Category Archives: California

Olive City

We headed out around 11:15am yesterday. Our first stop was at the Lucero olive oil mill and store about two miles from our current home at Rolling Hills Casino RV Park. I had called ahead and was told they would give us a tour when we arrived. Our tour guide was a young man named Eddie. He was very knowledgeable about the Lucero company, olives and olive oil in general.

The Lucero company was founded by H.R. Crane and has been growing olives in the Corning area since 1947. In 2009, two of H.R. Crane’s grandsons purchased an olive mill with the intention of producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil. Today, the two grandsons and two great-grandsons run the company along with 25 employees.

They have more than 500 acres of olive orchards. Some of the orchards are old-time table olive orchards while most of their holdings are high-density or medium-density plantings. They grow 16 varieties of olives. The term density in olive orchards refers to how close the trees are planted. Some modern varieties are more like bushes and high-density plantings are close enough to touch each other. These can be harvested by machine using an implement originally designed to harvest grapes. The older, low-density orchards must be harvested by hand.

Extra virgin olive oil is made from a single pressing of the olives and must meet a standard for acidity and taste. I’ve read that nearly 70% of the extra virgin olive oil sold in America doesn’t meet the standards – in fact some of it is cut with cheaper vegetable oils and isn’t even 100% olive oil! You can read about it here.

I took photos of a series of posters showing the olive oil milling process.

This poster shows the olive flowers and a young olive on top. High-density olive plants are being machine harvested in the bottom pictures.

The olives are rinsed and stems, leaves or any other debris is removed. Then they travel via conveyor to a crusher. The crusher turns the olives into a paste. Lucero makes some olive oils with citrus added. They add Meyer lemons or Mandarin oranges and crush them with the olives to make agrumato olive oil. They also have infused olive oils. We found the lemon agrumato was more flavorful when taste-tested alongside lemon infused olive oil. It should be great for cooking any lemon-flavored recipes and as a salad dressing.

The paste goes into a malaxer which stirs the paste for up 90 minutes. The malaxer is double-walled and the temperature is controlled with a water jacket between the inner and outer stainless steel walls.

After the malaxer, the paste is strained with a horizontal centrifuge. The one used at Lucero spins the paste at 3,500 rpm and strains the oil from the paste.

A second stage is used at Lucero where the oil is run through a vertical centrifuge that spins at 6,000 rpm separating more sediment from the oil.

The oil is poured into large plastic containers and stored in a temperature-controlled room. Any remaining sediment drops to the bottom of the container. The oil is then siphoned from the top down in the final bottling process.

Since Lucero owns their own orchards, all of their olives are transported less than 25 miles before processing. They place a big emphasis on freshness.

Donna examines young olives on a Sevillano olive tree in front of the Lucero mill

After our tour, we went into the Lucero retail store and had tastings of oil, tapenades and balsamic vinegar. We bought lemon agrumato olive oil, garlic-infused olive oil and white (blanco) balsamic vinegar along with a lemon artichoke tapenade. It was a fun tour and I learned a lot things about olives in general and olive oils.

After the tour, we rode the Spyder into town and stopped at The Olive Pit. We hit their tasting room where Donna had red wine samples and I had local beer. We had a plate of crackers with salami, white cheddar cheese and olives to go with the tasting. The server lived in Corning her entire life and was talkative. She convinced us to go to the New Clairvaux Vineyard and Abbey. It’s a Trappist monastery in nearby Vina – they make wine and have daily tastings. I asked about the signs referring to Corning as the Olive City. I remember signs here in the past that claimed Corning was the Olive Capital of the World. We were told they can no longer make that claim as a town in Italy now produces more olives than Corning.

I bought a bottle of wine for Donna and also picked up four cans of the Key Lime Gose beer that we liked so much. They have a limit of two cans per customer, so Donna bought two and I bought two.

Last night, I tried another beer I found at The Olive Pit that’s unusual. It was brewed by Six Rivers Brewery. It’s called Weatherman Kettle Sour Wheat Ale. Sour beer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it for a change of pace every now and then.

Weatherman Kettle Sour Wheat Ale

Donna tried a new recipe for dinner – turmeric chicken with artichokes, green olives, chick peas and lemon. It turned out to be a complex process but the results were good. She probably won’t make it again as it was too labor intensive and used a lot of dishes to make. She keeps saying she has to start making simpler meals! She served the chicken with steamed green beans, fresh from the farmers’ market.

Boneless turmeric chicken thighs with artichoke and lemon

Today’s forecast calls for temperatures in the mid 80s and breezy winds out of the northwest. We plan to go to the Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese company for a tour then we’ll hit the Clairvaux wine tasting. Tonight we have a dinner reservation at Timbers Steakhouse to celebrate Donna’s birthday – it’s also my youngest daughter Shauna’s birthday. Happy birthday, girls!

Things to do Around Corning

If you’ve been following our travels, you might remember that we attended the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. I met a few vendors and received a few product samples, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try them out – until Tuesday. Donna’s dining table chair was coming apart. The horizontal wood back rest is attached to vertical uprights that extend from the rear legs with dowel pins. The glue had failed and the pins were loose.

I had a sample of a product called Wonderlok ‘Em Tite Chairs. It’s a cyanoacrylate adhesive. The liquid glue has very low viscosity and is as thin as water. To use it, you hold the parts you want to join together and apply a bead of adhesive. It runs into the joint and sets up in a few seconds. It’s that simple.

Tite Chairs adhesive

The small bottle of adhesive came with reusable applicator nozzles, making it very easy to use. It worked like a champ.

