May 2020 – Page 12 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

April 6, 2018 St. Julien de Sault FR

Today was going to be one of the most stressful travel days for us as we had to make our way from Charles de Gaulle airport to Paris and then on by train to a town called Sens where we would be picked up to go to the depot to pick up our RV.

After much consulting of web sites Ron decided the best way to accomplish the first leg of the trip CDG (Airport code) to Gare de Lyon station was by metro. It looked pretty straight forward The B train from CDG to a stop in Paris and then transfer to the A train for one stop to Gare de Lyon. Everything was going swimmingly until it came to the transfer. The train was packed when it was time to get off and of course we had not just ourselves to get off but two very large bags. We were definitely two salmon swimming up stream and it did not look like we were going to make it off the train, when suddenly two very large, young French gentlemen decided to take our side. Whatever they shouted at the people around us and coming onto the train worked wonders and suddenly a clear lane to the door opened up and we popped out on to the platform. We did not have a chance to thank them as the rush to board the train restarted as soon as we were off, but they have some good karma coming.

The next stop was Gare de Lyon station where our first linguistic adventure began. We had to get from the metro to the main train station and purchase tickets for the train. We saw an information kiosk so I decided to ask how to get to the station and purchase a ticket to Sens. Quickly I was presented with two tickets and asked for 14 Euro. This didn’t seem right as I had read it would cost us 40 Euro to get to Sens but paid anyway. I asked how to get to the platform and was given a map of Paris with a stop circled. After some further discussion and the intervention of someone in line it became clear that the tickets were not what I needed, we needed to move on to another part of the station and our money was refunded. When we found ourselves in the right place Ron decided to not take a chance on any further linguistic issues and bought the tickets from a machine.

We arrived in Sens during lunch and decided on another kebab place. We know we are in France but we both really like kebab, and it is the cheapest food being offered. We were gathered up by Alice from the RV company along with a British group. We were smoothly processed by Alice and her husband Mario who are Portuguese and world travelers themselves.

Our first exposure to a small village in France.

After our first shopping in France at a very large and new Auchan (grocery chain)it was getting late so we headed over to the campground Ron had picked out. It was close and we thought we would indulge in electricity for the first night. When we got there though we were met by a closed gate and the owner who explained to us they were closed though we did not quite understand the why. So instead we ended up in the town aire which is free and looks pleasant.

Also, wanted to say Happy Birthday to Ton.

April 4-5, 2018 Paris FR

Our travel day to France was nicely unremarkable. The airline of choice was Alaska and American using points Ron accumulated from work. We made the decision to spend the first day near the airport in Paris to recover from the 16 hours of flying. The immigration and customs process was the easiest we have ever had entering a country, there was no paperwork to fill out on the plane. When we landed there was only two people ahead of us in immigration, and after we collected our bags we found ourselves in the main terminal without so much as an encounter with a customs agent.

After landing we made it over to the airport Quality Inn where our king bed was really two singles pushed together, we settled in for naps. Later we had a delicious kebab dinner in the little village near our hotel. This is one of my favorite travel stories as there is nothing to talk about.

February 14, Coos Bay OR

The final day of “Good Brew Hunting” had us dealing with some disappointment. The first two breweries we had planned to visit were not going to open until 4 pm which was too late if we were going to get home at a reasonable hour.

We did visit 7 Devils Brewing in Coos Bay. We enjoyed their IPA a great deal. This is another first class facility. The owner is an artist and has done a class job of decorating the place.

Ton liked the painting of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.

We had planned to make Yachats brewing the last stop for the day. The beautiful weather we had been having had finally broken and we had more typical Oregon Coast weather, a mixture of sun and rain. The drive from Florence to Yachats is really spectacular and we enjoyed the views. When we got to Yachats we found the brewery closed despite their website saying they were open, there was a note on the door reflecting limited winter hours that was not on their website.

At this point we punched home into the navigator. As we were driving thru Newport we came to a seafood place we had always talked about stopping at, so we did. We split a Captains Platter of fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters. After our late lunch we headed to the house.

The “Good Brew Hunting” trip was now over with 11 breweries visited in three states. Ron’s favorite brewery was Arch Rock and his favorite beer was the lager from Arch Rock. Ton’s favorite brewery was Anderson Valley with Arch Rock a close second, and her favorite beer was also from Anderson Valley their Brother Davids Triple.

