We had some Dr. Atkins baking mix in the trailer. Only about half the ingredients you were suppose to add, but I improvised and made a nice low carb pancake for breakfast. Didn't have any sugar-free syrup, but there was some sugar-free chocolate ice cream topping that I used for syrup. The pancake turned out nice and light and very good..the syrup left something to be desired, so we bought a jug of Log Cabin sugar free today .

This is our site at the Tower Point RV Resort. Had to back in between two very close Palm trees to get in here. We're the only temporary RV in this area, there are over 1100 spots, most are full up with park models. I can see why they don't accept Coast to Coast members after this month, since almost all the sites are full, they can easily get full price from the "overnighters" during the busy season. There are 2 or 3 ball rooms. The Square dance levels are A1 and A2 and dancing by Definition, all a little too much for us. Rounds are phase 5 and 6. Guess when you can dance 7 nights a week here in the valley if you want, the regular mainstream and plus we do is a little boring. I don't know of any place in Oregon that does this level. But, there is a nice labrary, two pools, two large outside hot tubs, and just about any kind of craft club you can think of. Bingo, and potlucks and hamburger lunchs, etc, and some good entertainment too is available. Since we'll only be here for 6 nights, I doubt if we'll do much. Tonight we're going to go watch an A1/A2 dance for awhile, just to see what it's like. We had to pay $15 for WiFi during the time we're here, and may have to pay extra for our electricity..oh well, it's a nice place We're looking forward most of all to a VROC dinner somewhere this weekend.

Jeannie, Julie and Pat. The end of a good day. This is in Lanny's (Biglefti) house in Sun City West. We've been to the Olive Garden and all are about ready to call it a day..The Jewel probably doesn't need her Oregon sweater on, but it's a "comfort thing" for her. She doesn't like to go around without clothes on!

The Black Rock RV park has a lot of Citrus Trees around in it, but they aren't quite ripe. Another couple of weeks and some of them will be ready to harvest. We didn't take a lot of pictures today, but it was another excellent day, we're at Lanny and Jeannie's house in Sun City West tonight, full tummies, and good visiting. It's almost time to get back out to the Casa Travel Supreme and call it a night.

A little drawing of the area we've been in for a couple of days. This was in the Black Rock Cafe where we had breakfast this morning.

Arizona carp. Nice lily pads too. These are a special species of desert gold fish. They were imported from a Wal-mart in Phoenix.

We enjoyed our stay here last night. The citrus trees are loaded, but the fruit isn't quite ripe yet. Won't be long and Pat will be out picking all she can haul back.

Nice new surface on Hwy 60, between Salome and Wickenburg. It gets up to around 2000 feet in elevation here.

My friend Preston and I stayed in this motel 4 or 5 years ago. Looks the same, but I don't think they even had TV then. And no telephones. Torn linolium on the floor. No closets, they had some half horseshoes on the walls to hang your clothes on. And, seems like even back then it was over $50 a night! Well, you get what you can out in the desert.

On Hwy 60, the leaves are still on the trees, but look at those clouds! This is Arizona?

Lanny in his garage with the "Whitewing" When he moves to Yakima, he'll have to be careful not to lose this one in the snow! It sure is purty though, I like the white.

Lanny "Biglefti's" house in Sun City West. This will be our home for the night. We went to an Olive Garden for dinner....I took the camera, but forgot I'd already put the memory card in the laptop, so I'll spare you the food pictures this time. We sure had a nice evening! I can't believe Lanny wants to leave this area and move to Washington.....

Casa Del Rancho. Old, but a nice little restaurant in Quartzsite, AZ. We went to a tire shop to get the spare patched and put back under the truck. I also bought a new battery ground wire from a cool hardware store called Herb's. They had just about everything there. We had filled the diesel tanks at the Flying J in Ehrenburg earlier, and drove the short way to the City of Gems. The season is just starting, the more permanent Flea Markets are in full swing, and some of the seasonal vendors are getting set up. It's a busy little town, new things moving in every year. We really enjoyed this place where we ate.

The spots here at the Black Rock are huge. These are regular RV pull throughs. The spots that have the Park Models are very wide, enough for a deck, extra room, and plenty of parking. I chose this space because I liked having the cactus guarding my stuff.

