Windseeker RV Blog with Joe and Libby

Looking back over 2023... from our monumental trip to Utah and the magnificent national parks, to our time at the lake to the changes in our family from the grandchildren to our upgrade to dogs 2.0. Start at the bottom to review the year from the very beginning to the present day.

We've all made it through another year. As we watch that chaos that is happening around the world in so many places, we feel blessed to be leading a quiet, abundant life, retired from life's stresses and just enjoying our time together with the company of our wonderful dogs. We hope 2024 may bring us all peace and prosperity and a cessation of hostilities all around the world:
    Cheers!   Prost!   Salute!   Santé!   Sláinte!   Salud!   Na Zdorowie!   Skål!

Wishing all our friends a very happy Holiday Season... and may the New Year bring us all peace, understanding, and wisdom. These wishes are an extension of our commitment to the organization "May Peace Prevail On Earth International", a grassroots global movement "to inspire, and re-awaken the inherent consciousness of love, peace and harmony which exists in everyone of us. It is a movement to bring inner peace of mind and to foster peace in the world at large."

At the right, adorned with holiday art from both Christmas and Buddhist holiday art, is my favorite antique ivory Buddha okimono from my vast personal collection .

Today we drove back to our old stomping grounds Lake Oswego to see the Christmas musical production of Irving Berlin's "Holiday Inn" at the Lakewood Theater. Irving Berlin is one of America's most prolific composers who wrote over 850 songs in the first half of 20th century, many of which are standards today, including iconic songs like "God Bless America" and "White Christmas". This production is a joyous musical featuring Irving Berlin songs, including "Blue Skies," "Easter Parade," "Steppin' Out With My Baby," "Heat Wave," "White Christmas," "Be Careful, It's My Heart," and many more.

We're having a stretch of clear sunny weather with nice fall temps so we fired up the Mustang and took a back road loop to the town of Mt Angel, Oregon and the Mt Angel Sausage Company. We've been there before in years past and have posted pics to that current blog. They have absolutely the best German sausages anywhere. We had the European Sausage Tour consisting of the Oktoberfest / Fricadel / Knockwurst / Italian / Bratwurst plus delicious sauerkraut and Kartoffeln for an early dinner. A German meal is not complete without Bier... we first had the beer sampler with a large German soft pretzel with melted cheese and then a liter stein of the Paulaner Doppel which we shared. Tasty!

We are home for the holidays and will enjoy a nice quiet Thanksgiving holiday far away from the holiday crush of traffic and chaos out there on the highways and in the skies. The dogs are very happy to be spending time at home - they spend a good portion of every day in the fall gazing out the window in the family room (right in front of my recliner) watching for squirrels on the back fence. Any appearance of the squirrels and both dogs go racing out the doggie door and chasing the little critters who seem to enjoy the game. It's great entertainment for us and excellent exercise for the dogs.

We returned to Veneta today Saturday, to deal with various chores preparing our boat and RV's for winter. The weather is clearly changing and tonite the thermometer is forecast to drop to 28 so the RV's need to be winterized. We''ve covered the boat, and will dismantle our little fabric covered garage, and take down the sunshade on the deck.etc. The motorhome is scheduled to have some work done on the full body slideout next month and we hope it can be completed in time to permit us to take it down to California for the holidays. We'll head home on Monday and enjoy the fall weather and fall colors in the Pacific Northwest until then.

Today we have returned home to Vancouver from our coast trip. We had a little mishap with the main slideout in the coach... it got stuck in the extended position. We managed to pull it in using emergency measures, so we could drive the coach. So we cut short our trip by a couple days and took the coach back to Veneta yesterday and then headed home today. We will return to Veneta later this month to wrap things up for the season. Libby is going to fly down to San Diego to visit the grandkids for a few days this week while I stay at home with the dogs.

