July 30, 2013 One year Anniversary Second Month On The Road

 (September 2012)

 We used the generator that we had purchased on sale in Indiana for the first time when we camped at Yellowstone.  It only lasted two days.  The first of many calls Monte made was to the store where we had purchased the generator.  We were basically told that it was OUR problem.  Next call was to the manufacturer where we got the run around and was told to call the store where we bought it---and so on.  And so on.  We finally were given a list of authorized repair places by the manufacturer.  Monte called them all--some were out of business.  Some were Dometic repair centers but they didn't work on generators.  And some (most) were too far away.  The closest one was 85 miles away and when we called them they said they wouldn't be able to look at the unit for a week.

So we made do the rest of our stay at Yellowstone by running the truck to charge the batteries.

The morning we departed Yellowstone  our RV battery was so low we had to bring in our slides in stages after hooking up to the truck.  This delayed our leaving until 9am. 

We spent the first night after leaving Yellowstone at Bearmouth RV in Clermont, MT 

When we first departed Florida we only had two destinations planned-Indiana to have the work done on our rig and Oregon to attend the RV Dreams Rally in September.  On the spur of the moment we decided to head to Spokane and spend a few days with my nephew Adam and his wife Danielle.

The fire pit in Adam's backyard.

Lunch at Adam's favorite pizza place. 

Manito Park-beautiful gardens! 

Boys will be boys-no matter what their age. 

Bowl and Pitcher State Park 

Adam's 30th birthday-Beer "cake" 

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, only an hour’s drive from Spokane where my nephew lives.  

 

 

 

Gozzer Ranch Gas Station where we ordered a couple of pizzas and sat outside on a deck overlooking the lake.  We had the entire deck to ourselves. 

After leaving Spokane we ended up driving 448 miles to Eugene, OR!  It was exhausting and not something I want to make a habit of doing.  We had an appointment at the RV Corral to have work done on our large slide.  It just wasn't going out and coming in correctly.  We chose RV Corral because it was close to an RV Rally we were going to be attending beginning on the 18th.

We arrived on a Saturday and spent the night at in the Camping World parking lot in Junction City.  In the morning we drove the few miles to RV Corral where we had been given permission to stay overnight so that they could look at the slide the following morning.

We ended up taking up "residence" at the RV Corral from the 9th of September to the 17th!  The folks there were really nice but they just couldn't figure out what the problem was or how to go about fixing it.  It didn't help that they only worked on our rig an hour here and there in between other jobs.  We weren't covered under the Montana warranty because we aren't the original owners but we did have an extended warranty.

 During our stay at RV Corral we had our generator problem solved.  After a lot of phone calls back and forth between Monte and the manufacturer of the unit, Dometic, they stood by their product and sent us a replacement.     During the time we spent at RV Corral we did some exploring.

A farmer's market 

Florence

Restobar Restaurant, Florence 

Owens Rose Garden, Eugene

Devil's Punchbowl State Park 

Yaquina Lighthouse 

Newport 

We had reservations at the River Bend RV Resort in Harrisburg where we were going to attend the RV Dreams Rally.  The slide issue had not been resolved so we made plans to return to RV Corral at the conclusion of the rally.

We had never been to a rally so we didn't know what to expect.  We met a lot of nice people, learned some valuable information about full-timing and in general had a great time.

We planned on going for a walk  BUT we didn’t make it far because we heard our names being called.  It was Howard in the doorway of the conference center.  He was recruiting volunteers to assist with getting things ready for registration.  I met a really nice lady named Dianne who is from Victoria, BC.  We hit it off and were paired off to sit at the 1^st registration table.  We were given the task of greeting people as they entered, checking off their names on the roster and giving them their ID tags.  

After dinner, as an icebreaker, we were instructed to switch tables based on the number that was on our ID tag.  Monte had a different number than I did so we went to different tables.  Then hats that each had two teabags taped to the visor were distributed, one to each table.  The object of the game was to put the hat on and try to swing the tea bags to the top of the hat.  Each person at the table was to take and turn and then the person who did it the best was asked to represent that table.  The best player from each table then competed.  It was a lot of fun and did indeed get people talking.

The rally attendees provided the entertainment in the form of Show & Tell.  Some of the items were silly but most were very practical items that may end up on my future purchase list.  Monte, affectingly known as Mr. Gadget, brought an entire bagful of things.  He did his Show & Tell last, which was a very good way to end the evening as his presentation was hilarious. 

 

Pot Luck dinner

 

Guaranty RV, a local RV dealer and repair service facility hosted a day.  We began with a seminar entitled, RV 101 that was very informative as well as amusing.  The two presenters, Warren and Tim, were very funny as they made their way through the topics ranging from batteries to black water tanks. 

 

We attended the cocktail party.  I usually drink white zinfandel but since they didn’t have any I “settled” for Riesling.  I made friends with the bartender, Pamela, who made sure my glass was always full.   As a bonus we were given retro shirts that depicted different kinds of RVs.  Several ladies, me included, sported our shirts, and aided by some liquid courage, gave a singing performance. 

When we attended the seminar at RV Guaranty we were very impressed with the facility and the apparent knowledge of RV systems.  We explained our slide issues and they assured us that Guaranty RV could solve the problem.  After lunch, we hurried back home to call the warranty company for some guidance.  At first they insisted that we stay at the RV Corral since the original claim was started there but when we stated we did not feel confident that they would be able to solve the issue they relented and gave the okay to take it somewhere else.  We drove to the RV Corral and settled up our bill.  We had a $100 deductible and set up an appointment at RV Guaranty for Monday after the rally.

