THE CAT RALLY, NEWPORT, OR

July 28 – August 1, 2010

We made our way up Hwy-101 through the fog and mist of a normal summer day on the coast. Some of the beaches we saw through the fog were broad and sandy while other beaches were down steep rocky cliffs. All very scenic and all very interesting. The little town of Waldport was especially attractive and would be a good place to camp for a few days on a bright sunny day, but not today. Newport is quite a large town and really congested; it must drive the locals mad trying to maneuver around all the tourists. When we arrived in the Outdoor Resorts Pacific Shores Resort we were given an excellent space on a concrete pad with 50 amp electric and lushly landscaped surroundings - quite a difference from our previous stay.

It was nice meeting up with many of our friends in the CAT Club, many of whom we haven’t seen in a year or more. BTW, “CAT Club” is short for “Caterpillar RV Engine Owners Club,” a chapter of the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA). The club was formed in 2003 and now has over 1200 coaches which probably means close to 2400 people. Our friends Brett & Dianne Wolfe and Beau & (Miss) Kitty Speed were here as well, although this time most of the meals were provided by the Club so we weren’t able to continue our gourmet dinners in the coaches.

One day, we and the Speeds went to Fishtails for lunch, with the recommendation that we try the Slumgullion. Wow, it was so delicious! Shrimp, topped with cheese, topped with clam chowder, topped with more cheese and baked until golden brown. Definitely not low-cal, but worth the splurge!

It is really unfortunate that the Caterpillar Company decided to quit supplying engines for trucks and RV’s due to the extreme cost of developing engines to comply with the 2010 EPA requirements for diesel engines. Redesigning engines for the 2007 EPA requirements was significant enough but the 2010 regulations were the final straw and this giant company just said “no more” and quit the business, which was only a small part of their total anyway. That leaves the CAT Club with considerably less sponsorship for now and leaves the Cummins Engine Co. in the cat-bird seat in the RV business.

So on Friday, July 30, we gathered a small group in the Speeds’ coach and had a surprise birthday party for your humble servant, complete with Beau’s champagne, funny hats and birthday signs on the walls. Fran brought appetizers and Miss Kitty made chicken tortilla soup and salad. The Fire Marshall wouldn’t allow all the required number of candles but the Italian Cream Cake, homemade by Dianne, was great. It was a terrific party with good food and good friends, even if they couldn’t sing a lick; thanks y’all!

We did take some time off from the Rally to see the movie “SALT,” where Angelina Jolie took the role written for Tom Cruise and ran away with it. We all liked it very much – two thumbs-up!

Back in the 1870’s Newport was becoming a major seaport on the Pacific coast and the port decided to build a lighthouse marking the entrance to the Yaquina River Harbor channel, but as soon as it was built, it became evident that southbound ships could not see the light so within two years the Yaquina Headlands Lighthouse was built, much higher and with the most powerful light on the Oregon coast.

 

On the waterfront, it looks like the Sea Lions have taken over some of the floats much as in San Francisco, and they have become a major tourist attraction with their barking, playing and even fighting. 

 Many of the fishing boats have their fresh fish and crab for sale right off the boats.

Getting tired of the cold and overcast weather on the coast we looked forward to moving inland where we could find warmer weather, so it is off to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bye

SOUTH JETTY TTN, FLORENCE, OR

July 21-28, 2010

Our early morning trip to Junction City went right on schedule and we arrived at the Les Schwab company right at 11 am, passing the now defunct Country Coach factory that used to produce beautiful motorhomes by the score. The place now looks forlorn and deserted although everything looks like it is just on a temporary vacation. Probably not, but it would be nice. Colt, our salesman, was ready to mount our six new Michelin tires and when he said they were fresh he wasn’t kidding; they were only two months old and, imagine my surprise, they were made in Spain. How they got from a factory in Spain to the small town of Junction City in only two months still amazes me. These are Michelin XVA+2 Energy 275/70X22.5 tires which replaced the six year old original XRV 255/80X22.5 tires. They have the same rolling radius but are an inch wider and will carry a considerably heavier load.

Three hours later, after leaving Les Schwab, we hightailed It to the nearest gas station, at Safeway, and while refueling at an incredibly slow speed (30 minutes for 80 gallons), we chatted with a young man in a new Country Coach motorhome who had pulled in behind us and was impatiently waiting for us to finish. Turns out he and four or five other specialists had gotten together and were finishing up building a few Country Coaches and getting them ready for sale. They were also doing some refurbishing of older models. It was interesting talking with him.


