Quincy CA. July 2014

Last month I said I would tell you about the High Sierra Music Festival but first I need to tell you about where we are in Quincy consisting of about 5,500 people.  You can add an additional 10,000 when the festival is in full swing. The campground is about 300 yards from the county fairgrounds where the festival is held. We have county land on three sides of us and as you can see in the first two pictures, it is an open area with trees. The festival started the afternoon of July 3rd. Starting in the morning the festival goers are allowed to camp in the area around the fairgrounds which turns into tent city in about three hours. The county has gone thru and marked off walking lanes prior to this  because once they start setting up tents, it's wall to wall as
you can see in the next two pictures. Some of these
people just come and set up a little pop-up shelter to sleep
in for four days and others set up a home that

consist of a large tent, patio, furniture and a wet bar. Of course their bars would put any home bar to shame. There's no lack of alcohol here. There is no electric or water so they have to bring everything in with them.

It was amazing that with this many people in this small area that there weren't any real problem or noise. They bring in portable fencing and provide security and everyone just has a good time. There are also many porta-potties brought in. I hate to think what those were like after four days.

At the fairgrounds they have three stages set up and the music starts at 11 AM and goes until late at night. The first night it was after 2 AM. They have bands from all over but none we have heard of. The music ranged from blue grass to rock and head banger stuff. The people attending were dressed in everything from tie-dye to feather boas to wedding dresses (saw two guys with these). Even saw a girl wearing two large band aids for a top. No I didn't stare (Holly was with me) but I do know that they weren't Sponge Bob Square Pants band aids!

There were a lot of food venders and merchandise for sale.  The owners of the park bought all of the volunteers a one-day pass so we could go and enjoy the festival. Holly and I went on Saturday and had lunch and walked around for a little while but it was so hot we decided to head back home and go back later when it cooled off.  After all was said and done, everyone had a good time, the town of Quincy returned to normal, and we enjoyed the experience.

We took a day trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park which is about two hours north of us. It has one of the largest domed volcanoes around. There are some areas that have boiling mud pits and you do smell the sulfur.  It takes about an hour to just drive thru the park and the road is extremely curvy with switch backs and you get up over 8000 feet.  

We took the dogs along and Holly packed a lunch. We took our time and enjoyed the scenery and had a nice lunch by one of the many lakes in the area.

There were waterfalls and streams throughout the park. The lakes were just beautiful. We had a very nice day trip and the dogs always love it when we take them along.

Holly has her bird bath, bird feeder and humming

bird feeder set up out back of the motor home. Here are a couple of our regular visitors. So interesting to sit out side and watch these little birds feed.

Well, that's all for now. Guess I'll hum a little tune and fly out of here. See you next month.

Quincy, CA. June 2014

We have arrived! We are now in Quincy, California at Pioneer RV Park. It's a very nice and well maintained park and has 62 full hook up sites. The owners were happy to see us since we were a few days late due to some delays at home. They knew we were running a little behind but were worried about us arriving  all the way from Michigan.

The office is also the owners home. It's nice having the owners on site. There hasn't been any problems but if there were, we know where to find them.

We work three consecutive days a week for three hours a day (8:30-11:30). We clean the grounds/sites daily and the laundry room and club house once a week. The biggest thing with the grounds is the campground is full of pine trees and the squirrels LOVE the green cones. By the time they are done stripping them, the ground is a mess.We only work in the morning because the owners don't want us working when it is hot, which is most afternoons. As an added bonus we get ice cream at the end of our shift....can't beat that!

We have a nice site. It's very large and has some really tall pine trees. We have plenty of room for us and the dogs. There's another couple here who work the other three days each week and no one works on Sunday. In July we swap days and then back every month so no one gets stuck on the same days forever.

Our first real taste of Quincy was a car show at the fair grounds which is right behind the park. There were some really nice rides there and we even saw some that we used to own like a "56" Ford and a "55" Chevy. There was even a Jeep that was all decked out with grenades and a machine gun. I'm just wondering if the gun is an option I can get for ours.

Quincy is a small town. How small you ask? Well let me tell you,  the closest Walt-mart is 70 miles away. We go to Reno Nevada to shop. Of course there are plenty of casinos there to help make the trip bearable. We've been out and about like we like to do. We are in the Sierra Nevada mountains at about 3500 feet so there is a lot of great scenery to see.

Ruby, the newest member of our family, found out that she loves the water. We could tell by the way that she was pawing at it that she had never been near a river or stream before. It was so fun to watch her explore this new thing that she found. That is the great things about dogs; they are always full of surprises and are always good for a laugh.

This is a shot of Mount Lassen.  It is a plugged dome volcano that last erupted in 1917 (we hope it stays that way). It is in Lassen Volcanic National Park and we plan on making this one of our day trips. The pine cones to the right are just a few that we have picked up. the little one in the middle is about the size of the ones we picked up in the campground on Tybee Island. The ones here in the park are not this big but they can be found all over here and we have found some even larger.

Yes, I've found some off-road trails and we've done some exploring. We've been on a few since we have been here and the best part is the owners of the park have given me some national forest maps showing all of the trails in this area. All I can say to that is "hang on Holly here we go".

Holly's sister Debbie drove down from Seattle to visit right after we arrived here. It is a 12 hour drive unless you make a wrong turn (and she did) then it turns into about 14 hours. It was really nice to see her again (she even brought a rhubarb pie, yum). We saw here some when we were on the Olympic Peninsula (she made great pies then too). We had a great visit and traveled around and did some sight seeing and even made a trip into Reno. She was here for a week and said she had a nice vacation. I don't think she has taken a vacation in years so we were happy to give her a chance to get away for a little while.

