GA Gypsies – Fulltiming

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Back at Starbucks! Turned cooler overnight – supposed to be in the low 30’s tonight. Waiting until time for a haircut and pedicure. Drove to Donner’s Pass yesterday. Very pretty and interesting. There were some rock climbers there. And people think we are crazy! Pictures.

Donner Lake, Donner Pass, and the bridge and crazy people!

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A few pictures from last week – Mt. Lassen

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Monday, September 10, 2018

Sitting in Starbucks in Truckee, using wifi. Saturday we hung out at the house with the cat and enjoyed the coolness of the evening. Yesterday afternoon we drove through Reno, onto Sparks, NV and did some shopping at Costco and ate at Outback. We’ve had a slow leak in one of the tires on our camper and Tony has been filling it periodically until we got here. Same tire we had a nail in a few weeks ago. God sure does look after us – He was getting our attention. This hole was so tiny, Tony said about the size of a hair but it was still leaking. He had to take it off to find it, and in doing so, found a fist size knot in the tire. He said he doubted we could have made it across Nevada without blowing out. The route we are planning to go is right through the middle of the state, called the lonliest road. Thank you, Lord, for keeping us safe. We are going to ride around Lake Tahoe one day this week and do some more exploring in Truckee. We are basically chilling and resting before we start our journey to Littleton, CO to await the little princess. No pictures yet. This is a beautiful area, but very, very expensive. That’s why we drove 40 miles to Sparks to shop at Costco. Later.

Friday, September 7, 2018

Made it to Truckee, CA late yesterday afternoon to our last housesitting. It was a beautiful drive along the California Scenic Volcanic Highway. It was also a long day. We met Sasha and her daughter and got settled in. She had dinner planned for us. It was in the high 80’s when we arrived – no air conditioner, but cooled way off during the night. Today we have rested and driven into the town of Truckee – we have no cell service or internet. We are in Truckee at the Visitor’s Center using the internet. Pictures!

Crater Lake

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Our hootenanny on our anniversary at Prospect Campground

Lassen Volcanic National Park – do you think that little stick is holding the rock?

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Inside the lava tube

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Late leaving Mt. Shasta yesterday – we asked for a late checkout at 12:00 since we only had about an hour to go. Well, when we got ready to leave, the motorhome across from us had broken down and they had called a wrecker to come tow it in. The wrecker had us blocked in for about an hour so we just rode around Mt. Shasta. As we drove into California on Monday, I commented to Tony how dry the trees and shrubs all looked – California is burning everywhere. We saw smoke and a helicopter dropping water as we drove along the interstate. On the news tonight, they showed where the fire is located – the Delta Fire – and it is right where we went through Mt. Shasta City all the way down to Redding. They have closed portions of the interstate and have a mandatory evacuation on both sides. We met a minister last night at the Dollar General and he had been with the firefighters at their staging area, helping families that had lost their homes and helping the firefighters deal with the death of one of their own. We have seen Hot Shot trucks all yesterday and today while we have been driving around. After we arrived at our campground yesterday, we rode into Lassen at the northern entrance and looked around, then found out how to get to the lava tubes – they are called Subway Cave. It is actually outside of the park a few miles north. We drove up and decided to walk in/through it. We had not prepared to do that, so the only flashlights we had were our phones. Another couple had just come through and they gave us a flashlight. Good thing – once we got in the cave and away from the entrance, it was pitch black. The ground was rough and bumpy – it had pumice rocks embedded into the dirt/rock. We went about 2/3 of the way and decided to turn back. It was getting close to dusk and there were signs that there had been recent cougar sightings in the area. Today we drove from the north entrance of the park to the south entrance, about 31 miles one way. It was like nothing we’ve ever seen – boulders and volcanic rock everywhere. We leave tomorrow for Olympic Valley, CA to housesit. Pictures from yesterday and today. Oops – no pictures – internet too slow. Hopefully tomorrow.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Beautiful drive from Centralia/Chehalis OR to Prospect, OR on Thursday. We are just a few miles from Crater Lake. We left the urban areas and eventually the interstate and drove along small town America. Farmers were busy plowing fields and dust was flying everywhere. The terrain changed again – back to mountains. We went from about 300 feet to just above 5,000 feet. Lots of streams and rivers – absolutely beautiful. It was raining in Chehalis but as we headed further south we started seeing blue skies – no smoke. We did pick up some smoke as we got closer to Crater Lake. We were in a beautiful campground. Very slow internet – no pictures. Friday, we drove to Crater Lake and drove around the rim. Absolutely beautiful. Saturday was our 39th anniversary and we celebrated it at the campground “hootenany” Saturday evening. They served hot dogs and s’mores and had live music. We had a very nice time making new friends. Sunday we took a drive to “Rabbit Ears”, two huge mountains – it was rough, bumpy miles up a forest service road. Left Prospect this morning headed to Shingletown, CA. We decided to take the interstate so the drive wouldn’t be so long, but with construction and Labor Day, we got stuck in traffic just outside of Mt. Shasta City. It took two hours to go 9 miles, so we got off and are staying in Mt. Shasta. We saw Mt. Shasta as we rode along. It was very smokey again today and there are fires all around. Hopefully, we will make it to Shingletown tomorrow where Lassen Volcanic National Park is. Finally, some pictures – these are from different places in Olympic National Park.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Left the Olympic coast and mountains yesterday and had a pleasant drive to Chehalis, WA., just north of Portland, Oregon. We will leave here shortly and make it somewhere around Eugene, Oregon this afternoon, then tomorrow we will make it to Crater Lake. We have to get in a different rhythm when we are on the road! Up earlier, packing away stuff we need for the night and mornings, etc. In a very nice campground. No interesting pictures. Until later.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Today we drove to Hoh rain forest in Olympic National Park and to Ruby Beach. Woke up to blue skies – the first time in many, many days. The rain forest was interesting. We planned to do a mile hike on a trail, but once we got started, it was not level (like we had read) and it was wet and slippery from the rain yesterday, so we turned back. Then we drove to Ruby Beach, which you were supposed to be able to drive steps away from the beach. Well, we did drive steps away from the edge of a cliff with about 250 steps down to the beach – no rails and I was afraid to try it make it down. The fog rolled in as we got closer to the water. It is a very eerie sight. Tomorrow we leave for Oregon, ultimately Crater Lake. A few more pictures.

