#38 - Coveys Great Adventure - October 2017 - On the Road Again: Oregon, Idaho

October, 2017 - Oregon and Idaho

As Willie said, we’re “on the road again.” Gingerly. When we saw Liesa in the hospital the evening of her accident,  we were convinced that it would be several months before she could even think about resuming her life. We expected to be in Salt Lake City taking care of her through the end of the year. Eight weeks after the accident she moved back to her apartment, and on October 9th, she started a new job. Months of therapy still lie ahead, but she has recovered about 90% of her strength and function. Amazing.

We can’t say enough about the people we met in Salt Lake City. Without exception, everyone did whatever they could to help Liesa and us through this period. The University of Utah Hospital system always delivered everything she needed, and so much more. The staff at all levels really understand what patients and their families need to work through what has occurred to reach the best outcome possible. U of U has got to be a model for how healthcare should be delivered. 

As many of you know, Kayeanne has shared a beach house on Rockaway Beach, Oregon, with three very close friends from San Juan Island every year for the past twelve years. We were determined that she wouldn’t miss this year if there was any way to make it happen. Liesa moved back to her apartment on September 15. Two weeks later we took a collective deep breath and headed for the Oregon coast, 82 days after we got the call about the accident. We still jump a little when our phones ring, but we are slowly getting over that, too.

The US highways usually go through the places we want to see, rather than around them as the interstate highways often do. This time, though, we were on a schedule and I84 is clearly the fastest route. Surprisingly, we had never traveled more than a few miles on that highway on any of our trips between Utah and the Oregon coast. US 20 and US 26 had been our chosen routes up to now.

I84 was a pleasant surprise. The scenery was very interesting as we moved northwest from the arid plains of western Utah. Our first overnight stop was the Walmart parking lot in Caldwell, ID, just west of Boise. Walmart stores fall into three categories for RV’ers: no overnight camping, tolerated camping and really welcoming camping. Caldwell clearly fell into the latter group, and we all enjoyed our brief stay.

The next day we moved west through the plains of eastern Oregon and into the green canyon of the Columbia River. As the canyon narrows the highway and the railroad converge. That afternoon we pulled into Celilo Park, a Corp of Engineers campground just west of the John Day Dam. The view of the river and the surrounding gorge was terrific, just what we were looking for. Then the first freight train went by about 30 feet away and started blowing its horn for the road crossing into the park. We pulled out so fast that we had to wait for the end of the train to clear the park road.

Several miles later we tried again. Memaloose State Park turned out to be a winner. Also right on the river with great views from many sites, it is located above the railroad tracks and not near any crossings, so all you hear is a subdued rumble as the many trains pass by. The ranger assigned us the biggest space they had, unfortunately not on the river, but it was easy to get into. There was plenty of space and grass along the river, which the dogs really enjoyed after riding all day.

Sundown on Rockaway Beach OR

Kayeanne had a great time with the “island ladies,” and the dogs and I hung out in Tillamook working on the coach, doing a little cooking and revisiting one of their favorite places, Kilchis Point Reserve. We’ve stayed at Tillamook Bay City RV Park three times. The RV park leaves something to be desired, but we never get tired of Kilchis Point, which is just across the road. Well-behaved dogs are allowed off leash, an enlightened and welcome change from virtually every other place we’ve been. A couple of miles of trails carved through dense forest lead to the broad expanse of Tillamook Bay, a real treat especially at sunset.

Low tide at Kilchis Point on Tillamook Bay OR

Besides working on the coach (the !@%#&$ Aqua Hot died, again), we needed new tires for  the van and a visit to our favorite vet in Nehalem. We try to time purchases like tires to our visits in Oregon because no sales tax really saves money. Tillamook Tire is an anachronism in these days of name brands and franchises. Family owned for decades, it is dirty, friendly, fast and inexpensive. The tires were mounted, balanced and I was out the door in 20 minutes for $100 less than the name brand store down the street. I love it.