We took a ride down the Feather River Valley and came across this tunnel. We thought it was really cool to find this since we worked at Elephant Butte State Park. Just had to take a picture and send it to the rangers at the park.

California is now into 3 years of drought. As you can see by this picture the water is way down and most of these boats are houseboats. They are anchored. out in the lake because it is so shallow close to shore.

We found a train museum just down the road in Portola. You should know us by now, if there is a lighthouse or train museum around we will find it. No lighthouse yet but we are still looking. This is an old rail inspectors car. Boy those guys had it made back then. Four cylinders, convertible and no suspension.  Oh yeah, the good old days. Well, that's it for now. Can't wait to tell you about the High Sierra Music Festival. Be sure and stop back next month.  You won't want to miss this!

Home May 2014

I know, here it is June and I'm late with our blog again. Well I have a good excuse (at least I  think so). Last month you saw a picture of our new motor home. Well, it is not all fun and games. First we had to take everything out of the other one and we filled up half of the garage. That was the easy part. Then we had to sort through it and put back what we decided we needed into the new one. That only took forever and we are still trying to figure out where we put most of it. I think some stuff is just lost forever. I know it is in there somewhere...just not sure where.

Here are a couple of inside pictures.  It's still only 40 feet long but it is a bath and a half, it has a full size residential refrigerator and a dish washer, a stacked washer and dryer and four TV's (why four TV's I have no idea). It has a lot of storage underneath and it is a diesel pusher, which means the engine is in the back. It has air ride suspension and gets around eight mpg. I know that doesn't sound like much but the other one only got around 5 1/2 mpg. Remember, we are driving a house around.

Our granddaughter Mikayla, who is working at being a famous actress, was in the school play again this year. This year it was "Suessical" and she was one of the Wickershams (the best I might add). Very entertaining and the kids really worked hard at it as always.

Our other granddaughter Chloe had senior prom. When she is all dressed up she doesn't look half bad. Now if she would just learn to be nice to the boys she could have a boyfriend, but she says they are too much work.

We also got a new dog. Meet Ruby, she is a rescue dog (cairn terrier) and is very sweet. She has a couple of possession issues but seems to be getting better . She loves to travel and loves going on walks and meeting new people and dogs. She is single and likes to sit by the water and watch the waves come on shore and take naps. Oops...sorry, for a minute I thought this was the "dating game".

We were able to go to the famous Jenison Memorial Day parade. Our grandson Jason had a great time...here he is watching the fire trucks

Our granddaughter Chloe is now a graduate of Hudsonville  High School. It turned out to be a lot of work but she did it and we are so proud of her.

Here she is getting her diploma. The picture is a little fuzzy but she didn't slow down too long for fear of them changing their minds and taking it back.

Here are the three sister; Mikayla, Chloe and Brianna. Four more years and it will be Mikayla's turn.

The graduate and her very proud Grandparents. That's me on the left.

Well, after all of that we got loaded up and headed west. Across this great country of ours we traveled, stopping in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. In Wyoming we went to the old Territorial Prison. We took a little tour and saw their version of a RV. Not quite as comfy as ours but it made  it to it's destination most of the time.

Our stop in Utah was at Rockport State Park. We had a beautiful site over looking the lake and it was very relaxing. Our last stop was in Winnemucea, Nevada. Not real fancy but we did go to a casino and had a nice prime rib dinner and I managed to win a couple of bucks. We're now in Quincy, California getting settled in for the summer. Looks like it might be interesting. Stop back next month and see.

Florida Vacation 2014

After we left Tybee Island we decided we needed a vacation. I know you're asking "VACATION?". That's right, you have to remember we do work... not a lot, but it's nice to not have to get up and go to work. We tried a little off road but as you can see, Holly said turn right and I turned left. OK that's not ours; we took a little trip to Florida and went to Busch Gardens with our friends Jack and Lynn who live in North Fort Meyers. We had a great time just spending the day walking around and going to some of the shows. Jack went on most of the roller coasters and we cheered him on! Go Jack!

It turns out Sea World bought Busch Gardens so no Clydesdales and no beer samples. Oh well, we still had a good time.

I still don't know how this picture got in the middle of Busch Gardens. I think Brutus put it here. This is his friend from the campground where we stayed.  They ran across each other during one of his morning walks.

Here is Holly and Lynn sitting outside of the tiger exhibit. As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day.  After  a nice day at the park with great friends and a train ride we said goodbye to the flamingos and headed back to the campground.

Thank you Jack and Lynn for showing us such a good time. We loved spending time with you.

Before heading to Key Largo, we were also able to have dinner with our niece Catie who also lives in the Fort Myers area. We haven't seen her in years so we loved spending that time with her. 

After a short drive south we ended up at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo. After a relaxing evening we met up with our Michigan friends, Dave and Beth at Islamorada in the Keys. They go there every spring and we were lucky to be there at the same time they were. We particularly enjoyed visiting the Tiki bars on the beach, having a few drinks and watching the sun set. After enjoying our vacation it was time to head back to Michigan to see family and friends.

After getting  home we decided to go look at motor homes. As you can tell, this beauty sitting in the driveway is not our Suncruiser. We are now the proud owners of a Fleetwood Discovery diesel pusher. We spent the last week moving every thing out of the old one into the garage and then back into the new one. We think we have most of it back in and put away. Now we just have to remember where it all is.

Well, that's about all there is to tell for now. See you all next month.