Yuck, back in California!

OK, it’s been a while. We made it back to northern California for the holidays. Everything caved in on us all at once it seemed like. Divorce in the family (no, not my lovely bride and I), Jeanne’s mother had a massive heart attack on top of ongoing health issues, and our “money pit” of a dog, Madison the Cocker Spaniel, had continuing health issues and numerous runs to the Veterinarian, stacking up those great Vet bills. I am no devout religious person, but Someone up there is definitely sending us a message.

The Gladiator checking out XMAS houses in Rohnert Park.

Gladiator, or Cowboy?

Whilst back in the old home territory, we crammed in a lot of routine “stuff” since we had access to all of our old providers. We got dog groomed at the old groomers, treated at the old Vet’s office, both of our teeth work taken care of at the old dentist office, both of our eyes taken care of at the old Optometrist office. I also had to make time to get another epidural steroid injection for a disc in my neck. And we had some minor repairs that needed to be done to the 5th wheel trailer, so we went back to Reed’s Trailers in Petaluma. Don and the boys in service are very accomodating and helpful, prompt on the work, and will not try to fang you with work that is unnecessary. I highly recommend Reed’s to any RVers in the area who may need work done on their rig. 

Sadly, with all the drama, we could not get in much visitation time with old friends, and if you are one of them we are truly and deeply sorry. The bulk of our time here in Sonoma County we stayed at the Petaluma KOA so that our 2 year old grandson Max could have fun with the petting zoo and on the playground. We had fun even though it is waaaayyyyy overpriced at this park. And since we paid their month-to-month rates, they put us in their preferred section for month-to-monthers. Unfortunately, that was in a thick stand of redwood trees. In the winter time. Not good. My white rubber roof got covered with redwood “blood” stains which took me 3 days to clean the best I could. We cut our stay here short and relocated to the RV park at the Sonoma County fairgrounds. You might say we were crazy doing that if you are familiar with the area. We drove by to look at it again and decided to chance a night or two. The grounds were gravel, full hook-ups, with sites fairly level. I was pleasantly surprised to see the camp hosts active in the park (it basically looks like a large gravel parking lot), and out of 3 weeks staying there we heard sirens 1 night only. For you who are not familiar with the area, this RV lot is smack dab in the middle of our little “war zone” we call South Park. Historically lots of gang and drug activity. But I would go as far to suggest this RV park to anyone for a short term stay. They accept members of Good Sam, Escapees, Happy Camper, and Passport America, and offer different discounts depending on which affiliation you claim. They do have a 14 day limit on stays, but as in my case they accept requests for extensions if you have a good reason. While here we also got the opportunity to order new Lazyboy chairs and a small couch for the trailer. We got leather recliners and small leather couch with both ends able to recline like the chairs. We got to reduce some of the trailer weight with the swap out and the new furniture is very nice. We’ll see how the leather holds when we get back to the humidity…

Our 2 new "Wall Away" recliners, very comfy!

And our new couch with both ends being "Wall Away" recliners.

End of January we picked up and headed north to Redding for a month or three. Jeanne’s got family there and her mother lives there. We took the opportunity to tend to her mother and since her mother wanted to sell her house, we helped out with that too. The weather was great for the first couple of weeks, but the badly needed rain came after that and we got soaked yet again. 

Feeding the ducks at Turtle Bay in Redding.

Well, we are still here in Redding for the time being. I am chomping at the bit to get the heck out of California {AGAIN(!)}. Sorry about the scant few pictures this time around, hopefully I’ll have more next writing (it might be a while, again).