It’s not that the drive up the 5 freeway, (the drive up I-5, for you non-CA natives) through California is completely devoid of scenery, points of interest, decent food, or a well positioned, quality stopping place for RV road people; it’s just that if you fell asleep on the Tejon Pass, and didn’t wake up until Sacramento, you’d be okay with it.  (although really, is it that much of a stretch to keep napping till Springfield/Eugene?  There’s a whole lot of empty with bonus added gloomy between Redding and there.)   California is so long, north to south, that by the time you’ve gone all the way up from lower southern CA to Sacramento, it feels like you should be near the top/end…   You. Are. Not.

Also, it turns out, there’s quite a bit of difference between 65° daytime temps, and 45° at night, and 45° daytime and 32° at night.  (Sure, those aren’t North Dakota or Wisconsin temperatures, but being acclimated to Southern California you have to give me a little runway on this one.)  I’ve always been the “not cold” guy.  Even in the dead of “winter” I like a window open for fresh air, a light blanket at most at night, and short sleeves all the time with very rarely a light jacket or hoodie.  So I’ve been a little bit surprised that apparently I’m just the SoCal “cold guy.”

My time up here in the Pacific Northwest has cleared up any misconceptions I had that 45° all day plus a crap load of rain, followed by a long night of low 30’s is really cold.  (again, not Wisconsin/Canada cold… I get it) I am not going to be the short sleeves, thin pants and bare head guy here.  Here, I’m the Merino wool cap, gloves and socks, a jacket and scarf, and still wondering how practical a thermal under-layer would be, guy. Also, my new best friend is an electric heating comforter.  My story – and I’m sticking to it – is not that it’s an expectation error on my part, it’s more about duration.  If it were 32° at night, but back to 68-70° during the day at least there would be some recovery time.   I could be “cold guy” at night, but recuperate and normalize, so to speak, when it’s warm again.  It’s the all day and all night, that’s just overbearing.  Like I said… that’s my story.   :)

At least there’s one benefit to the reverse snowbird.* (as I’m calling it)  Because I’m up here visiting my daughter and son-in-law for the holidays, I’m staying at RV parks near where they live, and it is definitely off-season for parks up here.  The day I pulled into the first park, I was the only rig in my entire section.  At the second park, I’m in the “row” they earmark for shorter stays and, so far, I’ve been in that row all by my lonesome; an absolute first in my RV park experience.  The doggy and I have been enjoying the extra breathing room.

In spite of the rain (and cold) every day, or, perhaps because of it, I’ve managed to work in a photo excursions here and there.  I’m trying not to miss any swings, and get out where things might be happening.  Nothing amazing yet – on camera – but seeing the sights has been awesome, even when they’re mostly rained out and even if it hasn’t paid off photographically yet.  I did get the interesting, but not great Mount Hood image above.  It’s too noisy/grainy and not sharp enough to be really good, but I still kinda like it.  Taken with my little Canon G11 from the 205 bridge, (i205) near Portland going about 55mph with my window rolled down, (I can’t hang my pricey rig out the window at 50mph and there was too much traffic to pull over)  I caught one of the few times that some sun was peaking through.  It doesn’t happen often… because of the rain… and the cold.   I mentioned that it was cold here, right?

* Snowbird is a term that refers to RV’ers and others who travel south to warmer climates in the winter and back up north where it’s cooler in the spring/summer.