Yeah baby! This is the way to do Ashland. It’s funny, I lived and worked in this town for several years and I think I maybe came out to Emigrant Lake once. When I’ve come back to vacation, we’ve always chosen the hotel that’s right in the middle of town (since we’ve had enough money to do that, rather than crash with friends, that is). We came up once with Dory and stayed in a little private campground nearby and that was so-so. This place is for sure the way to go in the future and I’m glad I secured a couple nights to go with theatre tickets.
It was a short drive from Shasta to Ashland and we stopped for lunch in the nicest Rest Stop. It’s right at the place where highway 96 takes off and it is grassy, and right next to the Klamath River. Super peaceful. We arrived in town around 1:30 and pulled right into our site. What a view! We are sort of walking distance to the water, but there are pricker plants and a steepish hill to get there, so I just drove my kayak over to the day use area and got set up over there for an afternoon paddle. Richard got to do some work because the service is excellent. Then he went for a dip in the lake. Friday night we had tickets for “Julius Caesar.” Yeah, the Festival still blows me away. Pretty darn timely, and incredibly powerful production this year.
Saturday we got to see back to back productions of “Henry IV Part 1” and “Henry IV Part 2” as matinee and evening performances. It is rare that you’d get to see these two shows in this way, with the same cast, set design, and costumes. And one right after the other. It makes the second play far more approachable when you are able to see the character development and relationships grow from the first one. There was some incredible acting going on and I got a surprise by being seated right next to the king’s throne for Part 2. These were done in the small theatre, and “in the round,” meaning the audience was seated on all four sides of a central stage.
Sunday, we did some flexible planning. When I bought tickets and reserved sites months ago, I was expecting to blow through town fairly quickly. What I didn’t know at the time was that some good friends were performing in the Cabaret show, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” So we lucked out on being able to get one night at Glenyan RV Park for Sunday, and I scored tickets to the Cabaret for a matinee. We were able to scoot into the empty site before official check in time and thoroughly enjoyed the show. It is well worth seeing if you’re up that way. The best part was being able to catch up with old friends and share real life stuff, not just the happy times that go on the blog or on Facebook. As for Glenyan, I come away with an overall better impression than last time, where our site was located next to a chain link fence and propane tank. There are some nice shady sites by the river, some that are so so, and some that really aren’t that nice. Maybe you can request a river site, but otherwise it seems like a crap shoot. There is also definitely traffic noise from highway 66. Perfectly fine for what we needed, but I’ll be looking to the Emigrant RV campground for future stays.
So already, I am appreciating the unscheduled roaming. It can be unsettling, not knowing where you are going to stay and not having it all mapped out. Not my style. But see, if we had, I would never have stayed to see the Cabaret show and would not have gotten to connect with wonderful people. I’m liking this. Uncomfortable, but liking it.
Total miles from Shasta: 113.1, 16.3 mpg, 2 hours 32 minutes. Site 4. Awesome. Any of the sites next to the water are super. The site on the far end of the loop may have direct access to the water. Excellent LTE for ATT and Verizon. In fact, you can see the Verizon tower by the lake. Full hookups. 5 min drive to town.
