H&P South once more 2024-25

 Not very eventful, did see a herd of Elk in Oregon. First night we stayed at Blue Ox RV Park, near Albany, very nice. Big wide sites, lots of shrubs and trees, very tidy. Next was Midway RV Park near Centralia Wash. I was contemplating getting fuel before heading to the RV park but decided to fuel up in the morning. Good thing, they only had overflow parking available and that is only two sites. They park you in the road along side the wash house, power and water is supplied. Another trailer pulled in after us and took the last spot. If I had stopped for fuel, we might have had to move on. We were happy to get this site. The topper is saggy because of the rain, looks nice but it rained most of the night. Next up the drive through Seattle, not my favourite but necessary. Bumper to bumper for awhile but we made it through to Bay View St Pk. We were warned not to let Jack out without a leash when we were here on our way down. As he was anxious to get out, we put his harness on him. I...

It did turn out quite nice, some photos of our site. Top picture, the view from our windows of the Rogue River. The red you can see in the picture is from a very large tree, not sure what kind. It is in bloom, although the heavy rain has not done it any favours. The river came up over three feet during the big rain storm. We drove over to Jacksonville, it has lots of old buildings and historic charm. There was also a jerky place called Gary West meats, one of our favs. Alas, it is no longer there, too bad as it was delicious. Lets drive back to camp through the Applegate Valley. Very scenic, with lots of farms along the way. I did not take any photos but this is our route. Yesterday, we went shopping and had to stop at the Black Bear Diner for lunch. Good as usual, I had meat loaf and Pat had a hot turkey sandwich. No supper for us but ice cream for dessert.   Our last day here, tomorrow we head for upper Oregon, then middle Washington and finally Bayview St Pk. Then back to Canada...

 As you can see from the title, the weather has been nasty. I risked my life to get this photo, well the hail was close to half inch in diameter. I had to run from the house to the trailer to use my camera. The line you can see below, is our trailer step. It got to over two inches thick. The Oak trees in the yard are starting to bud and the hail made a mess of them. Hopefully they will recover. Next morning the hail is still here, the turkey's do not seem to mind. The hail slowly melted and the turkey's came back for their afternoon sweep. These are just outside our door. Saturday's weather was forecast to be a lot milder, so we decided to head north. It got down to 2 C over the passes but no snow, some rain but not heavy. Google maps said it should take five and a half hours to go from Linda's place to Valley of the Rogue St Pk. Ha, it took us seven, a very long day for us. We were glad we did, as it poured rain all night and all day Sunday. Today is quite bright and ...

 We drove the back rods from Patterson to Placerville. A great drive, hilly, windy and very scenic, my kind of road. This is more or less our route, the grey part at the bottom should be blue. The day we arrived here, it was beautiful. Sunny and warm, we sat outside enjoying the weather and company. Then the weather changed, wind, rain and cold. The wind finally quit but the rain continues. Yesterday, Pat and Linda went to Costco and a huge guilt store, the biggest Pat has seen. She said it was a good thing we don't have anything like that at home.  As our engine is new, I went and got the oil changed, as well as a new air filter. It was new when we left but all the dust in the desert and from getting stuck, it was filthy. The weather does not seam to worry the deer or the turkeys, they still wander through the yard every day. No pictures of the deer yet but here are some turkeys. I used Pat's phone for these, so not the best. I left my camera in the truck.😕 We will be here f...

 From Sawtooth Canyon to Bakersfield, you go over Tehachapi Pass. It is very scenic and beautiful area, one of our favourite drives. Once again, we stayed the night at Orange Grove in Bakersfield. Oranges are all done for the year, still pretty with all the trees though. Next up was Patterson, a PA RV Resort, half price, awesome. Seemed like a long drive to get here, our nav took us a weird route to get to the I5. Once here and set up, we went to town to find Pat a hair dresser Great Clips it was. Next day we drove south on I130.  We went as far as Mt. Hamilton before heading back. This is a very beautiful canyon, mostly up hill till we turned around. Other than a couple of spots that were trying to slough off into the creek, the road is good but windy. A very nice afternoon indeed. Mar 10th, Pat did some shopping and I did some maintenance on the trailer, then sat in the sun for a while and read.   Off to Placerville  today.  

 Yup, snow. Last night around 5:00pm, didn't last long but it was cold. Hard to tell in the picture but it was coming down pretty good.  Sunny, windy and cold this morning, time to go.

  Before we left Joshua Nat. Pk. we took a drive to Cottonwood Spring. A very scenic and pretty spot. An oasis of sorts. Not much wind here but there sure was back at camp. Time to move. We stopped at Sawtooth Canyon on our way down, nice spot but cold. It was beautiful and calm the first day, Mar 3rd, not so much now. We did go to Barstow, bigger town we thought. Did laundry, got fuel, propane and groceries. We cannot use our washing machine when dry camping. Jack enjoying the nicer weather. We did get to go for a nice walk, here are some photos of the area. They do a lot of rock climbing here. There is a formation outside our door with a big crack in the rock. Looking from the trailer and from the back side. Our trailer is just on the other side of these rocks. Our campsite. This was our welcoming the day we got here. Yup, hail, and it stuck around, did I say it was cold? Want more of Jack? Here you go. Yesterday, March 5th, it rained most of the day, albeit not hard. It is very ...

After getting stuck while looking for the perfect campsite, the truck was filthy, so off to find a car wash. Consulting Google, we found one down in Coachella. We decided to take the Box Canyon Rd to Mecca, then on to Coachella. The layers and rock striations in this canyon are incredible. Some pictures but they don't do it justice. We found the Quick Quack Car wash, then on to Walmart. This is the first Walmart that I have seen that is just groceries. Very nice. Pat bought more oranges at a road side vendor and a huge container of fruit cocktail, he made it on the spot, yum. Back to the BLM Our site. As you can see, the weather has changed, cloudy and windy, still warm though. Feb. 28th we drove through Joshua Nat. Pk to 29 Palms. there are lots of campgrounds in the park but you would be hard pressed to get a site big enough to fit any kind of trailer, let alone one our size. It is beautiful though.  A close up of a Ocotilla in leaf and it's flower. Most of the time there are...