Life in Perspective

At Alfred Loeb State Park, Brookings Oregon

Need I say more?  This was yesterday and through the night at Florence Keller Regional Park Campground in Crescent City, CA (we just got to Loeb State Park in Oregon this morning).  We have stayed at this park a number of times over the past few years.  A nice park for $15 per night, BUT, as with most places, they raised their prices to $20 per night.  No electricity, there is water to fill your tanks, no dump station, but $20 per night to camp among the redwoods is still pretty cheap. 

One thing nice about Keller Park…it is only minutes away from Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park (no day use fee), which is one of four parks operated under the Redwood National and State Parks.  The four parks, together, protect 45% of all remaining coast redwood old-growth forests, trees which are the tallest and one of the most massive trees on Earth.  I was up for a drive…Marcia was not, so off I went.

Just 5 miles away from our campground is the Hiouchi Information Center at the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.  There I got a map, and quickly eyed just what I wanted to do…the scenic Howland Hill route which Marcia and I had taken back in 2013.  It is just the best way to see much of the park without having to do a long hike.  

      

Notice the dirt road…it was a good dirt road with just a few bad spots, 6+ miles

I absolutely LOVE the Redwoods…have for much of my life.  Back in 2013 THIS BLOG POST covered the drive pretty good, so I won’t waste time talking about it again.  I just enjoyed the drive, and was back to the motorhome within 2 hours.

 

No sooner did I get back from the Redwoods, and Marcia decides to take her afternoon nap…so Skruffy and I drove to the Ocean along Pebble Beach Drive, another 10-15 minute drive away from the campground.  I LOVE the Ocean…

Battery Point Light

Looking North

Looking south…Battery Point Light is in far distance

Well…I guess it is never too cold to surf!

How Cold Is IT?

68 Degrees, Noon and THAT is our Forecasted HIGH 

THAT's Life in Perspective

Florence Keller County Park & Campground Again

At Florence Keller County Park & Campground, Crescent City, CA, USA

It was very mixed emotions that we left Huntley Park east of Gold Beach today.  Had a very good and long talk with Sean, the Camp Manager, last night.  Told him how thankful we were to  be able to get an extra week there (I think he extended to us because I fed him lots of info on the fire from three weeks ago…it pays to be a librarian who knows how to find information)…they have a strict 2 week policy, and we are so thankful that we were able to stay the extra week.  Sean and Patty, his wife, are great people…they have done a lot to make Huntley a better park than it was before they arrived over six years ago.  Of course, if the Port of Gold Beach would support them with more money it would be better…nothing Sean told me, just a fact I picked up myself.  After all, they have three sites with electricity…the Manager site, the camp assistant host site, and one for the public…if they can do three sites, they can do more…but the port does not want to invest the $$$$$.   So during the winter, the park sits nearly empty…what a shame.  Put in 12 electric sites, and that would bring in up to $300 per week.  But without electricity, no one wants to boondock in weather which is around 60 degrees high, 40 degrees low..so for the most part it sits empty.  What a shame!!!!

We started getting ready to leave around 10 am…pulling out by 11.  Did not need to dump our tanks until we got to Brookings since we dumped the other day when someone nearly let the propane go to empty.    Thank goodness the Union 76 station in Gold Beach sells Propane, and since we were in town, we dumped our tanks.  While in Brookings, we filled the motorhome with gas at $3.05 per gallon, then we went across the street and disconnected the car, took it back to Fred Myer to get some gas ($3.15 per gallon,. only had a 10 cent discount left on our loyalty card)., and do some shopping, then went back to the motorhome, put stuff away, and took the motorhome over to the Valvoline Instant Oil Change across the other side of Fred Myer to get the oil changed in the motorhome ($55).   We then joined the car to the motorhome and headed to Crescent City, specifically Florence Keller County Park & Campground.  This is our fourth time in the park, twice last year and twice this year.  We did not get site B, our favorite, but we did get site 4 which allows us to park without disconnecting our car.

Arriving around 3, I sat outside for awhile, Marcia took a nap, and we had our dinner (Steak and Salad…yum).  The park is more busy today than the last times we were here.  Nice park for $15 per night, and we are only going to be here for one night.  I already miss the solitude of Huntley Park, despite the family that arrive with a tent trailer at 10:15 last night, parked behind us, tried for an hour to put up the tent trailer, and eventually headed off to a motel room in Gold Beach.  They arrive back as we were pulling out…not sure if they ever got that tent trailer up, or if they gave up and drove off with it.  They are lucky we are not early to bed type of folks…  Tomorrow will be a Casino Parking Lot….

