Our dog has eaten out more then us....

We have only eaten out only 3 times on this trip in almost as many weeks. It was twice at buffets in Las Vegas, and once yesterday at the Cache Creek Indian Casino, north of Woodland, California. The Cache Creek Casino was beautiful and an excellent buffet. We really enjoyed it.

Then we traveled up State Route 16 to intersect with Hwy 20 on our way to Lake Country. It was a very winding, and very beautiful route. We followed the edge of Clearlake, (the largest lake in California) to its north shore.

We stopped for a nap in a school parking lot under the shade of a big tree on a warm Saturday afternoon.

Then we spent the night at Robinson Rancheria on the North Shore of Clearlake. We joined their “players club” for free, and got $20 in free slot play that Caren used on the penny slot machines.

I waited for awhile for a poker seat to open, but when she was done, we went out to the RV together and I made dinner.

The only TV station reception we had was one station, Trinity Broadcasting Network. They were showing a Bill Gaither Concert of which we have the DVD in the RV… lol, so we turned off the TV and put on a movie….. "The 13th Floor" was a very enjoyable movie.

Then we had a sound night sleep under the watchful eye of casino security.

The next morning I went in and used the restrooms, had a free cup of coffee and then we were back on the road again.

This time toward the Redwoods.

Guess who is coming to dinner....

Carrie our daughter had her minor surgery today, it went well. She may need another one, but this one went the way it was supposed to. Thanks to all of you who said a prayer for her.

Her mommy took care of her, along with her very supportive husband, while I was the official “dog sitter” and cook. I made hot dogs and biscuits for dinner along with hot cinnamon rolls. There should be a joke somewhere there, but I can’t seem to find it.

So tomorrow, Caren and I are taking off in the RV for Clearlake, the wine country, and the redwoods. I will update you from there.

This Wednesday night, we did have one event I forgot to tell you about. We went to dinner at Phil and Donna Jones home in Folsom. They are such great people. We have had mutual close friends for the past 30 years, but only in the last year have we gotten to know them.

We arrived at their beautiful home at 6 p.m. and were warmly greeted by them. After showing us around their home, they made a quick phone call. They wanted to show off their 4 grand children, that live just 7 houses down the block. Their 27 year old daughter, and son-in-law and 4 grand children came down and warmly greeted us and played with for awhile. What a great family.

Then we had a fantastic, old-fashioned home-made pot roast dinner, with the best gravy I have tasted in awhile. Then the finale to that fantastic meal, was the best pecan pie, I have ever tasted. They even sent three pieces home with us.

Over the next two days, I kept trying to save one of the pieces for Dave or Carrie and the pieces of pecan pie just kept disappearing. (I think our house must have been broken into, and the robbers took them. I can’t believe I ate all three pieces over the next two days.)

The weather has been warm and sunny and we are beginning to appreciate many areas of Sacramento we are visiting and learning about.

Next, on to the Redwoods…….

Three dog week....

It’s been a 3 dog week.

Monday, we left Marysville, after a night in the Super-WalMart, parked less then 55 feet from the busiest freight train tracks connecting Northern and Southern California. I never knew so much still moved by rail. The ground shook, the train whistles howled, and the clacky-clack of the tracks almost drowned out my snoring.

Coco, and I were out walking, when the first one came by, and she tucked her tail, and wanted to run back to the RV. If I had a tail I would have done the same.

After her 3rd one, when she heard the train wail, she would run to the window to watch it go by. Traveling is even educational for dogs.

We arrived Monday afternoon at our daughter Carrie’s and son-in-law David’s home in the Foothills Farms section of Sacramento, got some laundry done, greeted their two dogs, Gracie & Mercy and enjoyed sitting in their backyard in the warm sun while Coco ran with his “cousins”.

David and I went out for Mongolian BBQ that evening, while Caren and Carrie hung out together.

Later, after visiting late into the evening, Caren and I went to sleep in the RV in front of their house. They have a guest room, and we will be staying here, when we move up. But, if you have read this blog for the last two weeks, you know, Caren prefers sleeping in the RV, then almost more then anywhere.

