MERRY CHRISTMAS

John and I send you our warmest wishes for a wonderful Christmas. May your hearts be filled with love and joy at the wonderment of this special day.

Rainy day

Just as the weather people projected, we woke up to rain today. As we had invited Melissa over for dinner, after breakfast, I got to making one of her favorite meals -red chili. This dish is served much like a tostada except on a warm tortilla. I also made an apple tart for dessert. Dinner was enjoyed by all. Melissa took home the leftovers--she was much appreciative.

Melissa reminded us that today is the longest day of the year. Yahoo! That means, days will only start to get longer . . . bring it on!

New bicycle

This morning, we went over to Patriot Bicycle to buy the hybrid bike we looked at when we took John's bike in for service. We had fenders, a bottle cage, and a computer added so we had to go back a few hours later to pick it up. Hopefully, I will be able to get some good exercise without aggravating my sacroiliac by being more upright. Bonnie and Butch have agreed to store my road bike for us --- I'm not ready to let it go. The new bike isn't as sporty looking but John likes the black fenders and says it looks like a cruiser bike. Once we got home, around 4 p.m., we went out for a quick spin. Boy, was it chilly...I need to find my full finger gloves. John just advised me it is a SUB - Sport Utility Bicycle. Isn't he funny!!!

Visiting DMV and old technology

Melissa had to make a trip to the DMV to get her new tags for her car so I went along to turn in our old plates for the truck and trailer. I found out that we had to "cancel" our registrations or the State of California would keep billing us registration fees until which time they would turn the account over to collection. Really? I was told that South Dakota would notify California that our vehicles had been registered there. The lady at the DMV laughed and said that it takes months and that wouldn't stop the billings. All in all it was rather painless and took only about 40 minutes to complete with no appointment.

While we were gone, John replaced the water filter cartridge and tried the water pump again. Nope, the darn thing was just not going to work. John called ShurFlo but the only way we can get it replaced under warranty is to go through the dealer. Luckily, we are in the right place to do so. John called RV Brokers and discussed the problem with the Service Manager who will contact Petersen to get a water pump coming or approval to buy one local. Hopefully, this can all be resolved on the 31st. If not, we'll be staying here a bit longer. We hope to hear back from the Service Manager by the end of the day but most likely not if past experience is any example.

John and I took Melissa to lunch at La Placita Dos for lunch. She had to take a work related phone call. It was rather interesting seeing our daughter being so professional. Melissa dropped us off at home and went about her errands for the day.

John went for a bike ride while I rearranged some of our kitchen cabinets. Not sure if I'm going to be happy with the new arrangement but it did get me to throw out some items that needed to be tossed.

After dinner, we just settled in for an evening of TV and Game Boy. John discovered Melissa's old Game Boy in the entertainment center a week ago and has been entertaining himself ever since. Melissa laughs at him because the Game Boy is so "old" technology. She was amazed that the Game Boy still worked after all these years. Tetris is still addicting even after all these years.

Small challenges

It has been a quiet but busy week so far here in Sacramento.

Happy Birthday Bonnie! John gave Bonnie a call this morning to wish her a Happy Birthday. She should also receive a card in today's mail.

With freezing temperatures, John filled up our water tank so we could disconnect the hose from the rig. We then discovered that our water pump was not working correctly. If we turned the pump switch off and then on again, we could get the water to flow but would soon stop and we'd have to repeat turning the switch off and one. We also tried the outside pump switch with the same results. We were definitely scratching our heads. John then checked the wiring connections on the pump but everything appeared fine. I went online to check the Excel Forum to see if this problem had been experienced by others and how it was corrected. What I found was a similar problem but their water pump was surging and ours is not. However, we did end up having nice private message conversations with another Excel owner. I also emailed Petersen's Service Center and was told that if it wasn't in the wiring, then it had to be a bad pump and what we should do to get a replacement. Before we pursued getting another water pump, John went out again to disconnect the wires and reconnect them. After that was done, he came in and turned on the faucet and the water pump started working correctly. We are now four hours later and the water pump is still working!

We planned on going out Christmas shopping today early this morning but when we went out to the truck, our Pressure Pro (tire monitoring system) alarm was going off. It was saying that our tire pressure on our front tires were low. As we had the truck in the shop yesterday for a recall item as well as service, we wondered what the dealership might have done to the tires. John tried to pump up the tires with air but had a problem with the valve stems. I went on the computer to locate the nearest Les Schwab location. Luckily, I found one less than four miles from us. John took the truck to them and it was determined that the valve stem extensions failed. It seemed strange that two of them would fail at once but maybe the freezing temperatures played a part. Guess their failure and the visit to the Ford dealer was coincidental. Les Schwab took care of John in no time at all and wouldn't even charge him. Imagine that. Delayed a bit but we were soon off to finish up our Christmas shopping. John went one way and I another. We are happy to report we are done.

When we got home, John finished wiping away the black streaks from the roof before the rain started. I did some gift wrapping. The remainder of the evening will be spent chilling.

Special request

When we got to town, Melissa asked if I could make up some of my spaghetti sauce so that she could put some in her freezer. Nothing like a special request to get a mom's kitchen cooking. We went to the grocery store this morning and I got with making my meat sauce. Melissa is coming for dinner and there should be plenty for her to take home.

While I was it, I baked some Lemon Squares for dessert from a recipe that my dear friends, the Kwong's, shared with me. I do like this recipe - Yum.

We all enjoyed our dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, garlic bread and Lemon Squares ... all to rave reviews. Melissa was especially happy to be taking home spaghetti sauce to be used at a later date. She also made off with the new Ziploc containers I just purchased; at least I don't have to store them now!

We actually had rain today. As the evening progressed, the rain got harder and the wind was gusting. The local news says that the week will be a wet one. The area very much needs the rain and snow in the mountains so you can't really complain.

Birding Store

I received a gift card to a birding store from the gift exchange at PFG's Christmas Party. Boy, oh, boy did I find many goodies that I would have liked to have taken home. We bought a couple of suction hooks to hang bird feeders from our windows as many times you don't have trees nearby or you can't stick a stand/hook in to the ground. We also picked up another feeder and some bird seed. We already have a couple of hummingbird feeders and bird feeder as well as a bird bath. Funny, John and I never would have believed that we get interested in birding but this lifestyle opens ones eyes to the wonderful nature that surrounds us and makes you appreciate the spectacular nature of it all.