Not Longest Day, But One of Our Hardest Days

Florence Keller County Park, Crescent City, Ca

If you are a faithful reader, you probably know by now that Marcia and I are not early morning people.  Today we got up at 5:25 am, I had been awake somewhat since 4:45…but I did fall back asleep for a bit.  The alarm went off at 5:25, I told Marcia it was time to get up, and off we went from there.

The first 200 miles were easy peasy…a stop at the 49er Flying J to get coffee, a stop at a rest area to feed the dogs at 7:15, a stop at a rest area to empty our holding tanks, a stop at Pilot Flying J to get gas…we were moving right along. 

The next 200 miles were grueling…with speeds varying from as low as 30 mph to the 50 mph range.  Lots of twists, turns, and road construction spots.  Marcia felt it was the hardest day of travel we ever partook in….I think it rates within the top 10 trips, but not necessarily the worse.  However, it was a hard travel day, and when we arrived at Florence Keller County Park in Crescent City California, I was ready for a rest. Not only did we have construction along highway 299, which otherwise was fine except for the 3-4 miles of 8% downhill grade, highway 101 is still being reconstructed from damage that occurred 2-3 years ago.

    

I have not seen Whiskeytown Lake since 1971 when my brother Roger, cousin Bill and neighbor Harold along with his standard poodle and I hiked the Trinity Alps way back then.  The poor dog got its pad cut on the granite, and thank goodness the hike came to an abrupt end.  Unfortunately our pet dog which was back home had to be put down…she was around 10 years old, a cross between a Chihuahua and a Terrier, her name was snoopy, also known as snooper.  I did not have another dog until Skruffy…don’t know which dog I like more…probably equally, but Skruffy is still with me.  My thoughts were with my memories of her much of the day….

Don’t know who thinks that this is a nice place to have a picnic…but someone might think that.  Doubt it would be full on a holiday weekend, that’s for sure.

Our longest delay of the day was right near Skunk Picnic Grounds…at least it did not smell…except for that fresh asphalt they put down on the road…it is enough to make me puke!  The delay was for at least 20 minutes, and the pilot car guided us all safely through the 3-4 miles of construction.  Some a-butt-orifice passed me after we started going…guess they did not know what it means to “follow the pilot car”.  The “honk” and the “finger” we got was totally un-called for.  Wish one of the ten CHP that we saw today was near us…but they were not.

After reaching the 3,500 or so summit, we started to see the Trinity River along the roadway.  Saw a few rafters, but did not stop to get pictures…I knew it was going to be a long day, why make it any longer.

FINALLY we made to highway 101, and quickly saw the ocean.  About 20 miles out from the ocean we saw the temps drop from low 80’s to 68 degrees….WOW that feels good.  The overcast came and went all the way to Crescent City…where we have had fairly clear skies above the tall trees.

We found Keller Park last year in July.  It was 80% full on that visit, but a lovely park surrounded by Redwood Trees and White Pine Trees.  This time…it is only 20% filled.  The pull-through spot I wanted was empty, and we did not unhook the car.  The only drawback with this park is so full of trees that one cannot get the solar to work for very long…otherwise we would stay much longer than one night.

Tomorrow is a hop-skip-and-a-jump compared to today.  Last time we were at Loeb we found that getting there around 10 am gives you a good chance of getting a spot.  Since this park is not even busy, we hope we have no problem getting into Loeb tomorrow, where we plan to stay for 12 nights.  You get electric and water for $24 per night…which means we will need to dump our tanks once while there.  This time we have our car to hold our camping spot, so it should not be a problem…there is free dump station at the rest area just north of Brookings, and we can get gas at the Fred Meyer that we go by on the way to dump tanks. 

We both look forward to the kick-back atmosphere, the cool temps, and just being lazy for a few weeks.

Put Your HORSE on a Leash!

Ok, so it isn’t a horse…but it is tall enough to be a miniature horse, and I would hate to have to carry around a poop bag for this baby.  I don’t understand WHY some people think their dog is too good for a leash.  First noticed this friendly monster as I took Bubba and Skruffy for a walk after we changed sites at the Florence Keller Park…more on the change in a bit.  As I walk by the site this large group of people were at I noticed this HUGE dog, with a short lady holding onto its collar.  Its head came up past her belly button…but the dog did not fight her, or do anything but look at Skruffy and Bubba as they past by.  Skruffy did not see the dog, but at the last minute she smelled it and just started to run over that way until I gave her a small tug.  Bubba did see it, went over by it, but just did nothing but keep walking.

