#34 – Coveys Great Adventure - March 2017 – AZ, UT, NV, ID, OR

“On the road again - Just can’t wait to get on the road again.” Willie got it right. After two and a half  months of sitting still we were both happy to hit the road on March 7. We always enjoy returning to Benson, especially seeing the people we have come to know over three years, but our sense of escape was palpable as we pulled onto the interstate to see Liesa in St. George.

One of the desert gardens at North Ranch

We decided to make the trip in two easy stages. I had planned to revisit the Burro Creek BLM campground in Wikieup, AZ, but Kayeanne held out for North Ranch SKP Park in Wickenburg, instead. Since we were only staying the night we decided to dry camp rather than hook up utilities. It had been a while since we dry camped and I wanted to be sure all the systems worked before we really needed them. Everything worked, which was a relief. The dogs seemed to remember the place, too, and were quite interested in all the “news” since their last visit. We were struck by the number of For Sale signs in the park. We were toying with the idea of settling down here, but those all those signs seem to indicate something might be amiss.

The hiker ladies of Zion

Guitar made from license plates

We pulled into Temple View RV Resort in St. George the following afternoon after an interesting, but uneventful drive. The new bridge over Lake Mead at Hoover Dam certainly is more efficient than the old road over the dam itself. I wanted to pull over and take a few pictures but the turnouts weren’t designed for a rig our size. We avoided rush hour in Las Vegas and easily made StG by mid-afternoon. Coincidentally we were assigned the same site at TVRVR that we had last summer.

With everything working on Ripley for a change, we spent the next ten days visiting with Liesa and going to medical appointments. My hip problem that started last summer didn’t respond to the first two epidural  treatments, so we gave it one more try. It is better, but I need to be more diligent with the exercises. Liesa has become an avid hiker and she and Kayeanne went for a long hike in Zion National Park. Clearly it was a great day.

We had a long standing appointment at Monaco in Coburg to get the persistent slide leak fixed. Ripley was built there 14 years ago. We hoped that, if anyone could get to the bottom of this, the guys who build him could. We allowed five days to get to Coburg (near Eugene), making it a somewhat leisurely trip compared to our usual road trips. Wells, NV is…eminently forgettable. We spent the night in a dirt lot being alternately pummeled by fierce winds and rain. By morning the coach and car were so plastered in muck that you couldn’t see the color. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Great pizza!

The reason we went through Wells was to make the next day’s drive to Boise reasonable. We wanted to stop in Boise to eat at PizzalChik, a local joint featured one night on Diners,

Drive-ins and Dives. The show claimed that PizzalChik’s pizza was one of the Ten Best in the country. We had to find out. Folks, we haven’t eaten pizza everywhere, but theirs was the best we could remember. Kayeanne ordered Mediterranean Madness and I had the Raging Waters. The décor is classic rock ‘n roll and the music matched: a grand evening, indeed.

Central Oregon semi-arid vistas

We discovered Clyde Holliday State Park near John Day, OR, last year. We had an extra day to kill before we were due at Monaco so we decided to revisit one of the small gems of the Oregon park system for two nights. Because Oregon received three times the normal rainfall this winter, all the rivers are full to overflowing and standing water is everywhere. Clyde Holliday is located on the banks of the John Day River. The park itself was pretty dry but the main trail that we enjoyed so much last year was underwater. The first night we were the only camper in the whole park. The word got out by the second night; two more showed up.

From the beauty of the banks of the John Day River to the parking lot of the Monaco service center in Coburg was a bit of a comedown, but we were happy to finally arrive to get the experts to fix our leak. Their workday starts at 6 AM so we were up pretty early to organize the dogs and ourselves for a day out of the coach. Success was declared seven hours and $1200 later, so we moved a couple of miles down the road to Armitage County Park. We were so happy to finally not have to worry every time it rained!

Ripley was embarrassed

But then it did rain, and the leak was still there. If anything it was worse. So, next morning,

Friday, we packed up the coach and went back to Monaco and they tried again. Several hours later they declared victory, again. They had resealed the top of the slide, and then told us we couldn’t pull it in for 24 hours, and it couldn’t get wet. That meant a trip to Home Depot to buy a large tarp to cover the slide and some rope to secure it, and another night in the parking lot. Saturday afternoon we returned to Armitage, still hoping that THIS time they had fixed it. It rained that night and the slide still leaked, so Monday morning found us once again at Monaco. To make a long story short, again their efforts were for naught: the first time it rained the leak returned.

For the time being, I am stuck; I have no solution. We looked forward to going to Coburg for 6 months but now the “experts” have struck out. If we position the slide just right and tip the coach to the left just so, the water doesn’t come in, but we have drafts in the bedroom and live at a 6° slant every time it rains.

That aside, we enjoyed being back in Armitage County Park, especially since our new Wifi receiver delivered Netflix every night. Being so close to Eugene meant we could stock up at Trader Joe’s, something we hadn’t been able to do since Simi Valley in December. We also spent a day furniture shopping and finally replaced the dining table chairs that we had hated since we bought the coach.

