Category Archives: Trailer

Across the Divide

On Monday morning, Donna saw that UPS tracking indicated the delivery of her new laptop would arrive by 8pm. I was hoping it would be well before before 8pm because the Sweetwater Fairgrounds office closes at 5pm and they would take the delivery.

I went to the office and told them we expected a delivery and asked when UPS usually delivers – I was told between noon and 3pm. I paid for another night here to be sure we could get her laptop. I then made a run to town on the Spyder to pay for the diagnostic fee and retrieve her bad hard drive and also pick up a few necessities.

Around 4pm, I asked Donna to check the status of her laptop delivery – the woman in the office said she would call me when UPS delivered, but I hadn’t heard from her. The UPS tracking showed “Delivered and handed to local resident Adams.” What?

I went to the fairground office and the office manager Erika said that UPS dropped everything back in their shop since they delivered some large boxes. She led me back to the workshop area and there it was – Donna’s new laptop. I have to say, the office staff at Sweetwater Fairgrounds and Events Complex are some of the nicest people you’ll ever encounter.

Fairgrounds building

They do a great job of keeping the area around the events center clean and well-landscaped.

Nice flowers by the office

More flowers honoring the sheriff’s department

However, the RV area is nothing more than a large gravel lot with 1200 hook-ups. The caretaker doesn’t seem to do much. Donna and I slept poorly most nights as we had issues with barking dogs early in the morning and long-term residents heading out to their workaday lives. The barking dogs were especially bothersome. A couple in a site near us had three dogs and it seems that they thought it was okay to just let the dogs out in the morning around 6am to do their business. The dogs would bark constantly as they ran around loose for what seemed like an eternity. Then the caretaker’s dogs would join in the barkfest.

Donna spent most of Monday evening getting her laptop configured. Of course this meant using a lot of data on our Verizon plan, but what can you do? I have to mention that Verizon’s coverage is incredible – it’s rare for us not to have a usable Internet connection.

Donna defrosted some grass-fed lamb rib chops we bought from the rancher in Portland and made lamb chops with a red wine, rosemary and garlic pan sauce. As usual, I’m dining first-class.

Lamb chops with red wine, rosemary and garlic pan sauce

We were watching the Rio Olympics on TV when dogs started barking non-stop near our coach after 9pm. I looked out the window and sure enough, our neighbor with the three dogs had let them out. I walked over to his site and knocked on the door. He and his wife were totally oblivious to the barking dogs running loose. It wasn’t a pleasant exchange.

We got a late start Tuesday morning. It was 11am by the time we pulled out. I had to circle back before we left the grounds when I realized I left our jack pads behind. Our first stop was the Pilot/Flying J at I-80. We took on 45 gallons of fuel at $2.42/gallon. I wanted to have a full tank as we weren’t sure of where we’ll stop for the night and how much generator run-time we might have in the next couple of days.

We stopped at the Love’s travel center in Wamsutter for lunch. It was a crowded truck stop with back-in spaces. I had to jockey back-and-forth a few times to get us into a parking lane, but no harm done. Over lunch, Donna and I discussed our options for the night. We decided to hit a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) site south of Rawlins at Teton Reservoir.

Heading eastward on I-80 we crossed the continental divide twice. The continental divide is a hydrological divide where watersheds drain either westward to the Pacific Ocean or eastward to the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic. In southern Wyoming we encountered the Great Divide Basin. This is a region where none of the water falling to the ground drains into any ocean. We were at 7,000 feet above sea level at that point.

We pulled off I-80 at Rawlins and headed for the BLM site. On the way, we passed a sign for Rim Lake which also turned out to be BLM public land. The road we were on turned to gravel five miles before Teton Lake and I stopped in a turn-out. I was leery of continuing to Teton Reservoir. The road surface looked okay at that point, but there was no guarantee of its condition further on and being able to turn around. We made a several-point turn-around and came back to the Rim Lake turn-off.

It was a gravel/dirt road that took us a couple of miles to the small lake. On the way, we spied a few pronghorn antelope. That’s Wyoming – you’re likely to see more pronghorns than people in many areas. This is not a bad thing.

We found a level spot that I can easily exit from and we set up for the night.

Our quiet space

Rim Lake view

A few cars and pickup trucks came through the area in the afternoon but didn’t stay long. Three bicyclists rode in around 7pm and set up tents for an overnight stop. They were far enough away from us that we couldn’t hear them. We heard a pack of coyotes howling after dark and the gusty winds woke me a few times in the night. But it’s nice to be away from it all and only waking to the sounds of nature instead barking dogs and vehicles early in the morning.

The weather forecast for today looks good – sunny and mid 80s. We’re debating about moving to Teton Reservoir and staying overnight there. I’d like to check it out, but there’s a 50% chance of rain by tomorrow and we’ll be five miles down a dirt road that could become muddy. Also, it’s not likely that we would have internet at Teton Reservoir. Our other option is to head to Laramie where we won’t have any worries about mud. We’re in no hurry, so we’ll decide later this morning.

Coeur D’Alene Elks Lodge

Donna sent me a text message Sunday afternoon saying she was stuck in traffic on I-90 due to an accident, but thought she would make it to Wenatchee by 3:30pm. I rode the Spyder to Pangborn airport in East Wenatchee to meet her at the rental car return and arrived at 3:20pm. Ten minutes later I saw Donna drive into the parking lot.

I grilled salmon patties and Donna served them over a mixed green salad for dinner. We had a quiet night and planned to be on the road around 9am on Monday morning.

I was out of bed by 7am and put away the windshield cover and packed the grill. After breakfast, we did our usual routine making the coach road ready – I worked outside while Donna prepped the interior. Ozark the cat has been a little funny on travel days lately. The last two times she saw us preparing to move, she hid under the sofa and wouldn’t come out until we were rolling down the road.

