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11/18/04 - Finally the Great Adventure Begins
After considerable rushing about, looking for this, that and the other thing; deciding what to take and what to leave, packing, repacking and checking lists several times; we decided we were actually ready to leave on our trip just after sunset. I had hoped to be on the road well before dark, but it just wasn't meant to be. Even as we pulled away we knew there were many things we were going to wish we had brought, some left behind intentionally, others forgotten in the rush to get on the road.

We had planned on getting to the RV Corral in Eugene (Map) by about 4PM but did not actually arrive until after 8PM. The night crew was not expecting us, but made room for us to stay there in short order and we had a relaxing evening. Tomorrow they will fix a few things for us before we start our long journey to California.

11/19/04 - All Systems Go
This morning we got up and were relatively quickly serviced by the great Service department at the RV Corral. After an hour or so, we left in search of an Internet connection, some food and a little shopping. We got back to the coach about 1PM and I took the coach down the road to fill up with propane while my wife returned a few things at WalMart. I met her there at about 1:45 and we hooked up the Toad (our tow car - also known as a dinghy - and lovingly also referred to as Scout by my wife and I.

We headed south and drove for nearly an hour after dark before we decided to pull into the convenient Rice Hill RV Park. This Good Sam RV Park was mostly asphalt and concrete, but had good hookups and easy pull through sites. When I started up my Mac I discovered that there was a WiFi receiver at a nearby truck stop which solved the Internet connection problem for another day.

Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta

11/20/04 - California Here We Come
Today we got up a leisurely pace, went to brunch and got on the road just after noon. We had a pretty drive down to the Mt. Shasta, crossing the California border at about sunset. We decided to stay at the Mt. Shasta KOA (our first KOA experience). We picked out a site and I quickly discovered that there was a truck in that spot and I was not going to easily get into the spot next to it either. So after closer inspection and a friendly visit from one of the other campers, I took another spot at the end of that row.

11/21/04 - Beautiful Mt. Shasta
We were greeted by beautiful California sunshine, towering pine trees and gorgeous Mt. Shasta, already mostly covered with snow. So we decided to park the rig downtown and drive up to the snow line to introduce our four dogs to the snow. They had a great time, running around and playing in it.

We had a good lunch at the Black Bear Cafe and headed for Sacramento where we had an appointment to have our Direcway satellite Internet antenna and MotoSat controller installed in the morning.

We decided to spend the night at the Camping World in Rocklin where we intended to do some serious shopping the next day. There were several others spending the night there, so we felt fairly safe. I found myself counting the hours until I would have a reliable Internet connection again.

11/22/04 - A New Satellite Dish
We got up early and drove to Tim Pendleton's house in Sacramento where we met Tim and his wife, who worked as a great team to install the 107 lb satellite antenna assembly on the top of my new coach.

After checking our email on their computers we left to go back to Camping World, where we purchased over $600 worth of stuff, including a 50A Surge Suppressor to protect the electrical systems of the coach from under or over voltages and poor park connections.

When we got back to the coach, Tim was all finished and ready to instruct me in it's use. Actually, he was just almost finished because he had not been successful in getting my Airport Express working properly. So he would up selling me a new Linksys router and wireless access point with extra strength antennas.

After showing me how the D2 controller operated (locating the satellite and locking in on a strong signal), what to look for on the DW6000 modem and the Linksys router, web pages to know about, etc. I tried it for myself. As luck would have it, neither of us could make another connection to the Internet this evening. He assured me that we would figure it out the next day and we left for Santa Rosa as the sun set.

We pulled in to the Rohnert Park (Map) WalMart parking lot about 8PM and then drove to one of our favorite informal Italian places - Mary's Pizza Shack in Petaluma. unfortunately, tonight we did not have good luck with the pizza. We'll have to go back to eating their Lasagna and Meatballs.

11/23/04 - A Visit to the Dentist
This morning I still could not access the Internet with my new antenna and placed several calls to see what could be done. After a little while I got a call from the guy who sold me the system who said he thought I had a bad modem and that he would send me a new one ASAP. I must admit I'm a bit disappointed but I appreciate his attempt to take care of me with a minimum of fuss.

We moved the coach within a few block of our dentist's office where we had appointments this afternoon. I was seen first for a thorough cleaning while my wife showed off our new coach to her very good friend who is a hygenist for our excellent dentist, Al Couture. After my cleaning Al found a couple of small things that he felt should be worked on, and fixed me up in fairly short order.

11/24/04 - Air Leak Scare
Last night we spent the night at the Petaluma KOA and this afternoon as we were getting to pull out I heard what I thought was a front tire leaking badly. So I quickly drove it to a nearby tire store who assured me it was not a tire but some other kind of air leak. So I drove it to a nearby RV dealership who directed me to their service facility a couple of miles away. When I inquired within I was told that they did not do chassis work, but the guy behind the parts counter agreed to come take a look at my situation. He crawled under the front of my coach and very quickly solved the problem by pressing a reset button on one of the air tanks. He then had me crawl under too and showed me what he had done. I thanked him very much and we hooked up the toad and drove off much relieved./p>

We then headed north on US 101 toward my cousins house in Fortuna, CA (Map) where we were to celebrate Thanksgiving with many of my relatives on my father's side of the family. For various reasons we would up driving after dark and finally pulled over for dinner in Garberville. After a mediocre dinner we found a nice, quite wide spot on the Avenue of the Giants and spent the night. It's really great to be able to just pull over and have such deluxe accommodations.

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