4mickey2

:rofl3:   

department of natural resources is the correct answer-lol

i'd love to go to this one.  but, can't do it this year.  hope ya'll can get together!

what have we here!  what could this butt be of?  an elk?  nope--it's a bear.  a black bear and yes, i know it's brown.  lol   he was down in the valley about 1/4 mile from all the campgrounds.

we could have watched him all night.  have no fear-the rangers knew he was there.  they kept driving around us to make sure things  were okay.  they have all the bears tagged and they have sensors on the outside perimeter of the public areas.  they know when the bears are near and watch for them.  

i like the national parks on f/b and have learned that when they do have a nuiscance bear--they just shut down the campground and surrounding campgrounds for a while.  the bear move on.  they really try to make sure you see nature but nature doesn't do the visitors any harm.

it was kinda funny.  after this first pic that i took near some other people taking pics of the bear.  i moved to a bridge where i could see him better.  there were a lot of people with big cameras on the bridge with tripods, etc.  i just started taking pics of the bear.  then jeff came over and he's like "they don't see the bear".  really?  all those people were there to take pics of half dome with the sun setting.

he said you see the bear?  bear, what bear?  duh!  you can see the rock any day.  but, to tell the truth--i think they were still more impressed with the stupid rock than the bear.  lol

i did get a few of the rock-half dome.  but, i had more interest in the wild life!

then this guy decided to come walking by...

yes, walked right by dh and the rest of us...  but had to decide which way to go at the intersection.

and nope.. the bear never went into the river.  i was really hoping to get some pics of that if he would have.

as we walked back to the mh we saw what a view there was.  so, here's the mh w/yosemite falls in the background.

and another of half dome.

thanks guys!  our national parks are awesome.  we buy a year pass and try to hit as many as we can in that year.  

We decided to take a walk over by yosemite falls.  lots of people and a few dogs.  but, we headed out around dinner or a little later and the crowds were leaving the area.  yay for us! 

so here's a little wild life!  a little hard to see the deer in the first pic but they're there..

our family photo at yosemite falls.  unfortunately, i didn't have my tri-pod along so i had to put my camera on a rock.  

these two were hard to see and find in the camera.   :)

the sun was going down and was really bright on the rock mountain sides.

we saw a lot of these vans..  oh and a lot of cialas cars..  that's what we started to call all the cameros..not "oh, there's another camero."  it was  "cialas"!  lol  must rent a lot of them out at the airport cause there were tons out there.

i did find it on mousesavers...

not sure if this has been posted but, it seems to be a pretty good deal.  i'd get them -- but don't need 2/4 cards.   it would save some money.

•  
• Wolfgang Puck (Downtown Disney) gift cards are currently available for sale atCostco.com. Costco members can get TWO $50 gift cards for $79.99 with FREE shipping (non-members can order, but will pay more). Offers on Costco.com come and go, so this could end at any time. Thanks to GL for info.
• Ghirardelli (Downtown Disney) gift cards are currently available for sale at Costco.com. Costco members can get FOUR $25 gift cards for $79.99 with FREE shipping (non-members can order, but will pay more). Offers on Costco.com come and go, so this could end at any time.

If you do this next year-there's a chance we could go. I have to do some classes during the month of october-so i can take the dnr exam this year.  i'll be watching for pics and like i said we could be in for 2014.

Yosemite here we are!

gonna try to get this tr going again.  i gotta tell ya--don't let anyone ever tell you--it's just a dog.  for a lot of us they are family and do everything with us.. Duke died of meningitis and the autopsy never told them what caused it.  he only showed one sign-being sore and within 6 days of that and 2 days of returning home--he passed away at 7.5 yrs.  too young and no chance.

enough of this--tr time!

Here we are just going into yosemite.  beautiful park-if you ever get out there stop in for a few days.  we've been out here before and like all national parks - could go back over and over again.

Our first stop--here we are with half dome in the background.  we pulled off to the side like everyone else.  but, instead of going to the side of the road where everyone else was-i looked up to the right and saw this high spot with nobody around.  for a perfect picture. :)

missing the pups in the pic.  but, i don't like taking them where snakes could be lingering.  

this is the view from the same spot just another direction w/our rig in the pic. a close up of the waterfall.

a tunnel in the park!  i love tunnels and bridges-can you tell!   :jumpforjoy

and a view from the other side...

more pics..

Here's a pic from the campground inside yosemite - where we stayed.  this is the view we had from our site.  the river was only 2 sites away from us and the people on the opposite corner had chairs out to use. 

a few misc. pics..

i believe these are the dogwoods that were blooming.  

Welcome to the fiends!  it's a great bunch of people.  have a great solo trip!

i like blizzard beach better, too..  sounds like you had a great time!  any pics!  you know we're all about pics!

i agree with mo.  check on line for some rescues.  many will help and take in the dog.

Ya, I know where you're coming from Coach. Us big men have trouble finding clothes that fit right.

