September 18th we left Seaview, WA after being in the area for four weeks. We headed into Oregon and took the Astoria Bridge, then down south through Seaside and onto US26 to I-5 just south of Portland. Since we had not had a meal at Camp 18 we stopped on the way and had lunch. We enjoyed it as always.
We stopped at Camping World in Wilsonville, OR both to buy some things and to meet up with a college friend of Bill's whom we recently learned worked there. We only had a small amount of time to visit but will get together in the future for longer. From Wilsonville we headed south to Springfield, OR where we could camp at AM Solar and visit with Deb and Greg. We had traveled 221 miles.
With three other customers already staying the night we parked by the edge:
We dry camped over night and rigged a small extension cord the next day to charge the batteries because it was cloudy. Later on everyone else left so we moved to the back with 50AMP service:
Some of their property:
Deb's (though Greg drove it home this day) electric car:
We actually had time to go out to BBQ dinner with Greg and Deb Thursday and had time on Friday to visit both of them even more. They recommended trying the chain Cafe Yumm for lunch and we enjoyed it.
September 20th we headed south into California. Mount Shasta doesn't have much snow on it this time of year these days:
We ended up camped at Abrams Lake Mobile Estates and RV Park in Mount Shasta, CA after 257 miles. Our neighbors to the drivers side park their motorhome here seasonally and come up for weekends out of Redding.
September 21st we made our way to the Reno, Nevada area and camped at Terrible's Gold Ranch RV Park in Verdi, Nevada after 234 miles. Verdi is just west of Reno on the California border and our campsite was right by the state line, indicated by the red arrow:
A beautiful and spacious campground with views:
We spent two nights so we could stock up on groceries. We ate at the local Carinos, a chain we really like.
September 23rd we headed out and fueled up in Fernley, NV for $3.979 credit price for diesel. In March was the last time that we have paid under $4/gallon for diesel.
We picked up a rock chip just south of Hawthorne, Nevada. It can be seen in this photo through the windshield of typical Nevada scenery.
A better view of the rock chip. It is a bad looking one!
Luckily we only had a few miles left to our destination, Sunrise Valley RV Park in Mina, NV. We stopped at the campground after 180 miles of driving and set up.
They have very long campsites:
But we were also right on US95, which is where the RV Park sign is. But friendly people and 50AMP full hookups make it a fine overnight stop.
Once settled we pulled out our $10 Wal-Mart windshield repair kit. It was a bad chip so we did not hold much hope but it came out better than we expected, not great but better.
How the rock chip looked after we "fixed" it. It is better than the photo above and we hope it doesn't crack.
The next day, the 24th, we headed on down the road.
Not far south we saw this really large bird to the east coming our way and finally realized it was a California Condor. Wow!
Part of our trip we took the Extraterrestrial Highway, Nevada 375, but did not see any alien spaceships. But we did have a couple check engine alarms and will need to have that checked out.
After 262 miles we landed at Young's RV Park in Caliente, NV for the night. Nice place.
During our stay we received email that told us that we might not need to be in Texas this November. Rainbow's End, where Escapees headquarters is located, took a lot of damage from Hurricane Ike. Cleaning up the damage delayed other projects and headquarters does not have time to host an Advisory Council workshop this year. It looks like we will be spending the fall in the Southwest and saving time and money.
Tomorrow we head into Utah to see Zion and Bryce National Parks.