My wife and I recently celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary by travelling to Westport Beach on California’s Lost Coast in Mendocino County. It’s about 17 miles north of Fort Bragg, California on Highway 1. We were up there for about a week and thoroughly enjoyed the area and the beautiful Fall weather. For those interested in visiting the Lost Coast Fall is typically when they have the best weather; winds are calm, the temperature is warm, and the fog lays off the coast. This trip did not disappoint. We had one foggy day, but the fog cleared off by noon. We had one day were it rained very early in the morning. The other five days we had beautiful weather. Rather than detail every day and what we did I’ll just give you a synopsis and photos of places visited.
Beaches and coastline
Our campsite at Westport Beach RV Park was about a 2 minute walk to the beach. We spent quite a bit of time on that beach, especially at sunset.
Westport Beach
Point Cabrillo Light Station
Seaside Creek Beach / Ten Mile Beach Easily our favorite beach. Although the beach is only about 4 miles long. It’s named for the Ten Mile Creek which empties into the ocean here.
Mendocino Headlands State Park
Coffee
We can’t have a vacation without coffee! We only found two good coffee shops and one bad one while we were there. I’m sure there were more good coffee shops but these were the only two we could find. Sips: Organic Coffee and More in Miranda was by far the best followed closely by The Waiting Room adjacent to Cafe Borjolais in Mendocino. The bad one was Headlands Coffee in Fort Bragg. Maybe we just caught them on a bad day but the coffee was barely drinkable.
The Comet
Since it only comes around once every 800,000 years (or so they say) I had to try to go out and find it. Visible just after sunset and just to the right and above Venus. Never saw a thing. So on a whim, I took some pictures of the night sky about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset hoping my phone would capture it. It did.
Avenue of the Giants
The RV Park
This was the quietest, most picturesque RV park we’ve been to in a while. They bill themselves as a resort but there really aren’t many amenities aside from the beach that they front. There is a playground for the kids and a horseshoe pit but those hardly qualify as resort amenities. The beach was lovely aside from the breathtaking amount of sand fleas, some of them almost roach-sized. By far the most colorful character at the park was the one we never saw. We felt our trailer lurch violently on our first night. I thought maybe we had slipped off our leveling blocks. In talking to the lady next door they asked if we had seen the bear yet. I replied that we hadn’t. She told me that the bear was pushing on their motor home one night and almost shook them out of bed. That explained our trailer shake. Luckily he only pushed one time and left no marks on the trailer.
To wrap this trip up it was just amazing. We’ve been to the Lost Coast before but it’s been close to ten years. We definitely want to go back, probably again in the Fall. This time, we’ll spend even more time there, and probably a little closer to Mendocino this time.
After our trip to Greenfield which involved a day trip to Cambria, I booked another RV trip which would involve going to Cambria again. This time a little closer, in Paso Robles. We stayed at the Paso Robles RV Ranch about 3 miles north of the city on Highway 101. Even though we were right above the highway there really wasn’t much road noise and was a quiet park. We probably won’t return though for two reasons; 1. The spaces were very tight, and 2. a nearby house likes to play ranchero music late at night, loudly, on the weekends. No bueno.
Sensorio
We drove down to Paso Robles on Thursday and after setting up we drove into town and had dinner at Catch Seafood Bar and Grill. The food was very good though portions were a little small and a lot pricey. Afterwards we headed over to Sensorio. This was a place I had heard of several years ago but it has since grown. It is basically an art exhibit involving lights, shapes, and shadows. You can also get quick bites to eat and of course wine and beer there. It’s a little on the pricey side but well worth it in my opinion.
Cambria 2.0
The next day we drove out to Cambria again. The first order of business is always coffee. Last time we stopped at Lily’s. This time we went farther down the street towards the ocean and stopped at Cambria Coffee Roasting Company. Literally two holes in the wall, one to buy coffee, the other to sit down and drink it. There’s also outdoor seating. The heat wave the coast was experiencing of 70 degree temperatures made sitting outdoors very comfortable. The coffee was delicious! Sorry Lily’s, CCC’s coffee was just better. Afterwards Cristy browsed the shops some more.
