Sunday
; Utah Interstate 15 Mile Marker 88 Rest Area to Idaho Interstate 84
Mile Marker 269 Rest Area
Mostly cloudy and cool, cold
in the evening.
Well ! When I opened the
blinds in the camper this morning I was greeted by the somewhat
unpleasant sight of a bare ass pointed in my direction. A female
driver had her pants down around her ankles and was squatting beside
the rest area’s closed bathrooms to relieve herself ! How can
truck drivers be expected to keep goods flowing across the country
when they can’t even find an accessible bathroom while on the road
? ! ? Shame on you, state of Utah !
We drove a lot of miles again
today, crossing the state of Utah from south to north. And formed a
rather poor opinion of Utah and its inhabitants. Rest area bathrooms
closed. Extremely parochial newscasts on the radio. News confined
to Utah only, as if there is no world outside of Utah. And much of
the news is about religion. The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day
Saints / the Mormon religion is like a cult here !
Shortly after leaving the I-15
MM 88 Rest Area this morning around 10:30 AM we stopped in the small
city of Beaver to refill with diesel, dump our waste holding tanks,
and refill our freshwater tank at a Flying J. And we realized why it
was so cold at the rest area last night and this morning. We were at
an elevation in excess of 6000 feet ASL ! We continued northbound on
Interstate 15. We stopped at Scipio to have lunch. And a very brief
nap for me.
Because of Utah Lake and Great
Salt Lake on the west side of the freeway and Rocky Mountains on the east
side, the urban area of Salt Lake City stretches a long distance in a
somewhat narrow band north and south, from about Provo on the south
side to about Ogden on the north side. Much of our afternoon was
spent driving through that large urban area of Salt Lake City.
Late in the afternoon we
stopped in Ogden, at another Flying J, to go for an exercise walk,
then refill with diesel … again ! SHEESH … diesel refill twice
in one day ! Lanoire the truck certainly is thirsty at 75 MPH ! HA
HA HA ! North of Ogden the freeway split, Interstate 15 continuing
north and Interstate 84 heading northwest towards Idaho. We took
I-84, and shortly after crossing into Idaho we stopped to have supper
and boondock overnight at I-84 MM 269 Rest Area. Bathrooms open …
the truckers thank you, Idaho.
Monday
; Idaho I-84 MM 269 Rest Area to Oregon I-84 MM 336 Rest Area
Raining lightly and chilly in
the morning, clearing and warming throughout the day as we drove.
We
left the Idaho I-84 MM 269 Rest Area this morning about 11:30 AM,
after I did some preventive maintenance on the truck. In the cold
rain. YUCK ! As usual, Lanoire the truck has performed extremely
well on
this long distance trip,
even now at its high mileage ( 385,000 km. ), under the high speed,
heavy load, long days I am subjecting it to. Yes, yes … I’ve
said it many times before but it bears repeating ; what
a great truck !
We
continued northwest on I-84, diagonally
across
Idaho. Around 1 PM we stopped at another rest area to have lunch,
then we went for an exercise walk, twice around the perimeter of the
large rest area. At the southern edge of Boise we stopped to refill
with diesel at a Fred Meyers ( grocery store ) fuel bar. Rush
hour traffic through Boise, Idaho,was
heavier than I had expected, given the light traffic through Las
Vegas, Nevada and Salt Lake
City, Utah.
Late
in the afternoon we crossed from Idaho into Oregon, stopping shortly
thereafter at another rest area to have supper and boondock
overnight. First thing we did after stopping was go for another
exercise walk ; again twice around the perimeter. Oregon’s rest
areas are so pretty ; nicely landscaped, grassy
areas, with
many picnic tables under ramada roofs. And … bathrooms open ! And
consequently … many commercial trucks stopped for the night.
Again
… shame on you, Utah !
Tuesday
; Oregon I-84 MM 336 Rest Area to Pendleton
Sunny and mild, a fairly nice
day.
