108 degrees today in Laughlin ! Fortunately we left before it got quite that hot ! When we left at 10:30 AM it was only 95 degrees. A couple of hours later as we drove across Las Vegas it was 101 degrees.
This morning we departed Riverside Casino Resort & RV Park and headed west out of Laughlin on Hwy. 163, then north on Hwy. 95 to Henderson, a southern suburb of Las Vegas. We stopped at Camping World to look at an item I want to buy at Camping World in Oregon ( no sales tax ) on our way back south next November. We looked at that item, made a decision, then ... spent over a hundred dollars on a few impulse items.
We drove through Las Vegas on Boulder Highway, Interstate 515, and Interstate 15. Pretty heavy traffic for a Sunday afternoon ! Once out of Las Vegas on the north side we headed north on Hwy. 93. It was a looooong afternoon of scruffy high desert. Joanne drove for an hour while I snoozed. We stopped at Caliente to change drivers and refill with diesel. Late in the afternoon we arrived at Cathedral Gorge State Park.
After getting set up in a campsite we chatted with our next door neighbours ( from Washington state ) while I chopped some firewood and lit a campfire. Joanne packaged thin steak, onions and potatoes in foil which I cooked to perfection over the open fire. Well done, Daniel ! After supper we sat around the campfire for awhile until we started to feel pretty chilly. In this part of Nevada's high desert there is a fifty degree spread between day time temperatures and night time temperatures.
Monday ; Cathedral Gorge State Park to Wells, Nevada
Today was a very long, very tiring, somewhat boring day of driving north on Hwy. 93 across the seemingly endless scruffy high desert of Eastern Nevada.
This morning we prepared for departure, I chopped a bit of firewood to use on Friday, our last night in the United States this season, and we went hiking to explore the Cathedral Gorge "caves". They're not really caves. They're actually slot canyons, albeit extremely narrow, tall ones. We hiked over from the campground, and spent about an hour finding and exploring three "caves". One of them ended in a "bat cave". When we reached the end of the slot canyon we were in a circular space about five feet across. The ground was covered with bat guano. The tall, vertical walls of the canyon had many bat holes. As in all the Cathedral Gorge "caves" / slot canyons, hundreds of feet above us the sky was visible. An interesting feature of these "caves" is that as you enter them the temperature drops dramatically
Tuesday ; Wells, Nevada to Twin Falls, Idaho
This morning as we were preparing to depart the Flying J parking lot in Wells, Nevada,
I discovered ... < sigh > ... a flat tire on the trailer. Oh, well ... it's much more "civilized" to have to change a tire in a Flying J parking lot on a warm, sunny morning than on a cold, rainy evening on the side of the road at dusk. Been there, done that ! After changing the tire we continued heading north on Hwy. 93. Our plan was to spend most of the day getting caught up on some chores at a casino RV park in Jackpot, Nevada, and eat supper at their stupendous buffet restaurant. But the flat tire altered our plans.
Plan A had been to spend the night at Cactus Pete's Casino's RV park and eat dinner in Cactus Pete's Casino's buffet restaurant. Plan B now was ... leave the tire to be repaired at the Chevron station and go to Cactus Pete's Casino's buffet restaurant for lunch, then continue driving north. We drove across the highway, from the Chevron station to Cactus Pete's Casino, parked and went in for lunch. HMPH ! The buffet restaurant is only open for dinner. Plan C ; we ate lunch in the trailer, picked up the repaired tire, and hit the road again.
During the hour or so that we were in Jackpot, ugly clouds were forming to the west. As we drove north on Hwy. 93 towards Twin Falls, Idaho, the ugly clouds got uglier, and the radio station was broadcasting weather warnings. Very heavy rains, hail, very heavy winds. In Twin Falls we stopped at a PetsMart for some dog food. HMPH ! They did not carry Bo's food. We decided to head for the Flying J on the north side of Twin Falls, hoping to reach there before the storm. It looked like it was going to be a close race. As we approached the Flying J the horrendously ugly clouds were almost overhead, the wind was becoming strong, and ... a few drops of rain fell ! We found a place to park for the night, then ... watched the ugly clouds pass right on by !
While Joanne prepared supper I went inside the Flying J to work on the computer, plugged into Flying J's electricity in the driver's lounge. My laptop's battery has been malfunctioning. I think it's on its last leg.
Wednesday ; Twin Falls to Boise, Idaho
This morning before leaving Flying J we refilled with diesel, then headed northwest on Interstate 84. Our plan was to do some shopping at Camping World in Boise before heading for a state park for the night. Joanne had seen an ad for an RV furniture manufacturer / retailer in Boise that she wanted to go to. I expected yet another exercise in futility in the endless quest for new dinette chairs, dinette table, and sofa.
HALLELUJAH ! This "Mom & Pop ... & Son" RV furniture manufacturer makes dinette tables and chairs that are exactly what we want. We reached an agreement with Pop & Son. They will send us some blue fabric samples by mail, we will select the material we want on our dinette chairs, they will manufacture a dinette table and four chairs for us, and we will pick them up as we head south the first week of November. In addition to the furniture that they manufacture, they also carry some upscale RV furniture made by other manufacturers. We found a sofa that we want. When we make our fabric selection for the dinette chairs, we will also make a fabric selection for the sofa that we want, and they will order it for us. It will be waiting for us the first week of November. < breathing sigh of relief > Finally ... our RV furniture shopping is over !