A lighthouse in Arizona? This is in front of the Black Rock RV Resort where we'll be spending the day and night. Very friendly staff people, and the other people that live here are all full of smiles, they all look like they're happy to be here. It was 77 degrees when we checked in a around noon.

I just love Bougainvilla, this little new plant is in our RV space.

It's been a good day! The weather has been wonderful. We are in a nice park, the season really hasn't started yet, so there are lots of spaces. Visited some old motorcycle friends, Bob and Barbara Sangren, from Coos Bay. They have a nice park model here, and spend 5 month out of the year here in the desert. Bob brought a dirt bike and a Harley bagger with them this year. Most of the regulars that live here own quads now, and everyone has a golf cart for getting around in the park and between the several resorts here in Brenda. I think I could get into wintering here.

We passed miles of acres of grape vinyards. The leave are heavy and beautiful this time of year. It wasn't too long ago that the grapes were harvested. Hmmmm, wonder how many bottles of wine one of those rows yield................maybe just boxes of raisens.

An oil well just pumping away near Bakersfield, CA. I'd like to have one of these in my cotton field!

I knew the batteries were getting old, but thought they would make this trip. Wrong. We're in San Bernardino, the only place open that had what we needed on the Sunday after Thanksgiving was Camping World. Over priced, and the service dept was closed (probably good, they charge $99 and hour!) so I did it myself. It's a LONG way in that compartment to lift four 67 pound batteries and wire them all up.

67 pounds each, and there were 4 of them. 6 volt deep cycle batteries, I wire up two in series for 12 volts, the the two banks in parrallel for lots of amp hours. They power all the 12v things in the trailer and are the starting batteries for the generator. $115 each plus tax and a $9 core deposit! I got 10% off as a Camping World member, which helped some

The Good Sam Road Service came through. they sent this guy out to change the inside wheel on the Dually. He didn't bring the righ tools, so I had to supply them. He didn't have a strong enough Jack, so I lifted the back of the truck with the hydraulic rams on the trailer. We shared all the work, and used my tools, but he still billed the insurance company for a $75 call out! I was tired from installing the batteries, figured someone else could change the tire. He did help, which which was good. Note the little star wrench he brought . Those lug nuts are torqued to over 200 pounds, and the largest socket he had on there wasn't half large enough to go over one of the lugs. I had already put up my wrenches when I took this picture.

Going by Palm Springs, California. The West bound lanes have been stop and go for miles and miles. And, continued on farther. Probably a hundred miles at least the traffic was backed up getting into Los Angeles. Sure glad we weren't going that way!

We had a fine Thanksgiving, but it's nice to be on the road again. It got down into the 20's last night in the RV park. The water hose was frozen, but didn't hurt anything. We visited for awhile, then prepared the truck and trailer for the road again. We stopped at the Jack in the Box in Lower Lake for some taco's and stuff for breakfast..Yum yum! This picture was taken on Hwy 20, just a few miles West of Williams, CA, on I-5. We're sure ready for some nice freeway driving!

California Eucalyptus Trees in the rest area near Dunnigan, CA. The sun is out, it's warm and nice. After a sort of busy and stressfull week of driving in the rain and rough 2 lane roads, this is wonderful. We decided to take a short nap here in the rest area..then on to get some fuel. For some strange reason, it's cheaper here than at home. Diesel was $3.089 at the Chevron in Coos Bay, it's $2.559 at the Flying J in Ripon, CA

Crossing the Sacramento River. Looks small here, but about about 60 miles to the West where it enters San Francisco Bay, it's a huge River.

Some of the Sacramento Skyline. Exceptionally light traffic for Friday afternoon....can't complain about this.

This is out "nest" for the night after Thanksgiving. The Flying J in Ripon, California, near Modesto. Nice place to park, we are able to put the slide out here. We have a full gas tank for the generator, so we can watch Satellite TV, and keep the battery in the computer charged up. Also, had to use the microwave to heat up a whole bunch of wonderful left-overs from dinner yesterday. Been perfect weather, this picture was taken at 4:30 PM, 67 degrees. A very good day!

This is where we had dinner today, and where Pat's mother now lives with her Brother and his wife, Alice. He has built this large house over 2 years, doing about 90% of it all by himself. and, he'll be 70 this year. It's been quite a project, and he won't have the outside finished until sometime next summer. He's been working full time almost every day just to get this far. It's in a nice gated community called Hidden Valley Lake, California.

