Yosemite, Monterey and Buellton

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Today we headed for Midpines, just past Mariposa, for our long anticipated trip to Yosemite. We meandered through some beautiful cattle country with really interesting rocks. I haven’t gotten an explanation about them yet. They all poke up through the dirt with flat knife edges. They look like a whole bunch of long, thin sheets of rock, all standing on edge. I couldn’t get a photo on the way in. I’ll try for one on the way out. Once they arrived at the KOA, most guests scattered in all directions. We had a semi-impromptu social and had a “guest” swing by for a look-see…a mule deer doe…broadside at less than 50 yards. Wouldn’t even need a scope on that one. Iron sights would do just fine! One guest reminded me it was not deer season. I always thought that deer season was dictated by the state of one’s freezer.

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We carpooled into Mariposa for a GREAT buffet breakfast at Miner’s Inn. Following breakfast, we headed for Yosemite and met at the Yosemite Lodge at 1:00 pm for a great two-hour guided tour of the valley floor. We saw all the major sights of the valley floor and had a nice fat coyote cross right in front of the bus. Even though it was just trotting slowly through the trees, none of my pictures came out. Here are some random shots to mull over.

Yosemite Valley

El Capitan

Climbers (right side of picture)

Bridal Veil Falls

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Today was not a good day. We left the Midpines KOA about 9:00 and headed west. Our first scheduled stop was the Casa de Fruta for fuel and shopping. We picked up fuel but passed on the shopping. We then headed west for the Mission San Juan Batista. Big mistake! BIG, BIG mistake!!!!! First of all, it’s very small town. The streets are narrow and the intersections are NOT made for big-rigs. Couple that with today being Saturday. What happens on Saturdays in towns with huge Hispanic populations? Soccer games…MANY soccer games…MANY soccer parents and their cars…and a Quinceanera party (Sort of a coming-out party for Hispanic 15-year-olds). There was NO parking anywhere. We all got through the town…barely.

When we got to the Monterey Fairgrounds, the next chapter started…parking the rigs. To say it was a difficult parking job is like saying the Spruce Goose is a big plane…a total understatement. All rigs got parked and all fenders remained intact. Then, to add insult to injury, two flocks of geese buzzed me, one right after another, about 40 feet above my head. If I had a long stick, I could have knocked them from the sky…right into the oven! We then all brought out our chairs and some very stiff drinks and had a social and a travel briefing. During the travel briefing, I had some quizzical looks. It turns out that the last three sets of driving instructions were just preliminary instructions and not the finished product. Back to the drawing board. I pulled the correct instructions from our book and printed out 18 copies of each day which will be distributed tomorrow. We have never worked so hard in all our lives to get this trip right, at least as right as we can. Both of us are beat!

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Today we took a bus ride to the Monterey Bay Aquarium…always a favorite of anyone who visits it. They had a Great White Shark on display.

No, this isn’t it. The one they have is a 5’ female. I couldn’t get a picture. It was too dark for my camera and all the pictures came out blurry. They also had a few bluefin tuna. One was 350 pounds! I leered! We watched two feedings, one in the big fish and shark tank and one hand feeding by a diver.

One of my favorite exhibits was the seahorse exhibit. This one is a Leafy Sea Dragon from Australia.

There were also several tanks with jellyfish

and, of course, otters.

We also saw some later in the wild.

After the aquarium visit, we boarded the bus and toured Monterey itself, going by Cannery Row, Fisherman’s Wharf and Lover’s Point.

We saw the Colton House where the California Constitution was written in 1849

and the “Moon Tree” on its grounds.

The Moon Tree is a California Sequoia, a giant coastal redwood. It was taken to the moon on Apollo 14 as a seed and then returned to a Forest Service Genetics Nursery in Placerville where it was sprouted and raised into a small sapling. It was then planted on the grounds of the Colton House. Neat, huh? I thought you’d agree. We then went on the 17-Mile Drive and saw the Lone Cypress tree

and the Pebble Beach Golf Course where a round of golf is $495. I don’t know if that includes the cart or not. Tomorrow is a free day. I didn’t bring my golf clubs so I can’t go to Pebble Beach. What, oh what will we do? Probably work…again…still!

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We did!

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We took off just after 9:00 am and headed south on the infamous and dreaded Highway 1. The curves, the hills, the rockfalls, the landslides, the bicyclists. Oh worry, worry, worry! Hell, it was a beautiful drive…actually more of a dawdling crawl, but what the heck, we’re retired! What’s time to us? We “D-C’d” (see above) along and admired the scenery. Actually, Claudia and Gizmo admired. I drove. There was a bit of a storm approaching so the sea was kicking up and pounding the rocks and cliffs pretty good. It made for good watching as we D-C’d down the road. The only part of the road that was exceptionally bendy was a couple mile stretch near Ragged Point. Other than that, piece of cake! When we got to Hearst Castle, we even saw a herd of zebras. Now I must admit I didn’t sleep much last night, but the zebras were there. They were in amongst the standing beef and ground beef. (Ground beef is standing beef that’s lying down) We arrived at the Morro Dunes RV Resort exactly at our predicted arrival time of 12:30 pm, checked in, parked and set up. The park office was doing all the assignments so it was pretty easy for me today. Everyone got here by 2:00 pm and we are done for the day. Hooray and yahoo.

