Friday, July 31, 2020

Golden Spike National Historical Park

Once again, I have the good fortune to meet up with my favorite Alpine, Utah couple, Terry & Gail. We drove over to the Golden Spike National Historical Park where my older cousin, Chris, helped drive the last spike for the First Transcontinental Railroad. We arrive just in time to see old No. 119 pull into the station...



Great day with great friends

Some supermodel photo-bombs my locomotive picture

Chinese Arch

On the way back, we stop at the Morton Thiokol (ATK) Rocket Garden...


Where I detect a suspicious noise coming from the flux capacitor in one of the rockets...


Tip of the Day: For an outstanding dining experience, visit the Maddox Restaurant in Brigham City, Utah. Delicious food and lots of it.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Southern Idaho Waterfalls

In looking for things to see and do in Twin Falls, Idaho, I was surprised at the number of waterfalls in the area...

Click here to view the web page I used to plan my day trip

Shoshone Falls is located on the Snake River just a few miles east of town. At 212 feet the falls are higher than Niagara Falls...

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls with a double rainbow

Perrine Coulee Falls is another waterfall close to town. It drops almost 200 feet down a sheer cliff and you can walk behind it...

Perrine Coulee Falls

Niagara Springs appears to spring right out of the side of the mountain. Caveat: the canyon road to Niagara Springs is narrow and steep and not recommended for either motorhomes or large trailers....

Niagara Springs

Thousand Springs consists of two major waterfalls next to each other...

Falls from the side

Falls from the bottom

Click here to see a Google Map I created for my waterfalls tour. You can send the directions to your smartphone and follow the same route I took. It takes you through some bucolic countryside where you will see more irrigation systems than I knew existed and huge cattle lots with more cows than I could count. All in all, a nice way to spend the day and experience the beauty of Idaho.

Saturday, July 25, 2020

RV Boom & Consequent Problems

Driving across Oregon to Idaho, I now understand why campsites are so full. Every couple of miles, I passed RVs of all shapes and sizes. In my nine years as a full-timer, I have never seen so many RVs on the road. My guess is that people want to get out and travel, but fear of the virus is keeping them from staying in motels, so people are buying RVs. I read that they are selling RVs faster than they can make them.

The bad news is new campgrounds are not being built fast enough to keep up with the demand, so finding a place to stay is becoming increasingly difficult and prices are continuing to rise. The other problem is getting your RV repaired in a timely manner as shops face huge backlogs. The quality of new RVs is so bad that they almost always need work after the sale. One service department told me their wait time for repairs was over a month and that they no longer had room on their lot to even store vehicles.

The above has made the RV lifestyle more frustrating and less enjoyable than when I first went on the road. New RVers are in for a big surprise if they see those slick RV ads and think this will help relieve the stress in their lives. Let's hope things get better before they get worse.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Heading East

As much as I would have liked to continue exploring the Pacific Northwest, I am finding it near impossible to locate available campsites, particularly, for the weekends. Adding to the frustration are the prices most parks are charging: $50+ per night is the norm, not the exception.

If the above was not bad enough, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases is causing local and state governments here to expand their restrictions. The City of Bend has even reinstated a travel advisory telling tourists to stay away until Labor Day (that's got to hurt a lot of businesses).

In an attempt to escape this madness, I am turning eastward towards Idaho and Utah. I have reservations in Burns, OR and Caldwell, ID which gives me hope that I am heading in the right direction.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Three Creek Lake

The temperature was 96 degrees this afternoon, so Keith and I took the Jeep up to Three Creek Lake, a picturesque mountain lake located in a glacial cirque, formed by the Cabot Creek Glaciation 13,000 years ago. Considering the remoteness of the lake, we were both surprised at the number of people who were there...


On the way back down the mountain there was a great view of the Three Sisters...

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Tumalo Falls

Last Wednesday, Keith, Jayne and I tried to visit Tumalo Falls, one of the more popular waterfalls in the area, but it was so crowded that vehicles were lined up on both sides of the access road for several hundred yards before the trailhead. I did not want to risk certain death from all those masked people not social-distancing, so we skipped it and headed to the Dee Wright Observatory.

Today, I left my campsite early this morning and when I arrived at the Falls, there were only a few cars and two people in the parking lot. Unfortunately, the waterfall was still in the shadows so the photos were not as sharp as I would have liked...



I considered hiking to the top of the waterfall, but the mosquitoes were so bad I wimped out.

