Our RV Adventures

Today got off to a great start with more Landon pics from our daughter Brandi. He’s pulling himself up with no problems, and even bending over to pick something up without losing his balance.

This kid’s going to be walking in a few weeks. And then it’s look out!

And here he is putting on his best ‘tough guy’ face. Either that, or he REALLY doesn’t like that hat.

Breakfast was the obligatory coffee, along with blueberry bagels and cream cheese. Really good.

After that, Jan and I worked on trying to figure out our trip schedule for the next couple months. We’ve had to shuffle some things around to be sure we’re back in Vernon IL around the 10th of August for our family reunion.

Around 1 Jan heated up the leftover pizza from last night’s visit to the Pizza Factory. Then I went out to work on MY tail light problem. A little checking found that my tail light converter was working on tail lights and brake lights, but not on turn signals or flashers.

Some calling around told me that no one in the area that was open today or tomorrow had one in stock. So I guess I’ll have to wait until we’re in the Sacramento area starting on Tuesday. We’ll be there for 4 days so I should be able to find one and get it installed.

In the meantime I should be able to wire around the converter box to power the turn signals directly. We’ll see.

Around 4 Nick showed up bearing gifts. . . a plateful of Miss Terry’s delicious Banana Nut Muffins. The hits just keep on coming.

Bagels for breakfast?  What bagels?

After working on the trip schedule some more we all headed out about 5pm to check out the Taste of China restaurant in Oakhurst. The reviews were pretty much 4 & 5 stars, and boy, were they right. And this was for sit-down Chinese, not our usual buffet.

We all agreed that this was some of the best Chinese food we’ve ever had. And just like last night, we regretted that we didn’t try it earlier, since we’re leaving on Tuesday. And the portions were so large we had plenty of leftovers.

But it does leaves us something to look forward to next year.

Even though he’s not much of a soup person, we got Nick to try the Hot & Sour Soup and now he’s hooked. Between Cappuccino and Hot & Sour that’s two new foods we’ve added to Nick’s menu. Since pretty much the only other two things he’ll eat are meat and potatoes, we’ve actually doubled his choices in food.

One thing kind of interesting about Taste of China is that we found out about it from the owner, Terry Nevins, who is also an RV’er. I saw a post from him on RV.net offering to send anyone his file of 160 recipes for camp cooking. When I responded, I noticed he was here in Oakhurst, and it turned out that he and his beautiful wife owned the place.

I just wish his recipe file had his recipe for Hot & Sour Soup. Bummer!

After a great meal we went next door to Von’s so Terry get some milk before heading home, but of course, stopping for cappuccinos on the way.

Beside the Banana Nut Muffins, Terry had also been baking another treat, Caramel Pecan Kringle with Butter Rum icing, and she invited us over after we got home.

OMG!  How does Terry keep coming up with these treats?

I had never heard of kringle (except as in ‘Kris’) but it’s apparently a popular Scandinavian pastry,

How often can you learn something new and get to eat something delicious at the same time?

And she gave us some to take home. Thanks, Terry!

That’s about it for today. I reposted some more of our visit to the Washington coast last year.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Thought for the Day:

Why don’t you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

——————————————————————————————————————-

Crabs, Pelicans, and Deer…Oh My!

Originally posted on May 21, 2010

Before heading out to lunch we stopped by the dumpsters to drop off our garbage. About 50 yards away we saw 3 of the 4 deer that hang out around the park.

Then we drove over to The One-Eyed Crab for lunch. This place is so good it’s the 3rd time we’ve eaten there in 3 days. My shrimp salad sandwich on ciabatta bread was fantastic. And of course the obligatory clam chowder.

After lunch we perused a couple of gift shops and then went back down to pier 21 to check out the pelicans again.

And I’ve never seen pelicans in a close swarm like this.

Getting back home, Jan sat out with Mister. While he explored the area, I worked on my on-going tire problem.

I installed the 2nd valve stem extension, put on the remote pressure sensor, and monitored the pressure for a while. Unlike the other day, this time I didn’t show any loss. After checking for a couple of hours I decided it was safe to top off the tire pressure, so I fired up the coach engine so I could air up the tire using the on-board air compressor.

Then about 5:30 we drove to Half Moon Bay restaurant for our last dinner with our friends Al and Adrienne. We leave tomorrow morning so this will be our last get-together for a while.

Tomorrow we head for Cle Elum, WA, about 195 miles away. Cle Elum is right down the road from Roslyn, WA, where Northern Exposure was filmed. We stayed here two years ago on our way to Alaska, and it’s a really nice area.

More tomorrow.

asdf

Our daughter Brandi emailed us a picture of Landon she took this morning, showing he woke up sporting two new teeth, his first.

