Epilogue

 

Epilogue:  Sept 25, 2025  What were we thinking…

In our previous episode…

I left you as we descended on the Elks in Nevada City.  We were the only rig there, and we got the ONLY site with a sewer hookup.  And it was in the trees, very shady.  PERFECT.  But Rudy…  he smells danger and does not want to explore much. 

We spent a couple of days visiting Sue – our friend of over 40 years!  Sue’s friends Bonnie and Phil were there.  We have known Bonnie (thru Sue) for about 40 years so this was great timing!

When we left Sue’s, we headed south on Hwy 49.  We decided to stay on 49 all the way down to Ione, to visit our nephew Crew and his wife Sunny.  WHAT WERE WE THINKING?  We have taking hwy 49 north, an we knew it was windy.  But south?   It is more windy!  And with road construction, we were crawling and holding our breath.  We vowed that if we were to come this way again, we would take the main highways, even though it’s a bit longer of a route. 

We are able to park in Crew’s driveway.  Crew is our great nephew, but he was also one of our foster kids.  He is now a CHP officer.  Sunny is in her 7 month of pregnancy.  We made tacos (Crew’s favorite) one night.  Sunny made pho (she is hmong, which is closely related to Vietnamese).  We loved on their 10 week old german shepherd puppies.

The first thing Crew said to us when he saw us… ‘Do you know there is no tread on the tires of your truck?’.  UGH…  Spouse knew we were going to need new tires when we got back…  I would have done better being fat, dumb and happy.  Now I have something to worry about…

On the Saturday, we made the drive all the way home – almost 400 miles.  That is a long way when towing, but we were home by about 5:30. 

When you are gone for 7 weeks, there is SO much to do when you get back…  UGH…  Rudy is happy to be back!  MEOW!

Monday, September 15, 2025 Blog Lite

 

Monday, September 15, 2025  Blog Lite      

Today, we are leaving to visit friends in Grass Valley.  I won’t be blogging much, as there won’t be much to say.  Well, maybe a little…

Spouse, when the sign says slow to 5MPH, SLOW DOWN!

And did you know that when a container with about an ounce of Amaretto falls over, it grows by several ounces?  And it is sticky?  How can so little make such a mess?

Sunday, September 14, 2025 Biking Redding

 

Sunday, September 14, 2025  The Bike Ride

Sometimes, I will be sleeping and my humans run machines that make all this noise.  I don’t like them.  I leave.

This morning, we readied the bikes, which really needed cleaning up, then headed to the bike trail.  This Elks is right on the Sacramento River.  The bike/walking trail is right behind the Elks, and spans a whole lot of miles along the river.  It is easy access for us as we decided to head towards Shasta.

This is one of the ‘rails to trails’ railroad conversion trails.  The ride to Shasta is about 15 miles.  Outside of the first mile which passes a few homes, it is nature all the way.  On one side of the river, it is mountains with pines all the way to the water.  The water looks green due to the reflection.  On our side of the river, there are pines, oaks, sycamores and loads of manzanita, with their gnarly red limbs.  Some amazing specimens there!   The trail crosses the river on the bike bridge, then passes the Keswick dam.  This is how far we have come before, but now we will continue. 

Twists and turns, and not a lot of people.  It is really quite pretty.  Because it was once a railroad, the grades are not severe.  The ups and downs are quite gentle.  But there are lots of curves.  I had to be careful not to go too fast as it would be easy to lose control.  We ultimately made it to the Shasta Campground.  It is another 1.5 miles up to the dam on surface roads.  We chose to head back.  I can tell when Spouse’s crotch is done…  he ups the pedal assist!  It was a lot quicker getting back…

Now… the rest of the day is to relax…  I can do that…

Saturday, September 13, 2025 Another Fine Predicament

Saturday, September 13, 2025 Another Predicament

I really like it here.  There is so much to sniff.  I can eat things and throw up.  I can roll.  There are little critters.  This is the best!

Brrr, it was cold this morning.  Spouse slept in some, and I didn’t rush a walk.  It was warm and toasty inside… no need to hurry.  Eventually, we did get moving.  This is a rustic area, very woodsy.  We found a trail to the Williamson River.  Pretty.  We found a trail that would take us to the Collier campground.  So off we went.  It is a woodsy trail that follows the river.  We see lots of deer hoof prints, but we don’t see the deer.  Could be something about hunting season… or not!  There is hardly anybody around.  It is evident that a forest fire swept through the area.  That is why the neighboring Collier state park is closed for the 2025 season.  We notice that we don’t hear any birds, or see any small critter life.  It’s kind of ‘twilight zone-ish!’.

