I’m taking a break from blog posts for a week or so.
See you in July!
cat
Our pet cat, Paladin.
Eugene, Oregon to our home base near Shelton, Washington
We left our coach at Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon to get its annual service (early) and some repairs and improvements, and drove our truck about 246 miles, about four hours of driving, to our home base near Shelton, Washington.
An interactive map:
We of course took Paladin with us; traveling in the truck (or any travel really) isn’t his favorite thing, but he’s happy enough with some chill juice, if not stuck in his crate:
We stayed in a bedroom in our home base while our coach was being serviced.
Mount Shasta, California to Blue Ox RV Park in Albany, Oregon
We drove our coach 292 miles, about six hours of driving, from Mount Shasta City KOA Holiday in Mount Shasta, California to Blue Ox RV Park in Albany, Oregon.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Back through the narrow KOA driveway:
Entering I-5 North:
Black Butte:
Barn:
Anderson Grade Summit Elevation 3067 Feet:
Klamath River bridge:
Oregon Welcomes You:
Siskiyou Mountain Summit Elevation 4310 Feet, Highest Elevation on I-5:
Truck speed guidance:
6% Downgrade:
Emigrant Lake looking mostly full:
Oregon Welcome Center rest area:
More barns:
Table Rock:
Ouch:
Seven Feathers rest area:
Paladin on the dash:
Downhill:
Willamette River:
Fuel stop:
Exit 233:
Arriving at Blue Ox RV Park:
They recommended (in the reservation email) parking here to check in:
Office:
Campground map:
It’s them again:
Our site, #144:
A mostly long-term RV park, but decent short-term spots.
Lodi to Mount Shasta City KOA Holiday in Mount Shasta, California
We drove our coach 255 miles, about five hours of driving, from Flag City RV Resort in Lodi to Mount Shasta City KOA Holiday in Mount Shasta, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Entering I-5 North:
Sacramento River:
Rest area:
Billboard for Granzella’s… truck & RV parking, eh? Interesting… I quickly investigated them for a lunch stop:
Swimming pools:
Granzella’s parking looked compatible, so exit to Williams:
Williams arch:
The aforementioned truck & RV parking:
Parked:
Tasty:
Later, a rest area:
Mount Shasta in the distance:
Shasta Lake:
Paladin asleep:
Mount Shasta:
Castle Crags:
Mount Shasta:
Pointy peak:
City of Mount Shasta:
Arriving at Mount Shasta City KOA Holiday:
A narrow access road:
Campground map:
Our site, #32:
Take note of the neighbor RV; we saw them again at our next stop, too:
A tight access road, but a perfectly fine place for a one-night stop. Though some train horn noise. Not a lot of options in this area; KOA is easy.
Orange to Flag City RV Resort in Lodi, California
We drove our coach 379 miles, about six hours of driving, from Orangeland RV Park in Orange to Flag City RV Resort in Lodi, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Following the coach to toad up by the office, as usual:
Tight corner for a motorhome and toad totaling over 60 feet, but easier when we can take both lanes:
In the correct lane for CA-91 East:
Exit to CA-91:
Exit to I-5 North:
I-5 North:
Downtown LA:
California freeways doing their thing:
Traffic and hill:
Wildflowers:
Rest area:
Hills:
Exit to CA-269:
An interesting toad:
Fuel stop:
Spendy fuel:
Paladin keeping the seat warm:
Hills:
Aquaduct:
Closed rest area:
Exit to CA-12:
Arriving at Flag City RV Resort:
Campground map:
Our site, #E14:
Annoyingly for a one-night stay, we had to untoad, as the site was too short to remain connected. That might be my fault, though; they let you choose your site when booking, and I must not have measured it with Google Maps:
If we stay here again in the future, we’d choose a better site.
Travel from Palm Desert, California to Sun City, Arizona
We drove our coach 252 miles, about four hours of driving, from Palm Desert, California to Sun City, Arizona.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Entering I-10 East:
We got a little bit of fuel at California prices:
Back onto I-10 East:
Foggy:
Rest area closed:
Another rest area:
Interesting homebrew van:
Paladin in a box:
Arizona state line, and also Mountain time zone:
Welcome to Arizona:
Arizona Centenial:
Airstream trailer:
Interesting mountains:
Westbound freeway closed for hours due to accident:
Another fuel stop to top up, since we’ll be in one place for three months:
Filling diesel:
Filling DEF:
Exit to AZ-303 North:
Overpass:
Exit to Bell Road:
Arriving at Paradise RV Resort:
Registration parking, where we filled in the paperwork and untoaded:
Guided to our site:
Club Cat boarding
In preparation for our big trip to New Zealand (blog posts coming up), we booked Paladin in a cattery in Los Angeles called Club Cat.
