Friday March 16, 2012
After yesterday, today is a lot more relaxed. We are on our way
to Darwin Falls, a little hike of 1.6 km
First a few more photos of the campground.
On our way to the falls.
The canyon is getting narrower and narrower.
Some tricky crossing!
The Darwin Fall.
On our way back.
Back at the campground we see this! He is compressing the
garbage. Odd!
By the way, we found that California is not very recycling friendly
like we expected... Much like the rest of the US.
A very nice hike, but now we are doing some preparation for our trip
tomorrow.
Saturday March 17, 2012
The wind picked up in the middle of the night and this morning, it is
still blowing very hard.
We are done with Death Valley for now! We will be back.
We heard later on from other people that in the next valley (Death
Valley) the wind was blowing much harder, to the point of breaking
poles in tents and people leaving in the middle of the night because of
the wind.
We are on our way to Central Valley, California.
This is not snow, but Borax. The weather is a little confused...
We are coming down in Central Valley. This is a very agricultural
area.
You see all kinds of stuff along the highway.
We will spend some time in Tulare to relax.
More photos of the campground tomorrow...
Sunday
March 18, 2012
Once we got to Tulare, we went to the information center to find out
what is there to see and do around here?
The answer was surprising!
Nothing!
We found a flea market not too far from here. Not very good!
But if you need bras, any colours, any sizes, here they are. Two
places have bras. One of the many Jeans shops.
Got to show the behind...
Twenty minutes later, we are back
home.
Monday
March 19, 2012
A very quiet campground, even if it is very close to the I 5.
At least the hot tub is working, but the pool is not heated.
If you remember a few days ago, I had to empty my gray water tank
because of a leak?
Now is the time to fix it. The easy way!
The leak comes from between the clamp and the pipe, and a lot of little
pieces of pipes glued together.
I cut the bad part and replace it with a rubber adapter. No leaks
now!
The work of a pro!
A treat is needed for great work!
Pork Ribs!
It turns out the ribs were not that good... But the fix still
holds!
Tuesday and Wednesday, March 20
and 21, 2012
Tuesday we are off to Walmart and Costco. What! We can see snow
in the mountains???
And on Wednesday we got a TV show like scene, I mean the cops had to
show up because of a dispute between the manager on the campground and
one of the camper. The lady actually slammed the door in the
faces of the police officers!
WOW!
Other than that, pretty relaxed days.
Thursday March 22, 2012
If there is one thing that I check regularly, it is the tire pressure
on the motorhome. I don't want a blow out while driving because
of a low pressure situation!
In California, the exit have this type of lines painted on the right
hand side.
Do you know why?
And for the entrance, this type of lines...
The only reason we could think of was during fog, the driver knows this
is an exit and not a curve in the road. For the second
photo, a driver knows there is traffic coming from his right.
What do you think?
Hummm! Only in the States will you see such a difference in
advertising within a kilometer!
Many trees are blooming right now. An aircraft spreading weed
control stuff on a field. Neat to watch fly around.
We traveled through Sacramento in no time, not a big city like I
expected.
We decided to spend the night in a Walmart. The town of Willows is
coming up.
As we get closer to the Walmart, I tried to see if it is big rig
friendly, I am looking at traffic and I forgot the concrete separation
between the lanes and turned too early, the back wheel of the motorhome
went over it, broke two wine glass, and then the car followed.
Dented the lower quarter panel under the driver car door.
Tabarnaque!
(French swear word!)
At the end of the day, nobody got hurt, so no worries, but I still feel
bad from my missing the divider and driving over it!
My bad.
Tomorrow is another day!
Friday March 23, 2012
A quiet night at Walmart.
Back on the road towards the north-west and the California coast.
We just like the colours of the tree!
As I mentioned before, the
Sacramento Valley is very
agricultural. Lots of fruit trees.
Later on, we learned they were olive trees.
With the valley behind us, we now have to cross the Coastal
Range. We can see this white stuff in the distance!!!
Up and up we go! At about 915 meters we see snow close to us!!!
Back down on the coast and the sign that warns you about Tsunami.
As we drive along the coast, we go up and down to finally get to the
Redwood National and State Park.
Some big trees and back down again to the coast.
Here comes our campground, Kamp Klamath.
Once we are settle in, we take a little walk around and we see 6 or 7
chickens and a Boer Goat.
The weather forecast for the next
few days?
Rain!
More campground photos later on...
Saturday
March 24, 2012
No hard activities today. We
are going for a 10 km ride .
From the campground, we follow the Klamath river to where it meets the
pacific ocean.
Here it is, the Pacific. You can see where the water from the
ocean and the water, full of sediments, from the river mixes.
These building look like a farm, but in reality, they are parts of a
radar
station from the second world war. Fearing an attack from the
Japaneses, the Americans build radar stations all along the coast and
disguise them as farms to protect them from attacks.
One of the many point of view along the road.
One of the big "Redwood".
Our car ride takes us to the little village of Klamath a few kilometers
from the campground.
In the village you have one of the 3 redwood tree you can drive
through. Before we get to the tree, we look at this one, 603
years old, WOW!
It is now against the law to cut a redwood to allow cars to pass
through.
This one is 735 years old and is 27 meters to the point where the wind
broke it off, but with the branches still growing, it now measures 50
meters. At eye level, the tree is 4.5 meter in diameter.
Because this place is in the shade all the time, moss is growing on
everything, even the cement fence.
I love this mailbox...
