Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The end of the North Trek for this year







The end has come for the adventure northbound for this year. We are in Grant's Pass Oregon. We got here on Mother's Day and Monday we made a drive back down into California, on hwy 199 through the mountain's and the Redwood Forest. On the way down, we stopped several times and took pictures of the huge trees and foliage. We went to Crescent City California, a quaint little town on hwy 101 by the ocean. I pulled off the highway and put my water shoes on. My last trek out to the water. It was a grey gloomy drizzly cool day. None the less, to satisfy my love affair with the ocean for now, I took a stroll to the waters edge. The tide was out, and I didn't judge a wave very good and got my jeans wet almost to my knees, but that was o.k. , they dried! The dogs and Danny got a walk on the beach, and we visited the boat launch at the pier, where a whole lot of seals lounged lazily about a floating dock. There were quite a lot of old crab rigs in Harbor and lots of crab pots stacked around. I had packed us a lunch, but after seeing all the crab remnants on the beach and around the harbor I decided I would like seafood for lunch instead. After inquiring several places, was disappointed to find out that they really don't crab around there anymore and the seafood is frozen. Not even those places open at noon! So....we went to an overlook and had a picnic looking out over the ocean and back to a lighthouse by Crescent City. I definitely could spend some more time there. Laid back and no crazy traffic. Not many people yet, as it is not warm enough! We decided to head back through the mountains and not journey any farther south then. We had spotted a Big Cat Compound on the trip down, so we stopped in there to see what that was all about. They had quite a lot of Foreign endangered species of smaller cats, a white tiger, a couple of Bengals, a cougar and two lions. We got an up close and personal tour of these and learned that before he died, Steve Irwin had been working with this place and doing documentaries with the cats. Terri Irwin is from up here somewhere and had a cougar cub that she placed here in Grants Pass somewhere. Got back to town before dark. Had mexican food next door to this park and was sick all night! Learned a lesson there.....never again! We spent the day yesterday at Henderson's Line Up --a suspension and RV Repair shop here. We went to one of their seminars this winter at a Rally, and they convinced us to come up for their service. Had two new tires put on the front of Miss Betsy and a weight and suspension diagnosis done. Found out that we need 6 out of 10 new shocks, and 4 are leaking. This rig weighs 38,500 pounds and is pretty well balanced! So now at least 2 out of 8 tires are new. We just have to keep plugging away at that til we get them all changed out. The shocks will be replaced in Arizona next winter. That process took up most of the day, but I trust their work and was more than pleased with the service. Left a really good chunk of change for that...Ouch...I just keep repeating, "Spread the Wealth, Share the Refund." We got up this morning ready to go down the road, but our mail didn't arrive, so here we are. In limbo waiting. I went and paid for one more night. There mail doesn't get delivered until around noon, so our first day on the road will be a short one, unless we stay here another night and leave early the next morning. I got a couple of loads of laundry and washed some windows and bird poop off the car. Went to an awesome grocery store (almost forgot to come home) These people here are so lucky! Stocked up on some things, keeping in mind that we will be on the road non stop for the next week or so..... they had buffalo on sale, so I picked up a package and made a meatloaf tonight. Will play the same waiting game tomorrow. This town has been interesting. We looked at an English Toffee Factory and picked up some seconds...and other good stuff. They have a lot of shopping here. It is a nice clean town with everything you could want. Too bad its so far up here, I'm going to miss this wonderland that we've been in for the past month. Now we just retrace our tracks and head back down the 5....will try to keep this up! Only 1805 miles to go! For more pictures of our California adventures go to ..... picasaweb.google.com/mskayndan/california

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