August 2023 - Sacramento and Sutter Counties

Trip log:  106/186/44

In the month of August of last year, I bought my Jeep Wrangler 4XE, and I must say, it is my favorite car ever. Fiat/Chrysler/Stellantis have really set a high bar with the JL body style and the 4XE power train. More importantly, the 4XE just looks amazing doing absolutely nothing except stand there motionless. You gotta admit, the picture of my Jeep below is awful nice. I have never been this enthralled with a vehicle a year after I bought it. A lot of Jeep owners do lift kits and big tires to make their vehicle even more impressive, but I think the stock 4XE Sahara is amazing all by itself. It has taken me down snowy trails and mountain fire roads without any issues... and it has 22,000 miles on it. Its a good thing I didn't lease it! LOL :-) If you have read my blog in the past, you know I put a trailer hitch on it, and I also have outfitted it so that it can be towed behind my motorhome... but that is about it. A Facebook friend of mine outfitted her 4XE with some beach towel seat covers, and I liked them so much that I had to have them. After all, with all the dogs that come and go from my car, there can be a lot of dog drool to deal with! 

With the Jeep 4XE firmly in tow, I have started my second month in the greater Sacramento area, which includes the Yuba and Sutter counties as well. Currently, I have been floating between the Thousand Trails Park in Nicholas called Lake Minden and then up in Oregon House at Lake of the Springs. Both of these parks are great places to camp at. Both parks are a little weak on their electrical service. though all the sights I have stayed at have been "30 Amp " sites, honestly, I'd be surprised if they provide 20 amps before they start to lose their voltage.  I have found though that if I turn off everything but one Air conditioner, I have enough volts and amps to run one air conditioner. Everything else though, on a 100 degree day has to be off, or on propane. But, we learn to work with what we got... right. The locations otherwise are very nice. I love Lake of the springs, all though the lake is empty right now while Thousand Trails spends 4 million dollars on upgrading the Dam that forms the lake. The other drawback at Lake of the springs is I'm 2 hours away from the Stockton animal shelter and an hour and a half away from work. Lake Minden is only an hour from the shelter, and half an hour from work, but the mosquitos really like my blood type. But, the location is beautiful and so I can look past some of the inconveniences of both places. 

Up at Lake of the Springs, there are lots and lots of deer that are constantly coming through the sites which is always fun to see, but "No, I do not feed them", and most of the campers at the park don't feed them either. There is no light pollution at Lake of the springs either. so it makes the night stars very plentiful. There is also a great trail that Remi and I walk twice a day where we get to look down on the valley and the campground. 

The following picture is full of stars, but you may need to dim your room lights to see them, or expand the size of the picture to see all the stars. Enjoy. 

Lake Minden has the beautiful, though small lake to enjoy. It is a little over a mile long walk around the lake... Remi and I also do that trail twice a day. Once before I start work, and once just before dark. 

In the month of August, I have attended two training sessions for the North Valley Animal Disaster  Group (NVADG). One weekend I attended training on their shelter management software called Shelterly. As a professional software developer for many decades I can say that the software has some great functionality to it, but when it comes to ways that software could be leveraged in the field could been done a much superior platform such as ArcGIS Online, but that suggested path didn't allow them to pursue the software as a income platform. It is the platform they have chosen, and so I am working to learn to use it. The best part of the training was being introduced to the new NVADG headquarters. 

The other training I attended was an introduction to water rescue for NVADG. We learned boat operation, equipment management, recovering of people in the water, throwing a rescue rope and how to select and put on a dry suit. This class, just like all of the other safety courses that NVADG offers, were great! 

I was also lucky to attend a family party in the Long Beach area, where we celebrated Mia Wraights engagement to her husband to be Hunter. It was a wonderful opportunity for many of our Wraight/Anderson family to get together to spend some quality time together. 

Also while in Long Beach, my sister Karen and I went by to visit the house in Lakewood that we were raised at 5728 Bigalow. It was so nice to see this and how it has changed over the years. 

Here is a video of my adventures for the month. 

Here is a longer video about Mia's engagement party. 

Safe travels all... 

Eric and Remi too

July 2023 - Leaving Siskiyou County

 Trip log:  104/184/42

Well as June of 2023 came to a close, the time has come to move on from Siskiyou county and return to the Sacramento region. I must admit, though for many of my own desires, Siskiyou county is not exactly a place that I would like to live, I have been extremely fortunate to live here for two years. The most important aspect of living in Siskiyou county is the fact that volunteering for three different animal rescue organizations has really provided me with fulfillment and a sense of purpose. 

I won't deny the fact that in many ways, living in Siskiyou county has been very lonely for me. I've tried 3 different dating apps during the two years that I have lived in Siskiyou county, and it has resulted in one date. Don't get me wrong, while living in Siskiyou county, I have made many new friends who I hope to stay in touch with for the rest of my life, but they all have their own lives, and I feel like the only relationships that I am successful at are work and volunteering, and it leaves me feeling empty and alone, but life is what it is. I deal with it,, and I don't let my loneliness keep me from doing many of the things I would like to, but I am sad to be alone. 

