Roadtrip!

Sunday, October 11, 2009
I know, it’s been a week since our last post. But it’s a lot harder to stay current on a car trip than it is in the motor home.

We got out of Canyonville the day we said we were going to, and headed north despite hearing rumors of a storm blowing in later that day. About ½ way home, we pulled into a rest area and took a short nap, probably because we were just stalling on actually getting home, knowing we had a week left of vacation, but no solid plans on how to finish it off.

We got lucky, and the weather held and traffic through Portland (via I-205) was a little sluggish, but no problems.

Back in Longview, we stopped at Larry’s (Jo’s boss) and dropped off the Tracker so Larry could put a new engine in it (the engine was ready and waiting). Probably a good thing we came home when we did, so Jo could deal with a few problems her new renters were having while we were gone.

We collected the accumulated mail, and lo and behold, wouldn’t you know it, there were coupons in there for our local casinos, and heaven knows we couldn’t let those go to waste, so to no one’s surprise, it wasn’t long before we were back in the car and heading up to Yelm and Rochester again. Before anyone gets the impression that we’re hooked on casinos, let it be said that the excuse was that the cars had been sitting for a couple of weeks and needed to be run, AND everyone knows that cigs are cheaper on the reservations, so that was all the excuse we needed.

Sometime during that little jaunt (we got home at about 3a.m.) we decided that a little ‘road trip’ to the Oregon coast might be fun, since the weather reports said it should be fair weather. So after about 4 hours of sleep, once again we were packing and loading, and heading South and West on Monday morning. Since Jo had done all of the driving for the first 2 weeks, it wasn’t too hard to conclude that it was my turn to drive (and besides, I had brand new tires on the Jeep, and am very familiar with Hwy 101, so Jo could rubberneck while I was the tour guide).

First stop was Spirit Mountain casino, about 3 hours from home, and the weather was pretty foggy on the way down, but started getting better the closer we got to the casino. We were doing pretty well there, so we decided to just get a room and spend the night there. Only 2 things wrong with the rooms there but we knew about the first one and compensated (their in-room coffee pot is too small, so we brought our own). The other thing is the loud ‘clunk’ the toilet makes when it’s flushed….which we never did figure out. Otherwise, it’s a nice room and we enjoy staying there (as you will see later in this blog). The buffet is really good, especially if you like seafood, and they make a great ‘fry bread’, a few of which Jo smuggled out in her purse for us to nibble on with our coffee the next day.

Tuesday we checked out and headed on over to Lincoln City’s Chinook Winds casino, but bypassed it when we saw how crowded it was. Don’t know what was going on there, but the parking lot was full, and there were cars parked all the way up the street. So next on the agenda was to hunt down an espresso shop for a mocha to go with our purloined fry bread. Yes!!! Lincoln City has a Dutch Bros. which is the perfect coffee to go with fry bread!!! (Jo here, did you read that (son-in-law) Mark? You, from Grants Pass, who introduced us to this great coffee must see the picture below and drool for one!)

Dutch Bro’s coffee and the GPS “Marvin”.

Hey! Newport has a Dutch Bros. also!! (Jo here, yup Mark, we stopped for a Brain Freeze at this one!)

Glad we bypassed the casino, as it turned out to be PERFECT weather for sightseeing. Warm enough to ditch the jackets, do a lot of stopping for pictures, and the general touristy stuff.

Oregon coast, one of the many ocean inlets with a cave.

Poor Jo had to endure many miles of Sher’s constant narrative along the way, (Jo here…. I loved the narrative as I had never been on the southern Oregon coast!)  and a stop at Sea Lion Caves (we didn’t pay the fee to ride the elevator down to the stinky cave though), since the weather was so great that we could get pics of the seals outside sunning themselves on the rocks below a turn-out.

These rocks were white with the many Pellicans sitting on them and their poop. Pellicans on the beach, also.

It was rather late in the day by the time we got down as far as Florence, so we needed a potty stop anyway, and what better place than the newly expanded casino there? Thought about calling my dad (who lives about 40 miles inland), but that’s when I discovered my cell was dead so I couldn’t retrieve his number. (Jo here, Sher, you need to spring for a new battery, one that WILL stay charged for more than 24 hours!) By the time we gambled a bit, it was too late to intrude on their hospitality, so we spent Tuesday night at the hotel there at the casino (which is a nice enough room, but no coffee maker, and no ‘smoking’ rooms).