Claudia went around and passed out trip evaluation forms where all the guests get to tell the company what a great and spectacular job we (Larry, Linda, Claudia and me) did. The only semi-bad thing we have going is that the now-approaching storm is bringing WIND. It’s a little blowy today. We called my sister and made arrangements to meet her and Joe about 5:00 to see their new digs and go stuff ourselves with some great pizza.

We picked up MK about 5:15, saw their apartment and went to their pizza joint, the Village Host Pizza on Broad Street in San Luis Obispo. We had a ½ Combo (or Ultimate – I can’t remember the exact name) and ½ Hawaiian. It was SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brian, MK & Joe’s son, and Kealoha just returned from their honeymoon and showed up to see us, along with Andrew’s fiancée, Sara. After a great reunion, we returned to the RV park and more paperwork. Will this ever end? I romped the mutt and went to bed early. Claudia stayed up doing paperwork.

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We traveled north to Piedras Blancas for a great two-hour lighthouse tour.

The volunteers have done a great job in restoring and preserving the old light. There were a few elephant seals in a “seal sauna”, a small protected area in the rocks.

Some were sparring and practicing their fighting skills in preparation for the day they have to take on the big boys in order to mate.

The seas were a little rough at the point and some of the offshore rocks were getting pounded pretty good.

This one's better!

After the tour, we headed south to the elephant seal scenic overlook.

There were heaps and gobs of sleeping blubber lying on the beach that occasionally moved slightly to flip sand over their non-svelte torsos for sun protection. I had to borrow four batteries to take this picture. Mine died, so there will be no pics from Hearst Castle unless I can bum some from one of the guests. We saw three more zebras on the way home in amongst the standing beef, none among the ground beef. The evening meal was taken at the Taco Temple, Mexican style food with an Asian twist. Interesting! I had a carnitas burrito that was probably 4” in diameter and 6” long. It was huge!...and, NO, I didn’t finish it. When I felt full, there was no amount of power-eating that would complete the job, so I just stopped and brought half home.

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Today was a slow, scenic drive to the Flying Flags RV Resort in Buellton. The park is one of the nicer ones with all the amenities know to mankind. Unfortunately, our cable TV was not very good and the only tree around was right in our satellite window. I wiggled and jiggled and wriggled the rig to no avail. Hell, we’re always too busy to watch TV anyway. I finished setting up while Claudia put in a load of laundry. I printed up some pictures and the girls went out somewhere to do what girls do when they go out. I heard something about visiting the restaurant where we are having the Farewell Dinner tomorrow night and the Mexican restaurant to order the breakfast burritos for the Hitch-up Breakfast on Saturday morning. I ordered chorizo! Claudia said she would order one. ONE? Only one? Who doesn’t love chorizo? According to her, not many! OK, OK…the rest of you don’t know what you’re missing. Tough!

Tonight is the Adventure Caravans World Series of Beanbag Baseball. Both teams are tied at one win each. The ACWSBB will decide who is the better (or luckier) team.

We all met on the grassy area in front of our motorhome. Tensions were high. This was the real thing…the final game. Everything was on the line…honor, bragging rights, catcalls and snide comments…the whole enchilada. The ladies won the coin toss and led off…with a home run. Crap! They got on a hot streak and were soon ahead by a score of 8 to 1 in the third inning. Things were lookin’ bad! Then the guys got hot and closed the score to 11 to 9. The girls ripped off two more for a big 13! Not to be outdone, the guys scored four big ones and it was 13 to 13 in the bottom of the seventh, the final inning. The first batter threw a single. The second struck out. The third batter ripped a double. The tension was at a fever pitch. One out, bottom of the seventh and two on. “Big Bill” Wethington stepped to the plate. The first pitch…strike one. He took his stance, eyed the board and threw the bag. TRIPLE!!! Two runs in and the men won! What a game! What a series!

After the game, Claudia passed out Halloween gliders and we had a soaring contest for the longest flight. Ed “Water bottle” Davis won with a circuitous flight of about 20 feet. Connie “Single lady” Buckley came in second and Bob “Tall boy” Reagan squeaked by in third place. Fabulous Adventure Caravan prizes were passed out to the winners. The winning pilots were ecstatic over their winnings!

Since it was late, Larry and I treated Claudia and Linda to dinner at Pea Soup Anderson’s. Claudia had soup and salad, Linda had a quesadilla and a milk shake, Larry had split pea soup and a milk shake and I had three Danish sausages in brown onion gravy, red cabbage and buttered red potatoes. OK, OK…and a dish of ice cream for dessert! Beat me!

Tomorrow will be spent exploring and eating our way through Solvang, the Danish town a few miles east of us. Their main claim to fame is the plethora of bakeries and other eateries within their city limits. I have eaten in a few over the years but I must limit my indulgence tomorrow due to the Farewell Dinner later that night. Both Claudia and I ordered calamari.

