Category Archives: California

San Diego Routine

Donna has been busy writing while I’ve been getting out to play pickleball. She has a mid-December book deadline and also has couple of articles to complete. I played pickleball four days in a row – about two and half hours per day. With the shorter waiting times between games at the Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach Recreation Centers, I’ve been getting a good daily workout.

My days are already falling into a familiar San Diego routine. Get out of bed around 7:30am. Mess around on the Internet for a while. Breakfast. Pickleball. Read. Happy hour with the guys at Offshore Tavern and Grill or Dan Diego’s. Watch a show or movie. Bed time.

The Internet continues to feed my latest obsession. Last weekend I ordered another pair of Lucchese cowboy boots. This time I went a little overboard and bought full quill ostrich boots with calfskin shafts. They arrived from Amazon on Wednesday. I was really disappointed when I opened the box. The stitching on the shafts – the part that comes up around your calf – was supposed to have a gold hue contrasting with the brown calfskin shaft. These boots looked like someone had smeared brown shoe polish over the stitching and the shafts were uniformly brown with no contrast – you could hardly see the stitching.

I called Lucchese customer service and told them the boots don’t match the images I saw online. They were very helpful and told me something was amiss. They stitch the shafts after the leather is dyed and polished. I don’t think it was a factory defect – something happened to these boots. They offered to repair or replace the boots if I sent them to the factory in El Paso. I opted to return them to Amazon since I had free returns with my Prime membership. I boxed them up and rode the Spyder to the UPS store in Pacific Beach. It was super easy – the UPS guy scanned the return label and gave me a tracking number.

When I came home, I ordered another pair of the same boots. I received an email from Amazon telling me they had already processed reimbursement to my credit card – they must get a notification when the return label is processed by UPS.

While I was at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center playing pickleball on Thursday, I got a notification on my phone telling me the replacement boots had been delivered! Wow! I ordered the replacements around 4pm on Wednesday and they came before noon the next day!

Lucchese full quill ostrich boots with calfskin shafts

We had another minor issue this week. Last weekend the Mission Bay RV Resort office lent me a converter box for our TV since trees were blocking my Dish satellite reception. It worked fine on Sunday – I watched NFL football all day. On Monday night I wanted to watch football but the reception kept cutting out. Monday was a cloudy, overcast day. I assumed the clouds caused the RV park’s Direct TV antenna to lose the signal.

On Wednesday we tried to watch the presidential race debate, but the TV signal was cutting out again. There weren’t any clouds on Wednesday. The RV park sent a guy out on Thursday and he gave me another converter box. When I hooked up the new box, it couldn’t acquire any signal at all. I found it hard to believe that I had two defective boxes. I suspected a problem with our coaxial cable. The 50-foot cable I used to hook up to the park’s TV system was given to me three years ago by my brother-in-law, Tommy. It’s been knocking around in a container in our trailer since then. I went to Home Depot and bought a new cable. Problem solved – the TV reception is great and I was able to watch the game last night.

Donna made a pot of pork chile Thursday with the chicos she bought in Santa Fe. She had it in the slow cooker all afternoon. Our friend Mona visited with her while I watched the game and enjoyed the chile with a Racer 5 IPA. The chicos were coarser than I expected. Maybe that’s the way it is with ancient foods. I’m sure I got plenty of fiber.

Pork chile with chicos

Racer 5 IPA from Cloverdale, California

As the sun was setting, I walked over to the cove and shot a different sunset view. De Anza Cove is east of the RV park. Looking across the cove you see the Bay Park neighborhood terraced on the Clairemont Mesa. The sun lit up the neighborhood as it dipped below the horizon. I missed the dramatic lighting by a minute or two, but this photo gives a sense of what it looked like.

Last rays of sun on Bay Park

We had an unseasonably warm day yesterday – the high was 89 degrees. The weather guessers are calling for low to mid-80s for the weekend before the temperature falls to a more normal high of around 70 degrees. Tomorrow we’ll go to Donna’s sister’s annual Halloween party. I’m taking a break from pickleball until Monday.

San Diego Spring Tides

I have an affinity for mechanical wristwatches. There’s nothing wrong with a quartz movement – in fact, the most accurate time keepers are probably quartz. But there’s a certain romance with a purely mechanical watch movement powered by a mainspring and meticulously assembled from tiny plates, gears and jewel bearings. Automatic watches have self-winding mechanical movements.

I had quite a collection of watches at one time. I kept my automatic wrist watches on watch winders – a special case that rotated the watch periodically to allow the rotor to wind the mainspring and keep the watch running. Like everything else, I pared my collection down and now I have five wristwatches and one railroad pocket watch. I’ve been favoring my GMT Master II for several years and it’s overdue for a service.

Monday I rode the Spyder to Ben Bridge Jeweler at Fashion Valley Mall. About a year and half ago the watchmaker there, Israel, serviced Donna’s watch. It takes about five weeks for a service – the watch is completely disassembled, all parts are inspected and any worn parts are replaced. Special lubricants are put on the bearings. Then it’s reassembled and regulated. It’s not an inexpensive job – in fact, the service costs more than the average wristwatch costs new.

Meanwhile, I’m wearing a watch that I bought several years ago when I had a Moto Guzzi motorcycle. One of the guys at the loosely organized Moto Guzzi Club commissioned a limited number of watches built with an ETA automatic movement and iron magnetic shield dial. The ETA 2824 movement is a common workhorse built by the Swatch Group and is used in many watches.

