Oh Good Grief, We've Become Tourists!

Since our last blog entry another 1000 miles have gone by. We spent almost a week with family at our annual family reunion and while the venue changed and the kids have grown, the familial comradery and hijinks remain. I mentioned the location had changed – for the better as we left the dry, dusty Twin Lakes of Preston Idaho behind and set up at the beautiful Hyrum Lake State Park outside of Hyrum Utah.

Good food, good conversation and the peaceful surroundings (except for the kids, their assignment was to run around screaming alot!) contributed to our sense of homecoming and renewal. I've always found myself torn between the allure of the open road and the sedentary security of family. I say torn but to be honest, love of the open road wins out for now and well into the foreseeable future, hitch itch will continue to direct our movements.

Back in July I posted we had purchased the Tire Patrol system from RV i Brake to monitor the pressure and temperature of all 10 of our tires. Due to one thing or another - mostly modifications to the sensors and program improvements, our equipment had not been operating at 100% and when the company was notified the owner, Dan Decker, offered to replace everything and start from scratch. We countered his offer by saying we would travel to Castle Rock Colorado so he could investigate the problems directly.

Two days travel and about two hours of shop time later we had a fully operational system. Seems there was the perfect storm kind of variables going on which prevented us from having a straight out of the box success and really confounded the owner and technicians. Yep, we are “special”.

So here we were, sitting just outside of Denver with its big city traffic snarls and road construction EVERYWHERE. We wouldn't have minded snagging a spot at a local RV park but there was not a single campground within 50 miles that had an opening and could accommodate our size. Yep, in the RV'ing world, size matters. 

That's how we ended up in a Walmart parking lot outside of Evergreen Colorado scrutinizing the paper atlas, googling every possibility, and calling far too many campgrounds to mention. I'm pretty sure it was after our second trip into the store that we found a spot just a little over four hours away in Grand Junction. 

We had never been there but had heard plenty of positive comments about the place from the times we had hosted at Flaming Gorge. Added bonus, we would be taking the pass over to Vail to get there. As a lover of mountain passes, curvy roads and the breathtaking scenery, this was a no brainer.

Three things stand out about Grand Junction:

1. Junction West RV Park is a gravel parking lot that has very spacious sites, wide roads, very little dust, and it is very quiet at night despite being a short ways from the interstate and a truck stop. We can highly recommend it as a good stopping over place.

2. Grand Junction and the surrounding area has some young but pretty good wineries. Perhaps in a few years they'll also have the restaurants or eateries that we were looking for.

3. Old town Grand Junction and the newer shopping areas on the outskirts are night and day. The newer stores offer the fast, in your face marketing we are now accustomed to while old town turns the clock back to a time where a leisurely walk past store fronts and the occasional visit within are expected and welcomed by the vendors.

So, two days of downtime allowed me to fix our dining chairs (cheap construction), shop for a new couch (just shop), and generally do the little maintenance jobs we all have at one time or another. It also allowed us time to decide on where to go.

I need to set the stage for this next part. In 1991 during one of our cross country transfers we had the opportunity to visit Mount Rushmore. With us was our trusty Canon AE-1 35mm camera. For the last 26 years Chris and I have referred to the photos we took as some of the absolute best with crystal clear focus, perfect exposure and superb filter choice. I would post up some of the photos as shining examples but for one thing - there had been no film in the camera.

That brings us back to Grand Junction, just two travel days away from redemption. Instead of roaming aimlessly with few cares of where we ended up we switched to full on tourist mode with a planned, detailed itinerary with every hour accounted for. To anyone who knows us I'm sure we looked like lunatics on crack. Especially when we put on our knee high white socks, slipped on our sandals, buttoned up our aloha shirts, and hung our cameras around our necks.

Did we finally get pictures? You bet we did! Things have changed in the quarter century since our last visit. Cameras in our phones and no film needed, just to name a couple.

We've spent a full week at the Heartland RV Park and Cabins located in Hermosa. Not a bad park at all with level gravel sites with patches of grass in between. I will warn you though, the park is next to the highway and there is considerable road noise. Of course the highway makes it really easy to get to all the sights and parks in the area.

We're on the road again, this time to Regent North Dakota the beginning of the Enchanted Highway.

Boo Boo's Happen – Hanging out in the Pacific Northwest

Living in a motorhome and traveling around may sound like life is all cherries and bon bons but I'll have you know, more often than not, its just “real life” - with all the bumps, bruises, hiccups and hundreds of assorted unplanned events. Yep, life happens.

If I mention them at all, I usually just gloss over these “happenings” as they tend to be uninteresting. Okay, to be truthful they are in all likelihood the direct result my own inherent stupidity which, if I remarked on each one, would take up volumes.