We had a few days to fill between Armitage and our commitment to camp host at Jesse

The neighbors came calling

Honeyman State Park beginning April 1^st. We tried to find a reasonably priced park near Sisters, OR, but all of the NFS and Oregon campgrounds were still closed for the season. A Google search turned up River Bend County Park. The description sounded great and with a senior discount AND an off-season discount the cost was only $20 a night, so we gave it a shot. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised. River Bend is a relatively new park along the Santiam River in Foster, OR. The sites are huge, paved and level. Each one has a large concrete patio. The whole park is immaculately maintained. It is a little remote, though, there is no AT&T cell service in that area so we had to feed our data consumption habit by firing up the Verizon Jetpack. Withdrawal was short-lived.

Mount Washington got 3X the usual snow this year

One day we decided that a road trip was in order. Sisters is about 60 miles east of Foster on US 20 and filled with shops and restaurants. US 20 would be a lot of fun on a motorcycle (Sam, and Mark note), with lots of snow covered mountains, vividly green valleys and turns galore. The trip was at least as good as the town. We wandered around, had lunch at a pretty average place and then headed across the street for ice cream at the place with the only line we saw all day. They were right, it was worth the wait.

On April 1^st we headed west, bound for Jesse Honeyman Oregon State Park to camp host for four months. This would be a new experience for us, sitting in one place about twice as long as we have since we embarked on this odyssey. We were looking forward to running the boat rental concession within the park, something quite different than we had been doing at Nehalem every Fall. Unfortunately, those plans fell apart as soon as we arrived. Despite our effort to communicate with the ranger in charge of volunteers at the park we were assigned a site that was much too short for the coach to fit into. That might not have been insurmountable, but we also had no AT&T service, and none available for miles in any direction. We could get by with getting data through the Jetpack (at a substantial cost) but we were unwilling to be out of cell contact with family and friends for four months. We had made it explicitly clear on at least two occasions when we discussed this assignment with the ranger that AT&T service was non-negotiable.

When we attempted to discuss these issues with him he was unresponsive, to say the least. He disavowed any recollection of assuring us that AT&T service was available.  When he declared that by complaining we weren’t beginning the relationship on a positive note and that we might be better off rethinking things, we walked out the door, started the coach and we left. I hope he needed us a lot more than we needed him.

If nothing else, this life has taught us resiliency. Within three day we found another camp host position at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park in Winchester Bay. We begin on Saturday.

More soon,

Bob

#33 – Coveys Great Adventure - February 2017 – Benson

February 2017 – Benson

The view through the windshield never gets old

As I said in the last issue we arrived with a list of things we wanted to do to Ripley. Besides working on the problems that always seem to crop up we had one big upgrade project that had been waiting until we arrived here.

Remember when the washing machine flooded the coach? We both decided then and there that it must go. We would never trust it again, and we didn’t use it often enough to justify replacing it. Besides, the thought of converting all that space into new storage was irresistible.

All the comforts of home

We planned to tackle that project at the SKP Saguaro Co-op for two reasons: First, Ed Woznicki would be in the park for a few days, giving me confidence that we could get the washer out without damaging the woodwork. Once we got it out of the cabinet we only had about two inches of clearance to move it down the hallway to the door. The second reason was that the Co-op has a fully equipped workshop with all the tools I’d need to built a set of drawers to maximize the space in the cabinet.

I love it when a plan works

Removing the washer proved to be problematic; it persistently hung up on something when we tried to pull it out of the cabinet into the hallway. We ended up reaching over it and blindly cutting the water hoses because we couldn’t see, feel or think of anything else it could be. That proved to be the key. After that the rest of the job was pleasantly undramatic. In a few minutes we had the machine out of the coach and on the curb with a “Free” sign on it. Four hours later it had disappeared. I am glad to say that we didn’t put a single new scratch on the woodwork! Thanks, again, Ed!

After hours (literally) of measuring, sketching and contemplating I decided to bite the bullet and build drawers to maximize the space and assure good access to anything we stored there. I resisted the temptation to make the whole thing a wine cabinet, but it was tough. We decide that our goal would be to move the contents of three containers from the front under-floor storage bay into the new space. The new drawers easily hold all of the pantry items, the bags of dog food and the extra wine with space to spare. The three wine drawers hold almost a case each! It’s great to finally have room to carry everything inside the coach, essentially right in the kitchen.

About 7,000'

We took  Ripley to Tucson to have some failing body paint fixed and decided to spend the night in a motel instead of in the coach locked up in the body shop’s yard. It was my first night out of the coach since we hit the road. Casting around for something to do, we decided to check out Mount Lemon.

Mount Lemon is about 20 miles east of Tucson. Rising over 9,000’ in the Coronado National Forest, it is wildly popular during the summer. It’s relatively cool 80 degree summer temps often cause traffic jams and force road closures as Tuconites seek relief from city temperatures in the 100’s. For us, the draw was lunch at a small ski area near the summit and the spectacular scenery everywhere you look. 

This was a great picture
until Shroeder moved

The ski area was closed for the day, but the scenery certainly didn’t disappoint. We all had a great time and got a welcome break in our usual routine. Ripley looks a lot better, too, with his new paint.

