Day 7 - Crescent City, CA - A Tale of Two Campsites

I did not nag. In fact, I was content. ::snort:: However, it became apparent that our trailer is not set up for "real" camping. The fridge quit working. I have no clue why....but it wouldn't cool. The battery totally died yesterday. We charged it with the van and it died again BEFORE bedtime....no lights, furnace, fridge, water pump.....not a big deal when we packed for camping....but we have no warm blankets, no coolers for food, no containers to haul water.....and so...

Mike went and checked the horse pasture. They had room. They give a military discount. We are set. They ALSO have coin showers...but we have water hooked up to the trailer so we can shower that way.

Our first campsite was gorgeous....

Our second site is also in a very pretty setting. We have a field for Frisbee behind the trailer, you can see the ring of mountains...all in all a very nice horse pasture it is. ::snort:: We are chuckling at how our views have changed...from "gee WHIZ can't they even get along without their electric for a weekend" to "OK - let's camp in the horse pasture!". ::snort:: Really, it all comes back to how you are packed. This has convinced us to keep one of our tents, one of our solar showers and such. Look how close our slide out is to the concrete divider.

The younger four love these dogs that are across the field. The dog was better at Frisbee than the children. ::snort::

Day 6 - Crescent City, CA - 20 June 2007

Quote of the day: Goes to Stacia. Jared was taking his shoe off. She loves to help the big kids take their shoes off. She has a shoe thing. She pulled his shoe off....took a whiff, noticed his socks were wet and said....."Ew.....YUCK!"

Nolan spent the night throwing up. And he did the same all day yesterday (Wed).

The other children spent the afternoon swimming and playing in the river. Mike and all the children but Nolan and I had a BBQ at his parents.

Some photos from the River - Think most of them are from Tuesday.

Ah Ha - finally a view from my window....Or at least from Mom and Dad G's window. ::snort:: (Dad G, Mike and Stacia)

Building a canal - all the kids have tried to divert this river...have photos of the oldest 3 doing this very thing in this very spot. Mom and Dad G's house sits right at the edge of a "cliff" that goes to the river.....here is the house looking up the path...

Photos - from Day 5

I have a connection - there is none in the State park. Mike is buying milk and I'm trying to load a few photos....more coming.... (lost the connection and went back to the state park - we've moved sites and I'll update later.)

Breakfast this a.m. in K Falls. We needed to eat all our fruit up before entering CA. Yum....

Better scenery today ::snort::

Gas at Grants Pass, OR

Trees

Our Site at Jed Smith - close fit

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Ladies, I'd been feeling bad that I didn't get a book given away for the summer reading challenge before we left. BUT Trish is also volunteering some books. Below is a note left in the comment section - I thought I'd post it here so all can see.

Basically, go on over to her blog (because I'm not home!) and comment if you want to be considered for the drawing.

~*~*~*
D ~ if anyone wants to win a copy of The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace to add to their Summer Reading Challenge list, I'll be giving one away on my blog. Sign up between today (June 20) and June 27 ~ I'll draw a name on the 27th and send the winner a brand new copy of The Excellent Wife ~ it even includes a cool bookmark! :)

Day 5 - Klamath Falls, OR - Crescent City, CA

Motor Lotto - Jared is the winner today. That makes our grand total so far Zander 1, Arielle 1, Jared 1, and ME - TWO! I’m gonna take it all guys!

Quote of the Day: Jared: “Why are there so many hitchhikers here? Is there a prison nearby?” ::snort:: To which Mike replied, “No, we’re in the land of hippies” exactly as we passed an aging hippie napping in the trees.

We made it! The scenery on this day of the trip is breathtaking! It’s really spectacular. The nice thing about pulling the trailer is that Mike has to go a bit slower than he is used to….none of us got car sick. ::snort::

We are really camping now. I was told that there were showers, we wouldn’t have sewer, but would have water and electric. Guess what? We have nothing at the site. Mike and the boys went scouting and found a faucet to fill our water tanks. We’ve never used the battery; Mike says this will be a good trial run to see how long it will stay charged. The SHOWERS are COIN OPERATED. They neglected to tell me that. I’m feeling snookered, but I‘m determined to quit feeling snookered and to feel adventurous…and to choose joy! We had reservations at an RV park up the hwy….but I thought this was way cheaper…yeah …well…..The site is beautiful. Lush. When I told Mike about the reservations at the RV park he remembered it as a horse pasture and took offense at camping in a horse pasture. ::snort:: This really is GORGEOUS and if we can figure out how to charge our techie toys and iron our clothes for the big party, we’ll be o.k. YIKES - the new toaster will get NO USE without electricity. Guess we’ll have to make our toast over an open fire.

It was a tight squeeze to get us in here…but we fit. We had to park the van at the visitor center….They assured me it would fit in our site. I don’t think the gal I talked to had a concept of either the size of the trailer or the van. She certainly lied to me about the water/ electric. I am learning from this trip to GET NAMES each and EVERY time I make a reservation etc. ::snort::

Mike is excited. His grandparents lived here. His mother was raised here. He was raised here. We’ve brought our children here, often, to visit. They will bring their children here. This is HOME for him. While I don’t have a location to call HOME - he does. It is thrilling for him to be here. Zander and Stacia will meet Grandma and Grandpa G for the first time. Actually, Zander met them in AK - but he was 2 and doesn’t remember. We are here to celebrate Mary and Earl’s 50th wedding anniversary. I am excited to see them too. I’ve not seen them in 5 years. These next 5 days are going to be a wonderful time of relaxing and reconnecting. It is also going to be a hoot to introduce Zander to swimming in the Smith River.

Mike used to work at this state park. He says it’s “not the park I remember”. There are little lectures posted everywhere about conservation and such…which is why we have to pay .50 for a 4 min shower, why we no longer have water or electric, and why we should take our recycling home with us.