On Tuesday, Donna worked on an article she had to submit by the end of the week. I rode the Spyder to town and had a look around. I picked up a few items at Safeway, then rode over to the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center to see what’s happening in the area. This area is mostly agricultural – olives, walnuts and almonds are the main crops along with cattle ranches.

Our location, outside of Corning, is in the northern end of California’s central valley. The central valley extends north-northwest to south-southeast around 450 miles. It’s 40 to 60 miles wide for the most part. The coastal mountain ranges border the west while the Sierra Nevada range is on the east. It’s one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

North of Sacramento is the Sacramento River watershed. This area is sometimes referred to as the Sacramento Valley – a subset of the central valley. South of Sacramento the valley is the San Joaquin River watershed. The southern central valley is likewise called the San Joaquin Valley.

The Sacramento River flows from north to south down to Sacramento while the San Joaquin River flows from south to north. They meet in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta and empty into the San Francisco Bay. These watersheds are the reason for such fertile land.

It turned out there wasn’t much in the way of special events happening in the area for the Memorial Day weekend. But I did find information for some things to see and do. We’ve found that no matter where we are, there’s always something interesting. I also stopped at The Olive Pit – a local point of interest that sells olives of every type imaginable and also has a good selection of wine and craft beer. I bought a jar of anchovy stuffed olives for Donna – she loves them as a snack. I found a few interesting beers as well.

After I came home, I poured a couple of glasses of Key Lime Gose from New Glory Brewing for Donna and me. We sat outside and enjoyed the refreshing beer. It’s a sour wheat ale flavored with coriander, sea salt and fresh squeezed key limes. It’s almost like lemonade but not as sweet and it has a slightly salty aftertaste. We both loved it. I’ll buy more – The Olive Pit limits each customer to only two 16-ounce cans. Apparently it’s in short supply.

Key Lime Gose

We took a stroll and watched the sunset. There were clouds to the west making a colorful sky at sunset.

Colorful clouds at sunset

Clouds moved in overhead and we had rain falling by the time we went to bed.

On Wednesday morning, the clouds were gone and the ground was dry. After breakfast, we hopped on the Spyder and rode east to US99 and followed it south to Chico (map). I had mapped out a couple of routes to a shopping center in Chico where they have an open air farmers’ market on Wednesday. We love shopping for local foods at farmers’ markets.

Chico Wednesday farmers’ market

The produce at this market was so fresh and Donna said the prices were the best she’s ever seen anywhere.

Colorful table of produce

Another table of fresh produce

We bought a few items and checked out just about every display. They have another farmers’ market in downtown Chico on Saturday. We plan to go to that one as well.

While we were at the shopping center, we went into Sportsman’s Warehouse. I like this store! It’s kind of a poor man’s Cabela’s. I found a bag of fruitwood wood pellets for the Traeger and Donna bought a pair of shorts. I also bought a couple of shirts.

We had lunch nearby at Mekkala Thai restaurant. I’ve had a hankering for Thai food lately. It was good but very spicy! Great service, I’d eat there again for sure.

We also made plans to do some touristy things. Donna made a reservation for a tour at a farm that makes cheese – we’ll go there on Friday. We also have a reservation for a tour next Tuesday at the Sierra Nevada brewery. Speaking of beer, I opened another interesting bottle last night. It’s from Mad River Brewing in Humboldt County. It was a double brown ale called Humboldt Brownie. It’s flavored with chocolate nibs and has a very balanced blend that belies the high alcohol content at 9% ABV.

Humboldt Brownie

Last evening we took another walk around the park. We met a couple that have been on the road for 25 years! Their rig was even longer than ours – their coach and trailer were about 70 feet long. We also saw what I believe is the shortest class A motorhome I’ve ever seen. It was an Itasca Reyo built on a Mercedes Benz Sprinter F50 chassis. It’s about 25 feet long and powered by a 3.0 liter diesel engine.

Short class A motorhome

The weather forecast for the coming week calls for warmer temperatures – upwards of 90 degrees – with zero percent chance of rain. Today we plan to go to the Lucero olive oil mill for a tour. It’s located less than two miles away from us.

Day Full of Twists

After breakfast on Sunday, I wrote my post and watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy. It looked to be an exciting battle between hometown favorite Valentino Rossi and his team mate Jorge Lorenzo. Unfortunately for Rossi, he suffered a rare engine failure and did not finish the race.

I then got started on preparations for travel. I moved our Sea Eagle kayak to the right rear of the trailer and installed a D-ring to secure it in its canvas duffel bag. This is much better than leaving it on the floor, plus I wanted to redistribute some of the weight in the trailer. I did the usual tire pressure checks and lug nut torque on the trailer.

I made a run to Safeway – the Safeway store in Susanville has a good selection of craft beer. I picked an old favorite – a bottle of Lagunitas Equinox oat pale ale. Then I found something that looked interesting. It was a bottle of beer from Sudwerk Brewing in Davis, California. Sudwerk only brews lagers, not ale. This brew was called Rye of the Lager. The label claimed it was brewed with heirloom rye from Germany and hopped with simcoe and amarillo hops to give it a west coast kick.

Rye of the Lager

At 7.0% ABV, they call it an Imperial pale lager. It was over-hopped in my opinion. The lager doesn’t have enough malt body to carry 70 IBUs of hoppiness. I was disappointed.

Meanwhile, Donna prepared a stir-fry with flank steak and assorted veggies with a spicy sauce. It was very tasty.

