This years trip to the Navarro River Beach was not what we expected.....
We wanted to share the "unexpected" with our friends, we are busy writing the story and downloading the photos so stay tuned.....
Vacation 11.2009
Our trip to the Navarro River Beach camp site started at 4 AM on Sunday morning - we were packed and buckled into our Liberty by 6 AM - yep, it took us 2 hours to pack our Jeep. Good thing Gilles and I are used to putting lots of "stuff" into small areas.......
We took a new road to the California coast - highway 20 was beautiful! We saw some lovely small towns, "scary" mountains and wonderful open spaces.
Once we hit the Redwood forest just outside of Anderson Valley we could hardly wait the 20 minutes it took us to get to the Ocean. We took the bridge and headed down the dirt road to our camp site.... we passed through a lot of water on the way there but thought nothing of this since we have see the Navarro River breach it's sides often enough.
What we saw when we finished the last big bend in the roadway was a small lake in the campsites with a few stranded campers.... We made it through the "lake" and greeted my parents. We learned the water rose overnight stranding some tent campers in ankle deep water.
While my Mom and I were drinking wine and chatting our friends arrived from SF (Eric and his sons Rio and Sunny). Leave it to Eric to drive his Porch to go camping instead of his Navigator....he had to park between the small "lakes" that were quickly forming as he and his boys "log hopped" over to our camping space.
My Mom and Dad packed up and headed back to Sacramento as the boys headed to the beach to look for firewood. The drift wood is usually so thick on the beach that this is an easy task....except there was very little to chose from this time. There were big logs so the boys dragged them over to the site and attacked them with saws and axes - quite a scary site actually!
Anyway a few beers later we were ready for dinner - hot dogs and beans went down fast then we burnt some Jiffy Pop so all had to have chocolate and cookies for dessert!
We all 6 climbed into the camper for some sleep. Logan and Sunny (8 and 11) were assigned the top bunk of the camper which has about 3 feet of head space - just enough to get up there and get into place but not much else....
Eric and Rio (45 and 14) got the big space which is the dining table area during the day and a bed at night. Gilles and I got the real bed in the back of the camper. With all those bodies in the camper I cracked quite a few windows to keep the condensation to a minimum and we all turned in for some sleep......
We all awoke to the wind tearing at the awning of the camper and a beeping coming from the LP Gas alert on the base board of the camper..... I re-set the LP Gas indicator and Gilles and I headed out the back door to check on the awning. I looked down at the ground as a shoe floated between the front door and the back door.... I grabbed 3 sets of shoes and flung the toward dry ground, stepped into my wader-boots and looked at the awning with growing concern. Neither Gilles nor I knew how to put the awning away.....and it sure needed to be contained! Realizing we could do nothing but wait until the morning and call my Dad for step by step instructions for putting the awning away we headed back to the camper.
By this time all the boys were awake - and FREEZING. We did some quick reshuffling of beds, Logan came into bed with Gilles and I and Rio took the top bunk as Sunny snuggled up with his dad in the bottom bed. We all snuggled in for some more sleep.
Five minutes later the beeping started again - I got up and hit the reset button again and went back to bed.
Five minutes later the beeping started again.... Three minutes later the beeping started again... Two minutes later the beeping started again.... One minute later the beeping started again.....
I shifted to the foot of the bed, book in hand, and each minute I twisted around and hit the LP Gas reset button......until light started to brighten the camper.
We all got up - dressed and stepped into soggy shoes, waded through a slightly bigger lake and piled into the Liberty. We wanted HOT coffee and FOOD we did not need to cook - and we wanted to get warm!!!
We had quite a lot of water crossings of various depths to get out of the camping area and onto the highway - we headed for Elk and Queenie's Roadhouse Cafe.
Of course there was road construction on the way to Elk – HWY 1 is ALWAYS in a state of repair! Finally we arrive and Queenie’s was closed. We made sure they would be open at some point in the AM, parked across the street, turned the heater on and took another snooze. We watch the cook arrive, then the waitress, then some more guests and once the doors were unlocked we ran across the street (HWY 1) like a pack of wild dogs! The poor waitress did not know what to make of us – she put us at her largest table and went to wait on her first table of guests.
