#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

#2 - Coveys Great Adventure - Cloverdale, Redwoods, Ferndale and Eureka

September, 2014

The odyssey continues…

The road into Dutcher Creek, Yikes.

We arrived in Cloverdale, CA, on August 25th. We were about a mile from the Russian River, at a small campground called Dutcher Creek RV Park. We had a great site right across from a nice pool and about 50 feet from the office insuring good wifi. This park was a real challenge to get into because the driveway has a 180º switchback and at least a 10º slope. We are over 60’ long when the car is hooked up and weigh about 26 tons, so the driveway was a challenge. We made it, but I was planning our decent since we arrived!

The homestead

Cloverdale is an interesting little town. It has a real downtown with a couple of restaurants, some shops and another good yogurt shop. The town has spent money to spruce up the area to attractive visitors and it shows. It has a good vibe with friendly people and enough stores and restaurants to keep folks happy.

The view through the windshield at Dutcher Creek

Cloverdale is about 15 miles from Healdsburg, which is the economic and cultural center of the Russian River valley wine district. Healdsburg has a large, interesting downtown area, filled with shops and restaurants, but bring money, it tends to be expensive. Like Paso, Healdsburg has a large park in the center of town that is the venue for all kinds of events throughout the year.  There are a number of tasting rooms in downtown Healdsburg, but getting out into the countryside and visiting the wineries is really the way to go.

We love to just drive around and spent several hours wandering the local roads, looking at the vineyards and getting a feel for this beautiful area. If you like getting way back of beyond, take RT 128 east from the center of Geyserville to Geyser Road. Ignore the signs and don’t turn back. Again, watch for the cows

in the road. This is the start of 16 miles of really challenging paved road, but the views are worth it. I kept asking Kayeanne why this road existed. It turns out it was built to build the largest geothermal power generating facility in the US in 1976. There is a reason this town is called “Geyserville!” For us, the road ended at the guard gate because visitors are NOT encouraged. As we started back we saw a small sign pointing to Cloverdale. That proved to be an even smaller, rougher, curvier road! Excellent! Riders note, these are great motorcycle roads!

Despite our storage limitations we did make it to two wineries, Pech Merle and J. Rickards. The latter was ok, but Pech Merle is worth a visit for the Syrah Rosé. Trust me, I don’t like Rosés, but it was great. The winemaker claims it is terrific with turkey and I’ll believe it.

Pier at Port Arena

We took a day trip over to Mendocino, had lunch in Port Arena at the Chowder House right on the water at the old harbor. The chowder wasn’t great, but the calamari and crab cakes were good and the view was interesting. The restaurant was filled with photos from roughly 1880 to 1940. It was fascinating to see the evolution of the area.

Again, we took the road less traveled over to the coast. Google the Skaggs Springs – Stewart Point Road from Dutcher Creek Road to US 1. I can’t believe they really put pavement on this terrain, but it is a gas, even in a minivan.  It looks like there a few more like it, too, so we may plan a return visit just to explore these roads. Riders, note this one, too.

We pulled out of Dutcher Creek on September 3^rd and had the first scare of the trip when the coach wouldn’t start after we fueled up.  I fiddled around for 15 minutes, not really knowing what I was doing and it restarted. We headed north for the Ancient Redwoods RV Park in Redcrest, CA, in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I mistakenly turned the engine off to go register and it wouldn’t restart, leaving us stranded in the park driveway. Again, after much head scratching and aimless fiddling it started up as if nothing was wrong. We got into the site; made sure everything was positioned where we wanted it, shut the engine down and opened some wine. And then another bottle.

After much thought, a couple of false starts and Kayeanne’s assistance I think we may have figured out the problem, a bad relay in the starting circuit. I sincerely hope so. So far it has started 5 times without fail, so we are optimistic.

Ancient Redwoods is another good RV park. The wifi could be a little more robust, but that is the only complaint we have. Oh, except no cell service, at least no AT&T. We have to drive about 10 miles to Scoria to get bars.

Really, really big trees

We’ve hiked through a couple of redwood groves and were as impressed as we expected to be with the sheer size and majesty of these old trees. This park exists because John Rockefeller and a few of his friends visited the area in the ‘30s and were appalled that the lumber companies seemed determined to cut down every tree. Basically, he twisted the state’s arm to match his contribution to buy up much of the land that is now the state park. There is a lot more to the story, so check it out if you are interested. Better yet, go for a visit. The visitors center is really interesting and worth an hour or more reading the fascinating history of the park and the people and events that shaped this whole area.

