Ron Corbin – Page 39 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

April 29, 2019 Sens FR

Today we slept in until a little after 9am, and then headed over to Veron. Our first linguistic adventure of the day was with the front desk clerk. Her English was very good and she had spent a year in the US as an exchange student. We asked her for a taxi and she asked where we wanted to go I replied Veron, she did not understand, so I tried again and she did not understand, so I wrote it down and she giggled and said oh the village next to hers. I was pronouncing it Ve-RON, and it should have been VER-on.

We picked up François and settled up our storage bill for the winter. Next stop was Auchan where we picked up a few groceries to get us started, with a promise from me to Ton to return tomorrow to finish up. We moved over to the aire in Gron which is conveniently located to all of the shopping and Ton spent the afternoon setting up the van with minimal help from me, I mostly tried to stay out of the way.

François settling in with our American and French neighbors.

We were in the middle of our meal when a van similar to ours pulled in to the spot next to ours. As they were backing in I heard the directions being given with a distinctive American accent so we stuck our heads out to say hello. Thom and Karen Metcalf had picked up their new to them Knaus a few days earlier and were getting some last minute things taken care of. We had a nice conversation with them and enjoyed their stories of traveling the world. They had a cool portable washing machine that Ton is interested in hearing how well it works as finding places to wash clothes is her pet peeve.

April 28, 2019 Sens FR

The flights today were courtesy of Alaska and American Airlines. Both flights were quite full, and the American flight had the tightest seats we have seen in quite a while. Ton managed to get a little sleep while I was up the whole flight.

To get from the airport in Paris to Sens is a fairly straightforward. You catch a subway into Paris for about 40 minutes, you then transfer to another subway that takes you to the train station. From Paris to Sens is about a one hour train ride, unfortunately it is not one of the cool high speed trains but just a little local. The most difficult thing about the trip is lugging the suitcases thru the subway and on and off the trains.

We arrived in Sens about 2pm, checked into the hotel and slept for a couple of hours until supper. We had a Chinese Buffet as it was the only option near the hotel besides McDonalds. The Chinese was interesting as in every country the food is adapted to local tastes. In this case this means in addition to the usual suspects of fried rice, and noodles, fish, and calamari, there were “Chinese” frog legs, and snails. The frog legs were quite good actually.

January 30, 2019 Portland OR

A pretty easy day after yesterdays marathon drive. We woke up a little later, had breakfast, and except for a pit stop in Costco we had a pretty uneventful trip. Our only problem was getting rid of our waste water. There was a rest area near Burns that had a dump facility, but when we got there the valve to release the gray water was frozen so we could not dump there. As we drove west we stopped at every possible place along the route, until we finally got rid of the water near home. It probably added an hour to our trip.

The Three Sisters in the Cascade Mountains.

January 29, 2019 Burns OR

Today we drove across the great basin of the US. The great basin is an old inland sea that covers most of Nevada and Utah, and parts of California and Oregon. Ton and I have always enjoyed the area. To give you an idea of how remote and varied this area is we drove 600 miles and the largest town we passed thru was Winnemuca Nevada which has a population of 7500 people. Generally it is about 100 miles between towns, and in between towns there is very little to see but mountains and deserts. We started the trip at 200 feet below sea level in Death Valley, and reached an altitude of just over 7000 feet near Austin Nevada. We drove a ridiculous distance today, but really enjoyed ourselves.

We woke up early as we had both fell asleep very early the night before. Since we were up we decided to head on out. We hit the home button on the GPS and it told us it was 896 miles to home following the quickest route. We usually pick a place we are heading for but today we decided to just follow the GPS and to find a place to park for the night when we ran out of steam.

Everything was going as we expected following highway 95, when we drive to Las Vegas we follow US95 from Reno to there so we knew this route, but in Tonopah the GPS told us to turn off 95 and follow US6 instead. We decided what the heck and followed her directions. She had us turn onto Nevada 376 which had us a little worried, but the road looked good so we decided to go ahead. It turned into a fun decision. We found the kind of road we love, heading thru wide open country with high mountains on either side. Towns were few and far between. Near the town of Round Mountain, we came across an immense gold mine which ran for about 8 miles along the road.

This picture looks like an impressionist painting, but Ton took it with her iPhone.

Eventually we came to US50 which we followed for about 30 miles to Nevada 305, another wide open road thru a valley called Antelope Valley for about 120 miles. The highlite was another mine which was even bigger than the one at Round Mountain, but we think was for Copper. At the town of Battle Mountain we joined I-80 for about 50 miles before turning north on US97. We followed US 97 to the Nevada/Oregon border and at that point had about 480 miles under our belt. We talked about parking up there, but we were on a roll and decided to keep going.

Ton is very proud of this picture, though it looks like a black and white picture it is color.

