Redding, CA

 
Monday, September 12, 2011

These past 4 days with Mark and Melissa were the best. After departing from Klamath, CA we headed 190 miles southeast to Redding, CA.

Spice

Sugar

We set up camp in a very well manicured RV park and called Melissa right away. They were expecting us to stay at their house but because of the intense heat, 107 degrees, we needed 50 amps of power to run both air conditioners, for the animals all day. They have 30 amps, which would work fine if it weren’t so damn hot outside. Even with the two air conditioners running 24 hrs a day and set to 65, the trailer never got below 78. It was just that hot.

The very first night we headed over to their home, and once again, they fed us. They live on a 6 acre farm. They have cows, a bull, dogs, cats, horses, and a million and one toys. Mark and Mellissa built this house and designed every room. The kitchen is absolutely amazing. They all love to cook. They have two sinks and the stove is in the center island which is surrounded by stools for everyone to gather together. It is incredibly comfortable.

We got to meet their 7 year old son, Colton, and his nanny, Gloria. Gloria had us in stitches. She fits like a glove in their family. Mark and her banter back and forth and it was hysterical. Colton adores her. We also met, Casey, their oldest daughter, and her boyfriend, Jared. Cody, their eldest son, we already knew from the dunes.

I learned how to make salsa from scratch using marks homegrown tomatoes and tomatillos. I learned that stuffed and deep fried jalapeños are my new favorite snack food, ever! Jared showed me how to core them, and stuff them with cream cheese and Casey taught me how to roll them in corn meal and flower and then deep fry them. The jalapeños were also fresh from the garden. Mmmm mmmmm good!!!!

Most all pictures in this blog will be of food, since that’s all we seem to do was gather in Mellissa’s kitchen everyday. We did other things too but neglected to take pictures. Sorry.

One night mark took me for a walk in his pasture. It was probably a really good thing I had a couple of drinks because I walked up to a bull. No kidding. Not less than 3 feet away. He, I was told, doesn’t like people, so he walked away. I did not give chase! I petted several cows. They were extremely docile. It was pitch dark outside except for mark’s flashlight. I had on sandals and stepped in 3 different cow pies. Again, good thing I had a couple of drinks, lol. After washing my feet off with the hose we went back inside, joined the others, and ate some more jalapeños!!!

Friday morning came quick and mark was off work. Yeah, he could play. He works for the CA DOT. Mellissa is a mathematics teacher. She teaches algebra, calculus, trigonometry, geometry,  and - if need be - simple math - to people like me, who are clueless without a calculator or Excel. Lol

Friday for the most part Mellissa and I spent  doing girlie things. Shopping, manicures, pedicures, and more shopping. That evening Mark grilled ribs for us and yes, we had more jalapeños. . These guys are professional jalapeño eaters. Jared would just pop them in his mouth. No gutting. No cutting. Just ate it like an potato chip. Im not that brave. Dinner was excellent and we had a good time. JR, who we recently met up at the dunes also, came by for dinner along with his wife, Heather

Saturday Tommy and I stayed around camp for most of the day heading over to marks house around 5pm. Much maintenance was needed on the trailer that Tommy took care of for us that morning. Little things like hitches and clasps, but enough of them to where he had a ‘honey do list’.

That evening we all head south to a casino. It was marks 30 yr class reunion. While mark and Mellissa participated in the activities, Tommy and I had dinner in one of the casinos restaurants, called Timbers. It was phenomenal! After dinner, we tried our luck at gambling. Because we were new there they gave us each $15 in play money. Me, being cheap, every time I would win a dollar or even  .50 cents, I would cash out. By the time I ran out of my promo money I had $17.50 to cash out. (You can’t cash out promo money, only the winnings).

I was so excited that I just won $17.50 I went straight to the cage to cash in. Yes, I realize I truly only won $2.50, but they GAVE me $15! On the way there Tommy stopped and picked something up off the floor. It was a $100 bill! Wahoo! Now Im really flying high! I sat down at a card table called Pai Chow. It was confusing at first, but now that I understand it, I like it - a lot! I lost $25 dollars there but had a great time learning the game.