We headed back to the east side of downtown and here is where one of the odd things about Cambria happens. There can be a 10 degree temperature difference between the east side of town, and the west side. At any rate we had lunch at Linn’s Restaurant. Food was good but the service was so-so this time. The waiter obviously didn’t want to be there. Cordial but mostly absent. We ran into the owner again who is always friendly. He let us know there was more than just the restaurant; they owned a few shops up the alley. He gave us a coupon for 10% off the other shops. There was another little deli with the same food as Linn’s and then a couple of boutique shops that sold their food items and other things. Neat place.
Afterwards we headed back down to the shore and parked overlooking the beach and the ocean. There wasn’t a hint of fog and the ocean was beautiful. We stayed there a few hours and took a few walks before heading back to the trailer. On our way back we noticed that you could see Morro Rock from Highway 46 as we were heading up the pass. It was too late for me to pull over but we promised ourselves to note the pullouts and get a good photo the next day.
Cambria 2.1
The next day we went back to Cambria. We were disappointed that when we got to the spots where we could see Morro Rock the previous afternoon, the fog had covered Morro Bay so no views. We headed back into town and got coffee at Cambria Coffee Company again. After coffee Cristy checked out a few of the shops that weren’t open the day before. Then we stopped in at Artifacts Gallery and probably spent about an hour there just looking at all the art on display. The staff there were really eager to talk about the artists and air pieces there. Everything was for sale of course but they didn’t put any pressure on us to buy anything. They mostly just enjoyed talking about the art.
Harmony
We wanted to get lunch in Morro Bay because they tend to have more and better seafood than surrounding communities so we headed down Highway 1 to get there. Just outside of Cambria is the small town of Harmony, Pop. 18. They have a glassblower, a coffee shop, a pottery shop, and an ice cream truck. We didn’t buy anything but it was fun to look around. Also, though it is on the coast the sea breezes are blocked by a low range of hills and the temperature was easily 20 degrees higher than at the shore.
Cayucos
We continued down Hwy 1 until we came to Cayucos. We had never been here before so we stopped to take a look around. It kind of reminded us of Santa Cruz. Lots of shops along the beach. Cristy bought some skin care stuff at Mical Skincare and we walked out on the pier. It wasn’t quite lunch time so we moved on.
Morro Bay
We jumped back on Hwy 1 and headed down to Morro Bay. After battling the usual traffic and parking issues you find in any coastal town we settled on lunch a Tognazzini’s Dockside. The food was VERY good and filling. Wait staff was very pleasant and helpful. Our waitress was Jenna who was taking a break from college prior to starting her masters in mathematics! We prayed for her and then had a delicious lunch. We spent a few more hours walking along the docks watching the seals lounge in the sun. Several of them were blocking access to a fishing boat. We were talking about how difficult it must be for the crew to use that boat. Our questions on difficulty were answered pretty quickly when one of the crewmen started walking down the dock toward the boat we were looking at. He stomped his foot and started yelling at the seals to “Get out of hear, go on, git!” The seals were off the dock in half a second and he got onto his boat.
The Photo Op
Even though it would be quicker to take Hwy 47 back to 101 and go north from there, we elected to drive back up Highway 1 to 46 and see if we could get that photo of Morrow Rock from the vantage point we had seen the previous day. It wasn’t far at all and about 30 minutes later we were parked on a large pullout on the side of the road with several other people taking pictures of the now plainly visible Morro Rock. No fog in sight.
We headed back to the RV park for our last night away and enjoyed a few TV shows on the iPad before finding out that a nearby house liked to play loud music on the weekends. It only lasted long enough to wake us up. After that it was quiet and we ended our day. Sunday morning we packed up and drove home. But only after discovering the right turn signal on the trailer had stopped working. I’ll have to get that nailed down before the next trip; The Lost Coast.
Greenfield? What’s in Greenfield? Honestly not much. We only go there for Yanks RV park which is very nice. It’s located about midway between Salinas and Paso Robles on Highway 101. We first went there during the COVID pandemic in 2020. We’ve since been back 3 times. It makes a great jumping off point for the central coast and the Monterey Bay Area. And that’s exactly what we did on this last trip.
Cambria
We had never been to Cambria so we decided to make this our first day trip. It was about an hour and a half drive from the RV park but that’s okay. That’s a lot closer than driving there from home. Our first order of business after arriving in Cambria was looking for coffee. We ended up at Lily’s Coffee House. It’s a great place to just sit out on the patio and enjoy a good carmel latte. After coffee we went next door to The Garden Shed. It’s a great little garden store with a back yard that opens onto other artist shops, antiques, and more. We spent about an hour here.