It's been a while since I've been on here.  Just down in the dumps and forgot how you guys can make a person giggle--even if it's a little.  thanks!   :hah:

Awesome, cookies!!  where does she get the talent and the time!  very cool-let her know she does an excellent job!  I'm lucky to slop some pudding in a bowl w/whipped cream!  

I'll put these up since they're Disney related.  These are for you Beck:)

 

 

 

so after our night at the koa in willits, we had to decide where to next.  dh said we are heading toward the golden gate bridge and it would be neat to at least see it.  so--i said our typical saying in our house (suck it up-buttercup) and said alright let's just do it.  so, that's where we headed next.  we went over the golden gate bridge, saw alcatraz--but only from a distance and saw the bay bridge.  then went across the sandwich bridge (bay bridge).  relieved once we were over the bridges but, glad we saw the area and went across the bridges.  

the city of san francisco was neat to see.  it wasn't horrible to drive around--at least in the middle of the day.  but we were in a traffic jam to get on the bay bridge.  

lots of winerys on the way down the 101.  there were a lot of taste test signs and some were tempting.  but, not one of those signs said free taste testing today..  just taste testing today.  so--onward and no wine!

a few more old cars we saw on the road..

i believe this tunnel was just before the golden gate bridge-on the north side.

some pics of the golden gate bridge.  lots of places to stop and take photos of the bridge - once in san fran.

and a pic of alcatraz.

i saw a woman doing the job of my dreams.....  a dog walker!

san francisco...  when we drove around -- the first thing i thought of was disney!  i loved the roads and the city was really neat to see.

this is the only pic i got of my favorite icecream place.  there was a shop just like disney but, it was kinda stupid in this area and just wasn't worth stopping to run in for ice-cream.  but, they were busy.

some of the transportation in the area.

and the bay bridge..  

another old car-too bad this one broke down.  some of the flowering shrubs on the hwy.

and back on the road...

another old vehicle.  we saw a lot of them out there.  

we are heading to yosemite national park next.  but, i am going to take a short intermission.  there are a lot of family photos in the next group of photos and i'm not ready to post them right now.  for those that don't know we lost one of our dogs when we got home and as of right now don't know what happened to him.  so-all for right now.  i'll be back to finish in a little bit...hope you are enjoying the tr so far..

the site we got..  the only thing i didn't like was all the gravel.  not the best for walking the pups. 

some campground pics.  it was really nice to be on vacation before anyone else.  we had most campgrounds all to ourselves or close to it.

the play area was nice.  no shoes allowed and it looked like they put up one of those cover things when it gets too warm.

the petting zoo had guinea pigs (rescued), rabbits, pigs, donkeys, ponies...

this is a facade of an old town.  i'm thinking during the summer they use the patio for pancakes in the morning?

this was the most interesting part of the campground. you can get sites with your very own---hot tub!

one more of our site..

our mh is a 24' navion.  we have been looking since we got rid of our seneca for another mh.  the truck camper just wasn't doing it for us.  we found this one - it's a used 2009 and are very pleased with it.  we can pull in anywhere and make u-turns.  lol  

we eventually got a pic of the sign for the giants.. some pics you have to look at the tree sizes.  you can't imagine how big these are in person but, compare them to the normal sized trees around them.

we saw shrek and bigfoot!  i really wanted the shrek!

this looked like it would be a fun ride!

it's time to start figuring out where we are going to stay for the night...  the scenery was awesome...

another herd of elk..

we found a koa in willits, ca.  this was a nice campground.  they had a petting zoo, a small fenced dog park w/agility stuff and some really cool sites.  here is a pic of the bunnies running around.

after the redwoods we were going to head to yosemite.  but, we have some time and we need to head south/east..so, we need to decide how we will get there.  well-we're gonna drive for a while and contemplate our next stop..

some flowers on the road to no where...

elk in a campground.  always neat to see..

i took a few pics of the old cars we saw...

now this second car was interesting.  they were sitting at the gas station when a woman walked over to them and gave them money.  this was an older lady--dressed nice.  she asked what school they are heading to.  those losers were trying to get money from people.  she gave them some and said that was all she had and hoped it helped.  i'm not stupid--school is already started, it's almost the end of the semester--you freaking losers ripped this woman off!  as soon as she left they took off-didn't get a drop of gas.  i was so irritated and felt so bad for this older couple.

so, anyways--onward we must go...

this was just an interesting sign.  i need a hammer like this.  lol

so, we start to head into california.  the northern 101 in california isn't bad but, oregon was really nice.  we are heading to the giant redwood national park.  nothing like an old vw camper bus/van..  lol

the giant redwoods are sparatic along hwy 101  until we get to "avenue of the giants"..

this was kinda funny to see in the middle of no where..

here is one of the giant redwoods.  see us and then follow the photo up--that is one HUGE tree!

here is a great pic showing the size of the giant redwoods.  look closely--do you see me going up in between those couple trees??

here's another with the mh next to the tree.  these trees are huge.  there are a few along the way that you can drive through.  but, we would of been too tall..

some deer grazing..

barkley is trying to see what all the fuss is about. he really wanted a window to look out.