Spicy beef stir-fry with sesame seeds

On Monday morning, I loaded the Spyder in the trailer, dumped and flushed our holding tanks and made final road preparations. We left Susanville a little past 10am and headed west on CA36 (map). Our route took us on the same road we took to Westwood on the Spyder. It climbs immediately outside of town and tops out at Fredonyer pass at over 5,700 feet above sea level.

We dropped elevation and hit a few rain showers as we passed through the Lake Almanor basin to Chester. West of Chester it got interesting. The road winds through the Lassen National Forest. It climbs with sharp curves and no shoulder through pine forests. We topped out at 5,750 feet at Morgan Summit, then began to descend. Some of the downhill grades were steep – 7% or more. The road twisted with many speed advisories for turns marked 30mph and a couple at 20mph.

Ozark the cat wasn’t enjoying the twisty ride and ended up losing her breakfast in her crate. Donna cleaned up the mess as best as she could and then placed Ozark in her lap where she stayed for the remainder of the ride. That was a first. In the past, when Ozark was out of her crate, she would become over-stimulated by all of the motion of travel and run around in the coach. That’s why we started putting her in a cat carrier for travel. But she is almost a year and a half old now – maybe she’s settling down.

It was a downhill run all the way to Red Bluff where we hit I-5. We were about 500 feet above sea level at that point. We took I-5 south about 15 miles to Corning. I knew there was a Blue Beacon truck wash off South Boulevard in Corning and I saw it from the Interstate. We pulled off so I could have the coach and trailer washed – it was so dirty from the rain in Susanville and the drive here. I’ve had mixed results at Blue Beacon truck washes, but I have to say the crew in Corning did a great job. The coach and trailer are all shiny again.

We pulled into the Rolling Hills RV park at the Rolling Hills Casino a few miles south of town. I had checked out the entry to the park on Google Earth to find the best way in. Their signage is good, but the entry is a little different. We entered through a truck stop and found the casino’s travelers’ center at the back of the truck stop parking area. I checked in and paid for 10 nights. They told me the sites were 70 feet long and to drive into the park and take my pick.

We drove through the park and could see the sites weren’t all 70 feet long. They were all pull-throughs, but some were longer than others. We thought we would just take a lap or two around the park before we chose a site. The park host caught up with us in a golf cart. I stopped and he told me which sites were the longest. He suggested site 71, right next to where we stopped. Donna liked the view and it’s at the western end of the park – farthest from the road.

The park host advised me to drive out of the park and turn around in the truck stop so I could re-enter and be oriented in the right direction for site 71. This was good advice and we pulled into the site without any difficulty. We were set up in no time.

The weather forecast for Corning showed 0% chance of rain when I checked on Monday morning. By the afternoon, it was showing 15% chance of rain. While I was out putting on the windshield cover, the camp host stopped by and said they were now calling for rain for sure before nightfall. Great, I just had the coach washed.

Windshield view – rain in the hills to the west

Donna went out for walk to explore the area. Later we sat in chairs outside and read while enjoying a cold one. It’s surprisingly quiet here given the proximity to I-5.

Clean coach and trailer in site 71

The rain passed to the west of us and we didn’t get a drop. This morning it’s cloudy. The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature in the mid-70s today with a 15% chance of rain. We’ll see how that works out. Corning is about 300 feet above sea level, located in the northern end of California’s central valley. It’s billed as The Olive Capital. Olive, walnut and almond orchards surround the area. Northern California is also home to many large cattle ranches. Corning has a population of around 7,500 people.

We plan to make a few trips to Corning and also over to Chico. That will be fodder for another post.

The sign says The Olive City

*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!

Spyder Wire

It was chilly Saturday morning – 39 degrees. This is the coldest temperature we’ve seen in a long time. Donna found a free boot camp type workout group at a nearby school. She walked to the school while I wrote yesterday’s post. We had cloudy skies and rain showers off and on, broken up by brief periods of sunshine. We see fresh snow on all of the hilltops around us.

Snow on the hills

While Donna was at her workout, I watched the Moto GP qualifying for the race in Mugello, Italy. The Italians were cheering as their hero, Valentino Rossi, took pole position for today’s race.

After the qualifying, I walked over to the office to see if my package was delivered. They told me the mail had come, but all they got was junk mail, no packages. This wasn’t what I expected to hear. I e-mailed the shipper and he sent me the tracking number. The USPS tracking site showed the package delivered at 10am. I went back to the office and was told it wasn’t there and I should go to the post office down the street. It was a short walk.

I gave the tracking number to the clerk at the post office and told them the package wasn’t delivered as shown. They looked up the record and said their carrier scanned the package at 10am and left it in the mailbox. They tried to phone the mail carrier, but she was probably driving and didn’t answer. They took my cell number and said they would call me once they talked to her.

I walked back to the RV park office and told them what I was told at the post office. The guy in the office told me he walked out to the mailbox when the mail carrier arrived and she handed him their mail – it never went into the mailbox. He took his key and went out to the mailbox and opened it. The package was in there. Apparently after the mail carrier handed him the junk mail she realized there was another piece of mail. She put the package in the mailbox while he thought he already had all of the mail for the day.

By noon, the sun was shining and it was dry out. I’d had enough of sitting indoors and decided to work on the Spyder. The package I received was a set of custom made MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor spark plug wires for the Spyder along with two NGK iridium spark plugs. The original spark plug wires were causing an intermittent misfire on the front cylinder.

As soon as I had the tupperware removed from the Spyder, it began to rain. I covered the Spyder and went inside. Five minutes later the sun was shining again. The fickle weather continued as I worked – I would have 15 minutes of sunshine then a cloud would pass over dropping rain on everything for a few minutes before it cleared up again. I covered the Spyder and went inside five or six times while trying to do the work.

