The Beautiful Rogue River

 

 Will I EVER Blog again??  That's what I'm starting to ask myself!  

 

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Let me try to do a whirlwind recap of our past 2 months.

 

We spent February and March along the Rogue River in Southern Oregon.

 

For the month of February, we played Camp Host at Valley of the Rogue State Park in Rogue River, Oregon.  It wasn't real busy this time of year, so there wasn't a lot of camper interaction.  But our responsibility also included the day use area which is a Rest Area on I-5 so that was the majority of our work.

We had time to spend with family, which was the only reason we were there this time of year.  The weather was rainy and colder in February.

We were able to get Jacob, Jeff's oldest son, down to visit from Madras.  Normally he could get a ride, but this time of year we put him on Greyhound.

We rented a Yurt at the park for both Jacob and Jonathan, so they could both spend time with us... or each other and their Dad. 

 

Actually, I just provided meals and tried to keep everyone happy.

And, Yes, we got our ONE remaining Harley (which is really MY bike) out of storage at our friends place.  

 We rode a few times, while at Valley of the Rogue SP... Two Up (me on the back) and it was enjoyable.  

 We had agreed that this Harley would become Jeff's bike now... so he decided it needed some changes. 

He found a Sissy bar and 16" Ape Hangers on Craigslist.

BUT when we moved from Valley of the Rogue to KOA in Gold Hill, I rode my bike.  That's all it took!  I wasn't ready to give up my bike yet.

Lucky for me... he hadn't yet changed out the new parts.






 

SO... we looked on Craigslist for another bike, and we found one!

Jeff bought a 2003 Fatboy with low miles, gear driven cams, and LOTS of Chrome.

 He hates the seat... its just not him.  Its comfy for driver and passenger, but not the style he is looking for.

He also removed the saddlebags and crash bar, right away.




So now we have His and Hers Harley Softails again.


It is fun to ride together again!









Grants Pass is our home town... its where we own our house, and where we had lots of friends.  I say "had" because we just don't see them anymore... and there are very few that we are in contact with. 

We stayed in contact with people for the first 6 months or so, but then as full-time RV'ing became our life, we started making new friends that we kept in touch with.  RV life is a different life style, and we find that we relate more to other RVers.

But we still have that "biker" side of us too, and Jeff has a lot of biker buddies from his club days and from our home in Southern Oregon.  So it was really great for him to get together with a few of them.

After the camp host gig at Rogue River, we moved on down the road to the KOA in Gold Hill, for the month of March.  No work there... just Play and PAY.  Im good with the Playing part... but the PAYing part, not so much.

It's also on the Rogue River.














We walked nearly every day... and walking every day for over an hour, is the only thing we have found that proves to take a few pounds off. (but they don't stay off if we stop walking)

 

There are some great walking trails along the Rogue River out of Gold Hill,                but its about 1/4 mile to the trail, and walking along the road is not fun... and feels a bit dangerous.  So after walking it a few times, we opted to ride a motorcycle or take the truck and parking at the trail entrance.

 









Jeff's Cousin, Chuck, rode his Harley down from Portland to see us, and stayed a few nights in one of the KOA cabins.

The three of us had a great time together.  We hadn't seen Chuck in almost 2 years... because of all this traveling we've been doing!

 

Staying in Gold Hill, we were even closer to my parents house,

 so we were able to spend more time with them.

 

  

I know there is a lot more I should be saying, but this is getting ridiculous! 

We left Oregon at the end of March, and  I'm still trying to tell about our time there!

 

We are now more than 3 weeks into our job in California!

 

So I am going to leave it at that and publish this post.

The next post will be about where we are now!  and hopefully soon.

 

Thanks to all of you who check our blog!

Our Redding Visit and Seeing Family again!

Our Redding Visit

Sally and Richard were the first to greet us when we got settled at our site.  Sally has kept us informed with changes at the park since we left, and after their grandson, Roman, was born, she has kept us up to date on him too.

What a cute little boy.  Doesn't say a lot... but has some great expressions!

 

One evening we enjoyed a fire and some "catching up" with some of the people at the park.

We were surprised at the greeting we received from people at the park. 
They made us feel loved!

Look at this... Melanie even left us this bottle of Wine on our table.

It was time to say good-bye to Norma and Rick again... They certainly have the park handled.

We enjoyed a good time with both of them.

This is Norma... Rick was out and about I guess.

 

Oregon

Tuesday we made our way back to Oregon. 
We still own a home here in Grants Pass.  We've rented it out since moving out 4 years ago, and we are very fortunate to have a young family in there now that takes care of the property and pays their rent on time.  We were thrilled that they want to renew their lease for another year.

Stuff
Like most of you... we still have some STUFF we left behind.  So when we're in town, we make a trip to our storage unit to remind ourselves of what we have... and offload stuff and onload stuff.

Family

Our first stop after crossing into Oregon was to my parents home in Medford.

Hi Mom and Dad... We're back!