The last 120 miles were on US97 and OR78 was actually the most remote part of the road yet. For an 80 mile stretch the only man made structures we saw were a Road Maintenance station and a military radar site. When we rolled into Burns it was dark, and the RV park we had stayed in previously in the winter is now closed for the season. We had to scramble for a place to stay, but it was worth it.

Another Impressionist picture from the trip.

January 28, 2019 Death Valley NP

We are both still struggling a little bit with our medical issues so it is time to head home so we can see see our proper Doctors. Ron prefers to drive home east of the Sierra Nevada mountains rather than deal with the heart of California so we left San Diego and headed north and east towards one of our favorite National Parks to spend the night.

The drive to Death Valley was pretty uneventful, even the traffic from San Diego to San Bernardino while dense was moving pretty well with no significant slow downs. After you get out of the southern California metropolis, you quickly get into the Mojave and go from bumper to bumper freeway traffic to almost no traffic as you travel thru the desert.

When we arrived at Death Valley we checked in to see what had reopened after the shutdown. It turns out only a couple of the campgrounds have been re-opened so we are in a big gravel lot across from the visitors center with about 100 other RV’s. We took a walk and Ton got some nice sunset pictures, and we had a couple of short conversations with some of out other campers before settling in for the night.

January 27, 2019 San Diego CA

Today is Dylan’s birthday so we planned a big day around town to celebrate. We started out with a seafood brunch at Point Loma Seafood. It is part fishmonger and part restaurant, definitely a laid back California experience, but the food was really exceptional, and was a good start to the day.

Our next stop was Cabrillo National Monument on a bluff overlooking San Diego harbor. This was the first day it was open after the government shutdown and a lot of people were coming out to use the facilities. It is an interesting place located on former military property with stunning views of the harbor and the ocean. The monument has exhibitions on Spanish explorers, as it is believed the monument contains the landing place of the Spanish explorer who was the first European to land in San Diego. It also has a whale watching platform, some nice tidal pools, and exhibits on the military uses of the area. We really enjoyed it.

The Cabrillo Monument to the first European to see San Diego Harbor.

Next we headed over to another San Diego brewery located right next to Point Loma Seafood. We had a couple of rounds of really excellent Lagers and IPA’s and were quite impressed with Epigg Brewing. Our next stop was going to be Pariah brewery for Pizza and beer. When we got there Pizza was not available so we headed down the road for a great Mexican meal to wrap up the day. Thanks Dylan for a fun week in San Diego.

The shore line at Cabrillo National Monument.

January 26, 2019 San Diego CA

Dylan suggested we head up to San Juan Capistrano to visit the mission there. It is about an hour north of here and you have to transit thru Camp Pendleton. The Marines were out playing today. There was an amphibious ship off shore, and we saw some ship to shore movement including some helicopters, and amphibious tractors. It brought back some nice memories for Ron.

A CH-53 helicopter stopping traffic on I-5 as it passes thru Camp Pendleton.

San Juan Capistrano is one of the best preserved of the California Missions. When the Spanish were colonizing Alta California in the 1700’s they built a string of missions along the coast about one days horse ride apart. Each mission was part fort and part Catholic church. They were designed to encourage the native Americans to convert to Catholicism. California uses the missions as part of the 4th grade curriculum for elementary schools. We remember helping Alex with the construction of his model mission when we lived in California. The mission at San Juan Capistrano used to be famous for an annual return of swallows to the mission. These days the swallows are going some where else due to urbanization around the mission.

The interior of the chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano.

After the mission we stopped at a couple of breweries, and swung by Walmart to by a new water hose for Scout as our old one gave up the ghost yesterday. We have been really impressed with the quality of the breweries in San Diego.

January 25, 2019 San Diego CA

This morning Dylan came over to give us his car for the day. We planned a shopping trip to stock up for the ride home, and to pick up a couple of things only available in California.

After spending the morning shopping on the Navy Base, we joined Dylan for a nice pizza lunch in a restaurant in his neighborhood. After lunch we headed over to Costco to pick up Ton’s favorite noodles that are only available in California. When Dylan finished work he joined us at the RV park for dinner and a couple of good Oregon micro brews we had brought down. We had a nice chat for a couple of hours before turning in for the night.

The good news is that the government shutdown is over, and Dylan will be able to return to a normal schedule on Monday. He was telling us that he attended a conference in Washington during the shutdown, and despite the shutdown they arranged for him to get a tour of the Department of Interior headquarters. He said it was quite weird walking thru the empty building with the Christmas decorations still up in mid-January.

January 24, 2019 San Diego CA

Not much to talk about today. We did the laundry, and both tried to relax and recover from our ill’s. Dylan joined us for lunch, but had a dinner date, so we ate some leftovers and turned in early.

