This week had a bit of a twist to it... we had planned to drive up through Jackson Wyoming over to Boise Idaho then down through Lakeview Oregon on our way out to the coast... BUT the large forest fires burning in Idaho and Oregon changed our plans...
Saturday we headed north out of Cheyenne through Douglas, the Jackalope Capital of the World...
...then west to Casper and on to Riverton where we stopped for the night. This has to be one of the boringest drives around. There really is bugger all to see through central Wyoming... well except for maybe a lot of sage brush...
There's not much in Riverton, tourist wise anyway, so we decided to try out the Wind River Casino located on the Wind River reservation just outside of town. Of all the reservation casinos we have been in this one trails the pack in terms of food... not to mention lousy returns on the poker machines. Good thing we aren't big gamblers! In addition, this is the only casino we have ever visited that did not appear to serve liquor, even in the dining room.
That evening we learned a bit more about the fires in the west. Doing further research using Google we found that there were air quality warnings in Boise, Idaho (large fire just east of the city) and there was an out of control fire about 20 miles west of Lakeview in Oregon. Both places we had planned to stay. We had to decide whether to continue on our original plan or abandon ship and head south west to the coast. We decided on the later and changed course heading south to Rock Springs and on to I-80. (I-80 really is the only way to cross this part of the country through Utah and Nevada).
Not all was lost though. Driving south from Riverton towards Rock Springs and the I-80 interstate we stopped at an overlook with some fantastic views (not all of Wyoming is dead flat)...
We stopped for lunch in Rock Springs and after driving around pretty well the whole damn town we found a little cafe open, went in and had a basic omelette and sausage lunch. Generally as far as Rock Springs goes, if you have ever seen the movie "In Bruges" you will gather what we think of the place! On we went.
Later in the afternoon, after we had entered Utah, we stopped at a rest stop/visitor information center. During the course of discussion an older woman standing beside us suggested we visit the large copper mine just outside of the city. She exclaimed with great excitement that she visited there 11 years ago and it is more than twice the size now. The information officer went on to tell us that the mine is so big you can see it from space. The older woman then said that they have a visitor center and they only charge $5 per car to go in. Kris said "... it's a strip mine, you pay to go see a strip mine?" Both the older woman and the information officer appeared to be surprised at our reactions and hurriedly said "that all the money from the admission is donated to charity you know". We concluded that the Alberta government is going about defending the oil sands the wrong way. They might consider the approach of selling it as a tourist attraction, charge a fee (be a good corporate citizen and donate the money to some charity)... take pride and boast about the size of the place!
Speaking of oil, it was oil change time again for the car so we decided to spend two nights in Salt Lake City. The KOA there is in a very handy location but if they are trying to make the place look like a homeless encampment they are going about it the right way. The first night there was a large goup of people who took over the area where the camp kitchen is, piled their stuff around the sinks and spread their sleeping bags all around on the grass making it a bit intimidating to even go to the restroom. The second afternoon featured (sic) a rather large fellow panhandling. Not the kind of activity you expect or want to see in a KOA. On top of that someone made a hell of a mess in the men's washroom washing dishes (likely because they couldn't get to the camp kitchen sinks) which remained there from the first evening until late in the second day. It took two complaints about the growing pig sty like conditions before any action was taken, the second one being an hour after the scheduled "restroom closed for cleaning". Good grief!
Anyway, all in all we had a good second day in Salt Lake. First thing in the morning the oil change was done, then a drive around downtown (quick stop for a coffee in Starbucks), shopping in a really cool yarn store; while one of us sat in the nice cool shade patio in the yard...
...followed by more driving around cool neighbourhoods. To finish the day we bought tickets to see the Triple A baseball team (Salt Lake Bees) host the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.
Unfortunately our home team mojo appears to be reserved only for MLB teams as the Bees got fairly waxed 12-5. Last year we took in a Boise Hawks game and they too suffered a similiar waxing. On the plus side though they have a great little ball park with pretty cool views out to the mountains...
The highlight of Monday in the city was a terrific late afternoon dinner, before the ballgame, at the Red Iguana Mexican restaurant on North Temple. Excellent place.
