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.