North to the Great Pacific Northwest

June 9 through June 11

We are starting to get use to the long drives, it's not too bad when we both drive and we've traveled these roads many times.  Leaving Yuma as the sun came up, had to get out of the heat, we headed west and then north on the west side of the Salton Sea to I-10 and eventually I-5. We had decided to go north on Hwy 99 this time so we stayed at the Elks in Visalia, nice quiet place and cooler.

Continued North and moved over to I-5 at Stockton then up to Yreka at the Wal-Mart.  We only stay at Wal-Marts when we are just driving through.  This wal-mart rates a 10 for us.  Very quiet, level and lots of room on the right side.  Plus there is a Raleys grocery store with Pete's coffee and good muffins.

Now we are in Salem, Oregon at the Elks RV Park.  FHU, quiet, and cooler, what more could you ask for.  We also made a major purchase here, new tires for our truck.  If we have a major purchase and we happen to be going through Oregon we try to wait and buy it here because of no sales tax.  When you spend $1,000 dollars on tires, no tax is a good thing.

Tomorrow, June 12th is the last leg of our trip,  we will be home by noon, about 150 miles from Salem.  This is the longest we have ever been gone, and for the most part everything worked out pretty good.  We will be home for about three weeks and then, believe it or not we will be heading back down to Northern California.

 As long as we are going up I-5 we had to stop at the Olive Pit in Corning.  It's been years since we have been there because we use US101 or US 99 many times.  The Olive Pit has had a new make over again.  There is lots of good RV parking now, and you can taste as many olives as you want.  We ended up getting the garlic and almond stuffed olives.

This is just part of the tasting bar.

One of many crossings over the Sacramento River, down river from Lake Shasta

Crossing over the bridge at Lake Shasta

 The Sacramento River north of Lake Shasta

a beautiful river and good fishing

Mt Shasta

Castle Craigs, a great state park, but there was a closed sign on it,

 maybe part of California's so-called lack of money.

The Sacramento River is within walking distance from the campground

 and it has great trout fishing

 Our new favorite Wal-Mart at Yreka, CA

This was at about 6AM and I couldn't get rid of my shadow

38' at 6am

We will be leaving Salem, OR about 8:00 am so we can avoid the traffic in Portland and then we should be home by noon.  Now I'm kind of anxious about getting home.  I hope my blueberry bushes are doing ok after transplanting them last year.

Safe travels to all and thanks for stopping by.

Nancy and Joe