Bakersfield
On 11/5, we left Sacramento and proceeded via CA-99 (the old route that I-5 supplements) to Bakersfield. This city counts among its notables he country outlaw musician, Merle Haggard.
CA-99 drives through the industrial/ agricultural heart of California. It’s a freeway, and goes through a great number of small and large towns. Fruit and nut trees in the millions, corn fields and such. Very flat and dusty. Lots of irrigation ditches and water control features. Boring stretch of road, in not so good repair. However, it is farther east than I-5, so we did not get into LA traffic. Our cab/ chassis AC failed during the trip. We arranged with Bakersfield Truck Center to diagnose the AC on Tuesday, and maybe it’ll be easy. If not, repair occurs on Wednesday. We also finished getting the Dish satellite TV system to work (yay!).
11/7: the AC diagnosis found corrosion on a sensor electrical connection that prevented the AC compressor from turning on. Clean the sensor pins, tighten the connection and it’s fixed! No charge. Back to camp. Cooked a steak and decided to stay one more day before proceeding to the Joshua Tree National Park. to get the Maine General documentation set.
11/8: day in camp. Laundry.
Corti Bros and Trains
Nice slow morning, then into Sacramento. Following a suggestion from Mark yesterday, we visited a specialist grocer, Corti Brothers, serving Sacramento since 1947. We got great deli sandwiches and bought some specialty gourmet items like wild orange jam, Italian-made pasta, chutney and English mint sauce (for lamb).
Then we drove to the California Railroad Museum. Displays of railroad history and the effects of the railroad on California were very interesting. There were actual rail cars and engines in the museum, and touring them was fun. Reminiscent of enlisted berthing aboard a Navy destroyer! Large model railroad displays were being operated by model train nuts, and there were large static displays of every gauge of model train.
Finally, we walked around Old Sacramento. The old buildings were nice to look at, but are filled with every sort of kitschy tourist store. There are paddlewheel boats on the river for short cruises and dinners “at sea.” After we had enough, back to camp!
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
We had a lazy morning in camp, including a large laundry load. We had a suggestion from friend Fred to see an olive oil mill, Il Fiorello, in Fairfield CA. That was a great way to spend an afternoon! We did a guided tasting, with small bites to illustrate how the oil pairs with food. We watched a ton of olives working their way through the mill and centrifuges to extract pure olive oil. Note that no olives in modern production are actually pressed anymore, and our tasting guide said lots of EVOO is actually cut with other oils, so not really EVOO. Look for the certifications on the label to be sure, and surprisingly, Costco oil actually is EVOO! Also, EVOO goes off within a few months of being opened, so we’ll probably toss the stuff on the dining room table when we get home.
We were allowed to get up close to the milling machinery and taste the extracted oil immediately after it came from the press. The owners were very kind to us. Visit if you can!
Over the mountains and through the woods
On our second day of travel, we rose about 8, and were away about 10. I-5 moved very smoothly. We traversed the very mountainous Siskiyou Summit and down to the flatlands past Mount Shasta. Rained on and off all day. The Goose performed admirably, with the engine brake and gear control making downhill grades easy to restrict. Much happier with the larger Goose than last year. Still had to slow down to 40-45 mph for the steep uphill climbs, but rock solid.
We descended from the mountains, passing through Weed, which was burned last year in wild fires. some regrowth is evident and rebuilding of structures is well underway. We on the east coast do not comprehend what a factor and danger is wildfire.
Drove through the amazing Sacramento valley, recalling from last year how many fruit and nut trees are planted. Took I-505 toward Vacaville. We stayed at the Vineyard RV park last year, so we knew what to expect. Easy check-in and set up. Drove to the local Safeway for food. Quiet night.
We’re on our way home!
Debbi’s assignment in Tualatin Oregon is over, and we’re on our way home. We’re going to toddle slowly, not trying to sprint home. Immediate priority is to get out of areas with snow potential, and that means we drive south to California, then east over the lower tier of states. We had great advice from the Escapees RV club on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/escapeesrvclub), and their combined experience led us to this route. Our dear friend Fred, who has road-tripped all over the county, added his experience. Then, we block the trip by daily distance and use the RV Life Trip Wizard to find campgrounds. We’re able to use the military campgrounds, which are good value and quite secure.
So, on November 1st, we departed the Sun Outdoors RV park in Wilsonville OR, where we’ve been planted since mid-June. As usual, our tracks are viewable at https://share.garmin.com/cfogoose.
We rose late and got away just before noon. Had to finish breaking down and connecting the F150 to the tow dolly in the cold rain. Jim forgot to take off the F150 parking brake, so we dragged the truck 100 feet until Jim said “something’s not right!” We stopped three times in the first 90 miles to tighten straps, get fuel and food, so this distance took us three hours. This is shakedown day, after all. That’s a term from Jim’s shipbuilding and shipyard days, when you take a new build/ repaired ship to sea to shake down (to the deck) all the things that should have been better secured! After the first three hours, things moved smoothly. We started to approach the mountains that we would cross the next day.
We stopped for the night in the Phoenix OR Holiday RV park, after driving about 260 miles. Quite nice, family owned for 35 years. Our designated site was occupied, so we moved down a few. Walked to strip mall, but the wait for food at the Thai restaurant was 45 minutes. Instead, we ate at Los Portales. I had a seafood platter a la Mazatlan, very good. Couple of Negra Modelo’s and I was set.
