Mar 11 -15, 2019 Heading North on I-5 with the Hamilton's

Mar 11
We had talked with Randy and Shelley last night about where and when we would go today. Our destination for the day is a regional park we found online to the west of I-5 about 5 miles. Looks pretty good online at least.

Packing up and ready to roll. Two bags full of oranges.

We met Randy & Shelley in the parking lot and he said for me to go ahead because we have the trucker GPS Garmin on our windshield. Normally that is a good idea because our Trucker Garmin 660 has been really good at giving us a route that avoids low bridges and routes that may be narrow etc. Well I forgot to review the route that the Garmin picked to get to I-5 from Orange Grove. I realized a little too late that it was taking us up Highway 99 to Lodi, California instead of I-5 that I wanted. Leslie quickly changed the Garmin path on the fly and it chose a route through some small towns and across country that I had told Randy last night was the longer route and now we are on it. Of course Randy is following us and I can only imagine what he's thinking while I'm going exactly where I said we shouldn't go. I was so angry at myself for not checking the Garmin before we left. The same thing happened back in New Mexico where I had chosen a path and then the GPS picked a different one. I had my little snap show and pulled off the highway at a fuel station that didn't have diesel, another mistake! Good thing Randy & Shelley are so forgiving. They pulled over at a safe spot and waited until we got our act together then fell back in behind us on a known route to I-5... finally! After that little gong show we had a pretty uneventful drive north on I-5.

Welcome to Wasco!! I didn't want to go there.

Beauty small town though. Glad we saw it actually.

We were communicating by text and phone until we stopped at a rest stop and Randy handed me a walkie talkie on the same frequency as one in his truck. That turned out to be a great idea. Good work Randy!
We weren't positive what all the trees with blossoms were but the signs along the way helped, California Almonds, and there is  literally miles of them, as far as the eye can see. They had bee hives at the edge of the fields but they are close to the road. Thousands of bees must get killed every day because we splattered tons on our truck and trailer that's for sure.

Bee hives so close to the road.

Blossoms forever!

Travel day magic lol.

As beautiful as this was to drive through it wasn't great for Leslie's allergies but she carries antihistamines so she could deal with it. Randy has been on I-5 many times before and he called on the radio telling us to get ready for the next amazing smell coming up. Not quite as nice.

This goes for a couple miles beside the highway.

We all like beef and it has to grow somewhere lol.

It took a little bit for the "beef" smell to dissipate but then we were back into amazing country. Everything is so green along this Interstate. Either blossoms or green with the occasional farm or business.

So green and lush on the hills. Sorry about the dash glare.

Lots of industry also along I-5 with several almond processors.

It really was a great drive and soon we got to our exit at Highway 12 West which would take us to Westgate Landing Regional Park. I'm sad to say that we never did drive over to Lodi, didn't want to get stuck there ;)  Some of you will get that.

Our directions were correct and we pulled into the Park off of a gravel road and through a gate that wasn't real wide. Randy and I chatted with the onsite manager and he said to go pick a spot and then pay our $20 per night. We found a spot that we each thought would work (they are very small sites) and then paid our money. Randy got backed in to a site fairly easy and then Leslie and I tried to get the next site.

Randy is in and they are set up. Nobody is unhooking.

I tried my hardest but just couldn't get our rig in these small pull throughs so I just moved to the parking area at the far end of the park. I didn't unhook and we just got settled in with a beer when a really nice lady, the managers wife, pulled up and said I have to move or the sheriff will kick us out later with no refund. She even gave me a ride in her golf cart and showed me a site that she believed to be the biggest and most level in the park. There's only 14 sites. Well luckily we managed to stuff all 58 feet of our rig in that spot. I didn't unhook and only put out 2 slides for the night, our dining slide might have been on the road a bit! Good thing I can adjust each jack on our Bigfoot levellers because it was nowhere near level anywhere on that site. Just to be clear this park is NOT big rig friendly haha.

That's us way down there on the left. Long way from Randy & Shelley.

Sort of shows how we hung over both edges of the site.

Thankfully after all that moving around and getting all stressed out Randy & Shelley came to the rescue with their mini Weber barbecue making Costco hot dogs for supper! Man we have never enjoyed hot dogs as much as those ones haha. Thanks guys for a great supper.

Warming up the mini Weber.

Shelley just chillin' before a great supper.

After supper we had a couple drinks and then walked back to our rig for a good nights sleep. Another travel day tomorrow!

Mar 12

Happy Birthday Sam !!! Today is Leslie's daughter Sam's b'day and we wish we were there to celebrate but sadly we're not. Have a great day Sam. We love you!

