anglers headed out to catch crab and salmon despite whatever the weather was like. By 10 o’clock the successful ones started returning to clean gear and fish, but the real diehards didn’t come back until late afternoon. I talked to one couple that has been coming to the same park for the same two weeks for over 20 years. Interesting, to say the least. 

Bandon is a former commercial fishing center that has transformed itself into a destination for tourists and groups like car clubs. There is something going on almost every weekend all summer and into the fall. It is a fun, interesting place to spend a day or a weekend.

We still couldn’t reserve the dates we wanted at Nehalem Bay, so we headed up to Ft. Stevens State Park near Astoria, OR, for a couple of days until our reservation at Nehalem opened up. Ft. Stevens is on the peninsula that forms the southern shore of the infamous Columbia River bar, one of the most dangerous ocean passages in the world.  The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria is worth a visit to tour the old lightship and to see the truly jaw-dropping pictures of the seas that this combination of geography, tide and wind regularly generate.

Ft. Stevens also has a large lake

Ft. Stevens was our first experience with Oregon State Parks.  They have really figured out how to do it right. These parks are clearly taken seriously and highly valued by the people of Oregon and that is evident anywhere you look.  The entire place was spotless and I don’t

recall a single piece of graffiti. It turns out that we overlooked many interesting things to see and do at Ft. Stevens. We were so focused on getting to Nehalem to meet friends coming down from Washington that we didn’t take the time to check out the whole park.  We will certainly return for a longer visit.

Lucy discovered the elk herd

We finally arrived at Nehalem Bay State Park on September 19. Arriving on Monday turned out to be a smart move because many campsites in the first-come-first-served section were vacant. We took a quick tour and picked a site surrounded by trees that was 200 yards from the pounding surf and settled in for two weeks.

Nehalem Bay is a smaller, quieter and more remote park than Ft Stevens. Again, like Ft. Stevens it is located on a spit of land that creates a large, relatively shallow, sheltered bay. One side of the park faces the ocean with ready access to miles of wide, oure white sand beach dotted with pieces of driftwood where the surf is constant. The bay side now hosts literally hundreds of boats chasing the salmon run. Half the sites in the park appear to have an aluminum skiff attached to the ubiquitous diesel pickup parked out front. The line at the launch ramp in the morning is very long.

Wow, this is great!

Lucy and Schroeder love the beach. They are allowed off leash on it and we take full advantage of it.  They run nonstop, going from one pile of seaweed to the next, rousting every seagull within range. They come home and collapse for a few hours, completely zonked out.

Ok, when it isn’t raining. This is the Oregon coast and rain is a fact of life here. It rained some or all of the first 10 days after we arrived, including three straight days when it poured and blew  non stop. Living in the coach with two dogs in the rain is a challenge. Damp dogs have a distinct “air” all their own, and clean up is never-ending. During the height of the storm the beach was spectacular. Blowing sand, horizontal rain and sea spray may not sound like fun, but it was fascinating to see how fast the beach changed.

We planned to stay here two weeks through the end of September and then slowly cruise through central Oregon and eastern California on our way back to SoCal for the holidays, but an opportunity to be camp hosts changed our plans. We will stay in Nehalem for another month, working in the park and exploring the local area. More about all that in the next edition.

PS: Rather than imbed photos I’ve decided to try this. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Bob