Yreka California June 13th through the 20th 2022

 Destination number: 10/181/39

Upon my return to Yreka from the week-long trip up to the Portland area, I slid back pretty much into what should very well be the routine for the foreseeable future of work, spending time with Family and of course volunteer work. With that being the case, I will try to focus future blog posts only on those things that I haven't covered in a past post, so, over the next few entries, the content will reduce, and the frequency of the posts will drop off as well. However, the reason I haven't posted this and the next entry in as timely a manner as possible is because I have resumed working with two of my favorite dog rescuers on doing dog videos. Getting the dogs adopted is far more important than my blog posts, so I need to focus on them first. Since I'm not caught up on dog videos for a few days, I can now work on trying to catch the blog entries up a little bit. 

On Saturday's I'm back working with my video team member the wonderful Amy on working with adoptable dogs at Rescue Ranch Yreka. We work on walking dogs, giving them some socialization and also working in some obedience skills. We get each dog out of their kennel for 30 to 45 minutes and it is wonderful to see how the dogs light up and their true personalities come out when we get them out of their kennels for a while. It's this ability to get them out of their kennels to help people see what the dogs are truly like away from the kennel environment. 

For the most part, during this part of the year, I'm trying to get to Rescue Ranch both days of the weekend. On Saturday's Amy and I work on videos and then I return again on Sundays to help with cleanup and anything else that they need help with. 

Because I work a 9 hours a day every two weeks for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, I get every other Monday off. On those Mondays that I have off, I go and help my other rescue friend the amazing Stephanie on whatever tasks she needs help with at her shelter. You see, she is the shelter manager, cleaner, feeder, walker, socializer and marketing wizard for the Siskiyou County animal shelter. Siskiyou county is the same geographic size as the state of Connecticut. They have two full time Animal Control Officers and one part time officer. Then, Stephanie takes care of every attribute of the shelter operations during the week. Fortunately, the ACO's help out on the weekends to care for the animals so that Stephanie can have an occasional break. There are many weekend days however that you could see Stephanie driving up and down I-5 from California to Oregon helping dogs and cats get moved from shelters in the northern part of California to meet up with other rescues from Oregon and parts north. So, it is my distinct honor to be able to help Stephanie out when I can, because she really needs at least one part time person to work at least the mornings with her. But, there is no money in the budget, so Stephanie carry's the load. Needless to say, I am very proud to do what I can to help her. In additional to cleaning and anything else I can help Stephanie with, I also offer to do at least one dog video one of her deserving dogs at the County shelter. 

Here is an example of the kind of videos that are put together with the efforts of those like Amy and Stephanie to help these unwanted dogs to find new furrever homes. 

On Thursdays after work in the summertime, Mike's Ashland Community band performs at the Lithia Park Band Shell. So, as soon as I get off work, I make the drive up to Ashland to see Mike perform in the community band. Before the performance, we always sit and enjoy a light dinner and quality family time getting caught up since the last time we visited. The back of Mike's head even made a Cameo appearance on one nightly news cast! 

For Father's day this year, Steve and Elena Wraight came up from Long Beach for a visit. First, they stopped at Elena's mom up by Bend Oregon. Then they took what we call a "Scenic route" from Bend to Phoenix Oregon. When we all were there, it was sure nice to have the brothers Wraight (of which I'm a gleefully renewed member of for another year) for Father's Day this year. We got a chance to play a little bit or Corn-Hole and enjoyed some Chicken, Shrimp and vegetable shishkibobs. 

Sadly, we have officially entered "Fire Season". The good news is that CAL FIRE and USFS are starting to "Staff Up" in the area in the event that a fire breaks out in the region. There are so many staff on hand that they can't all bunk at the nearby Armory, so on a rotating basis, the firefighters get to stay at a nearby "Holiday" for a few nights. 

Here is a video of these weeks' adventures. 

And for those in my immediate family, here is a link to the whole concert held at the Ashland Lithia Park band shell. 

Safe Travels all! 

Eric and Remi too! 

