5C's Que Pasa

Many RVers eat out as they travel.  We eat in as it seems that our food is often better.  Last night we had sloppy joes on grilled buns with Cesar salad and fresh asparagus.

Mornings see us driving and munching on fresh fruit.  Colin also has a muffin topped with peanut butter and I enjoy a Greek yogurt.

A lovely morning for driving. I have decided that I5 is barely interesting in California but I do love Oregon.

We got the worst of the drive over early in the day.

Certainly an interesting portion of the drive.

We call this a Mexican detour. This is how traffic flows during road construction in Mexico. Brilliant and most efficient.

It was cooler today but with a mix of sun and cloud.  I just used a heavier layer of fleece 😀   We got off the highway to fuel up at Love’s and they were closed.  Seemed like they were in restoration from a fire.  So we ambled 30 miles down the road to a Pilot where they very kindly gave us a 0.03 per gallon discount because we were Good Sam members, so we only paid 2.169 per gallon, quite the deal for Oregon.  Just as we were about to merge back onto I5 the leveling jack warning sound began shrilling.  We were able to pull over to the side of the road and Colin went to check it out.  The back left jack was down a few inches.  We merely reset the store jack button and the noise stopped as the jack retracted.  Perhaps the various rough patches along I5  brought it down.  The road in Mexico was never that rough.

We pulled into the Eugene, Oregon Valley River Center Mall parking area safe and sound.  A short 228 mile drive today.

After a quick set up we went out to enjoy the many paths in the area.  Beautiful spring blossoms.

The girls were mostly on leash but we did find an area that they could run free in.  We have trained them since they were puppies to walk off leash and listen to our commands.

A cute addition to a child’s play area.

We saw two sets of goslings this afternoon, these were the youngest. Is spring early this year?

I saw actually saw a fellow on an elliptical bike like this this afternoon.  They sell for $2500.00 USD.  Wow.

A lovely day with some excitement here and there.  Thanks for checking in on our journey North.

We only had rain showers once and it was exactly when we needed to clean the windshield of bugs.  Perfect.  Today we drove from Stockton, California on CA 99 and crossed over to I5 just before Sacramento.  The 305.8 mile drive brought us to yet another Walmart this time in Yreka, California, almost at the Oregon border.  Supposedly  it will be rather cool tonight, 40F/4.4C.   No worries as the four of us will simply cuddle under the down duvet.

Lovely floral divider along I5 just past Sacramento.  No idea the type of flower they are.

A very large Shasta Lake.

Mount Shasta hiding in the clouds. So very lovely when we do get to see it.

Always some art along the road.

Our very first doxie loved to bark at the horses and cows as we traveled including the one on the right.  The smaller calf was added last year I believe.  Cloii died about 10 years ago but we think of her each time we drive past this area.  Pleasant memories.

Time to cuddle and enjoy the rest of the evening….

…closer to home.  That is what we drove today.

We had saved this bottle of champagne for a special moment that never happened. Sorry Suzanne.

So instead Colin and I celebrated the end to yet another wonderful winter in Mexico.

It was a very quiet night in the rest area and eventually the wind died down.  We did get an RV that came in rather late and parked beside us.  We were still in bed when they left before 7AM.  As it was a short ( for us ) travel day we took our time getting dressed and ready to roll.  I read my book while Colin played and the girls dozed in the sun.  Yes sun 😎   It was a cool 50F but the sun coming thru the windows soon warmed us up.  Well we did run the furnace for a few minutes to take the chill off.

We even took time for a family walk around the entire perimeter of the large rest area.

Lots of lovely bright flowers in the area.

Our drive soon turned to one of fog and rain showers but after a few hours we were back in a mix of sun and cloud.  Very pleasant driving conditions.  Yes Chris, we do love our RV and being in it no matter what the conditions.

Diesel prices were all over the map today, mostly from 2.25 per gallon to 2.39.  We saw a few 2.15 and even one 2.05 but small stations that we might have problems with.  Today we were driving up CA99 which is interesting as there is much to see.  Chuck, we thought of you and Sandy today as we passed your exit.  We must visit yet again some day.  It does pay to read signs.  About 6 miles before the actual station there was a sign advertising diesel at a truck stop for $1.999 per gallon 😀  Seriously.  We could not believe it so that is where we planned to fuel.  It was an easy off/on exit @ 146 to Eze  Trip Truck Stop.  Such a deal.  Last year we paid $2.679 within 20 miles of this stop and the year previous we paid $3.839.  You can do the math but we sure did save a few pesos 😕

We traveled off and on along side this Prevost today.  We imagine that he was carrying his car, matching golf cart and a few toys with him as he headed North to Oregon.

So 332 miles has brought us to a Walmart on Hammer Lane off exit 258 on CA99. just South of Stockton.  We are always the only RV here however there are many homeless here living in their vehicles.  I picked up some fresh fruit and lovely looking asparagus for the next few meals.  Colin also filled our 5 gallon water jug.  Because of the number of vagrants around here we take turns leaving the RV so that one of us is always here.