Moonstone Beach
Next we drove down to Moonstone Beach. We found parking right next to the boardwalk which runs along the bluff above the beach. We walked down to the beach and checked out all the driftwood huts.
Afterwards we walked right across the road and had lunch at Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill. We sat out on the patio and had a great ocean view.
Hearst Castle
As long as we were in the area I thought we should take a tour of Hearst Castle. I booked a tour while we were finishing up lunch. I opted for the Big Room tour as it gave us a few hours to get there. We slowly made our way down to San Simeon. We arrived around 2:30pm and there was plenty of parking. When we got there and checked in we were told that there was a tour leaving in 5 minutes and would we like to switch to that one rather than the later tour that I had booked. We switched and ran over to the tour bus that was just getting ready to leave. Let me tell you, those bus drivers have nerves of steel. Our driver was a very thin blonde lady in her 40’s and she drove that bus like she was at a Le Mans race. We arrived up at the top of the hill and the view and Hearst Castle were both breath-taking.
Monterey / Cannery Row
Our second day trip was to Cannery Row in Monterey. What I actually wanted to see was the John Denver memorial at the southwest end of the bay. But we decided to swing through Cannery Row and do some touristy stuff. We made our way to Sea Harvest Fish Market for lunch. Let me tell you, if you want to know if a place sells good seafood, see how many Asian folks are eating there. Lots of Asian folks here and the food was, in fact, delicious. Fairly reasonably priced for Monterey too.
Asilomar
We drove down to Asilomar to check out the John Denver Memorial. On our way we made an impluse stop at El Carmelo Cemetary to look at the herd of deer that were grazing on the… well… graves. Nothing more peaceful than graveyard deer.
We parked and walked a few blocks down to the shoreline trail to look for John Denver’s Memorial. It took a while but we finally located it. They we started an ill-fated search for the Pt. Pinos Lighthouse. Turns out we had parked right next to it. By the time we found it, it was closing. Oh well.
All three evenings were spent just relaxing, binge-watching Blacklist, and one night I lounged in the hot tub. We also enjoyed quiet sunset walks around the park. All in all a very relaxing trip. So much so that we’re returning to the coast on our next trip. Paso Robles!
For years ever since I started dreaming of taking off on a non-stop RV adventure one of my bucket-list items was the California Super Boom. It only happens in the high desert in heavy rainfall years and this was on of those years. So I decided, why wait? 2 years from now is not guaranteed so we went this weekend!
We drove down I-5 and stopped off for lunch at Harris Ranch. We ate the sandwiches that Cristy had made that morning but once we smelled the meat cooking in the sandwich shop we decided to eat lunch there on the way home. After topping off the truck’s tank in Bakersfield we continued on up the Grapevine until we hit highway 138 and took it over to Lancaster. I hadn’t yet decided where to go see the super bloom but the last long stretch of Hwy 138 into Lancaster made up my mind for me. The wildflower just went on and on.
We finally made it to The Californian RV resort and checked in. I asked the lady at the front desk where was the best place to see Wildflowers. She said it was out on Hwy 138. Right where we spotted them on the way in. It’s just over the hill from the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve but she said the preserve was usually very crowded and parking is difficult. Hwy 138 was a much better option. She turned out to be right.
After a nice long sleep in the first day we headed back out to Hwy 138 and, well, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
There are a lot of places you can go see the flowers but it turns out this little stretch of Hwy 138 was pretty good. The lady at the front desk was right, there was no problem finding a place to park and we were the only ones out there. It was perfect.
First off, sorry it took so long to post part 2 of this series. The truth is, time when by so fast, I never got a chance! In Part 1 I talked about our trip to Mt. Lassen National Park. In this posting, I’ll document what we did during the final two days of our stay.
Friday
Cristy wanted to take a drive into Redding and check out the mall and pick up some items from Sprouts. I politely asked if I could stay with the trailer. Cristy was happy to agree because that meant she could spend as much time at the mall as she wanted to. So off she went and there I stayed.
I fixed a couple of small things on the Lance and then tried to make some contacts on the local Ham radio repeaters in both Redding (W6STA) And Shingletown (WO6P) .
