CA! NV! OR!

 Friday – Sunday were all travel days for us.  We usually don’t have that many overnights but the desert of Nevada is just something you have to get through.  Endless miles on “The Loneliest Highway in the World!” Boring!  I don’t know how Earl did so well.  I read a little, slept a little, got up and walked around a little, and then read some more, between little bouts of talking.  It just seemed to take forever!  So happy to have that behind us!

Friday night we stayed at a KOA in Ely, NV – not even unhooking the car.  Saturday we spent the night in Wiccamucca, NV at another KOA.  We got in about 3:00.  Earl washed the RV as this is one of the rare parks that allowed us to do so out west.  Usually the water is so restricted, it’s all we can do to wash the windshield.  Then I gave Earl a haircut and we got our showers and relaxed the rest of the evening.

We traveled again on Sunday – August 16^th – Earl’s birthday!  I sort of hated we were traveling on his birthday, but he makes the plans so….. fortunately it wasn’t a long day.  We stayed at the Susanville RV Park in Susanville, CA.  Again, it was an overnight, so we did not unhook the car.  There was a really nice Thai restaurant on the next block, so we walked over for Earl’s birthday dinner.  We’re not experienced Thai eaters, so were not even sure what to order, but went by the descriptions….Earl played it safe with a sweet and sour chicken, which he knows he likes in a Chinese restaurant.  It was a little different, but he enjoyed it.  I ordered something called Hangover Noodles….yum.  I can eat Thai ANYtime!!!  This had big wide noodles with lots of green and red peppers, onions and lots of fresh basil.   Absolutely delicious!!  I predict we’ll be eating Thai more often! I had told our server it was Earl’s birthday, so here she came with a piece of cheese cake with a lit candle.  Nice!

Our ride into CA was interesting. We've never been this far north in CA before and the terrain was so different than southern CA!

Finally we arrived in Oregon....

 

Monday August 17^th we drove to Klamath Falls, our destination until Friday.  SO nice to be “settled” for a few days! We got in and after getting set up we just sat outside and relaxed all the rest of the afternoon.  When we first got to Klamath Falls, we needed to fuel up before we got to the KOA Journey RV park where we’re staying (nice site - $40 night, but no sewer hook up, so fortunately we can go about a week or so, so no worries). Anyway, we pulled up by the diesel pump, and Earl got out like usual to get fuel, and this guy comes rushing over shaking his head, NO and informs us that in the state of Oregon, customers are not allowed to pump their own gas!  Whaaaat?  I put something on FB about it and found out that’s also the case in NJ!  Who knew?

Tuesday – we caught up on chores – laundry, paperwork, paying bills, catching up on FB and email etc. and afterward we drove around to explore this area – very nice little town!  We got the car washed and then came home and read all afternoon – lovely weather.  It gets up to mid 90’s here in the daytime, but only for a short time.  Yesterday was 95 in the aft but last night was 45!!!  So it keeps it very pleasant up until about 2-3:00 and then it seems warm until about 6:00 and then is very nice again.  I enjoyed long phone conversations today with Lisa and with Sheila, so feel all caught up again.   We went into town and ate at a nice Mexican restaurant. 

Wednesday – 8/19 – we had planned to go to Crater Lake today – main reason we came to this area, but the raging wildfires all around have caused it to by really smoky there, apparently.  Yesterday a fellow RVer told us that they’d gone up there, and could barely see the lake it was so smoky.  So Earl’s been watching the weather and the Crater Lake website and it’s cleared up some, but since we hadn’t planned to leave until Friday morning, we think we’ll wait and go tomorrow and hope it will be clearer.  Supposed to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the nation!

Thursday – CRATER LAKE! It was worth the wait!  What majesty!  Still a bit of haze over everything but still takes your breath away. Crater Lake was formed (they say 7700 years ago) from a volcanic eruption, leaving a deep basin in the place where a mountain peak stood. Centuries of rain and snow filled the basin, forming the lake that is bluer than blue. The color and clarity are supposedly unmatched anywhere else. It’s the deepest lake in the U.S. being 1,943 feet deep at the deepest point. It holds 4.9 trillion gallons of water. It’s geologic name is a “caldera” and is the belly of the erupted volcano.

Earl made friends with a little chipmunk here....

 Friday, we drove on over to Lone Mountain RV Resort and Tipi Campground. We found out about this place from the owner, who we met in New Orleans back in April at the beginning of our trip.  We became Facebook friends and have kept in touch.  He grew up on this property long before it was an RV Resort and it is truly beautiful!  We really have enjoyed our stay here.

 
There are 3 of these"tipis" on the property, sleeping  4-6.  They looked surprisingly comfortable, and it cools down here so much at night, I could almost imagine enjoying this experience.  Not quite, though, I'll take the comforts of our RV.  ha

Nice clubhouse, as well as wonderful walking trails, a fresh stream and beautiful trees.  This looks like what I thought Oregon would look like!  Very serene and peaceful here!

We were sitting out here, and a young couple walked up, Kevin and Angie and we struck up a conversation and ended up playing a game of horseshoes!  Now that's been many a year!  It was fun.  We won, but barely and the credit for that goes to Earl!

Saturday 8/22 we drove all over the place, literally miles and miles and miles. We came home exhausted! In all honesty, it was a rather disappointing day, as we’ve heard so much about the beauty of the CA/OR coastline, but it was extremely overcast today and a chilly 57 degrees!  ALL my photos look like they’re black and white or sepia at best!  Just not nearly as beautiful as we’d thought we’d experience today. Many places you could hardly see the ocean.

We drove across the line to CA through the Redwood National Forest – wow, amazing trees, some of them 600-800 feet high!  Incredible forest!  In Klamath, CA we had the unique experience of driving THROUGH a healthy living Redwood tree! This tree is approximately 785 years old! Can you believe this?

Tomorrow we are driving over to Corvallis to experience more of Oregon!