None the less, before moving back to Sacramento, I do have many friends to say goodbye to. Austin Browder and I had breakfast back in June to spend some time together before I moved. Also, I was treated to a very nice goodbye/thank you luncheon by the food folks at Rescue Ranch. I am truly sad to be leaving Rescue Ranch. There are so many wonderful people at this organization, but they are so overwhelmed with dogs, that the staff is all burning out and leaving in droves... It truly makes me sad. None the less, it was nice to get to chat with so many wonderful people that I have grown close to at the ranch, and I will miss them all deeply! My memories of the years spent involved with Blue Devils are still vivid. And while I know there were some in that organization that valued my involvement at the time, I didn't do truly time critical work of literally saving lives like that which I have done here in Siskiyou County. 

While living at the Yreka RV park, I had the distinct pleasure to meet Titus and Linda. Titus is a pilot for the US forest service who flies a spotter plane used to locate wildland fires. Titus and Linda live full time in a motorhome like I do! Remi and I even had a chance to visit them at the Siskiyou county airport and check out the Rockwell Commander that Titus flies. 

Right up to the last day that I lived in Siskiyou county, I volunteered at the Siskiyou county animal shelter... walking dogs on my lunch break as I had done ever since fire season last year. It made me sad to think that ever since Stephanie left, that I was the only one providing enrichment to these dogs, who through no fault of their own, landed in the shelter. All I could do is hope for the best for them. 

As soon as I was done working for the day on June 30th I fired up the motorhome and began our relocation southward. Because I had worked a full day, Remi and I only traveled only as far as Corning and spent Friday night at the Rolling Hills Casino Truck stop for the night. Doing this would allow us to not drive too exhaustive a day, but it would also make the arrival at the Thousand Trails at Lake Minden, that much easier on Saturday. 

Our first day of our new lives, started out with arriving at Lake Minden in Nicolas California, about 15 minutes north of Sacramento. This is a wonderful location. There are only two drawbacks to living at Lake Minden, one specific to this location. That one being the Mosquitos and the other is somewhat similar across the entire Thousand Trails system... that being that only 30 amp sites are available at the vast majority of their parks. None the less, all things considered, this is a good location for a home base. Upon our arrival, I was informed that there would be a musical group performing at the band shell this evening, and so I was eager as always to check it out. Once I had camp set up, Remi and I headed over. The group did not disappoint, the only thing that was disappointing was the meager turn out by those staying at the park this weekend. I tipped the group 60 bucks to show some appreciation, and I also stopped by the office the next morning to sing my praises for the efforts the park made to have the group perform. 

One of the benefits to living closer to the Sacramento area, is that I am closer to Chico (somewhat), and more readily able to attend their training classes. On the 8th July, I attended their "Rope Rescue Awareness" training which was an introduction on how Rope Rescue is done. This was an amazing class, and I've come to know the organization and trust the instructors. As a result, I was all in. I have in the past, suffered a bit from a fear of heights. But I repelled twice down the rock face, and was not worried at all. I just paid attention to the instructors and followed all the safety steps they had put in place. 

As is obvious, animal rescue, especially keeping animals out of our shelters is very important to me. A Facebook friend of mine in Florida, Krystie, is big into Cat rescue and she got a label for the front of her Jeep Wrangler 4XE that says "Adopt Don't Shop". I thought this was a perfect addition that I also needed for my Jeep, so I ordered the label from the same place that sold me the "Animal Evac" labels for the hood of the Jeep, and while staying at an RV park in Lodi for a week, installed the new label. I am very happy with the outcome. 

Admittedly, I thought the font was a little too large, but after I have seen how well it can be utilized in the dog videos that I make, I'm glad that I went with the size that I did. 

Despite the move to Sacramento, I still have the goal to visit Karen and Mike in Ashland once a month. So, on July 29th, I traveled up to Ashland for a couple nights to help with any chores that I could around the house, and catch up with them as well as Mikes brother Chuck and his wife Teri. We always have such a nice visit every single time we get together. 

Admittedly, my diet these days is pretty boring... protein shakes, Cheerios, Blue Berries, a Cesar salad, pork chops or Chicken or a sandwich of some form. But, thanks to some recipe suggestions of my friend Krystie in Florida, I do break out my cooking skills every once in a while. This time, I made some stuffed mushrooms that were very tasty, and not all calorically offensive. I do realize now that I need to invest in a food processor, however. LOL

Here is a video from the Rope Rescue course that I participated in. 

Here is the video blog entry for the month of July. There are no segments from the Rope Rescue Course in the following video. 

Safe travels all

Remi and Eric too!