#86 – November 2021 – OR, NV, CA (briefly), UT
Eugene
turned into a study of extremes. We really enjoyed spending time with Sharon
and Gary. We ate good food together, went to interesting places, and had a great time. They have been in
Eugene
long enough to get to know it pretty well. I especially enjoyed walking with
Gary one morning at
Dorris Ranch, a working
filbert nut farm that is also a national historic site and public park. Miles
of trails wind through nut orchards separated by stands of mature forest. The
property is immaculate, a testament to how it is valued by the many people who
use it. The setting along the
Willamette
River is really worth
making time to see. We had such a good time with them that we added four more
days to our stay, and would have stayed even longer but couldn’t get space.
When
Oregon State plays football at home, every RV
park is sold out months in advance.
We went to the Farmers Market one morning. At Gary’s urging, I bought a
loaf of sourdough bread at the Creswell Bakery booth. It was so
good that we stopped at the bakery in Creswell to get more when we headed south
a week later. Creswell is about 35 miles from Eugene. If you are in the area, be sure to stop,
it’s well-worth the calories.
We also went to the Day of the Dead exhibit at the Maude Kerns Art Center. It took some
pushing and tugging to get me to go, but once I got there I found it pretty
fascinating. We caught the last day of that exhibit, but be sure to check the
Kerns’ schedule. They put on similar short programs all year.
The other reason to visit Eugene was to get some work done on the
coach. I think I mentioned that we had developed a diesel leak in the generator
that I suspected was in the fuel return hose. We also hadn’t had the chassis
inspected and lubricated in two years, because we missed our annual visit to
Kaiser Brake and Alignment last year due to Covid closures.
We went to Kaiser first, and everything seemed fine, until
they pointed out that we had unusual tire wear issues. A blow out on a 26 ton
coach will be expensive, and can also be quite dangerous. Coach tires are usually
replaced every seven years. We were in the sixth year on this set, so I wasn’t
budgeting for them this year. But, I don’t skimp on tires or brakes, so we now
have new tires, a $4,800 surprise.
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| Fall in Eugene |
A couple of days later we took Ripley to Cummins Coach
Care in
Coburg.
It turned out that I was right, the fuel return line had simply worn out where
it passed through the frame that the generator is mounted on.
You can’t see where it is routed, you have to
make the repair by feel. It took one of the techs less than an hour to replace it,
so practice clearly counts
Cummins had a late cancellation, so we were able to get the
120,000 mile engine service done that day, too. The first service beyond fluid
changes on our Cummins ISM engine is called “running the rack”, where the valve,
injector and Jake brake clearances in the cylinder head are checked and
adjusted. That service costs about $300 in a truck, but $500 in our coach
because the access to half of the cylinder head is through a hatch in the
closet floor. I haven’t noticed any change in how the engine runs, but the Jake
brake performance is noticeably better.
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Schroeder was mesmerized. Geese were
everywhere at VotR |
With real regret we left Gary and Sharon and started the
first leg of the trip to spend Thanksgiving with Liesa and Cory in
Salt Lake.
The first stop was Valley of the
Rogue
State Park, just south of
Grant's Pass.
I think this is our third visit to VotR. We were able to reserve the best spot
in the park, F27, a huge site on the back row as far as possible from the noise
of I5. Schroeder clearly remembered the park, too. He headed right for the
field where the cows were grazing the last time we were here.
We like this park, but this year it was our second choice.
We prefer to stay in Ashland at Emigrant Lake County
Park, but the whole park
was reserved for forest fire evacuees. Either park is an easy drive from Eugene, and there is
nothing second-rate about VotR. We’d spent enough time in Grant's
Pass and Medford
that we didn’t feel like we needed to see more so we went wine tasting instead.
The park is about as close to the center of the Southern
Oregon Wine Region as you can get. There must be more than a hundred wineries
in four districts within fifty miles. After some research on Google, we picked the
Applegate Valley, and Devitt Winery and Augustino
Estate and Vineyard in particular.
Devitt is a very
small, rustic, family operation. The founders’ grandson took over the business
a few years ago. He does everything from planting and harvesting grapes, carpentry
and wine making, to manning the tasting room. We had a nice time talking to him
and the other visitors while tasting a
few of his wines. Schroeder was also welcome in the tasting room and quickly
made himself at home. The wines were drinkable but not noteworthy, but we bought a couple of bottles to support his hard work. That said, we’d go again for
the ambiance and company, if not the wine.
Augustino is on
the other end of the spectrum. It’s a big operation with two tasting rooms,
event spaces, a kitchen, outdoor patios with heaters, servers, and relentless
sales pressure. The woman running the place shouldn’t be. Despite her vocal claims
otherwise, I thought the wines were pretty lousy and overpriced, so we didn’t
buy any. The food was good, though. It was just overpriced.
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| I don't like traveling. I am not happy |
Like the past couple of years, cold weather and early snow
forecasts dictated that we take the southern route to
Salt Lake.
