Vacaville to Carmel

Sept 14^th

Well we had an interesting morning today. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe we’re living in a realm of bad karma… We were getting ready to pull up stakes so I started to disconnect from the auxiliary propane tank. As I unthreaded the line, a major blowback of propane came gushing out past the fitting. Dang and double dang. Now what? Or what next?

I assumed that the problem was a broken valve on the auxiliary tank so I called Chris at Nor’ West Mobile RV to see if he had any ideas – he did the original install of the extend-a-stay auxiliary propane system. We chatted for a while as he looked for the warrantee info for the manufacturer. With that information he suggested locating a local propane service tech.

So up to the office to get a phone number for the local propane dealer. I called them and they apologized but no, they didn’t have any available service techs for at least a week. They suggested calling the local Camping World which I did. Again, no luck. They don’t have mobile service but suggested a local mobile RV guy. I called his number and left a message. Then I decided I better call the tank manufacturer’s customer service. Amazing! I spoke to a real person on the second ring.

After repeating my story for the fourth or fifth time she asked me several questions, none of which applied. Then I hit the jackpot… she gave me the name and phone number of the head of their R&D department. I immediately called him and after discussing what I was experiencing, he suggested that the problem was probably related to the bad regulator valve in the main line and to try turning the actuator switch on and off a couple of times leaving it in the off position.

I did all that and then tried to undo the hose from the auxiliary tank once more. This time only the normal amount came out of the line and I was able to complete the disconnect so we could get on the road. I called the R&D guy back with the good news and put the brass end cap on the hose to seal it. Once that was done we were able to pull in the slides, pull up the jacks and get under way.

The roads in this area are really heavily trafficked with lots of semi’s. As a result, there is a lot of bad pavement and nothing is straight or flat, plus there is a perpetual 20 mph side wind making the first 140 miles a real grind. But we made it to Carmel and turned onto Carmel Valley Rd to go to our home for the week, “Carmel by the River RV Resort (http://www.carmelrv.com/). 

We arrived at the one lane bridge and tried to see if we could get across without taking off the tow dolly and car – no go. So we took the car off, then disconnected the tow dolly and pulled it off the road out of the way so we could get to the campground. There was about 10 inches of clearance on each side between the tires and the bridge curb. With Tina following in the car we drove sloooowwwwly across the bridge. But the fun was just beginning. 

We were still over half a mile from the resort and it was a very small, narrow road along the hillside with a cliff face on the drivers side and a drop off on the passenger side. Coming around an uphill blind curve we met a pickup towing a horse trailer and she was already over the crest of the hill. I got out and looked to see how far over I could move the front of the rig and still keep the tires on the road (the shoulder was less than 15 inches wide with a 50 foot drop off).

Moving ever so slowly and checking where my tir was we were able to get enough room for her to pull alongside the coach just far enough that I could go forward and pull the front of the rig in behind her trailer giving her enough room to get past as the rear end swung out away from the hillside. But wait, there’s more!

After finall negotiating the final curves and hills I made it to the top of the entrance lane and stopped at a big stop sign thinking this was where I needed to stop to register.

Just as I got out a guy walked out from behind the rig and asked me why I had stopped. I pointed to the stop sign and he asked me where I was going. I told him “Carmel by the River” and he said, “Follow that one lane road a little further, it’s just over the hill.

Arghhhh!! I got back in the rig and slowly eased down the hill and sure enough, there was the campground and registration. We had finally arrived. The nice lady at registration showed us where to go and it turned out to be an easy site to get into, especially with Tina’s expert directions. We got all set up, walked the dogs and had lunch. And yes, it was only in the mid 60’s and cloudy, a 20 degree difference from the past few days, but then we are on the coast.

After lunch we talked to the ladies in the office about the dolly and she said she would have one of their staff help me get it in from the other side of the bridge and that he’d come and let us know as soon as he was back. This was about 2:30 PM. By 4:30 I was a little concerned so back to the office I went and found out that they hadn’t heard from him but he was aware of the situation. So we took the dogs for a walk down to the river – very shallow with lots of trees and brush over hanging.

