DOH!! #4

 7:50 am - Friday - February 12th - Sparks, NV - 31° F, 100% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....clear skies today with a forecast high of 52° F.  On this date in 2013 we were courtesy parking in front of the home of our dear friends the Garlands in Palmetto Bay, FL......↴

The day was cold and wet, and we had 415 miles to cover before dusk.....about 8 hours of driving.....a long, long, long day for us, but we needed to stay ahead of the winter storm which was going to descend upon central Oregon.  We were out of our RV site near Oakridge, OR at 8 am, and on our way over Willamette Pass with an elevation of near 5,000'......

.....as we gained elevation we began to see snow on the ground, and it began to rain....not hard, just a slow, steady drizzle.....

.....as we neared the pass the rain turned to snow, but again, not thick, or hard, but there.....

.....we were over the pass before 9 am, and descended to around 4,200' where we pretty much remained the rest of the day.  It stopped raining for most of the Oregon part of our drive. As we exited the Cascade mountains we began to see bigger views, and flatter land.......

....when the rain did return, it was coming down pretty hard at times, but our air operated windshield wipers worked faithfully to clear the water from our windshield.....

....eventually we entered California again for the first time since March of 2012.  The terrain was covered in snow, but the roads were clear, and free of ice.....

....we were in California for about 3 hours, but eventually entered Nevada somewhere south of Susanville, CA.....

.....as we travelled through towns in California we saw gas and diesel prices over $1 higher than in Oregon, or Nevada.  By 4:15 pm we were pulling into an old haunt of ours.....Sparks Marina RV Park....we stayed here for 7 weeks back in November/December of 2014 while we worked the Peak Season at the Amazon fulfillment center in Fernley, NV.  I had made a reservation in advance, and I'm glad we did....this place is almost full!

It was nice driving without the trailer these past two days......hills are easier to climb, and I don't have to down shift as often.  We actually cruised along at 65 mph for much of the day where speed limits allowed it, and the big Detroit Diesel performed flawlessly all day long

Now, back to Wednesday evening when we arrived at the RV park in Oakridge, OR....I told you there was a story to tell about that, and here goes.  We arrived at Casey's RV Park around 7 pm.....it was pitch dark, as one might surmise, being that we were way out in the boondocks.  As we entered the park TLE told me I needed to turn left at the second street, so I did.  Within 60 seconds we found ourselves at a dead end on a very, very narrow, curvy street.....that would have been the 4th DOH! of the day.  Now, in the pitch dark, I had to back out of that dead end about 100 yards around a sharp bend in the road.  What had happened is we inadvertently entered the mobile home section of the park, which is very cramped...we should have turned right when we turned left.

TLE exited Newell with a walkie talky and a flashlight to help me back up.  There were no street lights, and did I say it was PITCH BLACK?  As I began to back I also began to turn so I could get around the corner, and as I did so my right front bumper struck a parked car on its left rear quarter panel and bumper.  I immediately pulled forward, stopped, and turned off the Newell to go out and introduce myself to the owner of the car I had hit.  Thankfully Bonnie was very gracious, and the damage was quite minor, but it was so embarrassing.  I suggested we finish backing out of their street, and head to our site, and while TLE set up for the night I would walk back to her home with my insurance information, which I did.  We exchanged our information, and I was back at the coach by 7:30 pm.....what a crazy day it was!  This is the first accident I've had since the late 90's.  This is precisely why I hate arriving at an unknown destination after dark!  Anyway, all is well....we had zero damage to our 200 pound bumper....just injured pride.

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Doh!

 6:52 am - Thursday - February 11th - Oakridge, OR - 40° F, 81% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast......cloudy today with a 93% chance of rain and a high of 51°F.  On this date in 2012 we were in Stuart Beach, FL fishing with our good friend Ernie Prociw......

We were up by 7 am Wednesday in anticipation of our departure around 11 am.  I had a number of things to accomplish before we could roll our wheels including, but not limited to mounting our bike rack, and our two eBikes, moving my tool bags from the trailer to the through storage bay, along with miscellaneous other things.  The final task was to check the air pressure in our six tires.  Five tires came up about 10 pounds low, but I could not get a reading off the left inside dualie tire.....why is it always the inside dualie tire?  Thinking there might be a problem with the air valvle extender on that wheel I set it aside and aired up the other 5 tires.  Around 10:30 am I came back to the left inside dualie to see if I could solve the problem.  After 30 minutes of trying to get the tire to hold air I determined it must have gone flat over the months we have been in Seal Rock, and then when we moved the coach a while back to relevel the site the bead must have broken away from the rim.....doh!

I called a few tire shops in Newport to see if they could send someone out to fix my issue, and finally got a positive response from the Les Schwab Tire shop in Newport.  Derek said he could be there between 2 and 3 pm......doh again!  I set the appointment hoping I could get my emergency road service through my insurance company (Safeco) to get someone out faster, and as it turned out they did.  He arrived around 1:45 pm, but was completely unequipped to remove the tires and fix my problem.  The insurance company, to whom which I went into painstaking detail about what was needed, told the tow company it was just a matter of re-inflating a car tire, not a truck tire.....doh for a third time!  Derek did show up at 2:45 pm, and as soon as he arrived I knew he was equipped to handle my problem.  He quickly confirmed that the bead was, indeed, separated from the rim, which would necessitate removing both wheels......

