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.