We went as far down the coast as Eureka in Northern California. This city of about 50,000 is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, 270 miles (435 km) north of San Francisco and 100 miles (161 km) south of the Oregon border. My old friend Gary Rooney moved to Eureka from Portland area 25 years ago and we have visited him and wife Kate several times over the years. We walked through Old Town Eureka and down to the waterfront with the harbar on the background.

We're on a final road trip for the season down the Oregon Coast as far as Eureka where we'll visit with friends for several days before turning around and heading back north. This was our lunch stop today... beautiful coastline along 101 here. We have a beautiful stretch of weather this week with rain due to return next week, so we thought we would take advantage of it.

Today was our last sailing day of the season. The season is still open until end of the month when they start drsining the lake for the winter and closing the marinas. But with the fall equinox, the weather change is just about to hit us. After almost no rain at all since May, Saturday will kick off a full 8 days of rain every day. And that takes us right to the end of the month. Since we do not relish pulling the boat and derigging it for storage in the rain, we decided we will do it tomorrow, Friday. So today the wind gods blessed us with a mild, sunny breezy day. We got in a few hours this afternoon with winds at times in the 10-13mph range. A great way to end the season

As indicated below, we recently took over a second RV space here at Fern Ridge Shores, right across the way from our primary space, specifically to provide covered storage for our Miramar motorhome. It was not very level, unfortunately... not a big deal for a 5th wheel which are easy to level, but for a motorhome for which the plan is to come and go on a regular basis. Putting jacks down so as to put out the slides involved multiple pads under jacks and tires. By getting it level, jacks and leveling will not be needed, making life a lot easier. We had 7 yards of gravel delivered and I found an experienced guy with a Kubota loader to grade it.

We have owned a 2016 silver Dodge Durango R/T for about 5 years and have really enjoyed. A key feature is that it has the 2 speed transfer case and can be flat towed behind out motorhome when we take trips. But beyond that it is a very powerful and comfortable full sized SUV automobile and suits our needs perfectly. Sadly on 8/24 a careless woman swung wide on a U turn right in front of us and the collision was unavoidable. Repairs are taking so long these days, we decided our best plan of action was to buy a new one, get the 2016 repaired by insurance and then sell it ourselves. Today was the day we found the perfect 2023 white Dodge Durango R/T at Ron Tonkin dealership in Portland and drove it home today. For more photos see my special photo gallery for the new white tornado. Our damaged 2016 silver Durango sits alongside, looking very dejected about all this!

After much deliberation, we could not resist the opportunity to take over the RV space directly across the road from our current space. This space #5 and is a covered space with a 50 x 20 metal carport on the space. We have been storing our motorhome in Vancouver in a covered storage space and this space here in Veneta will cost a little more than twice the monthy fee, BUT now our motorhome is right across the street and we can pull out any time for an impromptu trip to the coast or anywhere else we like. It was not at all convenient to first drive the 2.5 hours home to take a brief trip and have to drive the 2.5 hours back to Veneta afterwards. Now we are consolidated all in one spot, we have secured protected storage space for the motorhome and we have the convenience of having it close at hand, plus we can also utilize the motorhome for guest quarters when the kids come to visit.

Last week, we headed home for a week to attend a number of doctor appointments and meet up with son Patrick and wife Linjia... and of course their dog Poe. They were visiting for the week. We were a little anxious about Riley getting along with Poe, both male dogs, but they all got along famously. And Riley, the ever playful pup, even persuaded Poe to participate in play and wrestling, something Poe apparently never does. And of course all the dogs happily joined Libby on the sofa... we call this "Three Dog Night."

We had crystal clear blue skies, no clouds at all, temp peaked about 80 degrees, and winds in the late afternoon were 8-10 mph. Very enjoyable conditions. Libby was enjoying the warm breeze in her face. At the peak of the afternoon we shared the lake with 9 other sailboats and a couple odd skiboats.

