Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Christmas In Las Vegas

For Christmas we went to Las Vegas to meet Don's brother Ernie. We stayed at Sam's Town RV Park for several days. We then went to Laughlin Nv, Lake Havasau Az, and Quartzite Az.

London Bridge at Lake Havasau Arizona

We spent a night in Palm Springs California and then New Years Eve at Perris California where we enjoyed the National RV Factory tour. Nice free camping in the lot with hookups. We drove through Pasadena in the afternoon on our way home. We stopped in Buelton California at the Avenue of the Flags RV Park. Excellent park. We visited Solvang and then headed toward home stopping in King City at San Lorenzo County Park for the night on the way.

Sunday, October 12, 2003

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

We went to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in October. The weather reports forecast a lot of rain. Fortunately, we went anyway and had four beautiful days and some rain at night. The threat of rain kept most people home and the park was almost empty. Our cat, Mr. Milo, really likes camping.

Our Capsite by the river.


Pfeiffer Beach was beautiful at sunset.

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Oregon, Along the Coast

We then went on a two week trip up the coast into Oregon. We stayed a couple of days at most camps. We stayed at Prairie Creek on a meadow site. Size wasn't a problem on the meadow, too bad they can't reserve a site there.

Our campsite on the Parrie at Parrie Creek

We then went to the Honey Bear RV Park near Gold Beach Oregon. We'll definitely return here. They have a deli where they make their own German sausages and serve a great dinner with a show at their lodge. We really enjoyed it.

Honey Bear Campsite

We stopped at several places along the coast making our way up to Tillamook and toured the cheese factory, we love cheese factories. The air museum was very good as well. We then went to Portland. Our daughter, Dawn, loves to visit Powell's Bookstore. We stayed at Jentzen RV park on an island north of Portland.

Williamette Trolly, Portland

We then went to Silver Falls State Park East of Salem. This park is a favorite as well. I like waterfalls. There are twelve water falls which can all be seen on an eight mile loop trail hike. Many can be driven to as well. The pictures don't do the falls justice.

One of the Silver Falls


Anoither Fall at Silver Falls

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Saturday, July 12, 2003

Driver Training, Santa Rosa

We went to Santa Rosa for a weekend and we both took a two day driver training course. We stayed at the KOA in Petaluma and were quite impressed with the park. Our instructor Rick Andrews (shown below with Lou), of RV Driving SCHOOL, LLC. provided great tips and pointers to make handling the RV simpler. The driving course really gave Lou the confidence to drive and park the RV.

Monday, June 30, 2003

The First Trip With The Toad, Mill Creek State Park

Our first trip with the combination was to Mill Creek Campground just south of Crescent City, California. This is near our favorite park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, part of the new Redwood National and State Parks. We couldn't reserve a site at Prairie Creek due to the length of our RV, only 29 feet. They have a 24 foot limit. We really like this area. Great trails. I'll upload some more pictures soon.


Mill Creek Camground

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Redwood Country, Benbow RV Resort

Our second trip was to a full featured RV Park, Benbow Resort, about 150 miles north of San Francisco. The area around this resort is great with the Ell River and the redwoods. We had a great site.

Friday, May 30, 2003

The First Trip, Went to The Pinnacles

Our first trip was to the Pinnacles National Monument south of Hollister, California. We stayed at the Pinnacles East Campground which is a private park just outside the monument. Our site had electric only and it being summer, that came in handy for the air conditioner. The flowers along the trails are beautiful at most times but especially on this visit in June.

The Beginning

Welcome to our site. We're Don Wood and Lou Manners.

Our first RV was a 1968 VW camper made by Concord. This camper was unusual because it had sliding doors on both the left and right. I bought it used in 1973 and put about 250,000 miles on it. The highlight trip was in 1979 when we took a six week trip around the states. We took our two dogs and went north from San Jose, California to Vancouver, Canada; East to Montana; Wyoming; Colorado; South Dakota; Chicago; Rochester, NY and Niagara Falls; Boston; New York; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Washington DC; Mammoth Caves; Nashville; Miami; Key West, Kansas; and Las Vegas. We left Key West Florida with two days left of our vacation and with short stops in Kansas and Las Vegas we made it back on time, 24 hour team driving. This trip may sound a bit rushed, but it was actually relaxed.

We tent camped from about 1987 until this year (2003). This was fun but airing up mattresses and pitching tents isn't as much fun when you're only spending one night or when it rains.

We recently acquired (May 2003) a slightly used 29 foot, 1999 National Sea Breeze Class A RV. We had been attending RV shows and studying RV's for a little over a year before taking the plunge. We consider this our trainer and hope to use it for a few years then move to a larger model and possibly go full-time.


We wanted to be able to get around without breaking camp so we equipped our car for towing. We have a 1992 Volvo 240 wagon that we equipped with a Remco drive line disconnect, a Roadmaster Sterling towbar, and a US Gear Unified Brake System. The cost of the modifications probably equaled the value of the vehicle but we like the car.

Don retired June 2004, Lou in June 2005. We plan on traveling as much as possible possibly going full-time sometime in the future. We're looking for a nice place to re-settle. We'll be keeping the house until we're sure it's for us. Don has lots of chores to fix up the house and arrange for storage for when we leave.