So I wasn’t going to actually post about this one. It happened two weeks ago, and for multiple reasons, I wasn’t feeling like writing anything up. However, because of my fake OCD (cause I do realize there are people living with real OCD, and I know that mine is just more like being weirdly stubborn, rather than genuinely impacted), I am going to backtrack and catch up.
We referred to this weekend as “Angry Wright’s Beach” because I did not get a premium site this time and our goal was to assess whether I could still enjoy the place, or just sit there, bitterly staring at the people with ocean views. I’ll go ahead and say I was fine. I still got to stand at the beach at sunset on Friday and let the power of the ocean cleanse away the week’s stress. It was still close to our standby dinner place, and it was still the same beautiful drive. So yes, in a pinch, I can be non premium and not be ridiculous about it. Saturday it sprinkled the entire day, so we wouldn’t have been sitting out in our site anyway. I will say that I noticed site 5 was empty all weekend and I did not pursue the idea of moving into it. That’s gotta count for something right?
The end of the weekend wrapped up with a day’s worth of feeling the fragility of mortality. There was a health related concern that came up, which could have been nothing, or could have been something. WebMD assured me I was definitely dying. Note to self: stop looking at WebMD. We left Sunday with an appointment scheduled that afternoon at urgent care to get it checked out. In the end, it was something that was not a bad something, and not at all life threatening, so that’s all good. But it did give me pause, and for sure knocked out the motivation to write up the weekend.
The following weekend, we were home for a planned social gathering. I was going to go back and write it up at that point, but then the state of California burned down again, like it does. We had a closer than normal call, with two fires going in our town. Friends and coworkers were evacuated. The power had been turned off the day before. Fire planes and helicopters flew low overhead all day. 
We got Dory packed and hitched, ready on the street to go at a moment’s notice if need be. It was a day’s worth of feeling the fragility of home and all the acquired stuff.
Again, it was more of a scare than the serious possibility it could have been. There are lots of Californians facing that right now, and I surely feel for them. I guess it’s just one of those times in life when everything feels quite temporary. I’m working on noticing that, like my mindful friend would say. And I feel gratitude in the mix with all the anxiety. It’s just not the dominant feeling a lot of the time. I’m working on that too, Rita. 🙂
On a purely practical note, it is awesome to have a 12v fridge and espresso machine available during blackouts. Also, we have an abundance of solar or battery powered light sources. Since this seems to be a regular thing that happens in California, we have started thinking seriously about how to make these events less impactful. And I’ve got to figure out what to do about all the photos. There is just no way I’m going to be able to save all the albums. Ugh. I know as long as I’ve got the family and the kitty, and Dory, we’ll be fine. But I did think a lot about the pictures. Maybe another reason to keep up the blog; at least these pictures won’t get incinerated.
Didn’t take data, but it’s the same as usual. This time site 23, non premium. #survived
Following the events in California this past week, I had one recurring thought: I really wish we had a flat driveway. Power went out for most of the state at varying times and for varying durations in an attempt to prevent fires started by trees blowing into power lines. Without debating the pros and cons of PG&E’s plan, one thing I was thankful for was Dory. While the need did not arise, because we lost power for less than 24 hours total, it was nice to know we had a place to put a couple months’ worth of our daughter’s insulin and have it not go bad. Dory’s fridge will run just fine in the garage, the only downside being the lack of ability to recharge the battery using the solar panels. I knew we could have powered up the generator if need be, and I suppose we could have parked her in the driveway. She would have just been very tippy. Much more fun would have been the option to move in until power was restored. For that, we needed the weekend, but by then the “breezmergency” (a term coined by an awesome fellow teacher), had passed.
We were pleased to see that camping continues with, or without, power. The Butano State Park ranger in fact told us that the town of Pescadero loses power all the time. So they were generally unfazed and well prepared. Butano is not the place for solar recharging though. This is a deep redwood forest campground. It is mostly populated by tent campers and most of the sites are not too trailer friendly. We’d been in #2 before, but it’s a challenge backing in uphill, avoiding various stumps and trees, all while remaining on the narrow road. I failed the first attempt and ran Bruce’s driver’s side tire into a ditch. It is also not not like you can just pull forward a little and try again. The road in front of site 2 is super steep. So, to come at it again from a better angle, I had to go all the way down the road until I could make an unadvisably tight U-turn. Then, I had to drive all the way back up, past our site, around the campground loop again, and back to the site, hoping my center of the road position would do it. I was prepared to break out the Caravan Mover if necessary, but the second time proved successful.
