Finally in sunny weather!

We are in Morgan Hill, CA, and it's sunny and beautiful.  It's a welcome relief, as we had about three days of sunshine out of 22 days.  The rain followed us into California, which was welcome by all who live here, but not by us.

We've passed through and stayed at some absolutely beautiful country.  Since we left Bandon, we stayed at the Riverwalk RV Park in Fortuna, CA,  and then right in the heart of the Avenue of the Giants, with the beautiful towering Redwood trees all around, at a really nice RV site, tucked away in the trees.  We met the owner, a feisty English lady that used to drive her own 35-foot RV, but has owned the Redwoods River Resort, in Leggett, for the last 16 years.  They had a great hiking path down to the river.  Here's a picture Dave took of the river bed.

We hiked an area right out of the quaint little Victorian town of Ferndale.

Jeff, this one is for you.  We saw this while hiking.  See if you can spot the bird!

Next was the Russian River Thousand Trails park in Cloverdale, CA.  And when we left Cloverdale and drove to the KOA in Pentaluma, Highway 101 was so bad that we thought our RV would shake apart!  Please, CA, fix your highways!

We arrived in Morgan Hills Thousand Trails on Saturday, with the never-ending rain.   We ended up parking next to a group of guys that had come for the 49ers game!  They were a hoot.  They invited us to come eat some ribs with them, and we listened to them play guitar and sing.  Here's our new 49er friends!

So of course we couldn't just have a smooth ride, right?  We always seem to have some sort of adventure/calamity in store for us.  So the first spot we were in, the power failed us.  We got by for the night and next day by hooking up to our 49er friends' electricity, but after they left, we  ended up moving to a new spot, only to wake up at 3:30 a.m. with no electricity again!  We were starting to think it was our RV, but we saw that everybody was without electricity.  Turns out that there was a one-car accident on the road outside the RV park, and the car had taken down the power pole!

We are getting ready now for Thanksgiving Day, and we wish all of you the very best Thanksgiving Day!!!

Miracles do happen!!!

So to continue our lock saga, we left Whaler's Rest, South Beach, OR, and had contacted Thor, the manufacturer of our RV, to overnight us a new lock.  We had them send it to our next stop, which was Bandon, OR.  We got up on Tuesday and got the tracking number and saw that it was on the truck for delivery, but then we also realized that it was Veteran's Day, and the Post Office was closed!  We managed to contact the UPS store and asked them to hold it for pickup.  The driver must have known it was for the Post Office and that it was closed, so they had it there.  It was a 45-minute trip there to pick it up, but at least we had it, although it did not look like the right lock.  It was oval, when the other was square, and so the decals on our RV wouldn't match.  

Then we were racking our brains on where to go to get it put on.  It's hard to figure that out when you're on the road and don't quite know the times you will be in a different area, and they all require appointments.  So we went ahead to our next destination, which was Cresent City, CA.  We pulled into our RV site, which was #49!  First RV stall site in California, and it was the number of our beloved 49ers!  

We figured our luck had to be changing, and, sure enough, not two minutes later this truck pulls up to the camper two sites down.  We read on the side, "Mobile RV."  We told him our ordeal with the lock and asked if he could put it on, and he could!!!  He had it on within half an hour of arriving, and also was able to carve out our decals to match the new lock.  Unbelievable!  What are the odds of a traveling RV mechanic pulling up to our site right after we arrived??!!

After it was replaced, we could not stop using it, so relieved it worked again!!!  Here's a picture of our knight in shining armor:

The rain is still with us, ever present, but we will be heading to Fortuna in the morning.  Let's see what other adventures await us.

Locked in, but still cruising

Oh, my, we've had quite the adventure (ordeal) the last few days.  We came from Seaside, OR, to Newport, OR, and were 10 miles from Newport when we decided to fill up on gas.  Well, Dave wanted me to go out and make sure the tow car was okay, and I couldn't get out of the RV!  Dave thought it was me, of course, so he tried, and he couldn't get out.  We tried for about 15 minutes and finally flagged down the gas guy.  He tried to open it from outside.  Nope.  We handed him our keys, and, no, no go.  We finally had to call a locksmith to get us out.  He couldn't do it from the outside and had to climb through our front passenger window!  We have the pictures in our "Smile, and take a picture" page.

So it was a two-hour ordeal, but he finally busted us out of the RV.  We thought he had "fixed" the problem, but, no, our ordeal continued all weekend.  First Dave got locked in, after I went to bed, and it took him 20 minutes to unlock the door.  Then we both got locked in and it took us flagging down another unsuspecting passerby.  He managed to get us out with our keys.  So Dave went and bought a ladder that we could keep handy in case we get locked in again, and then he could climb out the passenger window with it.  But he spent a couple hours messing with the lock and filing things down, and, knock on wood, it's worked so far.  But we are actually sleeping without locking the door and going away without locking the door, for fear we'll get locked in or out.  It's super stressful, praying that every time you try the handle it will open!

But we are having a wonderful time.  We are in Bandon by the Sea until Wednesday, and today it was a beautiful, sunny day for traveling.

We did manage to go walk on the beach in the morning and at sunset.  Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset at Newport Beach.

We made it!!!

First day of our journey from Chehalis to Seaside, OR, was a beautiful day!  Not only did we get our first 100 miles under our belt, but we enjoyed gorgeous weather.  But ever since then, it feels like we're still in Seattle, as it's been nothing but rain!  But that's okay.  Life is great, and we are enjoying ourselves!

Just having some fun in my new duds!  It don't matter what I wear.  I'm still stylin!