This Pelican posed for us while we ate lunch.

January 23, 2019 San Diego CA

Not a very interesting travel day. Both of us have been dealing with nagging medical issues so we decided to use today to go by a clinic and get them looked at. We both had our diagnoses confirmed and got some prescriptions to deal with the issues.

In the afternoon we went to downtown San Diego for dinner at Melvin’s. We had a great dinner of Thai Curry. This brewery is originally from Wyoming and was the house brewery for a Thai restaurant, which is an unusual way to found a brewery. Their beer is considered one of the best micro breweries in the country. We then finished the night by taking a walk around downtown San Diego.

Ron and Dylan in front of a monument to craft beer.

January 22, 2019 San Diego CA

Today we shifted to San Diego to see our other son Dylan. The drive over was pretty uneventful.

Ton and I were talking about the difference in how we treat distances here versus Europe. We decided to take it easy driving on the trip. Taking it easy in the US are 300 to 400 mile drives each day. As an example the drive to San Diego today was 328 miles. Our easy drives here would be 500 to 600km drives in Europe which is much farther than we would ever consider driving there. Some of it is the nature of the country. The next closest town to Las Vegas would be San Bernardino which in itself is about 180 miles, so there would be no short drives. When we come home it is interesting how quickly we can switch to the American sense of distance.

We met Dylan for dinner and went to a nice brewery. We had an interesting conversation about the government shutdown, as the office he works is closed though he is getting paid because he is working thru the University of Montana.

January 21, 2019 Las Vegas NV

Today we spent the day with our son Alex. He wanted to have Korean food for lunch so we had our second Korean barbeque in three days. It was also good and Alex really enjoyed it.

After that we headed out for some shopping and then went to watch the local hockey team on TV as Alex has become a big fan. Who would have ever thought of Las Vegas as a hot bed of hockey. Unfortunately the home team lost.

Ton was looking for some Mexican food and had a place in mind. When we got there though the restaurant was closed. We just drove randomly down the road after that looking for a Mexican restaurant and found a place called Pepe’s. It turned out to be both the cheapest and possibly the best meal we had in Las Vegas. Ton really loved their salsa.

January 20, 2018 Las Vegas NV

This was the last day for all of our friends in Las Vegas as they all need to get back home to go to work. The guys and Ton wanted to watch the football games, while the girls were either sleeping in from their club adventure, or shopping.

Las Vegas has a replica of the Hofbrauhaus from Munich and we decided to watch the game there. We found ourselves in this cavernous beer hall with one other couple. It was kind of strange to have that much space to ourselves. Both Ton and Tim one of our friends had been to the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich and they thought it was a pretty good imitation. Our waitress had a slight accent so we asked if she was German, and it turns out she was from Heidelberg in Germany. Her and her husband are touring the US by RV for the past few years and have stopped here to raise a little money. We enjoyed comparing the experience of RVing here and Europe for a while until she had to get off to another table.

Following the games everyone decided we had been in the posh part of Las Vegas too long and decided to head down to Fremont street. The clientele are not as elegant, but Ron felt like he belonged there, and the drinks were significantly cheaper. Our friends decided it was time to take advantage of the lower cost of gambling there, so we took our leave and headed back to Scout for the night.

When we got back there was a Blood Red Wolf Moon which was nice. The weather was talking about high wind warnings, and while a couple of good gusts hit it did not seem to be as bad as they indicated.

January 19, 2019 Las Vegas NV

Today we spent with our friends, beginning with a walk down the strip for lunch at a Beer haus. After that the group splintered for a while with different people doing what they were most interested in in Las Vegas. Some went to gamble, some went shopping, and Ton and I relaxed in one of our friends posh rooms in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

In the evening we headed out to dinner at a great Korean Barbeque near the strip. Everyone ate far too much beef and pork, but it was delicious. Following dinner we headed back to the Cosmopolitan and shared some drinks in another friends room. They had a fabulous view of the strip at night, and got to see a fireworks show, and the fountain show at the Bellagio from their balcony.

When the group decided to go clubbing again for the night, Ton and I headed home to Scout for a good nights sleep.

January 18, 2019 Las Vegas NV

Our route today was on one of Ron’s favorite stretches of roads. US-95 from Fallon to Las Vegas passes thru some of the most stark terrain in the US. There is a town about every 100 miles and the rest of the time you are surrounded by desert and mountains. Generally the traffic is light so you can enjoy the views.

We have traveled this route quite a bit as in addition to being the way we prefer to go to Las Vegas to visit our son, it also is a way to access Death Valley National Park.

It also passes by Area 54 which is an Air Force test and bombing range, where if you believe the movies the US government keeps the aliens we have captured!

The Mojave Desert with the snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background.