Wednesday was full of more sightseeing of Reedsport/Winchester Bay (where Sher had lived for 7 years), and a quick jaunt to the Mill Casino in Coos Bay (where we had no luck, just a late lunch) then head back North. Tried to call Sher’s Aunt in Lakeside….ooops, no cell…and Jo’s charger won’t work with my phone. About this time, it was decided that being closer to home might be a good thing anyway, since Jo had gotten a call about her mother’s health taking a turn for the worse.

A few miles south of Newport the speed limits are constantly changing, and I looked into my rearview mirror to see a cop following me that had to have come out of nowhere. At this point I had no idea what the speed limit was because it had changed so many times, but had an immediate flashback of a ticket I had gotten for speeding several years before somewhere between Portland and Lincoln City. Red Alert! Diversion Tactics Required!! Slow down, turn on the right turn signal and make like you’re looking for an address….turn down the next street you see…and the tactic worked as the cop cruised right on by, and not a moment too soon, as there’s something about a cop in the rearview that makes my heartbeat accelerate, and I’m getting too old for that type of thing. (Jo here, Sher, I was soooo impressed with your diversion tactic, you did good and I am going to use it the next time I am in the same position!)

Got back as far as Lincoln City, and decided that a ‘cheap’ motel would be a good idea, since the hotel at Chinook Winds was all booked up for a convention, and the only room they had left was a non-smoking suite for $130. We saw a sign for the Hideaway Motel….which turned out to be SO hidden away that we couldn’t FIND it! We had “Marvin” with us, and even HE couldn’t find it! Even if we did find it, there was certainly no guarantee I’d be able to find it again after it got dark or foggy. So back on the main drag, we come to a sign that says Crown Pacific Express, and having stayed in Holiday Inn’s Express before, figured it was a pretty good place to stay.

For future reference, don’t EVER stay there again, under ANY circumstances! The first hint should have been the smell of the lobby. We had a choice of ‘lake view’ or ‘ocean view’, and since ‘lake’ was cheaper, we took that option. Am glad we didn’t unload the car before we went up to the room (no time to unload, as Sher had to pee), and when we got to the room, the first thing we saw was a cigarette butt in the ashtray. That was enough of an ‘alert’ to notice that the garbage hadn’t been dumped, and the towels in the bathroom hadn’t been changed, which was enough to tell us that this room hadn’t been cleaned yet, so we called the desk from that room, to ask for another one (against our better judgment).

Back in the lobby, the dude gave us an apology and an ‘ocean view’ room for no extra cost. We checked the new room, and at least it had been cleaned, but we still pulled back the blankets to make sure the sheets had been changed. Still didn’t unload the car though. Figured our belongings would be safer in the patrolled parking lot of the casino down the road than at the motel….

So we went on to the casino, and kept cracking up with laughter every time we played a machine, as we couldn’t help thinking “PLEASE let me win, so I don’t have to go back to that hotel room!” and “Don’t let me run out of money or I’ll have to go back to the room!” I did notice it was harder to find Jo in this casino than the rest of them, but when I finally found her she wouldn’t look at me and totally ignored me. I couldn’t figure this out until I started to talk to her and she just sunk her head into her shoulders with no reply. I then realized she was ignoring me, thinking I was going to tell her we had to go back to the hotel because I was out of money. Her reply to this was, “Do we have to?” “We can sleep in the car.” (which we hate doing any more) or one of the many pleading excuses she and I used most of the night to each other.

As it turned out, we got to play quite late, and only had to spend a few hours in the room. (Jo here, the room was awful, we had to spray it down with Fabreeze to get rid of the terrible smell and the stains on the floor were from anyone’s guess which is why Sher and I kept our socks on ALL night! We didn’t even make coffee in the morning, didn’t linger in the room at all and left early, looking for a coffee shop!)

Thursday, and we found ourselves back at the Spirit Mountain casino and did well enough to spend two nights there. Almost hated to leave, but time was up, and vacation’s over.

