Wine tasting

Of the many rewards being clean and sober one of the greatest is driving other people while they drink. We stayed in Gold Country and went to the Eldorado wine places. We just buddied up with Dean at his full hookup place as an extra car.

Most Wineries are very pretty like this first one, Gold something

However they bought the most at a place that was like a tiny strip mall with a number of wineries represented

For the first time we camped with just the kind of people we normally try to stay as far away from as possible. Is was kind of fun.

Of course I could see good clouds over the Sierras. It is always a good bet that when I decide not to fly it will be good.

The only thing the camper did was not give us the expected battery life. However all my normal test show the battery as good.

Oregon Beach

The first trip of the year. I thought when I put it all away it was ready to go. It was prepared, but I was filled with anxiety.

First stop was Crater Lake. Being winter there was little traffic. We had the camper parking all to ourselves.

We really could not go anywhere. However the view is worthy of at least one good picture.

Francesca got a better one to merge.

The destination was Cape Lookout Beach. Anytime of the year is usually bad weather at any Oregon Beach. However the weather was perfect and no one like it better than the dog.

Took a sightseeing trip to Cape Mears Lighthouse. We were told the wales could be seen there, but someone forgot to tell the wales what time to perform.

Then off to Tillamook Air Museum in the WWII Blimp hanger.

It doesn't look so big from far away. However it is enormous.

Cool display of old radio equipment.

  

Here is my next camper conversion:

One plane I had never seen was the Japanese Oskar.

And more boring pictures of planes:

 https://picasaweb.google.com/112495916934888574485/201403Oregon?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKav7cjYnZfiMQ&feat=directlink

Really enjoyed a burger in cafe. In the rafters is a Rutan Quickie with model airplanes. I had to explain that it was real airplane, not a model.

Super nice campground right on the beach.

Saw some real 4X4 sportsmobile contenders. The Dodge has Sterling written in the grill.

However just being on the beach was great. A little wind in the afternoon, but not enough for the paragliders to stay up for long.

Front Bumper Box

As if I didn't have enough things hanging off the front of the van.

Still trying to justify why I did this. Storage is always good, but there are a few things that belong outside like the little portable propane bottles and dirty laundry. Another reason is because I can. What I mean is with the exit angle so poor at the rear and the entry angle good at the front there is some intensive to equalize them.

This is a box for the side of a pick up. It was only a couple of hundred bucks. The attachment comes up to almost half that. It took a couple of Swagman receivers and vice holders from Harbor Freight. To get the bike rack forward I bought an extension. The box is 70 by 12 by 12. It does not obstruct the radiator but it probably does screw up the air flow into it.

It is on there but there is much more to do. Inside I need to make some dividers for what ever ends up there. Outside I need little poles on the corners so I know where the corners are from the front seat.

Naked in Lassen National Park!

Well, not me, but the van is naked. In all my other posts the dirt bike, mountain bike, and kayaks are hanging all over the thing. So why go naked? First off, National Parks don't even let mountain bikes go free, let alone the dirt bike. The weather was too cold for kayaking.

So here is how I did the TV.

The 1996 Sportmobile has a cabinet for a 13 inch tube TV. I put in a 19 inch 12 volt Naxa on the front of the old cabinet. The Naxa seems to have the least power consumption. It has a DVD as well as a port for USB and SD card. The latter two can store days worth of video. And yet you can see an iPad draped over the thing. Well the iPad is the ultimate low power way to watch video and useless for anything else.

I didn't just mount to the front of the cabinet, but used a swinging angling mount on a post I put in. This makes the TV a big door to the cabinet where I pile up cords, inverter, chargers and all the other electrical junk of everyday life. It is really important to get the angle of the TV right for viewing because the Naxa does not have the widest viewing angles. It is really bad up and down.

However I am just kidding about watching TV. Sure the weather kept us inside a bunch, but National Parks are very cool. Maybe I am not a Granola Head, but I do like Granola. I just don't force others to eat it.

I mentioned the infrastructure of Mammoth in the last post. National Parks are super developed as well. Lassen is going through some major improvements. As soon as you cross into the park the pavement becomes perfect with brand new painted lines. As tempting as it is to race around this winding race track or go all super moto on the motorcycle, fair warning, we saw three park rangers in 11 miles checking our speed.

The first thing we did when coming in from the south was the visitors center. Watch a movie about the park, eat in a restaurant, what is not to like?

A little further is Sulphur Works. Parking lot, wheel chair accessible natural wonder. Too easy.

The one thing not to miss is walking a mile and a half to Bumpass Hell. Even the parking lot is cool.

After you get there there is a walkway over the dangerous area.

This first part is the original walkway but they are replacing it with Trex and the hangers are in for the rest of the handrails.

A few hundred yards up the road is the parking lot for hiking to the summit of Lassen Peak. Most of the hiking path was closed for construction so we did not venture up. You can see the parking lot is empty. I think they are installing an escalator so I will be back.

Stayed at Summit Lake Campground. It was nice and quiet. Water was already turned off so it was half price. I don't need no stinkin' water anyways. Here is the obligatory campground shot.

The first picture of this post was taken at the Devastated Area. This short stroll takes one from information sign to another sign. As you approach the signs the motion detector picks you up and the recorded message starts. I kept thinking there would be a test when we got back to the van.

Next was Manzanita Campground. We were really here on business. Francesca has a job supervising student teachers and one was teaching at this campground. She was put off because Manzanita campground is so big. It has a store and gas station. Big deal, it is September and the campground is a ghost town. Seemed fine to me. Nice little lake. Good hamburger.

Manzanita Lake is the north entrance to the Park. There is a museum and outside in it's own little hut is the old seismograph which is really interesting.

The deer in the Park crack me up.They just pose for the picture. A few hundred yards away hunting season is starting up. It is like they have a map of the Park.

Generally we were able to wonder as if we were the only ones in the world.

However I got burned at the Subway Cave. The parking lot was full and there were a ton of kids waiting to get in. I should have known, the school classes are why we were in Lassen, but this was the only place we ran head long into them.

I was going to Oregon spring of 2014 and did stop at the cave. This time there was nobody there. That is  my lonely Ru in the parking lot.

And some shots of the cave.

Drive home was pretty.