We had a decent sleep overnight and only heard one vehicle come in and out, possibly the sheriff that we had been warned of yesterday. We messaged Randy & Shelley and they are taking their dog Jake for a walk on the levee above us to have a look around. Yep, we'll join you guys. It's quite a large body of water and it is super windy up top so it was a cool stroll. The levee is part of the Sacramento River system and likely controls water levels for all the farm land around us. It was a nice walk and we cheated and let the dogs offleash. Shhh! Don't tell anybody.

Randy with Jake, me and Shelley on the levee.

I had called ahead to some parks in Redding, our destination for today, and found two sites at Sacramento River RV Park. They are reasonably priced at $38 USD/ night and the location works for us so we booked for two nights.

A shot of the levee from up on highway 12, storage place not RV park.

We saw this huge flock of snow geese coming in to land the night before.

I plotted a path on the Garmin starting west on Highway 12 and then north on 113 to join back up to I-5 past Sacramento. I thought it looked like a great way to avoid traffic at Sacramento and the GPS was warning of a collision close to the city. "Hey Randy, follow me we can get around the city this way!" It started out really nice on 12 but as soon as we turned on 113 I looked at Leslie and started laughing. The road has no shoulder to speak of and is a little rough with quite a few potholes to dodge. Several miles along the road we started seeing "Road Flooded" signs in the low spots but no water to speak of. Makes you think you might hit some water at some point. Thankfully it smoothed out and we took I-80 for a bit then north again to I-5. Following us can be an adventure at times lol.

Nice pic of our rigs at a rest stop south of Redding.

The smooth part of the road lol.

We pulled into Sacramento River RV early in the afternoon and got our sites side by side. We noticed lots of trees and branches down and the crews were burning lots of debris from a storm. Leslie googled it and sure enough there had been a big snow event back in February that had done a pile of damage to this area. The branches on the trees in the Park were only partly cleaned up and there were a couple I didn't like for the height of our trailer but we got parked alright.

Plenty of clearance at the entrance.

Just one of many huge oaks that are damaged.

Tucked into our sites for a couple days.

We asked some of the staff where to get a good pizza and were told to go to Players Pizza in Anderson, Ca. just a couple miles south of us. Turned out to be great advice because the pizza was great! We drove back to the RV Park and sat out in the sun for a little bit and then inside when it got cool. A nice relaxing evening watching TV and some sightseeing tomorrow.

Mar 13

I have an appointment to get the fuel filters changed on my truck at a the Ram dealer in Redding. We are taking both trucks into the city and drop mine off then do some touring. There is a park with a bridge across the river with a huge sundial that we want to see as our first stop. We grabbed the GPS out of our rig and left it to get fuel filters and then headed to the park. What an amazing park and the weather is perfect for a nice walk to check it out.

Awesome park for a stroll.

Bridge info.

A bridge/Leslie selfie lol.

Worlds largest sundial, and the glass bridge deck.

Like I need to point?

How awesome is that view?

The gratuitous selfie

Water levels are very high and the path is flooded.

We walked around the park for about an hour and then had a coffee stop before heading back to Randy's truck. My truck is finished and we can pick it up anytime but we want to find some lunch. I checked with the service department and they don't mind if it sits there while we eat so we are off to find a brewery for lunch. There are several in the area and the first one we chose had beer but no food. We should eat too lol. Our second choice is right in the old downtown section so parking was tight but Randy wedged his truck into a great spot where I couldn't put a dually! We chose Final Draft Brewing Company and what a fabulous choice that turned out to be. The service, the food and the beer was fantastic and we highly recommend it if you stop in Redding.

You can see what's behind Leslie too.

Julie Brown, a really good nut brown brew.

A selfie with our great server, embarrassed I forgot her name :(

That was a really good stop and we shared a few appies so we aren't too full for supper. It's already later in the day. We picked up my truck and headed back to the RV Park for a little rest and then a small happy hour before supper. Randy is grilling a tri-tip for dinner tonight which will no doubt be amazing. We don't really have a cut called a tri-tip in Canada that I am aware of but it is a bottom sirloin that is really nicely marbled and is fantastic when marinated and then Randy barbecues it. It was probably only so good because of Randy's barbecue skills! ;) Good work buddy.

Tr-tip dinner with all the fixin's, great people too!

Again we visited for a little while and called it a day so we can get packed up and back on the road tomorrow. Another fairly easy day to Valley of the Rogue State Park in Oregon but we have to go over the Siskiyou Pass so there will be some big hills to deal with. The weather is supposed to be good so it should be a beautiful drive. We'll be back in familiar territory too because we turned east at Weed, Ca. last fall on the way south and we'll be going through there again tomorrow.

Mar 14

We pulled out of Sacramento River RV before 10am and headed north on I-5. No fancy detours today. The weather couldn't be better for a drive through the pass and we're looking forward to the State Park stay. Valley of the Rogue is a nice park that we just missed staying at last fall on the way south.

It didn't take long out of Redding and the beautiful scenery was in front of us. I really enjoyed Redding and would like a little longer stay at some point to explore some more. 

