Friday morning, 15NOV, we get back on I-5N to finish the drive
back to our house outside Sultan, WA. Of
course the final day of driving was in the rain after great weather since
leaving Louisiana; 208 miles driven in four hours.
Saturday & Sunday Corrie runs errands, tends to garden &
partially empties RV. Dan tries mowing
overgrown wet lawn w/o much success, washes RV & Toad, empties all the
cargo holds & overhead cab of RV so that RV can be parked in shop/RV building. Monday, 18NOV, more rain – apparently we missed
the unusual dry first two weeks of November?
The rest of November seemed to be nothing but unending rain,
& the yard never drained or dried outL Not much accomplished other than errands,
medical & dental appointments, trying to get educated on new RV, gardening,
volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, etc.
But there were two other events of note during the month:
First on Thursday, 21NOV, Dan had lunch with 9 of his classmates
from US Coast Guard Academy class of 1974.
Over the last few years Dan & other classmates that live within
driving distance of Seattle (sometimes individuals drive up from Oregon)
informally get together for impromptu lunches (see below link for last luncheon). This time lunch and reminiscing (aka lying)
was at Scotts Bar & Grill in Edmonds (recommended).
https://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2019/04/01-30apr19-sultan-wa.html
https://scottsbarandgrill.com/
Next event, was Tuesday, 26NOV, catching the Kingston ferry to
visit kids & grandkids for turkey day.
That evening was the decoration of their Xmas tree.
Wednesday Corrie & Rebecca prep’ed house & commenced cooking
for an early turkey day dinner. Like
last year Rebecca’s work schedule conflicts with Thanksgiving day mealL Early that afternoon Dan heads to Kingston ferry
to pick up his niece Marisa & her sons, Jaxson & Eli, who will join us for the early
thanksgiving dinner.
After recovering
from an excellent dinner, we play bingo & then just veg out; while younger
kids play beyblades. Thursday (turkey
day) Rebecca heads to work & not much done.
Later that morning Dan takes Marisa & boys back to ferry; leftovers
for dinner.
Friday morning Corrie does some black Friday shopping & then
back to ferry & home.
Wednesday, 06NOV, early start on our long drive back to the
house in Sultan, WA. We have made this
drive (I-10W to I-5N) so many times over the last twelve years that we dread
making it yet once againL Rather than
staying at our Escapees RV Club facility in Livingston, TX, as usual - we stay
at an RV park (Northshore RV) with full amenities (ie cable) on the banks of
Lake Livingston in Onalaska, TX. One
“issue” we note immediately w/new RV is that because it has a small fuel tank
(26 gallons) that we will be refueling once or twice a day! The 90 gallon tank on old RV, meant we could
go two to three days before refueling.
323 miles driven.
Thursday AM on the road to Ingram, TX, to visit Dan’s sister
Sharon & husband Tim who we last saw SEP2018. Although we dread making this drive back to
Washington, it is always a pleasure to stop & visit with them. The day’s drive doesn’t start well as we
immediately hit an extremely badly marked detour on I-45S. There were clearly marked signs at the start
of the construction project telling you that you must exit & follow detour
signs. But when we got off the highway
there were no signs! So we back tracked
& came to the same sign saying exit & follow detour signs; guess what -
no signs. So Dan punched in another city
just ahead of us into the GPS & finally got back on track.
During the drive we also enjoyed driving rain & wind, with a
40 degree drop in temps. Sharon &
Tim have recently sold their house outside of Kerrville, TX, & are living a
very nice trailer in a RV park outside Ingram, TX. Their intention is to start traveling with
their RV this spring. Another great
visit, with excellent hearty dinner to warm the bones, & some sort of dice
game we are still trying to figure out? 309 miles driven.
https://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2018/09/01-30sep18-sultan-wa.html
Friday AM saying goodbye to Sharon & Tim & then back
onto I-10W; getting to Van Horn, TX, with less than two gallons of fuel left in
tank – even though we refilled during drive.
357 miles driven.
Saturday longest drive in a long time – 7-1/2 hours & 431
miles. We needed to fuel twice. Having to refuel on a daily basis also
complicates our efforts to find cheapest fuel as we travelL In the past we (ie Dan) could research our
intended route for next couple of days on the internet, noting exact location
of cheapest diesel. Then we would plan
on refueling there to insure best price & that fuel warning light never
came on.
During this drive in Arizona we run into a new one at diesel
pumps – you save 8 cents per gallon if your vehicle weighs less than 26K
pounds? We assume this is new state tax
law, since we never noticed this before?
