Apr 17, 2013 - Cloverdale, CA

Days 42 - 44 of The Big Trip We got everything disconnected, started the engine, turned on the GPS and found we had a whopping 54 miles, 1-1/4 hours, to drive from the Coast Guard Station to the Thousand Trails at Cloverdale. More beautiful country - green, green hills and hundreds of acres of vineyards. One frequently wonders why Thousand Trails picks where they do to put their parks. Russian River is a challenge for big rigs. As the crow flies, we were only about 20 miles from the coast, in Cloverdale. After a lot of discussion, we...

Sep 16, 2012 - Cold Fog and Hot Sun

$50/night] 50 amp commercial campground, but it was completely booked up). The next day, I drove to White Oak winery in the Alexander Valley near Healdsburg to buy 6 bottles of one of my favorite chardonnays. The temperature that day reached 97 – too hot to enjoy wine-tasting. When I returned to the coach, I found out online that another favorite winery – Dry Creek- was sold out of my other favorite chardonnay, so I decided not to bother driving to the winery. The heat has been unrelenting in the afternoon without any sign of a breeze....

Apr 20, 2012 - Thousand Trails Russian River

Stayed at Thousand Trails Russian River for seven nights. Very nice NACO preserve with 125 Power & Water only sites. This RV Resort is located on the banks of the beautiful Russian River. We are Platinum members of Thousand Trails/NACO/Leisure Time; a private campground membership. This is a highly recommended Thousand Trails RV Resort!

Oct 24, 2011 - Day # 47, 10-24-11

Day #47, 10-24-11 Today started out to be not too ambitious. We wanted to go to Ferndale, which is just down the road 20 miles or so and back in off the 101 about 5 miles. Beyond that we were not planning on driving too far. As it turned out, it was our longest driving day thus far. We departed Eureka about 9:30am. It did not take too long to get to Ferndale. When you leave the 101 and head toward the sea, you have to cross this 100 year old bridge with stone railings. The blacktop is very narrow, just a little wider than the motor home....

Jul 28, 2011 - Morgan Hill and Russian River

Morgan Hill (July 8-10) Our next stop on this journey was at the Thousand Trails park at Morgan Hill. It is located off Highway 101 about 90 miles from San Francisco. We parked here for three nights. Did not do much other than geocache a little and took one sight-seeing trip, which was sort of an unplanned one. What happened was this: I have a GPS on which I have downloaded some special POI files. POI stands for Point of Interest. Such things as all of the Wal-Mart stores, all of the Flying J fuel stops, all Passport Parks, all nearby state...

May 28, 2011 - Hanging Out in Central California

Russian River Thousand Trails Reserve May 28, 11 am PDT Cloverdale CA I spent 2 weeks in San Benito Thousand Trails Reserve south of Hollister/Gilroy in central CA. The park was large with 500+ sites side-by-side but separated by large Sycamores and Live Oaks. My site was a pull-thru with full hook-ups and 50 amp electricity, making the living easy. The area is inhabited by cottontails, zillions of California ground squirrels and a few gophers along with lots of birds: robins, magpies, Scrub-Jays, Acorn woodpeckers, Western Bluebirds,...

Nov 21, 2010 - Almost there.

Two days of travel and we’re almost home. Yesterday we left Bakersfield and soon found some rain headed their direction. All but the first few miles have been on I-5, a familiar road to us. Near Bakersfield there was quite a lot of road construction, much of which will really improve the transportation corridors when it is finished. But once we hit the interstate, there was no change from the many times before we had traveled that way. As we were headed out, I was reminded of just how much of a focus on farming was in the Bakersfield...

Jul 26, 2010 - Napa Valley and more

Sunday started with a leisurely morning. A much needed rest after Saturday's excitement. I even tied on my apron and whipped up a batch of pancakes for breakfast! With these cool northern California temperatures we were sorely tempted to abandon our vegetarian ways and cook up a healthy pan-full of bacon, eggs and home fries. But we kept ourselves in check, (with promises of pursuing this decadent behavior when we get even further north.) With full bellies and happy hearts we set out for one of the "mommy push-pins", the Jelly Belly...

Jul 23, 2010 - Russian River

We made our way through the Bay area by way of Hwy 680 which is the highway that is farthest East without going out to Interstate 5. Then across the top of the bay on Hwy 37, back to Hwy 101 which is the highway we started on. That little detour is worth every minute of it, as the traffic is light [for the Bay area] if you pick your time carefully and there are no city streets to deal with as there are on 101. Then we proceeded up Hwy101 to Cloverdale and our campground just north of there on the Russian River. No, we can’t see the river...

May 22, 2010 - Cloverdale (Russian River) CA

Tomorrow we are out of here and will be driving through San Francisco heading about 100 miles north of SF. Our plan is to stay there one week before heading up to stay with Tom & Kay (our Wagonmaster and friends. That's our staging place before we head north into Canada and Alaska in June. We arrived successfully and have found a spot in the park with satellite and Verizon Phone Internet service. Life is good. After settling in and getting hooked up we drove to the downtown area and enjoy a Mexican Burrito and Taco meal. After, we walked...

Apr 25, 2010 - Our stay in Wine Country is over

The first two photos for this posting are the result of the visit we had with Tony, Mikes friend from the military. Tony sent an e-mail designed to stir the memory banks a little. The first one was a picture taken over 40 years ago in Vietnam on one of the many missions we flew together and the second was in his driveway in Danville, California. This life style of ours, however long we decide to enjoy it, allows us to make many new friends and also to renew acquaintances developed over decades. It is so worth the traveling to visit with old...

Apr 24, 2010 - Cloverdale, CA - Russian River Campground

Since the weather in Yosemite caused us to change our plans, we decided to completely alter our route. We decided to join our friends Don and Vicki and travel along the coast line. We will be in this park for two nights. Don and Vicki arrived on the 2nd night of our stay. This park is very old and obviously built before there were big rigs. Many of the spaces will only fit small rigs (less than 30 feet). We are in the middle of wine country so we had to visit some wineries for some free vino. The drive is very pretty with the mountains and...