How did YOU Celebrate Earth Day?

We got solar panels on our RV! (As our friend Juan said, "That sounds like an NPR feature story...!")

Spent today and yesterday in and around Springfield/Eugene, OR, with our base being a lovely county park recommended by a complete stranger (but friend, since he's on our View/Navion Yahoo! Group). We have been enjoying off-season camping again, here in the Pacific Northwest, where spring is just springing. Blooming trees, colorful tulips, wildflowers everywhere. We were even in a blossom snowstorm yesterday ;-)

Our campsite is backed up to a lake over which the sun rises. To wit:


On our way up here yesterday: I give you Mount Shasta. The behemoth that towers over miles and miles of I-5. Reminded us of how our first RV trip started last summer: with the volcanoes of the Cascades. Such beauty.


But, back to the point of the post. Here's what our RV looks like when stored at home. I cleared quite the brush on the side of our property next to the road--an area we had long ignored--so that she could park off the road, close enough to have the attractive orange power cord running across the width of our garage (of course the outlet was on the far side) and up the bloody hill to the rig. Pretty, eh? (Photo taken from in front of garage door, at bottom of too-steep hill to drive Navion down.)


Well, that orange cord is HISTORY now. We just had quite the day in the customer waiting area--Lisa, Julie, AND Nick (yikes)--spending about 8 hours waiting for the installation to be complete. But boy, did they ever do a nice job. Gorgeous installation--everything is labeled, perfectly installed to match, and works great.

No more having to measure the electrolyte in the old batteries (and add distilled water). No more monitoring the batteries by taking off the panel and attaching a multimeter to measure the voltage (and seeing that we had very little juice!). No more worrying about calculating all the #*$& math involved in conventional batteries: amp hours, volts, watts, draw, float, #*$&% terminology that we have spent hours wrapping our brains around. We just look at this attractive little panel and make sure that if we hit 12.5, we turn off lights and get recharged soon. That's it.


And no more feeling as if we have to take the RV out at home to drive around and waste diesel to charge the engine battery. Now, the solar panels do that, too.

Warning: Geek alert. Technical photos follow.

The controller box, installed behind an easy-to-access panel below the closet (by the freshwater tank). Everything is nicely and thoroughly labeled:


The new AGM Lifeline batteries, which should last at least 7 years (probably longer than we'll have this RV, but who knows?)


The wiring going through the closet. Isn't it nice how the wiring cover matches our clothes pole? Amazing.


On the roof, installing the solar collector panels (and having a bit of fun):




Off tomorrow to see an old friend and former colleague in Eugene before heading north through the scenic Willamette Valley to overnight one more time inland. We'll be spending the next 3 or 4 days winding our way down the Oregon coast--Roadfood finds, fresh seafood, CHEESE, lighthouses, beaches and dunes. We may or may not have internet, but it's supposed to be a bit cloudy--good for photos--so we'll post when we can.

Trinity Alps and Southern Oregon: Hot!

Who would've thunk that it'd be over 90 degrees in the mountains of southern Oregon in April? But...we have ammo this time. No crappy 10-year-old Rialta in THIS heat wave. We are sitting in air-conditioned comfort having grilled steak and salad north of Grants Pass, OR (yes, there's no apostrophe, even though there SHOULD be) with 90+ degree temps outside. Gotta love it.

Beautiful day today. From Redding to Yreka (great palindrome: Yreka Bakery) off of I-5 to Jacksonville, OR (the entire town was designated a National Historic Place) and on up through Grants Pass to a lovely campground next to Jump Off Joe! Creek. (Poor Joe. He was supposed to hunt the group's dinner back in the mid 1800s. He got surprised by Indians, attacked, and decided to jump off the cliff over the falls--after his buddies called, "Jump off, Joe!"-- to escape the Indians. Well, Joe died of his injuries in the fall. Another lesson: beware of peer pressure.)

Because this spot is so pretty--and because we have a conference call at 10AM AND there's a great dog run--we're going to hang out till check out time at noon. We only have a little over 100 miles to go tomorrow, so we can meander.

Oh, and for those who are curious, we had a mechanical miracle today. Stopped at the Redding Dodge dealer (who was not certified to work on our chassis). They sent us to a Medford, OR place, but the darn HI OIL light never went on today. Dipstick measurement verified--no high oil. We think it was a bum sensor that has somehow, miraculously, reset itself. We have had nothing but stellar engine performance over some big climbs today. Very smooth after the early oil change.

