Our blog about RV travel. Note to new Bloggers: The blog reads from the bottom up - with the most recent post on the top. Navigate to a specific date range using the links in the Blog Archive (right hand column ).
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Helloooooooo Canada
The O’Keefe cattle ranch was settled in the 1860’s. The buildings have been placed in a historic trust and open to the public for tours. The interesting guided tour provided insight about the grit it took for Canadian pioneers moving into British Columbia. The original settler, Cornelius O’Keefe, has three wives and a total of 17 children. Many descendants still live in the area.
As we were leaving Barkerville, it was raining, we were
chugging along an old country road – about 50 miles to our planned campsite,
and right there on the side of the road was a BEAR ! Our first of what we hope will be many
sightings.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
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.
I don’t like the halter
and leash, but it’s fun to go outside. I
wish they would let me run. I’ll come
back … really … maybe
My take on the end of the day
Cheers and HappyTrails
Monday, May 25, 2015
Last Shakedown
The last three days have been interesting. It was our last shakedown camping trip before
the big push north. Becky and John took
us to a campsite in Tahoe National Forest in Northern California. Off the highway exit, we drove for a hour down
a paved fire road, then another 40 minutes on a dirt road to get to our
beautiful campground. The dirt road was ridiculously
rough, with rocks and deep mud puddles and small landslides. We drove in 1st gear, at a crawl,
weaving to the best pathway under the circumstances. The drive certainly pushed the capacity of
our vehicle. The campground (Firtop) has
10 sites, a shared water spigot and a single flush toilet. It was beautiful, with a short walk to the
lake, and very quiet. Our kind of
campground. But still too populated for Becky and John! We were so far off the grid that our weather
radio, which has faithfully provided information to us on every trip we’ve been
on, never received a signal, not on any one of the seven bands. But NPR came in clearly!
We played down by lake,
photographed interesting vegetation,
And made wonderful meals. (Morel Mushrooms above)
We saw a flock of white pelicans, tons of chipmunks and an unusual
mountain otter.
It’s really fun that the animal sightings have started already !!
Since we arrived in California nearly 3 weeks ago, it has
rained or snowed every day - some days quite a bit. It’s badly needed as some lakes are
completely dried up, but it’s hard on a vacation. We’re glad we have a comfortable, dry and
warm inside space to retreat to.
We stayed 3 nights and started to understand limited camper
resources and the rhythm of our day. We lived on 50 gallons of water, a small amount
of propane, and power stored in 2 six volt batteries. We never used the generator. The house furnace quickly warmed up the
inside of the coach in the morning (which got down to about 50 each night). We were not as cold as we were at Becky’s
house, where the inside temperature dropped to 44 degrees at night.
Several things learned:
- · Never throw away the directions of ANYTHING, no matter how apparently insignificant, even if you think you know how to operate the item
- · Learn to put things away. There aren’t very many usable flat surfaces in the camper. Maybe we’ll take this new habit home.
Becky and John took us on an OMG 4-wheel drive, in their
truck, up to a mountaintop lake deep in a mature forest within the National Park.
It’s an area they know well and often go to for true boondock
camping. There were a couple of times Kris
got out to walk – the driving was too scary.
We picnicked at the TollHouse lake (7050 ft. elevation).
Tonight we said good-bye to the kids as we are leaving bright
and early tomorrow … flying solo.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
First Outing
My parents have been talking about and getting ready for ‘camping’ for a long time. I had no idea what they were talking about until last weekend.
We went to a Scotts Flat campground in their camper, and I got to sit outside and watch the world go by.
I went for a long walk, with a
string attached to me so that I couldn’t run off. I sun bathed down by the lake.
My parents tried out everything in the camper
- the shower, the heater, the stove.
They even made me hamburger for our first dinner in the camper. The trip went much better than I thought it would.
They haven’t been able to use their phones or computers … something about being off the grid. I’m liking that. They walked ½ mile uphill to make a phone call. Glad they didn’t make me go on that walk!
They went to a town called Nevada City and I had to stay in the camper while they went into town. I slept in the overhead bunk, looking out the window as people walked by. Mom and dad came back, served me a picnic lunch and went out again.
We stayed two days and they made a list of things they are going to do to the camper. I hope they don’t move my box, my bedroom, or my bed. I finally figured out where everything is.
Tomorrow they food shop for ‘the big trip’ (where are we going ???) and we leave Friday morning.
Stinky’s parent’s addition:
Nevada City (northern California) is a cute Victorian / gold rush town where old hippies go to retire.
It has funky, quaint and odd shops, wineries and small museums.
The historical culture (turn of the 20th century) was a blend of native Americans, Chinese railroad workers, and gold seeking pioneers.
Was a fun place to spend a day while supervising Stinky’s camping trip.
Monday, May 18, 2015
We're ready to sail!!
Thanks to son-in-law Johns help, we built a pantry to store food, splash-backs for the kitchen sink and stove areas that have clip on containers for the frequently used items, installed a bathroom medicine cabinet, paper towel holder, soap dispensers and a Kleenex box holder.
WHEW. It was a whirlwind – but best done like a live amputation – quickly!
Juniper played in the stream while all this was going on.
The next morning … snow …
again. In and out of the camper moving
items back and forth until the pack and construction process was complete. It was a mud bath, but easily cleaned because
it’s soooo... small. Something to be said for
downsizing.
Snap-shot day –
We helped Becky with Lake Tahoe’s
snap shot day - when water samples and feeder stream assessments are taken from
all around Lake Tahoe. We hiked a mile to
a secluded beach that she had been assigned to survey. We collected data, made stream pathway
drawings, collected water samples, tested some on site and brought some back to
the central lab. It was a great excuse
for a walk through beautiful woods.
In the forest we saw unusual 'snow flowers’, which are really fungus.
We leaned one thing interesting … Incense Cedar trees which have incredibly thick bark (up to 10” thick- see bark size reference with glasses),
have become a host for the invasive mistletoe plant.
The mistletoe grows all over the cedar (like Spanish moss) and the tree eventually dies. Resistant to forest fire, and succumbs to mistletoe!
We said our good-byes (just for a few days) and they launched us off onto our first expedition. We were very excited.
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