Saturday morning will be the Hitch-up Breakfast with Hugs & Goodbyes. As I said earlier, we are having breakfast burritos, several juices and coffee. That is the final event. The caravan is over at that point and we can get back to work…again…still…and finish up the paperwork to close out the tour. I doubt it will get done here. For the first time ever, we will probably have to take it all home for a final review before shipping everything off to Texas.

Our plan is to be home on Monday but we have to finish up the trip paperwork, clear out the motorhome, wash it and park it away in the storage yard. Then we get to straighten out the condo. While we were away, it got tented for termites and everything had to be double-bagged and stored away. Now we get to un-bag it and put everything back where it belongs. We should be ready for visitors by next week…LATE next week…VERY late next week!

That’s it! Y’all are caught up, and I’m putting this blog to bed. See y’all whenever!

Sacramento and Columbia

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Today we travelled from the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to the KOA in West Sacramento via the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. That’s it! Nothing else. I am trembling from all the excitement! I would say it was from a sugar high but Claudia and I didn’t go there. Over Gizmo’s most vocal objections, we bypassed the factory and came straight to the RV park. Everyone got parked quickly and we started kickin’ it and getting ready for tomorrow’s tour of Sacramento. Dinner was interrupted by a flock of very noisy geese that flew over the rig…well within shotgun range. I leered and went back to my dinner. I would much prefer roast goose but settled for the half-eaten fried egg sandwich. Stardate RV 101709 We were picked up by the bus and headed for the capitol to pick up our guide. We did a tour of the capitol,



the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial

and the Rose Garden

before driving around the downtown area

Sutter's Fort

Old Town

Sacramento River

We did a tour of the Railroad and History Museums

and returned to the park. As I was walking the Giz, the honkers came back and did another fly-by, again well within shotgun range. Several guests commented about what I was thinking. Claudia made chicken enchiladas for dinner and then promptly fell asleep. I washed the dishes quietly and then…here I am at the computer. Tomorrow is a Free Day. We will be tied up with paperwork, phone calls and laundry. One of these days, I will find out what “free” means.

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Today was another “Free Day”. I guess that means we work for free today! “Work”…that’s what “free” means! Eureka! I FINALLY figured it out! We vacuumed, washed, scrubbed, wiped and cleaned the motorhome while we did the laundry. The laundry hamper was well past the “overflowing” mark so it REALLY needed to be done. Even Giz got sprayed for fleas. The only thing/person/item that was spared was Valentino. He got his water changed a few days ago so he skated today. The weather has turned snotty and cold so my afternoon session of sunbathing in a speedo has been cancelled. I just got a phone call from some of our group that went to Lake Tahoe. It seems they went out on the sightseeing boat and it hit a sandbar and was stuck. Oops! There was a lot of laughter in the background and they said they were getting either free or two-for-one drinks.

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We travelled to the Marble Quarry RV Park in Columbia today. Columbia is in the “Gold Country”, right off Highway 49 (which was named after the 49ers, in case you didn’t know). It’s a tight, rustic park with all back-in parking spaces. It took all my talents to get everyone in without any problems. If I were a cat, I would have used several lives yesterday. After parking everyone, we (the staff) started setting up the Community Room for tonight’s dinner, which was donated and prepared by Linda and Larry.

We had pork tenderloins, ranch beans, salad and ice cream.

The dinner was delicious and greatly appreciated by the guests. THANKS LINDA AND LARRY!

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Today we carpool into Jamestown to see the Railroad Museum and do a hysterical, make that “historical” tour of Jamestown itself. The railroad tour was phenomenal!!!!! We started off at the old Jamestown Station

and then moved to the roundhouse. We saw several cars and engines but the #3 engine, the “Movie Train”, was at the shop getting a re-build. Although the engine was in the shop, they did have the bell.

Another engine on display was a 1922 Shay, which is a geared engine, capable of pulling a log train up a 10% grade

(The maximum grade for a “normal” steam engine is 4%.) The reason for this is that the Shay is geared very low. It’s maximum speed is 15 mph, but it usually runs at about 10. The docent then showed us the turn-of-the-century First Class car, complete with upholstered seats, a stove AND a toilet.

(No holding tanks in those days! It was a plain gravity device.) We also saw the blacksmith shop

where all the tools used to repair the engines were made on-site and several examples of specialized vehicles. The first was the Supervisor’s vehicle,

complete with a steering wheel. The wheel, however, was used to set the front brakes. Turn to the right…brakes on. Turn to the left…release brakes. The foot brake operated only the rear brakes. Then there was a smaller utility vehicle made from three year’s of Ford car parts, 1920-23, I believe.

They also had two hand cars, one a “jawbreaker”,

named so because it would break your jaw if you weren’t paying attention, and a 3-wheeled “skeeter”.

We then went outside to see the “Armstrong Turntable”,

so named because it took 40 strong arms to turn it. It was later retrofitted with an air-powered gearing system that is still powered today using the original riveted air tank.

How that thing holds air, I’ll never know! There was even a portable air tank for jobs away from the main tank or air lines. These old tanks still hold up to 120 pounds of air (which is just enough to air up the tires on the RV). We then went through the movie museum where several old props were on display. One was the front of an “engine” where the front light was a garbage can lid and a camera prop was made of wood.

There was also a display of some of the many signs used to establish the location of the film.