There wasn’t anyone on the two repeaters I checked so I decided to take a walk. Right across the highway was Airport Rd. I checked Google Maps and there did indeed used to be an airport across the highway from where we were camping. It was about a 3/4 mile walk so I decided to go check it out. It was a beautiful walk. When I got to the airport I could see that they had closed it and MEANT IT. They had planted so many trees such that it was impossible to use as a runway ever again.
Apparently they only use it for local recreation and a once a year star gazing party. I walked all the way to the end of the old runway and the peace and silence was stunning. Then I had a sobering thought; “I wonder if they have mountain lions around here?” Now, I’m not worried about bears or coyotes. But the big cats must be respected. I had zero weapons on me except for a pocket knife. I started heading back down the runway as quickly as I could! I kept scanning the ground for cat tracks but never saw any. Nor bear tracks. Just a few coyote tracks. I also noticed zero deer tracks which is probably why no cat tracks. It was the longest runway walk ever.
I finally made it back to the campground and wandered around checking out every square inch to see what we had missed. The KOA Shingletown/Mt. Lassen Holiday Resort is an excellent park. They have a wilderness area behind the park that is actually bigger than the camping area. There is a bird watching area there with feeders stocked with food to attract local birds, there is a RC car track, there are two huge swings, an area they call “Fort Imagination” which has tons of logs, sticks, and old tractor tires to build any kind of fort the kids can come up with. Cristy’s favorite was the huge tree swing. There is even a night trail; you walk it with your flashlight and shine it around to see all of the “eyes” (small reflectors) staring back at you from the woods!
Later that day after Cristy had come back and finished her swinging we went to a pot luck put on by the Lance Rally folks. I had the best jambalaya I had ever had! I came to find out that these folks who made it live right next door to us in Salida. Well, practically next door. After dinner that night, like every night, we sat by our fire bowl and talked at looked at the stars. One night we even found fireflies! Which… weren’t fireflies. Turns out the staff at KOA a pranksters and aimed one of those laser Christmas decoration at the trees which makes a remarkably good fake firefly effect.
Saturday we just hung around the park and did absolutely nothing. We did take a short drive to look at a few properties that were for sale. Nothing remarkable to report.
Sunday we watched our church online and did much the same as Saturday. We enjoyed the park so much we really didn’t feel like going anywhere. We did drive in to Shingletown to gas up and pick up some water for the trip home. That’s when we came across Reed’s, my new favorite store. It is a combination IGA Supermarket and ACE Hardware store! Genius!
Monday morning we slept in, cleaned up, said our good-byes and hit the road. We will definitely be back but this time, with a stronger truck!
We attended our first Lance ralley ever this year. It was the 9th annual rally held at Shingletown/Mt Lassen KOA Holiday. What a wonderful kampground and very nice bunch of people!
Day 1
We drove up I-5 through California’s Central Valley and encountered the usual traffic along the way in Stockton and Sacramento. But as soon as we got past Woodland all the traffic just seemed to disappear. We didn’t even see the trucks leave the freeway, they were just… gone. We stopped for lunch at Granzella’s in Williams and then finally arrived at the KOA at 3:15pm.
We were warmly greeted by both the KOA staff and the Lancer’s who were organizing the rally. This rally is put on by the Lance Owners of America and is only one of many. Lance campers and travel trailers have a very small and loyal following. I got the trailer levelled and set up (with not a little help from Cristy) then went and got the T-shirt I had orderd, got a raffle ticket, and then we took a nap. Usually one of the first things we do on a travel day. The day ended with an appetizer pot-luck and introductions. We were the only new people so only we got introduced!
Day 2
The next day was a free day so we took off and went up to Mt. Lassen National Park. I haven’t been there since I was 12 or so. We took our time and stopped at the Loomis Museum and Ranger Station at the north entrance to the park. It was only a 15 minute drive from the campground. We took a walk from the ranger station down along Manzanita Creek down to Manzanita Lake. A quick 15 minute walk. Then we set off along Lassen Peak Highway.
We drove along until we came to Summit Lake and got out to stretch our legs a bit. It was pretty but there really weren’t any trails so we moved on.
We drove on and finally stopped at Kings Creek Trailhead. It was lunch time and we were ready to eat. We walked down to the creek and found some nice rocks to sit on next to a small cascade in the creek.
