10-20-21 Westport Beach Trip (Northern California)

10-20-21 Wednesday

Westport Beach, CA

Space 168

Jeeps in Campground: 2

Drive Time: 0

Miles: 0

Arrived: 0

Didn’t sleep well last night which is normal for the first night anytime we travel. But hey we are at the beach. We got up, dressed, made coffee, tea and headed to the beach with our Halloween coffee mugs. 

Yep folks…those are bear tracks in the sand. We found them as we walked out to the beach. The tracks headed to the garbage cans….imagine that. There are bear warning signs everywhere in the campground. We will have to keep a look out.  I wonder what kind of bear it was and big?

What a beautiful beach. Watching the waves crash against the shore is always something we enjoy. The ocean is powerful, and Barry always reminds me to never turn my back on it. We headed toward the right and walked as far as we could. I noticed something bright up against the hillside and climbed up to see. It was a huge piece of seaweed and red. To see what the water has done to the hillside is amazing, sand piled up against it, crevices carved into the side, holes that look like caves. The wonders of Mother Nature. 

                                                                  

We headed back and decided to take photos of our Halloween mugs. Pretty silly but we love doing that kind of crazy stuff. After we walked to the other end of the beach. This end has the creek that flows into the ocean and riptides according to the map. We met two Labradors and their human taking a walk. Friendly boys and the older one gave me a kiss. Almost everyone in this campground has a dog or two or three. 

We stood at this end for a while and was mesmerized by the ocean waves coming in and out. The pelicans where fishing and to watch them dive into the ocean was fun. There must have been a hundred of them. I wonder what they were eating. 

Later in the afternoon we took chairs and sat close to the water and just watched the surf and listened to the ocean. So peaceful. 

For dinner we cooked shrimp scampi over pasta….yummy meal. Before Barry finished his meal, he said he was going to watch the sunset. I was hungry so I stayed to eat. I waited for about ten minutes and no Barry. I finished my meal and went out to the beach. I found him sitting on a picnic table. He was taking a time lapse of the sunset. I sat with him, and we watched the sun go down. Again, nothing like the beach. I think he really misses the beach. 

We came back and Barry finished his dinner then built a fire. We made s’mores!!! From other blog posts you know we love s’mores. This time we made them with Hershey’s dark chocolate. 

The best day ever!!!

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

10-19-21 Westport Beach Trip (Northern California)

10-19-21 Tuesday

Westport Beach, CA

Space 168

Jeeps in Campground: 2

Drive Time: 5 hours including stopping for gas

Miles: 163

Arrived: 03:00 PM

We left CV about 10:00 AM for Westport Beach, north of Fort Bragg. We’ve been as far north as Fort Bragg so this will be an adventure. We will be staying until next Monday the 25th. Our friends, Ken and Jan Reynolds and Roma and Dennis Mofford will be joining us on Thursday evening. The Moffords will be staying at a local hotel. 

BTW for those of you familiar with Jeff, he decided to join us. He wanted to ride in the jeep since he has not experienced the jeep yet. 

After our 27-day trip in September, Barry decided he wanted to have new shocks installed. He had the tag axel shocks replaced earlier this year. In addition, he just had installed anti-sway bars for the front and rear, and a front steering stabilizer. All of this is supposed to help the swaying of the front. She tended to roam back and forth in the lane and when it’s windy it was kind of scary. Plus, after about 4 hours of driving Barry’s hands would hurt or start tingling due to trying to keep the steering wheel straight. We also had to have the front steps replaced as mentioned in one of my blogs during our 27-day trip to Mt. Rushmore. This was the first trip after all the front-end work was completed and what a difference the ride was. She seemed much quieter, defiantly a smoother ride and best of all no rattling! By the time we reached Westport Beach Barry was not so tired. He was very happy about the drive. 

We decided to take 128 from highway 101 to highway 1 instead of highway 20. We’re familiar with 128 so we felt more comfortable taking it. It seemed much windier than driving in a car, so Barry was sure to take the turns slow. When he could he pulled over to let other cars pass, especially the ones on the clock like UPS or truckers. We saw numerous logging trucks fully loaded just barreling through the roads. 

The drive through the redwoods was beautiful. It’s my favorite part of 128. Such a different perspective sitting up high. We passed through Navarro without stopping at Navarro and Husch Wineries for tasting. We love those two wineries. There are others on 128 we normally stop at but those are our favorites. 

