Our marshmallow skewers hanging on the hook by the door is making a nice windchime when it connects with the metal rod we use to open our RV awning.
When you live in an RV, it seems you have to downsize everything, even your dog. Half the people we see traveling have what Bob calls "Little Yip-Yip Dogs". Some RV parks even specify that you can't bring a dog that weighs over 25 lb.
We have been seeing signs asking "Do You Have Defensible Space?". Until now we didn't understand what that meant. We figured it had something to do with fire safety, since the signs usually appeared at or near fire stations. Now we finally see a handwritten sign that explains: "Keep firewood far from the house. Keep a shovel on hand. Keep grass and brush cut short. Have an exit plan. "
We are led by a Pilot Car through construction due to "highway realignment". They are changing the shoulders to widen them, but their constraints include the narrowness of the road and the fact that there are cliffs on one side. The roads wind in extreme hairpin curves. The pilot car assures that noone speeds through the construction, which could injure both drivers and workers.
Our water bottles pop due to air pressure rising from the increasing elevation. They seem like they might explode; they are so fat. We feel we are in a roller coaster. It is helpful that the highway department has put in very tall reflectors, which reflect both on the bottom and at car height.
The Trinity River area is bounded by the Trinity Alps, rugged, rocky foothills coated with Ponderosa Pines. We pass two people getting ready to go tubing and kayaking. Looks like fun.
We see a huge sawmill at Weaverville. There are thousands of stacked full-length, tree-sized pine logs being sprinkled with water to age them. It's in a cute little Victorian town.
People build huge houses on the hilltops out West for the view. Can't even imagine the cost of just hauling all the materials up there.
Futher down the Trinity there are serious rapids. We watch as three teens tube their way through two sets of whitewater, screaming as they go through the rocky areas.
We get some nice sandwiches at Granny's Shack in Salier, CA, but they have no bathrooms. Aargh!
It appears that every National Forest sign says at the bottom: "Land of Many Uses". It took us four thousand miles to figure out the the saying applied to them all.
Route 101 winds in and out of ocean views and in and out of Tsunami Hazard Zones. The signs say "Entering Tsunami Zone" and then a few miles later when the road is higher above the water, "Leaving Tsunami Zone". Despite the fact that there is no severe weather predicted, and the water looks quite calm, I find myself heaving little sighs of relief at the second sign.
We see our second agri-pride sign of our trip. The first was a license plate back in Utah that said "I feed you". This time we see a hand-lettered wooden sign set up in front of a house that says "Fishermen Feed America". Driving these roads certainly does bring home the idea of where our food really comes from.
We arrive in Klamath, CA where we are rewarded by a free salmon/chicken BBQ dinner and live music. There are dozens of tables set up with umbrellas in the center, and a little stage with amps.
One of the guests who is not camping at our campground we call "Bikeman". He arrives on his bike and obviously has a mental health problem. Most of the time he is talking to himself, not making eye contact with anyone. The campground hosts seem very tolerant of him, so we figure he is a regular at their weekly BBQ's and they help him out with a free dinner.
We meet a young man, Eric, who is taking movies of the goings-on. He explains that he and his buddy, Ryan, are tent-camping here as part of a short road trip before college starts. They have known each other since Kindergarten.
There are three musicians. The string-bass player sits on his Handi-scooter the whole time. We hear that he sings beautifully, but cannot play and sing at the same time. The guitar player is an employee of the campground and provides the banter as well as doing most of the singing.
Towards the end of the second set, Ryan gets invited up on stage with his mandolin. For the rest of the performance, he joins the others to play and sing beautifully, a few old favorites and a few things he writes.
A Small World Story: Turns out Ryan is studying Film at Ithaca College and lives in Fall Creek! So we exhange details and plan to contact each other when we get home. Ryan already has a CD of his music and might change to the Music Department.
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