.....once the tire was off he was able to verify it was the air valve that was leaking, so he replaced it with a new one, reinstalled the tire on the rim, and then both tires back on the Newell......

Getting ready to reinstall the outside dualie tire

Finished!

.....in all it took Derek about 1.25 hours to fix the tire and reinstall everything.  He had barely left when I fired up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92, and we were off in a cloud of dust.....it was 4:10 pm.....over 5 hours later than we wanted to leave.  Our destination for the day was Oakridge, OR....about 146 miles in all.  We drove the last 70 miles in the dark....something I really hate to do.  We arrived at the RV park around 6:50 pm, and were in our site 15 minutes later.....why it took so long is another story, which I will relate tomorrow.

Thursday will be a big driving day for us....389 miles....down to Sparks, NV.....why so many miles?  Well, we are trying to outrun a winter storm, and get over Willamette Pass before it begins to snow there.  Another reason is we want to get south as fast as we can to get to warmer weather.

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How sweet is that?

 7:15 am - Wednesday - February 10th - Seal Rock, OR - 30° F (our coldest overnight low since we arrived 9/15/2020), 100% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 47° F.  On this date in 2020 we we watching our 7th sunset near Borrego Springs, CA....we boondocked there for one month........↴

Tuesday we were rain free once again so I continued mowing at site #3, and continued all the way around to site #25......22 sites in all!  The only sites remaining to be mowed are the tent sites in the restroom cul-de-sac, as we call it.  Just as I was finishing site #25 the lawnmower handle broke due to metal fatigue....how timely.  I put the mower away in the landscape shed, and then walked over to where Terry and Blake were working (trimming another hedge) to advise Terry of the lawn mower problem, and then I was off walking home.

I mentioned a few days ago that I needed to reseal the roof of the trailer as the lap sealant has begun to separate itself from the roof surface.  I spent about 45 minutes peeling, and scrapping the old lap sealant off the roof so I could get right to applying the new lap sealant after I returned from my 2 pm haircut appointment in Waldport.

TLE was home a little after 1 pm, and by 1:30 pm we were driving into Waldport....she to pick up some groceries, and me to pickup a prescription, and get my ears lowered.  We were on our way home by 2:20 pm.   

I ordered 4 tubes of Dicor lap sealant to go along with the one I had on hand for a total of 5, and it took exactly 5 tubes to reseal the roof.  I finished applying the Dicor around 3:15 pm, and man was it getting cold.  I quickly put away my ladder, and the tools I was using, and then retrieved my trickle charger from the electrical bay to attach to the VW battery while we are gone.  Once that was done I was back inside warming up my extremities once again.

We have been watching the weather forecast for Thursday with some concern as it shows a 99% chance of rain that day.  We hate driving in the rain, and we do everything in our power to keep from doing that, but it looked as if we were in for a tough drive Thursday.  While I was reviewing the forecast one more time I saw Terry drive into the site next to us so I went out to see what he needed.  He was concerned about us driving in the rain, and possibly snow Thursday, so he wanted us to leave Wednesday instead.....how sweet is that?  I cannot tell you how unexpected this was, but in retrospect it should not have surprised me.  He and Michele and right up there with Rich and Marnie as far as wonderful campground managers go.  Of course, I immediately accepted his offer.  To be honest, I had thought about asking him if we could leave a day early, but knowing Wednesday is his day off I did not want to put he and Michele on the spot.

Contrary to our normal travel style we do not make reservations, but since it is winter, and not every RV park in the northwest remains open I made reservations for first two nights to assure us of a full hookup spot each night since we do not have a working alternator, and will need to recharge each evening by plugging in the coach.  Once we get further south where there is reliable sunshine we can probably dry camp a couple of times on our way to Wittmann, AZ relying upon our solar system to recharge them.  Since our departure day has now changed I had to call the two RV parks to change our reservations and was able to do so without any problem.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset Tuesday evening.......

Red sky at night, sailors delight......

....so, here I sit typing my latest blog post offering thinking about the dozens of things I need to do in the next few hours before we roll our wheels.  The weather for today (Wednesday) looks wonderful.

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Cutting through the blue tape.......

 7:49 am - Tuesday - February 9th - Seal Rock, OR - 34° F, 93% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....sunny today with a forecast high of 46° F.  On this date in 2013 we were courtesy parked in Ft. Meyers, FL at the home TLE's cousin, Gail, and her husband, Jimmy......↴

Monday was another day without rain, and another day I was able to work.  I returned to a job I performed a few months ago.....mowing sites at the front of the park.  In all I worked 2.25 hours, mowed 9 sites, as well as a large area of lawn between sites #40 and #39.  I was home a little after 12:15 pm, and went to work almost immediately installing my 2021 license plate tag for, and then I began the long task of taking the blue tape off the tail light bezels.  Cleaning the residue from the blue tape off the headlights was easier, because the lights themselves are recessed, so the tape only touched the bezel.  The tail lights are flush mounted within the bezels, and, therefore, the tape also touched the lights themselves.....what a mess!  I finally figured out that rubbing mineral spirits over said residue softened it up, and I was finally able to finish cleaning them........