A rainbow as we were pulling into the neighborhood.

The “Good Brew Hunting” tour was a total of 3818 miles over 20 days and Scout averaged 13.26 mpg. One thing we have noticed that with the heavier tires we put on in Alaska we are averaging almost 1 mpg less, but I think it is worth it for the extra weight capacity.

February 13, 2018 Bandon OR

Our last day in California on this trip was magnificent from a weather point of view. The skies were blue and it was relatively warm at about 60 degrees. The views going up the coast were spectacular.

The coast line of Northern California and Oregon are wild and spectacular.

Todays drive though was not about views but about brews. Let me say that on these beer tasting days we are very careful to only have a small tasting of tray of 4 or 5 shot sized glasses. I do not want anyone to think we are overindulging. Todays first stop was at Arch Rock Brewing in Gold Beach. This was by far the smallest brewery we visited. The tasting room was an alcove inside the door of the warehouse. In addition to tasting the beer we were able to observe a business meeting between the owner/brewer and some suppliers. The beer was truly terrific, particularly their porter and lager.

We continued north to Bandon which is one of the cutest towns on the coast. A brewery had opened there in the last year. The facility is really nice and the beer was good. They were a little optimistic and had the garage door open to the outside seating. But with a light jacket it was fun to pretend like it was summer.

Ron was still fighting the effects of the flu so we decided to stay in Bandon for the night. Our campsite is at Bullards Beach State Park near the ocean in Bandon.

February 12, 2018 Blue Lake CA

Good Brew Hunting continued today with two stops as we continue our very slow pub crawl north. After a slow start in the morning we headed towards Boonville California to a brewery that we had targeted called Anderson Valley Brewery. To get there we covered about 25 miles of twisty mountain roads until we dropped into the valley. The beer was delicious, and we debated calling it a day there, but decided to push on north.

Anderson Valley Brewing, one of our favorites.

After another three hours we ended up at the Mad River brewery in Blue Lake. The beer was good but not quite up to the standard of Anderson Valley. However, they were having a sale on cans so we picked up a case of a nice lager for the next trip in Scout.

The coastal mountains of Northern California are really rugged.

Tonight we are urban camping in a casino parking lot near the brewery in Blue Lake.

February 11, 2018 Petaluma CA

Ton has dubbed the rest of our trip north good beer hunting. The plan is to move north roughly following US101 through Northern California and Oregon searching for breweries.

With Ron still a little under the weather the plan was to take it easy and only visit one brewery today. We chose Russian River brewery in Santa Rosa. It is famous for two IPA’s Pliney the Elder and Pliney the Younger. They have a national reputation and even though we have tried them both we thought we would go by the brewery to try one on site. When we got there, the line to get in to the brewery had about 300 people in it. It turns out it was the release day for this years Pliney the Younger and also the San Francisco beer festival. When someone from the brewery came by and informed us that the wait to get in would be five hours we decided to go somewhere else.

The Russian River Brewing home of a very sought after beer called Pliney the Elder.

The second place was about five miles away called Bear Republic Brewery. We had a taster tray of 9 beers ranging from a pilsner to a stout. There were several good beers though we thought the lighter beers were better than the darker beers.

Bear Republic Brewing, no four wait, and good beer.

Ron is still a little worn out from the flu, so we headed over to a nice campground in dairy country near Petaluma that came with over 180 channels on their cable. While Ron took a nap Ton was able to watch her favorite hockey team on the TV.

Some happy California cows just across the fence from the campground.

February 10, 2018 Baker CA

Ron is under the weather so today was about getting as far north as Ron could take and then to rest. We did make one stop at a landmark bakery in the town of Baker California. Eric Schaatz bakery is famous for it’s Sheepherder bread, which is supposed to be based on bread brought over in the 1800’s by German shepherds to the area. We split a sandwich and brought a couple of loaves of bread.

We passed over several 7000 and 8000 foot passes on the way to Reno with absolutely no snow. California is really having a bad drought this year.

Sierra Nevada Mountains with almost no snow in February.

February 9, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA

Today was a travel day. We got up early and tried to clean some of the sand from Scout. Parking directly on the beach is really great, but it comes with a ton of sand which managed to get everywhere. Ton did a great job chasing most of it out, but will probably take another shot at it this afternoon.

The downside of being on the beach is sand everywhere inside. Not much of a downside.

