Moving Along

Easy day today.  Especially easy for me as Arlyene drove all but the last 22 miles.  We are stopped in Gold Hill, OR - just north of Medford.  Tomorrow we head over the Syskiyous and plan to stay two nights in Red Bluff where last time I looked it was clear, sunny and 84 - with some high winds.

Where Gizmo ate her lunch this afternoon.

That's about all there is for today.

A Day in Coburg

I had intended to say that we had an uneventful day in Coburg - except the bombs went off in Boston.  What a sorrowful scene.  Having run several marathons Arlyene identifies with the finish line atmosphere of an event like that.  We pray for those lost and injured.

All the repairs and upgrades are done on the coach.  Even a couple we did not anticipate.  We are back at our campsite relaxing and will be ready to the next short segment to the Medford, OR - only about 175 miles.

That's it for today.

First Update - Coburg, OR

I will spare you the pictures of I-5 through Tacoma and Olympia in the rain.  I will spare you any pictures of hail too.  Days one and two have had plenty of both.  We also developed a problem with the electrical connection between the coach and the Jeep so it did not have blinkers or brake lights.  I worked yesterday afternoon trying to troubleshoot the cause but had no luck.  I woke up about 4 am this morning, my mind in troubleshooting mode.  Later,  I checked some additional fuses.  Turns out two of them were blown.  I did not have any the same size but I made up a temporary that actually worked and got us here without a ticket.  Headed out this afternoon to find some correct replacements.

So it is Sunday afternoon and we are safely parked in Coburg, OR.  At 8 am tomorrow morning we have an appointment with the Cummins facility just on the other side of the freeway to have some annual maintenance done as well as an engine recall.  Hopefully it will all get done in one day.  We will spend a second night here tomorrow night and head out to Medford Tuesday morning with Arlyene at the helm.

Zero Hour Has Arrived!

Last minute packing (if you can call it that) is all that is left.  Everything else is as ready as it can be and we will be departing this morning to start our spring tour.  We are having typical spring weather here. 

Not much better down the road for the next couple of days but if we get over the Siskiyous on schedule we should start to dry out once we reach Red Bluff, CA.  It will be a wet drive today.  We will be stopping at one of our regular stops along I-5 not far from Mount Saint Helens.  The park is on the Toutle River famous for filling up with debris after the eruption. 

SPRING TRIP

Planning has started for our Spring Trip starting April 14th.  As you can see above we will be going directly to Las Vegas where we will spend about 3 weeks getting used to our new digs at the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort.  Larry and Linda Bergo, our friends from San Diego, will join us there in their motor home and we will head north on May 14th intending to work our way up to the West entrance to Yellowstone National park.  Right now we don't know if the park will be open yet or not due to the federal government sequester.  The roads may not be plowed yet.  Guess we will just wait and see.  Items 11 and 12 above are Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks.  We are keeping our fingers crossed but also have a "Plan B" if that does not work out.  This trip will total somewhere around 3200 miles.

LVMCR

We've been hunkered down for the winter and not had much of anything to post - until today.  A few weeks ago we concluded that, retired or not, we were going to spend the winter somewhere warmer.  That fact combined with Arlyene's need to be closer to her mom and the rest of her family led us to make an offer to purchase our own RV lot in the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort.  This location also puts Walt only about a 5 hour drive from his dad in Cathedral City, CA.  We will not be officially "moving" to LV however we will spend 5 months or so a year on this lot.  Probably until the webs between Walt's toes start to dry out and crack.  Washington will remain our official residence.

Our offer was accepted this afternoon and so we are just a week or two away from being the owners of lot #187.  This will be our winter base of operations.  Walt can and will do most of his work via remote computer connection with an occasional trip back to Seattle (by air) as necessary.  When we are not staying on our lot ourselves we will put the lot in the" rental pool".  We will be headed down in mid April and will spend about 3 weeks here before heading to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons where we will meet up with our friends Larry and Linda.  Should be back in Seattle the first week of June.  We will keep our spot at Lake Pleasant until September and then probably give it up and just stay here as transients when we are in Seattle.  We plan to spend the summer months in the Pacific Northwest if we are not traveling elsewhere.

The Adventure moves on.........  Now all we have to do is stay healthy.

All that is missing is us and our motor home.  

Mount Baker In The Fall

We are on a short outing in the motor home.  Wanted to get away for a few days before Arly's radiation treatments start.  Also wanted to investigate some of local Thousand Trails parks.  That investigation was a disappointment.  These parks facilities are not a good fit for our motor home.  They are older and tend to not have a big enough electrical service. Although they technically  take reservations they do not reserve any particular site, they are fist come first served.  For someone like us with a larger rig that means we can get there and not be able to find a site we can fit in to.  In the summer that would be a common occurrence.  Thousand Trails is clearly intended for folks with smaller rigs and those who are camping.   We knew the limitations our larger motor home would create when we bought it so no complaints.  After leaving the Birch Bay Thousand Trails we came to the Cedars RV park near Ferndale.  This park has much larger sites and all the hook ups we need.  We can also get a satellite signal here where most of the TT sites had too many trees.

We had hoped to go to Canada for a day but a shooting at the Blaine border crossing had the border closed there so we scrapped that idea to stay away from the mess that created.  Instead we made a side trip up to Mount Baker.  Baker itself was shrouded in clouds but its neighbor Mount Shuksan was pretty clear so got a few good shots.  Pleasant enough day with no rain. 

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