“USA 🇺🇸 ~More Road Trip’n From Oregon to California”

• September 15, 2023
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

OREGON ⬇️

The time came, unfortunately, for us to leave the peacefulness of Prineville, and our friend, Linda. We have had a nice respite from driving so much and have enjoyed some down time, though we still needed more! For me, being the “scheduler,” for Team Saunders, I am always needing to take time to plan ahead for just about every move we make in The Whale, so this keeps me on my toes!

While in Prineville, we had great conversations, professional hair cuts, by Linda, hot tubbing time, Wildlife viewing, beautiful sunrises, shared meals, loving on Lindas pets, and of course, taking care of the day-in and day-out business, necessary, to keep us rolling down the road.

⬆️ Linda is such an amazing woman. Look at this porch she built!

⬆️ I would enjoy the hot tub in the early morning, when it was nippy, since it’s quite warm for hot-tubbing in the evenings.
I’m a morning person whether I like it or not, so, as I got to enjoy sunrise, I would also get to see some Mule Deer on Linda’s property.
Some pictures are when it was still a bit dark outside, and not very good of the Buck, but you get the idea.

During these last few days in Oregon, I have made most of our Glampimg reservations and coordinated routes, that will take us from here, through California, and in to Nevada, Arizona, Mexico, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and ending in North Carolina, to spend Christmas and the new year with grandchildren.
We miss them sooooo much!

Of all places, to finally get to enjoy day-after-day of sunshine, since our whopping 12 days out of 72, in Alaska, during summer, has been in Oregon!
Fall is coming, though, with cool morning air, but it gets warm during the day; even hot, with beautiful blue skies and no rain!

We got Jonah in for a tune-up, and much needed air filter change, by our Prineville mechanic who does such a great job. After that, we had our detail guy return to Linda’s house, to take care of power-washing her engine and all underneath; the glacier dust which graced us so thoroughly, and mixed with grease, from our trip up north.

⬆️ Grady the Detail Guy
We recommend him, if you are ever in this area. (541) 980-7314

The inside of Jonah got deeply cleaned-up AND, after all that, she no longer backfires and I can honestly say, she has never run better. It’s been a very long road struggle to get Jonah to where she is, today; 15 months later, to be exact, but she is a joy to drive, now, as she fires right up, every time we ask her to. She idles properly, and she runs like a top!

We are taking steps to deal with the guy in Arizona, who did us such a disservice, on our Jonah, which caused us a lot of stress, frustration and extra money. We will also not be returning there for any further work, including the improperly installed A/C unit he had agreed to fix, but changed his mind…what a shock. It’s probably for the best, since his work is so lousy. 

As we head into winter, the need for the A/C obviously lessens, depending on the states we travel in, so this will give us time to figure that part out, hopefully by next summer. Instead, we head for Las Vegas, again, after California, where we will visit with friends, again, and take in a few shows.
We also have a chance to get Jonah in to another professional Classic Car shop there, (Beetle Barn) to get some parts we’ve needed to replace, like burned-out bulbs, replace the broken headlight, finally get proper rubber mats for her floors, a rubber seal for the trunk, and get an alignment done, after the tie-rod end part is put in. This tie-rod end part is the only part the Anchorage mechanic shop did not have on hand, when they heroically put Jonah back together, after she quite literally fell apart, in Alaska. It was an important part, but not crucial for the short-term, so we could still tow and drive her.
We will also have extra air filters on hand, for future use. 

The added fun to owning such a classic vehicle as Jonah is when we are out and about, tootling around, and all the endless smiles she brings to peoples faces, and the stories she evokes from strangers in parking lots, about their own VW Bug they had in their youth. We get waved at, a lot of thumbs-up, and even hoots and hollers. In this upside down world we are all trying to endure, these moments are priceless for all!

Today, leaving Prineville, on our way out, the plan was stop at a place in town to wash The Whale. This wash is VERY past due, like by MONTHS, since big rig RV washes are few and far between. Most campgrounds prohibit RV washing, as well. We still have the glacier dust to remove on her outside, underneath, and around her radiator. We have never gone this long, without a wash, ever! 

Unfortunately, the Prineville Self-Wash was out of order. Drats, so we got fuel, and headed out. We thought for sure we would find a truck wash along Interstate 5, but there was nothing, unless one pays for detailing, which is very expensive, and requires an appointment.

