Back on the Road!

7/11/23

I have retired again. We sold our Jayco Eagle 5th Wheel Trailer and bought a 2021 Lance 865 truck camper. It is quite the downsize, and we are trying to find space for all the things that we usually have on the road with us. Sacrifices had to be made. It is much smaller, and it will feel more like camping. This trip will only be for a month. Mia starts middle school in mid-August and we will be back in Sebastopol for that.

7/13/23

Our maiden voyage in the Lance got off to a rough start. We left the house at 5pm and drove to SFO to drop Bridget off for her flight back to Boston. The airline had over booked her flight, and could not guarantee her a seat. I had to purchase an upgrade in order to secure a seat. I went with Bridget to the ticket counter to make sure she was going to get on the flight. We finally left SFO just before 8pm and immediately hit traffic. Every highway we tried was backed up due to construction. It was miserable. Our plan was to try and get to Redding, but we only made it to Dunnigan at 11pm. We pulled over at a rest stop for the night. It was still over 80 degrees, and sleep did not come easily. We had the windows open to try to cool off, but the road noise from Interstate 5, and the many car alarms that went off prevented it. I don’t recommend this rest stop for an overnight stay.

7/14/23

We got up early and headed straight to a coffee shop hoping that the caffeine would overpower our lack of sleep. Our drive north went pretty smooth until we hit Albany, Or. From there our ETA to Megan’s place in Beaverton just kept climbing due to the overwhelming traffic. We finally arrived at 4:45 in the afternoon. Megan’s new apartment is really nice, and we got to meet our new grand-kitten, Cirrus. We played with the kitten for a few, and then walked to Juan Colorado’s for dinner and Margaritas. There wasn’t much room in the apartment parking lot, so we parked on the street. Another camper was parked on the street, and we talked to the owners. They said it was fine to stay there for a few days, but the trucks for Fred Meyers show up early, and are noisy. Mia slept in Megan’s apartment, and Kathy and I slept in Lance. Well, we slept a little, in between an angry guy yelling, and the trucks that started pulling up at 4am.

7/15/23

Mia didn’t sleep well either because Cirrus was trying to play with her all night. I made blueberry pancakes for everyone in Megan’s apartment and we all had showers and played with the kitten. Cirrus is very cute, and a bundle of energy. We all walked across the street to Fred’s and did some shopping. It was in the high nineties, so we took our time in the air-conditioned store. We spent some time at the apartment complex pool, and then I made dinner for everyone. Noah came over for dinner too.

7/16/23

We ordered sandwiches from the bagel shop across the street, and packed them in our backpacks for a hike to a wildlife preserve close to Megan’s place. Noah and Megan came on the hike too. It was a mile walk to get to the preserve, and then we did a 3.5 hike and then walked a mile back. While everyone else went to the pool, I went shopping and made dinner. Noah and his Mom, Heather came over for dinner and we had great conversations and a game of “nuts” too.

7/17/23

Being a Monday, Megan had to go to work. Kathy, Mia and I decided to take the Maxx Train into Portland and take Megan to lunch before we left the area. Downtown Portland has an enormous homeless problem and certain areas actually smell horrible. Megan’s office building is in one of the nicer parts of town. We had lunch at Pac Puc, a Vietnamese restaurant and it was fantastic. We said a tearful goodbye to Megan and walked back to the train stop. At our second stop two “Meth Heads” boarded the train with their bicycles. Kathy and Mia got an eye-opening education about meth usage. They boarded with the women screaming obscenities at someone down the street, and the man just chuckling (He sounded exactly like Beavis from “Beavis and Butthead”). They talked incessantly the entire time to each other while simultaneously not following each other’s conversations.

“F%&king guy thinks he can throw things at me. We should go back there. he wouldn’t do that again.”

“Yeah. Huhuh”

“it hit me right in the head man. It hurt”

“Huhuh”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be talking like the in front of the girl (Mia). Stop cussing, there is a child over there. You can’t stop can you?”