We had a bazillion laughs these past 3 weeks, some hassles, and spent a lot of money, but now it’s time to get back to reality……

Friday, Oct. 2, 2009

It’s 3 a.m. as I write this. Jo’s asleep and snoring, but I can’t sleep despite giving it a shot for about an hour. Wonder if it has anything to do with eating too much today? For the first time in over a week, we hit the buffet at the casino. It was a seafood buffet so we couldn’t resist. Not the best one we’ve ever had, but there was salmon, shrimp, oysters, CRAB, mussels, and the rest of the traditional buffet items. We sampled several types of soups, all homemade (and very tasty), a rather weak salad bar. (Jo here, I do have to recommend the desert bar, such a variety of stuff that I didn’t know what to choose, ended up taking some pudding cake with strawberries and a Lemon Bar, as my mom used to make them quite often and they remind me of her. {Hi, mom!})

Unusual hours for a casino buffet, only Thurs, Fri, Sat and not all day like most places….opens at 4pm. But you can’t beat the price, as it’s FREE if you have enough points on your Players Club Card (or $20 if you’re a senior and don’t have enough points). Can’t say that I’d recommend it, but free food is not something you can complain about.

The Casino has a new Ice Cream Parlor, of course we had to ask where it was and go check it out. Hard ice cream, several flavors and waffle cones! Jo didn’t see any flavor she liked, chocolate with nuts and stuff mixed in it, so we passed on getting one.

After dinner, we played for awhile longer, and finally headed back to camp at about 7:30, with a stop at the Creekside Café for the much anticipated Deep Fried Oreos. We shared an order because it’s huge, and really is good. Jo schmoozed the waitress into sharing how it’s done, and it’s actually pretty simple and can easily be done at home. For a small fee, we will share the recipe with any of our loyal readers….

The park filled up while we were gone, but it’s nice and quiet. Weather’s mellow during the day, pretty cool at night. Unlike when we were in California, we’ve had to have the heater on at night. One more night here, then we’re honest and truly heading home on Saturday morning.

Jo here, as I read and add to this blog at 6:00 am, so we can publish it, Sher is on the couch snoring, glad she finally is getting some sleep, I know from being around her what she can be like when she doesn’t sleep well and I recommend a respectful distance.

I am not sure what the day has in store for us today as we haven’t made any plans as usual, plans for us just don’t seem to materialize for us.

The park is waking up now and so is Sher, probably because I dropped something on the table and it made a LOUD “clunk”. Feeling bad, because I woke her up, I will bid you all a good day, as I know we will have one!

Thursday, Oct.1, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jo!

Still in Canyonville, OR. Both of us have gotten into a real kicked-back stage in the vacation. A couple of days ago, a storm was supposed to blow in, so we decided to just ride it out here in Canyonville until the worst of it blew over. Well, the storm wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but we’ve gotten so comfortable here, that it’s been hard to leave!

Yesterday, we walked down to the office after we got the laundry done and showers taken to see if we could stay another day, and the desk clerk made an offer that was hard to refuse: Stay 6 nights and get the 7th one free! At $32+ per night, it’s a pretty good deal without the free night, but in our frame of mind it was just the type of deal that was right up our alley. One catch to it though, we’d have to move to a different spot because our current location was reserved for someone else. Not a problem, since this place is so nice we can’t imagine any spot being a ‘bad’ one. The trick to it was finding one that wasn’t reserved, or the people currently in a spot hadn’t left yet, which end of the park did we want to be on, etc. etc. and that poor gal at the desk was on the radio ½ a dozen times trying to find one we could move to right away (hey, this was cutting into our casino time!). Check out time is 11 a.m. and it was 10:00, so we had to be out of our current spot within the hour.

We’ve been in this situation before (I think it was Tonopah last year) where we were already hooked up and had to move…and we didn’t even bother to coil everything up and stow it, Jo just made me walk alongside the rig holding all the hoses and stuff while she drove to the new spot (only 3 or 4 spaces away). I wouldn’t do that this time, because even though we were only moving about 8 spaces away, she’d have to drive all the way around the park in order to get there because of the way the pull-thru’s are slanted. This is a BIG park (about 200 spaces), and I wasn’t about to parade all through the park with a cable TV line, water hose, and sewer line (ewww) umbilical cord. Normally, I don’t have a problem with embarrassing situations (especially if it means Jo will be embarrassed by being seen with me), but there are SOME lines even I won’t cross, and this was one of them. (Jo here, I loved it when Sher was walking with the sewer hose hooked around her arm while I drove to our new spot last year {Laughing the whole time}. But no amount of talking or bribing would convince her to walk with the sewer hose around her arm, following the motor home this time! If you have read the entire blog, Sher has a knack for embarrassing me, I just have the need to turn the tables on her. I will be trying to do that on the rest of this trip.)

