September 8, 2012

It was time to hit the road again.  After a great omelet breakfast and some moving day chores on the rig, we loaded up and said our thanks and goodbye to Adam.  We had hugged and kissed Danielle earlier when she left for the birthday party of a son of a friend.  The friend had broken her leg and being the wonderful, caring person she is, Danielle stepped in and volunteered to run the party including making cookies and decorations on her cricket.

After 50 miles we stopped for gas.  I only bought 5 gallons because the gas was $4.00 a gallon.  I was hoping the gas would be less expensive in Oregon.   Monte switched over to his auxiliary tank because diesel was $4.70.  After another 200 miles we needed gas again and we paid just about the same price as we had paid in Washington.  We had originally planned on traveling between 200 and 250 miles but since we had gotten a late start (12pm) we decided to drive some more. 

When we stopped for gas, I looked in my briefcase for the list of Camping Worlds in Oregon.  That is where we planned on staying overnight.  Most Camping Worlds allow overnight parking but they vary in services offered.  Some have no hook-ups while others have electric and water.  We plugged in the address of the Camping World closest to our destination near Eugene.  Then we started off and to our surprise we passed a Camping World less than a mile from where we had gassed up.  We contemplated turning around and going back to that Camping World but we wanted to have less miles to travel the next day so we kept going.  50 miles later we passed another Camping World.  It is very unusual to have Camping Worlds so close together. 

We ended up driving 448 miles.  Following the GPS directions we exited the highway and traveled 15 miles on a narrow road that was parallel to train tracks.  It was really dark and I started to think the GPS was sending us on a wild goose chase.  BUT then we entered a small town and shortly after that we arrived at Camping World. 

It was almost 10pm by then and of course the store was closed.  Monte pulled over to the side while I drove around the huge parking lot looking to see if there were any parking spots with electric available.  I found a few and told Monte.  As he started to prepare to back in to one, a night security guard approached him and Monte got permission to park.  We quickly set up and I heated up some chow mien bowls in the microwave.  We raised the antenna and were able to get a few channels on the TV.  We finally called it a night around 11:30.  It was a really exhausting day of driving but between the beautiful scenery along the way and the audio books that Mom and Dad gave me (Thanks) it was tolerable.  We are not going to make it a habit of traveling so much in one day!