We planned a restful day. So
… we slept late, got a late start to the day, drove a relatively
short distance ( couple of hundred kilometres ), and I got caught up
on a lot of online work and e-mail.
We woke at 9:30 AM and didn’t
leave the rest area until 11:45 AM. We continued northwest on I-84
stopping for lunch and a brief nap for me at a rest area. We arrived
at Wildhorse Casino on the south side of Pendleton around 4 PM. At
their Arrowhead Travel Plaza we refilled our freshwater tank, then
refilled with diesel, getting a good discount on the diesel fuel
using our “Rewards On The Rez” card. HA HA HA ! Then I went
inside the fuel bar’s convenience store and bought a
( tax free )
gallon of Lucas diesel additive. And that was the extent of our
semi-annual tax free shopping in Oregon !
We went for a long walk around
the Arrowhead Travel Center lot, then over to the casino and back, a
total distance of perhaps three miles, for exercise. It was a
pleasant afternoon for a long walk. I took my laptop into the travel
plaza’s laundromat to use the free Wi-Fi. I’m very glad that I
had planned time to do this today. It gave me an opportunity to get
updated on important issues at home in Canada, including upcoming bad
weather that will necessitate the winterization of the camper upon
our return. < sigh > And ongoing, chronic ( about fourteen
years worth ), political turmoil at our Canadian home RV park /
community.
When I was finished online we
drove the very short distance from the Arrowhead Travel Plaza to the
Wildhorse Casino and got ourselves settled into their almost empty
overnight RV parking lot. MMMMM … nice omelets I cooked for supper
!
Wednesday
; Pendleton, Oregon to Omak, Washington
Sunny and warm, a very nice
day.
We left the Wildhorse Casino
RV parking lot this morning around 11 AM. We spent about half an
hour at the Arrowhead Travel Plaza dumping our waste holding tanks
and refilling our freshwater tank. We were northwest bound on
Interstate 84 around 11:30 AM.
We turned north off Interstate
84 at Hermiston, Oregon. We had been on Interstates ever since Las
Vegas, Nevada. It seemed a shock to go from 75 MPH divided freeways
to 55 MPH two lane secondary roads, traffic in both directions
requiring much more concentration re : oncoming traffic. We
travelled a succession of secondary roads all day, crossing the
Columbia River from Oregon into Washington, then crossing back and
forth over the Columbia River multiple times during the day.
We
simply pulled off the road onto the shoulder when it was time to eat
lunch. An hour after lunch we pulled into the parking lot of a Home
Depot at Moses Lake so that I could have a brief nap. Late in the
afternoon we finally reached Hwy. 97 at Brewster. AHHHHH … Hwy.
97, the road to home, the final leg of the journey. At Omak we
refilled with cheap “on the rez” diesel at Tribal Trails Fuel Bar
before settling into the Wal-Mart parking lot to boondock overnight.
Before
having supper we went for a long exercise walk, walking around one
square block four times, for a distance of about a mile and a half, I
guess. The Wal-Mart parking lot was crowded so we decided to do our
necessary Wal-Martin’ late in the evening, after the crowds
diminished, since Omak’s Wal-Mart is a 24 hour operation. We had
supper, then went to
the store around 9:30 PM when we noticed the parking lot was empty.
The parking lot was empty because …
< sputter > … the store
is temporarily closing at 8:30 PM each night !
While driving this afternoon
we saw a majestic looking wolf standing tall in a field, looking for
lunch. And we saw a deer buck. Never saw any wildlife on the
freeways ! Well … none that was alive, anyways. HA HA HA ! But
we certainly did gobble up the miles. HA HA HA !
Thursday
; Omak, Washington, USA to Keremeos, British Columbia, Canada
Sunny and warm, another very
nice day.
We did our Wal-Mart shopping
this morning, and as we were preparing to leave the Wal-Mart parking
lot around 11 AM … < sigh > … I discovered that the truck
had a flat tire. On the rear, of course. The other day when I
checked the truck tires’ air pressures one of the valve caps was
kind of “gritty” when I reinstalled it, as if there was sand in
it. Probably the cause of the tire going flat. We drove across the
street from Wal-Mart to a service station and I reinflated the flat
tire, but did not reinstall the valve cap. I’ll check the pressure
again tomorrow.