About 20 minutes later we were relocated and re-hooked and soon discovered that this spot is better than the one we had in a way, because HERE the internet is better and doesn’t kick us off spontaneously. Also, for the moment anyway, we’re parked between a camp trailer and a pick-up with a camper on it….which isn’t as intimidating as being between a couple of those ½ a million dollar land yachts. At the other spot, we weren’t getting all the TV channels that we were supposed to get, so we mentioned that at the office and they were going to send someone down to check it out for us. Am glad that we didn’t have them do that, because it was in this new spot that Jo realized she had the TV programmed for the Yakima cable (from our Spring trip)….so it wasn’t the cable, it was Jo’s programming skills that was the problem. (I can’t give her any lip about this, because I’m the one that still has problems reprogramming a clock on the microwave when the power goes out). Jo here, yes, Sher, and when daylight savings time comes around, you have to get the manual out to change the clock in your car, too!

So, after we got all finished with the move, we called the shuttle and went over to the casino, and at some point we took a break and had the shuttle take us back across the freeway to the Creekside Café for lunch/dinner, which is much better than the café at the casino, and if you save your receipts for stuff you get at the café and truck stop, you can cash them in for free slot play in the casino (I think the value is something like $25 of purchases equal $5 free play, or something like that). Also, there’s an item on their menu that I’m DYING to try….deep-fried Oreos! They’re battered, fried, served with a scoop of ice cream and drizzled with a little white chocolate sauce. We were too full from our meal to do it yesterday, but I’m going to work that into the plan at some point before we go home. Yes, I know they’re a real diet-buster, but we’ve been really good on this trip, no junk food, not pigging out on buffets, actually eating pretty healthy most of the time except for occasional French fries or onion rings, which by the way are ‘excellent’ onion rings at the Creekside Café. (Jo here, finally we found a place where the food has flavor and it doesn’t taste or look like cardboard! If the buffet didn’t start today, we would go back to the Creekside for more food. We are both curious to see and taste the buffet food.)

Today, we’re a little slow getting out of the starting box, but since it’s Jo’s 65th birthday, it must be tough to get moving at that age, so I’m not complaining. Personally, if we just sit here and play on our computers all day, that’s okay too. Nothing wrong with an occasional break in the festivities while on vacation, especially if there’s deep-fried Oreos on the horizon. (Jo here, Sher, thanks for mentioning my 65th birthday, I just want to say, I looked in the mirror today and I don’t look any different. I sat at my computer and the task want any more difficult. But when I got up to get my 7th cup of coffee, I felt all stoved up so I took an Ibuprofen and all is well now. 65 is just a number, I like the number 49, I think I will be 49 this year!)

Have a great day, we will!

Monday, Sept. 28

Not much to write about today since we’re still at the world’s best RV park, and spent a good chunk of the day at the casino. Jo may have mentioned earlier that it seems like no matter where we go, our ‘neighbor’ has to be out there first thing in the morning, spit-shining his new rig with a spray bottle of something and a white dishtowel. It must be something RV owners just have a compulsion to do. I don’t own one, so I don’t feel that compulsion to do it, but Jo does, and I caught her out there doing it too! (Jo here, I just had to see what all the guys got out of spit-shinin’ their rigs, believe me, I don’t understand if there is a thrill, cause all I got done was around the door handle and it seemed like too much work to me!)

Weather’s turning nasty this afternoon, so if it’s not very windy tomorrow we’ll head for home. If the wind stays as strong as it’s been this afternoon, we’ll stay another night and sit it out. It’s no fun to drive this rig in strong winds. The RV park has thinned out considerably, but it’s been fun to look around and see all the pretty RV’s. Gives us something to dream about for when we’re rich and famous!

Sunday, Sept.27, 2009

Okay, enough was enough, and we decided to head back North, revamp the vacation plans, and it’s a good thing we did.

