RV Park Mini Reviews - March 2018

San Benito Thousand Trails - Paicines, CA:  This was our second trip to San Benito, and it has become one of my favorites.  It is the wildlife and the setting that attracts me.  This time we stayed in the 30 amp section, site 75, which backed up onto the creek.  We had deer visit our site each morning.  We spotted wild pigs and just got a glimpse of one of the bobcats in a tree.  The parade of quails scurrying back and forth is always entertaining.  I hung a bird feeder from a nearby tree.  It took a few days but soon the sparrows, finches, flickers, scrub jays and so on came to visit.  We had neighbors with hummingbird feeders so we were able to enjoy these as well.  This is what draws me to this park.

We had a decent Verizon signal for our wifi and phones.  The free wifi at the club house was pretty good as well.  We were able to get good satellite signal for Direct TV but have patience when setting it up.  This campground is surrounded by hills and the signal tends to bounce around.  The "cafe" is open at the clubhouse on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for dinner, and I think daily for breakfast and lunch.  The food was pretty good.  We aren't activity people so we did not spend much time doing any of the activities offered at the park.  We didn't check out the bathhouses either.

One of the topics that often comes up in relation to this park is whether or not to take Highway 25 going from the park, or coming from the south.  My opinion is this - it's doable, but most people would find it stressful.  It is a 2 lane road, narrow in many places, and there are a lot of twists and turns.  I certainly wouldn't want to take this if I were driving a big motor home or pulling a rig.  We opted to do a "Sunday drive" to check it out, and I was glad we did.  We took the loop around, picking up Highway 101 in Hollister, taking that south, and then heading east at King City, and then taking Highway 25 north back to Paicines.  It was a very pretty drive.  If you like the pretty drive thing, try take a right when you exit the park.  Cienga Way goes through and comes in at the back side of Hollister.  It takes longer than going through Tres Pinos, but it was a different view.

Lake Minden Thousand Trails - Nicolaus, CA:  Okay, this was not my favorite park.  There are two sections - the 50 amp full hook ups that are near the office, and then the 30 amp W&E only on the other side of the lake.  Things are tight in the 50 amp section.  Sites are larger in the 30 amp section.  The positives about this park are that the staff is great.  The restrooms were clean.  It was a nice walk around the lake.  The setting was nice.  If you have kids, there was so much open space for them to run around and play.  I'm a bit hesitant to talk about what I didn't like about the park.  It rained most of the time we were there.  It appeared that greater than 75% of the park was made up of long term residents.  One gal I spoke to told me that many of the people in the park were there because they had been misplaced due to the fires and flooding that had occurred in the area over the past year.  The whole place just had a "trailer park" type feel.  People walked through your site.  It just wasn't a place I really wanted to return to.  I was glad when the week I had planned there was up. Now all that said, I have since talked with other people who love the park.  They visited when the weather was more cooperative.  We may try again, but will only plan on staying for a few days.  I did like exploring the area, driving around Yuba City and down to Marysville.  It is an easy drive to explore Sacramento if that appeals to you.  I have pictures of the surrounding area on the post titled March Pictures.  I was so glad to get out of the park that I forgot to take pictures of our site, but here is a picture of one of the more interesting resident.

Another travel note here, when we left Lake Minden headed north, we stayed on Highway 99.  What a nice easy and lovely drive!

JGW RV Park - Redding, CA:  This is one of my go to parks when traveling north or south.  One of the reasons we stop here, over and above the easy off and on from I-5, the setting on the river and the fact that it is a nice clean quiet park, is that they have a great on-site laundromat.  After a week without a sewer hook up at Lake Minden, I had a bunch of laundry to do.  I didn't take any pictures this time around but you can see our previous stay by clicking here .

Seven Feathers RV Resort - Canyonville, OR:  Another favorite place to overnight.....or more.  The park is beautifully laid out and landscaped.   They have a free shuttle to the casino (and free dry camping in the casino parking lot).  There are laundry facilities and an indoor pool and spa at the RV Resort.  This is a popular place, so reservations are recommended.