Thankfully, we had stopped at the little market in Pescadero, 
Saturday began with the usual: a bike ride for Richard and a report for me. There is absolutely no service in the campground, but there is really good wifi down at the Visitor Center. After I’d finished writing, I drove down and used the wifi to pull up some other reports and do some thinking. Richard wasn’t too far away at that point and we met back up at Dory for a change of clothes (for him) before heading back down to Pescadero for lunch.
Saturday afternoon was spent poking around the tide pools at Bean Hollow State Park, Pebble Beach until sunset. We saw all kinds of anemones and little hermit crabs. There were seals sunning on rocks and big birds congregating atop white, bird poop covered, outcroppings. The timing for both sunset and low tide coincided, so we got to wander out quite far, taking care not to break legs on the slippery seaweed.
Dinner Saturday was at a fifth grade teacher favorite: 
We’re repeating campgrounds for sure. But at least we tried a different loop this weekend. So that’s not entirely boring. And it was a weekend of perfect weather, so even it that is boring, it’s in a good way.
We did our usual things: report, bike ride, dinner at the Mexican place. Plus, we walked down to the beach in the afternoon and caught a sunset after dinner. I spotted a seal in the water, but that was about it, besides the humans.
Sunday I got the chance to hand out three of my new calling cards as we were packing up. I stole the idea from other Altoistes, who in turn had stolen the idea from someone else. It is the perfect thing for spontaneous tours because it has all of the online addresses for people to get more information. Upon handing out the third card, the person said, “Do you give a lot of tours?” Laughter all around.
After dumping, we headed down to the day use area for a quick lunch at the beach. We parked behind the cute T@B we’d noticed in the campground. I haven’t a single regret about not getting one, but I still find them to be very cute little trailers.
It doesn’t get much better than this. River side site, electric and water hookups, kayak launching from the site, herons and geese and tons of birds, plus river otters! I will admit there is road noise in this campground, and you can see cars clearly on Highway 128, right across the river. Small price to pay, in my book.
I almost felt too lazy to get my boat in the water in the afternoon, but man, am I glad I fought the sloth and launched! First off, it was a gorgeous day and the river was alive with all kinds of birdsong. And goose honking. And goose butts, which always amuse me. I went downstream this time and made it all the way down to the actual “lake” part of Lake Solano. I never had known what that was, but really it’s just a widening of Putah Creek to the point that there is no current and it looks lakeish.
Once I got away from the campground, cell service came back. I’d been looking pretty carefully along the shoreline to see if I could spot an otter, because this just seemed like the kind of place they would live. As luck would have it, once I’d reached my farthest point from the campground, Richard texted me to say he was looking right at an adorable family of otters directly in front of our camp site. I wanted to tell him to keep them occupied while I paddled as fast as I could back his way. Short of throwing them fish we didn’t have, I wasn’t under the impression there was anything he could do.
By the time I got all the way back, they had moved on, but I wasn’t ready to give up. Otter spotting determination runs strong in my blood. I went upstream, past the campground by just a bit, and there they were, frolicking by the bank! I parked myself against the opposite shore and just stared at them playing in the water for a good long time. Not a single picture came out, but I did get some videos and grabbed still frame shots from them. Even so, none of the footage captures the adorableness of an otter head popping out of the water with a full open mouth fishy chew. 
I could even see their cute little chompy teeth as they yum yummed, then blooped back under water. I think there were four and at least two of them seemed pretty little. Omigosh, what a good day!
We were entertained every time we said it.
Some trips we plan just to test out gear. That was definitely the case with this return trip to Pinnacles NP. Over the summer we discovered just how lame our headlamp gear was when we did lava tubing in Lava Beds NP. That led Richard to extensive headlamp research and the frequent recitation of lumens numbers, even though I did not know what that word meant.
