Rolling Hills Self-Serve RV Park

Sunday | 22 April 2007 | Corning, California:  We saw every sort to weather today on our nearly-400 mile drive from Eugene (south down I-5) to Corning. When we left Eugene, it was 48 degrees. We actually didn't have too much rain, but as we crossed over the Siskiyou Pass, it was snowing!

NOTE: We had planned to cross over the Cascades and take 395 south to Palm Springs, but there is a terrible snow storm over the Sierra Mountains, so we changed our route. This is the great thing about traveling around in your own house - you have options! And you can truly go "where the weather suits your clothes". (Luckily, we have shorts and parkas, golf clubs and books.)

Another drive down I-5. Yes, Interstate 5 between Eugene and Sacramento is simply one of the prettiest drives in the United States and we do appreciate the splendor... but after years and years of making the drive... it can become boring. Today we started another "book on CD" - Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It is a story, told through the 90-ish year-old eyes of the lead character, Jacob, of how his life suddenly changed at age 23. Days before taking his board exams at Cornell University Veterinary School, his parents are killed in an automobile accident and, no kidding, he joins the circus! It is fascinating stuff - we listened for over three hours today (of 11 hours total). Neither of us know a thing about the circus, and the characters are very compelling, so we are really enjoying the yarn already. The story takes place just after the Great Depression and during Prohibition. Get this book/tape/CD!

The sun was out by the time we drove around and over beautiful Lake Shasta and it was 70 degrees when we stopped for the night in Corning, California

Self-Service suits us fine tonight

So here we are again at the self-service RV park behind the Rolling Hills Casino! There is no attendant, only a kiosk with a machine that looks like a parking meter. You pay and receive a receipt for your window. There are no numbers on the sites. If there is an empty site - they have a vacancy. Casino security guards regularly patrol through the campground. It is $25 dollars per night, a bit expensive for bare-bones camping. Honestly, we wish there were more over-night spots like this for RV travelers... or even a few designated over-night spots at every campground (for people who don't want to use the swimming pool) for campers that just want a safe place to sleep for the night while traveling.

If you don't want to spend $25, the tribe allows you to park in the RV parking lot behind the casino for no charge (but with no hook-ups either and the parking lot isn't very level). We set up camp and took a walk in the warm sun. We walked all the way around the casino, to scope-out the free RV parking/camping situation and then took a very quick spin through the casino. It is very typical of other Native American casinos and very smoky. We also walked through the non-smoking area. I couldn't tell if it was because no one was smoking or because of the heavy amount of strawberry room freshener permeating the air, but the air quality wasn't too bad in the non-smoking area. However, the weather was too nice to be inside a smoke-filled casino - we continued our walk in the warm sun.

Our Intrigue and our new Honda CRV - resting for the night just off I-5

We had a very delicious dinner (if I say so myself). A few weeks ago, I had shredded our left-over Passover brisket - with the gravy - and vacuum-sealed and froze the mixture. Tonight I only had to heat it up and serve it over pappardelle (ribbon) pasta for an easy and yummy meal. We had a ripe avocado and two ripe tomatoes - instant salad! Red Sox are on TV - four home runs back-to-back.

Left-overs

RV Park: Rolling Hills Casino