If you know what to look for, the front of the Jamestown Station could be New York, Los Angeles, or whatever place sign was attached to the building as the scene was shot. There were also a few fake smokestacks on display.

These fake stacks were used to turn a more modern oil-burning train into an older-looking steam engine. They even had the remains of the train stack that was blown up in “Back to the Future”. After purchasing a railroad hat pin for my collection, we returned to the park to lead a guest back so they wouldn’t get lost. After returning to the park, we re-returned to Jamestown for a Chinese lunch and some shopping. Most of the stores were closed on Mondays, but also on Tuesdays and even Wednesdays because the tourist season is just about over. We did find an old store with all kinds of “stuff”. I found a really nice six-inch cast-iron frying pan for $7.95…perfect for frying up one extra-large Grade AA egg for a fried egg sandwich. Yum! After my purchase-of-the-day, we re-re-returned to the RV park where Claudia promptly fell asleep while watching some damn medical show about cholesterol. Hell, that would make anyone fall asleep! When she woke up, we got back to work correcting the trip logs, working on the budget and future trip logs.

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Today we did a walking tour of Columbia and got things ready for tomorrow's jaunt to Midpines, the gateway to Yosemite. We just heard the waterfall is flowing. Yahoo, Hot Damn and Whoopee!

Fort Bragg and San Francisco

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We sauntered down to the Skunk Train




in the morning for the 10:00 am trip through the redwoods to Northspur and back. As a bit of trivia, the Skunk Train got its name because one of the mail trains that used to run on the line was powered by a gasoline engine and had a coal heater. It was said you could smell it before you could hear it…hence, the name. As an interesting side note, while we were waiting for the train to depart, a Fish & Game pickup parked nearby with some “evidence” of recent “forest farmers” work.



Anyway, we boarded the train and took off at a heart wrenching 5 mph through Fort Bragg and then slowly increased our speed to 15 mph for the rest of the trip.



We passed several old homesteads

and camps, a thousand year old tree, actually 1,009 years old (it was 1,000 in ’95) and one with a “springboard” in it.

When logging a tree, the loggers cut a notch into the tree about 15-20 feet up from the ground. In this notch, they inserted a 4” x 12” x 6’ redwood board to stand on while they cut the tree down with a cross-cut saw. The reason they did this was that the trunks of the trees were too big for the oxen to pull. By cutting the tree at 15-20 feet, they eliminated the large bases and the trees could then be pulled to the mills.

Our destination was Northspur



where we had a 45-minute stopover for lunch

and the obligatory gift shop. I bought a pin for my collection but passed on the carved bear with the “Welcome” sign hanging from its neck. We brought some sandwiches but the hamburgers smelled great! The barbecue sat next to a great-looking smoker in the shape of a train.

The return trip was almost uneventful. The “event” was seeing a deer! We had not seen any on the way up, so this was something different.

Upon our return to the park, Claudia, Gizmo and I checked out the meeting room for tonight’s travel meeting and game session. Following that, we did our laundry…not Gizmo’s…just Claudia’s and mine. This was a very necessary thing, as I was going to wear my cleanest dirty socks tomorrow. My underwear supply is sufficient for a few more days, but the socks needed a resupply. We battled other laundry patrons and finally got the job done. Somewhere between my socks and Claudia’s panties, we gave a travel briefing in the meeting room next door. This is going to be an “interesting” leg as we didn’t do it and didn’t go to the RV park. We were north of Santa Rosa when the change was made. Ron and Juanita have been doing a masterful job on the log so I suspect all will be fine. I twinge with apprehension though.

My twinging didn’t affect my sleep and I awoke around 7:15. Gizmo flew in to greet me. He has a new trick when it’s time for a romp. As I’m putting my socks on, he alternately pulls on my socks and bites my toes. After finally getting dressed, we headed for the nearest large rock. Giz gave it a “High five” with his right rear leg. (Sorry, no photo. I forgot the camera) We continued on, stopping at almost every rock, patch of grass and tree. So many good spots, so little pee! I then brought him home and finished getting ready to leave. We were scheduled to leave at 9:00 am but several rigs fired up early and took off. The standing rule is that NO ONE is parked prior to my arrival. So, when we arrived, there were about six or so rigs parked alongside a fence with the guests outside kicking pebbles. We met with the camp host who showed me the park layout. We developed a parking plan and I started bringing them into their spots. Again, it went very smoothly.

Claudia did a briefing on the area, on tomorrow’s bus tour and the menu at the Cattlemen’s Club for tomorrow’s dinner. Claudia and I are both having a “western cut” of prime rib. I am assuming that means a BIG piece of meat! The other choices were grilled Atlantic salmon, chicken kabob, ribeye steak and a half rack of ribs. All dinners include a baked potato, seasonal veggies an all-you-can-eat salad bar and coffee or tea. We won’t starve! My one worry at this point in time is a storm that is heading right for us. It seems that a big front from a typhoon over near Japan has us in its sights. This is predicted to join with another storm coming down from the Gulf of Alaska. Does anyone see a movie script in the making? It is supposed to hit Monday night and last all day Tuesday. Right now, winds are predicted to be in the 40-60 mph range with eight to ten inches of rain. Sounds like a frog-strangler to me! If it arrives as predicted, we will be doing a bus tour of the wineries of Napa, a walking tour of Yountville (This was not on my “bucket list”, but does sound semi-interesting) and having dinner on the Napa Valley Wine Train. There is some concern now, as I just heard that jackets are required on the train. Guess what folks…I don’t own one! I don’t think anyone on the trip brought one. Maybe our Adventure Caravans jackets (which are windbreakers) will suffice. The lovely Claudia will call and work things out. I don’t do suave!

