California Coast

Heading for the coast.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Left Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP about 9:30. Drove to the Dos Reis County Park near Lathrop, just off I-5. Nice place. Perhaps 25 RV sites. Run by the County. This puts us about half way to the coast; our current destination. One strange rule. We were bluntly informed by the matron-in-charge, that dogs must only be on a hand-held 6’ lease. Can’t even tie them to our lawn chair on a 6’ leash. Hand held only!!. They charge $1/night/dog. Does that mean I don’t have to clean up after my dog since I’m paying extra? Oh well. It’s a convenient, one night stop.

Friday: Continued the drive. Had lunch at Granzella’s Deli in Williams. Read about it in one of the tourist books. It’s a local institution. We got there about 11:15. By noon time the place was standing room only. Carol had a turkey/cranberry sauce/cream cheese sandwich. I had a muffalata(sp). Hadn’t had one of those since New Orleans. We drove to the M & M Campground in Clearlake Oaks. An interesting place; not what we had envisioned from the campground book. The campground is at the end of an island. To get there, you drive through an old trailer park. During the day, it’s mostly a local fishing place. When we pulled in there were two other campers. By the end of the day, the place was full. Seems there was a fishing tournament going on. The group next to us must have had ten kids ranging in age from about three to 15. What a mad house. Rap music, screaming kids, etc. Tied Gopher out so we would at least have a little bit of space. Told the kids the dog would bite so stay away. It worked. Carol & I read for the day and I took Gopher for a swim. Tomorrow we will be staying at a state park on the ocean. Yeah!!.

We left M & M campground by about 7:30. Wanted to be out of there before the neighborhood zoo woke up. The drive to the coast was beautiful. Rolling hills, some farms but mostly woods. Fort Bragg is the first city on the coast we came to. Drove a few miles north and camped at the Mackerricher SP. What a beautiful place. After paying for our campsite, we parked right near the beach instead of going to the campsite. Spent the entire day by the beach. There is a handicapped accessible boardwalk leading past the bluffs and intertidal area to the seal watching station. See the great picture of the mother and baby seal. Gopher & I walked the beach at low tide looking in the tidal pools. Carol was able to enjoy the great view with us. I have found a number of accessible sites. Mostly that's where we will be going for the rest of the trip.

Heading to the coast

Heading for the coast.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Left Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP about 9:30. Drove to the Dos Reis County Park near Lathrop, just off I-5. Nice place. Perhaps 25 RV sites. Run by the County. This puts us about half way to the coast; our current destination. One strange rule. We were bluntly informed by the matron-in-charge, that dogs must only be on a hand-held 6’ lease. Can’t even tie them to our lawn chair on a 6’ leash. Hand held only!!. They charge $1/night/dog. Does that mean I don’t have to clean up after my dog since I’m paying extra? Oh well. It’s a convenient, one night stop.

Friday: Continued the drive. Had lunch at Granzella’s Deli in Williams. Read about it in one of the tourist books. It’s a local institution. We got there about 11:15. By noon time the place was standing room only. Carol had a turkey/cranberry sauce/cream cheese sandwich. I had a muffalata(sp). Hadn’t had one of those since New Orleans. We drove to the M & M Campground in Clearlake Oaks. An interesting place; not what we had envisioned from the campground book. The campground is at the end of an island. To get there, you drive through an old trailer park. During the day, it’s mostly a local fishing place. There is us and two other campers. Gopher had a good swim in the lake. Carol read her book for the day. A convenient place to stop for one night. Tomorrow we will be staying at a state park on the ocean.

Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

Sequoia NP was established in 1890. Only Yellowstone NP is older.

Entered the park at the Foothills Visitor Center near Three Rivers, CA. This is the south entrance. The gate house staff said the Park Service advised, but did not require, a 22’ limit on the size of vehicles driven on this part of the Generals Highway. We’re 27’. She said motorhomes like ours enter here all the time. On we went. Stopped at the Visitor Center for information on accessible trails for Carol. The lady pointed out several she thought we could do unless they were still covered with snow. The part of the road with the 22’ length recommendation wasn’t much really. I’ve driven on much narrower and winding roads in North Carolina and Utah.

Lots of snow still on the ground. We enjoyed it. A nice change for us. Gopher just loves the snow. Runs through it, rolls in it, eats it. Tonight it’s supposed to drop down into the high 20’s.

Besides various overlooks, our first stop was the General Sherman Tree. This is the largest living tree on Earth. There is one species of tree that lives longer and three species that grow taller, but for sheer mass, none is larger. In all the world, sequoias grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, mostly between 5,000 and 7,000 feet of elevation. The General Sherman Tree is an estimated 2,200 years old.