Moto Guzzi watch on my hairy wrist

When I came back from Fashion Valley, Donna was back in bed. She had tummy trouble – we think it may have been a case of food poisoning. She spent the entire day in bed. Fortunately, she was better the next day.

She didn’t need me to do anything for her, so I went to Ocean Beach to the recreation center and played pickleball. I found out that the times listed on the USAPA site were wrong. The site showed pickleball from noon to 2pm – which is what I remembered from last year. Now they play from 10am to 2pm on Monday and Wednesday. I was able to get several games in and had a good workout.

It was overcast when I rode the Spyder to Ocean Beach. I thought it was the typical morning marine layer which would burn off. I was surprised when I left the rec center to find a low overcast still hanging around. I rode to Pacific Beach where I stopped for tacos and a mist was falling lightly. On the way back to Mission Bay, I hit a rain shower. It was brief though and the sun finally broke through by 4pm.

Tuesday morning I had to retrieve some things from the trailer. While I was at the storage lot, I noticed the tide was very high in the bay and the morning sunlight was beautiful.

Morning sunshine on De Anza Cove

Tuesday and Thursday pickleball is played at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Again, their hours have changed. It used to be noon to 4pm. Now it’s 10am to 4pm. The longer hours of open play makes it less crowded as people come and go after playing for a couple of hours. I barely had break time inbetween games. I played from noon to 2:30pm.

Later, I went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill to collect the spoils of my second-place football pool result. I got a free drink and five dollars. Winning is better, but I can’t complain. A funny thing happened when I left the RV park for the tavern. Just as I pulled out of our site, Donna saw my cell phone on the counter. She knows I don’t like to be without my cell phone. She grabbed the phone and ran after me. A car went through the automatic gate ahead of me, so I didn’t need to wait for the gate to open. I rolled out before Donna could catch me.

I was about to exit the Mission Bay RV Resort property when two women from the office came out and waved their arms to flag me down. I stopped and they said, “You forgot your phone.” I thanked them and turned around. I assumed Donna had phoned the office and I had to go back to our coach to get my phone. About then, Thomas, the security supervisor rolled up in his cart and handed me my phone. I was surprised and a little confused.

Later Donna told me that Thomas saw her running after me. He pulled up beside her in his golf cart and took the phone and came after me. He must have radioed the office girls and told them to stop me. What an effort – just because I don’t like to go out without my phone!

After I returned, Donna and I took a walk around the Mission Bay RV Resort at sunset. The phase of the moon is creating spring tides. Spring tides don’t have anything to do with the season – it’s about the water level springing up and down. Spring tides occur when the gravitational pull of the sun and moon combine, causing higher than average high tides and lower than average low tides. At sunset, the tide was lower than I ever remember seeing in Mission Bay.

Low tide at sunset

Boater paddling in the low water

Donna made panko crusted rockfish filets for dinner. She served it with a kale salad with dried cranberries, pine nuts and parmigiano reggiano cheese. It was a delicious meal.

Panko crusted rockfish

Today we’re in for another beautiful weather day. The forecast high is in the low 80s with abundant sunshine. Donna volunteered to do more data entry for the Girls on the Run organization. I think I’ll head over to Ocean Beach for more pickleball.

Run, Donna, Run

We had a fairly quiet weekend as we settled in at Mission Bay RV Resort.

Donna went to an office in Mission Valley Friday morning. She volunteered to do some data entry for an organization called Girls on the Run. I took a couple of walks around the RV park and mostly read a book on my Kindle. I retrieved the Weber Q grill and stand from our trailer in the storage lot so we could grill steak for dinner. Then I went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for happy hour and met up with my pals there – Bob, Tye and Tim. We caught up and of course I entered the football pool.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the Spyder downtown to the Little Italy District for the farmers’ market. We always enjoy farmers’ markets and the San Diego Saturday market is a good one.

Farmers’ market on Cedar Street

We strolled through the four-block section of Cedar Street and had food samples. We weren’t really shopping for anything, but we ended up buying a Greek-style eggplant and yogurt dip, baguette, smoked gouda cheese, uncured salami and two kinds of sausages from The Meatmen, a bomber bottle of Modern Times blood orange gose beer (brewed in Point Loma), plus pomegranates and kale. We like the smaller Tuesday farmers’ market in Pacific Beach too.

Ozark the cat has really taken to her window mounted bed. She slept Saturday afternoon in it, but the sunshine must have bothered her eyes.

Ozark the cat shielding her eyes

Donna had volunteered to work from 2-4pm at the Girls on the Run booth that was set up for the Esprit de She race on Sunday so she rode her bike over there. While she was out, I made a run to the store. One of things I like about the west coast is the availability and large selection of craft beer in 22-ounce bomber bottles. We found plenty of craft beer in New Mexico, Colorado and even Wyoming but you had to look for it and generally it was only available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles. In California, Oregon and Washington you’ll find good selections in just about every grocery store.

Islander IPA from Coronado Brewing Company.

We snacked on the food we bought at the farmers’ market for happy hour, then Donna made turmeric chicken with bone-in chicken thighs. She served it with Israeli couscous and steamed green beans.

