Oh, The Sights You See!

We left Sutherlin yesterday at 9:10 am and after a long day of driving (well, Chris drove and I read to him, tried to do counted cross-stitch, tried to do crossword puzzles, read some more to Chris, and watched the scenery go by) arrived in Red Bluff about 4:30 pm. This is a lovely RV park and the best part is that it is 75˚ and sunny here! As we left the office after registering, I passed a woman going in who had just arrived from British Columbia. She smiled at me and said, “Now THIS is the weather we’ve been looking for!” I had to agree!

As has been my experience in the past upon heading south, as soon as we passed the “Welcome to California” sign the clouds disappeared and we had sunshine, blue sky and warm weather. This morning I dug out my shorts and tank tops from under the bed in anticipation of wearing them today as we get more into the heat of Southern California. I can hardly wait!

The scenery in Southern Oregon and Northern California is stunning this time of year. While the trees in Portland have mostly lost their leaves by now, as you drive south they are still in the process of turning color. The beautiful yellows, golds and reds against the background of bright, green grass, deeper green evergreens and the blue-green background of the mountains is enough to take your breath away. I attempted to take some photos of the gorgeous valleys we passed but they, unfortunately, turned out blurry. It seems that towing a trailer does not afford you the opportunities to just “pull over” for a photo op the way driving an unencumbered truck does. We did make a stop at a lovely rest area close to Weed, CA and I was able to get a couple photos of Mt. Shasta as well as the vista looking west. At one point, Shasta’s base was surrounded by a halo of low-hanging clouds which made her appear to be floating in mid air, but by the time I got the picture the illusion was gone. Still, she is quite beautiful anyway.

An interesting aside. As we crossed the bridges that go over Lake Shasta we were shocked to see that the Lake is extremely low this year, and, in some places only a trickle of water is present.

Today we are hoping to reach Bakersfield. This means a longer day than yesterday but without the climbing through mountains perhaps we will make a little better time. I am hoping Chris will agree to take Hwy 99 instead of I-5 so we have more unique scenery and a few additional options when we decide to stop for the night.

OK, gang, I am off to take a quick shower and then we hit the road again. Until tomorrow…

Southbound...finally!

Finally! We are headed south...and not a moment too soon. The weather in Portland has turned gray, gloomy, cold and rainy with predictions for snow down to 3,500 ft. We slept in this morning, dawdled a bit, did a couple last minute errands and finally got on the road at 1:00. By 5:00 we had arrived here, in Sutherlin, OR and are staying in a very cool RV Park. This place started out as a drive-in movie theatre and now is a lovely, well set up RV park. The office, clubhouse, laundry, shower facilities are in a lovely, bright-yellow barn that you can see from the road (along with the movie screen).

Chris was thrilled to find that we have a pull-through spot (even though he does love that macho feeling he gets from backing the trailer around corners and under low hanging tree branches). It is level and has all the amenities one would want. We can't use the cable TV as the trailer doesn't have an "in" connection but Chris has promised that he will be installing that in the near future. Not that we are all that interested in TV but it sure would be nice to see some news and weather once in a while. If we are close to a station our antenna can pick up a signal but it would seem the signal has to be pretty strong. In Portland we could get ONE station and during the dinner hour (when the news programs are on) the signal wasn't strong enough to pick up. I must admit I'm pretty doggone impressed with this new super duper digital TV stuff.

Each of the spaces here has it's very own patio with a table & 2 chairs so that IF it were warm enough, you could sit outside and enjoy the weather...AND the movies that they still show! We missed tonight's feature as we went to visit Amanda's family but if they show one tomorrow we'll be here with our popcorn and wine! Although, we will definitely be watching from INSIDE the trailer.

This "dirt yachting" is as much fun as cruising on the boat is! We plan to take our time getting to San Carlos so expect to see more updates on the blog. Especially if we have super-fast WiFi like this!! Whoo hoo!!!!