Grandma Cow

King Arthur

We decided to see what was going on in the reunion, so we crashed the party. Hee, hee, we had THE BEST time! Mellissa and I danced and danced. They had a great live band. We didn’t know anyone but Mark and Mellissa but fit right in anyway! Mellissa was our DD. She got us all home safe and sound, not that Tommy, Mark, nor I remember the hour long ride! LOL

Sunday morning came and went. I slept until 1pm. The night before (in our drunken stupor), we had made plans to take a ferry boat to an island and then hike up a mountain to these caverns. It is on Shasta Mountain. The boat left at 1pm and, opps, we missed it! Instead we all vegetated on their living room couch and watched the movie Secretariat! Loved it!

Casey cooking jalapenos

Gloria and Jared

We had dinner with several of their friends last night at a Mexican restaurant, and left today. It was a wonderful visit and I truly hope they come to Florida. We only met them 2 weeks ago and yet we feel as if we’ve known them forever. Wonderful, wonderful people. Great, close knit family. We are extremely grateful to have them as friends.

We are now on the road to Napa, CA. The plan is to spend 2 or 3 days in Napa and then move onto San Francisco for 2 or 3 days. Thanks for reading. Have a great week.

Klamath, CA

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Oregon coast

After leaving Coos Bay, OR we traveling down to CA along the coastal route 101. It is a winding road and overlooks the Pacific Ocean. There are numerous pull offs to stop and take in the beauty of the rocks and waves, along with the birds. If you’re lucky you can spot a whale or two. We did not.

We drove 150 miles south. It took us almost 4 hours. We landed in a town called Klamath; CA. there is a lot to tell about this town. The trials and tribulations it has endured. We were not aware of any of it until we started exploring.

Jet boat ride

the chef at Steelhead Lodge

The campsite we chose was on the Klamath River. When we first pulled in the fog was so thick you could not see the person’s RV next to you, which made enjoying the river impossible. The following morning, just before noon, the fog burned off and we were pleased with our choice.The first night there we were told of this restaurant called Steelhead Lodge. It was extremely challenging to find, we almost gave up, but well worth the effort. It was a normal priced dinner bill - $70, for a nice restaurant. With drinks and tip it made it worth the while. The atmosphere, the service, the locals, and the portions were all wonderful. We ate the leftovers the second night of our stay, the same meal, all leftover. We both ordered ribs, which were cooked over an open fire pit. They were phenomenal. They were huge. Out of the ½ rack on my plate I was only able to scour down 2. Tommy, who ordered a full rack, ate 5 but took home 5. We had a lot of fun with the chef and learned a lot about Klamath there.

bridge that was destroyed in flood

On December 22, 1964 there was a major flood. Not just the rivers overflowing, but the river, the one we were camped on, had water 40 feet ABOVE the banks. It was moving at over 50 mph. At the time, Klamath was fruitful and prosperous. The flood wiped out the entire town. All the houses, all the merchants, all the fish, everything. Since there is a 100 year law written that the land cannot be rebuilt on without another flood happening within the past 100 years, it has diminished. There are tell tale signs all about town where the water levels hit. The river actually wiped out an entire cement built bridge. Very, very sad.

Can you imagine, Thanksgiving is wonderful with your family. Lots of food, lots of thanks, lots of family ties. Then 3 weeks later, boom everything and anything you had worked for all your life is gone in a matter of hours. You can’t ask you neighbors for help because they are experiencing the same situation of devastation. You salvage what you can, grab all of your family members that you can find and just move east. All to start over again.

 

(Not to take away from the people of Klamath, or Texas, or the flooding in the NE, but it’s creepy the way the economy is going that people who worked all their lives to build their homes and accomplish what they have, to also have to start all over because of foreclosures and bankruptcy. Who needs natural disasters to ruin your life?) Okay, enough said! 
This river runs down from Oregon 320 miles and dumps into the Pacific Ocean. It is extremely abundant with fish. Mostly Chinook salmon but it also has steelhead, and cutthroat trout.  Because it dumps in the Pacific it causes (at high tide), brackish water. Brackish water is salt water mixed with fresh water. This makes a great breading ground for the fish and a wonderful playground for sea lions.