Turmeric chicken thighs

Donna had her alarm set for 5:30am Sunday morning. She was entered in a 5k race at South Shores Park on the south side of Mission Bay, just east of Sea World. Her plan was to use a City Bike to ride to South Shores Park – the race was scheduled to start at 7:15am. City Bikes are rental bicycles found in various locations in San Diego. The bikes are electronically locked in bike racks. You pay five dollars for half an hour – the machine will release the bike and record the time. When you return the bike at any City Bike rack, it locks in the rack and records the return time. There’s a rack of bikes just outside Mission Bay RV Resort, about a quarter mile from our site.

It had rained overnight, but no rain was falling when Donna left just after 6am. She had to take a towel along to wipe down the City Bike seat – and my headlamp as it was still dark. She was able to ride a bike path all the way to the bike drop-off, then walked another 1/2 mile or so to South Shores Park.

The start of the race was delayed until 7:45am. Donna ran a good pace – 9:48/mile and nearly met her goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. She finished in 30:25 and won the woman’s 50-59 age group.

I spent most of the day watching football. I was getting excited about my chances in the football pool. I picked winners in 10 out of 13 games played on Sunday. I ended up in second place though – the winner also picked 10 out of 13 but he ended up with 84 points to my 80. Oh well, there’s always next week.

Wipe Out IPA from Port Brewing Company

On Sunday evening, Donna made a marinara sauce from scratch and served sweet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese ravioli – we bought the sausage and the ravioli at the farmers’ market.

Swwet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese raviola

Sweet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese ravioli

I have a few errands to run today and I need to get cracking on next year’s health insurance plan. This afternoon I’ll probably play pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Donna is working on a new book project that will occupy much of her time as she needs to meet a mid-December deadline.

*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!

Three Summits to the Coast

After a quiet night in the desert, we pulled out of Ogilby Road around 9:30am. Interstate 8 has a huge construction project that spans miles and miles of road – nearly from the Arizona border to the Holtville exit – about 50 miles of freeway. I was amazed to find us on a temporary asphalt road running parallel to the interstate for several miles. It boggles my mind to think of how much it must have cost to pave this temporary road.

The traffic was fairly light and we made good time despite the construction. West of El Centro we crossed a desert basin with a sign post stating we were at sea level. There was a huge array of solar panels on both sides of the road. Then we started a gradual climb for a few miles before we began climbing in earnest. The next sign I saw said we were 1,000 feet above sea level, then 2,000 feet. The climb from 2,000 to 3,000 was short and steep. We crossed the Tecate Divide at 4,140 feet above sea level then dropped into a valley before we climbed again to the Crestwood Summit – the highest point on I-8 at 4,181 feet above sea level.

We dropped into another valley and made a familiar stop at the Buckman Springs rest area. I parked our rig in the truck parking and Donna made salads with roasted chicken. We sat at a picnic table in the rest area and enjoyed our lunch outdoors. The temperature at this elevation was a pleasant 70 degrees.

Dining al fresco at Buckman Springs

After we hit the road again we immediately ran into a Border Patrol check point. The Border Patrol agent waved us through – no questions asked. I believe they already know who they want to question and search – they probably know which vehicles came across the border or had their trip originate near the Mexico border.

We climbed once again out of the valley to the third summit on our route – Laguna Summit at 4,055 feet above sea level. From there we began a 13-mile descent with some steep downgrades. It’s mostly downhill all the way to the city of Lakeside, east of El Cajon, California. I had to get back into the city driving mode and be on the defensive. I choose the lane I want to be in well before I need to be there.

We pulled into Mission Bay RV Resort just before 1pm. We were checked in quickly and dropped the trailer in the storage lot across from the security shack. Thomas, the security supervisor, welcomed us and told us where to put the trailer. Maneuvering the trailer into place was a study in patience, but we got it done without any issues. We haven’t been charged for trailer storage since those Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole our trailer here in 2013.

Backing the coach into site 120 was another test of patience as I had to maneuver past parked cars and trees. I was feeling good about being back in San Diego. If any city is a homecoming for me, San Diego is it. Then I met our new neighbor.

I had positioned the coach in our site when the guy in site 119 on the driver’s side of our coach came out. He told me I was too far to the left and my slide out would encroach on his space. What? At Mission Bay RV Resort they have lines painted on the paved sites. There are two parallel lines about three feet apart bordering each side of the site. On the driver’s side, the sewer hook up is in between these lines. My understanding has always been that the three-foot zone between the lines on the driver’s side of the coach is a buffer zone for hook ups and slide outs.

Lines for a buffer zone with sewer hook up

This guy told me he’s been coming here for 10 years and I was encroaching on his “patio space.” I looked at the rig on the right side of us, site 121. He was parked with his slide out in this buffer zone. I pointed it out to him – in fact just about every site was parked like this. Rather than fight with the guy, I moved our coach over about a foot. Later I asked Thomas what the site boundary rules were. He told me I was right – my wheels shouldn’t be over the line but the slide out could extend over the closest line. The second line defines the boundary for the next site.

Then it got worse. My Dish satellite receiver couldn’t acquire a signal due to trees. We’re going to be here for two months! No TV for two months was not acceptable. Before setting up I went to the office to see if we could move to another site – one that would solve the satellite issue and get me away from the jerk in 119. There wasn’t anything available unless I wanted to switch sites every week or two. Oh, no!