We have gone sailing two days this week so far. Weather is mild compared to the heat waves plaguing much of the country. Wind looks good for today as well. We have not taken Riley out on the boat yet... he's still too much of a puppy. We want to break him in slowly. We thought we would take him out on the boat on a calm day and just motor around a bit. Meanwhile he is pretty happy just hanging out with Taffy. Riley's fur was getting pretty long so we had him clipped a couple days ago... not our usual groomer so he looks a bit different than with his last haircut... a little more classic Schnauzer look... but I think we prefer the other cut (4 photos below) so we'll go back to that groomer in the fall.

It was a sad day for me... I owned an MGB since the late 80's and my little white 1980 model was as nice a roadster as you could ever imagine. But we slipped up and did not get it into neutral when we left Seattle on Monday with the MG secured on its dolly. We did not get very far before somebody motioned me off to the side where I discovered the disaster. The engine was spinning much too fast; it threw a rod and blew up the engine. I have put in a claim with the insurance company, but no matter the outcome, we decided it was time to sell the car and bought a new sports car which fit me much better, a Ford Mustang GT Premium Convertible (right). For more, please visit my special Mustang photo gallery.

We decided to take a little break away from the lake during a brief hotspell and attend the Western Washington All British Field Meet. As the name implies these annual meets are open to all British car owners who want to display their pride and joy and hang out with other British car enthusiasts. Portland Oregon also holds a similar annual event which we have attended a couple times in the past, but this is the first time we have attended the Seattle event. The venue chosen for the meet is Saint Edward State Park, a 326-acre-park in Kenmore, WA located right on Lake Washington and fitting location for the event with the stately Lodge as the backdrop. You can see lots of great photos of this photogenic event on our photo gallery.

Today we had excellent west winds in the 12-14 range in the late afternoon... We were one of just 5 sailboats out on the lake. Temperature peaked about 82 degrees. Just perfect conditions. Much of the rest of country is experiencing extreme heat and or flash flood conditions. We just love the PNW. Click on the image at the right to watch a brief one minute video of today's sailing action.

The July 4 holiday has come and gone. Fireworks are outlawed in Eugene and so the noisy evening celebrations are minimized around here. We're glad to see that... with the chances of igniting a wildfire and the disturbance to animals who can be very frightened by all the noise. There were some illegal fireworks exploding at dark, and were curious to see if they bothered little Riley. My old Schnauzer Sammy really hated them as did our first Westie, Gracie. Our previous Westie Corey and our current one, Taffy, never paid much attention to them. With his "big sister" seemingly unfazed by the noise, Riley paid no attention to them either, at least from inside our RV.

We had excellent wind today, Saturday, July 1, and our 7th day of sailing since we got here early June. We had gusts above 18mph today. It was windy enough that we saw three windsurfers out, two of them riding foils! First time we have seen that on the lake... it requires more wind than we normally have. Even on a holiday weekend, we mostly had the lake to ourselves... I think we counted maybe half a dozen sailboats out in the late afternoon. On a lake that is some 14 sq miles in size, that is about one boat for each 2 sq miles. Gotta love this lake!

We returned back to Veneta from Vancouver yesterday. We tried to go sailing yesterday, but the winds got toolight in the late afternoon. Today got out on the lake a little earlier and sailed for a few hours. Libby took the helm for an hour and then handed it back to me for the final hour. Winds were a little gusty but brisk and we had a great time. (NOTE: Since the 15th we had to go home for a few days, then back in time to sail the 22nd, 24th and 25th.)

"The happiest days of your life are the day you buy a new boat and the day you sell it." - This is an old proverb many boatowners will recognize. We were thrilled to find an almost new pontoon boat last December and drove down to Medford,OR to pick it up. It was a fun adventure and we visited some friends in Medford while we were there. But life is what happens while you are busy making other plans, so goes the saying, and we decided by the time summer rolled around that we would not really get much use out of it and decided we would just stick to sailing our sailboat. So I placed an ad on Facebook Marketplace and sold it in a single day for $3000 more than I paid for it. No complaints there! We also sold our little Sun Slider pedalboat..

