HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!
Day 74 – It rained some last night, leaving the ground pretty muddy. We were up by 7:45 a.m. & it was 55 degrees out & foggy. Took long showers & Rob dumped the tanks a final time. The people parked right across from us will be glad we’re gone – they’d parked a bit too close for comfort & we could both look directly into each other’s RV’s. They were a nice, older couple with an older dog they obviously adored. Any time we’d go outside, one of them would start up a long conversation. They were from Sacramento, CA & loved to travel around for shorter weekend trips in their trailer. The man seemed starved for male talk; he always came out to talk about trucks & RV parts & other manly things, LOL. The woman, thank goodness, didn’t want to talk about cooking all the time. We continued packing up & getting ready to go, with Rob being interrupted continuously as he worked outside.
78 miles
Richardson Grove Campground & RV Park, 750 U.S. Highway 101, Garberville, CA 95542, (707) 247-3380, www.redwoodfamilycamp.com. Check-out time is 11 a.m.; no check-in time posted. Open all year. Located 9 miles below the city of Garberville & 7 miles below the city of Benbow, they are conveniently close to the Avenue of the Giants, Richardson Grove State Park, the Eel River & the hiking, biking, & kayaking of the Benbow Lake & Standish-Hickey State Recreation Areas. They also could be a good basepoint for scenic drives to Shelter Cove, the lake country, Fort Bragg & Mendocino on the coast. The Park had 92 campsites, some for tents, some for different sizes of RVs, plus several cabins. This is an independent campground just off Highway 101 & there was traffic noise. There is also a busy gas station in front of the Park & that increases the traffic noise. About half the campground was closed for the season. The rest of the campground was about ½ full. In the summer, this would be extremely busy & noisy, but for the 2 nights we stayed, it was convenient & worked out just fine. We had site #17 with full hook-ups. The Park is clean & the owners/hosts are very nice & accommodating. An “A” for customer service. They take Passport America, and it only cost us $20 per night for full hook-ups! They have laundry facilities, propane, a general store, and all the regular private campground amenities. Under similar circumstances, we’d stay here again.
Three girls were cuddled together on 1 heated pad. We had to get a picture. This was before they realized they’d be travelling again, and long before they knew there’d be no electricity to heat their pads. Pixie was on the bed, her usual place to hang out.
Java, Luna and Gracie loving the heating pad
Pixie
We departed at 11 a.m., 59 degrees, foggy & light rain. The drive was pleasant, traffic was light, it stopped raining & the fog cleared. We arrived at our new campground at 12:30 p.m., 61 degrees & partly cloudy. We set up on site #13, Ky-en Campground at Lake Mendocino, off Highway 101 & Route 20, not far from Ukiah, CA. No one was around; there were two other campsites filled & the people were probably away for Thanksgiving.
Ky-en Recreation Area COE Campground, Ukiah, CA
Site 13, Lake Mendocino COE Campground, Ukiah, CA
Site 13, Lake Mendocino COE Campground, Ukiah, CA
We had lunch & surveyed our surroundings. We were on a hill above the Lake which we could see through the trees. Mostly Madrona & Oak trees, out of the redwoods for now, the oaks were turning yellow with fall colors. We spent much of the afternoon outside in the ample space of our campsite, sitting in our chairs watching the birds. We could hear the ducks & geese on the Lake, and Acorn Woodpeckers were pounding acorns into the holes in the trees they’d made for their winter feasts. Little birds were hopping on the ground around us; we looked them up – Plain Titmouse. A very nice setting.
Later in the afternoon, an RV arrived & they parked on another hill above us. We couldn’t see them but we certainly could hear them. They had guests over for Thanksgiving & their were children running around, yelling like kids do. As the other campers arrived back to their sites, the noise picked up more. We looked on the internet to see how long these three campers would be staying here – by Monday we should be alone again. (We really like being in an empty campground. Getting pretty spoiled, LOL.)
We had some holiday cheer & turned some music on – the kind of noise we wanted to hear, ho ho, made fresh halibut tacos for our Thanksgiving dinner, and all was good. The sun came out in the late afternoon, and the kitties loved it. The high today was 65 degrees, quite pleasant.