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Washington & Oregon, 2009
We are headed down to Springfield/Eugene
Oregon to get solar panels put on our new rig. We want to be
completely self-sufficient when we are boondocking out in
the wilderness, wherever that might be.
Our Rig (and Truck) has:
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104 gallon
fresh water tank,
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32.5 gallon black tank,
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72.5 gallon gray
water tank, (both the shower and the bath sink go into one
and the kitchen sink goes into another tank adding up to
72.5 gallons),
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30 gallon gasoline tank,
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38 gallons diesel tank,
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and we still have our four 5 gallon
small tanks for water
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On 11/19 got 6 solar panels with 4 AGM
batteries to give us 600 amp hours of free
electricity (this is the maximum amps before we go to
50% of our batteries.)
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And had a 4000 watt generator that can
have as many amp hours as there is gasoline.
I figure I will stock up on food
products (dried especially) down in Eugene or Springfield,
they have a WinCo there with all their bulk dried food
stuff, we should be good.
We are also going down to Grant's Pass,
Oregon to get a safety rating on our new rig. I am not sure
of what it all entails, but as soon as I know, I will
update.
November 10th, Tuesday: Tuesday Tire
Day then off to Washington again! We just can't seem to get
enough of Washington, going in and out of the state on our
way up to Idaho. But this time we were headed across and
south, kind of on a diagonal to the middle southern part of
the state.
November 11th, Wednesday - Drove
Slowly down and up the hills of Washington. 5% grade is not
too bad, but still, although the rig was not pushing on the
truck, Sasha felt the tow haul on the truck was not good
enough. And if we go to higher hills or mountains with
steeper grades, we will have to use the brakes more often.
That would be the kiss of death to the truck, the brakes
would wear out too quickly.
We also had a devil of a time finding a
truck stop around Yakima, Washington that would accommodate
our rig size and that had diesel. Finally found something
after doing several cloverleaf turns. Like I stated above,
we have 38 gallons of diesel in the truck, we might just
have to get an auxiliary tank.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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On 11/10 we stayed near Moses Lake (the town)
which was near the reservoir, however, we just
stayed in a Walmart. These couple of pictures show
how large the lake is - I was pretty amazed. We went
into the Walmart when it was dark so we could not
see the beautiful scenery until we left. |
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Moses Lake - Huge! |
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Back into High Desert yet again. But you can see
the hills and mountains in the distance. |
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While we were driving down the road a SnowRiver
Truck Camper was passing us. At first we thought it
might be Norm but the trailer was different. |
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Gotta love the west - they use the ridges around
here well - you might have to click on the picture,
but there are wind turbines on the ridge. Pretty
cool, but I could not get as close a picture as I
would have liked, they were too far away. |
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The Columbia River in all of its glory. We will
be seeing that river for quite a ways as we make our
way down to Portland Oregon. |
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We stopped at a rest stop called Priest Rapids
and while I was at the overlook, I took this
picture. Must say that Washington State does great
by their overlooks and rest stop areas. This one had
a large area for RVs and we could have had an
overnight here, but we did not know. |
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Even their rest stops have nice signage! |
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 Although
there was no one to take our picture, a little
splice here and there is not so bad. I thought it
pretty cool that they had small trails here too. The
west really knows how to do rest stops up right.
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We would be going over this bridge. |
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Our Rig! And the Blue Blue Sky! Fabulous! |
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Pretty Bridge (just so you know, in Washington,
the Columbia flows north to south before it starts
going west.) |
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Here is a small shot of the Delorme map; on the
right side you see the road, and then this M139 -
that is the rest stop. We were able to see the
bridge from there, and the Gingko Petrified Forest
State Park. But as you can see, the river is
oriented North - South. |
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Looks like a water spout, only thought we would
see those on the ocean, so what's the deal? |
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So as you can see, we are going down from the
rest stop, 5% grade, not too bad, but look, a curve
in the road! |
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BIG CURVE! |
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The Bridge and Columbia River and a wind sock! |
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The water spout is a fountain, pretty cool! and
look at the blue blue river against the dark rocks.
Beautiful! |
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We had lunch with this view - an ATV track on
the side of the road. We were again at a rest stop.