We took him there the day before we stored the coach, along with his food, cat bed, and carrier:
The Club Cat foyer:
His suite had a view box above the door, and platforms inside:
They also offered a web cam where we could watch him whenever we liked:
Plus they emailed “postcards” about every other day, with a cute message “from” him and a few photos, as shown in this post.
They have a large playroom with a bunch of toys, but he didn’t like that, perhaps because it was too open; he’s used to smaller spaces:
He kept asking to go back to his room:
So after trying the playroom a few times, we switched to fur therapies using a glove:
He really enjoyed that:
They were amused by his happy drool:
He got lots of pats and attention too:
Other than his dislike of the playroom, he seemed to enjoy his stay, and was well taken care of. But he was happy to see us when we picked him up after our trip, and happy to be home again.
We’d be happy to board him there again.
Thousand Trails San Benito
We stayed at Thousand Trails San Benito in Paicines, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our second stay here. Our first stay was our very first experience of a Thousand Trails park. Not a super great experience, but not bad enough to put us off TT. (Which we have some misgivings about, but it has been mostly worthwhile.)
This time, the campground was in the midst of a much-needed major improvements to their electrical system, with new 50/30/20 amp pedestals on all of the sites. At the time we stayed, only about the third of the park was open.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-10-20
- Check out: 2025-10-31
- 11 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps 65-82°F, lows 48-54°F
- Little wind, gusts to 17 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Little neighbor noise
Site:
- #C-010, back-in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Somewhat level site; a little high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 60 feet long by 12 feet wide
- 75-95 feet to neighbor on passenger side
- 32 feet to neighbor on driver side
- Just grass between sites
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Tall trees
- Somewhat clean site
- Elevation 720 feet, front facing north/east/south/west
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 76-108 Mbps down, 22-44 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- RoamLink: 50 Mbps down, 3-5 Mbps up, 125 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 101-145 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
Campground map; much of the campground was being renovated at the time of our stay:
An interactive map:
Our site:
The tree next to our site:
During our stay the electricians needed to make some modifications to the pedestal; replacing one of the breakers:
And installing a ground rod:
Can’t get packages at the campground, so we used Amazon lockers in Hollister (30 minutes away):
And the nearby post office in Paicines (9 minutes away):
Pool (and ex-hot tub):
While there, I added a Pokémon Pokéstop at the playground:
Other sites:
New big solar array over storage area:
A big stump with a bird box:
Lots of gnomes around the place:
Cat:
Deer:
Birb:
A mostly peaceful campground. We’d be happy to stay here again.
Travel from Red Bluff to Paicines, California
We drove our coach 297 miles, about six hours of driving, from Red Bluff to Paicines, California.
We had originally planned to do this in two steps, since we like to aim for about three hours of driving per day. But at our first rest stop we decided we’d prefer to have a single longer drive, since it was mostly on I-5, so arranged to arrive earlier and cancel our original stop for that night.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Entering I-5 South:
Hey, hay!
Rice field:
Our coach on traffic cams:
Swimming pool:
Rest area:
Woodland bridge:
Sacramento River:
Sacramento:
Paladin touching my foot:
Aquaduct:
Fuel stop:
Interesting pea soup restaurant:
San Luis Reservoir:
Exit to Hollister:
School bus:
A trailer that didn’t disconnect the water hose and electrical cable; not a great way to travel:
Road to Thousand Trails:
Thousand Trails San Benito:
Narrow bridge:
Our site:
Travel from Sutherlin, Oregon to Red Bluff, California
We drove our coach 285 miles, about six hours of driving, from Sutherlin, Oregon to Red Bluff, California.
A long drive, but all on I-5, so pretty easy and familiar.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
I-5 South:
Rainy:
“Slow Down”:
Misty mountains:
Examples of various solutions for transporting a side-by-side — motorhome towing, toy hauler, and truck camper towing:
Rest area:
Crossover intersection:
Fuel stop:
Me taking a photo of Jenn taking a photo of Paladin:
Jenn’s photo:
Southern Oregon hills:
Ashland:
“Siskiyou Mountain Summit, elevation 4310 feet, highest elevation on I-5”:
“Oregon Thanks You, Come Back Soon”:
“Welcome to California”:
Agricultural Inspection Station:
Junk cars in a rest area:
Shasta Lake:
KOA:
Our site:
