California to Oregon and spring begins

I have found myself a little behind on postings and a lot of pavement has passed under the wheels. After winding up an enjoyable two week visit to the San Francisco Bay Area, we turned east to join RV friends Danny and Mary Espinosa at the Marble Quarry RV Resort in Columbia, CA. An 8” snowfall had coated the area just before our visit, but a couple of warm days had melted most of the white stuff before our arrival. Marble Quarry is a real nice park located on the eastern edge of Columbia, one of the 1850’s era gold mining towns situated on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in CA. The park is fairly rustic but clean and sited in an interesting area. Nearby Columbia has been well preserved and is a good representation of old CA gold mining towns. This is definitely a tourist location and I’m happy that we missed the summer crowds. Danny and I just vegetated in camp, so I don’t have any interesting photos to post of Columbia. We enjoyed seeing our good friends again and look forward to seeing them again next year.

Juanita's son Nic joined us for a Mexican meal in Castro Valley, CA, just before our departure.

We also enjoyed a visit with long time friends and neighbors Tom and Vicki Welsh (sitting on our old furniture!).

We couldn't pass up a trip over to Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing to pick up fresh crab for dinner!

This old fishing dory at Phil's has seen better days.

At the Marble Quarry Park in Columbia, our friend Danny Espinosa shows Juanita how he makes his signature breakfast burritos. MMMM GOOD!

Burritos ready yet Danny?

A short drive from Columbia and back into California’s central valley took us to Lodi’s Flag City RV Resort. Flag City is located on I-5 just south of Sacramento and is a new park with all the modern facilities. This is not a bad park for an overnight visit, but the concrete pads are extremely narrow and the pull through sites short. The access streets are also narrow, and on entry I dropped the trailer wheels to the hub in deep mud along side the pad. Also, to get Internet access, one needs to “rent” a DSL modem for a $50 refundable fee. The DSL was terrible and not worth the set up effort. The only reason for our stay at this park was to visit more long time RV friends Ray and Linda Stoops. We enjoyed a very fine BBQ steak dinner at their home in Lodi and expect to see them when they take a several month long western trip this spring.

Ray really knows how to grill a steak at home in Lodi.

Bodie just loves chasing critters in Ray and Linda's backyard.

Another short drive to the north of Sacramento brought us to the Feather Falls KOA in Oroville, CA. This is one of the best-looking KOA parks that I have ever seen and is operated by the next-door Feather Falls Casino. The park is only about eight months old but is very well designed and clean. The prices at this KOA were also very reasonable…a word that usually isn’t used when describing a KOA! We hunted up several local geocaches and made a day trip south of Yuba City to see our road friends Mike and Charlie Harris for a great BBQ chicken dinner. Mike and Charlie visited us in Oroville the next day when we reciprocated with BBQ hamburgers. The automatic lawn sprinklers came on during our outdoor dinner causing all of us to scramble to dry spots in the middle of the street. An embarrassed KOA staff member was soon at our door with a one-night rebate and more casino cash. Juanita spent the casino cash in short order and we both enjoyed our free night at a nice park. We will watch Mike and Charlie enjoy their adventures as full timers and hope to catch up with them along the way again.

Mike has "gone to the dogs" when visiting our KOA campsite in Oroville.

Juanita located this ammo can cache in Oroville.

We had been carefully watching the late winter weather to the north along I-5 and over Siskiyou Pass in Oregon and decided we could make our move north between the frequent snow storms. We picked a great day for travel and passed over the summit during a very light rain shower and slightly above freezing temperatures. The pass was clear of snow and ice, so we were able to easily reach our next destination at the Valley of the Rogue State Park near Rogue River, Oregon. I have already posted several photos of the beautiful state park there in our “I’m Just a Lonely Frog” posting celebrating our one-year mark on the road. This park has become one of our favorites along this portion of I-5 and didn’t disappoint us this time. We again took some time to find local caches and visited with long time friends in Ashland, Wayne and Carolyn Allman. I had met Wayne many years ago in my old work life and he and Carolyn have since become good friends. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon at their beautiful home in the hills above Ashland and joined them at one of the fine eating establishments in town for a nice evening meal. Ashland is the home of the annual Shakespeare Festival and would be a neat place to visit during the summer festivities.

Our nice campsite at the Valley of the Rogue State Park in Oregon

Another view of this beautiful state park near Rogue River, Oregon.

Wayne and Carolyn Allman at home on their back deck in Ashland, Oregon.


We had scheduled a March 15 arrival at the Winchester Bay RV Resort on the central Oregon coast but decided to make the short drive from Rogue River a couple of days early. We were eager to start another long-term visit to get some road down time. We are now starting the third week in our two month long stay at this fantastic coastal park located just south of Reedsport, Oregon. During the winter season (up to May 15) the monthly rate is only $400 including electricity. We have a real fondness for this park…we decided to start full timing while visiting on our vacation to end all vacations in October of 2005. This park is located on a point of land between a boat marina and the bay at the end of the Umqua River and near the small town of Winchester Bay. The nearby dockside area has several very good restaurants, some interesting shops, and fish markets…featured at this time of year are the tasty Dungeness crabs and fresh oysters from the nearby oyster beds. Reedsport has the basic needs covered but just about everything one needs can be found in the nearby towns of Florence to the north and North Bend and Coos Bay to the south. We have already located some of the nearby caches but find ourselves falling far behind our geocaching mentors Dave and Barb O’Keeffe. Juanita finished up on a quilt top she was making for her mom, and we delivered it to a woman in Port Orford for the final quilting on a long arm machine. We have been spending the balance of our time enjoying the beautiful scenery in the area and have taken several side trips including the Carl Washburn State Park, Florence, Eugene, Umqua State Park, Bandon, and Port Orford. Late winter and early spring here on the Oregon coast has presented us with the normal range of bright clear and warm days to a real nasty overnight wind storm that brought our HughesNet satellite dish to ground level during a trailer rocking gust. We have had occasional rain showers, but we won’t melt! We will post more of our adventures in this area before our departure on May 15.

Clarence greets us at the entrance to the Winchester Bay RV Resort in Winchester Bay, Oregon.

Our campsite at Winchester Bay.

Bay view from our dining room window.

Nearby Umqua Lighthouse, Oregon.

Lake Marie in Umqua State Park.

Juanita has finally finished her many state project quilt for her mom and we have dropped it off in Port Orford for final quilting.

Clouds from the west preview a spring storm.

The storm is followed by another in a series of spectacular sunsets the following evening.