The Western US trip, Just the Facts Maam!

For the Memorial Day weekend holiday we wanted to be on the coast, and considering our location in northern Ca, (and the availability) we spent the long weekend dry camping at Bodega Bay. We stayed at Westside Regional Park. We had a site on the front row which looks right out on the Bay.  The Bay opens to the ocean, so when the tide goes out much of the bay drains out with just a narrow channel in the middle for small boat traffic.  We paid about $35 a night. Oh, and the ranger came around as we were arriving and collected another $2 a night for our dog.  There are no amenities for the dog, just the fee.  The park has a threaded water faucets scattered around the park, and the dump station is double sided.  The other real bummer is that they charge $7 to use the dump station. It is credit card operated, and supposedly you only have 16 minutes to dump your tanks, although I am not sure how they track that.  And if the next guy waiting to dump is standing nearby, he may get a ?discount?......

The sites are paved as well as the road. There are handicapped sites available, and the restrooms, although not attractive are in decent condition. Both the restrooms and the showers are handicapped accessible.  The showers are pay showers and are $1.50 for the first 5 minutes. The cell signal in the park is OK, but not great.  There is no Wifi offered.  It was pretty cold while we were there, with average high temps in the 50's and low 60's, so much of the time we were in cold weather gear. 

The town itself is pretty small, so if you plan on staying in the area it would be wise to bring what you need with you. There are several restaurants in the area, many are sea food related. 

We went on an outing one day to Fort Ross State Historic Park.  It is the location of a 1800's Russian settlement. It eventually sold several times and now is mostly restored with a few original buildings left. Diane is making a more in depth description in her blog with lots of pics.  Getting there was a drive up Highway 1.  While beautiful, it was about 25 miles of switch backs and twistys. I don't recommend doing it in your RV unless you are shorter than 25'. 

If we are back in the area again we would probably try to stay on the opposite side of the bay at Porto Bodega Marina and RV park.  The rate there was $50 but at least you would have FHU spots and a view of the bay as well.   

On the up side our dry camping went well. I had installed a Battery Minder Kit (BMK) from Magnum Energy, the maker of our inverter/charger back in April. The BMK monitors the status of the battery bank and gives several different read outs from Amps used, Amps in/out, DC voltage and State of Charge (SOC), which tells me precisely how much useable energy is remaining in the battery bank.  Before I kind of guessed at that, based solely on the what the battery voltage readout was. It would fluctuate widely depending on what appliance would kick on.  This time I kept the SOC between 50% and 85% by running the generator.  50% SOC is approximately a 12.0 over all voltage remaining in the battery bank.

In four days of dry camping I ran the generator for 13 hours, which comes out to about 3 ? hours a day.  That was usually 2 hours in the morning during breakfast, and 1 ? hours at night during dinner.  We still had all of our usual appliances plugged in, both computers, our Wifi, and watched 2-4 hours of satellite TV a night.  I figure at $3.50 a gallon for diesel, I spent $45.50 in the 4 days of dry camping, or about $11.50 a day.  That brings the real camping cost to about $48.50 a night. 

We almost never use campground showers, so we both showered daily in the rig (camping showers). Diane even washed her hair a few times. I did BBQ all the dinners outside on the grill though to save on clean up dishes.  At the end of the stay we had about 15% left in the fresh tank (probably about 8-10 gallons of water).

From here we head north/east to Oroville to a KOA at Feather Falls Casino.  Yea, warm weather!

$2.00 for the dog and they probably didn't even have Doo-Bags hanging on a pole. I am amazed at how folks (especially California) are coming up with bizarre fees to free us of our hard earn cash.

Where are you guys off to now? Oops, I missed the last sentence...

Thanks for the report Marty. We might make a trip up there. Were you able to reserve online?

Yeah Tom, but since it was a county park we had to reserve on their site. Here is the link to reservation page: http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/

Yeah, you are right John. And this particular park didn't have a camp host due to a paper work mess up.  The host site was there, but no hosts. Rangers were trying to fill in the duties, but were not around much.

Thanks Marty.

Just a heads up, Diane has just updated our travel blog.

Please thank Diane for her efforts.  I've really enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, reading her blog.  We lived in Sebastopol for about 10 years circa 1980-1990.  Pictures brought back lots of memories of Bodega Bay.  We loved The Tides restaurant when in was "the old Tides".  I wonder if it is still the same or the victim of progress and tourism.  Tom took our boat out through the harbor entrance many times to go fishing and crabbing.  It can be very dicey at times. 

Thank you so much! Diane puts a lot of heart into her blogs, and loves knowing that someone is enjoying them too. Gives her great incentive to continue!

Like Margi, I am following Diane's blog.  I lived  in California most of my life  and it is fun to see your reports on adventure in  places I have been and  places now  on my  list to visit.  It is indeed interesting  to watch  you stay longer, drive shorter  distances and soak up the local trivia! 

Keep those facts coming! Maam!

