We left Eureka at 8:00 AM and arrived at the Konocti
Vista Casino in Lakeport at noon. It is really hot here; I connected the
electricity and started the motorhome air conditioner right away.
I was worried that I would not get a camping site at the
casino, but there are only seven RVs here. The casino RV Park has more than
fifty spaces for RVs.
I picked the
casino because they have a swimming pool.
I took two facing sites and made it a pull though site.
If security does not complain I will not have to unhook my car.
The kids went to sleep after lunch, Nicolette on the
couch and Jacob on my bed. After their rest we went to the swimming pool. It was refreshing.
June 19, 2017.
This was a lousy day. It started fine. I let the children
sleep while I was driving.
We left Lakeport at 6:30 AM and arrived in Grass Valley
at about 9:00 AM. I could not get to the Moose Lodge because of the sharp angle
of the street. If I would have come from the other direction it would have been
easier.
I continued on and tried to get to the Elks Lodge I came
down a very narrow one way street. I had to make a right hand turn. To make the
turn I needed both lanes of the street. Because of the traffic I turned too
soon and heard the noise on the passenger side of the motorhome.
I stopped right away and got out of the motorhome. I had
hit a stop and direction sign. The post of the sign was under the outer, back
tire.
A police captain was there in five minutes and later a
policeman. The policeman directed traffic while I unhooked the car and backed
it up. The captain and I could not back up the motorhome without ruining the
tire. I moved the post several times till it broke. Now I moved across the
street and parked there, while the nice policeman gave me a ticket, my first
one in fifty five years. This is my second ticket.
I got the car too and hooked it up again. Then I noticed
one side of the window over the table was all shattered, held only by the plastic
inside. The direction sign had hit it.
I called the insurance company and they told me it takes
a week to get a window. I am going to use Gorilla Tape to hold it all together.
After that mess I decided to go to the Nevada County
Fairgrounds, I will never again
take a motorhome in those old mining towns.
Besides the window one of the storage boxes on the side of
the motorhome was separated from under the motorhome.
I had to put the contents of the compartment into the
trunk of the car and the box has to go in the motorhome while we are traveling.
Right now it is under the motorhome.
In the afternoon we went to the Empire Mine State
Historic Park and took a tour. It was hot and not that much fun for the kids. I
had taken the tour before.
The stamp is one of eight which the mine used to smash
the ore to powder. The eight stamps made a tremendous amount of noise.
We got to look down the shaft. The mine was the deepest
in California. They went down 1,400 feet.
The manager’s office was the fanciest building on the
premise.
June 20, 2017.
This was another disappointing day. I drove ninety
minutes, up the winding highway 49, to Sierra City to take the Gold Mine Tour.
When we arrived there the facility was closed. They are
open from Wednesday to Sunday. I knew this when I laid out the trip. But with
yesterday’s accident I am not up to it right now. Temperatures of 100 degrees
F. do not help.
We drove back and stopped at a wonderful Mexican
restaurant and had lunch.
I had made already reservations for South Lake Tahoe for
tomorrow so I cannot take the kids down the Kentucky Mine.
My insurance company farmed out the window repair. I am
working with a lady from a company in Elkhart , Indiana. It will take more than
a week for her to find a window.
The repair of the storage bay is post phoned until we get
home. An insurance adjuster will take a look at it then. The door for the bay
is damaged too.
I try to hold the window together with Gorilla Tape. The
glass is broken in little pieces, only the plastic between the sheets of glass
keeps it together.
June 21, 2017.
I cannot get it right. For today and tomorrow I had made
reservations with a Thousand Trails Park in South Tahoe. They have a swimming
pool.
I had to set up the reservation with the main office of
Thousand Trails and had no local telephone number. My problem was that my GPS
did not accept the street name of the RV Park. On the Internet I found the
coordinates for the park. I had the wrong coordinates though.
We passed South Tahoe and went down the hill. The road
was narrow and 10 MPH curves. There was no way to turn around, and when I
finally found a place I did not feel like going back.
