5/10–5/17/12–RV Maintenance and a Side Trip or Two then on to Salem

One of the main chores I had been wanting to get to was removing all items off our countertops and giving them a thorough cleaning and discarding some excess paperwork and whatever else was just lying around there.

This is our campsite and Guaranty RV’s service area.  With warm weather during the week, it worked out really well being under a tall tree for some shade.

On a drive around the area one day, we noticed several fields with white flowers and were kind of curious as to what kind of crop it was, but never did find out.

Off one of the country roads, we followed signs to a greenhouse and took a tour.

On Monday morning we were surprised to get a call from Shane in the service department to let us know there was an opening that morning for them to start on getting the roof sealed.  We got ready as quickly as possible and drove over to the service department.  Knowing that the work would take all day, we decided to make a day trip to Florence, then up the coast to Waldport then back to Junction City.  Here are a few pictures from our day on the road.

It’s always interesting to see barns in all shapes and conditions out in the countryside.

The Florence area is known for it’s sand dunes and there are many places for off road vehicles to drive out on the dunes.

And the bridge in Florence.

And there are some rocky shorelines along the Pacific Ocean.

This bridge came into view as we got nearer to Waldport.

We returned to Junction City and the RV came out of the shop around 5pm, but there was more work to be completed yet on the roof.  We were asked to have it at the shop at 8am so they could get that completed.  But, they were short staffed and unsure if they would be able to get the oil changes completed on Tuesday.  Regardless, we were definitely scheduled for Wednesday and it the work would be done that day for sure.  We ran a few errands around town and returned to Guaranty RV’s sales office for their barbecue lunch.  After lunch, we returned to the service center and were told that they would try very hard to get us in for the remaining service jobs so that we could be on our way.  All of the work was finished by 5pm, and we decided to stay another night before heading north.

We drove north to the Salem Elks lodge on Wednesday.  This is a familiar sign as we get close to Salem.

When we arrived at the Elks, we spotted John and Linda’s RV in the lot.  We met up with them later and made plans for happy hour and dinner at the lodge with Gabby and Janice joining us.  We had a nice visit with all of them that evening and are trying to get together with Janice later to help her with setting up a new computer.

Today we drove to Art and Caroline’s house to visit with them for a while before meeting up with Ken’s cousins.  We hadn’t seen Art and Caroline in quite a long time, so it was really great to be able to visit with them and catch up on what they’ve been doing.

We returned to the RV for lunch and Ken’s cousin Don and his wife Stella showed up to visit.  Another cousin, Don’s sister Frieda and her husband Dick also dropped by to visit.  Dick and Frieda had plans for the evening so we’ll be meeting them for dinner tomorrow, but we did go out with Don and Stella this evening.

Back at the RV, I decided it was time to do a quick catch up with the blog as I’ve been ignoring it all week.  That’s it for now.

5/9/12 - Canyonville to Junction City, OR

We left the boondocking area of Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, OR and headed north to Junction City.

In the final few miles to Junction City, we drove north on Hwy 99.

Our timing wasn’t too good and we arrived at Guaranty RV’s service area during their lunch hour.  We told the receptionist that we would have lunch in our RV and wait for Shane to contact us.  After his lunch, Shane came out to look at the roof and give us an idea of what would be involved in resealing the seams on the roof.  Since we had planned on an oil and filter change on the RV and generator when we got to Spokane, we decided to add that to the service work here so that we would be done with all planned maintenance for the summer.  After parking and getting set up for our stay in the service area campground, we went into the office to talk to Shane and set up the appointment.  From previous conversations over the phone with Shane, we were hoping to get things done by Friday and be on the road.  Unfortunately, they’ve been very busy and we were told it would be Monday or Tuesday before they could get started on the work, but we were welcome to stay in their service campground while awaiting our service.

We considered taking a trip to Florence leaving Thursday and returning on Sunday to be ready for service.  After much consideration, we decided to just hang out and finish a few projects we’ve been avoiding for some time.  More later….

 

5/8/12–Grants Pass to Canyonville, OR

The work on our RV was completed by Henderson’s Line-Up in Grants Pass, OR early and we were on the road north to Canyonville.

And here is a unique name for a trucking company.

Their largest competitor is YRU Trucking, LLC.

We continued to the Seven Feathers truck stop to add more diesel to the tank, then went across the freeway to the casino’s boondocking area where we set up for the night.  Ken’s cousin didn’t answer her phone, so we had lunch in the casino and were able to get a hold of her later.  We drove up to Laura and Richard’s farm and visited all afternoon and took a ride on their ATV to see other parts of the farm before we returned to the RV.

Here’s Laura dusting off the mule for our ride up the hill.

Ken is talking with Richard and Laura up by the pond in their upper field.

One of the new calves is resting.

While up on the hill, Laura pointed out these unusual flowers called cat’s ears due to the shape of the blossom and they appear to be furry.

And there were also some torch flowers in the garden area.

We rode the mule over to Laura’s son David’s house to see his weekend project he built for is son Caleb.  Here is Caleb in is fort with Ken and Caleb’s mother Lorna looking on.

After our visit, we returned to the RV for the evening.

5/7/12–Crescent City, CA to Grants Pass, OR

We left the campground in Crescent City and headed north on Hwy 101.  After a brief stop to take on some additional fuel at an outrageous price, we continued on and turned west on Hwy 199.

Hwy 199 was a very scenic drive following a river at times and the road seemed much narrower with more twists and turns than Hwy 101.

We drove through a tunnel.

There were narrower section of road than this and thankfully weather was warm enough that we paid no attention to the snow zone sign.

This road took us past the entrance to Oregon Caves.  We visited there on a previous visit to Grants Pass.

About another 30 miles down the road, we arrived at Henderson’s Line-Up around noon.  We weren’t on the schedule until Tuesday morning, but they were able to get it into the shop in the afternoon and got started on the work to be completed.

5/6/12–Eureka to Crescent City

Sunday morning we continued north on Hwy 101 to our destination of Crescent City.  Although we were headed for Grants Pass at about 190 miles away, Ken knew it would be narrow and windy roads all the way and chose to break the trip up into two days.

We followed the Klamath River for a while.

We passed the Trees of Mystery and decided we would return later in the day to check it out after we got the RV set up in the campground.

We passed a section of the Pacific Ocean shoreline.

And then there were some more narrow twisting roads through the redwoods.

After getting parked in the campground, we returned to visit the Trees of Mystery to explore their museum.  We were greeting by Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

We expected the stop to be a tourist trap which in part, it ways.  However, they did have a very interesting museum that we went through.  We returned to Crescent City and drove around town.  Here’s a photo of the Crescent City Lighthouse.

After the tour, it was back to the evening for the evening.

5/5/12 - Our Last Day in Eureka

In our time here in Eureka, we had occasion to travel north on Hwy 101 through the downtown area several times.  This sign caught my eye on our very first trip through town and I finally got a photo of it.  Hmmmm…

Once again, we saw large herds of elk in a couple of spots along the highway.

We turned off onto Bald Hill Road which also goes to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove of redwoods.

Our first stop was at the Lady Bird Grove which was a mile long hike through some very old redwood growths.  The trail starts on this bridge crossing the road.

Following are a few more selected photos from our walk.

And a couple more photos as we continued up Bald Hill Road.

We returned to the Eureka Elks lodge for a happy hour with Don and Sharon and then the four of us went to dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse.

At the Cookhouse, they serve three meals a deal family style at long tables.

We all enjoyed a very good meal there and afterwards drove around the Samoa Road on the west side of Humboldt Bay.

There was some pretty strong wave action.

And the beginnings of a beautiful sunset.

Back at the Elks lodge, we said our goodnights and that ended our day.