Quincy Top Ten List

Well it has come down to our last night in Quincy, California and what an incredible night it was. We took the pooches out for one last hike up a deserted road and soaked up some late afternoon sun. Susan and I began to reminisce over our three months here in Quincy and decided to post a top ten list. So, here goes.

10. Pioneer Park. This was our home base, command central, the center of our RV universe. We thoroughly enjoyed this park where we lived for these months.

9. Flickers...tap, tap, tap. These hooligans kept us company while we stayed in the park. But we had to keep our eye on them 'cause they took a liking to RV air conditioners, as well as the neighboring propane tanks, whoops.

8. The Drunk Brush. We just loved this little wine bar. Great atmosphere including fine wines, art, and music.

7. Riding with the Plumas-Sierra Cycling Club. It was good getting to know some of the local cyclists and riding out on Chandler Road. Thanks guys and gals.

6. Morning Thunder Cafe. There is nothing like strong coffee and warming up by the wood stove on a cold winter morning. Ahh!

5. Studio Art and the First Friday Art Walk. This small town has a few, really cool art galleries and our favorite was Studio Art.

4. Pangaea. Don't let the fact that we're in California fool you. Pangaea is about the only place in Quincy where you can get GREAT, vegetarian food. This is a hip little cafe that has good beer and excellent food.

3. Quincy Natural Foods. It's a mini-version of our Good Food Store in Missoula. Lots of organic produce, bulk food and tasty deli snacks. Yum.

2. Kelly and Sebastian Bunster. We really loved meeting another traveling couple! Now we have someone whom we can share experiences and follow them through their journey. Their blog is http://www.bunsteradventures.blogspot.com/

1. Long Walks through the Forest. We covered a lot of ground, whether it was 20 degrees and snowing, or 60 degrees and sunny. Absolutely nothing could beat getting out in the woods in the early afternoon and walking with the dogs. Most of the time we were the only ones in the forest. We hiked to lakes still half frozen over and on some great trails.

So there you have it. Goodbye Quincy. Thanks for the run.

Erik and Susan.

Sprung a Leak

Life on the road has been full of fun and adventure...sometimes too much adventure! Being in the mountains, we've seen our fair share of storms roll through and the last set brought a bit more rain than snow. Unfortunately, that rain managed to find its way inside our motorhome. Damn!

Well, of course, this called for a bit of patchwork to get us through until we can get the problem fixed (a leaky bedroom slide-out that no amount of duct tape will solve) so we drew straws and poor Erik lost the draw (ok, he volunteered knowing my propensity for falling off things and figuring it would be easier to fix the slide-out than my head but I thought the drawing of straws sounded a bit more diplomatic) so up on the roof he went.

I, like any good wife, stood below and gave advice....and snapped a few pictures while I was at it (women=multitasking, n'est-ce pas?) .

I'm happy to say we've been drip free (ok, I'm tempted to go for the joke but I know payback can be a bitch!) and look forward to sunnier days ahead.

Lassen National Park

Lake Almanor

Spring is finally here and this week has been an amazingly good week. The sun has been out in all it's glory, all week, and we think that we are going to make it! I have just one more week left before we head back to Montana and then we hope to be going to Alaska for the summer. The past few weeks have been tough. The weather has been blah and it's been all we could do just to hang on. We have still gotten out some though and here are a few pics.

Susan and I drove up to Lassen Volcanic National Park two weekends ago. It was when the weather was just miserable here in Quincy and I knew that the climb in elevation would get us into some sunshine.

It was still winter here in the High Sierra, so on a cold and foggy Saturday morning we took off for Lake Almanor and the town of Chester for goodies and then went up to Lassen. Lassen is like a miniature Yellowstone and the drive up there reminded us of our trip there last February. We stopped in Chester for Coffee and pastries (overrated) and then we climbed over Morgan Summit at 8000' and headed into the park.

As you can see, the park was still buried in snow and we could only get in to the visitor's center. But that was okay for us. We just needed to get out of the muck and see the sun. And it was beautiful. We will definitely come back in the summer when the park is open.

Have a happy first day of spring!

Viva the Tour (of California, that is)

It's been a couple of weeks since the Amgen Tour of California, but I thought that it would be worthwhile to talk about it, since Montana native, Levi Leipheimer, won it for the third year straight. I could hear "go Levi go," from Butte Montana to Quincy California to our vantage spot on the Capitol Mall in Sacramento. Yes, we were there for the Prologue in Sacramento on Valentine's Day. What a perfect Valentine's gift from my wife, a trip to see many of the world's Pro's duke it out for the golden, leader's jersey! And for the record, I made sure to get my wife a BIG bar of chocolate. Thanks again honey.

Okay, so back to the race. Wow! We got there before the start and were able to check out the Expo and all of the teams' RV's. We got within a few feet of the guys as they were warming up and we also saw Patrick Dempsey from Grey's Anatomy as he hung around the Quick Step team van. It was too cool for this wanna be Lance Armstrong to mingle with the Big Boys.

As for Lance, he was completely mobbed and we couldn't get within 20 feet of him (and behind 10 rows of fans.) It was incredible to see. Poor Dempsey didn't even get the Rockstar welcome that was given to Lance.

The Prologue was a 2.4 mile long course through downtown Sacramento and was a time trial. A TT is a race against the clock and the fastest man wins. It was won by Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, but Levi finished 2nd, only a few seconds back. Lance broke the top ten in his first real test since retiring three years ago. Not too shabby, if you ask me. So here are a few pictures to whet your whistle and give you a sense of the atmosphere.

I've posted a few more pics on the Team Stampede Blog at http://www.ts5vvraves.blogspot.com/