We continued on up the highway, and I do mean up. We took time to stop at some pull outs and admire the views.
Finally we made it up to the summit. We were determined to see how high up the summit trail we could hike. We made it from the parking lot to the sign that said, “Summit Trail” before we decided to turn back. A couple of flatlanders attempting to climb the summit of Mt. Lassen with no preparation, what could possibly go wrong. We decided that the truck was an excellent mountain climbing vehicle and we had made it as high as we were going to go. Incidentally if you zoom in on the picture on the right, you will see the foolhardy souls who opted not to drive their truck up to the summit. Also, that rocky point in the picture on the left is NOT the summit, it is quite a bit higher than that.
At this point the road finally started sloping downward. It was a very short drive to Helen Lake. I had a lot of fun telling people we drove to Helen, took some pictures. It makes more sense if you say it out loud.
Mt Lassen
Our next stop (about 500 ft away) was Bumpass Hell Trailhead. I will cut to the chase and say we did not hike all the way to Bumpass Hell but we did make it about half way until the altitude and lack of water got to us and we turned back. Still there was some beautiful scenery (and shenanigans) along the way.
Our last stop before turning around and headed back down the highway was the Sulphur Works. It gives you a small preview of what Bumpas Hell is like but without the hike.
Boiling mudpot at the Sulphur Works.
And that was about all we had energy for. We made the hour and 20 minute drive back to our campground, cooked dinner, and watched Thursday Night Football. All in all a great 2nd day!
This past weeked Cristy and I camped at Barret Cove Campground on Lake McClure. We stayed in Loop C site 13. Good, level site. Had a huge ledge going from the paved road into the campsite if you pulled in from the wrong angle. Water, electric, and sewer. One of the few campgrounds that actually enforces quiet hours.
What, you want to read more?
My Ham radio club was having an event called Field Day this past weekend. It’s basically an event where Hams hold a contest to try to contact as many radio stations as possible. That’s not my cup of tea but it seemed like a good excuse to get away, especially since the following week at work was going to be stressful. The location was at Barret Cove Campground on Lake McClure also known to the older folks as New Exchequer Reservoir. The campground and surrounding recreation area as well as the lake is owned and managed by the Merced Irrigation District. Who by the way have a great reservation system for their campground, including a video tour that lets you see the camp sites prior to booking a reservation. Reserved campsite show up on the video with a red marker, available sites show up as a green marker. So after making reservations a few weeks before Cristy and I loaded up our Lance 1995 and headed up to the campground.
It was only about an hour and twenty minute drive from home but the roads were fairly narrow. Luckily there was not much traffic so the one lane bridges leading up there near the town of LaGrange were not an issue. We arrived and checked in and then navigated this maze of a campground. There are a couple hundred campsites, many of which are primitive but also many have full hook-ups, 30A electric, water, AND sewer. Kind of a rarity for this type of campground. We finally found our spot in the C-Loop and Cristy guided me over our two-way radios as I backed in. After a couple of back-and-forths we finally got the trailer settled in a mostly level spot. Half the site was graded up to the road correctly, the other half had a huge lip that my truck almost couldn’t drive over. That just meant that I could only pull out in one direction. I thought that might be an issue but it turns out it was not.
We got into our site and got about the business of getting everything set up: level the trailer, put down the stabilizers, extend the slide-out, and since it wasn’t windy, extend the awning. Then the most important part; taking a nap.
After my nap I put out our chairs, set up the Blackstone and grilled up some chicken for dinner. The weather was perfect. We opened up all the windows, opened the door, and with the vent fan running it was the perfect temperature inside the trailer. We could feel an occasional cool breeze blowing through which made my nap even perfecter.
There was a large group camped across and in the next two sites so there were a lot of children running around but at least they kept to the street and their own sites. I parked the truck strategically to give us a front “wall”. We were already thinking that we probably wouldn’t be getting a good night’s sleep but miraculously they all quieted down at 10pm. Like a switch had been flipped. Quiet hours are from 11pm to 7am but like most parks we didn’t think they would enforce them. But every night the park ranger came past our loop at about 11:15pm to check on everyone. Nice to see a park actually enforce the quiet hours. We had our chicken dinner, watched some YouTube and then fell asleep in a very quiet campground!
