Lucky 7 Casino

350 North Indian Road
Smith River, CA 95567-9474
(707) 487-7777


Nothing for signing up for the players card and we chose not to stay overnight in the designated area since we were the only rig and it was behind a convenience store which did not appeal to us. If we are ever in the area again and there might be more rigs boondocking, we may decide to stay overnight.


The casino was fairly small but had loads of different slot machines we had never played before that were not real stingy but while we were there, we did not hear or see any big jackpots given away and we broke even but no win.

Eureka KOA

4050 North Highway 101
Eureka, CA 95503
800-562-3136


We paid $35 for a FHU back in with cable and WiFi, using our Value Kard. Having cable and WiFi is not a plus for us since we use our MiFi card exclusively, except when we do not have service which is NOT very often and we set up our satellite dish because we love watching our programs according to our East/West stations. But, we include it in our review for those of you who want this service.

Being off season, there was plenty of spaces available. We chose to be situated right next to the bigger laundry facilities since that was one of our goals. The washers took $1 to wash and the dryers took a quarter per 10 minutes, which they worked so well, it took less than a dollar for each dryer. The restrooms, showers and laundry area was kept clean and well maintained.


The roads were paved, the sites were gravel and very level with enough room for us to hook up without hearing our neighbors breath. It was wet, damp and so foggy, there wasn’t a view at all. The hosts were very gracious, we pulled in during a break and checked out the self register for a site number, then we went into the office after 3pm to settle up.


It was very convenient for us since it was right on the 101 highway we were on and if we are ever in the area, we would stay here again.

Our Coastal Drive Begins…

Back on the road again…but this time no more freeways. Heading north on 101, all the way to the coast, then following it all the way into Washington. This is a great road, a few places with little winding areas but for the most part it was fabulous. Finally arriving on the coast after waiting all these years was very disappointing. The fog was so thick, the kind where we could not see any part of the ocean, there were times we could hardly see the front of the rig. To make matters worse, the weather forecast is not very promising…for the next 10 days they are forecasting either fog or rain all the way up the coast. Time to make the best of this situation.


Since it had been a very nail-biting drive thus far, we decided to stay in Eureka to get our laundry and a bit more cleaning of the rig completed. In addition, all the batteries for all of our cameras were in need of charging. Usually we put them on their chargers the night before getting back on the road, but we were so excited this time we forgot to charge them.


It was the perfect opportunity to stop for the night, just in case there was a clearing in the fog, we wanted to be ready for photos. We found a KOA, just north of Eureka and even though they were slightly over what we budgeted to camp, we found they were reasonable for being on the coast in California. See our separate RV Park Review for this location on our blog or at RV Parking.


Taking this drive has given us a new perspective on life and there has been much soul searching, not always a good thing but it has us thinking a lot about our purpose in life. Searching for our true calling has always been something we want to achieve but never seem to get there. There has not been a time when we get that aha moment as we did with living this lifestyle. Yes, we know we are exactly where we should be, but there is more, it is not just about us living this lifestyle, there is more, we just can’t put our fingers on it yet. In time that too will surface and we will know what it is, in the meantime we will enjoy each and every moment as we continue to search for our passionate purpose.


The passing of Bruce and Margie has hit us very hard which stirred around some other thoughts. If something happens to us both at the same time as it did with them, who would take care of our arrangements? We know each others wishes upon our deaths, but if we both go at the same time, we have no family left to take care of things. We both have living wills and do not want to be kept alive by machinery. We don’t have any insurance money to fuss about, and we don’t have a huge nest egg but what we would have at the time we would love to donate to a fine charity that helps children or battered families and we both wish to be cremated and scattered in the ocean.


Not sure how this would all be taken care of but we imagine it would be done. Enough said and it’s time to begin thinking about less morbid things…living every moment to the fullest.

For all of our photos, please click here to go to our Picasa Web Albums.

On The Road Again…

Left the lot in the middle of morning traffic, but it seems in California, traffic lasts all day long. The Interstates are in such need of repairs, it was a rough drive through San Jose and then Oakland was so bad, we thought we would lose things off of our rig.


We made it to American Canyon, where we took a Wal-Mart stop. This particular location had such an elegant look about it, the prices reflected that we were in a ritzy area. After picking up just a few items, and a well needed haircut, we continued on our journey.

The drive through Napa Valley was spectacular. So many vineyards and so little time. If we stopped to taste, we would have ended up spending the night, so we passed them by with just some photos, but the area offered such tremendous views that should not be missed.




We arrived at the Konocti Vista Casino for a full hookup, long showers, Jerry’s haircut, a thorough cleaning and some well deserved play time. We had a really late night, so much fun, and really nice to be in vacation mode once again!

Check out our review we wrote in a separate blog entry and our photos from our drive so far at our Picasa Web Albums.

Our Last Days on the Pumpkin Patch

They were quite interesting…

The turkey laid an egg…the pig ate it and tried to eat the turkey too!


Business was booming and we were non-stop selling pumpkins.


