Calico and Buckskin

I think we stopped in Calico way back in my Flight School days. That would be the late sixties. Then it really was kind of a ghost town. It’s grown a little since then. And that’s an understatement! It’s definitely a tourist trap but they have done a very nice job of restoration. Between 1881 an 1907 they mined $86 million in silver and $45 million in borax. There were some 500 mines with 22 saloons, a China Town and a red light district. It’s an interesting and entertaining look into the past and they even have an RV park. We spent the night and enjoyed Calico. For our RV’er friends it’s right off I-15 and only a couple of miles from I-40 just east of Bakersfield. Not a bad place to spend a day or two, although the RV park portion could definitely use some TLC.


Buckskin Mountain State Park is one of our favorite places to stay. It’s right on the Colorado River between Parker and Lake Havasu City. But let me qualify my opening statement. We wouldn’t want to be here in the summer. Not for the reason you may be thinking though. It’s not the heat; it’s the boat noise and people. The crowd changes from RV’ers to boaters and that’s just not us. We tend to stay away from places with boat ramps. But in the winter it’s great; quiet, sunny and warm. We do some walking and bike riding and definitely get some sun. The only drawback is a big rock along the way toward Parker that is separating from the cliff and potentially going to fall on the road. So it’s all blocked off denying direct bike access to an area where there is a small market and convenience store. You have to go out to the main highway and we don’t like our chances there on our bikes. It’s not too far to Parker or Havasu City and there is a casino down the road with a senior breakfast buffet for $5.40, and in Havasu City there is one of the best Chinese buffets we’ve been to and that’s less than $7.00 for lunch. How bad is that?

This year it was a good place to spend Christmas. And if you were thinking we were alone, you would be wrong. The park wasn’t full but it was probably half full, maybe 20-30 rigs. So we got out our Christmas lights and set up for nine days. We even got nine days for the price of six. Two free days with a weeks stay and Christmas Day was free. What a deal! And we had a very nice dinner of turkey and stuffing for Christmas. And that’s certainly another one of those things on ‘my list of things I never imagined doing’. Spending Christmas RV/camping in a place like that. It just stays good!

101 to the Golden Gate and Libby's

You may remember that just short of two years ago we traveled this way on our first trip. This time is a little different. Then we were just starting out and taking our time seeing as much as the coast as we could. This time we were mostly interested in getting south to something warmer and dryer. Kat and the motorhome were developing mold and I was beginning to rust. Even with a late start out of ODFW in Clackamas we made it to The Mill Casino in Coos Bay. That’s a pretty good drive for us. We spent a couple of nights on the Oregon Coast and then Ukiah before heading across the Golden Gate. We had deviated away from the Golden Gate Bridge last time to see Toni and it left a hole in our “all the way down the Pacific Coast trip”. I wanted to make it up, the weather cooperated, and we did. I can tell you though, that it’s not an easy trip through San Francisco in an RV with tow car. But we made it fine and it was better than driving through Oakland. No offense, but Oakland sucks! We spent two nights in Garlic USA in Gilroy completing the drying out process before heading on to Fresno and Libby’s.

We met Libby at the Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife in Clackamas last year. She was the ‘volunteer host’ who followed us when we completed our first term at ODFW in Clackamas. Being a ‘volunteer host’ means she’s an Rv’er which means that right away we had two things in common. We worked with her during the ODFW ‘host hook-up’ event and it didn’t take long to become friends. She is another of those courageous individuals who travel solo and I can relate to that. We stay in touch now and she offered her driveway which we appreciatively accepted. We visited and had a nice dinner out and a really nice Libby prepared breakfast complete with fresh squeezed orange juice, from home grown oranges. And I shouldn’t forget two jars of homemade orange marmalade. It was all good!

Just a side note here: We went to dinner at Mimi’s Café in Gilroy and we enjoyed it so much we talked Libby into driving us there for dinner again. This time in Fresno of course. Anyway we had never heard of it and now it’s one of our favorites. They’re located in several states if you’re interested.

The view toward Perry

Well, for all practical purposes our medical stuff is behind us, we’re good to go, and headed down the road. We are released, medically cleared, certified functional. All I need to do is get a blood draw every three months to check my PSA. Kat doesn’t have anymore checks, although we do have more pills to take each day. Just a few months until I qualify for Medicare so I guess that goes with the territory. Anyway, we’re beginning the journey south and east.
The first place we really have to be is Perry, Georgia for the Grand National Rally in March. Hence my title for this segment of the trip journal. We’ll be going south through California into Arizona and Texas, then through the Gulf Coast and Florida and Georgia. On the way we’ll see some family and old friends and surely meet new ones. We have a Corps of Engineers volunteer position at Alatoona Lake, north of Atlanta, in April and May and then we’ll head on north. But that’s a long way off so who knows? In the meantime be attentive to who knocks at your door. It may be us, extension cord in hand.