December 26, Friday - Holiday Season (California)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were a delight with Will’s family and our family plus two dogs melding together wonderfully. Both families practice low impact gift giving with focus on the people and not the material exchange.
For breaks we wandered through the redwoods looking for the mushrooms (a big pastime in Sea Ranch) where locations of prime mushroom picking are closely guarded secrets. Or going to the beach to take sun shots for my celestial navigation class. I was overjoyed when Caitlin and Will’s mom, Sharon, joined me. Both are top-drawer sailors so they joined in taking turns with the sextant.
Or taking rides in Tom’s (Will’s dad) three-sitter airplane along the coast. Life is good.
(The word from La Conner was that 16 inches of snow was now on the ground) Life is very good.

December 23, Tuesday - The Best There Is.

We waited until the Sacramento rush hour was over then headed to the coast via I-80 and then Route 37 across the northern tip of San Francisco Bay then north on Highway 101. At Petaluma Hannah took the wheel for the head tripping drive out to Highway 1 then north on the famous coastal highway to Sea Ranch. The drive from 101 to the community is about an hour and a half of constant awareness of curves and clearances. The road cuts drop straight to the fog line on the road and taking out the passenger side mirror was a real concern. Fortunately the traffic on the road was light so the helmsman could work the road and not the other vehicles, too. This section of the Coastal Highway is spectacular driving with unbeatable views. I was in the back letting Hannah work the road without input from me. Nice experience for her.
Good old Hannah got us to our destination without a hitch. It was another six hour shift from Sacramento to Sea Ranch.
We were no sooner settled in when Sea Ranch Security came knocking on our host’s door inquiring about “the RV in the driveway.” Sea Ranch has several components: some of the houses are along the main highway and the open areas down to the cliffs above the sea, but there is a larger group of homes up in the heavily wooded redwood forest and this is where Will’s parents live. Totally isolated from the busy flow found elsewhere. AND like Woodlands in Tamarac, Florida they have an ordinance of no RV’s at people’s homes because it is a visual distraction for the people living in the area. Damn if people are visiting a resident like a family member or a long time friend. But Security was cool and said it was okay for Snee-Oosh to stay tucked back in the woods as long as someone doesn’t complain.

December 22, Monday - Hang Time (California)

The day was clear and cool and Inger said that it was an unusual day due to the almost continuous rain that the area had had. We quickly put on walking clothes and explored the levee system that “protects” the Pocket District (a river meander) of Sacramento. From there we headed for the Broadway District for a movie at the Tower Theater. The theater itself is a showpiece of the 30’s but the film “Slumdog Millionaire” far out shined the building. Superb flick.

December 21, Sunday - Up and Over (Oregon)

The urge to go over the last major barrier got us on the interstate early. We were delighted to see a light falling rain instead of snow. When we gassed up, a northbound driver said that the summit was okay. And it was. The outside lane was bare and wet while the inside lane for five miles was compact snow. We collectively sighed a sigh of relief when we cleared the 3,500 summit and started the long descent into the Sacramento Valley.
I’m always surprised at when you think you’re done, other little challenges appear like other lower summits but still making you pay sharp attention. The stretch from Yreka to Redding had high wind warnings that proved to be very true. It was like dancing on a string. The RV is very reactive to winds but handles well to the response of the driver. I was constantly watching roadside vegetation as to what the wind was doing to it as an indicator of the wind speed and direction.
Hannah pulled the big rig on to Inger’s street and shut it down after six and a half hours on the road. We were over the bad part of the trip and had a planned weather buffer day that we didn’t have to use and since we were not to arrive at Sea Ranch until Tuesday, we decided to do a layover day in Sacramento.

Sea Ranch Romp - New Mini Trip

December 21, Saturday – Yes, no, yes, no….. (California)
When I left my Circle Tour in November, I knew that within six weeks that Snee-Oosh, the recreational vehicle, was going to cast off the homeport mooring lines and head south to the coast of California. For years we have celebrated the holidays in the comfort of La Conner but this year the La Conner family had been invited to the parents of Caitlin’s fiancée in Sea Ranch on the coastal highway.
Caitlin and Will in Portland were going to drive down in their own car while Hannah, Joan and I were in the RV for the trip in the 29 foot Winnebago Outlook.

The schedule was to leave the Skagit Valley on Saturday, the 20th and even though it had snowed four inches seven days before we were to depart, I wasn’t worried because in the valley snow comes but doesn’t stay. Wednesday it snowed again and the forecast called for more snow on Sunday. I kept checking the highway cameras from Everett to Redding several times a day. I talked daily with Joan and Hannah about the trip. Weather was becoming a major concern. Questions started being asked about the trip: go; don’t go. Yes, no.
Hannah called saying that Joan had cancelled her appointment on Friday and within two hours our small group decided to leave a day early. This decision brought a major shift in activity. Because the temperature lows were in the teens and the highs in the mid-twenties, I had waited until the last minute to put water into the system which had been drained down for the winter.
On Friday morning Hannah showed up to help with the trip preparations. We put into service the indispensable radios. While I controlled the hose faucet, she monitored the filling process. I was edgy about putting in 44 gallons of water on board and then not going on the trip or finding a pipe leak. But all went well after thawing a frozen water filter with a heat gun.
From there we split up: Hannah chained up the outside duals while I disconnected and stowed the shore power. The chore was to safely descend the hard packed snow road to the bottom of the hill and getting out of my settlement to La Conner across the Rainbow Bridge.
I parked on the flat in town while Hannah drove up the La Conner hill to Joan’s to get luggage and food. Then we quickly headed as fast as chains would allow out of town in the full sunlight toward Interstate 5.
The interstate appeared twelve miles later where we stopped, removed the chains and joined the masses of vehicles heading south on the interstate. I-5 was a total surprise: bare and dry. We were delighted with the highway conditions and the traffic speed. Portland here we come.
The conditions changed within four miles to compact snow and ice between the lanes. Cars and trucks were flying into the ditches. I was glad that I had the added weight of a full water tank. The rig itself weighed in a 22,000 pounds. Together the RV handled extremely well. Thank god that the highway conditions improve after 45 minutes of freeway driving. I kept chanting, “No one panic; everyone stay focus and we’ll all get through it.”
We went from snowy freeways to packed traffic through Seattle area. Finally, finally we were up to highway speeds near Sea-Tac airport.
Hannah took the second shift and drove us down to the City of Roses. Thirty minutes from Portland a blizzard socked everything in. We gladly stopped for the night in front of Caitlin’s home.


Again the weather edge set in. When we awoke Saturday morning there was two inches of snow on the street and the rig. Saturday was supposed to be another good day. Why the snow?? As I pulled out of the residential district onto the many bridges of Portland trouble was evident everywhere that the conditions for being out on the roads were a mess. We crawled southbound. Northbound was shut down with an icy bridge as the cork. Traffic was backed up for miles. It was stressed out driving for an hour and a half then bare and wet pavement. After that, it was open road to Ashland but the Siskiyou Summit still hid in the wings for tomorrow. Saturday night found us parked it in the front of a friend’s house for the night. Snow was on the ground but the rain was coming down.