It took us only hours to do what we needed to do to shut down our part of the patch, so we were able to leave a day earlier than the original plan.


All in all, we had an interesting time, we learned so much about ourselves. If we had to do it over again, we would, as we said it was a fantastic learning experience. We spent many long hours creating a nice environment for children to enjoy themselves and parents to honor that with some respect…we did not receive that from many of the parents or from the owner. He believes that losing a few pumpkins is worth it, if it brings in the volume of people he is looking for and over disciplining children could lose him some business. We understand his philosophy, but we do not agree with it. We would consider working at another pumpkin patch in the future, if only we could set some rules for destruction by the children or just selling pumpkins would be ideal, dealing with the other nonsense is not for us.

All of our photos from the patch are now downloaded to our Picasa Web Albums, be sure to check them out!

Our Time is Winding Down

Less than a week and the pumpkin patch saga will be over. This is suppose to be our busiest time of all, unfortunately days of rain is putting a damper on business, not entirely but having a slight effect on sales. It has been great since most people are here to purchase a pumpkin and not just come in to play. The 12 hour days are definitely taken a toll on our bodies, but with less than a week to go, we will make it through.

We are so ready to head up the coast, do some sightseeing, have a few play days and just give our bodies the rest and relaxation they so deserve.

Just wanted to update our readers, since this will be a very busy week and weekend, then we will be cleaning up the lot for a few days before heading out, so we may not be updating much until after we leave. We have been doing our best to keep up with everyone’s blogs but sometimes too tired to even comment, let alone write our own blog. Take care and we hope that everyone stays safe and has fun!

Life Has A Way…

Of setting us straight when we wander off track. Every thought we have leads us to our next choice. Every choice we make, leads us to our next destination. You can choose to make it your best day, or you can wallow into what happened yesterday and never get anywhere.



Life isn’t always fair, and we don’t always get what we want, but it is in those moments when things don’t seem to make sense that you find the real value of living your life to the fullest.



We have a tendency to whine about things and to only look at the bad, look at our media after all. There is no news to broadcast if folks are loving and caring for one another. NO, they would rather sensationalize the ugly things that happen instead of focusing on the many wonderful things that went on behind those ugly facts.


For us, we strive to see all the good in every moment.

When we hear yet another child screaming because they are not getting what they want, we are grateful that we have not lost our hearing.

When our bones ache and we feel sore all over, we are grateful that we have healthy enough bodies to allow us to be working today.

When we look out into the pumpkin patch and see people lifting and dropping the pumpkins, at least we know we have sight today, the legs to get up and walk over to them and the voice to ask them to stop.


Yes, we are still grieving over the loss of two wonderful people, but for us the best way through our pain is to see and live the bright side and not dwell on all the could of or should of’s. That is one of the reasons we chose to begin living our dream life, so we don’t have any regrets of not living each moment to the fullest.

There Are NO Words…

When we first read about this tragedy, we were speechless. The shock was overwhelming, even for us who only knew Bruce and Margie through their blog. There were plans to meet up a few times but it just never happened and then their were other plans for the future. Do any of us know what the future holds?

Always having a tendency to search for some sort of brightness in any given situation, what we realized is that they died in a way that is calming for us. First, no warning and second they died together. We try not to dwell on death but it is inevitable and one day we will all face it. There could be no better way to leave this earth, then to be walking along, holding hands with the person you have spent most of your dreams and life with and in my story how it happened, they didn’t know what hit them.

The tears continue for the loss of two wonderful people. Margie’s wonderful posts on her blog and all of her genuine comments, not only on our blog but on others as well will be terribly missed. She had a knack for writing reviews of places they had visited that kept us all updated on places we might or might not want to visit in our travels.

We hope the family finds peace and their grieving does not consume them for too long!

This has given us an entirely new perspective on our lives. Again, it has opened our eyes on just how quickly our lives could end. Yes, this pumpkin patch is a great big pain in the ass, but the more we whine and complain about it, the worse it is getting. So we are once again living our lives as if this could be our last. We decided if we are that unhappy, we would leave, but we talked it out and decided that instead of leaving, we would just suck it up and make the best of this situation, after all, we only have 14 more days. But, for us that means no more whining about this or that, no more complaining about how bad we have it. What we need to look at is at least we have one more day to be on this earth and that is a spectacular moment…Life truly is exactly what you make of it and we plan to make every moment of every day the best damn time of our lives.

Thank you Bruce and Margie for allowing us to share your lives through your blog, you both will be truly missed.

Another Heat Wave…Breaking Old Habits

We didn’t have much heat while we were at the ranch this summer, but California is certainly making up for that now for us. They are predicting temperatures in the 90’s here in Saratoga for the next few days, just as they were when we were setting up the patch…not looking forward to that at all. It was getting really nice the past week, high in the 70’s, lows in the 50’s, but now…too hot for working outdoors, that is for sure.

Long Island Cheese

Are you one of those people that expect too much of yourself?