The next morning was peaceful until the surrounding kids all woke up. There was a flurry of activity from about 8am to 10am for breakfast until they all took their boats and headed for the lake. Then it was dead quiet for the rest of the morning and afternoon. We had already decided that we were mostly going to just hang around the trailer and relax on this trip and that’s just what we did. We did take one trip down to Robert’s Ferry Nut Company about 30 minutes away. Cristy bought some almonds for her mother and I got bag of almonds for myself and one of their almond-butter milkshakes. Which did nothing but raise my blood sugar I’m sure but it also raised my happiness level exponentially. We also stopped by a lavender farm where Cristy bought some soap and some honey. You are also invited to go out and cut your own lavender but first, you must understand the relationship of bees and lavender. I can’t remember the name but it’s just east up Highway 132 on the right side of the road a short distance from Robert’s Ferry.
We came back and had a salad for lunch and then just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. When the sun started to set (on both nights) I lit our propane fire-bowl and we sat in front of it to keep the chill off off and talked. A Filipino family walked by so I struck up a conversation in my VERY LIMITED Tagalog. They were suitably impressed so I called Cristy over. I told them I had been teaching her Tagalog and I wanted them to evaluate how much she had learned. 🙂
We chatted for a while and even though we had already eaten hamburgers for dinner, they invited us over for leftovers. We had lechon kawali (chopped pork), pinakbet, and rice. It was delicious and I was now officially stuffed. But you never insult a Filipino by turning down food. The entire family was very warm and welcoming and really filled Cristy’s heart. I even got my very first “mano po” from one of the kids. They insisted we exchange contact info so they could invite us to their future get-togethers and camp-outs.
We headed back home to sit around the fire some more and listen to the wild turkey’s tuck themselves into bed for the night. Apparently they fly up to the highest branches they can reach and hunker down for the night. This was about 40 feet up in this tree.
On Sunday morning we woke, had breakfast and listened to our church, Almond Valley CRC, online. I was a little concerned on how I was going to get out of the camping spot with all the kids and boats and everything near us. However, by the time church was over they were mostly packed up. By the time I finished dumping the tanks and walked up the road to say goodby to our new friends, everyone near our campsite was gone. We finished hitching up and drove home.
All in all it was a very restful weekend in spite of all the noise from the kids. Cristy felt recharged and regenerated, especially after the warm welcome from the folks up the street. I felt rested to and ready to take on the stressful week ahead. Soli Deo Gloria.
Last January (2023) I noticed some cracking on the interior plastic of my refrigerator. The fridge still worked but I hated looking at the cracks and at the time we had no clue as to what had caused them. Knowing that I want to sell this trailer some day I decided to replace the refrigerator. Watching the videos on YouTube showed that it wasn’t that complicated. So I ordered a refrigerator and then had it shipped to my house. I hired a mobile RV tech and we gave it a go.
We got the old refrigerator out of it’s cubby hole and then tried to get it out the front door. We couldn’t. There is a sharp, narrow 90 degree bend to get around the kitchen cabinet and out the door of the trailer. Try as we might we just couldn’t do it. I helped him put everything back and gave Lance Parts and Service a call. The appointment was 3 months away and I had to ship the fridge down to Lancaster, CA where they were located. That turned out to be another whole blog post. Let’s just say, I finally got it down there.
We told them we would be arriving the night before so we could be there in time for the 7am appointment. They said we could stay in their parking lot where they had electrical and water hookups. We took advantage of the electrical, didn’t need the water. The drive down was fairly exciting, just a normal day on Highway 99 and the Tehachapi Pass.
We spent the evening in their parking lot but they have wonderful landscaping so it felt more like an RV park. Also, the temps were low enough that we didn’t need the AC. We sat out in the grass and enjoyed the cool evening breeze before turning in. We dropped the trailer off at the service location which is basically the delivery entrance for the manufacturing plant. It took an hour to get it all checked in. The lady at the service counter said she’d call me when it was done.
It took them longer than they expected because the fridge was the same width but slightly shorter. They didn’t want to give it back to me with a gap above the fridge so they had to fab up a new piece to close the gap. That meant it would take an extra day.
Sidebar: The lesson I learned was that I should have ordered the replacement refrigerator through Lance. That way it would have fit the existing cutout. I tried to save a few bucks by doing it myself and ended up paying more. Lesson learned.
