May 29th, 2022 - My version of a Memorial Day weekend - Chico style

 Destination number: 98/178/36

Most of my adult life, volunteering has been a strong aspect of my life. I lived with my parents until I was about 23 and then moved up to the Bay area to take a new job for Safeway as a computer programmer. After I moved up to the Bay area, I needed something to do, so I got involved doing what ever I could to help an organization called the Concord Blue Devils who are located in Contra Costa county east of the San Francisco and Oakland area. For Blue Devils, I sold pull tabs at bingo games, helped at their rehearsal field and even got my commercial bus and truck drivers licenses over the years. I volunteered for Blue Devils for 9 years, and just about every one of those years, the Blue Devils would have a huge rehearsal for all the new members in Tuolumne California. To those camps, I would usually drive one of these two vehicles, which was either a member bus, or the equipment truck. 

Just prior to getting married, I backed away from volunteering with Blue Devils and focused on buying a house. When I relocated to Amador County (South of Lake Tahoe), I got involved with the local animal shelter and started focusing on animal rescue which provided me with a purposeful outlet. Of course anyone who has been reading my blog for a while is aware of how I have become deeply interested in saving animals. 

Earlier this week, on Saturday the 21st of May, I helped out at Rescue Ranch's Dog Days of Summer event where there were several rescue organizations hoping to find adopters for the dogs or cats in their care. It was a full day with a lot of sun, and perfect weather. In addition to the rescue's we also had a number of agencies with information about preparing for wild fire. Though we didn't adopt a lot of dogs from the event, we all enjoyed making new relationships and working to provide information to folks. 

 I transported a couple dogs on the 22nd of May from Yreka to Roseburg Oregon to a rescue called "Saving Grace Animal Rescue". Though it was a 2 and a half hour drive, it was a beautiful drive and the thought of helping save the lives of two animals was so worth it to me. 

On Monday the 23rd, it was my RDO, so I went over and helped at the Siskiyou County Animal shelter. I love all of my volunteer gigs, but this one I think is the most productive for me as far as in the amount that I can contribute. You see the shelter funding is so small they only have one shelter staff person who is also the manager and two Animal Control officers for a county the size of the state of Connecticut. So, If I'm able to help Stephanie the shelter manager out, I'm basically doubling her workforce for the day. I got to help her with caring for and processing the intake of Kittens as well as dogs on this day. 

Another of the organizations I am now involved in is the North Valley Animal Disaster Group (NVADG) based in Chico California. They work on evacuating animals from behind exclusion zones during disaster situations. Though there are a lot of areas where one can volunteer that are outside the exclusion zones, I wanted to be as useful as possible, so I have been pursuing as much training as possible with NVADG. The training I attended this weekend was "Evac Training" which helps us to prepare to go out in the field and operate behind fire lines with the approval of CAL FIRE. On previous weeks I've attended communications and Fireline training, this Saturday, we learned about checking out and putting on Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), how to check out Radios and also how to inspect your vehicle. 

Its been another great week. This next week Remi and I will be at a Thousand Trails RV park at Lake Minden down by Yuba city. Next weekend is a mock disaster drill for  NVADG. So, stay tuned, lots more blogging posts to come. 

Here is this weeks VLOG. 

Safe Travels

Remi and Eric too! 

Back in Yreka Again (to the background music of "Back in the Saddle" again) - May 8th, 2022

 Destination number: 97/177/35

When Remi and I returned to Yreka, we did not go back to Waiiaka RV park because they raised their rent from $475 a month to $1,175 a month, plus utilities. that sort of money is more than I can swing and still enjoy life. The new park we are staying at, called the Yreka RV park, is charging $800 a month. Still a lot more than Waiiaka was a year ago, but at least it is a little cheaper. This RV park is fine, it is newer, though it does not offer much in the way of RV shade in the summer time, so our electric bill is going to be really bad. The valley that Yreka is situated in is really very pretty.. I love this time of year, the spring time. It is a time when everything is green, and newborns such as goslings, start to explore this big beautiful world of theirs. 