The plan was to park our fifth-wheel on the street out front of their house for the night.
But it was one issue after the other and it was clear it wasn't going to work.
So after a wonderful Mom's home cooked dinner, we moved on down the freeway to
Valley of the Rogue State Park.

 Jeff's Son, Jon, also lives here in Medford. 
Jon and Brooke came over the evening after we arrived.
It always feels good to know the gifts we bought were "right on"

Father and Son

 

We hadn't planned to do any hosting in Southern Oregon, but we had inquired, so when they had a cancellation they contacted us.  So here we are hosting at Valley of the Rogue SP in Rogue River. 

 

 

Its good to be doing something again. 

 But so far we're a bit torn with the expectations surrounding us.  Some of the expectations we have put on ourselves, I'm sure... but family is what we're here for.

 

 

Jeff really enjoys having a campfire.  There have been many times over the past several months that we couldn't have a fire, for whatever reason.  So we bought ourselves a propane fire pit. 

Its not quite the same, but it cures the craving.

 

 They don't give us free firewood at this park, which is unlike the other State Parks we've hosted at and doesn't seem right... but its the way it is here.  So we took advantage of all the fallen branches from the wind storm the other night and made ourselves a free fire. 

We don't need their stinkin' firewood!

 

We were dreading coming back to Oregon so early in the year, but for 2 days so far, we had incredibly sunny warm weather.  It wont be so bad.

Hopefully tomorrow we will get our motorcycle over here! 

 

 Take Care All... Thanks for reading.

Back to Redding RV Park

 

This afternoon we arrived back at Redding RV Park in Redding, California...

where we spent 6 months workamping a year ago.  Its a beautiful day of 75 degrees!  

We didn't have this kind of weather the Winter we were here! 

 

We left here on March 29, 2013 and since leaving have pulled our wheel house 

10,556 miles through 36 States.  Whoo Hoo!!

 

 

We drove 295 miles yesterday, and stayed in a parking lot in Lathrop, California.

We checked out the County park campground first, but there were only back-in spaces and we were into the trees and too crowded to pull the slides out comfortably.

So we went back to this parking lot beside the freeway that we had seen.

 

FREE beats $25 any day!

 

We were on the road at 9am this morning... and that may just be a record for us.

We had only 220 miles to drive today... a very smooth travel day.

 

We checked the trailer tires as usual at a rest area, and the inside where the tread is worn down felt hot and a little sticky, so we're getting a little concerned.  We were hopeful that by putting more air in the tires it would keep the insides from getting more worn, and we could make it until after we've made some money at our Spring/Summer workamping job.

 

So...
10 months... 10,556 miles... and 20 pounds  
  later... we are back where we started.





We will be here 2 or 3 nights... catching up with people we met here, taking care of a little business, and watching the 49er's kick Seahawk butt tomorrow!

Then we will be happy to be going back to work as park camp hosts and property caretakers soon.

BYE BYE... LAS VEGAS!

In prior visits, we've had some luck playing the casinos in Vegas.  But this time I must say...

"The money we played in Vegas... Stayed in Vegas."

 Fortunately there are other things to do in Vegas besides gambling!

When we were here 2 years ago, we visited Pawn Stars.

This time we visited "Counts Kustoms"

Danny "The Count" and his crew have their own show "Counting Cars" on History channel.

I'm more familiar with Danny and his work from his appearances on Pawn Stars.

Many bike builds and car or truck builds are on display in the museum/store

Nothing on display is "ordinary"

There are some very unique (or strange) builds.

 

 The guys were in the shop working, but we weren't allowed in...

they have the area surrounding the bay door roped off.

We thought we would visit Pawn Stars again... but our minds were changed by the very long line out the door waiting their turn to get in.  Lines just aren't our thing.  So we kept driving.

Old Las Vegas

Downtown Las Vegas on Fremont Street is fun to walk...

without the crazy crowds on the New Las Vegas Strip.

 

From the Fremont District, we drove over to Tim and Ardee's place in North Vegas.

Ardee fixed us an incredible dinner of Lasagne and Salad.

AND I got my doggie fix!  

 

We've known Ardee and Tim for years, back when we all lived in Southern Oregon.

 

Jeff and Tim rode together in a club, and Ardee and I worked together,

then later we also enjoyed riding together. 

 The next evening we had them over to our place so we could show off  "wheel life" (and so we didn't have to drive in Vegas traffic again).  I served Pizza Hut!  Then we watched a new Redbox movie "Prisoners"... it was a long movie and I was doubtful about it at first, but it ended up being good.  And I had one of the doggie's snuggled up with me... and everything's better with a doggie to snuggle with!  I think it may be getting ready to get a doggie of my own again.

So that was Vegas.  We had a good time... but we were ready to move on.

We left this morning and drove 245 miles to a PA park near Mojave, California off Hwy 58.  Tomorrow we will drive through Bakersfield and get on I-5 which will soon take us back to Oregon!

Hope all our blogger friends are well...  Thank you for reading. 

We would appreciate your comments as well.