After
the annual maintenance and service checkup on the coach, we drove it over to Newport
and stayed Oct 6-10 at South Beach State Park with our friends Rod & Lynda.
According to the weather forecast, we
were supposed to have rain the whole weekend, but it didn’t turn out that
way. We all were quite pleased to have
decent weather so we could sit outside and enjoy a nice campfire and visit. Also, we had the opportunity to have an
afternoon where we had fresh Oysters off of the grill.
Once
we got back home, we cleaned up the coach (inside & outside) and finished
loading it with what we would need in Arizona.
Once the house was secured we were ready to head out. Pulling out was much easier this time because
we decided to not hook up the Grand Cherokee and take it with us. Since we already have a vehicle (Jeep
Wrangler) in our storage shed in Arizona, we didn’t see the need to tow the
Cherokee this time. Our plan is to use
the Wrangler till we fly back to OR for Christmas then drive the Grand
Cherokee back to AZ after Christmas.
The morning
of Oct 18 was sunny and clear. We drove south
to Coburg where we stopped and fueled up the coach. Imagine our shock when we saw the cost of
Diesel was $4.15 a gallon--we took on 95 gallons (ouch).
Just
south of Eugene, we got on highway 58 and drove east across Willamette Pass. It was a beautiful, scenic drive with many of
the trees changing colors--lots of oranges, yellows, and reds along the
way. However, we had some “slowdowns” just
east of Oakridge when we ran into road construction. First, we had to wait at the “Tunnel” because
crews were inspecting it for cracks, then a couple miles past the tunnel, crews
were painting stripes on the newly paved road.
Each time we had a long wait because a pilot car was needed to lead
traffic through on the one lane portion of the road. Just before we crossed the OR/CA border, we
had another long wait because of road paving.
Finally, we made it to our usual stop at a volunteer fire department’s parking
lot in the small town of Likely.
We
woke early on Wednesday the 19th and quickly were back on the road. The drive was uneventful all the way through
Reno and east to Fernley. As usual, we always
top off our tank near Fernley on I-80 at a Love’s Station. The fuel there was $4.07 a gallon and we took
on 39 gallons. Price a little better,
but still a lot more than we were expecting.
Our next stop for the night was at Miller’s Rest Area just north of
Tonapah, Nevada. We got there pretty
early and were able to set outside and enjoy a wonderful glass (or two) of wine
before dinner. Well, I had the wine and
Ken had his V/O. It was a beautiful day with
the temperature topping off around 75.
Thursday
the 20th, we once again ran into more road construction between the towns of Tonapah
and Beatty, Nevada. This time we had to
wait about 15 minutes for the pilot car to lead us through the work area. Finally, we were back on the road and making
good time to Laughlin, Nevada. The further
south we went, the warmer it got. Las
Vegas was 76 degrees when we passed through it (11:30 am) and when we pulled
into the AVI RV Park (and casino) south of Laughlin, it was 90. So nice to be able to turn the AC on once we
got settled. For dinner, we walked over
to the casino and ate a wonderful dinner.
Friday,
the 21st, was another great sunny day.
In fact when we left the AVI, it was already in the 60s. Our trip took us south to Needles, CA, where
we saw Diesel was $4.79. However, when
we got to Vidal Junction, CA the Diesel was going for $4.89…..that was just
plain crazy!! We crossed the CA/AZ
border at Parker, AZ about 10 am and it was already 89 degrees. There we ran into more road construction
(paving) but we never had to come to a complete stop. There were no more slowdowns, but the road
south to I-10 was very rough. In fact
the entire road from Needles to I-10 was rough.
We may be thinking of another route next time we head south.
Anyhow,
once we got to I-10 just south of Vicksburg, AZ, we stopped and filled our
propane tank and added 20 gallons of Diesel to the tank ($3.79 a gallon). We didn’t stop again until we got to Avondale
where we filled the Diesel tank up at Flying J for $3.75 a gallon. We then made the final trek through Phoenix,
Tempe, Mesa, Apache Junction, and Gold Canyon arriving Queen Valley just before
3 pm. The temperature was 90
degrees. Since we didn’t have the
Cherokee, backing into our site and getting set up was a piece of cake. Ken quickly checked on the Wrangler and
happily, it started right up.
We
have now been in Queen Valley for 2 weeks and are seeing more and more friends
showing up. Our first night here we went
out to dinner with friends Dave and Pat, then just this last weekend spent a wonderful
day with “caching” friends from Tucson, Florence, and Apache Junction at a “Birthday
Campout” held just north of Florence (south of us). They all camped out, we didn’t. It was just great seeing them all again and are looking forward to spending a lot more time with them this season.