Then the woman in the office said, “Why don’t you hook up to the park cable TV?” I told her my TV was on an HDMI cable, I didn’t have a coaxial cable set up. She said she would lend me a converter box with an HDMI port. I brought the box back to the site and it worked! I don’t get all of the channels I have with satellite, but at least I can watch the football games.

Home for the next two months

We’re required to leave the park for 24 hours after two months, then we can check in again. We plan to stay for a total of three months here. We haven’t decided where we’ll spend our 24-hour exile, but we have plenty of time to get to that.

The five-day forecast looks great – some clouds with daily highs in the low 70s. It’s great to be back.

Did You Hear That?

I woke up well before dawn at the Mazatzal Casino parking lot in Payson, Arizona Tuesday morning. Lying in bed with my eyes closed I heard Donna whisper, “Did you hear that?” “Uh-huh.” “Was that an elk?” “Yeah, it’s a bull elk bugling.” Of all the places we’ve been, a casino parking lot was the last place I’d expected to hear a bull elk bugling in the pre-dawn hours. I heard it two more times in the next 30 or 40 minutes confirming it was real, not a dream.

We were packed up and on the road a little after 9am. We drove down AZ87 – also known as the Beeline Highway – southwest toward Fountain Hills and the greater Phoenix area. Payson is 5,000 feet above sea level. The Beeline Highway descends rapidly and has a series of steep uphill grades – the net result is a loss of elevation. We arrived in Mesa at an elevation of around 1,200 feet above sea level and pulled into the RV Renovators lot on Main Street.

RV Renovators is the outfit I’ve chosen to repair the damage on the coach from the encounter with a large buck in Idaho. I wanted to stop there and go over the insurance estimate and discuss the repair work before we return in January to have the work done. The job will entail some complicated fiberglass repairs on the living room slide-out.

We had a short meeting and they have us on the calendar to return and start work on January 15th. Although the insurance estimate only shows 40 hours of labor, they told me two weeks of work was more realistic. The goal is to start work on January 15th and finish by the end of the month. They also told me we can stay in the coach at their shop – they have hook ups. Staying in the coach helps – we won’t have to find a place to stay for an indefinite period of time and have to deal with our personal belongings in the coach. We’ll also be onsite every day to oversee progress. This is good news. Now I just need to figure out what to do with our 20-foot car carrier trailer while we’re at the shop.

From there we moved on to Casa Grande where I stopped at the Speedco service center to have maintenance done on the coach. I do an annual preventive maintenance (PM) which includes an engine oil and filter change and a fuel filter change, chassis lube and inspection. Our Cummins ISL diesel engine falls under their medium duty PM schedule. In the past, I paid $179.99 for this service plus any upgrades or additional work found upon inspection. I usually upgrade the oil filter to a Fleetguard instead of the standard Baldwin and use Chevron Delo 400 LE 15-40 oil. This time I was told they had a price increase – the medium duty PM base price went from $179.99 to $249.99 – a 39% jump in price! I also have the used oil analysis done. This too had an increase – it was $17.99 now it’s $24.99.

I went ahead with it. When I looked at the used oil analysis I could see something was wrong. Everything looked good until I saw the viscosity at 100C – it was listed as less than 3 cSt. The specification is 12.5 to 16.3 cSt. If my engine oil was really less than 3 cSt, I wouldn’t be holding any oil pressure when the oil was at full operating temperature. When I asked about how this could be, I heard a lot of mumbling and the girl at the counter highlighted the specification. I told her I was well aware of the spec and what it means – but I didn’t believe the results because it didn’t make sense. She took it to the manager. After a few minutes he admitted that he didn’t even know what the measurement meant – it’s just a number their machine spits out – he refunded the $24.99. I might have to rethink how I’m having used oil analysis performed.

Later, I looked at the Speedco corporate website. Their price sheet which was updated in September still shows medium duty PM at $179.99. I sent an inquiry to their customer service asking if I’d been overcharged.

From there we had the coach washed at Blue Beacon, then found the Elks Lodge near the courthouse downtown. Parking was easy and as always, the people at the lodge were friendly. Unfortunately this is a lodge that allows smoking at the bar. Overnight dry camping cost $10.

On Wednesday morning, Donna went for a run, then we prepared to move on. The lodge lot was empty – we were the only RV there and all of the cars from the night before were gone. This made it easy to exit the parking area.

When we pulled out, our fuel gauge registered less than 1/4 tank. I wondered how this could be – where had all our fuel gone? We had several hours of generator run time, but that only accounts for half to three quarters of a gallon per hour. My plan was to fuel up in Yuma at the Pilot/Flying J at exit 12 where we’ve stopped several times before. I was pretty sure we could cover the 160 miles, but I don’t like running below a quarter tank.

About an hour later, I figured something was up with the fuel gauge. Now it was reading a quarter tank – higher than when we left 60 miles before. We made it to Yuma and I topped off the tank with only 65 gallons of fuel – there was more than a quarter of tank left. The fuel price of $2.26/gallon with my Pilot/Flying J RV Rewards card was nice too!

While we were in Yuma we made a Walmart run and stocked the pantry. I also bought a quart of Delo 400 oil to top up the generator. We’ve run it over 50 hours since I changed the oil at Eagle Nest Lake. It only took about 12 ounces to top it off – but with a sump capacity of only three quarts, I don’t like to run it low on oil. With the generator oil topped off, I fired it up to run the roof air conditioners. It was 95 degrees in Yuma!