Brookhollow RV Park - Kelso, WA:  And here we have yet another of my favorite overnight spots.  This is a well run park.  Easy access from I-5.  Far enough away from the freeway that noise is not an issue. Plenty of shopping and restaurants within 1-2 miles.

Tall Chief RV Park - Fall City, WA:  This is an Encore Park, owned by the same parent company that owns Thousand Trails, namely Equity Lifestyle Properties.  We hadn't stayed in this park in about ten years, which means it was probably more like twenty years - because I am of that age that it seems like yesterday and I'm always shocked about how long ago it really way.  At any rate, the primary benefit of this park is location, location, location.  Depending on traffic, this park puts you 30 - 60 minutes from Seattle.  The park if basically a piece of forest land near Issaquah - a bedroom community for Seattle and Bellevue.  The sites are good sized.  It has 30 amp electric, however, the voltage dips when the park is full...or when rather your loop is full.  Satellite spots are hit and miss.  Husband and I grew up in Western Washington, and for the last 25 years have lived about 40 miles from this park.  That explains why I don't have much to contribute about touristy things.  We didn't do much of anything.  We stay here primarily because of family in the area.  What I do want to share is that if you don't want to drive into Issaquah or Redmond to grocery shop, there is a very nice Albertson's store less than 5 miles from the park.  And I found a fabulous laundromat in Carnation, with big machines and attendants that keep the place very clean!

Note:  I have been struggling with this blogging program, when it comes to uploading pictures.  I'm not sure if it is our internet access which is slow - although it has been slow for the last 5 months and all up and down the west coast.  Or is that because I am no longer participating in blogger's advertising program that they have downgraded my priority.  Am I posting too many pictures?  Or is it just that blogging has become such a popular thing to do that blogger's servers are overwhelmed?  Or is it an Apple vs Google thing.  I don't know.  I don't really care.  I just know that it is frustrating for me, and for the six people that routinely read this blog - it is not worth the effort to figure it out.  However, because I write this blog as much for my own enjoyment as a way of documenting our experiences as I do to provide information for those surfing the internet for information on RVing, I attempting to learn to work with Word Press and moving the blog to our own domain.  The name of the blog will be changing to Northwest Travelers.  So stay tuned.

Born Again RV Virgins

Our grandson just celebrated his 4th birthday, which means it was 4 years ago that we were summoned home from our first long RV journey by his mother, who had been put on bed rest for the last 3 weeks of her pregnancy.  Choosing to opt to be our grandson's primary daycare providers, we put off our travel plans.  Just when we were about ready to start to think about hitting the road again, along came Grandson #1's brother.  We put in another 15 months as Grandma and Grandpa Daycare when our daughter found a "regular" daycare that met the criteria that she, my husband (Kim) and I were happy with.

We started formulating plans to leave March 1st, planned the itinerary, and started making lists.  I had forgotten how much work it is to load up the rig.  I'll let Kim post about all his work in prepping the rig itself.

Day One - We actually departed on time, waving good bye to our house sitters who were there to make sure we cleared the driveway without running over the boulders that line the driveway.  We had a short drive to Kelso, WA.  We stayed at a nice little park called Brookhollow RV Park.  Easy access about one mile off I-5.  $35 a night for full hook up.  We had stayed there on our way home four years ago.  You can see the pictures and read my review of that park here:

http://rv-virgins.blogspot.com/2010/02/back-in-washington.html

A couple of snags the first day.  The ABS light came on in the truck.  It is something that we will check out when we get to the Santa Cruz area where we will be for 5 days.  Research showed that even if the light comes on, the brakes are still working.  The other thing was that the propane sensor decided to shriek.  Not sure why this happened and there was some relief in remembering that it does this from time to time.  Perhaps it was just annoyed that we woke it up after a 4 year nap.  Who knows.  It stopped after we pushed the mute button, and we turned off the propane furnace just to be safe.  Thank God for space heaters and electric hook ups.