Spark plug wires – which are sometimes called high tension leads – are more complicated than you might think. Wire is wire, right? Well, not so in this case. Spark plug wires can carry more than 40,000 volts. This voltage is delivered to the spark plug every other revolution of the crankshaft in a four-stroke engine. The rise and drop of voltage can create electromagnetic interference (EMI) through induction or contact with the insulation of the wire.

The insulation on the Spyder’s original wire was breaking down. That’s why it would misfire – the voltage would leak past the insulation and arc to the engine case. Original equipment spark plug wires are usually a carbon conductor over a substrate of fiberglass or kevlar fibers wrapped in rubber insulation. This type of construction has high resistance and prevents EMI. It’s also cheap to manufacture. The down side is that the high resistance causes a voltage drop and can weaken the spark in the spark plug gap.

Low resistance gives a hotter spark but will create EMI. A solid copper core wire would give the hottest spark but the EMI that results would wreak havoc on electronic control modules and sensors. Modern engines have lots of electronic controls and need to be shielded. The answer is a spiral wound cable with a magnetic center core. This creates a choke that prevents the EMI, while high quality alloy in the spiral wound conductor provides lower resistance. Of course this type of ignition wire is much more costly to produce. The MSD 8.5mm wires I ordered are this type.

Spark plug wires with plastic heat shielding

The spark plug wires on the Spyder run from an ignition coil for each cylinder to the spark plug at the cylinder head. Some modern engines do away with spark plug wires by mounting ignition coils directly on top of the spark plug. These systems have their faults, but you don’t have to worry about a length of high voltage wire.

This is the spark plug wire that was arcing – shorting to ground and causing a misfire

It took some time to get to the plug wires – I had to remove the tupperware and the airbox assembly first. My efforts were broken up by the showers passing through. It took about an hour to get the old wires off. The original wires were housed with a corrugated plastic cover to shield them from heat.

Old wire and new wire – heat shielding removed

I removed the heat shielding from the old wires and put it on the new MSD wires. I measured the resistance of the wires – I expected the original carbon core wires to have 1,000 to 3,000 ohms of resistance. The wire to the front cylinder is longer than the one to the rear, so naturally it would have higher resistance. Remember, lower resistance is desirable as long as EMI can be controlled. The original front wire measured 6,000 ohms of resistance! This is not good. The shorter rear wire measured 3,700 ohms. By comparison the new MSD wire for the front cylinder measured 113 ohms. Huge difference!

With the old wires off, I replaced the original copper electrode spark plugs with NGK iridium electrode plugs. These plugs provide a fat, hot spark and will last at least twice as long as the originals.

Spark plugs

I coated the threads on the spark plugs with a special heat transferring anti-seize compound. This will make them much easier to remove next time without risk of pulling the threads out of the aluminum cylinder heads. I also put a thin coating of dielectric grease in the plug connector on the end of the spark plug wires to seal them and make them easier to remove as well.

New wires with heavy duty insulators at the coil end

I test fired the engine – it started immediately and ran smoothly. So I buttoned everything back up and put all the body work back on and took a little test ride. The difference is unbelievable. The engine runs so much smoother. It has to be felt to be understood, I can’t put into words how big the difference in the character of the engine is. Who would’ve thought something as simple as plug wires could make this much difference? With better combustion, I’m guessing fuel economy will improve as well. Job done.

This morning, Donna and I went out for breakfast. We walked down the road to the Lumberjack Restaurant. It was a treat – I had eggs Benedict and Donna had a veggie omelet with a home-style biscuit.

We may have a few more showers this afternoon. I’ll begin prepping for travel. Tomorrow we’ll pull out of here and head to Corning, California – the olive capital.

Registration Blocked by DMV

The registration for our coach and Spyder expire at the end of June. I wanted to renew early as it takes about 10 days for the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue the license plate tabs which are then mailed to our service (MyDakotaAddress) in Madison, South Dakota. From there, they’ll have to be forwarded to us. I thought if I renewed online now, I could have the tabs in hand while we’re in Portland at the end of June.

I went to the website to renew. I kept getting an error message when I tried to renew the coach registration. I tried to renew the Spyder and it went to the shopping cart with no problem. I tried the coach again for the umpteenth time and got the error message telling me to contact the DMV. When I clicked on the contact link, I got another error telling me the page couldn’t be opened!

I phoned Terri Lund at MyDakotaAddress and asked her to help me. She asked for the title number of the coach and said she would contact the DMV on my behalf. A few minutes later, she called me back. She said the reason I was getting the error is because the DMV had the coach registration blocked! On the South Dakota DMV website, there is a message center which is accessible after you login. I had a message in my inbox dating back from 2014 saying I needed to provide documentation of the gross vehicle weight. The message was more than two years old – I never looked at my inbox on this site and I had no trouble renewing last year.

I asked Terri what I needed to do. She told me to take a photo of the weight label behind one of the kitchen cabinet doors and e-mail it to her. I found the label and sent it – she printed it and took it to the DMV for me. She said I should be able to renew once the system is updated in a few days. She provides such a great service – not only with our mail but anytime we need help with things like this.

Weight label

I was hoping to receive the new ignition wires for the Spyder Thursday morning. With rain in the forecast, I wanted to replace them while it was dry out. No such luck – the Priority Mail package didn’t arrive.

Spyder ready for rain

On Thursday night, we watched a movie on our hard drive – The Revenant. I think my expectations were a little too high – I’d heard so much hype about this movie. I was a little disappointed but Donna really enjoyed it.

Donna made roasted chicken thighs with lemon, tarragon and fennel. She served it with risotto and green beans. Delicious.