I thought about stopping at a couple of other RV stores in Yuma for a few supplies I need, but blew it off as I can get them from Amazon when we’re settled in at Mission Bay RV Resort. We continued west on I-8 past Winterhaven, California and found our little stopping spot in the desert at Ogilby Road. We’ve stayed here several times on BLM land that’s part of the Picacho State Recreation Area (SRA). The SRA borders the Picacho Wilderness and the area we stay in has a fairly level, hard-packed gravel surface. It’s a popular if somewhat secluded area for snowbirds that don’t mind boondocking. This part of the desert sits at an elevation of about 400 feet above sea level. It’s much warmer than we’ve become accustomed to after months in the mountains.

The rock garden area we usually stay in was occupied by the only other RV in sight. We found a nice, level spot that had a site marked by rocks over a quarter mile away – leaving plenty of space. People that spend most of the winter here arrange rocks around their rigs. It’s against BLM regulations, but no one seems to mind.

Our “site” in the open desert

Path from our door step

Many people would view this area as a barren wasteland, but I enjoy staying here. I love the views, the quiet and the seclusion.

Our windshield view

Desert sunset and sunrise is always spectacular.

Desert sunset

After dark I walked outside and looked at the sky expecting to see it filled with stars but the 3/4 moon was so bright, it washed out many of the stars.

I slept soundly. The overnight low temperature was in the 60s and we had all of the windows open. I woke up just before sunrise.

Our rig is dwarfed by the open desert

The sunrise was every bit as spectacular as the sunset the evening before.

Desert sunrise

The balloon fiesta in Albuquerque is a memory now and the days spent there seem like a blur. This morning we’ll move on to San Diego. We look forward to our time there every year – this will be our fourth winter visit. There’s always so much to do and it’s great to reconnect with old friends there.

I think we’ll make our usual stop for lunch at the Buckman Springs rest area and check in at Mission Bay around 1pm. The weather forecast for the next week in San Diego looks great – highs in the low 70s with partly cloudy skies.

Mount Shasta View

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.

Sierra Nevada Brewery

We made another trip on the Spyder from Rolling Hills Casino RV Park to Chico. This time our destination was Sierra Nevada Brewery. We had a reservation for the 2pm brewery tour. We arrived early and spent some time in the gift shop and looking at old photos and equipment upstairs in what they call “The Big Room.”

The tour began with a short video presentation and the guide told us some of the history of the company while we sipped a two-ounce taster of pale ale. The founder of the company, Ken Grossman, learned about home brewing when he was a kid growing up in southern California. The father of one of his friends was a home brewer.

After taking a bicycle tour in northern California, Ken decided to move to Chico. He opened a home brew supply store there. He sold it after a couple of years and decided to build his own brewery. This is interesting to think about, given the state of the beer industry at the time. Before Prohibition in 1920, small breweries were common – there were reported to be over 4,000 breweries in America. After Prohibition – from 1933 to 1978 – there were 42 breweries in America. There weren’t any small scale commercial breweries.

For Ken Grossman, the first challenge was finding equipment that would allow him to brew on a commercially viable scale, but not the large scale of existing breweries. He ended up finding used dairy equipment and made his own 10-barrel brew system. He started his new venture in the fall of 1980. Another challenge was finding the ingredients he needed in small quantities. He drove to Yakima, Washington and bought whole hop cones from growers, returning with 100 pounds.

His first beer was a stout – the recipe has stayed the same for decades. Then he experimented until he perfected a hop forward pale ale – the signature beer of Sierra Nevada Brewing. He would load cases of the beer in his car and peddle it to local bars and clubs. He would collect the empty bottles and re-use them.

At first, 90% of the people that tried his pale ale didn’t like it. Hop forward beer is an acquired taste and at that time, light lagers were popular. But the 10% that liked the pale ale really liked it and a loyal following was born. His beer started to become known in the San Francisco Bay area. He met a guy that worked for Safeway – he liked the beer and wanted to get it in the store.

Ken knew he would have to ramp up production if he would ever be able to sell in grocery stores. He found a used 100-barrel copper brewing system for sale in Germany for the price of scrap metal. The catch was – he had to go to Germany to disassemble it and ship back to California.

In 1987, he bought property on 20th Street in Chico to build a brewery to house the 100-barrel system. This is the brewery we visited. His 100-barrel system is still there, but today he has much larger equipment.

Sierra Nevada was at the sharp end of the micro-brew movement and today they are one of the largest craft brewers in the country. The tour took us through the production area and started in a hop storage room. The aroma was incredible – large quantities of whole hops – predominately cascade and magnum hops with their piney-citrusy scent.

Many of the tuns – the vats where the beer is processed in various stages of brewing – extend 20 feet into the ground below the floor.

Stainless lauter tun

The lauter tun is where the mash is separated from the wort – the liquid full of sugars and flavors from the grain mash. We tasted samples of the wort. Because the sugars haven’t been fermented and converted to alcohol, the wort is sweet and tastes like cereal.

Copper fermenter tun

The wort is pumped to the fermenter where yeast is introduced and hops are added. The yeast consumes the sugars converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). The yeast eventually becomes spent when the alcohol and CO2 levels are high enough to slow or stop fermentation.

The fermentation for most of their beers takes seven days. It takes another seven days to clarify the beer and flavor it with more hops. They have two bottling lines that are mirror images of each other – we were told that each line caps about 625 bottles per minute – more than a million bottles per day. They also have a smaller canning operation and a keg line.