Well after winds gusting to near 30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which kept everyone off the water, there was next to nothing on Tuesday and finally today we got excellent steady winds from the E and SE today in the 10-12 range so we went out for a later afternoon sail, first day of the season, and first time out on my brand new 150 genoa jib sail. Look at the perfect shape of that sail and the beautiful curvature the dark blue U/V fabric strip along the foot of the sail. It was a perfect first day of the season and we had a great day on the water!

We drove down to Veneta to the lake on Tuesday. We are busy opening first of all up our beloved Vilano 5th wheel, prepping for summer. We'll prep our sailboat on Thursday and launch her Friday. Wind looks excellent for the weekend! The dogs are happy to be back in the country. They seem to be sharing the sofa exceptionally well. When they are not cuddling they are bookends. This is Riley's first visit to Veneta and he seems to love it! Lots of interesting new sights and sounds. And plenty of comfy spots!

We finally made it back home after 10 weeks on the road. It was a great trip. But like the song by Frank Sinatra goes, "It's oh, so nice to go trav'ling But it's so much nicer to come home." Certainly the dogs would agree. They are both thrilled to have their beautiful grassy back yard qnd their doggy door back. Taffy is back on squirrel watch! Today we took them both in for grooming and little Riley got his first "big boy" haircut and looks like the little stud he is. One cute puppy! We'll be home for about a week before we head for the lake to launch our sailboat for summer.

It's a relatively long run from Grand Junction, Colorado to Boise Idaho, our final purposeful stop on this 10 week trip. We decided to break it into three equal legs, the first of which took us out to Richfield Utah and the second which takes us north past Salt Lake City, UT to Tremonton, UT. The snow capped mountains of Utah which border Highway 15 heading north provided a scenic itinerary.

Our final major scenic stop on this spring National Parks tour is the incomparable Colorado National Monument located in Grand Junction, Colorado just over the state line from Utah in western Colorado. The area was first explored by John Otto, who settled in Grand Junction in the early 20th century and established as Colorado National Monument on May 24, 1911. We drove the scenic Rim Rock Drive which winds along the plateau and affords many, many fantastic photo opportunities, some of which I have posted here on a large format photo gallery.

Continuing our string of high adventure days, on Sunday we took a jet boat tour on the Colorado River run by Moab Jett. We were provided with waterproof windbreaker jackets and life jackets. We departed around 11 am - the tour lasts about 2 hours and covers about 15 miles of the Colorado River as it winds its way at speeds as high as 40 mph through the magnificent scenery of central Utah and turns around at Red Cliffs Ranch. The scenery along the way includes spectacular cliffs, buttes and mesas, as well as indigenous wildlife like the bighorn sheep, which we spotted on several occasions. Be sure to visit our large format photo gallery for all our Moab Adventures.

Today we signed up for a group tour in which we rented and drove our own UTV or Utiity Terrain Vehicle. It was a Can Am Commander, an impressive extreme off road vehicle. I never imagined you could drive over some of the extreme terrain our guide led us through. The trail was called Hell's Revenge and for good reason. The off road portion of the tour was about 2 hours with a couple brief stops, plus 10 minutes on the street to get to the trail entrance and 10 minutes back. We glimpsed some excellent vistas as we made our way through the canyons. You can see a bunch of other photos and a video on the blog photo gallery

After leaving Dead Horse Point State Park we continued on the road into Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands offers many spectacular overlooks across deep canyons, often resembling the Grand Canyon in their depth and scope with the Colorado River far below.

On Saturday we drove down to Canyonlands National Park. First turn off before Canyonlands is the road to Dead Horse Point State Park. Towering 2,000 feet above the Colorado River, Dead Horse Point State Park provides an awesome overlook of the canyons below where the river makes a steep bend similar to Horseshoe Bend at Lake Powell.