Sunday was the first trip into San Francisco. We had a great bus driver, Joel, and a great tour guide, Mike. Both were top notch! Many roads were being closed because it was Fleet Week and a huge computer company was in town for a convention. Mike re-arranged the tour schedule so we got to certain places before they closed the roads on us. We got a fabulous tour of the city, had lunch at “Lefty” O’Doul’s, rode a cable car,


saw the “Painted Ladies”

and drove through Haight-Ashbury.

It couldn’t have gone better. We even saw the Blue Angles. I heard they fly in formation under the Golden Gate Bridge

but we didn’t see that…DAMN! Here’s a nice shot of a mural.

After we dropped Mike off, Joel drove us to Sausalito to see the floating homes, which are true houseboats…homes built on barges, like where Tom Hanks lived in “Sleepless in Seattle”. These weren’t as nice though. Most were almost derelicts.

We returned to the park to freshen up before heading out for dinner at the Cattlemen’s Club.

The next day was our turn to shine. The catalog showed that we were going to Bodega Bay, the Armstrong Redwoods and the Korbel Champagne Cellars but we had no information about it. I worked up a loop trip from the RV park to Bodega Bay and an hour-long stop to explore, or buy, or??? Claudia bought! Following the Bodega Bay stop, we headed north on Hwy. 1 to Arched Rock for photos

and then east on CA-116 to the Korbel Cellars.

We got there right at noon for the noon tour. (When else would you expect a noon tour but at noon?) The timing was perfect! We toured

and tasted



for about an hour and a half and then returned to the RV park. The trip was perfect. I updated the tour log for posterity and posted it in the Wagonmaster’s Log for the trip next year. The rest of the day was paperwork, work, and more paperwork. We are now waiting not too patiently for the storm that’s due tonight.

It started raining in the early evening and rained all night long…not the toad-choker we were expecting, but a good, steady rain nevertheless. We all slogged to the bus where, in honor of our wine tour, Claudia read a wine joke she got from Vicky Parmley, a friend and past guest. It referred to the amount of “poop” in water and made note that there is none in wine or beer, so we should drink wine and talk funny instead of drinking water and be full of poop. After a long, loud laugh, we headed for Mrs. Grossman’s Sticker Factory. Now, a sticker factory didn’t register too high on my “Whoopie-O-Meter” but it was a fun and interesting stop. I had no idea it took so much machinery to make stickers. After a tour of the plant, including a room to do “Sticker Art”,

we headed for Napa to pick up our guide. Since the rain ruined our walking tour of Yountville, we just headed for a restaurant for lunch. The guide knew of a “moderately priced” restaurant that the locals go to and she took us there. Well, “moderately priced” up here is a lot different than “moderately priced” back at home. Claudia and I each had a hamburger, about the cheapest thing on the menu…at $12 (each). They were good, but didn’t compare to a Monsterburger at Angelo’s in Encinitas! After lunch, we headed for the Mumm Napa Champagne Cellars for a tour followed by a tour of the Black Stallion Winery,

a relatively new and very pricey winery. It was now time for the Wine Train!

We pulled into the station, unloaded the bus, and headed for the waiting lounge. Lo and behold, they had a gift shop there too! I bought another pin. We boarded the train

and were ushered to a beautifully restored dining coach. WHOA! It was something to see!

Dinner was served in short order. First was an Hors d’Oeuvre of shrimp, smoked salmon, chicken, several varieties of olives and some green leafy stuff in the center. Next came a baby lettuce salad with candied walnuts and smoked goat cheese in a honey cider vinaigrette. The goat cheese somehow made it to Claudia’s plate…rapidly, before it could spoil the flavor of my salad. We chose a roasted beef tenderloin, accompanied by rosemary potatoes and grilled squash for our main entrée. It was delicious.

After dinner, we retired to another car for dessert.

Two were offered…a crème brulee and a chocolate covered tiramisu. We had one of each and split them. They were extra-good and double-yummy!

The other end of the coach car must have all had extra wine as they were all howling with laughter the whole way back. It was a fun, but very long day.

Today is Wednesday, a Free Day, a Day of Rest, a Quiet Day…yeah, RIGHT! We have several hours of paperwork to do, many phone calls and a couple of outbound emails thrown in for good measure. If there’s no rest for the wicked, we must have been very, very bad this year! Tomorrow is another San Francisco tour with Pier 39 and Alcatraz scheduled as highlights.

Thursday, another rainy day…not real rain, but sort of a light dribble of a drizzle. We were on a tight schedule and the rain didn’t help. We first headed for the Shulz Museum. That’s Shulz, as in Charles Shulz, as in Charley Brown,

Lucy and Snoopy and the Red Baron.

