Girls Trips, Couples Trips and Boys Trips

Shopping with your husband is like hunting with the game warden. It’s just not the same as when you are with your girlfriends. And now I fully understand the reason there are girls, couples and boys trips. 

For the last couple of days we have been visiting small little towns along the coastline. Besides visiting State parks, there isn’t a whole lotta things to do, especially when you can’t leave your dogs for too long! So we have done both and I have to admit I  have given up visiting the little stores. There is not the same joy shopping with your husband who stands at the door waiting for you or loiters on the bench outside. Girlfriends peruse shelves and come up with all kinds of thoughts on using things or even call you over to look at an item knowing you would dig it. They would see a cool cafe and urge you to go try it even if you weren’t really hungry — just to have the experience  

Even though I wouldn’t trade my three week RV trip with my hubby for anything, I fully understand the importance of separate getaways. I will no longer whine when he does a 10-day backpacking trip with his buddies and doesn’t take me along. Even though I KNOW I could hang with the guys, keep up and blend in. Now when he’s gone on those trips I am going to plan a girls trip at the same time. And it’s going to include shopping, dang it, with girlfriends who enjoy it

 

The Lesson We Learned Today -- Travel with Extra Wine

Many times you have to rely on the goodness of others....especially when you are new to RVing. Yesterday we needed help with getting our TV set up. Our next door neighbor at the RV park came over and helped us. His payment...one of my bottles of Scout and Cellar wine. 

Today, we left Bandon and headed north to Depoe Bay in anticipation of seeing more coastline, and hopefully some whales. We were able to pick up our e-bikes from South Coast Bicycles. Tom's dropper seat had to be totally rewired and the owner of the company did a half day's work for only $75 and parts. Amazing! 

We were going to stop in Florence for lunch, pushed on to the next town, then the next town, and finally got to Newport. Finally I told Tom around 3:30 pm that if he didn't pull over soon I was going to start munching on his arm. We couldn't find a spot to park the RV in town so I told him to just pull over and we'd grab some cherries from the RV. 

He pulled into a Walmart parking lot and I entered the RV to find the place a mess. Stuff had fallen out of the cabinets and the refrigerator. Eight days of traveling and nothing like this had happened. I just stood there for a while, not really wanting to deal with it. I was just looking for the cherries, dang it!

Apparently as items fell out of the refrigerator, they knocked the bottom panel loose from the refrigerator door. After collecting food from the floor, I went to close the door and the whole bottom panel popped out. Just as quickly the decorative stainless steel exterior panel slid to the floor. Tom came in and we tried getting the panel back up into the frame so we could close the refrigerator door. It wouldn't budge. Luckily we were in a large town and as Tom drove to the Newport Marine and RV Repair Shop,  I rode in the RV holding open the refrigerator door with my backside, while using both hands to hold onto the eggs, water pitcher and other sundries in the refrigerator, It was truly an interesting ride, and I have to say I was a little motion sick by the time we got there. I also had a clearer understanding of what my dishes, toiletries and refrigerator goes through on a daily basis!

The guys told Tom they would take a look at it but if it required work, they had a four-week wait list!!! Lordy Ms. Mabel! UGH! Jeremiah, their repair guy, came out and started helping us. He started off telling us he would give us the tools but we would have to do it. After a lot of sweet talking, he was in their doing the work. We had NO CLUE how to get the refrigerator door off which was what was needed. Once that was accomplished we found the problem...the stainless steel panel was pinched in three sections along the side preventing it from sliding back into place. We offered to pay, but he wouldn't take any money. He did take a bottle of Scout and Cellar wine with our thanks.

So Tom said our RV lesson for the day was to make sure we bring extra wine on our trips! 

We're happy to report that everything is back in place and the refrigerator door closes!

On the bright side, we are staying at the most fabulous RV park. It's called Sand and Sea RV Park and we are about 500 feet from the ocean. We can hear the roar of the waves and were able to watch the sun set on the horizon. It's beautiful. And we had an extremely wonderful seafood dinner along with a really stiff Gin and Tonic. George Bryce would have been proud of my mixture!

