Traveling to San Juan Bautista, CA

Reflection Lake, Lassen Volcanic Nat'l Park

Sundial Bridge, Turtle Bay, Redding, Ca

We've completed our week at Shingletown, CA, traveled down to Travis AFB to restock & visit the Jelly Belly Factory, and return to the Monterey Bay area in time for Terry & Wayne's arrival.

Since our last post we've took a walk along the Lily Pond Trail around Reflection Lake at the northern end of Lassen Volcanic NP.  We also got to the Turtle Bay area in Redding, CA and walked the walking & bicycling trails along the Sacramento River, walked the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, and ate at Fat Daddy's BBQ.  After traveling down to Travis AFB, we took a trip out to the Jelly Belly Factory.  All I can say is eat before you go on their tour!

Today we arrived at San Juan Bautista, CA.  This will be our home base for the next ten days as we hope to entertain Terry & Wayne with the Monterey Bay area.  We'll take a look at San

Bicycle & walking path along the Sacramento River

Juan Bautista tomorrow just to see what's here.  Once our company's here, we'll let them recover before visiting the sights and sounds of the Monterey Bay.

So that's if for now.  Later, David

A sample of Jelly Belly art.

Shingletown, CA

Looking west form a visit point on the way to Lassen Volcanic NP

We've stopped off for a week at Shingletown, CA to check out the area.  We've considered volunteering at Lassen Volcanic NP and wanted to stop in and check the place out.  We were warned it might be snowed in and it was.

When we arrived on Monday a low was passing to the south of us and we got intermittent snow showers and sunshine.  We decided to drive to the north entrance just to "see" what it was like.

Yep, no hike today.

What is was "like" was closed and snowed in, but pretty to see, anyway.  So Tuesday we drove down by the Wild Horse Sanctuary (closed), Indian Peak Vineyard (for a bottle of "Donna's Dessert Wine" - no really, that's the name of the wine), and to the south entrance Visitor Center for Lassen.  Gorgeous day, but when we got to the visitor center we were in & out of snow showers, again.

Wednesday was a drive back to the Wild Horse Sanctuary (still closed) and then up to McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park for a two hour walk along Burney Creek, the falls, and Lake Britton.  It's a great state park and we'll go back if we're in the area, again.

Anyway, that's it for this week's adventures.  We leave next Monday to return to the Monterrey Bay area.  Unless something changes.  Later, David

Lassen Volcanic NP south visitor center

North entrance to Lassen Volcanic NP

Burney Falls

Lake Britton

Burney Creek

Chico, CA

We're in Chico, CA this week.  It's home of the Bidwell family - a well connected family that settled the area in the later part of the Civil War.  Not sure why they picked here.  Not sure why it's still here.  But it's a nice area and a college town.  Pictures are from our walk around the lower Bidwell Park along Big Chico Creek.  However, the reported Verizon Wireless 4G service that's suppose to be here continues to allude us, but we can at least make phone calls.

Chico is home - among many things - of Transferflow aftermarket fuel tanks.  They're the maker of our auxiliary 50 gal tank, and we're having issues with its auto-transfer function transferring fuel.  Surprisingly, the problem is it's transferring fuel when it doesn't need to and trying to transfer fuel when the tank is empty.  We got in Monday morning, and they did a complete tuneup of the system plus correcting some errors made in the original installation.  It's much better now, but part of the issue resides with the Ford fuel sending unit that we'll get taken care of later.  An oil, oil filter, & fuel filter change by the local Ford dealer for the truck went without a hitch.  Only thing they commented on was keeping a close eye on the rear tires.  Most people that participate on the Ford forums are getting about 100,000 miles on the rear tires.  Looks like we're in the same ballpark.  May have to replace them before we get back to the east coast.

We've still got some things to do here.  Tomorrow, we're visiting with a volunteer we met at Voyageurs NP last year.  She's working at the Sacramento NWR, and we're looking forward to seeing her.  The Bidwell's also left their mansion here.  We hope to get a tour of it this weekend.  Oh, there'a an air museum here at the airport.  Can't miss that!

We still plan to move to Shingletown, CA Monday and visit Lassen Volcanic NP next week.  We've been lucky by missing freezing weather, but we may have crossed the line by going a little too far north.  Looks like Shingletown goes below freezing overnight for a couple of days next week.  First time for us since the Rose Parade.  After that it's a run back to the Monterey Bay area for a couple of weeks while Terry & Forest come out for a visit.  After that, it's a slow trip north along US 101.

Anyway, that's the plan...until it changes.  Later, David

Monterey Bay Area

We spent the past week in the Monterey Bay area.  We stayed at the Santa Cruz/Monterey KOA and despite the campground's Tengointernet WiFi and Verizon Wireless's coverage map indicating 4G wireless & data coverage, we had no internet or cell phone service.  So we got out and decided to see the sights.

Monterey was our first stop.  And it was just that - a stop.  We weren't allowed to park our truck in Monterey, so we moved along to Pebble Beach and it's 17-Mile Drive amongst its beaches and golf courses.  The first two pictures are from views along the 17-Mile Drive (on our second visit).

Second stop was the Pacific Coast Highway and Big Sur.  Beautiful drive, but no camera!  Didn't matter as the views were somewhat muted due to the fog.  I had expected Big Sur to be something similar to Malibu.  What we found was an area similar to Yosemite.  You're back inland among redwoods at Big Sur.  We'll go back there when Terry and Forest fly out for a visit.

The next trip out was up to Santa Cruz.  It was Sunday afternoon, and we found Santa Cruz crowded.  So we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway a little ways to Davenport, then inland to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and a great walk under the redwoods there (bottom picture).

We couldn't leave without pictures of Pebble Beach, so Monday was a picnic lunch and a leisurely drive along the 17-Mile Drive again.  However, this time we stopped and shopped.  We'll do this again, too, when Terry & Forest come out.

We eventually found a spot at the back of the KOA campground where we could make a phone call.  We also found Aptos Street BBQ in Aptos, CA.  Another great hole-in-the-wall BBQ restaurant that really looks like an abandoned building from the outside.  Worth the hassle of trying to find if you're in the area.

We left the area Wednesday, and we're now sitting just outside Vacaville, CA.  We here to pick up extra parts for our refrigerator door, wait for the rain to pass, and checkout the Famcamp at Travis AFB.  The Military Campground Listing noted some issues going through the gate at Travis with a long motor home with car-in-tow, so we drove over today to see if we'd have a problem and shop at the commissary.  Gate entrance looked fine for our rig and the commissary is huge.  So we're now loaded with groceries.  And Donna's found a Curves, so she's a happy camper.  And we can at least make phone calls from the trailer here though this campground has Tengointernet, and it's just as useless as it was at the Santa Cruz KOA.

Upcoming schedule:  Move Sunday to Chico, CA to have the computer running the fuel transfer from our second fuel tank checked out, have the truck serviced, and visit with another NPS volunteer who worked at Voyaguers NP last year.  If all goes well with the truck, we'll go to the Redding area the following week and see if enough snow has melted so we can visit Mt Lassen Volcanic National Park.  At least that's the plan...until it changes.  Later, David