Travels with The Rayman

After frolicking several days in the Mohawk Valley of California, we took our leave from the River’s Edge RV Park.  A lovely time was had by all.  Ruth and Tom left to return home to Avila.  Whether they make it or not is for the oddsmakers.  A very long trip with places to break it up along the way.

We on the other hand were headed north.  And our trip was complicated by the fact that Rayman had only 3 pills left to lower his cholesterol.  After an exhaustive search on the internet, it was determined that there was not a CVS between us and Portland via our intended route.  So…what we did was separate.  Rayman drove the Fit to Reno (highway 70 east to 395 south.  And I tootled in the Dog House to  Hallelujah Junction where a gas station with a large parking lot was found.  There I parked and waited for him to return with pills in hand.  We hooked up and off we went up 395.  Beautiful ride to Susanville where we stopped at the Safeway and shopped for provisions for our stay near the Lava Beds National Park.  Ray astutely drove through a valley of well paved roads with wide shoulders.  You know where I’m going with this?

After the Rayman got in the Express Lane at Safeway with $131 worth of grociers, he was duly embarrassed, just like me last week.  What’s with us anyway?   So busy are we looking for the shortest line that we do not look up to see the huge sign proclaiming “EXPRESS LANE – 15 ITEMS OR LESS”  that we continue to break the rules unintentionally.

But I digress.

When we left the parking lot of Safeway, we went the wrong way (don’t ask).  All I can say is that I was not the co-pilot.  I was driving.  So, we did a big circle around Susanville and headed straight up a very steep, narrow, curving road.  Miss a turn and we’d be lost for days at the bottom of the mountain.  And the grade just kept on and on.  My driving skills were duly tested.  This was highway 139.  And I don’t think I exaggerate when I say that Cal-Trans hasn’t been hard at work on this two lane highway, say, for at least 15 years.  Bumpy, cantankerous road.   When we finally peaked out, so to say,  the terrain leveled out as we drove along at about 5,000 feet elevation.  The pine trees look stunted, we think from a lack of rain.  As we drove by Eagle Lake, it looked like a giant mud puddle.   The area lacks tall mountains that gather snow so the lakes are still low.  Eagle Lake looks doomed.  As did a huge lake to the southeast of Susanville.  Honey Lake.  Oh, my.  Honey Lake looks like the Great Salt Lake.  A dry lake bed of sorts.  Perhaps there is water in it…we were a ways off to really see it but it looked like sand from a distance.

 

 

With Rayman at the wheel, we drove to our current location, Eagle’s Nest RV park.  Quite a place.  It sits off the road quite a distance.  We drove in and were expecting a typical RV park.  That is not what we found.  There were no signs pointing us to an office.  The park was littered with mostly old RVs that are way past their prime.  Some are homes for the park’s population.  Each RV site has a patch of green grass.  Not knowing where to hook up, Rayman approached the only permanent structure, a blue house littered with “stuff” all around.  When he returned he said that we were assigned site 19.  And the man that he met was a mess.  He was on crutches and looked like Jeb Clamped, a worse version.  So, we drove around but did not see any numbers of the various sites.  Where was site 19?  Jeb finally came out and jumped in an old golf cart and drove to the site.  His manner was one of annoyance.  Turns out he was an okay guy.  He had a self drawn map and proceeded to tell us a few things about where to go and what to do.  Since we were visiting the caves, he wanted to clue us into a cave, his cave, down a road on the way to the National Monument.  And to visit the cave, we would need helmets and he just happened to have some old helmets in a box on the porch.  “Help yourselves”, he implored.  He drew on the map the location of “his” cave and pointed out the northern part of the cave had collapsed so we were told not to go down to see that part.  WHAT?  Collapsed?  off-site?  unmanned, so to speak?”  Not on your life.  He was a hoot.