Thanks Betty, we are having a lot of  fun on the slower pace and shorter distances. Not to mention it is way more cost effective. And the pattern we have been taking zigzag back and forth from the coast to inland locations has been a great way not to get burned out on any one climate. After Bodega Bay where it was really cool, windy and damp, Oroville has been a nice change for it's 80+ degree days. But the next location is a cooler climate and I will be ready for the change.

This stop we went to Oroville, Ca to the Feather Falls Casino and RV Park.  Oroville is next to Chico in northern Ca.  While not a bad area, Chico is nowhere near as nice and upscale as the Folsom area was.  We didn't find the Chico area to be near as interesting as the Folsom area either.  We didn't do a lot of exploring in the area though, and to be honest a lot of the reason was my fault that I will get to in bit. 

Feather Falls Casino, while nice enough is not to be confused with 7 Feathers casino and RV park in Canyonville Or.  This Casino and RV park is way smaller, doesn't have the amenities that 7 Feathers does, and is in a lower class area.  The  RV park itself has about 45 spaces or so arranged in 5 rows. The outside rows are back in's and the 3 center rows are pull through.  We selected a back in site, #41 as we thought that it would give is a bit more outside room. Well that didn't wind up being the case, and we didn't realize what the downside would be of the outside edge perimeter spot.  First there was a lot of noise from a roadway about 20 yards away that runs in back of the park. Heavily traveled and high speeds made for constant traffic noise.  Even though the traffic did become lighter at night, it was still audible. 

The real problem came from the residences that abut the road on the opposite side of the road.  The houses are close to the road, and many have dogs that obviously live outdoors all night.  From the first night we were there the chorus of barking dogs would start around 2-3 AM and continue for hours. One set of dogs would get the next set going, and it would just continue.  Since we were backed in with our bedroom in the back, the noise was constant and sleep was difficult at best.  We had paid for a week stay at the park, but after the 3rd night we went to the office to request a site change.  We got the last site available in the park, a pull through which also flipped the rig 180 degrees putting our bedroom away from the dog noise.  Finally a decent nights sleep.

The roads in the park are wide as well, which is a good thing. The sites themselves are not too long, and most all of the RV's had to park in front of their sites with their tow vehicle or toad. The bathrooms and showers were all new and handicapped accessible, and the cell signal in the park was good. They did offer their own free wifi.  The days were warm, and the evenings pleasant. There is a free shuttle that will take you back and forth to the casino, but it was so close, we just usually walked.

We paid $282 for the 7 night stay, which was just over $40 a night.  That included our KOA discount.
One pleasant part of the stay we went to the Casino on a Saturday night. They have an actually Brewery on premise that makes it's own beer.  There is also a stage inside the brewery where various acts appear.  This night was a Stevie Nicks, tribute band. She was one of the female lead singers of Fleetwood Mac.  She was close in vocal style to Nicks, but didn't have the range. The band however was good, and since we went in early for dinner we just sat and enjoyed the band.  The prices in the brewery were remarkably reasonable as well. We had cocktails, dinner, and desert and with tip it was about $60.  With no cover for the show it was pretty reasonable.  We took a drive up the south fork of the Feather river one day. Nice but not overly remarkable.

The project that kept me busy for a few days was I pulled the trigger on a new TV in the living area. I replaced the 40? Panasonic for a 48? Vizio Smart TV.  Now mind you there was nothing wrong with the Panasonic, but being slightly nerdy, we wanted to be able to watch the various programs available as a subscriber to Amazon Prime.  The new TV was actually decently priced at Target, and with some good advice from our forum members, I placed the Panasonic on Craigslist in Chico, and had a buyer that night.  I was surprised how simple it was to hook the new TV up to the net.  During the simple set up procedure it asked about my wifi, found the router and after entering the password we were on line. 

We were watching Star Trek during dinner that night! Next stop, a KOA near Mt Lassen national park.

When you were at Morro Bay, did you check out the state parks ? We're thinking of Morro Strand this winter which has added hookups, I believe ? Pismo Beach was also a choice but apparently it's going to be closed for remodeling ?

BTW, we have reservations at Crystal Cove for December. Love that park, awesome sunsets.

Wendy

We drove past the state parks, but we didn't go in. We did stay at the Strand, and it does have FHU spaces.  As for Pismo, we have stayed at Pismo Coast Village a few times. Decent park, but spaces are really close together.

Marty, you probably missed the great videos they run on request at the state park in Oroville. Lots of stuff related to gold mining and other local history. Also, you're a few months early for the annual salmon run and seeing the salmon in the viewing windows into the fish ladder up to the hatchery. Here's a few bites (no pun) in a prior report.

Oroville also has the "Greenline Tour", allowing you to take a self-drive tour of local attractions and landmarks by following the green line painted on the road.

I did Tom, we will have to make another pass when I am not so distracted! We have discovered that even in June, some attractions and places are not quite fully operational yet. Timing is different in Nor Cal than it is in So Cal...