4 generations. What a spread! Alice went all out cooking, she presented us with a huge and wonderful meal! Even Heather, the young lady on the right here, made some chocolate pecan bars that were to die for! That was after all the pies and cakes we indulged in. I was prepared with a little extra insulin for tonight.............We'll all be good tomorrow.

Gichici pointed out on the globe exactly where he lives in Kenya. He's 42 years old, has a wife and two kids back home. He's going to a tech school in Santa Rosa, learning Diesel Equipment Technology. He was a mechanic and truck driver in Kenya. A very interesting man. Richard and Alice met him at their church and invited him to dinner..Good decision !

We didn't have 96 candles, so we put a big on in the middle. Pauline, Pat's mother, loves carrot cake, so this is her happy birthday. She didn't have any trouble blowing them out in one shot!

This was the family members at dinner, plus Gichigi, our guest from Kenya. This is all Pat's side of the family.

Natural hill in the Hidden Valley Lake community. This is the same hill that goes up behing Pat's brother's house. There are lot of deer, wild turkeys, and other game here. We've seen one large deer, and turkeys every day since we've been here. They just roam around wild, no one seems to bother them. It's nice to have a day with clear skys. We're practicing for the sun in Arizona!

Thanksgiving Morning! Not a cloud in the sky, it's 62 degrees at 10:30 AM. Just took the dog for a walk, enjoying the sunshine. We're having a lazy morning, enjoying life in the trailer, and the nice RV park. And, working up an appetite for dinner that will be served at 2 PM.

This is the Hidden Valley Lake RV Park. Nice little stream on the other side of the road. It's very quiet and very dark at night. There are a few other RV's in here now. It's mostly used for guests of the people that live in the Gated Community, which is just over the hill. although it looks like it's "out in the woods", there are business and places to eat near by. But, it is 11 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart, that's sort of a hardship. We'll be here for 3 days. It does have WiFi, so I'm able to work on my pictures!

Just loaded the Helix, in the rain. It's slacked off some now. We're parked in front of the house, we'll we rolling in a few minutes! The start of a trip for Thanksgiving, and then on to get some sunshine in Arizona, and will include a visit into Mexico. We pulled out at 11:45 AM on the 20th of November 06.

A seagull sits in the wind. The town of Port Orford is in the background. this is one of the windiest places on the whole Oregon Coast. Lots of history here...logging, fishing, cranberry bogs, and ship wrecks. The famous Battle Rock is in the harbor here too.

We spent the night here, a temporary spot in Johnny's RV park. It was a very wet night. I've just put the slide in, we're ready to roll for another day on the road.

Early morning in our 5th wheel. Judy, our daughter in law, stopped by on her way to work. Her and Pat are great friends...

Looking out the window of Johnny's marina.

From inside Johnny's Mariina, you can see some of the boat slips. It's quite a view. This is salt water, part of Humblodt Bay.

Some of the morning coffee cronies having donuts at Johnny's.

Judy had been running the family business for her parents. Johnny's has several acres of RV space, and a popular marina. There used to be charter boats too, but now it's mostly just private boats. Located in King Salmon, right on Humboldt Bay. Judy went on to collage when she was about 40, and has now graduated from Humboldt State University with a BS degree. Until she decides how she want's to use it, she keeps busy running her family business.

This is Pat's youngest son Gary, and his wife Judy.

Judy and her Puppy Love. Kofi is about a year old. She's a smallish (43 pound) standard poodle. She does look abused

Outside of Johnny's Marina and RV park.

We had breakfast at Hansen's Truck stop, just south of Fortuna, CA. It's old, not ultra modern, but the food is good, the staff is friendly and there are some nice murals and photos in the dining room. I even talked the cook out of his gravy receipe, it was wonderful!

This and the next picture were taken in the early 1920's. Note the horses on top of the tree. there was a whole communtiy out the the day this picture was taken. We were close to the company town of Scotia, California. It's a company owned town, and home of the largest Redwood processing mill in the World.

Picture of an undercut, with the whole crew in the tree. The fallers stood on spring boards stuck in the trees while they chopped. first the under cut, to determine where the tree would fall, then they moved to the other side to fall the tree.