Just outside the town of Moab is Arches National Park. Today we reserved a "timed entry" to take the 36 miles scenic drive (roundtrip) through Arches. We pulled into scenic overlooks and vista points to view many famous sites including park avenue, courthouse towers, balanced rock, skyline arch, delicate arch, devils garden and the iconic double arch. The photo at the right is of Libby and me standing at the scenic overlook at a spot called Balanced Rock. The top rock which stands 55 feet above the base it appears to be balanced on top of. I took many excellent photos of Arches, which can be viewed on the blog photo gallery.

We arrived in Moab, Utah, one of two prime destinations on this trip. This place is billed as Adventure Capital of the USA and *the* place for outdoor enthusiasts. Options include hiking, fishing, rafting, horseback riding, mountain biking. ATV and dirt bikes, canyoneering, ballooning, and skydiving just to name a few. See this page for 59 Fun Things to Do in Moab, Utah. Fortunately there is plenty of fun to be had for senior citizens as well... We'll be taking scenic drives through Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dead Horse Point State Park and other colossal area highlights and enjoying some of the fun eateries and nightlife in this exciting town.

To add to our appreciation of Native American Culture we left Albuquerque and drove about an hour west to the Sky City Hotel & Casino which also has an RV park. This is located just 20 minutes from the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak'u Museum which is located in the Acoma Pueblo. The Acoma Pueblo itself is not open to visitors due to continuing Covid restrictions to protect the indigenous elders. Libby and I are standing in the courtyard behind the museum and above our heads along the ridge are the ancient pueblos, dating back to 1150 A.D. and the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America. More photos as always on the photo gallery

On Friday we bid farewell to Santa Fe and drove an hour SW to Albuquerque to attend the Gathering of Nations Festival on Saturday. The Gathering of Nations is the largest pow-wow in North America. Pow wows, by definition, are Native American gatherings in which American Indians sing, dance, reconnect with old friends and celebrate their rich ancestral histories. Over 565 tribes from around the U.S. and 220 from Canada travel to Albuquerque to participate.

After Monument Valley, Utah we drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I've always wanted to visit this legendary town, end point of the Santa Fe Trail, a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is known for its history, architecture, culture, SW art and fine dining. We were primarily interested in the history and architecture.. and to a lesser extent museums and not particularly at all in fine dining. The architecture of Santa Fe is predominantly what is known as pueblo revival style, also referred to sarcastically as "Santa Fake," which is very popular in this area though we did not find it particularly interesting.

Just past Mexican Hat is the turnoff from Hwy 163 into the Valley of the Gods. This is another 17 mile gravel road maintained by the the Bureau of Land Management, which meanders through a smaller version of Monument Valley. This time we decided we could take our own vehicle as the road was reportedly not that rough. We saw many interesting rock formations, some of which are featured on the photo gallery. Unlike the more distant views of the more massive Monument Valley, this is a more intimate experience where you drive around and through this fascinating terrain.

Today we drove some 20 miles to Mexican Hat. Located on the Navajo Indian Reservation near where the San Juan River crosses through the area, the layers of this memorable rock formation were initially formed hundreds of millions of years ago by the rising and falling sea levels of an ancient marine environment. The flat terrain was then uplifted during an intense mountain-building event occurring between 35 to 80 million years ago which formed numerous minor anticlines on the crest of southeastern Utah’s Monument Upwarp, the predominant geological structural feature of southwestern Utah. Mexican Hat’s 60-foot diameter caprock is comprised of Cedar Mesa sandstone - the base is red siltstone and shale

There is a popular 17 mile scenic drive through the Valley floor which starts up at the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The Navajo Name for Monument Valley is Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii... we'll just call it Monument Valley :-). While visitors can choose to drive their own car on the drive, the road is pretty rough and we elected to take a guided Jeep tour. Our guide Paul with Monument Valley Tours showed us many sights on the drive, many of which are ONLY accessible to tribal members and not to the general public. Libby and I are posed with West Mitten Rock in the background. Besides the many more great photos on our gallery page, I have created a special page of large format photos of some of the many wondrous sights in Monument Valley.