PFG Christmas Party

John and I attended my former employer's (Pennington Financial Group) Christmas Party. Another chance to get caught up with all my old work friends and their spouses. These people are like family to me as I worked with the majority of them for many, many years. It was very nice to see their faces and feel their hugs. Lots of conversation as everyone wanted to know where we've been, our favorite places, and are we happy living this vagabond lifestyle . . . the answer to which is YES! We have almost completed our first year of full time RVing and we wonder were the time has gone.

We miss seeing our daughter on a regular basis and the friends that we hold dear but the thrill of seeing what life holds as we head in to our next adventure is exhilarating. There is so much of this wonderful country to see and experience that awaits us. This lifestyle isn't for all but for those who are willing to live outside the box, it is very rewarding in so many ways.

Seeing old friends

John's former coworker, Brian and his wife Christine, hosted a get together of some of John's former co-workers. What a nice time we had catching up with everyone. Christine made a wonderful Mexican style pulled pork that was excellent, beans, rice, tortillas, and we brought a Mexican inspired salad with a Cilantro Dressing. There were a lot of laughs and stories to be shared. A good time was had by all.

Catching up

Life has been pretty busy the past few days so I have a fair amount of catching up to do.

Friday - John flipped on the furnace around 7 a.m. and all of sudden it starting making very loud noises. John was up quickly to turn it off and to check it out. He thought the motor might have thrown a bearing. A call was placed to RV Brokers and an appointment was made for Tuesday morning. Melissa and I spent the day doing some retail therapy while John went out for a bike ride. It was nice hanging out with Melissa; something I have missed. Later in the evening, John and I went out and bought another electric heater to give us some additional heat. Problem! We are at a site with only 30 amps and we can't run them both without tripping the breaker.

Saturday - Boy oh boy, was it cold and being able to only use one heater only marginally works. John went out on a bike ride with Clyde and a friend of Clyde's. While John was gone, I decided to get with copying all of my CD's to the computer to be able to get them out of the basement. My goodness, two file boxes worth . . . this may take a while. When John got back and showered, we got a call from Bonnie saying that our mail shipment had arrived. It was decided that we would go over to pick up our stuff and go out to dinner. Ah a warm house. We had a nice visit and a great dinner at Sharizad's with Bonnie and Butch.

Sunday - John came up with the smart idea to run a heavy duty extension cord through a slide window and plug it in to the 20 amp circuit. This way, we could run both electric heaters at the same time. Doing so made a big difference. No more cold feet. I pretty much spent all day copying CDs to my computer. It takes about four minutes a piece to copy one CD. Will I ever finish?

Monday - We stopped at Camping World and picked up a few items. We then took John's bike in for a tune-up to Patriot Bicycles, Inc. Scott and company do a good job. Whenever John's bike goes in for it's annual check-up, I say that we take his mistress to the spa. While there, we checked out a new bike for me. With my sacroliac issues, my road bike just is not comfortable for me to ride. We then stopped at an alterations store so I could get a pair of pants hemmed and the sleeves on a jacket shortened.

Melissa gave us a call to say that she was sick with a bad ear ache in both ears and a cold. She called again after seeing the doctor who said she had a bad sinus infection on top of a cold and put her on meds. Later in the day, she called to request that we stop at Panera Bread to pick up some chicken soup and deliver it to her later in the evening as she was leaving work to get some sleep. Of course, we said we would do it. As requested, we delivered the soup to her just a little before 7 p.m. Let's hear a big Aww . . . . On another note, I finally finished copying all of my CD's at 6 p.m. John weighed the two boxes and our rig will be 40 pounds lighter. I wish I could lose weight that easily!!!! I was also doing major multitasking in the afternoon. While copying CD's, I rearranged some kitchen cabinets. A project that I have wanted to do for some time now.

Tuesday - We were up at 6:30 a.m. as we had an 8:30 a.m. appointment to have our furnace looked at. Boy howdy, was it foggy and cold. RV Brokers were very prompt at checking our problem out. Apparently, a screw came loose from the squirrel cage which was making all the noise. It took them about an hour to get the problem corrected. Yippee! We have heat again. We got back to Cal Expo a little past 10 a.m. and went into a different site. The bonus was that our new site has 50 amp service instead of 30 amp service. While John was working outside and I went to set up the MotoSat. We have no obstructions other than power lines that run across the park. After a half hour, the satellite would not lock on. John checked all connections and everything looked good. So what now? John said he thought maybe we needed to pull forward a couple of feet. What a pain. So I started to bring the slides in when I noticed that we had all five lights lit up on the controller which means that we have a connection. John had already started to undo some of the set up items in preparation of moving. I let him know that we had a connection so we didn't have to move. We were both very relieved. I still don't understand what the hangup was as the equipment has never acted this way before.

Checked on Melissa who was back at work. She said her ear aches were gone but now it was just the cold that she was suffering. I sure hope that she didn't share the cold with either John or me . . . I guess time will tell.

The rest of the evening will be spent just chilling.

Christmas decorations

After cleaning, it was time to bring out the Christmas decorations that we have had stored in the basement and hauled all over the US. Actually, it was a nice moment bringing out the special items we kept.

We stop at the grocery store and ran into a former neighbor and parent of one of Melissa's childhood friends. We had a nice chat and got caught up with what everyone was doing. What was funny was than John had earlier thought he had seen Carol in the market but it wasn't her. Then as we were walking out of the store, who calls out "John and Terri Prather" but Carol. Kind of an odd coincidence don't you think?

Once we got home, we took another walk out on the levee. It was nice to have a bit of sunshine to accompany us. We then settled in for a quiet evening at home.

Lost package

After a nice long walk on the levee, we stopped at the office to advise them that we had a new DirecTv receiver to be delivered by FedEx. When we got back to the trailer, I checked on the delivery status and saw that it was delivered and signed for at 9:53 a.m. this morning. What? Where? To make a long story short, we don't know where FedEx delivered the receiver. We just know we don't have it.