Eric being Eric was standing in front of the small wood fireplace blocking the heat from filling the damp restaurant – he is ALWAYS cold, even in the summer! We all ordered coffee and hot chocolate for the boys (I needed an extra double shot of espresso in my joe!) and argued over the merits of each breakfast item offered…. having a chef and a restaurant owner at the table – both French - can sometimes mean waiting for food to be ordered while they debate each item….. Fun, if your not STARVING!
We all ordered, then the boys brought out the Uno pack and everyone played. I went in search of cell reception or a pay phone. The reception is spotty at best along the coast and I could not maintain a dial tone nor send a text. I looked around for a payphone – remembering the news piece on NPR about a small town in the Highlands of Scotland who was about to loose their last pay telephone box – thankfully Elk and Ma-Bell have not parted company – YET!
I did not have any coins or calling cards so I started the “collect call” sequence; first to my Mom, who NEVER answers her damn cell phone, then to my Dad, who is even worse at answering his cell phone. Remembering the days we all had land lines and answering machines. Next I tried my sister, she is always home AND she has a land line. No luck! I went to my jeep and looked in the glove box, on the floor and in the seats for all the change I could rummage. I had enough for a few SHORT calls. I called my Dad first, got his voice mail and left him this message: “we are all fine but need some help with the LP Gas reset button, if you can’t reach me by cell or at this payphone number we are at Queenie’s Café in Elk.” I hung up and waited for him to call back. I had waited about 5 minutes when the phone rang, I ran and answered it but no one was there…. I went back to waiting. Then I called my sister – on her land line with the change I had left. I got her and gave her the same message I left my Dad. I went back to the café and ordered more coffee.
We had three more rounds of caffeine and multiple hands of Uno then decided we had worn out our welcome. We paid the final bill and headed out to the jeep – not having made contact with my Dad. I was rounding up all the boys and getting them in the car when the waitress came out of Queenie’s telling me my Dad had called. WHEW! I went back into the café and she let me use her phone (yes, there are still nice people who let you make long distance call on their land lines.) I got a hold of my Dad and told him about the LP Gas alarm. He told me to take the face plate off and unhook the wires – that it was nothing. He had been trying to get it fixed for years and every once in a while it would just go off….!
Next I asked him about how to take the awning down. The directions lasted about 5 minutes, I read them back to him to be sure I got everything down. I assured him we were all fine – just cold and tired. The day was beautiful and we expected the water to dry out. I left another $20 for the waitress and headed to the jeep, finally feeling like we could deal with the trailer.
When we got back to the camp site the water had risen even more……
We moved all of our camping stuff, chairs, table, ice chests, wood for the fire, axes and saws to the camp site behind the camper – expecting the water would stop rising any minute now.
Well, the water kept rising and there was a storm moving in the following night. Eric decided it was time to move his Porch to higher ground….. All the big boys went with him to be sure it was done the right way.
I stayed to clean up the mud.
When they came back they had quite the story to tell. It seems there was a park ranger in between the small lakes and he was using his canoe to get from place to place and check on the rising water. He had closed the park entrance with yellow tape strung between to roadwork signs – closing us in with the water.
Eric was driving the Porch with Gilles and Sunny jumping along the rocks, out of the water and Rio inside the car with him. They took off of dry land heading for the smaller of the two lakes and made it across okay. The next lake was bigger so Eric gunned the engine to gain momentum for the crossing – this is the “lake” the ranger and his canoe were in too. Eric and Rio “felt” the wheels start to spin as the water level rose and the Porch started to float. Thinking it was all going to end with the Porch floating in the middle of the lake, both Eric and Rio leaning forward toward dry land, the ranger yelling at them, and Gilles and Sunny along the side on the rocks yelling encouragement at the Porch – the front tires made contact with dry land and Eric punched the accelerator. Finding the highest spot of dry land the boys parked the Porch and headed to meet up with Gilles and Sunny.
