Category Archives: Oregon

Alternate Routes Through Portland and Seattle

We were up early on Friday morning and hit the road with what had to be our earliest departure ever. We were on the road by 7:30am. I’d snagged an appointment for a chassis alignment on the coach at Brazel’s RV Performance Center in Centralia, Washington. I thought I could make the drive in four and half hours, but you never know what you might encounter driving through Portland.

I decided to take the long way around on I-205 rather than going straight through downtown Portland in I-5. This turned out to be a good decision as we only had a couple of slow-downs and no drama. We made good time and I had enough time to spare for a lunch stop in Chehalis. I went to the Subway sandwich shop while Donna fixed a salad for herself. We arrived at Brazel’s at 12:30pm and dropped the trailer in a pull-through site in their RV customer lot. This lot has full hook-ups for about a dozen and a half rigs. They took the coach into the shop right at 1pm.

The alignment job was a comprehensive chassis alignment that began with weighing the four corner wheel weight of the coach. They adjusted the ride height, checked rear alignment and thrust – no issues there – and front wheel camber, caster and toe. The front toe needed to be reset. Meanwhile, Donna used their 5G wifi to get some work done in the customer lounge area. With the work completed, we rolled out of Centralia at 4:30pm.

We got lucky and kept the wheels turning through Olympia with only a couple of slow-downs. The traffic came to a standstill just past the Martin Way exit where we left I-5. Our destination was the Cabela’s store in Lacey. We pulled into their lot around 5:30pm and called it a day. We’ve stayed at this Cabela’s before. It’s a quiet, out-of-the-way stop and good for a one-night layover.

Parked for the night at the west end of the Lacey Cabela’s

I’d planned on using the Cabela’s dump station but found they had removed it! Where the old dump station was located, they had poured concrete over the dump station hook-up. I don’t know what prompted that.

Donna made a favorite for dinner – pork tenderloin medallions with a dijon sauce, sweet potato mash and steamed asparagus.

Pork tenderloin medallions

The sun doesn’t set until well after 9pm this far north at this time of year. Consequently, we stayed up later than usual watching TV. Saturday morning we didn’t get rolling again until 10am. Once again, I opted to go the long way around and took I-405 instead of following I-5 through Seattle. I’m not sure how much it helped – traffic was terrible through Tacoma before we even got to I-405. Then we had a number of slow-downs and and full stops along the way. Once we got through and rejoined I-5 in Lynnwood, the slow downs continued. I-5 through Everett is poorly designed with traffic joining the Interstate right where lane closures or exit only lanes appear. It didn’t matter that it was mid-day on a Saturday – traffic came to a halt several times.

We stopped at the Smokey Point rest area at mile post 207 and used the free dump station there. They have three lanes for RV dump stations and we didn’t have to wait. From there, we continued north to Mount Vernon where I dropped off the Spyder. The shop there had a backlog of work, so it may be two weeks before they get to work on the Spyder. It was our best option though.

Now we’re parked in my daughter, Alana’s, driveway in Arlington, Washington. Her driveway is long enough to back in our 65-foot length of coach and trailer and set up for a couple of weeks of mooch-docking. Getting the coach and trailer lined up on the narrow residential street is a bit of a chore, but we got it done. I had us leveled and connected to the 50-amp electrical service I installed here a couple of years ago when I found out I couldn’t get Dish satellite reception. I had to pull the jacks up and move forward about three feet before the satellite antenna could lock in the signal. It’s all good now, but next time I’ll try to remember to check the satellite before I set everything up.

Mooch-docking at Alana’s

The weather has been outstanding. Mostly sunny skies with the high temperature reaching the mid-70s over the weekend and should be the same today. But, this is western Washington in June. Rain is forecast to reach the area overnight and we’ll have rain over the next few days.

Today is Alana’s birthday. We’ll be going out to celebrate over dinner at The Bonefish Grill tonight. Happy birthday, Alana!

Sway Goes Away

We’ve had a couple of interesting visitors here at Richardson Park.

The first was our neighbor who set up in site 39, next to us. His name was Paul Manuel and he came down from Tacoma in his National Tradewinds motorhome. He’s a bit of a traveling minstrel – he plays the flute and attends music festivals around the area. He once owned a deli and now he and his son set up a food trailer at festivals and are known for their Philly cheese steak sandwiches. They also make subs and other fare, but the cheese steak is the most popular menu item and their claim to fame.

He sat on a picnic table in the center of the park and played his flute – he’s very good. Donna went over to compliment his playing and then invited him to visit with us for a while. He has a six-acre hobby farm in southeast Tacoma and invited us to park at his place if we’re ever in the area. He left yesterday around noon, but will return for the music festival in Veneta July 12 -14th.

The other visitor came by around noon yesterday. His name is Mike Justice – a blog follower that has a farm near the park. He came bearing gifts – he brought hazelnuts from his farm that he roasted and seasoned with a barbeque salt and they are delicious. He also gifted us with two bottles of double IPA from Pelican Brewing on the Oregon Coast. I paired it with last night’s dinner of shrimp over cauliflower rice. Nice. Thanks, Mike!

Pelican Beak Breaker Double IPA

Any time you see the word “double” in a beer description, it means the recipe has been kicked up a notch – just like adding “imperial” to the name. In this case, the beer has a higher gravity with a 9% ABV. Of course, to offset the maltiness of such a high gravity brew, additional hops are used for bittering.

With the afternoon temperature hitting 95 degrees, Donna took a floatie tube to the beach area of the lake and cooled off. I passed on going in the water as I have a small spot of dermatitis on my right foot. I took a short stroll down the path through the woods from our site to the marina area of Fern Ridge Lake.

A variety of boats at the marina

There’s a nice grassy park next to the marina and a host with a 5th-wheel trailer set up there.

People picnicking in the park on the left – another marina on the right

Richardson Park is surrounded by working farms. There’s everything from hazelnuts to strawberries growing around here. We even have a cherry tree in our site that’s bearing fruit. I could hear a farm implement at the edge of the park and wondered what it was. It turned out to be a hay baler.

Baling hay next to the park
Trail through the woods from our site

Source Engineering phoned in the afternoon and told me the sway bar links arrived. We made arrangements to have them installed this morning at 9:30am. Donna booked another night here, so we’ll move on Friday morning.

It only took about an hour to have the old links removed and new links with new bushings installed. What a difference proper tension on the sway bar makes – much better cornering and a smoother ride.

The sway bar is a “U” shaped steel torsion bar with the lower portion of the “U” flattened and elongated. The lower part of the “U” – a straight section – is attached to the front axle. At either end of the “U,” there’s a mounting point where links join the ends of the sway bar to the chassis frame rails.

Front sway bar
Sway bar link

Here’s how it works – picture making a sharp right turn. Centrifugal force will cause the body and chassis of the coach to roll to the outside of the turn. In this example, the body rolls to the left, compressing the suspension on the left side while extending the suspension on the right side.

With a sway bar attached to the axle and frame rails, as the chassis tries to roll to the left, the right end of the sway bar is pulled up. Meanwhile the left end of the sway bar is being pushed down. This creates a torsion – a twisting force – on the length of the sway bar attached to the axle. Of course the steel torsion bar resists this force and lessens the amount of body/chassis roll. It greatly enhances vehicle handling.

Today the high temperature should reach the mid-80s. Tonight should be cool with a low in the mid-50s and tomorrow should be sunny with a high around 80. We plan to head out tomorrow morning. The wind is forecast to be fairly calm and it should be a good day for travel.

Everything’s Broken

My laptop has been giving me fits, so I haven’t posted for several days. I thought my hard drive was about to crash. The cursor would suddenly freeze and the laptop would become unresponsive for long periods of time. A couple of days ago, when it started working again after about 40 minutes of no response, I found Malwarebytes was running in the background. I ended the task once the laptop resumed working and the laptop seemed fine. Last night it happened again. This time I uninstalled Malewarebytes and the laptop has been fine. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

The weekend weather was nice in Sutherlin – temps climbed daily from 70 degrees on Friday to mid-70s on Saturday and Sunday, hitting the 80s on Monday. Saturday morning we disconnected the 50amp electric service, water and sewer and battened down the hatches for a short drive into town. Les Schwab called around 9:30am and said our tires had arrived.

We pulled behind the shop and were directed to an outdoor covered work station. I checked the codes on the new tires to confirm the production dates – they were all 1419. As I wrote in my last post, tires have Department of Transportation (DOT) codes on the sidewall. The codes are alpha-numeric. The letters indicate the factory that produced the tire and the numbers are the calendar week and year of production, so 1419 means these tires were made the 14th calendar week of 2019.

DOT code on the new tires

Having fresh tires on an RV is an important consideration. Tires begin aging soon after they’re made – especially if they’re exposed to sunlight. Our old tires had lots of tread left – the tread depth was 13/32″ deep. Tires aren’t considered worn out until the tread depth is 3/32″. But, our tires had aged out. I found weather checking on the sidewall of two of our tires.

Weather checking

The checking was wasn’t deep and we would most likely be okay for a while longer. But I don’t like pushing such an important safety issue as tires. A blowout on a motorhome can be a catastrophic event.

The guys at Les Schwab did a fantastic job and had all six tires replaced in about an hour and a half. I had Equal Flexx brand balancing beads put in all six wheels. New shoes and a smooth ride!

With the Spyder down, we had nowhere to go and not much to do all weekend. Donna took the time to make a few dishes of “comfort food” so we would have some leftovers – we plan to boondock for a few nights as we head north. She made a Greek pork stew that was tasty and a big pot of pea soup.

Greek pork stew

Monday morning we hitched up the trailer and I pulled it into the street. I tried to back the Spyder into the trailer with its wounded engine thumping on one cylinder, but it wouldn’t go up the ramp without stalling. Luckily, a couple of guys were working nearby and helped me push it up the ramp into the trailer.

We drove about 15 miles up I-5 and exited near Anlauf. From there we hit a county road called Territorial Highway. This was a twisty road with lots of short, steep climbs and downgrades – and no shoulder in parts. All along this route, we saw signs for wineries. If the Spyder was operational, I could see us taking winery tours in this area.

Our destination was Richardson Park – a county park/campground on Fern Ridge Lake near Veneta, west of Eugene, Oregon. I had an appointment set for Tuesday morning at Source Engineering in Veneta – about 10 minutes away from Richardson Park.

Last summer, we had a cooling fan failure on the coach. The cooling fan is driven by a hydraulic motor. The speed of the fan is regulated by a wax-valve thermostat. The wax in the valve expands with heat and drives a tapered piston into a seat where the fluid bypasses the fan motor. When the piston fully seats and closes the bypass, the fan runs at its highest speed. When the wax is cold – meaning the coolant is cold – the valve is open and fluid bypasses the hydraulic motor and the fan doesn’t turn.

When our wax-valve failed, the only replacement parts I could find were in England and would take a week to arrive. So, I had a stop-gap repair made that was intended to be temporary. I had the line for the bypass capped off so no fluid could bypass the hydraulic motor. This meant the fan always ran at full speed regardless of temperature. This really wasn’t harmful – the coolant temperature in the engine block was regulated by the thermostat in the coolant passage. But it has drawbacks – it takes horsepower to drive the fan. The amount varies with engine speed, but it takes an average of more than 30 horsepower to drive the fan. This in turn reduces fuel economy. Also, there’s the wear and tear of running the hydraulic motor full-speed, full time.

Later, I found out that Source Engineering had the Sauer Danfoss wax valves. They make a conversion kit to retrofit the mechanical wax valve system into late model coaches with electronically controlled cooling fan motors. The electronic control units have a high failure rate – I often hear newer Monacos or Holiday Ramblers with their fans running at high speed at start up as they leave an RV park with a cold engine. The mechanical wax-valve system rarely fails.

On Tuesday morning, we left the trailer in our site and drove to Source Engineering’s shop. We arrived at 8:15am and they took our coach in straight away. It took about an hour and a half to get the hydraulic lines uncapped and sorted and the new valve installed. They also added a restrictor to the bypass line so the fan will always run at a minimum of about 800 rpm. This is a good idea – regardless of temperature, the fan will draw air across the charge-air cooler and condenser and if the wax valve ever fails, the fan will provide some cooling. At full speed with the wax valve fully closed – this occurs at 198 degrees of coolant temperature – the fan turns at 2,500-3,000 rpm.

In the service bay at Source Engineering

I had another issue for them to look at. Our front sway bar bushings are worn and the sway bar is loose. I tried to tighten it, but it seems the loose bushings allowed the bar to rub and damage the link rod threads. I couldn’t tighten it. They checked it out and confirmed the links needed to be replaced. The bad news was, they didn’t have the links we needed in stock. The good news was, they could get them from Roadmaster in Vancouver, Washington and have the parts in a day or two.

So, we extended our stay at Richardson Park until Thursday, possibly Friday. Richardson Park isn’t a bad place to be stuck. It’s a beautiful park with paved sites and grassy areas and lots of trees. And it’s right on the lake. Fern Ridge Lake is a reservoir on the Long Tom River. It covers over 9,300 acres and is a little over four miles long. It’s a popular spot for sailboats, power boats, water skiing and fishing. In the summer, the prevailing wind from the north is strong in the afternoon making it ideal for sailing. There are boat clubs and marinas on the lake.

Site 38 at Richardson Park – 50 amp electric service and water

Before we returned from Source Engineering, we made a detour to hit Walmart in west Eugene – about 12 miles away from Veneta. Donna needed to pick up a few items to meet her menu plans for the rest of the week and I took the opportunity to stock up the beer supply.

Between the Spyder, the sway bar links and my laptop troubles, it seems like everything is going down at once. We’ll get it sorted. Next week I’ll drop off the Spyder for repairs while we visit family in Arlington, Washington.

The weather here has been unusually warm. Yesterday the high was 91 degrees – about 20 degrees higher than average. Today will hit the mid-to-upper-90s before things start cooling off. Mid-70s should be the high by the end of the week.

Rolling the Dice

We’ve been without wheels since the Spyder came up with a dead cylinder Sunday afternoon. I detailed my diagnostic process in the last post. The new ignition coil module was supposed to come in on Wednesday, but when I checked with Valley Motorsports in Eugene, they told me the part wouldn’t be there until Thursday between 11am and 1pm.

Donna talked to our neighbor, Mickey, and found out that he and his wife were going to Roseburg Thursday morning. They said they could drop me off at Enterprise Rental Car in Roseburg. I called and reserved a car for pick-up Thursday morning.

I picked up the car around 9:30am and headed north – it was about an hour drive to Eugene. I had checked a map of the city and had a plan. First I stopped at Costco where I bought a few items including a new camp chair. It’s a folding director’s chair with a folding side table – not something I could easily carry on the Spyder, so I took advantage of having a car.

Next I went to the west side of town and checked out the Walmart. I wanted to see what the overnight parking situation looked like and I also needed to pick up aluminum drip pan liners for the Weber Q. From there I went to the Elks’ Lodge to see what it looked like for an overnight spot. The west side Elks’ Lodge is a no go for RV parking. The lot is tight and shared with several other businesses. I was hoping to find a place to dry camp Monday night so we could be close to Source Engineering in Veneta, Oregon where we have an appointment Tuesday morning.

After a quick stop for lunch at Taco Time, I found Valley Motorsports at 12:30pm. They said they would call when the part came in and I hadn’t heard from them yet. I checked at the parts counter and was told the day’s parts shipment had just arrived and was being checked in. I was going to sit in the waiting area and read a book while they did that, but a guy came out with my part after about three minutes!

I was 99% sure the ignition coil was the culprit for the lack of spark in the rear cylinder, but there was a small chance that it could be a fault in the Engine Control Module (ECM) which sends a signal to the coil pack. I couldn’t test for this signal without the proprietary B.U.D.S. computer program that’s only found at Can-Am dealers. Ignition components are not returnable once they’ve been installed. I rolled the dice and paid for the $170 coil pack.

An hour later, I was back at Timber Valley SKP Park and got to work. Mickey stopped by and offered to follow me to Roseburg when I returned the rental car. I told him that with any luck we’ll use the Spyder to get back from the rental car agency.

Well, my luck ran out on me and my roll of the dice was a loser. The coil pack didn’t fix the problem. I have no choice now but to take it to a dealer where they can interrogate the ECM and run through the diagnostic protocol to see why the rear ignition coil isn’t receving a signal. I know the primary voltage and grounds are good and the coil is new, so it must be a loss of signal to fire the coil that is the root of the problem. I took Mickey up on the offer to pick me up at the rental agency in Roseburg.

I have a coil pack for sale!

We’ve extended our stay here until Monday. Tomorrow morning I’ll drive the coach to Les Schwab in Sutherlin and have the tires replaced. Monday we’ll move to Richardson Park Campground on Fern Ridge Lake, just north of Veneta. After we have the work performed at Source Engineering on Tuesday, we’ll head north. Our original plan was to go to the coast, but now that’s changed.

We plan to get to my oldest daughter, Alana’s house in Arlington, Washington by the end of the week. From there, I can have the Spyder transported to the dealer in Mount Vernon and we’ll hang out in Alana’s driveway until it’s fixed. Sometimes the best laid plans go awry.

The days here have been warm – in the mid-80s until yesterday. Yesterday, the high was in the low 70s and a few rain drops fell in the afternoon. It rained overnight and showers continue today off and on. I need to bicycle into town at some point to pick up a general delivery package at the post office. We’ll be mostly homebound until we get the Spyder repaired. We’d hoped to check out some of the wineries and other sights around here, but that’ll have to wait until next time.

No post is complete without a dinner plate photo. On Tuesday, Donna prepared tortilla-crusted tilapia. This time she served it over a smear of avocado puree on the plate before she added the fish and salsa. She served corn with cilantro on the side.

Tortilla-crusted tilapia

Little Fish and Big Trouble

I mentioned in my last post that the upcoming weekend was a “free fishing weekend” in Oregon. So on Saturday morning, Donna and I loaded the tackle box and our fishing poles and rode the Spyder up to Cooper Creek Reservoir – about four miles away from Timber Valley SKP Park just east of Sutherlin.

The west end of the lake was crowded with fisherman – they had a youth fishing event scheduled there. So we went to the east end of the lake where we had scouted out another fishing access point. There were only a few people there. We didn’t have much luck. We spent about an hour and a half there and I only caught two small bluegill that I released. Meanwhile, Donna was skunked.

In the afternoon, Donna took the Spyder to the grocery store in town and bought a few things. She made salmon cakes for dinner, but she used a different recipe. This recipe was a little more involved than what she usually makes – it included capers plus chopped red peppers and red onion sauteed in butter versus the usual mayonnaise. She served an arugula salad on the side with the apple cider dressing we bought the day before at the farmers’ market. Tasty!

Salmon cake plate

On Sunday morning, after I watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy, we went back to the reservoir and tried the west end this time – it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the day before. Even though it was free fishing weekend, we still had to pay $4/day to park at the reservoir. The Cooper Creek Reservoir is a long, narrow body of water stretching west to east then southeast. It’s large enough for water skiing and we saw a water skier and few people tubing behind powerboats.

West end of Cooper Creek Reservoir

Once again, the fishing wasn’t too hot and we were both skunked. We only saw a couple of fish caught although a dozen or so people were fishing.

Donna fishing for fish

When we came home, Donna hit the ice cream social at the park – she had a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream. After she came home, I fired up the Spyder to run an errand and trouble struck. It was only running on one cylinder. I did a cursory check, then decided to leave it for Monday morning. It was hot out in the direct sun and I didn’t feel like getting too involved with it.

The afternoon temperatures have reached the low 80s for the last few days and we run the air conditioners in the coach in the afternoon. Donna made a simple dish for dinner last night – spaghetti squash topped with beef ragu and shaved parmesan.

Beef ragu over spaghetti squash

This morning, I got to work on the Spyder. The first step, as always, was to peel the onion. To do anything mechanical on the Spyder, body panels have to come off. In this case, I had to remove seven panels with numerous fasteners. It’s tedious work.

An internal combustion gasoline engine needs a few things in order to work – you need fuel and air in the proper ratio, compression and a spark for ignition at the right time. For some reason, one of the cylinders wasn’t getting fuel or spark. To get to the spark plugs, I had to remove the air box. Everything is packaged so tightly on the Spyder, this job is easier said than done. After about an hour, I could finally pull the spark plugs.

I grounded the spark plugs and cranked the starter to see if I was getting a spark. No spark on the rear cylinder, good spark on the front one. I switched the plugs in the leads and tried again. No spark in the rear cylinder. This told me it wasn’t a problem with the spark plug. Next I switched the ignition wires at the coil and cranked the engine again. Still no spark in the rear cylinder. This told me the ignition wires weren’t the problem.

Without the specialty diagnostic equipment to check further, I relied on deductive reasoning. The ignition coil is a dual-coil unit. Both coils get primary voltage from the same source. Since one coil worked, it’s not a primary voltage problem. Since the ignition wires and the spark plugs were good, it left the coil as the most likely culprit. It’s possible that a fault in the engine control module could be preventing the rear coil from receiving a signal, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m putting my money on a bad ignition coil.

I checked around and the nearest dealer is in Eugene – about 60 miles away. I had them order a new coil assembly for $170. I found one for half that on Ebay, but it was sold “as-is” with no warranty and no returns. I didn’t trust it and I also didn’t know how long it would take to get. The dealer can get one in two days. I’ll have to rent a car and drive up to Eugene to fetch it. I put the plugs back in, the airbox on and reassembled most of the body work leaving off only what I need to access the ignition coil assembly. I spent a total of about two and half hours at this point.

Meanwhile Donna went out on her road bike for about an hour. After lunch, she went back out again on her beater bike – I call it that because it’s a rigid frame mountain bike she bought used for $25 – to town for a few items at the grocery store. When she returned, I commandeered the bike and rode to town. I stopped at the Les Schwab tire center to inquire about new tires for the coach. Our tires don’t have much wear after 40,000 miles, but they’re aging out. Our tires were manufactured in 2013 and after six years they’re beginning to show some checking – small cracks – in the sidewalls on at least two of the tires. I was hoping to get seven years out of them, but I won’t push it.

At Les Schwab, I asked Jeremy at the counter for a quote on replacement tires and I also wanted to know the DOT date codes on them. The Department of Transportation requires date codes on all passenger car and truck tires. The codes indicate the calendar week and year of manufacture. He called their warehouse and they had six Toyo M154 295/75 x 22.5 tires with DOT codes of 1419. This means they were made calendar week 14 of 2019 – two months ago. We were good to go.

I wanted to replace the tires here in Oregon because there’s no state sales tax here. On a $3,200 tire bill, that means a significant savings. I ordered the tires and we’ll have them installed on Saturday – oh, I should mention that we extended our stay here in Timber Valley SKP Park until Monday, June 10th.

The forecast calls for a couple more warm days, then much cooler on Thursday and Friday with a chance of rain on Friday. Hopefully I’ll have the Spyder project done by then and dry weather when I take to the coach to Les Schwab on Saturday.

*Just so you know, if you use this  link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

No Camping in the Campground

We pulled out of Rolling Hills RV Park around 10am on Wednesday and headed north on I-5 from Corning, California. We intended to go to Lake Shastina to boondock on BLM land at a free campground there. The terrain soon changed after we passed through Red Bluff as we left the Sacramento Valley and started climbing. We drove past Shasta Lake which appears to be at full capacity – no more drought conditions here!

We climbed a series of summits ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level – some of them were 6% grades. Along the way, Donna researched a bit and found some depressing news. Lake Shastina campground had been closed to overnight camping in August of 2017. We only spent one night there before and were looking forward to spending several days there this time. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “The Lake Shastina campground, with no camp host or enforcement, was closed indefinitely last week after it had turned into a party pad for young locals.”

I also read that overnight restrictions were strictly enforced. This raises a question in my mind. If you can vigorously enforce a “no camping” restriction on public land, then why can’t you enforce alcohol restrictions instead of locking everyone out? Maybe it has something to do with the development of high-end housing nearby in the Lake Shastina community. Sounds like someone has the local powers-that-be in their pocket. No camping in the campground – what?

We pressed on to Yreka, California where we stayed at a Walmart several years ago – I wrote about that in this post. I wrote about how we ran into Clarke and Elaine Hockwald (Whatsnewell) at that time. We arrived at Walmart and were foiled again. Apparently, Yreka has banned overnight parking. We regrouped and went to the Rain Rock Casino which opened in the last year or so on the east side of I-5 in Yreka. There we were welcome to dry camp overnight.

After a quiet night at the casino, we were back on the road 10:30am Thursday. Our new destination was Sutherlin, Oregon. We stayed on I-5 and hit the Oregon Border just before mile marker 797. That’s right – I-5 traverses the length of California from the Mexico border to Oregon – nearly 800 miles! About four miles into Oregon, we crossed Siskiyou Pass at 4,315 feet above sea level – the highest point on I-5.

