Monday, April 13, 2009

Woodburn, OR

We have landed! Planning to stay at the Woodburn RV Park for the next three weeks. Linda has another week off then she plans to work two weeks before we head out again. She chose this park for it's location rather than it's charm, it's really a nice park. You see we are spending a little time with our youngest daughter who lives in Portland and currently works in Salem. This place is just off I-5, 20 miles north of Salem and 30 south of Portland so works out to be a good place for Amanda to stop off. As a side benefit it's fairly close to a lot of the stuff Linda and I want to visit while we are here.

I have to admit we have seen more sun so far (two days) than we did the entire week we were in Portland last year when we moved Amanda out here. Although there has been more rain than we saw all winter in Texas. Poor Bud has had to have his coat broken out, it makes him walk funny but I am not sure he would stay outside long enough to get his "jobs" done without it!

We are pretty much just rejuvenating for the day after the trip from Sacramento. It's good to be able to lay around and take a nap once in a while. I am sure Linda will keep us on the move for the rest of the week, she needs to get lots in before going back to work on Monday.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Phoenix, OR

Spending the night at the American RV Resort outside of Medford, OR. Still about 250 miles from Salem where we plan to spend up to two weeks before heading east towards Michigan.

We caught I-5 in Sacramento with only one small moment of confusion on my part. The drive up the Sacramento Valley with the Coastal Range to the West and the Sierra Nevada to the East was really beautiful and relaxing. Beautiful snow capped mountains on both sides bordering flat farm land. We saw a number of big CAT tracked tractors.

Linda managed to pack her extra camera battery in the one closet that you can't get to while the slide is in, so after about 80 miles we found a rest area that was open. It was at the end of a 4 mile 6% grade and on the Klamath River, so I was ready for a little break. We had lunch, then opened the bedroom slide enough to get the closet door open and retrieved the battery. You know if she didn't take 200 or so pictures a day she could get by with just the one battery. Problem is you never know when you'll catch that perfect shot.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Sacramento, CA

Mostly easy day, we had a few moments with the wind and the grades but the ole Dutch Star came through just fine and seems to be getting better mileage. I guess we are finally starting to get the engine broken in.

I was just blown away by the beauty and scale of some of the scenery on our way into Bakersfield. We found 99 to be a bit rough but a nice road with not too much traffic.

I found Linda a little piece of land in Mojave, 7.5 acres of un-improved property for the measly sum of $450,000. I guess we will have to win the lottery if we ever hope to buy anything in California.

We hope to get some laundry done in the morning then hook up with my uncle Jerry and his wife Barb around lunch time tomorrow, then spend the rest of day doing a little site seeing.

Amanda has been checking out where we are, we think she might be missing us just a little, or maybe it's just Bud she is missing.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

California, Here we are!

After spending most of the morning doing a little metal detecting (we found a Coke can, a bottle cap, a door striker, a 22 shell casing and another round metal disk) we packed up and left Quartzsite. Linda seems to like metal detecting and I am getting her to see a whole lot more of the outdoors while doing it. Funny how you can see flowers in the desert while walking that are too small to see from the coach or the Jeep.

Ran into some tough cross and head winds today, knocked the hell out of our fuel mileage. We saw some really beautiful country and a whole lot of traffic in California on our 300 miles for the day. More wind turbines in one spot then we have in pretty much all our travels.

We have stopped at a little campground, Sierra Trails RV Park in Mojave, CA. We managed to get a pull thru, with 30 amps and no sewer or cable, but it is a nice place and not far off the highway. Considering all we did today, it was a long day and we are really happy to get nice hot showers, watch a DVD and hit the sack.

Still have about 350 miles to do tomorrow to get to Sacramento to visit my Uncle but should not have any trouble making it.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Quartzsite AZ

Short day today, somewhere around 200 miles, but the rig just would not go past Quartzsite. I have been dreaming of boon docking here ever since the full-timing bug bit me. Sure is nice to have 300 watts of solar panels, an inverter and a cellular modem! I can just imagine what this place is like in January when ALLLLLL the characters are here, partying and what ever!

I spent all the money I made this winter working on computers, and then some, on a White's TDI metal detector. Just learning how to use it but so far I have found 4 pieces of wire. I played around with some nuggets I have just to see what it is like to find real gold. Tomorrow we will go to a local claim and see what we can find.

Linda decided we needed a little break from driving so she had me get the Jeep around and go for a little 100 mile site seeing trek. Bud, as always, was very happy traveling anywhere.

Not sure if we will spend another night here or get back on the road when it starts getting hot. I guess we will just have to see how the mood strikes us.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Day 3 and things are improving

We made it to Campground Buena Tierra in Casa Grande, Az today, around 350 miles. Things went well, breakfast at the Flying J west of El Paso, about a mile from the New Mexico border, lunch at a rest stop at Texas Canyon, Az. Easy to find campground and even the construction in Tucson was not bad.

I need to take a look at the tail light on the Jeep, that has been giving me a few problems, but that's the only thing out of the ordinary to do tonight. I think I will take a look after dinner then shower and turn in early (Bud and I are a bit messed up by the time change).

We have been running into a couple at a number of rest stops along the way and guess who is camped just two sites away tonight. They are from Bakersfield and suggested a route bypassing LA. Looks like it's about 830 miles to Sacramento (I have an uncle who lives there) so we are planning the next couple of legs to get us there.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Day 2

Things went much better today. We got under way without a hitch, well actually the left tail light is not working all the time on the Jeep, temp is 49 and the wind is out of the west so I guess things could be better, but it's much better than yesterday morning.

We made good time today and I felt like doing some extra miles so we made it to El Paso (about 500 miles). First place we tried to stop for the night was full so we decided to go a little further. Well we missed the sign for I-10 and ended up down by the border in El Paso, then down town trying to get back on I-10. We finally made it out of town and back on the highway and stopped at Camping World for the night. I really do plan to pick up some parts in the morning before we leave.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

First day back on the road.

It's been a tough first day.

Dumped the TPMS sensors out of the egg carton so I didn't know which one went where, reinstall.

I have one that keeps dropping out and it ended up on the rear of the Jeep, after a hour of screwing around finally got it moved and replaced with a good one.

Hooked up the Jeep and again the tail lights didn't work. Sure enough it was a blown fuse, I thought I had the issue resolved but I guess it needs a bit more work. Then the first light I checked out was the left rear on the Jeep, guess what, the LED bulb I had there doesn't seem to be working, replaced it with a regular bulb and we were good to go.

Made it to Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX, really nice park.

Tried to deploy the jacks and guess what, nothing. Dumps the air bags but the jacks won't deploy. Messed around way too long and finally got them working. Even though the monitor said the jacks were fully retracted I think there may have been an issue so I cleaned them and sprayed them down with some silicone. Hopefully that's the problem and we will have no more issues with them.

Next we couldn't see any of the the WIFI spots in the park, tried Linda's Verizon cellular modem/access point, still no luck. Seems the WIFI switch on the laptop got bumped and turned off. Turned it back on and we are good to go.

Next RVer's notebook won't run. Still don't have that resolved.

Decided to use the park facilities for our showers, guess what my shower shoe fell apart on the way back to the campsite.

I think I should just go to bed and start anew in the morning. Hopefully we have gotten the problems out of the way for awhile.

Thanks for listening.