we stopped at a dnr information station that was right on the ocean.  they had this really nice map that showed what critter was scene and where.  

we were in the tsunami warning areas most of the time we were on hwy 101.  sometimes we were up pretty high but most of the time we were down by the water.

alright-i'm back.  it's been a long-hard week but, life needs to move on.  soooo....i will try to pick up where i left off.

here are some pics of the state park we stayed at.  they even rented yurts.  a picutre of a vw camper van.  saw plenty of those out west also..

so, before we headed out in the morning we went down to the beach at this park and took a few photos. it was the boys first time at the beach and i think if they were off leash they would have taken off down the beach on us.  they were running and having a great time.

this was a sign for one of the state parks in oregon.  i just thought it was funny that they would name a park this.  lol

continuing on our tour...more bridges and ocean.

this guy was kite surfing or whatever it's called.  yes, it was windy for most of our trip.  i just missed him on the water and when he got to the beach he was all done.  

then we got to the last state park in oregon on hwy 101.  we hoped that there were sites available.  

all i can say is the state parks in oregon that we saw were very nice parks.  yes, they had sites open, it was $24 a night (off season rate) with electric/water and cable!  a state park with cable-really.  yup, we hooked up and had tv for a night.  lol

this is the site we choose. it was a huge site.  even being by the path to the bathroom, shower and laundry- it was quiet.

the site across from us was a host site and they had awesome sunset views over the ocean.

we put on 5,200 miles on this trip.  the new to us mh was awesome and we really  never had any complaints about anything in it the whole time.  i'm sure most of you know how a new camper always has something you have to complain about.  but, i think we got this one right.  

we like to operate on whims... lol

well--i am all for supplements.  i hope this really helps lil nikki.  i am just now looking at some chinese herbs to help with barkleys itching.  these are found at www.pawhealer.com.  i haven't dealt with herbs very much here.  but, i have heard good things when diets are changed for animals with cancer, etc.  hope this helps your pup and i will let you know what i find for mine.  keep us posted.

we headed toward portland, or.  it was a busy city but neat to drive thru.

i wasn't able to catch the pic i wanted to get. but, these cables are for an airial tram. it wasn't something we expected to see and was really a neat idea for a large city like this.

and of course there are a lot of old beetles out there and some older mh's.

this is our drive over to hwy 101 about midway thru oregon.

this was another train track but this bridge turned to allow the boats, barges thru.

another bridge.  there are so many bridges out there and they are all so different-just something i am intrigued with..

we headed in toward florence, or.  according to my favorite website there is a really neat old soda fountain restaurant. so, we stopped-it had old cars inside and on the outside of the building.  lots of pics of old cars on the walls.  we got malts and onion rings and took a look around.  unfortunately i don't have any pics on here--so, just imagine it.  it was a nice stop and a great malt!  

finally!  we made it to the pacific ocean!  we took hwy 101 down into california and it was a great ride--esp in oregon.

we stopped at an oregon state park-not sure which one this is. but, these yellow flowering plants were all over.

and if you travel to oregon--you can not pump your own gas.  these gas pumpers have to go through a 3 day? course to be certified to pump fuel.  

another ocean pic..

this is one of the state parks with camping.  it wasn't on the ocean side-but the ocean was right across the road.  we thought about stopping here since there wasn't anyone here. but, it was still kinda early so we continued.  i'm not sure the name of this one-i normally take a pic of the entrance sign and didn't.  but, i will say-all the oregon state parks we looked at were really nice.  

just some pics of the scenery.  it was so green out there.  i don't mean just green-the trees were a very vibrant green.

a waterfall..

a little history of oregon and the view from this point.

the next leg of our trip was going from wyoming into idaho and into washington.

these 3 were waiting for us on the hwy and luckily stayed right where they were.

we had some snow/sleet while in the higher elevations.  nothing us wisconsinites can't handle. it is definitely beautiful out here..

this was a really pretty area.  C'oeur d'Alene, Idaho just before Washington-i could live here. 

it was pretty out here but, the winds picked up something fierce.  blowing from every direction so we took a break once we crossed into Washington at a camping world.  it was a nice short break and we were able to take the dogs into the store to give them a break, too.  i took this picture of a tree on their lot.  just one of those things you can't wait for in spring--flowers.

not real sure about this.. i know it is still in washington but not sure if it something growing for wine- as wine is everywhere along the coast out there.

trains are always neat to see..

our first goal was to see mt. st. helen and mt. ranier.  but, to see them it has to be a clear day and we would have to drive a few hours to each to get near them.  with the weather we had in the mountains in idaho-i decided to look online at their web cams.  there was still quite a bit of snow on the roads into the area.  we decided with the weather still being iffy and the time constriction we would just continue on our journey.  we really did want to stop and see them but, it just wasn't worth driving in to find out we wouldn't see either of them or the roads might be bad.  so, off we go---

the tunnel in the mountain for the train to go through..

the columbia river is just beautiful.  we drove along the oregon side-looking at the washington side. this picture shows a train track that part of it lifts to allow barges, etc to go under it.

some houses on the river...