We visited Bidwell Mansion in Chico, CA, and had a guided tour inside.
The exterior of Bidwell Mansion:
Portraits:
Drawing room:
Dining room:
Kitchen:
Laundry:
Library:
Office:
Stairs:
Hall light; both electric and gas:
Main bedroom:
Bathroom:
Closet:
More bedrooms:
Bathroom:
Servants bedrooms:
Servants bathroom:
On the third floor, a ballroom:
Skylight:
More bedrooms:
Storage:
Stairs to the tower:
Back door:
Architect’s house:
Carriage house:
Plaque:
House exterior:
Info signs:
Just a few random pictures today.
Here’s me sitting outside at our campsite, working on my laptop:
A recent addition: a little table with drink and device holders, that clips on to the zero-gravity chair:
Paladin sitting on the pull-out counter of our kitchen:
Paladin sitting in a foam box from some packaging:
Sleeping in a cardboard bed on the coach dash:
We visited a vineyard… which isn’t a particularly unusual thing for us to do, but this was an interesting one: the New Clairvaux Vineyard is part of a Cistercian abbey; yes, wine made by Trappist monks.
Tasting room:
Cork cross:
Picture and model of the abbey:
Info:
We enjoyed a tasting, and bought some bottles.
[This was a bonus picture at the end of the Lassen Volcanic National Park post, but I decided to split it out into its own post, so food-related posts can be found more easily.]
On the way home from Lassen (i.e. back to the coach; home is where the coach is), we stopped for fish and chips for dinner at PortSide Fish & Chips in Anderson, California. I don’t usually bother posting about food experiences, but this one is notable as the first time I’ve ordered fish and chips for myself; I’ve never been a fan of fish, but am trying to expand my horizons, so I can enjoy local cuisine as we explore:
While staying at Heritage RV Park, we took an hour drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park.
We’ve been to this park before, but wanted to visit again, even though the park is closed at present, other than the visitor centers at a couple of entrances. If nothing else, it was an enjoyable drive.
For example, here’s a viewpoint on the way to Lassen:
Getting closer to the park, we saw some burnt trees:
A little snow on the side of the road as we gained elevation:
A snowy peak in the distance:
More snow by the road:
The southwest entrance to Lassen:
The visitor center:
Relief map of the park:
Snowy peaks:
After going out of the park, we headed northwards, through a tiny town named Manton, which made me think of the creator of the Micro.blog service, Manton Reece:
A couple of narrow bridges:
Small town Halloween; they were holding traffic to enable the kids to safely cross the highway:
Manzanita Lake, near the northwest entrance to Lassen:
Ranger station:
Seismograph:
Museum:
Museum displays:
A bridge led to a trail:
Stream:
Trees:
Burnt trees:
Fallen tree:
Burnt trees:
More trees:
Trees and mountain:
A selfie with Jenn and me:
Lassen Volcanic National Park is closed currently, other than the visitor centers just inside the southwest and northwest entrances. So we visited both in our pickup truck, taking a route outside the park that took about an hour. It was an interesting drive, so I thought I’d share a timelapse.
Our first RV park in California was Heritage RV Park in Corning:
Heritage RV Park map; it’s a fairly small park, with somewhat tight spaces, but nice and quiet, compared to several previous places:
Info:
Our coach and truck in our campsite:
The campground has a pool, though it’s now closed for the season:
Bocce ball… decorated as graveyards for Halloween:
An RV storage shelter made of solar panels; a clever idea:
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:
Weirdly, the park is through a strip mall:
The RV park had several empty sites throughout our stay (you can see our coach in the middle):
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:
A couple of bonus pictures of Paladin:
Another bonus: Corning is known for growing olives, and has a roadside attraction of a giant green olive:
A timelapse of the coach going from Valley of the Rogue State Park in Gold Hill, Oregon to Heritage RV Park in Corning, California.
Watch out for fun hills, the California border, the border inspection station, and fueling and weighing at Love’s, plus the campgrounds at either end.
(Not fast enough? Use YouTube’s speed controls to play the video at 2x speed.)
After fueling up at Love’s, we weighed our coach and truck on a CAT scale there:
Here’s the report via their handy app:
These weights are within the acceptable ranges for this coach; the front axle rating is 16,000 lb, and the rear is 24,000 lb. This was weighing it fully loaded with our stuff, a full tank of diesel (150 gallons), 5% fresh water, and empty grey and black tanks.
I found this advice on the tire pressures:
Here’s the formulas:
Front axle weight/2 X 1.05 = Weight to look up in single wheel chart. Add 5 psi for your final inflation pressure.
Rear axle weight/2 x1.05 = Weight to look up in dual wheel chart. Add 5 psi for final pressure.
The 1.05 is used to estimate side to side weight differences that you will see when you do individual wheel weights.
And finally, do not inflate a tire less that 80% of the max side wall pressure.
So for us, our front axle weight (14,980 lb on 2021-10-29) / 2 (for each side) * 1.05 (to offset side-to-side differences) = 7,864.5 lb (for weight table).
Front tires are Michelin 315/80R22.5, rated max load 9,090 lb (for single) at max 130 psi cold, so table says 110 – 115 psi; should go with higher.
So front tires should be at least 115 psi for us. A bit higher (less than 130) is okay, but gives rougher ride.
Rear axle weight (23,220 lb on 2021-10-29) / 2 (for each side) * 1.05 (to offset side-to-side differences) = 12,190.5 lb (for weight table).
Rear tires are also Michelin 315/80R22.5, rated max load 8,270 lb (for dual) at max 130 psi cold, so table says 90 – 95 psi. But 80% of the max pressure of 130 psi is 104 psi, so that should be the minimum.
So rear tires should be at least 105 psi for us. Though when I posted about this in the iRV2 forums to check my math, there was some skepticism about the 80% rule. Still, 95 to 105 psi is within an acceptable range.
According to the tire pressure monitor, the coach tires are all currently around 115 psi, which is perfect for the front ones, and a little high for the rear, but still good:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Paladin:
Watching out a window:
Freeway views:
Paladin:
He ventured by my chair, experiencing the step cover:
There were a bunch of hills on this journey; here’s the Siskiyou Mountain summit:
Nice views:
Goodbye Oregon; the sign says “Oregon thanks you; come back soon”. Oregon is our domicile; we will be back, in a few months time:
Hello California; the sign says “Welcome to California”:
Agricultural inspection station; no hassle, they just asked if we have any plants or fruits, which we didn’t:
Scenic:
A stop at a Mount Shasta viewpoint for lunch:
Truck and coach at the viewpoint, with a glimpse of Shasta in the background:
Mount Shasta:
Low water level in Shasta Lake:
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?):
