cat

Our pet cat, Paladin.

Short travel day to San Benito, CA

We departed Coyote Valley RV Resort near San Jose, California, and headed to Thousand Trails San Benito, California.

This was a short travel day, less than two hours.

Here’s a map of our route for this leg:

Route map

After zipping down the 101 freeway, it was time for some highway driving:

Highway driving

Highway driving

Paladin came up to see us:

Paladin

He had opinions about driving:

Paladin

On the step cover:

Paladin

I picked up Paladin, and held him on my lap for a minute, before he wanted to retreat:

David, Paladin, Jenn

More highway driving:

Highway driving

Highway driving

Then we turned onto a more narrow road:

Narrow road

Reaching the Thousand Trails campground entrance:

Thousand Trails entrance

Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse video of this journey, and pictures of the campground the following day.

Are you enjoying these posts? Let me know!

Coyote Valley RV Resort

A recent addition to our itinerary, we decided to spend three nights at Coyote Valley RV Park to break up an otherwise too-long trip to our next location.

Here I’m in our truck behind our coach, having just unhooked them. We had a back-in site, so it’s easier for me to unhook while Jenn is checking in, so we don’t block the road by the site:

In truck behind coach

A staff member guided us to the site:

Guide

This was our first back-in site. Jenn did a great job getting positioned:

Backing into site

Hookups:

Hookups

This is an unusually large site, entirely concreted, other than a grassy garden between sites:

Large site

Large site

Large site

Campground map:

Campground map

This part of the park is very new:

RVs

Green spaces:

Green spaces

Bocce ball:

Bocce ball

Wilderness area:

Wilderness area

Pond with ducks:

Pond with ducks

Clubhouse and pool area:

Clubhouse and pool area

Pool area

Pool

Pools

Dog park:

Dog park

Office etc:

Office etc

Other pool area:

Other pool area

Paladin looking out a window:

Paladin looking out window

Paladin looking out window

Travel from Corning to San Jose

We departed Heritage RV Park in Corning, California, and headed down to San Jose, to Coyote Valley RV Resort, a bit south of the city.

Here’s a map of our route for this leg; a 5 hour drive in our coach:

Map route

Nice rolling green hills:

Hills

Not so nice heavy traffic through Vacaville:

Traffic

More hills:

Hills

680 Benicia-Martinez bridge:

Bridge

Super scenic industry:

Industry

Nice of California to name a freeway after us — the Sinclair Freeway:

Sinclair Freeway

Paladin peeking; still not super happy about travel days, but getting a little more used to them, I think:

Paladin

The 680 freeway south of Pleasanton was anything but pleasant; the road surface was in horrible condition, making the coach feel like it was going to shake apart:

Horrible road

Paladin came further forward than he had before (I kept a close eye on him, to make sure he didn’t go by the pedals at Jenn’s feet):

Paladin

Downtown San Jose off in the distance:

San Jose

Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse video of this journey.

Are you enjoying these posts? Let me know!

A sampling of seating situations

Just a few random pictures today.

Here’s me sitting outside at our campsite, working on my laptop:

David sitting at campsite

A recent addition: a little table with drink and device holders, that clips on to the zero-gravity chair:

Table for chair

Paladin sitting on the pull-out counter of our kitchen:

Paladin sitting on pull-out counter

Paladin sitting in a foam box from some packaging:

Paladin sitting in foam box

Sleeping in a cardboard bed on the coach dash:

Paladin

Heritage RV Park

Our first RV park in California was Heritage RV Park in Corning:

Heritage RV Park

Heritage RV Park map; it’s a fairly small park, with somewhat tight spaces, but nice and quiet, compared to several previous places:

Heritage RV Park map

Info:

Heritage RV Park info

Our coach and truck in our campsite:

Coach and truck in campsite

Coach in campsite

The campground has a pool, though it’s now closed for the season:

Pool

Bocce ball… decorated as graveyards for Halloween:

Bocce ball graveyards

An RV storage shelter made of solar panels; a clever idea:

Shelter made of solar panels

The street outside the park has several eating options, though we didn’t partake of any of them other than the Olive Pit cafe, and Starbucks for breakfast one morning:

Street

Street

Weirdly, the park is through a strip mall:

Mall

Mall

Mall and RV park entrance

RV park entrance

The RV park had several empty sites throughout our stay (you can see our coach in the middle):

RV park

This was the first time (other than at our homestead) that we used our outdoor rug; previous sites had grass, so we couldn’t use it:

Coach

A couple of bonus pictures of Paladin:

Paladin

Paladin

Another bonus: Corning is known for growing olives, and has a roadside attraction of a giant green olive:

Large olive

Into California

Time to move again; we departed Valley of the Rogue State Park in Gold Hill, Oregon, and headed down I-5 into northern California, to our next stop, at Heritage RV Park in Corning, California.