Bottling line

The other bottling line

The company is very green with more than 10,700 solar panels producing 1.5 megawatts of electricity. They recycle and haul the spent mash to farms for use as feed.

We finished the tour with a flight of seven tasters. We started with the lightest style and worked our way up to Torpedo IPA and finished with Hoptimum – an Imperial IPA.

As we exited the tasting bar, we had company waiting for us. Darrell and Lorna Bartlett met up with us. Lorna follows this blog and also Donna’s blog. They full-time in a Roadtrek 210 – a 21-foot class B RV. We went to the Sierra Nevada Taproom for another beer and food. We enjoyed talking with them and had pretzels with beer cheese and Donna also ordered lamb meatballs.

Darrell and Lorna own a house in Chico, but they’ve been on the road since December. They plan to sell the house and continue their travels. Being smaller and more maneuverable than us, they rarely book ahead and just go with the flow.

The ride back to Corning was hot – the temperature topped out at 102 degrees yesterday. Today the forecast calls for more of the same. I’ll roast a whole chicken on the Traeger for lunch – we were too spent from the heat to grill last night – so we’ll have that in the refrigerator for our travels. Then I’ll get the trailer packed. Tomorrow I’ll load the Spyder, dump and flush our tanks and we hope to hit the road fairly early to beat the heat.

Our plan is to go to Klamath Falls, Oregon. I’ll get fuel there – the diesel fuel price in Oregon is more than 40 cents less per gallon than California. Then we’ll find a place to boondock. We’ll have two nights out before we check in at Sun River near Bend, Oregon.

Black Butte Lake

Donna and I took a ride on the Spyder yesterday after Donna’s morning workout. We wanted to take a look at the Black Butte Recreation Area and the campground at the Buckhorn Recreation Area (map). The recreation areas surround Black Butte Lake – located about nine miles west of Orland, about 20 miles away from our location.

We rode south on I-5 to the Orland exit and followed Newville Road west to the lake. Black Butte Lake is a reservoir created when a dam was built on Stony Creek by the Army Corp of Engineers (COE) in 1963. The purpose of the dam was to control flooding and provide irrigation through a series of canals.

Newville Road was smooth with good pavement through Glenn County. When we hit the Tehama County line about a mile outside of the recreation area, the surface deteriorated, but was still in reasonable shape. I wouldn’t have any problem driving a big rig to this area.

We pulled off at a section called Eagle Pass Recreation Area. This area had a boat ramp with a large paved parking lot and a paved road to a picnic area.

View from the boat ramp parking area

We rode over to the picnic area where a couple of families had claimed tables. There were a few boats on the water including couple of kayakers.

Covered picnic tables by the lake

They have a sign saying a day use fee of five dollars per vehicle is required and there’s a honor system kiosk by the picnic parking area.

Lake view from the picnic area

We left the picnic area and followed the COE signs to a scenic overlook by the dam.

View from scenic overlook by the dam

The lake is large and from the Eagle Pass Recreation Area you only see small portion of it. We rode back to Newville Road and followed it north, then west around the northeastern end of the lake. The lake is about 7 miles long with 40 miles of shoreline. The surface area is approximately 4,400 acres.

We pulled into the Buckhorn Recreation Area. This is a COE campground with 93 total sites including a group area and five walk-in tent sites. They have a day use fee of five dollars and dry camp sites are $20/night. There’s an attendant at the entrance. We asked the attendant if we could ride in to look at the sites and he waved us through.

The first campground area wasn’t much more than a paved parking lot lined out with long parking spots that are RV sites. None of the sites appeared to be level. We rode further into the campground and found a couple of loops with campsites.

The next loop we came to was called 23-6. This had a variety of sites ranging from 35 to 100 feet long. Again most of the sites weren’t level, but it was much better than the first area. Then we went to loop 1-22 which is on high ground above a boat ramp. Again, we found a variety of sites ranging from 28 feet to 90 feet long. If I were to come here I would look for a site in this loop. They take reservations and their web site contains information on the size of each site. The only thing that would concern me is some overhanging trees in a few sites. I wouldn’t want hit a low tree branch and break an air conditioner housing – or worse.

After looking around, we rode out and headed back. This time we turned north on Black Butte Road – which Google maps calls Tapscott Road. We’ve found name discrepancies on a few of the roads around here. The road surface is uneven with dips and cambers. It also has a few narrow twists to it. I wouldn’t want to get to the campground in a big rig on this road – Newville Road is the preferred route.

A few miles up Black Butte Road we saw a herd of buffalo. There was a sign that said it was federal bison reserve land. There was also a sign over a gate that identified a privately owned ranch. I tried to find more information online, but didn’t come up with much.

Federal bison reserve

Lots of bison

Another sign by the ranch gate said 1/4 or 1/2 sides of bison were offered for sale.

We continued up Black Butte Road to Corning Road and followed it east into town. We made a stop at Safeway for a few groceries. We picked up a whole chicken and also baby back ribs which were on sale at $2.99/lb. We decided to have the ribs for our Memorial Day dinner.

When we got home I used a different dry rub on the ribs. It’s a highly rated rub called Pappy’s Choice Seasoning. After seasoning the rack of ribs, I wrapped them and put them in the refrigerator. I broke out the Traeger wood pellet fired grill from the trailer and set it up. I haven’t used the Traeger for a few weeks and it was time to Traegerize a rack of ribs.