Remi and I went for a drive on Saturday to see if there were any other RV parks in the area that might be cheaper. The only other parks in the area were about 30 minutes south of Yreka in a town called weed. Most of the parks looked full. One of them I would not move into to save my life, it was just too rundown and there was no pride at all in the units that were there, even the managers mobile home looked like a drug den. :-( There was one that appeared to have spaces available, so I stopped in and talked to the manger. She said that they currently are full on their month-to-month spaces, she also informed me that the spaces run about $700 a month. After a somewhat lengthy discussion with the lady, I came to understand that due to local construction projects in Siskiyou county and extreme southern Oregon most of the RV parks month-to-month spots are full. She also explained to me that most of the RV parks are charging a premium, because some of the construction firms are willing to pay what ever it costs to get their teams places to live during the work, so, consequently, the parks jack up the rates about as far as they can, without scaring the firms off from using their parks. This now explains why my rate almost tripled at Waiiaka when I wanted to move back into the area. 

For those of you who have been following long in by blog for a while, you know, that though I was bummed to not be able to complete my trip to include the east coast, I have been grateful for some of the opportunities I have had from this every aspect of this trip, even the premature return. I know I commented in the last few posts about how I was fortunate to be able to spend more time with family in Southern California, as well as attend additional Fire Evacuation training in Northern California. This week, I am appreciating the fact that I was able to visit Karen and Mike for Mothers day. And what a mothers day it was. Not only did I get to visit with my Oregon Family that I had not seen since the holidays, but we got to welcome a new family member into our fold. Please welcome Woody. He is a 10 year old Bloodhound that Karen and Mike adopted from a escue in the town of Montague which is just east of me here in Yreka. Mr Woody (formerly known as Trusty) lived with an older gentleman who had other dogs. The gentleman had to move to a new, smaller home and couldn't keep all his dogs so he had to surrender at least one dog, and Trusty, was the dog he surrendered. It sounds like Trusty was the one he was least attached too. Well, though Woody may not have wanted to leave his old home, he found a new loving one at Karen and Mikes. 💖 Woody is a great dog, and all of us are thankful to have him in our pack. He is so good natured, gentle and desiring of human companionship, we just couldn't imagine not bringing him into our family. 

I must admit, though  Karen and Mike were told by the rescue that they thought, Woody was about 11, Karen and I thought he might be a lot younger, as he didn't have much grey on his muzzle. We thought he might be 6 or 7. We were concerned however by several bumps on Woody and what that might mean for Woody's future. Well he went to the vet today, and the verdict is in. The vet thinks that Woody is about 10 years old and it doesn't sound like any of the tumors are life threatening. I think the term that might have been used to describe them was "Sebatious Cysts". Woody has clearly been neglected and surived well despite what appears to be a lack of medical care. But , Woody's bloodwork cam back good, and Karen and Mike are going to pay to have Woody neutered (retained testical and all) and have the cysts removed as well as have his teeth cleaned for good measure. We sure are glad to have him in our pack. Long live Woody! 😍 

Here is the link to this weeks video... enjoy! 

Safe travels all

Eric and Remi too! 

April 24th through May 1st, 2022 - Week Seventeen - Oregon House California

 Destination number: 96/176/34

Hi there! 

Well, as Remi and I near the end of our road trip, our last weeklong destination is the Thousand Trails RV park by the name of "Lake of the Springs" in the town of Oregon House California. This location is half way between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe on the western side of the Sierra Mountain Range. I stopped here for a couple reasons. We had been boondocking at the Chico Airport for a week. And while boondocking totally works for us (I don't think Remi even knows the difference), the waste tanks were not going to make it another week and I was feeling a little odd about going through a companies parking lot all the time to leave or enter the NVADG lot. This park was suggested to me by a friend of mine who lives up on the Oregon Coast who had spent a lot of time at "Lake of the Springs"  in the past. Her suggestion was a great one. Also, she knows that I telework, so she advised me which "Loop" of campsites at the park to stay in so that my Cellular signal was the best it could be. I'm very thankful for her suggestions as her insight had me all dialed in. Remi and I had a great place at the top of the hill with a nice view. There were also a lot of deer in the area. It was a little disappointing how brave the deer were in the area. Though they didn't come all the way up to the motorhome, they got within about 40 feet of it. I hope they are not relying on campers to feed them. 