Roasted chicken thighs with lemon, terragon and fennel

Roasted chicken thighs with lemon, tarragon and fennel

The rain came earlier than forecast and it was raining shortly after dinner. The outside temperature also dropped considerably. We had the heat pumps running. When it gets cold, Ozark likes nothing better than to snuggle up.

Ozark snuggling with Donna and staying warm

It rained all night with the temperature dropping down to 40 degrees. The rain and cooler temperatures continued on Friday. We had a few breaks in the rain, but more often than not, it was raining. The snow level dropped to about 5,000 feet and we could see fresh snow on the hilltops around us – we’re at about 4,200 feet.

Once again, the mail delivery Friday didn’t include a Priority Mail package for me. This is worrisome. We will pull out of here on Monday. If it doesn’t come today, I can hang around here Monday morning until the mail arrives – which is usually between 9 and 11am. Then we’ll have to move on. I e-mailed the shipper and he said the tracking shows it out for delivery – but he didn’t provide a tracking number for me to use.

We spent the entire day indoors. I read a book while Donna wrote an article. I changed the strings on my guitar and practiced a bit. I watched two motorcycle races that I had on the DVR. Donna had a sausage with white bean and spinach stew in the slow cooker all day. Nothing like the aroma of a stew cooking on a rainy day.

Sausage and white bean with spinach stew covered with fresh grated parmesan cheese

I paired it with a local brew – Fall River Pittville porter. The porter was very good with hints of chocolate and coffee.

Fall River Pittville porter

Donna received a package from a PR firm she writes for. They sent a device called Force of Nature, a new approach to cleaning that takes salt, vinegar and water and electrolyzes it, turning it into a cleaning solution containing sodium hydroxide (0.2%) – this is a common cleaning compound called lye – and hypochloric acid, a disinfectant. They claim it will kill 99.99% of germs. You put the pre-measured packet of salt and vinegar into the device and add water. Plug it in and turn it on – five minutes later you have the cleaning product. The kit included a heavy-duty sprayer. The solution is good for up to 14 days. Donna will try it out in the coach.

Force of Nature

Last night, we watched another highly acclaimed movie – The Martian. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I know we’re a little behind the times on movie releases. We rarely go to the theater and don’t see many first runs of movies. A good film is still good later though, right?

I mentioned that the rain came earlier than forecast and it appears to have stopped earlier too. We have cloudy skies, but it’s cool and dry. The temperature will only reach the low 50s today but the weather guessers say there’s only a 15 to 20% chance of rain.

Lake Almanor

On Wednesday morning after I posted, I got Donna’s bicycle out of the trailer and pumped up the tires. We mapped out a route that would take her on the paved bike path up Skyline Road, then down into town on Paul Bunyan Road to Ash where she could pick up the Susan River Trail. The ride involved some climbing but it wasn’t as long as she anticipated – the total distance was only 11 miles and that included exploring some streets in a development across from Diamond Mountain Casino. Here are a couple of photos from her ride.

Paved path on Skyline

Waterfall on Susan River

After her ride, we had a snack and prepared to head out on the Spyder. We wanted to check out Westwood, an old mill town about 20 miles west of here. We also wanted to get a look at Lake Almanor. We thought we could have a proper lunch near the lake.

We headed west out of Susanville on CA36, which immediately climbs for two miles outside of town. The road surface is great. It becomes a two-lane highway with passing lanes on the inclines. It cuts through the Lassen National Forest. We topped out at Fredonyer Pass over 5,700 feet above sea level, then descended a few hundred feet into Westwood.

We went to the visitor center there and found it’s only open on Friday and Saturday at this time of year. We didn’t find any suitable eateries in the small town – the population is about 1,700.

We rode out of town through pine forest on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. This took us to Lake Almanor – which is actually a reservoir created when Canyon Dam was built on the north fork of the Feather River in 1914. The lake is surrounded by private properties – rustic cabins, huge summer homes and resort cottages. There’s very little public access.

The area reminded me of Big Bear Lake in southern California near San Bernadino with the mountains and pine trees. The difference is the amount of tourism. Big Bear feeds off the huge southern California population and also has a winter ski area, so it’s always bustling with activity. Lake Almanor, not so much. The biggest draw is fishing on the lake for rainbow trout, brown trout and small mouth bass.

We found a couple of RV parks on the lake. One was gated and we couldn’t enter but the second one was open so we rode in and parked. The sites were laid out in such a way that I couldn’t figure out how they even got their rigs in there. Most of the sites had fifth-wheel trailers that looked to be permanent or semi-permanent set-ups.

Cove on Lake Almanor

Another view of the lake from the RV park

Another view of the lake from Big Cove RV park

The little villages on the north shore of the lake were sleepy. I guess the season doesn’t really start here until after Memorial Day. Most of the restaurants were closed. With so little of the lake shore accessible, we decided to head back to Susanville for a late lunch.

We stopped at the Pioneer Cafe – home of Lassen Ale Works where we had the fried mushrooms the day before. I had fish and chips while Donna went for a bowl of chicken noodle florentine soup with a small pub salad. The food at this place is excellent. The batter on the cod I had was perfect – paper thin with a toughness that held the fish together without being crunchy. Donna’s soup was loaded with chunks of chicken, carrots, celery and spinach noodles and she said it was terrific. She asked for blue cheese dressing on her salad – all of the dressings and sauces are made fresh in the kitchen. Her dressing seemed to be laced with fennel while the tartar sauce that came with my fish and chips featured capers.

I had the Lassen Ale Works ESB (Extra Special Bitter) – a British-style ale – that was tapped with nitrogen. The nitrogen gives it a creamy head and it was a delight.

