Friday, May 10, 2013

All Good Things Must Come to an End, or, at least, a Pause


We are back in Sacramento, tonight, having pushed through, editing on the road. I finished that project, by the way, and it was both informative, and enjoyable. :-D

I have found a new low, in gas stations, today. While I was waiting for the bathroom key, behind a customer trying to buy cheap vodka, the cashier refuse to make the transaction, as the money was “too sticky.” That was a new one for me.

The drive was uneventful. I have gotten my mpg’s in the RV to around 20, hurrah!

We have a laundry list of things we want to change/update in the RV, and we will be sure to post on the process, but, for now, it is to the boring task of packing up our house for storage, and fighting property management over our security deposit.

Between now and June, however, there will only be the occasional post, as we are wrapping our lives up for transit.

Thank you, all, for taking the experimental journey with us, and we hope to see you, back here, soon!


Cal is happy to be home! ;) (Though, in this picture, he is happy to be lying with mommy and daddy.)


Our buddies were so good, waiting by the open door for us to let them out.

By popular demand, and my brother’s insistence, :) here is a visual tour of our RV:


Passenger side, right to left, top to bottom: Awning, dinette window, water heater hatch, kitchen window, fresh water inlet, gas inlet, propane hatch, entrance, bed window, and passenger door. :)



This is the back, back hatch, ladder, dinette window, and rear bumper mirror, so I don’t run over small children.


The driver side, bed windows, bathroom windows, furnace vent, fridge vent, fridge access, dinette window, battery door, and, if you look really closely, the power cord hatch.



Which one of these, is not like the other? ;)

And now, for the interior!


The entry door is to the left, just before the stove. 


Here is where we ate, Morgan sets a great table. :)


My computer, generally, charged right there, above the fridge.


This is the kitchen. Remember, this is the model with MORE kitchen counters. :)



The door you see, there, with the mirror on it, is the door to the bathroom, a small space with both a toilet and a shower. Nothing to see, there.



And this, is our bed, or the foot of it, at least. It is couch cushion, esk, topped with a memory foam pad, which we cut to fit. It has queen sheets, which are generously tucked in, and a Costco comforter, for those cold nights. :)

I will leave you with a few of our favorite pics, and the knowledge that, soon enough, we will be back on the road, experiencing life, and displaying our failings and foibles for your entertainment and education.
































Thursday, May 9, 2013

Oregon Back Roads and Learning on the Fly


So, it turns out that we learn slower than we thought, or would have hoped. I will explain:

We awoke bright and early this morning, hoping to make a “short” 3-4 hr drive, past Crater Lake, and on to a free campsite (This one stated, quite clearly, that it was on paved roads.)

Morgan began the drive so that I could edit, which actually worked well, as Morgan is a fantastic driver, the roads were relatively straight, and I had mint ready to hand.

When I took my turn driving, Morgan helped me edit more, reading aloud the prose I had to summarize and rewrite, and typing up my dictation of the new material.

**Josh hands Morgan the computer so she can finish typing tonight’s blog entry**

This is Morgan, taking over. We are both exhausted, because we drove for almost 10 hours today. We switched off three or four times, sharing the driving load.  We went to Crater Lake, having to drive several miles to get to the entrance, only to find that it was closed due to the several feet of snow sitting where we wished to drive our car. We went back the way we came, getting to a small town in Oregon (the “town” had five commercial buildings: one gas station, three markets, and one restaurant), where we stopped at the first market and bought ice cream, because it was three in the afternoon and we had not yet stopped for lunch.

We then continued onto what we thought was our ideal campsite, the road taking us high up into the mountains, through gorgeous areas, where I, being the driver, held up several cars because there was absolutely nowhere to pull over. Most of them went around me, illegally.

We started playing a word game to pass the time, and I missed the turn off by a few miles. Retracing our steps, we found that the turn off was, not too surprisingly, gravel. Then, Google Maps found an alternate route, which was also gravel.  This, being unacceptable, we decided to push for I-5 and stop at a rest area.

On the way down Oregon 66, I have never driven such steep mountains without a guard rail. I, inadvertently, ran the brakes too hard, and thankfully opened my window to make a picture easier to take for Josh, just in time to smell the burning rubber, before I destroyed them completely. This is where I learned engine breaking, one of the oddest things I’ve done, yet. I then went 15 miles an hour for the next 15 miles (aka one hour), down the slopes, without touching the brakes or gas, just dealing with the wheel and asking Josh repeatedly to take pictures of the lavender covered mountain sides.

