2019 trip south Day 4

Day 4 Jan 17

We ran our newish propane heater and it kept the RV nice & warm all night and it uses very little propane compared with the built in propane furnace. (From now on “Propane Heater” means the wall mounted one Les & I put in - no motors or blowers just convection heat - and “Propane Furnace” means the built in one in the RV).  We got up early enough to exit Red Bluff at 9:20 AM, at 51890 miles, a new record for us! The storm seems to have passed, the wind & rain have stopped. Driving from Red Bluff to the Sacramento area the hwy is straight & level & speed limit was 55 mph for vehicles that are towing so I just dialed that in & put it on cruise control and away we went.  We pulled into the Flying J at Hwy 12 & I 5 @ 12:30 and filled up at 52053 miles. Gas filling was 12:30 to 12:40 but we decided to do a Denny’s lunch.  They were short staffed & we didn’t get out till 2 PM, an hour & 20 minutes for lunch – too long when you are on the road. Food was really good and it was relaxing but put us way behind schedule. Sheila wanted to go to a campground with real showers so we skipped Modesto Elks, where I had originally planned to go, & headed for a Passport America place, (Viking RV), cpl hours or so down the road. When we got there at 4:50 & out at 5:00, they were a small, very full place with only one awkward back in spot, plus Sheila checked their showers & the shower room was colder than outside with one big common shower area that you would have to lock yourself into so we opted to go to the other PPA camp – Fun In the Sun, – which we had been to before and we knew was nice.  However we were now losing our daylight so when we got there at 5:50 it was dark.  Very friendly staff and we got a nice spot but did have to take a back-in so had to unhook.  But area was well lit, and we are far enough south that it wasn’t cold outside, so no problem unhooking. In at 52210 miles. They have WiFi so I can catch up on the blog. Today’s weather was fine for driving; some spritz of rain but otherwise just a mix of sun & cloud. Sheila says I should tell people that sometimes there are spelling and grammar mistakes in the blog and that I write “stream of conscious” style, - as I think, is how it comes out.  Sheila does sometimes proofread my entries and catches some errors, but not them all.  She is off in the shower while I blog. 

Covered 320 miles,    on the road too long – close to 7 hours, should have overruled Sheila & stopped at Modesto Elks around 2:30 to 3 PM

Day 3 Jan16

We were nice and warm all night and in the morning it was warm in the rig—not like last night when Sheila’s feet were cold all night!  We slept in and eventually got up and got ready to roll, out Seven Feathers by 10:15 at 51641 miles and off to a gas stop. Off hwy to the Pilot stn at 51708 miles @ 11:35, filled up and away at 11:40 and off to Fred Myers to get my annual phone card with 100 minutes for $99, (& no tax in Oregon).  Off hwy at 51715, did our shopping, had a quick lunch at the Deli in the grocery section, and back on hwy @ 12:40. Over Siskiyou Pass, elevation 4340 ft, according to our GPS.  Up to now the weather has been overcast, no wind, with the odd sprinkle of rain.  We entered Calif @ 1:15 and the weather just got worse & worse.  High winds swirling in every direction, pouring rain that came down the highway in sheets blown by the wind.  Not a fun drive!  When you are a wide as us, you don’t have a lot of room to manoeuvre but I managed not to side swipe anyone.  Sheila was buried in a book which was good; it kept her from getting white knuckled when the RV shifted sideways in the wind.  We did stop at a rest area for 5 minutes so I could change our GPS to take us to the Red Bluff Elks which is about 50 miles closer than Nancy’s Café.  I just wanted to get off the road and out of the storm without making tomorrow’s plan unfeasible. We pulled off the I 5 at 4:05 & were in the RV Park by 4:12.  One plus is that now we have power and might see if we can pick up some TV tonight.  Also so much for planning things before they happen, I just had to mention Nancy’s Airport Café in Willows & jinx myself.  Anyway we went up to the lodge building which is behind the parking lot a cpl hundred feet away.  It was windy and I had to hold the umbrella sideways to stop the rain. We paid for our spot ($15) and got WiFi so we could check stuff out.  I stayed for their supper but Sheila came back to rig. She had leftover food from lunch and she wasn’t thrilled with the menu at the Elks so she returned to the RV. After almost 3 hours battling the wind, rain, poor visibility & lots of trucks on the hwy, I just wanted to sit & have a nice quiet meal. I arrived back at the RV about 6:30.  It is still rainy & windy.  The RV is shaking and quaking as the roof is being bombarded  by small, round spiky things from an over-hanging tree.