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I thought this sign was like of funny as it was
around 40 degrees F, definitely NOT like Palm
Springs. |
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We are now in the Yakima Indian Reservation and
Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge. It is still fall
here! |
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Getting on Dusk, we hardly went anywhere, and
still have to get through the reservation. |
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Man, I would have loved to see these viewpoints,
but alas, we were coming down in the dark so not
possible. This was one pull-out that was just not a
good place to stay, people coming down the hills
really too fast for comfort. We will have to find a
better place to stay. |
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Cool map of where we are. We will just go a
little farther, to Maryville, WA and stay at the
State Park there. |
November 12th, Thursday - Did not go
anywhere, stayed at the state park for another night. We do
not have to rush down to Eugene area as we do not have to be
there until Monday night.
November 13th, Friday - Yikes, it is
Friday the 13th! Well, that makes sense now. I was just
about to take a shower when....the water ran out. We first
thought that the pipes had froze (this is after all, a
three-season rig, unlike the SnowRiver which was four) and
we really needed to get to someplace warm. But Sasha checked
the tanks and found that the fresh water was really empty.
So I could not take a shower this morning.
Note to self, take a shower before Sasha, he
seems to take long ones, while I take quick ones. I think
the last one I took used less than 1 gallon of water. To the
environmentalists in the reading world out there, can you do
better than that? You can check by not allowing your tub to
drain, and then calculate out the water. I swear I am going
to do that with Sasha's showers - I think he uses way too
much water.
So anyway, crack of noon club again. Sasha
is going to get one of the fresh water tanks filled up, pour
the water into the tank, and then I can take a shower. The
rest of the water will be used for washing the dishes and
having some in reserve.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Windy Day on the Columbia, this is one of THE
places to go wind surfing and I bet kite boarding,
but it was way too cold today. |
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View out of our window, beautiful trees |
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Going over the Columbia River |
We left around 4:00 pm, to head into
Portland Oregon's evening rush hour. But we were going the
wrong way to be in their "rush hour" until we had come
around to the south side on I-205, where two lanes came down
to one to get onto I-5 going South. We only went about 150
miles today, which was fine for us, we do not have to get to
the solar panel place for a couple more days.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Finally into Oregon, home of hazelnuts,
wineries, and blackberries as big as your thumb. I
should know, I lived here for a year. I did go to
school in Oregon, but all I learned how to do was
cross-country ski, single-track mountain bike, and
make beer. Drank a bit of wine too. |
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Sort of hazy only from angle taken |
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Gotta love those wind mills, see them on every
ridge. |
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While driving along the road, we see the
beautiful Columbia |
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Water coming out of the dam - serious water
power! |
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Do you have to go to the bathroom yet? Lots of
water here. |
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We stopped at a HUGE Rest stop, there are
other campers here as well as trucks. As long as you have a
generator or other way of powering yourself, and are
self-contained (no bathrooms here, just great privacy),
things are great. It is close to the Willamette River and is
milepost 282 (not an exit, just a rest stop.)
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Rest Stop, really good, lots of spots and no
problems here. |
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View from window at Rest Stop |
November 14th, Saturday - Went
to a Walmart and stayed there for two days! We parked in the
back and out of the way. It was between the Walmart and a
Lowe's, which was good, because we needed things at Lowe's
as well as at Walmart.
November 15th, Sunday - Basically in
Camper throughout the day, did some work on the bath shower,
put up the wine glass holder, plastic bag holder and paper
towel holder.
November 16th, Monday - Getting to
Springfield/Eugene area for solar panel installs tomorrow!
Went to Winco to really look at the prices! WOW, you guys
in:
Washington
Idaho
Nevada
California (Sorry not Colorado,
I was wrong!)
Oregon
are really lucky, while we have Aldi on the
east coast, we do not have these types of major bulk bins
like the Winco place. But you have to have cash or checks,
no credit cards. Still, pretty cool, I was in there for
about 30 minutes just checking out the prices: many are
lower than what we had before, although some are still
higher; although it could be I have older prices on my
sheet, although I do not think so. Not every thing is a good
deal, but there are tons of things that are. We will have to
go shopping in the next couple of days to check out the real
deal, but not tomorrow, maybe on the 18th when we can get
everything into the camper.
We got over to AM Solar around 4:30, parked
in the back, and are now surfing fools. There is a a full
bath and wifi here, plus we are hooked up, which is good,
don't have to use our generator. It also seems a little
warmer here, could be that we are away from the wind which
makes it better. This morning it was so windy it felt cooler
than it really was. Wind chill of course, but just not as
nice a day either. As soon as we got to the solar place, it
seemed as though the sun was shining, welcoming to "green
living. " At least that is my 2 cents on it.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Our rig, at AM Solar. The light over the doorway
is our outdoor/indoor shower and bathroom should we
choose to use it. |
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I am so ready for solar and nice weather,
anything above 55 to 60 degrees would be great for
me, I am sick of cold weather. I want to wear shorts
again. |
November 17th, Tuesday: Going to the Solar Panels
place today. We will not be staying in the camper
tonight, but at a hotel. It will be a weird experience I am
sure, haven't really been in a motel in a long time.