I don’t like operating the slides with the cat out – it would be horrible if she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If I know for sure she’s under the sofa, it’s safe to retract the slides. This time she just laid in front of the refrigerator and watched us get ready to roll. She didn’t complain when Donna put her in her crate.

I pulled out of our site and then loaded the Spyder in the trailer. We drove out of Crescent Bar RV Resort at 9:30am. Crescent Bar RV Resort is on the bank of the Columbia River and is at an elevation of just under 700 feet above sea level. The road out of the RV park immediately climbs up a steep, twisty grade and gains a few hundred feet of elevation. From there we drove east on WA28 to Quincy, then south on WA281 to George, Washington where we hit I-90 east.

The traffic was fairly light and we cruised at a steady 60mph. We stopped after we crossed into Idaho at the Pilot/Flying J travel center in Post Falls and filled up with 80 gallons of fuel. I added a full ounce of Biobor JF to the tank before pumping, guessing that we would need about 80 gallons and that’s exactly how much it took. With the Pilot/Flying J RV Card discount, we paid $2.58/gallon.

Speaking of expenses, July turned out to be our least expensive month for campground fees ever. Moochdocking in my daughter Alana’s driveway for 15 days had much to do with that. But we also took advantage of our Thousand Trails membership. We had six days remaining on our “free” four weeks which I amortized at $19/day to cover our membership fee and paid $20 for five additional days. Our total campground cost for July was $279 – that’s just nine dollars per day. I think I spent that much on beer!

Our destination was the Elks Lodge #1254 in Coeur D’Alene. They don’t take reservations – it’s first-come first-served. As we pulled in, I saw several RVs behind the lodge and wondered if we would get a site. It turned out they had 30 sites with 50amp electrical service and freshwater hookups and only a dozen or so RVs there. We have a fairly large pull-through site, but we had to drop the trailer in the back of the park.

Our pull-through site at the Coeur D’Alene Elks Lodge

In the photo you can see Donna’s tomato planter in front of the coach. The heirloom cherry tomato plant a vendor gave her at the Camas farmers’ market has really taken off. I’m guessing we’ll have fresh cherry tomatoes before the end of the month.

I had to walk to the end of the park to retrieve the ladder from the trailer so I could put the windshield cover on. That’s one of the reasons I don’t like to drop the trailer – it’s inconvenient when we need something that’s stored in the trailer. Another reason is security. I have two locks on the tongue so it would be very difficult to hook up and tow our trailer away like those Dirty, Rotten Thieves did in San Diego. The doors also have padlocks on them.

One thing I’ve noticed on the 20-foot-long slab-sided trailer is the effect of thermal expansion on the aluminum skin. The side facing the sun heats up and the aluminum siding expands. The skin is screwed into the steel frame and can’t move, so the expansion of the aluminum skin results in a wavy surface. Once it cools down, the aluminum contracts and the side is smooth and tight again.

Wavy trailer siding in the sun

We paid for three nights here at the Elks Lodge at a cost of $20/night. With 50 amp electrical service and the need for air conditioning, I think this is a bargain. The temperature hit the mid-80s yesterday with clear skies and we expect more of the same over the next few days. The elevation here is around 2,200 feet above sea level.

Today Donna has an appointment with a hair stylist that cut her hair when we were here two years ago. As always, that’s one of her biggest challenges – finding a good stylist who knows how to cut curly hair. We need to plan our next stop – I’m thinking we’ll head south on US95 toward Boise. All I know for sure is that we need to be in Colorado Springs by the end of the month to crew for the Heart’s A’Fire hot air balloon at the Labor Day Lift-Off balloon festival.

Street Food in Portland

I tackled a minor repair on Tuesday. Most states require trailers with a gross weight of 3,000 pounds or more to have trailer brakes that automatically engage if the trailer accidentally separates from the tow vehicle. Our trailer is equipped with a breakaway switch that activates the brakes if a pin is pulled from the switching device. A length of cable connects the pin to the tow vehicle. If the trailer comes loose, the cable pulls the pin and the brakes are applied.

Breakaway pin and cable ends

The cable has a loop for the pin and a loop on the other end that I connect to the receiver hitch with a carabiner. I’m not sure how it happened, but the cable must have dragged on the ground at some point and wore through, separating it into two pieces.

Steel cable separated in the middle

When I went to Walmart the other day, I saw a fisherman’s supply store. I stopped in and bought some nylon covered stainless steel leader cable and some double barrel crimp connectors.

Nylon covered stainless steel cable and connectors

This made it easy to create a new breakaway cable for the trailer.

New cable assembled with pin for breakaway switch

Pin installed in breakaway switch

That was easy – job done!

In the afternoon, Donna and I rode the Spyder down NE 33rd Drive and found the store Ray told us about. It’s called New Season’s. It’s similar to Sprouts – a store chain we like in the southwest. It’s an upscale store, so you have to shop carefully as the prices can be good or they can be high. Donna had defrosted the refrigerator in the morning and now it was time to restock it.

On Wednesday morning, we rode the Spyder to Beaverton to visit with our friends, DeWayne and Marlo. They live in a co-op housing development which is basically condominiums with shared community areas. Residents sign on to teams to develop and maintain community property. They have shared garden space, community meeting rooms, a woodworking shop and more. DeWayne runs the wood shop and also leads the building repair and maintenance team.

Part of the community vegetable garden

Compost bins DeWayne built

After giving us a tour, DeWayne had a project to work on and I left Donna and Marlo to their girl talk. I rode the Spyder over to the Hillsboro airport where I wanted to check out an aviation museum. When I got there, I was disappointed to see a closed sign in the window. I looked at the hours on the door – it said 9am to 4pm Monday through Thursday. A woman inside saw me looking and came to the door. She pointed at a guy out front spraying weeds.

