Day 11 - A study in Duct Tape

This day was pretty boring--a late start and lots of driving from central Oregon to Boise, Idaho. Since we had requests for "inside" pictures of the RV, we decided to focus on a theme--duct tape. Joe once heard that all you really need to fix anything is duct tape and WD-40. We haven't used any WD-40 yet, but the duct tape--now that's a different story. See pictures below. (Note, for those cringing at the duct taping of the beautiful aluminum Virgin Boomtube, we have Goo Gone at home to get off all that sticky stuff).

Sliding door latch continued to slip--until a little duct tape did the trick

Dan's shoe needed some adjustment--duct tape solved the problem

Multimedia Center (including Virgin Boomtube EX)--secured with layers of duct tape

Bottom of Long Matches Box--duct taped shut

XM Radio--solidly duct taped to the tray table

Day 10

The Crown Villa "Resort", the RV park we stayed yesterday night, was phenomenal! It was by far the best place we stayed at so far, and probably the best RV park we ever will stay at. First, there was a man driving a golf cart who escorted you to your spot and helped you back into it. "I like it better when my husband backs me in because I can yell at him, but I can't yell at you!" Mary teased the escort. The park was so fancy, they had a "Clubhouse Reception," massages, hotel style bathrooms, high-pressure showers, cable TV, and high-speed wireless internet. When we woke up in our dreamy RV park, we headed out to explore Bend and landed in Old Mill Shopping Center. There we found the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, makers of the "frozen cheescake", which is even better than it sounds because it is dipped in warm chocolate and put on a stick. Next, we drove to the Clyde Holiday RV Park, in Central Oregon. There we spent our night eating Joe's vegetable rice stir fry and watching Meet the Fockers. We soon learned this movie was definetely NOT for children under the age of 13 (it was rated PG-13).

Entry to Crown Villa "Resort"--Notice the "Reception Club House" sign

Day 9

The highlight today was Crater Lake. Oh my! This is an incredible sight. As Mary pointed out, it's like the Grand Canyon--you have to see it to understand it. These pictures don't do it justice. Note, there is no color retouching on that blue water. That's pretty much what it looks like!

Panorama of Crater Lake

Dad and Kids in Front of Crater Lake

Unbelievably Blue Crater Lake

Mom and Kids on the way down to Crater Lake Shore

On the way down to Crater Lake Shore

Day 8

We just completed our first week on the road, and we crossed our first border today. The Sipher Family and their RV are officially in Oregon!

Early in the morning, the boys did another round of fishing. Because of their lack of bait, they used pretty yellow flowers. As you probably already figured out, they caught nothing. Later that morning, we had brunch at the Fish Hook Bar & Restaurant. Then, we were on the road again. Our final destination was Crater Lake, our second national park. According to Joe, we had our best diner tonight: chicken fajitas cooked over the open grill with home made guacamole, sautéed onions and peppers and margaritas for the adults. After dinner, the whole family played a rousing round of Monopoly inside as it was cold and rainy at Crater Lake. The game was quite interesting. At one point, Joe was a “poor-man” and had only $5 of cash on hand. Later on, he had around ten $500s. Before that, Dan was “mister-rich” who had a total of $3,500. He went out, though, when Joe made him pay $1,500 after landing on Park Place (the second best property). Joe ended up winning --his final cash holdings were too high to count--not really we were just too lazy and had to go to bed. Good night!

Campground Jousting at Crater Lake

Day 7

Today included an adventure for four of us (Joe, Ali, Dan, and Josh). Mary decided she didn’t want to take a hike and then have to drive. We hiked up to Cinder Cone. The hike was described as “moderate,” but Ali thought it was more like “strenuous.” The first 1.2 miles were mostly flat ground. That portion was only to get to the base of the volcano. Once we began our volcanic climb, things got a lot harder. Cinder Cone is made of volcanic sand so every step up you slide a half a step back. Ali was lagging behind, and the boys were ahead. Joe stayed back with Ali to make sure she made it up. After about 45 minutes of uphill climbing, we had reached the top. The top rim had gorgeous views of the Fantastic Lava Beds (yeah that’s the name), Painted Dunes, and Lassen Mountain. Then we hiked right down into the center of the cone which descended a good 100 feet below the rim and had lunch down there. According to the kids, the best part was running down the huge sandy mountain at the end. There were millions of rocks in our shoes when we reached the bottom. Then it was on the road again where we ended the day Hornbrook, California, right on the edge of California and Oregon. In Hornbrook, we stayed at the Blue Heron RV Park in one of the spots that had fishing.

