Back to Bolder City (Bolder City, NV)

 

We left Boise headed for Albuquerque and the Balloon Festival.   We had reservations to dry camp (no hookups) for 12 days at the balloon festival. It took 3 days to make the trip.  The fist night we stayed in a campground outside of Canyon Lands and Arches NP.  It was hard not to stop and see these NPs.  These NPs are on our bucket list, but time did not permit us to linger.  The next night we stayed in an Elks Lodge Farmington, NM.  The next day we pushed on to Albuquerque.  We arrived early for the Balloon Festival so we stayed at a great campground in Albuquerque, American RV Park   We met up with Judy & Bob and Pete & Diane, members of the New Horizons group, where we had a great time.

Then it was time to go to the Balloon Festival and meet up with the Escapees Boomers group.  After setting up it was time for Happy Hour where we got acquainted with the other Boomers. The next morning we went over to the main launch area to get training as ground crew members.  After the training we received our ground crew assignments. 

When we retuned to the camper we received a call from my brother, Vic, that Judi, who was being treated for cancer, took a turn for the worse.  We immediately made plans to leave the balloon festival and head for Las Vegas.  It was a two day trip the first night we stopped in a campground south of the Grand Canyon that looked like a ghost town.  The people that work their were not happy campers.

We arrived at Vic’s house Saturday afternoon.  Judi passed away 3 AM in her  home Thursday (10/10/2013)  morning.  We will miss you Judi.  You will be in our thoughts forever. There will be a celebration of Judi’s life on Sunday, Oct. 20, at Vic’s house. 

Ann & Roy

We are on Our Way, Well not Yet (Boise, ID)

 

We returned the rental car and picked up the truck from the Ford dealer.  Good thing the repair was under extended warranty.  Looks like they put Humpty Dumpty back together properly.  Everything seems to work fine.

We picked up I-5 north through Portland where we got onto I-84 East toward Boise.  Boise is a two day-er, meaning we divided the trip into two days.  The first night we stayed in a half priced Passport America RV park.  A very nice park with full hookups for $18.75, well worth the money.

The next day we got back onto I-84.  Next stop Boise.  At mile marker 287.5 we pasted 45th Parallel, it is half way between the Equator and the North Pole.  We also entered Mountain Daylight Time.   Ann sat staring at her phone to watch the time change.

On Saturday we arrived at Boise Riverside RV park.  We  met up with our friends, Warren and Sandy, who we met at the Escaped two years ago.  Warren came over and helped me fix one of my slide toppers.  Thanks Warren. 

I noticed that one of the six tires on the Coach was warring uneven.  We have a Mor Ryde suspension, which is not what most trailers use.  It is an independent wheel system.  I called Mor Ryde and asked for a dealer that could do an alignment.  They gave me a name of an alignment shop here in Boise.  The only problem is he could not take me in until Wednesday.  So Wednesday morning we will pull out and go to have the Coach aligned.  Then on to the Balloon Festival.  With all of the delays time is getting tight and we will have to move to get down there for October, 2.

It may seem like we are doing nothing but repairs.  First, we do have almost 100K miles on the truck.  Also, if you put a set of wheels on your house and pull it down the road at 60 MPH things will break.  These are the facts of life when RVing.  We just deal with the problems.  Even when we were in our Sticks and Bricks house, things broke. 

Life is Still Great on the Roan Road…

Still Waiting (Eugene, WA)

 

We are still sitting here at the Elks Lodge, waiting for the truck to be finished.  We were told today is the day.  After we get the truck back we will have to test everything on the truck.  You see, in order to fix the engine exhaust they had to lift the whole cab off the chassis.  In order to do that they disconnected all cables and hoses.  We have installed a lot of add extra equipment and ran a lot of wires and hoses.  I just hope they can put Humpty Dumpty back together again!

Since we were sitting around, Tuesday morning I said to myself, “self and wife should take a mini vacation since we had the time”.  We had the rental car, it was just sitting there.  We packed up a few things for an overnight trip to Crater Lake.  We left around 2:30 PM and got to the motel around 5 PM.  The next morning we got up to a rainy, foggy day.  It turned out to make for some interesting photographs.  At the higher elevations on the west rim we hit dense fog.  On the east rim we ran into blinding snow.  The rest was clear with low hanging clouds and rain.  

 

		First the clouds roll in, then came the rain VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

On the way home, at the higher elevation, SNOW!

We arrived home yesterday, 24 hours later, about 5 PM.  It was a nice vacation.

P.S.  Ann thought this was one of my better ideas.  Personally, I think all my ideas are great.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

Playing the Waiting Game (Eugene, OR)

 

We brought the truck into the local Ford dealer on Wednesday as scheduled.  So we rented a car to get around.  Ford extended warranty is covering most of the cost of the rental.  We called this morning to see when we could pick up the truck.  Yup, you guested it!  They had to send the cylinder head out to the machine shop and it is not back yet.  Of course, today is Friday and nobody works on Saturday so it won’t be until Monday before they get the Cylinder Head back.  Then they have to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  I just hope it all works when we get it back.  It looks like Crater Lake may be out and we will have to start heading for New Mexico right away.

Ann is on a crusade.  She read all of the Harry Potter books.  Now we (or she) is watching the complete series on DVD.  Well Ann is watching, I sleep though most of it.  We make a good team.  So now with the truck in for repair and we are stuck in Eugene, Ann should be able to finish the series.  Four down, three to go (the last one is in two parts).

The other day we took a day trip up the Oregon Coast.  We drove west to Florence then north on Rt. 101 to Newport and then back to Eugene.  What a great view of the Pacific coast. 

Again, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife Ann.

Also Happy Anniversary to our long time friends, Maryann and Santi.