The second day there we took a ride on a Jet Boat. It was a blast to say the least! Our captain was hysterical. He educated us along the 45 mile trip and told silly jokes. He stopped to wave at all his buddies along the way that were fishing for salmon. But the best thing he did for us was reverse one motor and thrust the other at the same time. This action threw us in a 360 degree spin. Water went flying, we all shifted in our seats, it was awesome! He did this 6 different times. He also ‘tested’ his ‘brakes’ but reversing both motors at the same time which created a wave to come over the bow. Yes, we got wet. It was the most fun and the best $80 we spent on attractions in a long time. The entire trip was a little over 2 hours long and it is highly recommended if you ever have the opportunity. There wasn’t a person on board that wasn’t grinning from ear to ear!

Tommy preaching to the heathens! lol

Next we drove a while up to The Trees of Mystery. It is a privately owned park that is filled with huge redwoods. They tell the story of Paul Bunon and his blue Ox, Babe. The story is told on carvings along the path way. It is very impressive. There is a lot of talent in these carvings and I hope the pictures express that. At the end of the 1 mile trail they offer a gondola ride. It takes you up 650’ to the crest of the mountain where you can see a bunch of other mountains. They have them all drawn out with explanations and binoculars for you to use, but we, unfortunately, got to the top the same time a family of misbehaving, uncontrollable misfits of a family were there. This made Tommy especially happy! Hee, hee. They kids took over the entire viewing area and the parents said nothing. It was as if the parents weren’t even with the kids. They just went about and did their own thing. It was CRAZY frustrating. If you picked up the binoculars the little boys would stomp their feet and scream at the top of their voices that ‘it was their turn’. We left after 2-3 minutes.

And wouldn’t you know it, on the path back down; here comes this tornado of a kid. His name was Dakota. We know this because mom would yell through the forest, DAKOTA! And then nothing for another minute. She, the mom finally caught up with us and said nothing as to if we saw her child. She just took pictures. The dad was nowhere to be found. As we entered into the gift shop Dakota was there already. This was going to entertaining.

 Kids running wild in a gift shop filled with all kinds of colored rocks to throw around, dainty little things to be broken, we decided to stick around for this one. As we predicted. They ran a muck and the parents just went about their business shopping. Every now and then yelling across the store, ‘where are you boys?”

We left before they eventually must have been kicked out. At the entrance into the park they have tremendous Paul Bunon and Babe, the blue Ox statues. The kids went hog wild on these statues even though the signs clearly say, no climbing! What a joke this family was. But the kicker was, the mom was approximately 23-24, the dad not much older, and the boys 5 and 6. The mom wore  obnoxious Minnie Mouse pajama pants and a spaghetti string tank, and the dad had overly bagging jeans, and a stained tee shirt. The boys had clothes that were obviously way too big for their little bodies. You kind of have to overlook what happened inside the park because at least they did take the boys out even though they were obviously financially challenged. NOT!!! In the parking lot, they climbed into a brand spanking new Escalade!! Isn’t welfare wonderful? It makes ya think, doesn’t it?

Okay, I have been expressing way too many opinions on this blog and will probably reek havoc for it so I'm going to stop now.

  Yesterday, we moved again. Up and over a pass 190 miles south east. We are now in Redding CA where our new friends live. Mark and Melissa, Cody, JR and Rick. We are in a RV park, which we found out is ‘in the hood’ so we will be moving today or tomorrow. We never know what the area is like that we stay in until we pull up. The park we are in is beautifully manicured and the owners wonderful. From what we were told, this is a drug infested area. We will probably move onto Mark and Mellissa’s property. They have a huge house and a lot of land with cows, horses, etc.

The weather is unbelievably hot. 107 for today! YUK!! Ill post our visit with them in a couple of days. For now, I truly wish everyone stays safe over the weekend. Especially in NY. And I hope the 10th anniversary of 9/11 ceremony goes off without a hitch! God Bless America!