Sunday, June 21, 2020

Oregon

The first thing to remember is from Yampa River SP in Colorado where I left you is still a long way from Eugene, OR, over 1100 miles.  We decided quite awhile ago that unless it is an emergency or something close, 500 mile days are in our past.  So our first leg was to a nice campground in Tremonton, UT, north of SLC.  Aspen Grove, and it was really well done, a lot of planning went into making a great campground.  All paved, large concrete sites with patios, lots of room, top shelf.  
Our view

Our excellent site

Then the next day we went to Mountain Home, ID to another very nice campground, Mountain Home RV Resort, extremely well done as well.  Then on to Burns, OR, to a small, friendly pleasant park, Burns RV Park.  It was a rainy day that was topped off with a problem.  When I extended the driver side bedroom slide, it didn't sound right, so when I went to retract it a few inches to put it back out I realized it wouldn't move at all!  Well, at least it was still early in the day especially since we got transitioned into pacific time.  It wasn't something we could ignore, seeing as the slide would not move at all.  So we pop up the bed, open it up and take a look and nothing is immediately apparent.  Hmmm.  So I start to dismantle the electric mechanism.
Dismantling

The shear pin in the brass gear had broken

Once I got it apart I found the shear pin had broken into pieces.
Busted!

So I ran up to the campground office to ask if there was somewhere in town to get a shear pin.  He said you're in the right place this being a farming area, you have at least 4 places to pick from:-)  So in about 15 minutes I had a replacement!

The replacement

We had to cut it to length, but got it all installed, and put it to the test, worked perfectly.  Hooray, another disaster taken care of.
Getting it all aligned

All back together

So with that solved, we were ready to leave in the morning for our last leg into the Eugene area.  We planned to spend a couple nights at a nice campground we had visited last year, yeah we were here last year too, wow, Guaranty RV Park in Junction City, OR.  That way we would be in place to get the coach to the paint shop first thing Monday morning.  But in the meantime we had talked to friends Larry and MaryEllen about a potential meet up, and in conversation they told us about a Triple D place in Junction City called Junkyard Extreme.  So we pretty much had to give it a try.
A pretty cool funky place

You order at the window

Now that is a bratwurst, yummy too

And that is a BURGER!


It was a cool little hole in the wall, and the food was excellent!  We wanted to go preview the paint shop and decided since this year has been bereft of restaurants, we would try another take out place called Newman's Fish Company after.  It was truly sensational, excellent fish and chips.
A little too thick for me, but flavorful and full of clams, clam chowder

Now this was the bomb.
Scallops, cod, and halibut perfectly cooked
crisp outside, juicy inside and no grease!


They also had a fresh fish market, so we decided since we were in Oregon, we deserved a Dungeness crab cocktail, so we made our own.
Now that's a cocktail hour


So we dropped off the coach at the paint shop and headed over to an AirBnB for a few days.  We were very pleased with the accommodations.  It worked out well for us.  So each morning we would go see and tend to poor Bert who had to stay in the coach the whole time, so we got to see little bits of progress.

All taped up

The door prepped for primer

We also had a very nice visit with dear old friends, Larry and MaryEllen.  We decided to meet in the middle at an outdoor restaurant in Salem, OR, and enjoyed a very nice lunch, but more importantly a delightful visit.  Great seeing you guys!  

We were surprised again when we got a call that our coach was going to be ready a day early! So it turned out our very enjoyable evening at our BnB was our last night.
Our very nice private patio

We went and picked it up, it looked beautiful, and went back to Guaranty for a couple nights.  
Yay!  We got our home back

And doesn't our door look great?!?

And on our second night we were nicely surprised with an unexpected arrival of Jan's sister, Karen and Tom in their motorhome.  We enjoyed a nice evening and dinner with them.  Then the next day we all went out to lunch together before we hit the road.  We went a whole 60 miles south to a little town of Westfir to a really nice campground, Casey's Riverside.  And when they say riverside they mean it, we are right on the river, awesome!


Our very nice site

And the river is right there



Directly below our site

We are spending a quick 2 nights here, before we start making our way east.  We plan to meander out of Oregon, down briefly into Nevada, then up to Idaho where we slow back down and resume our schedule.



4 comments:

RVNUTS said...

Hi Bill, which shop did your paintwork, was it at Guaranty? I’ve used Mackin Customs in Eugene as he had been the lead painter at Monaco back in the day. I was pleased with his work, but am always looking for options when the time comes that I need some touch up. We have almost sister coaches, same color but mine is the 43 PBQ . Randy

Bill said...

Randy,
We did have our paint work done at Mackin, and we are very pleased as well. I'm always a bit reluctant to mention shop names until I am absolutely sure I want to recommend them. In this case I will, my SIL is having her coach painted there this week, so after two good first hand results I will post the name at that point.
Thanks

K said...

Hey Bill!

I just bought a 2015 Winnebago Travato! Not quite up to full time RV living but it's looking pretty certain that I will take the early retirement offer from SW so I'm hoping to see some of the country that I've missed by flying over. I'm planning on a shakedown cruise in September .... thinking seriously about the seaplane fly-in in Greenville Maine. I just hope I can keep up with the maintenance... it looks like you have to be a mechanic to own a motor home!

I may be calling with questions!

Keith Getz

Bill said...

Hey Keith,

Congrats on the Travato! It should be a lot of fun and a great opportunity to see the country from another perspective. I talked to another friend at SW and it sounds like the offers are really super. I know several other guys who say they are going to take it as well. Hope you get it. I hope by September Maine isn't still on lock down. The seaplane fly-in there would be fantastic. On the maintenance side, it has gotten to the point where it is very hard to find competent, professional service, so a bit of know how and confidence you can do it yourself saves money, time, and you get it done right. Take care and good luck!