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Sunday, August 26, 2018

Drove to a couple of beaches in Olympic National Park yesterday. It was drizzling but we still walked on the beaches. Also drove around Forks. Today it was supposed to rain all day and we just hung out at the camper. Plans are to go to the Hoh rain forest tomorrow. Have many more pictures to share, but really slow internet, will share later. These two are Pacific Ocean alien monster looking seaweed – the rope looking part is heavy and feels like a big hose. It is everywhere along the shoreline.

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Friday, August 24, 2018

More pictures from our whale watching. Don’t miss the “blow” from the whale in picture #1.

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Wednesday we drove west to Neah Bay and the Makah Indian Reservation. We visited the Makah Museum and then we found a place to walk on the beach. It was cold!!!! The temperature dropped from 84 at the campground, just west of Port Angeles, to 54 with 20 mph winds. The smoke wasn’t as bad going west, but the fog rolled in on the beaches. Thursday we drove up to Hurricane Ridge (in the park). Beautiful drive. Smoke was less, but halfway up we were socked in with fog. Then before reaching the top at about 5,000 feet, we came out of the fog and it was clear. We took a short hike through an alpine meadow. Today we left Port Angeles and headed to Forks. We stopped at Sol Duc Hot Springs on the way. We had to park at the Ranger Station and walk to the springs, so we got in our walk for the day. Made it to the campground outside of Forks early and we have been resting. Here for four nights. This is where the Twilight movies and series were filmed. Rainforests and beaches to see in the next few days.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

We arrived in Port Angeles late Saturday afternoon. We had to go west, then south, back through Seattle and Tacoma, then north again, back up the Kitsap Peninsula, then west to Port Angeles. We could have taken the ferry, but it would have been about $300 – our length with the camper and our width would have taken two lanes, so twice the price. So smokey, we couldn’t even see the Olympic Mountains. Sunday we rested and drove around Port Angeles and into the Visitor’s Center for the park outside of Port Angeles. The smoke has been awful. Many people are wearing masks and some people have said they had ash on their cars. This smoke is blowing down from British Columbia. Monday, we rode back into Port Angeles to make reservations for the whale watching tour and they had canceled the one we wanted for today because of the smoke. So, they had openings on the one for Monday afternoon. That’s the one we went on – 4 1/2 hours. We went into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, into the Salish Sea, and into Canadian waters. It was still smokey, but we could see the water and we did see two humpback whales. We also saw seals and sea lions. It was great and when the sun started setting, it was cold. We had jackets with us, but we weren’t dressed for the trip. We both had on shorts, although Tony had some long pants in the truck.

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Our whale watching boat.

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The US Coast Guard, off a spit across from Port Angeles, is the oldest Coast Guard station on the west coast.

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Pictures from the whale watching tour. Will post more later. Technical difficulties – loading everything very slowly and getting late.

Today, we visited Sequim (pronounced Squim). Still very, very smokey. We extended our stay here for two days because the smoke is supposed to lift tomorrow evening and we want to ride up Hurricane Ridge (in the park) and be able to see the bay. Sequim is known for growing lavender and it was also a favorite destination for John Wayne on his yacht. He always envisioned a marina here, and before he died, he donated land for a marina. We are sitting here typing this because we don’t have fast internet or cell service to hot spot at the camper. We are driving west tomorrow, up the coastline and Thursday we are going to the Sol Duc Hot Springs and Hurricane Ridge, then we live Port Angeles Friday for Forks (where much of the Twilight movies and series was filmed).

Some pics from the harbor in Port Angeles.

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