It hasn’t all been trees. We’ve toured a few of the towns in the area. Fortuna doesn’t have a lot to recommend it except the Napa Autoparts store that finally came up with the relay we needed for the coach. Avoid the Hunan/Szechwan/Mandarin restaurant.

Ferndale was quite interesting. It has a number of turn of the century Victorian homes that have been rehabbed. The main street has several interesting shops and a neat market that features locally sourced foods. Scotia is another very interesting town. Scotia is one of the only remaining company towns in North America. You wouldn’t believe how big the lumber mill and associated lumberyard is. Unfortunately the museum closed for the season in August.

We spent a few hours in Eureka on Sunday. This is a large town that has seen better days. The collapse of the fishing and forest products industries has decimated this area. That said, there has been considerable development done to create “Old Downtown Eureka” with some success. There are several blocks of shops and restaurants that are worth exploring.  Of special note are TWO used book stores and a great bagel place. Eureka has also preserved a redwood grove near downtown as a city park. The dogs and I really enjoyed exploring that while Kayeanne went to church. Oh, and the local radio station at 100.3 FM plays outstanding rock and roll! It is easily a match for KPIG, and that is high praise indeed.

Schroeder and Lucy

A couple of you asked for a picture of the dogs. Here are Lucy (the big redhead) and Schroeder kicking back after a hard day exploring completely new territory. (Yes, the picture is fuzzy, I think my camera may be dying.)

Off to Oregon on the 11^th.  More to come.

#1 - Coveys Great Adventure - We have liftoff!

August 28, 2014

Hi Folks,

Casa Covey

Many of you asked us to keep you posted about this new adv that we have embarked on, so here is the first edition.  As most of you know, we sold the house in Thousand Oaks and moved into Casa Covey, our 2003 Monaco 43’ coach. We spent the first night in at the Tapo Canyon Park in Simi Valley trying to get our bearings and a little sleep. The final week in the house was a blur, starting with the third (and final!) garage sale, packing the storage container, wrapping up an HVAC and completely unnecessary roof enhancement and packing the coach. We have stuffed every nook and cranny in this thing and have now spent a couple of weeks trying to find the stuff we know we packed! If anyone is thinking about following us down the road, don’t try to pack up and load in a week.

Anyway, late Sunday night we pulled into the county RV park in Simi, thus violating the first rule I had made: don’t set up by flashlight. The house sale officially closed on Monday, August 11, and we hit the road that morning for Santa Maria to spend a week repacking, stocking up and unwinding.

Santa Maria Pines RV Park

Santa Maria is a relatively short drive from Simi and turned out to be a great choice because it had a Home Depot, Petsmart, Target and the most vital of all, Trader Joe’s, to meet all of our hardware and culinary needs.  I think we made four trips to Home Depot.

Santa Maria Pines RV Park had a few pluses and a number of drawbacks, but qave us a convenient  location and good access to the stuff we needed. It is also across the street from a great park that the dogs really enjoyed and needed. We stayed a week and departed on the 18^th for Paso Robles.

I can’t imagine how a place could be cleaner than Paso Robles RV Ranch. About 70% of the spaces were taken by long term or semi-permanent tenants who are in the area to work for months or years on large construction projects or in the oil fields. These folks all seem to favor large 5^th wheeler trailers over motorhomes. Some of them are large enough to need modified semi tractors to haul them around.

You can’t go to Paso and not taste wine, so on Jay Homel’s recommendation we visited J&J and Graveyard wineries, both well worth it. Our very limited storage space is a curse and a blessing: we can’t buy much so we save money, but we have to pass on buying some really great wines.

Paso Robles RV Ranch

If you haven’t been to Paso Robles add it to the list of places to see. The 280 area wineries aside, downtown Paso has lots to do and see. Downtown Paso is easy to access and interesting to walk around. There are a number of restaurants, shops, and, of course, many tasting rooms if you don’t feel like driving around to the wineries themselves. Two of our favorites were a large used book store and Lilly’s yogurt shop. Lilly’s faces the park and is a must go. The pomegranate raspberry is really good. Every Tuesday afternoon the park hosts a small farmer’s market that is a real treat.

Set aside some time to visit Cambria for the shops, the beaches and the scenery. For a real adventure, find Santa Rosa Road from Cambria to Rt 46. Most of it is one lane and goes through really interesting county that you won’t see sticking to the main roads. Watch out for the cows in the road.  Seriously.

On the 25^th we packed up and headed to Cloverdale in the Russian River valley. More soon.