THE HISTORY OF CINDER CONE

Cinder Cone exploded in the 1600s, causing many changes in the land. The explosions could have happened over couple of months to a few years. Before the series of explosions, there used to be one gigantic lake next to Cinder Cone. All the lava spewing out of the volcano soon cooled and formed the Fantastic Lava Beds. The Fantastic Lava Beds landed on the humungous lake and split it into two. The lava beds stretch for miles! There were also some colorful rocks that were expelled during the eruptions. Over time the forces of erosion created beautiful dunes out of the colorful rocks called the Painted Dunes (the actually look like someone painted them).

Ali on the Rim with Lassen in the Background--Notice the Pony Tail

Hiking Around the Cone

On the way up to Cinder Cone

Trail Up Cinder Cone

Day 6

We got to explore some of the unique features of Lassen today. During the first adventure of the day, we took an easy hike around Manzanita Lake. It took about 2 hours. Because the trail was literally next to the lake, we saw everything going on in the lake. There must have been many bass in the lake because there were quite a few bass fisherman. Later in the day, we went to Sulfur Works. There were multiple holes in the ground that shot up the fragrant smell of sulfur. Most people had their noses plugged, especially the kids. When we escaped from the stench of sulfur, we ate dinner. Joe tried to boil spaghetti water over an open fire. It just didn’t work right. So he took it to the RVs gas stove and it still wasn’t boiling. Finally, we realized that because of the higher altitude it took longer to boil water. Following dinner, Joe told the boys a few bear stories around the fire, all of us had been a little afraid about the whole “bears” thing and this didn’t help much.

Concentrating on Ice Cream

Dad and kids at Sulpher Works in Lassen

Dan and Josh in the snow at Lassen

Mt. Lassen Over Manzanita Lake

Day 5

On this very day, Josh almost suffered near death by beetle. All we saw was Josh flailing his arms about and screaming his lungs out. Then, Joe flicked the creature off his shirt, and everything was calm.

Before Josh nearly died, we drove to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Joe had scheduled for us to leave early and arrive at 11:00 AM (he should have known better) but we didn’t park the RV until 4:30ish. As you probably have figured out by now, there was a reason we were so late, another technical difficulty with the RV. Two words: flat tire. First, we called the “RV Help Hotline” who sent out a service man to put on the spare tire. Next, the RV Help Hotline lady instructed us to repair the spare. After scouring Redding, California, we came upon a Walmart with a tire center. While it only cost $6.50 to fix, the real cost was two hours of our precious time that could not be spent in Lassen.

A LESSON ON LASSEN:

After a safe arrival at Lassen and a quick eclectic dinner of hotdogs and omelets, we went to a talk on the geology of Lassen Volcanic National Park. We learned there are four types of volcanoes, all of which can be found in Lassen:

• PLUG DOME: made from very viscous magma that gets pushed up and forms a “plug” at the top. Mount Lassen is the largest known plug dome on earth.
• SHEILD: flowing lava like you see in Hawaii—none of us can remember the example in Lassen
• CINDER CONE: A perfectly formed volcanic cone that appears over a relatively short period of time. The Lassen example is called Cinder Cone (creative name, huh). See lots of pictures from Day 7.
• COMPOSISTE: Combines all different kinds of volcanic eruptions over 1000s of years. Mount Shasta and Rainer are examples though we can’t remember the Lassen example of this one either.

Joshie and Mt. Lassen on Manzanita Lake

Day 4

During our last day at Clear Lake, the boys spent their morning fishing with their new friend, Jordan. Dan, unlike yesterday, was much more successful, and caught more fish than Josh. Dan and Josh were so into fishing, they chose to stay out on the docks instead of experiencing the outrageous water-park and arcade nearby. After lunch, we packed up and headed for Redding, California. Why Redding you might ask? Because it was a big enough city to guarantee a dinner spot with TV for Joe to watch game 7 of the Pistons vs. Spurs. I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the Pistons lost.

Ducks on the dock

Day 3

As it turns out Clear Lake in general and specifically the Funtime RV Park is a haven for fisherman of all kinds beginners to advanced. Bright and early anglers took out boats and casted from the nearby docks. Having not caught a thing since last summer’s Michigan trip, Dan got into it early--casting off the shore near the RV—but no luck. Josh decided to watch him at first and didn’t even get his pole out. When we came back from lunch, a brother and sister (Chelsea 9 and Gabe 8) were casting from the shore right near where Dan caught nothing. Gabe had already caught a bunch of fish--as soon as Gabe dropped his line in, he caught either a bluegill or a sunfish. “I caught another one!!” he’d shriek. This obviously got Josh and especially Dan excited. Gabe kept catching fish, after fish, after fish, after fish--casting in the exact same area Dan caught nothing. The only real difference was that Dan had a bobber on his line and Gabe didn’t—but Dan wanted to keep his on. Now Josh wanted to fish but his fishing line was mess. Helpful Chelsea spent most of her time trying to fix Josh’s rod and with a little of Ali’s aid, the rod was back into shape. All this time Gabe kept on pulling out fish and Dan got none. With Joshie’s newly fixed pole, HE even caught one. Finally, after stubbornly taking off his bobber, Dan got his first catch of the day. Even Ali got into the act and the three of them caught a whopping eight fish that afternoon.

