All Amazon.com purchases made through this link help support this site - thanks!
 |
|
|
|
   |
|||
| >> May 31, 2011 >>> Memorial Day at KOA  Usually I stay home on holidays, but I was able to get a reservation at a KOA on the Sacramento River, with a discount coupon, so off we went. On the way there, we were hit by a swarm of some sort of insects. They dropped out of nowhere and hit us in a series of BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT! The sound was loud & thumpy enough that they had to be decent sized bugs. As fast as it started, it was over, and we were left with a bunch of splats on the windshield. I have no idea what they were - there wasn't enough left of any of them to identify. That was different.I'd only been tent camping at KOAs before and wasn't overly impressed, but this one was really nice: the sites were grassy, shady and reasonably roomy, the restrooms were sparkling clean, they had a fenced-in doggie play area, and the staff were great. We were lucky to get an end spot, not far from this dirt track road to nowhere which was a terrific place for walking & daydreaming. We got there Friday and the campground was about half full, with lots of dogs for Trixie to say hello to, including lots of big ones. Up till now, most of the RV pooches we've met have been small ones. We walked down the levee to a nearby marina/resort restaurant and splurged for dinner, then tucked in out of the tremendous wind and watched kids & tweens run around giggling with the new best friends they'd just met. If you've got kids, KOAs are great places. Otherwise they're guaranteed shower, pool and laundry facilities, and pot luck as far as everything else. Whereas most state & national parks are about getting out there to enjoy nature, KOAs seem to be about getting out there to enjoy your RV.. which is fine with me.  On Saturday there was a constant stream of new arrivals and the park was just about full, including the requisite unleashed dog across from us, but at least this one stayed put with its people. The wind let up for a couple hours in the afternoon, just long enough for a heavy downpour to get all the grounds and grass drenched, highly unsuitable for a hairy-footed dog in a confined space; also not good for the people next to us who'd gone out for the day with their visitors, leaving their entire "outdoor living room" uncovered.. oops. Realize it just does not rain from early spring to fall in this part of the world! It's just so weird this year. Trixie didn't mind though, and tolerated her post-walkies foot rubdowns just fine before deciding she wanted a sleeping bag of her own.The sun dried everything up on Sunday although the wind returned with it. We walked back to the marina restaurant for a beer, and then loaded up to come home early Monday morning. >> May 22, 2011 >>> Back to the eucalyptus Bonus second and equally late post! We went back to Anthony Chabot Regional Park again a couple weeks ago, as it and Mt. Diablo are the only legal camping spots close enough that I don't have to shell out $100 for gas to get there. Also Chabot is a wonderful place to camp, and would be well worth a tank of gas to get to if necessary. This time we had company: Twitter/Facebook/Hamsterwatch pal Julie came up to join us again, and this time she stayed overnight to test out the tent that attaches to her SUV. Since her instruction manual's pages had become glued together, we had to wing it and figure out how to turn the yards & yards of fabric, poles, snaps and straps into something liveable. But we did it, attached its elastic sock onto her car's hatchback, and then she strung white twinkle lights all around the inside - it was so cool! I should taken pics but alas, I didn't. She also brought up a tabletop grill and some Omaha Steaks filet mignons, and we had a fabulous dinner among the trees that was much better than the usual casual & convenience food we usually bring, followed by a blazing bonfire into the night. It was outstanding, a really nice time all around. >> May 22, 2011 >>> Redwoods and confusion  I'm terribly late in posting this due to working too much, still clearing out my dad's place, and old-fashioned procrastination - apologies. Last month we had a hankering to be among redwoods, so we headed north to Mendocino County and Redwoods River RV Park. It was a long drive which was dicey due to $4-plus gas, but a nice one up Highway 101 and the small towns along the way.The park itself was nice with redwood trees throughout (and a few rain-filled potholes), and the sites are smallish but there weren't many people there so we were anything but crowded. The Eel River runs along one side and there's a large, spread out, impressive old growth redwood grove on the grounds. If you've never stood among giant sequoias, you are missing out. They're ancient - hundreds and even thousand of years old, huge in girth and mind-boggling tall, and there's an other-worldly feel to them. The forest floor under them is soft, as their centuries-old decomposition and renewal cycles carry on. The park has a pool and nice playgrounds for summer visitors, but not a lot of activities for cool & damp springtime, but that was ok. We walked through the trees, poked around the little gift shop, rented a movie, and just relaxed. I particularly enjoyed a collection of portable satellite dishes that looked like some weird alien flowerbed.  The next day we walked across the highway to Confusion Hill, one of those kooky optical illusion/scientific anomaly tourist traps, and loved it.They have a train but it was closed till summer, and they have the tallest freestanding redwood chainsaw sculpture in the world - a 40-foot tall totem pole of bears in jammies & undies, a redwood shoe-house, and of course the Gravity House where everything seems to defy the laws of physics, but really it's just built on a wonky angle - or maybe it truly is a scientific mystery as advertised. After all, water does run uphill there.  It's also the home of the elusive chipalope, which is similar to a jackalope but it's a chipmunk/antelope hybrid rather than a jackrabbit. The whole place is a totally cheesy attraction in every way, and utterly delightful.A possible light shower was the worst weather predicted, but it poured in the night and I had to do some fancy poke-and-dodge maneuvers to get all the pooled water off the awning - I was lucky it didn't rip the fabric and cave in.. oops. |
entries latest october/november 2013 ~ brannan island, pinnacles march 2013 ~ capitol reef, arches, moab, donner march 2013 ~ virgin river gorge, zion, bryce, anasazi january 2013 ~ pinnacles, peacocks, omelettes, lassen june 2012 ~ burney falls, death valley, turkeys may 2011 ~ delta, eucalyptus, redwoods march/april 2011 ~ diablo, morgan hill, delta, chabot february 2011 ~ sundial, shasta, river road, delta, olema january 2011 ~ columbia, chabot, diablo, preparations much more to come, hopefully low frills I'm not set up for comments, blogrolls, profiles and the like, but please follow and/or talk to me on Twitter. I'm also on Facebook but it's pretty much focused on my Big Brother site Hamsterwatch, and anyway, I prefer the short attention span aspect of Twitter follow me on Instagram where most of my travel pics show up in a timelier manner than they do here  about me I believe the essence of a person is what counts, and that comes out through words, actions, and creations, not vital stats. Also, since I'll be on my own out there on the open road, I'm not real keen on making myself too visible. Suffice to say I'm a crotchety, intuitive, decrepid old lady who's equally appreciative of life's basics and its complexity. I like unicorns, rainbows and long walks on the beach reality tv, documentaries & unique movies of all types, memorable fiction, being awestruck, and nature's majesty. I do financial transcription work as well as running websites of my own and for a few clients. Serial killers fascinate me. I have an adorable little papillon dog but I only make her wear clothes on special occasions. Or when it's very cold. |
||
|
|||
All content Copyright © 2011-13 EverlastingRoadtrip.com