Shasta Dam, HOT Weather, Naked Ladies & TV

Citrus Heights, CA

On our way back to Citrus Heights on Thursday, we took a side road over to Shasta Dam…not for a tour, but just to show Marcia what it looks like.

I have not seen so much water in Shasta Lake for I don’t know how long…it felt good to see it full again.

This is the place where I attribute my “fear of heights” to.  Back in the mid-1990’s my children’s mother’s family was having a “family reunion” near Shasta.  It was August 1993 if I remember…because I was named the Interim Library Director while I was away on this trip as the previous Director was….how does one say this nicely…given the chance to find employment elsewhere.  Anyway, as ALL my previous wife’s family and I were visiting Shasta Dam, we were looking down over the spillway…and one of my nieces jumped up onto the top of the railing to look over, and in my mind, I saw her going over…and since I was right there, I grabbed the seat of her pants and pulled her back…and her mother was not too happy with me.  Ever since then I have had an extreme fear of heights…can’t look down out of a hotel room window which is a dozen or more floors up (I can look out, just not down).  Can not look down from the Golden Gate Bridge (I had no problem doing so before this), and I have a HUGE problem flying in a plane.  Had nightmares of her flying off the dam for many years after the event.  And I NEVER did get a thanks from the parent, although we did come to an understanding when I said, “Perhaps I should have just let things take their natural course…” (which, for those who know me, I could have never done).

A look of Shasta Lake…lots and lots of water behind the dam!  Too bad there was so much smoke in the air.

Just had to show a picture of this Motorhome which we saw at the Pilot Gas Station south of Corning California…A porch, on a old Winny Chassis.  I don’t think he drives it much on the freeway, but they do seem to live in it around the area. 

Made it back to the Sacramento Area just in time to see the Naked Ladies, enjoy the 105+ degree weather, celebrate both Sandy and Arny’s birthdays (day apart from each other…mom and dad no longer have children who are ‘in their 50’s’ anymore, and enough time to install a new TV and a new Controller in the Solar Panel.

The “Naked Ladies” are a type of plant that grow outside my sister’s house near our RV door, and in other places in their backyard.  The Belladonna Lily is called the “Naked Lady” because the stem is leafless, tall, and pretty flowers on top.  In the spring there is a very leafy plant…which seems to die off, then in late summer, this large stem grows, and then the flower blooms out.  They are very pretty, and all of theirs are a lavender color but other varieties include orange, pink, red and yellow.  Marcia saw some orange ones up along the coast of Oregon, but we did not get pictures of them.

Our main living area TV gave out on us while up in Oregon….not unexpected as it was acting up since we left Florida.  Got a ‘SuperSonic’ 12volt TV, although for some reason it did not come with a 12v plug, just the 110 converter plug…but that will be easy to take care of.  A 24” HD-LED TV for $135, and we really like it.  Smaller, lighter, and for $10 more I got a wall mount so that we can adjust it to our liking.  The board behind it was not painted behind the TV, so I also painted that board…still have another coat which is why the hooks have take over them.  Also installed some eye hooks to strap the TV down while we travel with bungee cords. Once I get the plug, we will be able to watch a little TV without turning the generator on…nice for when we are in rest areas, Walmart parking lots, Cracker Barrels, etc….especially when strong storms are in the area as we faced in Arkansas earlier this spring.   As for the Solar Controller…so far I really like it.  Will write up it once we boondock again.

A Different Look at Eclipse

From Huntley Park Oregon to McCloud California

  

   

Yes, this is taken on Eclipse Day…no, it is not the MOON blocking out the sun, it is the SMOKE.  We did watch the Eclipse from Huntley Park Oregon, then proceeded over to Myrtle Creek…then to Medford…then to Talent where we stayed the night in a Rest Area.  ALL of these pictures taken above were taken between Myrtle Creek and the California border yesterday and today.  The bottom right picture was taken as we were leaving Harry and David in Medford…about 6:45 pm.  NEVER seen the smoke so thick, and this smoke is being attributed to the fire near Brookings, called the Chetco Bar Fire.