To be fair, in both of these pictures the dog is on a leash.  But it was running around off leash for a long time.  Just prior to this picture I was outside at our new site sitting on the bench.  I look down and it is looking right at me.  Then it looks at its owner, then back at me and takes four steps my way.  Then stops and looks back at the owner, who is oblivious to the dog, and the dog is smart enough to know this, so it takes four more steps, looks back, sees it is clear, and trots over to me.  It is very friendly, and I tell it hello and pet its head, which is eye level with me as I was sitting down.  Then the “master” calls for it, and I tell it to go home and not to come back.  Next time I see it, it is on leash.  However, a few hours later I see it is off leash again.  PEOPLE, you might think YOU have a nice dog…but the dog someone is walking by your site might not think it is so nice, and a fight could come fast and furiously. 

Here is our new site…it is the largest pull through in the campground…site “B”.  Why some are numbered and some lettered beats me…I think this portion of the campground is not as old as the numbered area.  After two nights we decided that we needed to catch some free WiFi to download some movies from Amazon.  We first tried Walmart, but it was very slow…but we did buy just a few things while there.  Then we tried Starbucks, but the Home Depot signal came in better…but I was still thinking we could do better.  We headed over to the Public Library, and before I went inside I tried to find some WiFi…and to my surprise, the State Park Headquarters across the street had a good, fast, strong WiFi, and we sat there for a couple of hours downloaded about six movies.  While there, I decided to finally try a DVD in our GPS Sound System…I had told Marcia I thought a DVD could play in it, and yes, it can.  So we watched “Quiet Man” for about the tenth time in the past couple of years.

You can see between the two pictures above that this pull through is very large…however, if you have a 40-45’ motorhome, keeping your tires on the pavement might be hard to do as it curves around these trees.  However, a truck and trailer combination would work just fine.  We would have pulled into the spot we had the past two nights, but some car with a tent took it from us.  We did not try to save it because we were only 90% sure we would return…and return we did.

All of the sites come with a picnic table which is made of hard plastic or rubber…I am sure it uses recycled materials, it is very firm, very durable, and you don’t get splinters in your butt.  There is a fire ring, and a nice place to pitch a tent if you are so inclined to do so.  All for $15, and there are many water spouts throughout the park, along with toilets…although many of the latter are the kind you see along side the road in work areas…if you know what I mean.  And their trash bins are made to look like tree trunks of cut-down trees…cute, but without signs I think many people don’t even know they are there.

In every RVer’s life comes death…death of your batteries.  I have noticed that our battery charge is getting shorter and shorter.  Once we got down to one of three lights, but after just an hour or so it would go from three lights to two lights on our meter reader…and I have voltage tester that I plug into a 12V outlet and it dropped from 12.6 volts to 12 volts in less than an hour with very little juice being used by us.  In normal use we could stay above 12.4 volts for a few hours.  So instead of waiting for a full death, I decided to get new batteries today (Saturday).  Being so close to Oregon, where not sales tax exist and typically cheaper prices, we headed to Brookings to Fred Myer.  This Fred Myer was as big as the one in Soldotna Alaska that we used a lot last year, but the parking was smaller…go figure.  However, they only had ONE of the Interstate batteries that I wanted…but as luck would have it, there is a place right across US 101 from Fred Myer called Carpenter Point S Tire & Auto Service, and they had two of the batteries I wanted.  Total price was $295, but we will get $30 back on Monday when we return the old batteries.  Went up to the rest area just north of Brookings where I “thought” we were going to change the batteries.  Thought about it and remembered a Passport America park just south of the border that we had been to before, so I called Salmon Harbor Resort (I hate when they use that resort name when they are nothing but a park), and they had one last spot that we could have for $19 per night.  So we turned south, declared no fruits or fire wood at the border check, and we pulled into the park in less than 20 minutes.  After resting for about an hour I took out the old batteries and put in the new…An hour later we were back in business with power.

    

Salmon Harbor has some nice views…especially if you are one of the dozen lucky enough ones to get the waterfront spaces as seen in the picture above-right.  For everyone else, you are stuck in the other area which has little space, little privacy.  For us, however, we just wanted to get the batteries installed and give them a nice charge before we camp in more secluded areas.  Sunday night we will most likely stay at the Lucky 7 Casino and give the new batteries a try.

This is the office, game room, etc.  They have laundry, showers, and about 2/3rds of the sites have mobile homes in them.  Salmon Harbor has been a family-run business since 1989, but eight months ago the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation (which owns the casino) purchased the Salmon Harbor Resort and some other surrounding lands, about 60 acres in total, which are historical lands of the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation.  For now, nothing has changed in the park…put people who have lived in the park for a long time are worried that it will shut down.  This area along the shoreline was a major village of the Tolowa Dee-ni’, there was a large Native American city in the area which was destroyed in 1853.  I think soon the whole area will have a new name…Xaa-wan’-k’wvt Village and Resort.

