Our RV Adventures

Today was another work day (Hey, I thought I was retired) so I was up at 10, and after coffee, worked outside going through stuff in the back of the truck and rearranging things in the bays.

About 1pm I headed into Clear Lake and back to my client from last week They’re back from their trip and had some other things for me to look at. While I was there I got them set up on LogMeIn.com so they can log into their computers at home from their iPads and laptops while they’re on the road.

I got back to the rig about 5 pm to find we have a new neighbor in the site next door. They’re in an older, but nice Rexhall. That means the park only has 2 vacancies out of 82 sites.

Jan and I headed out to the Ryan’s in Texas City for our Fried Chicken fix. We were also hoping to see Helen, a waitress there that we’ve known for years, but it seems like she’s moved back to Louisiana.

Right after we got here I happened to check the park WiFi on my Android phone and saw the signal levels were much stronger than last year so stop off at Fry’s Electronics last week and picked up a USB WiFi adapter for my desktop.

It’s a TL-WN722N and I like the fact that it has an external antenna so I can add a bigger antenna if necessary.

But a bigger antenna is certainly not necessary here. Along with a better signal it looks like they’ve also upgraded to ‘N’ routers on their Access Points. This morning when I checked my speed with SpeedTest.net, I was showing 7.59 Mbps download and 5.32 Mbps upload. That’s getting into 4G speeds!

In comparison, my Verizon aircard that works on 3G here normally gets me about 1 Mbps download if I’m lucky.

When I checked the WiFi speed this evening when more people were using it, I was showing about 2.5 Mbps download. Still very good.

Since not much happened today, and we’ve picked up a lot of new readers in the last few months, I thought I’d repost our visit to Crater Lake National Park last June.

Enjoy!

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Thought for the Day:

"You cant stay drunk all day unless you start very early"

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Crater Lake . . .

Posted on June 14, 2011

Jan having gotten up earlier as usual, this morning started at 8:30 for me, since we were leaving at 9 for our daytrip down to Crater Lake National Park.

But our first stop was at the park entrance at Big Jim’s Coffee Wagon, a coffee and pastry kiosk that’s open everyday from 6:30 to 10:30 am, and gets a lot of business from outside the RV park, as well as park residents. Jan had a Hazelnut Hot Chocolate and a breakfast sandwich, and I had a Snickerdoodle Latte and a bagel w/cream cheese. Both very, very good. We’ll go back.

Then we were on the road heading about 100 miles south to Lobert Junction where we would pick up SR 62.

Along the way, we saw Mt. Scott which is right next to Crater Lake, and blocks it from our view.

Right before we turned onto SR 62 we stopped for gas and a pit stop at the Crater Lake Junction Truck Stop, and then it was back on the road for the 35 mile trip up into the park.

We started out about 4000 feet, and by 4500 feet we were seeing snow.

And more snow at 5000 feet

And even more at 6000 feet.

Then we see this. Oh, Boy!

But finally at about 7200 feet we pulled into Rim Village, and seeing a lot of people on top of a hill taking pictures, we decided to join them.

And this is what we saw! Be sure and click on this panoramic photo to see it full size. Be sure and use the slider bar at the bottom to see it all.

If ever a view was breathtaking.

Crater Lake is 6 miles across and 1949 feet deep, and from where we were standing on the rim, it’s 900 feet to the water.

This ‘lump’ is Wizard Island, formed from lava eruptions after the volcano Mount Mazama exploded in 5700 B.C., and then collapsed into the crater we have today.

Here’s an Internet photo showing it from a better angle.

And this Internet aerial view gives a better perspective of the entire crater.

The water in the crater, formed from snow melt over thousands of years, is some of the purest in the world, and really acts like a mirror.

Since it still goes down into the low 20’s here at night, you can see a sheen of ice around the edges of the lake.

And here’s my Sweetie, showing up the view.

While we were at Rim Village we checked out the gift shop and café. The first thing we notice were these ‘snow tunnel’ entrances leading out to the street.

And it’s really a long hallway leading into the building. It turns out that these are done this way so you can get into the building when there is 30 to 40 feet of snow covering up everything. Crater Lake gets a average of 44 feet (FEET!) of snow a year, and this way the snow plows can clear the entrance right along the edge of the road, so you can get inside the building.

Even the outside restrooms are done the same way.

A little after 1pm we drove about half a mile along the rim to the Crater Lake Lodge to have lunch.

Originally built somewhat shoddily in 1915, it had deteriorated to such an extent that in 1989 it was condemned, torn down, and rebuilt from scratch, with only the Great Hall being saved. And they did a beautiful job.

Jan and I had great Reuben Sandwiches in the dining room,

and then went outside to take in another great view of the lake from the lodge porch.

We even had a Steller’s Jay taking in the view with us.

All during the day, we kept bumping into this group of motorcyclists, who asked me to take their picture with their camera. So the last time I saw them I took a picture with mine.

If it had been a little later in the year, we could have taken the 31 mile loop drive around the crater. And we could have also come in the north entrance and saved ourselves about 100 miles. But the loop is still snowed in.

It takes 10 men working for 4 months starting in April to clear the loop. They can do about 1/4 mile a day to clear 30 feet of snow from a roadway 30 feet wide. That means they’re moving over 1 million cubic feet of snow a day. That’s over 25 million pounds. A DAY!

After getting our National Park Passport stamped, we headed back toward home, after having a great day.And then to top it off, after coming through the tiny town of Fort Klamath on SR62, we had probably our last view of Mt. Shasta, about 90 miles away. What a sight!

We got home about 6 pm, after a 9 hour trip of about 275 miles. A long, but really nice day.

Tomorrow, who knows?

But I know I’m sleeping later.

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Thought for the Day:

“Whether to shoot someone once is a moral, ethical, and legal question. How many times to shoot them, well, that is a tactical question.”

Jan woke up about 4:30 am and couldn’t get back to sleep so she came out to the living room to read for a while and was still out there when the sun came up, so she went outside and got these great photos.

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This is a close-up shot of some of the refineries and chemical plants down in Texas City.

After the sunrise photos Jan went back to sleep for a while before I got up at 10, and then about 11 we headed up to Clear Lake for lunch and some errands.

Our first stop was the park office so I could pay for our site for the first month. We had to wait to see where we ended up before they knew how much to charge us. But no one was in the office so we’ll try later.

Our lunch stop was at King Food, pretty much our all-time favorite Chinese place. And apparently it’s not just our opinion.

By a mystery diner visit, they were recently selected as one of the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the US.

After our favorite Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra Extra Extra Spicy with added Jalapenos, our next stop was our storeroom.

We wanted to pick up Jan’s bird feeder and check out our Christmas decoration situation. It’s amazing how much stuff we still have in storage. Of course a lot of it is my son and his families’, so it’s not all my fault.

Next stop was to drop Jan off a at nail place to get her toesies done while I headed over to a client’s office. Looks like it’s about time to upgrade his computers, since they’re 3 years old and starting to have problems.

Picking up Jan and heading toward home, we stopped off at Buc-ee’s for coffee/cappuccinos and then Wal-Mart for some Christmas lights to wrap around the wicker ball we bought yesterday. I got two sets but it may take another set to completely cover the ball.

Coming back to the park I made another run past the office, once again with no luck. I don’t think they want my money.

Back at the rig, I set up the bird feeder and Jan filled it up with birdseed, and also threw out some old bread for the seagulls.

Later, a little before 5 we headed out for supper at the Monterey’s Little Mexico over in Dickinson. On the way out of the park, I tried the office again and lucked out this time. I’m now paid up until the 20th of December. For some reason I had to pay a $100 deposit. Don’t know why, I’ve never had to before.

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Thought for the Day:

"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." – Robert Louis Stevenson

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