The next morning after eating all that Mongolian BBQ, she told me the smell was eeking out of my pores. She said, it felt like she had slept with Genghis Khan. I said great, tomorrow I will have Italian, and we can play Marco Polo. (lol) Marco.......

We were only planning on staying till Wednesday night, and then meeting our Son, Jonathan in San Francisco, but a complication came up for Carrie.

She has been having a health issue, that might have to go to surgery, and the pain had been increasing over the past couple of weeks. She stayed home from work Tuesday in obvious pain, and Wednesday came home in such pain, she scheduled an emergency Dr. appointment for Thursday, and then a minor surgery was scheduled for Friday.

We cancelled our time with Jonathan for Thursday, and decided to stay around and help her through the procedure.

Caren, is a great mommy and Carrie needed her, and Caren needed to be her mommy, at this time. So here I sit as the official three dog sitter. I knew I would discover my purpose in life eventually.

My heart is already in San Francisco, but my body is in Sacramento.

I will post some pictures later, my camera batteries are dead and I have to go out and get some batteries.

Slow down and enjoy God's creation.

Slow down and enjoy God's creation is a bumper sticker on the back of our RV as well as part of our committment for this trip.

We left Quincy on Sunday and spent the day driving slowly down the Feather River on State Route 70 from Quincy to Oroville. One of the most beautiful drives in the country.

We ended up the day in Marysville. Tomorrow, we get to see Carrie and Dave in Sacramento

North by Northwest

We left Reno about noon with no particular destination in mind. We knew we were going to end up somewhere up in the high sierra range, but where? That would be determined later. We drove up US395 to Susanville my only slight regret of the trip.

I somehow confused in my mind Susanville with Placerville. Even though I had been to Placerville I wanted to see Susanville because our friends Terry & Gayle had a brother who past who lived there. (Silly me... it was Placerville not Susanville.)

Oh, well, I am actually glad I saw Susanville. I now know what it is like, and I don't think I will have a need to return that way.

We spent the night at an RV park in Quincy after a beautiful day sightseeing in the mountains.

A cold day in hell.

There is an old joke that says “Reno is so close to hell you can see Sparks”. Well, Sparks, Nevada is where we chose to spend the night after a day in Carson City.

I read on the web yesterday that the Reno police were enforcing an old law that you couldn’t sleep in your vehicle and applying it to RV’ers in casino parking lots. Apparently, this was at the urging of some local RV parks who pressured them.

The article went on to say how some Casinos in neighboring Sparks were welcoming us, so we headed for the Nugget to spend the night. I went in and played some poker for a few hours and then we went to sleep, after remarking on how cold it was getting.

When we woke up in the morning it was truly a “cold day in hell”. Actually it was quite beautiful to see big fluffy snowflakes falling out of the sky. CoCo has never been in snow and wasn’t quite sure about it, but went for a walk with me anyway.

Because the storm was coming from the north and that was the direction we were going we decided to spend the day and night in Reno. We planned on leaving the next day.

The Sands Regency Casino in Reno is where Caren and her sisters would meet for years.

Caren would fly up from San Diego. Her three sisters would fly in from Oregon and they would have a lot of fun. So we went to the Sands for the day, for "old time sakes".

Caren actually remembered her and her sister's favorite slot machine. But alas, without the sisters, it wasn't quite as much fun or profitable for her.

While I was playing a little poker I talked to security about that recent action that has RV'ers so upset. They told me no problem spend the night in their back secure lot. "We would love to have you stay". So we spent the night in Reno, waiting out the storm, and are excited to get back on the road tomorrow to see the gold country of the high sierras.

Here is a little preview.

Beautiful Rest Stops

One of the nicest things about RV traveling is you can pick a beautiful spot just for lunch.

One of my favorite highway rest stops is on US395 about 30 miles north of Bishop. We stopped for lunch and a walk in the woods.

Then on the road again….we were going to drive through Mammoth Lakes, but we chose June Lake instead. What a great drive taking the June lake loop road. The fall colors were beautiful as well as the lake.We stopped a few more times before we made it to Carson City in the late afternoon where we were planning on spending the night.

