“Where is that, you’ve never mentioned it before?” you well might ask. As I’ve said many times before, travel plans should always be written in sand, below the high water mark; and here’s why.
As promised we’ve been keeping an eye on road and weather conditions and proceeding cautiously. Somewhat determined to stick to our itinerary (after all, booking reservations isn’t all that much fun; never mind having to cancel and rebook them), we pressed on as planned yesterday to get to Columbia Riverfront. We headed out early this morning; destination Seven Feathers RV park, just outside Canyonville (which is north of the dreaded Siskiyou Pass). We hoped to get there early and give Maddie a good walk, enjoy a hot tub soak and a swim and then relax as tomorrow was to be a run of 265 miles.
This morning was one of our usual starts; plan to leave at 0730 hrs. and get up early so we could. But, as usual it was 0820 hrs. before we pulled out. No problem as we always allow extra time… (things learned over the years:-). We then carried on down the road, stopped for fuel, carried on south bound and, about 1100ish stopped at a rest stop to stretch all our legs. Maddie was doing pretty well but was starting to offer her opinion from time to time so it was, indeed, time to stop. Again, as planned, we made lunch and went for a walk. just as we were about to leave and head to Canyonville, we met a guy who had a Casita 17, just like our Lucy. It wasn’t just any old Casita…it was a 2022!! And it was shiny new. The good news is, Lucy didn t look much older (she is 2001) and so we had a quick chat with him about trailers and destinations. Just as he was leaving, heading south as well, he said he was pressing on to get over the Siskiyou Pass as it was forecasting snow there for tomorrow and the next day. Well, didn’t that throw a wrench into our plans. Even though we are devotees to Windy (our favourite weather predictor) our ears are always open to other news and, armed with this most recent news, we had a team meeting to discuss our options.
After considering all options, including the one where we get snowed in for several days on the wrong side of the pass, we decided to press on; and press on we did. We took turns at the wheel and while one was driving the other was researching places to stay. We decided to give up our reservation at Seven Feathers ☹️and get ourselves over the pass and into California before the snow started 😃. During our drive we saw the temperature drop to 0 and then come back up to 7 (that’s Celsius of course) and by the time we had negotiated the very busy highway, the multitudes of huge transport trucks and other folks rushing to get somewhere (and who obviously should have left home earlier) and kept our little rig to an appropriate and safe speed, adjusting lanes as required to avoid certain death by crushing (between vehicles)…. we found ourselves at tonight’s location; Mountain Gate RV Park, situated just off the highway about 17 miles north of Redding, CA.
Some of you will want to ask why we don’t just pull over into a rest stop or Walmart parking lot for the night - instead of driving for ten hours (the longest we’ve ever driven I might add). The answer is simple. Little Lucy (our trailer) came to us from Las Vegas. She has a great air conditioning unit but she does not have a heating system. This means that, in cold weather, we choose to plug in so we can run our little electric heater and keep from freezing to death over night. Asked and answered.
So, tonight we are in a nice little RV Park, enjoying clear skies and brilliant stars. You know, if we hadn’t pressed on, it would be snowing on us… oh yes it would. We three will sleep well tonight and tomorrow we press on to Corning where we will relax for a couple days.
We have added a few photos from our drive today, including Maddie and her travel crate (still working 🤞).
Will check in again in a couple days. Stay well everyone… CJ. Photos by Kathy