Instead of having a wonderful afternoon in the swimming
pool we sat at the Elks Lodge in Jackson.
To make it worse the bar tender gave us a password for
the WIFI which does not work.
Nicolette and Jacob take it all in stride. They are
really great.
It was cool at Lake Tahoe and down here it is 104 degrees
F.
June 22, 2017.
This vacation is a bummer.
I made some mistakes but the weather is the biggest problem. It was 104 degrees F. today and there is no change in sight.
I tried to find a RV Park near Yosemite National Park and had no luck. Without reservations it is impossible to get a campsite.
If I would have been smart I would have left the motorhome in Sonora and climbed the hills in the car.
We did it with the motorhome which was stupid.
We are now In Sonora at the Fairgrounds running the air conditioner full blast.
Going outside is no fun.We only went grocery shopping. The kids are playing with their electronic devices and I have to write my notes on paper because Microsoft shut off my Word. They claim I loaded it down to many times. It is still working on my old computer, but I did not bring it.
Tomorrow we will be going to Yosemite.
June 23, 2017.
This was a fantastic day.I kicked the kids out of bed at 5:30 AM. Nicolette told me that she can not function this early. She did survive though.
We left the motorhome at 6:30 AM and arrived at Yosemite Valley at 8:00 AM.
We stopped at the first waterfall. The meadows are covered with water and so was a bridge.
Since the Visitor Center was still closed we jumped on a shuttle bus and went to Yosemite Falls.
Jacob looks like a ranger with his hat.
The river has a lot of water. I have never seen the waterfalls with such amount of water and noise.
There is still a lot of snow on the top of the mountains and there will be more water coming down.
After visiting the Visitor Center and Ansel Adams Gallery we drove up to Glacier Point. We had to park at the Badger Pass Ski Area and then take the shuttle to the top. The lines for the shuttle was long and it was hot, even at this elevation. Nothing is normal anymore.
The wait was worth it though. I am always excited when I come up here. It is a view which pictures can not completely show. Half Dome and two large waterfalls seen at the same time, it can not get any better. The valley below is so small.
It was again above one hundred degrees F.
June 24, 2017.
We arrived at the Elks Lodge in San Jose at about 9:00 AM. I noticed two motorhomes in the dry camping area. Dry camping is only allowed when the hook up camping area is full.
I needed a site with at least electricity.
I walked over to the hook up area and noticed on empty site. I ran back to the motorhome and moved it in front of the site, unhooked the car and moved the motorhome into the site.
After leveling the motorhome and connecting the water hose and the electrical cord I took a rest.
A few minutes later the camp host came and told me that I am very lucky. He had gone to get a coffee when the previous occupant of my camp site left and I took it.
He was going to give the site to one of those dry campers.
Later we went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.
It is a large museum with many copies of Egyptian artifacts, including mummies, ancient ritual objects, textiles, musical instruments and other objects.
There is also a copy of the bust of Nefertiti.The original is in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.
After the visit to the museum we went swimming in the swimming pool of the lodge.
June 25, 2017.
We drove by car to the Santa Cruz Beach Board Walk.
When we arrived there at 9:45 AM it was cloudy and cool. We put our beach towels and my chair down to claim our spot, and then walked to the rides and vendor booths.
By 11:00 AM the sun was shining and it got warm.
Nicolette and Jacob decided not to go to the rides like two years ago. They wanted to enjoy the waves, and they did.
They were in the water for three and a half hours.
On the beach were not many bare spots. Thousand's of people were enjoying the fresh air and the noise from the roller coaster and other wild rides. There was a lot of screaming.
June 22, 2017.
This vacation is a bummer.
I made some mistakes but the weather is the biggest problem. It was 104 degrees F. today and there is no change in sight.
I tried to find a RV Park near Yosemite National Park and had no luck. Without reservations it is impossible to get a campsite.
If I would have been smart I would have left the motorhome in Sonora and climbed the hills in the car.
We did it with the motorhome which was stupid.
We are now In Sonora at the Fairgrounds running the air conditioner full blast.