We are hitting the road next week to spend time with Liesa in St. George and then on to Oregon to camp host for a few months.

More soon,

Bob

#32 - Coveys Great Adventure - January 2017 - Benson

January 2017 – Benson AZ

This is our third visit to the SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson.  I’ve written before about how much we like the people and the facilities here. This year we planned to take a more active role by volunteering for a few of the many committees that actually do the work necessary to keep the park operating. Volunteering also is at the core of the strong social fabric that makes this place so special to us. We also arrived with a list of needed repairs and upgrades, so keeping busy wasn’t going to be a problem.

How can you get tired of this?

Everything in the park that can be done without a permit or heavy equipment is done by the members. There are about 20 formal committees and twice that number of informal ones that keep the Co-op humming. The formal committees include Budget, Landscaping, Facilities, By-Laws, Grievance, Audit, Long Range Planning, Marketing, etc., that have specific charters and responsibilities. The informal committees tend to focus on social activities that run the gamut from Bingo to Helping Hands, a group that steps in to assist folks with medical issues that prevent them from handling daily chores like cleaning, cooking or shopping. The Co-op is proud to be the largest source of volunteers within the City of Benson, which is deeply appreciated in the town.

I joined Landscaping and Facilities, Kayeanne signed up for Bingo and Helping Hands. All of the grounds keeping in the park is done by volunteers. Since the park covers 70 acres it takes a significant, sustained effort to keep up with it all. Two mornings a week about 20 volunteers splits up into groups to trim trees, pull weeds, and plant things in one place and uproot stuff in others.

Rocks! They're everywhere!

Since we are in the desert, sand, gravel and rock make up the majority of the landscaping materials. No grass is allowed in the park for maintenance and water conservation reasons. I have become one of the designated rock hounds. I always to get assigned to the team that moves rocks or, this week lays a new flagstone walkway. Every rock in the whole park was put in by hand. I have an intimate appreciation for what has gone into building this place.

The Facilities committee is responsible for the buildings, utilities and infrastructure throughout the park. Recent projects included installing a state-of-the-art WIFI system, adding storage buildings, revamping the welding shop to accommodate new equipment, updating the sink drain system in the clubhouse kitchen and fixing a broken sewer line. I missed those fun projects, though. I’ve been moving rocks to repair an erosion problem and digging holes for new security lights. I’m working my way up, I guess.

Tuesday night Bingo is a popular activity. Kayeanne is now part of the team that collects the money, certifies winners and pays out the prizes. Like most things that looks easy on the surface, it is training and planning that make the difference. I was surprised at how much is involved. She looks forward to it and is feeling more comfortable every week.

The key to terrific WIFI

We have been anticipating using the highly touted WIFI system that was being installed when we left the park last March. Our initial experience was disappointing, to-say-the-least. Despite being across the street from one of the transmitters, we had lousy service.

It turned out that our next door neighbor was the system architect. Carl explained why this system worked differently that older WIFI installations and that to properly access it required additional hardware. A quick visit to Amazon and three days later UPS delivered the solution. We now have WIFI like we have never seen. Over 100 simultaneous users, most like us watching movies on Netflix and you never know anyone else is signed on: a terrific system.

We arrived here with a few must-fix problems and a number of upgrades and issues that we wanted to tackle, too. Fixing the generator was at the top of the list because we couldn’t dry camp without it. I checked a couple of simple items and quickly decided that it was beyond my skills. We found a specialist shop in Tucson who quickly identified and fixed the problem. As coach repairs go, $265 is a “big relief”.

The AquaHot heating and hot water system had been acting up, again. I’ve lost track of the number of times I have “fixed” it. I have suspected intermittent electrical problems for some time but could never pin down one connection or a single component. This time I decided to replace the main wiring harness. I am pessimistic, but it is working. We’ll see.

I have been chasing a constant electrical drain on the chassis batteries that has on three occasions left us with dead batteries. I worked on it in New Hampshire and thought I had it fixed. Ed Woznicki and I worked on it in Nehalem, and again at Jojoba Hills in December. We pored over circuit diagrams, tested and retested dozens of circuits and spent hours discussing what could account for what we were seeing. It just didn’t make sense!

Ed stopped here for a few days in his coach on his way to Florida and we tackled it again. This time Ed nailed it. Over two years ago the coach developed a persistent “no start” problem that I tracked down to a defective relay in the ignition circuit. I thought I replaced it with the same type, but clearly did not. I had fixed the starting problem but created the current drain. Without Ed’s help, I would never have found that. Thanks, again, Ed.

Arvel Bird, one of the visiting troubadours

I don’t want to give the impression that all we do is fix the coach, shift rock and play a little Bingo. What sets this place apart is the social life. There is something going on almost every day. Weekly dinners and daily happy hours are just the start. Exercise classes, craft groups, card games, hikes, Jeep tours and special events of all kinds happen every week. Kayeanne’s delicious apple cinnamon cake brought $40 at the annual food auction. My Tex-Mex corn and chicken soup got strong reviews at the “Souper Bowl” fund raiser party. The social life here can be a little overwhelming, but we love it.