At a shopping center on the south side of Carson City I walked with Coco past a Massage Envy grand opening. The Carson City Chamber of Commerce was having a ribbon cutting ceremony and Coco got involved by greeting everybody in her friendly way. I enjoyed talking to the owners about their new business venture. Then I told them about Caren's little mishap the day before and they offered me their grand opening special of $39 for a one hour massage for Caren and they even had an employee stay overtime to give it to her. It really seemed to help Caren and she was able to come out from the massage table and crawl right into bed for the night.

I drove into the center of Carson City and we spent the night in the Nugget Casino parking lot after I played a few hours of poker.

There is a big storm coming in from the north, (the direction we are heading) and even though we are at 5,000 feet we are planning on going even higher in elevation so we may spend the day and night in Reno tomorrow to let the storm pass.

I have fallen and I can't get up....

Finally we are leaving Las Vegas.

We traveled north on US95, one of the most isolated roads in the United States. We stopped after about 2 hours of driving at a gas station market that was painted completely pink.

Then we realized it was a combination gas station, market, and brothel. (All I got there was a cup of coffee….) and we were back on the road again. I used google maps to tell me the shortest way from Vegas to Bishop, California and it did. What it didn’t tell me was some of the roads were barely passable, and had hairpin turns with 9% grades up and down. I think we passed 3 cars going in the opposite direction in the 140 miles of nothingness between US95 in Nevada and US395 in California.

Finally we reached Bishop in the late afternoon.

We found a nice little park that Caren was going to walk Coco in while I researched the Internet to locate a camping site for us in a National Forest near Bishop.

She called me in about 30 minutes to see if I had located one. As we were talking I heard her yell oh no, coco, coco, then I heard a bang and I could hear voices in the background saying are you alright, are you ok?

I kept calling into the phone, Caren, Caren !!!… what a helpless feeling, I didn’t know where she was, nor what had happened. Finally, the phone went dead.

I dialed her back and it went to the machine 2 or 3 times, finally Caren answered telling me she had tripped and fallen. An off-duty sheriff helped her, and then he ran to get me to bring the RV. He suspected Caren had broken at least one of her knees from the way she fell onto the concrete. He directed my RV to where Caren was still laying on the ground, and the deputy’s little daughter was holding Coco. He and I carefully helped Caren to her feet. Her knee was bruised and bloody, but fortunately nothing was broken.

He told me where the Hospital was in town and we considered going there, but Caren said she would be ok and just wanted to get into the RV.

We cleaned up her knee, and realized she was very, very fortunate not to have done some real damage.

We ended up staying in town at a little Indian Casino Campground, and with a little pain medicine she slept well. She awoke the next morning, sore in her neck and back, from the fall trauma, but her knees were ok, except for a little abrasion.

Then back on the road again north toward Mammoth Lakes

P.S. Later Caren told me the reason she couldn’t answer my frantic phone calls to her, is because she had fallen on top of the phone and couldn’t get up.

What plays in Vegas......

We learned a lesson about what plays in Vegas, better stay in Vegas. But, I will tell you that story at the end of today’s recount.

We awoke in the parking lot of the Gold Coast Casino in our RV, after turning down a free night at one of the best suite’s at the Rio last night. (For an illogical explanation read the previous blog.)

I went in and played about 5 hours of poker while we waited for Ed & Lindy to join us for a late lunch buffet. After an enjoyable buffet, and sometimes, choking, hysterical laughter about old times in the family we finished dining. (Ed and I have been married into Caren’s family for almost 75 combined years.) (There were a lot of things to laugh about.)

I said goodbye to Ed at the Blackjack tables, where he was luckier, then you are ever supposed to be. I was very happy for him.

I spent a few hours in the RV, taking a nap, and getting the RV ready for our next leg of the trip, reading and spending time on-line. It is so much easier now, to get on the Internet, thanks to our wireless connection almost anywhere. During our “year long” trip 6 years ago, it seemed I was constantly looking for Kinko’s, libraries or RV parks that had a modem connection.

About 5 p.m. we rolled north off the Las Vegas strip with plans of driving about 20 miles to the Northwest edge of the Las Vegas suburbs to spend the night at a Super Wal-Mart.