I contacted FedEx to have them place a trace on the delivery I then called DirecTv to advise them that we did not receive the receiver and that we wanted it noted on our account and that we didn't want us to be charged for it. After looking at FedEx's delivery notation, the customer service rep said that we weren't on the hook because it is noted that it was delivered to address other than recipient. Will also noted the case number I was given by FedEx. Will also said that they would send another receiver out to us. This time, we are having them deliver it to Bonnie and Butch's. Who knows if or when the misdelivered package will show up. FedEx was suppose to call us back today after talking to the driver but we still haven't heard from them. Now there is a surprise. All of this was a very frustrating way to spend a couple of hours.

After an evening walk around the RV parking lot, we settled in for an evening of TV.

Settling in

We started out early as I had a 9 a.m. doctor's appointment. Once done, we made a quick stop at Target. As we had 1 p.m. dental appointments out on Sunrise, we decided to stop and have some of our favorite chile verde at Dos Placidos in Citrus Heights. So very good. I had a cavity filled and John had prepping for a crown from which we both had numb mouths. We then stopped to fill up the truck and paid $2.36 a gallon for diesel. We are always shocked at the price but are appreciative that something is going easy on the budget.

Sacramento here we come!

We heard on the news that it was foggy in the Sacramento area so we decided to take our time leaving this morning. John took our flat tire up to Les Schwab and got the valve stem replaced. While he was gone, I baked some cookies to take up to the office as our way of saying thank you and goodbye. After John returned, we took our cookies up to the office to say goodbye. Bill once again said he'd put us to work if we'd stick around. We were told to keep them in mind and to stop by again soon. They are a great group of people with a wonderful RV park.

We got on the road around 10:30 a.m. and the fog didn't thicken up until we got to the causeway. We got to Cal Expo around 1 p.m. and started setting up. We had a devil of a time getting our MotoSat to lock on to the satellite. Actually, we had tree trouble. We had to re-hookup and pull forward to try to shoot past the tree. While hooked up to the truck, I got locked on to the satellite. Yea! So we unhooked and started the set-up procedure again. It took the satellite forever to connect. I thought we would have to go into the office to see if we could get another site but finally, we connected. It was now 3:30 p.m. and we were starving as we had breakfast at 7 a.m. and no lunch. John said "let's go to The Kabob House". As always, the hummus and marinated chicken was wonderful. We had a nice visit with the owner, Eli, and got caught up with our respective lives. Eli said that business was pretty slow and that he was working way too many hours. He has a great place and I hope he can weather this recession.

When we got home, I turned on the TV to find that our DirecTv receiver would not turn on. I unplugged the receiver, waited five minutes, and plugged it back in. Still it would not turn on. I fussed with it a little bit more and then called DirecTv for assistance. After a few attempts, it was decided that a new receiver would be sent so we could swap them out. This will be the second receiver we've replaced since October. You can say we aren't a happy DirecTv customer right now. The shame is that we've heard that Dish Tv is just as bad. After dinking with the reset button again, the receiver finally came on and off a couple of times to ultimately die giving us the dreaded 774 message that means its hard drive died. What is it with the electronics today???? Could it be the valley fog???? Thank goodness our TV antennae works so we have TV to watch.

Calm Sunday

Not much happening today. John did some preliminary picking up of items in preparation of our move to Sacramento tomorrow. As we walked over to the grocery store to pick up a few items, we met up with the assistant managers, Bob and Micki, and chatted with them a while. Then Bill, the manager, came out and joined us. He told us that if we didn't want to move on, he would put us to work. That was a very nice offer and if the timing was different, we might have taken him up on his offer. We had told Melissa, family, and friends that we would be in town the month of December and we are sticking with the plan.

Later that evening, we indulged ourselves by spending some time in the spa on our last night here. John said the hot jets helped loosen up some pulled muscles he received when he put the flat tire in the bed of the truck yesterday. We got to watch the crew put the finishing touches on the Christmas tree in the Lodge. The park has put up holiday decorations everywhere that makes the place even prettier and very festive.

Battle Creek Wildlife Area

After speaking with our neighbor, Ted, we learned that he had a close encounter with a Bald Eagle in the Battle Creek Wildlife Area. This area is part of the Sacramento River Bend area we went to yesterday. Well, that was enough for us to go back up to the area to see if we could be so lucky.

Battle Creek is a spawning creek for those fish headed up to the Coleman Fish Hatchery that is a couple of miles up the road. Here is a shot of a drainage ditch in to Battle Creek.

Here's another shot of Battle Creek. There were a lot of Vultures and some other birds of prey but no Bald Eagle. Our elusive bird stays just that. One of these days, we will get our perfect shot of one in the wild.

We drove up to the Coleman Fish Hatchery but it didn't compare to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery in Washington. We were treated with a flyover from an Osprey. John says he saw a Bald Eagle circling along with Vultures and I did get a glimpse of a white tail so it must be. Not the sighting I was hoping to have.

We headed home with my request to stop in Red Bluff first as there was a store I wanted to stop at and pick up a few items for Christmas before we leave town. That is where our trouble began. John went to park next to the curb and the Pressure Pro sensor on the tire hit the curb and broke the valve stem off the tire. I heard this huge swooshing sound. I asked John "is that us?" He said he thought it was outside. Well, he was right about that. When we saw that we had a flat tire, we set about to change the tire. One problem was that we couldn't get the spare tire down from the bottom of the truck bed. I placed a call for towing assistance and advised them that Red Bluff's Christmas parade was starting at 5:30 and we were just off Main St. We were told it would be about 45 minutes or so but that they would stay in touch. So while John waited, I went shopping to get the items that I wanted. When I got back, John said that he was told a tow truck would be here in about 20 minutes. It wasn't long after when the tow truck showed up. I must say the tow truck driver was very nice and it wasn't long before the flat tire was replaced. Well, we now know how to lower the spare so at least something good came from the experience. John has to be at the tire store to get the new valve stem installed and the tire pumped up first thing Monday as we are heading for Sacramento later in the morning.

Below is a picture of a carriage that was giving rides around town up until the start of the parade. I wanted to get a picture of the horse wearing a Santa's cap (so cute!) but I guess in the parade that would be too girly.

Everyone from the town must have been there or so it seemed. We were torn about staying and watching the parade but we were starving and didn't want to deal with all the traffic so we left. Just getting around all of the incoming traffic was a chore. Who knew that there could be major traffic jams in Red Bluff.