Obviously, we spent much more time at the furniture manufacturer than we had expected. From there we drove to Camping World where we once again spent a lot buying a lot. By the time we were finished shopping at Camping World I thought it would be a great idea to spend the night at Camping World. They have some electrically serviced RV parking sites for their customers. AND ... Wi-Fi in their customer lounge. We parked in one of the sites, I installed a product I had just purchased ... to be sure about it before we drive away tomorrow morning ... then went back inside the store to get some online work done on Wi-Fi in the customer lounge.
When I returned to the trailer for supper, I realized ... HEY ... we're in a big city. With electricity. Maybe I can get TV reception "over the air" using the trailer's roof top antenna. WEDNESDAY ... CBS ... SURVIVOR ! I put up the antenna, turned on the TV and ... saw the last few seconds of Survivor. OH, NO ! ! ! We were an hour late ! Because yesterday we entered a new time zone, and I decided that since we were only going to be in the Mountain Time Zone for two days I wasn't going to reset all our watches and clocks. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH ! ! ! !
Thursday ; Boise, Idaho to Pendleton, Oregon
BRRRRR ... it's still winter in Eastern Oregon ! This morning as we were leaving Camping World in Boise, Idaho, it was cold and raining. This afternoon just before we reached Pendleton, Oregon, we were driving over the Blue Mountain Summit through sleet with a temperature of 34 degrees ! It's amazing how a few days of driving north changes the temperatures !
We left Camping World this morning and continued northwest on Interstate 84. In the Boise suburb of Nampa we stopped at a Petco to buy dog food. HMPH ! Just like at the PetsMart a couple of days ago they didn't have Bo's "winter" food. Must have been recently discontinued ! Shortly after entering Oregon we stopped at Farewell Bend State Park to dump our waste holding tanks and refill the freshwater holding tank. At LaGrande we refilled with diesel at Flying J. A hundred and forty bucks ! We went to Wal-Mart to replenish food and supplies and the "must buy in Oregon" shopping list. Another hundred and fifty bucks !
The weather and driving conditions from LaGrande to Pendleton were dismal. We stopped for the night at Wildhorse Casino, a great boondocking spot that we discovered last year. We went into the casino to check out their buffet restaurant for supper. Tonight was seafood night, and very expensive. We had supper in the trailer. And used the new catalytic radiant heaters in the trailer for the first time since mid-November. BRRRRR ! ! !
Friday ; Pendleton, Oregon to Lincoln Rock State Park, Washington
This morning before leaving the Wildhorse Casino we pulled into their Travel Center to use the dump station. We drained the shower waste holding tank and refilled the freshwater holding tank. Just in case ! We didn't really need to. But I like to take every opportunity that presents itself to start travel days with empty waste holding tanks ... especially the shower grey tank ... and full freshwater.
We headed west on Interstate 84, then north on Interstate 82, crossing the Columbia River into Washington. We continued north, west, and northwest on I-82. We had lunch at a rest area north of Yakima, then continued north on I-82 to I-90. We refilled with diesel in Ellensburg. Ellensburg is the only place that we know of where the Flying J diesel price is outrageously more expensive than other nearby stations, and has been that way for many years, in our experience. In almost all places where Flying J is located they are the best fuel price around.
From Ellensburg we headed east on I-90, north on Hwy. 281, then northwest on Hwy. 28 following the Columbia River until we reached ... Hwy. 97 at Wenatchee. AHHHHH ... Hwy. 97 ... the home stretch !
Lots of miles today ! We stopped for the night at Lincoln Rock State Park. As usual, our last night of the winter travel season is our most expensive night of the winter travel season. Washington's state parks are no bargain. But they certainly are nice ! We got set up in a lovely site then I started a campfire with the wood I chopped at Cathedral Gorge State Park in Eastern Nevada last Sunday. I cooked supper over the open fire. Not quite to perfection, but pretty good considering the high wind. After eating supper we sat outside by the campfire until all our wood was gone.
While cooking supper I took pity on a neighbour and gave him some of my firewood. Our neighbour was a very young couple from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories... with three boys under the age of five ... travelling in a decrepit, little old travel trailer to California. While the tired young mother was trying to cope with three tired, hungry, and cranky little boys the young father was scrounging twigs in the forest and trying to get a small fire to burn to have a "weenie roast" for supper.
Saturday ; Lincoln Rock State Park, Washington to Keremeos, BC
HOME !
And so ends our eighth season of winter travel.
This morning we took care of a couple of chores before leaving Lincoln Rock State Park. We disinfected our five gallon water jug. We changed the spare tire on the trailer, taking off the spare tire that we put on a few days ago when we got a flat tire, and reinstalling the now repaired flat tire. That's because ... < sigh > ... we discovered, after fixing the flat tire and putting it into the spare position that our custom painted spare tire cover won't fit over it. It's one of two of the trailer's tires that are one size oversize. So ... it had to go back onto the trailer, and the old spare tire ... one of three "correct" size tires ... went back into the spare tire position. You know ... like ... musical tires ... < sigh >.
We departed Lincoln Rock State Park and headed north on Hwy. 97. The road followed the Columbia River and then the Okanagan River all the way to Canada. And the Columbia River Basin and Okanagan River Valley are filled with apple and cherry orchards. All in bloom ! How lovely ! We stopped to refill with diesel at Tribal Trails Travel Center on the south side of Omak. Then a final stop at Wal-Mart in Omak. An hour later we were at the border crossing between Oroville, Washington and Osoyoos, British Columbia.
Crossing the border was a painless process that took only a few minutes. The Canadian border agent asked about a dozen or so pertinent questions, most of which we had never been asked before. Questions about purchases of medications in Mexico, and alterations or modifications to the truck or trailer.
In Osoyoos we turned west on Hwy. 3 and were home at Riverside RV Park Resort about an hour later, arriving around 6:30 PM. Welcome home !
DSK
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