We once again have turned back into that type of people and it is so hard to change those habits. It’s about that old recording we playback in our heads, telling us that if we are not working as hard as an ox, then we are not doing enough. That old stinking thinking that we are never good enough to do anything else but to work our bodies until we end up actually hurting ourselves. We get into that frame of mind that makes us believe that doing for others and neglecting ourselves is acceptable behavior. We get so busy trying to make everything so perfect that we neglect taking care of ourselves. We don’t eat properly, we don’t take those moments to do what we should be doing so that we don’t get burned out. It’s not others that tell us to work that hard, it is our own selves that take our ethics to a level that is truly unhealthy.

Jarrahdales

We are working 12 hour shifts, the lot is open from 9 to 9 and there are times that we are not busy, but for the most part, we are so busy. Not that we are making many sales, since most folks just come in to allow their children to run rapid throughout the patch, destroying pumpkins and then getting upset with us if we ask then nicely not to allow them to do it. As I said in previous posts, it is only a small percentage but we allow those few a day to almost wreck our days. Learning hard not to let that happen, but not always accomplishing that lesson.

Speckled Swans

As you can probably gather from these posts, most likely, we will not be doing another pumpkin patch any time soon, at least not this kind that has all this FREE activity. Working in a lot and selling pumpkins would be ideal, not having all this free for all with the children is the problem. We are told, but we doubt it, that all these people will come back and buy pumpkins later…NOT! We have had several folks, the truly buying ones that said they did not appreciate all the kids running around as if this were a park. Trying to maintain some sort of sanity has been the most difficult task for us, the parents always come back with the same arguments, “We have always been able to do this in the past…blah…blah…blah” Maybe they had, maybe not, but what matters to us is that we have to tell them over and over not to allow their children to run through the pumpkins, pick them up and try to carry them around, walk all over them, or so many other things that they do to disturb any sort of sanity. Then there have been a few of those parents that drop off their children and either leave completely or sit in their cars the entire time. We have tried to stop that from happening but many times, there are so many people in this lot that we can’t tell who is with who.

It’s a mad house I tell you…it’s a mad house…but it’s only for 20 more days…

Flying Saucers

Would love to hear from anyone out there who has done a pumpkin patch in the past, or are doing one now that can tell me if they are all like this one.

We Made It Through Our First Few Days

We worked hard the first week or so to get the Pumpkin Patch up and running and we have to admit, we have done a bang up job. Something we miss from the stationary life were all the parties we use to have around the holidays, beginning with Halloween (my birthday) and going through Christmas. We use to be fanatics about decorating, but doing this Pumpkin Patch has scratched that itch. It has been fun!



The animals arrived and oh what a first night. The pig is the tyrant and wants to eat the turkey and bosses the goats so we had to separate the turkey since we woke up the first morning with turkey feathers everywhere and both Miss Turkey and Bossy Flossy (the pig) were limping. Big Goat and Snoopy (the smaller goat) are able to deal with Flossy much better so they are in the same area. Jerry spent the first day reorganizing their cages and after just that first day, they are now very happy campers, for the most part.







Most of the kids love them but at times the kids are so hyped that they make the animals all rowdy which makes for an interesting time. We are learning so much, some good, some not, but all the same it’s all a great learning experience.

The long hours are once again hard getting used to and even though sales are not all that great, the steady flow of people through here is amazing. They come to see the maze, the animals and some think it is a playground.


Not sure how people don’t understand that this is a business, we are selling pumpkins. Allowing their children to run all on top of them, to try to pick them up and fail and smash just amazes us and is what we spend most of our time doing most of the day. Explaining that these items are for sale and that they can’t be damaging them and then the way they act with the animals is just another story in itself. In all reality, there are only a few that are disrespectful, but they just seem to rub us both the wrong way, but we are working through it.

Jerry spends most of his day creating more scarecrows and I create the pumpkin heads.




Then we rest whenever and wherever we can!



We have added more photos to our Picasa Web Albums of the Pumpkin Patch.

The Heat Wave is Ending

Today was cooler, only in the 80’s, no more setting record highs in California which has made it a real chore trying to get the pumpkin lot set up. Thankfully it is a bit different than the Christmas Tree lot. For Christmas, we start fast and end slow. On the pumpkin lot, we start slow and end fast. What I mean is we do our most business the first few weeks selling the trees, but with pumpkins we sell most of them the closer we get to Halloween.

Today, we also received many calls to set up field trips for children. This is going to be the highlight of this entire adventure. We schedule classes to come to the Pumpkin Patch and we entertain them with the maze/fort, the animals and the pumpkin painting. The only charge is $1.50 for the miniature pumpkin that they paint.

We also got another shipment of pumpkins, our specialty ones. These are so fantastic, now to learn all the names of them before the kids get here.












We took loads of pictures today and uploaded more photos of the Pumpkin Patch on our Picasa Web Albums, be sure to check them out.

Been trying to get the merchandise booth together and Jerry is losing it already.







Will make it 30 more days?