After a break for dinner, we invited Chelsea and Gabe back for a s’mores dessert. Gabe really enjoyed getting down and dirty with his s’mores (see picture). The big event of the evening was our first “black water” dump. If you’re not familiar with the RV world, black water is the sewage tank. Fortunately, the process was pretty uneventful. Black water dumping is one of those things that if it goes well is just fine, but if it doesn’t becomes a catastrophe—stay tuned. While we were finishing the dump, we met a new friend Jordan (7) who had a Playstation Portable, which Josh and Dan drooled over until bedtime.

Tip of the Day: Do not use a bobber when fishing for blue gill in Clear Lake!

Length of Drive: We didn’t do any driving today!! Hooray!!

Miles Traveled: Zippola!

A Note About the Photos

Blogger seems to be really gumming up these photos. If you'd like higher res versions, send me an email and let me know which ones you'd like and I'll pass them along.

--> Joe

Sunset over Clear Lake

I LOVE s'mores--alot!!

Can I have smore?

Josh, Gabe, and Dan holding their catch

Josh's First Fish

Dan's First Catch

Gabe caught another one!

Dock at Clear Lake (B/W)

Josh and Dad fighting a MONSTER!

Mommy in Clown Pants Washing Her Hair

Duck!

Day 2

Nothing violent happened to the RV today, meaning that Mary didn’t run into any poles or signs. There was one potential record breaker, though. Josh, who’s known for his masticating prowess, managed to chew a piece of celery for an amazing 37 minutes without swallowing!

The toughest task of the day was finding a place to watch game 6^th of the Pistons vs. Spurs somewhere around Clear Lake, Ca. It couldn’t be a bar because Ali, Dan, and Josh would not be allowed in. We ended up at a fast food place that served burgers-suitable for the children-and had TVs that showed the game. Because of all the trouble to find a place that met Joe’s standards, we were lucky the Pistons won. After dinner, we drove to the “Funtime RV Park” where we spent the night. Although the name sounds a bit cheesy, it was really quite nice. Joe thought this lot was much better than the last because of the scenery. We found, in fact, have the best parking spot according to the office manager. If you were to step out the front door, you would only have to walk a couple feet to touch the water of Clear Lake.

Tip of the Day: Don’t judge an RV park by its name

Length of Drive: About 3 ¼ hours

Miles Traveled: 143 (Again)

Nestled in the shade on Clear Lake

Day 1 (by Ali with edits from Joe)

Our adventure began with both excitement and some sad-faced good-byes from friends and neighbors. We were headed to Bodega Bay California, a city north of our home in Sunnyvale. Unfortunately, it took about two hours extra to get on the road due to a few electrical problems resulting in multiple calls to the “RV Help Hotline.” At our dinner stop in Mill Valley, we ran into another issue--we couldn't lock our front door, something Mary was not comfortable with. Since the "RV Help Hotline" stopped answering, Joe tinkered his way to a solution (not involving duct tape for once).

Our bad lucked subsided briefly in Mill Valley where we met a friendly family. A dad (Steve) and his twin six year olds (Sabrina and Ben) passed by the RV while we were loading some groceries. Curious Sabrina and Ben asked what this thing was and before we knew it were hanging with Josh and Dan in the super cool bed space above the driver’s seat. Steve took us for a quick round of football and tree climbing and then showed us to a wonderful pizza place called Small Shed Flatbread.

After dinner, our newby RV experience continued. As we were turning out of our Mill Valley street parking spot, Mary sideswiped the big rearend of the rig into a parking sign. Since relatively few RVs crawl Mill Valley roads let alone run into parking signs, a crowd quickly gathered--stopping traffic and helping us. Luckily, no severe damage was done, but there were a couple dents and scratches along the rear corner of the RV. There goes the college fund.

Tip of the Day: Don’t park a 29-foot RV next to a parking sign!

Length of Drive: About 3 hours

Miles Traveled: 103

Sabrina and Ben in front of Small Shed Flatbread Pizza

The montrous RV next to our puny SUV in Sunnyvale

Ready to go Sunnyvale, CA

Sipher Family

Day -7

Welcome to the Sipher Blog of our Long Drive 2005 (LD2005) RV trip. We're in the final preparation stages of planning, buying, and buying more stuff we'll never use again.