Lassen Ale Works ESB

Those who read this blog regularly know I try to keep it up to date at least four or five days a week. One blog I follow (What’s Newell) written by Clarke Hochwald is updated every day. It’s rare for Clarke to miss a post. I’ve only met Clarke once briefly in a Walmart parking lot in Yreka, California. But after following his blog for over three years, I feel like I know him. That’s how the RV community is among bloggers – we know what our fellow travelers are up to and enjoy following them.

I noticed Clarke didn’t post yesterday. Last night, I checked his site again and no update. This was odd. I sent him an e-mail asking if he was okay. He responded and said he wrote his post but somehow forgot to post it! I didn’t mean to be nosy or be a blog stalker – RVers tend to watch out for each other and I wanted to make sure he was alright.

We’re expecting another fine day today with the temperature reaching 70 and a slight chance of a shower this afternoon. I’m hoping the new spark plug wires for the Spyder show up. The forecast says rain will come overnight and it’ll be rainy for a couple of days. I’d like to get the work done on the Spyder before the rain hits.

Bizz Johnson Trail

The weather here in Susanville, California was near perfect yesterday. The afternoon temperature reached the low 70s with light winds and a nearly cloudless sky. Susanville is located in a basin between the Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an elevation of about 4,200 feet. It’s the Lassen County seat and has a population of around 17,500 people. Susanville was named after Susan Roop – the daughter of an early settler by the name of Isaac Roop – in 1857.

The town was served by the Southern Pacific Railroad on the Fernley and Lassen line. In 1978, Southern Pacific received permission to abandon the line. Former Congressman Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson was instrumental in transforming the Fernley and Lassen branch into a rails-to-trails conversion. The trail is called the Bizz Johnson Trail and runs 30 miles between Susanville and Westwood.

The trail starts at around 4,200 feet above sea level and climbs to about 5,500 feet at Westwood. Donna and I went out to hike a few miles on the trail yesterday. It was an easy and enjoyable hike in the afternoon sunshine. Over its full length, the trail crosses the Susan River 12 times over bridges and trestles. We crossed it three times. It’s very scenic.

The trail follows the Susan River canyon with steep, rocky cliffs to the north and pine forest hills to the south. The only wildlife we encountered were lizards in the rocks, ground squirrels and a variety of birds – including a bright orange and black Bullock’s Oriole.

Bizz Johnson Trail

Susan River below the trail grade

Rocky bluff on the north side

Pine trees and sub-alpine meadow

After our hike, we rode the Spyder to the old downtown area. We wanted to check out the local brewery – Lassen Ale Works at the old Pioneer Saloon. First we stopped next door at Maggie’s Book Nook. This is a book store selling new and used books. There were books of every genre stacked on shelves along the wall, on tables and even stacked on the floor. It could take hours of searching, but I’m sure there are a few gems to be found. I picked up two fictional thrillers and Chris Kyle’s autobiography – American Sniper. Donna found a couple of books as well. Five books cost a grand total of $21.50!

In the saloon, Donna ordered an Devil’s Corral Imperial stout and I had the Volcanic Double IPA. These are tasty albeit strong beers. Much better than the local brew at Mt. Diamond brewery. We ordered Bizz Johnson beer-battered deep-fried mushrooms which I paired with a Belgian style dubbel while Donna went for the Thompson Peak Pilsner. The mushrooms were outstanding.

We came home and had a quiet evening. Donna made blackedned fish tacos for dinner. Then we watched an episode of The Night Manager. Next week will be the finale of this six-episode mini-series.

Today the forecast calls for warmer weather with the temperature reaching the 80s. We want to take advantage of the nice weather and ride the Spyder up to Westwood and Lake Almanor today. The weather can take sudden turns in the mountains and now the weather guessers are calling for much cooler temperatures and rain over the weekend. We can chase the sun, but there are no guarantees!

Plan A, Plan B, Plan C

Donna was back for our last weekend in Sparks. On Saturday morning, she went for a run around the Marina Park Lake. She said she struggled and afterwards, she felt whipped – no doubt from a full day of air travel on Friday. Traveling on airlines always leaves you a bit dehydrated and jet lag doesn’t help. Of course, with Donna back I was treated to a much better dining experience – not just the company, but the great meals she prepares.

On Saturday night, she made tortilla crusted tilapia with pico de gallo and sauteed veggies on the side. Absolutely delicious. We buy only fresh tilapia farmed in Mexico or Central America, not the Chinese or Indonesian frozen fish as farming practices there are a bit scary based on what we’ve read.

Tortilla crusted tilapia with pico de gallo and sauteed veggies

I started Sunday by watching the Formula 1 race from Barcelona, Spain. It turned out to be one of the most entertaining F1 races in recent memory. The odds-on favorites from the Mercedes team, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, collided going into turn four and were out of the race. In my opinion, Nico took a defensive line, which is expected, but Hamilton thought he could barge past since he had greater speed on the exit of turn three. He should have backed off. Instead he went into the grass, got sideways and took both cars out. From there it was all about young Max Verstappen. The 18-year-old became the youngest Formula 1 winner – his father Jos Verstappen was a Formula one racer as well.

I also recorded a few motorcycle races – World Superbike and Moto-America races. I’m loving the coverage of motorcycle racing on BeIn Sports. They show the races without commercial interruption.

