Traveling from Red Bluff, CA to Canyonville, OR



Saturday – April 30, 2011

I didn’t sleep well last night because I was up at 3:30am working on this blog. I finally went back to bed at 5:00. When Kenny and Kula got up they were oh so quiet and let me sleep in. I finally woke up at 8:40 which is about two hours later than I usually get up. Kenny had the coffee ready, so we enjoyed a cup together and started getting the motorhome ready to take off. We left Durango RV Resort in Red Bluff at around 10:30am.

Before we knew it, we were up in the mountains. We could see Mt. Shasta towering above the trees for several miles. I tried to take several pictures through the front window. We stopped on the north end of Lake Shasta and had breakfast. The drive to Canyonville was uneventful, and so very beautiful. 

We arrived in Canyonville about 3:00pm. We fueled up and drove to the 7 Feathers RV Resort. Kenny made a reservation, so when we checked in he saw that the resort was on a reservation (Umpqua Indians). He showed them his membership card and they gave him an $11/night discount. Whoo hoo!

We went to our campsite #84. What a beautiful campground and campsite, trees everywhere. These beautiful red rhododendron flower bushes lined the rows of the campground. We BBQed chicken and enjoyed our dinner sitting outside.  The casino is about two miles away, so about every 10 min. a shuttle comes by and will take you there and bring you right back to your campsite. We weren’t interested in going to the casino. After dinner, we walked down to the hot tub so we could relax, soak away our aches and pains. Joyce even did some of her water aerobics…Another wonderful day on the road.

Lake Shasta

Our Campsite #84

 Beautiful rhododendrum bushes


7 Feathers RV Resort

 

Red Bluff, California

Friday, April 29, 2011 – Red Bluff, California

We stayed around this morning waiting for Ralph (the RV guy) to come by. But, he was running late, so we went up to the club house where Dave the “Hot Dog” guy was serving hot dogs. Well, I don’t eat hot dogs, but I thought he made a special effort to come to the resort and cook them for the guests, we should have one. Ralph finally came by and it didn’t take him long to find out what the problem was…Kenny was right, it was the ignition switch. Apparently, just before we got to Red Bluff, we went over a “big” pot hole and jarred it loose. Ralph fixed it and also found a loose battery cable  and only charged us $105…could have been much worse. We felt we got off light considering how bad it could have been.

Went for a tour of the town, looking for an Auto Parts store for a “California Duster.” Came back to the motorhome and while Kenny dusted the outside, I cleaned the inside.

At 3:00, we walked back over to the Club House where they were having an “Ice Cream Social.” While we were enjoying our ice cream cones, Civil War re-enactors came marching in. We sat and talked with them for quite awhile…very interesting group of people very involved in the Civil War history.

Went out to dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant, Los Mariachis that was very good, came home and Joyce watched some more of the royal wedding….she just couldn’t get enough of it. I had all of the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, so I baked a batch.

Our campsite at Durango RV Resort

Civil War Reenactors

Dinner at Los Mariachis

Batch of yummy chocolate chip, pecan cookies I baked

Traveling from Nevada into Northern California

Thursday, April 28 – Leaving Hawthorne, NV and Heading to northern California

We heard that there was going to be a lot of wind today so we wanted to get an early start on the road. We didn’t have breakfast before we left as we thought we would just find a nice place along the highway and stop. Not too far outside of Hawthorne, there’s a gas station on a reservation, Four Seasons where Kenny stopped to fill up. He asked them if they gave reciprocal discounts to other tribal members and they did. He got a 15¢/gallon discount which saved us $16 Yay!

After getting gas, Kenny was still very concerned about the high winds (we experienced them last year through this area and it was really bad), so he drove and drove and drove. We saw the last of the Nevada desert and now were driving through lush farmland and horse country and thankfully the wind had died down. Before we knew it, we were back up in the woods driving through the forest and pine trees AND INTO RENO. There was snow everywhere. We continued driving through the mountains and saw more and more snow. We couldn’t believe how much snow was still on the ground. We continued on Hwy. 20 towards Grass Valley. If you’re never been on this highway before, it is gorgeous. Then, we actually had our first little spat of the trip over stopping for breakfast. We still hadn’t stopped and it was now close to lunchtime. I think Kenny just got so caught up on the drive, he forgot to stop (he said he couldn’t find a spot to pull over). We finally pulled over along Hwy. 20, got to stretch and have breakfast!  Kula was excited to get out and stretch too.

If you’ve been wondering how well Kula travels, well here he is…his bed is right between our two chairs.  Looks pretty comfortable, wouldn’t you say.

Hwy. 5 (California) roads are in very bad shape….lots of pot holes.  We had our first mishap in the motorhome. We were about five minutes away from the turnoff to the campground we were going to stay at and the motorhome just died.  Kenny was able to coast it over to the shoulder. After fooling around with the wires underneath the dash, he got it start and figured it had something to do with the ignition switch.

We arrived at Durango RV Resort in Red Bluff. This is a really nice RV resort. We got all set up and of course had to go explore the area. This area is famous for olives, wine and nuts. The woman in the office recommended we go to the Olive Pit where you can sample olive oils, olives and jams and jellies. It was fun tasting all of the different types of olives.