Back on the road, we were on our way to the Thousand Trails South Jetty Preserve in Florence, OR, on the Pacific Ocean This has never been one of our favored campgrounds but it is convenient and the price is right. The new tires felt very good, with excellent road holding, very secure and a noticeably improved ride. It took us awhile to find a suitable campsite, as most sites here are under heavy cover of trees and satellite reception is poor. After two trips around the campground, we settled on a site and with fingers crossed, put up the satellite dish. Bingo! Who’d have guessed? Through a tiny hole in the tree branches, our dish zeroed in on the 119 satellite but not always on the 110. No big deal. As long as we could get Speed Channel for the Formula One race over the weekend, we (I) were happy. It had been a stressful couple of days, so we had an early dinner and then got some rest.


Coming from San Francisco we should have known better than to spend July on the Pacific Ocean Shore-----fog, wind and cold, at least for us. It would clear in the late morning so there wasn’t much reason to get up too early to greet the new day. It was dark in the woods anyway.

On Thursday afternoon Fran’s browsing through the internet found the Seafood Station in an old gas station on Hwy-101 that had very good reviews so we headed there for a light lunch (they are known for their clam chowder). We were just finishing up lunch when the phone rang and it was Dianne Wolfe, asking where we were. She and Brett had just arrived with their friends Beau and Kitty Speed, and they were camped at the Siuslaw Harbor Campground, which turned out to be quite nice for a basic site overlooking the Siuslaw River and the boatdock. A few minutes later, they all joined us at the Seafood Station for lunch, and we enjoyed another hour in the restaurant.

Dianne invited us over for an early dinner of appetizers and her home-made sushi. We brought over a chunk of honey-smoked salmon and crackers and had an enjoyable evening in the Speeds’ coach, a newly-purchased Monaco Dynasty.


The following day, Friday, Dianne went to the pier and bought a beautiful albacore tuna fish fresh from the ocean. They even cleaned and filleted it for her and she marinated and grilled it on Beau’s “George” (Not me, a George Foreman grill). It turned out just great along with her homemade wasabi mayo, Fran’s grilled zucchini and Kitty’s rice and apple cobbler, which started out to be an apple pie but “fell” out of the oven on the way to our outdoor table. Mmm-mmm good! Following dinner we headed for the Florence Playhouse to see the play “I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running” in three acts. Act I rated a C; Act II rated a D and had a few folks heading out the door but Act III was the hit of the evening by far and had everyone laughing. Fran was laughing so hard, she was crying, so it was a good thing that we stayed. It topped off a very nice evening.

The Wolfes and Speeds left for Newport the next morning, Saturday, while Fran and I explored Florence and did some shopping. I felt like I was coming down with one of the many forms of the crud, and it wasn’t pleasant. Fran had found what sounded like a good dinner deal at the local Casino, the Three Rivers and by late afternoon I felt well enough to go. They were featuring Prime Rib and Crab, and Fran cannot pass up a crab dinner. While I’m not crazy for casinos in general, I must admit that they usually serve quite good food, which they certainly did here.

Sunday morning we tried the campground dining room for breakfast and it turned out to be excellent, better than we expected. We drove into Florence, did some exploring and Fran found the fish market on the pier and bought two 2-lb Dungeness crabs. However, on Sunday night, I started running a slight fever and felt really bad, so Monday I ended up staying in bed most of the day. By evening, I was feeling much better.

Tuesday, with the weather improving and finally seeing some sunshine, (the temperature got all the way up to 62 deg) we were off to see the coastal beaches and waves crashing on the shore up to the Heceta Lighthouse.

Wednesday we will be off to join the Caterpillar Engine Club Rally at the Pacific Shores Outdoor Resorts in Newport, OR. So that will be all for now ~~~~~~~~~~ Bye!

THE SMITH RIVER AND GRANTS PASS, OR

JULY 19-20, 2010

From Eureka we headed north on US-101 to Crescent City, where we gained the scenic US-199, heading northeast along the Smith River through Jedediah Smith Redwoods. It seems there are numerous State and Federal Redwood Parks as well as the National Recreation Area here leading to the border with Oregon and Grants Pass

beyond. Herding a large motorhome and tow-car through the 42 miles of woods and cliffs, ups and downs with curves and turns down to 20 mph can be quite a task and you will be on your toes the whole trip, but there is so much really beautiful scenery that it is worth the effort. (I was to learn something a bit later that was pretty scary.)