As our time here in Red Bluff is winding down, we must say we have enjoyed the area very much. This admission comes as a surprise because we thought the five weeks would drag by but they haven't. We like the Durango RV Park and their workers very much and have enjoyed being in Red Bluff but the draw of being closer to Melissa is starting to pull. We also have a few doctor/dental appointments and some catching up with friends to do in the month of December. I'm sure the time will fly by there also.

Sacramento River Bend

After a late sleep-in, we decided on taking the drive up to what is known as the Sacramento River Bend area. The area sits between Redding and Red Bluff.

On of the first raptors we saw is this Red Shouldered Hawk (a first for us). It was most accommodating and let us get several pictures.

Here is a picture of a Red Tail Hawk that didn't like us taking pictures so it flew away. I like this shot because is shows the detail of his wings and the sun reflects of the red tail feathers.

Here is a shot of a Ferruginous Hawk (another first sighting for us). It was flying with a Red Tail Hawk and some other raptor that didn't stick around long enough for us to get a picture
Here is a shot of a young Osprey just hanging out on a beautiful afternoon.

This is a picture of the Sacramento River in the foreground and Mt. Shasta in the background. John and I have commented that we remember the days when the air was so clear that in a picture like this, Mt. Shasta would be striking. How sad that our air, even on good days, is so hazy.

It was a good drive and we got to see a lot of different things. I'm sure in the springtime the drive would be a lot more attractive than it was now. Still, it offered us a lot of raptor viewings.

We returned to Red Bluff and took a drive over to see Red Bluff Lake and the diversion dam. We were told that when the salmon run, the Bald Eagles and Osprey are easily spotted as they help themselves to the fish buffet. Too bad we aren't going to be around then as we would really have enjoyed watching them. Below is a picture of the diversion dam.

After we stopped for dinner at Los Mariachi's (quite good and reasonably priced) in Red Bluff, I took this picture of the building in downtown Red Bluff that I find interesting. The clock tower chimes on the half-hour and plays music (now holiday).

It was a good day and we were ready to head it home and call it a day.

Thanksgiving

We were awake at 5 a.m. You get really spoiled with not having to wake up with an alarm. I probably didn't get to sleep until around midnight so it was a short night. Our trip to Sacramento was nice with just sections of fog that weren't bad at all.

Once again, Bonnie out did herself. There was more food than table space. We all ate more than we should have. Bonnie had us fill out slips about what we were thankful for on this day and she read them after dessert. I enjoyed hearing everyone's thanks; it was a nice touch.

We got home just before 8 p.m. and we piled into bed not too much later. We were both very tired.

This was a wonderful Thanksgiving and we hope yours was the same.

Special sighting

We were in the rig this morning, when John all of a sudden said I think I see a Bald Eagle and was out the door. I quickly followed him out the door to where he was at the truck getting the binoculars. We quickly noticed that it wasn't a Bald Eagle but rather an Osprey. The Osprey was cruising above the river so we hot footed it over to the river to get a better view. We were watching him cruising when John handed me the binoculars to get a better view of the bird. About that time, all of sudden the Osprey hovered, folded in his wings, and dove in to the river. It was only a second or two, when he came up with a fish between his talons with the fish pointed forward (better aerodynamics!). The fish wasn't a trout but had a more rounded body like a bass or perch. The Osprey then took off with his catch. We have seen Osprey's sitting on telephone poles and fence posts but this was the first time we saw one in action. We were excited to see this bird in action. All this excitement and where is the camera? Back in the trailer. Sheesh!

We chatted with a man and his son who were from Santa Rosa who had come up to spend the long Thanksgiving weekend here at the Durango RV Park. So many nice people that we meet in this lifestyle.

On our walk back to the trailer, we spoke with a service technician from Dan Gammel RV's of Redding (they have a motorhome here at the park on display). The technician recommended a couple of drives to us. We got back to the trailer and checked out the route on one of the drives. We decided to take the drive to see what, if any, wildlife we might see. On the way out of town, we saw where diesel was $2.49 a gallon! Darn, we just filled up yesterday and paid $2.59 a gallon. On our drive, we saw a Northern Harrier and a Kestrel and not much else. Still it was a nice drive.

We came home and went out for our walk around the RV park (gotta get those steps!). We spotted the Osprey doing his fishing from the sky again. Only this time, we didn't get to see him dive and catch a fish. There were a number of vultures that seemed to be hanging around him. We thought it was must have been annoying to him and soon lost sight of him.

Set the alarm clock for 5 a.m. (what!!!!) as we want to be on the road to Sacramento tomorrow by 7 a.m. Looking forward to Thanksgiving at Bonnie and Butch's where we get to see our extended family and Melissa. We send our blessings and wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Just hanging out

We made a few rounds of the rv park and spoke with the office staff for a while. They are all a great group of people. John went for a bike ride while I worked on our financial records. It was a beautiful day. When we went to the grocery store, we picked up a roasted chicken that I shredded. We had chicken tacos that I must say were quite yummy. After another walk around the park, we came back and settled in for TV for the night.

Revisiting the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

After seeing so many flocks of Snow Geese heading south last week, we decided to take another trip down to the refuge to see what changes in the wildlife have occurred in the two weeks. We packed a lunch and this time, we stopped in at the visitor center before heading out on the auto tour. The visitor's center is small but they have some beautiful taxidermy mounts of the various wildlife that can be found at the refuge. We were a especially excited to learn that a Bald Eagle was spotted on the refuge just a few days ago . . . maybe we will be lucky to spot it. We ate our lunch so that we wouldn't be distracted before we headed out on the auto tour.

Below is a shot of snow geese as they begin to settle back down on the water after having been spooked. Keep in mind that these as just from one of the ponds!

There was a tractor that was working in the refuge that was stirring up the snow geese as it worked from pond to pond. The sound of their collective wing beats and honking was a thrill to experience.

As we were going down the road, two egrets were standing in the middle of the road. It appeared to be a mom and baby. They flew over in to the field. Who could resist a family shot?

We were lucky to have seen a couple of Golden Eagles at the refuge. Here is our best shot of this glorious bird.

One of the most frequent raptors seen at the refuge cruising the wetlands and tormenting the ducks is the Northern Harrier, easily identifiable by the white feathers at the base of their bodies before the tail feathers.

Not the closest of shots but below is a Red Tail Hawk.