Must
say that being in a hotel is nothing new, but got my TV time
in. Saw an episode of Bones and CSI, then saw the First
Wives Club - all good shows and movies, but not worth the
$79 just for a room. And that was a discount because I
worked for the federal government.
We went out to this restaurant called Izzy's
- it was a pizza and buffet joint. Now before you start
thinking it was like Pizza Hut with their different pizza
and salad bar, think again. This one has a grill, so we got
ribs, and pizza, and interesting salad bar with different
pastas, the fixings for a nice salad, lots of fried or BBQ
chicken with all of the sides, and great dessert bar with
soft serve ice cream, brownies, cookies, and this
cookies-n-cream type of whipped topping that was to die for.
Let's just say Sasha and I rolled out of there when we were
done, we so enjoyed the place. We were thinking of
Norm and Lou the entire time,
saying that they would love the place, has great choices and
all. We miss you guys!
We went back to the motel, watched TV and
read, and slept until 8:30-9 am!
November 18th, Wednesday: Solar Panels
Installed today too! I called the front desk and got a late
check out (normal is 11 am) - what are they thinking - 11 am?
That is stupid, especially since we did not have to be
anywhere until 4 pm at AM Solar. So once we got up, we went
over to Village Inn Restaurant and had a nice breakfast.
We got back to the room, got cleaned up and
packed up and headed out to do some grocery shopping. Now,
we had scoped out the Winco on the 16th (Sasha went too, so
he could understand the concept and check prices!) but this
day was the day to REALLY go shopping. So we went. You can
check out our November page to see the increase in the
grocery shopping but here is a partial list of what we got:
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
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Fresh Garlic
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
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Spaghetti Sauce
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
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Dried Goods
I think you get the idea. We went a little
hog wild regarding the dried food bins BUT here is a little
story...This is the second time we have been in a Winco and
this is the second time we have gone near the bulk bins,
only to find someone totally wailing on the raisins, like
they were starving and just had to have some for their
raisin bran. I mean, the scoops are only so big, and both
women were digging deep, emptying those bins before the next
person could get a single raisin. What is up with that? Is
there some unbelievable recipe that would call for so many
raisins in one sitting? Are they all making fruit cakes for
the holidays?
Anyway, we decided to let this woman get all
of the raisins she needed, and ask the dried bin person to
refill as necessary.
It probably took us at least 45 minutes just
at the bins, as we Really stocked up. We figured, well, no
sales tax on food, and we would not need to go to a store
for these dried essentials for at least 6 months. So
hopefully, the grocery shopping will go down for the next
couple of months, I can only hope. Although I do not think
the dark chocolate will last, I just have this feeling on
that.
I had also gone to Trader Joes before going
to Winco, the prices just do not compare. Trader Joes is
more expensive than Winco, and there is no way to get a
truck of our size into the parking lot of Trader Joe's!
Sasha parked the truck on a side street. I can only imagine
what it would be like if we tried to bring in the RV!
By the time we had done all of the shopping,
it was time to get back to AM Solar. We had not gotten
propane, so when we went in, it seemed they were not quite
ready for us, so we went back out and got the propane. When
we got back, they went over some of the instructions of the
panels, we stay on the batteries for about 4 hours, then
started charging up with electric.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Although Sasha did not get up on the
roof, they were able to show Sasha the roof using a
cherry picker type of equipment. You can see the Six
solar panels and there is plenty of space to walk
between them. |
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As you can see here, there is room for more
panels, but we felt that 6 was enough for our needs.
And you can see that the panels are hooked to the
box to the right of the air conditioner. We will use
the batteries tonight for a little while and then
turn on the electric once again. |
November 19th, Thursday: Get to
Grant's Pass and the Henderson's: before dark! Well, it took
a little while longer to get things happening this morning.
We had a late breakfast, I cleaned up while Sasha went over
the bill - WOW, it was a bit more than we expected partly
because Sasha had not calculated correctly with the
spreadsheet, and when they did the estimate, they forgot the
batteries! As each battery is $320, four batteries adds up
to $1280! Yikes! Anyway, what can you do, it was already put
in, we both were incorrect. If this helps us in the end to
do boondocking and not having to pay for campgrounds, well,
then it is worth it.