I didn’t watch the motorcycle races right away, I had to figure out our next move. I thought I had a plan. We ditched our initial thought of heading to Lake Tahoe due to the wet and cold forecast for the coming week. Then I found what looks to be a great RV park at the Expo grounds in Sacramento, located on the Sacramento River with long pull-through, full hook-up sites and miles of paved bike trails right outside the park. I sent an e-mail inquiry. Unfortunately, due to the dirt track mile motorcycle races next weekend and the county fair over Memorial Day weekend, they only had a couple of nights open.

So, plan A and plan B fell through. After some searching, we decided to head up to Susanville for a week, then on to Corning, California for 10 days. The weather forecast looks favorable and Susanville has an RV park that looked good. In Corning, we thought the RV park at Rolling Hills Casino would work – long pull-through sites and not likely to be booked over Memorial Day. I made phone calls and we’re set. This will position us nicely for our reservation in Bend, Oregon beginning June 4th.

Donna made a spiced pork tenderloin with maple-chipotle sauce. She served it with smashed garlic red potatoes and steamed broccoli. Once again, I’m feasting like a king.

Pork tenderloin with maple-chipolte sauce

We finished the day by watching a movie recorded on our hard drive. It was Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks. The pace of the movie was slow and it was less than we expected – Donna said she had all she could do to keep her eyes open as the movie dragged on.

On Monday morning, we prepared to leave Sparks Marina RV Park. We had everything done and were rolling by 9:30am. On the way out, Donna remarked how much she liked the place and how they do things right here. The park has wide lanes making it easy to maneuver. It’s exceptionally clean and well-maintained. The picnic tables are well constructed and set up with a metal plate to have a small barbeque like a Weber Q on one end. We’ll remember this place next time we come through the area.

Our Route took us up US395. US395 starts out sharing the I-580 designation in Reno and is three or four lanes wide through the metro Reno/Sparks area. It climbs out of the valley immediately with fairly steep grades. Traffic quickly thins out and it becomes a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, then merges into a two-lane highway. It rolls up and down hills with passing lanes on the steeper grades. Before long we crossed the state line and we’re back in California.

It was an easy drive – very scenic with the eastern Sierra Nevada range on our left and a wide valley on our right. We stopped at the Honey Lake rest area (map). It’s a relatively small rest area, but has a nice view and several information kiosks describing the geology, flora and fauna of the area.

View of Honey Lake from the rest area

After walking around the rest area, we continued on to Susanville, California and the Susanville RV Park. When I made the reservation, I was told we would have a 65′ pull-through site. At check-in, the woman at the counter looked at our rig out the window and said,”You know you have a 65′ site.” I told her as long it was really 65′ we should be fine. She went on to say it was not permissible to overhang the site into the street due to it being a fire lane.

I was wondering if this would be like the “65-foot” site in Sparks that was too short for our 64′ 9″ length. We pulled into site 63 and Donna directed me. After a couple of adjustments back and forth, I had us in – barely.

Mirror technically extends past site boundary – but we’re in

Back of trailer right on the line

Our 65′ site

After settling in, we took a ride through town to have a look. We stopped at the Lassen Brewery to wet our whistle, but they don’t open until 4pm on Mondays and it was only 2:30pm. We rode around some more and then headed over to the new Mt. Diamond Brew Pub in the Mt. Diamond Casino. I had an IPA and Donna ordered the Kolsch. We were both disappointed in the quality of the brews and being in a casino means cigarette smoke. We won’t bother stopping there again.

We hit the sack around 10pm. It’s very quiet here and I slept soundly – the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a while. The forecast for the next few days looks good – we’re expecting high temperatures in the 70s and 80s. We plan to take advantage of the weather and the area by hiking some of the trails nearby.

Cradle to Grave in Quartzsite

Friday was our last full day at Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, California. We started with our usual time on the pickleball courts and played until nearly noon. I spent the afternoon organizing the trailer and packing everything away. It was just about 5pm by the time I loaded the Traeger and scooter and locked the trailer. It was time for a shower and happy hour. Our friends Ron and Marilyn Cross invited us for dinner at their place but we took a rain check until next time.

Donna took her backpack and walked to Marshalls where she returned a couple of items, then walked to Stater Brothers to pick up a few groceries. When she returned and emptied her backpack, Ozark thought the backpack was a nice place for her to explore. She crawled into the backpack and made herself comfortable. We were surprised to see her do that – she doesn’t usually like to get under covers but she was happy to hide in the backpack.

Ozark peeking out of her backpack hideout

Our last sunset at Golden Village Palms

We hoped to make an early getaway Saturday morning but we weren’t ready to hitch the trailer until 10am. A few minutes later we were on the road. I wanted to leave early because high winds were in the forecast for the afternoon. We took CA79 north to Beaumont where we hit I-10 east. The wind picked up but it was a tailwind as we headed east. With the tailwind and downgrade from Banning to the desert floor, we were coasting along at 62mph. We made a stop for fuel in Thousand Palms at the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I probably could’ve waited until we crossed into Arizona to fuel up and save a few bucks, but I don’t like running below a quarter tank. I took on 50 gallons for peace of mind.

East of Indio, I-10 climbs to Chiriaco Summit, then drops back down to the desert. The wind shifted and we had a cross wind from the south. In a few areas there were columns of dust blowing – not really a full-on haboob – just a light dust storm.

Dust storm ahead seen through the windshield

Donna sent a text message to Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) when we crossed the border into Arizona. They’ve been here for about three weeks now – they had a booth in the big tent for the Quartzsite RV show. Jeff told us to take the Dome Rock exit and follow the road for about two miles and we would see his GMC Denali pickup truck. The Dome Rock Road exit is about 11 miles into Arizona. We found Jeff and his wife Deb waiting for us on the side of the road. They led us back to the area where they’re boondocking. It turned to be only a few hundred yards from the place we stayed two years ago. I wrote about it in this post.