Today was also "bridge" day. We have seen so many great bridges along the way. And part of the Oregon coast has sand dunes! We read up on that and here's what it says: "The sand in the Oregon Dunes is from the Coast Mountain Range, which is sedimentary rock that was uplifted 12 million years ago. As rock was moved downstream by rivers, it tumbled and abraded itself into sand. The present shoreline stabilized 6,000 years ago. Tides, wave action and strong coastal winds moved sand up to 2.5 miles inland for thousands of years. This area of dune development rests on a gently sloping terrace of solid marine sandstone called the Coos Bay Dune Sheet. This low rock surface stretches 56 miles from Heceta Head to Cape Arago and contrasts with steep headlands found on most of the Oregon coastline, which prevent inland movement of sand."

The Oregon Coast

 The Oregon Coast is so beautiful! Cold....but beautiful. Average temperature in the summer is in the 60s  while the average temperature in the winter is in the 40s. We were so awed by the huge rocks sitting haphazardly along the shoreline. This description was on one of the signs posted along the beach: "Many of the rocks were formed by volcanic activity and originated farther out in the Pacific Ocean. They were carried to the coastline by the movement of the Pacific plate as it slides under the North American plate. Because of their size, they did not subduct but remained on the surface to be shaped by millions of years of weathering and water as softer soil eroded."

We took the dogs on a long walk on the beach. To get to the beach, we had to take stairs down to it, which Kallum did readily until we got to the final few which were metal and had spaces between them. After a long walk, we found another set of stairs that were concrete and wood. While we were trying to figure out how to get Kallum back to the car (he's arthritic and was tired of walking), I took a little break among the rocks. I thought I found a pretty private area and as I got up and pulled up my pants, I turned around and a man was staring at me from the stairs. Poor guy got mooned accidentally or on purpose. I'm pretty sure he knew what I was doing and was just staring. He deserved that moon shot!

We are taking advantage of fresh seafood and ate a spectacular feast tonight ($$$$). Dungeness crabs, clams and prawns at Tony's crab shack! Messy but of so good! 

Back to the RV.... we have become semi-pros with the RV. Tom is down to an hour packing up. No black water issues so far!  We do like full service RV parks as our grey tank fills up quite rapidly. We can only take one shower before it's full. Being in the RV park allows up to empty it more often. We bought a TV cable and can now hook up and get local channels which was good when it rained last night. 

We have great neighbors at this site who helped us get our TV working. They're pros in the RV world. Apparently they are going to Smith Liquors just inside the California border tomorrow to stock up on liquor which is cheap, cheap, cheap there. Dang it. We didn't know that when we were there. 

Tom's bike needed a major repair concerning the dropper seat. Apparently the cord was pinched inside the frame and the poor bike mechanic spent the whole day (and this evening) trying to free it up so it would work in the future. Mine was a simple issue of the tension being too tight. Good lesson for me to know. 

We are headed to Depoe Bay tomorrow and I think we're going whale watching to try and see a blue whale! 

Here's some pics of the coastline!

 

We're in the Redwoods and The Couple Next Door

 Good morning! We had an exciting trip down the Redwoods Highway from Bend to Crescent City, California. Tom is an expert driver and took the winding roads in full stride. Yes, he was white knuckled and was a courteous Idaho driver pulling over when he had cars behind him. We arrived in the Redwoods and it's phenomenal!!!! The Crescent City KOA campground is amazing. We're tucked into the trees and today we're going to take the truck down south and see the bigger redwoods.

We have a couple next door to us in an RPod. They are extremely nice but we were subject to an hour of rocking and rolling coming from their motor home. Let's just say the springs need adjusting on their bed or shocks. Haha! We giggled like kids and I dared Tom to take a video of the trailer going down the road of ecstasy! 

The dogs MIGHT be getting used to life on the road. They were nice and cuddly last night. Kallum hasn't done this much walking in a while. My only regret on this trip is bringing the dogs. It limits what we can do and it takes about an hour to get them fed and walked in the morning and evening. I put a white noise app on my phone and keep it on ocean waves and everyone, including the dogs, sleep soundly. No more 2 am wake ups.