The ranger intercepted them, yelling at them for parking their car in the water, “didn’t you see the water when you came in!” Gilles calmly told the ranger that the water had risen over night, that they had not driven past it to get into the park. The range continued to berate them even asking them if they spoke English – so the boys just walked away. The Porch was safe and that is what really mattered.
….the next installment begins with a local farmer, his dog Kona and a shovel...
We took a new road to the California coast - highway 20 was beautiful! We saw some lovely small towns, "scary" mountains and wonderful open spaces.
Once we hit the Redwood forest just outside of Anderson Valley we could hardly wait the 20 minutes it took us to get to the Ocean. We took the bridge and headed down the dirt road to our camp site.... we passed through a lot of water on the way there but thought nothing of this since we have see the Navarro River breach it's sides often enough.
What we saw when we finished the last big bend in the roadway was a small lake in the campsites with a few stranded campers.... We made it through the "lake" and greeted my parents. We learned the water rose overnight stranding some tent campers in ankle deep water.
While my Mom and I were drinking wine and chatting our friends arrived from SF (Eric and his sons Rio and Sunny). Leave it to Eric to drive his Porch to go camping instead of his Navigator....he had to park between the small "lakes" that were quickly forming as he and his boys "log hopped" over to our camping space.
My Mom and Dad packed up and headed back to Sacramento as the boys headed to the beach to look for firewood. The drift wood is usually so thick on the beach that this is an easy task....except there was very little to chose from this time. There were big logs so the boys dragged them over to the site and attacked them with saws and axes - quite a scary site actually!
Anyway a few beers later we were ready for dinner - hot dogs and beans went down fast then we burnt some Jiffy Pop so all had to have chocolate and cookies for dessert!
We all 6 climbed into the camper for some sleep. Logan and Sunny (8 and 11) were assigned the top bunk of the camper which has about 3 feet of head space - just enough to get up there and get into place but not much else....
Eric and Rio (45 and 14) got the big space which is the dining table area during the day and a bed at night. Gilles and I got the real bed in the back of the camper. With all those bodies in the camper I cracked quite a few windows to keep the condensation to a minimum and we all turned in for some sleep......
We all awoke to the wind tearing at the awning of the camper and a beeping coming from the LP Gas alert on the base board of the camper..... I re-set the LP Gas indicator and Gilles and I headed out the back door to check on the awning. I looked down at the ground as a shoe floated between the front door and the back door.... I grabbed 3 sets of shoes and flung the toward dry ground, stepped into my wader-boots and looked at the awning with growing concern. Neither Gilles nor I knew how to put the awning away.....and it sure needed to be contained! Realizing we could do nothing but wait until the morning and call my Dad for step by step instructions for putting the awning away we headed back to the camper.
By this time all the boys were awake - and FREEZING. We did some quick reshuffling of beds, Logan came into bed with Gilles and I and Rio took the top bunk as Sunny snuggled up with his dad in the bottom bed. We all snuggled in for some more sleep.
Five minutes later the beeping started again - I got up and hit the reset button again and went back to bed.
Five minutes later the beeping started again.... Three minutes later the beeping started again... Two minutes later the beeping started again.... One minute later the beeping started again.....
I shifted to the foot of the bed, book in hand, and each minute I twisted around and hit the LP Gas reset button......until light started to brighten the camper.
We all got up - dressed and stepped into soggy shoes, waded through a slightly bigger lake and piled into the Liberty. We wanted HOT coffee and FOOD we did not need to cook - and we wanted to get warm!!!
We had quite a lot of water crossings of various depths to get out of the camping area and onto the highway - we headed for Elk and Queenie's Roadhouse Cafe.
Of course there was road construction on the way to Elk – HWY 1 is ALWAYS in a state of repair! Finally we arrive and Queenie’s was closed. We made sure they would be open at some point in the AM, parked across the street, turned the heater on and took another snooze. We watch the cook arrive, then the waitress, then some more guests and once the doors were unlocked we ran across the street (HWY 1) like a pack of wild dogs! The poor waitress did not know what to make of us – she put us at her largest table and went to wait on her first table of guests.