Life is Still Great on the Roan Road….

Change of Plans (Eugene, OR)

 

As I promised, here are the pictures from the trip we took to the Columbia Gorge when we were in Vancouver.

First stop was the Cape Horn overlook.  The views were breath taking.

Next stop was the Bonneville Locks and Dam.  Because of the Sequestration the Visitor Center for the Locks were closed.  Bummer, we wanted to see the Locks in operation.  We did go to see the Dam and the Powerhouse.  The Dam was built and is run by the Army Corp of Engineers.  They keep the grounds and the visitor’s center in beautiful condition. 

We stopped at Beacon Rock State Park to eat our picnic lunch.  Washington State has some really nice parks.

Beacon Rock State Park

This is a Chanel Marker for the Columbia River traffic.  It can be seen from the river and is used by the river traffic to keep in the channel.

I think we have our tire problem fixed. And it only cost us $926 more. After multiple balancing of the tires and replacing two of the Toyo tires. The fix was to replace all of the tires with Michelin tires. Good thing there is no sales tax in Oregon.  I chose to buy the tires from Les Schwab because we travel and they are all over the western U.S.  Good choice.  They recommended the Toyo tires.  Bad choice.  All in all they have been helpful.  I had to pay only the cost difference between the Toyo and the Michelin tires.

I brought the truck into Ford for routine service and to check out some noises.  I had the Oil, oil filter and fuel filters changed.  The noise turns out to be a broken bolt and an exhaust leak.  Problem is they cannot get to it until next Wednesday and it will take 2 days to fix.  Good news is it will be covered under the extended warranty, minus the $100 deductible.  Even the car rental may be covered. 

So we are stuck here in the Eugene Elks lodge until next Saturday.  We have a 1500 mile trip to Albuquerque and the balloon festival. We need to be there the beginning of October, So going down the Oregon coast will have to wait for the next time we are in the northwest.  We will go to Crater Lake National Park instead and then start making our way to Albuquerque.

Happy Birthday Ann !! 

 

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

Trains, Planes, & Automobiles (Vancouver, WA)

 

First, a Happy and Healthy Rosh Hashanah (New Year) to all our family and friends. 

Last post I mentioned the problem with the new tires. The replacement rim arrived. I immediately went to Les Schwab and had them put the new rim on and balance the tire. Cost $53.  Result, same problem,  there is a vibration coming from the rear that starts around 40 MPH.  Back we go to Les Schwab.  This time they jack up the rear end and spin the tires.  You can see that they are wobbling.  So now we are waiting for replacement tires for all four rear wheels.  I know the rim was bent.  I was told that before with the old tires, but they did not vibrate.  Wednesday the tires are going to be in.  We shall see.

Last week we went to Fort Vancouver.  Fort Vancouver was not a military Fort but the Northeast headquarters for the Hudson Bay Company.  The HBC, which still exists today, was the equivalent of a multinational corporation of today.  It was originally formed in 1670.

That’s a few years before I was born.   It’s primary means of currency was the beaver pelt.  Everything was traded with the equivalent worth of the beaver pelt. 

The next day we we went to the Pearson Air Museum, which is on the same grounds as Fort Vancouver.  The Pearson Air Museum is attached to the Pearson Field which is the second oldest airport in the US.

Next we took a ride along the Columbia Gorge.  We may go back there tomorrow so I will wait to post any pictures until the next blog.

On Saturday we took a ride to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.  It is home of the Spruce Goose.  The Howard Hughes creation that flew one test run and never flew again. The museum houses a great collation of WW I, WW II, all the way up to modern day jet and commercial airplanes.

Happy Anniversary to Judi & Vic

Happy Anniversary to Caroline & Andrew

Happy Birthday to Jonathan

Well that’s all for now folks.  As usual.

Life is Still Great on the Roan Road…

Playing the Waiting Game (Vancouver, WA)

 

We left the Silver Cove RV Park in Silver Lake, WA on Friday for an easy 61 mile drive down I-5 to the Elks Lodge in Vancouver, WA.

While at Silver Cove RV Park we visited Mt. St Helens National Monument.  On May 18, 1980 Mt. St. Helens erupted killing 7 people, destroying 250 homes and also destroying thousands of acres of woodlands.  In the 33 years since the disaster mother nature has rejuvenated itself.

Because of a forest fire upwind, the pictures are a little hazy.

 

So here we are in Vancouver, WA. waiting.  About six months ago we found that the outside rear dully rim was bent.  I had it balance and it wasn’t bad.  After the new tires were put on the vibration became worse.  I did some research and found 2 places in the Vancouver/Portland area that said they could fix the rim but would have to look at it.  I went and had the spare put on and the the tire taken off the rim.  Alas, no one in the area had the equipment to repair the rim.  My only alternative was to replace the rim. I called Ford, they wanted $980.  I think NOT.  I took out my trusty computer and went to work.  I found a used rim on ebay for $242.  So here we sit in Vancouver waiting for it to arrive.  Just hope it is the right rim. 

We just had lunch with the “Bernstein Bunch,” Alyssa, Mike, Emma, and Lucy.  They came to Portland  (fyi, Portland is only across the Columbia River from Vancouver) for Mike’s brothers wedding.  We had a great time visiting. 

In the meantime,  Ann has been looking for a couple of books that are not available for the Kindle.  She has been looking for them at all the used bookstores we have come across, to no avail.  She has refused to buy them from Amazon until she has exhausted all her sources.  So, after lunch, we headed to Powell’s in downtown Portland.  It is a big used/new bookstore (like the Strand in NYC).  It took her about 15 minutes to find what she was looking for.  Ann has warned me that we are going back there so she can check out the cookbook section!

Life is Great on the Roan Road….