By 6:30 PM we were nervous about the trailer so I walked back over to the office – they were closed. So we grabbed the bicycle cable and padlock, threw them in the car and drove out to secure the trailer to something, anything, at least until tomorrow. We got to the bridge, drove across and the trailer was gone. Dam, dam, dam I waited to long. Somebody decided it was too good a deal to pass up. With heavy heart we turned around and drove back to camp.

Parking in front of the rig we could smell a burnt rubber smell coming from the car. All I could do was shake my head and tell Tina I’d look at it tomorrow. With that I walked down the row a ways toward the storage area and what did I find but our trailer, parked next to several others.  Talk about an  emotional roller coaster… but at least we had that problem resolved!!

Well we had leftovers for dinner, yummy, blackberry cobbler with coffee icecream for desert and decided to just take the rest of the night off, so we are!

We’ll have lots more pictures tomorrow and over the next few days as we explore Carmel and Monterey so stay tuned for more of our exciting adventures!

Miles driven today, 174. Total for the trip so far, 1,030 miles.

To see all our photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Corning to Vacaville

Sept 13^th

A beautiful day! Blue sky, sun and mid 80’s forecast for this afternoon. Since we have a short mileage day (under 120) we take it easy until around 9:00 when Tina tries to bring in the bedroom slide and nothing is working. I got on the phone with Les Schwab in Clinton where we bought the batteries in March and they told us to call the Corning branch. 

I called the Corning Les Schwab and explained our situation. They agreed to send somebody over with four replacement batteries and install them for us. The technician was here by 10:30 and had the new batteries installed 45 minutes later. We only paid for a service call – the batteries were replaced under warrantee. With the new batteries in place the slides came in, we buttoned up for travel and were on I-5 by 11:30 headed for a fuel stop about 75 mile south. Since we had to keep our speed at 55mph (three of more axles) I found a semi doing 55 and followed him down the highway. 

We got off the freeway at MM 554 and pulled into a Pilot Travel Center. These are huge fuel centers for truckers with up to 15 fueling islands to allow trucks to fill tanks on both sides at the same time. We were third in line and there were five lines of trucks next to us, three deep! Since we’d be there a while, Tina went over to the attached “Wendy’s” and got us some lunch. Half an hour later we had filled up and returned to I-5. 

On our pad at Vinyard RV Park

Turning onto I-505 to San Fransisco we made the next 28 miles to the Vinyard RV Park with no incidents, registered and pulled into our spot. Once we were set up and took the dogs for a walk Tina pointed to the front of the car and the back of the coach and asked me where all the dirt and soot was coming from? It was all over everything, even the safety chains for the trailer and tie downs for the car. 

I was pretty mystified. I disconnected the car and had Tina drive it off and park it. Then I took the bikes off the bike holder and set them aside, they were grimy too. Then I dropped the bike holder and opened the door to the engine compartment to see if I could see anything that might be a problem. Nothing. So I got the wash bucket out, put some dish soap in it and started to clean everything. On close examination, it looked like particles of soot and they were on every horizontal surface all the way to the top at the back of the coach as well as on everything else, car, kayaks, bikes, trailer, unghhh! What a mess. 

I finally concluded that the problem was caused by following the trucker down I-5 at 55 mph for 70 + miles. The soot was actually carbon particles from his exhaust stacks. Put into the air above his cab and picked up by the airflow over our coach, sucked down behind us in the down draft and then deposited on everything in the turbulence behind the coach. This stuff wasn’t oily, it was like lamp black. 

Two hours later I quit trying to get everything clean deciding to wait until I could do a better job when I had more time at our Carmel stop. I got the car back on the trailer, bikes on and everything secured for tomorrows travel. Then I dumped the holding tanks, finished a few other minor tasks and called it quits. By now it was 5:15 and I needed a break. So I went inside to wash up and we both puit our suits on and went over to the pool for an hour. 

Back at the coach Tina made a great noodle dinner with scallions, small tomatoes, corn, garlic and parmesan cheese. Called “Papperdelle with Corn” (www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/pappardelle-with-corn-recipe/index.html) it was delicious! After dinner and doing the dishes we had some more of the Blackberry Crumble with a dollop of ice cream – mmmmmmm! With tea! 

