Wednesday, October 2 Through Thursday, October 3, 2019
Sometimes travel is routine and nothing out of the ordinary occurs. Other times, little surprises pop up as reminders that travel has its moments.
The drive from Klamath Falls KOA Journey to Susanville RV Park requires crossing the Oregon-California border. From Klamath Falls, take OR-39 south. At the California border, OR-39 turns into CA-139. While the highway signs changed, the scenery stayed the same. The farms look pretty much the same for 30 miles north and south of the border. The expected California agricultural inspection station was nowhere to be found.
Thinking that we found a route into California that allowed agricultural product smuggling, we were sorely disappointed when we ran across the Tulelake inspection station. The inspection agent asked if we had produce with us. We had carrots, a tomato and avocados. She asked us to show her the avocados. Only California avocados can get back into the state. Linda had picked the avocados from a Klamath Falls grocery store display claiming “California Avocados” the day before. She wasn’t worried about losing her avocados.
Climbing into the camper with the Jeep hitched is not something the short middle aged agent was willing to do. I climbed in and came out with three avocados. I handed them to the agent. The first avocado didn’t have a little sticker on it. The next two did and the stickers showed “Product of Mexico.” No wonder they tasted so good! Not good enough for California though. We continued on without a full load of avocados.
CA-139 isn’t the kind of road to have rest areas. An hour down the road from the ag inspection station was a gas station with diesel pumps of to the side. A sign on the highway said “Next Services 60 miles.” We pulled in to take on fuel and use the restrooms. The pumps themselves didn’t take credit cards. In the store, I asked where the restrooms were. The clerk told me the restrooms were for customers and then gave me the key. The restrooms were outside on the far side of the building. After returning the key, I told her the pump number and tried to hand her the credit card. Those weren’t her pumps. The nearest diesel was 12 miles away in the wrong direction. I bought some chips.
I’ve seen pumps like this before. They are for commercial truck fleet use only and require special cards to activate the pumps.
Since the truck still had more than enough fuel to go another 200 miles, we continued on CA-139 toward Susanville California.
Susanvillle RV Park turned out to be an especially good pick. All the sites are paved with room between sites for a lawn and a patio.
There is a working payphone outside the laundromat. Haven’t seen a working payphone anywhere in ages. Didn’t know they still existed.
The six washer and six dryer laundry room is spacious with ample seating and folding room.
The bathrooms were clean and provided hooks, shower curtains and benches in the individual shower stalls.
The park roads were wide enough for two class A buses to pass each other. The whole place, inside and outside, was clean and orderly. It was golf course nice.
Both AT&T and Verizon mobile data service was good. While the park does provide basic cable, there were enough OTA (Over-The-Air) TV channels we didn’t connect the cable.
The only thing that needed to be addressed was the WIFI. It was completely down. This seems to be a longstanding problem for the park. While buying ice, I overheard the clerk telling a camper checking in about the down WIFI. The camper responded crossly that the WIFI was down six months ago during her last stay and that the park needed to resolve that problem. Interesting!
We went into town to get gas and eat dinner. Since the last gas crisis, $4.059 per gallon is the most paid for a gallon of regular gas. Spoiler alert! Fuel costs even more in Death Valley.
For dinner, we chose El Tepeyac Grillle. We showed up just after 4:00 and were the first people seated in the restaurant for dinner. This is a family owned and run restaurant and we assumed the owners were the only two working while we were there. The husband was the waiter and the wife the cook.
Both Linda and I had fajitas. I went with chicken and Linda beef.
The fajitas were good. We ate every last bit of it. No room left for desert.
Prices were reasonable and service was good. I would eat here again.
In the morning, while walking the dogs I caught the sunrise. After feeding the dogs, on to the showers for a long luxurious cleansing.
After packing up, we left for our next stop.
Hope to see you on the road ahead!