By the time we got everything done, it was
around 1 pm, and it takes about 3 hours to get to
Henderson's - and we still had to dump the black and gray.
So we headed down to Grants Pass, knowing that we would not
be hooking up to their electric tonight. Great boondocking
experience possible, except if it is cold, then we need the
space heater and the generator. But very nice country.
We had a couple of hills that were 5 and 6%
grades going down. For most cars, this is not a problem, but
when you have so much behind your truck, going slow down a
hill is important. Sasha had it under control, but he felt
the truck did not allow him to go as slow as he would like,
so that is part of the reason we are getting the extra brake
line put into the truck, to help us on the steep hills and
passes. Safety is very important and being safe is always a
good idea. Thereby less worry for our folks.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Oregon Countryside. Green and lush as Ireland.
We saw a sign saying that the area was the grass
seed capital of the world. With such lush green
beauty here, I can believe it. |
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You can also see the mountains in the distance.
It is pretty cool mountains on either side, green
land and the road between. |
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Oregon is Green! In many different ways. |
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Hard to read this but it says Haunted Barn. AKA
Halloween Barn. |
We got to Henderson's around 6 pm, they had
already left; we set up, and will wait until morning to find
out what they are going to do first, the test or the work on
the truck. If they get the work done on the truck first,
that would be good, we could maybe go somewhere for the
weekend, and then come back and do the test on the truck and
the rig. But we will have to see.
November 20th, Friday: Safety Rig
Inspection - RPA - Road Performance Assessment by
Henderson's: Well, not really, we are getting something else
done first. First we are getting a stronger brake system
installed, so that when we go down the big hills, there is
no nervous Sasha. He likes to go down those 5 and 6% grade
roads at about 55 miles per hour, rather than speeding up to
70 or more.
You know, when you go down a hill in a car,
it doesn't really matter because you are not towing anything
behind you that is pushing you. But when you have a rig like
ours, the weight of the 5th wheel is pushing on the truck,
making it go faster. And if there is a curve at the bottom
of the hill, you do not want to go around the curve faster
than needed or you could tip over. So this all has to do
with safety. Can we safely drive this truck and toyhauler
down those even bigger graded roads, the ones that are
seven, eight and nine percent grades? Well, we can once we
have this extra brake system.
Since they were not able to finish the
brakes on Friday, we will have to stay here over the weekend
to get the stuff done on Monday. Also on Monday they will do
the Safety Rig Inspection as well.
So this means that we will live in the
Toyhauler for the weekend in their parking lot. Should be
interesting, hope it is not too cold.
| Pictures |
Explanation |
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Here I am at Henderson's. We stayed in
Henderson's for five nights, fully plugged in, thank
God for big tanks! |
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Me and our rig, we were getting the brake
installed on Friday, and they let us use a car for
the weekend. |
November 21st, Saturday: Worked on
stuff on the computer but it was a rainy day today, stayed
in the camper except to go to the Farmers Market. We went
there first got some apples and cider, plus this nice bread,
then headed over to the old town area of Grants Pass and
went to a thrift store. I found a yogurt maker - been
looking for one for a while, and did not want to have to
spend the $20 or $30 for one. Nice, got it for $3.50 and if
it does not work, the money went to a good cause anyway.
I also had an interview for a volunteer job
in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I will know whether I
got the job or not by next week. I hope it happens, it would
be fun to work there.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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They have these drive through coffee shops all
over the place. And there are usually lines of
people waiting! This is just one of the companies
that we saw all over. |
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The picture says it all. |
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This is downtown area. Beautiful day great to
walk around. |
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Before you look at the next picture - what do
you think IOOF stands for? I will not put it in the
words in the next picture, but I could not believe
it when Sasha knew exactly what it was. Hint, they
have one in Georgetown. |
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Have you guessed it yet? If not, click on the
picture to see it better and you will know. |
November 22nd, Sunday: WINERIES! We
went to wineries up and down the Applegate region. We went
to seven wineries total. It was very funny, we decided to go
to the wineries today rather than yesterday, because I
wanted to be on top of my game for the interview. So we
chose today to go; what a good choice! It seems the wineries
were doing this special event - called UnCorked! Folks paid
$39 to go and drink wines from their barrels. They got a
wine glass and a wrist bracelet. They also got food! So we
went to the first winery, Soloro Winery and we were like,
wow, they are serving food and we did not have to pay for
the tasting of wine!