On the way we came across a shopping center that had a PetCo, Borders Book Store, Old Navy etc., so we stopped for a few hours while Caren visited stores. Later we me up at the Borders Bookstore.

It was there I discovered I had a black chip in my pocket from the Gold Coast Casino.

In case you don’t know, even children in Vegas learn their primary colors by casino chips. Red is a $5 chip, Green is $25 and black is a $100. There are more colors but those are the only ones I have ever had my hands on.

In Vegas just like money, chips are stolen, and counterfeited by criminals, so today casinos are reluctant to accept other casinos chips. There are all kind of ways casinos fight back, even to the extreme of having some casino chips with little computer chips inside. They can then scan for the real ones.

Anyway, I didn’t want to drive the 20 miles back to cash it at the Gold Coast. (When you drive an RV you think in terms of every 8 miles is a gallon of gas, so I always hate to double back for any reason.)

Because, I know the Gold Coast is one of several casinos owned by the same company I wanted to locate one close to us, on our way out of town. I went on-line and found out the SunCoast Casino was only going to be about 3 miles out of the way, so we headed there.

I dropped Caren off at the front door to run in and cash it at the main cashier area. (Or the “cage” as casino workers call it)

She called me on her cell phone, while I was waiting in the RV, and said they wouldn’t take it.

I had to go in and work through 3 levels of management to get them to accept their own chip, because it was on a computer list distributed to all casinos, not to accept black chips from the Gold Coast, even though it was their own Casino.

Finally, after threatening to post this story on every poker blog on the Internet, and promising to produce at least one hundred times the hundred dollars in “bad will” about the SunCoast on-line, I received reluctant approval.

Even after approval from the very top pit boss, I had to go through the routine of playing it at a blackjack table where I had to cash it for SunCoast red chips. Then, I had to play a couple of hands. Then, I could take their SunCoast red chips to the cage to cash them in.

In a turn of kismet I not only won both hands, but one of them was a blackjack, so I got $25 extra for my hassle of cashing in their black chip.

Old timers speak fondly of the “good old days” in Vegas when the mob ran it. People were treated humanely, (unless you got out of line) There was no crime on the streets, honor and respect were important commodities. Today with the “real criminals” of large corporations running Las Vegas street crime, homelessness, slums, and disrespect of both customers and employees is at an all time low.

After hunkering down finally for the night at the edge of the desert, in a Super Wal-Mart parking lot ready to get out of Vegas for good I undressed for bed. While emptying my pockets I found a green chip from the Coast Casino. We laughed and went to bed.

How suite it is....

Sunday morning Oct 5th, we are scheduled to attend a timeshare presentation for the Pahrump Winery and RV Resort, a part of the Western Horizon RV resorts. We were scheduled for 9 a.m. but I am not usually awake that time of the morning, so we got there at 9:30 a.m.

It was a hysterical event. I always answer honestly every question asked, but because our lifestyle is not very average these high pressure presentations designed for the average fulltime employee just make no sense for us.

Here are a few of the questions and answers at our timeshare presentation.

So you are interested in learning more about becoming a member of our resorts? No, actually we here for the free promotional things you offered.

On an average how much do you spend annually on your vacations in a year? Not counting groceries and gas about $500

What kind of RV resorts or hotels do you usually stay in when you travel? We usually stay in Wal-mart or Casino Parking lots. Sometimes, we get free suites because of my poker playing, but Caren would rather stay in the RV, then a hotel room.

Then when he heard we had stayed at Slab City, he realized we were not going to buy his $12,000 camping membership.

We got our free gifts and headed for Vegas to meet two of Caren’s sister and their husbands.

What were our free gifts? Beside the 5 day, 4 night stay at the resort we received a $25 gift certificate and a case of wine from their private stock at Pahrump Winery. Life is good.

We met up with Lindy and Ed, and three of their girls, at the Gold Coast Casino. We ate at the dinner buffet together and then Patti and Tracy joined us for a little fun at the slot machines.

Sure enough I had a reservation for a free room at the Rio Suites, (regular rate $300) and we ended up walking up to the desk and canceling it so we could sleep in the RV in the parking lot, because Caren preferred her own bed and the RV more then one of the nicest suites in Vegas.