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Paulina Peak & Big Obsidian Flow

Today, we visited Paulina Peak and the Big Obsidian Flow south of Bend, Oregon. The drive up to the Peak is a curvy, narrow, dirt, washboard road (vehicles need to be less than 23' in length) that takes you up to 7,984 feet in elevation where you are rewarded with this view...

Click on photos to enlarge

From here you can also see the Big Obsidian Flow...


At the Flow there is a loop trail you can hike and see some very impressive obsidian rocks of all sizes...



Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Dee Wright Observatory

This afternoon we drove up to the Dee Wright Observatory situated on a black lava flow at the boundary between the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests west of Sisters, Oregon. On the Cascade Range at 5,187 feet, this mountain observatory offers panoramic views of the Mount Washington and Three Sisters Wilderness areas...

Click on photos to enlarge


Generator Problem

Sunday evening when I started the generator, it ran fine but was not sending power to the RV. Keith, Jayne and I spent most of Monday morning troubleshooting circuit breakers and fuses without any success. We finally decided it was most likely the automatic transfer switch which after a long search, Jayne found it under one of the drawers in the bedroom.

Fortunately, I was able to get a mobile service technician to come out and confirm that it was bad. What should have been a simple replacement was anything but simple because there were two 12 volt wires going into the box that the technician did not recognize. Calls to Jayco and Cummins with long wait times were of no help. Finally, a call to Progressive Dynamics, the maker of the switch, gave the technician enough information that he was able to order a replacement which I had shipped overnight. Unfortunately, the technician has a dental appointment today for an abscessed tooth so it may be a couple of days before the new switch is installed and I have power throughout the RV.

Many thanks to Keith and Jayne for their help including sharing their generator to charge my batteries. Most of my blog posts are about the nice side of RVing, but the ugly truth is you have to be prepared for a fair number of problems, particularly, with the more sophisticated motorhomes. It's not all rainbows and unicorns.

They did not make it easy to get to and replace this transfer switch

FYI - If you ever need to find the automatic transfer switch on your RV, you may want to hire Jayne as she is relentless in her search. If you ever need help replacing the cover on a Cummins generator, Keith is your man (Tip of the Day: If you charge Keith a dollar for every swear word he uses during the process, you can probably make enough money to pay for both jobs).

Update (7/20/2020): The new transfer switch was finally installed today and I have full power throughout the RV. We have been having some 90+ degree days, so being able to run the AC again will make boondocking much more pleasant.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Boondocking With Friends

Arrived safe and sound at Keith and Jayne's site in the Deschutes National Forest northwest of Bend, Oregon. One of the advantages of boondocking is the ease of setting up your RV - put the slides out, lower the leveling jacks and open a cold beer - that's all there is to it.

Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Serendipity

Keith, a friend I first met nine years ago in South Dakota, saw that I was in the area and called to let me know that Jayne and he were social-distancing in a national forest near Bend, Oregon. He invited me to join them and promised to show me a bunch of waterfalls at a deeply discounted rate for his professional guide service. Not one to pass up a good deal, I am driving up next week. It will be my first time boondocking in the Jayco Seneca.

Sunday, July 05, 2020

Change of Plans

I had intended to take Highway 101 up the coast of Oregon and Washington. Unfortunately, I am finding it difficult to locate available sites at campgrounds along the way (particularly, for the weekends). I suspect it is a combination of some campgrounds still being closed and high demand from summer vacationers. I think Spring or Fall when the kids are in school might be a better time to take this trip.

In any event, I am going to head eastward. I am still working on an itinerary. Having to find a retina center for treating my macular degeneration every 7 weeks complicates the process. Sometimes, it feels like I spend more time planning than actually doing.

Saturday, July 04, 2020

Massive Fireworks Display

When I arrived in Crescent City last Monday, I asked one of the locals if they were going to have a fireworks show for the 4th of July. She said "no" they were cancelled due to the virus. Well, somebody did not get the memo as the following has been going on since about 7:00 p.m. and it's almost 11:00 p.m. as I write this...


That is a full moon in the background

Thursday, July 02, 2020

Jedediah Smith Redwoods

Just east of Crescent City along Highway 199 is the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It's a scenic drive winding its way through some of the largest trees on the planet. I am finding it difficult to capture the uniqueness of the park as the trees are too big to photograph in one shot and the dash cam footage has been either too dark or too bright due to the rapidly changing lighting. Here's what I have come up with so far...

The car on the left gives you some idea of how big these trees are
(click on photo to enlarge)