Remember the mom and baby egret from an earlier shot? Well, they had moved farther through the refuge and we found them in a tree.

We had stopped to look at the waterfowl when across from us, I noticed a large bird in the tree. Well, we had to get a closer look and he/she was most accommodating. We had heard that immature Bald Eagles can look like Golden Eagles and immature Golden Eagles can look like Bald Eagles. Huh? So what did we have here?

Let's see, the bird has a white tail and if you look closely, the beak is turning yellow. The Bald Eagle has a yellow beak while the Golden Eagle does not. Looks like an immature Bald Eagle that in another year or so will have a beautiful white head and tail and will look truly majestic. Wow!

John and I sat and looked at his beautiful face through the binoculars for a long time and he had no problem in showing off his beauty.

What a wonderful day at the refuge ....... John and I feel like we hit the jackpot today :)

We returned home but first stopped at Applebees for dinner. Then we headed home and took our nightly walk up and down the driveways here at Durango RV Park. We ran into the Assistant Managers (Bob and Micki) in the Lodge and had a very nice conversation with them. They encouraged us to come in to the office tomorrow and fill out a job application that they could have on file in case we would be interested in a Workamper job next winter or some time in the future. How nice is that.

Blustery Day

Boy, it was a warm and very windy day here in Red Bluff. The sky was very clear and we had a beautiful view of Mt. Lassen even from the RV park. It was windy but warm. We got diesel and paid $2.69 . . . wow! We know this won't last but we are going to enjoy it was we can.

We are taking a drive down to Sacramento tomorrow to see the UC Davis Raptor Rehabilitation Center and will our beloved Melissa.

New Experience

We did laundry that took most of the day. I even took our blanket (yes Melissa, the one you love so much) to the laundry facilities of the Durango RV Park as their washers and dryers have a greater capacity than our compact washer and dryer.

We walked over to Round Table for their $6.99 buffet lunch. I must say they had a very nice salad bar. I overhead one of the locals say that it was the best salad bar in town. On our way home, we picked up a paper. We sat outside enjoying the sunshine and light breeze while reading the paper. Very nice.

While sitting outside, we noticed our neighbors, Fred and Lani, getting ready to play Boccie Ball. Fred had been reading up on the rules so he was prepared to give it a try. Curious, John and I went over to see what was involved and ended up playing the first game of Boccie Ball at the park. The balls were brand new. Thankfully, Fred had an idea of how to play. Actually, it is like a combination of croquet and bowling. We had a good time and shared numerous laughs. John and I won the inaugural game. Whoo Hoo! Pam from Durango RV Park took photos of us playing. We hope that we don't end up on their brochures or website. It would then be hard to deny that we ever played Boccie Ball. Ha Ha. Oops, I guess it will be hard to deny that fact now after this blog entry.

Shopping trip to Redding

John went out and got a haircut so he cleaned up his act. He actually had a first . . . a female barber. He was happy with his haircut. After his return home, we decided to take a trip to Redding to go shopping at Costco. What a zoo - the parking lot was packed. Where did all these people come from? I wanted to stock up on ground beef and chicken and a few other items. As always, we left with more than was on the list.

Before his haircut, John went to the office to inquire as to why the spa was locked at 8:20 p.m. He was told that if we wanted to use the spa after 8 p.m. to let the night person know and they would leave one of the gates unlocked. Now, that doesn't make sense when you have the pool/spa hours posted stating the hours were 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Whatever! We went to the spa around 6:45 p.m. and were able to enjoy the spa all by ourselves. Yea!

We settled in and watched TV for the rest of the evening.

Wildlife viewing

We decided to take a drive down to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex that is located between Willows and Maxwell. Four refuges and one wildlife management area make up the refuge complex. These refuges were created to provide wintering habitat for waterfowl and other migratory birds and reduce crop damage. Approximately 44% of the Pacific Flyway's waterfowl population winters in the Sacramento Valley. Three million ducks and over one million geese migrate here every year.

The refuge is made up of several seasonal marshes, grasslands and permanent ponds. As a former duck hunter, John was well aware of what these refuges look like but even John was taken with the number and different types of waterfowl. He was naming off several different types while I recognized only a few.

Here is a picture of Snow Geese as they were coming in to land in one of the marshes.
Here is a better shot of some Snow Geese coming in for a landing - so very beautiful.

Here is a beautiful shot of the coastal mountains in the background and a mixture of waterfowl in just one of the many marshes.

We were driving on the auto route when John saw a Northern Harrier and wanted a picture. I told him we had a lot of Northern Harrier pictures so don't get crazy (forgot they were digital). Imagine our surprise when we got home and downloaded the pictures to the computer and discovered that the shot he took was not a Northern Harrier.

Instead of a Northern Harrier, John got a shot of a short-eared owl. Just click on the picture to enlarge the photo. We were thrilled with the surprise photo. Our bird books said that this owl is commonly mistaken as a Northern Harrier - no kidding!

While we were watching the waterfowl, we were treated to a couple of viewings of Golden Eagles. This is not the best shot but it does show the beautiful bird from its underside.

We spent a lot more time there than we had originally thought and we didn't even get to visit the Visitor's Center . . . . next time. We have already decided that we want to go back before we head for Sacramento because there will be even more waterfowl.

Later that evening, we tried to end the day with a dip in the spa but the gates were locked. What's up with that? The pool/spa area is suppose to be open until 9 p.m. and it was only 8:20 p.m. We headed back home disappointed. We've got to find out what is going on tomorrow.

Special visit

Melissa drove up for a visit and we were thrilled to see our girl. We gave Melissa a tour of our facility and she said that it was definitely a step up from Shingle Springs and Cal Expo. We couldn't have agreed more. After a lunch out, we returned home to settle in for an afternoon of conversation. Soon it was time for Melissa to head back to Sacramento. She no more had left when we started getting rain, lightning and thunder. We heard from the office the next day that the JC Penney's in Redding got hit by a lightning strike. Luckily, Melissa didn't have to deal with real bad weather on her way home.

Trip to see some snow

With the cold weather we had on Wednesday and the beautiful day we had today, we decided to take a trip to look at the mountains.

A trip up towards Mt. Shasta lead us to a depressing view of Lake Shasta. California is in the throes of a serious drought. We have seen Lake Shasta low but nothing like this view.