Our first stop in Grants Pass was at a well known RV shop that had installed some gadgets on our coach two years ago at Quartzsite which, although highly recommended by many reviewers on the internet, did not seem to offer much in the way of improvement on our coach; so after two years of wrangling they finally took the units off the coach and will refund our money. I was certainly impressed with the integrity of their company.

Just by chance we noticed a 1991(?) Revcon that had been bought in California by an enthusiast from the east coast and brought to the company for restoration of the chassis. We suspect this may be the coach built for George and Mary Gene Alder and stored In San Diego with Marty Moore------Could be?

But while there I noticed our LF tire looked to be very low on air. It turned out to be 40psi low, 55psi from 95psi! After negotiating the curves on US-199 I felt lucky that we arrived in one piece. Checking around in Grants Pass we could not find our tire size in anything but Nanking Tires, a Chinese brand with unknown quality, either that or a one week wait for Michelins, so we passed.

Somewhat discouraged, we headed for the local Elks Lodge where they have space for only two coaches. We lucked out and got the prime site with 30amp electric in a very nicely treed parking area. While in Grants Pass we took the opportunity to visit with Norm Balone and his wife Carol. Norm is an old friend from Bechtel Construction who worked with Fran and has retired to Ashland, OR, where we met for a very nice dinner and where we could chat and relive old times at Bechtel. It was really nice to see them again since it is so difficult to get together with them.

July 19 was the five- year anniversary of the loss our son Greg and a number of Greg’s friends and relatives gathered at the Evergreen Cemetery, Tucson, AZ, in a memoriam to him. “Hard working hands and a heart of gold” is from a poem written for him by his friend Truman. It is still my favorite remembrance of him.

Tuesday, we found that the Les Schwab Tire Shop who were the supplier of tires to the now defunct Country Coach Factory just a few doors away in Junction City would not be too far out of our way to Florence, OR. Since they specialize in RV tires and had a stock of the 275/70 X 22.5 tires in the Michelin XZA+2 Energy type we wanted for our coach so we made an appointment for 11am on Wednesday morning which meant we were in for an early start in the morning.

Meanwhile, we had an opportunity to visit with Carole and Joe Berenyi. Carole is the widow of cousin Fred Zaft who passed away in 1995. Carole married Joe and they moved to Brookings, OR, but found Brooking’s weather a bit too cold and windy so they moved up the hill to Grants Pass. This was our first opportunity to visit them in their new home where they graciously asked us to dinner where Joe cooked a tri-tip on his fancy new grill and Carole made a fantastic potato salad; that was a great dinner with old friends. It must seem that all we do is eat and talk and you are probably correct.

It looks like we forgot our camera for most of our visit so not many photos in this blog. It turns out that our LF tire was losing about 5psi per day so with the tire pumped up we would head out to Junction City in the morning.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bye for now!

JULY 17 - 18, 2010 EUREKA OR BUST!

Ferndale is only 20 miles to our next destination, Eureka; but first we had to stop in at the Loleta Cheese Factory just one more time for more of their great cheese. Then on it didn’t take long to reach our destination at the Redwood Acres Fairground RV Campground which turned out to be an excellent, though basic, campground close to town and a very convenient place to stay on a visit to Eureka.

Our visit was primarily to visit with our financial planner’s assistant, Linda Moot. If it seems strange for her to be 500+ miles from her boss in Walnut Creek, CA, it is a sign of our times with people working on the other end of a computer terminal. Several years ago when we learned that Linda was leaving the Bay Area for a simpler life in Eureka we hardly noticed the difference in service; actually it improved with almost instant responses from her by email. We arranged to meet with Linda and her husband Jeff at a very nice sushi restaurant on the waterfront in the Old City of Eureka where we were able to chat and learn about life in a small town as we watched fishing and tourist boats sail by.

Eureka was once a major hub of shipping for the lumber industry but in today’s world there is little lumber business left in the Northwest and tourism has become the major business. Old Town now features quaint shops, art galleries and antiques as well as coffee houses and restaurants.

We managed to find a few huge murals covering the walls of some of the buildings in town; one had a beautiful musical mural featuring Louis Armstrong while another had a mural of a theater proscenium for the

“Arkley Center for the Performing Arts,” showing a lovely ballerina with a few musicians looking on.

On our return to the campground we noticed two unusual tree houses (It pays to look up!). Two houses were built quite high in two large adjacent trees with spiral steps leading up to them, quite an interesting construction job.