I really enjoyed the tour and the great wit in most of the comic strips he did. After the museum tour, we headed for the Canine Companions for Independence,

a non-profit organization dedicated to providing service animals for the disabled. All the dogs are labs, golden retrievers or a mix of the two. CCI has its own breeding program, training program and support network. A fully-trained dog is worth about $50,000.

We then headed for San Francisco and Pier 39 for a quick look-around and lunch. At 2:00 pm, we lined up for the trip half way across the bay to Alcatraz. We walked all over The Rock”, taking in the cellblocks,

tiny little cells

and supporting buildings. I was surprised to learn that some civilian families of the guards and staff lived there, kids too. After the tour, we came back to the dock, loaded the bus and came home. The fog had rolled in and gave us some spectacular views of the city we are to leave tomorrow.

Crescent City and the Avenue of the Giants

October 4th – We are now in California. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. We stopped at Brookings and put 115 gallons in the tank. OUCH!...but we’re having fun. While I was parking the group, Neil and Terry Zitrin from our Allegro group in San Diego showed up and we had a great reunion for a couple of hours. Since Neil and Terry were going to Bandon, I gave them my crab ring, gauge, gloves and three turkey legs so they could catch some crabs from the Bandon dock. Good luck! The limit is 12 a day Neil.

It’s now Monday and we got ready for a tour of Ocean World. I wasn’t expecting too much but was pleasantly surprised, especially about a certain pirate maiden.



We had an excellent talk about tidepool critters,

especially about sea stars and sea anemones, their defenses and how they work. One of the guests used his tongue to touch an anemone for 20 seconds and allowed it to be stung.

It produced a slight numbing sensation. We then went to the shark tank and some touchy-feely with a leopard and horned shark.



Following the shark encounter, we did the rockfish tank and then went outside for a “show”, more of a behavioral exhibition, with a sea lion and two harbor seals.

All in all, a very good stop.

We then carpooled to the Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center where they rehab sick and injured varmints for release back into the wild, if possible.



It’s a good thing they do. I have been noticing that there are a few too many skinny sharks off our coast lately. It’s nice to add a few more sea lions to the food chain. A good healthy shark population is a good thing!

We then went to Battery Point Lighthouse. Today is beautifully clear with bright blue skies. When Claudia and I were here a few weeks ago, it was foggy and dismal. Today, I got a great photo. After Battery Point, it was off to lunch at the Chart Room by the harbor for some excellent fish & chips. Claudia had a calamari sandwich, also excellent. We then picked up some firewood for tonight’s briefing and social and returned to the park to catch up on paperwork, emails and phone calls. Included in one email was the news that Neil and Terry caught two legal crabs in Bandon and were having them for dinner tonight. There is nothing like fresh crab!


Today was a fabulous day! We all got out of the park between 9:00 and 9:30 and headed for the Trees of Mystery at Klamath.

With my usual spectacular finesse, I maneuvered all the rigs into the south end of the parking lot like a beautiful symphony. Once parked, everyone went for the gondola ride

and then walked through the redwoods, stopping at the carved panels along the paths.

The only problem was that Paul Bunyan’s voice was inoperative and he couldn’t talk to the guests as they arrived. After the visit, we all trickled out for the hour-long drive to the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka via the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, and scenic it was…a beautiful, winding shortcut through more redwoods. Can we ever get enough great scenery…nope! We even saw a few elk, all within an easy rifle shot from the road…not that I would even think of shooting such a beautiful animal with such beautiful brown eyes, delicious backstraps and tasty roasts.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Samoa Cookhouse. The Samoa Cookhouse is an old cookhouse from the lumber heydays. They fed all the lumberjacks for the company in a family-style setting. It is operated that way today…family style and all you can eat. Today we had a vegetable-beef soup, fresh green salad, fresh green beans, barbecued beans, chicken parmesan and a side of pasta, all cooked perfectly. Dessert was strawberry cake. Did I say it was all you could eat? Well it was!

After getting much, much more than our money’s worth, we again headed south toward the Ancient Redwoods RV Park inside the Avenue of the Giants. This was a park that Claudia and I found on our way up the coast. We were exploring and were visiting the adjacent Burl ‘n’ Drift Café and Gift Shop when we were contacted by the Assistant Manager of the park. Even though the park we were scheduled to stay at in Benbow was a very nice park, this one really tripped our triggers, so we told Ron and Juanita about it when we saw them in Eureka. They stopped by, liked it, and made the change. It was the easiest parking job so far. Most sites were pull-thru’s so it was just a matter of bringing the rigs in and directing them into their sites on either side of the road…one left, one right, one left, and so on.

Piece of cake! I have never seen guests so happy with a park as they are with this one. Everyone has a smile on their face!

After parking and settling in, we started setting up for our combination anniversary/birthday party where everyone with a birthday or anniversary during the trip was honored. Claudia and Linda baked a pineapple upside-down cake, a Funfetti cake and cupcakes, all accompanied with ice cream, several jams, syrups and nuts.

We also had balloons and confetti poppers. The party went well into the evening around a Maytag firepit until the cold chased us all back into the warmth of our rigs. Tomorrow is a free day for the guests to explore the Avenue in their cars. Tonight, we will sleep well amongst the giants!

