Gorgeous Crater and Diamond Lake

The drive between Lassen National Park and Crater Lake National Park was as scenic as we hoped our road trip would be. Endless miles of Wild West beauty, with not much civilization in between. Crater Lake's camp ground was already closed for the season, and the lodge on the main park road will close a week after our visit. While this park sees an average annual snow fall of 44 feet per year, and already had some snow storms, we just walked in light clothes.

The park ranger informed us that Diamond lake was well worth a visit, and that the camp ground was open for one more month. Wow, are we glad we went there. Prime spot, on the lake, with no neighbors close by, an inspiration for the cabin that Tod would like to build some day.  The bikes came out for a partial trip around the lake next day

Wednesday morning we left early, to make our way to the border of Oregon and Washington State, finding another state park on the Colombia River. We passed through Bend, OR  (not much charm IMHO), but did manage to spend some money at the Columbia Outlet store. Tod just parked Betsy in the parking lot of Trader Joes (you gotta love a smaller RV), and we loaded our fridge up with another week worth of food.

After being on the road for a week, we can say hat we like traveling with a RV so far. Sure, we are consuming quite some fuel (like 8 miles/gallon!): dealing with our grey water waste  (for shower/dishes) is a bit more challenging because we are mostly dry camping: Betsy is much smaller than Bliss and has no privacy to speak off. But it's easy, and you get to see great landscapes. You see something you like, you just stop,  park, and enjoy! No wonder we see so many RV's on the roads we travel. When you do this outside main travel season, you get to enjoy lots of beauty without the crowds.  With little miss Social leading the way, we still get to meet new people too.

on to Lassen National Volcanic Park

How to get a 3 yrs old to hike with you at a regular pace? Well, pair her up with a 4 yr old new friend, and off they go!  We were taking a lunch break during the early part of  Bumpass hell hike, when Tessa met a new friend. No, she didn't want to hike anymore, just climb trees with her new friend. Well, luck had it, that her new friend was doing the same hike as we were, and before we knew, we were at the bottom of the trail,  with two chatty girls holding hands all the way. Coming back up, different story, as we left earlier, but hey, every bit counts.

We loved the drive up to Lassen, and also really enjoyed the park. The weather was great during the day, and the Manzanita park camp ground much more to our liking than our first night in a RV park in Red Bluff.  Our first experience with dry camping (no plug in for water, electricity or sewer, similar to anchoring on Bliss) taught us that Betsy is a good travel companion, and and the LPG heater kept us warm during the near freezing temp at night (altitude of 5500 feet). Traveling outside the main season proves to be a great timing, as parks are less crowded, and no reservations are needed.

Count down till rolling....

Count with me, please...5, 4, 3,2 and it will be October 1st, the exact date we left 1 year ago to start our family travels. This time we will be rolling with Betsy for a couple of months till we see our beloved Bliss again in the Sea of Cortez. Our prep is way less involved than one year ago, but still we are squeezing every hour of these last days to prepare and clean.

Short post, because I should really do travel planning with the excellent help of Good Sams Club.

one of our last gorgeous walks around the n'hood

hopefully that skirt will last till halloween...

we all got bikes, sort of our dinghy for betsy

yikes, is it gonna fit?

gotta love a good carpet, and yes, she picked rain boots to wear in heat

Betsy's Maiden Voyage

It's 1 PM, we are finally on our way, in traffic, to Samuel P. Taylor State Park near Point Reyes National Sea Shore.

We have counted the stops so far, just 20 minutes from Berkeley: five stops. First stop, 2 minutes into take off  " wow, thing are flying around, forgot to put that away". Second stop: getting gas close by, luckily some of the pumps have a hangover larger than our "draft", a.k.a. height of 10.5 feet. Third stop just hundred yards from the gas station, to check on possible damage while hitting the sidewalk driving away from the station. Betsy is tough, as it turns out, no damage done! During our 4th stop, we are adjusting Tessa's seat belt, so she is more comfortable. And then, yes final stop before we are really on our way:  picking up a new house battery at Whale Point, as we let Tessa and friends play a bit too long with lights the weekend before...In the parking lot, we quickly eat some lunch in our mobile home and hit the road.

Fortunately, we are all in a good mood, the weather is gorgeous and we are happy and lucky that Tod scored us a simple no hook-up campsite for one night in a popular State Park surrounded by 200-foot redwood trees.

And it was great! We enjoyed the scenery, Tessa biked, made new friends and invited herself to neighboring tents, we cooled off in the stream. We bbq'ed and ate marsh mellows, and our cozy Betsy made for a nice rest when we needed it.  At night, the temperature cooled down a lot, so we ended up turning on our LPG heater the next morning. Note to fellow boaters: even our fridge and hot water heater run on LPG! The next morning we drove to one of the beaches of Point Reyes, and learned that Betsy has no problem with a 17% grade. What's great is that you can just quickly shower off in your home, make a lovely lunch and enjoy the view.  And to our surprise....our daughter was so wiped out on the way back that she napped for 1.5 hrs straight on the drive home ( she doesn't nap in a car, and has recently stopped napping at all).

So our maiden voyage was a success, and we can see we will have plenty of fun with Betsy. Tessa is already asking when we are going camping again.