Our stay at the fairgrounds, before we picked up the Tracker, was sort of interesting, since there aren’t any marked parking areas, so you just drive over the curb and the lawn to a hookup, facing any direction you want. We chose an area near some trees, and a couple of hours later we were joined by a couple of other rigs, that had friendly people (and a couple of DOGS) that even invited us to join their camping club that’s based in Olympia. Nice people.

After we picked up the Broken Tracker from the dealership, we began the journey towards home, and since we got a rather late start, we dug out the Woodall’s camping book that gave us suggestions for RV parks along the way. Mountain Gate (outside of Redding, on the way up to Mt. Shasta) looked like the best of the bunch, reasonable price (about $30 for full hookups, TV, and internet) and it wasn’t the worst place we’ve stayed, but not exactly all that was advertised. It had a sewer smell, was noisy, but it was close to a gas station for our last gas-up before heading over the mountains, and easy to get to. Seems like every RV Park we go there is a guy that is out there wiping the bugs and dirt off their rigs, even using Windex on the entire rig, just to start up the next morning to do it all over again each night. We had just the person parked next to us at this park, he Windexed his entire fifth wheel AND his truck as we chuckled and watched from our ugly dirty rig.

Along the way, there were lots of billboards for the Olive Pit (this is olive-growing country), so on a whim, we took one of the exits and went first to the olive HUT, then the Olive Pit….and at the Hut we bought about $30 worth of various flavors of olives, tapenade, pickled onions, garlic and almonds, then went to the Pit and got more. Both places have a tasting bar, where you can try out the flavors and the dipping oils for free before you decide, and it was GOOD. Thank goodness we didn’t bring the credit cards in with us, or I’m sure I’d have to make payments for awhile, ha-ha.

The next morning, (after our stay at Mountain Gate) we got a fairly early start, and soon encountered “patchy smoke” that we later found out was from a big fire near the Medford/Ashland area. It didn’t hinder our drive, but certainly obscured the view of the mountains around us at times. At about 11:30, it was time for a break, so we chose the rest area that we had stopped at on the way down (Klamath River Rest area) where we had tried to nap, but couldn’t because of the noise and the heat, but this time that wasn’t an issue. The only trick to it this time was not turning left soon enough, and we wound up on a 2-lane country road with nowhere to turn around. Jo is amazing in a situation like this, as she managed to get that 35 footer and Tracker turned around in basically someone’s driveway! Okay, she had the road completely blocked for about 5 minutes, but I still think it was incredible that she could maneuver all that stuff with no damage to property or vehicles! (I LOVE impressing Sher, turning around with a big rig is something I learned to do when I would haul my camper/horse trailer combo up these dead end mountain roads and had to back up between trees to turn around after a ride. After doing it a few times you know just how far you can jack knife your rig, nice thing about this time is I had someone in the passenger side to let me know how close I was to the rock wall and mail box at this driveway. Ya did a good job, Sher!)

This might be a good time to talk about “Marvin”, which is the name we gave to the British-sounding guy that gives us directions on the tom-tom GPS. For those of you that don’t have one of these contraptions, you can program in your destination, and various sounds that will alert you to points of interest along the way (such as rest areas and casinos) and even make a sound that lets you know that you’re exceeding the speed limit. You also have your choice of ‘voices’, since it talks to you and tells you when to get off the freeway, or make a certain turn when there’s an option.

Naturally, two old women like us chose the British dude, and he really has a sexy voice, unless you’re not doing what he told you to do, and then his voice starts to get on your nerves, which it certainly did when we missed the turn to the rest area. He kept telling us to ‘turn left, then left again’ over and over, so at some point we started telling him to just SHUT UP MARVIN!

Another time, on our way south, I swear Marvin was on drugs or something, because we’d be cruising down the freeway, and he would just randomly say something like “after 300 yards turn left” or “after 800 yards turn right” and there wouldn’t be an exit or anything there. How do you turn LEFT on a freeway with a divider in the middle? Marvin has been a riot, and we sometimes forget you’re not dealing with a real person, and start answering him. My favorite is the “Cuckoo, Cuckoo, “ka-ching!” that we get when we’re coming up on a rest area. And the way he says ‘motorway’ instead of ‘freeway’ is sort of sexy too. Jo can’t fib to me about how fast she’s going, because he “Moo’s” when she’s going too fast. (Jo here, As soon as I get this posted to the blog, I am changing the “Moo” to something else! Can’t have Sher scolding me every time Marvin “Moos”!)