Tom did buy some gasoline treatment for the truck as it's pulling this baby uphill is a bit of a strain. I dropped our new Keurig yesterday and while it's bruised and battered, it still works. The problem with it is that the water container on the back of the unit slides up so when you pick it up to move it, the container separates and it falls out of your hands. It almost happened to Tom and so he understands.

He still hates my hand signals. Oh! Here's a lesson. Study your spot carefully when you pull in to park. Yesterday we backed in and figured out we could pull through so Tom redid it so our door is actually facing our leisure space. As novices, its something we have to think about more often. There are back in spaces and pull through spaces. Pull through is much easier but Tom is a pro at racing in.

I added two videos today. One of our hacks on my original Facebook post and then the redwoods tour.

By the way, they reinstated my blog on blogger. I think they took it down because I mentioned other sites that might have malware or viruses. It certainly wasn't my commentary. But it's back and I'm using them again! 

Talk to you from down the road!

The Boys Next Door

So we're staying just north of Bend, Oregon today in a Good Sam affiliated RV park. There is only one RV camp in Bend and it was right on the highway again. We lucked out that this one is remote in a small town north of Bend called Crooked River Ranch. Our "entertainment" at this site is a group of guys on a golfing trip. The have to be in their 40s and are close enough to us that we can hear all their conversations. Mostly they talk about their girlfriends. I had no clue that guys ranted about their SOs while together. There goes that myth out the window.

We brought our new e-bikes along with us on the trip and have been carrying them inside the RV. One goes nicely between the dinette and the kitchen when the slide is pushed in (Derrick at Fitzgeralds taught us that) and the second one lays on our bed. We stopped at Walmart in Bend to get a tarp to lay on top of the bed so that after we ride them today that we won't be sleeping with the trail remains! We also bought a Keurig for Tom. We tried the percolator route but Tom wasn't enjoying drinking the grounds with his coffee. I told him it was an exfoliator for the stomach and he wasn't buying it.

We also bought carpet for the stairs as it's a battle to get Kallum up and down them when his paws are on metal. He's over 90 pounds so he's quite a challenge to wrestle. We laid the carpet down yesterday and made quite a mess of it trying to lay the adhesive in all the ridges of the stairs. We'll tidy it up when we get home but in the meantime, it's working! We did buy a ramp but if you know Kallum he's got depth perception problems and that even freaks him out. We do use the ramp to wheel the bikes in and out of the RV. 

We've got a system down. Tom takes care of setting up the outside, leveling and stabilizing, while I do the bikes, get the dogs ready, rearrange the insides after the bikes come out or put them up depending on if we are coming or going. He's also in charge of the white, grey and black water (thankfully). 

We belong to Harvest Hosts, KOA and Good Sam. We haven't had much luck with Harvest Hosts yet. There are not that many partners on the paths we are taking so far. We use Trippy.com to plan our routes and they also offer recommendations on RV sites so that seems to be working for us! We also ask Google as Tom drives and I plan. 

Tom has done all the driving (hmmm....wonder why?) and is getting a little tired of driving the RV every day so I think I mentioned yesterday that we are scaling back and only doing Oregon this trip. We're going to stay two to three days in a spot and explore from there. 

Thanks for all the mosquito-hack tricks. I will definitely be putting a dryer sheet on me and getting the repellent (Pat and Kay). I will do ANYTHING not to be bitten. 

Sara -- the Gas Buddy app has improved and after Boise all the prices have been accurate! Thanks for that tip! I think we timed it wrong in Boise with the pipeline cyber hack that raised all the prices!

Today we're going to explore Bend and ride our bikes along the river! What a beautiful town. It reminds me of where Eric lives in Denver. Cute, cute houses and lots of eateries. We're also going to do the Old Mill District as well and head to one state park with some cool rock formations. We'll spend another night here and then head to Crescent City, California to see the redwoods, then north!

Talk to you from down the road!

Peace and Quiet and Mosquitos

There are tradeoffs to every site. We had absolute peace and quiet last night deep in the woods near Thompson Reservoir. Where's that? Near Silver Lake. Never head of Silver Lake? Well the reservoir has some of the best fishing around and it apparently has the Cowboy Dinner Bell which is why folks come to this neck of the woods. The food is supposed to be. incredible and apparently large enough portion sizes to meet the demands of a die-hardy Texan (everything's bigger in Texas theme. ) We missed out on both largely because the East Bay campsite where we stayed is the lowest level ever (think drought) and we got in just in time to set up the RV, take a walk and then cook dinner. 