Forgot to take photos in Jacksonville, but we will come back through here in the fall when we head up to Seattle for Julie's 10th year MBA reunion at Udub.

OTRA: Life Is Good. Again. And Always.

OTRA: On the road again.

A few wrinkles today. Got up late (each of us spent almost 3 hours awake last night listening to either BBC or podcasts), got a late start, had the oil warning light go off a million times today (too high! And we'd had the oil changed by a Dodge 5-star dealer on Wednesday AND gone back to them same day to fix the OIL TOO HIGH light!).

But, all is well. Life is good. Made it to Redding in 90+ degree heat. We called the campground we wanted at 3PM; they said to call closer to 5PM if we'd be late. We called at 5PM and they said they were sold out. I pulled out all the tricks I knew and we ended up with the best spot in the park--right on the river, facing the sunset, in a small spot completely secluded from the others. Perfection! Had our first meal outside at the picnic table in many months/trips. A lovely vegetarian Indian meal (believe it or not).

Our spot at sunset:


Nick in an almost heavenly pose with his favorite (and verboten) tennis balls in the cool grass (unlike Death Valley):



So, tomorrow will be finding a Dodge dealer to check out our engine and turn off the diagnostic code so that we can continue on our way north.

Another Roadfood.com Review ;-)

Yay, I got published again.

Go to Roadfood.com and put in "Tecopa, CA" under city, and there's the review.

It's funny, but there really are very few places that merit the time and effort it takes to write a review. I only regret not having written one for Lucille's in Boulder, CO. Don't think I can re-create it. We'll just have to go there again this summer as we pass through.

Planning 6-7 week soujourn starting in May, after we get back from OR with our solar, to National Skinnie-Winnie Rally in TX (and various old friends in Austin and San Antonio), to going to a VAN-in rally (!) with my big brother and sister-in-law outside of KC--can't wait. (He checked--we're allowed, since we have a Sprinter van front end!) To visiting my folks in St. Augustine, FL, to driving the Natchez Trace and visiting Crawley kin in Memphis (and maybe IN, but IN doesn't seem to have great camping spots), and hitting some National Parks (Hot Springs, AK; Great Smoky Mts NP, Mammoth Cave, NP) along the way. On the way home, gotta do the Colorado NPs that we missed last year when we didn't understand A/C in the rented Rialta ;-) plus see our good friends in Boulder.

Have rescheduled Big Bend/Carslbad/Guadalupe NPs to Oct/Nov--cooler, off-season travel--and decided to be home July-mid August to miss height of other people's travel season. We are loving off-season travel and are getting a bit territorial about our camping spots. Have to loosen up about that for June travel, don't we?

But now, we're getting ready for the minor trip (650 miles? Nothing!) up to Oregon. The spreadsheet for the rest of the year is underway and it's even starting to fill up for next year, which we THOUGHT would be Alaska, but might be New England and back across Canada.

The Next Trip: Oregon!

We will be off in 2 weeks for Oregon--a new trip! We decided to get solar panels installed at a highly recommended place up there. Not sure how long we'll be up there, but this is requiring a change in thinking for the year's trips. Back to the drawing board....

Lessons Learned in the Desert

As we usually do, we'll wrap up the trip with reflections and acknowledgments now that we're safely home....

Julie has definitely had enough of the desert for a while. While I do love sunshine, I get that I need/crave/must have green grass and blue water regularly. Crossing the last set of mountains today and heading down toward the Salinas Valley was just such a relief--green hills, even greener ag fields, and trees--real trees. Nick is pretty happy to be out of the desert, too.

However, I am also proud that we stuck with the desert on Friday and didn't let our mutual discomfort with what seemed like bleak terrain and kinda crappy accommodations stop us from doing what we had planned. Bringing yoga practices to the discomfort helped--deep breaths and acceptance of what is. That day ended up being one of our favorites.

Where else could we meet Down Under Barry-- a 50-something (60-something?) time-worn cowboy from Australia who showed us his bio-diesel engine, high performance air filter, and gave us other assorted and sundry tips about driving a diesel?

Where else could we be serenaded by the frog chorus all night long in the middle of one of the driest places on earth? All while walking to and from the star-lit hot springs baths for a mere $33 a night....

And what about that meal at Pastels Bistro? I just finished writing and submitting my Roadfood.com review of it. Hope it gets published. This little place deserves as much business as it can get. Getting to experience someone's commitment to excellence is always a privilege.

