Tom and Kristen's Great RV Adventure: Rough Start ... Good Ending

Bright and early Monday morning, we were raring to go, and plans came to a screeching halt due to an underinflated tire. Yeah Tom for figuring out how to solve that problem. The treacherous dirt road which we took into the campground three days earlier had, unfortunately, NOT been paved over the holiday weekend, so we were forced to drive it again.

Finally - On the road again

Love the rocks

The first 60 miles of the days’ drive took 3 hours. At this rate we’ll never get to Alaska. Fortunately we made better tracks after that and landed in La Pine, Oregon by dinnertime for a total of 400 miles on the day.

The ground under the trees is carpeted in yellow flowers

After a couple long days, we will be in terrain where we want to travel slower and take in the sights. This part of the country is not in this years ‘slow tour’ itinerary. But we did enjoy a spectacular travel day Monday.

We decided to try a different overnight arrangement tonight. Travel blogs often reference staying in truck stops. We found an ‘RV friendly’ truck stop with clean showers, the key objective for tonight’s stop. When living in the camper, we must take ‘navy baths’ due to limitations on waste water carrying capacity and a small hot water tank. The long hot shower and shampoo was much needed. The truck stop had a diner and a free wi-fi connection.

Whoo-Hoo – reconnected to the world !!

Another lesson learned. We are a ‘sail’ going down the road. We thought that at a travel weight of 13,000 pounds - we would naturally fly downhill, but as it turns out, our box has lots of resistance and we don’t coast very well. Not to comment on gas mileage … just sayin’.

Tuesday we were on the road by 6:30 and enjoyed magnificent scenery in northern Oregon and Southern Washington, landing in a Columbia River waterfront state park campsite just north of Wenatchee in Chelan Washington. 4835a

Sites we saw along the way:

‘Three Sisters’ mountains

Serious windmill farms. These structures are HUGE.

Tomorrow is border crossing day – we cleaned the frig eating all non-permitted foods. They may still make us jettison something we weren’t aware was on the banned list.

Stinky’s take on Monday/Tuesday

Well, just as I was getting used to the campsite in the Tahoe forest, they dragged me off to a new completely unfamiliar location. Frankly, I thought it was rude, so since I had plenty of rest while they were driving, I stayed up all night and I ran all over them. They tried to hide under the covers but I could still find them.

Now when we stop during the day, they wake me up to go on a long walk, or rather, I take them for a walk.