Before.....

.....after....ready to go!

.....by the time I finished them it was almost 4 pm, it was getting quite cold again, and time to head inside.  Of course, just like heat, cold is a relative term here in Coastal Oregon.  A few months ago I would have said 60° F was cold, but it hasn't hit 60 in a long time, and it's been a while since we saw a 50° F days, so the new norm for 'It's cold!' is 40° F.

TLE worked the 1 pm to 4 pm shift Monday, and just as I was getting warm again she arrived home.  Just two more days to get ready for liftoff!

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Sunday, funday.....

 7:53 am - Monday - February 8th - Seal Rock, OR - 36° F, 100% humdity, wind - zero mph out of the north......cloudy today with a forecast high of 44° F.  On this date in 2013 we were visiting Amazon friends in Zephyr Hills, FL.....↴

We awoke to rain Sunday, and I was thinking I would not work Sunday after all.  I received a text from Terry telling me to report for work at 11 am if it wasn't raining, and what do you know?  It stopped raining!  Terry and I spent most of my two hour shift picking up, and hauling storm debris up to the burgeoning burn pile.  

The rest of the time we hauled a bunch of those wood discs we had cut out of the large tree trunk the other day back down to my site for me to use in creating a new 'lido' deck/patio at our new site.  As you will recall, the new pad is 10' wide, and there is a 5, or 6" lip where the gravel ends down to the grass.  My plan was to use the wood discs to create a boundary for the patio, and the fill the middle with gravel.

I was off work around 1:15 pm, and went directly to work removing the blue tape from the headlight bezels.  You may recall I had to cover these chrome bezels with blue masking tape to prevent them from corroding due to the heavy salt concentration in the air here......

.....my operating theory was the blue masking tape would provide an adequate barrier to the salt air, and protect the chrome....I applied the tape back in early October.  It was now time to remove it in preparation for our upcoming trip, and see if my theory was valid.....

.....as it turns out I was correct....the chrome was protected, and the bezels look fantastic!

I spent another hour, or so laying out the wood tree trunk discs in preparation for bringing in more gravel to create the patio deck......

.....those posts you see in the background will be moved to the left to follow the actual property line of site #A-3, our current site, and then we will dump some gravel in there to create a mostly level patio area for the Newell.  I need to haul another dozen, or so wood discs down from the woodpile to complete the project.

As most of you know, Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  I have not watched a single NFL game this year, which is a record for me, but I decided to watch the Super Bowl to see if Tom Brady could win his 7th out of 10 attempts.  I'm not sure if there is an NFL team that has been to the Super Bowl 10 times....maybe New England, I'm not sure.  I figured Kansas City would have the advantage, but was I ever wrong.  The Tampa Bay Bucs completely dominated the Chiefs on both sides of the ball with Brady handily winning his 7th Ring.  He now has more Super Bowl victories than either New England, nor Pittsburgh....amazing.

The skies actually cleared enough by 5:30 pm to give us a nice Sunday sunset......

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Flexsteel.......

 7:46 am - Sunday - February 7th - Seal Rock, OR - 41° F, 93% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....cloudy, and drizzly today with a forecast high of 45° F.  On this date in 2011 we were camping at Rincon Parkway north of Ventura, CA with my brother Philip, and his wife, Jeannie.....their trailer is to the right of our Newell.......we still had the 2002 T-Bird then.......↴

The ocean is a scant 40 feet away from the front of our coach....

Saturday dawned drizzly, and remained that way all day long.  We had planned to attend the farmer's market in Newport on this day, but the rain put the kibosh on that.  I spent some time in the trailer disassembling TLE's old recliner (about 6 years old) so we can dispose of it in the dumpster easily.  It took me about an hour to finally get it apart.......

The cushions and armrests....

.....the wooden framework, and metal bracket

.....we'll be picking up TLE's new recliner from our friends Tom and Darleen in Wittmann, AZ in about 10 days.  In addition to that we will also be taking delivery of a new driver seat for me while we are in Arizona....an almost new Flextseel seat I found on eBay a few days ago.......

.....my current drivers seat is also a Flexsteel, and has full power....the new one is also full power.  I got it for $700, and am looking forward to installing it when we get to Wittmann.  Additionally, since I'm going to have the driver seat out of the way in preparation for the installation of the new Flexsteel seat I'm going to install the new digital tachometer I wrote about back in March of 2020.  I've ordered that from Speedhut.com to be delivered to Wittmann, also......

.....around 1 pm we drove into Newport to buy some groceries at Fred Meyer, and stop off at the local O'Reilly's auto parts store to pick up a few trailer supplies.  We were back home just before 3 pm.  By that time the rain had intensified a little, which pretty much ended any ideas I had about doing some outside work.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!