Hello Marty,

Liked, reading your travelstory!

We also visited LV and Furnace Creek this year.
It was both different but both wunderfull.
We had in Mai a temp of 100 F, in Furnace Creek.

We arrived at the Mt Lassen/Shingletown KOA just down the road from Lassen National Park.  This is a nice KOA but very similar to the standard KOA formula.  This one does have "premium" sites though. We opted for a premium site because of the large concrete patio. It also came with a 6 seat table and chairs, fire pit, and a free standing gas BBQ.  The site we selected also afforded us a bit of privacy from the rest of the campground, which is nice.  Nearly all the sites are heavily treed, so I got practice setting up our remote satellite dish.  Boy, it's been a long time and it took me a while to remember how to adjust the DVR setting on the box to get a picture.  But I did write down the instructions so hopefully I will remember to read them the next time. 

This park offers a lot for kids, as do most KOA's.  A pool, playground, bikes and carts you can rent if you don't bring your own, and there is even a dirt/gravel ?motocross style? track in the back for the kids to race around on their bikes.  The restrooms and showers are all handicapped accessible and in good condition.  The camp store is well stocked and carries not only camping needs but also a selection of food stuffs. There is a nice big fenced in dog park as well that is also shaded. Cell signal is difficult here. Our Verizon air card and booster was able to get a weak signal, but it wasn't reliable.  The park offers free wifi but it is dependent on how many folks are on it as to how fast it is. On the weekend it was mud slow.  The sites are pricey, especially since we stayed in a premium site. We paid $62,10 per night, but that included a $50 off discount due to accumulated KOA points. This place has no problem filling up though. It's location just outside park boundaries makes it the only park for a good distance that has FHU sites.  When we arrived on 6/2 most of the campgrounds in the park were not open yet. 6/5 was their opening weekend along with some of the trails.

The reasons for coming to the park are many. Lots of great views and things to see and do in and around the park. We took scenic drives, visited water falls, and hiked some of the trails. There was a giant outdoor sculpture display nearby that we stopped to see, and the views of Mount Lassen are amazing.  We even hiked through ancient volcanic lava tubes that were formed after Lassen's big eruptions a hundred years ago. This is definitely a park to put on the ?visit? list, you won't be disappointed. 

There are a few grocery stores in Shingletown four miles down the road, but the prices are high and the selection is limited. I would recommend doing a big shopping before you get here, and just use the local stores to replace needed items. I did drive back to Shingletown on occasion when I needed a reliable signal on the cell phone.  It seemed like parking in the Cheveron station parking lot was a good place to get reliable signal. 

Diane has already updated her blog with many more details and tons of pics. I will include just a few to whet the appetite. 

I did tackle a small RV project here. One of the annoying issues that bugged me with the rig was the layout of the gauges on the dash panel. The vehicle information center (LBCU) supplied by Freightliner was placed all the way at the bottom of the gauge cluster making it impossible to see while driving. Even though I run a VMSpc display on the dash that displays many engine readouts, some of the info on the LBCU are warnings about thresholds that are getting close to limits.  It also has many other readouts that are useful to the driver while rolling down the road.  Enough folks complained to Tiffin about the issue, so Tiffin offered a redesigned dash panel free of charge.  I had it sent to me a few weeks ago and have been waiting for a down day to do the install.  It took about 3 hours to do, since all the gauges are plug and play, the most effort was getting the old panel out. I look forward to taking the drive with the new arrangement to see how it looks.  Next stop, Emigrant Lake, Ashland OR.

That's one of the nicer KOAs we've ever been to. What did you think about that 9% grade you had to climb to get there? When we drove it last July, towing Cyndi's MDX, it was 105 degrees and I saw the warmest engine temp I've ever had. It was the only time I've ever manually down-shifted to bring the RPMs up and the temps down (worked great too). Thankfully, the 9% part isn't that long. The drive through the National Park itself is well worth it - a beautiful drive. We love the updates Marty - here and on Diane's blog.

Kev

yes, it was a good grade. But fortunately the temperature was only in the eighties when we hit the hill so we didn't have those kinds of extreme temps to deal with.The owner that has the park now is a Southern California guy. He's only owned it for about 3 years. He bought it after retirement is kind of a retirement job but now he is questioning his decision.

Thanks for the kind words about the blog. Diane loves to know that somebody is actually reading it!

So Kev, when and where is your next long trip?

SargeW said:

So Kev, when and where is your next long trip?

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Well actually, I just got home yesterday from a work trip in the Dominican Republic, and I leave for another one in Houston in about three weeks (but I'm sure you were talking about our next RV trip). Believe it or not, we're taking the motorhome on a two week trip to Northern Idaho and Utah in late July. We'll be boondocking with a bunch of family members. As you might imagine, we are REALLY looking forward to it. By the way, Cyndi is retiring. Her last day at work is next Friday.

Kev