The guy came over and introduced himself and told me they were in the process of moving the museum to Tillamook. All but one of the flyable airplanes had already been moved. He offered to give me a tour of the remaining aircraft and parts, but warned that things were in a bit of disarray.

I took him up on the offer and we spent about an hour looking at old planes and parts. They have mostly military jet aircraft from the 1950s to the 1980s. The owner has a number of contacts in foreign governments and wheels and deals for airplanes. A number of their aircraft came from Taiwan. They also had Soviet airplanes from Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Twelve cylinder Allison piston engine

Axial flow jet engine

General Electric J79 jet engine that powered many US military jets including the F-104 Starfighter behind it

Me standing on the wing of a Soviet Mig-21

Mig-21

I rode back and picked up Donna a little past noon. It was a short visit for the girls, but they were happy to catch up in person.

Marlo and Donna

Instead of riding the freeways home, I took us down Burnside Street into downtown Portland. We stopped on Alder Street where all the street food vendors are located. There are dozens of food trucks and small stalls lined up over two blocks. We arrived a little after 1pm and missed most of the lunch crowd. After walking down the street and looking over the offerings, we both went for Thai food. It was a tasty lunch on the street.

Street food vendors

After we came home, I retrieved a couple of packages we received at the office. One was a chair that Donna ordered from Bed, Bath and Beyond, but it wasn’t what she expected so it’s going back. Another package was our mail from our service in South Dakota. This package included new license plates for our coach and Spyder. The design on our current South Dakota plates was first issued in 2006. After 10 years, some of the plates are deteriorated and hard to read or have lost their reflective properties, so South Dakota decided it was time to issue new ones.

I took a photo of our new plates and made a discovery. When light is directed at the plate (in this case via the camera flash), a squiggly line appears in the middle from top to bottom. I suppose this is an anti-counterfeit feature.

New license plate design for our coach

Photo with flash reveals a squiggly line

Donna went for a bike ride as she continues to aim for her 250-mile Great Cycle Challenge goal while I installed the plates. After I put the plates on, I had a message telling me another package arrived at the office. It was the Elka suspension I ordered for the Spyder – custom made shock absorbers and springs. I paid for expedited shipping since they came from Canada. I didn’t want them to get delayed in customs and have them arrive here after we’ve moved on. Timing of package deliveries can be a challenge on the road.

Last night Donna made baked shrimp with fennel and feta for dinner.

Baked shrimp with fennel and feta

I paired it with an Imperial IPA from Hop Valley Brewing in Eugene, Oregon. It was delicious – the shrimp I mean.

Alpha Centauri Imperial IPA

We ended an excellent day by starting season two of True Detectives. It appears that season two has no connection with season one – we’re starting a whole new story line with different actors.

After a few days of great weather, rain moved in last night. We have a heavily overcast sky this morning and expect rain off and on all day with a high temperature only reaching the low 60s. I’m chomping at the bit to install the new suspension on the Spyder, but it looks like that will have to wait.

Road Bike Ride

Donna had another article assignment to complete on Monday. While she was doing that, I made a run to Walmart to pick up a few groceries. While I was out, I also picked up supplies for two upcoming projects. When I came home, I found a Yamaha FJR motorcycle at our site. Our friend Ray, who we met in San Diego through Kris and Tom Downey, stopped by. He and his wife Kathy live nearby and knew we were here via this blog. We hope to get together with them this weekend.

I went to work on another project before lunch. The rear end of the floor in our trailer has a metal trim. The original trim was stamped aluminum sheet – very thin and mostly decorative. A while back when I was loading the Spyder, I had a little wheel spin as I was backing in. The tire gripped the trim and tore it away from the floor.

Trim damage due to wheel spin

I cut the damaged portion away and overlaid a 36-inch section of extruded aluminum trim that’s 1/16 inch thick. This is much heavier than the original stamped sheet aluminum and should stand up to abuse.

Extruded aluminum angle trim installed

With that job done, we had lunch and headed out on our bicycles at 2pm. I don’t remember when I last went out on my Orbea road bike. We headed east on Marine Drive and picked up the paved bike path. It’s been a while since Donna and I rode bicycles together – my mountain bike can’t keep up with her road bike. We first met in a cycling club in Mesa, Arizona where we rode together almost every weekend.

My Orbea is a full carbon fiber road racing machine. As such, it handles much quicker than my mountain bike. It felt lively and a little skittish at first. When I ride my mountain bike, I wear hiking shoes and the pedals have small studs that help me grip the pedals. On my Orbea, I have Speedplay pedals that I clip into with special cleats on my stiff Sidi bicycling shoes. To unclip from the pedal you have to twist the rear of your foot away from the bike and it will release. At one point on the trail we stopped to admire the view. I forgot to twist my foot and my right shoe was caught on the pedal. I fell slowly into the weeds on my right shoulder. It probably looked comical, but it wasn’t fun.

After that, I quickly became reacquainted with my road bike and settled into a rhythm. East of the I-205 bridge we stopped to look at Mt. Hood and take a selfie. I’m not too good at shooting selfie type pictures.

Not too good at selfies

We rode about 10 miles east, then turned around. This stretch of the Columbia River has a number of uninhabited islands. We saw people on the island beaches that they reached by boat. We also saw an old shipwreck – a sailboat that must have broken loose in a storm and ended up beached on an island.

Bike path view – Government Island and McGuire Island on the left

On the ride back, we saw an osprey struggling to gain altitude with a large fish in its talons. The osprey was a large bird – its wingspan had to be nearly six feet. The fish was weighing it down but it slowly circled upward and away from us.

We wanted to grill steaks on the Weber Q for dinner, but I realized I was out of propane. I made another run to Walmart and picked up four propane canisters. While I was there, I also found another local IPA to try. It was from Pelican Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon. It’s an IPA that’s brewed with a single hop variety – Ella hops from Australia. They use this hop type in the boil and then dry hop twice with them.

Umbrella IPA

This was solid example of west coast IPA. It went well with the bacon-wrapped filet mignon. While I was grilling the steak, Donna prepared sauteed mushrooms and onions and sides of rosemary and garlic roasted fingerling potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Bacon-wrapped filet with sauteed mushrooms and onions

It’s been awhile since we had steak and Donna said she was craving it. All in all, it was meal fit for a king (and queen). After dinner we took a walk through the RV park and then settled in to watch another episode of True Detective. This series starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaghy really keeps you guessing as to where it’s heading.

Ozark the cat wanted to recline in front of the refrigerator but apparently the floor isn’t comfortable there. She pulled out the little rug in front of our shower and made herself a bed.

Ozark making it comfortable

The weather forecast calls for another nice day with a few clouds and highs in the upper 70s. I have one small project to complete on the trailer. Donna is defrosting the refrigerator – something we haven’t had to do in nearly eight months. After the refrigerator is defrosted, we need to stock up on groceries. We want to check out a few stores that Ray told us about.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, 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!

Contingency Plans

It was nearly 2pm by the time we pulled out of Celilo Park on the bank of the Columbia River on Friday. While Donna worked on a project, I changed our fuel filter before we packed up and left. I change the fuel filter annually and always mark the month/year with a permanent marker so I know when it was changed.

Diesel fuel filter

Before I changed the filter, a COE employee stopped at our rig. He asked how long we planned to stay. I told him we would be leaving in an hour or two. He said he expected a lot of wind surfers to arrive for the weekend and said we were taking up too many parking spaces to stay over the weekend. Good to know for future reference.

We planned a short drive of about 35 miles to the Walmart in Hood River. I had looked at it on Google Earth, the lot looked large and I could see a few RVs in the image. When we got there, the lot was large enough, but it was posted “No Truck or RV Parking.”

The thing is, you never know when the Google image was taken and things can change. We had a plan “B”. We would continue west on I-84 to Troutdale, a suburb east of Portland. We stayed at the Fairview RV Park on Sandy Boulevard there two years ago and saw RVs overnighting at the Walmart. It was another 45 miles away.

The parking lot at this Walmart was a nightmare. It was busy and I had drivers in cars cutting me off, other drivers stopping and waving me through when I couldn’t possibly get by them – I even had a car pass on my right when I had my right turn indicator on and swung wide to make the turn. It’s a good thing I checked my mirror or I would have pinched the car.

Then we saw that the lot was posted – no overnight parking. Donna called the store and was told a city ordinance had been passed prohibiting overnight parking in public areas. I could go on a rant about politicians taking control of corporate business decisions. On the other hand I’ve seen too many people taking advantage of Walmart by setting up long-term, not just overnight. Bottom line: we needed to find an overnight spot.

Donna phoned the Columbia River RV Park to see if we could move our reservation up one day. No dice, they didn’t have any open sites. Next, I called the Elks Lodge across the river from Portland in Vancouver, Washington. They very friendly as always and told me they had one back-in site with electric and water open or I could dry camp in their lot. The lodge was about 15 miles away.

It was 4pm by then and the rush hour traffic was building. I was already feeling tired from maneuvering through Walmart lots. The bumper-to-bumper traffic getting on I-205 didn’t help. The 15-mile drive took about 40 minutes. I missed the entrance to the Elks Lodge – it’s hidden in what appears to be a residential street. I made a loop through a residential area and found the lodge. We went inside and were welcomed to stay in their lot. I paid a dry camping fee of $10.

When we’re traveling and winging it, looking for cheap or free overnight stays, it pays to be flexible and have contingency plans. If the Elks hadn’t worked out, I’m not sure what our next move would have been, but we would have come up with something. There are a number of state parks along the Columbia River, but we’re too large for most of them. Sometimes a smaller rig can be advantageous.

We had dinner in the Elks Lodge – it was a busy Friday night there. The lodge is next to I-205 so we had traffic noise throughout the night, but other than that, we had no complaints.

Ozark the cat has been acting strange the past few days. When we were at Celilo Park, the passing trains with their loud horns frightened her. She took to hiding behind the vanity in the bedroom slide or hiding behind the sofa. We had to entice her out before I could pull the slides in. I won’t move the slides until I know where the cat is. The slides are powerful and trapping the cat in the mechanism would not be good.

Donna went out for a quick bike ride in the morning and then we left the Vancouver Elks Lodge a little past 11am and arrived at the Columbia River RV Park just past noon. It’s off Marine Drive, right on the river west of the airport. We’re looking forward to biking on the paved paths in the area. Checking in gave me a moment of concern. The guy behind the counter asked for my last name and said, “Mike, right?” Then a cloudy look came over his face and he said, “Uh-oh.” The sign on the door said no vacancy – I wondered if they overbooked and our confirmed reservation maybe wasn’t so confirmed. Then the woman at the counter said we may have to wait as check-out time is noon and they had to see if our site was available.

It turned out the people had already left site 109 and we had a choice of taking either 109 or 101. We looked the sites over and decided to take 109 – it had more space for the trailer. The site is a 50-foot pull-through. The concrete pad for our coach is level, but it’s narrow. There’s a shorter pad beside it for the trailer.

I pulled all the way through, then Donna directed me as I backed the trailer in place and dropped it. Then I backed the coach into the site. We had a few obstacles to overcome. There’s a four-inch steel pole protecting the electrical box that extends at least 12 feet high. Our first position would have the bedroom slide hit the pole, so I moved back. Now the slide was clear, but I couldn’t open the wet-bay door. I need to open this door to hook up water and sewer and access it when I dump.

I ended up parking the coach at an angle that gave me clearance for the slide and wet-bay. Then I moved the trailer slightly by hand to allow us access to the large basement compartment on the passenger side. It’s tight but it all worked out. Our neighbor was impressed by the way we dropped the trailer and got everything positioned.

Steel pole at utility box

Not much room

Trailer and coach staggered to allow basement access

The skies were overcast all morning and wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we started to back the trailer in, the skies began pouring rain. By the time I had the coach positioned, it stopped raining. Donna was drenched from directing me and I was wet from disconnecting the trailer.

After we set up, I went for a walk in the park. I couldn’t believe it when I saw a coach that was painted black with spray paint. I thought it was the Black Coach Guy from Mission Bay that I wrote about two years ago. I also saw a rig I recognized two sites down from us. It belongs to Eric and Brittany Highland (RvWanderlust). Eric has a Facebook group called Full-time Diesel RVers. I met them at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta last October. Their car was gone, so they must have been out for the day. I’m sure we’ll get a chance to visit before they leave.

Could it be the Black Coach Guy?

Later, when I took out trash to the dumpster, I met a long term park resident. He told me the black coach had been there for two years and was occupied by two women. So, it wasn’t Black Coach Guy, but it had a similar paint job.

Today the weather forecast looks good. Partly cloudy with zero percent chance of rain and a high in the upper 70s. Donna plans to write an article this morning, then ride her bike to meet up with her friend Marlo at a coffee shop. I’ll start with the Formula One race from Baku, Azerbaijan. Then I’ll get my bike out or explore on the Spyder.

Can’t Stand the Cold

With the temperature still in the 30s at 9am on Wednesday and continued cold and wet weather in the forecast, we made the decision to move on from the Bend-Sunriver Thousand Trails campground.

I had much to do. All of our gear – chairs, Traeger, Weber grill, awning mat and bicycles needed to be put away. I also needed to remove and store the front window covers, water filters and hoses, check tire pressures and load the Spyder. This took some time. It was close to noon by the time I finished, so Donna fixed a plate of leftovers for lunch before we pulled out of our site.

Before leaving the campground, I spent another half-hour at the dump station dumping and flushing our holding tanks. We hit the road with empty holding tanks and a full fresh water tank. We had three more nights available at Thousand Trails but felt it wouldn’t be good to hang around. With cold, rainy weather we wouldn’t be doing much and I would have to pack things away before everything got wet anyway.

Flexibility is one of the keys to this lifestyle. We don’t have a reservation in Portland until Saturday so I found a couple of boondocking options and we winged it. We drove up US97 about 150 miles to Biggs, Oregon where US97 and I-84 meet. After filling up at the Pilot/Flying J we drove west on Biggs-Rufus highway a few miles to the Deschutes River State Recreation Area.

I crossed the Deschutes River bridge and pulled in at Heritage Landing. Looking at Google Earth, it appeared to be a likely boondocking spot. But, it had signs prohibiting overnight camping. So, I drove back across the bridge and pulled into the recreation area campground. Sites were $10/night but they were too small for our rig.

We drove back toward Biggs and pulled off in a large, level gravel lot overlooking the Columbia River. We found a nice spot in the back of the lot with trees protecting us from the wind. We thought it would be a good place to spend the night.

Boondocking site for the night

A train track runs between our location and the Columbia River. There’s another train track on the Washington side of the river. There were a few trains in the night but it wasn’t too bothersome.

View from our boondocking site

It was windy but much warmer than Bend. Last evening Donna went out for a walk around 6pm and it was 65 degrees out. It’s 50 degrees at 8:30am this morning. Much better than the overnight lows in the high 20s at Sunriver.

Today we plan to move on to Hood River. There’s an Elks Lodge there that will allow us to overnight in their parking lot. It looks a little tight on Google Earth, but if it works out, the location is good – right in the heart of town with restaurants and a brewery within walking distance.

A Day in Bend

We dry camped in the Bend Elks Lodge parking lot Friday. I unloaded the Spyder and we took a ride into town. We rode down Colorado Avenue so Donna could see where the hair salon is located – she has an appointment there next week. Then we crossed over the Deschutes River at Mirror Pond where Tumalo Avenue becomes Galveston Avenue. This is an older neighborhood with commercial buildings on Galveston mixed with residential housing on the side streets.

This is also an area with many brew pubs and small restaurants. We parked on a side street between 10 Barrel Brewing and the Sun River Brewing Galveston Pub. We went into 10 Barrel first and found seats at the bar. Donna is getting more adventuresome with her beer tastings and went for their Deep Root – an ale with honey and ginger which she absolutely loved. I had their Apocalypse IPA.

Deep Root – ale with honey and ginger

The woman sitting next to us at the bar was a local. She told us a few things about the area – including the fact the residents in the area aren’t too happy about all of the brew pubs. The parking is limited, so on busy nights the side streets are full of cars parked in front of their houses. She also told us her parents were full-time RVers and she is contemplating making a move to the RV lifestyle.

After we finished our beer we moved on to Sun River Brewing. I had their Vicious Mosquito IPA and Donna tried their SUP summer ale. Two beers was our limit – we had to ride the Spyder back to the Elks Lodge.

We went into the lodge for dinner. I had fish and chips while Donna had a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. This lodge is very nice and we especially liked that no smoking is allowed. We’ve found that some Elks Lodges are exempt from public smoking laws because they’re private clubs. Not so in Oregon. This lodge also had a selection of local brews on tap.

On Saturday morning, I got Donna’s bike out of the trailer so she could take a ride. She was out for about an hour and called me for directions once after making a wrong turn. We packed up and pulled out of the Elks Lodge a little past 10am. The drive to the Thousand Trails Sun River RV park was only about half an hour.

We checked in and were told there may be some sites long enough for us to back in without dropping our trailer. We drove slowly through the dusty dirt roads in the park. I found a long back-in site, unloaded the Spyder and backed the rig into it. It was so narrow that I had to crowd the door side of the coach near trees to have enough room to put the slides out on the driver’s side. I rode the Spyder down the road and found another long site that was wider.

We decided to move to the other site. With Donna directing me with her handheld Cobra CB radio, I maneuvered slowly but always ended up with obstacles – trees and a dumpster – preventing me from being able to get us into the site. We finally gave up and went back to the first site we found. I backed into it, but we still weren’t happy with the situation. Our neighbor told us there were some big, open sites on a grassy area by the road. I rode the Spyder there and saw all the those sites were full. On the way back, I saw a few long, wide sites in the “F” area.

I pulled out of the narrow site with Donna following me on the Spyder. We backed into a long, wider site and are much happier with it.

Long and wide site F12

We were set up in no time. Ozark the cat is always excited to see new surroundings outside the windows. Donna calls it cat TV when Ozark sits and stares out the window watching birds and other wildlife or people with dogs walking by.

Ozark watching cat TV

Donna’s friend Julie Muller and her husband TJ stopped by our coach. They’re in a site near us with their twin teenage sons. The four of them have been on the road for four years. They invited us to come over and join their group for a taco bar dinner.

We went over to their area around 5pm and found them along with four other families they often camp with. They are all full-timers. We had a nice meal and enjoyed meeting new people. It was a little different for us – we don’t often find ourselves among families with children. All of them had kids and were home (road) schooling them. One of the children was a baby celebrating her first birthday.

It was a fun evening. We came home around 8pm and sat outside until the mosquitoes chased us inside. Today the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a high of 91 degrees and a slight chance of a shower. We plan to play pickleball with the group we met last night and maybe get the kayak out on the river.

Mount Shasta View

Wednesday was our last full day in Corning, California. Donna went for a bike ride in the morning. It was already well into the 80s when she left and the temperature would top 100 degrees by the time she returned. But she pledged to ride 250 miles in the month of June and raise $500 for children’s cancer research in the Great Cycle Challenge and wanted to log some miles on day one.

After her ride, she helped me prep a whole chicken to roast on the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill. The chicken was lightly coated with olive oil, then I rubbed it with Lambert’s Sweet Rub O’Mine – my go-to rub for chicken.

Chicken prepped for the Traeger

I took it off the grill at 2pm. I cooked it at a lower temperature and kept it on the grill longer than the recipe I used called for. It came out great. Excellent flavor, juicy with crispy skin. We had a late lunch/early dinner of chicken, sauteed kale and a blend of brown and wild rice.

Traeger chicken, sauteed kale and brown rice-wild rice blend

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the grills and loading the trailer. I had the Spyder in the trailer and everything buttoned up by 5pm.

Me, taking a break between chores

We were up early and on the road by 9am on Thursday. I don’t know what I was thinking when we left the Rolling Hills Casino RV Park – I got on I-5 south. When Nally – our Rand McNally RVND7720 GPS told me to take the next exit – five miles down the road – I wondered why. Then it dawned on me – I should have got on I-5 north! So, I wasted about 20 minutes and a gallon of fuel before we were headed in the right direction.

Corning, California is just under 300 feet above sea level. Our route had us climbing a gentle incline to Redding, California, then we hit some steeper grades. We drove past Shasta Lake and stopped at a scenic viewpoint to look at Mount Shasta – a 14,179-foot volcanic peak that last erupted in the 1700s. I took a photo, but it really doesn’t do justice to the spectacular sight.

Mount Shasta – 14,179 feet above sea level

There are seven glaciers on Mount Shasta. At the viewpoint there were a few signs with facts about the mountain. One of them showed routes climbers use to climb the mountain. It said that about 15,000 people attempt to climb the mountain every year, but only about a third of them make it to the summit.

Mount Shasta climbers routes

We got off I-5 at the town of Weed, California at an elevation of 3,400 feet and continued north on US97. We crossed a couple of passes through the Klamath National Forest that were over 5,400 feet high. The Cummins ISL pushed our coach along comfortably. Even on the steepest grades we kept our speed over 50mph and the coolant temperature never exceeded 200.

After crossing into Oregon, we stopped in Klamath Falls at the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I put 57 gallons of fuel in the tank and we got Subway sandwiches for lunch. We continued north on US 97 for about 15 miles and pulled into the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino. I had checked out the parking there on Google Earth and it looked doable.

We arrived a little before 2pm and the lot was mostly empty. We found a prime area of pavement on the west side of the lot that was fairly level and parked. Donna and I walked down to the casino and I asked the guy at the security desk about staying overnight. He said, “No problem as long as you don’t plan to stay for weeks at a time.”

The casino is very RV friendly. First-time visitors get a $10 credit on their club card to gamble with. When they heard we were in an RV, they added an extra two dollars! They also gave us a 20% discount coupon for the restaurant – and added a two dollar discount on top of that for being RVers!

Kla-Mo-Ya Casino dry camp – look close and you’ll see Donna in the living room window

Donna and I played a few hands on the poker machines, then went back to coach. Later, we went back to the casino to spend the rest of our free credits. I should have quit while I was ahead but ended up spending all of the free money.

Our spot in the lot was good, but it was close to the highway and somewhat noisy. It wasn’t a problem for me though, I slept soundly. The overnight temperature dropped below 50 degrees. By morning there were more than a half-dozen RVs in the lot.