More soon,

Bob

#31 - Coveys Great Adventure - December 2016 - Simi Valley, Aguanga, Perris, Benson

December, 2016

We arrived at Tapo County Park in Simi Valley with a strong sense of déjà vu. This is our fifth trip to this park and we are more than familiar with it. Unfortunately the camp hosts were the same folks that were here on our last visit, who zealously enforce rules that are simply silly, especially with the sever drought conditions. I hope they move on before our next visit.

Assembly is the reverse of .....

What makes returning to Tapo worthwhile is seeing the friends we have missed all year. The week flew by and I’m glad we don’t carry a scale because I’m sure I put on several pounds!

The day after we arrived I noticed water running out of the bottom of the big slide, a very bad thing to see. The kitchen is in the slide and the leak appeared right under where the sink is located, making that the prime suspect. The cabinet under the sink was dry but after removing a panel and the backs of two cabinets we found the problem: the flexible hose that connects the rigid sink drain pipe through the slide wall to the grey tank had split. Years of opening and closing the slide had finally broken it where it was glued into one of the end collars.

Getting to it was one thing, but figuring out how to repair it wasn’t readily apparent. I called the Monaco coach support line and one of the techs walked me through the repair, pointing out the one critical step that I wouldn’t have figured out otherwise. It took two trips to Home Depot for the parts because I over-thought the process the first time and had to start all over again the next day to get it right.

We discovered Jojoba Hills SKP Park in Aguanga, CA, last year. It immediately became one of our favorites and we had been looking forward to returning for months. We wanted to stay through Xmas but they only had space until the 22^nd. I called Meadowbrook Park in Perris and reserved a space there for the 22^nd through the 27^th, so we were covered for the holiday.

Jojoba Hills SKP Park (JHSP) is located about 20 miles from Temecula on highway 78, a winding, two lane road where the local residents really fly. That is about the only drawback to JHSP. About 300 large sites are spread across over 70 acres of rolling hills. The huge clubhouse houses a very large heated pool, two spas, meeting/dining room, card rooms, library, pool hall, exercise room, quilting room, etc., etc. There are four pickle ball courts, an air gun range, a pottery and a workshop large enough to back an RV into equipped with all the tools you need to do about anything desired. The park also abuts thousands of acres of BLM land, offering miles of trails to explore with the dogs.

JHSP was designed and built entirely by volunteers, the original lessees. It is immaculately maintained and appears to be very, very well managed. Its only real drawback is the lack of a WIFI system. If it wasn’t located in southern California we would seriously consider getting on the waiting list for a lot.

Beyond the park itself, the main reason we come here is to spend Xmas with Kayeanne’s side of the family who live in Hemet, about 25 miles away. One evening we drove to Riverside with Chris, Paul and Brenda to see the holiday light show that the city puts on every year. The historic Mission Inn is the centerpiece of downtown Riverside and the focal point of the lights and decorations. It was certainly worth seeing, but the crowds were almost impenetrable. We finally fought our way back to the car and made our escape. We all agreed that we won’t be back anytime soon.

Deck the halls, however modest

On the 22^nd we took down most of the decorations and lights in the coach and moved over to Meadowbrook RV Park in Perris. We spent a month there in 2014 and were pleased to see that it hadn’t changed much. The park is tucked into a small valley and offers large sites, full hookups, a large off-leash dog area and several short walking trails around the rim of the valley. It is quiet and has good access to shopping and services. It is also very reasonably priced. It’s closer to Hemet than JHSP, a plus for Xmas access. It is much closer to visit Ed and Christine Woznicki’s place in San Juan Capistrano for what has become our traditional holiday get-together with them.

This year Xmas was even better because Liesa drove down from St. George. We certainly missed her last year. Xmas eve at Paul and Brenda’s was highlighted by Kayeanne’s excellent chili rellano casserole. Xmas day at Chris’s house was a little chaotic with the Lucy and Schroeder, Liesa’s dog Beckham and Chris’s two dogs, Patches and Morgan making it lively and noisy.

The dogs are very happy to be back

After a month in SoCal with all the running around and the Xmas excitement, we were really ready to hit the road again, so on the 27^th we headed east to the Saguaro SKP Park in Benson, AZ. We decided to overnight at the Paradise Casino in Yuma and all went according to plan until we tried to start the generator and it didn’t. It reluctantly fired on the third attempt. When we aren’t plugged into electric power at an RV park, the generator provides AC power and keeps the batteries charged. When dry camping we usually run it a couple of hours morning and evening to cook and to be sure the batteries are fully charged, especially for the night.

As I wrote last year, Saguaro is the park we measure all others by. This is our third visit and pulling up to the office feels a little like a homecoming. We joined the “hot list” two years ago to get our own site and are slowly working our way into contention. We might get one next year.

Cosmo and me: old guys can still party!

We really looked forward to New Years Eve at Saguaro. The folks here really know how to through a party, so we reserved dinner tickets well in advance and polished our dancing shoes. The Jukebox Junkies put on a great show and we had a great time, right up to 10PM when we both ran out of gas and rang in 2017 a little early.

