Wednesday was our last full day in Corning, California. Donna went for a bike ride in the morning. It was already well into the 80s when she left and the temperature would top 100 degrees by the time she returned. But she pledged to ride 250 miles in the month of June and raise $500 for children’s cancer research in the Great Cycle Challenge and wanted to log some miles on day one.
After her ride, she helped me prep a whole chicken to roast on the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill. The chicken was lightly coated with olive oil, then I rubbed it with Lambert’s Sweet Rub O’Mine – my go-to rub for chicken.
Chicken prepped for the Traeger
I took it off the grill at 2pm. I cooked it at a lower temperature and kept it on the grill longer than the recipe I used called for. It came out great. Excellent flavor, juicy with crispy skin. We had a late lunch/early dinner of chicken, sauteed kale and a blend of brown and wild rice.
Traeger chicken, sauteed kale and brown rice-wild rice blend
I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the grills and loading the trailer. I had the Spyder in the trailer and everything buttoned up by 5pm.
Me, taking a break between chores
We were up early and on the road by 9am on Thursday. I don’t know what I was thinking when we left the Rolling Hills Casino RV Park – I got on I-5 south. When Nally – our Rand McNally RVND7720 GPS told me to take the next exit – five miles down the road – I wondered why. Then it dawned on me – I should have got on I-5 north! So, I wasted about 20 minutes and a gallon of fuel before we were headed in the right direction.
Corning, California is just under 300 feet above sea level. Our route had us climbing a gentle incline to Redding, California, then we hit some steeper grades. We drove past Shasta Lake and stopped at a scenic viewpoint to look at Mount Shasta – a 14,179-foot volcanic peak that last erupted in the 1700s. I took a photo, but it really doesn’t do justice to the spectacular sight.
Mount Shasta – 14,179 feet above sea level
There are seven glaciers on Mount Shasta. At the viewpoint there were a few signs with facts about the mountain. One of them showed routes climbers use to climb the mountain. It said that about 15,000 people attempt to climb the mountain every year, but only about a third of them make it to the summit.
Mount Shasta climbers routes
We got off I-5 at the town of Weed, California at an elevation of 3,400 feet and continued north on US97. We crossed a couple of passes through the Klamath National Forest that were over 5,400 feet high. The Cummins ISL pushed our coach along comfortably. Even on the steepest grades we kept our speed over 50mph and the coolant temperature never exceeded 200.
After crossing into Oregon, we stopped in Klamath Falls at the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I put 57 gallons of fuel in the tank and we got Subway sandwiches for lunch. We continued north on US 97 for about 15 miles and pulled into the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino. I had checked out the parking there on Google Earth and it looked doable.
We arrived a little before 2pm and the lot was mostly empty. We found a prime area of pavement on the west side of the lot that was fairly level and parked. Donna and I walked down to the casino and I asked the guy at the security desk about staying overnight. He said, “No problem as long as you don’t plan to stay for weeks at a time.”
The casino is very RV friendly. First-time visitors get a $10 credit on their club card to gamble with. When they heard we were in an RV, they added an extra two dollars! They also gave us a 20% discount coupon for the restaurant – and added a two dollar discount on top of that for being RVers!
Kla-Mo-Ya Casino dry camp – look close and you’ll see Donna in the living room window
Donna and I played a few hands on the poker machines, then went back to coach. Later, we went back to the casino to spend the rest of our free credits. I should have quit while I was ahead but ended up spending all of the free money.
Our spot in the lot was good, but it was close to the highway and somewhat noisy. It wasn’t a problem for me though, I slept soundly. The overnight temperature dropped below 50 degrees. By morning there were more than a half-dozen RVs in the lot.
This morning we had breakfast in the casino restaurant and used our discount coupons. Full breakfast for two came out to eight bucks. Nice! We hit the road around 9:30am and continued north on US97. We had a short climb north of Chiloquin as we drove through the Willamette National Forest. We went past the Sun River Thousand Trails campground where we’ll set up for two weeks beginning tomorrow.
We went another 20 miles north to the Elks Lodge in Bend, Oregon. We’ll dry camp in their lot for the night, then head back to Sun River. This afternoon we’ll take the Spyder out and hit a couple of brew pubs downtown.
*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!