This morning we had breakfast in the casino restaurant and used our discount coupons. Full breakfast for two came out to eight bucks. Nice! We hit the road around 9:30am and continued north on US97. We had a short climb north of Chiloquin as we drove through the Willamette National Forest. We went past the Sun River Thousand Trails campground where we’ll set up for two weeks beginning tomorrow.

We went another 20 miles north to the Elks Lodge in Bend, Oregon. We’ll dry camp in their lot for the night, then head back to Sun River. This afternoon we’ll take the Spyder out and hit a couple of brew pubs downtown.

Day Full of Twists

After breakfast on Sunday, I wrote my post and watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy. It looked to be an exciting battle between hometown favorite Valentino Rossi and his team mate Jorge Lorenzo. Unfortunately for Rossi, he suffered a rare engine failure and did not finish the race.

I then got started on preparations for travel. I moved our Sea Eagle kayak to the right rear of the trailer and installed a D-ring to secure it in its canvas duffel bag. This is much better than leaving it on the floor, plus I wanted to redistribute some of the weight in the trailer. I did the usual tire pressure checks and lug nut torque on the trailer.

I made a run to Safeway – the Safeway store in Susanville has a good selection of craft beer. I picked an old favorite – a bottle of Lagunitas Equinox oat pale ale. Then I found something that looked interesting. It was a bottle of beer from Sudwerk Brewing in Davis, California. Sudwerk only brews lagers, not ale. This brew was called Rye of the Lager. The label claimed it was brewed with heirloom rye from Germany and hopped with simcoe and amarillo hops to give it a west coast kick.

Rye of the Lager

At 7.0% ABV, they call it an Imperial pale lager. It was over-hopped in my opinion. The lager doesn’t have enough malt body to carry 70 IBUs of hoppiness. I was disappointed.

Meanwhile, Donna prepared a stir-fry with flank steak and assorted veggies with a spicy sauce. It was very tasty.

Spicy beef stir-fry with sesame seeds

On Monday morning, I loaded the Spyder in the trailer, dumped and flushed our holding tanks and made final road preparations. We left Susanville a little past 10am and headed west on CA36 (map). Our route took us on the same road we took to Westwood on the Spyder. It climbs immediately outside of town and tops out at Fredonyer pass at over 5,700 feet above sea level.

We dropped elevation and hit a few rain showers as we passed through the Lake Almanor basin to Chester. West of Chester it got interesting. The road winds through the Lassen National Forest. It climbs with sharp curves and no shoulder through pine forests. We topped out at 5,750 feet at Morgan Summit, then began to descend. Some of the downhill grades were steep – 7% or more. The road twisted with many speed advisories for turns marked 30mph and a couple at 20mph.

Ozark the cat wasn’t enjoying the twisty ride and ended up losing her breakfast in her crate. Donna cleaned up the mess as best as she could and then placed Ozark in her lap where she stayed for the remainder of the ride. That was a first. In the past, when Ozark was out of her crate, she would become over-stimulated by all of the motion of travel and run around in the coach. That’s why we started putting her in a cat carrier for travel. But she is almost a year and a half old now – maybe she’s settling down.

It was a downhill run all the way to Red Bluff where we hit I-5. We were about 500 feet above sea level at that point. We took I-5 south about 15 miles to Corning. I knew there was a Blue Beacon truck wash off South Boulevard in Corning and I saw it from the Interstate. We pulled off so I could have the coach and trailer washed – it was so dirty from the rain in Susanville and the drive here. I’ve had mixed results at Blue Beacon truck washes, but I have to say the crew in Corning did a great job. The coach and trailer are all shiny again.

We pulled into the Rolling Hills RV park at the Rolling Hills Casino a few miles south of town. I had checked out the entry to the park on Google Earth to find the best way in. Their signage is good, but the entry is a little different. We entered through a truck stop and found the casino’s travelers’ center at the back of the truck stop parking area. I checked in and paid for 10 nights. They told me the sites were 70 feet long and to drive into the park and take my pick.

We drove through the park and could see the sites weren’t all 70 feet long. They were all pull-throughs, but some were longer than others. We thought we would just take a lap or two around the park before we chose a site. The park host caught up with us in a golf cart. I stopped and he told me which sites were the longest. He suggested site 71, right next to where we stopped. Donna liked the view and it’s at the western end of the park – farthest from the road.

The park host advised me to drive out of the park and turn around in the truck stop so I could re-enter and be oriented in the right direction for site 71. This was good advice and we pulled into the site without any difficulty. We were set up in no time.

The weather forecast for Corning showed 0% chance of rain when I checked on Monday morning. By the afternoon, it was showing 15% chance of rain. While I was out putting on the windshield cover, the camp host stopped by and said they were now calling for rain for sure before nightfall. Great, I just had the coach washed.

Windshield view – rain in the hills to the west

Donna went out for walk to explore the area. Later we sat in chairs outside and read while enjoying a cold one. It’s surprisingly quiet here given the proximity to I-5.

Clean coach and trailer in site 71

The rain passed to the west of us and we didn’t get a drop. This morning it’s cloudy. The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature in the mid-70s today with a 15% chance of rain. We’ll see how that works out. Corning is about 300 feet above sea level, located in the northern end of California’s central valley. It’s billed as The Olive Capital. Olive, walnut and almond orchards surround the area. Northern California is also home to many large cattle ranches. Corning has a population of around 7,500 people.

We plan to make a few trips to Corning and also over to Chico. That will be fodder for another post.

The sign says The Olive City

56 is the new 65

A few truckers had joined us in our boondocking area in Mina, Nevada, but they were back on the road early and were gone before we departed. As I mentioned in my previous post, a storm came through and the outside temperature got down to 45 degrees. We had a little water come past the driver’s side bedroom slide seal. I’ll have to check it out, but it’s not too surprising considering the high winds and heavy rains overnight.