Here is a beautiful shot of Mt. Shasta. When we came down from Oregon two weeks ago, Mt. Shasta had snow only at the top. Quite a beautiful view, don't you think?

We also took a trip back up to Mt. Lassen in hopes that we could get a shot from Lake Manzanita. Well, the snow had the road to the boat ramp blocked so this was best shot we could get. Mt. Lassen is much prettier with snow than without.

Here is a pretty shot from the ranger station.

Here is a picture of John (yes, in shorts) with Mt. Lassen in the background. The temperature was rather mild in the sun but was very brisk in the shade.

It was a lovely but rather long day.

Burr . . . cold and rainy

Boy, it was biting cold and rained on and off all day. We can only imagine that the mountains are getting a far amount of snow. We are glad that we don't have any mountain passes to cross to get back to Sacramento.

It's over!

YEAH! The election is over and all the political ads have stopped. I don't know about you but it will be nice not being inundated with political ad after political ad.

It was a historic evening and we wish our new President-elect good luck because he will need it as our nation has big problems. If he can get Congress to put partisan politics aside so that real solutions to our nation's problems are made, then change will really have come to Washington. Hope is eternal. That is as political as I will get. Good night.

Storm blows in

Holy cow! We had one heck of a windy/blustery rainy day. We just pretty much hunkered down reading and watching TV. Some of the downpours we had during the evening hours were something else. Earlier in the day, I made some minestrone soup that went over very well for dinner. We had a nice chat with Melissa. All is well.

Happy Halloween

Wow, the last day of October. Where has the month gone?

We didn't do very much today other than do some grocery shopping in between the rain. Later in the afternoon we sat outside for a while until the wind came up and it got too cold for that pleasure.

We went out for pizza and salad and were back before dark just in case we got any trick or treaters . . . none came a knocking. We suspected that would be the case but weren't 100 percent sure. We had a bag of Milky Ways on hand just in case. Guess we'll just have to eat them. Darn!

I tweaked my back yesterday so no swimming tonight but we did enjoy the hot tub for a while. More wind and rain is due in tonight and tomorrow. No real complaints though as we saw how low Lake Shasta is (never have seen it that low) and know how badly California needs the rain. All we ask is that it we get breaks in between storms.

Smokey Day

We were woken up early this morning with the smell of smoke. We learned that there was a control burn going on in the Lassen National Park area. The sky was gray and the air was so smokey that we kept the windows closed up and pretty much stayed indoors. We did make a trip to the office to pick up our mail and chatted with Kristen in the office. I also got a name of a hair salon here in Red Bluff as I am needing a trim. Thankfully, the wind picked up and blew most of the smoke smell out. It started to sprinkle late afternoon which was a good thing as that also helped with lessening the smoke smell. When we headed out to the pool, the rain had stopped and it made for nice evening.

We came back home and watched a little TV before heading off to bed.

Lassen Volcanic National Park and a pleasant surprise

We decided to take the drive to see Mt. Lassen today as a storm was suppose be coming. We stopped at the Visitors Center and had a nice discussion with a ranger and the gift shop docent. The gift shop docent said he recognized John. After some discussion, it was determined that he had seen John and I at the mall the other day. Strangely, John remembers him because he was looking at John so intently. It seems that John looked like a friend of his. Strange and funny world we live in.

John and Melissa climbed to the top of Mt. Lassen with members of her 7th grade class in 1995 so it brought back memories for John. It certainly didn't look like a mountain I would like to climb. John has fond memories (Melissa not so much) and he said the views from the top were spectacular.

The backside of Mt. Lassen still had snow on the mountain top. This is a view of Mt. Lassen from across Manzanita Lake.

We hiked around Manzanita lake (1.8 miles). We stopped about half way and sat on a log to eat the lunch we had packed. It was very nice and peaceful. The other lone person in the area was a fisherman. He said that there was a local eagle that liked to terrorize the ducks on the lake. No such luck today. All we saw were crows and stellar jays. This was our view from our log . . . pretty darn nice.

Here is another pretty shot with Mt. Lassen in the background and my honey in the foreground.

We stopped in Redding on our way home so that we could pick up goggles at Leslie Pool Supplies. We definitely made a big circle today.

When we got home, I checked our email and saw a reply from one of the campgrounds where we submitted our resume. They gave us the low down on the job and the requirements./benefits I gave them a call and spoke with the owner/general manager, Paul. John and I had a nice conversation with him. After John and I discussed the position, we called him back and said we would happily take the position. We are totally stoked. We love the Custer area and this should be an interesting way to spend the summer of 2009. Three days of "work" and four days of play for our site with full hookups, cable, wireless internet in an area we love. What will John/we be doing? . . . maintenance stuff (lawn mowing, painting benches, etc.). I will also be able to learn the workings of the office.

After dinner settled, we again went to the pool and tried out our new goggles that worked great. Finished it up with a soak in the spa. Ah, what a great life!

Summer job hunting

John and I had sat down and went over the Workamper Magazine's summer job listings and selected the "jobs" we were interested in pursuing. As there were a few that I needed to place calls on, I suggested to John that he take a bike ride so that I wouldn't feel awkward while on the phone. He jumped at the chance! I got a couple of calls made with not much success so I decided to just work through the list and send out our resumes where I could. I got two resumes emailed and was working on a cover letter when John returned. I was frustrated with the new Word on setting up a table. John said this would be a good time to sit outside and enjoy the afternoon for a while. I jumped at the chance! Needless to say, I never got back to my cover letter.

After dinner and a little TV, we headed off for the pool and spa. We decided that it would make the lap swimming better with goggles. Darn! We had goggles but threw them out in November as we didn't think we would ever need them again. Still the swim and spa was good and relaxing. Time for bed!

Jaunt to Redding

We had to take the DirecTV box back to FedEx. Due to information I received from DirecTV, I thought we had to take it to an actual FedEx office . . . the only located in Redding. So after breakfast, we loaded up and headed for Redding. The FedEx office is actually at the Redding airport (never been there before). Once there, we could have dropped the box off at any FedEx outlet (I should have listened to my instinct) On our to FedEx, we saw diesel for $2.99 a gallon. Darn - John was disappointed as we topped off yesterday.

While in Redding, we stopped at there mall to get John a new pair of flip flops. I must say, their "mall" is rather small and quite unimpressive. No compulsive buying was done, I'm happy to report. We stopped for lunch and decided to head on home. We will take in Turtle Bay another day as we have plenty of time to kill.