After climbing the steep grade up Siskiyou Pass, we had a six-mile steep downgrade, descending 2,300 feet in that distance. The Interstate through southern Oregon is in the Siskiyou mountain range and has several steep climbs and descents. It’s only two lanes for the most part and I had to stay aware of slow trucks climbing ahead of us and fast moving cars coming from behind. I tried to judge the closing speeds so I could maintain momentum and pass the trucks which were only going about 30-35 mph while we maintained 50mph. I was able to shoot gaps in the car traffic which was moving at closer to 70mph.

We found the Timber Valley SKP Park in Sutherlin. This park is only open to members of the Escapees club – we’re members. We booked a week on full hook-ups for a bargain rate of $132. At check-in, the clerk suggested site 10 – she said it was large and had good satellite reception. We walked over to look at the site.

Site 10 is about 50 feet wide with a concrete pad in the center and a garden shed in the back. The rear of the site is bordered by Cooper Creek, making the rear boundary irregular. The depth of the site varies from about 50 feet to 75 feet. We agreed it was a great site for us. Walking back to the office, I noticed a Nexus class A diesel coach that checked in just ahead of us. They had disconnected the car they towed behind it. As we approached, the guy put the coach in gear and reversed with a bang into the car! I don’t know what he was thinking – maybe he thought he was in drive, not reverse. I guess he’ll have two insurance claims!

We dropped the trailer on one side of the concrete pad and set up the coach on the other side. It’s a nice site with lots of room.

Timber Valley SKP park site 10

In the evening, our neighbor in site 9 came over and introduced himself. His name is Mickey Thompson – I said, “That’s a famous name.” He said, “Yeah, he has all the fame and money, I have the good looks.”

We also had a visit from the Welcome Wagon here at the SKP park. Sandy gave us a few local brochures and a couple of gifts – two fabric coasters hand made by park members.

Donna grilled shrimp, bok choy and a medley of asparagus, baby bella mushrooms and peppers for dinner.

Shrimp and veggie plate

When we stayed here a couple of years ago, we dry-camped for one night only. At that time, we found wildlife in the park – wild turkeys and jack rabbits. They’re still in the area and I was told that bobcats and bears have been seen in the park at night. Donna was surprised to see a deer lying out in front of the clubhouse in the late afternoon.

This morning, Donna and I took the Spyder out and explored. We found a Visitor Center that was loaded with information and free maps of the western states. I like paper maps – most of ours were several years old though. I gathered a handful of new maps to replace them. We also found a small farmers’ market. However, fresh produce won’t be available here for another month or so, unlike northern California where the farmers’ market had plenty of local produce. We did pick up a jar of homemade apple cider vinaigrette after tasting a bit at the market.

We also took a ride out to Cooper Reservoir to check out fishing spots. This coming weekend is free fishing weekend in Oregon – no license required. The reservoir was stocked with 2,000 legal size trout last week. I think we’ll give it a try if I can figure out how to haul our fishing poles on the Spyder.

The weather is beautiful – afternoon highs near 80 degrees, clear skies and overnight lows in the 50s. The forecast calls for more of the same in the coming week. I’m thinking we might want to extend our stay beyond a week. I have an appointment to get some work done on the coach near Eugene on the 11th. So, we need to stay in this area until then.

I have a rack of babyback ribs on the Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker grill as I type this. We bought the ribs at the store in town and they weren’t trimmed very well. After removing the membrane from the underside of the ribs, I had to trim a fat cap from the meaty side – about a quarter-pound of fat. It’s all good now though and I’m looking forward to tonight’s dinner.

*Just so you know, if you use this  link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

The Road North

When we pulled out of Lake Shastina Tuesday morning, we vowed to return for longer stay in the future. It’s such a beautiful and quiet setting. Our route took us north on Big Springs Road to County Road A12 – also called the 97-99 Cutoff. This took us west to I-5. We were surprised at the number of large houses we passed along the way. I wondered aloud where the money was coming from and whether these were primary residences or vacation homes. It’s a pretty remote area.

We drove north through Yreka and crossed the border into Oregon. A few miles past the border, we reached the Siskiyou Mountain Summit – this is the highest point on I-5 at 4,310 feet. Once we were over the pass, we hit a seven-mile 7% downgrade. We dropped over 2,300 feet of elevation. I was thanking Jacobs Engineering for their marvelous engine compression brake – affectionately known as a Jake brake. The Jake brake on our Cummins ISL engine has two settings – low and high. By toggling back and forth between the two, I was able to control our downhill speed without using the regular service brakes – I only stabbed at the brake pedal a couple of times when we approached tight curves in the road.

We passed through Ashland and Medford. The interstate has a series of summits as it undulates through the mountains. We would quickly climb a thousand feet or so, then immediately drop back down only to repeat the process time and again. We crossed both the south and north Umqua River. North of Roseburg, we pulled off at Sutherlin – a small town on the North Umpqua River. Our destination was the SKP Timber Valley RV Park. As Escapees members, we were able to dry camp in the park for a five-dollar fee.

We found a site long enough to back into without dropping the trailer and set up.

Our site at SKP Timber Valley

Donna had a Skype call as a guest speaker for an online organizing course. She set up shop outside to take the call.

Donna’s office Tuesday afternoon

A park member served as the welcome wagon and stopped by to drop off gifts. She gave us a cat toy made by someone in the park and Ozark the cat loves it. The toy has a wild turkey feather sewn in. We saw a couple of turkeys as we entered the park.

We had a quiet night but after sunrise, I woke up several times to the sound of turkeys gobbling. After slumbering for a while longer, I got out of bed. I saw wild turkeys strutting in the street in front of our coach. I went outside as they were moving away from us and tried to get closer to them. Wild turkeys are usually very wary creatures and it’s not often that you can approach them. These turkeys were obviously used to people in the park and came out of the woods to forage around – they didn’t seem too afraid of people.

A couple of them were strutting with their tails fanned out and feathers puffed up. I managed to get close enough to take a couple of photos.

Wild turkeys struttin’ their stuff

 

Walking back to the coach, I saw a jackrabbit slinking through a site.

Jack rabbit slinking away

There’s no shortage of wildlife in the area!

We hit the road just before 10am and continued our journey northward. We were still in hilly country but the climbs were short followed by short descents until we reached Eugene and then the terrain was flatter through the Willamette Valley.

Cruising along on the flat terrain, I noticed our transmission temperature seemed abnormally high. It was running around 210 degrees. The engine coolant temperature stayed normal – ranging from 180 to 195 on climbs and staying around 182-184 on the flat stretch of road. I thought it was odd. After a while, the transmission temperature started to increase again. When it reach 220 degrees, I became concerned. There was a rest stop a few miles away. By the time we pulled off at the rest stop it was at 224 degrees – much higher than I’ve ever seen in the past.

