Saturday, April 30, 2011

April Update - What have been up to the past month?

Something new to add to our adventures!

Here is a sign that you just don’t see very often at RV Parks!

I will try to bring you up to date on where we have been and what we have been up to.

I continued the 52 week Raider picture project for a couple of weeks beyond our last posting. However, since all of the Raider pictures were just pictures of him laying down and resting. I stopped taking them. Rest assured Raider is fine.

After our 20,000 plus mile trip to tour the East Coast last year our only real plan for this year has been to cover a lot less miles. Toward that end we have been thinking about revisiting the Oregon and Washington Coastal areas. Always on the lookout to visit new areas.  We had been thinking about going due north out of Pahrump to Southern Idaho and then due west across Oregon. This would give us some whole new areas to explore. However, as most of you know the snow this winter just hasn’t seem to end in those areas. We extended our stay in Pahrump for 2 weeks hoping that the conditions would improve north of us but no luck. Also the weather in Pahrump suddenly turned hot into the 90s and then was followed by days of high wind. So, we opted for a plan B. We would head back to California and then north up the coast avoiding any chance of snow. This would also give us a chance to stop by and visit Kathy’s folks in Mariposa, California.

This still left us with what to do this summer. Although, we change plans on a whim it is nice to at least have some idea of what we think we are going to do. If for no other reason than it gives us a direction to point the truck. We hit upon the idea of trying our hand at  volunteering. We had said even before we started on the road that we wanted to do some volunteering once we where full-timers. Over the years we have chatted with volunteers at various state and national parks about what there jobs are like.

Most volunteer positions fill up months in advance and we have trouble making plans even weeks in advance, but we thought we would at least ask. Our first choice was to be Lighthouse Host at the Umpqua River Lighthouse near Winchester Bay, Oregon. Our friends Bob & Linda (Because We Can and Because We Can II) were Lighthouse Hosts at Umpqua River Lighthouse in September and October of 2006 and 2007 as well as September of 2008. We had visited Umpqua River Lighthouse during our visit to the Oregon Coast in June of 2009 Mill Casino, Umpqua Lighthouse – MOC Rally Continues. We called Umpqua Lighthouse at exactly the right time as they had just had some volunteers cancel and they needed someone to fill in for 2 1/2 weeks in June. We thought that would be perfect for us as we could get our “feet wet” to volunteering with a short assignment.

So we had June taken care of but what to do until then? Well it seemed that if being Lighthouse Host for June was such a good idea then being Lighthouse Host for May must be a good idea as well. Looking through the host positions available at Oregon State Parks in June there was an opening for Relief Lighthouse Host at Coquille River Lighthouse near Bandon, Oregon. Since Bandon and Winchester Bay are only about 50 miles apart we also applied to be the May Relief Lighthouse Host at Coquille River Lighthouse. So, what was to be our first volunteer position will be our second volunteer position. Here is the URL from our 2009 visit to the Coquille River Lighthouse.

With our plans set that we had to be in Oregon on May 1st, we took advantage of a lull in the wind and headed back to California. We stopped for a one week to visit with Kathy parents and then headed up the California Central Valley before make a left turn for the coast. Over all we had nice weather with only minimal rain and occasional wind. Over the years we have been up and down California’s US 101 many times, but always in the summer. During the summer there is a lot of traffic of RVs, cars and trucks. This time of year the road seemed almost deserted.

We arrived in Crescent City, California on a very clear day with great views. However, once we stepped out of the truck we found out that is was only 50 degrees and there was a very strong cold wind.

More on our visit to Crescent City in our next blog posting.

 

 

7 comments:

  1. Thank you Judy for answering my many questions about life as a volunteer. - Grant

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  2. Good job Mr. Grant...I was worried I was going to have to issue multiple demerits today.

    Give Raider a peck on the check from me.
    Hugs Madi

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  3. I.M. thinkin' y'all could of had at least one cone dog picture. I.M. havin' withdraw all's.

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  4. Sounds like fun to me! Do you get free patrking for that? Hi and Hugs to Raider!

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  5. Hope you like volunteering as much as we do. We're back at Arches Nat'l Park for May and June. We took over from Robbie & Alice--they just left this morning. Have fun and hope to see you "on the road".

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  6. Anything north of the Mason-Dixon Line is toooo cold for me! Volunteering sounds like fun, you get to meet so many people! Have fun!

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