Okay, back to the trip. We made it over Mt. Shasta without incident, but when we got to Medford, suddenly there was that “bump, bump, bump, bump” noise that we’d heard on the way South around Redding again. You’ve GOT to be kidding! Another rear tire peeled the tread, only this time it was on the other side. Once again we had to just be grateful that it wasn’t a front one, and that we were at a big town with a Les Schwab’s, near an exit. Gotta LOVE those guys at Schwab’s, and in about an hour we were back on the road again. (Jo here, Seems like ALL the Les Schwab guys are cuties, and no exception here!)

rear tire

So now we’re at our favorite RV resort of the whole trip (Canyonville), had a good night’s sleep, showers, laundry’s done, and Jo just finished cooking breakfast of scrambled eggs loaded with a bunch of diced veggies from the garden….excellent!

eggs

It is Sunday morning and most of the Snow Birds have left to go south and the park looks empty! We’ll be here for a few more days, enjoying the moderate temperature (compared to California), lower gas prices (that we don’t have to pump ourselves), and the casino, before we head on home, drop off the Tracker for a new engine, load up the Jeep and head out again….this time, for the Oregon coast. Catch ya later!

Park

Thursday, Sept. 24

Didn’t get too far down the road yesterday. I think the mental strain of dragging around a dead horse was starting to take it’s toll on both of us, so we only got as far as the Calusa Casino, which had free parking (no hookups) way back behind the casino with the truckers. No hookups means no A/C, so of course we had to spend most of our time in the casino where it was a lot cooler than the 100 degrees outside.

The casino’s contribution to Sherri’s birthday yesterday was not some fancy gift, (or even a decent sized win at the slots) but a trio of helium balloons tied to a couple of packs of playing cards….Then I walked up to Jo and just grinned….Jo couldn’t believe I was walking around with these balloons and just looked at me and walked away, laughing! It was a little embarrassing to drag around the balloons while trying to play the slots, so they were conveniently “accidentally” forgotten on a railing while we were at the buffet that afternoon, oh darn. By the way, the buffet is adequate, (a WHOLE lot better than at Canyonville), but still nothing to write home about.

Got back to the motor home after dark, had a friendly conversation with the shuttle driver about where we might want to take the Tracker for possible repair, and of course he had a story about “as we speak” there are ½ a dozen cops out in the almond grove next to where we were parked….looking for a rabid raccoon someone had reported. The security guard and the shuttle driver both really like Sherri’s new ring that she bought in the gift shop with her Player’s Club points. Jo bought a really nice smelling candle with her points, and went back today to get a cigarette lighter that’s pretty snazzy also.
(Jo here, The ring Sher bought was unbelievable; I bet Connor wouldn’t even like it! It was a pumpkin about the size of a walnut and when you press it the darn thing lights up with three different colors that FLASH! AND…… she wore it at the Casino and tried to hang out with me, I managed to walk about 20 yards behind her and not look like I knew her! OMG, the things she does to embarrass me!) (check out the picture below)

Both of us slept terribly last night. We left windows open to catch a little breeze, but the parking lot lights, and the truckers starting up their rigs at all hours, and a horse that was trying to get out of a horse trailer didn’t allow a sound sleep either.

Since we had no hookup, we also didn’t have any coffee to start our day this morning, so we HAD to go back over to the casino to get some. Too bad their self-serve coffee is way in the back of the casino, and you have to thread your way past a lot of slot machines in order to get to it. Darn it….

Got to the Chevy dealer in Calusa at about 11-ish today. He says it’s going to cost a chunk of change to have a new engine put in it… we’re working out a couple of options about the rest of the trip because of this. Has something to do with a broken piston…..So, since we’re not getting the greatest gas mileage by towing this thing around, and because there really isn’t much for us to do in the Reno area that we haven’t already done in a motor home, we’re going to head back North tomorrow after we go pick up the Tracker. It should be cooler up that way and sleeping should be better for both of us.