Covered 249 miles, on the road 5 hrs

2019 trip south Day 2

DAY 2

Up, up and away - from Kelso Elks RV Park, but not very quickly.  Out at 10:30 at 51383 miles and heading for Portland.  Les Bullis had suggested the 205 bypass route so we tried it.  Entered it at 11 AM, got to the Oregon border, (middle of Columbia River), by 11:10 @ 51427 miles.  It’s a lot better than going through downtown Portland, slightly longer route but worth it.  Our poor GPS got completely bambozzeled and kept trying to get me to take side roads back into Portland.  About 15 or so miles from the end of the 42 mile bypass route it gave up and told me I 5 was straight ahead.  Back on I 5 we headed for our gas stop, in @ 51462 miles @ 11:50, full tank by 12:05 and went to have lunch at the Flying J’s Subway restaurant from 12:05 to, back on road by, 12:35. It’s a nice clear day slight cloud, lots of sun. We’re heading for Seven Feathers Casino dry camp parking lot so we can spend our camping money on their Buffet - $9.99 Mon to Thurs.  We got here at 3:35 at 51640 miles.  Parked near the casino.  I started the generator to investigate if we could pick up WiFi and they have a guest log-in good for 8 hours.  By the way I need the generator because the computer battery is dead, (it said it was good for 5 minutes when I turned it on to check it, and that’s after being plugged in yesterday for hours).  Well, off to the Casino and their $9.99 buffet.  After a mountain of excellent food, I’m stuffed;  lots of variety incl blackberry pie & ice cream with blackberry sauce for topping.  After supper Sheila stayed to play. She came back a bit later to see if I wanted to return to the casino with her because she’d discovered it was Karoke Night in the bar and the people singing--all regulars, with the exception of one, were very good!  She thought they could have been singing professionally!  And, of course, there’s no cover charge on Karoke Night.  I thanked her for coming back for me, but decided I was really tired and just didn’t feel like going out.  I just wanted to relax and eventually go to bed.  Sheila returned to the casino to listen to some more good singers, (she said the highlight for her was an older woman who sounded just like Etta James when she sang “At Last”).  She returned about 10:15 pm.   I  came back to RV to do the blog & post it. 


Day 3 Jan16

We were nice and warm all night and in the morning it was warm in the rig—not like last night when Sheila’s feet were cold all night!  We slept in and eventually got up and got ready to roll, out Seven Feathers by 10:15 at 51641 miles and off to a gas stop. Off hwy to the Pilot stn at 51708 miles @ 11:35, filled up and away at 11:40 and off to Fred Myers to get my annual phone card with 100 minutes for $99, (& no tax in Oregon).  Off hwy at 51715, did our shopping, had a quick lunch at the Deli in the grocery section of Fred Meyers, and back on hwy @ 12:40. Over Siskiyou Pass, elevation 4340 ft, according to our GPS.  Up to now the weather has been overcast, no wind, with the odd sprinkle of rain.  We entered Calif @ 1:15 and the weather just got worse & worse.  High winds swirling in every direction, pouring rain that came down the highway in sheets blown by the wind.  Not a fun drive!  When you are a wide as us, you don’t have a lot of room to manoeuvre but I managed not to side swipe anyone.  Sheila was buried in a book which was good; it kept her from getting white knuckled when the RV shifted sideways in the wind.  We did stop at a rest area for 5 minutes so I could change our GPS to take us to the Red Bluff Elks which is about 50 miles closer than Nancy’s Café & the Walmart for free parking overnight.  I just wanted to get off the road and out of the storm without making tomorrow’s plan unfeasible.  We pulled off the I 5 at 4:05 & were in the RV Park by 4:12.  One plus is that now we have power and might see if we can pick up some TV tonight.  Also so much for planning things before they happen, I just had to mention Nancy’s Airport Café in Willows & jinx myself.  Anyway we went up to the Elks lodge building which is behind the parking lot a cpl hundred feet away.  It was windy and I had to hold the umbrella sideways to stop the rain. We paid for our spot ($15) and got WiFi so we could check stuff out.  I stayed for their supper but Sheila came back to rig. She had leftover food from lunch and she wasn’t thrilled with the menu at the Elks so she returned to the RV. After almost 3 hours battling the wind, rain, poor visibility & lots of trucks on the hwy, I just wanted to sit & have a nice quiet meal. I arrived back at the RV about 6:30.  It is still rainy & windy.  The RV is shaking and quaking as the roof is being bombarded  by pine cones from an over-hanging tree in addition to the thunder of raindrops

Covered 249 miles, on the road 5 hrs

2019 sun-bird trip to California Day 1

Day 1

We brought the RV home on Saturday to load and get an earlier start on Mon, (maybe). We still ended up loading a bunch of stuff on Monday morning but finally away from Home at 10:45 AM, a record for us.  We decided to try the Aldergrove crossing to see if it was less busy than Pacific Hwy.  Arrived at the border at 11:42@ 51153 Miles. About 10 minutes earlier Sheila told me she had cut up an apple & peeled a mandarin orange!  Why would she believe me when I say, don’t take fruit across the border, it’s not like I know something, - - oh wait, I do!!!  The sign at the US Customs said trucks & RV’s in one line cars in another.  There was one truck in front of us.  Anyway the officers were very pleasant but took the oranges & apple.  They might have left the cut up apple except Sheila put them all in the same container, - - can you say cross contamination?  As punishment I cancelled our planned stop at a US store to get fruit & veggies. Out & cleared by 11:55, so a 12 minute crossing including the fruit seizure. Off down the hwy in clear blue sky & sunshine.  We were making really good time with no sign of a Seattle back-up so I switched the GPS to take us to the Kelso Elks and it showed an arrival time of 4 PM.  We drove straight through.  No big back-ups through Seattle, a cpl of slower sections but no real problems at all.  We arrived  at Kelso Elks at 4:30 PM @ 51383 Miles, so covered, from home 259.4 miles.  Tonight they have pizza night, taco pizza, 3 cold salads and choice of dressings, all good and a hot hamburger chilli/soup dish but not at all spicy, all for $10.00.  We unhooked the car and Sheila went over to the Safeway store next door almost, while I did the blog and ate.   A nice evening.  Sheila arrived from her shopping trip in time to have some of the pizza, salads & soup, (they called it soup but it was more like a stew, nice & thick.

Covered 259.4 miles, total home to Elks time - 5 hrs 45 minutes

Saturday March 3 Day 44

We tried to get up early to get on route home and eventually had everything ready to go.  We pulled out of the Elks RV lot @ 9:20 @ 50349 miles.  We were making good time, traffic was medium and then we got to Tacoma.  There is a lot of new road construction going on, even the GPS was confused as we finally found a sign to say we were on I 5 north while the GPS kept saying “recalculating”.  As we drove past the Tacoma Dome we knew we were on the right road and the GPS finally agreed.  But it was slow and 4 or 5 lanes of solid traffic.  They had overhead speed signs hanging over each lane & at one point there were 6, “30 MPH” signs.  When we finally got north of Tacoma it smoothed out again although traffic was still heavy, it moved OK.   My only problem was the curb lane kept going to an “exit only” lane & I’d have to try to move over.  Fortunately there is a lot of warning about these exit only lanes so I could always eventually move over with out running anyone off the road.  Although I did notice sometimes, that after having my signal on for a short while, I started to move over and the car in my side mirror suddenly braked or changed lanes. It pays to be big. We finally stopped at a rest area, the one just north of Tulalip Casino, (around exit 210 I think),  to have lunch.  Pulled in @ 12:35 @ 50516 miles and out again @ 1:45.  We pulled of in Ferndale at the last Flying J/Pilot station for our last gas fill. We pulled off the hwy at 2:40 PM @ 50571, back on Hwy @ 3:00.  The electronic sign close to the border said wait time for Blaine 45 minutes, Pacific Hwy 15 minutes.  Arrived at border line @ 3:15 and through & out @ 3:35.  We are finally at our RV storage yard at 40607 miles @ 4:20.  It took an hour and a bit to pack up everything & pull out heading for home.