We also bought fresh corn on the cob. I soaked the corn in the husks for about 20 minutes. After removing the corn silk, I put them directly on the Weber Q grill still in the husk. I like to cook corn on the cob this way. The wet husks steam the corn while it roasts.

Meanwhile Donna made a red potato salad. The corn took about 20 minutes of grill time and I timed it to be ready when the ribs were done.

Baby back ribs dry rubbed Memphis-style

A great Memorial Day dinner plate

The Pappy’s Choice Seasoning had good flavor but it was a little on the salty side. Next time I’ll use less of it to cut down on the salt. Lucky for me, I had a bottle of ale to wash it down.

Double Down Imperial Red Ale

It was another beer from Wildcard Brewing in Redding, California. This one was an Imperial red ale called Double Down. Anytime you see the term Imperial on a beer label, you can bet it’s a strong beer. Double Down is no exception – it had 7.5% ABV.

The thermometer reached the upper 90s yesterday. Today is forecast to be even warmer with a high of 103 degrees! We’ll be heading over to Chico this afternoon for a tour of Sierra Nevada Brewing.

Another Chico Farmers’ Market

Saturday we were out and about on the Spyder again. We rode to Chico in the morning for the farmers’ market. The Saturday farmers’ market is held in downtown Chico at the municipal parking lot located at 2nd and Wall Streets. This is the old downtown district a few blocks away from the California State University, Chico campus – also known as Chico State.

Chico has a population of close to 90,000 people. The local economy is driven by Chico State and the many retail establishments. It’s a popular shopping destination for many of the residents in the small towns of the northern Sacramento Valley.

The Saturday farmers’ market is much larger than the one we went to on Wednesday. It has more than 100 vendor booths. Once again we found an abundance of locally grown produce with prices that can’t be beat.

Huge broccoli heads

We saw the lady from Guzzetti’s Catering and Indian Food. We bought garden bread and dipping sauce from her at the Wednesday market and couldn’t resist buying more. The bread is soft but dense and no thicker than a flour tortilla with a thin layer of filling inside. The sauces are incredibly flavorful.

We ended up with quite a haul. I had packed a small cooler with ice packs to keep the produce fresh in the Spyder trunk. We had lunch at the market – huge burritos filled with pork chili verde, rice and beans. Neither of us could eat the whole thing, so we packed the leftovers home with us.

I took a different route home – we blasted up US99 to South Avenue. I soon regretted the choice. We were riding into a stiff headwind – about 20 mph sustained wind with higher gusts. As we cruised at 65 mph, the gusts would buffet my helmet, snapping my neck back and forth. I didn’t enjoy that 20-mile stretch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. The lunch was so filling that we just had appetizer snacks for happy hour and called it dinner. I opened a bottle of beer from The Bruery called Humulus Terreux. It’s a hoppy, slightly sour concoction. The Bruery comes out with some beers that are really out there and this is one of them. I enjoyed it though.

Hoppy, funky and a little bit sour

I had a message from RVillage – a couple had pulled into the park two sites away from us and were members of RVillage. Their names were Mike and Donna! We chatted with them for a while and I learned that Donna has a group on RVillage that’s for Elks members. The group shares information about Elks lodges that can accommodate RVs. I joined the group – it looks like it’ll be a great resource.

On Sunday morning, Donna went for a bike ride on the quiet farm roads around here. The wind was calm for a change, making it a good time for a ride. I watched the Formula One race at Monaco. Memorial Day weekend is a big weekend for race fans. The Indianapolis 500, the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 and the Monaco Grand Prix all happened on Sunday. For me, the Monaco Grand Prix was the race to watch.

We stayed home and had a relaxing day. I cleaned the Spyder – that was about as ambitious as I got all day. The temperature reached the 90s. With the wind calm, I had the awning out and sat underneath reading a book.

I broke out the Weber Q. This gave me the opportunity to try another product the people at Weber gave me at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. It’s called Citrusafe BBQ Grill Cleaner. It’s a non-toxic citrus-based cleaner that cuts grease and is easy to use.

Citrusafe BBQ grill cleaner

Donna marinated a pork tenderloin with her mojo marinade. I grilled it and it was tasty!

Grilled mojo marinade pork tenderloin

Donna served it with sweet potato hash – a perfect side dish complementing the pork. I paired it with a more traditional west coast IPA from Wildcard Brewing in Redding, California.

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with XXX hash

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with sweet potato hash

West coast IPA

Today I’ll take time to remember those who’ve fallen while serving their country. I’m also thinking about those who’ll continue to risk their lives while protecting our nation from acts of terror.

We’re heading for a hot spell here. The predicted high for today will be 99 degrees. It’s supposed to exceed 100 degrees in the next few days. Tomorrow we’ll go back to Chico to tour the Sierra Nevada Brewery. We’ll pull out of here on Thursday.

Wine, Cheese and Nuts

Friday was Donna’s birthday, which coincides with my youngest daughter Shauna’s birthday. We had a full day planned. Donna had a couple of phone calls with family and friends before she went out for a walk in the morning. After lunch, we rode the Spyder from our location at the Rolling Hills RV Park to Orland – a small town about 10 miles away. Our destination was Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Company.