Later in the evening, John looked outside and saw a beautiful red sky what with all the cloud cover we had today. He got this terrific shot:

We again took advantage of the pool and spa and once again, we were the sole users. It is like having your own private facilities.

Tour de Red Bluff

We took a drive around Red Bluff to familiarize ourselves with the area. We stopped at Home Depot and we saw a gas station had diesel for $3.09. Yikes!!! We haven't seen those prices since we bought the truck in September of last year. Well, we just had to top the tank off.

After we bbqd dinner, we decided to take advantage of the pool and spa. Boy, was it delightful. The pool temperature was 80 degrees which meant no shock getting in to the water and the spa 104 degrees. We had the whole area to ourselves which was very nice. We went home very relaxed and ready for bed. This just may become our evening ritual.

Slugs

We didn't do much today but sit outside in the gentle breeze (much cooler today) and enjoy our surroundings. We walked over to Longs Drug and FoodMax. I told John that we were being very environment friendly as we (1) walked over and (2) used our own reusable bags. Our other big trek was up to the office to buy a bag of ice. Oh, and as John reminded me, he did wipe down the rig's end caps so that we are bug free and shiny once again. That was about the extent of our day today. Oh, John did BBQ and did a great job. Life is good :)

Our new home town

We left Yreka about 9:45 a.m. and pulled in to Red Bluff a little after 12 p.m. Our new home for the next five weeks will be at the Durango RV Resort. We were greet warmly and efficiently. We even got to pick out our site in the extended stay area. That was nice. The park just opened in July and it is quite top notch. The grounds and buildings are beautiful. Take a look at their website for a view of their RV park.

Whew! It was a warm one today. I have gotten spoiled with the mid-60 and 70 degree temperatures. After setting up, we headed out for some lunch and the grocery store as we were running low on most everything. We stopped at Riverside Bar and Grill that is located on the Sacramento River and had a terrific lunch. Then we were off to Raley's. Ah, another familiar sight. Actually, we went to Raley's because we knew their deli would have the lunch meat that we have not had since May and have missed. Happily, they did not let us down.

Boy, it sure seems like it is getting dark early here. I don't know if it is because we are further south or we are getting closer to the time change. Before it got dark on us, we took a walk around the park and checked out the lodge, pool and spa area, and the building that houses bathrooms, a meeting room, and laundry room near the river sites. Wow! The only downside but it is very typical for RV parks is the noise of the freeway and the train. We didn't have any of these irritants for the past three months. Alas, within the week, neither will be bothering me.

California here we come

We pulled out from Seven Feathers close to 10 a.m. The drive over the mountain passes were beautiful with all of the autumn colors. We pulled into Yreka a little after noon, filled up the truck with diesel ($3.29), and headed for the Yreka RV Park. This RV park is relatively new and is quite nice. The bathrooms were very nice, the sites long (we didn't unhook), and roads in the park were wide. The park sits up and away from the freeway so the noise is rather muted. A very nice place to stop.

Melissa returned my call from the night before and she seemed happy to hear that we were in California. It's always nice to hear from our girl.

After we had lunch, we pulled out the chairs and enjoyed the afternoon enjoying the sun. John bought a Sacramento Bee newspaper (ah, a touch of home) that we leisurely read. Later that night, we watched a little TV and called it a night.

Cooling our heels

In preparation of our move tomorrow, we did the normal things: laundry, emptying our tanks, packing up the outside things. We will have approximately a three hour drive to Yreka where we will spend the night and then on to Red Bluff on Friday. John made the observation that we are making our trek to Sacramento in thirds - approx. 124 miles to Yreka, approx. 125 miles to Red Bluff and then approx. 120 miles to Sacramento. Why not drive straight through to Red Bluff? We don't like driving six hours when we absolutely do not have to. As it is, a three hour drive will be longer than we have done in quite a while. Whatever. . . . I'm just happy to be getting on the road.

We received our DirecTV receiver today (the order that was being canceled). I spoke with MotoSat and we tested the signal which was strong. I also read the owner's manual where the receiver had a system testing program which I ran. Everything seemed to be working correctly - perfect. I called DirecTV about returning the package unopened as our receiver seemed to be working correctly. Earlier this evening, the fan was running loudly hours after the receiver was turned off. Something to be worried about??? We will give it a few days as we don't have to return the receiver until Monday. Needless to say, I am frustrated with this whole thing.

Change of plans

We had planned to be in Sacramento on Saturday or Sunday. We called Cal Expo RV park to let them know we were coming. We were told that they had a 30 day stay limit (30 days in/30 days out). Well, darn, we were planning on being there at least two months. Guess that is not going to work for us. We thought about testing their "rule" but we have medical/dental appointments set for December so we didn't want to be evicted and have to find another location when we need to be in town. We looked all around the Sacramento area and beyond. Nothing really worked for us.

We had originally planned to stay in Redding a week before heading to Sacramento. We spent a couple of hours pondering what to do/where to go. In the course of research, I remembered a new park that Bonnie and Butch had stayed at in Red Bluff that they said was fantastic. In checking out their website, I noticed that they had extended stay sites for a reasonable price. We gave them a call and we have got it worked out. We will be staying with them until after Thanksgiving. By waiting until then to move to Sacramento, we will not be breaking Cal Expo's 30 day rule. It stinks because we were looking forward to being close to Melissa, Bonnie and Butch, and friends. I'm sure we will make a trip or two to Sacramento as we will be about 2 hours away. I'm bummed but I feel we made lemonade out of lemons.

Unexpected travel

I received a call from DirecTv representative this morning and we discussed our problems. He seemed to think that it had something to do with our satellite signal and not the receiver. He said he was cancelling the new receiver order as he wanted me to have MotoSat check out the signal that the receiver was receiving. He said that a weak signal could affect the receiver this way and may have contributed to the first receiver's failure. I told him that when we get to Sacramento, I will give MotoSat a call and see about having the equipment tested.