“No, I’m not a f%&king good guy huhuhuh”

“I haven’t been to Beaverton in a long time”

“huhuh. That guy has a trash car. Mine cost $100,000 man. I drive it like 180 MPH”

“Where are you from? Did you grow up here?”

“Yeah. I was born right on the Hill. Huhuh”

“Me too. Why would they build a hospital at the top of the hill?”

“yeah, huhuh. I’ve got these really strong magnets man. Look they stick to the train”

“I’ve got a strong magnet too. Have you seen this tool I have? It has a magnet and a knife”

“I’ve got a really good knife too, and I’ll use it on people who deserve it. I could get a gun too.”

“you should beat up my ex. He used to beat me”

“I could do that.”

“He’s in jail now”

“Which one? I know people at (unintelligible)”

“No. He’s at (unintelligible)”

“I was there for a year and a half too. Check out these magnets. Can I smoke on here? Someone got mad and smacked the cigarette our of my hand last time I tried.” Picks up his bike and gets on it. “ Can I ride my bike on here? It would be kinda cool.”

“Tomorrow is my Birthday. I’m going to party for 10 days.

This is just a small portion of the conversation they were having. It was non-stop for the 20 minutes they were on the train. At the same time, they were always in motion. They removed almost everything from their backpacks for unknown reasons, and then had to put it all back before they exited the train. Mia asked “What was that? And why were they missing teeth?” We explained all about meth and its effects. “Why would anyone do that?”

Once we got back to our truck, we started our drive East to escape the heat. It took us several hours to get out of the Portland area, and we drove up towards Mount Hood. We found dispersed camping at Trillium Lake Airstrip. It was an old dirt airstrip used to be used by the forest service. Now it has camp sites lining either side of the small runway. The views of Mount Hood are spectacular and it was much cooler.

7/18/23

With the heat wave effecting most of the US, we decided to Stay another day at the Trillium Lake Airstrip. Kathy did some work, while Mia and I did some practice work for 6th grade. In the afternoon we hiked to Trillium Lake. There is a Federal Campground there, but it was full.

7/19/23

The heat wave still continues. Looking at the weather map, the only places that are cooler, are at altitude, so we headed East from Mount Hood trying to get to the next mountain range. We drove through the Columbia River Gorge, and some of the views were stunning. Our next stop was an isolated forestry road, FS031, outside of La Grange, Oregon. From the highway we drove over 5 miles down a dirt road and came to one of the quietest settings you can imagine. We had the whole forest to ourselves. The only sounds were the animals, and the wind in the trees. It was beautiful, quiet, and cooler. We had a great sleep here.

7/20/23

While we were tempted to stay longer, we do have to be in Wyoming next week, so we moved on this morning. I found some federal campgrounds on Lake Cascade in Idaho, and we set off. Upon arriving, we found that all of the campsites were booked for the weekend. Today is Thursday, and we were expecting to get one of the First-come, First-serve sites. We finally found one of the campsites was booked for Friday night not Thursday, so we paid for the one night. Once we set up camp, I immediately got the kayaks out, and Mia and I walked down to the lake. It was about 40 yards through some trees, and we came out onto a small sand beach. We had it all to ourselves. Kathy joined us, and we spent the rest of the day on the lake, swimming and kayaking. There were a couple of bald eagles hanging out in the trees above us. The lake was great, but you could tell that on the weekends it would be very crowded with boats.

7/21/23

Since we couldn’t get another night on the lake at any of the campgrounds, we headed out. We headed North on 95 and then 12, which took us into the Nez Perce Reservation. We followed the Salmon River for a good portion of the day. At one point we pulled off at a rest stop and walked down to the river. It was 103 degrees, so we all just went into the water to cool off. From McCall, ID. It was 130 miles of windy roads and beautiful scenery. We ended up driving all the way to Missoula, MT and couldn’t find a suitable place to stay for the night. Luckily there was a Cracker Barrel in Missoula, and they allow campers to stay in their parking lots overnight.