He landed on the 
The other exciting thing that happened was the long awaited airing of our episode on 
But back to Pinnacles. Besides the caving, we saw a condor at a distance and a tarantula up close. That was pretty cool. It is apparently tarantula migration season and they are not an uncommon sight. Pretty sure that was my first wild sighting though. A whole group gathered around to look, including a park ranger with a sense of humor. Just as one person was leaning in really close to get a picture, he casually mentioned, “They can jump up to ten feet.” Then after the person jumped nearly that distance backwards, “Just kidding.”
I earned this one. Whether through stressful situations beyond my control, or catastrophes entirely of my own making, the end of last week sent me searching for a large rock under which I could live for a while. The longer, the better. What perfect timing that we happened to have a premium site reserved at my favorite spot on the planet.
I don’t have much new information to share, just a reconfirmation that the ocean can wash away all sins. I left the site once to get dinner on Saturday. Otherwise, I got to hang out listening to the gentle sound of the surf. Yeah, there was a report mixed in there, but also walks on the beach, sunsets, even a whale spotted off the coast.
Since the closure from last spring, they still have not repaired the damaged culvert on the entrance road, but they allow you to drive around it. They’ve also done quite a bit of work in thinning the vegetation. Site 4, for example, used to have a thickly obstructed view of the ocean, due to all of the bushes. Now there’s less of a barrier to the view, but also less division between it and site 3. All in all, it’s an improvement, but it has somewhat reduced the privacy between several of the sites. Didn’t bother me, but thought I’d mention it.
Places like these make it very easy to be present in the moment. I have a couple more reservations on the books and I started wondering whether I’d gotten too many. Like would I eventually get sick of it? Would I ruin it? As I sat there semi napping, occasionally looking out to see the spray from a large crash of waves, I thought to myself: that is the most ridiculous worry I have ever had.
Lovely weekend in another Premium site. This time it was #25 at Sunset State Beach. This site tends to be booked solid all the time, even when the rest of the campground is empty. Its popularity is a well enough known fact that when we pulled up at the kiosk, the ranger said, “If you have site 25, you probably don’t need a map.” He was correct, we did not.
Richard spent the day riding around, but I did get a chance to get down to Elkhorn Slough around dinner time. It was too late and too windy for boating, but we were still able to enjoy dinner at 
I do not think it is intentional on their part. I’m wondering if, because camping is becoming a generally more popular thing to do, that there are more and more people doing it who never went camping as children.
In any case, it causes us to look at them with a confused expression, which most of them seem to be missing as a social clue. It’s more understandable when our site in on the way to a communal path, but this time it really wasn’t. It was just like part of exploring the campground included walking through sites and practically brushing against other people’s campers. I’m a special ed teacher. Perhaps I should create some visual supports and post them. Who couldn’t benefit from a social story, right?
On our way home we got some fun waves and honks from our super solar powered Altoistes friends. They pull with a Tesla and 
Short of putting in entirely new hardware and/or a new sink, I’m hoping this cheap plastic springy tube will make things a bit more accessible. We got a thingy to put on the aerator a while back that basically turns the water flow into a misty spray. That’s a good thing when you’re conscious of a limited grey water tank capacity. This new hose allows me to put the misty aerator on the end of it. The mister was probably part of a short term online scam because I can’t find it anymore. But we love our scam and got two of them before they disappeared. The hose thingy is really cheap and will probably break. But for now, it does exactly what I wanted it to do. We’ll live with it for a while and see if it’s a good addition.
Expectation vs. Reality. Last time I saw this site at Clear Lake State Park, it was a few years ago and I noted it as being super nice and right by the water. Like kind of my dream site, with a private beachy area where I could leave my boat set up. Since that time, I’ve reserved it twice, only to have the reservation cancelled due to flooding. It’s difficult to snag, so I was super psyched to finally get to partake. And on Labor Day weekend no less!
When we pulled in, around sunset time on Friday, I noticed the park had done a significant amount of work on the grading of the sites by the water. This, no doubt was to address the flooding issues. Great idea, and they’d put in a retaining wall of rocks, creating little beaches down at the water line. What used to be a gentle slope from the paved pad down to the water was now a large flat area, bordered by the rock wall, and a nice big sandy beach down lower. It seemed way too good to be true. And indeed, it was.
Let’s back up. Richard’s project this past week was to replace the “pigtail hose” that connects the propane tank to Dory. He ordered the part, not the one he wanted because that was out of stock, but a supposedly equivalent model. It turned out to be not that big a deal to swap out. Did he test it to make sure propane would actually move through the new hose? No, because you see, that could have been dangerous to have fumes filling up the garage. Did he take the hose he removed in order to have a backup plan just in case the new one didn’t work? Nope. Because…
Really, this was all solved by around 10:30 when he got back with a new pigtail hose and everything then worked just fine. He was able to verify that it was the hose, not the near empty tank, that was the culprit. I’m no expert, but even I can see that the little hole on the new faulty hose is a lot smaller than the one on the original hose, and I could see that causing a problem. All told, it was a relatively easy fix and not that long a time to deal with a glitch. We had two very lucky things going for us: 1) it was pretty hot so there were no thoughts of needing the heater, and 2) we don’t have a propane fridge.
We regrouped and rebounded and he got ready to do a long bike ride in order to shake off the discombobulation. My plan was to take a non cold shower and get my boat out for a paddle. All morning I’d noticed people walking right next to, or even through, our site, and that was not a huge surprise. There is a little boardwalk path leading to a shared beach that I remembered from the last time we were there. Of course people were going to be coming and going along that boardwalk. What I didn’t realize until mid morning was that the little beach right in front of our site was now being used as an additional communal beach rather than a part of the site.
The part of me that understands the importance of sharing recognized it would not be entirely fair for one site to have the only access to such a great launching area. The part of me that remembered the happy campers all spread out on their own personal beach the last time I was here needed to start adjusting her expectations. As it was Labor Day weekend, our site became the most popular location in the park for people to walk through. Nice people, happy people, saying hi and complimenting Dory. Many commented on what a great site we were in, as they were walking through it.
So as I mentally shifted, I got my boat ready and tried out my new set of kayak wheels. My hope is that these will make it easier to set up the boat somewhere in shade and then roll it to wherever I’m launching. In my research, I came across one (in blue) called the “Nemo Extremo,” and that was pretty much a done deal there. I do actually happen to like it, and it’s the only one I saw that comes apart small enough to store inside my kayak bag. So see? Not crazy. Just lucky. I will say this particular application was not the greatest, since now there’s a rock wall with only a narrow footpath down to the beach. I first crashed the wheels into the fire pit grate, before crashing it into the boardwalk fence, and then getting it snagged on the rocks. Product testing complete and guess what! It’s very sturdy.
The water on the lake is not cold at all, but still enough to be a refreshing break from the heat. It hit the low 90s every day and it was awesome to be able to cool off in the water. There were herons and pelicans and egrets all along the shore, so it was a fun paddle. That night it was Blue Apron for dinner and lots of talk about how things could be way way worse.
We had just enough time for another paddle, this time with me towing Richard around in his floatie.
And last: Bruce got his bumper all fixed up at the car wash for a fraction of what we were quoted by the local auto body shops. And Dory got a new tattoo, to replace the promotional “Finding Dory” sticker that fell off somewhere along the road. As we’ve just finished Season 4 of “Better Call Saul,” the phrase that comes to mind is, “s’all good, man.”
This booking was made to serve a dual purpose, but led to a serendipitous and unexpected opportunity. Richard’s uncle was celebrating his 80th birthday this weekend, (Happy Birthday Edwin!) so naturally, the first question we asked upon hearing about the get together was, “Is there camping nearby?” There were a couple of options and we went with this place, having been there a few times already. The only downside was that, by the time I looked up reservations, all the good spots were taken. But since I’m working on not being a campsite Premium-donna, I figured, whatever, it’ll be fine.
I’ll say this about site “A”: it is definitely close to the bathroom. Like, it’s only a slightly farther walk than it is to Dory’s bathroom, from inside Dory. It is also right in the middle of every kind of campground traffic. People, kids mostly, would come so close to Dory as they passed, we could feel little vibrations. It wasn’t awful in the greater scheme of things of course. There was no actual suffering happening here. But it was enough to cause my eye to wander over to the empty site by the river.