We took our time.  We got back, made breakfast and we didn’t get ready to leave till about 11:30, which is pretty late for us.  We headed south on hwy 97.  Of course… we fueled up before we left Oregon.  Spouse was elated to refill our 10 gallon propane tank for under $20. 

As we cross into California, forest fire devastation is everywhere.  Actually, I shouldn’t call it devastation as fires actually help the forest regenerate.  But for now… a bunch of black sticks are coming out of the ground.

We head to Mt. Shasta.  Spouse heard of a campground here… Well, maybe it was here.  He is not sure which city, what the name of the park might be, or if it is an RV park or campground or anything else for that matter.  I guess he thinks I am going to whip it up out my butt…   Checking our GPS, she shows an RV resort.  We are always leary of RV resorts, as they are usually pricey, with services we don’t use.  Yup, this one fit the bill, so we saw something the Crystal Lake campground.  Hmmm…. Let’s check this one out.  What could go wrong…

We head up the road, and turn, then up, then down. 8 miles through the mountains.  We finally get to the entrance to the campground, and naw…  Don’t EVEN think of turning down that road!  I told Spouse I would walk down the road to see if it was safe to turn down.  It was a narrow, bumpy road, and the campground was small, suitable for tents, but not for RV’s of any size.  This means we need to turn around.  This is a predicament…   Let’s head up the road. Surely there is a place to turnaround…  Or not…  The road ends at Crystal Lake, which is beautiful… but there is nowhere for us to turn around with all the cars that are parked.  Really?  As we contemplate our predicament, two cars that were parked left the area.  That means there was an opening that if we back up just right, we can turn.  We had to be careful going off the pavement as there was a significant dip.  Spouse drove, I directed.  Both of us are totally stressed, but we had just enough clearance to not ruin our bike rack, or any pieces of the rig.  Rudy yawned.   Usually, we find a gem of a campground by just winging it like this.  But this was a huge pain in the behind adventure! 

You know… let’s just head to the Elks in Redding.  It’s a great location and we can do a bike ride tomorrow.  And we will have electricity, which means air conditioning.  Yes… right decision.

Friday, September 12, 2025 Going South

 

Friday, September 12, 2025 Going south   

I started to throw up and my human picked me up and dropped me on the stairs.  I flipped over, all while trying to throw up.  It wasn’t fun.

I got an early start on my walk this morning, just by myself.  I headed right to the back road we found yesterday.  I stopped at the house with all the mini pears on the ground and picked up a few.  Two horses were staring at me with those long beautiful faces… they each got a pear.  I will pick more up on the way back.

This back road is gorgeous.  A stream runs on one side, with the volcanic mountains in the back.  Cattle graze, horses roam.  I seem to be the only human activity.  I pass another house with a huge garden that they use to provide for their farm stand.  It was too early for them to be open, but it looks like they have a good supply.  The road gently curves.  I could go on for miles, but I turn around and head back.  I pick up a few more mini pears, then I see Kathy feeding a couple of other horses some of the pears.  Those horses know how to play us humans!

Back at camp, we readied Artie, and parted ways with Brian and Kathy.  They headed north, we headed west toward the city of Bend.  We pass through picture gorge, which is a narrow, rocky pass.  The road is rural not busy.  It is scenic for the first 75 miles or so.  Then we get the first whiff of smoke.  There was a sign warning about the forest fire, so it wasn’t unexpected.  Another whiff, and a bit of a haze, but it never got bad.

When we got to Bend, we went to Costco to fuel up.  I am doing a separate post on this adventure so you can understand what I go through every time we fuel up!

After Costco, we headed south on hwy 97 (after a brief fight with our GPS).  There is lots of dispersed camping in the national forests.  You can pull over anywhere basically and camp.  It can be tricky though.  You can get yourself into predicaments where you are on a road that is really rough, or where you can’t turn around.  When we were in Colorado once, we checked out a few of the areas that allowed dispersed camping.  We were very thankful that we were not towing when we explored.  We would have been in a world of hurt!  So although there is the appeal to explore, we held off till we stumbled on the Williamson River campground.  We are about 40 miles north of Klamath Falls.  The campground is on a bumpy back road, and it is first come, first served.  We have a beautiful woodsy site with a fire ring.  The temperature is mild, so this is perfect. 

By the way, as we passed some of the roads we could have boondocked on, I was thankful we didn’t turn on them…

Doug's Diesel Dilemma Dance

 

Doug’s Diesel Dilemma Dance

I thought I would do a separate post on just what I go through to fuel the truck.

My philosophy is to fuel up whenever we are disconnected, because it is easier to maneuver.  And for me… pull into a gas station, fuel up, then leave.  Easy?

