Back in the 48

We got Roxie’s SCS battery replaced and still ended up waiting another week for her followup appointment. All was good and we headed back on the road. We were a little gun shy about the change in the weather. You could feel it in the air. We decided to head directly back to the lower 48 as we had a date to be somewhere. However, we kept track of the places we passed to visit in the future.

We headed to Tok for a night, entered back into Canada and spent one night at Cottonwood RV Park on the shore of Kluane Lake. This RV park has some wonderful views:

We dry camped here as their power is via a generator. They only allow 15 amps so that really doesn’t help us at all. We can’t do the microwave with it, nor did we need the A/C.

The next one night stop was Hi-Country in Whitehorse YT and then on to Watson Lake and the provincial campground there:

You can barely make out the lake through the trees

At Watson Lake, we changed our route off the AlCan highway to take the Cassiar highway down through British Columbia. This is a much less traveled path, much more beautiful and much more remote! It took us 2 days to traverse the road and we had ZERO cell coverage. I am not sure if that is good or bad.

We stayed at Kinaskan Lake campground for one night. It was a wonderful campground, almost all spots were on the lake and quiet (except during generator times from that big bus a couple of spots away). Here views from the evening and the next morning:

Sitting by the lake
Smooth as glass!
A bit different the next day!

At the end of the Cassiar is the town of Hazelton, BC. This worked out great to be our next stop. We stayed at the ‘Ksan Campground. It is set in a historical village of the local indigenous peoples.

One interesting part of this was the bridge we went over to and from the campground, the Hagwilget Canyon Bridge. It is a single lane suspension bridge and was exciting.

Since we were back in civilization we made a quick stop at Walmart in Prince George BC and spent one night south of there at Mama Yeh RV Park (they are Passport America). The road south of Prince George as you start to enter the Frazier River valley is very beautiful as well as the valley itself. Nice rolling hills and green everywhere. Another overnight near Clinton BC at the Willow Springs RV park as we continue our trek back to California to help Roxie’s sister with her total knee replacement surgery.

Once we entered the Frazier River valley, it was a lower altitude and warmer. Our last stop in Canada was at the Chilliwack Walmart. This was our ninth night in a row on the road back with each stop only one night. Time for a rest. Our border crossing back to the US was pretty easy. They asked us about food and we had avocados and apples. They pulled us over and the AG guy came by but we were safe since the items were from the US. Great!

We stopped in Mt Vernon WA for 3 nights. This gave us time to visit Roxie’s nephew who lived in the area. That area, north of Seattle, is very beautiful and the weather was great. We got to decompress a bit before we headed south. As we left the campground, I heard a loud noise from the left rear of the trailer. The ingress/egress to the campground was a bit steep so I thought that I just scraped the tail in the gravel. We stopped down the road a bit further for a bathroom break. While parked I noticed my stabilizer jack, on the left rear, was bent all out of shape! I had forgotten to raise it as we were leaving the RV park. This is not normal for me but it happens. I spent about 30 minutes removing the old jack.

The dead jack. RIP

We stopped for another 3 nights at the Columbia Riverfront RV Park in Woodland WA. While there we had a couple pull in next to us in a brand new Airstream. This was their first Airstream and the first trip in it! We were able to talk with them a bit and help answer some questions they had. I am confident they will have many years ahead of them of fun travels.

On our way through Portland, we stopped at the Airstream dealership. This is where we initially purchased our trailer. I needed some parts for our step as one of the washer assemblies had failed. I got 3 sets of parts.

Our final destination was Redding but we were a bit ahead of schedule so we headed to San Francisco to visit our family there. We stopped at an Escapees park in Sutherlin, OR, a single night in Yreka CA at the Waiiaka RV Park.

Mt Shasta

The next overnight was a freebee in Corning at the Olive Pit restaurant. Another one night stop in Rio Vista by Sacramento delta. The last stop was in South San Francisco to stay at our usual stop (Treasure Island RV).

Treasure Island has changed. It appears they are trying to get out a lot of the older full-time units. They parked us in a spot where there was no possible way for me to park. After calling management, the directed us to a new spot. This spot was very tight also. It took me about 15 minutes to get parked. The guy behind us was not happy that I was so close but what else could I do?

Encroaching on our neighbor!