Tonight’s post is brought to you compliments of Walmart’s free wifi 😉  Lucky me as my 5GBs are getting thin.  Don’t know how I could live on that for a month.  Dinner tonight is lox and creme cheese on a croissant.  An easy and tasty dinner after a day on the road.  Needless to add, served with a chilled vino blanco.  Time to relax……

….and heaters.  We are definitely heading North. However all this cold and rain happened in Needles, just across the river from Arizona 🙁  It should be in the high 80’s at this time of year. We awoke to heavy rain this morning.

We still enjoyed our day yesterday despite the weather.

Colin built this folding dog ramp just before we left the Isla so the girls could have easy in/out to the RV.  We had run out of scoot guard so he stapled two towels to the wood and then made a patch work board of various pieces of left over scoot guard.  It worked just fine.

He recovered the ramp with new scoot guard yesterday.  You just have to love Walmart.

I was able to capture Carmeh as she twisted back and forth in the grass. Nothing wrong with her back at the moment 🙂

Got in a few moments of R & R before the next set of rain drops fell.

I have to say once again how much we enjoyed our time here in Fenders RV Park. Even with the clouds and rain there was much to enjoy.

I managed a quick snap of the London Tour boat.  It leaves Laughlin at 10AM, stops in Lake Havasu at noon for 2 hours and them returns to Laughlin by 4PM.  Sounds like a fun thing to do some year.  I think it would be interesting to check out the river.

Our final outdoor happy hour for several weeks.

It truly was miserable, rainy and cold this morning and I was so happy that Colin had thought to set out our electric heaters as we did need them.  We didn’t leave until 11:30 this morning as this was a slow driving day.  Fortunately for us the rain stopped just as we were bringing in the slides and hooking up the car.

It was still a miserable drive with low cloud and many showers.

Things cleared up as we neared Barstow.  Our stop for tonight was the Boron rest area on CA 58.  Lots of high winds but we did luck out on sun shining through the windows 😎  We only drove 190 miles today.  You might say we are gearing up to the drive tomorrow.  Seriously once we get out of Mexico, our trek North is never more than 330 miles per day.  Posting early so we can enjoy our free time tonight.  There just might be champagne involved.

Thursday, April 7th

We started the day with a nice long walk.  Part of the walk was spent making specific site notes for next time, the best, second best, tolerable and absolutely not.  Fortunately the girls thought we were doing this solely for them.  LHC State Park is a lovely place to be based while in Lake Havasu.  For certain this will become a favorite stop.

Seems like everyone has solar panels these days.

Many colorful blooms around.

Most of them seem to be a large bush or tree.

We were on the road by 9:40AM.

By 10:05AM we had stopped for groceries at Walmart on our way out of town.  There just so happens to be a JC Penny in the same mall so I thought I would take a very quick walk through.  Mistake.  It was not a quick walk through.  In fact I was in the dressing room trying on dozens of clothes when Colin came to the entrance calling my name.  He was concerned as it had been well over an hour.  What to do?  Well I just kept on trying the clothes, spent more money, got a dozen or possibly more items and vow that my spending is done for at least 2 years.  Looks like I have an entire new summer wardrobe which means a year round wardrobe for me.  The thing is we are using USD that we already had purchased a few years ago at between 1.09 to 1.18 so the rate wasn’t so bad.  Secondly, I don’t shop but once per year so why the heck not.  Besides everything was on sale at excellent prices.  Who doesn’t need 5 new skorts?  Haven’t found any for several years and this was the year.

Just as we were leaving after our grocery shopping we were stopped by an old friend George ( and Gail, she wasn’t with him at the time ) whom we met at least 10 years ago in Mexico and eventually spent a few winters with them at Tres Amigos on the Isla.  They now winter in LHC but are planning on Mexico next winter as it was too cold this winter for them.  Finally driving at 2PM but had to stop not 15 minutes later to top up the tank before crossing into California @ 2.189 per gallon for diesel.  Finally on the road to our destination.  We only drove 47 miles today but it took a long time.

Saw these toys for sale on our way out of town.

On the way down/up I40 we saw that two exits had been blocked off due to the fire.  It wasn’t at all smoky when we arrived at Fender’s Resort in Needles, Ca.  We were checking in for 3 nights @ the Passport America rate of $22.00/night.  This was to be our recovery time from the long drive out of Mexico ( and all the shopping 😉  ) before we put the pedal to the metal till we hit the Canadian border.

Friday, April 8th

We had arrived 3:30Pm Thursday and were surprised at how muggy it was, not so much humid but close.  Sat outside for a bit before turning on the A/C as I knew it would be unbearable inside at 87F.  Only 30AMPs here plus this year the internet is only working near the office.  Too bad as that left us with limited internet.

The view of our site from the laundry room where I finally got our linens washed in case of fleas.

It was rather overcast and we had  rain showers overnite.  Always fun to enjoy the often loud river traffic and the comical ducks floating past rather quickly as the swirling current moves them.

We still sat outside off and on Friday between the showers.

We quite enjoy this place. Don’t think we could spend the winter here but our neighbors on the left do for $425.00 per month as well as the ones on the far right.

Very heavy steady rain Friday evening and through the night.  Most unusual weather for this time of year.  Actually we didn’t mind as it was better than 96F which they have had for the last 7 – 10 days.  Besides our noses were very happy with the coolness and rain which brought humidity.