I think we might even have to go back to Tecopa Hot Springs. It's such a hoot to hear folks who look sorta like car mechanics or some such shouting out to each other, "Did you do your Watsu appointment already?" or "Didya walk the labyrinth today?"

Just goes to show you that the old saw remains true: you cannot judge a book by its cover, whether that's a person OR a place.

Pahrump, NV and Tecopa Hot Springs, CA

What a surreal experience we've had the past few days. From a vivid green oasis in the Nevada desert to a mostly dried-up, minerally lake bottom with hot springs and the oddest (and most interesting) cast of characters you could ever imagine. And all without benefit of phone or email access (sort of a treat!).

More to come. Haven't digested it all yet.

Here's the slide show:

Terrible's Lakeside RV Resort, Pahrump, NV


View from our site: gorgeous green grass (after having been devoid of this for a few days), water, and even a "beach"! The birdsong was incredible.



Lisa using one of the complimentary paddleboats (and the ducks kept following her):


Outside Shoshone, CA
Then, on the way back to CA, we stopped at a bizarre little roadside place (no real signs) that we saw on our way to Pahrump. Too odd. Don't know the whole story, but you can see into these caves; clearly, someone lived there. Don't know who. Don't know when. But only foot traffic is allowed.










China Ranch Date Farm
Then imagine, if you will, going to visit a place that everyone says you MUST visit, but no one tells you anything else, and you find yourself descending a 2-mile long, gravel/dirt road at a 12-15% (huge!) grade, with many one-lane-wide spots. Yikes. Can't turn around, can you? But what a blast. Totally worth it. Turns out that going downhill is scarier than going uphill in first gear. Our gal--we think her real name is now "Roxy"--was a trooper. Here are shots of some couple's dream. They bought this place in 1990 (it had failed as a ranch for probably 100 years) and turned it into a palm date farm and then added a bakery and gift shop business, and then a cactus/palm tree nursery business. Fabulous. We bought 1 pound of assorted dates (and will figure out recipes when we get home), plus a tiny date nut bread loaf for breakfast, and a small container of date-vanilla chip cookies for afternoon sustenance on the road. Yum. This was a very memorable spot. Picture desert, desert, desert--brown dirt everywhere. Then you descend this hellacious road and all of a sudden--palm trees. Green. You couldn't see it coming.





My favorite photo. It enlarges well (it's currently my desktop photo):





Tecopa Hot Springs
And then there's our campground. We were just moments away from saying, Screw it, we're going home--this is gross. And then we realized why we were in Tecopa Hot Springs in the first place. I have been following a gal's RV travel blog, and she mine, and it turned out that she was going to be in Tecopa Hot Springs on Saturday at noon. So, on Friday noon when we were casing the joint and wanting to flee, we remembered our word--we said we'd be at this really cool restaurant in the middle of nowhere at noon on Saturday. So, we took a deep breath, and learned to be with the situation and location. And we were so glad we did. What a hoot. Our campground, Delights Hot Springs Resort, was a true experience. We were the nicest RV in the place (which is a first--we are usually small and way less than the big ole Class As), but we loved the vibe of the place. In the desert, but yet, on a pond. We were serenaded by frog song all night long. And the stars--ah, yi, yi. Crescent moon, which set quickly, yielded to Milky Way and every star you can think of, which you could watch from your private hot springs tub room. Ahh. Felt great. Here is a sunset photo of the scenery.


And here's the shot of the office/entrance that Lisa took when I was checking in:


Now, Tecopa is a town full of mystics, health/body workers (massage therapists and other more esoteric healing types), hippies, star gazers, and assorted folks who aren't interested in a "typical" city life. Very interesting folks. My favorite sign of ALL time shows their sense of humor:



And then there's the restaurant where we were supposed to meet our online friends. All I can say is that I'm sorry we missed them (never did hear from them), but I am so glad that they recommended we try this restaurant. OMG. It was fabulous. Fresh, organic, tasty, and completely satisfying. I had Brazilian black beans with kielbasa; Lisa had an eggplant lasagne. We both had the yummiest salads ever. Turns out the chef makes Italian vinaigrette every week, but flavors it differently. This week had freshly grated ginger, and it was just perfect. It's always such a treat to be in the presence of people who love what they do and are committed to the best that can be produced. And this is in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. Population 100. But fresh, organic yumminess. It cost a bit more (and they only accepted cash and we spent, literally, every last dollar bill we had!), but it was totally worth it.







We'll compose end-of-journey reflections tomorrow on our well-worn path back home (although we are now loving this drive--from coast through Central Valley to Sierras-- Gorgeous country).