Cristy and I had to stay at a hotel over night so we chose one next to food and shopping down in Palmdale. I have to admit it was kind of cool to see the Lockheed Skunkworks hangars. I thought they would be a bit more secretive. The two Lockheed Martin hangars dominate the landscape. The next morning at breakfast I got a call from the Lance service department that the trailer was ready. That was good news as I thought we wouldn’t get that call until late afternoon. We finished breakfast and drove back up to Lancaster.
When we went to pick up the trailer we found they just left it right outside the gate. Barely any room to maneuver my truck to hitch up. No place to turn around. They expected me to back out past two parking lot entrances and out onto the main road. With the way people drive down there I told them no way. I asked them to turn the trailer around. They ended up moving it out into the turn lane in the center of the street.
So what are my thoughts on the whole experience? Lance did swap out the fridge and did a good job fabbing up the new wood surround. The fridge was the same width but a bit shorter and they finished it off nicely. The door swung the wrong way. I asked them why they didn’t go ahead and reverse the door swing so it would match the old refrigerator. I basically got a “not our job” answer from them. They then told me the door isn’t reversible anyway. Uh-huh. I reversed the door this morning with zero experience. Took me about 30 minutes. They could have done it in 10. Not a huge deal but geez.
I also asked them to look at the gap between the bathroom wall and the ceiling. They said it didn’t look right but didn’t look like a huge problem either. If I want them to investigate why it happened I’d have to bring the trailer back at another time and leave it with them for a day while they measured things. Okay, we may do that. I’m also going to take a picture of the gouge they put in the door frame when they swapped the fridge. They can fix that next time too.
So I guess I expected more from them. Maybe I expected too much. I feel like it was the same service level I get at the DMV. Just… basic stuff. No going out of their way to make the customer happy. Just doing EXACTLY what the customer asked and no more. Okay. That’s fine.
I really like our 1995 travel trailer. We enjoy travelling in it. That being said the customer service is lackluster. We will probably not be a repeat customer. We will be wanting something bigger next time anyway.
This past Memorial Day weekend I attended the Red Hills fly in! The fly in was started years ago by.. well me! I flew in to the Red Hills strip with a friend and paid a visit to my dear friends Jack and Myrna. The reason for the visit was to introduce them to my friend Joey so that he could fly in there when ever he wanted. We told them about our flying and camping adventures and I mentioned that their ranch and strip would be a great place for a fly-in and camp out. Jack thought it was a great idea and so Memorial Day weekend was selected and the Red Hills Fly-in was born! I tried to keep up with organizing these fly-ins for a few years but my day job kept getting in the way. Also getting rid of my airplane made it so I spent less time on the back country airplane forums. We’re very grateful that Rich Finkle decided to take on organizing the fly-ins and keeps up with it today. Now I can just show up and enjoy myself!
This year saw the lowest turnout of any year we’ve held the fly-in. Mechanical issues and weather kept most pilots away. Even though I don’t have a plane to fly there anymore I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I loaded my powered parachute on my trailer, threw my tent and some clothes in the back of my truck and headed up the hill to Moyle Valley Ranch in the heart of Red Hills. No matter if I flew my plane in past years, or drove my truck up this year, it takes an hour door to door to get there.
I pulled into the ranch after navigating the serpentine dirt road to get there. I saw one airplane parked in the parking area and Jack Moyle with a big smile on his face walking up to greet me. I said hello to him and Myrna Moyle and then was introduced to the pilot who and flown in. I’ve met him before but I always let Jack introduce me to people if he wants to. I proceeded to set my tent up and after I was all settled it was time to drive into Jamestown for dinner. As there were only 5 of us there, (Jack and his wife Myrna, John and ladyfriend Gayle, and me playing the role of bachelor) we rode into Jamestown in Jack’s truck to forage for dinner.
Jack suggested a place he and Myrna hadn’t been to yet called The Service Station. They have standard pub food and a decent selection of beers and wines. And a darn-good iced tea as well! All agreed that the food was pretty darned good. Conversation mainly hovered around hearing aids. 😀 Comparing features and prices. Then things got really good when Jack and John started arguing over whether Jack was going to pay for his dinner or not. As I was sitting between then I thought it best to move to a safer position in case they came to throwing punches. I’m not sure who won but no one got a black eye and all the bills were paid.