Today is my birthday and we have checked a major item off the ole bucket list. Monument Valley, Utah. We are halfway thru our two month spring adventure and Gouldings Campground in Monument Valley will be our home for six nights. This is the spectacular view from our windshield where we stand parked in our campsite. I will be posting many more gorgeous photos on our gallery page.

Today we arrived at what has been the focal point of this grand tour of the Utah National Parks. Monument Valley is known for the iconic towering sandstone buttes of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The park, a frequent filming location for Western movies, particularly many of the epic John Ford Westerns of the 1940's and 50's, is accessed by the looping, 17-mile Valley Drive. The famous, steeply sloped buttes can be viewed from the road or from numerous sceniuc overlooks such as this spectacular example at John Ford’s Point.

Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped landmark formed by the Colorado River, just downstream from Glen Canyon Dam and about 9 miles from Lake Powell. It is sometimes referred to as the 'east rim of the Grand Canyon'. This is a very popular tourist stop and there were hundreds of tourists hiking the .7 mile path down from the parking lot to the scenic overlook point. We hiked down with the two dogs and got some some nice photos.

Today we arranged for a one hour boat tour up into the narrow end of Antelope Canyon on Lake Powell. We boarded a covered pontoon boat which carried about 35 tourists. Interestingly enough, the pontoon boat is owned by a tour company out of Troutdale, Oregon back in our nexk of the woods in the Columbia River Gorge, We had a little Navajo girl named Taylor who was the tour guide. This photo is taken off the front of the boat up the canyon as the walls narrowed. It was a nice warm day... I was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts.

Here we are enjoying margaritas and guacamole in the late afternoon on our patio beside the coach, with the dogs alongside, enjoying the view. (That is just a sliver of the full wide angle view off the back of the coach as shown below.

Just 73 miles east of Kanab, Utah, we crossed back into the NW corner of Arizona briefly where we set up camp near the town of Page, Arizona. We have 5 nights reserved at Antelope Point RV Park & Marina, a brand new RV park in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Our space #31 (circled in yellow) backs right up to this scenic overlook. The area is popular for boating on Lake Powell and for ATV off road recreation. There are lots of sights to enjoy in this area and of course we have a boat tour on Lake Powell booked for Wednesday - it leaves from the marina just down the hill.

Today we visited and toured the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. This is the largest sanctuary of its kind in the U.S., durrently housing some 1500 animals on 4200 acres. Best Friends has become the heart of a collaborative no-kill movement, and a model for the future of animal welfare. We got a complementary van tour throughout the property and visited horses and donkeys, dogs and cats, pigs and goats. We also saw the shelters for birds, rabbits, reptiles and other critters as well.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is located in Southwest Utah and covers some two million acres, an area the size of the state of Delaware. It is separated into three distinct districts, the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau and the Escalante Canyons. The town of Kanab is located in the southwest corner of the region and our RV Park is located just a few miles from the Johnson Canyon cutoff which afforded us a number of excellent views of some of the unique rock formations in the Monument area. We drove the 20 miles drive up and passed this sign enroute. I have posted more than a dozen photos I took on our Grand Staircase gallery page.

We arrived at the Grand Plateau RV Resort in Kanab, Utah in the late afternoon where we will settle in for 4 days and take in some of the marvelous sights in this part of Utah. The Grand Plateau RV Resort is Kanab's newest RV Park and is still in development. It is well located just a couple miles from downtown Kanab and close to many popular attractions. We have a nice spot just below a scenic rock formation. That's Libby with the two dogs standing in front of our Dodge SUV. More photos of historic Kanab on our gallery page.

Certainly no first time visit to this part of Utah would be complete without a visit to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. We visited those two world famous sites some years ago and both are seared into our memories... both are fantastic and should not be missed. And this blog would be incomplete without at least an honorable mention of these two Utah highlights. But this trip was focused on other parts of southwestern Utah we had not visited before. Readers of this blog planning a trip to Utah should definitely plan to include both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks on their itinerary. Both are fabulous and are uniquely different experiences.