Next, we went through Little River and talked about the many times we have stayed at Little River Inn. Another place we love. If you ever get a chance to spend a few nights, please do so. It’s a wonderful place. It’s still run by the same family that started the inn numerous years ago. The restaurant is also fabulous. You can’t go wrong with this place. 

We passed through Fort Bragg and talked about the last time we visited and tasted at North Coast Brewery. The food was great, but the beers are too strong for me. However, Barry loves their beers. 

Now onto Westport Beach where we have not been. Driving along the coast is so gorgeous but the tight turns force us to go slow. Again, Barry will pull over a few times to let traffic pass. He comments often what a difference driving the coach is and less stressful. I’m glad we decided to have all the front-end work done. Happy husband, happy wife!

We made it to Westport Beach and stopped to make sure we were entering the park correctly. We decided to disconnect the jeep and I would go first to check out the road. You enter on a dirt road, go down a hill, across a bridge to the office. It had rained the past few days, so the dirt road was muddy. Barry had to go slow since it was also bumpy. We parked, checked in, bought some firewood and headed to our site. Again, I went first to find the site. Barry pulled in but had to straighten out a bit, leveled and hooked us up. The sewer hookup is at the other end of where our hose is, and we didn’t have enough hose to reach it. Tomorrow we’ll go to the office and buy additional hose. 

We put the awning and rug out and took a walk to the beach. Our camp site is only about a minute walk to the beach. One of the reasons we wanted to come here. The beach is owned by the RV park and private. There are picnic tables along the beach for any of the campers to use. About an hour later it started pouring and continued most of the night. Thank goodness we got settled just in time. Then the winds came up. We ended up taking the awning down for the night. 

We didn’t mind the rug getting wet since it’s made of ground up PVC pipe. We’ll need to use it to wipe our feet since it’s supposed to rain a lot while we're here. 

We cooked dinner, relaxed, read for a while and hit the hay. 

FYI-Cell signal here is very spotty and I would go as far to say, "not at all." So posting updates will be very hit and miss....more miss. If we go into Fort Bragg then I can update but it may not happen until we are on the road home. 

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

Kentucky Wonder Green Beans - Canning with Grandma

My grandparents always grew Kentucky Wonder green beans in the summer. I asked my Grandma one spring if I grew the same beans would she teach me how to can them. Of course, she agreed so I planted lots of Kentucky Wonder green beans. At harvest time we made a date and spent a day canning beans. She walked me through every step. She also told me of a few times the pressure built up and the pot lid would pop off and beans would be everywhere, even on the ceiling. I had heard these stories and I became a bit worried, but she assured me it would not happen. I still was not convinced and kept my eye on the pot. We ended up canning thirty jars that day and I have that wonderful memory of standing at my Grandma’s stove with her.

I joined the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks group with Amy Johnson Crow. I've had a hard time keeping up with this but strive to do better. Wish me luck. 

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09-27-21 Sunday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 27 Home Castro Valley CA

09-27-21

Homeward Bound

Castro Valley, CA

Jeeps at Home: 2

Drive Time: 3

Miles: 161

I woke up craving bacon so I cooked breakfast. I pulled Schwan's frozen biscuits out of the freezer along with egg patties. I put the biscuits in the oven and cooked the bacon. The egg patties I just heated in the microwave. Once everything was cooked we made our own breakfast biscuits sandwiches. They were pretty darn yummy!!!! Cleaned up the kitchen and prepared the coach for the road. 

We left Viña Castellano around noon today. It was a rough ride home. The winds on I-5 were crazy and I could see Barry was struggling and very tense. Plus the roads were really rough. We missed those nice highways we travelled across the 6 states we visited: Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado. Other than the winds it was a boring ride, no new scenery to see which we commented on a few times. We made it home around 3:30PM. It took longer because of the winds, Barry drove slow and I'm glad he did. I thought we were going to be blown off the road a few times. 

It seems so sad to be home and kinda weird. It rained here this morning so things were still wet. We checked out our garden and we have tons of radishes to pick. As we were unpacking the coach all I could think of was the different areas we travelled to each day, the great people we met, the various campgrounds we stayed in, all the beautiful wild animals we saw and how vast our nation is. We only travelled to six states but those six states were huge for us. We had a blast and the 27 days we were gone went by so fast. 

