Klamath Falls KOA

We leave Likely to spend a couple of days in Klamath Falls where we have an appointment to have some RV repairs done. We get two nights at the Klamath Falls KOA which is just a few miles from the repair shop.

First things first, once we get settled, we need to find dinner. Wendy finds Somtum Thai, a highly (Google) rated restaurant. We head out to the address and can't find it. After circling back, Tom notices that it's one of three food "trucks" (more like fair concession trailers). Tom's reluctant to try it until he sees that they have tom kha soup! And, yes, yum, it was worth the search. :)

Tom kha soup and spring rolls

Pad Kee Mao (rice noodles) and Pad Prik King (green beans in chili paste)

The next day, Tom takes the RV over to the shop to have the jacks and the leaky bedroom slide repaired. Tom's travels out of the Sacramento area the last few months have coincided with the rains coming into the Sacramento area, so we've been pretty lucky. However, the thunder storm in Likely reinforced the need to get the slide fixed! Unfortunately, the parts for the jacks will take awhile to get, so that repair will need to wait for a little while.

The slide is fixed! I'm sooo happy!

While the repairs are being done, we drive back to Tule Lake to find the Tule Lake Segregation Center. The Segregation Center was the largest US site where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

Officially, the Segregation Center is part of the Tule Lake Unit, WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which seems to not really exist. When we get to the Segregation Center, it is behind a chain link fence and is closed. We ended up going the the fair grounds, which have a few more items, but ultimately being told to check at the Lava Beds National Monument for tours.

2nd page of the Loyalty Oath

 Although we were leaving the next day, we wanted to make a trip down to Lava Beds National Monument, and the folks at the KOA were nice enough to let us leave our RV after checkout time to do this. The first stop was Petroglyphs Point

then on to the Lava Beds to explore some lava tube caves. Lave Beds is the result of volcanic eruptions of the Medicine Lake shield volcano. It is home to Native American art (like the petroglyphs above) and over 700 caves.

I was pretty amazed that you could easily walk past and entrance to a cave not more than a few feet away and never know it was there. Even on a hot day the caves stay very cool, almost cold averaging 55 degrees year round.

An Unlikely Place for a Golf Course...Likely Place Golf & RV Resort - Likely CA

Likely seems too small to even qualify as a town. It's a small community of about 60 people about an hour and a half north of Reno.

What seems even more unlikely is that you would find a golf resort here in the middle of some cattle pastures, but, yes, Likely Place Golf & RV Resort is where we are staying.

It's an undiscovered gem! We're fortunate to find space here to spend a holiday (Memorial Day) weekend. We have a decently sized spot that was slightly elevated with a nice area of grass and a view of the surrounding area. The resort sits on over 500 acres of land with five ponds and an abundance of wildlife.

The golf course is surprisingly long and challenging with a number of elevation changes and sharp doglegs. Miss the fairway and your golf ball just disappears! Tom played on three different days and sacrificed more than a few balls to the golf gods on this course.

An elevated 150 yard par 3. If you look closely you can see a teeny tiny little green in the middle of the picture. The tee box is actually about 200 feet above the green, so it was a fun hole.

The Local Course Marshall

To Tom's surprise Wendy even tried her hand at golf and played nine holes on a couple of different days. She did very well and had fun!

We had some dramatic thunderstorms with pouring rain and dramatic winds, but also some beautiful days and dramatic sunsets.

Tom scared the bejesus out of Wendy running outside when the thunder and lightening storm was directly overhead to help a neighbor anchor his awning ! He was one soaked good samaritan!

Gold Ranch RV Resort - Verdi NV

The first stop outside of California takes us across the Sierra Nevadas to the Gold Ranch RV Resort and Casino in Verdi, Nevada. This stop gets us within easy striking distance of our next stop, Likely Ca.

We had almost stopped here in November on our way back to California. In Nov, we chose to stay at the River West Resort in Reno, NV. We thought Gold Ranch might be too noisy with the freeway and casino nearby. Comparing the two places, River West was more of a permanent/long-term stay type of place, and not as nice as Gold Ranch, so we'll be staying at Gold Ranch for any future visits. Although I was told that Gold Ranch can get a noisy on the weekends, midweek was quiet.

We were only here one night, but the day we arrived, a heavy rainstorm came through.

Grass Valley - Alta Sierra for a family thang...

We're back in the Sacramento again. This time we're looking forward to a King sibling get together for a house warming and to celebrate a couple of birthdays. After a short drive down the hill, we deposit Tank and the Beast at the Cal Expo RV park then head off to the Grass Valley area. It's a pretty drive through Auburn then the winding streets in Alta Sierra to find Cathy and Dave's new house. (Thank goodness for Google Maps though!)

Brad and Dave

Vicki, Brad, and Olivia

Tom, Vicki, Cathy, Olivia, and Dave

Cathy and Dave have a charming house with an extraordinarily steep driveway. Cathy is training for a triathlon and has just gotten a new bike, but she has yet to tackle her very steep driveway. Tom is, of course, up to the challenge to show her how...

