Triple Digits

It isn't even Noon and the thermometer is already reading 100 degrees! Now I remember why I never liked the Central Valley of CA during the summer.

I decided to put out the small awning over the kitchen door to hopefully keep some of the sunshine from entering the rig. There are three tools in storage and I knew I needed one of those. One turned out to be for the scissor jacks; the other one is for ?; finally I pulled out the third one and Voila! I hooked the awning and then turned and turned the pole (which was straight) with much difficulty. It took a while to get the awning out to where I was satisfied (and my hands hurt from turning). After I unhooked it and was going to carry the pole back to storage, it suddenly snapped into the position where turning it would have been a breeze! I knew there was a better way but it was too hot to spend much time over it. I'm glad I wasn't on Candid Camera! I can't even do the small awning - imagine what I would do if I tried to bring down that 18' baby that stretches about halfway across the side of the 5th wheel.

I was looking at maps last night, one of my favorite things to do. I wondered how far it was from Orland to the Pacific Ocean, and determined that if you could fly from Orland due west to approximately the site of Rockport, it would be in the vicinity of 80 miles. But sorry, you can't get there from here. You probably could, by one of the most convoluted routes you can imagine, but I doubt anyone ever does it especially with an RV. In between the Central Valley and the ocean is the Cascade Mountain Range, in this latitude of California it is called Mendocino National Forest, and the few roads that you can take would be forest roads. A better option would be to drive to Red Bluff, probably 40 or so miles north of Orland, and while it is still a very twisting and winding road all the way west, at least it's a red route, which is labeled as "Highway". I think on that route you must go through the Shasta Trinity National Forest, which meets the Mendocino somewhere in the vicinity. I can usually see the coastal range in the west, as well as the Sierra in the east. Awesome! The route from Red Bluff goes a bit west-northwest, and you could end up in Eureka, a lovely name for a town. I think if I were to drive my rig from Red Bluff, I'd be ready to shout "Eureka, I found it!" by the time I eventually got there. (The heat is making me silly!) I have no idea how long it would take, but I note that there is a campsite now and then through the forest. Maybe next year I will try it. For the fun of it I did a Google map, which shows it to be about 150 miles for just under 5 hrs. That says something about the route, for sure. (I am sure the time is given for driving a car, and an RV would take much longer.)

I would love to hear from someone who has taken this route (or a similar one). I think I would worry about getting myself in a spot where my 5ver couldn't make it, although it is a "Highway", which no doubt just indicates that it is paved all the way.

Here is a picture of my campsite at Parkway RV Park. I am at the end of the first row and have a wide circular area on one side. There is an RV on the other side, but that is all in my immediate line of vision from the rig. It's very nice at about 80F.