A nice little car ride. The rain comes back with a vengeance, so
in we go and spend the rest of the day inside.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The weatherman says "100% chance of rain today".
So the sun is out!!!
We decide to drive the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. It
passes through the hearth of old-growth redwood forest.
Lots of others trees are covered with moss. With the sun shining
behind them, it is beautiful.
One of our stop is at Big Tree State Park. Here you can find one
of
the tallest and biggest redwood tree in this park.
Here it is, I cannot take a photo of it all.
Pretty bird, I think it is a Steller's Jay.
One of the trail we hiked.
We saw a few road signs warning us of elk in the area. We saw 2
or 3 of them on the side of the road and then in one field, a whole
herd of them.
The sunset is at 7:15 pm.
Off we go to the mouth of the Klamath river by the ocean to watch it.
What a beautiful sunset we got!
It is just incredible to walk in a forest with trees so big.
The photos do not even come close to show you how tall they are.
Just plain beautiful.
Monday, March 26, 2012
We still have unsettle weather. Rain? Wind? Sunshine?
The rain stops for a while, the wind is still strong, but the sun stays
behind the clouds.
Off we go to the mouth of the Klamath river for a walk on the sandspit.
To get there we walk by a native ceremonial ground. Sweat lodge
and other building are in this area.
The sandspit stretch for about 1 kilometer to the mouth of the
river.
Lots of natural debris here, but also some man-made...
On the west coast, they have rock formation coming out of the ground
and
they call them "
Sea Stacks".
Our destination? Where the river meets the ocean by the
hill in the distance.
I have to touch the pacific ocean.
Ahhhh! Just like that poster!
Prints in the sand, and the
wave that erase them...
Near the mouth of the river Klamath, you have this rock formation and
it looks like an old woman carrying a burden.
The first people that lived here, the Yurocks, have a legend for this
old lady. She was placed by the gods to protect the men when
they were out fishing. She also protects the fish so they remain
plentiful.
Right where the water from the river enters the ocean, quite a few
seals are feeding. They are very curious and they have to observe
us, just like we do.
The rain is back, again. We still had time for our walk on the
beach. It was very neat to watch the seals, but I think they were
more curious than us!
Tuesday March 27, 2012
The weather forecasters are predicting 110 % rain today, OK 100 %, and
they are right this time.
So we stay home, it is a TV and internet day...
This is the second time the owner brings us fresh
eggs. Boy are they tasty! Not like store bought...
A boring day and the humidity is slowly building up inside. Take
a long time to dry stuff.
Wednesday March 28, 2012
We are on the move today. Continuing our travel further north on
the north-west coast of California and moving into the Oregon coast.
Once done emptying the gray and black water tanks, we are ready to move.
A last look at the chicken coop and the office that burnt down in this
past year.
Nice and quite campground, but if you want stores or even a village
with
more than a corner store, not the right place.
On the other hand,
if you like nature, scenery and big trees, this is it.
So humid here that moss grows on everything, even the roads...
Some of the scenery's we saw on our way north between Klamath and Coos
Bay.
Warning signs we are not used to!
Like these ones!
At some point in our travel, we got fog, rain, enough rain to damage
the roads. This is not the first time we see this...
Our campground, Midway RV, in Coos Bay.
After we are set up, time to clean the car. When we tow and it is
raining, the car gets so dirty, unbelievable!
This part of highway 101 is very beautiful, I can only imagine if it
was summer.
Twisty, but nice roads.
Thursday
March 29, 2012
Another day with high winds and
rain...
The wind is blowing so hard that our satellite dish moved a few times
during the day!
A little car ride to Cap Arago. At times, we can see the waves
from the car.
Hummm! Can I see seals?
Sheltered from the waves, the seals are on the beach resting
themselves. The lumps you see on the sand
are the seals.
Once in Cap Arago, we got out of the car for a look/see, the wind is so
strong we are a little worry we may lose our footing and fly off.
Honest, we have never experience such a strong wind.
Friday March 30,
Weather forecast?
Rain all day, again!
Off to the movies.
On our way to the movies, we come across these two signs. A stop
and one below that tells you not to worry about it if you turn
right!!! Never saw that before.
A girly movie and me with the snacks.
The movie is not too expensive, only $12 for two of us, but the coke
and
popcorn ends up costing the same!
Mirror Mirror is a nice movie. Lots of the special effects were
done
in Montreal, Québec, Canada.
Saturday March 31, 2012
Woke up to rain. Got ready in the rain. Nice site, but the
water has nowhere to go. I walk around 2 inches of water.
On our way to Newport for a few days.
We had to stop at Sea Lion Caves.
The cave is a little to the right and below the building.
With the family of sea lions.
63 meters below ground, at sea level, we exit the elevator and enter
the
cave.
There are a lot of seals in the cave. We stay for almost an hour
watching them.
A special place. A little warning before you go there, the
smell! I sure has a fishy smell down there in the cave.
A very interesting place to see.
Back on the road towards Newport. Our first tunnel on the west
coast.
We are in South Beach, close to Newport, Oregon.
We made reservation at Whalers Rest Resort. They are members of
the "Encore
RV Resort and Thousand Trails" clubs.
Our first impression was not very good. The person doing the
registration was not the sharpest tool in the shed. He even had
the nerve to ask me if I was lying about my being a member of the
Passport America club! Unbelievable the lack of competence.
I even had to spell my name 3 times before he got it right.
Our first experience with the "Encore" club was not very pleasant.
Photos of the campground tomorrow.
Until next time.
Life is good...