RV Fun Trips --- Our Crab Fishing Adventure -- 1998 ---

Our Crab Fishing Adventure
September 1998
Page 2

Sunday 9-13

We started the day with me preparing to break camp to head north to Oregon, but first we had to take part in the usual RV club breakfast. While waiting for breakfast, I saw Harry washing the windshield on Tom's motorhome. Harry said that he mixed up a bucket of windshield-washing solution to wash his motorhome’s windshield. He said there was a lot left after doing a job on his coach, so "Why not get some use out of it by washing the windshields of other motorhomes." Harry ended up washing at least a half dozen windshields included the one on our motorhome.

Harry using the last of the washer fluid

Breakfast time arrived and we had the usual delicious country breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, hash brown potatoes as well as assorted fruits and pastries. I did my normal thing of eating too much, but it sure was good. Our club has a collection of really good cooks.

Around 10:30, we assembled our little caravan and headed out of camp waving to all as we drove out. Our small group of travelers consisted of the following: Wally and Cathie, Harry and Shirley, Tom and Nora, as well as Kay and me (Maury). I was pleasantly surprised to find out this weekend that Dick and Dorisdean would be joining our traveling troupe for part of the trip. It was brought to our attention, as we drove out of the campground, that part of our caravan included Tom, Dick, and Harry.

Harry leading the way on I-5

The trip up I-5 was uneventful as we headed for our first fuel stop. We stopped just outside of Corning, California so a few of us could top off our motorhome fuel tanks before continuing to Oregon. Along the way we drove through the Sacramento River Valley and saw various forms of agricultural operations. One of note was what looked like a very well organized cattle operation. There were fenced fields of grass with herds of different kinds of cattle. One field would have cattle grazing while the field next to it was void of animals as the grass recovered its height. One distinctive herd of cattle was made up of about fifty Brahmas. It seemed unusual to see so many Brahmas in one place.

We did have one minor incident. Harry warned us of a truck tire tread that was in the middle of the highway. As we approached, it looked as if a truck tire had shed most of the outer casing of one tire. We were able to stay to the right side of the lane to avoid hitting the tire tread. It was big enough to do some damage.

We left the valley behind as we climbed toward Lake Shasta. The water level of the lake seemed to be a bit low, but that is normal for this time of year.

Heading toward Mt. Shasta on I-5

We could see Mt. Shasta ahead of us in the distance and Mt. Lassen was visible to our right. The image of Mt. Shasta grew as we drove north. Then it disappeared as we drove through a small valley. Suddenly Mt. Shasta was on our right as we made it over a pass and saw the high prairie out ahead of us. We passed fields of freshly mown hay, which looked very much like huge manicured lawns. By now, our caravan was climbing toward the Oregon border with Mt. Shasta now visible in the rearview mirror.

Tom and Nora following us

Along the way we participated in casual chatter on our CB radios. At one point Wally said he wanted to stop at a Rest Area just 2 miles ahead of us. So Tom came back and asked him if he wanted to 10-100. When I heard that, I quite seriously told Kay I didn't know what 10-100 meant and I would have to look it up later. No sooner than I made that statement, Tom came back on the CB and said he didn’t really know what 10-100 meant, but it sounded good. The timing was perfect, I nearly hurt myself laughing and told Tom so on the CB radio. About that time, Dick came on and explained that 10-100 meant to take a "Tinky wink." That really got me to laughing.

After a brief stay, among the trucks, in the Roadside Rest Area we headed out and made it to Oregon in good time. We stopped again to top off our fuel tanks near Medford, Oregon. I made a quick check of our motorhome gas mileage. I was pleased to find that we were getting about the same mileage while pulling the boat as we get without the boat, 10.1 miles per gallon.

This is what we looked like to Tom and Nora — Photo by Nora

Now it was a short way to the place where we would spend the night. We stayed in the "Valley of the Rogue" Oregon State Park. It is beautiful park with a campground that seems to accommodate all forms of recreational vehicles. Many state parks in California have a size limit that excludes the larger motorhomes and travel trailers, but here we found space for all of our motorhomes, including the "Building" that Harry was driving.

Camping at the Valley of the Rogue State Park

I found it unusual for a state park to have full hookups as this park has. Because the utilities were located at the back of the campsite, I had to unhook the boat trailer from our motorhome so I could get close enough to the hookups to use them. The boat and trailer are surprisingly light and easy to move around. I pushed the trailer off to the side of our campsite to get it out of the way.

We had a big oak behind our campsite

The park is located between Medford and Grants Pass, Oregon with the campground situated on the bank of the Rogue River. Our campsites were situated among a collection of mature trees. Evergreens and various broad leaf trees surrounded us. Directly behind our motorhome, we had a view of a magnificent oak tree.

I took a short walk down to the river and took some pictures. I met a ranger on the way back who told me that about the same time of evening yesterday; the river was alive with salmon swimming upstream. It sounded like another one of those "You should have been here yesterday" stories. But the ranger assured me that if I went back down to the river I would very likely see a similar sight in the next half-hour. I chose to continue on up the hill to our campsites as it was just about time to eat our evening meal. Our group gathered for our customary dinner together.

Rogue River next to campground

In the evening, some of us attended a ranger talk and slide-show about the mining and geologic history of this area of Oregon. One of the stories we heard was about the discovery of gold in the area and the hydraulic mining that took place nearby. It was clear that there are a lot of things to do and see in this part of Oregon. By the time the talk concluded it was time to go off to bed to get a good night’s sleep.