Fun in the Sun Road Trip – Days 10 – 15 – High Desert Country

I start with an addendum to our previous post while staying at Pismo Beach State Park. Not to beat a dead horse, but we really like that park and would definitely return one day. As mentioned, we played golf on the 9-hole par 3 state park course next door, and while windy, it was good to shake out the cobwebs since being golfless all winter. We also took a super 1 mile r/t walk down a boardwalk that meanders along the beach south of the campground. Along the trail is also a stop at a monarch butterfly nesting area among a grove of cypress trees.  

Pismo Beach State Park is really huge as we discovered. It has two formal campgrounds, Oceano and North Beach (where we stayed), plus you can camp right along the beach in an area 1 mile south. Be warned… this is also a dunebuggy/quad heaven, so there are ATVs everywhere as well and several companies renting them. It was very windy along the beach too, so people camping had all kinds of wind block arrangements behind their RVs. 

After three fun camping days, we journeyed south through the big city to Riverside, CA and stayed at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park, which was a nice surprise*. Very large grounds with two fishing lakes, two camping areas and lots of trails and paths, plus a mini golf course. We rate this campground a solid 9. That night we met brother/sis in law Dan and Diane for a fine BBQ dinner.

*That night, while relaxing in the trailer watching a movie, Tucker starts barking and tears after something. We know because the trailer nearly tipped over when he reached the end of his leash. Seconds later we smell a skunk. Low and behold Tucker got sprayed a little on the chest, so at 11pm at night we had to trek to a grocery and buy ingredients for de-skunking, which are: 1 qt Hydrogen Peroxide, 1/4c baking soda, and 1 tsp detergent. We used the outside nozzle on the trailer and washing him down the best we could. The next day we left Jurupa and only smelled a little skunk…. or maybe we were getting used to it.

We traveled south of Riverside and entered Anza-Borrego State Park from the west side. At one point we were at an elevation of over 4000’, and thinking jeeez this camping is going to be cold.. but then we came to the edge of the Culp Valley, driving down an incredible winding road with beautiful views to borrego Springs, elevation about 500’. Borrego Springs Palm Canyon state park campground is just out of town nestled among gorgeous hills. We camped in the dry area site 70 which looks out at the hills with lots of privacy. There are water spigots everywhere as well as hot showers and nice restrooms within easy walking distance. They also have a hookup area, but the sites are relatively close together. We rate this campground a “10” for beauty and will definitely be coming back here again. 

We played golf one day at a local par 3 course and really enjoyed it. We visited a spectacular RV golf resort called Springs at Borrego Canyon and inquired about rates. Monthly rates in high season Jan-Mar are $1500-$2000 and they said some people make reservation 5 years in advance. We also took some drives and short hikes and saw some great scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We liked Anza Borrego some much we stayed an extra night (4 total), and would have stayed longer if we could, but they didn’t have a space for us. Next stop … Quartzsite, AZ for some dry camping on BLM land.

Fun in the Sun road Trip – Days 6-10

 

A good friend of mine (Eric – you know who you are) once introduced me to a new term for eating a meal while moving around with no main course … “grazing”. It occurred to me a couple of days ago that this trip is just like that, but in a camping road trip perspective…we have no final “destination”, but just moving along sampling some really great places along the way.

Day 6 was spent traveling through wine country. I say through because we didn’t really take the time to wine taste, as this isn’t Kyle’s favorite thing to do, but we did see what I’m sure you’ll agree is the premier wine maker in all of Napa county, Sutter Home. We camped at a nice place at the Napa County fairgrounds in Calistoga, and ate at a nice (but overpriced) Mexican restaurant.  

Our next stop was a visit to Deb’s sister Carolyn in Morgan Hill, CA, south of San Jose where we had some great conversation and a superb pot roast.

 

 

Leaving Carolyn’s we stopped and walked around the fisherman’s wharf area of Monterey and saw some cool sea lions.

 

Travelling south down Hwy 1, we went through incredible Big Sur and enjoyed the gorgeous coastline and winding road.

 

We spent the next night at Pismo Beach State Park (North), which is very very nice campground with trails to the beach.  We liked this state so much we decided to stay three nights. We rate thgis campground a solid 9, for beauty, cleanliness and access to the beach.  While staying there, we hit a bucket of balls and played golf at the state golf executive 9-hole course next door.

 

We also walked the town of Pismo Beach and the nifty pier. We bought a new wind sock to replace the one we lost at St. Andrews park in Florida a couple years ago.

Fun in the Sun Days 1-6

We’re now on day six of our “fun in the sun” road trip which started on Feb 13. This is the first wintertime camping trip we’ve taken and so far, we’re very impressed with our ability to find sun. Most of the entire trip so far has been sunny and relatively nice weather … not what we expected or planned for.

The first night was spent at Maryhill State Park (WA) which is near the Dalles on the Columbia River. The campground itself is nestled along the Columbia river between mountains. It is a sprawling, park-like campground right on the river with lots of room….that’s the good news. The bad news is the steep downhill grade of WA 14 with truck/trailers coming down all night with the compression bakes on, with the added bonus of having railroad tracks on two sides. We rate this campground an overall 4 (out of 10).

Night two was spent at Carl G Washburne Memorial State Park which is near Florence, OR on the coast. This was a typically nice Oregon State Park that was very wooded. The bad news is that the showers were luke warm. We rated this campground an overall 7.

Going south from Washburne, we stopped in Florence to see the Old Town section, with lots of shops and cafes along a river. Deb was hoping to find a new whirligig like the one we lost in Florida a couple years ago, but the kite shop was closed. We also drove through Bandon which is a great seaside village.