Next after the Virgin River Gorge we drove thru St George, Utah, a nice town of about 100K residents many of whom are blessed with spectacular views like the Pine Valley Mountains, a mountain range in Washington County. The highest point in the range is Signal Peak at 10,365 feet.

We drove the 4 hours or so from Las Vegas to our next stop in Kanab, Utah. We drove along the Virgin River Gorge scenic highway for about 45 minutes... Stunning!

We spent three days in sunny San Diego. We had some rain, but the last day and a half were lovely. We visited with son Tim and Kristin and the two boys. Today we moved on to Las Vegas, arriving at Las Vegas RV Resort on Nellis Ave in East LV. We'll see some sites, maybe take in a show on the strip and visit old friend Don Allen who lives here. We are looking forward to the clear sunny weather.

After Long Beach we drove down I-405 and I-5 to San Diego to visit the grand kids who are living with their parents and maternal grandparents in San Diego this year. We reserved a spot at Admiral Baker RV Campground where we have stayed before back in 2019, a very nice quiet RV Park close to the kids sp they could come over and play in the park and on the play structures. It is also less expensive than most because of its focus on the military. The dogs love it here because of the park-like grounds and it borders on a golf course. We'll be here three days before we head on to Las Vegas.

Riley looks pretty despondent here hanging his head over the edge of the dining booth. Not much fun going out to play in this stuff! Where's this much publicized sunny southern So Cal? I guess this is truly what you would call a "hang dog" look.

Golden Shore RV Resort in Long Beach by the harbor where we have stayed before, is a very nice RV Park when the weather is good, however we hit another of southern California's endless atmospheric rivers this year and the park is prone to flooding and is pretty messy in the rain. It is a real challenge with two dogs that hate the rain. We were glad to move on to San Diego and drier weather today.

As we made our way down to Playa Del Rey from Woodland Hills on the San Diego Freeway (I-405) we were reminded of why we love living in the Pacific Northwest and why we could never go back to California. This was the traffic, 12 lanes of it, on a Saturday, no less.

Today we arrived at the MPTF - Motion Picture & Television Fund, in Woodland Hills, California, a 3-stage retirement home for seniors in the Motion Picture and Television Industry. Based on my 20+ years as an actor in Hollywood, I applied for potential residence here as a possible future option. I was accepted, so we stopped in for a tour of the facilities. They gave us permission to park our motorhome in the back lot for a couple nights. They strung out an electric cord for us and it's a nice quiet spot to park for a couple nights. The dogs sure enjoyed it... we were right next to a nice little fenced doggie park. That's Libby over the fence holding Riley with Taffy standing beside her.

One of Libby's favorite memories as a kid was her family trips to Pea Soup Andersens, the iconic California restaurant known worldwide for its great pea soup. There are two locations - one in the Danish town of Solvang in southern California and the other in Santa Nella in central Cal. We chose Santa Nella for a layover on our way south and of course we had to pay homage to Pea Soup Andersens. I had not visited in decades myself, so it was a treat for both of us.

Today after more than 10 days delay we finally crossed over the Siskiyou Summit into Northern California. The snow has completely melted off the road and travel was effortless, as we like it! It has been a challenge to find the right weather window, but today was the day. We had overnighted in Medford and awoke to a warm sunny day, perfect for the task at hand. As we rolled through the Siskiyous we passed Mt Shasta as we have so many times, but this year there was more snow up there than we have seen before. Always a beautiful sight to behold.

We drove over to Fern Ridge Shores in Veneta where we have our Vilano 5th Wheel. It is still winterized so we won't stay there yet. But we have the sailboat on its trailer covered next to Vilano (in blue) and we moved our Sun Tracker pontoon boat over to our space. Our neighbors who were gone for the winter let us store the Sun Tracker under their large carport. But since they will be back in April and we won't be back til late May, we moved the boat and after watching some videos, installed the factory cover that it came with. It took a little while to figure it out but it fits nice and taut and should provide good protection unti we come back.