With the engine idling and the transmission in neutral, the temperature quickly dropped to 184 degrees. I used the Allison transmission key pad to check the fluid level and interrogate the control unit for trouble codes. The fluid level was fine and no diagnostic trouble codes were recorded. I found my Allison manual and read through it. It said high temperature is worrisome when the sump temperature exceeds 250 degrees, so we were still in safe territory. However, it wasn’t making sense to me. Why was the transmission running that hot when the engine temperature remained normal and there wasn’t any reason for the drive train to be under more stress than normal?

We got back on I-5 and continued on our way. The transmission temperature remained normal for several miles, then started climbing again. When it reached 211 degrees, I shifted down from sixth gear to fifth gear. The temperature dropped to 204 degrees. I still can’t make sense of this. As we approached Portland, I shifted back into drive and the transmission temperature stayed in the 190s.

Driving through Portland, Oregon is one of my least favorite drives – it ranks right up there with Seattle. We hit I-84 on the south side of the Columbia River and followed it to I-205. This took us over the Columbia River and into Washington. We pulled into the Vancouver Washington Elks lodge around 2:30pm.

Our dry camping spot at the Vancouver Elks Lodge

We plan to boondock here for two nights. Our thinking was Donna could get some bicycle mileage in here – she bicycled when we stayed here last year. While we were driving, Donna had a beef stew in the crock pot. The aroma was wonderful! After we set up and paid for two nights, we took a walk to the Fred Meyer Supermarket about a half mile from here. The crock pot stew continued to simmer.

Then we went into the lodge for a cold one. When we came back to the coach, I was reading a book when I thought to check the battery condition. Oh no! The inverter was powering the crock pot from the house batteries and I had run them below 12 volts! I went to start the generator but it was dead. Hitting the start button did nothing.

I started our engine to put some juice back into the batteries from the alternator. I still couldn’t get anything from the generator start button. It didn’t make sense to me, we had run the generator that morning without any issues. I went out checked the connections at the battery bank. Sure enough, the cable that runs up to generator had corroded and pulled out of the connector.

I made a temporary fix by clamping the cable to the terminal with Vise-Grip pliers. Today I’ll have to clean the cable and connector, strip the insulation back and reconnect the cable.

MacGuyver temporary solution.

With the temporary fix in place, the generator fired up and recharged the batteries.

Meanwhile, Donna dished out the stew and it was excellent!

Crock pot beef stew

This morning we woke up to rain. I hope it clears up so Donna can get her ride in and I can work on the generator/battery cable.

There and Back Again – Part One

I didn’t have an opportunity to post to this blog since last Friday – I think it’s the longest lapse in three and a half years of blogging. I’ll catch up over a couple of installments.

On Saturday morning, my alarm had me up at 5:40am. Donna fixed breakfast for me while I went through my things to see what I might have forgotten. I’d scheduled an Uber ride to the airport and the driver showed up on time at 6:25am.

I used to go to the airport frequently during my working life. When we lived in Michigan I would usually arrive at the airport well ahead of my flight time and sit in the Delta lounge. I had Platinum Medallion status due to frequent travel. I don’t have any frequent flyer benefits anymore since I haven’t been in an airport since May of 2013. I haven’t missed it either.

It took about 25 minutes to get through the TSA security farce. I had liquids such as eyeglass cleaner and flonase in a clear plastic ziplock bag as required but I forgot to take it out of my carry-on bag. No problem, my bag went through the X-ray device and no one noticed.

The Boeing 737-900 jet was nearly full, only a couple of the 181 seats were unoccupied. My row was full – luckily I had an aisle seat. There were two young guys in the seats next to me. They had ear buds and were busy with their laptops or smartphones for the entire flight. This was fine with me as I had a book to read on my Kindle. The only words I uttered on the two-and-a-half hour flight were “orange juice, please” when the flight attendant asked me if I wanted something to drink.

My daughter, Alana, picked me up at the airport along with my granddaughter, Gabi. Of course it was raining in Seattle. Gabi had just come from a volleyball match – she’s in fifth grade and is developing into quite a volleyball competitor. We were all hungry and stopped in Lynnwood at a Thai restaurant for lunch. Then we went to Alana’s house in Arlington to relax and visit for a while. My other granddaughter, Lainey, came home around 2pm and joined us. Lainey is 17 years old and was at work when I arrived.

Alana and me

Alana and me

Gabi, me and Lainey

Gabi, me and Lainey

Around 4pm, Alana drove me to Edmonds to meet up with Sini. Sini has been staying at her friend’s home since she sold her house. Her motorhome was parked in the yard at Alan and Julie’s place. After introductions to everyone, I started a pre-flight check on Sini’s National Tradewinds motorhome.

First, I looked at the date codes on the tires. The tires looked fine and they were about five years old. I checked the tire pressures and also the fluid levels. I familiarized myself with the cockpit layout and controls. Then I looked at the Roadmaster Falcon tow bar and thumbed through the manual for it. We decided to do a dry run and hook up her Saturn SUV tow vehicle (toad). The Saturn was new to Sini and the tow bar had just been installed on her coach by Poulsbo RV.

The tow bar has a quick link attachment that’s easy to lock in place. Then there are safety break-away cables, an electrical connector and an air line to activate the brakes.

Roadmaster Falcon tow bar

Roadmaster Falcon tow bar

Electrical and air line connectors

Electrical and air line connectors

Hitch at rear of coach

Hitch at rear of coach

We had a problem. The electrical connection wasn’t working – we didn’t have taillights or turn signals for the toad. The brakes have an actuator on the driver’s floorboard that applies the brake with a plunger attached to the brake pedal. When the brakes on the coach are applied, air pressure is sent to the actuator. This means the brakes are applied as if you had your foot on the brake pedal and the brakes lights are operated by the usual car system. We had brake lights, which I figured was the most important component.

Roadmaster brake actuator

Roadmaster brake actuator

It was about 5pm on Saturday afternoon, so a call to Poulsbo RV to see if they would look at the electrical connector they installed didn’t yield any results. The turn signals and taillights at the back of the coach are mounted high enough to be seen over the Saturn toad. We called it good enough since we didn’t intend to drive after dark.