Sequoia Facts: Height: to 311’. Age: To 3,200 years. Weight: To 2.7 million pounds. Bark: To 31” thick. Branches: Up to 8’ in diameter. Bases: To 40’ diameter.

There was a nice museum at the Sherman Tree site. We set out on another walk through a grove of Sequoia’s but had to stop because of the snow on the trail. After that we drove to the Montecito-Sequoia Lodge area for lunch then on to our campground. We camped at the Azalea Campground near the Grant Grove Village Center. There were only about 10 other campers in the entire place. That is one of the really things about traveling off season. No reservations required. This is a very nice campground. It’s obvious that when the campground was laid out, a major effort was made to save as many trees as possible. We walked up to the Grant Grove Village area. There is a Kings Canyon Visitor Center where we watched a movie about the park and looked through the museum. Poked around the gift shop & grocery store. Bought two post cards for Izzy & Finn.

We were going to stay another night but Carol was cold and said she had seen enough big trees. She was ready to move on. J

In the morning we drove to the General Grant Sequoia Grove. Gopher & I walked around. Carol stayed inside. It was 34*. Left about 9:30. Our destination was the Dos reis County Park near Stockton. That puts us about half way to the California Redwood Coast; our destination

Lake Mead

Las Vegas, NV & Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

After shopping at Camping World in Las Vegas we drove through Henderson, NV then to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, NV. Camped at the Bolder Beach Campground. On Saturday & Sunday we drove down and parked on the shoreline. The lake is about 5’ behind us. The water level is at an historic low since the lake was created. See one of the photos. You can see a water monitoring station and the white rocks. This indicates the normal lake level. The Southwest is having a severe drought. If it continues for a few more years, it will be the worst drought since about the year 1100, per the experts who study such things. On Sunday we visited the Hoover Dam. “Completed in 1935, Hoover Dam turned the sometimes violent Colorado River into the still waters of Lake Mead. More than 5,000 men worked for five years to erect the massive structure between the steep walls of the Black Canyon”.

After visiting the dam, we went grocery shopping in Boulder City then spent the rest of the day camped on the beach.

Picking up our 2008 Lazy Daze

Montclair, Ca

We arrived in the Montclair, CA area on Sunday afternoon. Staying at the East Shore RV Park. A nice place as commercial campgrounds go. Decent sized sites. Well maintained. Got caught up on the laundry on Monday and gave the camper a much needed cleaning. It was filthy. The near constant winds had blown a fine red dust through every opening.

On Tuesday we drove to the Lazy Daze factory to take a tour and see our new Lazy Daze being made. They were cleaning it up, doing punch list items, etc. It’s just beautiful. We’re so glad we decided to get a new one. Carol, in particular, is very, very happy. Toured the facility to see just how they were made. Carol bought herself a Lazy Daze cap.

We’re going our walkthrough on Thursday morning then transferring our stuff from old to new. On Friday morning the ICC driver drives us to Las Vegas. California has a rule about sales tax. In order to avoid paying 8% CA sales tax on a vehicle purchase, you must take physical possession out of the State. So, you hire an official Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) driver for $400 to drive the RV to Las Vegas, NV. We go along as passengers.

Wednesday. Steve & Carol Crisp, the buyers of our 2000 LD, stopped by about 3:00. I answered lots of questions, went over some of the systems then we signed the title over to them. It’s no longer ours.

Thursday, April 24: We drove “their” LD to the Factory. Spent most of the morning doing our inspection of the new one. Everything worked as it should. No problems of any type. Then we began transferring all our stuff from “old” to “new”. Took much longer then I thought. By 4:00 we still weren’t finished. Terry Tanner installed LED taillights for us. He was so proud of himself. This was the first 2008 he’s done this too.

Friday. The BIG day. We got up about 5:30am so we could be at the factory by seven to finish our transfer of stuff. The ICC driver showed up on time and at 9am we left for Las Vegas, NV. Arrived at the Travel America Truck Stop at 12:45. The mobile notary showed up about one. Signed some papers, paid him $45 and the Lazy Daze was now legally ours to drive. We went to Camping World to get some things, then Wal-Mart then Home Depot. Tonight we’re camping at the Boulder Beach Campground at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. About 45 minutes from Las Vegas. The plan is to stay here through Monday to add all those little touches like more shelving, roof vent covers, cup holders, etc. and to be sure everything is working perfectly before we head north.

We couldn’t be happier with our decision to buy a new Lazy Daze.

La Paz County Park. Caravan Club

April 16-20. Lazy Daze Caravan Club, La Paz County Park, Parker, AZ.

