If There is One Constant in This Lifestyle, It Is Change

As I left you, I said we'd be meandering around Oregon a bit, into Nevada, and then to Picabo, ID for the 4th week.  Well that all changed:-)  I also wanted to share 2 more pictures of our very nice campground, Casey's that I meant to include on the last post.

Beautiful wildflowers along the river

Our very nice cocktail hour at our site!

So with that out of the way, we noticed a small imperfection on our newly painted door we thought we should address before we left Oregon.  We called Ricki Mackin of Mackin Street Customs and RV's in Eugene, OR where we had our coach painted.  I said I would name the shop after we went through our job and could evaluate the entire process.  We had a few bad spots on our entry door which would involve all 3 colors on our coach and we also had clear coat missing on our rear cap and awning rails that needed repainting.  We had a very good experience, we had to leave the coach while it was in the shop, but we knew it going in, he let us in the coach each day so we could tend to our cat, Bert, and even got the job done a day earlier than estimated.  We felt the price, the job, both the color match on the door, and the clear coat was great and the communication was spot on.  Ricki delivered in our estimation, so if you're in Eugene, OR, we would definitely recommend him for your painting needs.  So having said all that, we told Ricki we found a small spot we wanted to take care of before we left Oregon, and he said come right in on Monday morning and he'd take care of it.  The reason we didn't see it on the day we picked up the coach was the sun needed to be directly on it to see it properly.

So we changed things around a bit, and headed back to Eugene, really not a big deal as we were only 55 miles down the road.  Now Jan's sister, Karen was dropping her coach off that morning to have her clear coat repaired as well, coincidences, huh?  So as we were driving back to Eugene, Karen texted to see if we wanted to join up for lunch before they headed to their AirBnB? Sure.  We enjoyed yet another great visit and great seafood while our coach was being fixed up beautifully.  Ricki took care of the small spot completely.

Enjoying some more awesome fish!

So after we said good bye to Karen and Tom, we decided with the detour we'd change our route again.  We opted to forgo our foray into Nevada, and see if we could work things out to change a few reservations.  We had tried to get into Bend/Sisters Garden RV Resort before with no luck so we gave them a call and managed to get a reservation.  

We were really glad we did, what beautiful place!  You are met and escorted to your site through a pristine park like environment to, in our case, a pull in site that overlooked a small lake.  The grass is like a golf course, flowers everywhere, all paved streets and lots of room, concrete or brick patios, and when you get there your guide explains that they are a concierge type park,  anything you need, firewood, propane, things from their store, etc, just give a call and it will be delivered to your site.  They pick up garbage at your site all day long.  We needed propane and sure enough they took our tank and in a few minutes, it came back full.  Really nice.

Our beautiful site!

The view out our window

Jan and I have been in a lot of parks that call themselves "resorts", but this one means it.

But through it all, Bert remained unimpressed:-)

So after this delightful detour, we needed to get back on track to make our reservation for the 4th  holiday in Picabo, ID.  It made for a pretty quick, longish trip but we made it.  Picabo is a neat little 17 site campground with only water and electric in the middle of nowhere, but very near the famous Silver Creek.  We actually were here last year and liked it so much, we booked it this year as well.  It is quiet, dark, and near a whole lot of fishing.  We took a loop trip up into the mountains first, then will concentrate on the fishing.

We found a somewhat picturesque spot for lunch:-)

Then we happened upon some kayakers, and decided it made for a cool coffee spot.

These guys and girls were having a blast

Another group

I also wanted to mention a fuel program that is new for us.  We have used Good Sam's fuel program associated with Pilot/Flying J truck stops for years.  By joining the program, you get a card that enables you to turn on the pump in the truck lanes, and gives you $.08 off the cash price.  We thought this was pretty good and have sure run a lot of diesel through our rig using this program.  