We’ll be in Benson at the Saguaro SKP Park until early March.

More soon,

Bob

#30 Coveys Great Adventure – November 2016 – Eugene, Sutherlin, Coarsegold, St. George, Simi Valley

November 2016 – Eugene, Sutherlin, Coarsegold, St. George, Simi Valley

After all the rain in Nehalem last month we were really ready for some sunshine. We were due in St. George for Thanksgiving with Liesa and had about three weeks to get some work done on the coach and to relax after a pretty stressful month. Oregon Motorcoach Center (OMC) in Eugene was highly recommended by the Monaco owners group that hang out on the IRV2.com website. We called them and lucked into an opening in their very full schedule, so on November 1, we pulled out of Nehalem bound for Eugene. Three days of sunshine in a row! What a welcome change.

Leaks are really not good

Fixing the leak was our main priority, and it was also time for the annual service on the chassis, the power train and the generator so we decided to get it all done in one stop. The OMC folks are the best service group we have seen and the facility was top notch. We spent two nights hooked up to the power connections that they provide in their lot while they completed our list. While they worked on the coach we explored Eugene, stocked up at Trader Joe’s and Costco, and treated the dogs to a couple of long walks.

Pleased and relieved to get all that behind us, we made the short drive to Timber Valley SKP Park in Sutherlin, OR, one of the two Escapees parks in the West that we hadn’t been to yet. Sutherlin is a small town a few miles north of Roseburg. Timber Valley is a co-op park like Jojoba Hills near Temecula, CA, and Saguaro in Benson, AZ. Many of the co-op members had already headed south for the winter so there were plenty of sites available. 

The neighbors out for a stroll

We had hardly settled in and hooked up when Schroeder went nuts. We have become a little blasé about wildlife during our travels. Herds of elk and deer, families of raccoons and squirrels no longer phase us, but flocks of wild turkeys calmly walking through our site was a first. Shortly after that crowd moved on a pack of jack rabbits ambled by and I thought Schroeder was going to have a stroke. The turkeys, the jack rabbits and a large deer herd live in the park and are about as indifferent to people and dogs as I have ever seen.

I want one sooo bad....

Timber Valley is a nice park. Escapees are generally quite friendly, but the folks at Timber Valley were exceptionally so. Many stopped to say hi, and everyone waved when they passed by. The park is laid out on one side of a small valley along a stream. About 250 sites are situated in tiers surrounded by large green spaces and stands of trees. Many of the sites have been occupied by the same people for years and have been creatively landscaped. This park doesn’t exude the same energy that we discovered at the Saguaro and Jojoba Hills parks, but it is “off season” as one of the residents pointed out. We did play bingo and went to one of the exercise classes.

Roseburg looks like a nice place. It is big enough to have two of the three shopping cornerstones, Costco and Walmart. The third one is Trader Joe’s, of course. Everyone was hoping that TJ’s will come soon, but I think it will be awhile. Kayeanne enjoyed attending the service at the Unity church.

After battling the elements and dealing with the coach issues we were ready to relax. As I backed the coach into the site the windshield wipers came on…hmmm, I didn’t think I hit the switch. I shut them off and turned the wheel to adjust our position and the wipers started again. Ok, that’s a problem. 

The wipers, the cruise control and some lights are controlled from the steering wheel by a system called Smart Wheel. The device that transfers the control signals from the buttons on the Smart Wheel to the coach is called a clock spring and it had failed. Replacing it requires experience and special tools. No one in Sutherlin or Roseburg sounded like they wanted to tackle it, so we called OMC and they very graciously fit us into their packed schedule to get us back on the road. So instead of continuing south from Sutherlin, we headed back to Eugene for another night in their parking lot. By 10:30 the next morning (and $300 lighter) we were back on the road.

Drying out après la deluge

The other problem surfaced abruptly when Kayeanne opened the washing machine to put in a load of clothes. The machine had filled with water and several gallons errupted into the coach like a waterfall. Within a couple of minutes every towel and cloth that we carry was soaked trying to mop up the flood before any damage happened. Fast work kept the water off the carpets, averting a major crisis. We have decided that we'd rather have the storage space, so the washer is going out as soon as I can get to it. 

Like last year the weather dictated our route. We would like to cross Oregon to pick up US 395 and follow it south along the eastern Sierras to US 50 in Reno to take us back to St. George. Last year snow came early and this year it was just plain cold. The coach will handle sub-freezing temperatures when the AquaHot system is working properly to keep us warm, but it had become temperamental and we couldn’t rely on it to be running when we really needed it.

We had “done” Bakersfield last year so after checking the weather guessers we set out for Park-in-the-Sierras, an SKP co-op park in Coarsegold, CA, near Yosemite National Park that we have been wanting to visit for some time. Eugene to Coarsegold is too long for one day and the Walmart in Dixon, CA, offered a well placed stopping point. The following afternoon we pulled into Park Sierra and were immediately made welcome.

