Albany to Ukiah 11-22

On Friday we were up and out early…for us anyhow…on the road by 7:40, it had been raining all night and it was still raining. It wasn’t windy though and we were hoping that as the day wore on the passes would warm up and we would not have to worry about ice and snow.

No such luck, we called Andrea and had her look at the camera view of the Siskiyou Pass on her computer and it was snowing like crazy, Will told us that the wind was really bad there in Ukiah. Larry punched in the number for Cal-trans and there was no mention of snow but high wind warnings, not advisable to campers, trailers etc., between Weed and Yreka…hmmm, not good.

We came upon a 5 car accident south of Roseburg and north of Myrtle Creek that held us up for awhile, it was on the uphill side so we couldn’t imagine that standing water had caused it, as we trundled past four of the five vehicles were pointing the wrong way and were all heavily damaged and the fifth was a 36 foot 5th wheel trailer towed by a Freightliner. The trailer was pointing the right direction but the truck was jackknifed and the axle busted. We got there before the emergency vehicles had arrived, we were very thankful we weren’t involved of course.

It just ratcheted up my tension though about going over the passes…all it takes is for ONE person to not be paying attention and going too fast and with all the people enamored with their texting and gabbing on cell phones and the bad weather it added to potential trouble. People just don’t slow down in bad weather and just because their life takes a huge turn through pain and destruction I don’t want mine to!

We started thinking about taking highway 199 south from Grants Pass to the coast, one teeny tiny grade and several winding places but probably no snow and ice. We fueled the truck and had breakfast at Denny’s there in Grants Pass and it quit raining for the first time all morning, so we thought, hmmm, maybe it is getting better, so we called the kids again…they checked and nope, white out over the top…so nixed that idea totally.

We checked road conditions on 101 because they can get rock slides and the road can disappear, but it was good to go, so off we went. Sooo, much less stressful, no semi’s drowning you in water, not nearly as much traffic and it is a beautiful drive. You go through some stunning redwood stands…I love those trees. The really weird thing was there was absolutely no wind on the California coast, not until almost Eureka. The north Oregon coast had been having hurricane force winds and down by Ukiah and all up California’s north valley was big wind, but I jumped out of the truck at one place we stopped and my hair wasn’t snatched off my head. It was raining, and the ocean was churned up and angry, but no wind.

North of Trinidad these Roosevelt Elk were grazing right up to the road, and hopefully if they decided to cross people would be able to stop quickly enough…wouldn’t want to hit one of the adults for sure. We saw three big bulls lying down in someone’s front yard, not something I would want…a combination of a deer and a cow doing their destruction to your landscape….wow.

Larry wanted to stay at a Passport member park and there was one south of Eureka in Scotia that he was heading for. We got there just at 5 p.m. and just before it was getting real dark. We were all by ourselves back in the pull throughs and we got the only one that had a bit of gravel. A lot of the north coast RV parks…their sites are just on grass and dirt…slopposis in the rain. As it was, our blocks sunk in the mud and we were a little off kilter after awhile. But we were just there to rest, eat and sleep.

We had traveled 378 miles and had been on the road about nine hours and we were pooped. Larry had to do a bit of maintenance before he could relax though…our GFCI outlet was popping, which meant water was getting to an outlet somewhere and Larry suspected the culprit was a junction box under the big slideout and he was right, he said water poured out of it…only he can’t figure out how the water is getting in it…so he has a project coming up.

Yesterday, Saturday, we were on the road at 10 and it was a beautiful, sunny day after the morning high fog burned off. More redwoods to go through and some slow winding places but it is all beautiful. Those big bridges they were putting in across the river are done at Confusion hill, just to bypass a small portion of winding road. I had pictures on the blog last year, maybe the year before…I can’t remember, of them under construction. The southern-most one is scary tall and has quite the incline to it…I’d like to know how it will survive an earthquake.

We arrived in Ukiah around 1 p.m., 127 miles driven and got set up. It always takes us awhile here….they charge a ridiculous amount of money here at the Fairgrounds and you get nothing…they planted the trees in stupid places so they hit our slide and the sewer is way far back. Larry grumbles a lot when we have to set up here. I’m just…ya gotta do what ya gotta do, we don’t have anywhere else to go, so we have to just deal with it. There is a animal care place on the other side of the fence so there is usually dogs barking, its next to a Budweiser distribution place…so trucks and clanging, there is the freeway and during the summer you have motor-cross and car races. But the kids live here in Ukiah, this is it for RV "parks" and they have yet to live somewhere that we can park in their front yard…how rude is that….laugh!

We loaded up the truck with all the stuff we had to deliver…Christmas and birthday gifts, baby blankets and gifts, hand me downs from Michelle to Andrea for Connor etc….we have always been thankful that we chose the 4 door truck with the full back seat because we have used the heck out of it and not for people…it was loaded up to the ceiling. When we pull out of here in a couple weeks the trailer should feel lots lighter!

We got to see and hold our new boy…he is cute of course…but he isn’t much fun yet…laugh. He doesn’t play much and Ian was very glad to see us and was excited about showing us his new reading and math skills. We had a nice visit and then back “home”.