We were up early and had another visit from the local Marines. This time a company of Marines were using the beach in front of us for physical training. All of the women in the campground were fascinated to watch the women Marines in the unit doing the training alongside their male counterparts, and I think the mother in all of them came out a little bit. I know the women Marines would not want to be treated any other way.

Physical Training on the beach, just like their recruiter promised.

We reluctantly departed our ocean front property, and headed out into southern California traffic. Ron was a bit under the weather so we were focused on getting down the road.

One of the weird things about driving around in the Mojave is that fairly frequently you come across these large airports with hundreds of mothballed airplanes parked there. This one was near Adelanto.

February 8, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA

We had a slow start to the day. One of the things about staying on a military base is that sometimes you share your campground with Marines training. This morning a platoon of amtracks (a floating armored personnel carrier) went thru the camp.

We headed over to Oceanside for the afternoon we shared a fish and chips lunch at a nice restaurant. We then had a nice walk thru town and down to the pier. A lot of California coastal towns have piers, and Oceanside’s is nice, and not quite as commercial as some of the others.

We watched the surfers for a while from the pier. Ton pointed out one older gentlemen mixed in with all of the younger surfers. After a while though it was clear the old guy was by far the best surfer.

February 7, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA

The first job for today was to try to sort out our camera. It suddenly stopped working. We are not sure if the battery has given up the ghost or it is something bigger. It is 6 or 7 years old so it may be just at the end of its’ life despite Ton’s meticulous maintenance. For now we are in possession of a new camera we bought at Costco. While Ton was sorting out the camera and doing some grocery shopping, Ron took Scout for an oil change.

After that we headed out to check out the north part of San Diego county. Once again Ron is shocked that an area he remembers so well from 20 years ago has changed substantially. Oceanside has gentrified tremendously, and Carlsbad is positively upscale now. We really enjoyed checking out the town including the Belching Beaver Brewery, a Pizza place that also brewed beer, and the farmers market. In fact we had such a good time that we decided to spend another night here.

Not sure what Ron is so focused on, a nice brewery called Belching Beaver.

Last night most of the sites around us were empty, when we returned tonight we were surrounded by a bunch of large RV’s. It turns out it is a group of Elks from around Moreno Valley California who are here for the weekend. They seem like a bunch of nice people and invited us to join them tomorrow for a card tournament. We will see.

February 6, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA

Ton brought up the idea of heading over to the coast. Our original hope was to stay at the Navy park on Coronado Island in San Diego, but as with every other time we could not get a reservation. We instead are at the Marine Base with an ocean front spot. We are not disappointed with not getting into Coronado.

We started out trying to get up for sunset but did not succeed. Ron ran out to try to get some just past sunset pictures but they did not turn out. On our way out of the park we stopped at one of Tons favorite spots the Cholla garden. The Cholla Cactus has one of the nastiest thorns of any cactus, but it has really nice flowers.

We took a back road from Palm Springs to Temecula which kept us off the freeways. The highway was called the Pine to Palms Highway and takes you thru the Santa Rosa Mountains. The climb out of Palm Springs is quite steep as you quickly go from Sea Level to 3000 feet. You go from desert to alpine and pass thru at least three different plant types. While the road is windy and narrow for Ron it is less nerve racking than dealing with Southern California Freeways.

We arrived at the beach and as we were setting up a nice couple came up and struck up a conversation about our drive down and the Tiger. Ron was hooking up things and Ton was outside speaking with the wife. A few minutes later Ron noticed water coming out of the truck. Sometime along the way one of us had bumped the water in the kitchen sink on. While we are driving we store some stuff in the sink so that was blocking the drain, and we had a flood. So tonight we are drying out the floor, and some of our dish towels and things are hanging up to dry.

We ended the day by doing something we have never done in seven or eight years of camping. We built a campfire and sat on the beach eating our dinner and enjoying the sound of the surf.

February 5, 2018 Joshua Tree NP

Today we visited one of our favorite national parks. Ton really loves cactuses and Joshua Trees. It was originally in our plans for the trip with our friends last fall, but we cut it out due to time constraints, so we decided to head over on our way to the coast.

The drive took a little longer than we thought, and we ended up driving around for over an hour looking for a place to spend the night. At that point Ron realized that we probably needed fuel, so we ended up driving back out into town to the Marine Base to get fuel. The fuel there was 50 cents a gallon cheaper than in town.

