California Dreaming & Surprise Meeting with Blogging Friends!

We started our Oregon portion (of this southbound drive) in the northern city of Salem, the State Capital.   Our overnight was at Hee Hee Ilahee RV Resort.

Hee Hee Ilahee RV Park, Salem, Oregon.

New Years Day was an easy one.  Our drive took about 3 1/2 hours to the southern town of Canyonville and the awesome 7 Feathers RV Resort and Casino.  

A bit of fog near Eugene, Oregon.

Taking a quick break for lunch about 45 minutes from our destination - 7 Feathers RV Park.

Exit 99 - from I-5 to the RV Resort.

Approaching the registration centre at the 7 Feathers RV Park

We were quite surprised by the volume of RV's in the park.  The registration desk explained that the New Years week is one of the four major park sell outs.  The others are Labour Day, Thanksgiving and the July 4th celebrations. This park is quickly gaining a solid reputation and I believe it will be necessary to make reservations in the not too distant future.

Waiting for the attendant to guide us to our RV spot.

The weather here is really quite nice.  Last year was a rain washout.  The temperatures are very mild, sunny and bright.

We were set up in little time.

Shortly after completing our set up, I was making coffee when I heard Jeanette excitedly mention that our friends from Vancouver Island were arriving.  That's Hector and Diane's Class 'A' Travel Supreme next to us.  We had planned to meet up here.

It is great to meet up and exchange laughs.

Another couple from the Nanaimo area were trailing Hector and Diane.  Nestor and Terry are heading south to the  Lake Havasu area.

Our favourite dog - Chico, the Portuguese Water Dog - was quick to greet us. His mom and dad are Hector and Diane but he sure seems to know us too.  Great disposition.

We were ahead of our friends with the grocery shopping so we happily offered to prepare burgers on the Bar B Q and to look after dinner outdoors on our site.

Spending some fun times catching up on views and news!

We cleaned up after dinner and made our way to the indoor pool and hot tub before calling it a night.  Everyone was tired...quite possibly from all the laughter!

Up early today - Tuesday  - I stepped out to take this photo of the fog that enveloped us overnight.

It was mild again this morning but a low cloud of fog was our friend for a few hours.  It looked nice.  The sun burned it off by 10:00 am.

The indoor pool - and reception in the background.

Most of today was spent reorganizing ourselves and relaxing.  I took advantage to fuel up with diesel while the truck was unhitched. We got caught up on missed blogs and emails.  I even managed to do a bit of reading....before finding my eyelids wanting to close.  That got me off my chair and back outdoors to supervise Hector and his Island colleague Nestor, as they were working on some electrical 12 volt connection to Hector's toad - tow vehicle.

Now this was a BIG SURPRISE!  Allen and Lolita! (Right and centre right)

After dinner this evening, we took the shuttle bus down to the casino with the intention of seeing the Christmas light display, burning up some free play in the casino and enjoying a coffee in the casino coffee shop.

No sooner had we entered the 7 Feathers Casino when a voice from behind addressed me by my first name.  I turned around and quickly said hello to Allen from Allen & Lolita's RV Journey  Although this was our first 'in person' meeting, it was as though we had known each other for years.  We then met Lolita and shared some of their experience while visiting family in White Rock, BC, Canada.  They also had the opportunity to have lunch with other Canadian west coast bloggers,   BIG DAWG AND FREEWAY*  Doug and Sue in Langley, BC.

Allen and Lolita are on their long drive back home to Corona, California. They chose to overnight at the casino hotel.  Although they had written a comment on our blog of their overnight at the casino, I had not seen their comment before meeting in the casino.  Sharp eyed Allen was quick to recognize Jeanette and I.  Of equal interest was how he recognized our fellow RV friends from several of our blogs from our journey last winter. When I introduced Hector an Diane to Allen and Lolita, Allen quickly recognized Hector.  Small, small world.  This blog world sure can make for interesting meetings.

That said, we spent little time in the casino and Hector was kind to take a photo of Allen, Lolita, Jeanette and I outside the casino.  Safe travel back home to Corona tomorrow you two!

Having read about Lolita's famous tamales - and all of the bloggers who have benefited from her fare - I suggested (as others have) that she could easily start a new business making and selling those in demand tamales.

Allen suggested that we should collect Rick Rick & Paulette's RV Travels , Hector and I and drive out to golf in the Corona area when we get into the Palm Springs/Desert Hot Springs area in late February/early March.  So Rick, this is an early warning to keep your new clubs well rehearsed and shiny.  We could well take Allen up on his offer.

Outdoor casino photo taken while we waited for the shuttle bus to take us back to our RV Park.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will see us travel towards northern California and into the Durango RV resort in Red Bluff.  We can wash our rigs there before continuing our journey to the warmer climes further south.

It sure is fun to be back on the road.

Thanks for dropping by.