We had an appointment to meet owner Tim Pedrozo and take a tour. We arrived at 1:30pm and were invited to come inside while Tim was turning cheese wheels. I’ve never watched cheese making in progress before. Tim had large wheels of cheese wrapped in cheesecloth that were being pressed in a circular plastic form. This shapes the cheese wheel while moisture is driven out. We arrived at the time Tim needed to turn the cheese wheels over and re-wrap them.

We learned that the cheese he was working with had been raw (unpasteurized) milk that morning. The milk comes from a herd of 30 dairy cows that Tim keeps on the property. These cows are all grass fed in a pasture behind the cheese making building. After the cows are milked – twice daily – the milk is chilled to 45 degrees. This keeps the milk stable until it’s pumped into a large stainless steel vat.

The milk is warmed in stages. First the temperature is brought up to 96 degrees. Then it’s warmed to 102 degrees and a bacteria starter culture is added. The culture converts sugars in the milk to lactic acid. Rennet is added to coagulate the milk and curd forms. A special knife called a harp is used in the vat to cut the curd.

Vat where milk is coagulated

Harps for cutting the curd

The moisture (whey) is separated from the curd and the curds are formed into wheels in the plastic forms.

Cheese wheels pressed in forms

Close-up of cheese wheels in cheese cloth being pressed

Tim turning over the cheese wheel

Tim’s equipment includes pneumatic presses that apply light pressure to the cheese wheel in the forms. The cheese wheels he was working with were large – about 11 pounds each. Next the cheese wheel is soaked in a brine.

Cheese wheel soaking in brine

Tim soaks them for about two hours per pound of cheese so the large wheels soak for up to 24 hours. The brine creates the tough outer skin of the cheese wheel. Next the wheels are marked and put onto aging racks in a temperature-controlled room. The cheese is aged for a minimum of 60 days. He had some cheese wheels that were more than six months old and still aging. As it ages, the character of the cheese changes. It becomes harder and dryer and the flavor profile is affected.

Large cheese wheels aging

A rack of smaller 2-pound cheese wheels

Tim is a third-generation dairy farmer. His grandfather emigrated from the Azores – an island region of Portugal – where he was dairy farmer. Tim originally lived in Merced in the San Joaquin valley but found that running a fluid milk dairy with a small herd of cows wouldn’t sustain the farm. So he bought a farm in Orland and moved the cows in 1996 and started making cheese.

Northern Gold is Pedrozo’s main product and it has variations including peppercorn, sweet Italian red pepper, garlic and herb and tartufello (truffle). He also has a specialty cheese called Tipsy Cow – it’s washed in Mount Tehama’s petite syrah giving it a purple rind – and a couple of other specialty cheeses made in two-pound wheels.

Tim cut samples of his cheeses which we enjoyed while we talked. We left there after purchasing six wedges of different cheeses. Tim told us about another place across town that we should visit. It’s called Walnut Avenue Ranch. It’s a small store selling a wide variety of locally grown nuts.

Almonds on a tree in front of Pedroza Dairy and Cheese Co.

Almonds on a tree in front of Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Co.

We found the Walnut Avenue Ranch and sampled a few offerings. We ended up buying almond brittle with dark chocolate, dark chocolate covered almonds, cinnamon almonds and coconut macaroon almonds.

Next up was a 30-mile ride to New Clairvaux Vineyard in Vina, California. This is a working monastery with Trappist monks. The property was the location of a small one-acre vineyard started by Peter Lassen in 1846. In 1852, a businessman and winemaker named Henry Gerke bought the property and expanded the vineyard to 100 acres. He established the small town of Vina and his wine business prospered. In 1881, California governor Leland Stanford purchased the land and expanded the operation to 55,000 acres. It became the largest wine making operation in the world with an annual production of more than two million gallons and 4,000 acres of vineyard. The land was sold off in 1919, just before Prohibition. In 1955, the heart of “The Great Vina Ranch,” some six-hundred acres, was purchased by Trappist-Cistercian monks and became the Abbey of New Clairvaux.

The abbey grows walnuts, almonds and of course grapes. Aimee Sunseri, a fifth-generation winemaker is the winemaker for New Clairvaux. We arrived there at about 3:30pm and tasted five wines.

New Clairvaux wine tasting room

We saw a bouquet of flowers with a Happy Birthday card. We joked about them putting it out for Donna! It was actually for one of the employees.

Happy Birthday

The Barbera was outstanding and we left with two bottles – more birthday plunder for Donna.

We were back home from our 70-mile loop on the Spyder before 5pm. We had time to shower and dress for dinner. We had a reservation at Timbers Steakhouse in the Rolling Hills Casino at 6pm. The Timbers Steakhouse is probably the nicest dinner restaurant in the area. It’s small – eight booths and eight free-standing tables.

I ordered a 14-ounce cut of prime rib while Donna had artichoke-crusted Alaskan halibut. We split a bottle of cabernet with our dinner.

We ended the day enjoying the evening outside – sipping more wine, talking and watching the sunset.

Donna at the end of a long day

We had plans again for Saturday, but I’ll put that in another post as this is getting too long.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: California

San Diego Routine

San Diego Spring Tides

Run, Donna, Run

Three Summits to the Coast

Did You Hear That?

Mount Shasta View

Sierra Nevada Brewery

Black Butte Lake

Another Chico Farmers’ Market

Wine, Cheese and Nuts

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