Part of the trip was along an old section of Route 66.

We got back to our campsite just in time for sunset, and had a nice walk shooting pictures of the sunset, rocks and Joshua tree’s. It was also fantastic weather, clear and 79 degrees, so for the first time on the trip we will not need the heater.

February 4, 2018 Las Vegas NV

Today we did what most Americans do which is watch the Super Bowl. The RV park at Nellis was having a Super Bowl watch party and we signed up to join it . Our son Alex joined us for the party driving back 4 hours from a long planned trip to Phoenix to see us.

The game was unusually good though none of us really cared who won. We all decided to pull for the Eagles as they were the underdogs, and the underdogs won in an exciting way.

February 3, 2018 Las Vegas NV

A slow day for us. We spent the morning taking care of laundry and using the internet at the office to publish the blog and do some research on next stops for us.

We decided to go to a Chinese Lantern Show that was advertised in the local paper. It looked like it would be interesting and a nice way to spend an evening. It totally blew us away. It was 5 or 6 acres of really complex lanterns, though they did cheat and use led lights instead of candles. Ton killed the battery on her camera taking pictures. We had a hard time selecting a couple of pictures for the blog. It also included a show of Chinese jugglers, acrobats, and a mask dance that was really extraordinary. The young women went thru a series of masks in just a couple of seconds. We have not been able to figure out how she did it, but it was really cool.

This is a traveling show if it ever comes to your town I highly recommend you go.

February 2, 2018 Las Vegas NV

We moved into the city for the weekend. Today was about a little shopping, giving Scout a bath to knock some of the mud off of her, and going somewhere we could use WiFi to catch up and post the blog. We finished everything except the internet stuff as it turns out we are in the only part of the park that does not have WiFi.

February 1, 2018 Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Ron woke up a little early to go for a walk and chase some big horn sheep around for a while trying to get pictures. Ton’s from yesterday were better.

After breakfast we set out to explore the rest of the park. We took a couple of short hikes and really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was perfect for hiking, mid to high 60’s, and we picked a couple of easy places that still gave us wonderful views of the Red sandstone that gives the park it’s name. We really enjoyed Valley of Fire, it is a nice size and has a variety of places to visit. It is the equal of many National Parks for things to see and do.

This Raven kept an eye on us for a few minutes while we were walking.

Our next stop was planned for Lake Mead National Recreation Area if you are wondering what the abbreviation in the title for the day is short for. Ton and I were both surprised by Lake Mead as we thought the Lake would be front and center, and for the first 40 miles it was almost invisible. Instead we had a drive thru a typical Mojave landscape with occasional burst of Red from Sandstone deposits. It was not at all what we expected. We are staying at a campground called Las Vegas Cove. Once again we are parked along a river and the Lake is far away. We enjoyed a nice dinner watching another colorful desert sunset. We managed to actually drive less than 100 miles and were content to park up around 2pm. Maybe we can slow down.

January 31, 2018 Valley of Fire SP

Our alarm was set for 4am so we could get up to witness the eclipse/Blue/Blood/Super moon. The skies were clear, but it was really cold. The temperatures had fallen more than we thought and it must of been around 20 degrees. Ton stuck her head out of the truck and told me to call her when the moon turned Red. I stuck around and watched the eclipse from the inside of the truck. When the moon turned Red I told Ton and she reluctantly rolled out of bed to take a look. After a few minutes she could not get a good picture and was very cold so she decided to get back under the blankets. I followed her a few minutes later. So while we witnessed the eclipse/Blue/Blood/Super moon we have no pictures to prove it, you will have to take our word for it.

Ton loves Joshua trees, we passed this one on the way to Valley of Fire.

After a little nap we got up and headed towards Las Vegas to Valley of Fire State Park. It is about 70 miles from Las Vegas and is quite striking. It has very Red Rocks throughout with many different shapes and forms. As we were arriving we noticed about 100 RV’s parked on BLM land just short of the state park and Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We assume camping is free there and we were tempted to park there for the night, but decided to opt for the State Park and pay the camping fee.

After we settled in we went for a short walk near the campground to a site of some Indian petroglyphs. They were quite impressive. Our reward for ponying up for the campground came in seeing 5 big horn sheep a couple of hundred yards from Scout. While we have been in lots of places with signs warning us to watch for big horns we had never actually seen one until today.