Site 19 is actually quite impressive.  We look north out our front window and see a line of tree surrounding a meadow about the size of 2 football fields.  No phone lines, no power lines.  It is very quiet except for the “pen of dogs” behind us.  It is really weird.  A Michael Vick type of weird.  The dogs can’t see out of the covered enclosure.  We can’t see in.  We just know they are there because they all barked once and I thought it was coyotes.  Whomever owns these dogs should be reported to authorities.  It seems inhumane to us.  Oddly, almost, the dogs never barked all night long.  It was stone quiet up here.

We didn’t arrive until about 4:30 and no one was interested in cooking dinner so we had leftover lamb that I made sandwiches out of.  And gin and tonic.  And berry pie ala mode.  That was dinner.

Oh, and I’m happy to report that we got our satellite dish working and had some TV for the first time on our trip.  So, we decided to watch our DVDs that came with our new Dog House.  When we started it up, the sound blasted us out of the place.  Frantically, we tried to figure which one, of 32 different remotes controlled the sound.  OMG.  We did figure it out but I would be hard pressed this a.m. to tell you which remote did the trick.  So, we sat there while the nice man on the DVD explained how the entertainment system worked.  And I am not exaggerating when I say that I am quite sure we learned nothing.  He talked too fast and hurled instructions so non-stop as to render the DVD quite useless.  Perhaps if we could have figured out how to pause the DVD, we could have made progress.  Suffice it to say that we threw up our hands, mumbled under our breaths and returned to the basic bunny and ducky TV watching.  Figuring out our system works will require further exploration preferably when we aren’t so tired and low on patience.

Rayman was a happy camper.  He discovered a football game.  I went to bed.  And that was pretty much everything we did yesterday.

Just to fill the dear reader in, the day before we drove west out of Quincy up a big mountain to see Buck’s Lake.  We sat out on the deck of a lodge (Buck Lodge, I think).  Rayman and I each had an ice cream bar while Ruth and Tom drank water/sodas.  Beautiful spot with a lovely lake full of fish.  Hope to return there after my fishing lessons.  I do want to to learn how to fish and it is one my plans.  It’s on my bucket list.

Then in the evening, we drove up to Sardine Lake for drinks in the boathouse and dinner in the rustic old lodge.  Priceless.  If you haven’t done this yet, you need to do it.  Small, quaint, picturesque.  Perhaps it’s the West’s Hamptons only in the mountains with John Muir looking down with approval.  Oh, and with levis as the appropriate dress code.  In other words, casual and relaxing.

 

So, it ’s off the the Caves today.  Hardhat, flashlights and all.  They recommend knee pads.  Not for me.  I’m not going to crawl in a cave.  If I can’t stand up, I’m not going in.

Yesterday was quite a day but before I enumerate on all the things that happened, let me tell you where we are.  Clio, CA.  Up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in some of the most beautiful places ever.  It is located in Mohawk Valley.  Click on this link for more info.  http://www.graeagleplumas.com   The Feather River runs through it.  An unpopulated place, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, the pine trees grow on every mountain and meadows are treeless.  Cows graze in the meadows and the Canadian geese hang out in the meadows early in the morning.  You see occasional deer and if you listen closely, an owl will call out in rhythmic hoots ever so often.  The train comes through several times a day and the engineer tugs on the horn wherever it is required.  You only notice that at night.  The valley rumbles and the whistle blares.

There is a post office in Clio.  And not much else.  Down the highway, Graeagle can be found.  It boasts a golf course, a few small retail stores, a lake with Graeagle Yacht club where you can rent paddle boats and kayaks by the hour.  It’s a small lake but gets lots of action because it is close to town (almost in the middle) and has a parking lot.

When we arrived here for the second time this month, we were driving our new motorhome.  Our virgin voyage.  What a delight the new rig is to drive.  We had no idea the newer machines were so much easier.  What a difference a rig makes!!  So, being new to us, there is a steep learning curve.   Advanced electronics.  Less storage because we have a huge refrigerator, a “fireplace”, much bigger TVs, a larger shower, a lou in it’s own room with a sink.  So something had to give.  The storage is less in order to make room for all the new and improved items.  So, a period of adjustment has been entered into.  Thank goodness our friends, the Coverts, came up for the weekend.  They have been indispensable to our period of adjustment.  So has it been a godsend for the Donnollys to be here too.  They arrived on Friday for a week.  We are blessed.

