A Little Break
~Sunday, October 23, 2022~
Day 861 (Travel Day)
The priority right now is trying to figure out what’s wrong with our pup. She seems to have an acute itching problem never seen before and no…..it’s not fleas. Sadie is one healthy girl and has never had allergies or skin irritations in all of her 8 years on this planet. A common sense question would be what changes has she had recently in her diet since I believe that skin irritation manifests itself from the inside/out (unless it’s fleas). So now that we’ve come up with the question, I think we have an answer that I’m beating myself up over. I should know better than to question my intuition since it’s always served me well. In this instance, her summer supply of First Mate dogfood was getting low, and being that we were in Canada (where her dog food is made), I thought surely a feed store or specialty pet store would have it. Bingo….we found a feed store in B.C. that carried the brand, but not her formula which is grain-free. I really hesitated making a temporary switch to “grain-friendly” but decided to buy a small bag of it to get us by. I think that was a mistake. After the fact, I did a little more research and found that switching ingredients can have a profound effect on dogs. So now that we’re in Napa, we’re immediately switching her back to her tried and true. The vet told me that it can take up to 2 weeks to see the benefits of switching back so we will see. Hopefully, this is the solution.
As we exited the town of Weed, it was an absolutely gorgeous day! The rain from last night had come and gone, clearing out much of the haze to reveal the area’s crown jewel……Mount Shasta.
Jeff has hiked the 14,179 foot peak 5 times, summiting 3…….once with a friend and another with our son Shane. He had to turn around once due to bad weather and the second time due to altitude sickness.
Being on the other side of the mountain, we weren’t able to see the route he’s normally taken. Who knows…..maybe next time, I’ll join him. 😉
After gazing at Mount Shasta for a bit, we had an ‘o, here we go again’ moment when the TPMS monitor showed the rear passenger tire on the trailer about 4 pounds less than it should be. Although it didn’t trigger an alert by the sensor, Jeff noticed the reading was off. The Railroad Park Resort gave us a perfect spot to pull over. So we’re hoping it’s just a simple loss of air and not an object embedded in it or a valve stem issue. The hand pump would do the job this time since we hadn’t lost too much air. So we’ll keep an eye on it in the next few weeks to make sure that there’s nothing more sinister going on.
Along Highway 5, we eventually got a glimpse of Shasta Lake which appeared to be alarmingly low, but found out for this time of year, it’s about where it should be. The current lake level is 140 feet down, but is 35 feet higher than last year at this time, so that’s good. Hopefully the water level trend continues upward!
Inching closer to our old hometown of Napa, was met with a mix of emotions. For the most part, it’s exciting to see refreshing changes but at the same time, we would prefer things to be the freeze-frame photo that was in my head when I left. Will I see a lot of familiar faces or have they moved on, as we have? But there’s something to be said about returning to a place you know like the back of your hand. Familiarity brings comfort. So I guess no matter how long or how far we’re away from it, it will always be that comfortable, safe place.
Speaking of changes, the RV park we’re staying in is not quite what it used to be. When we first moved to Napa, it was just a field of dirt, and an annual place for the Napa County Fair. Well, much of the area is still for the fair, but a section of it has been converted into a bonafide RV park complete with full services. At least we had an option since Skyline Park, our normal go-to camping spot and where we held many a family reunion/Chili-cook off, has a new stay limit in place…..14 days. Being that we had 3 weeks planned to stay in Napa, that didn’t cut it, so thank you Napa Valley Expo RV Park for having availability!
As we were setting things up, we promptly made our 3-week to-do list, and it’s a long one. We tried to keep up with repairs and maintenance, but that did pose a challenge being that we didn’t have full services most of the summer. For example, to fix a shower leak or a clogged drain, you have to have hookups. Plus we need to be somewhere where parts are readily available. So Napa will be the perfect place to get things done before we hit the road again in January. While Jeff made dinner, my evening was cleaning windows inside and out, dusting and all that good stuff. Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”, would be the perfect tune to describe my mission. Nice to be getting things back in shape after being in rough terrain all summer. Maybe I just wanted things sparkly for our guest of honor this evening……our son Shane. The hugs couldn’t be long enough and we still had a birthday that needed celebrating as he just turned 26. I can’t believe how fleeting time has been. It turns out his friends threw a surprise party for him tonight, so our visit was a short one. But look forward to our own celebration and lots of quality time with him.
Now that we’ve landed in Napa for some idle time, this brings me to the point of announcing a blogging break. Even though I enjoy the process of writing and documenting every detail about our journey and in turn sharing it with all of you, we want to focus our time on the most important things…….being with family and friends. Plus, we’ll be quite busy helping my mom with her moving preparations and the long repair/maintenance list we have for the trailer/truck. And I haven’t forgotten about our Alaska page which I hope to have on our site soon. So don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it as we resume the journey in January to begin our way southeast, slowly to where we THINK we’ll set new roots. Yes!!! We are truly ready for a home base again. Otherwise, thank you so much for staying interested in our experiences and we’ll see ya’ll back here soon.