Taffy and Riley are getting along pretty well, given that Riley is just a young pup and full of piss and vinegar. Taffy has to put him in his place multiple times a day and we have created a fenced off "time-out area" when Riley doesn't take the hint. Taffy is meanwhile petitioning that we buy Riley a new wardrobe like the T-shirt on the right. Heheh. We are urging Taffy to be patient... puppies do grow up eventually.

We have been watching the weather forecasts closely for the past couple weeks, trying to pinpoint the right day to head south. We can no longer leave Wednesday. Big storms coming again so we are posponing our departure to March 15. Our first stop will be Eugene for 2 days while we test all systems in the motorhome which has been winterized and in storage all winter. Fingers Crossed!!! Then if everything checks out, we will make the fateful decision whether to head due south on I-5 and cross over Siskiyou Pass into California... or... if the mountain roads look slippery, to avoid the altitude and head over to the Oregon coast and then head south on Hwy 101.

Well we finally went and did it. Libby has been all over the block for months now about whether or not to get another dog. We were watching for a westie, but Schnauzer is another Terrier breed which are very fond of. When Lbby and I got together I had a mini Schnauzer named Sammy. Sammy lived to age 14 and after he passed away we got Gracie, our first of 3 Westies. Then came Corey and now Taffy and now we have circled back around to Schnauzers. We have named him Riley. He's a 3 1/2 months old AKC wheaten color mini Schnauzer... and judging from his parents he will probably reach twice his current size, something close to Taffy's size. Cute little dickens. He was great on the hour ride home in the car... he's enamored with Taffy and seems to feel right at home here at the house. He should be fine in the motorhome.

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon than browsing online and planning our spring travel destinations. We leave March 9 and head south in our Miramar motorhome towing our Dodge Durango on leg 1 of our journey, driving down through California and stopping in Ojai briefly to visit some very dear friends, and then a quick stop in San Diego. On leg 2 of our journey we'll continue east enroute to Austin TX. Next we'll head north to Santa Fe and Taos NM and then continue west to Monument Valley UT. From there we'll continue north on leg 3 of our journey visiting Mesa Verde National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado National Monument, all in Colorado. Then back over to Utah to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands in Moab. From there up thru Salt Lake City, Boise ID, and home. We'll return home in mid May and continue the fun spending the summer in Eugene OR, sailing Fern Ridge Lake and doing some backroads touring in the MG. To gear up for the trip, I created a pre-travel photo album of many of the key sites.

If you have not visited this blog recently, you might want to have a look back at our 2022 RV Log which depicts our lifestyle as we continued our RV and boating activities even though the COVID-19 pandemic continued to limit activities. The 2022 Travelogue features photos like the ones at the right and many more. Left to right and top to bottom those thumbnail photos are our Vilano 5th Wheel, MG Adventures, our new Miramar Motorcoach, Joe sailing, the Anne Marie sailing, Libby & Taffy sailing, MGB travels, Taffy and Poe, and the Blokart I tried..

Windseeker 2022 Northwest Travelogue

Previous Windseeker Travelogues 2012-2022:
Select another Windseeker page from the dropdown menu  :   2022:  Windseeker VI  Miramar - Western Travels 2022 2021:  Windseeker VI  Miramar - Western Travels 2021 2020:  Windseeker V  Forester - Western Travels 2020 2019:  Windseeker V  Forester - Western Travels 2019 2018:  Windseeker V  Forester - Western Travels 2017-18 2016:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - Eastern Tour - PART II 2016:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - Eastern Tour - PART I 2015:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - National Tour - PART II 2015:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - National Tour - PART I 2014:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - Western Tour 2013:  Windseeker II  Country Coach - Western Tour 2012:  Windseeker I  Gulf Stream - Northwest Tour 2011:  Windseeker I  Gulf Stream - Shakedown Cruise 2010:  our first RV - Ford F250 with Lance Camper ---------------------------------