Ozark the cat kept warm by snuggling into the crook of Donna’s knees.

Ozark staying warm

We were on our way continuing up US95 a little before 9am. Traffic was light and the wind was from the south – tailwinds make for easy driving! The storm dropped fresh snow on the mountains around us. It was scenic and the terrain changed as we went north. There was more vegetation and it was a lot greener.

Snowy peak in the distance

A closer view showing snow and low clouds

A closer view showing snow and foggy peak

We traveled about 400 miles on US95 – it was mostly good, smooth pavement and, in fact, it’s one of the best stretches of highway we’ve been on with regard to road condition.

Our route took us through Hawthorne, Nevada. Before we reached town I saw numerous dirt covered concrete bunkers. It was the Hawthorne Army Depot – the world’s largest ammunition storage facility. It covers about 226 square miles and has 2,427 storage bunkers – about 600,000 square feet of storage.

We followed the truck route which bypassed the main drag through town and continued on past Walker Lake. This is a very scenic area and we saw several places along the lake that were open for camping. One or two areas looked like you could get a big rig in and out – I saw one large motorhome and several smaller RVs. We’ll file that information away for future reference.

View of Walker Lake out Donna’s window

By the time we reached Fallon, Nevada, (map) we were in farmland. There were hay fields and horse farms. The area receives irrigation from the Truckee River. Fallon used to be the home of a Marine Air Station. When the Navy moved their air station here from Miramar, California, I think there was a trade made. The Marines now occupy Miramar and the Navy is in Fallon.

In Fallon, we turned west at the junction of US50. This took us to I-80 where I stopped at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center. I topped off our tank with 60 gallons of diesel fuel at $2.42/gallon. Not the lowest we’ve paid, but still not bad! While we were at the travel center I weighed our rig on the CAT scale. I wondered why they called them CAT scales and found out it means Certified Automated Truck Scale. I wanted to check our weight and weight distribution with the larger trailer – I weighed our coach before with the old trailer.

I’ve read questions from RVers on forums about using a scale at a truck stop. Some guys are intimidated by it. There’s a protocol to follow, but it’s easy. Follow the signage to make sure you enter the scale platform in the proper direction. Pull up to the speaker box and press the call button. The attendant will ask if it’s the first weigh – say yes. Then they’ll ask for a truck number. Don’t try to explain you’re in an RV, give them a number. I always use 42 since those digits are on my license plate. They will tell you when the weighing is complete and tell you to pull through and go to the cashier and give your number to get your certified weight receipt. Make sure you have your license plate and trailer plate numbers also – you’ll need them. When the cashier asks what company you’re from, say it’s a private vehicle. At that point, I give them the plate numbers and they print out my weight ticket. The price varies – it was $10.50 at this center.

The weight ticket gives a gross weight – this is the certified weight using the full length platform scale. Then it breaks down the weight by axles. In my case I had a steer axle weight, drive axle weight, trailer axle(s) weight and gross weight. As expected, the larger trailer and the Spyder in it increased our gross weight over what it was with the 12-foot trailer and scooter.

Our coach weighs 30,700 lbs (combined weight of steer and drive axles) with full fuel and fresh water tanks. This is approaching our gross vehicle weight rating of 31,000 lbs. Our trailer axle weight is 4,400 lbs – well under the 7,000-lbs rating. Our combined weight is 35,100 lbs – again well under the coach’s combined weight rating of 41,000 lbs. Our weight is biased more to the rear than before due to the higher trailer tongue weight at the rear of the coach. I think I’ll move a few things toward the back of the trailer to put more weight on the trailer axles and relieve some tongue weight.

It was a short drive west on I-80 to Sparks, Nevada. We pulled in to the Sparks Marina RV Resort where I had reserved a 65′ pull-through site. The check-in process was efficient and the office was clean and tidy and staffed by pleasant people. They had an escort in a golf cart lead us to the site.

I don’t know how they figured it was a 65′ long site. Out total length is a few inches under 65′ and we don’t fit. They had me pull forward so the front of the coach extends past the site boundary a couple of feet. The rear of the trailer extends past the rear boundary and is a few feet into the street. The attendant that led us to site said not to worry and he placed orange plastic posts on either end of our rig to warn other drivers. I’m thinking it’s a 56′ site that the person read as 65′.

Front of coach overhangs site

Rear of trailer extends into street

The park is very clean and nice. The sites are paved and level. There’s fake turf between the sites over dirt with trees and picnic tables. It’s a nice place. The downside to the way we’re parked is the distance to the sewer hook-up. We’re about 25 feet from the hook-up and I have about 21 feet of sewer hose. I had to make a trip to Walmart for another hose extension.

The reason we came to Sparks was so Donna could fly from the Reno airport to Albany, New York. She wanted to spend Mother’s Day with her parents and spend time with friends and family there. Donna packed her bag and prepared for her trip while I made the run to Walmart. Then we watched TV and sacked out early. She had a cab pick her up at 4:30am to drive to the airport for her 5:45am departure. After she left, Ozark kept me up for a while, then I drifted off to sleep a bit. I was up by 6:30 am.

It’s raining as I type this and it’s expected to rain on and off through the weekend. I’ll be a bachelor for the coming week. I’m so spoiled by Donna, I can hardly stand it, but I’ll get by until she returns Friday night.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Trailer

Across the Divide

Coeur D’Alene Elks Lodge

Street Food in Portland

Road Bike Ride

Contingency Plans

Can’t Stand the Cold

A Day in Bend

Mount Shasta View

Day Full of Twists

56 is the new 65

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