So, the sarcastically “great” state of Kalifornia always seems to sink its claws into any plans we would like to make and violently rip them from our grasp. Jeanne, being named Trustee for her mother’s living trust, was charged with the administration of the trust. This would have been a task that could be handled while still allowing us to be mobile. But, alas, Kalifornia DMV strikes once again. Jeanne’s mother’s car being registered in mom’s name and not the trust, the DMV requires a 40 day wait period from the date of death before one can submit all the forms necessary to change the title for purposes of selling the car, and all being done in person at the DMV. So then, we get the (dis)pleasure of hanging around even LONGER in that miserable state. “%&@*$#!&@^#%$!!!!!” We bounced around between the Redding RV Park, the Redding Elk’s Lodge, and Win-River Casino, trying to keep our long term costs down while burning time.

For what little downtime activities we could squeeze in-between taking care of trust business, we managed to get our bicycles fired up and ride parts of the Sacramento River Trail which runs from downtown Redding to the Shasta Dam (20 +/- miles one way). We also did some walking back at the Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River. It was certainly a huge improvement over the past 4-5 years being in the area with all the past smoky skies due to wildfires (I don’t know why they continue to call the constantly occurring events “wildfires”; I personally think most if not all of them are being intentionally set, should be called arson fires instead). Never having experienced the great Redding Farmer’s Market, we wandered over to find it to be a pitifully small event at the civic center. More entertaining were the various pieces of artwork scattered about the grounds of the civic center. At some point during this stay Jeanne caught “the bug”. No, not that one. The “pickleball bug”. She decided she wanted to try it out and we found some fairly new courts had been erected at Enterprise Park in Redding. After a short outfitting run, rackets in hand, it was off to the park. After a few scattered days of chasing that wiffleball around the court, Jeanne decided she was hooked. Me, I’m easy, having played my share of racquetball (although the two sports are not even comparable), I was happy we found a mutually satisfying physical sport.

The whole area of Redding has a yearly car show event called “Kool April Nites”, a local take on the Reno “Hot August Nights”, and various areas hold their own mini-events. One such event is the “Show & Shine” held at the Win-River Casino. We grabbed up Jeanne’s brother Dave and took a stroll through the restored, mostly classic cars from days of yore. One regret I have is that I never learned much about auto mechanics, I think it would be fun working on a restoration project now and then. I’m sure it’s a kinda expensive hobby…

Upon freeing ourselves from the grip of the DMV, we FINALLY got the go signal, went jacks-up with warp speed, and resumed a run towards Prescott Valley, AZ which we had originally planned back in December. Heading toward Hwy. 58 and the Tehachapi Pass (our regular route of choice for ingress and egress to/from Kalifornia), we made a very short detour/stopoff in Atascadero, CA, to say “Happy Birthday” to granddaughter Hailey (and belated “Happy Birthday” to granddaughter Ellie). 

Back on the road, it was onward to Prescott Valley. We did a one-nighter at the Needles Elk’s Lodge, then completed the route at the Prescott Valley Elk’s RV Park. Our point to the return stay was to further evaluate it as a possible landing zone for when we retire from the full-time life style and not necessarily to re-experience any major sightseeing as we had already done. That being said, we did take another stroll around Fain Lake since it is directly behind the Elk’s Lodge. In fact, Jeanne got the “good samaritan” idea to pick up garbage along our walk to the lake. It was not like trying that anywhere in Kalifornia, there you would need a truckload of garbage bags. Here we barely filled one bag. They also put on a weekend “farmer’s market” next door to the Elk’s Lodge, which we attended. This was a sad “farmer’s market” since there were absolutely NO produce stands (we were told it was too early for planting in the area, still subject to frost). It turned out to simply be a swap meet style of marketplace.

With our stay in Prescott coming to an end, we are preparing for a somewhat dreaded return to Kalifornia. We have some medical stuff we want to take care of with our PCP back in Santa Rosa. We are also planning a summer vacation trip for our 10 year old grandson Max. We are going to snatch him up after our medical chores and hit the road for a whirlwind summer tour of the midwest United States, the crowned jewel being a few days run through Yellowstone Nat’l Park. Max has not ventured into this part of the country, so we put together about a 5-week plan.  So, now you are caught up. “Say ‘good night’, Irene!” And check out these moon pics. Until next post…