We made it to Ashland, where we joined up with I-5, and I, then, proceeded along I-5 going roughly 35 mph, because we were going uphill, and I had my foot to the floor. Semi trucks look so fast at that speed. I coasted down the grades into California, and, now, we are sitting in a Black Bear Diner parking lot, having eaten a meal that we did not have to prepare and drank coffee that was freely refilled. We will go from here to the Walmart, next door, where we shall sleep, then wake, and continue on our way home.

This trip has been eye-opening, for it has shown the vulnerabilities of our seemingly all-powerful smart phones, in that they have failed us almost every time we have needed them. When I get home, I’m going to print information onto paper, dozens of sheets of paper, which have no battery that can die, and no data that can be intercepted by mountains that we may be beside. I will then compile this paper into a 2.5 inch binder, which we will bring with us when we tour the country, and it will be our main reference rather than the fickle internet and downloadable applications. I am greatly excited for this gathering of information, and my only concern is that I do not know where I will acquire the 30 extra hours a day I would like to have to do this very task.

Oh well… we’ll just have to make do.

The sun is down, which means we need to be as well. We hope that you had a wonderful day and a restful night. Safe travels tomorrow, wherever you may be going.

Good night,
Morgan and Josh

Final thoughts, from Josh:
  1. The sink was never, actually, clogged. After one or two more clog like incidents, we realized that our grey water tank, “Full” indicator was broken. The backed up sinks were simply an early warning system for complete catastrophe.
  2. The burn on my eye is completely gone, proving to me, once again, that, while I am clearly not Superman, Wolverine is still in the running. ;)
  3. Morgan’s hands have been downgraded from gauze and surgical tape to a band aid, much to our combined happiness.
  4. Naga is still escaping, periodically, but he comes back faster now, especially if I ignore him, as odd as that is to me…
  5. The solar panel is working great, and, as the sun is not likely to fail in the near future, our electricity needs are, henceforth, taken care of.
  6. We will get home tomorrow, on the eighth day of our 5 day test trip, and that doesn’t feel like a contradiction…
  7. Never say never, because you will never be right. :-P
Good night, and, if those who are dizzy feel like the world is spinning, aren’t they right? :-D


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Good, the Bad, and Naga…Who’s Both


I am feeling very weary, at this point, as we have driven far too long, today, and I am, somewhat, short on sleep, so I will do bullet points of our last two days. (We didn’t have any signal on anything, so we decided that the pictures would be sufficient, for yesterday.) On to glory!
o   I dropped Morgan and the pups off at Starbucks, yesterday, and drove the RV to the mechanic, leaving it there and walking 1+ miles back.
o   While I was gone, Morgan acquired a kitten, saving it from all the cars that were swooping and circling around it.
o   Morgan, then, gave away this cat, to a woman who had helped, and who offered to give it a home.
o   We spent the day with Morgan researching and me editing.
o   When the RV was finished, Morgan offered to go get it, so I could continue editing.
§  I agreed and she took the dogs.
§  On her way, a dog attacked her, and, as she stepped back, trying for a better position, her foot landed wrong, and she went down hard.
§  Naga and Cal, now free of their leashes, which Morgan had dropped in her tumble, put the aggressive dog in its place and chased it off, before returning to stand guard over Morgan as she got back to her feet.
§  Morgan suffered several deep cuts to her hands, but was able to clean and bandage them appropriately, using the RV mechanics First Aid kit.
o   Her return journey, in the RV was uneventful, and, after I doted on her for a bit, we headed off into the mountains.
o   Due to Morgan’s injuries, we made a quick stop at Walmart, and, when we weren’t paying close enough attention, Naga bolted.
§  I chased him, which was, probably, the wrong thing to do, as it meant that, whenever he looked back for reassurance, I was there, to let him know that he hadn’t gone too far, despite my calling him…
§  I eventually lost him, but was able to call Morgan, who leashed Cal and came to meet me.
§  Meanwhile, Naga had found a kind, jogging stranger, and followed him home.
§  Thankfully, Naga’s tags enabled this stranger to call Morgan, and, then, bring Naga part way back to meet us.
§  Needless to say, I was unhappy with the big dog, but all was righted, and we left.
o   In her research, Morgan had found a free campground that wasn’t more than 2 hours out.
§  2 “hours” on gravel does not equal 2 hours.
§  Free campgrounds are protected from hopefully occupants by said ungrated gravel roads, which the Sunrader takes quite the exception to.
§  That campsite was not reached.
o   Morgan and I had a long talk about finances and the inefficiency and folly of only using “free” campsites. (They aren’t free, because you pay in gas and vehicle wear.) We came to the conclusion that, while free camping would be nice, our journey, and our finances are in God’s hands, and we needed to trust him.
o   Thus, we ended up driving a little ways back down the road, after it returned to asphalt, up to a lovely RV campground, which the AAA book that we have said was $10
§  We pulled in, and the camp manager came out, greeted us, and told us that the dogs were welcome, as long as they were on leash.
§  I asked if we needed to pay now, later, or in the morning.
§  He looked at me quizzically and said, “It’s free.”
§  God is funny, sometimes.
o   In order to redeem the dogs, in my mind, I did a little off leash training, a little ways from the camp, to keep to the rules, and both dogs did really, really well. It helped that they were tired.
o   We awoke, this morning, to a beautiful sunrise in our mountain valley, overlooking a long lake. After a nice breakfast, and a morning shower, Morgan and I decided to take the dogs for a walk, down by the lake.
§  Now, we have been training the dogs, more and more, to be off leash, so, once we reached the lake, we let the both off, and they were wonderful.
§  They went wading.
§  They played.
§  They sprinted up and down the sandy beach.
§  It was awesome to watch. :-)
o   We sat and talked for a while, before doing what needed doing and packing up.
o   We were off, once more:
§  Sadly, though we were enjoying Idaho, we realized that we needed to be getting back to Sacramento, soon, so we set our sights on Oregon. Specifically, a free campground, just over the border.
§  It was not just over the border; it was, in fact, in a completely different part of OR.
§  Thus, we headed off for another camp ground…which, in turn, was 300 miles away. No. Too far.
§  A little back tracking, and back on the road. Actually, we were back on the Oregon Trail. (Don’t worry, no one died of dysentery.)
§  We wound our way through the wilderness, with literally no turn offs available, except for the occasional driveway, for a hundred miles.
§  We got some great pictures. :-D
o   In the end, after several more false alarms, including a place with “water,” but not potable water, we ended up here, at a rest stop. (FYI, OR allows for 12hr parking at rest stops; CA only allows for 8; NV, on the other hand, is fine with up to 24 hr stays. The more you know!)
With that brief(ish) summary of the last two days, I leave you with a couple parting thoughts:
o   At every turn, I grasp and struggle for control, and find that I have none.
o   What is great one moment can fill you with stress the next, all the while moving towards further awesomeness (i.e. Life is a mixed back, and things are rarely all good or all bad.)
Good night; sleep well; sleep long; drive safe; and, please, don’t die. I don’t have it in me to rush home. Don’t be “that guy,” ok? ;-)

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

At long last: Pictures!

Here is the visual representation of our travels, thus far:
 Looking back at what we drove through our first night. South Lake Tahoe is on the other side.
 The Nevada desert.
 Naga watches for any dangers out the front window, most of the time.
 Awesome rock structure!!
 Mountainous Nevada!
 It's our Sunrader's shadow!!!! I had to try so many times for this shot...
 Walmart parking lot, second night. We had so many RV and truck neighbors.
 Family photo!
 Cal came up to say hi
 Nevada. Just keeps going.
 I wanted to stop and climb it so much.
 These rock structures sprinkled this section of the road. They varied in size and shape, but shared the beauty factor.
Near the Idaho border. More rocks. Cool rocks.
Brother!!!
 Little waterfall on our way down the canyon
 Big waterfall in the canyon
 Beautiful Shoshone Falls.
 All my boys :)

 Another little waterfall we encountered on our hike
 Zoom in of Shoshone Falls
 There's a rainbow!!
 See the flat canyon on the horizon? That's the level everyone lives on. We had to come down several hundred feet to find this.
 Proof that we were there
 Couple shot :)


 This is the river that the falls flow into (note the rainbow from earlier)
 Driving through Idaho. Random gorges. We're heading into one now.
 Beautiful, mostly flat country side.
 We go through that in a minute
 Flat, just on different levels.
 Par cour puppies :)
 Naga jumped up on his own.
 We love our puppies. Cal has height envy.
 Coming down a hill, looking out over southern Idaho.
 Idaho sunset.
 We're having so much fun here!
 I forgot this one!
And I forgot this one. We love our dogs :)