Claudia and I stayed in the rig all day with paperwork and putting out fires…forest fires. We had some big problems which will HOPEFULLY be resolved tomorrow. If they aren’t, we are in deep poop! Later in the afternoon, we quit and got ready for tonight’s festivities which will include a beanbag baseball game where the men will attempt to regain their honor by (hopefully) beating the women who trounced us in the first game last week.

We got started at 5:30 and the men prevailed.

The score was 8 to 2. We then had a travel briefing and I did the presentation on catching and preparing slugs. I started with a dissertation on how to properly skin a slug and then prepare that skin for eating by soaking it in a mixture of yeast (to enlarge it) and cornstarch (to thicken it). Claudia then held up a triangle of crescent roll dough which I referred to as the processed slug skin. I then had three cans of pie filling that had labels of “Bloody, Chunky Guts” (Cherry pie filling), Chunky Banana Slug Guts (apple pie filling) and Blue Guts (blueberry pie filling).

I took a “volunteer” who had previously bet me a dollar she wouldn’t eat one of my slugs and brought her into the middle of the group. I handed her a “skin” and showed her how to wrap it on the slug stick. She then baked the skin over the campfire

and chose to fill it with Blue Guts. I then put a head of whipped cream on it. She handed me a dollar and ate the slug! (She came back later and ate another). I found out that one guest actually believed my story until I brought out the whipped cream. I had told them that I had cut off the heads of the slugs prior to skinning and later put the heads, after pulling off the tentacles, of course (too tough and stringy), into Claudia’s blender to puree the heads before putting them into a pressurized can. I guess that was a little too farfetched for her and she then realized it was all a tall tale…a VERY tall tale. We had a great time. The guests loved it. After everyone had eaten their fill, we packed up, cleaned up, put stuff away, walked the Giz and took a long, hot shower. Tomorrow, Fort Bragg.

Florence, Coos Bay and Gold Beach

Sunday, September 27th

We had a short 47-mile drive today through beautiful winding coastline covered with wind-blown trees. Everything green was bent or sloped to the east. The winds here must be tremendous. Got set up at the park and got everyone parked in short order. The manager here at the park was amazed how easy it went. I told her it was because she was working with the best wagonmaster team Adventure Caravans has. Almost everyone scattered for some sightseeing before going out to the Waterfront Depot for a LEO. This time I had the lamb shank with an outstanding dark brown sauce. Again, delicious. Claudia had the same crab encrusted halibut and it was even better than last week. Back at the rig, we had to eat some of the ice cream stored in the freezer to make room for more food. The top layer of ice cream in any container must be removed regularly to prevent “freezer burn”. One must not waste!

Monday brought the threat of ominous weather. We are facing the possibility of rain for the next few days. Unfortunately, Tuesday looks worse…about an 80% chance of rain. That is the day we are doing a sand dune tour in an open sand buggy. We can only wait and see. We carpooled to the Sea Lion Caves



and the Heceta Head Lighthouse



in the morning. The lighthouse looks MUCH better from a distance. After the tour, we returned home for work. We really need to work ahead on this trip to make sure everything is set up correctly. We had a 5:00 pm social and I brought out the beanbag baseball game. It didn’t take long before everyone was into it big-time! Unfortunately, through the biggest pile of beginner’s luck I have ever seen, the women beat the men 13-3. I went to bed early but was awakened twice by heavy rain.

After the rain, the sky cleared and it looks like we will be going on the sand dunes tour after all. Even Gizmo has extra bounce in his prance this morning! We carpooled down to the dunes at 9:30 and got all set up for the trip. The weather looked a little like rain so, as an afterthought, I put on my caravan windbreaker over my fuzzy caravan jacket. We all loaded the sand buggies and headed out through the trees. When we cleared the trees, there were the dunes!





They were huge and rolling and steep and rolling and very steep and rolling. We started off but shortly stopped at a huge drop-off for some pictures. The sky was getting darker. From where we started the tour, you couldn’t see the sky because of the trees. Now, at the dunes, we saw the sky…and it didn’t look good.



There was one nice, big, beautiful patch of blue up there but, unfortunately, it wasn’t over us. We got hammered! It wasn’t a frog-strangler, not even a gully-washer, but it did soak us pretty good. There was even a little hail mixed in. After the tour, we returned to the rig for a long, hot shower and a change of clothes.

Five of us took off just after noon. What for? Food, of course! This time we went to ICM, the International C-food Market. I had a bowl of chowder and a veggie salad. Claudia had fish & chips and we split the dinners. The chowder was good, better than Mo’s, but not as good as the Chowder Hut. After lunch, we walked around that part of the town. I picked up a leather Western-style hat for $20 and we returned to the park via Dairy Queen for a couple of chocolate dipped ice cream comes.

