Mahoney Heading for Oregon via Montana

Leaving tomorrow for the big summer trip. Got my meeds adjusted and am mostly pain free.

Route:
Sioux Falls SD to pick up licence plate tags
Montana. Ron Ruward, Giodwards, Cut Bank
Idaho panhandle
Portland OR RV window replacement
Eugene OR other repair projects
Sutherlin OR
FMCA redmond OR
Or coast
Phoenix on Nov 1

Hi Russ,  Have a good trip.  We are doing just the opposite....going to Montana via Oregon and are leaving this afternoon.  We are going up #395 to Spokane then onto Glacier.

We'll see you in Redmond.

Marsha~

Safe travels Russ and Tim & Marsha. See you in Redmond.

We're not leaving for Redmond until the 1st of August. Want to stop at the Birds of Prey place near Boise then may visit Mom & Dad in La Pine before hitting Redmond. Our entry date for FMCA is Aug 9. After FMCA, we'll probably return to La Pine then maybe Crater Lake.

Wendy

rhmahoney said:

Leaving tomorrow for the big summer trip. Got my meeds adjusted and am mostly pain free.

Click to expand...

Glad you are back in business, Russ.  I expect to be on the Oregon coast July 21-27.

PhilB

Have fun, see you in November.

Are you sure you don't want to stop by and enjoy some of our 115 degree weather? 8)

7/1
340 miles to Cabella's in Mitchel SD.
Got SD license tags in Sioux Falls SD

Had planned to go diagonally NW on IA 141, but reports of US 30 closed due to flooding spooked me, so went the boring I80/29 route that only added about 15 miles to the trip.

Crops in central Iowa are looking good, but on the Missouri flood plain and across SD there are many flooded spots and yellow drowned patches. A strong wind from the south made beautiful wavy patterns in the tall grass on the sides of the raised roads leading to overpasses, but was a nuisense as I went west on I90.

Nearing Mitchel, I saw the car ahead swerve to miss something. As I got to the spot, twas a mother duck an about 12 tiny ducklings just exiting the concrete on the N side of the road. They were lucky the traffic was so light.

Near Sioux City IA an air force refueling plane was doing some fairly low altitude patterns. Probably a training flight as Sioux City has a air national guard refueling wing.

    Russ, glad to hear you're back on the road, that must mean the tests were ok.  Similarly, glad to see Tim is well enough to travel.  We're sorry to see that you are all staying on the left coast this year, but there's always another year.
    Everybody enjoy your summers, we hope to have our coach out of its annual refit next week so that we can do some Maritime touring.

Donna and Ed 

7/2
2 pheasants, 20 antelope, bunch of buffalo on a farm.

SDakota is doing a whole lot of road rebuilding. Saw two interesting things.
a farm tractor towing a rotating giant hammer point studded cube breaking up the old roadway and a many tired compactor with a box of gravel on top supplying the compaction-with weeds growing on top.

Past the Black Hills I started getting angina above 3500 ft. I am now at 2500 ft in Miles City on I94. I will adjust meeds extensively and rush over to and down I15 to southern Idaho. Now cannot do all the visiting I had planned for MT.

Please be careful, Russell.  Your forum "wives" are worrying.  It's our job!  :

Margi

When we finally leave for Redmond, hopefully not later than next week, we'll head west to CA then north to OR to stay away from higher altitudes. Ordinarily, we would have gone straight north and then turned left, but too many mountains and high elevations with that route. See you in Redmond.

Bummer Russ. :-\

Looking on the bright side someone has to take the low road. ;D Hope you make the left coast OK and enjoy the rest of the summer.

Russ, altitude was one of the questions I asked Tim's cardiologist regarding the pacemaker.  He said there was nothing to worry about.    That was a relief.  I thought we might have to stay at the lower altitudes as well.  We came north #395 up Bishop grade and Mono grade....coach and Tim did great.  We are now in Likely, CA and will be here till over the 4th.  There is NOTHING in Likely except this great campground with a golf course; big open skies and vistas you can see forever. 