On Monday we will be off to Grant’s Pass in Oregon but for now that’s all. See ya!

FERNDALE AND THE REDWOOD HIGHWAY

We head north from Ukiah on Hwy-101, also known as the “Redwood Highway,” which heads for over 100 miles through the amazing stands of the huge and very old Redwood trees. We soon pass through Willits, the eastern terminus of the famed Skunk Train that runs over the mountain to Fort Bragg on the Pacific Coast. This was originally built to get logs out of the back country but since there is no logging in this area now, tourism is the only revenue for the train. Rail cars are sometimes hauled by a steam engine with the terrific sounds and smoke, but most often by the more modern Diesel-Electric engines. Along the way you may have bandits stop the train and come through with guns blazing. Some fun!

The highway is about 100 years old; and it is remarkable how it winds through these behemoths which, in many places, require navigating within inches of the trees that are now marked with yellow and black markers. Of course the trees didn’t stop growing just because of the road so they are even wider now than they were when the road was built. As difficult as it is for an 8 1/2 foot wide motorhome, it must be a real challenge for the even larger 18-wheel truck and trailer rigs. In places where the terrain will allow, the roadway has been improved to freeway standards for a few miles but soon goes back to the narrow forest road again. The AVENUE OF THE GIANTS is a 31-mile scenic drive roughly paralleling Hwy-101 from Phillipsville to Pepperwood on the northern end. It basically uses the original highway alignment along the Eel River passing through many of the old logging towns, some of which were washed away in the great floods of 1955 and again in 1964. This area is really worth a few weeks time to explore but since we did just that a few years ago we just passed through on our way to Ferndale.

We would not have known about the little town of Ferndale had it not been for Brett and Dianne Wolfe so we arranged to meet them at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds RV campground. Our first order was to visit the little town of Loleta (yes with an “e”) and

the Loleta Cheese Factory which has built a reputation for making excellent cheese; they have four basic cheeses with 38 variations. We did not try them all but those we did try were very good. They make over two million pounds each year with 80% going to a distributor in the S.F. Bay area who packages it into many different brands, some of which you may be buying.

The little town of Ferndale is noted for its restored Victorian houses and buildings, most of which are included in the National Register of Historic Buildings. It was settled by Danish farmers along the Eel River bottom lands close to the ocean and became known as the “Cream City” due to all the dairy farms.

The local Museum features a gallery with many of the “Kinetic” racers. These are odd-ball pedal powered “sculptures” that compete every Memorial Day over a 42-mile course in a three-day event starting in Arcata and ending in Ferndale. You have to see them to believe them.

There is a cemetery just off the main street that extends up a very steep hillside for some reason although it seems there is plenty of flat land available. For some reason it seems we would see the local police car at least twice an hour, but Brett thought he wasn’t really stalking us; it’s just a very small town.

Tomorrow we are off to Eureka just up the road.~~~~~~~~Bye!

UKIAH AND THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Ukiah is a small town about 60 miles north of Santa Rosa and the destination for Monday’s drive. We pulled into the Elks Lodge, which had a number of sites available. This is Fran’s hometown, where she was born and raised, with a brief move to Fort Bragg on the Pacific Coast. With Fran’s birthday coming on Wednesday, July 14th, (Bastille Day) we were all preparing for her first birthday at home in over 40 years with a gathering of friends and relatives. That evening we were treated to dinner with Fran’s mom, Anna, and her husband John Paju, at their house on a hill with a magnificent view overlooking the city.


Tuesday we were able to have Brett and Diane Wolfe spend a couple of nights at the Elks campground as our guests and then we were all off to the Ruen Tong Thai Restaurant for an outstanding Thai dinner. Does that sound unusual for a small town like Ukiah?

Wednesday was the Big Birthday; and we all gathered at John and Anna’s house for lunch, topping it off with an ice cream cake emblazoned with “Happy Birthday Fran” in her favorite color; purple, and chatting around the pool while Rick and Lynda’s children cavorted in the water. Lynda’s dad Ken came up, too, and he, John and George had a good time, as they talked about the good ol’ days and solved the problems of the world. Gary and Gordon both called, as did Fran’s brother Fred from Maui, HI. We also called Kathy in Tucson, as both she and Fran share a birthday. The weather was generally getting warmer and was supposed to be in the high 90’s so the pool was a nice place to visit, chat and generally hang out.