Boring Oregon (east of Portland) - June 5th through the 12th, 2022

 Destination number: 100/180/38

I don't think I had taken a week off work since before the Pandemic started. Yes, I had made a four-month road trip through the southwest earlier this year, but each of those weeks, I worked at least 4 days out of the week since I'm the only GIS professional for CDCR. This last week though, I took a week off (yes, I did have one meeting I had to attend virtually) and went up to Boring Oregon to meet up with a friend of mine who had just bought her first RV. This is a trip that I had been looking forward to for sometime. Of course there were also sorts of possible activities to occupy our time with, the main focus of the trip was to help my friend Jami with some problems she had with her trailer, get them resolved and get her some experience driving her car and towing her new trailer. 

My departure point for this trip was to leave Chico California and make the 600 mile trip to this suburb of Portland. Though I'm always game for what we called in the Blue Devils an "Iron Bottom Special" where it seems like you will never get out of the drivers seat, my route was going to take me right through Phoenix Oregon where my sister Karen and brother-in-law Mike live. I always relish any opportunity I have to get together and visit with them, and this trip would be no different. There is an RV park called the "Southern Oregon RV Park" in Central Point that I love to stay at. So, with an overnight destination in mind, I headed out early on Sunday Morning from Chico and arrived around 1:30 in the afternoon Sunday to the park. On my way into the park, I spotted a COVID vaccine location that was open. Actually, I come up to this part of Oregon a couple times a month so I knew it was there. I was just glad that it was open on a Sunday so I could get my second booster as well as a PCR test (which came back negative by the way). After the rig was set up, I got boosted and then headed to dinner with Karen and Mike. We met up for a very tasty dinner at one of our favorite chains... "Outback Steakhouse". After the early dinner I returned to the Motorhome and took Remi for a leisurely walk around the park to enjoy the large water features that they have at the park. 

On Monday the 6th I got up again early and Remi and I hit the road up to Boring Oregon. The trip up to Barton Campground was un-eventful and the motorhome and Jeep combination performed flawlessly. Once I had the Motorhome parked and leveled up, I headed just across the Columbia River Gorge to Vancouver Washington to meet up with Jami, her sister Shannon and her spouse Terri. Jami actually lives in Albuquerque New Mexico. She has been in search of a small trailer for sometime that she could pull with her Jeep Cherokee. In the first picture below, take note of the water level in the pond adjacent to the Allegro Bus... there is an interesting story to come later in the blog. 

The trailer had come up for sale not far from Shannon's house in Vancouver so Shannon went to check it out. Well, the sales guy couldn't get any of the propane appliances to work so he took over $1,000 off the price of the rig so as to facilitate any repairs that might be needed. Well, it turned out that the rig had not had a propane tank in place for sometime and corrosion had set in on the regulator on the outside of the trailer. Shannon and Terri replaced the regulator and got the stove and furnace to work but could not get the water heater or the refrigerator to work. Fortunately, since I was pretty familiar with these appliances, I was able to get them both up and running in fairly short order. 😁 With all the major appliances up and running, it was time to get Jami out for some drive time. Initially, Jami had a reasonable amount of anxiety about operating a car with a trailer behind it, primarily because she had never done so before. But after a few 2 hour sessions, Jami was feeling a lot more comfortable pulling the trailer and though not a complete pro at backing the trailer into a spot, she was comfortable enough that she was starting to figure out how to do it and how to determine when things were not going well and how to get past many of the challenges she was facing. 

Though most of the week was occupied with helping Jami with her new trailer, there were other activities as well. I got to see "Top Gun - Maveric", which was the first time I had been in a movie theater since the Pandemic upended our lives. The movie was great! If you are looking for a little mindless entertainment with action and a sprinkling of romance thrown in for good measure, this is a great movie to see. I also had numerous opportunities to explore the Barton Campground and Park. They have a number of ponds that are used for water management and the Clackamas river borders one side of the park. On Friday the 10th of June, we had over 2 and half inches of rain from an atmospheric river that came through. Here are some pictures of the park. Notice that the pond adjacent to the motorhome had it's water level increase significantly due to all the rain we had. Also, we had so much rain that it somehow leaked into the front bays of the motorhome and I had to pull the gear out of the front bays so the carpet would dry and not mildue. 