We decided to check out what the town of Canyonville had to offer. Not too much. I was looking for a post office but we had to travel up to the town of Myrtle Creek to find one. On our way, we noticed that our left turning signal was sounding very strange. While I dropped mail off at the post office, John confirmed that our left turn and brake light was out. We decided to take the drive up to Roseburg as there is a Ford dealer there. While the sun was shining in Canyonville, it was raining as we got closer to Roseburg. Super, we weren't dressed for it. Our decision to go to Roseburg proved a good call. We read the owner's manual but the cover did not come out as written. We where afraid we would break something if we forced it. Thankfully, one of the guys from the body shop showed John how to remove it and the bulb was quickly replaced. He agreed that it wasn't a very good design and was a pain to deal with. Ford has a better idea!

We returned home and had lunch. I worked on updating the blog while John got involved in a book. It rained for a while and then just drizzled. I also made an apple crisp for dinner tonight. We'll spend the evening watching some TV.

Moving day!!!!!

Our move today was greeted with happiness. Nothing against Sutherlin but after 10 days, we were ready to move on. The closer we get to Sacramento, the more we are like homing pigeons and are thinking of our old home town. After a 38 mile trip, we arrived at Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, OR (must say, we are getting spoiled by these short jaunts).

Our site shot is below. The trees all around us are in fall colors - very beautiful.

Here is a shot of the office where you check in and get escorted to your site.

Here is a shot of the building housing the pool, recreation room, and fitness room (very upscale). We walked through the park and went through all of the buildings. The park is simply one of the most beautiful we have been in the last 10 months.

The park also have shuttles that run from the park to the Seven Feathers casino. You can get door to door pick-up and delivery; all you have to do is call the shuttle phone number when you want the transportation.

We had a beautiful afternoon with bright sunshine (yeah!). We were greeted with an Osprey flying over and the sights and sounds of Red Tail Hawks. We also had nice conversations with Melissa and Bonnie.

We are having problems with our DirecTv receiver again. We just got a new receiver sent to us the first of October and the new one is restarting, not working with the remote, and can't download new updates (we just get into a loop). I spent a couple of hours on the phone with a couple of representatives for two different issues. Sigh! Supposedly, we will have another receiver overnighted to us tomorrow.

I received a surprise phone call from my friend, Alice. What a pleasant surprise and we had a very nice chat. Alice is another one of the reasons Sacramento is having such a draw. I am looking forward to seeing all of our family and friends that we haven't seen since May.

Gloomy day

The gloomy skies mirrored my gloomy mood today. John and I am ready to move on down the road tomorrow.

Hanging out

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

We did little things like laundry and grocery shopping. We also finished the jigsaw puzzle we had started so we went out and bought another.

We had a first Friday night. We had neighbors that pulled in next to us. late in the evening. After watching TV, we went to bed around 11 p.m. Around 11:30 p.m we were woke up by our neighbor who came out of the motorhome for a smoke (we believe) and saying in a very loud voice "Dave, you have a great hand!). Really? Don't you know how late it is? Talk about rude. We also had to hear his basement doors being opened and slammed shut for several minutes. In 10 1/2 months of full-timing, this is the first time we have ever experienced anything like this.

Thundering Waters Highway

We decided to take a drive today to see some of the waterfalls along Highway 138. This roadway runs from Roseburg to north entrance to Crater Lake. As we have been to Crater Lake before, we agreed that we would only go approximately 40 miles.

Our first stop was at the Colliding Rivers Viewpoint. This is where the North and South Umpqua Rivers meet. The rivers weren't exactly "colliding" but the view was pretty. We certainly imagine that in the winter and spring the views must be spectacular.

Our next stop was the Deadline Falls on the North Umpqua River. It was a short hike to the falls. Between May and October, steelhead and salmon may be observed jumping up the powerful falls. Sadly, we were too late to view any spawning fish.

We stopped along the North Umpqua River for this shot. The color of the water was a spectacular turquoise.

Next we stopped at Susan Creek Falls. This was a mile hike in to the falls on a very nice trail. As we got close to the falls, we came across this lovely picnic area (if we had known, we would have brought the lunch we had packed).

Here is a nice shot of the bridge that crosses the little stream.

Here is John sitting in front of the waterfall that drops 50 feet over moss-lined rock cliffs. We have determined that maybe this is not the best time of year for spectacular waterfall viewing. We are a little underwhelmed.

On our hike out, I took this picture of these trees. I just think this picture is special.
After we got back to the truck, we ate the lunch we brought as it was too cool to sit outside at the picnic table.

The last stop was Little Falls. This small waterfall pours over large basalt boulders and cliffs. As parking is limited, we could only get a shot of the falls from above. Not too impressive but it was the best we could get.
After a nice day, we returned home.

Roseburg, OR

We decided to drive down to Roseburg and check out their Visitor Center. The Visitor Center had a lot of good information on the local area and on out to Crater Lake. The women there were most helpful and loaded us down with a lot of information. We were given instructions on how to get to River Forks park. We had read some interesting tidbits on the park and wanted to see it.

The park is at the confluence of two rivers. It is a large park area with a lot of grass area for picnicking and such. The two rivers did not have a lot of action other than some bank fisherman and these two boats. What John and I noticed was how clear the river water ran.

Hopefully, you can see the clarity of the water from the picture below.

At the top of the hill in the park sat a fort for the kids to play in and around. We thought it looked pretty cool from down below.

Here is a shot of the fort from the front. It definitely was a good sized replica.

What would a park be without swings. I took advantage of them and went swinging for a spell. I guess it is something from my childhood but I find swinging to be fun (of course) but it also is relaxing and clears my mind. John took a short turn on the swings himself, although I don't think he enjoyed it as much as I did.

One of the first things you see when you drive in to the park is this big Osprey nest. It looked to us like the Osprey had originally built their nest on the cross bars of the power pole that didn't go over to well. It looks like a platform was built to keep the nest out of harms way.

Located just down the road from the park is an RV park called Twin Rivers Vacation Park. As it was rated well, we wanted to check it out. The office was closed and it had a locked gate. As we were getting ready to turn around to leave, the manager drove up and said that she would open the gate for us . She gave us flyer on the park and showed us on the map the sites best suited for our size and to take our time looking around. She suggested that we call for reservations as the park fills up on weekends. It is a nicely shaded park with large pull-through sites. It definitely has some possibilities.

We stopped for lunch at Elmer's in Roseburg and found the restaurant to be very good. It is located at exit 125 and sits in front of a Best Western.

We returned home to just enjoy the rest of the day and evening.