Oregon State Fair
A lovely Saturday was had by all … at least us two! We arose leisurely, had coffee, then lunch at the Oswego Grill. Then we drove about 30 miles south to Salem, where we attended the Oregon State Fair. Memories of childhood abounded, at least for me, since Debbi did not have the chance to attend the Great Frederick Fair. I remember being the luckiest kid in the world when I found $10 on the ground in the parking lot in about 1970. I rode every ride that day!
Pictures are below, but here are impressions.
- Great 4-H and FFA involvement from all over the state. Cows, pigs, goats, chickens and HORSES! Oregon is a very agricultural state, and it seemed every county was represented by either a FFA chapter, 4-H club, or a riding club, or some combo. Seemed like most of the horse people were twelve year old girls, but what twelve year old girl hasn’t loved Black Beauty?
- Just like in North Carolina, you could buy nearly any food deep-fried. We didn’t try any.
- Lots of usual rides. We didn’t try any. After fried Oreos, the tilt-a-pukes are the most dangerous things for us oldsters.
- Loved the textile submissions. We saw some of the same quilts here that were at the Sisters quilt show in Bend, in July.
- Not too many equipment vendors, like all the Farmall tractors at the GFF, but Kubota and Bobcat had a display.
Jim stopped at the booth for the American Cribbage Congress to play a game. Lost (but only!) because the other player had better cards.
A wandering weekend
This weekend, we stayed somewhat close to home. We ate lunch at the Ancestry Brewing Company in Tualatin, a place owned by a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era. Beer was good, food only okay. Then we drove up Parrett Mountain (raised methinks by the action of the Cascadia tectonic plate) to Avidity Winery. Nice wines, but we couldn’t sit outside due to marauding yellow jackets. You could see the smoke from Canadian fires, somewhat obscuring the nice view.
Today (Sunday), we drove to McMinnville, about a 40 minute drive. It’s a pretty neat town, with lots of small wineries north on Oregon 99W, and some with tasting rooms in town.
The town had blocked streets in the historic old town, with a theme of Dine Out(side). Restaurants had seating areas in the street. Lots of nifty shops, restaurants and a couple of good hotels. They have a summer festival it might be fun to attend.
We had lunch at Los Molcajetes Mexicans restaurant, then tasted whites and reds at the Terra Vina Winery tasting room. Found a good use for pinot noir grapes: make a white wine! Take off the skins, crush, and make Pinot Noir Blanc! I’m still not sure red pinot noir is wine … seems you have to pay an awful lot of money for a bottle to get the same quality and taste as from sangiovese or tempranillo. Oh, well, I guess I’m just an oeno snob.
We took the back roads over to Carlton, passing through Lafayette on the way. We stopped briefly at the Crowing Hen beer farm, which is pictured below. The name comes from the owners’ experience with their chickens: when one of the newly hatched chickens eventually began to crow, they thought they had a unique hen, without realizing they had hatched a rooster!
In these pictures, you can really see how bad is the smoke from Canada. Pray for the folks in Yellowknife!
Powell’s City of Books
Powell’s says it is the world’s largest independent book store, and it may well be. They claim to have a million books under roof at their flagship location, in a building occupying a city block. The store is in downtown Portland, with lots of homeless folks wandering outside. Many of the businesses have security folks outside their doors.
We explored for an hour or so, with lots of used books on the shelves alongside new. Jim found a couple of useful genealogy books (never available in a new book shop) and Deb found some light reading.
Neighborhood food tour
Today we took a walking tour of the Kerns neighborhood in northeast Portland. We started kale and avocado with salads at a Cuban restaurant (Pambiche), accompanied by cafecito and Jamaica hibiscus tea, both very yummy. We tasted pistachio schmear at Montelupo, which also has its own market. We ate sushi crab roll and a pina colada at Tropicale. We went through Providore, another foodie market, where we bought some lovely low salt blue cheese. We had a buckwheat savory crepe with ham and arugula at one of the many food pods (parking lots now rented to food trucks) in the city. We finished with sorbet and gelato at Gelato Staccato.
Clearly, Portland excels in great food, walkability and diversity of food. Our tour guide was Sherri of https://portlandbymouth.com/. along the way, she pointed out neighborhood architecture, gave the history of the restaurants and generally celebrated her adopted city. Quite fun!
Back to familiar wineries
Over the past couple of weekends, we have visited wineries that we first met last summer from The Dalles. Each is quite a drive, but the wine is fantastic and we get a case price break as members of their wine club.
In July, we drove to Maryhill Winery in Goldendale, WA. Situated on the bluffs above the Columbia River, it has a commanding view. Deb tasted their whites and Jim snifeed each one (he was driving). Came home with rosé of sangiovese, chardonnay, petit verdot and sangiovese.
Earlier this month, we visited Hood Crest winery in the Mt Hood fruit loop. Deb tasted white and rose, with Jim again driving/ sniffing, and a little bit of sangiovese. Left with sangiovese, chardonnay and rosé, with a tummy full of pizza and a cheese plate.
Before coming back, we had to find fruit. After all, we’re in the fruit loop, right? We went to Pearl’s market and bought cherries and peaches. Lots of fruit still on the trees.