Ed, Thanks for thinking of Tim.  As we put out our "stars and stripes" wind sock for the 4th of July weeknd, we both fondly remembered that last year at this time we were on the Gaspe' Pennisula at some quaint beautiful little campground faceing the St. Lawrence Seaway.  There were big bond fires all up and down the coast line for St. John Baptiste (spelling?) day.  Such a great trip....we will do it again.

Marsha~

We met Russ at the Flying J while he was refueling and then went to lunch at the local McKensie River Pizza house for soup and/sandwiches/salads.  Had a nice visit and sent him on his way about an hour ago.  NO Pics even with 3 picture taking cell phones at the table!!  He was feeling good and no recurrance of yesterdays problems.  2 small passes till he gets to ID and heads west on I-84.

He was not sure where he would stop tonight as to make it to Bose was a 750 mile day and that was too far!! 

Bon Voyage, Russ.

7/3-4
Off at 5:30 am. Took 2 nd pair of nitro pills at lunch with Godwards. We were so busy talking about all of our surgeries that photos were forgotten. I have a problem remembering that the cellphone is also a camera!

Highest pass was about 7000 ft at MT-ID border. Took shortcut on ID22 SW toward Arco and got delayed by a 4th of July parade in the town of Howe. Since the town has a population of only 25, the delay was 5 minutes for the flag carriers, 2 cars 3 golf carts, a bunch of kids on decorated bicycles and one small child in a battery powered toy car and no bands or horseback riders. Took longer for the watchers to get off the street than the parade to go by.

Interestingly, the shortcut stayed at 5000-6000 ft almost all the way and did not drop down the the Snake river plain till the last 10 miles.

Called my sister and had the Google the Walmart location. Turned out to be just on the far side of I84 on the same street I came into town on. Could not have seen it because it is down slope from the freeway.

I arrived at 9 pm after traveling 716 miles. I did it pain free because of the overdose of nitro pills. Can't do that again for a while as overuse reduces the effectiveness of the med (build up of tolerance).

1 eagle, 3 white pelicans, 2 deer, 12 antelope, 1 jackrabbit, several hawks A few small elongate furry critters scurried across in front of me and many splattered stained the concrete.

On the 4th I came down to 300 ft at the John Day Dam.
Very windy here. It made the watching of the Tour de France stage 1 quite pixelated.

Tomorrow will visit Dean & Diane Kleinsmith at Bonneville dam fish hatchery.

Russ....gad zooks....716 miles.  My hands would be formed to fit the steering wheel.  That's a lota miles in one day.

Is "John Day" the John Day in Oregon?  If so, we are headed there today and are staying at the Grant County Fairground.  Full hookups-$20.00  Never been there before, so we'll see.

Marsha~

"Is "John Day" the John Day in Oregon?  If so, we are headed there today and are staying at the Grant County Fairground.  Full hookups-$20.00  Never been there before, so we'll see."

Nope the dam is on the Columbia river, 60 miles upstream of the Bonneville dam. John Day got his name on a whole lot of places in eastern Oregon.

7/5 After watching stage 2 of the tour...WOW surprising results, I visited Dean & Diane at the bonneville fish hatchery. Turns out we will meet twice more. We both have service calls on 8/2 and will be in Newport in sept.

I will be at the marina  road CG in portland through Thursday while I try to score an iphone 4.

Russ,

You sort of fooled me into thinkng you might stop short of Boise, Pat figured you would go the whole way.

We used to stay there and may again as that is now 1/2 way between my Grandson's and Pat's daughter's places.  Lately we have been staying at the Fairview RV Park on Sandy Blvd about a 2 miles west of the Flying J.

Enjoy the food in Portland!!!!!!!!!!!

Marsha - How was the Grant County Fairgrounds? We're heading that way the beginning of August on the way to Redmond. I want to see the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day and were thinking of staying at the fairgrounds or at Clyde Holliday SP.

Wendy

Wendy - We love the John Day area.  Have never stayed at the fairgrounds, but Clyde Holliday SP has long been one of our favorites.  The sites are HUGE with lots of lawn.

Margi

Thanks Margi. We stayed at Clyde Holliday once several years ago - had a hard time getting the satellite dish set up for a Broncos game so thought we'd have a backup plan in case those pesky trees block the internet dish (god forbid we spend a day without the internet ) and also, in case it's full. We do like Oregon State Parks!

Wendy