Though this park hasn't had a sizable amount of TLC like some of the other Thousand Trails parks that I have stayed it, this is still a great park to camp at. There are a lot of sites which at one point in time had electrical at them, but have experienced some sort of electrical failure and now are designated as "Tent Sites" because they no longer have electrical service. Despite the fact that Thousand trails hasn't spent a lot of money, at least up in "D" loop where Remi and I were staying, we were able to find a site, and really enjoyed the stay here. Also, there are a lot of great areas to hike around in this park. There are also plenty of hills to get your cardio count up in. They have a great little store in the park which also has a cafe in it. The biggest drawback is they are closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays. I tried a couple of the other local eateries and the grocery store in town and they all made it BLATANTLY clear that those of a Liberal bias, are not welcome. This store and cafe didn't have any political signs plastered through out the establishment, so it felt very welcoming. 😀

Also, the laundry facilities were very nice and clean. There is also a baseball diamond as well as a basket ball court on the property for those that are so inclined. I found that maybe I should take up basket ball because my "Free throw" could use some work. 😁

The park also has kayaks for rent and a swimming beach. They also have, like many Thousand Trails do, a miniature golf course. However the area that was probably the favorite to Remi and I was the Dog beach! It is an area that is basically fenced in on 3 sides with the lake on the fourth side of the dog park, hence a dog beach. Remi and I ventured down to this area every day that we were at Lake of the Springs. There are pretty flowers and lots of grass for Remi to graze on! 

The temperatures here this time of year were great for sitting outside and teleworking while Remi would just lay in the grass! 

There were lots of great trails to explore throughout the park and also, as I mentioned before, just about everywhere I turned there were plenty of deer. Also this time of year lots of pretty greenery and flowers in the way of ground cover. Also, because in the valley where the majority of the campground is, cell service is non-existent, so we found a well maintained, fully functional pay phone. Just so you know, local calls now cost 50 cents. 

The motorhome has run great on this whole trip. The only issue I had at all was pulling into this RV park. Once we arrived at the park, I unhooked the jeep and took the moho to a dump station in the park to empty my waste tanks. I then took the motorhome to the site we would be staying at for a week, got us plugged in and the water hooked up. As I was walking around putting the tire and hitch covers into place, I saw that the umbilical from the motorhome to the Jeep was missing its connector. I thought to my self, wow, where did the connector go, I thought "Did I disconnect everything from the jeep except the electrical umbilical and then proceed to pull the jeep away from the motorhome?" That would have been so unlike me, but I searched the receptacle on the jeep as well as the area where I unhooked and I didn't find the connector. So, I went to the nearby Ace hardware store to see if they had the connector that I needed, and in fact they did! Yipee! 😀

My next problem is there is no way to get the Jeep up behind the moho to test my connections once I get the plug put back together. Well, I made a second trip to Ace Hardware (whats a repair job without at least 2 trips to the hardware store) to get some added supplies. I documented everything, doing my best to keep my orientation right and finished putting it all back together. But, it wouldn't be until departure day, that I would know if I got everything put back together correctly. 

Aside from teleworking and exploring the park, the stay here in Oregon House was pretty uneventful. Saturday would be the only day that I would go anywhere really, and that day was reserved for some more NVADG training. The first part of the day would be on radios, communications protocols, exploring the communications trailer and learning how to mount radios into vehicles.

The second half of Saturdays training was committed to learning about safety behind the fire lines. Though NVADG volunteers are never intentionally sent into active fire zones, with the way fire behavior has changed over the years, NVADG tries to not leave anything at chance and give us at least some knowledge to prepare ourselves for as many eventualities as possible. Part of that training also includes learning how to seek shelter in a fire shelter if we have absolutely no other alternative. 

When Sunday the 1st of May came, it was time for Remi and I to make our last leg of our journey, returning to Yreka California for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, my electrical issue came back to haunt me and I was once again working on the umbilical cable, but after an hour and a half, I had it all working correctly again and we were on the road. We arrived at our Yreka RV spot at about 4:40 on Sunday afternoon and got camp set up for the next few weeks. It has been a simply amazing trip. 😀 

Here is the link to this weeks video of our adventures. 

Its been a great trip! Though I had to cut it short and missed seeing family in Georgia and Connecticut, despite those short comings we definitely saw some amazing stuff and got to do some wonderful things. I will keep the blog going, though I probably won't update it on a weekly basis as Remi and I see what is before us in our future. One thing is for sure, we will still be doing a lot of RVing and I expect we will be seeing more Thousand Trails RV parks in our future. We already have our next trip planned, we will be going back down towards Chico for some additional NVADG training in late May and early June, so stay tuned. 

Safe travels everyone. 

Eric and Remi too.