Site 425

Comparing Park Sierra (and most of the other SKP parks) to the average RV park is like comparing Beverly Hills to Pomona. The lots are creatively carved into a series of small green, heavily treed  canyons set on 140 acres just south of town. About 300 sites and a large activity center house roughly 500 people if everyone were ever home at once. The individual lots are effectively the largest we have seen anywhere because so much space has been left between them. Loosely organized in five neighborhoods, the roads twist and double back up and down the canyons giving many of the lots pretty spectacular views.

Great walking throughout the park. The dogs also loved it.

It is hard to imagine that the entire place was designed and built by the members. The only work they didn’t do themselves was pave the roads and erect the trusses in the activity center. It just didn’t pay to buy the equipment needed for one-time jobs like those. All the design, surveying, engineering, grading, site excavation, road building, water, electric power, sewer and cable TV infrastructure was done and is maintained by volunteers. We were delighted with site 425. Not only was it beautiful, when we had a problem with the cable TV three guys showed up in 15 minutes to fix it.

We really enjoyed staying at Park Sierra but needed to get moving join Liesa in St. George for Thanksgiving week. Again, it was a two day drive, spending the night among the truckers in the parking lot behind Buffalo Bill’s casino in Primm, NV. About all you can say for that is it’s free. The next day we returned to Temple View RV Resort in St. George.

The week went by quickly. Between us we turned out a very credible T-Day dinner. One of her roommates and one of her many friends joined us and we all had a good time. I certainly ate too much, so I know it was a success. Her apartment is nicely decorated and fairly neat despite the best efforts of the two young(er) roommates. Liesa is both landlord and den mother to those two.

The end of the week came quickly. We got everything ready to go only to discover that the batteries were too weak to start the coach. It took almost two hours on a charger to get enough juice into them to get the engine to crank. We planned to get an early start and spend the night in the Primm casino lot while doing a little shopping at the outlets nearby, but that plan went out the window when it took almost four hours to drive 28 miles from Las Vegas to Primm. That was the worst traffic I can remember ever being tied up in. By the time we got to the casino we just weren’t interested in anything except going to the casino for a drink.

On the 28^th we arrived at Tapo Canyon Park in Simi for ten days to see the friends we have missed all year.

More soon,

Bob

#29 Coveys Great Adventure – October 2016 - Nehalem

October 2016 - Nehalem, Oregon

Returning to Nehalem Bay State Park for the third year felt a little like coming home. Each year we’ve stayed in the same site and each year have added personal touches and improvements to make it ours. I had to trim the same trees again to get clearance for the big awning and the TV antenna.

Dog heaven

This is the third post that I’ve written about Nehalem Bay. We love the area, the park and our annual camp host stint. The dogs also love this country and have been unusually alert since we arrived in Tillamook. They became very excited as soon as we turned off route 101 and headed into the park. By the time we got parked they were clamoring to get out and head for the beach. I felt exactly the same way.

Last year Kayeanne’s stay with the San Juan ladies at the beach house on Nadonna Beach was at the end of September, just before we moved into the park. This year the gang decided to move their get-together to early October, so the dogs and I handled all the camp host duties (yurt cleaning!) for 10 days. It made for pretty full days but I really like to keep busy, so it worked out fine. We all missed her, especially Lucy who was on edge for the whole time waiting for her to come home. It was great to see Michelle, Katie and Midge again. I went for dinner on Midge’s night to cook. Her lime scallops were outstanding and a welcome break from my cooking.

Why we keep coming back. You can see the next storm coming in the background

Without realizing it we have been spoiled. Many people told us how exceptionally great the weather was in 2014 and 2015. Many sunny days and light rains convinced us that global warming was a great thing for the Great North Wet. Well, we paid our dues this year. Twenty-eight days of rain set an all time record for precipitation for the north coast of Oregon. We also had wind as storm after storm marched across the north Pacific and slammed directly into our stretch of coast. We had several days of wind gusts over 40 mph, and a couple of days when gusts exceeded 60 mph. Whenever the rain stopped long enough for the sun to come out we dropped everything and headed to the beach.

Stuck inside in the rain, again

The weather was so bad that the rangers closed the campground for three days and encouraged everyone who could to leave. One storm spawned a waterspout that came onshore as a tornado. It tore through the adjacent town of Manzanita, about a mile from the park, damaging many buildings and sheering off the tops of hundreds of trees. Fortunately, the scary prediction of 100 mph winds never materialized, but what we did get was bad enough.

We thought about leaving the park to move inland, but decided to tough it out. We did move to another site that offered a little more protection from the wind and had less risk of trees falling on us (we hoped). When we settled into the new site and plugged into shore power we discovered a problem: no power. The automatic transfer switch, ATS, had died. This device switches AC power from either our onboard generator or the campground power grid into the coach. Luckily the ATS still allowed generator power through, so we dry camped for four days until the storms let up enough for us to move back to our usual site. We finally got a break in the rain long enough that I could jury-rig around the ATS to restore campground power which lets us operate just like a house, running appliances, space heaters and lights without relying on the generator or the batteries. Installing a new ATS was high on the repair list.

