Tuesday 9/26/23 Road Delay, New State & Florence Keller Park

 

New State

The rain stopped around 6:00 am but we weren't in any hurry to move on. We hung around Waterloo Park until 8:15. I crawled out of bed at 7:00 and since we had power I made mini waffles. For the next five days or more we'll be without power. It always nice to have power because you can charge everything up, plugin an electric heater or two and use the microwave if you want to.

After breakfast I started putting things away. Larry unplugged the Minnie from the power. We made sure everything was securely in place. We're ready to go. I put in the step and got in the passenger seat. Now I'm definitely ready to go.

Today Larry drove 260 miles. We started in Oregon and ended up in California. Three days ago we drove into Oregon and saw blueberry fields, corn fields, pumpkin patches, orchards of apple and other crops. We saw horses, cattle and sheep. Today we saw the same except we saw more sheep. Larry drove mainly interstates and a couple of two lane highways. The drive took us through a couple of mountain passes with curvy roads. We stopped a few times. We stopped at a rest area to stretch our legs and use the bathroom. We stopped about lunch time and went to Taco Time for lunch. We shared a tostada wrap, it was big enough for both of us. We notice since we got older we don't eat as much. Then we were back on the road.

We also stopped once to get fuel. In Washington we were paying around $5 a gallon, in Oregon it was a bit better, we paid about $4.40. We will see what California brings.

We were about 40 miles from our destination for the night when we had to stop at a gate. A gentleman told us the road was closed until 4:00. Larry asked if we could still go on. He said yes but there won't be a pilot car to take us through the mountain pass until 4:00. He was correct. We got where the road was closed at 1:40 so we had to wait until 4:00. There was a flashing sign, that said Mon. thru Fri. a pilot truck would take cars through at 7:40, 11:40 and 4:00 and on weekends and night every half hour. We made ourselves comfortable and read. We were lucky we had the Minnie, other people had to sit in their cars. There were a lot of people who did what we did and waited. While they waited they walked around. It was a beautiful forest. When 4:00 came around the pilot truck did take us through the forest. We started our adventure through the forest by going through a tunnel. We followed the pilot car for over a half hour. We also found out why the highway was closed. It was because they had a forest fire and they were cleaning up after it. They had to cut down a lot of trees and fix the guardrails that were crushed by fallen trees. It was a sad sight to see. Some places it was a single lane highway.

Waiting for the pilot truck

 

Weekend time for the pilot truck

 

Weekday times for the pilot truck

 Exiting the tunnel

We arrived at Florence Keller Regional Park at 5:30. This is late for us. We drove around and found a site. There were many openings. It was weird. We drove around and we had to exit and come back in the park to get a site. Our site was right at the bathroom and pay station. The park is gorgeous with tall redwood trees. It's also scary at the same time because the trees are so thick that it's dark all the time. The park has three loops with no hook-ups, one running water bathroom, playground and they have short hiking trails through the park. We parked the Minnie and then paid $20 for the night. 

Camping at Florence Keller Park

 

 Playground at the park

Afterwards we had dinner. After dinner I walked around for a half hour for get a little bit of steps. I ended up doing 6,000 steps, which put me in 8th place in my group. I'm starting the week very slow I only have 12,000 steps in two days. But that's ok. Congratulations, Louise you're ahead of me in steps. While walking I stopped and visited with a gentleman from Alaska.