We drove for the day, due West, just to get us back on the interstate, that would once again, take us, South.

We picked the McKenzie Highway, one of Oregons’ Scenic Biways. Our granddaughters name is McKenzie. It’s a good strong Oregon name for sure!

There was a new Lookout Fire that caused some smoke, beyond the Hoodoo fire, that now seems under control, since we came through, last week.

Once we hit I-5 South, it wasn’t as scenic, but it was definitely still sunny. Also, having better roads in Oregon and a working, traveling wifi in The Whale, again, it seemed like quite the step-up from spring and summer in Alaska/Canada.
We are good!

At around the five-hour mark for our drive day, we stopped for fuel in the Oakland/Roseburg area, and ate dinner. Then, we found a place we overnighted at.

The rest stop off I-5 is really cool, btw! Busy highway on one side and nature on the other. We saw about five deer come down from the nature side to graze.

Cabin Creek Rest Stop in Oakland: Southbound ⬇️

Photo Dump: Prineville to Oakland/Roseburg Area ⬇️

⬆️ Heading out of Prineville

⬆️ Going back through Sisters

⬆️ Helicopter Base for Firefighting near Lookout 

⬆️ Now who knew there was a Nimrod, Oregon? 

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The next day, after a pretty good nights rest, we got going, and made California, in just over 100 more miles.

The original plan was to get to the Redwood Forest National Park. I hadn’t been there since I was a young girl, but a fire on that route caused a long detour, for which we were unwilling to do. We have so many more miles to go, before reaching Mexico for our “vacation,”… ha, that always sounds funny to me, since retiring, but anyway, no detours for us. Been there, done that enough for a while, since we dealt with so many fires in Canada.

CALIFORNIA ⬇️

On this day, we ended our drive after five-hours, and this included a final fuel-fill, just before the California border crossing. Oregon price for diesel were around $5.49/gal. California prices are up as high as $7.16/gal, so far. Fortunately, we have a huge tank, so we won’t fill-up while in California, and will again, once we get to Nevada, as we anticipate lower prices, there.

It was a fun drive today, once we crossed in to California. There is just something about California I love. I never thought I would ever live in California, and glad for the opportunity in my lifetime to do so. Given our on-the-go lifestyle, it’s not like we actually LIVE there, lately, but we still have our home that we lease out.
I always say, one day when we are old; bent-over-walking-with-a-cane-old, it will be the perfect place to live, for that phase of our lives, but you might know me by now…I always have big dreams and aspirations to see through!

Daryl has convinced me of one thing for sure. California does have amazing weather, and since I want to get horse property again, in the future, and maybe even build a house again, I really think California would be perfect, since my previous earlier years, when I was running a farm in Oregon, it was rainy, cold, and snowy, for the majority of time.
Daryl was born Texan, but moved to California when he was 15. He won’t ever live too far from the beach, and I concur with that feeling, too.

Back to our road trip’n…. It was cloudy in Oregon, starting out this morning, from the Roseburg atea, then it turned sunny, later, and for sure, all sunny in California. As always, the Shasta area, over the Siskiyous was very pretty. Definitely some of the most scenic in California, IMHO.

This Oregon to California driving brings back many memories from my youth. My family visited my cousins in San Jose, California, often, for summer vacation. The cousins would come up to Oregon one year, and we would visit them the next year, in California. We did this for many years.
My dad was pretty amazing. He drove straight through, night and day, till we got there. Us kids had sleeping bags rolled out in the back of carry-all truck. We slept for most of the trip, because my parents, smartly, left in the evening.

Anywsyzzzz…We made it to Red Bluff, California from Roseburg, Oregon. The original plan was to boondock at a Walmart there, where we stayed before, on our way up, last spring, but our black tank was full (we haven’t had hookups for over ten days, so we knew the time was near)
In California, it’s expensive to dump tanks at campgrounds, and free RV dumps are rarely close by, or operational, when ya need them. So, I made a one-night reservation, and we headed for a campground in Red Bluff, instead of the Walmart parking lot. This was actually the same KOA we spent $25 to dump, back in May, on our way up for our Alaska trip.

We parked, got set-up and headed out for some Chinese food, at China Doll. We heard this place called was as good as Oregon Chinese food. It was!
We were so busy in Oregon, we never had the time to go out for Chinese!

Mission Complete!

With it being so hot, now… almost 100 degrees, we will get an early start, leaving Red Bluff.

We found a truck wash!! Yay!! They also do RV’s. This place was only 18 minutes, further down the interstate, in Corning. What a smooth operation and reasonable priced. It took under 30 minutes. We got an entire top to bottom wash and wax for The Whale. We asked for the same for Jonah, since she was hooked to The Whale.

We pulled into a large enclosure, and about five guys went to town, cleaning, and before we knew it, we were done. The doors opened, we drove out, and Daryl went in to the office to pay. They only charged for The Whale, and threw in Jonah for free!  How nice was that!
$65 included the tip. We highly recommend Blue Beam Truck Wash.

3000 Hwy 99 W, Corning, CA, 96021  530 824-0474

https://bluebeacon.com/locations/listing/corning-ca

We require 13’ 1” clearance in height, and 8’ for width

⬆️ Waiting in line, a short time

⬆️ ⬇️ Jonah and The Whale look brand new!!

This drive day (7 hours) was as long as we knew it would be. Three times other drivers veered into our lane, like they fell asleep, and if not for Daryl being alert, and using his air horn, could have had dire consequences. That’s the scariest part of our lifestyle… being on the road so much of the time. This stretch of road is just an endless (but vital) area of farm land that goes on and on.

Speaking of farmland, in spite of continual, and typical drought conditions, this is the area that provides MUCH of the food we buy from the stores and eat!
We saw with our own eyes, farming is still happening in a huge way. There are a few places we saw old dead orchards, but not very many, in comparison to the active farms. You may not know this, but Kern County in the San Joaquin Valley of California has the densest planting of almonds, pistachios, and pomegranates on earth. 

I got us a reservations in Lost Hills, California where we get to Glamp with full-hookups for awhile. Lost Hills is not a destination location by any means, but it was as far as we wanted to push, in one day, plus, we love quiet RV Parks. It’s past summer time, so it’s not over-full. There is one place we want to check out, before leaving this area, but that won’t happen till after I post this blog, so will circle back and add it to this blog, when the time comes. 

⬆️ To the right on the other side of our Glamp spot, are small pens, since this is a horse hotel, too, for those traveling with them. No takers right now, but I wouldn’t mind sharing space with horses at all.

We have had two weeks, of various types of boondocking, and graciously moochdocking, so we are more than ready to put our feet up to Glamp, and chill for a bit! Even though we have been back in the L48 for 18 days, it’s taken about this long to feel human again, after the spring and summer we experience of; the good, bad and quite unexpected: the ugly.  

Had I known just how wiped-out we would be, mentally, I would have arranged a solid week of down time to rest, before meeting up with friends and family. It’s a good thing everybody loves us and understood our fatigued state. 

Photo Dump: Oakland/Roseburg, Oregon, to Lost Hills, California ⬇️

We did see a beautiful healthy Red Fox, trotting along. He looked to be leaving Cali and heading for Oregon. The photo was lousy, so I deleted it. Between the bug splattered, dirty windshield, and glare from the sun, I don’t get to capture everything.

⬆️ At an elevation of 14,179 feet, Mount Shasta it is the second-highest peak in the Cascades, and the fifth-highest in the state. Mount Shasta has an estimated volume of 85 cubic miles, which makes it the most voluminous stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, and can bern seen from many mines away.

Lake Shasta 

Shasta Lake’s 365 miles of shoreline make it unique, among California Lakes.
Behind the 602-foot tall Shasta Dam, three great arms of water stretch up the canyons of the major rivers, which feed the lake: the Sacramento, the McCloud and the Pit. A half-dozen lesser arms add to Shasta Lake’s complexity.

Covering 30,000 acres, Shasta Lake is California’s largest reservoir and ranks 3rd overall in size among all lakes behind the Salton Sea and Lake Tahoe.

⬆️ At one time, the water was so high, the dock and moored boats were at almost highway level

⬆️ Looks like a scene out of the Mad Max movie 

What did the sister tomato say to her brother tomato, when he rolled off the truck and went splat on the Highway? “Ketchup!”
🤣

⬆️ A large herd of Mule Deer

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Next stop, our house for a brief overnight, then on to Nevada!

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OREGON

CALIFORNIA