For the first time since we have lived in Ripley we had a rain leak. Water leaks in RVs are about as serious a problem as you can have. It doesn’t take much water to cause rot and mold, so when we discovered a large wet spot on the bedroom carpet we went into stress mode. Not only was the carpet wet but the water had migrated under the cabinets and into a large storage compartment under the closet floor. Since Monaco installed the cabinets on top of the carpet, water in the carpet quickly stains the bottom of the cabinets. Water is a really major problem.

Drying the carpet and floor took days

I borrowed a shop vac from the park and sucked up about two quarts of water. I couldn’t figure out where the water was coming from, but found it after removing all the stuff stored under the closet, the drawers next to the bed and, finally, the carpeted panel that hides some of the slide mechanism. Water was coming in under the lower edge of the slide, running down the wall under the bed and onto the carpet. I tried a number of things to stop the flow, all the while trying to figure out why it was leaking. Nothing worked. Finally I had an flash of inspiration: Ripley has an air leveling system that let’s me to tilt the coach in several directions. Pitching it down several degrees to the left stopped the inflow. We had to adjust to life on an angle, sort of like living on a boat in a strong side wind.

About this time Ed and Christine Woznicki arrived. Seeing them pull in was like the cavalry sweeping over the hill to rescue the wagon train in the old westerns. We were pretty stressed from dealing with weather, the water leak and the ATS failure. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that the dash blower quit on the way from John Day and I couldn’t see any way to replace it without cutting a large hole in the dash board. We were really glad to see them!

Interspersed with my camp host duties, Ed and I started working on the leak and the dash blower. After much looking and poking and talking about possible causes, we found a couple of potential sources of water leaks and fixed them. The next rain storm proved that we hadn’t solved that problem, so we tilted the coach again and moved on to the dash blower.

I can feel it....

This device is what circulates warm and cold air in the cockpit to keep us comfortable as we drive, but its critical function is to clear condensation from the inside of the windshield. We might get away without it in Arizona, but not in Oregon. Getting that replaced was important. When Monaco built Ripley they apparently assembled the coach around the blower. There was no thought given to providing any reasonable way to replace it. By removing a small drawer in the center console I could see part of it and touch most of it with one hand. Removing a small heat register in front of Kayeanne’s seat let me touch the rest of it, but the opening was too small to let me turn my wrist over. The two openings were far enough apart that I couldn’t get both hands on the blower at once.

To make it just truly good, there wasn’t enough clearance behind the blower to remove it from its housing even if you could get the screws out. Part of the dashboard structure where three panels joined was directly behind the unit. I had spent a long time trying to come up with a strategy that didn’t require literally taking a saw to the dashboard but couldn’t. Ed initially agreed, but he just does not take “impossible” for an answer. After thinking about it overnight, the following day he spent four hours working one handed to take out five screws. Then, also one handed, he drilled holes through the backside of the junction of the dash panels to break away enough material to squeeze the blower out. I couldn’t believe he had done it. A good friend, indeed. I am truly grateful.

Thank you, Milton!

After seeing what Ed went through to remove the original Philips screws I knew there was no way to use them to replace the unit. Switching to hex head screws meant we could use wrenches and sockets instead of screwdrivers and was the key to being able to do it. It still took Kayeanne and me over seven hours to finally get it done. It really just took three hours, but we had to do it twice because the electric connection wouldn’t seat after the first attempt. We had to remove it, fix the connector and reinstall it. No, it isn’t easier the second time. Kayeanne was critical to getting it done because I couldn’t swing a wrench while reaching through the vent hole. My hands and wrists just wouldn’t work in that small space. I can’t imagine how Ed did.

With all the problems and the lousy weather we didn’t get to do as much with Christine and Ed as we planned. I hope the next time we get together we can focus on visiting, not fixing.

We found a shop in Eugene to work on the leak. We headed directly there when we pulled out of Nehalem on November 1.

More soon,

Bob

#28 Coveys Great Adventure - September 2016 – Ely, John Day, Boring, Tillamook, Nehalem

September 2016 – Ely, John Day, Boring, Tillamook, Nehalem

As Johnny Cash so accurately said, “Just can't wait to get on the road again.” We finally are traveling, again. It feels so good to see the country roll by, to watch the ever-changing scenery through the windshield.

We left Hurricane, Utah on the 19^th headed northwest our annual camp host stint in Nehalem, Oregon. It’s roughly 1,200 miles and we had plenty of time, so we planned to stop in John Day and Portland, Oregon to do some sightseeing and generally kick back. We also decided to limit the miles we drove per day to 300. On the way to St. George I drove 5-600 miles each day and that certainly wasn’t any fun.

Cave Lake State Park, Ely Nevada

Cave Lake State Park near Ely, Nevada was our first stop. We have been in a number of campgrounds that we were told we were too big to fit, so had gotten a little cocky about our docking skills. Well, we should have listened this time. We really had no business in this campground. I scratched the side of the coach on some trees and we had to unhook the car and dolly to be able to turn around. The ranger suggested that the sites in the other campground were larger, but the dirt road leading to it was way to rough for our coach. We spent the night in one of the parking areas below the dam. It was a beautiful setting and we had the whole place to ourselves.