What a great way to end a day! 

Today’s miles, 115. Total for the trip so far, 856 miles. 

No photos today.

Ashland to Corning, CA

Sept 12^th

Ahhhh, it’s nice to be on the road with no schedule. Since we only planned to do a short drive today, we had a leisurely morning eventually getting packed up and ready to go about 9:00 AM. We pulled out of our site and got to the entrance where another camper was in the exit lane trying to dump his tanks. Since we wanted to get propane in the main tank, we had to wait for him to finish. 

And this was on the down hill side...

Eventually we were able to pull up and fill up then pulled out of the campground onto OR-66 headed back toward Ashland so we could pick up I-5 south. We got on the freeway about 9:45 and continued to wind our way through the mountains of southern Oregon. Surprisingly the elevations get up to 4,000 feet but seventeen miles after leaving camp we reached the California border. 

Getting ready to start our descent to the Mt Shasta Plateau

Mountain driving is even more intense than driving on the flats – the road twists and turns going up and down to follow the valleys through the hills. Trying to manage our speed and spare our brakes I made good use of our “Jake Brake” keeping our downhill speeds between 45 and 55 and between 40 and 50 on the uphills, enough to play leapfrog with the semi’s, passing them going up, being passed going down. 

Dropping down into the Mount Shasta plateau, the haze was so heavy that Mt Shasta was barely visible until we were within five miles of it. It was still beautiful when we were next to it, but there wasn’t much snow on its flanks. Continuing through Weed, Mt Shasta and Dunsmuir we continued our slow descent down to the flats and the city of Redding. 

Set up in Heritage RV Park

Once down out of the mountains we made good time to Red Bluff only to go past our exit due to heavy traffic in one of the construction areas. No matter, Tina grabbed the Trailer Life Directory and looked for a place in the next city, Corning. Bingo, Heritage RV Park looked like our next stop. We pulled in about 1:00 pm and got a pull through site, set up (no problems with slides this time) and had lunch. 

We took the dogs for several walks around the park to enjoy the sunshine and 90 degree temperatures making sure they had plenty of water. The rest of the afternoon we relaxed, read and watched the US Open. Later we decided to walk to a small Mexican restaurant for dinner and stop at Safeway on the way back. Dinner was surprisingly good for a mall restaurant. We got done with our shopping and headed back to the coach about 7:30 pm. 

The rest of the evening we worked on trip planning, the blog and photos, finally calling it quits around 10:30 after a final dog walk. 

Miles traveled today, 178. Total for the trip so far, 741 miles. 

To see all our photos, go to: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Harrisburg to Ashland, OR

Sept 11^th

Another stunning day! We were up around 7:00 to start our day. After walking the dogs, getting their breakfast and then eating our own, it was time to start getting ready to leave. I disconnected the propane (we’re still working off the small auxiliary tank), dumped the tanks and disconnected the sewer hose. After taking then garbage to the dumpster I noticed that the tires on the tow dolly were low. I had pumped them up last night but apparently we have some sort of a problem. So I got the pump out and pumped them up again with the intent to check them when we stopped for diesel. 

Then we unhooked the water line and shore power, brought the slides in and released the jacks. Everything was going well until we heard several sharp, loud, bangs from underneath the rig. We quickly went outside and checked to see if we could find a problem. Nothing! So we started the engine and waited for the air pressure to come up so we could pull out. 

Releasing the parking brake and putting it in drive we pulled out of our site only to have a couple more loud bangs and the coach lurched from one of them. I stopped the coach figuring we had broken one of the springs that pull up the jacks, dropping a jack to the road causing it to catch on the ground causing the lurch.

Great, just what we need. 

Getting out of the coach again we checked underneath and couldn’t see anything wrong. I finally concluded that the air bags (air suspension) made a couple of adjustments in coming up to their final operating level. Back in the coach again we gingerly pulled out of the RV Park and headed for I-5. Easing onto the freeway about 8:15 we came up to speed (about 60mph) and with light traffic we sailed down the road toward Ashland.

