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RV Thanksgiving, 2006
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| November 22-26, 2006: Our Thanksgiving trip began with packing our fifth wheel trailer with furniture to carry to my daughter Mindy. We left late Tuesday afternoon to beat a pending winter storm over the mountains into California. We encountered only a small amount of rain, no snow. It took us only four and a quarter hours to arrive in Corning California by traveling south on Interstate 5. We wanted to spend the night at the Rolling Hills Casino in their free parking lot. The parking was pleasant and felt safe but was so well lighted, it seemed like daylight inside the coach. |
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The buffet made up for the lighted parking. It was a very nice buffet with quality for food for only $13.98 with a $1 discount for folks over 50. As it turned out, Tuesday |
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| and Thursday nights are half price nights, so both Gwen and I ate for only $13.98. Mmmm .. good food. I'll admit it was difficult to sleep when so full of good food and drink (and desserts) and lights, but we liked it so much, we had breakfast for $7.98 each less $1 senior discount. Still good food. |
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The next stop was a Pilot Travel Center near Dunnigan, California where we paid only $2.59/gallon of Diesel. Then on to son Joe's house in Roseville where we dropped off all the furniture, pictures and boxes of "historical" family papers and photos. |
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| During our California visit we got to see my Sister Dorana in Elk Grove, California. Dorana has Morgan's sister, Amika. The sisters played in the backyard and in the house with Amika's many new birthday toys. |
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Joe has just purchased a business for himself. Zumbali is a California style hair salon and spa with over 3,000 square feet in the up-scale neighborhood of Granite Bay, California near Sacramento. He says a man's haircut starts at $28 and a woman's haircut starts at $90. That seems like a lot to me but I've never had the kind of money to spend that the folks in Granite Bay have. According to Joe, they are not selling hair styling but comfort, atmosphere and a life style personal service. |
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| For three nights we stayed at Flag City RV Resort outside Lodi, California. Note the clear blue sky, it was like this for the three days we visited. It is only a year old with many sites, concrete pads, TV, phones and probably had free Internet. Their Internet connection was not high speed and was a "funky" hook-up through the telephone line. This park has a 15% discount for members of Escapees but was still the most expensive park we've stayed in. |
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Saturday was the last day I was with my parents and two sisters above. Late in the afternoon, we drove back to the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, 2 hours and forty minutes from Lodi.
Sunday was a stormy day and got worse as we drove north toward Oregon. Near Dunsmuir, the snow and rain mix became heavy. About ten minutes after this photo, |
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| a Toyota Rav4 passed us then spun out about 100 feet in front of us spinning across all the lanes and finally ending up in our lane facing us. I couldn't avoid hitting it head on but it was probably only a 10 MPH collision since I was braking the whole time. Still, my bumper, left headlight and trim must be replaced, I'd guess $2,000-$3,000 damage. The Toyota was not drivable. I felt badly for the Toyota driver, this accident will affect the next couple of months of his life. No one was injured. It could have been much worse for us. |
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| We stopped in Yreka, California because the report was that chains were required over the Siskiyou Mountains into Oregon. Also, the left front tire was rubbing the fender slightly on a right turn. We purchased a tow strap at WalMart, connected the strap to a concrete base of a WalMark light pole and to the bent fender then backed up enough to pull the fender back into position. I made the decision to drive-on thinking it was warming and the chain controls would be lifted. I have chains for both the trailer and truck but I'm not anxious to try driving in snow while towing. As I had predicted, the chain controls were lifted about ten minutes before we reached the back of the line of cars waiting to drive over the summit. The backup was about 5 miles long so it could have been worse. We still arrived in Medford in time for soup and salad. Much of the setup at our park was in the dark however. |
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