Casino boondocking & it was Hot, Hot, Hot!

We left the Tumwater/Olympia area on Tues., Sept. 2nd as scheduled. We got on the road around 11:30 am after our dental appointments that morning. We drove south on I-5 and used the Portland area bypass to avoid going on the interstate through the city.

We enjoyed a nice drive and enjoyed the scenery typical of I-5 south of Portland, which becomes agricultural, rolling green hills, and some ranch land. Annie the Schnauzer loves to look at the sheep along side the freeway as we roll along.

Since we're on a budget, we decided to stop for the night at the Seven Feathers Casino at exit 99 in Oregon. A lot of the casinos give free "boondocking" space to RVer's because they know that most of the time those RVer's will go inside and spend some money. (some people spend lots of money) Boondocking for you non-RVer's means parking or camping without the benefit of any utility hook-ups. No problem since RV's are fully self-contained with their own power source in the form of a generator and propane option as well. We went into the casino and availed ourselves of the senior-priced buffet dinner. It was only so-so and we won't go back again.

Next morning we got ourselves ready to roll. We continued on our way south with our destination being Corning, California.....and another freebie at the Rolling Hills Casino. Along about Redding, CA it really began to heat up outdoors. Pretty soon the thermometer read 100 degrees. By the time we stopped at the casino it was about 102 degrees. We turned on the generator to keep Annie cool in the RV and we went into the casino to check out the buffet. Hey, why not? We aren't paying any $$$ to spend the night so we may as well enjoy another meal out. This time the meal was great. We picked up a free Player's Card from the service desk and they gave us $5 free play on the slot machines. We sat down at the penny machines (no kidding) and played only until our free money was gone and then we left. The motorhome was much cooler when we went back out there and we turned off the generator and went to bed. It cooled off at night so we slept like babies.

We left next morning for our ultimate destination....Pismo Beach. Again, the weather got Hot,Hot, Hot. We drove over to Hwy. 101 and it was 104 degrees by the time we got to Paso Robles. Then, as we continued going south and got closer to San Luis Obispo it began to get cooler and cooler. We watched the thermometer reading on the dash go from 100 degrees to 94 and then to 82 and then to 75. S.L.O. is only 12 miles north of Pismo Beach and by the time we got to Pismo it was a wonderful, cool 68 degrees. Whew, what a relief!

We got settled into our space at Pismo Coast Village RV Resort. We will be here until Nov. 11th. It was great. Annie loves it here, too. I got some laundry going in our W/D and then fixed dinner.

This morning (Friday) we went over to McDonald's for a breakfast of English Muffins and coffee. We left this area last February so obviously hadn't been back to this McDonald's since then. Bruce orders our muffins and the lady asks if he wants butter with them. He says, no, we want 6 honey's. She looks up quickly and says, "6 honeys! I should have remembered. Where have you guys been?" I thought that was pretty funny. I think they must know us at every McDonald's up and down the drive from Tumwater to Pismo Beach. We go for that breakfast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday wherever we happen to be.

We're settled in now for 9 weeks and are enjoying the cool weather and the wonderful town. I'll write next time about this great place we come to....Pismo Coast Village.