Monday May 19, '14

Tonight I'm in Sutherlin Oregon, just north of Roseburg.  I spent the last couple of nights at Rancheria RV Park, about 20 minutes from Mt. Lassen National Park.  It turns out that Lassen usually opens by the 4th of July.  But this year, with little snow, they are opening for Memorial Day.  I had a good time tucked into my RV park, nestled in next to Lake Katherine (a very small lake).

First, I'm including a couple of pictures I took the evening I spent at Meadowcliff RV on the east side of the Sierra chain.  I meant to take better pictures in the morning, but i got involved talking to the family from Eugene in the campsite next to me, and forgot!  So you get the dim evening pictures instead.  It really wasn't evening--barely 5:30--but the park is in the shadow of the Sierra.

Looking east, the range of mountains beyond the Sierra are still in the sun.

Looking west.  The two tiny trees beyond the metal fence are about 35 feet tall.

The morning I left Meadowcliff I backtracked into the little town of Walker to visit the Out West Gallery.  I had stopped there about 20 years ago and bought an 8 by 10 foot handwoven Zapotec rug that I still love even if it is not on my floor.  The shop has a new owner, but still has beautiful one-of-a-kind items.  (Susan and Rick--I think that you have shopped here too?)  I came away with three amazing Zuni fetishes.  One is a mare and foal for Paula Isakson, and one is a dinosaur to keep my stegosaurus company.  The other one is a cat with an inlaid silver collar and pendant.  Well, I resisted the jewelry!

I did get gas for Myrtle in Carson City, which now seems to be a suburb of Reno.  I paid $3.97, which was pretty consistently the going rate.  Part of highway 395 is a brand new 6 lane freeway through the southern part of Reno--it threw my new GPS into a brain-freeze.  Poor thing kept trying to figure out what road I was on until it finally gave up!  It sure was happy when I ended up back on the older part of 395.

Coming up over the range of mountains was interesting. (Are they Sierra or Cascade in here?)  I have driven this road several times (all long ago!) so I was surprised at how aware I was of the change in vegetation.  The ponderosa forest is made up of enormous trees compared to the ponderosas I had seen farther south (and at much higher elevations).  The meadows looked like they had been lake beds not too many decades ago.

Rancheria RV Park, where I stayed, had meadows in among the ponderosas, but it also had a little lake.  Myrtle cuddled up along the shore and Livy and I had a flock of interesting ducks for full-time entertainment.

Myrtle is camping in this row along the lake. Sorry about the tipsy shot!

I felt very at-home here.  The park was the closest to a camp ground of any non-federal or state campground I've stayed at. (They did have a store and restaurant, however, so not really roughing it.)

Our flock of seven ducks are an odd mix.

In our flock of ducks, we had a male and a female mallard, four ducks that looked to be all black, including bills and feet, and one combo-duck that was unique!  They seemed very relaxed but if any threat appeared they calmly and quickly made for the cattails in the water.  They thought Livy was okay up to a certain point.  The  six or seven year old boy camped across the road was apparently a well recognized threat--he didn't even have to get all the way across the road before they were gone!

I haven't a clue what kind of ducks these are.  There are some
mallard genes in there, but the rest?

Livy and I met another solo woman RVer walking her cat on a leash yesterday evening.  He was a sweet Maine Coon cat and Livy was very rude.  She hissed and swore and called him names.  I finally had to put her in Myrtle.   I enjoyed talking with the woman, who has been RVing full time for years.  She is from Wisconsin, but her RV is licensed in South Dakota for tax purposes.  A lot of "fulltimers" pick the state to license their RV for tax reasons.

This morning as we were leaving, we actually had a couple drops of rain.  The forecasters were talking about a possibility of a shower, but it sounded like thunder and lightning were going to be part of the package.  Not good news in such dry country.

Definitely on the "visit again" list.

So . . . tonight in Oregon.  Tomorrow night in Vancouver Washington, and in Trilogy (Redmond Washington) Wednesday afternoon for a birthday get-together.  Home by Wednesday evening!  Just in time for laundry before Friday's trip to Howard Miller Steelhead Park on the Skagit River.