It turned out site 63 had a cancellation and we were able to move into it. The woman in the office told Richard something about how now we “own the site.” That sounded like wonderful news, but he had no idea what it meant. I guess it’s common practice for private campgrounds to allow you to reserve the premium site you’re in for the same time next year, before it becomes available to the public. This is a very sweet site, lots of room, right on the river, shade trees, and up against a cabin on one side so there’s a bit more privacy. 
Campsite Premium-donna was pleased on a premium level. To hell with “working on stuff.” Now we could sit in our Nemo chairs and catch the cool breeze coming off the water, while lazily staring down at the river rafters as they drifted by. All the RV sites have electric hookups, so you can throw AC into the blissful mix that we now get to reserve every 4th weekend in August. SWEET.
The little historic town of Coloma is always a fun visit and one of our favorite activities is eating at the Argonaut restaurant. They feature a farm to table menu in the summer, utilizing whatever is fresh and local that day. Since the last time we’d been there, they have built a whole outside dining experience, complete with an outdoor wood burning oven, a full size grilling station, picnic table seating, and a place for live music. 
We went there for dessert on Friday and had a grilled peach with ice cream, candied almonds, topped with an edible marigold and sprinkled with gold dust. Wow. Saturday we had their special roasted corn and cotija cheese pizza. The crust was done to perfection and the fresh cheese was just out of this world. All the taste sensations were perfectly paired with an IPA and musicians doing covers of oldies but goodies. We highly recommend 
It was a hot weekend and nice to dip our feet in the frigid river water. Actually it was just on the far edge of what you’d call refreshing, seeing as it was coming right from snow melt. Our AC at home actually died on Friday, so we kind of just abandoned the offspring. “Ooooh, looks like it’s gonna be hot. Bummer about the AC. Well, bye!” Parents of the year right here.
One last thing to report: following our summer trip, we splurged and put in a new shower curtain. This was purchased on our return trip to the mothership in July of ’18, and we finally felt it was time. I’m telling you, it’s like we have a brand new trailer. #itsthesimplethings
And just like that, we’re back in the home routine. Our summer trip ended the Sunday before my first official teacher work day. I awoke Monday to a 7:30 am call from my principal asking if I cared where the movers put my furniture in my classroom. “Wow, yes. Yes I do. Be there in a few minutes.” I put on my teacher clothes, pulled my green purse out of my blue messenger bag, and got in my green Subaru to drive to work, signaling the color coded return to home life. The transformation was complete that Thursday when all the employees in the district gathered for a welcome back breakfast. Before leaving, I looked down at my feet, and noticed I was still wearing my hiking shoes. I dug around under the driver’s seat in Bruce, where my black, orthotic, minimal tread teacher shoes had been shoved, back at the beginning of June. Camping Levenberg becomes Learning Center Levenberg once again.
Our first weekend out ended up being to the same place where we celebrated our first weekend out, following the maiden voyage four years ago. Not planned, but kinda cool. It was our fourth visit and the first time I’d ever gone boating on the Russian River. It was so calm and wide, it really just seemed like a very long lake. There was no current to fight at all, so I just paddled inland for a while, until I decided to turn around and head back. No wildlife spotted, save some birds and a couple hundred humans frolicking in the river. It was a packed weekend at Casini Ranch.
There’s a lot to love about this place, despite the fact it was very busy. The location cannot be beat, and there are so many fun things to do for kids, it’s entertaining to watch, even if you didn’t bring any of your own. I mean, who can’t appreciate seeing a tractor pulling a train of wagon cars around the campground, full of kids shouting, “Hey!!” It’s called the “Hey Ride” and that’s just darned cute. In addition, there’s always the fun little store where you can get anything from It’s Its to groceries, to river toys and floaties. They’ve really put a lot into upgrading the place, including some super fast wifi, with repeaters placed all through the campground. And of course, there’s karaoke for those who are into that.
Our site was not at all private and we had so many people stop in front of us to speculate about Dory’s roof, it would have been potentially lethal to have made a drinking game out of it. We gave many tours.
That’s a fun place to visit, but you gotta be ready for the vibe. It’s a party place, but in a well behaved, family friendly kind of way. But for hookups right on the Russian River, I don’t know of any place better.