As for tonight, we’re at the Calusa County Fairgrounds, with full hookups, trees and grass, for only $20, where it’s nice and quiet so we should get a good night’s sleep because it’s about 95 out there, but we have A/C and only a couple other campers. Sher found this bench we were parked by and just had to have a picture of it, (Thanks Sher!) We’re going to cook up some of the corn and squash that we picked from the garden before we left home, and watch a movie. (We had fresh tomato and onion sandwiches for lunch, yummy). (check out the picture of our veggies below)

These are the rings, would you choose to wear one in public?

And of course she couldnt stop wearing it no matter where we were!

Fresh from our garden!

Cooked squash and corn for dinner!

The bench.

At the fairgrounds, waiting to hear the news on the Tracker.

Tuesday:
We stop to get gas on the way out of Canyonville this morning, and ask the attendant (I love getting gas in Oregon, because they pump it for you) if he would recommend someone in Canyonville that might be able to work on the Tracker for us. He suggested the guy that does the work on his personal vehicle, who happens to be just off the highway at the next exit, Bill’s Automotive.

OMG! It was like an instant replay of the tire guy in Wells, NV last year in the Beaver! Looked like him right down to the perfectly coiffed gray hair, pot belly, Bermuda shorts, and service shirt with “Bill” patch over the pocket. Acted like him too, and was somewhat condescending towards us, acting like we wouldn’t have a clue whether he was feeding us a line or not….and in THIS case, yep, he was. You know you’re in trouble when this guy doesn’t even know that the Tracker is a Chevy (he thought it was a Ford?). He told us that we needed a new transmission, then when we scoffed at that, he said it probably was the whole engine and that the reason it didn’t start is because it lost all compression. Sher then said, “Well of course it did, with the seal broken and oil came out”. He then suggested that we leave it at his shop for 3 weeks and pick it up on the way back, we then told him we had friends in Grants Pass we would leave it with. So immediately, Jo and Sher went into their “sister” routine, with the code word being “Really??”….which is in reality code for “let’s get the heck out of here before it costs us some money”….which we did, and were soon back on the freeway headed South, towing what Bill referred to as a ‘dead horse’ over the mountains.

Somewhere around 11a.m. it was time for our daily nap for an hour, probably induced by the steadily increasingly hot weather, or maybe the excitement we had while I was pouring Jo a cup of coffee while she was driving. The top came off the carafe, and I dumped ½ a pot of HOT coffee in my lap, resulting in a burn on my thigh that immediately blistered. Probably would have been worse, but Jo suggested rolling a can of frozen juice on it to take the heat out of it. (make sure you check out the picture) For those of you familiar with our Road Trips, it is standard procedure for an injury at some point, so we take that type of thing is stride.

Going over the Siskiyou’s was relatively uneventful, despite the fact that it’s now about 90 degrees outside. Coming down into Redding we hit the dreaded Disaster Area. Practically everyone we know has had some sort of vehicle problem around that area, and this time it was our turn. There was a loud BUMP, BUMP, BUMP, etc, etc. coming from the rear of the Motor home, so immediately we pulled over to see if we could figure it out (hoping it wasn’t another problem with the Tracker, which still wasn’t fixed). It sounded like the Tracker had come off the ball hitch and the chains were the only thing holding it to the Motor home. Terrible sound! Jo checked everything she could, looking under the motor home to see if there was a muffler dragging or anything else, checked all the tires for a flat, not much more we could do on the freeway shoulder. We didn’t see anything, but we pulled into a gas station at the next exit, and a really nice guy that was fueling up was extremely helpful in directing us to the nearest Les Schwab’s, even offering us his cell number in case we had trouble getting there. Sweet man, Jo told him that she hoped that his wife did him many favors that night for being so kind to us.

We found the local Les Schwab and those cute young guys were so helpful and kind to us, one guy was crawling all over the Motor home trying to find the problem we were having. He found the problem in a few minutes, the tread came off one of the rear tires, ripping off one of the mud flaps and that was the terrible racket we heard on the freeway….I cant imagine what it sounds like when one of the 18 wheelers have that happen to them as we only lost part of the tread and they seem to loose the entire tread. So, to the tune of about $275.00 to buy a new tire, we were out of there in about 20 minutes and heading south to Corning. We were just glad it wasn’t one of the FRONT tires, or something more serious, like a drive line, u-joint or something big…..

