#60 Jan 2015 On the Road Again!!

Sunday, January 18th we packed up and headed south again. This will be our big circle tour of the US and Canada. We will go south to California, east to Florida, north to Maine, into the Maritimes and back across Canada. We expect to be back into British Columbia in August.

Our first morning of this adventure started with a beautiful sunrise at a park near Mt St Helens WA. Unfortunately, we had rain, rain, more rain and wind so no view of Mt. St. Helens.

Last spring when we came through Grants Pass OR we had Henderson’s Line Up give us quotes to upgrade some of the mechanics of the motorhome. At that time we had suspension upgrades that greatly improved the handling of the unit. This time they changed the shocks to ones specific to motorhomes. Within minutes of being on the highway I phoned back to say thank you for a much smoother ride. There are more improvements suggested but we will spread out our spending.

The name Siskiyou Pass brings out many stories of winter mountain roads from RVers. We were fortunate again and had a beautiful, sunny day and a stunning view of Mt Shasta.

When we traveled through California last winter we noticed signs about the drought. There was so much to see and absorb that we didn’t pay much attention. This trip we tried to understand the messages.

These signs are repeated over many miles.

There has been a drought in California for the last 7 years. The climate in California draws people. We moved to Surrey for the climate and cannot begrudge more people wanting the same.

Politics or people? We spoke to locals who felt:

Too many people = too much use of limited resources.
Others blame climate change.
Others blame politicians who fund a new high speed train instead of protecting water resources.
Others blame too many dams on life sustaining rivers.

Who is to blame? Everyone? We are all people affecting one another.

There is no doubt about the water shortage. Orchards are bulldozed because farmers can earn more money selling their precious water allotment than growing food.

There are hundreds of miles of canals such as this one moving water from Southern Oregon and Northern California for use throughout the state, particularly drought stricken Southern California.

We have heard rave reviews about Orange Grove RV Resort near Bakersfield CA. It lives up to it’s reputation with the entire park lined with mature orange trees at each site.

The park supplies pickers. We didn’t understand the term until the next morning. The tines at the top of the basket grab the orange and then you twist the orange off the branch and into the basket. The park requests that guests only pick a grocery bag of oranges so the next guests can enjoy them as well.

The entrance to the park is impressive with meticulously shaped trees.

We stopped at an orange processing facility with the requisite gift shop where we received more oranges. Delicious!