January 30, 2018 Caliente NV

I love the west. Today we drove a ridiculous distance thru the Mojave Desert. We wanted to position ourselves to see the Blue Blood Super Moon eclipse tomorrow and decided a good place we had never been before would be Kershaw-Ryan State Park near Caliente Nevada. So to explain tomorrow is a blue moon, the moon is supposed to turn red after the eclipse, and it is a super moon. The only problem it was over 400 miles away. But we decided to go for it and if we were tired in Tonopah we would shorten up the trip.

The drive from Reno to Caliente is thru mostly unoccupied desert. Quite often you do not see anything built by a human for miles and miles. Our route once we got clear of the urban area around Reno was US 95 to Tonopah, US 6 to no where in particular NV351 to a small town we forgot the name of already and US 93 to Caliente. We are familiar with US95 from Fallon to Tonopah as it is the route we take whenever we go to see Alex or to Death Valley, we had one of our flat tires on US95 near Hawthorne a few years ago. We had never been on the rest of the roads on the trip but they were fun and really isolated. Route 6 goes thru long empty valleys with nothing to stop you. The roads are straight as an arrow for miles and miles. Ron began looking at how many miles it was before turns in the road and we had stretches of 11, 14, and the longest of 16 miles of perfectly straight roads.

This stretch of highway was 14 miles without a curve.

NV351 is also known as the extraterrestrial highway as it skirts Area 51 where everyone knows the government is secretly keeping the aliens that come to earth. The businesses along the road know a good thing when they see it so they have set up souvenir stands. We of course stopped and bought a magnet to put on the fridge at home.

Ron could not resist getting his picture taken with an alien.

Our stop for the night was at Kershaw-Ryan, Ron was a little worried about arriving late in the day as it is a small park. There was no need to worry as we have the place to ourselves. it is a pretty location in a little canyon, and all of the facilities look brand new. We went for a short evening stroll, and the Blue-Blood-Super Moon gave us a little preview.

January 29, 2018 Reno NV

Ton had a restaurant on her bucket list that is near Reno. So we began our day by heading towards Gardnerville to get a Basque meal at JT Basque Restaurant. She had read about this place at a Basque Museum in Boise and she had been looking forward to the next time we passed thru Reno to give it a try. We had the family style meal which included all you could eat soup, salad, beef stew, bread, beans and French Fries, and an entree and a small bottle of wine. The food was superb and it only cost $25 per person. Ton was really pleased and crossed JT’s off her bucket list with all of her expectations met. If you are in the Reno area JT’s is worth the 45 minute drive over to Gardnerville.

After JT’s we headed over to Virginia City. It is one of the most famous boom towns from the gold rush era. At one point it had a population of over 30,000 including Mark Twain who worked at the paper in town. It is in the hills above Reno and has a great collection of mid to late 19th century buildings. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and we were impressed with the buildings and the setting. We were tempted by a couple of the saloons in town, but were too stuffed from our lunch in Gardnerville to do it. It is probably overrun with tourists in the summer, but was pleasantly quiet in January.

The Red Dog Saloon founded in the gold rush in the 1880’s.

Our last stop was the Costco in Sparks. We were excited because the Sparks Costco had Diesel available and our experience on our Alaska trip was that Costco had by far the cheapest diesel in any town. So after going out of our way and driving during rush hour to get there we were disappointed that the Costco fuel was actually higher than one of the major chain stations in town. This is the first time Costco has let us down.

January 28, 2018 Reno NV

Today was a driving day as we decided to get serious about chasing warmer temperatures. The drive was long, but very easy as there is almost no traffic on the whole route. When we left we were surrounded by snow for the first two hours. The beginning of the trip was along Oregon State Highway 31 which is one of Ron’s favorite roads. It goes from LaPine to Lakeview, and is really remote and very scenic in a stark way.

After Lakeview you enter California and have to pass thru the state agricultural inspection station. After our experience losing our apples crossing into Canada, Ton was worried about losing our oranges so she had prepared by peeling the oranges and hiding them in the cabinet. Ron was sworn to commit perjury and swear we only had apples and bananas on board. All of this was for nothing because when we arrived at the inspection station it was closed.

We are parked up for the night in a casino campground in Reno. We stop here most of the time when heading south. We may be looking at alternatives after this stop as the area around the casino is deteriorating and the maintenance of the campground is neglected.