There are lots of wineries that make you pay
for the tasting, but I figured, why should I pay if they are
going to have open bottles already. So every single winery
that we went to that day I did not pay for the wines.
We found out (at Soloro) that they were
doing this wine tasting event, and we were like, sure, let's
go for it. So we went to the next one (oh and by the way,
Sasha as so good - he was not drinking at all, he was my
driver, which I think helped in the long run.)
From Soloro we went to Schmidt Family
vineyards. Now these guys are no little family vineyard,
they put a lot of money into their winery and tasting room
and landscaping. Unfortunately, it started to rain when we
were outside, so we could not enjoy the outdoor fireplace.
But the wines were good, the food pretty good, the scam not
so good. I tripped up and just went for the regular wines.
It seems that the large wineries have a separate room for
tasting the uncorked wines, the rest of the vineyards it is
all in one room. But in the end, all good wines.
From Schmidt we went to Rosella's then
Applegate Red (they were not on the uncorked tour) then
Troon - where they asked me to pay for the tasting, and I
said no. That winery would have beautiful especially since
they had port, but they were not allowing the tasting of the
port at that time. They did not even have it open. So I said
no thanks, that was what I had wanted to taste to begin
with, so no thanks. They still gave me a taste of their
holiday wine, which was good, but nothing like port.
From Troon we went to
Woolridge Creek Winery
the only one that gets a link they were that good! They were
good because they had nice wines, all of which I could taste
without having to pay, plus a nice sitting area outside
where we could see the setting sun, and the wine makers were
very nice, we were able to talk to them. One of the
winemakers - Greg, had studied in France and knew about
making sherry and port wines; and as I seemed interested (I
was) he invited me to try their sherry. It was not on their
tasting list, but he made it available for me to try. I
think the people that had paid for the UnCorked! were a
little miffed and came in a little after me and asked to try
it out. He also brought out the Port as well. All very tasty
but still - I do not think I would pay $36 for a 375 mL
bottle, it is just too much. We watched the setting sun and
enjoyed the day.
We did go to one other winery, but by the
time we had gotten there, the food was gone, I tried a few
and that was it. We then headed back to Henderson's in a
sort of a loop. It worked out well, and we saw some amazing
country. Beautiful all around.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Unfortunately, I did not take a single picture
of any of the wineries. This was taken on the way to
the wineries. |
November 23rd, Monday: Got everything done
with the Truck, we are not going to have any more work done
here. Going to go down to Chico, California to get some work
done on the truck in regards to the fuel. More to come about
that on Tuesday.
November 24th, Tuesday: Heading South
to California, took some pictures of Mount McLoughlin which
is over 9,000 feet above sea level. I love how these peaks
just appear after going around a corner. We also saw Mount
Shasta, constantly took pictures of it (at 14 K it is a big
mountain!) and will have those pictures up tonight (I
hope!).
We left Henderson's around 11:30 am - Sasha
had to get some parts for the next oil change that we will
do somewhere in the desert, and I wasted a good 1/2 hour on
the phone trying to get in touch with someone that is pretty
unreachable. Anyway, I cleaned up the place, got everything
in its place, and then put in the slides. I then backed up
the truck, and got the hitch in the VERY FIRST TIME! Yahoo!
that is a first for us, I am so excited! It no longer takes
an hour to hitch up! Of course, Sasha got it close, I just
had to finish the deal, but STILL! EXCITED!
So I packed us some goodies for on the road,
no sandwiches but good snacks. However, Sasha had even
better snacks - we had gotten this trail mix called Mt Hood
Trail Mix from Winco - one of the bulk items, and oh boy,
was it good - candied peanuts, dark chocolate covered
raisins, white chocolate covered somethings, and well, I
guess I shall have to eat more of it to let you know what
was in it. But it was GOOD. It gave us the sugar high that
we needed. But now Sasha has crashed - well, not really, he
is taking a nap before we head into Chico.
We are only about 50 miles away from
Transfer Flow, they are the company that will put in an
extra fuel tank into the truck. We are looking at the 74
gallon extra tank that will be put in the bed of the truck,
right behind the window. How they do it I don't know but
Sasha called them up first thing this morning (around 8:30
am) and asked them if they could do the job tomorrow. They
said yes, so this is good. We are headed towards one of the
most congested areas of the USA on the most traveled holiday
during the year. We are hoping they will let us stay there
tomorrow night too, so that we can drive to wherever we are
going on Thursday.
Anyway, We are
now in California, so time for a new page.
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