I have wanted to visit John Day, Oregon for some time. I planned to stop there on two different motorcycle trips but weather problems and schedule issues forced route changes that bypassed it on both trips. Last year we planned to pass through John Day on our way to Nehalem, but the huge fires in central and eastern Oregon closed the roads, forcing us to take a more southerly route. This year we once again plotted a course across Oregon via US 26 through John Day, and we made it.

Ely to John Day is over 500 miles so we stopped overnight at Rock Creek County Park in Twin Falls, Idaho, roughly half way. Rock Creek Park was a little tight for our coach, but since half the sites were empty we had plenty of room to spread out. The park setting is quite attractive, too. It’s at the bottom of a small canyon on the banks of a river that passes right through town. Despite being on a main road close to the center of town it was very quiet with lots of grass to walk the dogs. Being down in the canyon, though, killed any TV reception.

First fire in months!

Twin Falls to John Day is just 250 miles, but we didn’t see any reason to dawdle in the morning and got an early start. That turned out to be fortunate because we arrived at Clyde Holliday State Park in time to get one of the last camp sites. This park doesn’t take reservations, so the sites are first come, first served. CHSP turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Although it has just 31 campsites, most of them are huge and partially shaded. Our site must have been almost a quarter of an acre. We planned to stay two nights and stayed four. The firewood was the cheapest I’ve ever seen and we took advantage of it with big fires every night. The dogs really liked the trail along the river that looped by a small pasture where a few cows grazed. Schroeder thinks cows are the most interesting creatures he’s ever seen.

John Day is a great little town with quite a history and some pretty interesting things to see. The Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Center was one of those serendipitous finds that we occasionally discover. We had no idea about the vital roll that Chinese immigrants played in

the development of central Oregon and the rest of the Northwest. We spent an hour at the interpretive center and then took the tour of the Kam Wah Chung site, the wonderfully preserved home, store and pharmacy where Ing Hay and Lung On lived and worked for over half a century. It is a fascinating place and a great story; don’t miss it if you pass through this area.

Kam Wah Chung notwithstanding, John Day is world renown for the extensive fossil beds that exist throughout the area. We spent a day driving out to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, about 50 miles from town. The visitor center itself was worth the trip, which was good because it was raining and I am still limited in how far I can walk comfortably. We didn’t get to the fossil beds themselves, but the scenery and the displays and video at the visitor center were quite interesting. Unfortunately the rain made it tough to get good pictures, too.

Striking colors near the fossil beds

Rather than just return the same way we arrived, we decided to see some of the country. Leaving the visitor center we continued north on OR 19 to Kimberly where a single small market marked the intersection of OR 402. We followed 402 east to Long Creek where it meets US 395 to return to John Day. It’s about 30 miles from Clyde Holliday to the fossil beds visitor center, but we managed to cover almost 90 miles returning. OR 402 roughly follows the North Fork of the John Day River. Ranches and farms line the valleys along the river as it meanders through gentle valleys. It is one of the most peaceful areas I can remember seeing in quite awhile. We really look forward to exploring the areas we stay in. I think we enjoyed the ride home more than the fossil beds.

We haven’t seen a real city in several months, so we decided to spend a couple of days in Portland. Barton State Park in Boring (really), Oregon turned out to be the right combination of proximity and quiet countryside. It is an easy 235 miles from John Day and just 20 miles or so from the center of Portland. We spent the first day in Clackamas, a suburb southwest of Portland restocking at Trader Joe’s, WinCo and Walmart. We hadn’t seen a Trader Joe’s since June and really missed them.

Kayeanne and I spent a week in Portland about 30 years ago and wanted to revisit one of the riverfront areas that we both remembered fondly, especially a really great bookstore. The riverfront was still there but the whole area had been “revitalized” into expensive condos and high end hotels. We still enjoyed ourselves, walking around and having lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Portland remains high on our list of places to return to. It has a unique flavor that is tough to describe but nice to experience.

From Barton Park we headed to Devil’s Lake State Park in Lincoln City on the central coast. We pulled into the park and had immediate misgivings when the camp host looked at our coach and started shaking his head. I soon learned why. The park roads were as tight as any we've seen and large trees were everywhere. I can deal with narrow roads and tight campsites, but I need swing clearance to make the sharp turns needed to "dock" the coach. The first site we tried was clearly not going to work, so we moved to another section of the park where the sites were purportedly bigger. After much backing and filling we did squeeze into a site, but it was so tight that there was no space for the dolly or the car. Just walking around the coach required pushing through brush. The hassle just wasn’t worth it, so we pulled out and headed north. Calls to Cape Lookout State Park to check space availability went unanswered, then Kayeanne suggested that we try Tillamook-Bay City RV Park where we stayed for a couple of weeks last year. They had space so we spent two nights enjoying cable TV, while the dogs were very pleased to rediscover the Kilchis Point Preserve Trail.

On Friday the 30^th we pulled into site A2 at Nehalem Bay State Park for our third year of camp hosting at this wonderful campground right on the ocean.

More soon,

Bob