#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

#27 Coveys Great Adventure - August / September 2016 - St. George

August / September 2016 – St. George            

The Great Adventure has temporarily ground to a halt. Between helping Liesa transition to a better stage in her life and working on healing my hip problem we have been both busy and restricted to the local area around St. George. We had planned to leave on Labor Day, but decided to extend our stay through September 19^th.

We moved from Temple View RV Park in St George to WillowWind RV Park in Hurricane, about 18 miles away. Temple View is really convenient to Liesa’s place and all the services in town, but doesn’t have a single tree. Almost two months of triple digit heat and no shade was more than enough. Our site at WillowWind is virtually tree covered. Hurricane is also at a slightly higher elevation so the net effect is substantially cooler temperatures. We haven’t run the air conditioning in several days!

It always amazes me how much work there is to living in an RV. Small spaces seem to need cleaning much more frequently than the house did. Tracking the same amount of stuff into 300 square feet that we used to spread over 3,000 sq’ certainly does make it more visible! I think I finally miss the dishwasher, too.

All hasn’t been just nose-to-the-grindstone, though. Ed Woznicki suggested that we check out Kolob Canyon at the northern end of Zion National Park. That turned out to be a great suggestion. Kolob Canyon is about 40 miles north of St. George, just south of Cedar City. While not in the same jaw-dropping class as Zion or Bryce it was certainly impressive in its own right and well-worth the visit. It was also a welcome break for us to get out of the coach for a few hours. I was concerned about having to walk around, something that I can’t do much of at present, but the canyon is quite accessible by car. My phone camera can't do justice to the scale of this place.

What I originally thought was Piriformis Syndrome didn’t turn out to be right, so after a few weeks of unsuccessful treatment, I went to a spine specialist for another opinion. An MRI showed a bulging disc impinging on the sciatic nerve. The first cortisone injection gave welcome relief but only lasted a couple of days. I had a second one in a slightly different place yesterday so I hope that does the trick.

I hope that they nailed it this time, because we are heading to Oregon on Monday for our third stint of camp hosting at Nehalem Bay State Park. Ranger Geoff called a couple of days ago to be sure we are still planning to come. It will be good to see Milton and Lynette Hansen, too, camp hosts that we have worked with every year. We can’t wait to hit the road again.

More soon,

Bob

#26 Coveys Great Adventure – July 2016 - St. George

July 2016 - St. George

Welcome thunderstorms

We arrived on July 5 and were greeted by triple-digit temperatures. Last week we saw 118° and most days until recently were over 110. It was still over 100° at 10 PM. It’s too hot to use the pool! 

St. George is in a beautiful setting. It is almost surrounded by colorful red rock cliffs with blue mountains in the distance, but the heat makes it difficult to do anything outdoors when the sun is up. As I write this the temperature has finally dropped into the high 90’s after a series of spectacular thunderstorms passed through the area, but it is headed back up next week.

2,800 miles in 7 days proved to be too much for this old body. Piriformis Syndrome is a common affliction among people who sit for a living, especially long distance truckers and bus drivers. It is literally a huge PITA, where sitting isn’t too painful but walking and simply standing in one place feels like being stabbed. It is the first time my mobility has been so limited and my patience is wearing thin. It has also added to Kayeanne’s workload; she has had to take on all the dog walking, too. Physical therapy and lots of Advil seem to be the suggested treatment but progress is slow.

We’ve (mostly Kayeanne since I have been hobbled) been working with Liesa to help her transition back to singles living. We are getting her apartment ready to find a roommate and generally helping do whatever is needed. I volunteered to clean the carpets next week and Kayeanne has worked hard at catching up on several "life maintenance" items. 

The old saying that “it never rains but it pours” certainly seems to be true. On top of everything else, the transmission in Liesa's car died and then one of the wheel bearings failed. On a brighter note, she just got promoted and is taking over the consignment department at Urban Renewal, the store where she works.

Utah has some of the screwier liquor laws that we have encountered. You can't buy a drink in a bar or resturant without buying food, too. Only 3.2 beer is sold in the grocery stores. Full strength beer, liquor and all wines are only sold through state stores. Those stores are only open from 11 am to 7 pm, have a limited selection and are, of course, closed on Sunday. Needless-to-say, many people in St. George make the 40 mile drive to Mesquite, Nevada to buy their booze. 

Life here before A/C must have been brutal

Our wine cellar was seriously depleted, so a few days after we arrived we made the trek to Mesquite. On the way home we discovered the back road alternative to I15 that went through the Shivwits Indian Reservation. We had a nice drive through scenic desert country, occaisionally passing the ruins of the homes of early settlers.

Just before we left Campton, NH for Maine, a tree limb jumped right out of nowhere and swatted the van. I was backing up at night and just didn’t see it until it came through the rear window and dented the tailgate. There wasn't time to fix it there, so we towed it asis to St. George. I think we looked a little “redneck” crossing country with the back of it covered in plastic and tape. As soon as we got here I contacted the insurance company and found a body shop. I knew it was the right place when I had to wait two weeks to get onto their schedule. They did a good job and actually finished a day early. It’s nice to be able to see out the back window again. Kudos to AARP Hartford insurance, too; their customer service is outstanding.

Ed and Zach Woznicki visited us last week. They had been off-roading in Moab in their Jeeps and spent a few nights here on the way back to California. It was good to see Zach before he goes to Japan later this month for a working semester. He just landed an internship with AOI Pro, a large Japanese advertising and entertainment producer. We are looking forward to seeing Ed and Christine in October when we camp host at Nehalem State Park on the Oregon coast.

Ed is also a motorcoach systems guru and helped me understand and fix a power issue that was effecting one of our air conditioners. The coach has three A/C units that have been running almost nonstop since we arrived. The center unit began to blow its circuit breaker every few hours, cutting our cooling capability just when we needed all we could get. With Ed’s help I discovered that we had two problems: the electrical feed from the campground wasn’t delivering proper voltage levels, and the circuit breaker itself was faulty. The campground electrician installed a new power plug to fix the first issue and Ed and I replaced the breaker. Problem solved.

We just paid the campground for another month and now plan to get back on the road on September 5^th unless something comes up. We also plan to do some day trips to see more of the area around St. George and Cedar City.

More soon,

Bob

#25 Coveys Great Adventure - June 2016 – Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and … Utah

June 2016 – Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and … Utah            

After touring Falling Waters it was time to head to New Hampshire and rejoin Charlie and Mollie. The direct route from Morgantown, PA to Campton, NH leads through New York City, an area that I had no interest in driving through in the coach. Instead, we chose a more scenic route through northeastern Pennsylvania, skirting NYC, into western Massachusetts, across southern Vermont and into north central New Hampshire. While we could have made the drive in a couple of days, we spent three nights near Scranton to explore the Pocono’s region, and three more in Bennington, Vermont.

Promised Land State Park is in Greentown, PA, about 20 miles east of Scranton. It is a large park with a few different campgrounds. We made a reservation for a site on the lake but getting into it would have been a real challenge. The site was quite narrow, the road was tight and the trees were going to be hard to miss. I’ve put enough scratches on Ripley, so we went back to the park office and found a larger site in another campground.

We spent a couple of days exploring the area around Mt Pocono, PA, the heart of the Pocono Mountains, one of the major vacation destinations for people living between New York and Washington, DC. The area is certainly beautiful, covered in trees and the roads constantly move up and down, from one small valley to the next. We kept looking for the “mountains”, though, and finally concluded that people named this area before they had seen the West. I’m sorry, but 1500’ high isn’t a mountain, it’s not even worth an elevation sign! I guess “Pocono Hills” doesn’t have the same ring. 

Judy Powell had stayed at one of the large resorts in the area, the Wolf Creek Lodge, so when we saw signs for it we drove over to take a look. Clearly oriented toward families, it appeared to have every attraction and distraction covered. It wore me out just thinking about all that activity.

There is a certain vibe in Bennington

Bennington, Vermont is a very interesting town. It is in a beautiful setting, the foothills of the White  Mountains in southeastern Vermont. It is home to Bennington College and Southern Vermont College, giving the town a distinct panache that overlays some serious historical roots. A significant series of Revolutionary War military actions were fought near Bennington. It’s strategic location and rich resources made it a popular place for early American luminaries like George Washington to visit. Robert Frost lived in Bennington and is buried here.

Humble scribe

Whole neighborhoods of houses built in the 1700’s and early 1800’s have been maintained or restored. Much of the surrounding land has also been incorporated into state forests, preserving a lovely backdrop for the whole area. The Bennington College campus is worth touring.

The mountains between Bennington and the New Hampshire line might not be as high as the ones out West, but they make up for it by being very steep. We had many long, slow ascents followed by steep, slow (hopefully) descents. It might not be many miles from Bennington to Campton, New Hampshire, but we worked hard for some of them.  An early start proved to be valuable when we ran into bridge construction that required a long detour to avoid. We were too tall to fit under the temporary bridge. Kayeanne’s navigation skills once more saved the day and we weren’t delayed too much.

Casa Kendrick's camp hosts

Casa Kendrick is a couple of acres of heaven along a small river in Campton NH. Charlie and Mollie bought the land several years ago and have been adding improvements and amenities every year. It now has spacious sites for two RV’s, with full utilities including well water, power, sewer and cable TV. A large shed provides storage and workshop space, and a large firepit sees use almost every night. After the first fire Charlie and I decided that the fire pit needed some upgrades, so we built a 7x12’ patio with concrete pavers. That sounds pretty straightforward when you say it quickly, but considering that the combined age of the workforce was 150 years it took several days to get done.

Old guys can still get it done

We were immediately comfortable in Campton and in Plymouth, the “big” town next door where most of the shopping and services are. The Campton Cupboard didn’t look like much on the outside, but inside was the quintessential local market. Great produce, a butcher that makes his own sausage and a deli that makes most everything it sells made it a standout for us. There is also a quite decent Chinese restaurant called Fugaky in Plymouth.

We needed a break from patio building, so one day we headed over to the coast, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s only seaport. Despite being raised in Massachusetts and living in NH for several years, I had never been to Portsmouth. It’s a really interesting town, full of good restaurants, shops, historical buildings and, of course, the harbor. We had lunch overlooking the water, walked around the downtown area and generally had a good time. A number of older buildings have had their upper floors turned into condos and I can see why they are popular. Portsmouth is a city I’d like to return to someday for a longer visit.

The main reason that Charlie and Mollie built Casa Kendrick is that their kids and grandkids all live in the area. One day, their daughter Holly and her husband Mike invited the family and us for a boat ride. I hadn’t seen Holly since the mid-80’s and had never met Mike. They own a lovely trawler yacht that they keep in Elliot, Maine, just up the Piscataqua River across from Portsmouth. We spent a very nice day motoring up the river, anchoring out and then returning for a great barbeque at the yacht club. Holly and Mike were generous and gracious hosts. I hope it isn’t 30 years until we see them again.

Between building the patio, working on a couple of persistent coach problems and playing tourist, time quickly passed and we started preparations to visit Canada. Mollie’s roots are on Prince Edward Island and they have made many trips to PEI and Nova Scotia. We have been looking forward to joining them for quite awhile.

This trip would also add another checkmark to our RV resume: staying overnight in a Walmart parking lot. Many Walmart stores allow RV’s (and big trucks, we discovered) to park overnight in their lots. Several other store chains like Cabella’s and Cracker Barrel also permit overnighting when local regulations allow it. We had been reluctant to try it, but the Kendicks are long-time Walmart campers, so we decided to spend the first night on our way to PEI at the Walmart in Bangor, Maine.

Well, we’ve stayed in worse campgrounds and had to pay for it. There were four other RVs and three or four big trucks parked in the far corners of a very large lot. There was lots of grass for the dogs to run around on, even a small pond tucked away in one corner with a couple of picnic tables for the employees to use. The store closed about 10 PM and the area was quite peaceful. If this is what camping at Wally World is all about, sign us up!

Ah, sunset over Dysart's truck shop. Beautiful!

When Charlie started his coach Sunday morning, he knew he had a problem: he couldn’t get full air pressure. Our coaches ride on big airbags rather than springs for the suspension. Their coach was clearly not going far without attention. Charlie discovered that Dysart’s Truck Service in Herman, about 8 miles away, had a good reputation and was open. Moving slowly, he managed to nurse the coach to Dysart’s where the problem was immediately discovered: one of the 15 year old airbags that hold up the coach had ruptured. We weren’t going anywhere until that was replaced.

Breakdowns are no fun. We’ve spent a few nights in repair facilities and even the best of them aren’t very appealing. Dysart’s is a big, busy operation running 7 AM to midnight, six and a half days a week. It is noisy and quite dusty, and trucks are moving around almost all night. While they do work on RV’s, they have no utility hookups nor a dedicated area for them, so you have to hang out in the parking lot with the big rigs.

While the diagnosis was easy, the system choked trying to get parts. Dysart’s thought they had parts available from one of their suppliers but that didn’t pan out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t apparent for two days. Charlie finally took charge, located the parts and had them shipped in. We got to Dysart’s on Sunday the 26^th, but they didn’t leave until Thursday. Not any fun and expensive, a bad combination.

Meanwhile, over at our coach, we got a call from Liesa. Her relationship with Luis appeared to have hit the rocks and she needed help. The upshot of all of this was that the four of us decided  on Tuesday morning that this wasn’t the year that we would be visiting PEI. In fact, we had to leave Charlie and Mollie to wait for their parts and head back to Campton to retrieve our car and head west about 2,800 miles to St. George, Utah. At noon we pulled in the slides, walked the dogs and hit the road.

It was hard to leave Casa Kendrick

On Wednesday morning we did a quick load of laundry, hooked on the dolly, loaded the car and pulled out of Casa Kendrick, certainly the best place we have ever stayed. The camp hosts are really special. 

We made it as far as the Walmart in Herkimer, NY that night. Thursday night found us in Wauseon, Ohio at another Walmart. Then on to a very nice RV park called Griff’s Valley View in Altoona, IA, followed by another Walmart in North Platte, NE (ugh).

We decided to make the next long day into two shorter ones and on the spur of the moment called our good friends Chet and Cheryl Baffa, who live near Denver. Luckily they were home and we got together for pizza at their house in Broomfield. It was a real pleasure to see them again and a welcome break from the road.

The local Cracker Barrel let us park overnight in their lot, right next to a nice greenbelt that the dogs enjoyed. We decided to push a little the next day and made it to Green River State Park, just over the border in eastern Utah. On Tuesday afternoon we pulled into Temple View RV Resort in St. George, UT where we will be for the next several weeks.

Through the windshield on US 70 in Utah

Viewing the country through a windshield leaves lots of impressions. We passed signs for places I didn’t know I wanted to see. I hope we make it back this way at a slower pace. We were constantly impressed with the beauty of the eastern and northeastern states. The late Spring and early Summer gives a vibrancy to the eastern parts of the country that we don’t see in the southwest. 

We were surprised at how much we liked Iowa. It was nothing like what we had pictured. It was a verdant green and gently rolling terrain from one end to the other. I expected one big cornfield. There sure was a lot of corn growing, but there were also rivers and woods and small farms everywhere that were quite attractive.

I don’t know where the “West” officially begins, but I think it is in western Nebraska. The land begins to rise, the air becomes dryer and a little hotter and the trees start to become smaller and further apart. By the time you hit eastern Colorado it is clear that you have left the east far behind. Maybe this is the mid-west? Dunno.

Plans are just that, and often need to be changed. We will certainly return to Casa Kendrick and make that trip to PEI. There is that and so much more to see and we’ll get back to it soon.