We left Omak around 11:30 AM
heading north on Hwy. 97. At Oroville we pulled into the grocery
store’s parking lot to have lunch, using up the last of the fresh
luncheon meats that would not be permitted into Canada. While Joanne
prepared lunch I went into the grocery store to have one last look
for … yeast !
WOO-HOO ! One package left on the shelf ! I bought
it ! ! ! HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES ! ! !
HA HA HA !
Our border crossing was the
most unusual ever ! The border agent asked us if there were any guns
on board, then … spent about ten minutes or so lecturing us about
coronavirus and our mandatory quarantine obligations. No concern
about what food we had in the camper, or alcohol, or tobacco, or any
other of the regular border crossing concerns.
Once across the border into
Canada we turned west on Hwy. 3. In Keremeos we went to the
municipal sani-dump station and dumped our waste holding tanks. We
thought it would be better to do that task at the municipal sani-dump
than at our RV park’s sani-dump where we would risk incurring the
wrath of the neighbourhood quarantine Nazis.
We arrived home at Riverside
RV Park Resort at 3 PM. We spent the rest of the day on “return
home” chores. Not all of them went well ! Our shower faucet
broke
! And the toilet leaked ! I fixed the leaky toilet by tightening
two connections which had come loose over the winter. I suppose
things expand and contract and dry out. I did a very temporary and
quite inelegant “Macgyver” repair of the shower faucet, and we’ll
just have to live with that until after our two week quarantine
period.
We ended our evening by
watching ( again ) the series finale of Downton Abbey.
Friday
;
Mostly
sunny and mild.
Joanne worked on unloading the
camper. I worked on replacing the valve extenders on the leaky truck
tire which was flat again today. I changed the 135 degree angled
extender required on the outside dually tire as well as the four inch
straight extender. And I replaced the valve cap. And I tightened
all three internal valves ; on the truck tire valve stem itself, the
angled extender, and the straight extender. There ! If the tire
leaks now … it’s punctured and needs to be patch repaired !
I also discovered a problem
with the inside dually tire’s valve extender as well.
I repaired
that extender by replacing the internal valve. Sixteen years of
dually valve extender drama has turned me into quite a tire valve and
extender expert, n’est-ce pas ? HA HA HA !
My other large project for
today was to winterize the camper. < sigh > Necessitated by
tonight’s and tomorrow’s below freezing overnight temperatures !
I repaired the driveway marker reflector pole on the corner of our
driveway that had been smacked down and damaged by snow plowing.
Along with our neighbour’s adjacent ( expensive ) solar powered
driveway light pole. She’s not going to be happy when she sees
that !
I spent the evening working on
finances and trying … and failing … to reactivate our old
Canadian cell phone. Oh, goody … cell phone drama ! ! !
Oh,
goody ! Unexpected GST credit due to Covid-19 deposited to our bank
account ! Leading me to discover changes to RRIF minimum withdrawal
requirements for this year due
to Covid-19.
WOO-HOO !
Saturday
;
Sunny,
cool, windy.
I
did
a bit of maintenance on the minivan today. I probably won’t renew
its registration / license for three weeks. Not that difficult to
endure, since we can’t go anywhere for the next two weeks anyway.
I did a lot of paper file maintenance today, sorting and filing paper
files created over the winter, and purging older paper files in my
home file box. I configured my laptop to the TV and we did our first
online exercise session. < huff … puff >
Joanne had a phone chat with
our neighbour / friend Jeanine today. She
( Jeanine ) is lonely and
fed up with self-isolation. And … HA HA HA … she was eager to
get rid of the tomatillo seedlings she planted for me about six weeks
ago. They look really pathetic and I guess she didn’t want to
eventually get blamed by me for their demise ! HA HA HA !
DSK
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