Mill Casino RV Park

We arrived here on June 28 after a short 4 hour cruise along the California and Oregon coast on highway 101. It had rained all night and we drove in and out of fog along the beautiful coastline. The mountains meet the sea with huge rock outcroppings extending out of the sea. This highway rises to 1700 feet from sea level. So you are constantly climbing hills and downshifting to slow down the other side of the hill. Not good for the gas mileage. While gas prices are lower here in Oregon, diesel prices are about the same as California. We stayed at this park last year, but did not publish our stay on the blog. This park has full hookups with 50 amp service. We are only 100 feet from the water on Coos Bay and the casino is just a five minute walk from our site. There is an indoor swimming pool and 2 spas in the casino hotel which were immaculate. We have use of them while we are camping here in the RV Park. The casino also has free camping outside the park for up to one week. We have sunshine and blue skies today, but windy and 66 degrees. I would rate this park P****. They have fenced off an area for a dog run since our last visit and Buddy enjoyed it along with his other little friends. I am using their included wifi. The whole campground is asphalt with a 3 foot strech of plants between sites. Cable TV is also included (about 40 channels). Today is filling up for the 4th of July weekend. We may have to move back to the outside parking area tomorrow if no one cancels. That is fine as Aggie washed all our clothes while here. No poker at the casino so I will save my gambling for Tahoe on our return trip.

More Baby Pics

We finally arrived June 28 at our main destination to see our new granddaughter and also our son & daughter-in-law. We visited Danika & Jamie from 3PM to 5:30PM on June 29 and Matt visited our motorhome after work. I may be a little prejudiced but this is a really cute baby.

Klamath River RV Park

We arrived here on June 24 for 4 nights. I must say that this was a very friendly park. Every evening campers sat around the community campfire and the campground host also joined us. This was a very peaceful park located on the Klamath river just 3 miles from the coast. Although they advertised some 50 amp sites, I did not see any and we had 30 amp, which was fine as the temperatures were in the upper 50's and low 60's during the day. This was a membership park but also accepted the general public. I was a bit irritated because of all the extra fee's. There was a $3 electric surcharge per night. The waterview sites were an additional $5 per night. Wifi was an additiional $2 or $4 per night (brochure quoted $4 and campground host thought it was $2). There was an additional fee of $3 for extra people above 2 per site. Also, it is against the rules to wash and dry clothes in your motorhome or use electric heaters in your rig. However, they provided washers & dryers for an additional fee. We met some great people here and our neighbors were visiting from Europe for a six month holiday which they do every year. Even though there was no swimming in the river in the campground and there was no pool or spa I rate this park P***. We would stay here again even though it was very expensive for a membership park.

We only took one day trip to the coast to let Buddy run free on the sand. We had the whole beach to ourselves and Buddy went for several swims in the river and the ocean.

Delta Shores Resort & Marina

We arrived here on 6/22/11 after about 8 hour drive from home. This park was a little disappointing as the river was not located in the campground, but across the street from the park. While it was only a short 5 minute hike from our campsite, the water was not visible from the campground as the campground was located a good 15 feet below the river. We were lucky to get one of the few 50 amp sites in the park which was important as the temp was in the 90's and we needed both air conditioners to keep the coach cool. This park had a small unheated pool and also had a spa. The pool was well maintained but the spa needed some attention. This was a membership park and fine for a nights stay, but I would not consider returning. The boat slips were not maintained, the river water was very murky and I would not consider it swimming water, and it would be very difficult to launch my boat with our motorhome as the local boat launches were very small. I rate this park P**.

We set out to take a short trip around the area and almost got lost. The roads here follow the river and go for miles with no signage. We finally arrived back after an 80 mile trip.

