Author: harrylange

Redlands, CA – Saturday February 16, 2019

Long day 618 miles.

Highway CA-37 opened traveling east about 7:30 this morning so that is the way we traveled over to I-5. When we go to the rest stop north of LA where we planned to spend the night it was closed. You’d think they could have put a sign at the previous rest stop saying this one is closed, it is closed for 6 months.

Not really knowing anything about the area we continued south looking for a place to spend the night. The next rest stop we pulled in fixed dinner and were settling in for the night when I looked at the weather report. We are at the top of “The Grapevine” Lebec, CA with snow coming.

First Campsite pictures

Snow on the ridge above us

Here is the weather report.

This was not going to be a good place to stay and I was not looking forward to driving into LA at night but as they say, “It is what it is”.

This is Lebec weather report this afternoon.

And good thing we didn’t go to Bakersfield and high desert.

Today’s drive

Where we spent the night.

Travel time 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m

Ukiah, CA Fair Grounds – Friday February 15, 2019

Long drive today.

243 long miles. The weather is wet cold which adds up to snow. I don’t mind driving the pickup in the snow but we came this way not to drive the Motorhome in snow.

Saw one car slide off the road and a van in the middle of the road on it’s side after rolling at least once. I think he most of hit a large puddle of water while going to fast.

Got to Uriah at 2:00 and decided we would be better off spending the night here rather than driving through the Bay Area during Friday evening commute and trying to find a place to spend the night in a major city. Early Saturday morning sound better.

Watched the local news and found out one of the roads I was going to take is flooded so with google maps I think I found a way to get to Vacaville to Sacramento and south on I5. With the cold, rain and wind we will not go east from Bakersfield into the high desert but go south into LA get I10 east.

The rest of the trip should see improving weather.

Crescent City, CA – Thursday February 14, 2019

Last night before we went to bed I made the call to drive around the Siskiyou’s. Between the snow, rain and wind it seemed the right thing to do.

We get to see the ocean, lunch stop view.

Drove 298 miles and got to Cresent City at 3:30 staying at Shoreline RV Park right on the ocean. This includes for no additional fee rain and wind. The wind was supposed to drop after dark but hasn’t.

Campsite 79.

Today’s drive.

Looking at the weather radar this afternoon it looked like some snow on Hwy 299 which would take us over to I-5 at Redding. So I think we will go further south to Hwy 20 which will hit I-5 at Williams.

Overall I would have to say the weather sucks everywhere, here and in Washington State. Back on the road in the morning.

Added site picture 2/15/2019

On The Road to Spring Training – Wednesday February 13, 2019

After shoveling snow yesterday and this morning we are on our way south.

To get the Motorhome out from behind the house I shoveled snow out of the street for a couple of hours on Tuesday and an hour this morning. It was 34 degrees last night, if it had been 36 all night enough snow would have melted and I wouldn’t have had to shovel snow this morning. This was the largest February snow fall since 1923. We had a foot on the ground. Tanya has two feet plus more tonight.

Campsite

It’s a Rest Stop night.

Portland is supposed to get some freezing rain late tonight and in the morning so I wanted to stop early to ensure we got a spot for the night. Looking at the weather report I think we are far enough south to miss the ice.

Current plan is to go out to the coast to Reedsport and south along the coast. The Siskiyou’s do not look like a friendly place.

Update:

7:00 pm 2/13

Big House – Saturday February 9, 2019

We will be moving south to Mariners Spring Training a few days. It looks like we will be leaving a few day later than originally planned.

These pictures were taken last Tuesday and yesterday we got an additional 6-8 inches. This is the biglyest snow storm we have had in 20 years and may continue for the next week. Oh well.

Here are some of the coach projects I have would on:

  • new slide toppers for bedroom and front room, Brian helped me install, the short bedroom slide should have been the easy one, it took 4 hours. had a challenge getting the existing broken off screws out. The long slide which should have been more of a challenge took 45 minutes.
  • replace the cable from the roof top Satilite down to the point where it enters the coach, sun had eaten up the cable
  • towing clearance light on the pickup had quit working, replace the the wiring, the cheap wire I used several years ago had just come apart
  • check all the batteries I put in last year, they looked great, not cororsion at all
  • changed engine oil and filter
  • greased chassis
  • new burner in BBQ
  • on the pick-up I lubed the side window tracks, got a Haynes repair manual on ebay and these were perhaps easiest door panels I have ever taken off, without the repair manual I’d still be trying to figure out how to get them off.

New 110 volt heating element for the refrigerator. I noticed the freeze had a layer of ice on the bottom. Started checking things and found the element was not getting hot. The circuit board looked fine so guessed that the element had burned out. The layer of ice was from me working on the coach with the 110 power off so the refrigerator was sometimes operating on gas and refreezing. I could order an element for $45.00 on-line or get it locally for $75.00. With the weather changing and us wanting to leave to go south I went with the local option. With the bad weather extending even longer than originally projected I think I went with the correct option.

Our original plan was to leave Sunday 2/10/2019 or Monday 2/11, it now may be the 22nd or 23rd after spring training starts. Oh, well – this storm extends from here all the way south to just north Redding California, not the best time to out on the road. As of today it is even snowing on the coast in Oregon and on the coast west of the Siskiyou’s.

We had tickets for the 5th Avenue production of “Rock of Ages” on today Saturday, however Christine emailed us on Monday saying the weather looked bad for the end of the week. We changed the tickets to Thursday night and we had a great time, it is fun music.

This is it for today, may go downstairs and tie some more flies.

Big House – Wednesday November 14, 2018

Back to the big house for the holidays.

Fall Travel Map 001

183 miles on the last day.

Trip summary:
Motorhome 4622 miles
Pick-up 1597 miles
Gas prices
High $3.29 – Chehalis, WA
Low $2.54 – Tucson, AZ
Highest we saw – $3.89 between Congress, AZ and Kingman, AZ and $4.49 in California
Avg $3.06
693 gallons of gas

Fall Travel Map 002

 

For the year
Trip summary:
Motorhome 11,266 miles
Pick-up 5471 miles
1691 gallons of gas

Fall Travel Map 003

I’m working on a list of projects for the coach.

We have our Mariner’s Spring Training Tickets will be leaving the first week of February.