Day Two - We left only 5 minutes after our planned time of departure.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I'm the straggler.  I'm up early, but by the time I've done my morning spiritual reading and journalling, had some breakfast, and am starting to get ready to think about showering and getting dressed, Kim is up and chomping at the bit.  Oy vey.  Aren't we on vacation?  In an effort to keep the peace, I did a few things two months prior to our departure that I hope will help.  First, I cut off my hair.  This was not a big deal for me.  I had worn my hair very short for years.  In my late 40s, I decided to start growing it out.  A mid life thing?  Not sure, but I did it.  Even when it was long, there was not much styling involved.  There was, however, lots of time involved in washing and drying.  I am now sporting a short wash and wear hair style.   That cut (pun intended) about 30 minutes off my prep time.  The other thing I did, and I'm kicking myself for not doing this years and years and years ago is waxing.  I'm almost 60 years old now, and I experienced waxing my legs and underarms for the first time in January.  OMG, what a difference.  Not having to fuss with that aspect of my morning routine is such a blessing.  My first wax experienced lasted close to 2 months.  I'm sure part of that is my age.  The older you are, the slower the hair on your legs grows.  I wish I could say the same of underarm hair.  The underarm waxing lasts 2-3 weeks for me.  So worth the momentary discomfort of the waxing experience.  I'm glad I tried it out early so I knew what to expect.  We should make it to Phoenix before I will be looking for another wax job.

So groomed and on the road with a happy husband (not only that we were off pretty much on time, but the ABS light was no longer on) we headed south on I-5.  If you are going through the Portland, Oregon area and have no reason to stop in Portland, take I-205.  It bypasses all of the downtown area and its awful traffic.  (Does every big city have awful traffic?) It is so much better than driving through Portland.  We stopped for diesel just south of Salem, paying $3.99 a gallon at a Flying J station.  The drive was very relaxed and smooth.  Roundabout Rhonda (our GPS) took us on a different route from the one I had intended.  She took us off I-5, down Hwy 99 E (yes, I know, odd numbered highways should go north and south, but this is what it was called), to Hwy 36, then connecting with Hwy 126 into Florence. Oh well, we saw places we wouldn't have seen otherwise.  Lots of sheep farming followed by some delightful tree lined two lane highway, with very low hanging branches.  Very glad we cleared them and our AC unit is still intact.  It was a very pretty drive.  We had done it before, just picking up Hwy 126 in Eugene.

We arrived at Heceta Beach RV Park relatively early, before 3pm.  We had stayed here before as well.  You can read about our experiences by clicking here:

http://rv-virgins.blogspot.com/2010/02/fortuna-and-florence.html

It is much the same as I remembered it.  Nice check in experience.  $36 per night for full hook up.  We couldn't get the DirecTV dish to cooperate, so we utilized the free TV cable so that I could watch The Oscars.  Ellen DeGeneres did a great job of hosting, and the musical numbers were great.  I am definitely going to have to watch The Dallas Buyers Club here sometime soon.

It was rainy and windy when we arrived.  Not a surprise if you are from the Pacific Northwest.  We are on the coast and it is March.  It would be more shocking if it were anything but windy and rainy.  What I love about this park are the pyimydalis arborvitae shrubs between the sites.  Great for privacy and in this case, great for wind block.

Tomorrow we are off to Crescent City.  This will be about 185 miles straight down Hwy 101.  Hopefully, an easy day.

Back in Washington

We took Highway 126 from Florence, Oregon, over to I-5 at Eugene.  This is a 45 mile stretch of road that is absolutely lovely.  We hooked up with I-5, and decided to try the I-205 route around Portland.  OMG - I can't believe I've never taken this road before.  If you are driving north or south on I-5, and don't need to stop in Portland, this loop around the city is a must!

We pulled into Brookhollow RV Park - another gem - in a lovely setting with large paved, and level pull through sites.

We hadn't unhooked the truck from the rig since we left Jamul.  Today was the day because we wanted to look around the area.  My grandparent's home was here and this is where my dad grew up and attended high school.  Things have definitely changed since I was last here in the 1960s.