Dwarfed by the Redwoods

Sometimes you just find the perfect little park to settle down in.  Today, we certainly did that.  After our two night stay at Golden Bear, we headed north to Crescent City…after we headed south to drive the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, part of the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.  Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, along with Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and Redwood National Park. All are free to visit, $35 to camp.  By 1:00 we had arrived in Crescent City, gassed up, and headed for what I hoped would be a two or three night stay at the Florence Keller County Park & Campground, a Del Norte County Park.  There are around 50 sites…only one has electric, and it runs $20 per night…and was taken.  The others run $15 per night, and only about one-third of them would be able to handle an RV that is our size.  The catch…no reservations, it is first come first serve.  The reality…we could have pulled into any one of around a dozen of the sites which would fit us…and the place is only15-20% full.  As you can see from the above picture…it is a nice score.  Paid for 2 nights, and in reality we might just stay for four.  There is a 5 day limit.  As shown on the map to the right, the park is very close to downtown Crescent City…only 5 miles.  It boarders highway 101, but you cannot see it from the highway, nor see the highway from the park.  However, you can hear the highway, but where we are, near the entrance, the sounds are pretty muted. 


We enjoyed another two night stay at Golden Bear.  What did we do?  One load of laundry…and walked the dogs…and slept in until after 10 am (except for short time to feed the dogs at 7 am…a must to feed them around 7 both morning and night for that diabetic little Skruffy.)  Met a lady from Maryland while doing laundry.  She was married to a police officer for around 15 years.  Her good friend was the officer’s partner and introduced them.  Well, he died within the last year of a heart attack.  Her female friend, husbands ex partner, retired.  They decided to get away from Maryland for awhile and “see the land”…and they together bought a 24’ Class C, and have been traveling since May.  They love it, they are not sure how long they will do it, how far they will go, and I gave her our website and urged her to follow some of the other blogs listed on our website.  Also urged her to get a tire pressure system…even though they just got new tires.  I sure wish them luck, two gals in their mid to late 50’s spreading their wings. 

    

We have driven the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at least a half dozen times now.  You enter it from Highway 101, and you exit it at Highway 101 about 11 miles down the highway.  The Parkway itself is only 9 miles long…but it is NOT a shortcut…it is a 45 mph max scenic route.  I say this in defiance of the California Idiot who got behind me on the scenic route flashing his headlights over and over and over again, while I was going around 35 mph.  He, in a large Chevy SUV of some sort pulling a boat, wanted to run along this 9 mile stretch as fast as he could.  Problem was, there were no turnouts for me that were not already being taken by other cars.  So what did I do?  I dropped my speed down to 30 mph until we came upon a turnout about 2 miles later.  Marcia said I should have stopped, got out of the RV and looked around to see what was wrong…but he would have just pulled over the double yellow and zoomed by had I done that.  I get a bit frustrated by idiots like this because I am very good about letting people pass me.  I did pass by a couple of thin pullouts which I might have squeezed into…but for this jerk, it wasn’t worth the effort.

    

    

These Costal Redwoods are tall, the forests are thick, and the ferns that cover the ground are a great compliment to such a mighty creature.  We liked our drive so much, at the southern end of it, we turned around and went back the other way.  The middle picture shows that even these giant Redwood Trees are not invincible. 

   

On the way to Crescent City you get a few good views of the Pacific.  There was some road construction, but it flowed well other than having to wait a few minutes for flaggers or red lights to change to allow our side to ride on the one lane that was open.

I was so happy when we pulled into the Florence Keller Park and saw that there were many empty camping places.  I never did tell Marcia that the park was full of Redwoods…thought it would be a good surprise for her.  I did have a backup plan…and that would be the Elk Valley Casino in Crescent City.  We are trying to stay in the area through Sunday morning so that we can attend church again at the Calvary Chapel of the Redwoods, which is between Crescent City and the Oregon border.

The only thing wrong with this place is that our solar panel will be useless…won’t even bother getting it out because the trees cast so many shadows, I would be constantly moving it all day trying to catch what rays I can get.  We did fill up with gas on our way in, so we can keep the batteries charged via the engine, since the engine is not nearly as loud as the generator is.  I figure we can stay here for four nights if we wish…and there is a faucet right across from us to fill our water tank if we need more water…but there is no dump station, and four nights will be at our limit for our holding tanks.