California Coast

Tuesday night we moved into the Elks RV park in Kelso.  It’s in a great location to dump the RV and get ready to hit I5.  There are about 20 or so sites and most were empty when we arrived.  Later in the evening more RVs pulled into those sites.   They were snowbirds also heading south.

    -   Seven Feathers RV Park  -

We hoped to pull out about 9:00 and that most of the Portland work traffic would be cleared out.  Well, we did pull out about 9:00 and the work traffic might have cleared but not the regular traffic. 

Seven Feathers RV Park  - 

Our plan for this trip was to have short travel days.  After all, why shouldn’t we?  So, about 250 miles south was the Seven Feathers RV Park and that’s where we went for night number one.  That is a great RV park with most sites that are long pull-thrus so you don’t even have to unhook..  It is absolutely gorgeous but not as cheap as we’d like.  We paid $50 to use our own bed and that price was with including a senior discount.

It would be a nice place to spend more than one night.  Wonder if they give bigger discounts at other times of the year.  It has about everything including a large inside pool, spa, laundry and even a casino.  The weekday buffet is $9.95 and that’s a deal!  There is also a shuttle that will take you to the town area.  All you have to do is give him a call. 

The next day was about 260 miles.  We started out in a pretty dense fog.  It came and went.  We were glad when we were finally at end of the low clouds so up and over the Siskiyou mountains we went.  We were amazed at the damage from a fire started in July by careless debris burning.   Both sides of I5 was left with damage from the fire. The fire spread for miles.

We always plan a stop at the Pilot station in Weed whether or not we need fuel.  It doesn’t hurt to top it off.  Besides we get a chance to stretch our legs and usually have a pretty good view of Mt. Shasta.  The down side is now we’re in

California and even though we complain about the price of fuel in Oregon and Washington, we get a chance to complain even more.  Price of diesel was $4.15 a gallon! 

Early morning temperature was in the low 40’s.  By the time we reached our destination for the day it was in the mid-70’s and super nice.  This time we stopped at the RV park at the Rolling Hills Casino.  We’ve stopped here several times in the past.  I think the first time we stopped we paid $25 a night.  Two years ago the price was $28 and this time it had jumped to $35.  Even the cost of the casino’s buffet had increased and the discount decreased.

The following morning our neighbors piled into the large double cab of their truck and loaded their dog in the little travel trailer.  I can’t imagine!!  Does anyone else carry their “pets” on the road in a trailer?  I would think the dog would be really tossed around.  I hate that almost as much as I hate seeing dogs carried in the back of the pickup bed!  Awful! 

California brown hills   

Friday was the last day we had planned on driving through.  Three short days and then we’d stop for four, then for three days and then for five days before hitting Yuma.    Our destination this time was Monterey.  It’s one of my favorite places to stop on the coast.  One more day on the road and we were in Monterey.  We've stayed in Monterey several times and absolutely love the area.  One year we did a whale watching cruise and ended up in a school of dolphins.  There were thousands of them.  It was amazing.

Monterey Pines Golf Club & RV Park   ---
 

We had reserved a 40’ site.  This put us on the back wall with good satellite signal.  About an hour out we got a call that we were being put in a much smaller site since we weren’t traveling in a  40’ rig.  They were moving us to accommodate a later arrival!  What?  And, they’d already charged a credit card for $144 we used just to guarantee our site for the four days.



It was a weekend and we knew the chance of getting another reservation along the California coast would be impossible.  You can imagine just how unhappy we were but we had no alternative!  So, when we arrived we used a can opener (almost) to pull into the site and park our truck.  We were thankful our satellite receiver worked by setting it on our neighbor’s table.

Saturday rolled around and we were off to
Cannery Row.  We knew it’d be packed with folks so we went early.  We had no trouble finding a parking spot one block from the main drag.






We walked around, took pictures and ended up at Bubba Gump for brunch – clam chowder for both of us. Then, the crowds came in hoards.  Time to head back to camp.

   



We watched the kayakers from our seat.

Laundry finally done and then ….. the shouting, screaming and banging began.  Something was going on in the neighbor’s RV and it didn’t sound pleasant.  The police showed up and the verbally abusive spouse got quite a lecture.  Hopefully, the wife felt vindicated.  Who knows … we were guessing it happens often but thankful she wasn’t getting a beating even though that’s what it sounded like.

Tomorrow we’re off to Fisherman’s Wharf and taking Buck to the beach.  This is getting long so need to post and continue someplace down the coast    ……………

‘Tis life on the road.