Roseann and Gary sent a floral bouquet from Ohio that arrived just in time and the little nephews Andrew and Cameron brought up a beautiful purple orchid plant wrapped in purple tissue. Is there a theme here? We capped off the day with a delicious grilled steak and lamb chop dinner with all the fixins’, a tiny slice of leftover ice cream cake, and then it was time for goodbyes as Fran’s brother and his family departed back to Santa Rosa and we headed back to the motorhome.


Thursday we had mostly to ourselves with a very nice lunch at “Oco Time” Japanese Restaurant. This restaurant seems to be operated by leftover “hippies” from the 60’s which in a way describes much of Ukiah; former home of Jim Jones (remember him?) and Steven Staynor, the poor lad who spent 7 years of his youth here as a prisoner of a kidnapper before being rescued and finally came to a tragic end a few years later. Later we were off to (guess what) a dinner at the Ruen Tong Thai Restaurant again with Anna and John but with Jim Moriasu of Maui, HI, an old friend of the family.


Friday we are off to Ferndale, CA, where we will again meet up with the Wolfes.


So that is all for this leg of the journey, does it sound like eating is all we do?

SANTA ROSA, CHARLIE BROWN AND LUTHER!

It wasn’t far to Santa Rosa from Napa and on Saturday morning we arrived at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds which had a huge graveled parking area for RV’s. The host was very friendly and soon had us in a nice site with a friendly tree for afternoon shade. BTW, the hookups were excellent with 30 or 50 amps, sewer and water, all fairly recent and well laid out.

Not long after we set up, Brett and Dianne Wolfe arrived and we all enjoyed Fran’s Mexican Tortilla Soup (actually, she says to give credit to Connie Gridley for the recipe). Fran had guessed the Wolfes might be nearby; and sure enough they were staying in Forestville on the Russian River so it was easy to get together in Santa Rosa. We made plans to get together again in Ukiah in a few days. That evening Fran’s brother Rick and his wife Lynda joined us for dinner at “Sushi To Dai For” in Old Town; for a guy who didn’t like sushi, I’ve become addicted to it, you just have to know what to order.

Sunday we headed to the Charles Schulz Museum which opened in 2002, two years after his death in 2000. It is a grand structure commemorating the work of the Peanuts creator who lived most of his working life in Santa Rosa. The Peanuts comic strip was started in the early 1950’s and soon became one of the most popular cartoons in the world, translated into many different languages.

On entering the main room one sees the far wall with ceramic tiles that make up a two-story-high mural, Charlie Brown, Lucy and The Football, designed by Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani. It's made of over 3,000 black-and-white Peanuts strips printed on two- by eight-inch ceramic tiles, arranged to recreate the classic scene with Charlie Brown running to kick the football held by Lucy and, of course, she always pulls the ball away at the last second sending Charlie into a backflip, landing flat on his back.  The museum has a number of his original cartoon drawings with descriptions of the life and times of the period. Schulz drew Peanuts (he apparently never liked the name of the strip) with an eye to current events in times of political and social change; and although Charlie Brown and his friends never aged, the world they lived in certainly did. Fran read through most of the strips, and it was hard not to laugh out loud, even decades after the strips were printed.

Upstairs, we wandered through a couple of rooms housing a re-creation of his workshop and a gallery chronicling his life through photos and memorabilia. Schulz was also an avid ice hockey player and fan and had an ice rink built along with the Warm Puppy Restaurant where he would often grab a bite to eat while watching the ice rink action. While we watched through the large windows there was a tournament of senior citizens playing a pretty rugged fast-moving game. These were players in their 60’s; we overheard a staff member talking about the 70-year-olds who had played the evening before. Many of the senior teams had clever names and we especially liked “The Seattle Seniles”. While we had passed here many times over the years, we finally stopped in and are certainly glad we did.

 Later that day we passed by the Luther Burbank Cottage and Garden which is on the Horticultural List of Landmarks. The Gardens are well kept and very beautiful. Burbank once said that Santa Rosa was the best place on earth and the local folks have loved him ever since. We agree that it is certainly among a handful of really neat places. Then we were off to eat again, this time to Rick and Lynda’s home for dinner.

Monday morning we were invited to a delicious breakfast with cousins “Niki” (Zaft) Dilles and her husband Frank, (Paul) Tommy Zaft and Debi Zaft who had all just returned from a family week at Yosemite National Park. Frank and Niki had recently completed an complete renovation of their kitchen which provided an excellent place to get together after a few years of separation. It is good to keep the family together from time to time but we were soon off to our next destination which was Ukiah, CA.