When you stay in an area for a month, and then a MAJOR fire takes place in that area, the connection you made sucks your emotions into what is going on.  You have met nice people in the past month…the hosts at Alfred Loeb State Park, the checkers at Fred Meyer in Brookings, or at McKay’s Market in Gold Beach, the workers at Indian Creek RV Park, the hosts at Huntley Park, and of course, D & D of Double D’s Cafe in Gold Beach and their entire family, most of whom we had the pleasure of meeting.  All of these people are being affected because they know people who have evacuated…and they probably know or know of the five families who have lost their homes so far…with many more threatened.  In the above map I have added, in RED, the various places we stayed at…along with the Fire Perimeter.  They listed the two levels of evacuations areas…level 2 is be prepared to leave, level 3 is get the heck out of there.

It did not take us long on Oregon Highway 42 before we started to see the thick smoke.  We went north because they asked people not to drive down highway 101 toward Brookings…too much stuff going on down there.  By the time we got close to I-5, we could smell it.  We drove by On the River Golf & RV Park, a place we have stopped by many times before…they looked full to the brim, and the smoke was just too thick.  Didn’t even try our back-up plan in Myrtle Creek, Millsite RV Park, a city park, because the smoke was just too thick.  We went on to Medford to visit Harry and David…Sis LOVES Moose Munch, and since her and Arny both have birthdays next week, one day apart, we had to pick up “stuff”.  (I can see her licking her chops already…)  After the shopping spree, we headed to Talent where there was suppose to be a RV Resort through Passport America, which looked promising on paper…but it ended up being a HUGE DUMP…one of the worse we have seen…and it was also full…and we did not want to stay there even if they had sites open…yes, it was that bad.  And how do they even come to think they are a resort????  So we stayed at a Oregon Rest Area….along with many other people, most of whom were Californians headed back home after the full eclipse.

There was a wreck about 5 miles before Medford.  Marcia and I were counting the California plates as they went by us…4 out of 5 vehicles were California plates, with occasional Arizona and other states in the mix, and about 1 out of 5 were Oregon plates.  So it is safe to say…some Californian did something stupid and caused a wreck.  By the time we got up to it, an hour later, it was gone, so it is just a “educated guess”… 

So this morning we had our coffee, a quick breakfast and off to McCloud California to one of our favorite RV parks in NorCal…McCloud RV Resort which we have been to 3 or 4 times now.  We DON’T like the prices necessarily, and they have some strict rules about their grass…which keeps the grass in such good condition I guess.  But it is not as hot as other Northern California areas, has lots of shade (although we lose our shade around 1 and it isn’t back until 5), and it is very peaceful.

Of course, there are jerks who like to park their trucks on another person’s site…but I won’t go into that…nor the nine attempts to back into his site…yes NINE.   Now on the other side of his trailer he has three chairs, lots of other camping stuff, along with his park provided table…and there is room to back his truck up more, but heck…he would probably hit the fence or his awning, so it is much easier just using a chunk of our site.  And then there is the bigger jerk who let both his dogs off leash, and when I spotted them, I did not take Bubba or Skruffy their way...but they both made it over our way.  His Shepherd got a bit noisy, which then gets Skruffy going, and frankly, I was ready to give it a hit in the noise had it become aggressive.  The guy says, "Sorry, did not know it got out...", and just then the Shepherd comes running over.  I had seen them, and I knew he knew they were out, so I just said, "You know, that is why they make leashes."  He did not look at me, he just got his dogs and walked away.  GRRRR!!!

   

But the park is just a lovely place, and we are here for two nights.  Yesterday’s drive was twice as long as it needed to be…it is only 120 miles from Huntley to the Rest Area…but that route is on a paved, National Forest road which is not recommended for RVs.  Had we gone through Crescent City, it would have been a 160 mile trip…but as it was, due to the fire, we drove over 240 miles.  And once we hit I-5, the traffic was a a crawl numerous times due to traffic and wrecks.  So two days to regain our sanity is in order…then we will head the 4+ hours back to my sister’s house…with a stop at a Truck/RV wash on the way back to Sacramento, one which we have used in the past…and after all the dust and dirt we accumulated these past seven weeks, it needs it.  As for us…the long showers we had this afternoon felt real nice…the 94 degree weather, well, that did not last very long.

And YES, we did watch the eclipse, or at least I tried to get some pictures of it.  This is the best one I got, about 9:55 am, 20 minutes before our 95% coverage.  No matter what, the sun was too bright for the eyes, and our camera did not do so well capturing it.