In addition to visiting our son on this trip, a bunch of our friends from Portland are flying in for the weekend to celebrate some birthdays and to enjoy Las Vegas. Alex picked us up at the RV park and we decided to head to the strip for dinner. While Ron was parking our rental car, Ton and Alex ran into Goi one of our friends so she joined us for dinner.

Later we went out for a late dinner and some drinks at a nice but expensive Tapas bar. The rest of the group headed off for some clubbing while Ton and I used our advanced age and ailments to skip the clubs and head to bed.

January 17, 2019 Fallon NV

After getting up we both felt a little better so we decided to push on. We planned an easy day down to Fallon, and Ron optimistically commented that if we got to Fallon too early we could go on to the next town so we would have a shorter drive into Las Vegas the next day.

The weather was supposed to be rain with a chance of mixed rain and snow at the passes. They were mostly right, and the first 150 miles from Klamath to Alturas was just that. The next leg was about 80 miles from Alturas to Susanville California. As we climbed up to the pass the rain turned to mixed rain, and then turned to just snow. Before we new it we were on snow covered roads and in 4 wheel drive. After about 5 miles the lane we were driving in was suddenly clear of snow though the other lane had about 8 or 10 inches covering it. It turns out we were behind a snow plow. We lucked out and followed him for about 20 miles until he turned off. We covered the last 15 miles or so to Susanville in 4wd. While it was slow we made the trip without any real drama, though we did see one accident. Once we descended to Susanville we were back in the rain for the rest of the trip.

The snow plow we followed for about 20 miles. Thanks.

Because of the snow Ron’s optimistic hope of going past Fallon was dashed, and his back was pretty stiff from driving so we decided to spend one more night in a hotel.

January 16, 2019 Klamath Falls OR

We almost did not make this trip. Ton has been battling a rash that is making her very uncomfortable, she decided to push thru. Then the day before we were going to start, right after we completed loading Scout for the trip, Ron’s back went out. We decided to push down to Klamath Falls and see if we felt like continuing south. The drive was pretty easy though we did run into some unexpected snow coming over the cascade mountains.

To make it a little easier on both of us we decided to use some of our hotel points for the first night to allow for a little easier access to the bathroom and the bed. Somehow it feels like cheating on Scout.

November 6, 2018 Portland OR

We had an incident free flight. Thank you United airlines.

Our first trip in our own RV in Europe is over. We were a little nervous that we would burnout, but I think the opposite happened. There were more places we wanted to see. The only issue was the weather was starting to turn to winter. During the trip we covered 5500 km’s (about 3400 miles). We discovered some new parts of France, and really enjoyed Spain. I think we could do another long trip in Spain and not repeat ourselves as we have Madrid, LaMancha, the Pyrenees, and Galicia to still visit. We also think we need to give Brittany more time.

François performed well and gave us no issues. As time went by we found a good rhythm to the trip, and for the first time managed to take a few days off where we just sat and rested.

Our plans for the next trip to Europe are under way, right now it looks like Germany will be the target.

November 5, 2018 Paris FR

We were up bright and early to deliver François back to France Motorhome Hire. After a quick turnover we were off to the train station in Sens. The trip to Paris was quick and relatively easy, involving a train and two different subway lines. We were lucky that both the train, and the subway to the airport were express with no stops.

There was nothing much to talk about the rest of the day. We went out for a kebab dinner at a place we have discovered near the airport hotel we use. At the end we settled down for the night in a proper bed for the first time in 50 nights.

November 4, 2018 Gron FR

The weather is definitely going towards winter. No frost this morning but very dense fog. Over night we were joined by 4 other RV’s so it was not the quiet night we had expected.

We had two main chores to accomplish today, wash our clothes and particularly the sheets and towels, and give François a bath inside and out.

Of the two chores the most dicey looked to be getting the laundry done. We normally do our laundry at campgrounds as they usually have washers and dryers, but as the camping season is done, none of the campgrounds are open. Last night we googled laundromats in Sens and only got one response and it is right in the middle of the old city. We decided to head in there early to see if it did exist and if we could find a place to park reasonably close to the laundromat. It did exist and after a small adventure down one way roads we found a place to park only 10 minutes away. The first chore done, we headed over to Auchan and gave François a bath. The next trip Ron is going to have to lay on some proper vehicle washing supplies.

Today is Sunday so by the time we finished those two chores everything was closed. We headed back to Gron, and spent the afternoon cleaning up François’ interior and packing.

Gron, the small village where we are spending the night.

In the evening we took a quick stroll around the park next to the aire. The village has planted some apple trees in the park. Each tree is a different variety, and they all still have fruit on them. We were poking around looking at the apples when a couple from the village began encouraging us to eat them. They were all delicious much to our surprise and you could really tell the differences in the varieties.