We met with the group at five o‘clock for a travel briefing with explicit and comprehensive directions on driving the 48.4 miles to the Mill Casino RV Park in Coos Bay. The directions are: “TURN LEFT out of the Pacific Pines RV Park, drive 48.4 miles and TURN LEFT into the Mill Casino RV Park”. I will probably embellish on those directions slightly, just to earn my pay and further establish myself as the amazingly knowledgeable and charismatic leader of this group. After the briefing, we returned to the rig to get some stuff put away in preparation for tomorrow’s journey. I have three geocache locations that are very close to the RV park entered into a GPS unit. I’ll probably search them out tomorrow afternoon after all the chickens have come to roost.

We are now back at the Mill Casino for two nights. We have been here two hours and Claudia hasn’t made it to the casino…yet! She and Linda are out shopping so I’m holding down the fort. We all have beautiful sites, right on the river where tugboats run up and down with barges loaded with whatever. The weather is still 50-50 and we’re hoping it holds. Tomorrow, we lead a carpool to the Myrtlewood Factory and out to Cape Arago via a couple of scenic overlooks. After the tour, I will pick up some oysters for an oyster barbecue.

Thursday, November 1st – The weather couldn’t be better! We carpooled to the Myrtlewood Factory at 10


Turning a bowl


Myrtlewood chest

and then headed for Cape Arago at 11, stopping at the lighthouse overlook, the sea lion overlook (there were about 2500 of the varmints there today-the guests loved it-I was doing a shark dance to get some Great White’s in to play with them) and finally Cape Arago. The weather was great, but no whales. We had lunch and then headed back to the rig. I picked up the bag of oysters at the store (60 oysters for $27.00) and we got ready for tonight’s festivities. On the way home, Larry and Linda had a damn deer jump out in front of them and they drilled it. They weren’t hurt but the car has a screwed up bumper and the hood was tweaked backwards and to one side. What a bummer!

We had a Travel Briefing at 5:00 followed by the oyster barbecue. We had three barbecues going.



Larry and I did the honors. We were magnificent! We got kudo’s from everyone.

For those few non-imbibers, Claudia made her world famous meat balls. Tomorrow, we continue to eat our way down the coast, headed for Gold Beach and an authentic German Octoberfest dinner.

Claudia and I left at 8:30 and semi-boogied (45 mph is a semi-boogie) straight to the park. The drive was beautiful, probably the prettiest so far. It was heavy on the trees and ferns and moss-covered rocks and rocks out in the ocean and beaches and, and, and. We pulled in, got set up and the rigs started arriving. This was a “circle the wagons” type of park in that all our sites were in a circle around a central bunch of sites. Luckily, they dribbled in, as opposed to all showing up at once, and again, due to my masterful ability to direct traffic, all rigs got parked quickly and efficiently without any problems whatsoever. Gizmo got romped several times as Claudia had to do a bunch of walking outside to check things out and he went with her to show her the correct bushes for future walks. After all rigs were in, we got in a little work on the books. We are not caught up, but are getting close.

At 5:00 o’clock, we headed for the Octoberfest room. I grabbed a German beer and listened to the music…a drum and an accordion playing polkas. They started serving at 6:00. We each has some red cabbage, two potato pancakes with plum sauce, a stuffed cabbage roll and a sausage. The cabbage and potato pancakes were outstanding. The rest…so-so. After dinner and some chit-chat, we returned to the rig for more paperwork.

Saturday, October 3rd – We got up about 7:00 and carpooled to Jerry’s Rogue Jets on the Rogue River at 7:45. At 8:00 we loaded the boat.

The Captain was Tim, a Lutheran minister and one of the funniest guys I’ve ever heard. The people at Jerry’s say his congregation is FULL! Anyway, we took off and headed up the river, passing many salmon fishing boats. One lucky guy got a 45# fish.

It was cold, but we all had heavy jackets on so it wasn’t THAT bad. The weather forcasters must have come from San Diego because they forecast rain and it was almost clear blue sky…but still cold. (It was 41.something when we got up this morning) Our first stop was a bald eagle followed by some herons and Canadian geese. We had tall tale after tall tale on the way up that kept us all in stitches. About 11:00ish, we stopped for a fabulous lunch. There was a full buffet for $14.00. They had the most delicious, moist chicken I’ve ever had (I had four pieces), roast pork, green beans, baked beans with sweet onions (delicious!), garlic potatoes with brown gravy, buttermilk biscuits, a full salad bar and several desserts. We waddled out, totally stuffed!

The boat sat much lower in the water on the way back down river. As we started down, the sky got darker and the rain started. It wasn’t too heavy but I was glad to be sitting behind Larry. He’s about 6’ 4” and provided some wonderful protection. About halfway down, we spotted a flock of wild turkeys. Claudia made some snide comment about me probably wanting to blast one with a shotgun. I replied that there was no “probably” at all! They looked delicious. We pulled into the dock at Jerry’s and walked across the parking lot to the gift shop. After the obligatory purchase of a Jerry’s Rogue River Boat Tour hat pin and a couple of not-as-necessary purchases, we came home and prepared for a travel briefing for tomorrow’s jaunt to California and Crescent City. Before we cross the border, we have to fill the fuel tank with Oregon diesel which should be far cheaper than California diesel. We are down under ¼ tank, so, let’s see…1/4 of 150 gallons is about … I’ll probably put about 120 gallons in Godzilla’s tank. Hey kids…there go your Christmas presents!

Tomorrow…back in California.