Going outside is no fun.We only went grocery shopping. The kids are playing with their electronic devices and I have to write my notes on paper because Microsoft shut off my Word. They claim I loaded it down to many times. It is still working on my old computer, but I did not bring it.
Tomorrow we will be going to Yosemite.
June 23, 2017.
This was a fantastic day.I kicked the kids out of bed at 5:30 AM. Nicolette told me that she can not function this early. She did survive though.
We left the motorhome at 6:30 AM and arrived at Yosemite Valley at 8:00 AM.
We stopped at the first waterfall. The meadows are covered with water and so was a bridge.
Since the Visitor Center was still closed we jumped on a shuttle bus and went to Yosemite Falls.
Jacob looks like a ranger with his hat.
The river has a lot of water. I have never seen the waterfalls with such amount of water and noise.
There is still a lot of snow on the top of the mountains and there will be more water coming down.
After visiting the Visitor Center and Ansel Adams Gallery we drove up to Glacier Point. We had to park at the Badger Pass Ski Area and then take the shuttle to the top. The lines for the shuttle was long and it was hot, even at this elevation. Nothing is normal anymore.
The wait was worth it though. I am always excited when I come up here. It is a view which pictures can not completely show. Half Dome and two large waterfalls seen at the same time, it can not get any better. The valley below is so small.
It was again above one hundred degrees F.
June 24, 2017.
We arrived at the Elks Lodge in San Jose at about 9:00 AM. I noticed two motorhomes in the dry camping area. Dry camping is only allowed when the hook up camping area is full.
I needed a site with at least electricity.
I walked over to the hook up area and noticed on empty site. I ran back to the motorhome and moved it in front of the site, unhooked the car and moved the motorhome into the site.
After leveling the motorhome and connecting the water hose and the electrical cord I took a rest.
A few minutes later the camp host came and told me that I am very lucky. He had gone to get a coffee when the previous occupant of my camp site left and I took it.
He was going to give the site to one of those dry campers.
Later we went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.
It is a large museum with many copies of Egyptian artifacts, including mummies, ancient ritual objects, textiles, musical instruments and other objects.
There is also a copy of the bust of Nefertiti.The original is in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.
After the visit to the museum we went swimming in the swimming pool of the lodge.
June 25, 2017.
We drove by car to the Santa Cruz Beach Board Walk.
When we arrived there at 9:45 AM it was cloudy and cool. We put our beach towels and my chair down to claim our spot, and then walked to the rides and vendor booths.
By 11:00 AM the sun was shining and it got warm.
Nicolette and Jacob decided not to go to the rides like two years ago. They wanted to enjoy the waves, and they did.
They were in the water for three and a half hours.
On the beach were not many bare spots. Thousand's of people were enjoying the fresh air and the noise from the roller coaster and other wild rides. There was a lot of screaming.
June 26, 2017.
We left San Jose at 7:30 AM. I like to get up at 4:30 AM and get trough San Fransisco early in the morning. But the children are not happy then.
We encountered heavy commuter traffic the first ten miles and then it got easier.
We stopped at the Ukiah Elks Lodge for the night.
After setting up the motorhome we went to the Buddhist Monastery and had lunch at their small vegetarian restaurant. Nicolette was happy and Jacob was not. I knew that beforehand but we do not always get what we want. I ordered one dish which tasted like meat balls. Even those Jacob would not eat.
I wanted to go shopping with the children but they did not want to leave the motorhome. They were texting and playing games. I caught up on my blog.
June 27, 2017.
We arrived at the Moose Lodge in Eureka about 12:00 noon. Claudia picked up the children and I moved into a camping site.
I could not get any TV reception, so I moved to the site I had last year. There the surge protector had the warning light on and would not give me any electricity.
I moved to another site and heard a noise on top of the motorhome. A branch had sheared off the TV antenna. There is no problem with redwood trees, they have no low branches. This was the only tree at the camping area which is not a redwood, and I had to come close to it.
Now I get no television for a while.
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