Mike and the children have run to his parents home. All but Stacia and I. She woke while they were setting up and was saying “hurt, hurt” and fell back to sleep. I’ll call them to come get me when she wakes up. I’m blessed that there is a pay phone at the visitor center as we have no cell service while in the park. I didn’t want her to debut with her grandparents to be when she is screaming and fussing!

We are all in awe of the beauty here. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to post updates - but I’ll keep writing…because most of all I write to create a family record. Beth, friend of my heart, sister friend of mine….I’m not sure you’re reading but I’m going to say this now…the children have been talking about my adventures with Chipper the Bear last time your family and our family camped here. ::snort::

Later - Stacia woke - we went and visited Mom and Dad....will post photos next time I can find a connection and have time to sit. Read Phil 4 - "let your gentle spirit be known to all men" and realized my spirit this afternoon when discovering the bare sites was abrasive....don't have time to read this - but know that I no longer am irked. LOL

Spring Reading Thing - Conclusion....

Yep, I'm going to call it quits. I didn't sign up in time to be eligible for a prize, but I wanted to go ahead and share my thoughts.

Thank you to Katrina for hosting the challenge.

I set a goal to read a few 1/2 finished book and to make progress through the stacks I've been collecting from PBS. Having the challenge kept me reaching for a variety of books instead of magazines. I guess that's good? ::snort:: I have a few biographies that I'll move to the Summer list. I'll also move a few fiction that didn't get completed because I added all the Yada Yada and Nursery Crime books. LOL

Here's the list of books I completed:

The 7 pillars of Health - Don Colbert, MD

Baby Catcher - Chronicles of a Modern Midwife - Peggy Vincent

The Age of Opportunity - Paul David Tripp

Teaching the Trivium - Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

Fragments of Isabella - Isabella Leitner

Saving the Fragments - Isabella Leitner

Nicholas & Alexandra - Robert Massie

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Michael Van Dyke

Midwives - Chris Bohjalian

The King of Reid - Jamin G

Yada, Yada Prayer Group Get's Down - Neta Jackson

Nursery Crimes - Ayelet Waldman

A Playdate with Death - Ayelet Waldman

The Big Nap - Ayelet Waldman

Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith

Morality for Beautiful Girls - AM Smith

Yada Yada Prayer Group - Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real - Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough - Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught - Neta Jackson

I wanted to add a visual before and after photo of my stack...but the photo didn't get taken before we left on our vacation.

Day 4 - Angel Lake, NV - Klamath Falls, OR

Moto Lotto winner - Zander! We all over guessed based on our interstate driving yesterday. He guessed 10.
Quotes of the Day: While driving in the middle of absolutely NOTHING - see photos below - "Are we camping HERE?"
Zander - "Hey - mom! Look!!! Mountain cows!" (We'd pointed out mountain goats and so when he saw cows grazing on the side of a mountain as we came into OR....)

Yes...we got a late start. We went here.....

Because of this (x 4). We called the dealership where we bought the trailer and they didn't want us to buy tires until we got to an RV dealer. We were in Elko,NV and didn't want to drive over the passes on these tires. We called the MAIN dealer...."Oh - we've recalled those tires!" Argh. They HAD our trailer for TWO MONTHS fixing a slide out/carpet issue and we could have had it done then. BUT it worked out better.....we got radial tires instead of whatever it was they would replace them with. They'll give us $80 per tire...we paid the difference.

While the trailer was in the shop we went here.....

(Umm....Mcdonalds has salads and fruit but they have gotten our order REALLY wrong the last three times). This McDonalds had a GIANT play structure, air hockey, play stations, and basketball. The youngers were in heaven.

This is the highest price we've seen on the trip. Elko, NV. Wow - casinos everywhere. We didn't buy it here - we went here.... $3.23

And I went and bought REAL FOOD (or as near real as I could find). I'm really CRAVING a GREAT HARVEST bakery so I can buy REAL bread. I may have to make bread in the trailer before this is over.

We finally got on the road and headed out. Lunch found us at McD again - Cy this photo is for YOU - maybe you should print it and show it to TimO. ::snort::This was another "scenic" day - we didn't do the interstate so we didn't travel as fast as we could have. We saw a lot of this. (Yes, my family has explained to me what will happen if the airbag engages.....)

The road out of Denio, NV to Lakeside, OR is wild...steep, and nothing out there....nothing as far as you can see. It's like being on the alcan though the road was nicer. ::snort:: I told Mike that at least in TX when the scenery was this stark there would be cows, windmills, and oil derricks. We used to think it was the ugliest spot in America; we've since left the Pacific NW and know this is not true...but it is bleak! ::snort::

I kept seeing signs with donkeys on them. This led to speculation as to the purpose of the signs...then we began to see WILD DONKEYS.....here's a photo - the digital zoom sort of wonks out the photo....I may need to get out the Nikon - we are noticing the photos are washed out - but it is so easy to use. LOL We also saw antelope and deer.
After hours of this nothingness we began our descent.....whew....that was a new experience with a trailer chasing you. ::snort::
We arrived in the Land of My Birth - OR. There is simply something magical about the pacific NW. It's gorgeous. The little ones couldn't stop talking about the "jungle". We've lived in pretty wide open spots since they've been old enough to really remember. Prices below are from Winemucca, NV.
We are seeing too much of this. ::snort:: Lakeview, OR
Arrived at KOA at 9:00 pm - THIS IS NOT CAMPING....wow! The pool is closed because folks were throwing their cigarette butts into the pool. People packed in like sardines....packs of youth running everywhere...but tomorrow we'll be at Jedidiah State Park and THAT is camping. LOL We're kinda long....