Anyway Dan immediately drove around gas station twice to get to cheap
pumps. Why twice, because new RV has only
one diesel fuel fill, not on both sides like old RV; & Dan keeps pulling up
on wrong side. We stayed at Voyager RV
Resort & Hotel outside Tucson, AZ – very nice. It was first night of the “snowbird season”,
& the bar was packed for the entertainer, Albert G on the clarinet (think
fourth string Kenny G).
https://www.voyagerrv.com/
Sunday, 10NOV, 7 hours on the road, 387 miles driven. At exit 5 in Arizona was last stop for diesel
fuel before high prices in CA. Place is
a dump, but packed w/vehicles doing last fuel-up before CA (don’t believe signs
saying cheapest fuel prices are at exit 1 (it’s a lie!)). We spend the night at another RV resort –
Indian Wells RV Resort, Indio, CA.
https://www.sunrvresorts.com/resorts/west/california/indian-wells/
Monday (Veterans Day) we make short drive to Victorville, CA,
only 114 miles driven; so that Dan can have car shield for Toad modified to fit
better. Shady Oasis RV is an old KOA
that needs serious maintenance. After
setting up camp, Dan takes Toad to Offroad & RV to have the car shield
modified - no charge. Dan stopped at a newer
Walmart Super Store w/large solar array on one side of the parking lot. A side benefit of the array is that it
provided nice shaded parkingJ So customers
have to make a choice – do you want to park close to entrance in the sun, or
park in the shade & hike to the store?
Dan picked the shade.
https://rvandoffroad.com/
Tuesday AM make another drive we know well – US-395 to CA-58
thru Bakersfield, CA onto I-5NL to Santa Nella, CA.
In APR2013 we stopped here for lunch at Pea Soup Andersens for some of
their supposedly world class pea soup? We
found it pretty poor especially when compared to Dutch ertwensoep – this time
we opted for Panda Express for our dinner.
311 miles driven in 6 hours, to Santa Nella RV.
http://peasoupandersens.net/
Wednesday AM back on I-5NL 387 miles driven in under 7
hours. We decide to stay at Blue Heron RV
park seven miles off the freeway in Hornbrook, CA. First three miles of country road are good
& 55mph; last four hours are TERRIBLE & we barely make 15mph. Then we discover park has no cell phone
service & very poor wifi. If it
wasn’t night time & because of terrible road, we would have left. Beautiful setting on the banks of the Klamath
River.
https://klamathranchresort.com/
Thursday, 14NOV, more tedious, boring, driving on I-5N. We take our usual route on I-205N around
Portland, OR, & run into stop & go driving for half the distanceL We stayed at same RV park (Columbia
Riverfront RV) that we stayed at in Woodland, WA, when we had our original RV
TVs switched to HDTVs back in 2009. Great
site overlooking the Columbia River; 356 miles driven in under seven
hours. Tomorrow final push homeJ
https://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2009/07/14-16jul09-woodland-wa-entering-digital.html
Tuesday around lunch, 29OCT, we finally get on the road back to
Houma & granddaughter Coraline Jane, & parents Bethany & Joe (our
son). Of course there seemed to be lots
of little problems w/new RV preparing for departure – cargo holds that won’t
lock, low tire pressure, wrong type of tow harness connection for Toad lights,
etc. Finally on the road & we hit
torrential downpour (forecast off & on for next three daysL). We have to admit this new small RV on
Mercedes Sprinter chassis is less stressful & easier to drive than our old
32ft dieselJ
Wednesday wake up to no rain; Corrie runs errands & Dan
works on RV ‘stuff’. Corrie cooks
spaghetti dinner in RV & we run it over to Joe’s for family dinner, with
Rebecca, Raymond, Jaxson & Mason in town to visit their old friends (&
new niece/cousin Coraline)J.
Thursday (Halloween) cold & windy; Dan keeps plugging away
on RV ‘stuff’. Ron Borison (a CG Academy
classmate of Dan’s) stops by for lunch w/Dan & sea stories – great visit
(especially since Ron bought lunch)! Not
much done, that evening Corrie feeling tired, so Dan met Raymond & Rebecca
to get pictures of Jaxson & Mason before they went trick or treating.
Sunday, 03NOV, afternoon is another great crab boil/feed &
BBQ at Bethany’s parents (June & T Chiasson). Again lots of Bethany’s family were there; but
this time Rebecca, Raymond, Jaxson & Mason were also there!
After all that great food, it was off to
Brook’s Sno-World for cajun snowballs even though it was pretty cold out.
http://www.brookessnoworld.com/
Monday & Tuesday not much done other than preparing RV &
Toad for Tuesday’s departure. On Monday
there was a short visit to Joe & Bethany’s to say aloha to Joe who had to
go back to work (& to get our baby fix of CoralineJ!).