Night three was spent at Harris Beach State Park, way south on the Oregon coast near Brookings near the California border. This was an excellent park and extremely popular… perhaps because it was a Saturday night and a sunny weekend, or …just because. The bathrooms here were first rate and the campground had trailed that went down to the beach. We rated this campground a 9 and would definitely plan to come here again.

After leaving Harris Beach, we stopped at the “Trees of Mystery”. Certainly this is the highlight of the first 10^th of our trip, so we talked about just going home, thinking it couldn’t get any better than the Trees of Mystery. Actually it was pretty cool. Kyle walked the 1 mile loop and we took the “sky trail” gondola up into the trees.

Night four was spent at Patrick’s Point State Park, near Klamath, CA. A nice setting right on a point overlooking the pacific, but the campground is strewn with branches and storm debris, and the bathroom and shower facilities were poor.  All in all, a pretty run down park for $35/night and poor compared with Oregon parks. We rate this campground a 6, just because of the nice views.

Going further south down US-101 “the redwoods hwy”, we took the scenic bypass through the “Avenue of the Giants”. This world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, which parallels Freeway 101 with its 51,222 acres of redwood groves. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500 mile redwood belt and is accessible to all with convenient services provided along the way.

 

 

The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world.

We spent the night in the middle of this beautiful area at Burlington Camp. This is a great example of what CA ST Parks used to be and should be, even thought $35 is still too mush for a dry campground in winter. We took a nice nature trail and enjoyed the trees. I even played my new ukulele that night at the campfire.

That night we got our first taste of winter since we left. In the middle of the night it started raining and in the morning we were surrounded by ponds of water. I guess redwoods like rain…

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Fun in the Sun 2013

This winter/spring, the Nashinator and it's crew will head south to see how we like winter camping in the warmth of the southwest. Although we love the beauty and quiet of these snowing winter days, we're also chomping at the bit to play a little golf ( Deb wants to try out her new Adams clubs) and get some warm sunshine on our bones. Our estimated flight time is mid-February.

The trip, estimated to consume 4000 miles, will take us about 37 days to complete. We start by heading down the gorge then over to the Oregon coast for a couple nights in Newport, followed by a couple more nights at the Redwoods in N. California.  As we head further south down US101, we'll stop in Morgan Hill  to visit Deb's sister, then on down for a couple nights in Ventura, CA at Hobson Beach Co Park. From there, we plan to see brother/sister Dan Diane during an overnight in  Riverside, then on to the desert areas of Anza Borrego State Park for several nights.

From there, we hop over to Arizona for about 2 weeks hopping around the areas of Quartzsite, Tubac, Bisbee, Huachuca City and Tuscon.  We'll visit some artsy-crafty towns, some ghost towns, and see whatever sites that come up, as well as play a little golf. We also hope to meet up with good friend Jim and Mary Bagby while they are also vacationing in the sun.

By mid-March we'll start heading north. After a quick stopover in Vegas to visit a stone form company, we head up to Watchman Campground at Zion NP for several days.  From there we head back home via the Salt Lake City route, with overnight stays in Levan, UT, Shelley, ID, and Missoula, MT.

So, how do you pack for the warmth of the southwest, when you're departing a winter climate with highs in the 20's. Be flexible I guess.

Gazeboblog - Episode 8: Rock, Cupola and Bling

In the past two weeks we have been able to complete nearly all of the work on the gazebo, including addition of the cupola and completion of the rock work. We even added lighting today using 300 LED lights.








As discussed earlier, the cupola adds style and is supposed to be a vent for fire pit smoke. In reality, 99.99% of the smoke drifts sideways 99.99% of the time, so my vent idea was unnecessary. Oh well, we still like the cupola. The spindle in the center of the cupola is made on my lathe from a 4" round hunk of tamarack log, similar to cedar.

Deb, the master stone mason, tirelessly finished the rock work today, having slathered and shoved mortar and stone onto the 6th and final pillar. Now we just need to apply a bit of mortar in between each rock and we'll be be done.

Gazeboblog - Episode 7 ... A Roof

Our goal was to have the roof winter-ready ... before winter ... and we did that. The main part of the roof is completed, and now I am working on the cupola, which will not only give the gazebo some snazz, but will also serve as a covered vent for campfire smoke.

Since my last post, I added more logs as supports to the roof structure, so that the span for the roof deck is no more than 4'. I used 2x6 fir for the roof deck, pre-staining everything before putting them up.

The roofing is Owens Corning Oakridge which has a "lifetime limited" warranty. We'll see how well it lasts. It should last through mine and Deb's lifetimes, afterwhich it will be Ben and Jason's to worry about.

As you can see, Deb is making great progress on the rock work, now having completed 4 of the 6 pillars. Although we have enough now, we continue to make more river rock so she has more shapes and colors to choose from (see episode #4 for rock making).

Gazeboblog - Episode 6 ... Traftors

Hey, man ... it's like hovering in mid air or something, man....far out!  Today I set up the log rafters ... or trusses...or traftors. I'm not sure what they are called, but I put them up anyway. The rafters are 6"x6" D-logs like the ones we used to build the shop. I first had to plane off the tongues and grooves one every frigging 11' log. That "king post" in the middle is hexagon-shaped and is 11" thick. The whole mess is screwed together using 8' log screws. 

I will be adding some additional log rafters to fit in between these, so that my span will not exceed 48". The roof decking will be 2x6's. I am also going to have openings at the peak, so campfire smoke can escape. There will be a cupola covering the openings. 

Deb is doing her usually superb job rocking the pillars. As you may recall, these "river rocks" are the ones we are making using the rubber molds and concrete and coloring powder. It is quite an art form trying to make rocks look like rocks. We're getting better... and the price is right!