OCTOBER 2004

Before leaving Redding on Friday, October 1, we stopped and had breakfast at I-Hop, picked up our mail at the post office, and put gas in the Lazy Daze. We then drove 66 miles to the Pitt River Campground (BLM). This is currently a free campground, but the BLM is in the process of redoing it, putting in a space for a camp host, and it will become a fee campground. Pitt River Campground is about 4 or 5 miles west of the small town of Fall River Mills south of SR-299. It was such a nice area, we decided to spend a couple of days instead of the one night we had originally planned.

On Sunday, we drove about 70 miles to the North Eagle Lake Campground (another BLM campground...$4 with our Golden Age card, no services) on Eagle Lake north of Susanville.

The next day we drove into Susanville to spend several days at the Mountain View RV Park. We've stayed at this park before when we've visited Susanville. Before arriving at the RV park, we had breakfast at Watson Restaurant in town, and had our propane tank filled. While in Susanville, we did laundry and grocery shopping, Earl went golfing, and we ordered in pizza one night.

Our next stop after leaving Susanville was the Carson Nugget Casino in Carson City, Nevada. The Nugget has a parking lot specifically for RVs and allow them to overnight.

On Friday, we stopped in Pollock Pines, California to pick up our mail. Originally, we were going to stay at one of our Coast to Coast parks there, but decided to head farther west and stay at the Placerville Elks Lodge (which is actually located in Shingle Springs). The Placerville Elks Lodge is a brand new one; in fact, the day we left (Saturday), they were having an open house. It has several RV spots which will have electrical hookups, but they had not yet been put in, so we dry camped. We had dinner at the Lodge that night, and found everyone to be very friendly.

The next day, we drove 63 miles to the Lodi Elks Lodge in Lodi, California, where we spent the next six nights. While in Lodi, we did laundry and grocery shopping. Earl also went golfing at Swenson Park Golf Course and we walked next door to have dinner at Cactus Mexican Dining.

On Friday, October 15, we left Lodi and drove 42 miles to Gus and Judy's house in Modesto. Gus and Judy also have a Lazy Daze...they bought a 1980's-something Lazy Daze which they are in the process of fixing up. That night, we went to dinner with them at a Thai restaurant.

On Saturday, John and Eileen Van Gossen (also new Lazy Daze owners) came over to Gus and Judy's for dinner. We had a fun evening!

Sunday, Gus and Earl went golfing at Creekside Golf Course while I did laundry using Judy's nice washer and dryer (so much better than going to a laundromat!).

Monday morning we had to bid goodbye to our friends, and headed out. Our first stop was the Costco at Turlock where we did shopping and filled up the Lazy Daze with gas. We also stopped at the Wal Mart to pick up propane canisters and a refill on Earl's Pravachol prescription. That night, we stayed at Royal Oaks Resort in Kingsburg, one of our RPI parks.

On Thursday October 21, we headed for Ridgecrest, California, where we had an appointment with the Tire Man the next day to have long, metal tire stems installed (it's very difficult to check the pressure, let alone add air, on the inside duallies). We stopped in Mohave to have lunch at Denny's and put gas in the Lazy Daze. Our appointment wasn't until Friday morning, but we had arrived at the Tire Man early, and since he didn't have any other vehicle in front of us, we got the stems put on today. They did offer to let us spend the night in their lot hooked up to electricity...an offer we took them up on.

On Friday, we picked up our mail before leaving Ridgecrest and headed out to the Elks Lodge in Hesperia, stopping in Boron along the way to have lunch at Domingo's. Domingo's is one of our favorite stops whenever we're traveling on SR-58 between Mojave and Barstow...great Mexican food!

We spent Saturday and Sunday at Two Springs Resort in North Palm Springs, one of our RPI parks. While there, we did shopping at Costco and Trader Joe's (had to pick up our supply of Two-Buck Chuck, you know!).

We made it back to Quartzsite on Monday, October 25.

The next day, we had to buy a new satellite dish for the house, since the LNBs on the old dish apparently had gone bad. We also had to purchase two 9-volt batteries for the smoke detectors since they started "chirping" once we turned the electricity back on. (Reminder for next year: buy 9-volt batteries before returning home!)