We have a tasty dinner, relaxing drinks, and a great time celebrating birthdays and catching up with everyone. Thank you Cathy and Dave for opening your home to us.

Coloma Resort

We're headed northward, a little closer to family in Sacramento. We spend the weekend at the Coloma Resort on the South Fork of the American River. Coloma is the area where James Marshall discovered gold in 1848 which started the gold rush. During the school year, Coloma Resort is an educational camping facility that caters to schools, but on weekends, it is open to all for camping.

The campsites will soon be filled, and there will be families with young children and dogs all around. But for a little while, things are quiet, and we are able to wander and take pictures.

Tom recognizes some rapids (called Troublemaker rapids) and realizes that we are just downstream from where he went whitewater rafting a number of years ago with some friends when he worked at Hewlett Packard. 

Troublemaker rapids in the background

On Saturday, we're close enough to Sacramento for Tom's sister and brother-in-law join us for dinner. It gives them a chance to get away from Sacramento and us a chance to relax and enjoy their company. 

Jackson Rancheria RV Resort - Jackson CA

Well, here it is May, and we are finally on the move in our second year of full-time RVing. We've modified our plans now that summer is approaching, and Arizona is not looking very attractive. Soooo...we're going to start moseying east and then north heading towards Crater Lake, the see where the road takes us. But first we'll head into the foothills for a short stay. (We need to return to Sacramento for a get-together with Tom's family before we leave the area). 

Let me start by saying the Jackson Rancheria RV Resort is beautiful. It's certainly one I will put on my list to revisit sometime. It is located in the Sierra foothill town of Jackson, CA, about 50 miles northwest of Stockton and is set on a hill about a mile or so from the casino. Everything is very well-kept and spacious. It's set far enough from the road, so you really don't get any of the traffic or noise here. Mostly mature RVers, so a very peaceful setting. At night, there is very little outdoor lighting, so at dark, everyone is indoors and all is quiet. 

There's a paved walking trail that goes around the RV parking portion of the campgrounds.

The office offers free popcorn and iced tea. It also has the pool, a ping pong table, and a putting green outside. The price for the stay surprisingly was not really above typical CA RV resort pricing. The one disadvantage was that the only showers were at the clubhouse/office building, and we were at the far end of the resort.

There's a shuttle that comes through the resort every 20 minutes to take people to the casino. The casino was smokey (as to be expected). The restaurants were a little disappointing when compared with the casino at Pala. The logical setup for the restaurant locations at Pala is better as are the food and happy hour.

On our second day there...mistakenly thinking that the wait might be shorter in Jackson...I spent a long afternoon at the Jackson DMV getting the tags for the car before we leave California. At first it seemed hopeful, but then three of the five staff left to take people out for driving tests... At least the other people suffering the wait with me were very friendly and talkative!

I doubt that Tom had a much better day. At our previous stop in Lodi, one of the front leveling jacks on the RV got stuck and would not fully extend or retract. So Tom spent most of the day under the RV and finally got the jack back into the housing to prevent any damage. Fortunately, the site at Jackson Rancheria was fairly level, and we have leveling blocks to take care minor sloping at other sites until we can get the problem fixed.

The next day was much better as Andrew came up for a day of golf with Tom at Castle Oaks Golf Club in Ione. We followed that up with a prime rib buffet at the casino.

The resort gave us coupons for $5 off on food at the casino when we first arrived, but we kept forgetting to bring the coupons with us! We did, however, take advantage of the $10 off the RV wash coupon. It's ALWAYS nice to get the RV cleaned!

Marking Time in the Flatlands

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Our grand scheme of traveling the country... and maybe someday the world...was always predicated on the belief that 'family always comes first'. So our idea of leaving Northern California for 'adventures beyond' in early 2018 gave way. Instead, we began 2018 with Wendy spending a good deal of time in Stockton helping her mom, who is dealing with some health and age related issues. This left Tom with some time to do "other" things (sometimes productive, other times not so much).

During this time, Tom worked on "the Beast" and had it smogged and registered, upgraded the satellite dish, replaced the stereo/CD player, had the carpets cleaned, and drove to Oregon to have the suspension system beefed up for better handling.

Once again, we relied on the kindness of Tom's sister, Vicki, and brother-in-Law, Brad, who allowed us (probably against their better judgement) to park 'The Beast' and spend large swaths of time at 'El Rancho de la Familia'.

Using Sacramento and Stockton as a base of operations, Tom and Tank left Wendy with her mom in Stockton to go off gallivanting around California, returning every so often to check in before taking off again for other short adventures. Those adventures included:

• San Diego to help Matthew move apartments  
• Dutch Flat RV Resort, - northeast of Sacramento 
• Sugar Barge RV Resort - San Joaquin river delta
• Park Sierra RV park - Coarsegold CA
• Riverpoint Landing Marina - Stockton CA
• Ocean Cove Campground - Jenner CA
• The Lakes RV and Golf Resort - Chowchilla CA
• Jojoba Hills RV Resort - Aguanga CA