A Different Kind of Summer Cottage

We have a new summer home! After spending several weeks (before and after going to the South Pacific) in my parents' RV Chris & I have decided this "house on wheels" deal works as well as the "house on water" does for us. So...we have purchased a 2005 27' travel trailer to live in during the summers when we aren't on the boat. It sure solves a lot of problems. We have a place to come home to that is ours and we don't have to buy furniture that would have to be stored while we are in Mexico. Further, we can actually move it from place to place so is rather like cruising on land. Both of us are very comfortable with the concept of taking our home with us. Not only can we visit new places but if the next door neighbor starts bugging us all we have to do is unplug the utilities, attach the "house" to the trailer hitch and move to a new area. Easy as pie.
Don't get the wrong idea, though. As with anything else, there are a few good/bad things about trailer life.
Furniture: The house comes with all the furniture built in so no problems with having to buy something to fill up empty rooms. Unfortunately, if you get tired of looking at the pattern on the couch you have to buy a whole new house.
Storage: Yikes! This is very much like a boat! When we first looked at this trailer both of us were amazed at how much storage there was and we talked excitedly about how there was even more than what we have on the boat. Wrong! True, there are lots of cupboards, closets and cabinets, but they are often, in reality, 6" deep and 10" high. For example, my dinner plates will only fit in the angled cabinet in the corner over the couch! We have also converted a closet that was meant for hanging clothes into a pantry so we have somewhere to store food...which we consider to be an essential item.
Still, I have now discovered a resource all my women friends have known about for years: Ikea! They have so many cool ideas for making tiny little spaces do big jobs that it boggles the mind.
When we first got the trailer we had a small dilemma to deal with. We took possession of it on Thursday after 5pm and had to move it into the space we had the RV in. This entailed taking all our stuff (of which we had much more than I'd realized) out of the RV and putting it into the trailer. Then we needed to get the trailer hooked up to all the necessary utilities and take the RV back to my parents. We basically dumped all our belongings in the middle of the trailer to sort out later. Not only did it take a good week to get everything put away but we ended up buying much more than imagined. Things like dishes, silverware, towels, blankets, etc were all needed to set up housekeeping. More "stuff" to find storage spots for. sigh...
Now that we have finally gotten the place pretty much organized it is quite homey and comfortable. Alas, Chris is beginning to make much louder noises about packing it all up and heading south. It seems the summer is truly over and it's time to go back to Mexico. Just when I was beginning to feel settled. Oh well.

Fiji...contrasts and tsunamis

Our last two days in the South Pacific were spent in a lovely beachfront hotel in Nadi, Fiji. And I DO mean IN the hotel! Fiji appears to be a place that deserves some serious exploration but we were continually advised not to venture out into the city. This country has a turbulent history with the last coup taking place in 2006 and it is now under military rule. Our first day there we decided that we REALLY needed to do some serious shopping so we called for a taxi. We were warned by the concierge as well as the cab driver that it is pretty dangerous and we should be very careful. The taxi dropped us at "Jack's of Fiji" where you can buy everything from clothing to kava bowls to an extra bag to get them home in. We bought all three and then some. When we had finally melted the plastic, the store’s concierge called our cab to come and pick us up. Everyone is concerned about your safety, or it would appear so.

That evening the hotel was providing a program of traditional dance and, since we had an ocean view the performance took place right below our balcony. Whoo hoo! We indulged in a wonderful dinner and then purchased a nice bottle of wine to enjoy while we sat on the balcony and watched the show. The Fijians are very talented, as are all the South Sea islanders and the show was super. Each of the islands we have visited have a different style of dancing and the Fijians are no exception. Regardless of where we go, however, my favorites are the fire dancers. There were several young men here who were “playing with fire” but the one I enjoyed the most was the young woman who was swinging two buckets of fire around and around herself.

When we awoke the next morning, Chris turned on the TV while I was in the shower to see if there might be some news on (up to then all that had been available was rugby and religion). That morning was different. There had been an earthquake off the coast of Samoa that morning followed by a tsunami that was now headed our way. Given the information provided by the weather people (that it wouldn’t amount to much in Fiji) and the fact that we were on the west side of the island we weren’t terribly concerned but we did keep a close watch on the water. All we really noticed was the tide receded and came back in quite a bit faster than usual. We asked a couple of the hotel employees if they were worried about the tsunami but, not only were they unconcerned, they hadn’t even heard about it!

Our biggest concern was all our new friends. Most were in Vava’u but the last we’d heard from Hipnautical, was that they were in Apia, Samoa. We sent out several emails and then just waited. Unfortuantely, we were unable to contact the family we’d met who lived on Niuetoputapu island or John & Veronika from Suwarrow. Reports have come trickling in since we returned home and all our cruising friends are fine and had little or no effects from the tsunami. Guy & Karen told us that Nico’s family (on Niuetoputapu) are all safe but they lost their home, their boat and pretty much everything they owned. Still, 10 people are known dead and several missing on that tiny island. Help is trickling in but it is slow. The cruising community has begun gathering together things they can take that will help the people get back on their feet. As for John & Veronika, we have no news. We emailed them but the message was rejected so we can only hope they are safe.

All in all, Fiji was beautiful with sand like silk, warm, warm water and wonderful people and we would both love to go back and see more of it. Who knows…maybe we’ll take “Faith” someday