Tuesday we continued the great trek across Utah and Nevada. Pretty well almost as boring as central Wyoming. You know others think the same when you see many road signs telling drowsy drivers to pull over and have a rest! One rest area we stopped at had some fabulous rock formations ...
...while another had several signs warning of possible dangers...
This is a long stretch of highway with very little along the way...
Tuesday night we stopped in Winnemucca Nevada at the Hi Desert RV park. This was a great place to stop, clean, well kept park with a very nice pool, and it cools off very nicely in the evening. We had some leftovers to be had for dinner but decided to head into the small town and try our luck at one of their casinos. Not too bad... after an hour and a half or so of video poker while watching a ball game, a couple of glasses of wine each and some munchies we came out about $10 to the good. First positive casino result of this trip.
Wednesday we continued the trek across Nevada, only a couple more hours to go, thank goodness. As we approached Reno the terrain started to get somewhat more interesting. Just past Reno, we took an exit to visit, for the first time, a large Cabela's store. Well, no shortage of taxidermy here that's for sure. Mega size store for all your outdoor needs with emphasis on hunting, fishing and camping. Kris scoped out the fishing rods to see if they had a decent collection of "blue" ones...because that's the only color of rod that will work with the poem "fishy fishy in the lake, won't you come and take my bait!". We looked at a few but decided to wait until we get back to Vancouver Island to invest in fishing equipment.
We stayed Wednesday night at the Coachland RV Park just outside the small tourist town of Truckee a short distance from Lake Tahoe. Very nice park with lots of tall trees etc (we have become somewhat used to the prairie type campgrounds with not much in the way of trees). After getting set up we headed into town, got lost going the wrong way on the Donner Pass Road but eventually made it to town. There must be some irony in getting lost on the Donner Pass road on the way to lunch. Had a look around the very touristy main drag and had a late afternoon pizza lunch in a bistro.
Thursday morning before leaving we called ahead to the Pomo Campground in Fort Bragg on the north California coast to reserve a spot over the weekend. We decided to stay Friday through Sunday and they were able to accomodate us. Nice, it is one of our favorite campgrounds now and Fort Bragg is a pretty cool place to stay.
Thursday we made our way to Chico. We thought about just staying in Oroville at the Casino KOA but we had done a quick visit to Chico a couple of years ago and thought it would be cool to stay there a night even though it would be a farther drive to Fort Bragg on Friday morning. We even had to drive through Oroville to get to Chico. So, we get to the Good Sam rated RV park in Chico only to be rebuffed because the wee trailer is not "fully self contained", even though this restriction is not noted in the Good Sam guide! What a stupid "rule"... but that's how it is. A bit miffed we decided to stop in downtown Chico for a lunch and walk about then just head back to Oroville for the night. Had an excellent lunch, saw some cops arrest what appeared to be a bank robber, wandered around a bit then hit the road back to Oroville (only about 30 minutes) where 5 minutes after checking in, we were in the pool. Not a bad outcome all in all. That evening we walked over to the casino where they took us for some cash but we had a very nice buffet dinner.
Friday we completed the drive across the California central valley and on to the coast. There doesn't seem to be the same drought impact on the crops through this region but there is massive irrigation and there does appear to be lots of water in the irrigation canals. That said, on Highway 20 we saw the devastation caused by wildfires. Through one area, for many miles and as far into the hills we could see are the burned out remains of grassy foothills with the charred remains of oak trees. Many trees are badly burned but many appear to have been flash burned and appear to still be alive. Some may survive in the long run but nature will generally rebuild the area over time.
We stopped in Ukiah at Romi's Brew and BBQ for a bit of western bbq. We had some ribs and chicken. The ribs were good albeit a tad on the greasy side and the chicken was excellent. We took some left over chicken with us for dinner.
We arrived in Fort Bragg and got our first sight of the Pacific (aaah, "our ocean"), checked in and got set up at the Pomo Campground then set off for some groceries and to have a sit on the dock at Herron's By the Sea overlooking the harbour entrance; one of our favorite places to sit and watch the sunset. It was a beautiful evening but unfortunately for us, they were hosting a child's birthday party on their outdoor patio so we had to settle for an indoor seat but the view was still pretty darn good. The addition of the bouncy castle on the deck was an unusual feature not generally associated with having a nice drink overlooking the bay, but the kids were sure tearing it up!
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