So excited were we that we announced dinner would be at our place and we were doing the whole meal and providing the libations.  Wildly bold but so appropriate as a big thank you for tasks done and yet to be done to help us through our new RV experience.

The plan was on Thursday to do the walk thru at 9:00 and then start transferring everything from the old Dog House to the new Dog House.  How hard could that be?  Well.  It was 97 degrees in Sacramento and our old and new RVs were about 110 inside.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Who put all this stuff in this RV anyway?  What a pain in the derriere.  It took hours.  The only thing we had to eat and drink were peanut M&Ms and water.  Oh, and a few Fritos.  By the time we were done, sweat was pouring off us and we were exhausted.  However, our work was not done.  I had to drive the Fit to Whole Foods to buy some trout for our big dinner the next night.  Along with a whole list of other things.  And because the move took longer than expected, Rayman headed out in the new RV and I was to catch up.  Rayman’s last admonition to me was to hurry.  So, I did my best to hurry.  I ran around Whole Foods trying to find everything on my list and a few things extra (never go grocery shopping when you are hungry).  One of the extra things I bought was marinated olives and feta cheese.  And I got the trout on ice.  However, I also bought bone-in pork chops, and a rack of lamb.  And frozen shrimp and scallops.  These things required refrigeration but the refrigerator was heading up Interstate 80 and I was still in the market.  Well, I got in line, off loaded the groceries and as I was doing that I noticed that the olives had tipped and the container was leaking oil.  Olive oil.  So, when I got to the cashier I warned her about the oil on the floor.  She left the register and cleaned it up herself.  Then as she started checking the groceries, she said, “Next time you come in, please notice that this is the express line (15 items or less).  I had $200 worth of groceries.  I was mortified.  OMG.  I profusely apologized and informed her that our Whole Foods doesn’t have an express line.  Then I apologized to the people behind me.  I apologized to the magazine rack.  I am extremely good at falling on my sword because of all my previous experience.  It was horrible.  I just wanted to melt into the floor.  And because I had fresh trout on ice, I picked up a special “keep it cold for 24 bag”.  Only it was defective.  And the display was empty.  The checker’s helper had to go off in search of another one.  OMG.  Time stood still.  I continued my apology tour.  Finally, I made my escape with my tail firmly between my legs.

Then I called Rayman.  I implored him to meet up with me as I had perishables, after all.  He and I finally met up at a rest stop above Colfax.  But before we did, I called him and told him my car was almost empty.  So when we met up, he told me to drive the new dog house and he would follow to the next gas station.  That was about 20 miles away though we didn’t know it and the low gas light came on.  Finally we stopped at the first station and filled up.  Then we rode up the road toward Truckee.  And we were so enthralled with our new dog house that we missed our exit and had to go 10 miles further, turn around and come back to the proper exit.  We were exhausted.  And it was about 5:30 at this point with another hour to go.  OMG.  What a day.

The next day, Friday, was a crazy day too.  Our new, expensive dog house would not level properly.  So, we called the dealer.  They said to bring it back.  No way where we going to do that.  So, Rayman got on the phone with the people in Alabama that made the RV.  All patience was gone.  A runaround ensued.  In order not to get in too deep, I decided I needed to go to Portola, a town about 20 miles away.  So I left Rayman on the phone with Alabama and I headed out.  Well.  The air conditioner only blew hot air.  So, I stopped at the gas station in Graeagle.  No one there could help until Tuesday.  So I drove to Portola and went to the same repair shop that we had visited last week when our horn didn’t work.  The man asked me to drive the car into the bay.  He then asked me to turn on the air full blast.  I complied.  He then sauntered around to the driver’s side and looked in.  He came back to the front of the car and announced that the air conditioning button was not pushed in.   OMG.  I went into full apology mode (a trend was forming).  He said that as far as he was concerned, “this never happened”.  The repairman in the next bay was snickering.  I was only slightly embarrassed because it was so hot that I was too relieved to have any self respect.  I drove off with a few big thank yous.