Traveling as we do exposes Lucy and Schroeder to all kinds of physical mayhem. From sprains and strains, to allergies and canine dysentery, we have visited vets from California to Maine and several points in between. We discovered Nehalem Animal Healing three years ago when one of the dogs got injured when we were camp hosting at Nehalem Bay State Park. The vet wore sandals, burned incense and had the best rapport with dogs we’ve ever seen. He also was spot-on with his diagnosis and treatment, and the cost was surprisingly reasonable, too. We were running out of the drugs we depend on and both of them were overdue for routine checkups, so we went to see Dr. Matt. Everyone got what they needed (a shot for Schroeder and antibiotics for Lucy), and prescriptions to restock our medicine cabinet. I think they actually like going to see him, too.

Our view waiting for parts in Kaiser's
parking lot for several days

While we were in western Oregon we planned to bring the coach to Paul and Carey at Kaiser Brake & Alignment in Eugene. Kaiser is our preferred shop for any chassis related issues. We had been hearing “a noise” in the drive line that we wanted checked out. Five minutes into the test drive, Paul turned Ripley around and headed back to the shop. Not a good sign: it turned out that the differential and the driveshaft were both shot, and we needed a lot of rear suspension work, too. We were lucky that we hadn’t had a catastrophic breakdown on the road. Yikes! $,$$$!

Kaiser is a busy place and they couldn’t get us into their schedule for a week, so we slowly headed back to Armitage County Park in Coburg to wait it out. We didn’t realize that Oregon Ducks football fans fill the campground during the season, especially on weekends, so we had to move sites a couple of times to piece out five days. There is no other campground within a distance that I was comfortable driving to given the drive line issues, so we headed into downtown Eugene to dry camp in the Valley River Center parking lot for one night.

In the foreground is "Earth"
'way off in the distance is
the Sun, to scale!

The city allows self-contained camping units to spend up to two nights in a row and up to four nights in a six month period in a distant corner of the lot that borders the Willamette River, for free. They even provide a security patrol that checks people in and comes by periodically throughout the night. It’s a great location for us, and for the dogs. 

Eugene has an extensive network of paved pathways throughout the city that run along both sides of the river and connect the parks and civic buildings. One of the paths passed right by our front door and we took full advantage of it.

To make a long story a little shorter, we spent two days in the shop. Wednesday morning with everything fixed but considerably poorer we set out for a meandering trip back to Salt Lake City. Nine miles down the road warning lights lit up the dashboard: the alternator had failed. We turned around and went back to Kaiser. Two hours later a new part was installed….but it didn’t fix the problem. Much head scratching ensued. 

The brighter side of being stuck in Eugene

After a few hours it was apparent that they were stumped, so I did what I usually do when a big problem comes up: I called Ed Woznicki. It didn’t take Ed long to pinpoint the problem: the alternator failure had also blown the battery isolator. Several calls later, it was clear that no one in Eugene had the part, so I ordered it from Amazon and we hooked up to the power connection in Kaiser’s parking lot to wait for it. Friday afternoon we paid another big bill and finally hit the road, about 10 days after we planned to. One thing this life teaches you is that you have to be flexible.

Despite Liesa’s constant reassurances that she was feeling fine, we were anxious to get back to see her. We had originally planned a leisurely return through Medford, Klamath Falls and other places we hadn’t yet visited, but since we were running almost two weeks behind schedule we decided to head directly for Salt Lake City. US 26 is one of our favorite ways to cross Oregon and it passes right by the Clyde Holliday State Park in John Day. Clyde Holliday is pretty close to the top of our list of great places we’ve stayed, lacking only an OTA TV signal to be perfect.

Three Island Crossing State Park is roughly 60 miles east of Boise, a mile or so off of I84 and about half way between John Day and Salt Lake City. We arrived without a reservation and lucked into a huge pull-through site that allowed us to leave the car hooked up, always a plus when we are just staying the night. This park is on the banks of the Snake River, making it a very popular destination for people living in Boise. The park covers several hundred acres, has two campgrounds and several picnic and day use areas. It is just gorgeous. I can see why reservations are needed every weekend, even in the winter, and are hard to get months out for the summer.

We finally arrived back in Salt Lake on October 23. We will stay a week, travel somewhere for a couple of weeks and return for Thanksgiving with Liesa. Then it’s on to SoCal for the holidays and then back to Benson, Arizona for the winter.

More soon.

Bob