January 17, 2024

I’m now about 10 days into my travels, but have been visiting, driving and working through the unexpected making time for my thoughts limited.  Yes, I do feel I am living the dream – and tomorrow starts the path towards the south, with a left turn to the east.  Hopefully leaving the practical, time-consuming reality behind for a while!

My trip started as planned, left my holiday stay-over RV park, boon-docked at my daughters and then made my appointment with Camping World in Wilsonville for the oil change and road ready check. First dose of reality – a leak in a differential seal discovered.  A warranty problem for the Chevy chassis.  I am forever thankful for my brother and his connections in the mechanical community in Medford, Oregon!  I want to give a special recognition to Pro Service Center for getting my RV in and fixed in one day when no Chevy dealer had the bay size or capacity to see me sooner than 30 days!  (it’s warranty work, so had to make a choice of waiting or getting it fixed – I choose the latter and will do battle with Chevy at my next RV Park).

Once the RV was back, while my brother was installing my new TV, I discovered that the awning wasn’t working.  Dead, no matter how I pushed the button – nothing.  So, after spending time at both my brother, Brad and sister-in-law Colleen’s place (I give this location 5 stars.  A nice, rustic setting, but nice gravel lot with deer who grazed next to the rig. And the host is very helpful with technical advice and installation services), I moved to my sister Julie and husband Mike’s place.

I rate my RV pad at Julie and Mike’s place at 5 stars also – the host and hostess were delightful, and the pad was very level, in a farm setting.  Plus, she offered a tour of local shopping hot spots to pass the time.  Plus, I got the bonus of leaving with fresh farm eggs! 

Before I left Southern Oregon, I was able to make an appointment with a Camping World in Anderson, California.  After driving over the notorious Siskiyou Pass on a dry, sunny, 51-degree day, I stayed on track by staying at the Win-River Casino RV Park overnight in Redding, California.  Great steak dinner, and after playing $20 on the pennies slots, I won back the cost of the RV spot plus a few bucks (I mean like $3.00).  It was fun and I loved coming home from the casino (via the little shuttle v. walking 4 minutes) and being welcomed to a cozy, warm bed by my travelling companions, Spirit and Audy-wee.

The only change I’ve had to make was having to cancel my first night at a winery via my Harvest Host winery.  I spent most of the day at Camping World getting the awning fixed. Audy-wee did his job as social director and before we left, we’d met all the employees, people buying new trailers and people waiting for service on their RV’s.  There is really a community feeling among RV people, time passed quickly talking about travel tips, places to visit and of course, dogs. Audy enjoyed hearing what a great, handsome dog he was – the cat slept through it all in his carrier with his back to the commotion around him. 

I made it to Sacramento that night and stayed at the fairground’s RV park.  Nice, accommodating staff – but had to question their engineering.  It appears that whoever designed this RV park may had it confused with a drive-in movie theater – the spaces were skewed down-hill.  The slant was so extreme that even my self-levelling jacks couldn’t get my rig completely level, they were extended so far that the front wheels were far off the ground.  So, I gave up, the bed was level across, so I slept with the slant.

Made it to Visalia, after a brief detour to Lodi, where I went to visit the winery where I had planned to stay – these Harvest Host host were understanding of my delay and ultimate cancellation and told me I could pull anytime of the night if I needed a place to stay overnight – even though they required people to be there by 6 pm.  While I missed my wine tasting and watching a sunset in a vineyard experience – I was happy to stop by and say hello.

I’ve had a great visit with two of my cousins here in Visalia, California – shared memories of family gatherings over our youth, with some more recent visits when our parents were still alive.  I look at them, remember our youth and see us all aging, and as Bonnie Raitt sings “I see my folks are getting on and I watch their bodies change, I know they see the same in me and it makes us both feel strange”. 

I have always felt blessed to have an extended family that I’ve kept in touch with over the years, my parents taught us the importance in family.  I feel lucky that I’ve been able to see so many of them on this trip, including another cousin I visited in Medford while there.

My adventures are about experiences, reconnecting with people, seeing beauty and trying to understand more about this human existence.  This past week plus has been about spending time with loved ones. Tomorrow – well that is the beginning of exploration, seeing beauty great and small, and coffee at sunrise and wine at sunsets.  I’m ready!