In a unique combination of something old and something new, this park had it all. I am always amazed at mother nature and how you get to see new growth on trees, especially fir trees by seeing the new green needles where there has been recent growth. And also down in the day use part of the Barton park, they had a little show and shine event going on Saturday the 11th. 

Here is the VLOG from this weeks adventures. 

This next week, I will be back in Yreka, but I hope to document some of my volunteer work for a couple of the rescues here in Siskiyou county. 

Safe Travels all... 

Remi and Eric Too

Lake Minden Thousand Trails and NVADG Disaster drill 2022 - June 4th, 2022

Destination number: 99/179/37

With the completion of the Evac training for NVADG on the 28th of May, 2022. Prior to leaving Chico, I went to the local Costco and Safeway to do my monthly shopping for supplies that I use over the course of the month. Many of the supplies go into the living area of the motorhome, but some of the extra supplies, especially those used at the back end of  the month, I put in the "back stock" bay of the motorhome, which is behind the outside TV set. 

Despite the fact that I am parked at a "Light Industrial park" you can even find beauty here in a glorious sunset every once in a while. 

Before heading out, I always check the tire pressure. They had been dropping over time, but the levels were still safe. This time however, being at a light industrial park, no one cares if I run the motor for a while with the rig parked and fill the tires, so I took care of that little detail before we left for our next stop. 

On Memorial day, Monday, I relocated the Motorhome to a Thousand Trails park called Lake Minden which is about 10 miles south west of Yuba City California. We came here for a week to have full hookups during the forecasted hot weather during the week. Also to get caught up on Laundry, which I can't do in large quantities when boondocking such as we were doing at the NVADG yard while we were there. We got to Lake Minden fairly early in the day, so once I got us checked in and the rig parked and set up, Remi and I set off to find a cemetery near by to pay our respects to some of those no longer with us, that served in our US Armed forces. 

Just like every Thousand Trails, it has it's fair share of amenities. However, like a lot of the Thousand Trails that I have stayed at since I have become a member, this one could use some TLC. The bathrooms are in good shape, and the power and water is stable at those sites that have not been taken out of service. However the kids play structure areas could use a little love, and their are a lot of foxtails around this park. The most disheartening part of the particular site I was in, was all the garbage that was left behind by the previous occupants that stayed here. All the stuff I picked up filled a small trash bag. 

On the plus side though, is that this RV park is surrounded by agricultural grows such as corn and grapes and also it has the lake. The lake has a wonderful 1 mile loop around it, and I was able to easily get a two mile walk in every day, not including the walks that Remi and I would take for her benefit. The lake is filled with agricultural water pumped out of the ground, but none the less, the water was frequently like glass and some of the sunrises and sunsets were really wonderful! 

The week was pretty much like any other Work week where I would telework for the state of California working on GIS and other mapping efforts for my state agency. On Friday afternoon, Remi and I took the motorhome back to Chico to participate in the Annual NVADG disaster drill where we put some new volunteers, procedures, equipment and technologies through their paces to figure out what works and what doesn't. My particular assignment was to work in the ADOC or Animal Department Operations Center. A lot of the work that happens in the ADOC is related to the ICS-300 (Incident Command System) training that I received late last year. Admittedly, since I'm pretty green, I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but like everyone that came to the drill, it gave us all a chance to see where we could do better. Also, the drill was over just a 4 hour time frame, and the tasks we did were only partial, so I try to not be too hard on myself on this particular exercise except to learn what I can from the experience. 

Our next stop will be Central Point Oregon, on our way to Boring Oregon, just east of Portland and just south of the Oregon Washington Border. When I was getting the rig ready to go before our departure, I had a problem with a bay door on the Allegro bus. I guess not totally surprising given the fact that the rig is 20 years old. A hinge bushing wore out and the latch mechanism stopped working. Fortunately, I was able to repair the missing metalic part of the hinge with a bolt, but the nylon bushing is pretty worn out. So, this repair is temporary until I can get a new handle ordered and changed out. 

Here is the link to this weeks video. 

Safe travels everyone, 

Eric and Remi too.