We arrived at Corning, CA about 5 pm to spend the night. Jo had looked up this RV Park on the internet; it said it was a nice big park with all the things we like, TV, internet, showers, and laundry. Well, it was a new park, but all the extras cost big time! Just in case anyone asks…it’s not worth the $25 per night, (electricity and sewer, which we didn’t need as we dumped this morning) and we didn’t even get to do the Lobster buffet which was the reason we went this way in the first place, the line was unbelievably long, we settled for a polish hotdog with kraut at the near by hotdog stand.

Really HOT here, thank goodness the A/C in the motor home works great!! 110 predicted for tomorrow.

Well, to bed now in anticipation for the adventure tomorrow!

Coffee

Burn

Today was a MUCH better day than yesterday….very relaxing, due in part to the great RV Park we’re at. Got the laundry done (the load we couldn’t do because of the renters filling up the septic tank with water), showers, naps, a little profitable casino time, and a pretty decent Chef’s Salad for dinner. (Do NOT order burgers or patty melts here, they’re horrible, and if they hadn’t been free because of the points on our Player’s Club cards, we would have taken them back).

Oregon’s having record high temps for this time of year….which is right up Jo’s alley. (And not Sherri’s) Thinking about getting an early start on the road tomorrow, since we have some pretty decent sized mountains we have to get over, and would like to get that part over before it gets too hot. Plus, we have to find someplace to get the Tracker repaired!

Look out Corning, CA….here we come!

Day 1 of the annual Fall Road Trip started in the traditional Dasso/Eckersley mode…in other words, nothing went as planned.

The original plan was for Sherri to get home from work at about 7:30p.m. Saturday night, shower, run a quick load of laundry, finish packing and loading into the motor home, (which by the way, we don’t have a name for yet), then get up pretty early Sunday morning and start the trip.
Jo had Saturday off and was to have everything in the motor home ready to roll for an early Sunday morning get away, but she was so drained from the last months events, getting tracker ready to tow, renting farm out, having the RV carport put in so she will stay dry this winter since she has to stay north for this year, that she zombied out and didn’t most of it done.

Nope, the original plan didn’t pan out. Saturday night began with the discovery that the neighbor/renter’s toilet had been running and overflowing for at least 24 hours, (a discovery Sher made when she flushed HER toilet and water started backing up into the tub). So instead of all of the above, the time was spent cleaning up water that was an inch deep in the renter’s bathroom, seeping into the furnace vent. The septic tank had flooded the driveway with water overflow, so there was some concern that we might have to stick around and have the tank pumped the next day.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and we finally got everything road-ready and started down the hill at about 9a.m. Sunday morning, which was a few hours later than the original plan, but was working out fine. After a stop at the coffee shop for mochas, then propane, then gasoline, we were on the freeway Southbound by 10……for about 15 minutes.

That’s how long it took for the Tracker we were towing to start smoking like crazy. The manual said that when towing it, turn the key to accessory, unlock the hubs, put the differential in neutral and put it in second gear….HUH? that didn’t sound right to US either, but the snowbirds across the street used to have a Tracker, and they confirmed it.

One thing I really like about traveling with Jo is that she doesn’t let minor catastrophes like this ’smoking Tracker’ rattle her. We pulled over, checked it out, and there was oil all over the engine and the freeway, so we had 2 choices: unhook it and call a friend to come tow it home, or continue on to Woodland to see if there was anything open on a Sunday morning that could check it out for us. We chose the second option, as I remembered an Oil Can Henry’s there, right off the freeway, and they were open. (Thanks Sher, glad old age hasn’t effected your brain yet.)

Kudos to the 2 great guys that checked it out! They were extremely helpful, although they couldn’t fix it for us, because we had blown a main/rear seal, and the tranny would have to be dropped to replace it. No charge.

Since it’s towable, we decided to tow it on down the road to our first planned stop (Canyonville, OR), and since we’re planning on being in Corning, CA for a couple of days, we’ll find a mechanic there and get it fixed. Thank goodness for Visa….

Pulled into the RV park at Canyonville’s brand new facilities at about 5pm, and have to admit it’s a heck of a bang for the buck. $32 a night pays for a very well-groomed pull-thru that has EVERYTHING….showers, full hookups, laundry, internet, cable tv, with 24hour on-call shuttle service to the casino. Too bad the food here is terrible, or I think I’d be happy to spend most of the vacation here. This RV park is so nice we decided on two nights!