Ok, for Spouse…

One way to get gas:  Check Gas Buddy for the cheapest price.  Spend $10 getting to the station to save $3.

Yesterday, on our way to John Day, Spouse saw a gas station with diesel at $4.19.  That was etched in Spouse’s brain.  We are in the town of Mt. Vernon, about 9 miles before John Day.  We go to John Day and do our thing.  There are a few gas stations there, all with diesel at $4.35.  But no… too easy… Spouse has to get it at $4.19.  So on our way back, we stop… the station looks open but it isn’t.  Now, we are away from the stations in John Day, but there was one other station here… at $4.64.  Wanna watch Spouse blow a gasket????  He couldn’t bring himself to fill it up.  He got $50 worth, which means we have to deal with this again tomorrow when we leave.  Drives me crazy…

Soooo, by the time we get to Bend, we need to fill up again.  Gas Buddy (I hate that app) said Costco was the best so we head that way.  (I hate fueling at Costco as it is too busy for me). The freeway signs were terrible.  We turned a second before we should have, but there was a station with the same price as Costco, so why not.  Right?  I will tell you why not…  it is bio diesel, and there is no easy turnaround.  Fortunately, nobody else was there so we were able to maneuver.

Now… on to Costco – My premonition comes true… Ninety percent of the population of Bend is trying to fuel up at Costco.  Another wrong turn, we had to go around again…. Towing… with gazillions of people… It was painful… so painful…  We had to watch the overhead pavilion.  It was 13’6”.  We are 13’4”… But our tank is now full… but Spouse will want to fill up before we leave Oregon, so we can save $5…  and the cycle repeats itself!

To give you another idea of how Spouse thinks.  If you were to mention to me Podunk, USA, I would tell you about the pretty building in front of the park with the stream.  Spouse would tell you about the gas price at the Exxon station.  He can’t help himself!

The EASY button just does not exist for him… 

Thursday, September 11, 2025 John Day Fossil Beds

 

Thursday, September 11, 2025 John Day Fossil Beds

There is lots of grass for me here.  But my humans won’t let me roam, so I stay near.  It smells good until a dog comes by.  Why do they have to ruin everything?

Kathy joined me on my morning walk.  We walked the streets, exploring.  There was an old Victorian house that I dared to walk into to check out.  I am surprised I didn’t fall through the floor!  We walked past the city hall (about the size of dollhouse), then we found a street that let took us past Aspen’s house.  Aspen puts out fresh eggs, and she bakes daily.  The baking won’t be done till later, so we have to wait for that, but we did buy some eggs before we left the area. 

It is rural, and there are a whole lot of fruit trees.  Mini pears are littered on the ground, as are apples and peaches.  We scavenge a few because we just can’t help ourselves.  The entire town is old, but this back street has a bit of charm.  There are so many gardens in people’s yards.  It was fun to look.  I will do more here tomorrow.

When we got back, we gathered Brian and Spouse and walked to the local café for breakfast.  It is a cute place with home cooking and a very funny server.  I asked his name, he said I forgot… Therefore, that is what we called him: I Forgot.  We all had fun with it.

We decided to go to the John Day Fossil beds, about 8 miles up the road.  The area, at one time was tropical.  But volcanoes and floods, then more volcanoes and more floods changed the topography and wiped out the critter population.  But they still find fossils and have them on display.  Plants, insects, eggs, and mammal like critters are there for the viewing.  I don’t know how they can tell a rat skull from a rock, but somehow, they do.  Or they are yanking our chains!

We did a hike back on one of the interpretive trails.  Here the mountain is green claystone.  It is soft and I can’t believe these mountains stand up to the weather.  When it rains, the water runs off carrying some of the claystone, and the creeks are a pretty shade of green.  You can chip away using your fingernail.  But, these mountains have been here a gazillion years, and probably will be here another gazillion year.  You are not supposed to take anything from the area, so Kathy and I made sure we didn’t take any rocks…

While I could go into the ‘Doug Diesel Dance Dilemma’ here, I think I will do a post strictly on what it is like fueling up the truck.

We checked out the town of John Day.  It is odd.  John Day was a trapper in the area way back when, up the river from here.  He was robbed, including his clothes.  So people always referred to the area as the John Day river, citing the incident.  He never did come to the actual area of John Day though.   The town of John Day actually has people and activity.  It even has a real nice grocery store (Chesters). 

On our way back, we stopped by to see if Aspen had any baked goods… they were all gone.  Darn it!

Rummikube:  I won 2 games, Spouse 1, Kathy 1.  Brian was on the outside looking in.  Tomorrow we go our separate ways.