After dinner Jack ran me by Dollar General so I could buy some batteries for my air mattress pump. The rest of the group wandered the streets (street?) of Jamestown looking at all the closed shops. Jamestown is still small town America and they close up pretty early at night. Especially on a holiday weekend. I got my batteries and Jack swung back by and picked the rest of the group up and we headed back to the ranch.
When we got there Joey Meyers, his wife Suzanne, and their daughter Kylie had arrived and set up camp. They had driven in with Joey’s powered parachute packed up in the back of their toy hauler. Apparently it was quite the adventure getting from Vacaville to Red Hills. Highway closures and holiday traffic turned a two hour trip into a 4 hour ordeal. They finally made it and decompressed a bit as we all caught up on everyone’s news. We shivered in the wind for a bit but once it got dark we all decided to turn in early. It was cold, VERY windy and Jack didn’t want to chance starting a campfire that night so we all called it a day. I crossed my fingers and hoped for a less windy Saturday as I drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up on Saturday morning it was just starting to get light out. The birds were singing and it sounded like the wind had stopped! Then after laying in my sleeping back for about 2 minutes I heard a big “whoosh” sound in the trees and my tent started flapping again. I peeked out and looked at the windsock, it couldn’t make up it’s mind which way it wanted to point. I zipped my tent shut and crawled back into my sleeping back and went back to sleep. It was STILL windy.
When I heard people talking and could smell campfire smoke I finally crawled out of my tent and joined Jack and John by the fire. Myrna made fresh coffee and set out some banana bread for breakfast. Before long Mike (can’t remember last name) and his wife showed up from Modesto in his PA-11 and made possibly one of the shortest no-flap landings I have ever seen at Red Hills. More importantly he brought donuts from Mr. T’s in Modesto. They are a local legend in our town. Shortly afterwards Jon and Tom Marring showed up. Jon in his carbon cub and Tom in his Scout. Jon brought sever flats of apricots and a bunch of cantaloupes. Joey also brought some lemons that were the size of grapefruits. And for a while we all sat around the fire and did what pilots do best; tell stories.
Mike and his wife didn’t stay long as they had an afternoon engagement back in Modesto. Tom and Jon left soon after for the same reasons. Other than John Pfaff these were the only other airplanes to show up. The winds had slackened a little when they all left but picked up again soon after. Wind was to be the recurring theme of the weekend and is probably what kept most pilots away.
For the remainder of the afternoon we all just relaxed, took walks, and just talked among ourselves. Joey found a few squawks on my powered parachute and pointed them out to me (thank you Joey). He ran his motor up just in case the wind died down at some point during the weekend (it never did) so he would be ready to hit the skies.
We all decided to have dinner a little early so we started putting food out at around 4:30pm. My wife had arrived with some jalapeno-cheddar sourdough bread from Klean-Eatz Market and Bakery. There was plenty to eat for everyone thanks to Jack and Myrna’s family showing up with lots to eat. We had a nice little buffet with the Moyle family and after they left, we all retired to the campfire. We stayed around the fire until 10pm or so and then retired because the wind was just relentless.
The next morning the wind was… still blowing. Myrna was busy making coffee, scrambled eggs, ham, sausage patties, and PANCAKES! Their son Jim and his son Tanner showed up and helped with breakfast. Then they helped eat breakfast. Everything was delicious and I was stuffed. I don’t normally eat breakfast but I never miss out on Myrna’s pancakes.
After breakfast John and Gayle packed up his 182 and departed for the northern coast. I hung out a bit longer and chatted with everyone. I had already packed up and hitched up my PPC trailer before breakfast so I could just relax afterwards and enjoy my last minutes of peace and quiet. At about 1pm I bid everyone farewell and made the one hour drive back to the flat lands and my home.
As an addendum Joey did stay one more night and was able to get a quick flight in on Memorial Day morning. He said it was smooth on the ground but pretty sporty up in the air. He cut his flight short and got back on the ground.
All in all it was a great fly-in. Far fewer people showed up than signed up. However, it was nice because everyone who did show up was able to talk to each other more. I guess you could call it a more intimate fly-in this year. Even so I’m really hoping for better weather next year and more airplanes. We never know how many more fly-ins we have with these wonderful people. I want to make each one count!