Eric being Eric was standing in front of the small wood fireplace blocking the heat from filling the damp restaurant – he is ALWAYS cold, even in the summer! We all ordered coffee and hot chocolate for the boys (I needed an extra double shot of espresso in my joe!) and argued over the merits of each breakfast item offered…. having a chef and a restaurant owner at the table – both French - can sometimes mean waiting for food to be ordered while they debate each item….. Fun, if your not STARVING!
We all ordered, then the boys brought out the Uno pack and everyone played. I went in search of cell reception or a pay phone. The reception is spotty at best along the coast and I could not maintain a dial tone nor send a text. I looked around for a payphone – remembering the news piece on NPR about a small town in the Highlands of Scotland who was about to loose their last pay telephone box – thankfully Elk and Ma-Bell have not parted company – YET!
I did not have any coins or calling cards so I started the “collect call” sequence; first to my Mom, who NEVER answers her damn cell phone, then to my Dad, who is even worse at answering his cell phone. Remembering the days we all had land lines and answering machines. Next I tried my sister, she is always home AND she has a land line. No luck! I went to my jeep and looked in the glove box, on the floor and in the seats for all the change I could rummage. I had enough for a few SHORT calls. I called my Dad first, got his voice mail and left him this message: “we are all fine but need some help with the LP Gas reset button, if you can’t reach me by cell or at this payphone number we are at Queenie’s Café in Elk.” I hung up and waited for him to call back. I had waited about 5 minutes when the phone rang, I ran and answered it but no one was there…. I went back to waiting. Then I called my sister – on her land line with the change I had left. I got her and gave her the same message I left my Dad. I went back to the café and ordered more coffee.
We had three more rounds of caffeine and multiple hands of Uno then decided we had worn out our welcome. We paid the final bill and headed out to the jeep – not having made contact with my Dad. I was rounding up all the boys and getting them in the car when the waitress came out of Queenie’s telling me my Dad had called. WHEW! I went back into the café and she let me use her phone (yes, there are still nice people who let you make long distance call on their land lines.) I got a hold of my Dad and told him about the LP Gas alarm. He told me to take the face plate off and unhook the wires – that it was nothing. He had been trying to get it fixed for years and every once in a while it would just go off….!
Next I asked him about how to take the awning down. The directions lasted about 5 minutes, I read them back to him to be sure I got everything down. I assured him we were all fine – just cold and tired. The day was beautiful and we expected the water to dry out. I left another $20 for the waitress and headed to the jeep, finally feeling like we could deal with the trailer.
When we got back to the camp site the water had risen even more……
We moved all of our camping stuff, chairs, table, ice chests, wood for the fire, axes and saws to the camp site behind the camper – expecting the water would stop rising any minute now.
Well, the water kept rising and there was a storm moving in the following night. Eric decided it was time to move his Porch to higher ground….. All the big boys went with him to be sure it was done the right way.
I stayed to clean up the mud.
When they came back they had quite the story to tell. It seems there was a park ranger in between the small lakes and he was using his canoe to get from place to place and check on the rising water. He had closed the park entrance with yellow tape strung between to roadwork signs – closing us in with the water.
Eric was driving the Porch with Gilles and Sunny jumping along the rocks, out of the water and Rio inside the car with him. They took off of dry land heading for the smaller of the two lakes and made it across okay. The next lake was bigger so Eric gunned the engine to gain momentum for the crossing – this is the “lake” the ranger and his canoe were in too. Eric and Rio “felt” the wheels start to spin as the water level rose and the Porch started to float. Thinking it was all going to end with the Porch floating in the middle of the lake, both Eric and Rio leaning forward toward dry land, the ranger yelling at them, and Gilles and Sunny along the side on the rocks yelling encouragement at the Porch – the front tires made contact with dry land and Eric punched the accelerator. Finding the highest spot of dry land the boys parked the Porch and headed to meet up with Gilles and Sunny.
The ranger intercepted them, yelling at them for parking their car in the water, “didn’t you see the water when you came in!” Gilles calmly told the ranger that the water had risen over night, that they had not driven past it to get into the park. The range continued to berate them even asking them if they spoke English – so the boys just walked away. The Porch was safe and that is what really mattered.
….the next installment begins with a local farmer, his dog Kona and a shovel...