We are already planning our next long jaunt but not until next year. Thank you to everyone that followed along with us. I hope we have inspired you to take a long road jaunt. Our country has so much see and is truly beautiful. 

Night all and Happy Jaunts!

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09-26-21 Sunday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 26 Viña Castellano Estate Winery, Auburn CA

              

09-25-21

Viña Castellano Estate Winery

Auburn, CA

Harvest Host

Jeeps in Campground: 1 (ours)

Drive Time: --

Miles:---

 

We slept like logs last night. Had breakfast and took a great walk around the winery. The birds were active and we saw bluebirds. They were so quick I couldn't' get any pictures. We walked back toward the house to the pond area. What a great area. There are adirondack chairs and metal table and chairs all around the pond. There is also a dock and paddle boat at one end. The other end has a dock built out over the water with a bench and table. Such a great setting. I can see why it's a great wedding venue. Steve told us he would be setting up and serving sprizters, sangrias, and selling bottles and glasses of wine by the pond today. We're looking forward to that.  

You can see the cave entrance between the 2 umbrellas. 

Winery Entrance

We needed to find Tina and confirm which HH pad she wanted us in and confirm we can plug in for power. We talked about the wedding and she told us the other 2 HH guests texted her about the wedding around 11:30. They were concerned about the noise of the wedding. We didn't hear a thing. Maybe because we were further from the action. We walked back to the coach and moved it to the pad, leveled, ate something then walked back to the pond. Steve was set up and we bought a glass of wine, sat in the adirondacks and enjoyed the view. Steve brought his new puppy with him today so we got to play with her, Jema is her name. She's a 3 month old australian shepard and so fluffy. 

We decided to have sangria next and Steve added grenadine which made the drink slightly sweet. We both loved ours and sat down to enjoy the deliciousness. We decided to wander over to the cave and see if they had any trinkets we "needed." Nothing to purchase so we sat at a table on the hillside by the cave to finish our drinks. It was close to closing time so we finished our drinks and walked back to the coach. 

We decided to get the frisbee out and spent about 45 minutes throwing while the sun went down. It was so much fun. My arm will probably be a little sore tomorrow. The weather is cooling down so we went inside and got away from the bugs. What a great day. We did absolutely nothing and had a very relaxing day. Nice way to end our trip. 

Nite all!

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09-25-21 Saturday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 25 Viña Castellano Estate Winery, Auburn CA

09-25-21

Vina Castellano Estate Winery, 

Auburn CA

Harvest Host

Jeeps in Campground: 5 from the wedding

Drive Time: 2 1/2 Hours

Miles: 161

Barry got up early this morning and helped Glen feed the alpacas. He got me up after and I dressed and went out to the corrals. Glen haltered one of the alpacas and I walked up and down one of the corrals with her. Glen likes to let people do this because this way the alpacas get use to being haltered. It prepares them for shows. The other Harvest Host couple also walked a couple of them. 

Carolyn in the turquoise shirt

Glen loving what he does

Glen showed us the different categories the animals are judged 

for at a show: the crimping of their fleece, quality of fleece, body conformation, brightness of fleece and a whole bunch of other items. Just like dog shows. Sounds so complicated to me. When you split the fleece down to the skin you can see how much crimping of the fleece is different on each breed. This is also where you can see the brightness of the fleece color. The fleece on different areas of the body are used differently. The top quality fleece is around the middle. 

He keeps the males and females in different corrals, except the crias, so that nature does not take its course. He doesn't want his heard to get out of control. One of the white males is the alpha male and he gets really excited when the girls get close. See the picture on the left. He's standing up on his hind legs. He's a very handsome male. 

One thing I found fascinating is alpacas don't have top teeth. They have a hard pallet. You can see it in the picture to the left. They crush or mash their food. Their diet consists of alfalfa, oats and beet pulp. The beet pulp is high in nutrients. Glen feeds them in the morning and evenings. They have alfalfa all day to much on. 

As you can see from this post and my last, we learned a lot about alpacas. They are very cool animals.

Our time at Sawdust came to an end and we had to get on the road. 

We headed toward California and over Donner Pass, highest climb was 7,239. Crazy climb for this 20 year old lady but she did it. This time the air quality was much better. The sky was blue instead of filled with smoke. I felt sort of sad knowing once we entered California we would be home in a few days. 