Danika Noel Mason

Danika arrived here in North Bend, Oregon on 6/18/11 at 7:18 AM. We are planning to leave Wednesday, June 22, to see our new grandaughter. Here are some of the first pictures. Mark & Aggie

Emerald Cove Resort

On May 1, we decided to cruise on over to this park on the Colorado river for 5 nights. This is a membership park with RPI and is located in Earp, Ca. which is in the middle of the desert. This is considered off season as the snow birds have left and the summer boating crowd will arrive on Memorial day. We had full hookups with 50 amp electric and the sites were 20' X 60'. I would like a wider site, but they were adaquate. The resort was pretty baren with only palm trees and olianders for landscaping. Not a speck of grass on the whole property. Waterfront sites were reserved for members who belong to this park. This was overcome by the beautiful clean, clear, blue Colorado river. The staff was very friendly and facilities included a mini golf course, well stocked grocery store, club room with wi-fi access, three pools and two spas which were operating properly and clean. The rest rooms were clean and a bar & grill by the pools had a limited but very reasonable priced fare. Happy hour at the bar from 3 - 6 PM had $1 draught beers. I have not seen that in a long time! This is one of the best parks we have stayed at and I would rate it P****. Air temp was 85 - 100 degrees, and water temp was a surprisingly high 68 - 70 degrees for this time of the year. Buddy went for his swim daily and I joined him twice. We were located only 8 miles from Parker, Az. where there was an indian casino where we went to dinner one night with our new friends Gary & Susan from Arizona. We did take one day to cruise into Parker and check out waterfront houses. We found a 4400 sq. ft. waterfront house with private dock for $650K. Still above my pricepoint, maybe I will buy another lotto ticket. There were some lower priced houses located in the keys, which are 50' wide waterways which you can dock your boat behind your house and cruise out to the river. They were $349K and up. We had a great time. Did I tell you how great it is to be retired?

Caribbean Cruise

We decided to take a cruise to the eastern caribbean to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We departed from Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. for seven days. We boarded the Ruby Princess (their newest & largest ship)on our anniversary. This ship is 950 feet long and was loaded with everything you could find in a major city. It had 18 stories which you could walk stairs or take an elevator. Our cabin was located midship on the 10th floor and had a large balcony which we really enjoyed in port and at sea. We elected to eat our supper at 5:30 PM each evening. We had the same table reserved for us at this time. It was a table for just the two of us which was nice since we were celebrating our anniversary. We dined for lunch and breakfast in the same room or one of the other self serve restaurants on board. When we were not eating, they kept us busy with many activities such as musicals, art auctions, several bands, swiming & spa in addition to our island excursions. We stopped at 4 islands; Princess Cays, St. Martens, St. Thomas, & Grand Turk. It was a wonderful cruise and we had no problems with seasickness. The weather was perfect with sunshine and 78 to 82 degree temps. Pictures included here are our ship, balcony, underwater bikes, central staircase, and our diner table on formal night. We lounged around the staircase for activities such as violinist, juggler, champaign waterfall, and other entertainment. They stacked about 750 champaign glasses on top of one another like a pyramid and then continued to fill the top glass until all glasses were full. They then served champaign to the passengers while the captain welcomed us to the cruise. We purchased a tour on these waterbikes in St. Thomas. A 50 or 60 foot boat picked us up at our pier and cruised over to an area where there were many tropical fish and a ship wreck. We spent 30 minutes underwater on the bikes and snorkeled for about one hour. The water was a comfortable 78 degrees. Great tour! We took a bus tour in St. Martens which took us to both sides of the island. One side is Dutch and the other is French. The ship has 4 or 5 swimming pools & spas on board. We did not swim on the ship, but did use the spa one or two days. We did swim in the ocean at Grand Turk however, and waded in the water at Princess Cays where they put on a barbeque. The shows were fantastic and we arrived in the theater 20 minutes early and had our pick of seats. We chose first row in the first balcony and we were eye level to the stage. It was perfect! We purchased some art at the art auction, have received one and the other is on its way from Asia. This was a trip of a lifetime and we truly enjoyed it.