Looking over Shasta Lake.

Heli logging next to the highway.

A beautiful view of Mt Shasta in front of us. l Love travel days!

The trip through Siskiyou Pass was fantastic and the scenery just kept dazzling us as we got further north. What a great day to travel this section of highway! We stopped a couple of times along the way to let the dogs and us get a break and soon arrived at the exit to Valley of the Rogue State Park. Once again I should have used my power of observation instead of blindly trusting the GPS. We could see an underpass with 15' 2" posted on it which is plenty of clearance for our rig but for some reason the GPS said to turn left and come around the other way. I thought maybe there was a better route that we couldn't see behind us. Well there wasn't. I started cursing the GPS while we drove down a narrow road another five miles into Rogue City and back on I-5 to exit right off the highway to the park. We made it but man, how frustrating is it not just turning right the first time when I could see that the underpass was tall enough? Again Randy & Shelley just shrugged it off and let me have my little snapshow all by myself. We still have that GPS but it was close to flying out the window at that point lol.

Not as spectacular as Shasta but less elevation.

Familiar road where we turned east in October last year.

Shasta selfie.

Oregon State line!

Blue sky and a beauty State Park.

Our sites across from each other. We're B31. A decent pull thru.

We got set up and gathered for a happy hour over at Randy & Shelley's place in the sun. It's slightly possible this is our last day together because we might turn east at Portland and take 84 east to Dalles and then north to Yakima if the weather looks bad for our other idea of going east over Washington highway 12 to Yakima. We took the dogs for a nice walk along the river and then went back to the rigs to get supper ready. 

Leslie & Shelley down by the river

Their dog Jake lovin' the walk.

After a good meal we sat in our rig for an after dinner drink and some more fun conversation. Shelley powered out after a while and wanted to go back to their place and chill. Well Leslie, Randy & I decided we weren't quite done yet so Randy stayed at our place and we continued chatting and laughing. At this point I thought I might like a switch to Irish Whiskey. Randy is drinking whiskey after all. Usually by the time I think Irish Whiskey is a good idea, it's not a good idea haha. We had a fun evening. It didn't get out of hand but I'm glad we are staying another day because I didn't feel 100% the next morning. Good times!

Mar 15

We woke up early enough to hear and see Randy & Shelley packing up across the road from us for their drive to Longview, Wa., their home for many years. They are excited to get home being this close. Leslie and I made coffee and watched out the window to see when they were almost ready to go before we went outside. It's a sad time to be saying good bye but if the weather looks good for next week so we we will join them in Longview. With hugs and handshakes we said our "see ya laters" to Randy & Shelley. Pretty sure we'll see them again soon.

Leslie & I went back in our rig and made a good breakfast while a beautiful sunny day got warm enough to enjoy outside. We took Margaret for a nice long walk by the river on the path up to the rest area beside the campground.

Make believe fishing.

Now that's a tree! They must have had storm damage here too.

Cool rentable yurts up by the entrance to the campground.

We noticed an older Toyota car in the lot and how low to the ground it seemed. Perhaps this person was moving but that car was stuffed as full as it could be with stuff! Unbelievable how full it was. The driver couldn't see out of any mirrors and even the dash was piled with stuff.

Toyota Cressida jammed to it's GVW limit !!!

After our nice walk we were hungry so we drove into Rogue River and found a burrito shop that looked interesting so we pulled in. It turned out to be one of the best burritos I have had in a long time. The owner Josh, and his two sons, who happened to be on a break from school, make everything fresh every day and you order by filling out a card with your choice of wrap, meat, veggies and sauce. OMG is it ever good food! It's just off I-5 at Rogue River and there is room down the street to park the rig if needed. Room for the dually outside the door. We were telling Josh how good the food was and he asked where we are from. When we said Canada he said "Oh, that's awesome" and then headed into the kitchen, back to work. Just before we finished our burrito his young son came out and gave us a dessert treat that they had just made in the back "on the house". How nice is that ? The dessert was a tortilla that was cut into strips then lightly deep fried like a donut and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar!! So sweet and delicious lol. Super nice of Josh to do that and it was really nice to see a dad and his boys working together in their own shop. 

Leslie with Josh and his "staff". Great place to eat in Rogue River, Oregon.

We were so full but we have to pick up a couple grocery items and get fuel while we are here. With that done we drove back to the park and relaxed in the sun. Beauty day! We had a light supper after our monster lunch and just watched TV for the evening. It's a good day for water and a late cup of tea before bed. 

Wow this turned out to be a long post so we'll stop here for now. Travel day again tomorrow which is bitter sweet because this is a beautiful State Park and we could have had this site for the whole weekend. We'll be back another day for sure. I'll be getting another Rogue Burrito too mmmm. Cheers everybody!