The park said this was a 35′ site but no way! Our trailer is 31′ and we are past the end of it. Now I was thinking about how I might get out of the spot. There was a pole right next to the trailer at the front:

There really wasn’t enough space to exit to the right especially thinking about the tail swing. The solution I saw was to go directly through the opposing set of spots.

Our escape route!

After our visit, we hadn’t been there for over 10 months, we used our escape route and headed to Redding. We stopped off in Chico (I went to school there for 3 years) for 3 nights. Before we took the trailer to the RV park in Redding, I checked with a local welder.

Whenever I set up our satellite I like to secure the dish to the trailer. It is easy in the front as I just use the A-frame. In the back of the trailer I have always had to use the stabilizer jack for the security cable. I believe doing this the last time, north of Seattle, messed with my sequence. I left the jack down because I had to remove the cable. This is it looks under the trailer:

I had the welder do this to give me a security anchor:

We are in Redding for about a month now and will then go back and visit our son in Visalia after that.

My next post will be an Alaska recap.

Between the holidays

We were at our house during Thanksgiving but the day after we headed to the SF bay area to visit our family there. As usual, the issue was finding a place to stay with the trailer. Our go-to location is transitioning and only have 2 spots now that would fit our trailer. We opted to stay in Pacifica at the SF RV Resort. The last time we were here, RV’s could back up to the cliff and hear the waves crashing. Things have now changed. There has been such erosion that area has been closed off due to safety concerns. We were only there for 3 nights.

We headed south from there to Paso Robles. This is another location that we have stayed at many times and there used to be only one major RV park there, Wine Country RV. This time we tried a different one, Vines RV Resort. It is a very nice park and, as a bonus, a Passport America participant. We were able to visit some of our usual locations in that area while we were there. Here is a sunset from there:

After 4 nights there we headed to our next stop, a favorite, Catalina Spa and RV, in Desert Hot Springs. This leg was over 300 miles, which we try to avoid, so we decided to break it up. We did an overnight stop outside of Bakersfield at the Orange Grove RV Park. It was a nice place for an overnight but a bit pricey and, alas, the oranges were not ready to pick!

We stayed at Catalina for 8 nights and took advantage of Passport America with them also. We always have a good time in the Palm Springs area and we were biding our time for an upcoming event. The mountains got some snow on them while we were there:

Our next stop was Van Nuys. We were heading to the Hollywood RV park, we knew it as Balboa RV park. We have stayed here also and like its’ proximity to many things to do.

We primarily came here because we had tickets to a filming of Jeopardy. I love Jeopardy and have always wanted to see it taped so I decided to get tickets. Roxie thinks I should go on it sometime but I KNOW that would be the episode where the questions were about Opera or English monarchs!

Unfortunately we got a phone call that the Jeopardy taping had been cancelled but they offered us seating at a Wheel of Fortune taping. We accepted. They put us on the production guest list for a different date. It was OK with us even though I would have rather seen Jeopardy.

Prior to the day of the taping, we met up with our friends the Chens. We met them at the Sriracha factory in Irwindale CA for the factory tour. They have wanted to go to this tour for a while and we are always willing to on one. The story of the founder of Sriracha is really great, you should read it here. Here are some shots from the tour:

We then drove to their house but stopped off at the California Yuan Yung Buddhism Center. It was nice and serene with good views from the hills:

One night while we were down there, we went to eat at Lawry’s Prime Rib. I remember going there once as a child and seeing them carve the prime rib from a hunk of beef in a cart. They do this right at your table. Not much has changed. The food was very good, the ambiance was great and the service was fantastic!

The next day was the Wheel of Fortune taping. We first went into the wrong gate at Sony studios but since we were early it didn’t matter too much. When we went in the right gate, we couldn’t fit the truck in the parking structure and had to park on the street (meters). The assistants started lining people up and we were taken first (remember we are on the production guest list) and this was a good thing! I forgot that my pocket knife was in my pocket. This is a no-no. I had to walk/run back to the truck, then back.

I made it back with plenty of time. They brought all of us into the studio and seated us. They gave us instructions on when to clap, when to be quiet, when we can go the bathroom, etc. They taped 3 episodes that day. There was a LOT of clapping that you were supposed to do and follow the assistants. I figured out that we were cheap labor for the show. There is a possibility that we will be seen on one of the shows. Our shows are being shown on Feb 7, Feb 8 and Mar 13.

After our 7 nights in SoCal, and 24 nights total, it was time to get back to Visalia for Christmas time.