Alana said her goodbye for now – we’ll be back up there in June for Lainey’s high school graduation. Sini ordered pizza and we settled in to Alan and Julie’s family room to watch college football. I was tired from the early start and flight. Sini told me she would pick up her friend, Linda, in the morning and they would be back at the house by 8am. I went to bed in a spare bedroom and crashed out before 10pm.

On Sunday morning I was up early and showered. I put my things in the coach and we packed a few final things Sini had in Alan’s garage. Alan backed the coach out of the yard through the RV gate into the driveway. We hooked up the toad and were ready to roll. I did another walk around and checked everything over. I pulled out of the driveway and drove a short distance down the street before stopping to give the tow bar and car a final check. All was good and we were on the road!

As I drove, Sini sat in the co-pilot’s seat and Linda was in the back. I started in with driving lessons for Sini right away. As I maneuvered the coach through turns, I told Sini what I was doing and why. I explained how driving a coach with the steer wheels behind the driver’s seat is different than driving a car with the steer wheels well in front of you. I gave her tips such as using your body as a benchmark for initiating turns. I wait until my hips are past my turning point before I start to turn in. For example, when making a right turn, I drive straight into the intersection until my butt is past the curb on the right, then I crank the steering wheel to make a tight turn. This positions the wheels to properly execute the turn without cutting the corner and clipping the curb.

The toad was easier to maneuver through turns than my cargo trailer. But, you cannot reverse with a tow vehicle. It’s important to always know how you are going to exit any place before you enter – things like parking lots or fuel stations need to be reconnoitered and a plan made before you pull in.

The plan was for me to drive through the busy metro areas of Seattle, Olympia and Portland. I would talk about what I was doing, watching and thinking about while driving. Sini could take the wheel once we got past Portland. We had a few rain drops but overall the weather was fine for driving.

When we stopped at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center for fuel past Portland, Sini made sandwiches for lunch. We carried on and I drove since we didn’t want to sit and eat – we wanted to cover more miles. Sini wasn’t keen on eating and driving on her first stint. We were pushing a bit to get to the Seven Feathers Casino before dark for our first leg of the journey.

Sini brought up the Chargers game on an NFL app she has on her iPhone. She read the play-by-play description to me so I could follow an exciting win for the Chargers. We pulled into the lot at Seven Feathers right at sunset. I had driven 400 miles for our first leg of the trip. Sini would start driving on Monday. To be continued…

Just Four Bolts

I mentioned taking delivery of a pair of new front shock absorbers for our coach. The current set of shocks was installed just two years ago, but the trip up I-5 made it obvious that the front shocks weren’t holding up. A vehicle weighing more than 30,000 pounds has to have high spring rates and serious dampers to control the suspension.

Shock absorbers exist to damp the action of the springs. Undamped, the springs would compress over a bump, storing energy in the spring. The spring would then extend, releasing this energy as it elongates past its resting length, only to return to a compressed state. This cycle would repeat until the energy is dissipated through friction and heat. The vehicle would bob up and down like a boat going over swells in the ocean.

Getting the damping rate right isn’t a simple matter. Hydraulic shock absorbers have a piston inside a cylinder filled with fluid. The piston is connected to a shaft that extends from the cylinder. Typical installation has a fastener at the closed end of the cylinder opposite where the shaft exits and another fastener on the end of the shaft. Suspension movement strokes the piston in the cylinder, moving it through the fluid.

Slow movement of the shaft, such as compression of the front suspension when braking, or cornering, requires a high damping rate to limit the movement of the suspension. You don’t want the front suspension to compress or dive excessively while braking or roll from side to side when cornering. This is accomplished by forcing the fluid through a small port in the piston. The size of this orifice sets the low piston speed resistance – the damping rate.

Conversely, when the piston moves at high velocity – such as when hitting a square edge bump like an expansion joint where the road meets a bridge or a pot hole – we want the spring to compress and take the hit without transmitting it to the chassis. The orifice used for low-speed damping is insufficient to move the fluid quickly enough through the piston and the shock would hydraulically lock. What the shock designers typically do is add a number of high-speed ports – a ring of orifices through the piston.

This ring of orifices allows much more fluid movement – but how to keep fluid from moving through these holes when we want stiff low-speed damping? The most common way is to cover these high-speed ports with a thin metal shim. A stack of shims can be made to gain the proper stiffness of the cover over the hole. When the piston moves through the fluid at a high enough speed, the shim flexes as the fluid is forced against it – as it flexes away from the holes, it uncovers them and the fluid can pass.

Our current front shocks are Koni FSD series 8805. These shocks are designed pretty much as I described above. The piston in these shocks have a 36mm diameter. Hitting sharp irregularities in the road wasn’t an issue when these shocks were new. Over time, they gradually lost the ability to transition from high-speed damping to low-speed damping after hitting a sharp bump. It’s like the high-speed ports stay open too long, allowing the coach to bounce on the springs three or four times after hitting the bump.

About five months after I bought these shocks, Koni came out with a new replacement for use on the Alpine Coach Peak Chassis and Monaco Roadmaster RR4 chassis. This new shock, designated the Evo 99 series, has a 50mm piston and revised valving. The 40% larger piston allows the shock to operate at much lower fluid pressures and should enhance durability.

My task on Thursday was to remove the old front shocks and install the new series 99 shocks. It’s only four bolts – one on each end of the two shocks. How hard could that be, right? Well, I remembered when I had the shocks installed, the guys used cordless electric impact wrenches to remove and install the shock bolts. The mounting bolts were stubborn and it took two mechanics about an hour to replace four shocks.

The first thing I had to do was buy a 28mm socket and a large breaker bar to break the bolts loose. I bought a 24″ breaker bar and I couldn’t get the bolt to budge. I needed an impact driver. I borrowed my daughter Alana’s car and drove to Harbor Freight in Everett. I used to have a few impact wrenches in different power levels, but they’re long gone thanks to those Dirty, Rotten Thieves. I figured I could buy an air operated impact driver at Harbor Freight for about $40.

When I got there, it occurred to me that I only have a small, portable air compressor with only a few gallons capacity. In my sticks-and-bricks garage, I had a 60-gallon compressor that powered air tools easily. Although my little compressor can reach 150 psi, it doesn’t have a fast enough flow rate to power a big impact driver. I needed an electrically operated impact driver. I found a cordless impact driver with a 330 ft-lbs torque rating. It was branded Chicago Electric – Harbor Freight’s Chinese sourced house brand. I paid over $100 for it.

By the time I got home with it, it was after 1pm. I needed to charge the 18-volt battery before I could use it. It has an 18-volt nickel-cadmium (NiCad) battery. NiCad is old technology, but it works. The first charge on a NiCad is important as it forms the cell. I charged it for 90 minutes – the day was getting away from me. It takes three or four full charges before a NiCad reaches it its full capacity. After charging the battery, I had to allow another 15 minutes for it to cool before using it.

I started banging away on the first bolt with the cordless impact driver. I would hit it for several seconds, then stop to keep from overheating the motor and battery pack. After about 10 minutes of this, I needed to charge the battery pack again. Arrgh! This entails a cooling period for the battery before charging, about an hour or so of charge time, then another cooling period before attacking the bolt again. I had the first bolt off by 5pm and called it a day!

Friday morning I was back at it with a fully charged battery and started on the second bolt. After two charge cycles, I had it off. Removing the shock and installing the new one was fairly easy – it only took about 10 minutes. Getting the new shock in place entailed holding it at arm’s length with one hand while I was bent over the front tire with my head in the wheel well, then inserting the mounting bolt with my other hand. It was a workout!

Old 8805 FSD shock with top bolt removed

Old 8805 FSD shock with top bolt removed

Comparison of 8805 and 99 series. Note no dust cover on the 99 series

Comparison of 8805 and 99 series. Note – no dust cover on the 99 series

New shock installed

New shock installed

Now I had to start the charging – working – charging – working cycle on the other side. By the end of the day, I had one bolt removed from the other shock before I gave up. It was beer-thirty and I was ready for a cold one.

IPA from Seattle's Fremont Brewing

IPA from Seattle’s Fremont Brewing

Today I’ll start over and remove the last bolt. A lot of work for four bolts!

On Thursday evening, we received tragic news. Our friend Sini Schmitt texted Donna to inform her of the passing of her husband, Bob. Bob died unexpectedly while they were vacationing in the British Virgin Islands. We met Bob and Sini in San Diego a few months after we first hit the road. Since then, we’ve met up with them in Arizona and again in California and always had fun times together. I’m deeply saddened by Bob’s untimely passing. He was a great guy and will be missed by many.

 

 

Breaking the Law

Friday morning started much like Thursday – we were up early and I took Donna to her class on the Spyder. When I dropped her off, she put her jacket and helmet in the front trunk (frunk) of the Spyder.

Back at home, I got to work organizing the trailer – I packed the bikes and the grills and straightened things out. Then I took Donna’s jacket and helmet out of the frunk and rode the Spyder to Costco. When I was there earlier in the week, I saw 33-pound bags of Traeger gourmet wood pellets. I wanted to buy a bag, but didn’t have enough room on the Spyder at the time. With the frunk empty, I had room for the bag.

I made a stop at a Japanese restaurant called Yuki & Song at 122nd and Sandy Boulevard. They had lunch specials – I ordered their teriyaki beef plate. I was surprised to find it came with a bowl of miso soup, salad, tempura veggies, rice and of course teriyaki beef for $8.95! Nice lunch find.

Donna sent me a text and said she would be finished with her class no later than 4pm. I hit the road on the Spyder to pick her up around 3:15pm – I wanted to be there before 4pm and I wasn’t sure how heavy the traffic would be on Friday afternoon on the Fourth of July weekend.

I made good time and got there at 3:45pm. I could see the traffic heading north was heavier – our trip home would take longer as volumes were building. Just before I pulled into the lot, I realized that I didn’t put Donna’s jacket and helmet back into the frunk. Oh no! We generally don’t ride without helmets and Oregon has a law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets. The Spyder is legally considered a motorcycle.

If I went back for her helmet, it would take over an hour. When Donna came out from her class, I told her about the problem. We decided to take our chances and avoid any freeways on the way home. As we were riding in traffic on MLK Boulevard, I saw a police car on a side street ahead. The traffic was stopped and backed up for an entire block at a stop light. The car ahead of us stopped short to let the police car in. As the traffic began to move, another police car appeared. The driver ahead held up and let him in. Two more police cars merged ahead of us.

I changed lanes and put a large box truck between us and the police cruisers. Instead of changing lanes to move ahead in the traffic, I changed lanes when possible to put more vehicles between us and the police. Being a scofflaw isn’t much fun. We made it home without incident or ticket.

The day before, new neighbors moved into the site next to us. It was Jim and Gayle (Life’s Little Adventures). We met them before at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego. We had plans to get together for happy hour snacks and drinks. Gayle brought tortilla chips, guacamole and salsa and Donna fixed a couple of plates – there was a good spread on our new folding table. We sat and talked for a few hours – it wasn’t dark yet at 9pm. I neglected to take any photos as I was caught up in conversation.

The only photo I have is a bottle of limited release “Summer Style IPA” from Ninkasi Brewing. I don’t know what makes it a summer IPA – it was tasty but typical west coast IPA.

Maiden the Shade summer IPA

Maiden the Shade summer IPA

Saturday morning we prepared to hit the road. I dumped and flushed the tanks, filled the fresh water, put away the window shades and finished loading the trailer. We hitched the trailer and pulled out of the park around 11:30am. I wondered what the traffic would be like on the I-5 bridge to Vancouver, Washington. The traffic is usually crawling across it. I was surprised to find the traffic light  and moving right along on I-5.

We stopped around 1pm in Chehalis to top off the fuel tank at a CFN truck stop and had lunch at Subway. Our destination for the day was the Cabela’s store in Lacey, Washington. We stayed there overnight two years ago and found it to be a good overnight dry-camping spot.

We claimed a spot in the large west lot which was nearly empty. They have signs advising “No Overnight Parking” however, these signs were here before and they allowed us to stay. To be sure I went to the customer service desk and asked. I was told it’s no problem – they have the signs so they can keep people from setting up for more than one night.

Dry camp at Cabela's

Dry camp at Cabela’s

Donna shopped for hours in Cabela’s and found shorts, tops and sandals she couldn’t do without. Since losing weight this past year, she’s had to buy new clothes. But I haven’t heard her complaining.

This morning, Donna went out for a run. I’m watching the Formula One Grand Prix of Austria, then we’ll head up to Arlington, Washington. Our destination is my oldest daughter Alana’s driveway in Arlington. We’ll moochdock in her driveway for the next week or two and spend time with her and our granddaughters.