Leaving Las Vegas

Wednesday, April 27 - Got on the road around 11:00 and it was a beautiful day. Since our place in Vegas is south of town, we decided to take Hwy. 161 (Blue Diamond Road) towards Pahrump. It’s quite a pretty drive through Red Rock Canyon. You may have heard about Pahrump, it’s known to have brothels (legal in this county). It’s actually a pretty big city now with nice neighborhoods and golf courses. This can be a boring drive, but you can find beauty in all things, including the desert. This highway is lined with mountains on both sides of the highway. It really is a pretty drive. Once you get past Pahrump, there aren’t a lot of towns between there and Hawthorne…well there is Tonopah. While driving through, we were reminiscing about when we were first married, we drove through this area on vacation going to Death Valley and spent a night in Tonopah. We had our dog, Sunny with us and we remember sneaking him into the motel room that night. I don’t think you could get away with that nowadays.

We arrived in Hawthorne around 4:30. Kenny walked over to the store to get a few things, while I cooked pork chops for dinner.  After dinner, we went for a long walk around the campground. Kula was pooped out by the time we got back and so were we.

Our Journey Begins - Las Vegas

Thursday, April 21. We wanted to leave our home in Mission Viejo, CA by 10:00am, but as usual we got out a little later than we wanted.  Even though we had been loading the motorhome up for days, we were still bringing stuff out this morning, thus leaving later than we wanted to. But, no worries, we didn't hit much traffic and got to our place in Las Vegas around 4:30.  We just had dinner and relaxed. No gambling or going to any casinos tonight.

Kenny had an appointment Friday morning with Las Vegas RV Doctor to get our motorhome checked out thoroughly to make sure it’s in perfect condition for our long trip. After we dropped it off, we came back to our place, and Kenny started to charge the batteries in our golf cart. Since it had been so long since we last drove it (last December), the batteries were all dead. He charged all of the batteries for several hours and got it to run.  We always enjoy taking Kula in the golf cart for rides around the resort. While we were outside, a very nice gentleman came by with his two cute little dogs and started talking to us.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool and spa until it was time to pick the motorhome up.  Kenny arranged to have it washed, as well so it looked brand new when we picked it up. Later that day, that nice guy came back by with his very nice wife to visit. He gave Kenny a gallon jug of a paint sealer (Solution) for the motorhome. Thanks Brian! We exchanged cards and hopefully we will meet up again in southern California. Turns out when he and his wife aren’t traveling, they live in Aliso Viejo, CA…about 10 min. from us…small world.

That evening, we joined our neighbors, Eileen and Dick at the Owners' Lounge at our resort. It was nice catching up with them and we had a very nice evening.

We spent Saturday morning organizing the motorhome...we brought so much stuff with us, we needed to find a place to put everything so it would feel organized and easy to find when we needed to get something out.  And even though Kenny had spent weeks planning out our trip and the route we would be taking to Alaska, he spent a few hours with our neighbor, Dick (who had already taken a road trip to Alaska) tweeking it some more and deciding on places we were going to stay once we left Las Vegas. I did laundry and while the clothes were in the machines, I exercised in the pool.

Then we went to Hugo's Cellar for dinner (one of our favorite restaurants in Vegas that we have been going to for 25 years). Dean the bartender, Albert the matre'D, and Claire and Sue, hostesses are always so welcoming. The food is always great and you can’t beat the service. After dinner, Kenny visited with Dean and I played a little Blackjack….and won $23 whoo hoo!

Sunday morning, our resort was hosting a Champagne Easter Brunch for all owners and guests. It was very nice, but of course we would have rather been enjoying Easter with Justin, Mona and Noah. We hope you all had a wonderful and joyful Easter.

We had dinner Monday night with our neighbors, Dick and Eileen at the Silverton. (If you're over 55, its only $5 on Monday nights whoo whoo!) After dinner, Kenny and I went shopping for rain gear at the Bass Pro Shop.

Tuesday, Kenny got a call from his cousin, Turk who was in town for his son’s wedding and wanted to get together with us for drinks. We met them at New York, New York and had a wonderful time visiting. We got to meet his son, and his fiancé, his daughter and his grandson.

Earlier in the day, we also got a call from our other neighbors, Dick and Holly that we met last year. They had been building a house out in Lake Las Vegas and wanted us to come out and see their new home.  So, after our visit with Turk, we drove out there. What a beautiful home! Dick and Holly you both did an amazing job designing your home. You should be so proud of yourselves. That area has grown so much and is absolutely stunning.  Celine Dion and Cher also own homes out there and are some of their neighbors. We had a wonderful visit with them and got to meet the new addition to their family, Annie, their lab puppy. What a little sweetie. But, Winston and Lily are also very sweet too. We had a great visit and sorry we had to leave, but we had to get up early the next morning. 

We weren’t ready to leave Vegas yet. Would have liked to stay a few more days spending time at our place, enjoying the great weather and visiting with our friends there, but it was time to "hit the road."

Our Blog - Kula Boy's Great Alaskan Adventure

We decided to do a blog because we thought it would be a great way to share our journey with family and friends to follow along with us as we head north to Alaska. We named our blog “Kula Boy's Great Alaskan Adventure” because if you know us, you know that our dog, Kula travels with us everywhere we go. We're going to be gone for quite awhile, but we wanted to stay in touch and share our adventures, stories and pictures as we travel up north through Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Yukon Territory and into Alaska. We are planning on posting pictures along the way, points and interests and anything else we think you might be interested in. We welcome your comments and invite you to ask us questions along the way. We hope you enjoy reading our blog and following along with us. Please stay in touch! We would love to hear from you.

Love,
Kenny, Joyce & Kula Boy