Tina and the kids leaving the coach

We made a stop to get fuel and check the tires on the tow dolly (seemed okay) and made the rest of the drive with no problems pulling in to the Glenyan RV Park about 12:30. After registration we got the rig parked, leveled and started putting out the slides. The bedroom slide was okay, the driver side slide was okay but the passenger side slide was once again difficult to get out. Apparently something is binding  but we can’t find what’s wrong. Eventually we got it all the way out, hooked up water, power and cable and had a bite to eat. 

Cap'n Hotshot picking blackberries

After lunch we took the dogs for a walk to explore the campground then spent half an hour picking blackberries. Tina is going to make a cobbler. The rest of the afternoon we watched the Hawks play San Fransisco, read and relaxed. I worked on the blog and our photos. 

Miles today, 199. Total for the trip so far, 563 miles.

To see all out photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Lakewood to Harrisburg, OR

Sept 10^th

Up at 7:30 (hard to keep the kids in bed once the sun comes up) I sashayed over to Mom’s, put the coffee on, grabbed the paper then went next door to Shanda’s and had a bowl of cereal and a banana. Then Shandas boy friend Bob came over to get their coach ready for a drive to Lincoln City. Eventually Tina joined me and we went back over to Mom’s for a short visit before saying goodbye to everybody. Bob and Shanda pulled out around 9:30 and we followed fifteen minutes later.

On our pad at Diamond Hill RV Park

It was another beautiful day but traffic was fairly heavy through Olympia. We stopped in Tumwater for fuel the pushed on south. Just north of Portland we took the I-205 by-pass and avoided the Portland river crossing and bridge mess. Bob and Shanda had cut over at Longview headed for Ashland and ended up being stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour before finally getting into Astoria and heading south on Hwy 101.

Once past Portland the traffic lightened up and we stopped for lunch at a rest stop about 15 miles into Oregon. Once back on I-5 we pretty much sailed on through keeping the speedo between 55 and 60 arriving in Harrisburg and Diamond Hill RV Park about 2:30pm.

Sunset along I-5

We got set up and spent the rest of the afternoon napping and reading, having dinner about 6:30. After dinner we took the kids for a walk around the park, took photos of the sunset and retired for the evening.

To see all our photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Miles driven today, 231. Total for the trip so far, 393.

Mike and Tina’s 20th Anniversary Party

Back Row - Fallon with Makenna, Wesly and Laura, Middle Row - Kylee, Lori, Mike, Tina, Emma, Kevin, Sis, Front row - Amber, Shanda, Melissa, Mom Jarvis and Marni

Lakewood, WA
Sept 9^th

After arriving at Mom Jarvis's on Tuesday, we had a very nice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with warm weather (finally) and time to relax after our labors at the park. There was time to visit with Laura, Zelon and their two younger boys Dakota (15) and Noah (9). They are on their way to the big island of Oahu. Zelon is going to a new posting and they are moving from Virginia for a four year period and stopped for a week to visit family.

Tina had time to do some shopping for the trip, get her hair and nails done while I washed the motor home and visited with Mom Jarvis. Friday afternoon, Zelon, the boys and I went to lunch at Red Robin for burgers as Dakota had never been there. Later in the afternoon the rest of the family started showing up – Kevin and Sis, Shanda and daughter Amber, husband Chris, daughter Kylee and son Brodie, Kevin and Sis son Wesley, wife Melissa and baby Makenna, our daughter Marni, her husband Daren and daughter Emma, our daughter Lori, Tina's niece Laura, her husband Zelon and their boys Dakota and Noah, Laura's sister Shelly and her daughter Fallon and her boyfriend Mark, and finally Tina's nephew Ron and his wife Dawn. 

Everyone had come to celebrate our 20^th Anniversary and wish us bon voyage. There was plenty of food, of course, and the drinks flowed with chocolate cake for desert, ummmm, ummm, delicious! With such warm weather we all ended up on the deck outside taking lots of family photos. Finally about 9:30 we did a quick cleaning, helped Mom Jarvis back into the house and wrapped up a really nice day.

Tina and I finally hit the sack around 11:15 since we didn’t plan on leaving until 10 the next morning.

To see all our photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski