Our RV Adventures

After getting up way too early (7 am) and Nick and I going down to the park office to settle up, we both headed out a little after 10 am, pointing our coaches towards the Lake Minden Thousand Trails RV Resort in Nicolaus, CA, about 25 miles north of Sacramento and about 200 miles from here.

When I went to bed last night, Nick and Terry, and Jan and I, were going our separate ways for about 3 weeks before meeting up at the Pacific City Thousand Trails in Oregon for a couple of weeks.

But apparently sometime during the night Nick got cold feet, or maybe he was afraid he’d break something else in the meantime, so by this morning he and Terry were also going to Lake Minden.

We pulled out a little after 10, hooked up our toads in front of the park office, and hit the road, heading first south, and then west to meet up with SR99 which took us another 170 miles thru Sacramento to the small (almost nonexistent) town of Nicolaus, CA.

Nick and Terry did stop for diesel in Ripon at a Flying J, while Jan and I just stayed out on the highway, pulled over on the wide paved shoulder. A lot better than going through all that traffic at the Flying J when I don’t have to.

We did have a small blip in trying to actually get to the park. It turned out that a new 4 lane road had opened, replacing the old two lane. And also removing the turnoff where we were supposed to exit. But luckily our GPS systems finally figured it out and got us to the park, although from the other direction.

We were quickly checked in, given our paper work, and found our way to our side by side sites. We had picked up some rain on the way in, but it had slacked off by the time we parked, and was just a light sprinkling.

In getting set up, Nick did have to jockey his rig around so that his rooftop satellite antenna could get a lock, while my portable dish was set up with no problems. So there, Nick!

Our daughter Brandi called while we were getting parked to give us the latest Landon news. Apparently since he got his first two teeth he want’s to tried them out on new foods, especially anything that Mommy and Daddy are eating. Whatever it is, he want’s some.

Around 4:30 we headed out to get something to eat for us. We were unsure whether to drive north to Yuba City, or south to Sacramento, as they were both about 25 miles away. But the nice young lady at the gate said we would find plenty of places to eat in Yuba City without the rush hour traffic of Sacramento. She also mentioned Lumberjack’s Restaurant, where they had really big platters of really good food.

I said “Say no more. You had us at ‘really big platters’”, and after thanking her, off we went.

I took us about 45 minutes to get there due to all the traffic in Yuba City. Who knew Yuba City had a rush hour too? But when we pulled into the parking lot, Nick and I knew we were home.

The sign out front said “Lumberjack’s Restaurant – Where the BIG boys eat!

Hey, what can I say? Our kind of place.

And the platters were really big, and the food was really good. Jan and Terry had Roast Turkey and Cornbread Dressing, Nick had a Ribeye Steak, and I had the Chicken Fried Steak.

We all raved over how every thing was perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked. The salad bar was great, the dressings homemade and delicious.

Of course, Nick wouldn’t know. He doesn’t DO salad bars. He had two menus – Meat and Potatoes, or Potatoes and Meat. That’s it.

We finally got home a little before 7, and Nick immediately broke his crank-up rooftop TV antenna.

See I told you there was a reason he followed me up here.

I’ve repost some more of our Washington State trip last year.

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Thought for the Day:

Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

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Bloody Marys and Northern Exposures

Originally posted on May 22, 2010

Also forget to mention in yesterday’s post about the Bloody Marys that Al and I had at The Half Moon Bay restaurant last night

First off, they use peppered Stoli Vodka so it’s really hot and spicy. And they also include all the 5 basic food groups. In addition to the normal stalk of celery, we got a piece of Slim Jim, a piece of cheese, two steamed green beans, a pearl onion, a green olive, a cherry tomato, a boiled shrimp, and a lemon slice. By the time you finish the drink, you’re almost too full for supper.

We left the American Sunset RV in Westport, WA about 9 am after saying our goodbyes to our good friends, Al and Adrienne Cox. We first met them in Fairbanks, AK two years ago and have kept in touch ever since.

We only went about a quarter mile down the road where we stopped and got diesel at a local Chevron station. The station canopy said the height was 12’ 4”. Since the coach is 12’ high, I didn’t want to take a chance on scrapping it, so I dumped the air bags which dropped the coach height about 6”.

The only real problem I had is one I’ve had before. Slow fuel pumps. It took about 20 minutes to take on 115 gallons.

Finally we got back on the road and headed toward Cle Elum, WA, 195 miles away, our stop for the night.

About 11:30 am we stopped for lunch at the Super Buffet Chinese Buffet in Du Pont, WA, about 15 miles west of Tacoma. We saw their sign along the Interstate and decided to give it a try. We were just hoping we would be able find a place to park the rig. And we lucked up. We found a place right beside the restaurant.

And the buffet was really good. Maybe the best one since Yuma.

About 40 miles before Cle Elum we started seeing the mountains of Snoqualmie Pass, complete with a lot of snow.

We got into Whispering Pines RV Park in Cle Elum about 2:30 pm and got set up.

Well, everything got set up, except the satellite dish. There were a lot of trees and I just couldn’t get a good sight line.

So I gave up for a while, and about 3:45 pm we headed about 5 miles away to Roslyn, WA. .

Roslyn’s claim to fame is that it was the town of Cicely, AK in TV’s Northern Exposure.

And it’s all still there.

Ruth Anne’s store is still a store.

Dr. Joel Fleischman’s office is now a gift shop. We came here because Jan wanted to replace some of her Northern Exposure T-shirts that she wore out since we were here two years ago

And the iconic Roslyn Cafe is…still a cafe.

And of course, Chris’ KBHR studio, which still seems to be a TV show set.

And the Brick is still the Brick, although it looks completely different inside from what it did on the show.

We got back to the site about 4:45 and I started working on the satellite again. Finally I found a place about 50 feet out in front of the coach where I could get a signal through the trees.

Now Jan’s happy, so all’s right with the world.

Tomorrow we will head out for Coeur d” Alene, ID for a couple of days.

More then…

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