We set up quickly in a level spot with plenty of open space around us. The road we followed in dead ends at a wash, thus we have very little traffic here (map).

Our piece of desert west of Quartzsite on Dome Rock Road

Donna invited Jeff and Deb to join us for dinner. In her usual fashion, Donna chose a recipe she’d never made before to serve our dinner guests. She prepared a Marseilles-style shrimp stew with fresh shrimp she picked up the night before at Stater Brothers. She also toasted French baguette slices and spread them with rouille (a sauce made with mayo, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, cayenne and paprika). It was delicious. The toasted baguette with rouille was the perfect accompaniment for the stew – that and a bottle of champagne.

Marseilles-style shrimp stew with toasted baguette

Jeff brought firewood and built a fire on the leeward side of our rig. We’re parked facing west and the wind from the south hits the driver’s side, making a nice wind block on the passenger side. While we were eating dinner inside, the wind really picked up.

Long shadows as the sun sets in the desert

I had four camp chairs set up around the fire. While we were eating dinner, we heard one of the chairs blow over. Jeff went outside and found it in the fire! It was one of the chairs we bought here at the Quartzsite big tent two years ago. Jeff joked about its lifespan being cradle to grave in Quartzsite. Oh, well. Donna’s had her eye on some new chairs.

Chair didn’t fare well in the fire

After dinner, I pulled the living room slide in – the wind was causing the slide topper to flap like crazy and make quite a ruckus. We went outside and sat around the fire. Deb cooked up s’mores while we chatted. As usual, the time flies while we’re enjoying good company. It was past 10pm before we knew it.

This morning, Donna and Deb went out for a three-mile power walk. After their walk, we toured their Domani fifth-wheel trailer. They pulled out today. We plan to spend another night here before we head up to Lake Havasu tomorrow. The wind is blowing again and is expected to increase throughout the day. I’ll probably pull the living room slide in again tonight.

This morning, our Verizon reception was weak – a couple of bars of 3G. I almost skipped writing a post because of it. Then I relocated the Jetpack and the signal improved to two bars of 4G LTE. It’s always nice to have an Internet connection.

Leaving SoCal

My time here at Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, CA (map) has been mostly consumed by playing pickleball. It’s such a fun and social game, Donna and I both love it. Donna has had a number of writing assignments cutting into her pickleball and free time – but hey, a little cash flow always helps. Of course, our main reason for relocating here was to assist my step-dad, Ken Keller, through his pre-operative and post-operative surgery. Thankfully he’s come through that without any complications and is back to living his usual routine.

We extended our stay here by a week to be sure Ken was alright. When I extended the stay, a gal at the office named Espey did us a real favor. The usual weekly rate for a Premium-Plus site is $378 – which we paid when I originally booked online. When I extended our stay for another week, she took the time to book each day as a daily reservation applying our Good Sam and Passport America discounts for each night. This resulted in the second week booking at $246. A savings of $132 – it took her a bit of time to circumvent the usual computerized booking method, but she was willing to help us out! Nice!

My pickleball game has improved with the nearly daily play. I’ll have one more day of play before we move on. Donna and I are both feeling the hitch itch and we planned our next move on Wednesday night. We’ll leave here Saturday morning and make the 180-mile drive to Quartszite, Arizona. Our friends, Deb and Jeff Spencer (RollingRecess) are still there and they decided to stay an extra night so we can meet up.

Our original plan was to meet with a number of nomadic friends and acquaintances in Quartszite last week, but being available for family needs trumped that plan. So now we intend to boondock near Dome Rock – just west of town for Saturday and Sunday nights, then move on to Havasu Falls RV Resort in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. After a week there, we’ll move to the rodeo grounds in Lake Havasu City for the Alpine Coach Association rally at the Western Pyrotechnics Convention and Fireworks show. This should be a good time.

In preparation for our travels, I checked tire pressures on the coach, trailer and scooter and broke out our Porter-Cable compressor to set them to the proper pressure on Thursday afternoon. I don’t take tire pressure for granted – tire failure is no joke and under-inflated tires are the number one cause of blow-outs. I also checked and topped off the oil level in our Onan 7.5kW Quiet Diesel generator. Today I’ll stow the windshield cover and load the trailer. We should be set to roll and ready to boondock fairly early on Saturday. I’m looking forward to a couple of very quiet nights in the desert.

Donna walked to Marshall’s yesterday afternoon to do some shopping. She said it was the nicest Marshall’s store she’s ever been to. After Marshall’s, she stopped at CVS and then Stater Brothers where she picked up some tilapia for dinner. She plans to go back to Stater Brothers today to re-stock our pantry for the next two weeks on the road. She loves it when we’re parked within walking distance of a variety of stores.

Fresh Mexican tilapia over sauteed mushrooms with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli

The weather yesterday was the nicest we’ve had since our arrival in Hemet. The temperature reached the upper 70s with clear, blue skies and little wind. I know I shouldn’t complain by saying this has been the coldest, wettest season since we hit the road over 30 months ago as it doesn’t compare to what many experience in the north or east coast. But one of the reasons for choosing the nomadic lifestyle is to follow the sun!

I’m not sure if I’ll post this weekend – if I remember correctly, we should have a good Verizon signal at Dome Rock and I can update at some point.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: California

Olive City

Things to do Around Corning

Day Full of Twists

Spyder Wire

Registration Blocked by DMV

Lake Almanor

Bizz Johnson Trail

Plan A, Plan B, Plan C

Cradle to Grave in Quartzsite

Leaving SoCal

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