Case in point. In the last entry I mentioned returning to Wenatchee for some final punch-list items. What I did not mention was the argument I had with a small, hidden tree stump that snagged the front corner of our home. Obviously the tree stump won resulting in some cosmetic fiberglass damage. Fortunately, Larry at Interstate Autobody and Truck in Cashmere Washington once again came to our rescue (yes indeed, this was not our first visit to his shop). His superb workmanship and ultra-fast service is second to none.

I don't believe I mentioned killing my cell phone while we were at Alta Lake and I'm going to gloss over it still. I'm sure everyone knows that dangling your phone by the charge cord really isn't good for the phone or the cord. All I can say is thank heaven for extended warranties.

Are there more examples? You bet there are! We have these really cushy floor mats in the kitchen. They make doing chores like standing and washing dishes more comfortable. They also act as outstanding dart boards for dropped knives. Which reminds me of just how thankful I am for shoes.

Time to change subjects.

Of all places, the most deer seen were in my sister's back yard.

We've traveled a little over 2000 miles since the last entry. 

We've crossed the continental divide twice, going from sea level up to 7200ft.

 No matter what  form it has come in, we remain in awe of the majesty and beauty of our country.

The 9/11 memorial in Cashmere, WA.  Stunning!

Little Bighorn Battlefield

This last picture pretty much sums up my luck this past month. Fortunately, it IS called fishing for a reason.

Vagabond–Back on the road.

A happy grandma

Vagabond. noun. A person who wanders without home or job.

As a kid the word was used by my mother as a dire threat and a predicted outcome if I didn't complete my chores. I can still hear her voice “Pick up your room right now or you'll end up shiftless and a vagabond like those men living out by the tracks.” To this day I'm unsure what the correlation was but back then it always resulted in me cleaning my room.

This morning it struck me. Here I am, over a half century later, sitting at the dining table while using a laptop computer (didn't exist when I was a kid) to access the internet (nope, neither did it) to find the definition of vagabond. The fact we haven't been in a house for several years didn't even cross my mind until I read the definition and even then it was jumbled about with the thought that I really need to do laundry at some point today – and figure out where we're going next.

No job: check. Wanders: check. No home: in the classical sense, check.

I don't think this qualifies as a crop circle.

Yep, I'm a vagabond.

And best of all, my room is picked up.

We returned to Wenatchee to complete our motorhome punch list with a modification to two of the slides and a replacement of our water heater cover. I really can't say it enough just how good All Seasons RV has been to us. 

Back in April we arrived with a myriad of items needing repair, replacement, or just tweaking and they really came through. They accepted the challenge of us being vagabonds (full-timers) with the need to have our home back each night and went the extra mile (see what I did there) to ensure each work session ended with a fully functional home each and every time. By coordinating the parts, work, and time in the shop, even though the total time-span was just over three months, the actual work was in the neighborhood of about 32 hours. This was broken down into 5 visits with no session greater than 8 hours which allowed us ample time to return the rig back to the park and continue our hosting duties. This was a novel approach for us and one we'll keep in our bag of tricks if we need it again.

So hats off to All Seasons RV in Wenatchee Washington.

While All Seasons worked on warranty items, my brother-in-law created our first modification to the motorhome in the form of shelves in the bathroom. Outstanding workmanship using old growth fir that will definitely last a lifetime. Chris did the final finish work in sanding and staining and matched the rest of the coach's wood perfectly.


Our tire pressure monitor system finally arrived! After backorders, redesigns and other delays the Tire Patrol system we ordered back in December finally showed up. I'm sure you're wondering why we waited 6 months for a system we could have got cheaper and quicker if we had gone with another manufacturer and answer is pretty straight forward. Simplicity, expandability, and customer service. Unfortunately, there have been some hurdles to clear on this state of the art system so both we and the company are learning new things. Once the dust settles I'll have a full review and lessons learned.

This morning we are in Sutherlin Oregon. We intended to stay away from Oregon until our hosting gig this fall but I couldn't shake the worry of our rig not having a documented oil change in the past two years. Being a lot orphan, Monster's (yes, we did name the rig) only mileage consisted of delivery, short moves around the dealer's lot, and our one trip to Arizona so while the miles were low, I just couldn't shake the idea of having two year old oil. Since we were free of hosting duties, had no set plans, and were close to the border, a quick trip to a no sales tax state to get the service job done seemed to be a good idea.

Just one problem. Full campgrounds up and down the coast. Our only recourse was to stay inland and as luck would have it we found an open park we were familiar with just a short trip down the road. Timber Valley SKP. This beautiful, quiet, slow-paced park is where we had our first experience with the Escapee community and frankly, I have no idea why we had delayed our return until now. Okay, granted you have to dodge the occasional wild turkey while parking but I don't feel that qualifies as a down check. Peaceful? Oh yes! When a doe is comfortable enough to nurse her fawn on the side of the road it speaks volumes.

We'll probably stay the weekend. Oh darn.