Thursday, August 12, 2004
The Golden State
Our trusty guide to free camping lead us to spend Monday night at the Irongate Reservoir in Northern California. This spot turned out to be very nice, right on the lake, and yes... free. We met some nice folks from nearby who furnished us with beer, a boat ride and even a free guitar lesson for Dan. Thanks to Cheryl, Debbie, Larry, Bud and Vincent for welcoming us to Cali.
Irongate.
Lassen Mountain in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Tuesday we spent the night in a super nice Forest Circus campground outside of Quincy, CA. It too was free and as an added bonus we had the entire place to ourselves. Dan went for a bike ride without me, as I am suffering from a bit of a cold. While he was gone I realized that it was the first time I had been totally alone in 2 months.
Snake Lake as seen from here...
Our campsite at Snake Lake.
We have a meeting in Truckee, just north of Lake Tahoe at noon. We are meeting the lovely and talented Ms. Lara Beth Mitchell, my best friend. Beth lives in San Francisco and will be joining us in Tahoe for a few days.
Skip ahead to Thursday. Dan, Beth and I just returned from a nice short hike up to Eagle falls. We are camped at Meeks on Lake Tahoe. It's been great spending time with Beth. Having her in the camper with us is like old times, we all lived together before Dan and I got hitched. Tomorrow Dan and I begin the trip back to Durango.
Rachel, Dan and Beth.
Lake Tahoe.
ExpensesFrom last week.
Fuel $118.92
Groceries$85.65
Liquor $1.00
Treats $22.00
Repairs $-
Camping $38.00
Park Fees$5.00
Other $108.00
Total $378.57
Remainder ($98.57)
**Included in "other" was our $93 oil change. Note that our overage is almost equal to the cost of the oil change.
Note: Lots of people been emailing lately asking about our camera and software, I will try and address the most common questions here. We use an older model Fuji Finepix. Ours is only a 2mp model with a 6x optical zoom. The current version of this camera has the same zoom, 3.2mp and sells for around $199.
I use Dell Picture Studio v 2.o for my software. On occasion I have used the panoramic feature of this program to splice multiple pictures together, for instance I recently posted a picture of Horsetail Falls and this is a splice of two photos since I could not fit the entire falls into one shot. Aside from this feature and some cropping from time to time, the photos are posted as I, or on very rare ocassions Dan, took them.
Another note: I have finally, with the aid of Blogger Support, added a comment feature to the postings. Please feel free to use this as a guest book, or for, you guessed it... commenting.
Monday, August 09, 2004
Waldport, Oregon.
August 8th, 2004
Yesterday we decided we should have a beach day. Despite our efforts to not drive much we still drove about 50 miles. This stems from an affliction we both suffer from. F.O.M.S., or Fear Of Missing Something. Our friend Dr. Bob Daniels was the pioneer researcher in this area; in fact he is the one who gave this particular disorder its name. F.O.M.S. can be debilitating for Underaged RV-ers hell bent on seeing 3 countries in 52 weeks. This affliction is in large part the reason that we have been putting on so many miles thus far.
F.O.M.S. lead us to retrace our steps yesterday, back to the lighthouse we had visited the day before. We hadn’t had time then to check out the tidal pools and so we HAD to go back. F.O.M.S. is not always a bad thing, in this instance it lead us to see some truly amazing sites. Here are pictures from the tidal pools.
Coastal Shots.
See the surfers?
After the pools we finally made it to a beach. However, even though the skies were much sunnier today, the winds were just as strong. Dan surfed in his kayak for a while, the waves at this beach weren’t as friendly though. After an hour or so of continual sand blasting and wave blasting we called it quits, and retreated to the camper. We were just about to leave when the kite surfers showed up. We had to watch. These guys were surfing waves wind assisted and then jumping like 40’ in the air while spinning. It was amazing, we have to try it. I think if I hadn’t been so cold I would have tried then and there, but generally I have to really enjoy a sport before I am willing to freeze while doing it. I think this will have to wait for Mexico.
Last night we played a game of chess, (current stats are Dan 1, Rachel 1, stalemate 1) made fish tacos with fish we bought at Pike Place and drank a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck. Really RV-ing is the life for me.
Sunday, August 8th, 2004
Near Coos Bay
Yesterday we were treated to an amazingly beautiful, and apparently rare, day of sun, warmth and no wind on the beach. This will be our last day at the ocean for over a month, what a great last day. The pictures tell the tale.
Campgrounds in this area are pretty pricey so we took a page from our buddy George's book (if you don't yet know George, check out his blog under our links "visit our favorite vagabonds"). We enjoyed our day and evening at the beach and then after dinner we parked at Wal-Mart for the night for free. George never pays for camping and he figures why do you care where you sleep, you're asleep. Works for us. Now we are heading towards California. We have a hot date in Tahoe on Wednesday.
Yesterday we decided we should have a beach day. Despite our efforts to not drive much we still drove about 50 miles. This stems from an affliction we both suffer from. F.O.M.S., or Fear Of Missing Something. Our friend Dr. Bob Daniels was the pioneer researcher in this area; in fact he is the one who gave this particular disorder its name. F.O.M.S. can be debilitating for Underaged RV-ers hell bent on seeing 3 countries in 52 weeks. This affliction is in large part the reason that we have been putting on so many miles thus far.
F.O.M.S. lead us to retrace our steps yesterday, back to the lighthouse we had visited the day before. We hadn’t had time then to check out the tidal pools and so we HAD to go back. F.O.M.S. is not always a bad thing, in this instance it lead us to see some truly amazing sites. Here are pictures from the tidal pools.
Coastal Shots.
See the surfers?
After the pools we finally made it to a beach. However, even though the skies were much sunnier today, the winds were just as strong. Dan surfed in his kayak for a while, the waves at this beach weren’t as friendly though. After an hour or so of continual sand blasting and wave blasting we called it quits, and retreated to the camper. We were just about to leave when the kite surfers showed up. We had to watch. These guys were surfing waves wind assisted and then jumping like 40’ in the air while spinning. It was amazing, we have to try it. I think if I hadn’t been so cold I would have tried then and there, but generally I have to really enjoy a sport before I am willing to freeze while doing it. I think this will have to wait for Mexico.
Last night we played a game of chess, (current stats are Dan 1, Rachel 1, stalemate 1) made fish tacos with fish we bought at Pike Place and drank a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck. Really RV-ing is the life for me.
Sunday, August 8th, 2004
Near Coos Bay
Yesterday we were treated to an amazingly beautiful, and apparently rare, day of sun, warmth and no wind on the beach. This will be our last day at the ocean for over a month, what a great last day. The pictures tell the tale.
Campgrounds in this area are pretty pricey so we took a page from our buddy George's book (if you don't yet know George, check out his blog under our links "visit our favorite vagabonds"). We enjoyed our day and evening at the beach and then after dinner we parked at Wal-Mart for the night for free. George never pays for camping and he figures why do you care where you sleep, you're asleep. Works for us. Now we are heading towards California. We have a hot date in Tahoe on Wednesday.
Travel Log of Two Thirty-One Year Old RVers.