I do want to tell you the only downside to this peace and quiet in May is the dreaded mosquito. As soon as I got out of the truck to help guide him into the parking space, I was swarmed and then a big ole ugllllyyyy bug hit me right in the forehead. Scared the ba-gee-beez out of me. I screamed for the Deep Woods Off and did the slap myself silly dance until Tom could get the tailgate open and I could douse myself in Off. Do they bite Tom? No, of course not. Just me. Dang it! He says, tongue in cheek, that it's because I'm so sweet!

We were going to stop in the town of Silver Lake and have dinner. Little did we know, that other than the Dinner Bell (which looked closed) there is no restaurant in town. There was a liquor market with some groceries and I scrounged up some frozen ground beef and shredded cheese to make tacos. I had the tortillas already. Good save!

We settled into the middle of a crowd of Oregon State friends and they seemed nice enough. In the morning, the opposing team (the Ducks) arrived in force and I'm sure tonight there is going to be some sparring going on between the two sets of fans.

We made our way to Bend, Oregon. Yes, we are off course, but we had heard so much about Bend that we decided to detour here. We're staying here through Saturday and then leaving for Crescent City, California where we will make our way up the Oregon Coast. After talking to our kids who won't be around next week in Gig Harbor, we decided to just focus on Oregon and spend three or four days in some cool spots.

Skye is still stressing out. She hasn't eaten much in the last couple of days. I gave her some doggie downers tonight to see if those would help. She's a typical Walker....she doesn't like change. We're realizing that we can't do a whole lot with the dogs. Kallum can't walk very far for hikes and we have to leave both of them in the car if we want to bike ride. We're going to look into doggie day care tomorrow.

Here's pics of the Thompson Reservoir! 

The Weary but Wiser Traveler

 Well, I knew I would be learning lessons but this first one was rough. CHOOSE your campground wisely. I picked this one haphazardly through Google as I was driving. Hey Google, find me a campground in Boise. WRONG. Research. Our campground, while very nice, is right next to the interstate. I can hear EVERY truck, car, 18-wheeler going by. In addition, it's next to an airport thus the occasional plane rumbling above. The noise is incredible. Not only are the dogs stressed but so am I. I am definitely not a city girl anymore. I hate the noise! 

Second lesson involved the expense of pulling one of these babies. We are getting 7 miles per gallon. We filled up in Pocatello and then had to fill up again in Boise. We used the app Gas Buddy and learned that it's not accurate. It said Maverick was $3.13 a gallon and when we got there it was $3.31. We then had to make a stop at Walmart and found it was $3.19 a gallon. We had already filled up.

Third lesson, the trailer hitch. We could not figure out how to unhook the trailer from the truck so we could go into Boise. They would not separate despite us jumping on the truck bed to loosen it. Along comes a wise old RVer who told us to put the truck in neutral and he shook the truck and the lock released and presto, we could unhook. That goes to say that RVers are nice and helpful! Yay! Just like our buddies next door, Tracey and Karen who explained that you have to open both ends of the black water pipe to shove it into the bumper and helped us adjust our brakes. I guess the "been there, done it" adage applies as everyone has been a first-timer at one point in their life.

Did I tell you the dogs are stressed? They have no clue what we have done to them and I'm hoping they get used to it. Skye slept on the short full-sized bed with Tom and I last night. They slept. I listened to the noise and tried to figure out where to put my feet. About 2:30 am Tom got up and the dogs wanted out. We took them out, they drank a ton of water and Skye promptly threw up on her bed. Luckily we were camped right by the bathrooms and I went in and cleaned that mess up while Tom took them on a short walk. Skye then got relegated to the floor and I was able to fall asleep til 8 am. 

Tonight we're driving to Silver Lake Oregon and staying by a reservoir. No cell phone, no wifi. Quiet. Peaceful is what we're looking for.

I am happy to report that the bed is comfortable...without the dog!

Talk to you from down the road!