We were invited to the Lazy Daze Caravan Club campout. Arrived on Wednesday. Dry camping in an open field very close to the Colorado River. There were 57 rigs in attendance. Each morning there was a coffee hour starting at 6:30. During the day people played washer toss, horse shoes, etc. Carols friends are teaching her how to play Mexican Train. It’s a domino type game. There are boxes of books piled on a table. You put your extras in the box and take what you want. Carol restocked her book supply. There was a large off-leash area plus the river so Gopher had a good time as well. On Friday & Saturday nights we went out to dinner with friends. Saturday afternoon was the general meeting of the Caravan Club. We were made new members. Our member number is 4957. We had a wonderful time meeting so many nice people. Especially Don & Carol Ashley from Prescott, AZ and Bill & Francis Surbrook from San Diego, CA. They introduced us around, took us to dinner, and spent lots of time with Carol. We hope to see them all again perhaps this winter if we get to this area again.

We left on Sunday morning about 8am for the Montclair, Ca area. Our ultimate destination for the first leg of this trip. We’re staying at the East Shore RV Park in San Dimas. It’s a County park about 20 minutes from the Lazy Daze factory.

We both wish Gopher wasn't as protective of Carol as she is. Especially when men approach Mom quickly. She lunges at them like she's going to bite. It happened twice at the Caravan Club campout. Fortunately no harm so far but it makes us both nervous. I keep her on a very short leash when other people are around. When she's away from the camper and away from Mom she's a completely different dog. Calm, well by her standard at least, and friendly. She's Carols dog, make no mistake of that. In some ways I don't mind. When I go into a store and Carol & Gopher stay in the camper I know no one will get close to Carol without Gopher going ballistic. Oh well. In other respects she's a good dog. Just need to watch her closely with men when Carol's nearby. I'm going to make up a sign saying "Stay Away From the Dog" and put it outside the camper.

Buckskin Mountain State Park. Parker, AZ

Roosevelt Lake to Parker, AZ

Left Roosevelt Lake about 8:30am, Sunday. Drove through Phoenix and stayed at the White Tank Mountain Regional Park which is just west of the city. A nice campground in the high desert area. Lots of cactus. Our campground is in a suburb of Phoenix. There were hundreds of newly built homes. As best we could tell, few were occupied. Reminds us of the overbuilding back home. Some of the same national builders; Pulte & Centrex. On Monday morning we took the long way to Parker, AZ. Drove through miles of open land with the occasional ranch.

Stopped in Parker for gas & shopping then on to the Buckskin Mountain State Park. The Park is right on the Colorado River. We have a little view of the river from our campsite. The water is clear & cool. Gopher went swimming, I waded in with her. Carol put her water shoes on but didn’t want to get wet. Tomorrow perhaps.

Tuesday: Drove into Lake Havasu City today. On the way we stopped by the other two state park campgrounds to see what they were all about. Where we are is by far, the nicest.

Did laundry & grocery shopping in the City. The local to Arizona grocery store is Bashas’. Reminds us of an upscale Publix. The City was planned and built by Robert P. McCulloch; the inventor and owner of McCulloch chainsaw. The City is a typical very touristy place. Like Myrtle Beach, Panama City Beach, etc. T-shirt shops, every chain restaurant you can think of, a water theme park, etc. Visited the original London Bridge which Mr. McCulloch relocated here in 1968. Went to the Lion’s Dog Park for a while. A women we met at the Southwest Lazy Daze Campout was raised here. When her father passed away, the family “bought” a bench near the dog park in his honor by having a plaque made for the bench. She asked us to take a look at it. I took a picture of Carol sitting on the bench and e-mailed it to Di. After that we went back to the campground. Won’t be going back to Lake Havasu City; once is enough.

Thursday: Our reservations here ran through today. We had decided to stay through the weekend so I went to the office to see what sites would be available. We moved to Site 11; the most scenic location in the campground. Right on a small bluff overlooking the river.

Went into town on Saturday. Mailed post cards to Izzy & Finn, did laundry & grocery shopping then went to a car wash to get the worst of the dirt off the motorhome.

While we’re enjoying our stay here, this is not a quiet campground during the day on weekends. There is no speed limit on the river. Jet skis and very loud speed boats are going from sunrise to sunset. We’re glad to see night come because it quiets down.

On Monday the temperature varied from 98* to 103* depending on who you asked. Thank goodness for the A/C in the motorhome.

Today, Tuesday, the temperature is back to a more comfortable 85*. Supposed to cool off a little over the next few days. Tomorrow we leave for the Lazy Daze Caravan Club rally at La Paz County Park. Only a few miles from here.