Casini Ranch

We were on the road again this weekend. (Hooray!) We headed north 100 miles or so to the Casini Ranch Family Campground in Duncans Mills, CA. This quaint, but not so little, place sits on about one mile of shoreline of the Russian River.

The weather was perfect. We used the AC just a bit during the day, and the heat pump just a bit at night. One of the best things about the trip was breaking out the bikes. We loved it! Here's P cruising around Casini Ranch on his bike. (And M was riding with one hand and clicking with the other!)


This is a campground that is exactly that: a campground. The place was covered with tents, with some awesome tent spots near the river. There were also motorhomes, fifth-wheels and travel trailers of all shapes and sizes.


With the bikes, we were able to cover a lot of ground that would otherwise go uncovered. We ventured in to the bustling metropolis of Duncans Mills, saw the sites and picked up a couple of caches. Definitely worth the ride.

Back at camp, we were in site #132, which is a nice spot with full hookups, a nice size lawn and plenty of shade. Roger and Marie, our new camping friends we met in Plymouth, were a couple of sites up. Our neighbors Richard and Karen were a lovely couple who admired our new toy and gave us great words of advice. We both agreed that Karen reminded us an awful lot of M's mom. That was fun!


Our spot was nice and quiet most of the time...until the Sunday morning rush to the two dump stations that weren't very far away. (We're so glad we didn't have to wait in that line!)


Once again, P navigated Sunday afternoon Bay Area traffic with ease. Along the way, we made a major investment in petroleum, and were thrilled to pay just $4.27 per gallon. With Bullwinkle filled up and safely tucked away, we're ready for our next trip, which is coming up soon.

This pic gives you just a hint of where we're off to next...


Stay tuned!

New Bike Rack

Bullwinkle didn't go anywhere this weekend. But, we went to him...with a present!

After taking two trips and wishing we had our bikes, we decided a bike rack was at the top of our list of things to buy for the moose. And, today, we decided to make the buy. P had the thing assembled and mounted in minutes. We even included a nifty hitch lock to keep the thing where it's supposed to be.

This groovy little number folds out to hold four bikes. That's enough for our two and a couple of friends. P thinks it's most cool that the two little red things at the end of both posts are bottle openers. How convenient.

No more walking four miles for cheap wine in our future. Next time, we'll be on our bikes. And, maybe we'll get beer instead. After all, we know we have an opener.

We can't wait!

Tour time

We made it safely to our "stick house" after a great weekend in Plymouth. The return trip was, thankfully, uneventful. P cooked up a tasty breakfast this morning and we were on the road by 11. We stopped for lunch at Brannan Island State Park -- a rather hot and muggy spot we'd been meaning to check out. (We'll come back when it's cooler.) Bullwinkle was tucked into his storage spot by 2:30. (Our car, which had been in his spot all weekend, was hotter than a firecracker inside.) A fun holiday weekend, indeed.

Between this trip and our maiden voyage, we've done our best to create a little virtual tour. It'll be awhile before Bullwinkle makes it to visit some of our readers, so we thought you might like to have a look. Of course, if you come visit us we'll be happy to take you for a ride!

Here's a walk around the outside:




Here's a look inside:



And, if you prefer photos over video, we have a few of those for you. (Click a pic for a bigger view.)

Winnebago calls this area "The Lounge":



The driver and passenger seats both rotate to face the lounge. The curtains are a very mellow tan. They're definitely not pink, as they look here.



This desk in front of the passenger seat makes a great place to blog:



Looking back from the front:



Our very comfy "u-shaped" dinette:



This kitchen is nicer than the one at home:



The bathroom has enough room to do everything you need to do:



The bed is a queen. The reading lights and bedside windows are nice:



Lots of bedroom storage and a TV, too:



OK. If you've hung on this long in the tour, we'll finish with a picture of P doing his favorite camping chore:



Yep, he's dumping!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Watch this space for the next adventure of Bullwinkle's Travels.

Safe travels to all!

Still Celebrating

We love a parade. Add one to an Independence Day celebration and you have one hot holiday.

No parade in these parts yesterday. But, we got one today. The annual kids and pets parade attracts kids (of all ages) and their furry friends all decked out in red, white and blue. That's the beginning and the end in the picture. The festivities only lasted a two or three minutes, but that's all it took to make our July 4th celebration extra special.

Once the parade passed by, we headed into town and picked up a geocache or two. Plymouth is town that boomed in the 1870's when gold mining was big. Today, it's a sleepy little town that makes a great place to camp on a long holiday weekend.

Happy 4th!

If you want to experience Americana, head to a campground on the Fourth of July.

It’s definitely here at the Far Horizon’s 49er Village RV Resort. There are kids on bikes decorated with flags and red white and blue streamers. Campsites are decked out in stars and stripes. RVs are covered with bunting and festive party lights. There are more flags flying here than in our city neighborhood, for sure. (We’ve done our part. Can you spot our tiny little flags at the bottom of the pic?)

We arrived yesterday in the heat of the day. Everything – from leaving our storage site to setting up camp – took longer than we expected. Bullwinkle gave us fits trying to get level. We’re sure the neighbors loved watching us newbies at work. And, we learned that all 50-to-30 amp adaptors are not the same. Thankfully, a lovely woman at the office came to our rescue with adaptor that worked. (And, we’ve added an adaptor to our growing Camping World shopping list.) While it made for a stressful hour or two, it all melted away as we enjoyed a cocktail and listened to a little Fats Domino in the cool comforts of our home away from home.

Today we’re enjoying cooler heads and temperatures. We’ve exchanged pleasantries with other campers, and received many compliments on our pretty new rig.

“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to,” was how one camper started. We steeled ourselves for some sage advice for newbies. Ready to hear about whatever obviously stupid thing we’d done, we listened eagerly.

“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to buy one of these things?” he joked. “What rock have you been living under? Gas is almost five bucks a gallon. Nobody’s driving anywhere, much less buying an RV.”

We looked around at the couple hundred fuel-guzzlers and the “nobodies” having fun gathered around them.

“Yep, nobody” we chimed with a good laugh and wished each other a happy holiday.