SYNOPSIS OF TRIP

Miles covered by RV – 2,737

Trip length in Days -    44

Gas used by RV – 406.684 USG 

Cost of gas - USD $1098.48

Total cost on trip of EVERYTHING - $3871.07 USD

Average cost per day of EVERYTHING – $87. 98 USD

Friday March 2 Day 43

Up to light rain. We are trying to make an early start so we can go to the local breakfast place that has a coupon in the Hi-Way Haven Camp ground info/map sheet.  We pulled out of the campground at 9:05 @ 50136 mi.  If we have a good breakfast we can maybe drive straight through and get to a stop a bit closer to home than Kelso.  Kelso is about 40 miles from the Oregon border so about 230 miles from the BC border.  Anyway we were at breakfast at the Apple Pedaler, (a 24 hr. restaurant in the town of Sutherin and about a ½ mile from the campground), 9:15 to 10:20 and pulled out to the I 5 in the RV at 50137 mi. Then into a Flying J for gas at 12:45 @ 50279 mi and out @ 1:10.  As it worked out we lost a lot of time in a traffic backup going into Portland. No idea why but it was 3 lanes wide, solid but moving very, very slowly and this is at 1:30 or so in the afternoon. Anyway by the time we got to Kelso, 2:40 @ 50349 mi, I figured we didn’t have time to make our second choice, the Elks Lodge in south Seattle suburbs, (Puyallup), as any delay would put me trying to navigate suburban streets to a place I had never been to before in the twilight or even dark. The drive from Kelso to Puyallup is 2 hours just on a straight run with out any delays.  Even with the GPS I opted to not try it.  We stayed in the lodge lounge and had supper here.  It was halibut & chips with very tasty coleslaw & a very good tarter sauce.  Then we stayed to play the Elks races. They have 6 names on a board & a dice shaker. Each race they flip the dice & call out 3 names and the corresponding pieces move a space (or more) across the board.  There are 14 spots with number 15 being the winner. There are odds that are called out before the start, after the betting.  I tried 2 or 3 races & came out $2.00 up, Sheila played one more race & came out $6.00 down.  So tomorrow when we head home, we may take the RV to Dewdney Trunk road to facilitate unloading, we will see.

Distance travelled – 213 miles, on road time – 3 hrs 55 min’s

Thursday March 1 Day 42

I checked the TV as soon as I got up this morning, (approx. 8 am) and we didn’t get any more news on the big expected storm.  Last night’s TV news had said they were expecting 4 to 6 FEET of snow in the mountains.  So, based on the assumption there might be Hwy patrol turning back cars without chains, I planned a route back home via Coast Hwy 101.  The trouble with this route is--it requires us to backtrack over 200 miles from the pass & then about 75 miles to Coast hwy 101, then about 225 miles to get equal to where we were at the OR/CA border.  So we departed Red Bluff Elks @ 9:20 @ 49850 with trepidation.  We started our 140 mile trip to the Siskiyou Pass.  Well, before getting there we started to get a sleety snow/rain mix and a build up of snow/ice slush on the road and windshield. That plus fog made visibility not good.  And for good measure we were on the 4 lane divided road with many, many semi’s, all spraying the rain & sleet everywhere! We drove through that for an hour or more at the elevation of 3,000 feet. We actually were going up & down as I passed 3 signs at different times that all said elevation 3,000 feet.  Fortunately, Sheila was engrossed in Yvonne’s book & never looked out the front window.  If she had I’m sure she would have got up, ran to the back of the RV screaming “We’re all going to die!” Not a fun drive!  Eventually the rain/snow stopped.  Then, as we got closer to the mountain pass we came out of the storm to see clear sky, totally snow-free fields all at 3000 feet elevation.  There were several warning lights set up about who could continue depending on what you had, chains, winter tires, 4 wheel drive etc., but none of the lights were blinking so we pushed on and up.  As we approached the CA/OR border I glanced at the dash to see what temp we were at.  At 12:15 we crossed into OR at temp 38 F and at 50,000 miles exactly--just a fluke I looked at the speedometer at that moment, then, at 12:20 we reached the summit of 4310 feet.  All the way up, (once we were out of the snow storm back down the hwy), there was no snow on the road and none on the side, then, going down the other side there was snow covering all the sides of the road.  It was like the storm hit the northern side of the mountain and never went over to the southern side and a separate storm hit us 40 or so miles south, before the summit.  The trip down the mountain was fine--no snow on the road surface & bare, almost dry pavement.  We pulled off the hwy just north of Medford for cheaper OR gas at 12:50 at 50031 miles and were back on the hwy at 1:10.  Then to a rest area for a lunch stop, in @ 1:25, out @ 2:10. Then we ran into another snow/rain storm so we creped along mostly at 40 or so MPH, passing semi’s crawling up small hills and then passing them later.  That storm lasted a less then a hour.  Finally into our night stop in Sutherlin, OR at the full service Hi-Way Haven RV Park at 4:00 PM at 50136 miles.  We set up and Sheila cooked a nice supper while I crashed out for an hour. Then it’s time to explore the TV channels, work on the blog and internet stuff.  This is quite a nice campground.  It has a huge outdoor screen where they show Drive-in movies from time to time, presumable in the summer, and a really nice dining room in the clubhouse which would be great for Roamers’ outings.  Too bad it’s so far from Coquitlam.

           Distance traveled – 286 miles, on road time – 5 hrs 35 min’s