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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

July 24, 2016 - We didn't hit the sprinklers!

This is our second stop at Doodie and Dave’s since arriving on the west coast with Molly and Scoop. On our first arrival we carefully pulled straight into their driveway embarrassed that we blocked all cars. This time we whipped that baby around and backed in first time as Dave threw his body between Molly and his sprinkler system.

Because they are the best people ever and it was Denis’ birthday, the Myer’s spent the day helping to clean and organize Scoop after his week of four-people travels. Amazing how four people can make an RV infinitely dirtier than two. While at home, when I have one, I am not a fan of disinfectant wipes because they are expensive and wasteful, I find they are great for a quick wipe down of Scoop's innards. The Myer’s were happy that part of the cleaning process was not emptying our waste tanks into their storm drain. Thank God we were done early afternoon. It got up to 106° in Redding. The peanut butter in Scoops cupboard was liquid…note to self: where to not store peanut butter in the summer.

Monday, August 8, 2016

July 23, 2016 - The Fender-less Trail Angels

One of the best things we found about boondocking in truck stops is that you are forced awake and get an early start. Our goal for the day was to get to Doodie and Dave’s house in Redding via Crater Lake National Park. News reports say that the National Parks are very popular this year and I think most of them were in Crater Lake this Saturday. We were thankful that we are now pretty comfortable with where Scoop and Molly can fit and that most drivers will steer clear on narrow winding roads.

I think I neglected to mention that Scoop is missing his passenger-side fender. We first noticed it was gone a couple weeks ago. Denis insists he knows exactly when I scraped it off cutting a gas station departure too tight, but he opted to say nothing so as not to hurt my feelings. Funny, that he hasn’t been mum since I discovered it was gone. And given the narrow roads, construction and congestion in Crater Lake I imagine the fender wouldn’t have survived the day today. Jayco was very helpful when Denis called to order a new fender, I tried to get him to get two…just in case.


Amazingly, not far from the Visitors Center, we found a pullout suitable for the rig complete with a beautiful vista. Lunch was leftover pizza that we promised our waste-not daughter-in-law we would eat. As we were enjoying the vista a weary backpacker was passing. Denis asked the older gentleman if he was a through-hiker and he was. He had started the Pacific Crest Trail at the Mexico border in May. He was on the downhill part of his journey with only 800+ miles left to go. Denis saw him glance at the pizza, offered him some and it was gone in a flash. Denis is planning to hike part of the John Muir trail and Tahoe Yosemite Trail later this summer so they had lots to talk about.  We refreshed his water, and off he went with a little more spring in his step.