Shotgun Wedding in Vegas

Ok, to be honest there was no shotgun. My nephew Brandon loved Richelle, very much, and would have married her with or without gunplay involved. Now, Richelle does work for the F.B.I. in Vegas, so I can assure you that some of the guests were “packing”. But, we all made it through the wedding, and the reception, with no one getting shot or even getting arrested. And knowing my in-laws there were probably odds listed in Vegas of either event occurring before the event was through. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Caren and I got up Saturday morning in beautiful downtown Pahrump and left for Vegas. Of course, not without an emergency stop at the Super Wal-Mart, to buy the hair dryer that was left back at the house in San Diego.

With dry and curly hair we, (I mean Caren has the hair) proceeded through the beautiful Red Rock Canyon area, on to Northwest Las Vegas, where the wedding was scheduled outdoors at a country club. Richelle’s family lives in Vegas, so they were there.

Brandon had us from San Diego and Cousin’s, Uncles, and Aunts from Oregon as well as his dad from Santa Monica and brother from Vegas

I was disappointed that the wedding official wasn’t an Elvis impersonator, but it turns out, he was a minister who was also a stand-up comedian, so the show went on. The guests laughed and the couple got hitched in a beautiful setting.

Then there was a reception for all, at the bride’s family home nearby. They are Armenian, so it was the closest thing to the movie “my big fat greek wedding”, I have ever been too. Actually, the family is great, we loved them, they are lovely people. And the food was wonderful, plenteous, and awesome.

I asked permission for Coco to attend with us, and the father of the bride said “of course, and that he didn’t trust anyone without a dog”. So Coco came and enjoyed the reception with us.

After a few hours, we were the last ones hanging around, and it looked like the hosts wanted people to go home now. But, hey, we’re family now! So, I didn’t think that applied to us. But, Caren assured me it did, so we hit the road back to Pahrump for our final night at the Pahrump Winery and RV resort.

The next log will be about our hysterical timeshare presentation at Pahrump Winery and RV Resort.

Another 6 months another Trip......

Well six months have passed since my last post. I may comment on that "gap" later, but these next few posts will be for our friends that like to follow us on our trips.

October 1st, 2008
Wednesday, October 1st was the final day for Caren’s employment at Paradise Valley Hospital’s Behavioral Health program in Chula Vista. She went out to “happy hour“ with some co-worker’s after work, and then came home and cried. She had been there 6 years and knew she was ready to go, and try a new adventure, but leaving all her friends was still very hard.

We spent some time in the evening with our good friends Gary and Jane Goodell and then hugged each other and said something like w.t.f. are we doing… lol

Thursday at home was spent loading the RV for our three week vacation. We put much thought into the plan of what to take and what to leave. We would have hot desert weather and then cold Northern California mountain weather. And when we returned from Sacramento it would be by Plane, leaving our RV in Sacramento.

We left about 2:30 from San Diego, North on Interstate 15, and I suspected we would hit really bad traffic up around L.A. but somehow we hit a “miracle window” in the commute traffic and never had heavy traffic.

The nice thing about RV traveling with no schedule is wherever you are, there you are.

I had four areas of traffic I was concerned about and planned potential shopping mall time for Caren and serious RV nap time for me. Temecula came and went with no slow down. Corona was a breeze. The approach to I10 and highland was not a problem. No traffic appeared in the Victorville area. So, no mall, no nap for me. (grin)

By this time Caren was napping in the back and I was ready to fill up the gas tank near Barstow before we hit the desert. So we stopped, took a dinner break, filled up with gas, and turned on the TV, just in time to watch the VP debates.

After the debates we turned east across the desert to Baker, and then a left turn took us through Death Valley after sunset.

Another turn east to cross over some very dry mountains to Pahrump, where I had a 5 day certificate for a free RV stay at the Pahrump Winery and RV Resort.

Friday was a stress-detox day for Caren while I put in some serious hot tub and pool time for the day, with periodic walks in the desert with CoCo. Keeping our eyes open for rattlesnakes.

That evening was TV in the RV, and pasta and salad for dinner, under the dark skies and many stars above Pahrump, Nevada.

Tomorrow, on to Vegas to the Wedding of our nephew Brandon.