Here’s a map of our route to this point, via RV Trip Wizard; we bought our coach in Kennewick, WA, and took it back to our homestead in the Portland region, then up to Mom’s place and Poulsbo RV near Seattle, then headed south via Chehalis, McMinnville, Gold Hill, and into northern California:

Route map

A closer look at a map of this leg; a 4.5 hour drive in our coach. I’ll try to remember to include a map like this for all subsequent travel days:

Route map

This was Paladin’s second journey in the coach. He didn’t seem quite as freaked out this time, though still not entirely comfortable with the experience. He spent much of the trip on the kitchen counter, where he could see out the windows from a safe space:

Paladin on kitchen counter

We always like to see and identify other motorhomes, especially other Tiffin Allegro Bus models; this one in front of us is a few years newer than ours:

Allegro Bus buddy

Paladin:

Paladin

Watching out a window:

Paladin

Freeway views:

Freeway

Paladin:

Paladin

He ventured by my chair, experiencing the step cover:

Paladin

There were a bunch of hills on this journey; here’s the Siskiyou Mountain summit:

Siskiyou Mountain summit

Nice views:

Nice view

Scenic

Goodbye Oregon; the sign says “Oregon thanks you; come back soon”. Oregon is our domicile; we will be back, in a few months time:

Goodbye Oregon

Hello California; the sign says “Welcome to California”:

Hello California

Agricultural inspection station; no hassle, they just asked if we have any plants or fruits, which we didn’t:

Agricultural inspection station

Scenic:

Scenic

A stop at a Mount Shasta viewpoint for lunch:

Mount Shasta

Truck and coach at the viewpoint, with a glimpse of Shasta in the background:

Truck and coach

Mount Shasta:

Mount Shasta

Mount Shasta

Low water level in Shasta Lake:

Low water level

Low water level

Paladin:

Paladin

Fuel stop; we love Love’s truck stops, even easier now that we have a discount fuel card (perhaps a topic for a future post?):

Fuel stop

Paladin’s first trip in the coach

After picking up Paladin and letting him get used to living in our coach for a few days, we rocked his world, literally, by starting up the coach, bringing in the slides, and driving to a new campsite, for the first time in his experience.

Paladin wasn’t at all sure about the changed room configuration and engine noise:

Paladin

Here you can see the slides in, and Paladin unsure about things as we drove down the road:

Paladin

Peeking from the bedroom:

Paladin

Driving down the road:

Road

I added a dash cam to record footage of our travels (something to look forward to in the future):

Dash cam

Paladin being brave, coming up towards the front while we’re driving:

Paladin

Looking a bit freaked out:

Paladin

Paladin

Looking out the window:

Paladin

Paladin

Heading down the I-5 freeway, south of Eugene, Oregon:

Freeway

Freeway

Slow for curves:

Freeway

More freeway scenes:

Freeway

Freeway

When we got to our campsite (more on that tomorrow), we auto-leveled as usual:

Auto-leveling

Paladin in the driver seat:

Paladin

He survived the ordeal, and was happy to curl up in his cardboard nest:

Paladin

Comfy cat:

Paladin

Paladin has never been a fan of car travel in a carrier, but he did quite well for his first trip in our coach. We didn’t lock him in a carrier, which may have helped, since he could hide under the bed, sit on the kitchen counter, or look out a window, as desired. I think in time he will become more used to it, though travel days may remain more stressful for him… which is fair, since they are for us, too.

Introducing Paladin

People who know us or follow my personal blog will know of our cat, Paladin.

During our stay at Mom’s place while the RV was being serviced, and initial travel, he was boarded at an excellent place in Portland, Cats in the City. They sent daily updates on how he was doing, and how much they loved him and his snuggles.

On Sunday we collected him. They were sad to see him go. He wasn’t overly thrilled about being in the carrier and truck:

Paladin in carrier

While stopped for groceries, I let Paladin loose in the truck:

Paladin loose in the truck

He wasn’t sure that was much of an improvement at first:

Paladin in the back seat

Though settled down by my feet:

Paladin by my feet

I put him back in the carrier before Jenn got back to the truck.

Once we got to our coach, we let him out again. Here’s Paladin under the desk:

Paladin under the desk

Looking for a place to hide:

Paladin finding a place to hide

He hid for a while, as is normal for cats in a new place, but came out before long, and enjoyed the heated tile floor:

Paladin enjoying the heated tile floor

We set up a new top-entry litter box, which he seemed to accept:

Paladin using the new litter box

It didn’t take too long to resume his normal snuggly ways:

Jenn and Paladin snuggling

Jenn and Paladin snuggling

We set up his food and water by our table; here he’s eating breakfast with us:

Paladin eating breakfast with us

I opened the windows when it got warmer, and Paladin was intrigued by the smellovision:

Paladin with an open window

Paladin looking out an RV window:

Paladin looking out RV window

We got a new water fountain for him:

Paladin drinking from new water fountain

We moved it a bit further from the power outlet; water and electricity isn’t an ideal mix:

Paladin drinking from water fountain

Paladin seems to have settled in quite quickly; he’s still concerned by some noises in the campground, but seems generally happy.

We planned things so he’d have several days to settle in. Of course, the real challenge will be when we move the coach tomorrow; bringing in the slides and driving down the road. No doubt he’ll freak out about that, but hopefully will get more comfortable with it in time. I’ll post an update on how that goes.