When I returned to the RV park, the rig was level, I was cool, and all was right with the world.   That’s when we met up with the Donnollys and I started cooking dinner.  Here’s the proof of our trout dinner.  Yummy.

And I’m not talking about the Rayman!!

It was a miracle…Old Faithful spouted off for us.  IT could have gone the other way but history was on our side.  What a great tourist attraction.  Everyone there today loved it, including us.  Just consider its longevity.  Its timing.  What else on earth is as faithful as Old Faithful?  I cannot think of a thing.  Which shows you how uneducated I am in the world.  Our genes endure and adapt.  Isn’t that just as impressive?  Perhaps, dear reader, you can offer up some ideas.  I know there are other things but my mind is not bringing them up.

But, I digress.

Just like Old Faithful, we went for a scoop of ice cream for lunch today.  It’s getting to be a habit.  A bad habit.  However, I am here to report that the Moose Tracks ice cream was very tasty.  And so was Rayman’s Mountain Berry ice cream.

Today was sort of a reconnaissance day into Yellowstone.  After we watch Old Faithful spurt, we bought a few gifts for people (boy, I sure like the moose-ie tee I bought for me), we drove west then north, then east, then south.    A giant loop.  Snapped a few pictures.

Tomorrow we will go really early to see Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon and then come back and do laundry.  It’s hard to be a tourist and keep up with mundane things like washing your clothes.   And then Saturday, it’s moving day.  Off to Yellowstone and the RV campground inside the park.  It will be easier once we are closer to everything.  And fishing is scheduled for Monday!!  Can’t wait for that.  Love to fish.

Hello again.

It’s tomorrow and we did not go to Yellowstone.  Instead we opted for laundry and a pot of beans.  The laundry is done but the beans bubble on toward tenderness.  Sure smells good.  Today apparently was hit-the-wall day.  Just tired of sitting in a moving vehicle.  That’s how we get once in a while.  Just need to kick back, do a few odds and ends and enjoy some leisure time.

This was our last day of our trip.  The next day we went to the park and I received the fateful call telling me that Uncle Ralph died.  And home we went.

A traveler can reach the Grand Tetons any number of ways. North. South. East. West. We chose the east entrance to Yellowstone with a sharp left at an intersection that headed us due south and out the entrance to a mosquito infected, dusty campground just outside the boundary of Yellowstone on the John D. Rockefeller Roadway.

Two thoughts. Why is the road named after John D. Rockefeller? And why did we make reservations at such a dusty campground? Don’t know the answer to the first question and can’t google it because, well, there is no service of any kind here. The answer to the second question is that we waited too long to book our reservations (think March) closer to the Grand Tetons. So, here we are.

Bolting through Yellowstone was a bit sad. So many trees are dead either because of the beetle or fire. The forest in large swaths of the park are gone and old trunks are strewn over the hillsides like pick-up-sticks. If one can ignore that (I can’t), they will enjoy the drive. On the flip side of this, we enjoyed the spectacular Yellowstone River, Snake River and Yellowstone Lake. With snow-capped peaks framing the Lake, it was back to the future for me. As many of you know, I waited tables at Lake Hotel on the shore of Yellowstone Lake when I was 19, and dare I say, a virgin.

But I digress.

Yellowstone has a special place in my heart. It was here that I arrived by train from San Luis Obispo to Pocatello, Idaho in my sleeveless frock only to disembark the train in 6 inches or so of snow. A bus was on hand to take all the young college students just like me to our respective assignments in the park. No one drove, except the older guys. So cars were not in abundance. Therefore, we summer employees without cars hitch hiked wherever we wanted to go. It was an innocent time, then. Usually we were picked up by families who often times took us to lunch. And we regaled them with stories of things that happened to us at the Park.

As an example, a moose wondered into the lobby once. It was hard to remove. Damage ensued. And then there was a time when this sweet, young, innocent belle from the bible belt called in her order to the morning cooks (most of them from San Diego and all guys). “Three orders of blueberry pancakes.” One of the cooks in a straight deadpan replied, “Oh, we’re out of blueberries today. All we have are dingle berries.” So, the belle from the south returned to her guests seated at the table in her “station” and explained that the hotel was out of blueberries but that they had dingle berries. To which the patron replied, “I think they are pulling a fast one on you. Go back and tell them we will take blueberries.” I’m fairly certain that the peels of laughter emanating from the kitchen were heard by all in the dining room. As an aside, I didn’t know what dingle berries were. Someone had to explain it to me too. One thing is for certain. I never believed anything the kitchen crew had to say after that episode.

So, it will be fun to go fishing on the Lake like I did that summer. And catch trout, like I did that summer. And because of all these darn mosquitos, we may have to pay to have the trout cooked for us because Rayman has made it perfectly clear that he is absolutely certain that every mesquito in the state of Wyoming is on his trail. He has already pronounced that we must update our benedryl (it might be less potent because it isn’t brand new), spray outside our door, and cover every inch of our bodies when leaving the Dog House. Poor dear.

But I wander off again.

When we entered Yellowstone today, we hadn’t gone a mile and there were two bears working the roadside area. We stopped and I snapped this picture. Then I saw a moose, but Rayman was going too fast to stop on a dime and I missed the photo op. Hopefully, there will be more.

So, tonight we will read, work puzzles, and pet the dog. Tomorrow we will get up early and head to the Grand Tetons. We will spend the day there lapping up the views, walking the streets, seeing where we will meet up with our Snake River flouting people (that’s Wednesday’s treat), and generally have a great day.

More to come.

It’s hard to describe how beautiful the Grand Tetons are to me.  Rising the floor of the valley, they stand erect like citadels poised for eternity.  Capped in brilliant white. it makes you think they can’t really be real.  Not that beautiful.  Certainly not that high.  And they stretch along the valley for miles on end.  It is a cliche to say they are awe-inspiring so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.  I’m out of words.

We drove down to the Grand Tetons from our dusty campground this a.m. to scout out tomorrows float on the S-S-S-(prounouce like Sissssss) Snake River.  There are many outfitters and we chose Lewis and Clark because I feel connected somehow to the Voyage of Discovery.  Before visiting their storefront, we had breakfast.  Best one so far on this trip.  My sweet potato/Brussel sprouts with egg and crispy pancetta.  Yum.  Rayman had an egg sandwich.  Good but I won.  Mine was GREAT.

Then we shuffled around all the shops in Jackson Hole.  A giant tourist trap where I found a thousand things I could have purchased…but didn’t.  The only thing we bought were some groceries at a great store.  In addition, we scouted out the doggie day care place where Beau will spend the day as we float the Snake.  We are an hour away from the place, at least, so round trip is 2 hours and then the float is 4 hours.  Way to long for Master Beau to be alone.

I found a vintage store with red cowboy boots but they wanted $160 for used boots.  No way, Jose.  And we stopped in the “town” of Moose.  It is home to a fab wine shop that our friends Al and Charlie told us about.  We wandered around and read the labels.  Everything was a bit higher than home and we were hard-pressed to find Paso Robles wines.  Bummer about that.

The rest of the day was just going crazy taking pictures.  Really, it is impossible not to photograph the place.  One of the most beautiful sights on earth.

 

What we did not see were moose, elk, wolf, bald eagles.  Where are these bad boys?  We did almost hit two deer crossing the road.  Luckily we were going the speed limit.  The closer of the two calls, so to speak, Rayman was at the helm and he did an expert job of seeing it and breaking in time.  In fact, when we stopped to snap a pic, a guy from FL stopped and said, “Wow.  That was a close call.”  He was directly behind us and observed the close encounter.    Look below.  I was caught bear handed !!

 

Now we are back at our Dog House and Rayman is barbecuing lamb chops and asparagus.  It is starting to rain.  The wind has whipped up a bit and that has cut down on the mosquitos.  Thank god, because he is over-the-top on his mosquito hatred.  Just saying.

I’m blogging and drinking a very dry rose and tending to the roasted potatoes in the oven.  Man, do they smell good.  The red wine is breathing and so are we so we are having a great time…again…still.  What a fabulous trip!!!

Snakes aren’t all bad.

One Snake that is really fun is the Snake River that slithers along the valley of Jackson/Jackson Hole/Grand Tetons.  They refer to it as a wild river, but it really isn’t.  There are so few wild rivers left but that is changing.  Dams are coming down throughout the West and I think it a good thing.

At once, the Snake was beguiling and boring.  The water was running high today because of earlier than expecting warming that is melting the show.  But it was also running high today because they (the water people that are in charge) are releasing the water from a dam.  With that sad fact, some of the magic disappeared.  But so did the magic disappear when we observed the right bank of the river.  It looked man-made.   The left bank was not as “composed”.   Our guide explained that the river was drenched a bit.  More magic disappeared.  However, just when the magic was wanning, a fabulous view would present itself and we’d all ooh and aah and a great time was had by all.

My favorite person on the excursion was the old guy with suspenders.  I’ve been trying to get Rayman (no assatole) to consider suspenders.  Really, I should save my breath.  It’s not gonna happen.  But the old guy was very cool and funny and looked good in his suspenders.  My grandfather wore them after he went from 300 pounds down to 170.  His ass disappeared too.  So he resorted to suspenders.  Really, people, we need suspenders to come back into vogue.  I think they are cool.

But I digress.

The float took 4 hours with a lunch break on the side of the Snake.  Lunch was just so-so but sitting by the Snake as it slithered by.  Priceless.

Where was Beau, you inquire?  We boarded him at doggie day care.  This place had us fill out a form on-line that was more complicated than a pre-nup.  Yes, we checked.  We knew dogs occasionally got bit, or scratched, or whatever.  Yes, we did not hold them responsible.  Yes, we held them harmless if anything happened.  The list went on and on.  Beau, oblivious to all the legalese shook as we dropped him off for the float.  And he was so excited to see us when we picked him up that he jumped higher than I have ever seen him jump.  He is a kick, our doggie.  Such a sweet, sweet, boy.  Old pic from earlier in the trip but same good boy!!

 

We found a market here for food.  It is called Jackson Whole Market.  And it’s decked out just like a Whole Foods.  Bet they want to be bought out.  Anyway, I purchased some Idaho trout and that’s what we had for dinner tonight.  Barbecued.  OMG.  It was so good.  We also continued our habit of buying pre-washed greens from CA at this market.  If the Western mountain states didn’t get their lettuces et al from CA, where would that leave them?  Just saying.

 

Now, it must be noted that Hillary apparently clinched the Democratic nomination for Pres. last night.  We did not know because we have no TV or wifi.  We discovered this when we were able to pick up a signal near the Tetons.  I truly doubted I would ever see the day a woman would be the standard bearer.  As a feminist, I am ecstatic.  It’s been a long time coming.  I voted for her.  But I voted for Barack in the other elections.  So, it was my first time of actually voting for a WOMAN.  Hip hip.

It is historic regardless of your views.  I’ve decided I’m going to re-read her book, My History, I think it was entitled.  Just to refresh my memory.

Speaking of refreshing my memory, the guide on the float today was a young woman!!  As we were riding back in the big old bus, I had a chance to talk with her one-on-one.  I explained that when I worked in Yellowstone, the only jobs open to me were waitress and maid.  I chose waitress since I worked at the Paso Robles Inn when I was in high school as a waitress in the coffee shop.  Experience was on my side.  She explained that even now, the guys look down on her a bit even though she does exactly the same job and has for 4 years as she works her way through school.  However, she did take my point.  We have made progress though not as much as we would desire.