It was only 161 miles from Fallon to Auburn and about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We made it to Viña Castellano. We found Tina (the owner) and she pointed us to the area we would be for the night. The two normal Harvest Host spots were taken but we knew that. Plus a wedding was going on. We would move into one of the grassy HH spots tomorrow. 

The wedding was to take place a few weeks ago but because of the fires it was postponed. Because of this she forgot to call us but found room for us. It was OK. After parking and getting settled we headed over to "The Cave" for tasting. It's a man made cave built into the side of a hill. It was a great place to taste. They only have one white and I didn't like it much. But I did like there Rosé and Barry liked the Tempranillo. We bought a bottle of each. 

  

We got a dinner recommendation from Steve at the wine bar, and headed into Old Town Auburn for dinner. We found the restaurant, The Station House, with no problem and found parking. It was a busy place. We placed our order and sat down with our drinks. Our food came and it was delicious, a huge pretzel, caesar salad and brat corn dogs. The band playing was great and people were dancing and having a good time. I hardly remember crawling in bed. 

Good night all!

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09-24-21 Friday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 24 Sawdust Alpaca Farm Fallon, NV

09-24-21

Sawdust Alapaca Farm Fallon, NV

Fallon, NV

Harvest Host

Jeeps in Campground: ---

Drive Time: 4 hours

Miles: 258

We left Ely before 11AM this morning. We drove the Pony Express Trail (US-50) from Ely, Nevada to Fallon. It's also known as US-50,  At times the stretch of the road is straight and goes on forever. No wonder it's also called, "The Loneliest Road in America." If you search Wikipedia for US-50 you'll see this road has quite a history. 

Barry says we passed through 6 mountain ranges today and the highest peaks ranged from 7,700 to about 4,400....up and down and up and down. 

Fallon is the home of the Naval Air Station Fallon-the Top Gun Navy Training Facility. We did see three military jets flying a formation then they each broke off as we entered the city of Fallon. The Sawdust Alpaca Farm is about 5 miles off US-50. Seemed like we were never going to get there. 

When we arrived, Glen the owner, waved us up the driveway and had us follow the gravel road around their house to the other side. They have 2 nice areas for Harvest Host guests. There was a guest in the other area. We could see the alpacas from the front window of our coach which was really cool. We parked, got settled, grab a cold beverage and met him outside. 

Our spot for the night

He gave us an awesome tour of the place. He let us into the corrals, talked about how they shear them, about the differences in their fleece, showed us each different alpaca breed and the differences in the faces. He told us they can be skittish and not to pet them on their head but they do like having their neck scratched.  We also met Abby, their Pyrenees Alpaca guard dog. She stays in the corrals with the alpacas. She loves to play with them and it was fun to see the interaction between them. 

Abby and she loves laying in a hole. 

This is Thunder

Thunder giving Barry a look!

At one point we were in the barn and Glen was showing us the shearing equipment, bags of fleece and the genealogy book he uses to keep track of breeding. The barn has an opening on both sides and as we were standing there listening to Glen I see an alpaca stick it's head through the open door, then another and another. The next thing is they were all coming into the barn and looking to see what we were doing. It was so funny. 

An alpaca is pregnant for 11 1/2 months. Can you imagine!? The babies are called crias and they are so adorable. They way between 15 - 18 lbs when born. Their business consists of alpaca sales, breeding services, products and farm tours. You can tell that Glen loves his alpacas and he knows them all by name. They are a small farm and have about 50 at a time. 

Carolyn is in charge of their small store. She does knit some of the products but most items are directly from Peru. They mainly sell their fleece to a mill in Pennsylvania. May is shearing month and they have two travelling people that come and help with the shearing. They also have about 10 other people that come and help with the process. I would love to participate and maybe next May I can talk Barry into it. Keeping my fingers crossed. 

Did some major shopping in the store and loved all the stuff Carolyn has. The sweaters are gorgeous and all the products are so soft. The colors are beautiful. 

We had leftovers from the Jailhouse Cell Block Steakhouse that was even tastier than the night before. After dinner Barry wrote in his journal and I worked on blog postings. Good night all and sweet dreams of crias!  Web site for Sawdust Alpacas - https://www.sawdustalpacas.com/

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.