Bring on the steak.

We started out with coffee and the last of Terry’s Lemon Braid Bread.  Sniff!

Then about 12:45 Nick and I headed into Coarsegold to get a new battery for his Ford Explorer. He’s tired of coming out in the morning and finding his battery dead. We ( I ) changed out the battery in the NAPA parking lot, got the core charge back, and we were good to go.

A few minutes after Nick and I left the park, Jan and Terry also headed into Coarsegold to have another go at the Peddler’s Fair and Flea Market going on this weekend.

While Jan and Terry were off playing, Nick and I ( I ) were back at work finishing up on his tail lights. I discovered two more bad crimp splices done by the company that installed the tow base plate and lights. That makes a total of 3 total.

I also found that the round 6 wire connector had been wired up in a very sloppy way with bare wires sticking up out of the pins. They also hadn’t hooked up the charge wire to the battery. All in all, not a good job.

I corrected all the problems and got the Explorer checked out and buttoned up with no further trouble.

Now it was time to finish up with Nick’s rig. I first had to move the charge wire on the rig end to the correct pin in the 6 wire connector,  and then zip tie everything back in place.

The last thing we had to do was to check the brake light signal on the rig connector. But to do this we had to crank up the coach and get the air system pressured up, otherwise the brake lights won’t work. But our luck held and everything worked fine. Job finished.

The only thing left to do in the next couple of days is put the panels back on in his water bay that we removed when we were looking at his leaking black tank valve. Since we lubricated the valve, it’s not leaking much at all, so Nick has decided to wait and see if it gets worse.

Jan and Terry got home about 3:15 just as Nick and I were finishing up, so about 4 we all headed into Oakhurst to have dinner at the Pizza Factory.

We had a very bad experience at the Pizza Factory in Show Low, AZ about a month ago, and along with our recent so-so experience at Di Cicco’s, we were reluctant to try it. But several people told us it was really good, and the best in the area. We also found out that the Oakhurst location is the original restaurant in the chain of over 120 units.

And boy was everyone right. It was delicious, as good as Da Boyz in Yuma and Crusty’s in Camp Verde. We all said we wished we had tried it earlier, so we would have had a chance to eat here more than once. But since we leaving here Tuesday morning we probably won’t get another chance.

Coming home we stopped off at Von’s for some groceries and the Taste of China restaurant to be sure they’re open tomorrow since we plan to eat there.

And of course, how else can we end the day, but with a cappuccino. At least that’s what Nick said.

I’ve reposted our visit to Westport WA last May.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Thought for the Day:

A people that values its privileges above its principles will soon lose both.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Pelicans and One-Eyed Crabs…

Originally posted on May 20, 2010

We picked up Al and Adrienne about 9 am and headed out for breakfast at The Fogcutter restaurant down near the beach.

After breakfast we walked across the street to check out the Gray’s Harbor Light Station, the tallest lighthouse in the state of Washington. Very picturesque.

Next we walked down to the end of the road to check out the ocean. Certainly a lot calmer than yesterday.

Then it was on to the marina area to look for pelicans and sea lions. And boy did we find them.

But this picture is just the beginning.

When we got to the marina itself, specifically pier 21, they were everywhere.

The whole end of the pier had about 300 pelicans all lined up.

And some sea lions too.

And more pelicans.

It looked like a pelican convention.

And more sea lions. They kind of sound like dogs barking.

These guys look like they’re doing some serious thinking.

And this old guy is just catching some rays.

I think he knew we were talking about him. Note the one eye open now.

I think this one’s kind of old too. He was the last one to fly away when we came down on the pier.

They had some really nice boats here, like this trimaran.

But this one looks like something you’d take a “3 hour tour” on.

Next we drove over to Grayland to check out the clam beach. Here’s Al, Adrienne and Jan walking out to the waterline.

The sandpipers were running around too.

The surf was still pretty rough, Note all the sand still stirred up in the waves.

This is a razor clam which is what everyone goes clamming here for. They’re called razor clams for a reason. The edge of the shells are razor sharp and it’s very easy to cut your hand just picking one up. Don’t ask Jan how she knows.

We didn’t realize how far we had walked until we looked around for the truck.

On the other side of the main road from the beach there are cranberry bogs everywhere.

After getting back to the rig, about 2 pm we headed over to Aberdeen for the 3 pm showing of Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe. Although it changed the story up from the conventional telling, it was really good.

After getting back from the movie, we headed over to have dinner at The One-Eyed Crab again. And it was worth the 2nd trip. Just as good as last night.

We got home about 8:30 pm, just in time to watch the season finale of “Fringe”

More tomorrow…

asdf