We heard of a new program being offered this year while we were still in Florida.  It is called the TSD Logistics Fuel Program.  It sounded a little too good to be true, so we did quite a bit of research on it before we joined.  It asks for your SSN, and it asks for a bank account they can pull money from for payment, both of which made us a little nervous.  But in literally hundreds of web, forum, Facebook posts, we heard nothing bad about it.  So we decided to join up, we set aside a bank account that is just for this purpose.  They negotiate prices on fuel all over the country and post those prices on an app called EFS.  You go on your phone and can search the area or any area for the fuel prices that are current.  You get a card with a PIN number that you use in the truck lanes of a station.  You pump your fuel and then in just a few minutes you see on the EFS app what you paid for the fuel, then in a couple of days the money is taken out of your account.  I'll give one quick example of a transaction we had recently.

We bought fuel at a TA truck stop.  The posted price was $2.559/gal.  I bought 79 gallons of diesel and the pump when I was done said $202.  I checked the EFS app and found I actually paid $156, saving $46 which was $.58 per gallon.  They charge a $.65 fee and take 10% of the savings as their fee.  The price of $156 has already had the fees subtracted. I am not selling this and am in no way associated with it, but this is a real savings!  If you are interested you can use the link above and check it out for yourself.

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.

West to Colorado!

I left you in the NE corner of Oklahoma.  We have been steadily moving west since that time to be in place in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday.  We first went to Salina, KS on a hot, hot day, touching 100df every so often, short night then on to Goodland, KS on the western edge of Kansas, it's a very big state!  But we found a really nice spot in a KOA there.

Nice!

We left pretty early the next morning as the forecast was for strong winds.  We thought for a little while that we had beat it, but no, when we turned directly west for Fort Collins with at least a 100 miles to go, the winds were gusty directly from the south at 30-40mph, made for a long trip being constantly buffeted.  But as we neared FoCo, things moderated some.

We were visiting our daughter, Kelly there and she came over soon after we arrived to the very nice Fort Collins Lakeside KOA, although they are some sticklers about visitors.  It's their business and their rules but a $10 charge per person even for a 10 minute visit seems a bit much.  They must have been burned in the past somehow.  Other than that nice wide sites, plenty long, fishing lakes, very clean and well kept.  We will definitely go back.

Our site

One of the fishing lakes

Jan and Kelly, yes, except for this pose we distanced

We even decided the next day to do something Jan and I hadn't done yet, go out to lunch.  Kelly suggested a taco place that had a big patio, big tables, and lots of distancing, so we gave it a go.  Turned out excellent, we felt safe and comfortable and the tacos were good too.

Our first lunch out

After a very nice visit, a bit short we were on our way next to Yampa River State Park west of Steamboat Springs.  

We had a choice on how to go, on what looked like a very windy and narrow Rte 14 that would be fairly direct or way around up to Laramie and down.  After a bit of research, we opted for the narrow road along the Cache La Poudre river, and man we were glad.  It turned out to one of the most awesome roads we've been on, and might be our favorite right now.  And believe me, that says a lot, as Jan and I have been on a LOT of roads over all these years:-)  

As soon as we got on the road and saw the river we had high hopes.  There was almost no traffic so we were able to just mosey along and enjoy the awesome views and scenery.  The river was raging pretty good with the runoff.

Our first glimpse of the river

We stopped here and there, pull offs are abundant, fishing access is abundant as well, future plans......

A cool tunnel

Pulled off by a raging waterfall

It got very narrow in places with jagged rock walls, we were thankful for no traffic.

We started looking a spot for lunch and found a humdinger!  Lots of room to pull off, a beautiful perch to sit above the water on an absolutely gorgeous day!

Our lunch spot

Our real lunch spot!

It was fantastic, we continued and climbed over Cameron Pass at 10,276' up to where we could see snow on the mountains.  We even saw a moose.

The mountains got a little more jagged as we went until we broke out into meadows.

Wow, right?

Up on the high meadows before Steamboat Springs

Then up and over Rabbit Ears Pass at 9426', and down, down into and through Steamboat Springs to Yampa River State Park, a very nice park along the river with only electric.  By cocktail hour the temp was down into the high 40's, and we woke to 36df!  Wow, from the hundreds to 30's in a few days.  One delightful, slow day here and then off to OR.

Our very nice site at Yampa