Day 3 & 4- Oregon

June 25^th, 2014

     Today, we left Bend, OR and are continuing our trip south to California.  I made sure Monica was driving across the border this time as whenever I cross the border, my speed increases by 15 mph and foul language starts leaking out of my mouth in regards to passing motorists.  We are heading for Oroville, CA tonight where we will be staying at a property owned by Jen’s best friend’s mom, Renee.  We will be there for one night and do some laundry and take showers.  We left Hwy 97 around 5pm and headed south on Interstate 5 for a little bit before getting on Hwy 99, which takes you through Chico and then into Oroville.  

     Yesterday was a fun day in Bend, OR.  The day started off with some emails and working on the budget.  Monica had a slight brain fart, when she thought she had miscalculated the whole trip and thought we only had enough money for half the trip. Fortunately, she’s a smart girl and realized her mistake a few minutes later and we can now continue on with the 45 day trip.  Phew!!  After that slight panic attack, we started packing up for an afternoon in town.  We started off just up the road a bit at Newberry Volcanic National Monument. We went on a small hike partway up the cinder cone and then headed back down to the Visitor’s Center to get our first National Park Passport system stamp of the trip.  Both Monica and I have our own passport books, as well as a bigger 3-ring binder book that we got when we first started traveling together.  

      After our visit to Newberry Volcano, we headed into Downtown Bend to the Deschutes Brewery.  This is Jen’s favorite beer to drink and she has always wanted to take the tour.  Monica had the equivalent to a 5 year old going to Disneyland for the first time on her hands.  Jen was like a bouncing child, completely giddy with anticipation of the tour and the FREE samples!  The tour lasted about 30 minutes and then we were each given a punch card for 4 free samples.  Since Monica doesn’t drink beer often, it was more like Jen getting 8 free samples minus a few sips of each by Monica.  So now, Jen was a slightly loopy 5 year old.  We discovered a new beer that Jen hadn’t tried called Cinder Cone Red Ale.  It’s a red ale, which I don’t see very often.  So, with a few souvenirs, Monica walked and Jen stumbled out to the truck.  We had originally thought about going to another brewery, but Jen was happy enough to just head back to the campground.  Once back home, we headed to the pool and hot tub. They had some balls in the pool so we had fun for about 30 minutes pretending we were Olympic water polo players swimming and leaping for balls that we most of the time completely missed.  But I’m sure we were entertaining to the others sitting in the hot tub. 

After some fun at the pool and a shower, we went back to Iggy (the trailer for those that don’t know that already) and enjoyed hot dogs and s’mores over the campfire.  Another wonderful day in the life of traveling.

Jen, Monica & Bowie

Summer Trip 2014

June 22 & 23 (Day 1 & 2)

So, let’s give this blog a try again.  We have owned our Lance 2385 travel trailer, “Iggy”, for over a year now and have officially lived in it for around 8 months.  We still love it and find our lives are so much easier.  Although, that could be because Jen is not working anymore.  Instead she has been finishing off her Certificate Program at Skagit Valley College in Marine Maintenance and Technology, while Monica continues to try and finish her Master’s Degree at UW.  Anyway, we are taking a 45 day trip all over the country this summer and I figured this would be a good way to share with people our adventures who aren’t on Facebook and also those who feel like sitting back and reading my confusing, yet hopefully sometimes entertaining blogs.  However, if you’re looking for just pictures, stick to Facebook.

The start of our Summer Road Trip began yesterday, June 22^nd, 2014.  We left Julann’s house in Arlington, WA around 7:30pm and headed south to dump the tanks, do some last minute checks (tires, brakes, lights, etc) and ultimately brave the Seattle traffic southbound for Hwy 90 and Snoqualmie Pass.  Fortunately, leaving as late as we did (really, we were only 2 hours late in our departure!), we had clear sailing down the highway.  We wanted to at least get over the pass before stopping for the night.  We had originally wanted to get to Yakima and camp along the Yakima River, but decided staying at one of those really “fancy” Flying J truck stops would be just the ticket instead.

**You will find a recurring word pop up in this blog for the next 45 days and that is, “FREE”.  We already had to cut our trip short 15 days due to our budget, so any type of free camping, free anything, etc., etc., helps us out a lot. ** 

So, around 11pm, we rolled into the fancy Flying J in Ellensburg and parked next to a few trucks….wait, I mean, we squeezed in between a crap load of trucks!  Fortunately, we found a site that would allow us to stick out our slide just a bit (which is needed for us to get back to our bed without becoming monkeys) without interfering with any of the big trucks.  It was a bit loud with all the engines and generators running, including our neighbor who really needs a new belt of some sort for his squeaking issues, but it actually wasn’t too bad.  We threw in some ear plugs, turned on some music and once we fell asleep, we didn’t wake up till around 8am the next morning.  Well, at least Jen didn’t.  Monica may not have been so lucky.  By then, we were one of about a dozen trucks.  Although, I find the trucking life to be kinda an interesting career, I’m not sure I would do well with the hours.  I would definitely be the type of driver who slept during the day and drove at night as I am not an early riser.

Anyway, we packed up, sucked everything in and headed for Hill’s RV, where we originally bought our trailer in Yakima.  They had a replacement awning arm waiting for us that needed replacing while under warranty.  We dropped the trailer off and headed off to do a few other errands in Grover.  Unfortunately, while filling up the gas tank, Jen realized the door over the gas fill was not closing right.  It usually springs shut and helps seal the tank fill area since it’s one of those new “capless” types.  Without the spring though, we had a little problem.  (Insert Jen's head thunk here) The truck would still run, but not very efficiently.  So, we found some shade and Jen looked up online for the problem and fortunately found yet another wonderful Ford F150 enthusiasts blog with step by step instructions and pictures describing how to fix the problem.  Woohoo!  Fifteen minutes later, everything was fixed. Right after we finished up, Hill’s RV called and said our trailer was ready.  What timing!!!

From Yakima, we headed south via Hwy 97 towards Bend, OR.  We stopped at Maryhill State Park and finished off our lunches and took the dog for a walk/swim in the Columbia River.  With a cooled off dog and filled bellies, our next stop was the Mountain Identifier stop in Oregon.  What or where in the world is that, you ask?  Well, it’s a pull off along Hwy 97 that identifies surrounding mountains and volcanoes.  The picture below will help make sense.

There's even some green stuff still around.

Mt Hood is that-a way

With all the volcanoes around and a wife whose hobby is geology and she used to collect rocks, a girl needs help trying to figure out what mountain is what without seeming like a complete doofus.  You have Mt Hood, Mt Saint Helens, Mt Jefferson, Three Sisters, Mt Washington, Mt Bachelor and so on.  We have been here before where we could see all approx. dozen mountains.  Today was a bit cloudy and we could only see a few of them.

After this stop, we pressed on towards the Bend/Sunriver area where we have currently dropped our anchor for the next few days.  We will be here for two nights and will enjoy some exploring of the surrounding areas including volcanoes (Monica of course!) and a tour of the Deschutes Brewery (Jen of course!).  Miss you all and can’t wait to see many of you.

Jen, Monica and Bowie