Fun around the campfires at night.

Linda and Howard Payne-RV Dreams hosts

The final night we attended a 70s themed dance party 

Several people from the Rally who needed either minor repairs or routine maintenance done made appointments at Guaranty RV because , like us, they had been so impressed with the facility when we had toured it.  We had an impromptu "campfire".

Farmer's Market with Gina and DJ, two solo full-time RV'ers

Lunch at a nearby Café with some of the other RV Dreams rally attendees who were having working done on their rig.

The Junkyard Dog.  I had read about it on the internet and it sounded neat.  It isn’t someplace I would have stopped in if we were just passing by and didn’t know anything about it. Monte had a 1/3 lb bratwurst smothered with fried onions and I had a ¼ lb New York dog with sauerkraut.  Both were delicious.   Other people eating there ordered Big Dogs which were I believe a ½ lb!

We ended up staying at Guaranty RV from the 24th to the 28th.

Our Tech, Ted, was excellent.  He suggested the first thing to be done was for part of the roof on our big slide to be lifted up and stretched tight.  Part of the slide roof was buckling because there was not enough clearance when the slide comes in and out. 

Ted, pointed out to Monte that the ceiling tape on the outer edge of the big slide was not installed property because it was no adhering to the frame work and it was only a matter of time before it caused damage to the seal unit.  He said to fix the problem the old tape has to be peeled off, the roof cleaned and then new tape be affixed.  The good news was that the tape is inexpensive.  The bad news was that Ted estimated the time required to do this work was 4 hours with a price tag of $119/hour.  Yikes.  That was in addition to the time he already put in on stretching the roof.  We were given a total estimate of $1,900.  Double yikes.

At first, we didn't think the warranty company was going to cover the repair because they had already covered the work we had done at RV Corral and, although the problem had not been solved, it was considered the same claim and they would only pay on the claim once.

BUT in the end, they came through and it only cost us $100 deductible.  

 

After the repairs were completed we drove 200 miles to the Mountain Man RV Resort in Cave Junction, OR.  We found this nice relaxing spot along the Illinois River.

At the end of September we found ourselves at Chinook RV Resort.  This was the view from our dining room window. 

We were only two months into this incredible journey but I already knew, despite all the little bumps along the road, we were meant to live this lifestyle.

July 29, 2013

Humbug Mountain State Park, OR

It was our day so off we decided to take the 120 mile round trip into Coos Bay to do some shopping.

We caught sight Sarah, one of the rangers, who was setting up an underwater camera at a beaver dam located at the entrance to the camp. 

Our first stop was at an RV supply store where Monte browsed and browsed and browsed.  I’m sure glad I brought a book along to read.  I’m not really complaining because with all that browsing and he only spent $50.

Next stop,

 

 

 

  

The Dollar Tree for me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 and luckily for Monte there was a Big 5 right next door.  He did some more browsing but didn’t buy anything.

 

 We planned on doing our main shopping in Walmart.  We ended up going there twice.  The first trip was for a long overdue oil change for my car.  While Monte took care of that I splurged on a pedicure and a haircut.  I lucked out at both places, walking in when there were no other customers.  I ended up being done at the same time as the oil change.

We were getting pretty hungry at this point and although Coos Bay has a large selection of restaurants we ended up going to Sizzler. 

 

  

 We had eaten there last month on my birthday and had been happy with our meals.

 

  

 

 

I finished off my meal with some fruit but Monte had ice cream.  Do you think he enjoyed it?

Back at Walmart, we bought so much that we used two carts.  

 

 

 

 

 

 We hadn’t done big shopping for 5 weeks and for the first time in a year our freezer was almost empty.

 

 

There was only one check out available that wasn’t express with less than 20 items.  This guy in front of us in line said all this bread for a month’s supply for 6 people.  WOW they must really like bread.

 

 

  

I asked Monte to guess how much our bill was going to be.  He thought it would add up to around $200.  Even I was a little surprised at the total.  Ouch!

That is almost our entire food budget for August.  But there were some non-food items in that total like an ink cartridge and a lot of paper goods.

It took me over an hour to put everything away. 

 

 

Notice my little helper? 

I bought large packages of meat that I portioned out in freezer bags and took almost all the things that come in cardboard out to put in containers.  This accomplishes two things-taking up less room and protected against critters. 

July 27 & 28, 2013

Humbug Mountain State Park, OR

Our program on Saturday was on dragonflies.  We had a large crowd including a father of two girls who really enjoyed doing the craft with his kids.  It is so rewarding when we see that people like our presentation.  We were very lazy the rest of the day.

So far, Sunday has been the day with the lowest attendance and this Sunday was no exception.  We had one mother and her 10 year-old daughter and one 11 year old boy.  We had done this program only once before and it was boring.  Greg, our ranger, made suggestions on how to perk it up and it was great.  We got to the JR Ranger site early and “hid” pictures of birds in the shrubs.  When our three attendees arrived, Monte instructed them on the proper handling of binoculars.  They were then instructed to search for the “birds”.    We only had four binoculars so having only three in attendance worked out great as nobody had to share their binoculars. 

We finished the programs by making hummingbird feeders out of solo cups. 

I was lazy the rest of the day while Monte had a burst of steam and did some work on the roof of the rig.  Prior to buying our rig someone had used the wrong caulking on top of the rear cap that connects to the roof so Monte carefully removed it and replaced it with Dicor self-leveling sealant.