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 

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 1^st 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.

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 20^th 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.

Apparently you need to have lots of facial hair to be a member of this music group:

Happy trails ---

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.

a

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.

Unpacking and outfitting

Packing in a vacuum leads to some interesting choices.  We shipped 700 pounds of gear and ‘stuff’ to Reno from our home, and had 93 items drop-shipped from Amazon and assorted vendors, to put into a motorhome that we didn’t yet own.  Just a little wacky.

We’ve spent the last week unpacking and trying to visualize how we will be living in our new very small home.  We are exploiting every opportunity to develop efficiencies, maximize utility of space, and avoid killing each other while preparing to live in such tight quarters.

We pack and unpack cabinets, weed out items that don’t make the cut, and keep ‘working it’ until it starts to make sense.  Today we went to Home Depot (for the umpteenth time) to round up building materials for a few interior modifications.

Granddaughter Juniper supervised today’s trip

I frequently hear Tom ask where we’re going to put everything.  I don’t know.  Do your best to figure it out.  And he does. 

Do you think we brought too many gloves ???

Yesterday we took her (we need a name) out for a spin, got her weighed (we’re doing fine in that department) and went out to lunch, managing to park in a Compact spot.  Yeah … right.

We finished the assembly of black-out/insulated curtains using a headlamp light.

Tomorrow we’ll finish our carpentry projects with son-in-law John’s help and expertise.  There is a prediction of snow.  We have camping reservations for Saturday/Sunday this weekend.  Our first outing coming up !

Day 1/2 - Snow encore

Whew.  We managed to get ourselves and the cat to the airport for an uneventful flight to LA.  The final inspection and purchase of the RV went great.  The woman who had owned it took wonderful care of the unit and had loved her many travels with it.  We have very good feelings about her and wish her many more years of happy travel.

Our new rig was spit polish clean with a full tank of gas and ready to go.  So go we did.  We made a hasty retreat from LA, heading north.  Since we’re ‘bear bones’ with no gear (it’s all in Reno), we stayed the night in a hotel and left early this morning for the 370 mile drive to Reno.  This might be the longest mileage single day drive we do on the entire trip.

We drove up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains taking pictures out of the windows while flying down the road.  It was a most spectacular drive.

We’re learning how to do lots of new things. Spotify and Bluetooth to portable speaker mounted on dash (thanks to Mike, Cindi and kids).  It’s an excellent cut and paste system since our old rig only has a cassette player.  We’ve put gas into the tank without crashing into anything at the gas station.  We’re figuring out the best way to manage Stinky’s needs.  We’ve learned how to use the overdrive to keep the engine happiest going up big hills.

The day started in brilliant sun, but the skies changed, and we started driving through showers of small hail pellets.

We climbed to over 8000 foot elevation where the 'pop-up' spring snow storm rapidly accumulated on the road surface.  There were several spin-outs (including a motorcycle) and fender benders. It was a bit of a white-knuckle drive for over an hour until we reached a lower elevation.  

We were NOT not prepared for THAT on Day 2.  The whole way down the mountain pass, approaching Reno, we 'shed' large chunks of heavy wet show.
Within an hour of our destination Kris ‘kissed’ mirrors with another truck.  Our rig is fine – they need a new mirror.  UGH. 

Glad today is over. Now we have a couple of weeks to chill, gear up, deal with insurance claim, better learn the rig, play with the kids etc.
Tomorrow we drive to Reno airport to pick up the 18 boxes we shipped to ourselves,  all of which WON'T fit into the rig and get the rig registered (in Nevada).  So much to figure it out!

PS.  The reason for ‘encore’ in the title, is that on more than one occasion, we have taken ‘summer’ vacations, beginning in May that have involved surprise snow events.  Why should this trip be different?