We prefer to cross
Oregon
on US 20 or US 26, but boondocking at this time of year risks running the
batteries flat to keep the heat on all night. That means we need to find RV
parks with electric hookups at reasonable mileage intervals. Several RV parks
in central
Oregon
are closed for the season by now, so route planning is a challenge. Heading
south to
Reno and crossing
Nevada on I80 adds about 100 miles to the
trip, but it avoids the coldest weather and we can find parks with hookups
where we need them.
Our first stop was Days End RV Park on US 395 in Standish California. This is a
small, family owned park about 10 miles north of Susanville. Most of the spaces
are taken by long term residents, but they have a dozen or so large pull thru
sites reserved for folks traveling through. “Large pull thru sites” are exactly
what we look for so we don’t have to take the car off the dolly. The park was
spotless, the price was reasonable and we just fit in the site.
Day two ended in Fernley Nevada at the Desert Rose RV Park. This is a
much bigger park, but the spaces weren’t long enough to leave the car
connected, so we took the opportunity to do a little shopping. The showers at
this park are terrific.
The third day was a bit of a grind, as we decide to push
harder and get to Salt
Lake a day early. We
stayed the night at Valley View RV Park in Elko last November and decided to try
it again. This place is pretty run down and most of the residents are clearly
long term. The pull thru spaces for transients are narrow and much too short,
but the roads are wide and no one has a problem with us sticking way out. The
price is certainly right, too: $15 a night for 50 amp power is great.
We are always happy to pull into the Pony Express RV Resort
in North Salt
Lake, about 8 miles from Liesa’s
apartment in downtown Salt Lake City.
The place is very well kept and the staff is always pleasant and helpful. The
facilities are all you could ask for, there is plenty of space to walk
Schroeder and all the services we need are close by. Unfortunately, it is quite
expensive and the limited options are equally pricey.
We had one more coach service to complete, so one morning we
disconnected and went across town to Smith Power, the regional service center
for Allison Transmissions. It was time to change 36 quarts of oil and a couple
of filters in the transmission. The service itself was straightforward, but the
whole experience was very frustrating. They don’t make appointments for routine
services, so when we arrived we were put in the queue. We came early and were
told we were second in line. Four hours later, after some prodding, we finally
got pulled into the service bay. The whole service took 45 minutes, but then I
had to wait over a half an hour to get a bill! Needless to say, I was not a
happy customer, and they knew it The
service people seem to know what they are doing, but the front office is truly screwed up. We won’t be back.
We were very happy to see Liesa and Cory. Even though she
joined us for a few days in June in New
Hampshire it still seemed like it had been a long time.
We hadn’t seen Cory in a year. Cory’s family graciously invited us to
Thanksgiving dinner in Clearfield,
about 30 miles north of the city. We had a great time and just stuffed
ourselves on really good food. His mother knows no restraint when it comes to
side dishes. Her corn casserole and mac ‘n cheese were especially good.
Cory and Liesa work non-traditional schedules, so when they
both have the same day off, we make plans. We met at their place in
downtown Salt Lake one afternoon for lunch and a walk.
We set out for Mexican food, and decided to try a new place that turned out a
bit sub-par. The food notwithstanding, we had a great time. Trying to decipher
Cory’s very Southern jargon is fun.
Liesa strongly suggested that we see the “
From
Monet to Kandinsky” exhibit at
The
Leonardo Museum. I’m not sure how to describe this, but think
of 40 computer controlled HD projectors showing moving images of fabulous art across
every wall and floor in a space that has square walls, mirrored walls and not-square
walls. The visuals and the music were just amazing. If this comes anywhere near
you, be sure to go.
Liesa also suggested that we visit the
Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in
Draper Utah. No one is going to confuse it with SeaWorld, but we had fun. Lots
of fish, some penguins, colorful birds, a sloth (?) and a
hodgepodge of tropical plants, reptiles and a few spiders made it a somewhat
confusing but pleasant experience. I’m glad we went midweek, because the number
of kids there on weekends must be overwhelming.
Did I mention how cold it was in Salt Lake?
Brilliantly clear, sunny skies and starry nights meant chilly days and nighttime
temperatures that usually fell into the 20’s. When we arrived at Pony Express and
plugged in the utilities, I broke out the heated water hose and I’m glad I did;
we needed it. We both agreed that we are wusses; we were sorry to leave Liesa,
but couldn’t wait to head south.
On the first of December we started our flight
to warmer climes.
We will spend December in California, then on to Arizona.
Trader Joe’s and Costco in Eugene really excel in their wine offerings, and we took full advantage. Here are three that I really liked:
Trader Joe's Reserve Shiraz 2018 - Barossa - Australia
Paso A Paso Tempranillo 2018 – Spain - Costco
iLauri Bajo Montepulciano D'Abruzzo – Italy -Trader Joe’s
Hard Drive: Bill Gates
and the making of Microsoft by James Wallace & Jim Erickson is an older book, covering Gates and his company from
inception through 1992. You probably need to have been in the computer business in
that period to find it interesting.
More soon,
Bob
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| Gary, Sharon and Kayeanne at DotD |
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| The sloth was bashful, this guy wasn't |
